The aubergine (eggplant to those of you on the other side of the pond) is a much maligned vegetable. It’s one of several which I simply can’t cook without checking with everyone present that they’re ok with it – there are so many people who are absolutely convinced that they hate it.

I’m not saying they’re wrong of course. If they’re convinced they hate it, they probably do. Hate is a subjective thing. I just think it’s unfortunate, and I suspect that it’s in part because aubergine is one of those vegetables which is very easy to cook badly. And once you’ve been subjected to something being badly cooked it’s rather hard to convince yourself you like it. As an example, okra still makes me shudder. I’m sure it’s possible to do a good job with it, but my experiences with it were sufficiently bad that I’ll take some convincing to try it again.

The most important thing to remember with cooking aubergine is that there is this myth that if you put a vegetable in boiling water and leave it in for an appropriate amount of time then the result will be a cooked vegetable. Sure, this is technically true, but the result is often not very appealing.

Now, I’m not saying people actually boil aubergine and expect this to give a good result. That would be silly. But often in ratatouille, aubergine stew, etc. the aubergine will be in some sort of sauce. Unless the aubergine is nearly cooked when you add the liquid, this will rarely produce good results. Aubergine has a great flavour and texture to it, but cooking like this totally ruins that. It dilutes the flavour and will often make the aubergine rather chewy (or undercooks it, which is even worse). I’m not saying it’s impossible to produce good results this way, but it’s something I would generally steer clear of.

The trick is to cook the aubergine first, with oil and very little liquid. You can either do this by frying it (the problem with this is that the aubergine can soak up an awful lot of oil), or by roasting it.

As an example of the latter, here’s a recipe for aubergine curry which I stole from my friend Neelofer. It’s not quite the same as hers – partially because over a year passed between when I last saw her cook it and when I first cooked it, partially because I like to be able to eat my food without my hair catching fire. That being said, the essential choice of ingredients and the knowledge of how to successfully get the aubergine to work out comes from her. I just fiddled with the details.

Ingredients:

Two mediums sized onions.
Two large cloves of garlic.
Two to three medium sized aubergine (depending on how big a medium they are)
250g cup mushrooms
One can of chopped tomatoes
Sunflower oil
Salt to taste, but quite a lot.
Two or three table tablespoons of dhana-jeera (powdered coriander and cumin)
Half a tsp of crushed red chili
Half a tsp of turmeric

Cooking:

First we need to roast the aubergine. Chop off the green at the end, pierce the aubergine in various places with a fork, cover them in oil and stick them in the oven at roasting temperatures for 20-30 minutes. You’ll know they’re cooked when they feel completely soft through – poke them with a sharp knife. If they feel at all hard or dry inside then they’re not done yet.

While those are roasting, do the usual with the onions. Chop them up finely and fry them in oil. Also add the garlic (crushed or chopped as you prefer). Add the salt at the beginning. After a few minutes, add all the spices except the turmeric and keep cooking.

Meanwhile, clean the mushrooms and cut them fairly coarsely (I generally quarter them). When the onion has begun to get soft but isn’t yet cooked, add them and continue frying. Now, mushrooms are another thing which simply will not cook correctly in liquid, so continue frying until the mushrooms are acceptably cooked.

Once the aubergine is roasted, shred it. This is easier than it sounds – it will basically come apart in your hands if you’re willing to brave the high temperatures, or alternatively you can use a knife and fork. Separate the flesh from the skin, and it will come out in thick strands. Cut these up a little further. You can either get rid of the skin or cut it up and use that too as you please – I do the latter, I think Neelofer did the former. It’s a bit tough, but I really like the taste.

This done, add it to the frying onions and mushrooms. Fry them all together for a few minutes longer, then add the canned tomatoes, the turmeric and enough boiling water to make it up to a thick sauce. Leave this to simmer for another 5-10 minutes and then serve. I generally find it goes well with a bread of some sort – usually pita, mainly because I’m lazy and it’s easy to find.