BAKED AUBERGINE STUFFED WITH ITSELF AND SOME OTHER STUFF

(@NickRunner - Rogue recipes)

I invented this one on the fly one evening with whatever was available in the house.

What you need (to feed two)

1. 2 aubergines (also called eggplants or brinjals)

2. 150g bacon

3. 1 onion

4. 1 sweet green pepper

5. 1 handful of raisins

6. 1 medium size potato

7. Some parmesan cheese

8. 1 clove of garlic

9. A gob of butter

10. A splash of milk

11. 1 tablespoon of olive oil

12. 1 teaspoon of salt

13. A pinch of pepper

14. A pinch of cumin

15. Some tin foil

What you do

• Pre-heat the oven to 220 Celsius.

• Boil the potato in a bigger pot than is necessary for just one potato until it is soft.

• Slice the aubergines in two, top to bottom.

• Scoop out the softer flesh on the inside, leaving about 1cm of flesh under the skin.

• Chop up the bacon, onion, scooped aubergine flesh, green pepper and garlic in small pieces.

• Fry the bacon half-way in a saucepan.

• Add the aubergine flesh, onions and garlic to the saucepan and fry until soft  – add a bit of oil if things get too dry. Add pepper and cumin to taste.

• Add the green pepper and raisins and fry everything a bit more.

• Drain the water from the big pot, mash up the potato in the pot, adding a little milk and/or butter to make it nice and sticky.

• Add the contents of the saucepan to the mashed potato and stir everything together so that it is all nice and mixed up.

• Rub the insides of the aubergines with olive oil and then lightly sprinkle with salt.

• Line the insides of the aubergines with grated parmesan cheese.

• Scoop the stuffing from the pot into the halved aubergines. Tamp it down tightly with the back of a spoon so that the stuffing is flush with the top of the aubergines.

• Put the matching halves together so that the aubergines look whole again and wrap each one tightly in tinfoil, shiny side on the inside.

• Pop them in the oven for 30 minutes.

• Unwrap the aubergines (the skin should be moist and soft enough to slice with a table knife) and separate the halves.

• Sprinkle some grated parmesan over everything as a finishing touch, and it’s done!