At Cooking on the Bay Cooking School, I always stress to the class that we are cooking for FLAVOUR! We aim to bring out the best in the marvellous ingredients we are using. It is the flavour that makes our food taste so good and it is what differentiates good cooks from poor ones. The good cook takes ten minutes to slowly braise the onions to develop their best, unctuous, caramelised FLAVOUR.
The aubergine is such a flavourful, versatile vegetable; we cook it in countless ways, and eat it on its own, as an accompaniment, as a filling, as a replacement for a lasagne sheet, a dressing, a dip and a condiment. Methods of cooking it include roasting, pan-frying, smoking and grilling. In his new book ‘Flavour’, (2020), Yotam Ottolenghi includes many aubergine recipes, concluding that smoking and grilling bring out its best umami flavour; and flavour is what his book is all about! When smoking it, he encourages you to be brave and leave the aubergine over the open fire, on a barbecue, in a grilled, Le Creuset style pan or in a very hot oven until it is totally deflated and almost burnt. It is only then, he says, that you will enjoy the ‘silky strands of intense flavour in a multitude of exciting ways!’
In this simple salad he adds his smoky, silky aubergine cream dressing to excite and tease your tastebuds. Any leftover aubergine cream, I have used as a dip which is delicious teamed with a variety of crudités.
The salad is simply iceberg wedges, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, thinly sliced rainbow radishes, avocadoes, chives, almond and pumpkin seeds, sea salt, cracked pepper, optional chilli flakes; the salad is dressed with his smoky aubergine cream. I loved the flavours and colours with the greens, red and white radishes, the creamy and green avocadoes, the textures of the crisp radishes and the crunchy green iceberg lettuce, topped off with the umami-rich smoky flavour of the aubergine cream.
With a thank you to my darling daughter, Yolanda, for giving me the book for Christmas, 2020.
Ingredients:
The salad
Crisp iceberg lettuce cut into 12 wedges
40g finely sliced multi coloured radishes
2 avocadoes
3tbsp chives
sea salt and freshly cracked pepper, freshly 25g grated Parmigiano Regianno
60ml extra virgin olive oil.
The aubergine cream
2 medium aubergines, about 600g
2½ tbsp lemon juice
1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
50g Greek yoghurt
2 tsp Dijon mustard
60ml olive oil
1 tbsp olive oil
Sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper
Garnish
1tbsp olive oil
60g roughly chopped almonds
50g pumpkin seeds
¼ tsp sea salt
⅓ tsp chilli flakes
extra virgin olive oil
Method:
To make the aubergine cream: put a well-greased Le Creuset style, grill pan on a high heat and turn on your kitchen evacuator! Pierce the aubergines with a skewer seven or eight times all over and, when the pan is smoking, grill them for about 45 minutes, turning occasionally, until the outsides are completely charred and the insides soft.
Transfer to a sieve set over a bowl and, once cool enough to handle, remove the flesh; discard the stems and as much of the charred skin as you can. Measure out 200g aubergine flesh, and reserve any excess for another use.
Transfer to a food processor with the remaining cream ingredients, half a teaspoon of sea salt and a good grind of black pepper, and blitz smooth. Check seasonings again.
This will store in an airtight container in the refrigerator for about 5 or so days.
For the garnish: toss the chopped almonds with 1 tbsp olive oil and cook for a minute or 2, add the pumpkin seeds and salt and cook for 30 seconds
To assemble the salad: plate the salad as a ‘salade composée’ on a large platter and in one layer. Place the iceberg wedges around the plate, drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle with sea salt and pepper. Spoon over the aubergine cream, and top with the Parmigiano Regianno, finely sliced radishes and avocado. Finish with some more extra virgin olive oil, the chives and the crunchy garnish.
And as a dip: any left-over aubergine cream, serve as a dip with crudités of carrot and celery sticks, cucumbers, radishes, red and green capsicums.
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