Stunningly and simply beautiful or pretentious?

"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."

By now you will have realised that I am a sucker for beautiful things. Appearance is sometimes all. But of course, what I think is beautiful is not necessarily what you think is beautiful. So that's one thing to bear in mind as I launch into today's musings.

The second thing you will have realised by now is that I am an ardent admirer of the work of Nigel Slater - both as a recipe creator and foodie inspirer and also as a writer. And you also should know by now that his book Tender volume 2 is one of my all-time favourites. It's still sitting on my desk with little yellow stickers poking out and asking for attention. You may not be a fan at all.

So today I present as my starting point for today's ramble - this - for me anyway - absolutely stunning photograph of a Baked aubergine with miso dressing sitting on a carefully chosen dish - or maybe a bowl or something in between, slightly and artistically cracked on its base and placed against a pale, shadowy pale blue background. I'm sure the dish was hand made and probably cost a small fortune. Nigel is a pottery collector. Photograph by Jonathan Lovekin of course.

Elsewhere in his writings about aubergines - and yes I'm sticking with aubergine, not eggplant, which is so mundane in comparison and because I have never quite shaken off the name I grew up with over there - yes elsewhere Nigel describes the dish he ate, I'm not sure where, which made him fall in love with the aubergine:

"I fell in love at first taste: baked till its flesh had almost melted, heavy with olive oil, musky with cinnamon and allspice, cumin and ginger, sweet with golden sultanas. A dish in shades of chocolate, tobacco and amber, heady with garlic and with a fragrance at once both ancient and mysterious."

It's not the dish shown above - which I shall come to - but does indeed apply to the aubergine in the photograph. Well one can imagine the smell - almost.

At the beginning of his chapter on aubergines in this book he says:

"The aubergine seduces. No other vegetable can offer flesh so soft, silken and tender. You don't so much chew an aubergine as let it dissolve on your tongue."

Now I don't know whether it's the words or the picture that seduces me into thinking yes I'll try that, because actually I am not a huge fan of aubergine. It took me quite a while in fact to like it at all. I had not ever tasted it, before being presented with it in ratatouille in France when working as an au pair. It was my employer's signature dish and so I had to eat it. I could not have refused or pulled a face. And so I persevered and over the years have come to, if not quite love it with a passion, at least really liked it - but only in particular ways - roasted with other Mediterranean vegetables, sliced and grilled then dressed with something tangy, in ratatouille and baba ghanoush. I will eat it in other things like parmigiana and lasagne, but it's really not a favourite. But Nigel's words and Jonathan's photograph tempt me.

But back to the start. Nigel's recipe is headed by this introduction about things to note - most importantly the flavouring:

"You could probably use any finely ground chilli for this, but I like the assorted ground chilli pepper known as nanami togarashi. Togarashi us simply the Japanese term for red chilli pepper but this one is blended with orange peel, sesame seed and ginger. It has a slight graininess which works well with the silky softness of the aubergine."

Togarashi is a fashionable spice mix, not yet available in our supermarkets, but there are plenty of recipes for making your own online, and of course you can buy it online as well. But it is here that I start to worry about the hazy borders between simplicity, purity, beauty and pretentiousness. That photograph is very Japanese - the cracked bowl, the very plain - pure indeed - presentation. The ingredients are Japanese - miso, mirin, togarashi. Japanese is not my favourite cuisine - it always seems to be stunnng to look at, bland to taste. But then I have probably not tasted the best of Japanese food. Appearance does seem to be all however, and this recipe certainly wins in the appearance stakes. But does it in the taste part? I suppose the only way to find out is to try. And that is another reason I lighted on this particular dish - I was going to experiment with miso and have yet to do it. Maybe this is the perfect place to start. And would I eat it on its own - or take Nigel's suggestion:

"First on my list for cold beef, lamb or chicken would be a spicily sweet, baked aubergine, its surface brushed with a dressing of miso and hot pepper"

Mostly his writings are wonderful but they too sometimes stray into the portentious. Well in my mind I try to defend them as poetic, but nevertheless there is often a niggling little thought that perhaps they are occasionally over the top - as here:

"The big purple shlong we know so well is just one of the many varieties of what Americans and Australians call the eggplant. Its beauty is nothing compared to the ivory varieties, their pale skins blushed with lilac or rose as if someone had taken an aritist's brush to them. Finger aubergines, slender, cute in shades of lavender or black, are as elegant as any vegetable - or berry to the botanically pedantic. Some curl up at the end like Turkish slippers, others are ridged and bulbous, whilst some are as perfectly oval and unblemished as a duck's egg."

