In this week's challenge I found myself using a mortar and pestle while listening to loud music. This of course meant that as I was singing and bopping away, the realisation that I looked like that chick from the start of Masterchef was very unnerving. I immediately ceased bopping and got down to the job at hand -Tagine style Lamb with Honey and Harissa glazed Eggplants
Even though we have only been completing these challenges for a few weeks now, it has come to my attention that we have some patterns emerging. It seems that whoever is not cooking has to clean the house. This is only fair as we are having guests each week and it can't be left up to the cook to do everything! It also has become apparent that the best thing to listen to while cleaning (and therefore cooking) is our new Blue Ray version of Stevie Wonder live at last disc. So this week I found myself bopping along to Stevie and making Moroccan.
This weekend Dan was given special tickets to go to football and be waited on in special boxes. Me on the other hand had to clean the bath and soak a tagine. So much for the cook not having to clean! The recipe that Dan chose did not specifically say I had to use a tagine, but considering I got it for my birthday two and a half years ago, I think it's time I prepare it so it can be used! This is also why we get given the challenge on the Friday night, in case we have to soak a tagine for 24 hours!
Dan had to leave to go to his niece's 3rd birthday party so I got down to business (with my mortar and pestle and Stevie).After 24 hours of lazing in a bath, I had to cook it in an oven at 270 degrees celsius for two hours! This was now becoming quite high maintenance for something I was only using as a serving dish!
This was when i discovered an interesting fact. Eggplants can be dangerous!
Who would have thought that the firm purplish vegetable could be dangerous? Well, let me tell you, they are!! I was happily reading up my recipes and looking at the pictures, deciding that I needed as much of the eggplant as possible and that i should not just chop the whole stalk bit off at the top like I would normally do, but peel back the green bits
leaving a curved shape and more eggplant. That's when it BIT ME!! Well, 'cut' me would me more appropriate, I guess. Yes! Eggplants have tiny spiky bits that I cut my finger on! I knew no one would believe me so I took a photo!!
Luckily, no hospital visit was required and I could get on with making the honey and harissa glazed eggplants.
Apart from having to prepare fifty thousand little dishes of spices, like they do on Hewy's Cooking Adventures, this dish wasn't really that difficult. It was the same with the lamb one.
I decided that for this challenge, my biggest weakness was going to be timing. How would I get everything done at the right time, when it all seemed that it needed to be done at once?
(For those of you reading this as I write and upload it, you will be sad to know that my computer is about to go flat so I cannot finish this entry until a later stage! Think of it as a soap opera! Will it work out for Roz? Will she plate up on time? Will the horrible injury caused by the eggplant hinder her progress? Find out next time on....... it's not aeroplane food!!)
No comments:
Post a Comment