It is said, "Never judge a book by its cover", but that rule definitely does not apply to this cookbook. This is a simple yet phenomenal recipe from a master chef that brought Palestinian food to the world.
This is a simple recipe but it always has a massive impact visually on the table. Bright with the pomegranate seeds, creamy from the yoghurt and earthy from the roasted eggplants, this dish is a perfect combination of texture and flavour. I am a big fan of eggplant, especially since I discovered that you can grill them easily in the oven without too much oil. This is a recipe that I cannot stop eating, so I tend to make just enough of it to give my guests a taste.
This cookbook was the first one in my Ottolenghi collection, I now have all the others, and it brought to my table beautiful flavours and opened my mind to great recipes. Most of the recipes are simple, but each dish is fabulous. I have cooked more than half the recipes from this cookbook, I do need to post from here more often.
For more fabulous recipes from this cookbook, click here.
Ingredients:
For the eggplants:
8-10 baby Japanese eggplants, slit longitudinally keeping the stems
Olive oil spray
Salt, to taste
1/2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon thyme or lemon thyme, fresh or dried
Zata'ar spice blend
Pomegranate seeds
For the buttermilk sauce:
9 tablespoons buttermilk or yoghurt
A generous glug of olive oil
! garlic clove, finely minced
Salt, to taste
Combine all the ingredients for the buttermilk dressing and set aside for the garlic to permeate the yoghurt. If using yoghurt, add a touch of water to get a runny dressing.
Heat the oven to 375 ° F.
Line the eggplants on a lined baking sheet and spray with olive oil. Sprinkle with thyme, salt and pepper. bake for about 25-30 minutes until the eggplants are well cooked and soft. Remove and cool.
to serve, arrange the eggplants on a wide flat platter. Drizzle the buttermilk dressing and sprinkle the zata'ar mix and pomegranate seeds. serve as an appetizer.