RAOUL´S RECEPIE

Ok, I did say I don´t follow other people recepies mainly because they tend to be too long. People who say cooking is relaxing are crazy. I don´t understand them. But there is also Raoul, at work, he explains it so well, that if not else, it does feel relaxing listening to how he cooks, which is a rare thing for me. And he told me this recepie that was PERFECT for me. I just can´t fail with this one and it follows all my principles for time saving in the kitchen.
He explained it like that:
Take two aubergines and two onions, put them in the oven, wait for an hour, take them out, mixed them up, add some persley, lime juice, olive oil, salt. Done! Eat that with meat.
EASY!

So here is how it went:

Take 2 aubergines and 2 onions.

 Put them in the oven...oh, wait, he didn´t say whether the onion should be peeled. I am pretty sure the eggplants shouldn´t be, but what about the onion?!

 After a while of thinking, peelig the onion, following the 50/50 gut feeling. Peeling directly in the plastick bag so it goes faster to collect and transport to the garbage - means, less cleaning time and time spent in the kitchen.

 So, 2 eggplants, 2 onions - in the oven.

 Can´t recall Raoul mentioning a temperature. Usually I use only the 300 mark and force the things to get prepared faster, but people are always skepticle to this approach, so I go with 50/50 approach and randomly choose a temperature of 260 degrees. - not that far away from 300 and not going on a snail speed at "normal-peoples-recepies" 100 or 50 degrees.

 Done, in the oven.

 Now here is a lot of waiting involved. During that time I do my stuff on the PC and hear small explosions from the kitchen. Raoul didn´t mention anything about that, but I guess, it is normal for those ingredients. So continue working, and chatting with a friend online, who was also present when the recepie was delievered by Raoul. I proudly announced that I am doing it and suddenly remembered that I forgot to take the time, so now I don´t know how long they have been in the oven. Well, she helped me estimate that it has gone approximately 40 minutes. Ok, 20 minutes to go and I see no difference and no sign of the eggplant and onion being ready. I am thinking, I will increase the the temperature. The friend advice me not to. She claims I will see when the eggplants are ready. How? I am thinking. Well they look like an old woman, she said. I go back, look and think, well how old? The surely don´t look old to me. After she sends a couple of reference images of how they are suppose to look like, I see the difference. Yes, something is wrong, mine doesn´t look even close. Meanwhile I hear more explosions and I tell her about it. Then she asks me if I have cut the eggplants before putting them in the oven. No, I haven´t. That was not in any of the steps of this recepie. Well, you must cut them she says, that´s why they are exploding. Ha! I had no idea. So, in with a knife in the oven and cutting them here in there. Ok, now they start shrinking. I see the old woman look is there.

 I gave them additional 20 minutes, just to be safe. The pot got somewhat burned, but I am used to it.

 I opened them, and for my surprise, the 2 eggplants seem differently prepared. What? Do I need to put it back again and wait even more?! Well, I didn´t.
I ignored it, and just went on to the second step - mixing them up.

 Put everything in a pot. I guess I expected to be able to mixed them up with a fork. The ingredients were not as soft as I expected after 1.20 hours of grilling. I guess Raoul meant mixing with a mixing device, although he didn´t mentioned it.

 So, putting the mixture in another pot.

 Adding garlic and lime juice.

 Mixing.

 Ok, is it ready? Feels like it misses color. Oh yeah, persley.

 Persley in, and spices

 Mixing. Oh no. Found whole onion pieces in there. That´s not good. I already washed the mixing stick, not getting it dirty again. I just digged around the mesh and transported the whole piece to the trashbin.

 Some of them unsuccesfully fell on the floor. Annoying. Extra step in the cooking process.

Ok, now it is done. Hm, it doesn´t look good. May be I should add something to it. What can I add. I did add olive oil. I am thinking - feta cheese. But then I am thinking, what has the same color as feta cheese and may make the mixture thicker. Ah, yoghurt.

 Aha, yoghurt.

 Adding yoghurt, mesuring depends on the amount of space it is left in this pot, because I am not transporting it to yet another pot.

 Mixing. Ok, there is a differentce. That is encouraging. What if I add more. After all there is more extra space in the pot.

 I add some more.

 Mixing. Still extra space. Shall I add some more? I am thinking. It is kind of risky at that stage. I don´t want to mess this up as I have spent now 2 hours making it. Ok, I will leave it at that.

 Tadaaa! Done. I made it. Oh, I did add some more stuff - walnuts...and more spices...can´t remember which.

 Served with meat (or ready-grilled chicken from the store) and salad, or salad-to-be with feta cheese as a savior of every dish. It was alright. It did take too long time though. Next time I will add tomatos and other veggis to this mixture.

If you want to make this "simple" recepie, watch out for the hidden steps that was not on the main list. You can use my step by step guide to avoid them.

Enjoy!