aubergine and spring onion salad

Aubergine soaks up anything, so it's great for marinating. It can also be really really good cold. This one steamrollers the taste buds, so try it with something light like cous cous or a rice salad.

You will need:

*2 medium aubergines
*2 medium spring onions
small bunch of fresh coriander
*3 desert spoons soya sauce
*1 desert spoon vinegar
*2 desert spoons olive oil
*1 tea spoon Demerara sugar
*1 clove crushed garlic

First off is the delicate operation of chopping up the aubergine into long strips about 1/4 inch or about 1/2cm wide. I suggest counting your fingers before and after.

Then marinate the strips. Add them to a mixing bowl in which you've put the soya sauce, vinegar, brown sugar and crushed garlic. Leave this for 20 minutes or so to soak up some juice.
Empty it all into an oven proof dish or baking tray and shove into the oven on 200 centigrade for 15 or 20 minutes until it's done.

Let it cool down, mix with the chopped spring onions chopped coriander and bung it in the fridge.
The coriander can be optional, depending on how near you live to an Asian grocer. Alternatively, if you've bought a small shrubbery's worth, you can prolong its life by blending it in a little olive oil.