Free Don't Sweat the Aubergine by Nicholas Clee Page A

here ), it’s tempting to carry on, just to make sure you’ve got the right consistency. Resist. Further beating causes the peak stage rapidly to be succeeded by collapse.
TWO CHEESE AND TOAST RECIPES
    Laying thinly sliced cheese on to lightly toasted, lightly buttered bread, and flashing it under the grill, produces a perfectly delicious result. (Though there’s a trick in setting the grill dial so the cheese melts before the uncovered sections of toast burn.) But rarebit-type recipes are nice too. The trick here is to produce a mixture that does not run off the bread. An egg helps to set it; the ratio of egg to cheese here has worked for me.
    80g Cheddar or Gruyère
    1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
    A few splashes of Worcester sauce
    Scraping of nutmeg
    1 egg, beaten
    Pepper (you shouldn’t need salt, because of the salty cheese and sauce)
    4 slices bread
    Mash together the ingredients (except for the bread).
    You don’t want the toast to burn before the cheese softens and bubbles, so set the grill to medium/low. Lightly toast one side of the bread. Turn over the slices, and toast just long enough to begin crisping the bread. Remove, and spread with butter and then the cheese mixture. Return to the grill until the cheese has browned on top.
Fried cheese sandwich
    The edges of sandwiches always stick to my toasted sandwich maker, which is a pain to clean. So I do the following, usually with white bread (nicer than brown in this context, I think).
    Lay slices of Cheddar, Gruyère or other melting cheese in the centre of a piece of bread. Lay another piece of bread on top. Melt a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat, and fry the sandwich until browned on one side, pressing it down firmly with a heavy spatula. Remove the half-cooked sandwich to a plate; melt another knob of butter in the pan (away from the heat – it might burn otherwise), and fry the other side of the sandwich, again pressing down on it with the spatula.
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T ARTS AND Q UICHES
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THE PASTRY
    The first edition of this book contained no recipe for pastry. The reason for the omission was personal: I am hopeless at making it. I did not feel that I could, in good faith, offer advice on the subject
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    As I explained above, when outlining an omelette-rolling technique that I myself struggle to achieve, I am not dextrous. My efforts at woodwork at school were a jumble of ill-fitting joints, and my Airfix models were encrusted with surplus glue and misapplied paint. Today, I am incapable of wrapping a present without scrunching up the paper, or of folding a shirt without leaving it in need of another go with the iron. And I cannot rub fat into flour efficiently. When I try to roll pastry, I always get it stuck to the rolling pin and to the table, and end up with an uneven, glutenous slab with holes and ragged edges.
    I can still make a tart, though. A food processor does the work of my incompetent fingers (though the machine has potential disadvantages – see below), and, leaving the rolling pin in its drawer, I simply spread the dough by hand (as recommended by Elizabeth David), or grate it (Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall).
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HOW TO MAKE IT
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    For a 23cm tin
    70g butter
    140g plain flour
    About 2 tbsp iced water
    Cut the butter into small pieces, and put it back into the fridge for 30 minutes. You could put the flour in its bowl there too. 1
    Tip the flour and butter into a food processor. On a medium speed, whizz the ingredients, in short bursts, until the butter is blended and the mixture has the consistency of breadcrumbs. 2 (Or, if you prefer, carry out this process with your fingertips.)
    Tip this mixture back into the chilled bowl that had held the flour. One tablespoon at a time, sprinkle over the water, lifting and blending the mixture gently until it coheres; or stir it into shape gently with a knife. 3 Put it back into the fridge, wrapped in clingfilm if you want to protect it from the odours of other foods, for another 30 minutes. 4
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