Spicy Mince on Aubergine Slices

This spin on the ubiquitous "mince on toast" has become a favourite of mine ever since I tried something similar in a local cafe. A slice of aubergine (or eggplant if you must) replaces the carbs, making it a delicious but light dish.

I did my own take on it back home and it's now a regular, simple supper, even winning over the "not too fond of aubergine" person (too bad if he's just being polite!).

Use your favourite bolognese or savoury mince sauce. For two people, one large aubergine should be enough and there may even be sauce left over for another mince dish - just depends on your appetite.

Here's my simple (but very adaptable) bolognese sauce.

Bolognese Sauce

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
500g premium beef mince
1 tin (400g) crushed Italian tomatoes
1/4 cup tomato paste
1/4 cup water
1 beef stock cube, crumbled
a few drops of Lea & Perrins worcestershire sauce (optional)
1/2 tsp each of dried basil, oregano & sugar
salt & pepper

Optional but recommended: add fresh chopped herbs e.g. basil, oregano, thyme once cooked. Coriander is nice if you are using the sauce for spicy dishes.

Heat oil in a medium-large saucepan. Add onion and garlic and cook gently, stirring constantly, for 5 minutes until onion is translucent and soft.

Turn heat up, add mince, stir constantly over high heat, breaking it up as you go. Cook until browned.

Add tin of tomatoes, tomato paste, water, stock cube (crumble into sauce), dried herbs, sugar, salt and pepper and simmer over a low heat for 20-30 minutes (add a little water if it begins to dry).

Turn off the heat and stir in fresh herbs, if using.

Sauce can be chilled in fridge or frozen.

To make the Spicy Mince on Aubergine Slices (use a ridged grill pan or outdoor barbecue).

This isn't so much a recipe, more a few ideas on how to put together.

One large aubergine (for two serves)

Olive oil

pre-made bolognese sauce (see above)

fresh chilli or hot chilli or harissa paste

grated cheddar cheese or mozzarella

fresh, chopped coriander leaves

sour cream

Spice up the bolognese sauce by adding a finely diced fresh chilli pepper or hot chilli sauce or 1/2 to 1 teaspoon of harissa paste or any other little wonder sauce (check the heat is to your taste).

Preheat the grill and the barbecue (if you are using a barbecue for aubergines).

Place the ridged grill pan on a medium heat whilst you prepare the aubergine. Rinse the aubergine and dry. Remove top and bottom. Cut into 1cm thick long slices (see photo above). If you leave the curvy bits on it makes it difficult to cook evenly so trim to make both sides flat.

Brush some olive oil on one side of aubergine slices and place oil side down on pre-heated ridged grill pan. Cook until brown on underside. Brush more oil on top side then turn over slices and cook until browned and tender. Transfer to a warm plate. If aubergine slices are too oily, place them on paper towels.

Put cooked aubergine slices on a baking tray. Spoon spicy mince evenly over top.  Grate some cheddar cheese (or mozzarella) on top.  Place under the baking tray under the grill until the cheese has melted.

Transfer to warm serving plates and top with a spoonful of sour cream, a drizzle of hot chilli sauce and a sprinkle of freshly chopped coriander leaves.

Serve on its own or with a salad.

Gazpacho

I’ll be the first to admit that this is cheat’s gazpacho made with tinned tomatoes not fresh, but when your own crop is nowhere near ripe and store bought are flavourless then I really am not going to apologize. If you’ve got tasty, ripe, fresh tomatoes go for it.

I’ve made this twice so far this summer.  First was Christmas Eve in Taranaki when I’d been rostered on for dinner on Day One.  Arriving at 3.30pm after a long drive from Auckland, I set about making it (after first refreshing with a cup of tea and slice of Christmas cake). I was under a bit of time pressure to chill the gazpacho down (yes, serves me right for using a cooked tomato sauce instead of fresh tomatoes!). In the end I poured small amounts to just cover the bottom of several ice cream containers and placed them in any fridge or freezer I could find and thankfully managed to get the soup to the desired chilled temperature. 

Having learnt my lesson, the second time was far easier as I made the entire soup dish at home, froze it and took it down with us early morning for a weekend in Tairua.  It was left to defrost during the day (out of the fridge), and reached perfect chill temperature just in time for dinner.  From there it was an easy assemble into glasses (I like to take these with me as I can’t always guarantee I’m going to find the right vessels at the holiday home).  It also won a gold star from me as the easiest, no-stress dish I’ve ever had to present at a shared meal.

The recipe is my adaptation and combination of two Jamie Oliver recipes – his Spanish Gazpacho from Jamie Does and his simple but wonderful tomato sauce from The Naked Chef, which I use for just about everything – pasta, pizza base, shakshouka et al.

For the gazpacho, I cook the sauce first and then, once chilled, add the additional elements for the soup.

It’s the perfect little starter for an outdoor evening meal or serve it at lunch with breads, cheese and antipasto platters.

Gazpacho

Basic sauce

1 tbsp olive oil

1 large clove garlic, crushed

½ - 1 red chilli, chopped & seeds removed or 1 small dried chilli, crumbled

2 tsp dried oregano

2 tins whole Italian cherry tomatoes (or Italian tomatoes)

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp good quality balsamic vinegar

a handful of fresh basil or marjoram or Italian parsley (or combo of two)

salt & freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil

Additional elements to make the Gazpacho 

¼ of a day-old ciabatta loaf (250g)

1 tsp harissa (I use Greg Malouf Red Harissa)

¾ Lebanese cucumber, peeled, roughly chopped

1 red or yellow pepper, deseeded & roughly chopped

splash olive oil

splash balsamic vinegar

To serve

finely chopped red pepper

fresh herbs

extra virgin olive oil

good balsamic vinegar

sea salt & freshly ground pepper

For the tomato sauce

In a thick-bottomed pan, gently fry the garlic with the olive oil, then add the chilli, oregano and tomatoes.  Mix gently, being careful not to break the whole tomatoes (according to Jamie, this will make the sauce slightly bitter).

