When we cook 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 which makes our food taste so good and it is what differentiates good cooks from poor ones. The good cook takes the ten minutes to slowly braise the onions to develop their best, unctuous, caramelised FLAVOUR.
The aubergine is such a flavourful, versatile vegetable; we cook and eat it in countless ways, 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 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 that you will enjoy the ‘silky strands of intense flavour in a multitude of exciting ways!’
Recently for dinner guests, I made Yotam’s simple salad of iceberg wedges, grated Parmigiano Reggiano, thinly sliced 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 yellow of the avocadoes, the textures of the crisp radishes and the crunchy garnish, topped off with the umami-rich smoky flavour of the aubergine.
There was plenty of the aubergine cream left-over and so I served it a couple of days later as a dip and my guests loved it as a dip as well!
With a thank you to my darling daughter, Yolanda, for giving me the book for Christmas.
Ingredients:
2 medium aubergines, about 600g
50ml 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
A thread of 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.
I served it with crudités of carrot and celery sticks, cucumbers, radishes, red and green capsicums.
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- Aubergine Cream
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- Aubergines ready to smoke
