Welcome back Shu

Our friend Shu had returned from a vacation in Italy and we decided to invite him over for dinner. One of our favorite summer soups is a Fig and Tomato Soup from Moro East Cookbook by Sam & Sam Clark. It is flavored with cumin, as absolutely wonderful. Most people when they first hear about it are very dubious. The idea of a soup with figs is not natural to them. Once they taste the soup they definitely change their minds!

We are continuing to cook our way through the two cookbooks by Ottolenghi. The vegetarian recipe we made for the main course was from the Plenty Cookbook. We made: Sweet Corn Polenta with Eggplant. This was an exciting dish for us to make. We have made polenta dozens of time, but we have NEVER made fresh Polenta. We have previously always made it from a box. This was made from fresh corn ears! It was fantastic and sweeter than the polenta from the box. The addition of the feta cheese gave a tangy / sour taste that was a revelation. This is an only in Summer dish, when corn is at its peak sweetness!

Sweet corn polenta with Eggplant

Plenty by Ottolenghi

Polenta made from fresh corn is almost like baby food, but in a good sense. It is smooth, sweet and soothing, a bit like a chunky savory porridge. It is my ideal heartwarming supper meal. Just keep in mind that it is nothing like regular polenta made from cornmeal - it is softer and not as substantial.

This dish is a variation on a recipe by two inspiring Israeli food writers, Haim Cohen and Eli Landau.

Serves 4

Eggplant Sauce

2/3        cup vegetable oil

1           medium eggplant, cut into 3/4-inch dice

2           tsp tomato paste

¼          cup white wine

1           cup chopped peeled tomatoes (fresh or canned)

6-1/2    tbsp water

¼          tsp salt

¼          tsp sugar

1           tbsp chopped oregano

Polenta

6           ears of corn

2-1/4    cups water

3           tbsp butter, diced

7           oz feta, crumbled

¼          tsp salt

black pepper

To make the eggplant sauce. Heat up the oil in a large saucepan and fry the eggplant on medium heat for about 15 minutes, or until nicely brown. Drain off as much oil as you can and discard it. Add the tomato paste to the pan and stir with the eggplant. Cook for 2 minutes, then add the wine and cook for 1 minute. Add the chopped tomatoes, water, salt, sugar and oregano and cook for a further 5 minutes to get a deep-flavored sauce. Set aside; warm it up when needed.

To make the polenta. Remove the leaves and "silk" from each ear of corn, then chop off the pointed top and stalk. Stand each ear upright on its base and use a sharp knife to shave off the kernels. You want to have VM lbs of kernels.

Place the kernels in a medium saucepan and cover them with the water. Cook for 12 minutes on a low simmer. Use a slotted spoon to lift the kernels from the water and into a food processor; reserve the cooking liquid. Process them for quite a few minutes, to break as much of the kernel case as possible. Add some of the cooking liquid if the mixture becomes too dry to process.

Now return the corn paste to the pan with the cooking liquid and cook, while stirring, on low heat for 10 to 15 minutes, or until the mixture thickens to a mashed potato consistency. Fold in the butter, the feta, salt and some pepper and cook for a further 2 minutes. Taste and add more salt if needed.

Divide the polenta among shallow bowls and spoon some warm eggplant sauce in the center.

Tomato soup with cumin and figs

From Moro East by Sam & Sam Clark

This soup is based on a recipe from Fra Juan's restaurant in the monastery of Guadalupe. It is strictly a summer dish, an interesting Spanish twist on a classic tomato soup. While serving this soup at the restaurant, a waiter over­heard a customer say it was the best tomato soup she had ever had. Of course, it was a moment when the ingredients did shine. It was at the beginning of August, after a heat wave, and British tomatoes tasted as good as they get. The allotment figs were superb, too. It's a thrill to find recipes that have been cooked for hundreds of years, but in the end this means nothing unless the ingredients are at their peak.

Serves 4

6                tablespoons olive oil

1                kg flavorful tomatoes, roughly sliced

1                medium onion, chopped

1                green pepper, chopped

150-300     ml water

3                garlic cloves, chopped

a little caster sugar (optional)

2 ½            teaspoons cumin seeds, lightly toasted in a pan, then crushed

5 or 6         ripe, plump fresh figs, finely diced

400g          tin of chopped plum tomatoes, drained of juice

a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, to serve

100g          dried figs, chopped

Heat the olive oil in a saucepan over a medium heat, add the onion and green pepper with a good pinch of salt and cook gently for 15-20 minutes, stirring occasionally, until softened. Add the garlic and continue cooking until sweet and golden brown. Add two-thirds of the cumin and cook for 1 minute more. Now add the tinned tomatoes and dried figs and simmer gently, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes, stirring now and then. When the mixture is rich and concen­trated, put in the fresh tomatoes and increase the heat slightly, then simmer for 15 minutes more. With a handheld blender, whizz until smooth, then pour in enough of the water to achieve a consistency like double cream. Season well with salt, pepper and sugar if necessary.

Stir half the fresh figs through the soup and use the rest to garnish each portion in the bowl, along with the remaining cumin and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.