This is one of my favourite things my mum made us when we were younger. I believe it’s a Spanish dish that came from someone on my dad’s side of the family but I remember getting so excited when my mum would say we were having the “aubergine thing” for dinner!
It’s basically a white sauce poured over ham, prawns and aubergine, topped with a boatload of cheese…so you can’t really go wrong. I guess you could eat this with some bread for dipping, but I usually have it on it’s own, bubbly and hot from the oven.
Prawn, Serrano ham & Aubergine bake
Ingredients
Instructions
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Preheat your oven to 200C/400C.
Slice the aubergine into rounds, about 1cm thick. Coat the slices in the 4 tbsp flour and fry gently in the olive oil over a medium heat. Make sure you can’t see any of the flour left on the aubergines and they’ve started to turn a little brown. Arrange the cooked aubergine on the bottom of the dishes in an even layer.
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Dice the ham and half the prawns into smaller bite size pieces. Sprinkle both over the aubergine layer.
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In a nonstick saucepan, make a white béchamel sauce: melt the butter in the pan over medium- low heat, and sprinkle over the 3 tbsp of plain flour. Whisk together until you can’t see any flour left. Take off the heat and add the milk, whisking constantly. Pop the pan back on the heat and keep whisking until the sauce starts to thicken. Sprinkle in the nutmeg, 1/2 tsp salt and 1/4 tsp pepper.
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Once your sauce has thickened, pour it over the aubergine, ham & shrimp. Give the dish a little shake so it coats everything evenly. Cover with the grated gruyere.
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Bake in the oven for 20-30 minutes, until the top gets really bubbly and enjoy!
Notes
Equipment need:
- Individual oven proof dishes - I use Spanish clay dishes
- Large frying pan
