Aubergine egg sandwiches

In my endless search for a viable replacement for the English Fry-up, I have been experimenting with ingredients readily available in Italian supermarkets. Today we have a winner!

It's like a little fried mushroom, bacon, egg and cheese sandwich, only with slices of aubergine instead of bread.

Stay with me, it's teh. awesome! (Fully tested in the Orwell's Picnic test kitchens.)

Take:

about 1 oz of bacon chopped into small bits (sold in Ita. as "pancetta affumicato")
about 5 sliced mushrooms
four slices of prepared aubergine (you can buy them already sliced, pressed and grilled in bags in the freezer section)
25g butter
2 eggs
1 oz grated cheese (Leerdamer is very popular here)

You will need a skillet with a tightly fitting lid.

Cook the mushrooms and bacon together in a pan over a medium heat until the mushrooms are nicely cooked in the bacon fat. Remove and set aside. Lower the heat and scrape the pan carefully and add the butter. Lay in two large slices of aubergine.

Then ever so carefully, pile on the mushrooms and bacon bits in a heap on each one, then make a little well in the middle so there's a little bacon/mushroom fortress surrounding a little space. Crack the eggs into the well. (Don't worry if the egg white oozes out a little.) Lay on top the other two slices of eggplant to form a lid. Top with the grated leerdamer. Add about 2 tbsps of water to the pan, and clap on the tight-fitting lid. Allow it all to cook, keeping the heat down, for about 10 minutes or until all the cheese is melted and the egg is cooked inside.

Dress on the side with a tablespoon or so of Mexican salsa and another of sour cream (Very difficult to find, but shows up occasionally, other wise plain Greek yogurt makes a good s. cream substitute.)

Eat.

You won't be sorry.



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