In Season - August

Aubergines

Imam bayildi is one of the most famous Middle Eastern dishes that is made with aubergines. The name means ‘the imam fainted’, supposedly because the good gentleman passed out on learning of the amount of expensive oil it contained. Lesser-known variations include imam aggro (‘the imam became rather annoyed’), imam chunder (‘the imam was very sick’) and imam kickass (‘the imam cut off the head of the cook’). Just joking, of course, but the affinity of oil for aubergine is a serious relationship, a transformative partnership that brings the best out of this beautiful, glossy, purple vegetable. In the best traditions of two nations separated by a common language, the aubergine is called an eggplant in the American-English-speaking world. Which is perhaps why we should all talk in Latin, and instead refer to this fascinating vegetable as Solanum melongena. While a member of the potato/tomato family, and indeed the nightshade clan, aubergines were not in fact discovered in the New World by Columbus.