Let's just say that it's not the kind of writing one usually associates with cooking, and probably not all that likely to appeal to the ordinary housewife just looking for something quick and tasty to cook for dinner. He is not a man of the people. He is definitely middle-class.

And yet - this is a very quick - well quick to prepare, 40 minutes to cook - simplicity itself - dish and doubtlessly tasty as well. If you like aubergines. Lots of people don't.

For this is the man, who has often said, that his recipes are just things that he throws together according to what is in his fridge. Real Fast Food and the updated version - Eat - should be bibles for every beginning cook. His food is almost always easy, easy, easy - and often quick as well.

To demonstrate this from his aubergine chapter here are a few more outrageously simple recipes for this possibly underrated vegetable - well fruit.

Aubergine mint and cucumber yoghurt. All this is, is baked aubergines - just bake them cut side down in oil - and served with what is basically tzatziki. It's hardly a recipe is it? It's also a demonstration of (a) the different feelings you get from photographing it diferently - even if it is the same photographer - and (b) the different feeling you get from a very subtle change in title. The title above is from the online published version in The Guardian - just a pretty straightforward list of the ingredients and the technique. It's almost the recipe itself. The second - in Tender volume 2 is Baked finger aubergines, yoghurt and cucumber. Simply by inserting the word finger to specify a particular kind of aubergine, which makes it slightly classier, and separating out the yoghurt and the cucumber is also somehow - and I can't explain how - classier. As for the photographs. On the right - pared back and simple with the emphasis on the texture and colour of both of the elements of the recipe. Plus a scattering of black onion seeds - not what the normal person has in their cupboard. Is it a recipe even? Whilst The Guardian photograph is more achievable somehow - although actually it's ever so slightly complicated by the scattering of herbs, green olives and cornichons which have been added to the yoghurt.

Another similar example is Aubergines with mozzarella and basil in The Guardian and Hot aubergines, melting cheese in his book - which, alas has no picture or recipe online. But it is fundamentally the same recipe - although in the book - in posher mode - the mozzarella is bocconcini. The online recipe is ten years younger than the one in the book, and the method has been slightly refined in that the oil and basil are blended together rather than more cheffily just throwing torn basil leaves into some oil, and the aubergine slices are soaked in said oil before grilling. These are small differences, but yes, one is slightly posher than the other, as is the title. A list of ingredients in The Guardian and almost a bit of scene setting in the book - someone being presented with a plate of hot aubergines and melting cheese.

Another paired example is Grilled aubergine with feta and yoghurt shown here from The Guardian. The book recipe has no picture and an ever so slightly different title - Grilled aubergines, creamed feta. And yes there is yoghurt too, but it's not mentioned, and the feta is creamed - much trendier and classier?

Last example of a pair - this time not from the book - Aubergine, honey, sheep's cheese - Irish Times and Aubergine fritters with honey and sheep's cheese - The Guardian - but not a lot to distinguish these two in differentiating the aura of the title - or the photograph

One last recipe because it looked so good and you can find Baked aubergines with thyme and cream on The Guardian website - but with no picture. That's from the book. The words are from The Guardian - they are cut down in the book.

"By rights you should eat me alive over this recipe. Aubergines and cream do not belong together historically or culturally. I am breaking the rules, but so what? The two marry deliciously, and when we bring in garlic and thyme - which belongs with both - then we have a good dish. I used this as an accompaniment for a steak, and it formed a sublime plateful. Two days later I made it again, this time with grilled lamb chops, and it had found its natural partner. The smell as it cooks, wafting out into the garden, is fabulous."

I'm pretty sure I could make the same kind of comparisons with recipes from throughout the book - which I still think is fabulous. In a way the sad thing is that Nigel Slater is not hugely well-known with the common man or woman. Even though his recipes are actually the kind of thing that would help said common man or woman to put excellent food on the table with very little effort. And this is possibly because of his literary bent. - and his zeal for the best ingredients money can buy - all organic, etc. He is a best seller to the cognoscenti but not to the mass market. Each to his own I guess.

YEARS GONE BY

March 13th - Friday the 13th in fact

2025 - The ordinariness of pasta

2024 - The food curriculum - history

2023 - Is this when I try fish pie?

2022 - Another lemon tart trauma

2021 - Missing

2020 - Missing

2019 - A teaspoon

2018 - Finger limes - citrus caviar

2017 - Nothing