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| Aubergines |
I've never tried to conserve aubergines before but after talking to neighbours on how they conserve them, I thought I would give it a go. I have so many of them and I am running out of ways to cook them. The truth is I am so busy with the garden and conserving, I hardly have the time to cook. Well, maybe that is a bit of a exaggeration because I always have time to cook and above all - EAT.
Ingredients
aubergines
How to go about it
BBQ the aubergines, or grill them, as they are. It is better to have a bit of flame as you want to char the skins and not overcook the them. When the skins are blackened, take them off the BBQ and wrap them in newspaper or put them in a plastic bag and let them cool.
Next step is to peel them, a bit of a mucky job but the aroma of the char grilled aubergines is heaven and when you open them in winter you will be transported back to the Summer.
Put them in a colander and let them drain overnight in the fridge.
Tear off strips of aubergine and put them in hot sterilized jars of your choice. Put on the lids. Put them in a pressure cooker and put water in to come up to 5cm of jars. Put lid on pressure cooker and bring up to the boil with out weight on, when steam comes out, continue heating for 10 minutes. Then put on weight and pressure cook for 20 minutes. Turn off heat and let them cool in cooker for an hour. Remove from cooker being careful not to touch the lids. The lids should now be concave. This cooking in the pressure cooker is very important for low acid foods. A normal bain marie is not suitable for low acid foods as it does not reach a higher enough temperature to kill the bacteria..
You can add other vegetables, like peppers or maybe some onions, char grilled the same as the aubergines.
