Meals On Speed

… eggplant, brinjal, vengra in the guji vernacular… would be as versatile.

Whenever I serve a convenience food for supper (like microwave
steamed fish), I like putting more of an effort into preparing the
vegetable accompaniments.

I sliced up two aubergines, sprinkled them with salt and set the
dish aside (I’ve always been told that the salt acts to draw out the
vegetable’s bitter sap, but I’ve just googled this fact, and apparently
the bitterness has been bred out of the modern aubergine. The only
reason you would salt is if you were to fry the aubergine. The salt
draws out the moisture that would otherwise be replaced by oil during
the frying process. Check out this site out for more information on aubergines, as well as for some interesting looking recipes.)

While the aubergines rested, I prepared my favourite cheat saucy
shrooms (chopped garlic in melted butter, mushrooms tossed in, pour
over some milk and grind over lotsa black pepper and salt, once
simmering, sprinkle over flour, mix, mix, mix and let thicken.)

With the ’shrooms out of the way, it was time to pay due attention
to the aubergines. These were rinsed off, slathered with olive oil,
coated with Nomu’s Moroccan Rub on both sides, sprinkled with a little salt and popped into a heated oven until done.

The moroccan rub has an intense sort of spiciness, not by 3rd-degree
tongue burn standards, but by its sheer robustness of flavours. It’s
excellently paired with the delicate flavour of the aubergine.

I decided to make a spread slash dip with supper’s leftover vegetables.

The skins were peeled off the aubergines before I processed them
with a bit of olive oil. To complement the flavours already baked into
the aubergine, I added ground dhana-jeeru, lemon juice, ground black
pepper and a bit of salt to the pureé.

Good on pitas, crackers, toasted pizza bases or between the two
slices of plain white supermarket bread I’ll be taking to the office
for lunch tomorrow.

Originally blogged here.