All roads lead to Indian cook books...

I suppose 'Indian food' may seem like a good theme between these two meals. It's an obsession I don't deny but the only one real pattern with any food I eat is gluttony. This time inspired by two very different ingredients that just happened to take me to the same place.

I like sprouting. I like it very much. Although I don't really know what to do with my sprouts once they are there. Because the information on the topic is rather... well has a tenancy to be grounded neither in an understanding of science or taste.


One exception is to find recipes from places that view sprouted food as food rather than a mark of piety. Which is why I decided to make the Sprouted Moong from The Settler's Cookbook, which is wonderful for many other reasons too. Served with naan bread rather than puri because it was 60p on the about to go off shelf in tesco. It was delicious if a little over facing with all those sprouts!

When we went to Occombe Stephen asked if there was any particular vegetable I'd like as a treat (shut up! That is so romantic!) and I picked up an Aubergine. It's been a while since I've cooked an aubergine and well it seemed about right.

So I consulted every recipe book I own and decided on Aubergine and Potato with Pickling Spices from Indian Every Day and the Tangy Tomato Rice to go with.As often happens when I'm banking on eating the leftovers I didn't get this one quite right. The spices where spot on, the taste of nigella and fennel especially brilliant but my cooking... not so much. It could have done with about five minutes more to accommodate the bigger potatoes but the real disappointment was the aubergine. Just plain bitter.

So I'm kind of between love and hate with this one. It's definitely going to be made again probably not with the charming looking, lethal tasting graffiti aubergine though.