How I make Gravy

This one comes from Mother via me.

OK so you've roasted the chicken.
You may have had onions or lemons or something inside the cavity while it was roasting. I don't use stuffing but might have herbs in there, or lemon.

Remove the newly-roasted chicken from the pan. I've noticed that these days chickens produce a LOT of liquid when roasted. If there's a lot of fatty liquid, skim off the fat - the gravy will be too greasy otherwise. Keep a little bit and don't remove any other post-roasting residue, that will become the basis of the gravy.

[Best not to do this with a non-stick roasting pan]
Put the roasting pan on a burner on top of the stove. Dissolve one teaspoon of cornflour [plain flour seems to work fine too] in a cup of COLD water. When the pan remnants begin to heat up, and before they start to burn, pour the dissolved corn flour / water mixture into the roasting pan.

Using a wooden spoon, keep the liquid moving while it's cooking - you want it to at least boil throughout the whole liquid.
After the whole liquid has boiled, reduce it to your required thickness. Add salt and pepper and herbs to your taste. Cook the herbs to disperse the flavour through the gravy.

Spoon over the roasted chicken serving.

Variation
• Before adding the water/cornflour you could de-glaze the pan with half a glass or white wine and start lifting the pan juices.
• If you had lemons or herbs in the cavity, leave them in the gravy for the flavour, but remove them before using the gravy

Barbecued Eggplants

This one is japanese-style

Ingredients
6 long thin eggplants
3 tbsp miso
3 tbsp egg mayonnaise
Black sesame seeds

Method
Toast the black sesame seeds until they start to pop [in a dry frying pan on low heat]
Combine the mayonnaise and miso.

Cut the eggplants in two lengthwise.
Score in a cross-cross pattern on the cut side of the eggplants.
On a barbecue grill, grill the cut side until starting to brown.
Coat the browned cut side with the miso/mayo mixture.
Return to the grill - grill the skin side until just starting to burn.
Sprinkle back sesame seeds on the miso/mayo mixture.

Baba Ghanoush

Love that smoky flavour.

Ingredients
Four medium eggplants
2 tbsp Tahina [sesame paste]
2 tbsp Olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon
4 cloves Garlic, crushed
Salt and Pepper

Method
Take the eggplants and cut from the base to the stalk so that you have four pieces held together by the stalk end. Don't cut them so far that they fall apart - use the stalk as a handle, and keep the segments together.
On a barbecue, char-grill the eggplants until the skins is black and blistered. Remove from the grill and allow to cool.
Scrape out the flesh of the eggplants into a bowl and combine with the Tahina, Olive oil, lemon juice and garlic. Try to avoid getting too much of the charred skin.
Mash the mixture to the desired texture - I like it a bit coarse, not too pasty.

Adjust the lemon, salt and pepper and serve with lebanese or turkish bread.