Chickpea and tomato soup with Moroccan spices

Here's a delicious chickpea/grabanzo soup recipe adapted from this book by the lovely Irish chef, Rachel Allen. It's quick, flavoursome, vegan and gluten-free (unless you serve it with crispy bacon or some herb croutons) and easy to make. It's been a while since I made it - seeing one of the few Estonian male foodbloggers making this the other day (check out the video!) - brought it back to our table. Our daughter loved it, K. loved it, and I loved it - so it's definitely a keeper. Hope you enjoy it, too!

I used canned chickpeas - dried ones are much harder to come by here in Estonia. If you prefer using dried chickpeas, then take 150 grams of pulses, soak them overnight in cold water and then boil in unsalted water for about half an hour.

Moroccan chickpea and tomato soup
(Maroko kikerhernesupp)
Serves four



2 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks, chopped
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp cumin seeds, slightly crushed
400 g can of chopped tomatoes
a generous pinch of sugar
400 g can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
600-750 ml vegetable or chicken broth
juice of half a lemon
2 Tbsp fresh cilantro/coriander or parsley

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and celery sticks, season with salt and pepper. Cover the saucepan with a lid and sauté over low heat for about 10 minutes, until the onion and celery are soft, stirring every now and then (do not burn!)
Add the cumin seeds, fry for another minute to release the aromas.
Add the tomatoes, sugar, chickpeas and hot stock. Simmer on low heat for 5-10 minutes.
Season with lemon juice, stir in the chopped herbs and taste for seasoning. Serve.

Nasu dengaku or miso-glazed aubergine

You'll get two Japanese recipes in a row now - on Friday I blogged about tonkatsu (breaded pork cutlets, Japanese style) today's blog post is dedicated to nasu dengaku or miso-glazed aubergine/eggplant. I first made this for the Japanese feast at our place back in summer 2009 (pictured above), but I've made them on several occasions since (and it has become one of my favourite cousin Ingrid's favourite dishes ever).

It's an easy and very flavoursome dish to make. All you need is some nice small aubergines (slim Japanese ones are best, but ordinary bulbous ones will do), some miso paste (I used hatcho and shiro miso pastes) and sesame seeds. I was lucky to use an additive-free dark hatcho miso that's typical to the Aichi Prefecture in Japan (thank you, Ryoko!!!):



Here's the recipe, should you want to make this at home, using the non-Japanese eggplants:

Nasu dengaku
(Eestikeelne retsept)
Serves four to six



1 large or 2 smaller eggplants/aubergines
vegetable oil

Miso-glaze:
6 Tbsp miso paste
4 Tbsp mirin or sweet rice wine
2 Tbsp sake or dry sherry
2 Tbsp caster sugar

Topping:
sesame seeds

Rinse and dry the eggplant and cut into 1 cm thick slices, crosswise. Make some slashes with a sharp knife onto one side of the vegetable slices. Brush both sides with oil, then place onto an oven sheet and bake in a 200 C oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once - you want the aubergine slices to be nicely brown on top. (Alternatively - fry on a griddle pan until golden brown on both sides).
Place the grilled/fried aubergine slices onto a large oven sheet - or even better, onto a heat-proof serving tray - on one layer:



Make the miso glaze. Mix all the ingredients in a small saucepan. Bring slowly to the boil, then reduce heat and simmer, stirring all the time, until the glaze is thickened slightly and nice and shiny. Remove from the heat.



Spread a spoonful of miso-glaze on each aubergine/eggplant slice, sprinkle some sesame seeds on top.

Put under a hot grill for a few minutes, then serve either hot or at room temperature.

Tonkatsu or fried pork cutlet, Japanese style

Dinner on Wednesday - tonkatsu aka fried pork cutlet with brown tonkatsu sauce and shredded cabbage. Tonkatsu is a popular Western-style dish in Japan, and it's basically thinly sliced pork that's been dredged in flour, dipped into egg, breaded in panko breadcrumbs and then fried until crispy and golden brown. You can read all about this particular dish either here or here. I'll be definitely making this again, as I loved the super-crispy and almost crunchy coating achieved by the use of panko breadcrumbs as opposed to ordinary breadcrumbs.

Tonkatsu
(Tonkatsu ehk paneeritud sealiha Jaapani moodi)
Serves 4

ca 500 g pork fillet
all-purpose flour
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2-3 eggs
panko breadcrumbs (I used shop-bought panko breadcrumbs*)

For the tonkatsu sauce:
ketchup
soy sauce
Worcestershire sauce
freshly ground black pepper.

Cut the pork filet into thin slices, about 5 mm thick.
Take three bowls, filling one with flour (seasoned with salt and pepper), one with whisked egg and one with Panko breadcrumbs.
Dredge the pork slices first in flour, then dip them into egg and finally into breadcrumbs. Make sure that the pork slices are evenly coated.
Heat a generous amount of oil in a heavey frying pan over moderate heat. Fry the breaded pork slices until golden brown on both sides (about 3-4 minutes per side).
Place onto a kitchen paper to drain any excess fat and keep warm.

To make a cheat's tonkatsu sauce, mix ketchup with some soy and Worcestershire sauce and season to taste with black pepper. Drizzle over pork slices.

Traditionally this is served with shredded white cabbage (you may want to crisp it up by soaking the cabbage in cold water; drain thoroughly).

* Available in Piprapood, Tallinn.