Friday, April 4, 2014

Perfectly simple, delicious and colourful starter

A starter we had the other day, simple, delicious and beautiful, with all those gorgeous summer hang-ons:
mellow yellow tomatoes, herbs, Moroccan-style eggplant cooked with garlic and cumin, roasted capsicums, and olives to garnish. Worthy of being painted!
Postscript: I've been asked how we prepared the eggplant, so here goes: using a vegetable peeler, remove 1 cm wide strips of skin along the length of each eggplant. Cut the eggplant into 1 cm slices. With our home-grown eggplants, we didn't need to do the next step(in italics) but with shop-bought ones you will have to. Sprinkle with salt and layer the slices in a colander. Leave for around 20 mins, then wash under cold water, drain, then pat dry with paper towels.
Heat olive oil in a frying pan and fry the eggplant slices in batches until browned on each side and set aside on a plate. Add more oil to the pan as needed. After all eggplants are browned, cook 2 garlic cloves, finely chopped, over low heat for a few seconds. Add paprika, cumin, and pepper--or a little fresh chilli--then add the eggplant slices back to the pan and cook, mashing them gently with a fork(but not too mashed!)Continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add some chopped coriander and lemon juice--and serve! Can be served hot, warm or cold.

2 comments:

  1. Lovely! So, can you give us the recipe for the eggplant dish or is this something we simply need to create ourselves? I do experimental cooking too, but I have never really done well with eggplant and it's so good for you, not to mention a good thing to cook for vegetarian guests.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Sue, I've just updated the post with the eggplant recipe--enjoy!

    ReplyDelete