Worth the Wait Root Veggie and Chick Pea Pot


I love themes.
Had one tonight.
All about the wait; all about the anticipation.

Hard and snappy root vegetables, which start to make themselves prominent in both Brussels and Toronto right about now (and anywhere else that is being cajoled into the sweater-huddled season of autumn) offer a starving post-gym ten-year-old ring tamer more of a challenge than I had expected.

I had the chance to play "Ready-Steady-Cook" tonight and this is what my shopping sac included:
a celery root, a bottle of tomato sauce, 6 green tomatos, cashews, dates, aubergine, and a can of chick peas.

Looking at the bag's contents, I thought - deeply - there is a meal in there. THERE IS A MEAL IN HERE.

This is what I came up with (I admit to having used a couple of ingredients that were nuzzled into the fridge).

Aubergine-Chickpea Party

1 medium aubergine (cubed)
3 green tomatoes (diced)
1 can of chick peas (drained)
1 red pepper - seeded, cored and diced
1 teaspoon of peanut oil
oregano
rosemary
dash of salt if you are feeling naughty.

This simple dish came together with little effort. It was as easy as warming up the wok, adding my oil, spices and green tomatoes. After about 2 minutes I added the aubergine, which, to be honest, could have used more than the 25 minutes of cooking I gave it, half way through I added the delightfully sharp tasting red peppers. Next was the yummy chick peas; I drained and washed them - if you don't you are asking for trouble of the tummy variety.

In the last 5 minutes I threw in some pine nuts - good decision, I was happy with the depth it added. I was only sad to have left my new basil plant on my new Ikea bookshelf....damn. Basil would have been perfecto.

To accompany the eggplant and chick peas I roasted up some really great celery root. CELERY ROOT......who thinks to use celery root? great idea. I just hope that my rather rustic and mundane approach to the root did justice to the firecracker of an idea.

In a roasting pan I mixed 1/2 of a celery root that I had peeled (if you can call chopping and hacking peeling) and 2 diced carrots. I also added to this a little bit of pepper, salt and rosemary, and the essential olive oil. In the last few minutes I included some really soft and yummy dates. They totally added to the crispy and savory roots - my favourite dish of the two tonight. I think I might add some ringed black olives on the next cook through. I have a feeling that like the curry of last week, I might have to do this one up twice. Maybe I can grab some photos on the next round.

This food was well deserved after a kicking run and a great day with the kids.
Is it wrong to love your job so much that you want to pay them for the days' work?

There is a great little doc on about Defoe's England and how he used the country of England in his mental 'mapping' of Curusoe's lost land. Who loves BBC? Me!