I guess it varies for each person. A few years ago I thought I'd try and see if I could do it. For me, it was really easy, so I stuck with it. Now it's just a habit.
Anyway I cooked this yesterday, was pretty decent. Maybe this thread's dead but whatever, I'm posting in it! A morrocan-style thing I suppose. Baked aubergines with a chickpea stew on couscous. Vegetarian again, apologies.
Takes about an hour due to prep.
Ingredients wise, you want couscous, an aubergine (one aubergine's okay for 2-3 people, but more is better), some chickpeas, an onion (again for 2 dudes), garlic, a lemon, olive oil, salt, cayenne pepper, paprika, cumin, ground coriander seeds, parsley, sultanas, flaked almonds, tomato puree, a bay leaf.
Chop up the aubergine in to little cubey-slicey things. Sort of size you'd want to eat. Place them in a baking tray, and then make a marinade.
Chop up a couple of cloves of garlic, add a little olive oil, some salt, some paprika, cumin, ground coriander, cayenne peper, and the juice of a lemon (IMPORTANT - get a fair amount of lemon rind off the lemon before you get the juice out. You'll need it in a bit).
Pour all that stuff over the aubergine, then toss it or mix it all together with your hands so it's all nicely coated. Cover the tray in clingfilm and let it hang out for a while.
Go on a smuggling run or something. Come back later - no sooner than half an hour, and the longer you let it sit, the better it will taste.
When you get back, TAKE OFF THE CLINGFILM, then throw it in the oven (I have an aga, so I don't get to play around with temperatures. I have two ovens, one extremely hot, one fairly hot. I used the extremely hot one for 25 minutes, but for a normal-ish temperature (220 sort of thing I suppose?) give it half an hour).
When this is baking away, make some vegetable stock. Enough to make enough couscous for everyone who's eating, then maybe a quarter of a pint or so for the stew. Have it simmering and get some couscous in a cooking vessel. This will be both on the stove/range, and also in the oven, so make sure yr pot/pan of choice can handle this extreme adventure. Pour the stock on the couscous, bring it to the boil for a a few long seconds, then take it off the heat. Cover the pan with a teatowel and let it sit for 5 minutes or so. Chop up an onion and a couple more cloves of garlic while you wait.
Take the towel off the couscous, it should look fairly edible if a bit plain. Now, throw in something to make it more exciting. Lemon rind for a nice freshness, sultanas for sweetness, flaked almonds for the texture and taste, a little salt. Then drizzle it as liberally as you dare/can afford with olive oil, cover it in foil or some such, and throw it in the oven (I used the less-hot oven on my aga, but you should be okay in the same one as yr aubergine, as long as you don't let it hang out in there too long. If it's been in there 20 minutes, pull it out and just keep it warm.
Then, the stew. This is the only part of this recipe I'd like to improve. It was better than I feared, but it is still a little boring. Basically, its the same stuff you all make every day. Fry the onion in olive oil, then throw in the garlic and spices (I used smoked paprika this time, plus cayenne). Then add tomato puree (I like to cook the tomato puree for a few seconds before I add much liquid, it can be a little bitter and this removes that), and then after that the chopped tomatoes. Add your chickpeas (drained obviously), the bay leaf, parsley and the little bit of stock you saved. Bring it to the boil and let it reduce a little bit. Season it to taste, let it cook for 10 minutes.
Then it's time to eat.
Get the couscous out, and lay it out on each plate, cover the whole thing with a thin layer rather than a big pile a the side. Ladel out as much of the stew as you want on each plate, and then drop a few chunks of aubergine on the top of each plate.
Hooray! This thing is pretty light and fresh despite all the spices and the stew. The lemon juice in the aubergine and the rind in the couscous, plus the sultanas, keep it nice to counterbalance the heat and stodge of the stew. I was pretty happy with it. I'm still sort of torn on aubergine - I eat a lot of really bad aubergine that I really don't enjoy at all, but this was really good.
