When I lived in Germany I enjoyed what used to be called "Yugoslav restaurants" before the tragic breakup of that country. Today they are doubtless divided into equally good Croat, Dalmatian, Bosnian and Serb restaurants. One thing I used to enjoy was Ajvar (pronounced "aye-var") which is basically a purée of aubergine and red peppers as a side dish to balkan meat courses.

I have no idea if my Ajvar is that authentic, but having found a very tired looking aubergine in my kitchen tonight, I am reminded that it is a good way to get rid of an aubergine. So here goes...

 

Serves 4-8 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 normal aubergine about 250-300 g
3-4 large red peppers about 600-800 g
1 medium onion
juice of half a lemon
3 garlic cloves
1 tsp chilli powder
1 dsp olive oil
salt & pepper

Method

1. Heat oven to 220 Celsius with a fan oven or higher with conventional oven
2. Put aubergine, peppers (seeds removed) and whole onion on a baking tray in the oven for 15 min. The skins of the peppers will probably go black which is not a problem.
3. Remove the aubergine and peppers, switch the oven off and leave the onion in the oven
4. Put the aubergine and peppers in a bowl and cover with clingfilm, leave for 30 minutes
5. Take the peppers and aubergine and remove the skin (should come off easily). Remove the onion from the oven and skin it too.
6. Place the skinned peppers, aubergines and onion in a food processor. Add remaining ingredients and blend together.
7. Put in a bowl and allow to cool. Refridgerate then serve cold.

Ajvar is a good side dish to accompany a BBQ.

I think that using aubergine as a base for a mash works well. I had a great side dish at Anokaa in Salisbury which was based on aubergine with shallots and coriander seeds. In Munich I had something similar to ajvar in a Bulgarian restaurant but it had less pepper and more garlic.