The humble eggplant. Made in so many guises. This one’s a side dish, or it could be a vegetarian entrée (it does have Feta cheese in it) if you served just one of those per person. Prepare to be surprised at the flavors in this version.
When I was working on the menu for the Israeli dinner we did awhile back, I had fun going through Ottolenghi and Tamimi’s book, Jerusalem: A Cookbook
Our dinner group is comprised of 4 couples. The hostess chooses the theme or menu, and can leave each cook to her own devices to find an appropriate recipe, or in this case, since I wanted us to cook a full meal from this cookbook, I chose the recipes myself and sent them out. Initially I thought this eggplant might be part of our first food – a mezze. As it turned out we had 2 mezze items already so the eggplant was cut into thirds and everyone had a nice-sized chunk of it with our dinner. Peggy made this dish earlier in the day. We served it at room temp.
The chefs wrote a fairly long introduction prior to this recipe, about the eggplant. I’m going to type it here because I found it so interesting (the emphases below are mine):
Few ingredients have reached the level of veneration achieved by the humble eggplant or have found their way to almost every table in Jerusalem, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Everybody loves to be associated with the eggplant – it’s like a little local celebrity. The number of people who claim to have invented baba ghanoush, or at least elevated it to the level of fine food, is extraordinary.
At the markets in the city, the eggplants come in a wide range of shapes and sizes, from the regular kind, elongated and uniform in size, to zebra – streaked on the outside and pure white on the inside, baby eggplants; globe eggplants; and the baladi, a local heirloom variety that is wide, flat and resembles an open fan.
Eggplants, depending on variety, lend themselves to pickling, stuffing, cooking in sauce, frying, baking, roasting, charring, burning, pureeing and even cooking in sugar and spice to make a festive jam (Moroccan) or fruit mostarda (Aleppine), a type of candied fruit conserved in a spicy syrup. They also marry beautifully with the flavors so typical of the city: tahini, pine nuts, date syrup, tomatoes, chickpeas, potatoes, lemon, garlic, lamb, fresh cheese and yogurt, olive oil, sumac, and cinnamon.
Arabs first brought eggplants to Italy and Spain, but it was the Jews who are said to have introduced them to these cuisines when moving and trading among the Arab, Moorish and Christian cultures in the 15th and 16th centuries. Sephardic Jews have always been identified with eggplants, as were Arabs, even when Europeans were quite suspicious of them and were reluctant to use them, believing that “mad apples,” as they were known, induced insanity. . . . from Jerusalem: A Cookbook
This eggplant dish, really quite simple actually, has you roast the halved eggplant in a hot oven, scoring the open surfaces a little, until they’re golden brown. Onions are cooked separately until they develop an almost caramel look and flavor, and they’re mixed with some mild green chiles and the spices: cumin and sumac. And lastly, some Feta is added in. This mixture is spread on the roasted eggplant and a topping is made using the fresh pulp and juice of a lemon, some of the green chile and garlic. That’s drizzled over the top and allowed to sit out until serving time. Can be served warm, or at room temperature. The only precaution mentioned in the recipe is that eggplant can dry out when roasted (probably because eggplants are not uniform in size) so they suggest you place a shallow pan of water in the oven to help keep the eggplant hydrated.
What’s GOOD: certainly this dish is different, but except for the sumac, it’s ordinary ingredients to most home cooks. I loved the combination – the soft flavorful eggplant with the browned onions and Feta. It has ample umami flavor. Also good that it can be made a few hours ahead of time – always nice if you’re cooking for guests.
What’s NOT: can’t think of anything. We liked it.
MasterCook 5+ file and MasterCook 14 file
Roasted Eggplant With Fried Onion and Chopped Lemon
Recipe By: From Jerusalem: A Cookbook, by Ottolenghi & Tamimi
Serving Size: 4
1 2/3 pounds eggplant, halved, stems intact if possible
2/3 cup olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 whole yellow onions — thinly sliced (about 1 1/4 pounds)
1 1/2 whole green chiles
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon sumac
1/3 cup feta cheese — broken into large chunks
1 medium lemon
1 clove garlic — crushed
Note: Will serve more than 4 if serving with a larger meal. Serves 4 as a main course.
1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Halve the eggplants lengthwise with the stems on. Score the cut side of each eggplant with a crisscross pattern. Brush the cut sides with 6 1/2 tablespoons of the oil and sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.
3. Roast on a baking sheet, cut side up, for about 45 minutes, until the flesh is golden brown. (A tip: Place a shallow pan of water at the bottom of the oven to prevent the eggplants from drying out.)
4. While the eggplants are roasting, add the remaining oil to a large frying pan and place over high heat. Add the onions and 1/2 teaspoon salt, and cook for 8 minutes, stirring often, so that parts of the onion get dark and crisp.
5. Seed and chop the chiles, keeping the whole chile separate from the half. Add the ground cumin, sumac, and the whole chopped chile, and cook for a further 2 minutes before adding the feta. Cook for a final minute, not stirring much, then remove from the heat. Use a small serrated knife to remove the skin and pith of the lemon. Coarsely chop the flesh, discarding the seeds, and place the flesh and any juices in a bowl with the remaining 1/2 chile and the garlic. Transfer the roasted halves to a serving dish, and spoon the lemon sauce over the flesh. Warm up the onions a little, and spoon over. Serve warm or set aside to come to room temperature.
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Per Serving: 406 Calories; 39g Fat (83.4% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 14g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 11mg Cholesterol; 145mg Sodium.
Toffeeapple
said on October 20th, 2013:
Yum, I love Aubergines (as we call them)and am always on the look out for new ways to cook them. Thank you Carolyn. Mind you, there are 12 recipes in Ottolenghi’s “Plenty” that I have yet to try…
Well, this one was good. I won’t say that it was fantastic. I think my friend who made it didn’t add enough Feta – even as much as was in the recipe. I think she doesn’t like Feta, so I didn’t change the recipe or the instructions. But it was a satisfying dish and I liked it, certainly . . . carolyn t
Sue
said on July 5th, 2015:
I’m trying two versions … one as directed and the other without the lemon ‘sauce’ … I’m not convinced the latter will actually complement the dish. Also, I don’t know whether you tried it, but the “Roasted Sweet Potatoes and Fresh Figs” are amazing!
No, I haven’t tried that, I’ll have to take a look at it. Thanks for the recommendation. . . carolyn t