Mediterranean harvest

What a lovely haul. The first real grapes from this vine, which was grafted from a wild vine shoot by Gonzalo last year. There are several bunches and they have the most delicious flavour, something like the German wine, Mosel.

Below are the green and red peppers, aubergines and two paraguayos. Alas, the wind blew away the only two baby ones we had this first year of planting the paraguayos tree so I've had to resort to buying some to show you.
I am snowed under with aubergine and have made a great dip, Baba Ghanoush. Here's the recipe.

2 large aubergines (about 700g)
2 garlic cloves, more if you like
half tsp. salt
2 tbsp. lemon juice
2 tbsp. tahini
1 tsp. ground cumin
pinch pepper

Prick the aubergines with fork and grill, turning occasionally until the skin blisters and blackens. When cool, peel off the skin. Drain excess liquid off the aubergine flesh.

Pound the garlic and salt until smooth, transfer to a food process and add the aubergine, lemon juice, tahini, cumin and pepper. Can add yoghurt to make it runnier, but I didn't. Have a taste and add more cumin or garlic, whatever, if you want.

Transfer to bowl, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with chopped parsely or coriander and serve with Arabic flat bread/roti or pitta bread.

A Spanish recipe for aubergine would be to slice the aubergines, dip in a light batter and fry. Drizzle with honey before serving.

Happy eating.