Aubergine and Peppers
Aubergine and peppers can offer an excellent combination if the peppers are right. This recipe uses small sweet red and yellow peppers which have been stuffed with feta cheese. It provides a kind of vegetarian moussaka although this recipe doesn't use any form of thickening sauce or custard and so it looks a bit sloppy on the plate. However, with a bit of extra work a suitable sauce could be used. For my own taste I prefer the simplicity of the dish as it stands and apart from keeping the calories down without a bechamel sauce or a savoury custard, it is otherwise a very easy one-pot to prepare.
Ingredients
- 2 aubergines
- 10 small red and yellow sweet peppers
- 200g of feta cheese or similar
- Grated Cheddar Cheese to sprinkle over in two layers (about 50g).
- 5 medium sized tomatoes ( fresh not tinned)
- 2 small red onions
- Some green olives, about 20
- Olive oil
- Some dried methi (fenugreek leaves)
- Some dried chives
- Salt and pepper
Method
Slice the aubergines lengthways , making four strips per aubergine. Slice off the skin of the top and bottom slice and then sprinkle with salt. Leave for about 30 minutes and then dab dry with a clean cloth and flip over to repeat for the other side.
Wash and remove the tops of the peppers and take out the seeds. Depending on the ripeness of the peppers you should also be able to do this by firmly pressing the top of the pepper into the fruit and then pulling out when it breaks off. Don't get to hung up about this, though, a knife and scooping out will do.
Loosely stuff the peppers with some of the feta cheese
Slice the tomatoes and sprinkle with salt and pepper and set aside.
Thinly slice the red onions and set aside.
Once the aubergine's have rested for the hour, pat dry once more and then place a layer in a pot ( I use a tagine pot)
Pre-heat oven for 200C.
Sprinkle half the cheddar cheese over the aubergine and then place half of the onions over the top.
Place all the stuffed peppers as the next layer and infill with olives.
Break up the remaining feta cheese and sprinkle it over the dish.
Make another layer of aubergines and pack any left over down the sides of the dish, cutting up if necessary.
Place the tomatoes across the top of the dish in a layer.
Place the remaining onions over the top of the tomatoes and sprinkle some dried chives and methis over the whole lot. Grate some black pepper over.
Place in top oven of Aga or in pre-heated oven for 30 minutes and then remove, turning the oven down to 180C
Add the remaining grated cheddar and put back in oven for a further 10 minutes.
Serve with fresh bread
Observations
This dish is about as simple as it gets. The methi adds an interesting flavour to the dish. Dried methi can be bought from most Asian food shops. One mistake I made was to slightly burn the onions on the top layer ( as you can see from the image above) so I suggest with hindsight that perhaps the onions could be added after about 15 minutes of cooking.
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