This dish is very quick to cook, but the preparation of the ingredients takes a little time. The aubergines have to be salted and left for about 40 minutes, but that's okay - it will take you ages to chop the ingredients for the sauce into small enough pieces to be flash fried in under two minutes.
The quantities I give here are based around the number of aubergine halves which can be comfortably fried in one go. I reckon four halves is the optimum, so the amount of finished product from this recipe should suffice for feeding four moderately hungry people or two famished food monsters. Of course, it will also depend on what else you serve. I recommend rice or cous-cous. Pasta might be nice, too.
Ingredients
2 medium-sized aubergines
1 large tomato
1 courgette
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 dessert spoon of shelled pumpkin seeds
Two-thirds of a teaspoon of ground coriander seed
A small piece of cinnamon stick
A pinch or two of dried oregano
Olive oil
A squeeze of lemon juice
Salt
Cut the aubergines in half lengthwise. Sprinkle a generous amount of salt over the cut surfaces and lay to one side while you get on with the other stuff. The salt will draw out the excess water from the aubergines, but it won't make them overly salty, no matter how much you use.
Chop the pumpkin seed and put them aside with the coriander and cinnamon stick. Chop the courgette, tomato and garlic into really small pieces - the smaller the better.
When the aubergines have lain for a while, scrape the salt off and give the pieces a quick rinse in cold water. Pat them dry with a paper towel. Do this well, or you'll have spitting oil when you start frying. Heat some oil and fry the aubergines on a medium heat for 5 minutes on each side. cover the pan while they're frying.
Lift the cooked aubergines out of the pan and lay them on a serving plate, cut sides up. Throw the pumpkin seeds, coriander and cinnamon in to the hot oil, swirl them around for about twenty seconds then throw in the chopped vegetables with some salt and oregano. Turn the heat right up and cover the pan. It should take only a minute or so for the courgette to soften and the juice to come out of the tomatoes - that's enough cooking. Add some lemon juice, stir and pour the sauce over the aubergines.