Aubergines Stuffed with Lamb and Pine Nuts

Ingredients

• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 112 tbsp lemon juice
• 500 g minced lamb
• 4 aubergines, cut in half lengthwise
• black pepper
• 2 tsp tomato puree
• 112 tbsp paprika
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 4 cinnamons
• 112 tsp ground cumin
• 2 onions, finely diced
• 150 ml orange blossom water
• 3 tsp caster sugar
• 20 g parsley, chopped
• 1 tsp tamarind paste
• 50 g pine nut
• Crusty sourdough bread, to serve
• Dressed green salad, to serve

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C (200°C fan). Arrange the aubergine halves cut side up in a roasting dish that holds them snugly in a single layer — too much space and the sauce later evaporates instead of braising.
2. Brush the aubergine flesh with 4 tbsp of the olive oil, then season generously with 1 tsp salt and a good grind of black pepper. Roast for about 20 minutes, until the cut surfaces are deep golden and the flesh has slumped and softened. Pull them out and set aside.
3. While the aubergines roast, heat the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan over medium-high heat. Combine the cumin, paprika and ground cinnamon in a small bowl, then tip half of the spice blend into the hot oil along with the diced onions. Bloom the spices in the oil for the first 30–60 seconds until fragrant — raw spices taste dusty; bloomed spices taste of themselves. Cook for another 7–8 minutes, stirring often, until the onions are translucent and starting to catch gold at the edges.
4. Add the minced lamb in two batches — pile it all in at once and the pan crowds, water comes out, and you've boiled the meat instead of browning it. Break each batch up with a wooden spoon and let it sit for a minute before stirring, so the meat takes on real colour. Once both batches are back in the pan, stir through the pine nuts, parsley, tomato puree and 1 tsp of the caster sugar. Season well with salt and pepper and cook for another 5 minutes until any liquid has cooked off and the pine nuts are pale gold.
5. In a bowl, whisk the remaining spice blend with 150 ml water, the lemon juice, tamarind paste, remaining 2 tsp sugar, the cinnamon sticks, the orange blossom water and ½ tsp salt. Taste — it should be sharp, sweet and perfumed all at once. Adjust the salt now, not at the table.
6. Lower the oven to 195°C (175°C fan). Pour the spiced sauce into the base of the roasting dish around the aubergines — the liquid is what carries the aromatics up into the flesh as they braise. Spoon the lamb mixture generously over each half, mounding it neatly so it sits proud.
7. Cover the dish tightly with foil and return to the oven for 1 hour 30 minutes, basting the aubergines with the sauce twice during cooking and adding a splash of water if the liquid reduces too far. The aubergine flesh should yield to a spoon with no resistance; the lamb should be glossy with rendered fat and crowned with toasted pine nuts.
8. Plate the stuffed aubergines with the pan juices spooned over, scatter generously with the extra chopped parsley, and tuck a lemon wedge alongside each portion to squeeze over at the table.