I was looking through Yotam Ottolenghi's Plenty the other day and re-discovered an eggplant dish that I had noted previously. So, it's been on my cooking to-do list for some time. Then there were these beautiful, smooth-skinned eggplants in the market. . . . You know the rest. Ottolenghi suggests these as a starter, but we found that they made a wonderful full meal. Served slightly warm the combination of the creamy eggplant and the buttermilk sauce was ...well,perfection.
EGGPLANT WITH BUTTERMILK SAUCE
(serves 4 as a starter)
- 2 large and long eggplants
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1 1/2 tsp lemon thyme leaves, plus a few whole sprigs to garnish
- Maldon sea salt and black pepper
- pomegranate seeds
- 1 tsp za'tar
Sauce
- 9 TBS buttermilk
- 1/2 cup Green yogurt
- 1 1/2 TBS olive oil, plus a drizzle to finish
- 1 small garlic clove, crushed
- pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways, Make three or four parallel incisions in the cut side of each eggplant half, without cutting through to the skin. Repeat at a 45-degree angle to get a diamond-shaped pattern.
Place the eggplant halves, cut side up, on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Brush them with olive oil until all of the oil has been absorbed. Sprinkle with the lemon thyme leaves and some salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, at which point the flesh should be soft and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and allow to cool down completely.
Make the sauce by whisking together all of the ingredients. Taste for seasoning, then keep cold until needed.
To serve, spoon plenty of buttermilk sauce over the eggplant halves without covering the stalks. Sprinkle za'atar and plenty of pomegranate seeds on top and garnish with lemon thyme. Finish with a drizzle of oil.
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