One small step..........

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Hen-Gen

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.............for mankind, one giant leap for me!

All my adult life a guilty pleasure fo me has been roast parsnips. I could live on them (though in reality I’d die of vitamin deficiency). By contrast I regard aubergines as the spawn of Satan. So does anyone have a recipe that makes them edible? Even if someone dishes up mousaka I surreptitiously edge them to the side of my plate.

(Once went on a pub lunch where the starter was pear and parsnip soup. Possibly the best thing I’ve ever eaten).
 
I'm with you, aubergine is horrible. I wouldn't eat Baba Ghanoush if you paid me.
 
Hmm. Ummmm.
Nope! Can't think of a single thing to do with aubergines to make them tasty! But roast parsnips now! Oh, yes! Only thing better is roast parsnips, carrots and mushrooms!
 
I must be an oddball. I love aubergines. Can't think of anything to disguise the slug like appearance, but trying to make them taste different defeats the object. Ha ha. Roast parsnips are yummy, but like cauli they have that awful side effect ??
 
LadyA said:
What awful side effect, Tweetypie? Do tell! :mrgreen: :mrgreen:
Click to expand...

:lol: :lol: :lol: I'm sure you know, LadyA, although being a Lady, it's probably a small fluff for you :lol: :lol: :lol:
 
My favorite aubergine recipe is Imam Bayildi (the Imam fainted) which, roughly, is:
a couple of large aubergines quartered lengthwise but still attached at the stalk. Cutting four strips of skin off lengthwise before quartering is a nice but probably unnecessary touch.
a sauce of onions (halves sliced but not chopped) and tomatoes with just a bit of chopped chili
a whole chili in the middle of each aubergine (those large ones that are only moderately hot)
pour the sauce over the aubergines in a baking dish and then pour on more olive oil than seems sensible - then pour on some more
cover and bake in the oven for about an hour then remove and mush just a bit with a fork - back in the oven for about another 20 mins
Its actually meant to be eaten cold with nice bread to mop up the oil but also good hot with rice.

Aubergine and potato bake is very similar but the aubergines and potatoes are sliced and stacked (like toppled books) alternately in the backing tray. Perhaps not quite so heavy with the oil (oh why not), a pinch of pepper/salt and a little sugar to sweeten. I take the seeds out the chilies and chop them for this one.
Sauce over the top and into the oven as before but a layer of chopped coriander is nice over the top for the last 5 mins.

I like aubergine very much!

Apparently, the Imam fainted either because it was so tasty or when he realised how much of his store of olive oil had been used up!
 
You beat me to it Rick although my recipe is a bit different.

I cut the aubergine in half lengthwise, scoop out (and keep) the pulp. Sprinkle with salt and leave to stand for half an hour to draw some of the liquid out, rinse and pat dry. (I don't always bother). Meanwhile chop 4 onions, 4 cloves garlic, 6 tomatoes and the aubergine pulp and mix with one tablespoon chopped parsley, one teaspoon of sugar and season with salt an pepper. Lightly fry the aubergines in hot olive oil and put on crumpled kitchen paper to drain. Fry the stuffing mix lightly in olive oil. Put the aubergine halves in a backing tray, pile the stuffing mix in and cook in a moderate oven for 30 -45 minutes.

If this is too oily for you the stuffing can be cooked in a little water and don't' fry the aubergine shells. The original recipe leaves the aubergines whole, cutting a slit in the side and removing the pulp but that's too much fiddling about for me!

The secret with a lot of Greek dishes, especially if served hot, is to let the oil sink back into the dish. For example if you take Moussaka straight from the oven o the table it will invariably have a layer of oil on the top (and be too hot to eat anyway). Leave it to stand for maybe 10 minutes (much like letting a joint of meat "rest" before carving and you will see that the oil disappears and it surprisingly doesn't make the dish oily.
 
My favourite aubergine recipe.

1) Pour a glass of red wine
2) Chop the flesh of the aubergine and sweat with a chopped onion in ghee.
3) Add minced garlic and cumin and coriander.
4) Swig down the red wine, scrape the aubergine gunk into the kitchen bin and go down the chip shop. ☹️??

Must admit though, I don’t mind Brinjal Bhaji.
 
Don't like aubergines myself, but I remember my mum having them in a dish in Greece and saying " I didn't like it as it had aborigines in it"
 
I'll eat most things, but NOT;
- coriander
- chillies
- more than a small taste of garlic
- more than small contribution of aubergine.

