The words “ready meals” suffer a bit of a stigma over here as one initially pictures the sad sweating plastic wrapped packets on the supermarket chilled shelves, ready for a nuking in the microwave. But the ready meals I’ve come across in Barcelona were always wonderful – freshly made croquetes, roasted chicken parts and meat stews, cooked legumes, and trays of prepared canalons ready for a cooking in the oven. Needless to say, you can pick all these up and more at one of the many fabulous markets scattered throughout the city. This is what London is missing!
Anyway, what I wanted to really talk about was what I recently encountered on my last trip there – stuffed aubergines. I saw trays of them ready for the oven – halved aubergines (usually the slim kind rather than the large bulbous ones) stuffed with a meat mixture and slathered in a rich bechamel. They looked fantastic and though I never tasted them, I knew I wanted to recreate something like that at home. But aubergines are not the only vegetable that’s filled; if you take a look at Colman Andrew’s fabulous book Catalan Cuisine, he has a whole section on stuffed vegetables.
It turned out to be quite straightforward – all the components can be cooked ahead of time and put together well before they need to be baked. The meaty filling was so flavourful with the onion and tomatoes cooked down until they were melting together in their sofregit; the silky aubergines, though quite lovely by themselves, were really just carriers for the meat! The bechamel was luxuriously rich and I dolloped it on with a generous hand – the recipe below does make quite a lot. The only things I’d change next time is to try the thinner Japanese aubergines and to be more generous with the Parmesan cheese on top!
Catalan-Style Stuffed Aubergines
serves 4 as a main course.
4 small-medium sized aubergines
olive oil
For the filling
2 tbsps olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 medium or 1 large tomato
500 g minced pork
a large pinch of dried thyme
a large pinch freshly ground nutmeg
salt
freshly ground pepper
4 tbsps fresh breadcrumbs
1 egg
For the bechamel
500 mL milk
80g unsalted butter
4 tbsps plain flour
salt
freshly ground pepper
a large pinch of freshly ground nutmeg
freshly grated parmesan cheese
Prepare your aubergines. Cut each in half lengthwise and scoop out the insides leaving at least a centimetre of flesh (I tossed the insides as mine had a lot of seeds). Arrange cut side up on a baking tray and brush liberally with olive oil. Roast in a hot oven until tender and set aside while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Prepare your filling. First we’ll make a sofregit of the onions, garlic and tomatoes. In a frying pan, heat the oil over low heat and add the finely chopped onion. This has to cook until the onions have become soft and golden – this will take at least 15 minutes on a low temperature. When the onions are close to this, you can add the minced garlic and continue cooking until the onions are cooked and the garlic has lost its rawness. In the meantime, prepare your tomatoes – cut each in half around its equator and deseed them. Use your palm to push each cut half against a box grater and grate the tomato pulp, leaving behind the skins. Add this tomato pulp when the onions are golden and continue cooking over low heat until the tomatoes have melted into the onions and its redness is darker. That’s your sofregit. Add the minced pork and fry, stirring frequently so that the pork is crumbly, until the pork is all cooked (about 10 minutes). Add the thyme and nutmeg and season well with salt and pepper. Stir again and then turn off the heat. In a bowl, beat the egg and add the breadcrumbs to this. Stir together and then add this mixture to the pan with the pork. Stir to incorporate and there’s your filling.
Make the bechamel. In a heavy bottomed pan, melt the butter over low heat. Add the flour and whisk together until incorporated. Let cook for about 3-4 minutes, whisking from time to time. Pour in the milk about a quarter of the volume at a time (you could whack in the whole thing but then it always seems to take longer). Whisk very well after each milk incorporation and then continue adding once the mixture gets thick. After all the milk has been added, continue cooking over low heat and whisking often until the bechamel is thick. Season with salt, freshly ground black pepper and a little freshly ground nutmeg, give it a final whisking and turn off the heat.
Put it together. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees Celsius. Lay your roasted aubergine halves in a baking dish and fill them with the pork mixture. Really stuff them well – use all that filling up! Top each filled aubergine half with a good couple of spoonfuls of bechamel and then sprinkle with some finely grated parmesan cheese. Bake in the oven for about 15-20 minutes – the filling should be cooked through (that egg) and the tops should be golden brown.
Serve with a salad and bread on the side.
