Aubergine Bake

Aubergine Bake

So it's early July, the sun should be shining and we should be basking in our gardens taking advantage of all the hard work that we (well our significant others), have put in to getting it barbecue/sun worshipper ready. Now we all expect at least a few torrential downpours to spoil the fun  of a British Summer, but I think wearing thermal socks and jumpers and considering putting on the heating is a bit extreme.

Food wise we should be tucking into barbecues and salads, new potatoes and grilled things, instead we've been having carb laden, cheese topped baked foods...in other words - Winter Food.

Weight wise I'm on a roll, still on a downward trend, but it's my birthday today so I'm throwing caution to the wind for one day. Tonight we are having my favourite takeaway from the local Thai - Grand Siam in Eastwood. I can't wait. We've only had one takeaway during lock down and that was as part of a works team zoom event. the food was a bit disappointing so fingers crossed today will be much better. My daughter has also made me a lemon drizzle and added sultanas at my request so I will be having a large chunk of that too, it smells amazing. 

Steps wise I've upped my steps from 10,000 per day, to 15,000 meaning I'm doing around 50 miles a week, without actually going anywhere! I seem to be getting there every day, but I do feel like all I do is work, step and cook. Not sure if I will be able to maintain 15K if my life gets anywhere near back to normal.

As I watch TV while stepping, I've managed to clear my TIVO backlog. I won't bore you with all the half watched series I've finished off. The highlight of the last couple of weeks has been the BBCs The Salisbury Poisonings, it's still available on i-player if you didn't catch it. I found it really interesting. I love  Rafe Spall, the sequence where he goes into the Skripal's home and touches his eye and then you focus on the the things he touches afterwards, it really resonated with our current COVID situation. I also really like the way that it wasn't about politics or spies or even about Skripals, it was about the investigation and the weight of responsibility that Anne Marie Duffs character feels to get to the heart of what is poisoning the town and her doubts. I love the investigation. On that note I also watched the latest series of Agatha Raisin on Sky One, it's investigation along the lines of Midsomer Murders but hopped up with sarcasm, alcohol, innuendo, bad taste and terrible fashion. The title character is Ashey Jenson and the self-absorbed Agatha is such a contrast to her character in the wonderful After Life which I've also watched on Netflix, but no while stepping.

Stepping and crying is a recipe for suffocation!

Back to the food. I had a glut of aubergines and a glut on tomatoes and I had wanted to make a mellezana parmigiana, but had other veg that needed to be used up, so decided to make a "bake"..

Aubergine Bake (served 3, will stretch to 4)

To begin I took 2 aubergines, cut them into 1 cm slices length wise.

I sprayed them with olive oil and seasoned them well with salt, pepper, garlic granules and dried oregano, then grilled them until softened but not mushy, you need to be able to handle them. 

While they are cooking (don't forget them!), make the sauce.

I fried a sliced, medium onion with some chopped chorizo.

I used 60 g because that's all I had, but you would probably want more, about 40-50g per person maybe.

I added some fresh chopped garlic (you could use garlic paste or granules) and a fresh, chopped chilli (or some chilli paste or chilli flakes).

Next I sliced 250g mushrooms and 200g fresh tomato and add to the pan and allowed them to soften.

Then I added some fresh oregano and basil from our garden, I would normally use dried though.

Finally I stirred in 500g passata and 1 tsp sugar and gave it a good stir and seasoned with salt and pepper.

Time to layer up. I used a skillet, but any oven proof dish will do.

I sprayed it with oil and then added half the aubergine in a single layer, I spread over half the sauce,  topped that with the rest of the aubergine. Then I spread the rest of the sauce over the top. 

I scattered over some torn basil leaves and from a ball of mozzarella tore off little chunks and arranged them evenly over the top of the dish.

Finally, I baked it in a pre-heated oven at 180C until bubbling and golden.

You can leave out the chorizo to make it veggie and substitute the mozzarella for a vegan alternative. Violife do one, you can get it in delis and from Ocado, our local veg delivery service has it too.

We served ours with crunchy little roast potatoes and mixed stir-fried greens (savoy cabbage, cavolo negro and finely sliced mange tout), but you could have it with grilled or roasted meat or fish.

                                    

*from Ocado.com