Aubergine cream

It is not a secret that I absolutely have no talent for baking bread, unless it is a sweet bread, that is fine. And I even manage to bake a ciabatta or a fougasse, but that's it. The rest may be used as a weight or as a weapon, but they are not edible for sure. So all the disapointments stopped me even from baking that popular no-knead bread. If you think about it, baking the no-knead bread is not more complicated than preparing a ready made soup, however still it is something different. Last week, finally I felt like trying at least that.


Thanks to the success since then I have already baked it a few more times and soon I might feel confident enough to give a new chance for baking a more challenging bread. Anyway, I could not imagine anything better to be served with a fresh and crispy slice of bread then a lukewarm aubergine cream. At least in summer.


Probably, there are thousands of aubergine cream recipes out there, and everyone has a favourite. Mine will always remain this simple version, the way my mom and her grandmother used to prepare. It is only authentic if it has that smoky taste that you achieve when grilling it over open fire or a gas stove, even I have no gas stove, but I bake them on the stove. It just never tastes the same if it is baked in the oven. No way. As far as the other ingreidents are concerned, well you need only a red onion, salt, pepper and vegetable oil. That's it, nothing else.


So once the aubergines are baked on the stove, I remove the skin as long as it is still hot. Then with the help of a wooden spoon I remove the flesh and chop it. My mom told me, that if one uses steel it get bitter. True or not, I stick to that. Already before combining I add some salt to the chopped onion, then stir it together with the flesh and enough oil so that it gets brighter in the colour while stirring. If there should be some leftover the next day, which usually doesn't happen, then I add a little bit of mayonnaise to the cream. So that's my simple aubergine cream.