Sweet and Sour Aubergines

This is the last Madhur Jaffrey recipe I'll be cooking for the I Heart Cooking Club challenge. For the next few weeks we'll be on holiday in Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam and I won't be posting any recipes from there.
It's a shame I won't be able to complete the last three challenges. It has been fun to try out some of Madhur's recipes, and putting her cookbooks, which had been lingering on my shelf for too long to good use. I found her to be an inspirational cook.
I also learnt a lot by reading the recipes other cooks chose. I have followed their journeys with interest, and appreciated their comments.Many thanks to the team who organised it.

The Sweet and Sour Aubergines came from Food for Family and Friends. I served it at a barbecue where it sat quite comfortably next to some tabouli, large pesto and mascarpone filled pasta shells with  home -made tomato sauce and a mesclun, avocado and cucumber salad. I hadn't previously thought of marrying an Indian recipe with Meditteranean ones but the sweet and sour flavours, and cumin resonated well with them.

It was a little too sweet for me, so next time I would add a little more lemon juice or halve the sugar. It also looked a little dry when I lifted the tin foil ( I had added the lesser amount of olive oil)   so I sprinkled on a little more olive oil and scattered some chopped coriander on top.

Since discovering Hot Samoan Boys chilli sauce I don't bother to buy cayenne pepper. It comes in a sizeable bottle , lasts or ages and I often use it to add a bit of heat to my recipes. In this case a few drops were enough.

It wasn't my favourite Madhur Jaffrey out of all the ones I have cooked for I Heart, but it's a useful one. The tinfoil kept it from burning so I could leave it to look after itself while it was in the oven. And it was perfectly happy to be served warm, or at room temperature. I would be happy to cook it again.

 Here is her slightly amended recipe

Ingredients:

1 1/4 kg of aubergines
6-8 tablespoons of vegetable oil
Freshly ground black pepper and salt
2 tablespoons of sugar
3 tablespoons of lemon juice
1 teaspoon of roasted cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon of cayenne pepper/ a few drops of Hot Samoan Boys chili sauce
Some chopped fresh coriander.

Method

Brush aubergine slices with oil. Fry in a non  stick frypan in a single layer till golden brown on  both sides
Preheat the oven to 180C
Mix together the lemon juice, sugar, cumin, black pepper and a few drops of
Hot Samoan Boys Chilli sauce or cayenne pepper.
Arrange the aubergine slices in  slightly overlapping rows in a dish.
Dribble a third of the lemon juice mixture over the top. Repeat this twice, giving three layers in all, each time coating with the lemon mixture.
Cover the baking dish with foil and then bake in the preheated oven for 20 minutes.
Uncover and sprinkle with freshly chopped coriander leaves just before serving.