Nigel Slater’s recipes for aubergines with gochujang, and chocolate mint frozen yoghurt

A hot, smoky aubergine and bean bake is just the thing to lift spirits on a cold evening

The cry goes out to “stay home”, and I do. The odd bunch of herbs or green vegetables aside, dinner comes from the cupboard. There is not a packet or storage jar whose contents I haven’t looked at hoping for inspiration. I know every bean, lentil and grain of rice in the larder, and so I should. My favourite dinner this week was the one where I baked black-eyed beans – beautiful ivory pulses with a charcoal eye – with fat “banana” shallots, aubergines and tinned tomatoes, whose fiery seasoning of Korean chilli paste helped us feel better as we looked out on yet another wet, locked-in winter’s day.

That rust-red aubergine bake came under a crumble-crust of coarse sourdough crumbs freckled with thyme and citrus zest. Everyday – you might even say dull – larder ingredients were transformed into a supper that well and truly lifted our spirits. I griddled the aubergines first (a 10-minute job) to introduce a smoky note to the scarlet sauce, but I could have just as easily fried them in a pan – only long enough for them to soften before they met the rest of the dish. There is little I like more than the silky, oily flesh of an aubergine that has softened in a spice-laden sauce.

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