Spiced Aubergine

Chunks of meaty aubergine in a spicy sauce of cumin and corriander. It goes really well with slow-cooked pork, but also on toasted bread as bruschetta, or in a pilaf.
Recipe for spiced aubergine
Serves 4
Ingredients
- 1 large aubergine – ideally a Japanese one
- 1 red pepper
- olive oil – about 4 tbsps
- 2 fat garlic cloves
- 1 tsp cumin seeds
- 1 tsp coriander seeds
- juice of one lemon (8 tbsp/120ml/½ cup)
- small pack fresh coriander (28g/1 oz) – chopped – include the stems
Method
- Heat the oven to 210°C (use bottom of top right Aga oven).
- Cut the aubergine into chunks, if it’s not Japanese, put chunks in a colander and sprinkle with salt. Leave for a minimum of half an hour – an hour is better. This takes out any bitterness and it stops the aubergines from soaking up so much oil.
- Halve, seed, and cut the pepper into strips.
- Dry fry the seeds, and grind in a pestle and mortar – this will make your kitchen smell wonderful.
- Pat the aubergines dry with a bit of paper towel (don’t rinse – they will soak up the water).
- Mix all except the fresh coriander together in a roasting tin and cook for about 25 minutes (stirring the vegetables around halfway through).
- Just before serving stir in the lemon juice and the fresh, chopped coriander.
- Serve garnished with the lemon zest.