It came to pass that I bought two small aubergines for 39p each and I was determined to do something Ottolenghi-ish with them. But since I can't quite get my hands on most of their other ingredients, I threw myself upon the culinary expertise of my Facebook friends.
The first up with a suggestion was Anton The Italian. She regularly posts up yummy looking pix of food that she has prepared and she suggested the following:
Slice your aubergines, fry them until they are soft in a pan. Tip a can of chopped tomatoes (I used some with ready added herbs), some chilli* and some garlic into a pan and cook into a sauce.
Then pop the slices of softened aubergines into a dish, tip on the sauce and cover with slices of mozarella.
It started off looking like this:
There is clearly something adrift with my camera and honestly, I have not shot all this in soft focus! The large dark dog-poop looking thing in the middle is two aubergines. The jar of garlic and ginger I can commend to the house - we use it in everything. Please don't look at the colour of the chili. Just let's say that the expiry date was in Roman numerals.
Here are some soft-focus fried aubergines. They don't half soak up a lot of oil. I eventually started feeding the frying pan with water to try to cut down the amount of olive oil I was using!
Small white ball is actually a 50p mozarella waiting to be sliced. Ignore the fallen over empty tin next to the kettle. Look, I never said that I was David Bailey.
And after 40 minutes or so in Teh Oven.......
It tasted DELISH and I commend it to the house.
*I used chilli oil AFTER the dish was cooked because two small boys were going to eat it and I didn't want to put them off. The chilli is v important as it really lifts the dish - so give yourself a nice drizzle and enjoy it!!!
Thank you Anton.
And to everyone else who gave me aubergine recipes - they are copied down and I will use them at a later date.
Are you buying from the marked down section of the supermarket too? Do you get a sense of satisfaction from creating a nice meal from inexpensive ingredients?
Mmm, I love stuff like that, but like courgettes and beetroot (which I also love) aubergines are vegetabla non grata in this house :( Still, I may make some just for myself :D
ReplyDeleteI have to say that the boys made a stab at it, but that was all really - anything other than a carrot or an onion or maybe veg in soup is hard for them to stomach. Rotten little sods that they are.
DeleteAX
Oh nice job :-) I think I may have put some onions in it too, myself :-) I got quite a lot of braising steak in the reduced section of my Co-op today, I am turning it into steak Chasseur ....
ReplyDeleteOnions will go in next time, Viv - that sounds like a tasty addition!
DeleteAX
Yep, I hover around the reduced section to see what's on offer. Just done a mammoth Morrisons shop and can't even bring myself to tell you what it cost - suffice to say, more than £99.
ReplyDeleteI love aubergines, kids won't countenance them. The above recipe is extra delicious with a load of parmasan sprinkled on top. Vix has a nice recipe somewhere on her blog for Imam Bayildi (spelling? probably wrong!) xx
It's really depressing how much things are costing, but I can't help feeling, even in the midst of my heart-attack at the cost, that current prices probably better reflect how much we SHOULD be paying for food. I just wish that more of the money was passed down the line to the food producers. *Big Supermarkets, I'm looking at YOU*
DeleteI don't know about the spelling, but that WAS one of the recipes that was suggested to me on FB - so will have a go at that one too!
Ali x
That is my first stop. I don't buy meat unless it is in the marked down section, or I have traded it for something, like wine or accounting services :)
ReplyDeleteI have a similar recipe, but I breadcrumb the aubergine and shallow fry it first to hive it some crunch.
Yours looked wonderful
I want to try that ,but alarming amount of oil soaked up by aubergine!
DeleteThat looks delicious, I'm definitely going to give that a try.
ReplyDeleteI always look at the reduced stuff first, I don't bother with meal plans. It's like Ready, Steady, Cook at mealtimes here, faced with a weird assortment of veg, spices brought back from India and whatever';s festering in the back of the fridge. x
I've not been able to get to your blog as much - mac often just locks up with blogger blogs - its a PITA! Am heading over to yours in a minute or two, Vix :)
DeleteSounds completely yummy! Yes I often buy from the reduced cabinet as I go into the co-op most days and can't resist a bargain if they have any!
ReplyDeleteI've changed my whole way of shopping. Little and often instead of a big (wasteful!) weekly shop!
DeleteI bet it tasted absolutely gorgeous Ali.
ReplyDeleteDid Sonshine enjoy it?
I love Aubergines in Moussaka, but my kids threatened me with defenestration if I ever try to make it again.
Younger generation have little taste.
Moussaka is gorgeous, really lovely. I don't make it nearly enough - and seeing as how I am constantly slagged off for Trying To Do Things With Mince, moussaka looks like a way forward.
DeleteIgnore the kids. They'll never manage to heave you through a window -)
AX
Definitely with you on little and often shopping, Ali. That way stuff is fresher and you can be fairly sure you'll actually use it. Last week m'Dear One chucked out a bottle of Baileys that was 6 years past its sell-by, but with perishables we do much better ;)
ReplyDeleteTHROW OUT DRINK?????? I have never thrown out alcohol in my LIFE! Are you supposed to?! We had a bottle of Calvados that we bought before we got married and we only finished last summer. Incredibly, we even wrote on the notice board that we needed another one. But we haven't bought any - we got married in 1990 :-)
DeleteThis looks dead good! We always go to the reduced section of the Co-op. I really want to support local produce, but it's expensive.
ReplyDeleteI don't throw alcohol our either. We still have a slightly curdled bottle of Baileys' because Dave is all 'we could sieve it'. Which we haven't done in four years.
Scottish people don't waste food or alcohol. it's our rule!
It looks delicious.
ReplyDeleteShamefully the reduced food buy I have been most triumphant about recently are some yum yums (doughnuts) from M&S. I used to go to Tesco just before closing on Sundays when they reduce lots of stuff but lots of people know about this and it gets very competitive - I never recovered from seeing someone sweep an entire shelf of reduced bread into their trolley as I approached - it was like a bad dream...I knew I had to get to that bread quickly but my legs just wouldn't move fast enough....traumatic
ReplyDeletepersonally i find barbecuing aubergines is the best way. or, if it's minus six billion outside, then spraying lightly with oil and baking in the oven, otherwise they sponge up all the oil and turn nasty. still, put melted cheese on anything and i'll eat it with a grin. that looks goooood!
ReplyDeleteThis looks very tasty - I make an aubergine dish which is essentially lots of red things (red wine, red peppers, tomatoes) with some brown things (brown sugar, brown mushrooms, brown onions) and then aubergine it is surprisingly good, but I mostly remember it as the red and brown thing.
ReplyDelete