I LOVE parsnips, roasted, in soup, sliced in stirfries, any way really - but my husband won't eat them so usually I don't include them when just cooking for two.
 
Think we can safely say you're not one for going to an Indian restaurant then marigold.
All those things are in abundance.
 
I love Chinese, but the OH she loathes it, but loves parsnips, roasted, baked, soup. I hate them.Tomato's can't stand them either
 
The whole question of personal preference interests me bigyetiman. Since, to use you as an example, Chinese food and tomatoes are completely harmless how do these preferences develop. It’s not childhood experiences because until I was about 15 I ate nothing but potatoes and peas in the vegetable line. Now except for egg plants I love everything. Even sprouts which I detested as a kid.
It makes me wonder whether some inherited and unique characteristic facet of our physiology makes foods that would be deleterious to us at an individual level taste unattractive. Clearly we do vary at an individual level, asparagus and the subsequent odour of urine being an example. With this one the split is about 60/40.
Now I can bore the paint off the walls with my views on evolutionary biology. Perhaps I should have taken up stamp collecting or football instead.
Certainly we have, or seem to, an antipathy to purple foods. Is this why in chemists shops toxic chemicals used to come in purple glass bottles. Is it what warns us off purple berries many of which are highly toxic and as fruit eating monkeys would have been quite seductive. Which brings me back to aubergines.
Most people find the smell of decomposing meat repulsive. Yet presumably blow flies and vultures don’t. Animals are usually repelled by the smell of their own species dung. And yet my dog loves eating/rolling in many other species faeces. One can deduce reasons for this connected with cross infection or in the case of my dog perhaps concealing it’s odour from prey species but how does such learnt behaviour become embedded at the genetic level? Epigenetics?
Told you I could bore for Britain!
There was an experiment where mice were periodically exposed to the smell of cherry blossom and at the same time given an electric shock. Unsurprisingly they soon learnt to avoid this smell. And yet more surprisingly their offspring also had this aversion.
Planarian worms which have an aversion to light were given electric shocks every time they crawled towards darkness. They soon learnt to crawl towards the light. And yet if they were killed and fed to other planarian worms then these too crawled towards the light.
There’s a lot to be discovered!
 
Evolution is blind to the future. One day a primitive dog had the crazy notion to roll in fox poo (genetic weirdo!) But it worked in some way and it was a little more successful for being a complete loon. The offspring feel an odd compulsion to do the same etc. etc.
What I really don't get is why fox poo? Surely thats like a hunter dressing in Christmas lights!

... I find this subject fascinating, not boring at all Hen Gen. But it does go on and on and on ...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thinking,_Fast_and_Slow
We share an advanced System 2 with Corvids and several of the higher Mammals at least. In terms of conscious thought and why an animal does a thing, it gets us tied in knots because System 2 can post-rationalise decisions that were initially (and very quickly) made by System 1.
 
Hen-Gen's recipe reminds me of the first recipe in Paul Harris' book "Cooking with beer". It says
"Take one can of lager. Open lager and pour down sink" :-)
Mind you, the book was published by CAMRA... ;-)
 
In the spirit of science, may I offer this link which attempts to explain why most people find the smell of their own emissions quite attractive, whilst being disgusted by those originating from others. If you're a bit squeamish you might not want to click this link, but I thought it was an interesting contribution to the discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPC7e8W8u18#action=share
 
Marigold said:
In the spirit of science, may I offer this link which attempts to explain why most people find the smell of their own emissions quite attractive, whilst being disgusted by those originating from others. If you're a bit squeamish you might not want to click this link, but I thought it was an interesting contribution to the discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPC7e8W8u18#action=share
Click to expand...
Brilliant Marigold. Educative and funny! ?
 
Hen-Gen said:
Marigold said:
In the spirit of science, may I offer this link which attempts to explain why most people find the smell of their own emissions quite attractive, whilst being disgusted by those originating from others. If you're a bit squeamish you might not want to click this link, but I thought it was an interesting contribution to the discussion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BPC7e8W8u18#action=share
Click to expand...
Brilliant Marigold. Educative and funny! ?
Click to expand...

I thought so too, but they overlooked one point. One of my aunts told me I'd know when I'd met the right man because even his farts would smell lovely! No comment :roll:
 
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