melitzanosalata & calzone

Three weeks later and we all remain besotted with the wood fired oven. It seems that everyone wants to play. I've always maintained that food tops the list of things that bring people together but this kind of cooking takes it to a whole new level... it's a bit like the magical draw of a log fire on a winter's evening, we all want to gather around it.

That's not to say that we've had successes all the way. Judging how much wood to burn, whether the oven is hot enough (or too hot - as it was for our tandoori chicken) is far from easy, and experience and practice are the key. At the sight of chicken blackening within 30 seconds we realised that we had the pizza heat we had wanted the night before, but we had the sense to take the chicken out, remove the glowing embers (very carefully), pour another glass of wine, and return the chicken to a less aggressive heat. And it was great, but being inconvenienced we thought only of supper and forgot the camera. What I did remember to do was to sit a couple of aubergines in there while the oven was still medium hot.

Baked aubergine makes an amazing Greek dip - melitzanosalata, and a slightly smoky flavour is essential. Be sure to puncture the aubergines with a knife in a couple of places as they have a chestnut like tendency to explode in the oven. I left my aubergines overnight and as you can see the result looked like leathery, deflated balloons - exactly what I was after.

Split the aubergines open and scrape the roasted flesh out with a spoon, if areas of skin are blackened and come away with the flesh so be it as they lend depth to the flavour. Once you've got as much from the skins as you can, chop it roughly with a kitchen knife until pulpy. Add to this 2 cloves of juicy garlic, crushed and pressed to a pulp also, and plenty of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley. Add a generous slug of Greek olive oil and season with salt, pepper and plenty of freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste. Cover and refrigerate for a day to allow the flavours to mellow.

Result? Not the prettiest of dips, but for me the most delicious - and on this occasion my family voted it the best I'd ever made. I'm afraid I can't take the credit, it was undoubtedly due to the oven and just the right amount of smokiness it imparted.

That said, I did also make calzone to go with it. Using the same dough as I did for my pizza I instead formed 12" circles and slathered them with creamy garlic butter (made with garlic, butter, olive oil, parley, & basil). Fold over as you would an omelet and press the edges together firmly with thumbs. Watching these little babies rise in the oven was most satisfying, and on this occasion we had it hot enough to cook them in little more than 3 minutes. With cooking times as short as this you can't afford to leave the oven unmanned, and be prepared to do a lot of swift manoeuvring of calzone as the side

exposed to the embers will be cooking at a totally different speed to that of the opposite side. Barbecue tongs and such come in very handy, and thankfully the calzone and pizzas we have cooked do move, (and turn if need be), very willingly on the floor of the oven.

If you haven't the time to make them yourself, shop bought hummus, taramasalata etc are often rather good, and together with some shockingly good melitzanosalata, and calzone straight from the oven, you have an excellent lunch or starter.

Happy days! Sandra Tate

Bluestone Wood Fired Ovens Website click here