Beef and Aubergene Mexican Stew

I purchased an Aubergene from Aldi the other day, it was 45p!!!!!!!! What shall I do with it I wonder? I have lamb, do I do a tagine??? (No Siân, no!!!...you're in luck). I have a piece of beef (silverside) resting at the bottom of the freezer, that'll do. I shall slow cook this little beast and brake up with the back of a spoon when it's good and ready....hours from now. 

The beauty of looking up recipes on the internet is that you get instant satisfaction...yes, this is the one I'll do, sorted. When there's no time in the day to trawl through my millions of recipe books, this ticks the "what shall we have for dinner?" box. So by googling beef and aubergene recipes this little beauty pops up, a Jamie Oliver recipe. Right, this is my guide to base my recipe on, of course it needs tweaking "Ashe stylie". So here it is...

Serves 4 (or 3 greedy ones)

Ingredients 

Piece of beef topside/silverside (fat removed) around 500g 

1 onion, sliced 

1 clove garlic, crushed

1 aubergene, big dice

1 tbsp cumin

2 tsp ground coriander 

1/2 tsp allspice 

1 squirt tomato purée

2 large tomatoes, blitzed in a Magimix 

500g chicken stock

A couple of handfuls of dried pinto beans

Salt, pepper and pinch of sugar to taste

A few dashes of Tabasco 

This is dead easy. You'll need to dust off your slow cooker and have a pan on the side for browning beforehand. Start off with a little olive oil in a small pan/wok, on a medium to high heat add the aubergene and brown slightly, then add this to slow cooker. Brown beef next for slight caramelisation on all sides, add this to slow cooker. Next the onions, garlic and spices, soften down and spices become aromatic, add this to meat in slow cooker. 

Now for the liquid, stock, tomatoes and purée. Intermingle with meat and veg in slow cooker. Now add a good handful or two of dried pinto beans. 

Lastly season well and cook on low for around 8 hrs or med for 6 or high for 4. Bearing in mind these are quite rough estimations. You will probably know your own slow cooker. Basically, you prep recipe in the morning after the school run, you know it'll be perfect at tea time (around 6). At the end add Tabasco, depending on how much of a kick you want. (We'll want some heat after the kids have had their portion!). 

Serve with rice or a jacket. How smug do I feel having the slow cooker on the go?! It will be my friend over the coming months. And will take centre stage on the work top.