Giant cous-cous with roast aubergine
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Ingredients
150g Giant (aka Israeli) cous-cous (I bought mine from Millie's Organic in Leeds), 2 limes, basil oil, 10g freshly chopped mint, 100g passata tomatoes, 3 baby aubergines, salt.
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Cous-cous is made using semolina which has been sprinkled with water, hand rolled and then passed through a sieve, dusted with more semolina and rolled and passed through again to form the granules that you can buy in the shops. Cous-cous in Israel has a much larger granule and personally I prefer it, the texture is more like the bubbles in a tapioca pudding and it's absolutely delicious, absorbing flavour more intensely than the smaller grains do. The sauce contrasts so beautifully with the flavour of roast aubergine and it just melts in the mouth.
1) Slice the tops from the baby aubergines and slice into quarters, first lengthways and then widthways. Arrange skin side down in a roasting dish and sprinkle with salt to draw out the bitter juices. Drizzle with basil oil and roast in the oven at 220 for 30 minutes.
2) Pour the cous-cous into a pan of boiling salted water and stir through for 6-8 minutes before straining in a sieve and setting aside.
3) To make the dressing, squeeze the juice of 2 limes, a tablespoon of basil oil and the passata tomato into a pan and stir through.
4) Add some finely chopped mint, then stir through the cous-cous and aubergine.
