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| Afghan aubergines with yoghurt |
I've been enjoying Sally Butcher's book Veggiestan which we have out from the library at the moment and am - as regular readers will doubtless be aware - rather easily persuaded into trying any recipe that involves fried aubergines.
There are two things, though, that really irritate me about the book:
- firstly, that it is randomly patronising at times "if you don't have a lid, you can improvise one with foil", really? really?! thank you so much for that tip, it's changed my culinary life, I would not at all have figured that out under my own steam... ; and
- secondly, as knowledgeable as the author seems to be about Middle Eastern food, she seems to be almost entirely unaware of its connections to Indian food. For instance, she has a whole page on how drinking a salty, yoghurty drink is uniquely Iranian, *cough* salted lassi *cough*. Gujarati and Afghani food, especially, have a lot in common. I learned a while back that there's strong historical evidence that my sub-caste (Lohana) are from Afghanistan originally, which I sometimes ponder when making recipes like this one which clearly are extremely Indian in flavours.
Basically, you fry some aubergines:
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| Frying aubergine slices |
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| Frying aubergine slices |
Add tomatoes, onions, chilli, coriander and tumeric and simmer for about 30 minutes, adding water if you need it:
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| Fried aubergine slices with tomatoes, onions, coriander and chilli |
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| Fried aubergine slices with tomatoes, onions, coriander and chilli |
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| Fried aubergine slices with tomatoes, onions, coriander and chilli after 30 minutes of simmering |
Layer it in a dish with the yoghurty sauce (yoghurt, lemon juice, garlic and mint - basically raita *cough* Sally Butcher..) and serve either hot or at room temperature. Both myself and the lovely spouse thought it tasted even better the next day.
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| Afghan aubergines with yoghurt |
