I guess the theme song for this should be 'Home on the Range' rather than something less cooking related – but it makes me think of rather different things. Tradition and a relaxed frame of mind and a relaxed approach to life. Rather more 'slow food' than cowboy food perhaps.

Here's how this edition of the Paper Chef event was set up:

"The theme for this edition of Paper Chef is 'Home.' That means that the fourth ingredient is 'something you already have in your home' - you can't go out and buy it - you have to look around and use something. If the cupboard is bare then you may have to make water the special ingredient! A reminder, the other ingredients are chile peppers, smoked swordfish (or if you can't manage that, any smoked fish, and if you are a vegetarian, something smoked) and eggplant or aubergine."

We got a smallish number of entrants but that's completely my fault since this is the first Paper Chef after a six month break where I just got too busy to keep everything going.

Without further ado, here (I think in order of receipt of information) are the people and dishes that entered Paper Chef The Home Edition.

First entry in is from a brand new paper Chef participant, 'Mrs. Anderson' of Gild the Vodoolily. She entered a Smoky Green Curry Seafood Chowder. This soup is very rich, complex and wonderful sounding.

Another newcomer, Abby of Eat the right stuff, entered another soup, but very different, a smoked aubergine and elephant garlic soup which also sounds delicious but does come with a mild warning...

The Belly Timber crew, aka MizD and ChopperDave, honored us by taking time out of a horrendously busy schedule to play in the kitchen and – as usual – come up with a completely over the top surfeit of food. I may well miss something, but here is what I make it that they entered:

They, too, did us a soup - Smokey Spicy Fish Soup;
and Chile Roasted Eggplants;
and Smoked Cod and Eggplant 'Tagine'
and an extra unofficial 'Oven-roasted Indian eggplants filled with a paste made from the extras on hand: bell pepper, garlic, chives, Thai chiles, and more of that delicious cherry-smoked cod.'

on top of everything else they also sacrificed pottery to the gods to make this feast!

Ilva of Lucullian Delights, who gets an award as a patron saint of Paper Chef for her tireless support and enthusiasm for the event, also entered a feast, this time of two dishes. The first, a starter, was Hot Eggplant Rolls with Smoked Tuna, Fried Bread and Pinenuts and the second, a primo, a Pasta with Eggplant, Chili Pepper, Smoked Tuna and Pinenuts.

Finally, another new entrant, Jonskifarms of Jonski Blogski, entered a not-quite-following-the-rules, 'smoked eggplant dip, and a green chile buffalo burger'. It turned out that the smoked eggplant dip was actually a Maddhur Jaffrey recipe for one of the all time great Indian dishes 'bengan bhartha' and it sounds like it may have converted the author to at least one use for eggplant!