There is invariably an aubergine dish on the table at Christmas. Primarily for those who don’t want to eat meat, but also for anyone who just fancies tucking in. Generally the aubergine is seasoned with rosemary or thyme, the sort of herbs that survive a good roasting. I avoid the kneejerk spices associated with aubergine recipes – cinnamon and cumin and allspice – because the season’s cooking is awash with spices. There are half a dozen in the Christmas pudding alone.
I have grilled aubergines and marinated them in olive oil, chopped garlic and lemon juice and served with jagged pieces of aged feta. On another occasion I fried long thin slices in a little flour to give a crisp tempura-like crust and offered them with a salsa of pomegranate seeds and mint. There have been simple aubergine fritters and, once, a ridiculously complicated galette. But this year I’m letting the fruit speak for itself, with just a few herbs and a handful of hazelnuts for a bit of textural contrast.
While the oven was on I slid an earthenware dish of figs in to bake and then a batch of crumbly pistachio cookies to go with their glowing, garnet red flesh.
Aubergine with rosemary and hazelnuts
I have stuffed aubergines with everything from cumin-scented minced lamb to a paprika-red chickpea and tomato stew. But I like them best when their silky, olive-oil drenched flesh is removed from its skin, seasoned, mashed and returned to the empty shell. We did this recently at home, adding rosemary-spiked baked onions and hazelnuts. It’s the textures that entrance, but also the contrast of crisp nuts and satiny mashed flesh.
Serves 3
aubergines 3, medium
onions 3, medium
garlic 1 head
rosemary 5 sprigs
olive oil 6 tbsp
hazelnuts 75g
parsley leaves a handful
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Cut the aubergines in half lengthways. Peel the onions and cut each into about 8 segments. Put the aubergines, cut side up, in a roasting tin, tuck the onions around them then add the head of garlic. Remove the rosemary needles from their stems and scatter over the aubergines and onions. Pour the olive oil over everything. Bake in the preheated oven for about 45 minutes until the aubergines are golden and the garlic is soft inside its papery skin.
Cut the hazelnuts in half. Remove the aubergines and garlic from the roasting tin, add the nuts to the tin then return to the oven for 10 minutes. Squeeze the soft garlic flesh from its skin into a bowl. Spoon the soft flesh of 3 aubergine halves into the bowl and discard the skins.
Remove the baked onions and hazelnuts and fold them into the aubergine mixture. Check the seasoning, you may need a little salt, stir in the parsley leaves, then pile on top of the 3 reserved aubergines and serve.
Figs with pistachio biscuits
Baked or poached fruits cry out for a crisp accompaniment – a butterscotch-scented ginger snap, perhaps, or a triangle of sugar-dusted shortbread. A box of Belgian wafer biscuits will do for the time-pushed.
Nuts add crispness and you can have fun marrying flavours. Walnut biscuits with poached pears, for instance, or almond cookies for a bowl of baked greengages. It’s been a good autumn for figs and they bake lusciously when surrounded by a glistening pool of Marsala and fruit jelly. I think of them as a perfect partner for pistachios and the deep wine red of the figs alongside the pale green of the nuts is charming.
Enough figs for 4; makes 30 biscuits
For the figs:
figs 8
redcurrant jelly 4 heaped tbsp
red wine or Marsala 250ml
orange 1
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 6. Cut the figs in half lengthways then place, cut side up, in a baking dish. Melt the jelly with the red wine in a pan. Add the grated zest of the orange, pour over the figs and bake for about 30 minutes until tender.
For the biscuits:
butter 250g
soft brown sugar 50g
skinned almonds 65g
maple syrup 50ml
plain flour 250g
pistachios 65g (shelled weight)
To finish:
pistachios 50g (shelled weight)
Set the oven at 160C/gas mark 3. Cut the butter into small pieces and place in the bowl of a food mixer fitted with a flat beater. Add the soft brown sugar and beat until soft. While the butter and sugar cream, lightly toast the skinned almonds in the oven on a baking sheet then, when they are golden, remove from the oven.
Reduce the toasted almonds and the pistachios to fine crumbs in a food processor. When the butter and sugar are soft, beat in the maple syrup, alternating with some of the flour and the ground nuts. Transfer the dough to a board, roll into a fat cylinder and wrap in paper or film then refrigerate for 30 minutes.
Cut the dough in half, then, on a floured board, roll out one half to a rectangle about ½cm thick. Use a biscuit cutter to make roughly 15 biscuits. Place them, with a little room to spread, on parchment-lined baking trays. Now repeat with the second half of the dough.
Roughly chop the reserved pistachios and scatter them over the biscuits, then bake, in batches for 12-15 minutes. They should be a pale golden-brown and a little soft. Remove from the oven, let them settle on their tray for 10 minutes then lift carefully with a palette knife on to a cooling rack. Serve with the baked figs.
Email Nigel at nigel.slater@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @NigelSlater
