French Provincial Cooking - Elizabeth David [141]
Heat the olive oil in a wide, heavy and shallow pan. Put in the onions and, when they are soft—but not brown—add the aubergines, courgettes, peppers and chopped garlic. Cover the pan and cook gently for 40 minutes. Now add the chopped and skinned tomatoes, a teaspoon or so of pounded coriander seeds, and taste for seasoning. Cook another 30 minutes until all the vegetables are quite soft, but not too mushy. Stir in the basil or parsley and serve hot as a separate dish, or cold as an hors-d’œuvre. Ratatouille is a dish which takes kindly to reheating but, of course, it can be made in smaller quantities. Also, it can perfectly well accompany a joint of lamb or veal, grilled chops, steaks or sausages.
AUBERGINES EN PERSILLADE
AUBERGINES WITH PARSLEY AND GARLIC
Slice the unpeeled aubergines thinly and in bias cut rounds. Salt them and leave in a colander for an hour. Dry very carefully. Fry them slowly in plenty of hot, but not too hot, oil, turning them over from time to time. When quite soft take them out; drain them; put them in a warmed dish. In the remaining oil fry for a few seconds only a handful of parsley chopped with 2 cloves of garlic; pour this over the aubergines and serve hot. If other herbs such as marjoram or basil are available add some to the parsley mixture.
AUBERGINES À LA TURQUE
AUBERGINES BAKED WITH ONIONS AND TOMATOES
Since aubergines were originally an import to southern France from the Orient, it is natural that the French should have accepted some of the methods of cooking them in their native countries. The two following recipes are examples of such dishes.
Cut three unpeeled aubergines—the round variety are best for this dish—into slices about inch thick. Salt and leave to drain in a colander for an hour. Shake them dry in a cloth; fry them in moderately hot olive oil until both sides are golden. Remove them from the pan, and in the same oil cook 3 thinly-sliced large onions until soft and pale yellow; add 3 skinned and chopped tomatoes and a chopped clove or two of garlic. Season with salt, a teaspoonful of ground allspice and a pinch of sugar. Cook until the sauce is thick. Lay the aubergine slices on an oiled baking sheet, or shallow dish, put a tablespoon of the sauce on each slice, bake in a moderate oven for 40 to 50 minutes.
A dish which could well precede the roast as an hors-d’œuvre (it is excellent cold) or go with it, hot, as a vegetable.
AUBERGINES IMAM BAYELDI
AUBERGINES STEWED IN OIL WITH TOMATOES AND SPICES
This is a French version given in the Larousse Gastronomique, and probably worked out by Prosper Montagné, of the famous Turkish dish for which there are many recipes, and which gets its name (which means ‘satiated or exhausted Imam’) from the legend that the first time it was made and put before a certain Imam, he over-indulged in the rich and aromatic confection.
4 aubergines, 4 tomatoes, 4 medium-sized onions, about 2 oz. currants, salt, pepper, ground allspice, parsley, olive oil, a clove of garlic, a bay leaf.
Remove the stalks from the aubergines, but do not skin them. Make four or five lengthways incisions in each aubergine, from end to end, but without cutting right through. Salt them and leave to drain while the stuffing is prepared.
Fry the finely chopped onions in olive oil until they turn colour. Add the skinned and chopped tomatoes, salt, pepper, about half a teaspoon of allspice and a tablespoon of chopped parsley. Fry gently until the tomatoes and onions are amalgamated almost into a purée. Add the currants which have been previously soaked a few minutes in water. Cook 2 or 3 more minutes, until the oil is all absorbed and the mixture fairly dry. Leave to cool a little and then, with a small spoon, stuff the mixture into the slits in the aubergines, putting in as much as they will hold. Put them in a fireproof dish in which they will fit comfortably and pour olive oil over them to come half-way up. Add a clove of garlic and a bayleaf.
Cover the pan and cook very slowly either