Tapas with aubergine stew

Posted by petra08 on September 22, 2016 · 7 Comments 

A friend of mine just came back from a holiday in Spain. It got me thinking of Spanish food in general and tapas in particular. They have a wonderful dish called Pan con tomato, toasted bread rubbed with garlic and the most gorgeous and ripe tomatoes.

In some restaurants you are simply given the bread and rub your own bread. I always rub my bread and then end up eating the rest of the tomato. They are everything supermarket tomatoes (no offence intended!), are not,red, juicy, perfectly ripe and bursting with flavour.

 

Ever since we talked about Spain I had an urge for tapas. There are no tapas restaurants in this town so I looked in the fridge and decided to make some tapas for dinner. I had some Jamón ibérico and some Jamón serrano  and I thought that was a good start.

 

I bought some prawns with the intention of making gambas pil pil, prawns with garlic cooked in olive oil or butter but ended up getting pre cooked prawns. I did a dipping sauce with extra virgin oil, fresh lemon juice, chilli and crushed garlic. The oil based dressing was cold but just as nice to dip the bread in.

 

I didn’t have any Manchego cheese but sliced some Parmesan cheese instead. I liked the nutty Parmesan flavour with the rest of the dishes.

 

 

I got a lovely, soft ewes cheese from the deli down the road, sadly I can’t remember the name but it was delicious. Perfectly runny and light and had a beautiful orange rind.

 

 

To get that tomato hit I toasted bread and added a tomato cut in half and a garlic clove, also cut in half. The last dish was an aubergine stew. I peeled the prawns and plated up whilst it was cooking and dinner was served in about 30 minutes.

 

Aubergine stew 

preparation time 10 minutes 

cooking time 15-20 minutes 

serves 2-3

Ingredients

• 1 eggplant/aubergine, diced
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 1 onion, peeled and chopped
• 1 tin of canellini beans
• 1 red chilli, sliced
• 2 cloves of garlic, peeled and crushed
• 1 tsp paprika
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• salt and pepper to taste
• olive oil for cooking
• Juice of 1/2 lemon

Heat oil in a frying pan and then add the aubergine. Once they are getting soft add the onion and chilli. Fry until the onions are translucent. Add garlic, paprika, ground coriander, salt and pepper. Stir fry for a couple of minutes and add the tomatoes. Let cook for 10 minutes and taste. The aubergine should be soft but still have a very slight resistance. Add the beans, taste with more salt and pepper if necessary and serve piping hot. Squeeze over the lemon juice just before serving.

 

 

The aubergine stew had a nice tomato flavour with a small gentle hit of chilli and it went nice with the cheeses and the hams.

 

 

It might not have been authentic but it did bring me back to holidays in Spain with minimal cooking. I like the “grazing” way of eating, especially when it has been so hot lately, not that I am complaining it has been an amazing summer.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under Allotment/Veg, Aubergine, Chilli, Garlic, Recipe · Tagged with Aubergine and beans, Aubergine stew, Tapas