As an aubergine lover, I believe you can’t ever go wrong with aubergine in a dish…however, I do know that not everyone would agree with me, and often that is because they’ve tried aubergine and not liked it, which is usually because the aubergine has been badly cooked. And by badly cooked, I mean either UNDER cooked, or dripping in oil 😦
Aubergine that has NOT been cooked properly is NOT nice! The texture of properly cooked aubergine should be soft and melt in your mouth; uncooked aubergine will remain hard and slightly chewy and not at all tasty, verging on bitter. The trick is to ensure that you allow enough time to really cook aubergine well.
Aubergine cooked on a barbecue is often one of the worst culprits as far as I’m concerned, I’ve seen chunks of aubergine threaded onto skewers alongside peppers and onions, and it’s never cooked well. The peppers and onions take so much less time to cook, that the poor aubergine doesn’t get a chance to catch up. My advice: cook them separately!!
Likewise, if you find lovely chunks of aubergine in a dish like curry/stew/ratatouille and it’s not cooked, it’s such a disappointment, especially for an aubergine lover like me. In this scenario, I would consider pre-cooking the aubergine, which is what I did recently to make this gorgeous aubergine tikka masala curry…
These aubergine chunks were marinated and roasted until lovely and soft, before being added to the sauce.
So my message is: please be sure to cook your aubergine well, and to this end, today I am sharing with you my current favourite way of preparing aubergine. This is how I produced these lovely aubergine slices below..
There is an assumption that to really cook aubergine well, you need lots of oil.
This is not true.
Aubergine is like a sponge and really soaks up oil, so if you do cook aubergine slices or chunks in lots of oil, it will merely hold onto it and fill your mouth with oil when you bite into it – yuk! Use of some oil is good for cooking aubergine, it just doesn’t have to be drowning in it. I usually use an olive oil spray when roasting or baking aubergine to control the amount I use.
For these slices, I cut the aubergines into slices between 0.5cm and 1cm thick. If you slice them too thin, they risk burning and becoming papery.
I laid the slices on a rack sitting on an oven sheet, sprayed each slice with olive oil…
I cooked these in the oven, heated to 200c, until they looked like this..
They remain uncoloured on the underneath, but that doesn’t take anything away from the finished effect.
On the rare occasion that I haven’t eaten the whole lot straight out of the oven, I’ve used these slices chopped up in salads..
Or to create a plate of layered loveliness..
These slices have been spread with homous, then topped with beautiful roasted red onion and garlic and topped with toasted nuts.
For now I’ll leave you to drool over those gorgeous roasted and caramelised red onions and garlic…
Love aubergines, preferably baked into black and then the insides scraped out and mixed with garlic spices etc. Yum!
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Oh yes!!!! Nice! Do you add a bit of tahini??
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baked *until* black!
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this is a such a good information for aubergine lovers 🙂 Thank u Elaine for sharing such amazing tips and including my recipe link !! Love it ! I so totally agree that aubergines not cooked well or soaking in oil is the worst thing one can do. One of my friend (who was skeptical about aubergines anyways), once made a dish (after a lot of convincing from me :P)and she used far too much oil (more than reqd or recommended in the recipe) and it was a disappointing dish ! She never tried aubergines again 😛
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That sounds like such a typical story, what a shame!
I’m so glad you like the post 🙂 x
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Great post, Elaine! You know what my problem is with aubergine? I have issues with the skin. It is a texture and taste thing – so I usually remove the skin after it’s cooked, when it’s on my plate – it gets messy and I rather not do that in company (I will politely eat every bit of skin with a smile) – I keep trying to eat it again and again to see if I can get over it, but… it’s hard for me
But you are absolutely right, it needs to be cooked completely – that’s why I played with sous vide, but that method is not working the way websites told me it would.
I rather use your traditional way of baking it – winner!
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Thank you honey 🙂
There’s so many great ways that you can roast aubergines whole and scrape out the flesh, maybe that’s the best way for you?
xxx
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I never use too much oil – being a lifetime member of Weight Watcher’s this was always a big no-no! I hear you on cooking it properly as I am very particular about the way a number of veggies are cooked. I would love to have a plateful of the dishes you served in those last two pictures 🙂
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Thank you, I’m glad you like it 🙂 x
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My biggest bugbear is when restaurants serve poorly cooked veg!!!!
