Thyme baked baby aubergines

Thyme (Thymus vulgaris) grows well in the dry, dusty parts of our garden, creeping over the bricks and gravel.  I love the sweet, aromatic, Mediterranean scent, and the little light mauve flower.

Thyme is supposed to have spread through Europe with the Romans, who used it to purify rooms and to give an aromatic flavour to cheese and liqueurs.  Thymol (an antiseptic and extraction of thyme) is - for aficionados of trivia - the main active ingredient in Lysterine mouthwash.  In the Middle Ages it was placed beneath pillows to aid sleep and ward off nightmares, and formed part of the bouquet given by damsels to knights to bring courage to the bearer.  The idea of damsels given bunches of herbs to knights reminds me of Act IV, Scene V of Hamlet - when Ophelia finally goes mad:

"There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance; pray, love, remember; and there is pansies, that’s for thoughts ...

there’s fennel for you, and columbines; there’s rue for you, and here’s some for me; we may call it herb of grace o’ Sundays. O, you must wear your rue with a difference. There’s a daisy. I would give you some violets, but they wither’d all when my father died. They say he made a good end ..."

Anyway, I digress.  According to the wall chart, thyme is for stews, soups, meat, egg and tomato dishes.  I have used it in all kinds of dishes, but particularly roasted vegetables.  The slightly lemony sweetness also works in cakes, as suggested in Nigel Slater's recipes for thyme.

However, there is also a good recipe using thyme (and rosemary) in Catherine Mason's Vegetable Heaven, which I have set out below.  Most excitingly, and by sheer coincidence, I've just chanced upon a baby aubergine plant called Ophelia (pictured), available from UK seed merchants' DT Brown.

Groovy baby aubergine plant, Ophelia FI

Baby aubergines baked with rosemary and lemon thyme

I have amended the recipe slightly as I like anything roasted to be slightly blackened and delicious round the edges.

a tablespoon of olive oil

3 heaped teaspoons of sun-dried tomato paste; OR a two of sun-dried and one of either Harissa paste (if you prefer spicy) or sweet smoked paprika (for a woodier, more mellow flavour)
juice of half a lemon

a tablespoon of orange blossom honey
250g of baby aubergines, sliced from the base towards the stalk, but no so that they fall apart

2 red onions peeled and cut into generous chunks

leaves from 3 sprigs of rosemary

leaves from a small bunch of lemon thyme

salt and pepper

Mix the olive oil and tomato paste (with or without Harissa/ paprika) then thin to to consistency of single cream with hot water, add honey and lemon juice.  Put the aubergines, onions, rosemary and thyme in a bowl, pour in the tomato-oil mixture and turn over a few times to coat thoroughly. Season with salt and pepper.

Place in a single layer in a shallow baking dish and roast for 40-50 mins at 200 degrees and roast until the vegetables are tender and beginning to blacken.  Serve with flat bread such as Afghan bread (which I always see at the Halal grocery) - like a large flat nan with black cumin seeds (Nigella sativa).  

Afghan bakery, courtersy of Robbot, wiki commons

 

Finally, on the subject of aubergines, I also found a tasty looking recipe for Roast Baby Aubergines with Rocket and Peppered Cream Cheese, and a Tahini Dressing on the blog Scrumptions South Africa.