Charred Aubergine with Red Pepper, Tomato, Chilli & The Only Way Is Gin Sauce.

All that sauce & a crunchy topping too! Plates by the fabulous potter Linda Bloomfield

Aubergines, not usually the first choice of non-vegetarians unless you’re like me and love the fact that they’re great to cook with and like a sponge when it comes to sucking up flavours.

At one time, cooking aubergines meant slicing, covering in handfuls of salt and leaving them to sit letting the bitter liquid drip.

Not so anymore!

Why the change now?

All to do with new varieties where bitterness has been ‘developed’ out.

Originally from Southeast Asia, now this berry, yup, I said berry not vegetable; is grown everywhere in the world with so many different looks and sizes.

The most common variety I see in the shops around me are the big, deep purple shiny ones.

Occasionally, I’ll be lucky enough to get my hands on some of the smaller cuter aubergines.

 Some with stripes, (Aubergine Angel or Graffiti), the long pale purple Chinese aubergine, the smaller Fairy Tale or Indian Aubergine otherwise known as baby aubergines or even the white aubergine which hit the headlines a couple of years ago when Waitrose started to sell them.

Buying them all year round is a norm right now, but are at their best May through to October when they’re nice and heavy.

Great in curries, stir fries, ratatouille or aubergine parmigiana, and if you’d like, you can use medium sized slices instead of pasta for a moussaka.

I used aubergine in a recipe developed for The Only Way is Gin exactly because it’s a great vessel for flavour and I wanted to make a sauce with lots without loosing a single drop of the tomatoey goodness. (If you’ve not got your hands on this gin as yet, use your favourite instead)

You probably know by now that using gin in my work is not unusual, what is, is to get the lovely Mr G (my husband and chief taster of all things from my kitchen) so excited about a dish that doesn’t involve any form of meat.

Whichever way you eat your aubergine, make sure you’ve got a few hunks of crusty bread handy to soak up all that incredible sauce.

Don’t let any of it go to waste.

Enjoy Your Sweet Life

What You Need

Sauce

•   150ml -The Only Way Is Gin

• 1 Onion – Very Finely Chopped

• 1 Large Red Pepper – Sliced

•   1 Tin of Chopped Tomatoes

• 3 tbsp Tomato Puree

• 2 Small Green Chilies Chopped Very Finely– See Tip Box

• 2 tbsp Olive oil

• 3 Garlic Cloves – chopped finely

• 4 Large Sage Leaves – chopped finely – or 1 teaspoon Dried

•     1 tsp Dried Thyme

•   1 tbsp Red White Vinegar

• Malden Salt – To Taste

•    Fresh Ground Black Pepper – To Taste

• 2 tsp Castor Sugar

Fresh & Shiny

Aubergine

•    2 Large Aubergines – Thinly sliced

•    150g Parmesan Cheese – grated

• 100g Breadcrumbs- See Tip Box

•      150g Pine Nuts

•   2 Balls Fresh Mozzarella – See Tip Box

•    Olive oil

•      ½ tsp Dried Thyme

Get as much char as possible for even more flavour

How It’s Done

Sauce

• Heat the oil in a flat but sided pan – A frying pan is good for this.

• Add the chopped onion, sliced red pepper, salt, pepper and let it cook slowly on a low heat until the onions are a little transparent and the pepper is a little soft

• Once soft, add all of the other sauce ingredients, including The Only Way Is Gin.

• Stir well to combine and continue to cook the sauce on a low heat for 10 mins with a lid on for the first 7 minutes.  – See Tip Box

Reducing the sauce and letting all those flavours infuse

 Aubergine

•    Mix the dried herbs, some pepper and the olive oil together.

•     Brush the oil mix over each side of the sliced aubergine

•   Heat a griddle or a large frying pan and cook the aubergine slices until they are cooked through and translucent, turning to cook evenly on both sides and nicely charred. – See Tip Box

•    Once cooked, set aside until needed.

•   Mix some of the parmesan, all the pine nuts and all of the breadcrumbs together in a small bowl and set aside

•    Heat oven up to 180c.

•    Start to layer up the dish- Add a couple of spoonful’s of the sauce to the bottom of an oven proof dish.

•    Lay a few slices of the cooked aubergine over the sauce then add more sauce on top of the aubergine.

•   Tear up one of the fresh mozzarella balls and put over the sauce then sprinkle half of the remaining parmesan on top of that.

•   Repeat this process finishing with some of the sauce.

•   Sprinkle the breadcrumb mix over the top of the last layer of sauce.

•   Place the pot with no lid, in the hot oven for 15 minutes, then cover the pot and return to the oven for a further 25 minutes until it is piping hot in the centre, bubbling and slightly charred around the edges.

•    Serve hot or cold

Enjoy

Topping on, ready fort the oven

Tip Box

•     Gin – Don’t worry about getting a little tiddly with the addition of the gin. All the alcohol will burn off during the cooking, and you’ll be left with a great tasting ingredient.

• Chilli- Chilli adds an extra oomph to this dish, but if you’re not a fan, leave it out.

• Breadcrumbs – I used packet dried breadcrumbs in this recipe, but if you have your own, use those

• Mozzarella - This recipe needs the wet, fresh mozzarella not the type that you can grate. The fresh adds a creamy texture to the sauce. 

• Cooking Sauce – If the sauce becomes too thick, add a little water.

• Cooking Aubergine – 1) Whether you have a griddle or using a frying pan, don’t be too quick to turn the aubergine over, let them get well cooked (a nice char adds more favour) and opaque.

2) Don’t crowd the pan, cook them in one layer and in batches.                                                     

  3) Once cooked, set them aside to use later.

Ready to dunk your bread. Beautiful plates by the talented Linda Bloomfield