aubergine | The grub worm

Steamed aubergine in an intense spicy and nutty sauce

Posted on 29 October 2010 by The Grubworm

Smooth. Slithery. Soft. The texture of well cooked aubergines is their defining characteristic. More so than the gently nutty flavour, the pendulous shape, the glorious shades of purple. The main thing aubergines really bring to a dish is their delightfully soft and fleshy texture.

Not to minimise the taste, which neatly side steps big bullying flavours to come through, between and around them, linking and accentuating as it goes. Clever things aubergines. This particular ugly duckling of a dish, a marriage to an intense, pungent and spicy sauce, highlights this rare ability to shine through. Continue reading →

Sweet and spicy japanese aubergine

Posted on 19 April 2010 by The Grubworm

I hit the kitchen properly last night for the frst time in about ten days and banged pans about with wild abandon for a couple of hours. After all of which I ended up with an almost radioactively bright moong dhal and a gentle, ok – bland, leek and potato soup. Disaster.

As a result I felt a certain degree of performance anxiety tonight. The fridge contained just three long slender aubergines and a scraping of miso. Add that to some staples (onion, chilli, garlic) and my stock of sauces and an idea germinated. A sweet spicy aubergine hotpot/stirfry/curry type thing. Continue reading →

Smoky silk: aubergine and smoked tofu with udon noodles

Posted on 9 April 2010 by The Grubworm

There’s nothing better for a night when you’re feeling a bit crappy than a full on assault on the senses. This delivers that attack in spades. Chilli heat, silken aubergines and smoky tofu. All those strong flavours maintaining a fragile truce.

Blues are banished – along with any remaining subtle taste buds – in the pungent, silky-smooth smoky chilli miasma. Continue reading →

Lamb, almond & date tagine, WMPC and an aubergine misfire

Posted on 8 March 2010 by The Grubworm

This is the rest of the the meal I cooked for Where’s My Pork Chop. And this is where, in the time honoured fashion of all young *cough* heroes *cough cough* on their quest for: the holy grail/the destruction of The Ring /their Shadow/cook a half decent meal, I hit a bump in the road. Continue reading →

A spicy and smoky aubergine, chickpea and tomato stew

Posted on 22 January 2010 by The Grubworm

I have a whole repertoire of dishes that I create pretty much from instinct. Cooking most days means that I have developed a whole lot of simple concoctions that are easily adapted to whatever ingredients I have hanging around. This one’s a favourite. It pretty much looks after itself and is straightforward to throw together and leave to bubble away while I get on with other things. In this case singing along to some sixties soul classics at the top of my formidably tuneless voice. Continue reading →

Baba ganoush, roast red pepper and hummus

Posted on 9 January 2010 by The Grubworm

In need of lunchtime inspiration I spent a good five minutes mentally cataloguing the contents of the fridge. A rather tired aubergine and red pepper were loitering in the vegetable drawer, a tub of greek yogurt and the remains of a jar of tahini sat in a shelf. Add a bulb of garlic and a couple of lemons from the vegetable bowl that sits atop the fridge, and the ever present pittas in the freezer, and I had the makings of a fairly decent meze lunch. It was either that or something more complex and slow cooked – but I had neither the time nor the inclination to spend too long over the meal. Continue reading →