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 1 hour.  Stir in the balsamic vinegar and sugar.  If you’re using as a sauce only, either chop or use a potato masher and crush the tomatoes into the sauce. Add the herbs.  Season well to taste and stir in the extra virgin olive oil.

Use as a sauce or leave to cool for the following Gazpacho recipe.

For the gazpacho

Slice the bread and remove crusts.  Place in a bowl with 100ml cold water for about 5-10 minutes.

Place cooled tomato sauce mix in liquidizer or food processor and whiz.  Squeeze the water from the bread and add the bread, pepper, cucumber, harissa and a splash of cold water to the bowl and whiz again.  The colour will change to a more pinky-orange because of the bread.  Add more water if required to get to the right “soup” consistency.  Adjust seasoning to taste.  Add more sugar if necessary. Either place in a covered jug in the fridge to chill or freeze. 

Serve at chilled temperature in soup bowls or glass (I prefer glasses). 

Drizzle the top with good quality extra virgin olive oil and balsamic vinegar (or sherry vinegar, if you have it).  Garnish with finely chopped red pepper and finely chopped fresh herbs e.g. basil, thyme, marjoram, Italian parsley.

I offer teaspoons, but it can be either spooned or sipped from the glass.

Herby lemon fish cakes

It’s not very useful when you are writing one post and another one barges ahead on its taste factor alone.  I wasn’t ready for the interruption but I was ready for the bite into a golden crispy coating and the herb and lemony fish mash inside. 

I don’t think I’ve tasted fish cakes as good as these.  What’s more, it was pleasing for a Scot, keen on getting value by using every item purchased, that this recipe emerged from leftovers.  (Years ago, my partner picked a tiny portion of cooked chicken on a small saucer out of the fridge, about to have it in his sandwich.  I stopped him and said it was for dinner. He looked curiously at the mini ration and back at me, waiting for my own version of the loaves and fish miracle.  I made risotto.)

So, leftovers - cue one small snapper fillet, which we thought we’d manage to finish off the night before but caved in after consuming a sizeable serve each. 

The rest of the ingredients were assembled from one lonely kumara, two freshly dug potatoes, the last of the spring onions (supermarket variety) and an opportunity to use the preserved lemons I’d made. 

Luckily there were fresh herbs.  If not, I would not have even started.   Fritters and fish cakes really need herby extras.  Okay, that’s my opinion but it’s served me well, otherwise all you get is bland. Not good.

The sides - a crisp salad and spicy harissa cream - came by way of remnants too. 

All that virtuous reward and a supreme taste.  Thanks to Den who caught the fish and made sure I got some.

Herby lemon fish cakes

Recipe serves 2

1 medium kumara (sweet potato)

2 medium sized potatoes

1 small cooked fish fillet e.g. snapper

2 or 3 spring onions

½ preserved lemon

a small handful of fresh herbs – I used Italian parsley and thyme (dill, chives or coriander would be nice too)

rock salt and pepper

I also used a flavoured salt – lemon & dill

1 egg, lightly beaten

about ½ cup Panko breadcrumbs

To serve

Lemon wedges

Spicy harissa sour cream (see below) or chutney or chilli sauce

Salad

Leaving the skins on, cut the potatoes and kumara into large chunks.  Place in a saucepan of lightly salted water.  Bring the water to the boil and cook kumara and potatoes until tender.  The kumara will cook before the potato so remove tender kumara with a slotted spoon as they are ready.   Leave cooked kumara and potatoes to cool in the bowl.

Once cool, use a knife to remove the skins from the kumara and potatoes and mash well. 

Warm a heavy bottomed frypan and toast the Panko breadcrumbs until golden.  Keep moving them in the pan over a low heat and don’t let them burn.  Should only take a few minutes. Remove to a plate to cool.

With a fork, flake the cooked fish into the kumara and potatoes (I used my fingers as the fish had some bones and I could detect them before someone else did!).

Rinse the preserved lemon half under a cold tap, removing the flesh as you go, so you are left with just the yellow skin.

Pick the leaves from the fresh thyme, discarding the stalks.  You can leave the Italian parsley stalks intact as they are tender and slim so can be chopped with the herbs.

Slice the preserved lemon and the spring onions.  Add both to the herbs and using a knife or a mezza luna, chop them all together finely, then season with rock salt and ground pepper.  I added some lemon and dill flavoured salt. Add to the fish cake mix and combine all the ingredients evenly.

Shape the mix into balls (I used an ice cream scoop to make six even sized ones) and flatten slightly.  Dip each side into the beaten egg and then coat all over with the Panko breadcrumbs. 

Heat some oil in a frying pan and cook over a medium heat for a few minutes each side until the fish cakes are golden crispy on the outside and heated through.  Remove to a paper towel then transfer to a heated serving dish.

Dish up the fish cakes with lemon wedges, a light salad (I used baby greens, matchstick apple and cucumber, and papery slices of red onion, dressed simply with local olive oil and lemon juice) and the spicy harissa cream.

The fish cakes would also be good with a chili sauce or chutney.

Spicy harissa cream

This was simply leftover sour cream (about a third - 50g - of a small tub), a ¼ tsp harissa paste (taste as you go, some are more spicy than others, I used my favourite, Malouf ‘s Spice Mezza) and a splash of lemon juice, whipped smoothly together with a teaspoon.