How to Cook Aubergine

You may by now have gathered that I am partial to the odd aubergine. I like them best beefing up a curry, where they lend a buttery texture and subtle yet meaty flavour.

The problem is that if you just chuck them in, raw, they absorb all the liquid from your sauce and and end up watery and soggy. They need a good frying off first. Most recipes will tell you put 'fry the aubergine slices in a little oil, in batches'. This is OK, but you'll find that you get through A LOT of oil, because they'll soak it up like a sponge. My method ensures that they fry properly without becoming greasy.

Don't bother faffing around with salt - it's a waste of time and precious sodium chloride. First, chop up your fruits. I like wedgy sticks, but discs also work fine. You are aiming for about 1/2 cm thickness, if you want to be picky (which generally I don't). Try to make sure that every piece includes some lovely purple skin - this will help to hold it together. Decant a little oil into small bowl or plate. Using a pastry brush, daub each piece with some oil. It doesn't need to be thick or exact, and the skin will be fine without.

Now fry the coated morsels over a medium-high heat, in batches if necessary to avoid overcrowding the pan. You won't need to add oil. You're looking for a decent bit of colour on each large surface - as when you cook a steak, it's the blackened, almost caramelised bits which taste really good. When they're done, the flesh will be almost translucent, the purple skins wrinkled. It doesn't matter if they're not quite cooked through if they're going to cook further in your sauce.

They are now ready to add a sauce, where they will happily simmmer away for ten minutes of so without disintegrating.

Salmon and Tamarind Curry - My Favourite Nigel Slater Recipe

For the first time, my food writing has been published in a national newspaper! OK, it's only one sentence, but it's a start. This month the highly respected Observer Food Monthly celebrates 20 years of its favourite columnist, Nigel Slater. Readers of the magazine, yours truly amongst them, have picked out their favourite of Nigel's recipes for the delectation of the masses.

My favourite recipe is 'a mild and fruity curry of salmon'. By way of a recipe headnote they have included my words "tamarind doesn't taste quite like anything else, so this recipe is an easy route to an unusual flavour". Harsh editing. But the tamarind thing is basically the crux of it. Here's the rest of what I had to say:

Thoroughly absorbed into our everyday repertoire! Most of the ingredients are items I keep stocked in the cupboard and freezer. Tamarind doesn't taste quite like anything else; it is a very easy route to an unusual flavour (fruity is the perfect word, well done Nigel). And no offence to Nigel, but I do think the roasted squash makes an excellent addition. Its texture perfectly complements that of the salmon.

Tamarind is a large, pod-like fruit with edible flesh. Though the tamarind tree is native to tropical Africa, the flavour can be found in cuisines all over the world, including Indian, South-East Asian, Mexican and the Caribbean. You may recognise it as the kick in Worcestershire sauce. Over here you can find tamarind in the shops (including supermarkets) as a little pot of thick, black, sour paste, which goes a long way and keeps for ever.

So, to the store cupboard! I buy cumin and coriander seeds in huge bags from my Asian grocer - if you like curry then this is much better value than those fiddly little jars. At Christmas last year I bought a whole salmon (on seasonal offer) and stored it as steaks in my freezer* - again, buying in bulk is cheaper, and they're in the freezer when you fancy them. Tinned tomatoes work just as well as fresh here (just omit the water). A dollop of natural yoghurt sets it all off nicely, especially if you got over-enthusiastic with the chillies.

Nigel Slater's opinion is that recipes should be used as inspiration, not a set of rigid rules (which is probably why I like his writing so much), and so I think he would approve of my additions. As I mentioned, roasted squash is excellent here. Chunk it, slather it in oil and salt and roast until tender (20 mins or so), then add with the coconut milk. Aubergine also makes a wonderful addition - ideas on cooking methods to follow shortly... However you make it, this is a recipe you'll really want in your repertoire.

* An aside, which I do need to get off my chest. I used the head and tail bits to make a stock. Apparently, fish eyes make a stock bitter. I have never squirmed so much as when I had to gauge out those eyes - you really have to rip them out - I had to hold it down in the sink such that I couldn't see. I thought I was fine with bits of dead animal, but this really was my limit.

Welcome to My Kitchen - A Note on Degorging

Who salts aubergines?

Sometimes I do. It's one of those things that you pick up from some reputable but forgettable source - and carry on doing because it seems like 'the right way'. I'm not sure where I came across this advice, but for a long time I diligently did it, just because.

"Degorging" is in fact meant to extract the bitter juices from the fruit. I've never tasted a bitter aubergine in my life, and that's because bitterness has been bred out of modern varieties available in the UK. It also stops them soaking up excess oil when you cook them. Why would you want to do that? They are so much more delicious when succulent with oil and juices, when they melt on the tongue like butter. I have come to this conclusion via a combination sheer laziness and casual observation. So my informed answer is: 'usually I don't bother'.

Everybody has to eat, and most people have to cook. Your repertoire of dishes, your unique culinary personality, is of course influenced by taste, but also by experience - what you ate as a child, what you learned to prepare as a sticky-fingered toddler or ravenous adolescent, what somebody kind cooked you when you felt ill, the people you've shared kitchens with, places you've visited, restaurants you've been to on dates and for birthdays, which shops you live near, the friendliness of the soil in your garden - the list is infinite. What do you cook when you're tired and hungry and wish to bumble around the kitchen with your eyes half shut? For me it's creamy macaroni cheese with leeks and bacon and the tang of mustard and really mature cheddar. Preparing and eating this dish is for me the kitchen equivalent (and is indeed usually accompanied by) donning pyjamas and slippers at the end of a hard day. Your dish might be different, but the effect the same.

And so to the motivation for this blog. Eating is one of the greatest joys in life! Ergo, improving your cooking skills will make you happier! Kitchen rituals and heritage should be cherished - comforting and nourishing as they are. They are at their finest when shared and passed on. But there's also value in rejecting dogma, finding new ways, expanding your repertoire. Explore new ingredients, try new recipes. Cultivate your own kitchen lore. Taste memory is extraordinarily powerful. Fuel your appetite for new experiences - ask yourself: "what food will take me back to now?"