Sunday, April 27, 2008

Anticlimax

For you, that is, not me.

Our Turkish dicking about in the kitchen (I'm reluctant to say 'Turkish cooking', because really all we did was make bread and dips) was a triumph. But it was so good, and so perfect, and I was so hungry, that there are no photos and you're just going to have to imagine it. Sorry.

The unexpected victory was my baba ganoush! It was so awesome that I'm going to let you know how I did it, then you will rock as hard as I do.

I roasted four long, slender eggplants until they were dark brown and the skin had begun to go papery; while they cooled, I put lashings of garlic, cumin, cayenne pepper, salt, lemon juice and olive oil into my processor dealie and whizzed them all together. When the eggplants were cool enough to handle, I scooped out all the soft, roasted flesh and popped that in as well and gave the food processor a quick whiz -- not too much, because you want it to remain fairly chunky. Taste it and add anything else you feel is lacking. Oy, it was heavenly. I just finished it for morning tea this morning, mopping up the last of it with fresh bread and whimpering because there was no more.

I also made a beetroot dip which rocked pretty hard, but not as hard as the eggplant. I used tinned baby beets, drained, mixed with a generous spoonful of fresh yoghurt, as well as some black pepper, salt, heaps of cumin and lemon juice, and a little garlic and olive oil. We had the leftovers for breakfast this morning, on toasties with goat's cheese and baby spinach.

M's Turkish bread was delicious, but a little denser than we intended. Still, it was hot and had a nice salty crust, so we yummed it up. Today he's talking about making malai kofta for dinner, so I'm trying to eat light for the rest of the day. So far it's not working.

And knitting is plowing on! Using some interesting thick-thin handspun I picked up at the markets a few weeks back, I'm working on my very own My So-Called Scarf. I cast on on Thursday afternoon, and it's charging ahead, and although I was a bit concerned about the way it was striping at first, now I'm in love with it. Here's a pic:

You can see the striping that's starting to come through in this shot, although not the full scope of colours; there's patches of lime, forest, emerald, jade, mint and faintest misty green. I really like it, although as I said I was a bit concerned at first. It's roaring along, though: I cast on Thursday afternoon, and now (Sunday) it's over a metre long, which is pretty good. We had lunch out at Mum and Dad's on Friday, and then spent yesterday with M's Mum and Dad, so that was pretty much two solid days of loafing, talking, drinking and knitting. Not that I'm complaining.

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