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 11:33
Looks amazing!!
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 11:35
I am a huge fan of aubergines, and these look absolutely cracking. I think I just drooled.
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 12:46
aw man that looks amazing!
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 13:00
Great recipe, I´ve always love stuff aubergines. My mum´s recipe it´s a bit different than yours, I will get it for you. We catalans love stuffing vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, courgettes, you name it!
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 14:29
Oh oh oh bookmarked!
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 14:49
I can only agree with what you say about the difference between ‘ready meals’ in the UK and those in Spain (and France for that matter). The few places I have seen with posh ready meals in London are a bit of rip-off.
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 14:50
When we were in Greece we had a cross between these and something else! The moussaka was aubergine, bechamel and mince but we also had a lot of zucchini, tomatoes and aubergine stuffed with rice so this is like the former stuffed into the latter, looks delicious!
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 15:43
Oh god. Aubergines, pig, melted cheese. A droolsome trinity if ever there was one.
Tue, 21 Sep, 2010 at 21:18
Bookmarked and trying this very soon …. Looks great ….
Wed, 22 Sep, 2010 at 10:24
This is a popular dish on the restaurants where my dad’s place is. They definitely like a stuffed vegetable too as it’s frequently no the only one on the menu.
Thu, 23 Sep, 2010 at 14:59
This looks so goood. I love aubergines more so coz they are so versatile. Love the gooey bechamel.
Thu, 23 Sep, 2010 at 22:21
Really nice, Su-Lin! I love the slight crust, the earthy flavors in the filling and eggplant! Would it be totally unauthentic to substitute ground beef?
Fri, 24 Sep, 2010 at 17:59
Yum! I definitely want to try making these.
Sun, 26 Sep, 2010 at 16:31
Do you add the scooped out aubergine to the stuffing? These look so good!
Sun, 26 Sep, 2010 at 20:26
There’s nothing I like more with aubergine than a bit of pork. Think fish fragrant aubergines with fried minced pig. Lovely. The bechamel sauce is really taking it up a gear too.
Wed, 29 Sep, 2010 at 17:00
i don’t like eggplants but the cheese! the cheese! i may have to try this.
Thu, 30 Sep, 2010 at 01:19
Oh hellooooo, that book is going on my to-acquire list
Wen
Thu, 30 Sep, 2010 at 21:08
Hi Su-Lin, did you precook the aubergines? You don’t mention it, but in the photo the aubergines looked like they were cooked, so I popped them in the oven for 15 minutes before adding the meat and bechamel. Delish!
Fri, 1 Oct, 2010 at 15:59
how did i miss this post? i adore aubergines, love this combination. we do smthg similar with mince meat and tomato sauce but even though it tastes scrummy, it doesntlook pretty at all- unlike your dish- so pretty and delish w that bechamel. loves it. x shayma
Fri, 1 Oct, 2010 at 16:17
Gourmet Gourman: Thank you very much!
Lizzie: Aubergines are gorgeous but even more so with pork!
kat: Thank you so much!
Goretti: The book has a recipe for stuffed onions too that sounds divine!
Kavey: Hope it works out for you!
Mr Noodles: YES. 😦 And the ones in the markets on the continent are delicious too!
Sasa: I love love love moussaka too – yum!!
The Shed: T’is most delicious!
Dave: Hope it works out for you!
Joshua: And I bet there are canalons on the menu too! I love that it’s eaten year round and not just in the winter.
Maunika: They are indeed one of the most delicious fruits, aren’t they?
Nadia: Nope – definitely not a problem. I think the original recipe was pork and veal but go ahead and use beef.
June: I hope they work out well for you!
Foodycat: I did not because my stupid little aubergines had a lot of seeds in the middle. But if you had young ones, you could chop the flesh finely and fry it along with the pork.
Helen: Oh, fish fragrant aubergines are just soooo delicious!
Donny: You could stuff another vegetable or use the filling in canalons. Then you could still have all that lovely bechamel!
GoingWithMyGut: It’s a fabulous book – highly recommended.
Amber: You are so right! Thank you for letting me know – I’ve corrected the recipe! So glad you liked it though!
Sat, 2 Oct, 2010 at 18:29
Love it. Will give this approach a go… but maybe with a Scandy twist. Nice.
Mon, 6 Aug, 2012 at 21:43
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