Cheese & Chermoula

A recent dinner with D. was inspired by equal parts curiosity and the British cooking series called 'Come Dine With Me'--which, to be fair, is itself equal parts food and social anthropology.

The opening to the show states, 'Take five foodies who've never met; ask them each to throw a dinner party for the others; each night the guests mark their hosts in secret, then watch the fall-out before the top-scorer wins the 1000 GBP prize'.

An episode that aired in mid-July featured a gardener, Greg, Thoby, a 'food writer' who calls himself 'Mr Tarty'...because of his fondness for cooking tarts...an absolute terror of a PR professional who, according to the effervescent Hugo, 'dresses like a streetwalker', and, finally, the lovely Sabrina, whose turn it was to host.

The show's voice-over introduced the motley crew: 'On Tuesday, confident boy about town, Hugo Priestly, impressed himself and no one else. Tonight's host is Iranian-born events organizer Sabrina Ghayour, who's determined to win the 1000 GBP prize...And tomorrow's host, PR princess Amii Van Amerongen is very happy to trade blows...Last to cook will be eccentric food writer, Thoby Young--no not the famous one, another one'.

Both Sabrina and Greg had been taking verbal blows throughout the week, but whereas the charges leveled at Greg were stated largely to his face (which he defended, for the most part), Hugo and Amy took great pleasure rattling off cheap jabs behind Sabrina's back ; one of Amii's more venomous comments included, 'I'm finding it difficult not to say what i really think about her in public because she is hideous'. Ahhh, enough corpo(-)real 'disciplinary power' to make even Foucault blush at table. Exhibit A: when discussing which member of the group each would take along to a deserted island, the suggestion that Sabrina would prove a wise choice because she would render the most meat was heedlessly digested into the flow of banter; Amii, of course, maintained throughout the week that she would be perfectly content with her own company, leading Greg to divulge to the camera, 'I am close to sticking hot pins in my eyes and doing a runner'.

Anyway, this detailed, laboured aside that I have subjected you to is all to say that it was sweet, SWEET VICTORY for Sabrina when her meal was voted supreme, and she took home the cash prize. Among her 'Arabian Mezes' was a chermoula (che-MOO-lah), and I was eager to give it a try. In fact, her entire menu sounded delicious, and I'd very much like to attempt it eventually in its entirety.

So, a word about chermoula. From what I have gathered through some hasty research, chermoula is typically used in Moroccan cooking as a marinade and/or accompaniment to meat and fish. Its killer combination of fresh herbs, olive oil, fragrant spices, citrus and garlic both tenderizes and compliments whatever protein it touches. Inspired by Sabrina's choice of aubergine, I began chucking things in the pot. Channel4 has not provided Sabrina's recipe, but, from what I've found, it seems to function much like a garam masala, where, apart from a few essential elements, which spices and in what quantities they are used is largely a matter of preference; no one combination will be identical to another.

This is what I came up with:

2 aubergines
1 roasted red bell pepper, chopped
1 small red onion, sliced paper-thin
3 cloves of garlic, smashed and minced
4 med. tomatoes, chopped
1 large bunch Italian parsley, chopped
1 large bunch cilantro, chopped

1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
3 Tbs chili or jalapeno jam
Pomegranate molasses (to taste)
Sultanas (optional)
Olive oil

(spices are approximate)
1 tsp sugar
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp sweet paprika
2 tsp harissa

I first peeled, cubed, salted, and drained the aubergine, patting it dry with kitchen roll before frying it in plenty of olive oil. Next in the pan was the onion, followed by the garlic, pepper, tomatoes, sultanas, spices, herbs, and the wet ingredients. Really, it's hard to go wrong. This dish is about striking a balance of savoury, sweet, smoky, spicy, while inundating the palette with herbs and spices. The aubergine is the perfect conduit to deliver these flavours, imparting its own meaty, fibrous texture.

Certainly, the fact that the majority of the produce was sourced from Gluttons in Jericho (110 Walton Street, Oxford; tel. 01865553748), where only local fruit and veg are on offer, helped to make the final product delicious. So, with a quaffable vin-de-table, a Brie de Meaux, some toasted bread, and a fresh goat cheese from Gloucester, a meal was made.