OH-burr-gene

I gotta say, I've always been intimidated by Aubergines (or as y'all like to call 'em in this country, "eggplants!") I can't tell you the amount of times I've bought one, and had it in the kitchen for days, taunting me, daring me to cook with it and me completely wimping out, waiting for it to get all soft and rancid and then throwing it out, defeated. There's something about them. First off, there is the question: to salt or not to salt. "The salt gets rid of the bitter taste," says one, "it gets rid of the excess moisture," says another, and "you don't need to salt them any more ...," a third. And then there's the cooking of them: any recipe I've seen for aubergines very simply instructs you to put some olive oil in a pan, heat it up, slice the aubergines and throw 'em in. No recipe I've ever seen (and don't get me wrong, I haven't read a lot of recipes about aubergines), has given any advice on the fact that (certainly in my efforts), the oil is immediately absorbed in to the aubergine, nothing left in the pan and you have to add more and more oil to get the damn things cooked ending up with something ... well, something oily. (it's olive oil so not too terrible but still).

So yes, I've tried babaganoush and although I ate it, I'm not sure anyone else would, and I've cooked aubergines to have with supper but always been less than content with the result. So, I'm not quite sure what came over me there a couple of weeks ago. I was at wholefoods, I saw an aubergine, it looked so good, I thought to myself, "this week, I'm going to make a lamb stew and I'm going to use an aubergine." I was determined.

Back home I rummaged through my rather limited but pretty good quality selection of cookbooks (for which I can't take too much credit, the best of these books all given to me as gifts from my sisters). I pulled out Claudia Roden's "A New Book of Middle Eastern Food," slightly singe-ed on the front cover for reasons I cannot remember and with a lovely inscription on the inside from my sister, Ines, "May this be the start of some wonderful home cooking wherever you are," she wrote, "This is the Bible."

I found the perfect recipe, an Aubergine Khoresh, or as we would consider it, an aubergine stew. You can use lamb, beef or chicken. I used lamb.

The recipe is easy:

2 aubergines (not quite sure what size aubergines she calls for, I used one medium sized one, which felt like plenty)
Salt
1 large onion
Butter or olive oil
1 Ib stewing lamb
2 oz brown lentils or yellow split peas. (I used red lentils because when I was at the supermarket I couldn't remember what color the recipe called for. Red worked. And they were the no-soak necessary kind. All the better.)
Black pepper
1/2 - 1 teaspoon turmeric
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg

The Garnish
1 tablespoon of the chopped onion, above
2 tablespoons dried mint
1-2 gloves of garlic crushed

All right. Claudia Roden says salt the aubergine. I did not salt the aubergine. Claudia Roden knows much more about these things than I do but no, I did not salt the aubergine.

Chop the onion. Heat the butter or oil (about two tablespoons), 'til it's hot. Throw in the onion, (remembering to hold on to about a tablespoon of it for the garnish), stir it around, make sure all of the onion gets touched by the olive oil, and then gather it all as close to the center of the pot as possible. Cover, bring the heat down and let the onion sweat for a good 5-10 minutes, lifting the lid occasionally to give it a stir. Make sure it doesn't get stuck to the bottom. When it's cooked -- it will look kind of glassy -- throw in the lamb and brown (won't take very long just make sure you brown it on all sides). Then add enough water -- yes, that would be cold water -- to cover the lamb, add the lentils, the turmeric, the cinnamon and the nutmeg, bring to a boil, then turn down the heat and let simmer for 1 & a half to 2 hours or until the lamb is tender and the beans are soft.

Now for the aubergine. Claudia Roden writes very simply and without complication that one should saute the aubergine in about 2 tablespoons of oil or butter, add to the Khoresh and cook for an additional 15 minutes. I attempted the saute, twice, -- I've made this stew twice in the past couple of weeks -- and both times the thing I fear the most happened, the oil got soaked straight up by the aubergine and even though I chucked them in to the stew anyway, I couldn't help but feel that the aubergine had triumphed once again.

Onwards though, and there's the last little piece de resistance which is the garnish. That remaining tablespoon of onion that you remembered to keep aside? Well, heat a little olive oil or butter, chuck in the onion, let cook until soft and golden, throw in the mint and the garlic, cook for another minute and take it out, put it in a small dish and serve alongside the stew, which is, if I may say so myself, delicious. Very subtle flavours, good with red or white wine and basmati rice.

Try it. Let me know how you get on.

And, about that aubergine. A few days ago, my sister, Eithne, rang, and we got to talking about food and what I'd been eating lately. I told her about this Lamb Khoresh which was so, so good, but I also told her about my incredible frustration with the aubergine. I felt inadequate I told her (I was feeling a little dramatic). My sister knows her way around the kitchen. She knows all the tricks. "You know Lucy," she says, "it's just as easy to roast them." I said, "what?!" And she says "yes, just slice 'em up, cover them in olive oil, put 'em in a roasting pan and into the oven." I'm not quite sure of the temperature but will try at 375F the next time I cook one ... which will be soon. I've bought another aubergine and it is, right now, sitting in my kitchen, watching me, daring me to crumble. But. I won't.