Another day of vile weather (PLEASE. MAKE. IT. STOP.) left me with nowhere to go, and nothing more interesting to do than working on my jigsaw and reading Ben Macintyre’s A Spy Among Friends on my Kindle. Which I’d happily have alternated all day, but sadly there were several less interesting, but more urgent, things on my to-do list. One of these was making an aubergine loaf, and as it was raining so hard that I had no intention of setting foot out of doors, and there was nothing even vaguely photogenic to be seen out of the window, I thought I’d better make a virtue of necessity and create an image out of the ingredients.
I’m aware of having mentioned this dish several times over the years, but as far as I can make out I’ve never posted the recipe, so I’ll do that now. Where it originally came from I don’t know, but it came to me from my lovely sister-in-law more than thirty five years ago, and I’ve been making it regularly ever since. Over the decades I’ve tweaked the recipe, substituting fresh wholemeal breadcrumbs for the originally requested stale white ones, decreasing an eye-watering quantity of olive oil to the point at which it no longer leaks out of the loaf when I turn it out, and increasing the amounts of both garlic and herbs. Most recently I’ve taken to simply chopping up and boiling the aubergines in their peel, having discovered by accident on a day when I was being more than usually dozy and forgot to peel them that this doesn’t in any way spoil the flavour. I’ve done nothing to the quantity of cheese required though: this is in effect a cheese delivery system, and none the worse for that.
J’s aubergine loaf
3 aubergines (approx 900g)
4 large eggs
200g wholemeal breadcrumbs
300g grated Cheddar cheese
1 tsp dried basil
salt and black pepper
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
80ml olive oil
pinch dried oregano
Preheat the oven to 190°C fan (or 210° non-fan).
Either peel the aubergines or not, cut in chunks and boil for 10 minutes in salted water. The flavour is less intense if they’re peeled.
Drain, refresh in cold water, then drain again and squeeze out any excess water.
Squizz briefly in the food processor.
Season the eggs and beat well. Add the breadcrumbs, most of the cheese, and basil. Mix in the aubergine, garlic and olive oil.
Line a 1kg loaf tin with silicone paper, and pour in the mixture. Sprinkle the reserved cheese and oregano on the top.
Bake for 35-40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly before turning out.
And that’s it. It really couldn’t be more simple – especially if, instead of a traditional, lined loaf tin, you use a silicone one. The Lakeland version has the extra advantage of being bigger than the usual 1kg metal tin, which is helpful because if your aubergines are larger than normal and you increase the rest of the recipe proportionately, the quantity of mixture generated can overflow a smaller tin.
R: L2, C4, D19.