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Oh yum! These variations look amazing. I LOVE eggplant!!
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Thank you 😀😀😀😀
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Hey Elaine, thanks so much for this post! I love eggplant but always struggle to cooke it properly! I can’t wait to try your recipe! 😀
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Thank you, I hope it works well for you xx
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I absolutely love aubergine and so does my youngest aged 2. Whenever I do roasted vegetables for lunch no matter how much aubergine I cook he will try to eat all of it and I’m doing my best to eat some myself before it all disappears! This aubergine does look perfect and thank you so much for sharing with #CookOnceEatTwice
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That’s so cool, I hope he continues to like it as he gets older 🙂
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I don’t eat eggplant often but when I do, I like it to be cooked properly. Thanks for the tips!
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I hope they’re useful x
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Oh gosh this looks so tasty! Must try this next time I buy aubergine because I always struggle with cooking them well 🙂
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Thank you, I hope it’s helpful 😀😀😀
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If I bake or roast eggplant, it’s only for myself, sadly. My husband is convinced that they are a nasty vegetable, and the peel is bitter. Oh well. I enjoy them, and your slices are beautiful!
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Oh really? What a shame! But then, I’m the only person in my house who eats them!
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Amazing!!!! *.* ❤
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Thank you 😀😀
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Thank you for sharing nice tips Elaine ☺
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I’m glad you like them x
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I know I commented on some of this on Instagram, but I just want to say again this is a beautiful post! You have a talent and creativity all your own. Truly mouthwatering, Lainey!! 🙂
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Thank you so very much, lovely Susie Sue xxx
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Elaine, this post is about us. I wish I could say I love eggplant. aubergine, but I think I’ve only had poorly cooked aubergine so didn’t give it a proper chance. I’ll pin this one and see if I can change our thinking on this beautiful vegetable.
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Julie, if I’ve encouraged you to give aubergine another go, that’s great! I hope my post helps x
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You make aubergine look like art! Beautiful photos and of course, you make me want to go and get some aubergines for dinner tomorrow! Delicious and I absolutely agree that it can be quite an abused vegetable but cooked right, absolutely delicious! 🙂
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Thank you so much xx I hope your new world is all going well x
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Thanks for such a wonderful and detailed look at cooking eggplant! I love it and this sure is helpful. Love the pictures, yumm
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Thank you so much xxx I hope you’re doing okay x
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I’m fine dear, hope you are well xx
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I’m good xxx
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xxx
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This looks perfect!
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😀😀😀
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You are a woman after my own heart! Is there much worse than improperly cooked aubergine? (Let’s pretend that current events aren’t happening!) I am so with you re. the disappointment at finding less than perfect aubergine ninja-ing in what would otherwise be a perfect dish.
Oh, the despair! 😉
I love your ammonite plate, by the way – it’s beautiful!
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Thank you Nicole, we definitely share the same views on aubergines!!!
And thank you, I do love my plates, all handmade originals 🙂
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Your dishes never cease to tantalize both my eyes and taste buds. Beautiful dishes, Elaine. xoxo
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Thank you sweetie xx
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Amazing dish. I love eggplant and will defintely make this!
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Thank you 😀😀
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You have an amazing blog! I love reading your posts Elaine!
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Thank you so much, that’s lovely xx
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As you know by now, I love aubergine & your dish looks so superb & appetizing too!
Yummm! My aubergine plant is still producing many aubergines so I need many recipes for it,…from you! xxx
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You lucky lady!! I hope they are super tasty 🙂
So nice to see you back, Sophie, I read your post but haven’t commented yet – I’m glad you are doing better xx
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Thanks so much, sweet dear friend! xxx
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Aubergine is my favorite vegetable! Love it!
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Me too!
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Oh goodness, now this is drool worthy! How tantalizing! It looks and sounds amazing. Xx
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Thank you xx
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SPRAYING with oil. Revolutionary! I’m off to try cooking these this week!! Thank you!!
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My pleasure, I hope you enjoy them!
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Love eggplant!!
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Thank you 🙂
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This is such a useful post, I wish I’d discovered it years ago. I’ve only recently learnt to enjoy aubergines having been put off when I was young by a particularly disgusting moussaka. I’m now desperate to make that curry – it sounds wonderful.
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I’m so glad it’s useful 🙂
I think a lot of people had similar experiences, uncooked or badly cooked aubergine is really not nice 😦
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