We had Burnt Aubergine Chilli tonight. It’s not the first time that the word “burnt” has entered the conversation about my cookery, along with its synonyms – charred, scorched, over-cooked, cremated, incinerated and inedible. It is, however, the first time I’ve it’s been a deliberate choice.
The recipe is ‘low fat and four of your five a day,’ according to the website.
I didn’t quite follow the recipe – life is too short to cut carrots into tiny cubes, but I did use tinned tomatoes, red kidney beans, green lentils, onions and aubergine. As I recall, you can only count the beans and lentils as one portion, and it’s possible we have to discount the onions as not being a full portion. Call it 3½ portions, even without the carrots.
It wasn’t great, but to be fair to the recipe, I used it as a guide rather than a recipe.
I missed out the carrots because I’m lazy and some of the soy sauce because I’m an idiot (I forgot that a tablespoon is the really big one, not a dessert spoon – I’m always doing that). To be honest, I’m not sure that missing out a few mls of soy sauce was the main problem.
I also missed out the red lentils (replaced with extra green ones), the coriander and the cinnamon because I didn’t have any. (It turns out we did actually have cinnamon but ‘men can never see anything even when it’s straight in front of them’). Again, I’m not sure that missing out a few sprinkles of spice was a major problem.
The major problem may well have been that I was hungry, so I omitted the 800 ml of stock and most of the cooking time. I was using tinned lentils so it wasn’t as if they needed a lot of cooking. This may have deprived us of a great deal of flavour and texture. Or it may just have meant we ate sooner.
It was, as I say, not great. The spicing was quite hot, though acceptable by our modest standards, and the flavour was not as good as I would have liked. On the other hand, it wasn’t bad either. In truth, I’ve never really rated vegetarian chilli so I wasn’t particularly disappointed by the result. I will try it again and see how it goes.
Burnt Aubergine Chilli with brown rice
The scorching of the aubergine skin, done using the garden flamethrower, did not produce the smoky flavour I was hoping for, though the discarded skin smelt reasonably smoky as it went into the compost. I was hoping for something spectacular for the photographs, but the camera seemed to filter the flame out.
Another problem is the chocolate. I used some of Julia’s hoard of 80% dark chocolate, thinking that if something is doing it is worth doing properly. It didn’t add anything to the taste, but when I mentioned it, it did add something to the conversation. I won’t go over the entire discussion, but Julia isn’t happy about the idea of me throwing her decent chocolate into a chilli. From the note of indignation in her voice you’d have thought I’d been using puppies, not chocolate.
I love how your personality comes through in your writing. Great job!
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Hilarious!
It wasn’t quite as funny when you have to eat it. 🙂 But thank you for the comment. 🙂
I love your experiments in food.
🙂 Cauliflower steaks with marmalade and caraway glade would be an “experiment”, following a chilli recipe badly is more of a “tragedy”.
It looked really good in the pan – what a pity you cocked it up 🙂
What is life, but a succession of disappointments? I will learn from it and come back stronger. Or I will cook curry. I prefer curry.
🙂
🙂
Next time I am sure it will come out better, Quercus. I have eaten many of Rick’s experiments here, some better than others, although I would say he is an excellent cook overall. Many years back I did eat something he made with rice, onion and turmeric, that had these little black things in it. I just thought it was a new kind of spice. After I had eaten it, I asked him what the little black objects were. He said they were insects that had gotten into the rice, some kind of weevil. He hadn’t wanted to waste the rice. I looked at him and said I was the only person he would ever know in his entire life he could serve bug butts to and get away with it. Warning – do not try this at home on Julia. 🙂
🙂 🙂 🙂
That is one of those stories that is both hilarious and horrible. It is certainly not something I would dare to do.
I’ll rephrase that. It’s not something I’d admit to. I would tell her it was wild rice.
I did once eat flying ants when a swarm flew into my kitchen, but that was just me, I wasn’t cooking for anyone else.
The flying ants sound like a story worthy of a post. 🙂
So was the wood louse in the baked beans, though I’m not sure the world is ready for them.
We call them sowbugs here, and there is even a festival named for them.
http://www.sowbugroundup.org/
No, I would say readers aren’t ready for one of those in baked beans. 🙂
🙂 I wasn’t either.
I got literal shivers over this conversation. : )
It’s probably for the best if you don’t click this link. (Stands back and waits to see what happens…)
https://tinyurl.com/y8msse3m
Many years back I came across a recipe for fried earthworms (never tried it, don’t intend to). One lets the worms tunnel and eat their way through a bowl of bread dough to clean them out, then they are washed, breaded and fried.
Interesting, I have always wondered about the soil since learning that people ate them. It’s similar to the process used when foraging for snails, though that is to ensure they don’t contain anything harmful to humans.
I will, I think, give them a miss, but thanks for the information. 🙂
Of course, I had to click. That’s amazing. Bugs packaged like granola bars.
I thought you would! We had a few bits and pieces like that when we were doing foraging on the farm. The group loved mealworms in chocolate. You can actually buy ground bugs as flour, though we left the farm before I got round to using any.
In my orienteering days, we used to buy Wilf’s vegetarian chilli from his van at events. It was delicious so it is possible to make really good vegetarian chilli. Mind you, he was making in quantity so that probably helped.
He was probably a better cook than me too. It makes a difference. 🙂
Oh, Quercus! Haven’t you been married long enough to know you never raid your wife’s stash of chocolate without asking her first? 😉
I thought would appreciate the effort I made to produce a new and interesting dish. I have been married long enough to know that was not likely. Pah!
Here is is Rick’s private stash of chocolate. He keeps it in the wine cellar. 🙂
That sounds like a good place to keep it. Julia keeps hers in the fridge, which is far too close to the cooker. 🙂
Good to read a ‘recipe’ post which is honest about the tussle to produce an edible dish. Sounds like an ingenious way to chat-grill the aubergine.
Ingenious, but ineffective. I may try it under the grill next time, or wait until we have a barbecue.
😎
I’m going to burn a red pepper tomorrow. Practice makes perfect.
Good luck!
New plan – it’s soup and mackerel pate for lunch – red pepper tomorrow. So much to eat, so little time.
Oh yes 😊
🙂