Marinated Aubergine Inspired by Honey & Co

We've been on a middle eastern kinda kick recently, having first watched Ottolenghi's Mediterranean Feast. After catching it on TV, I immediately made a reservation at the highly recommended Honey & Co. Opened by the husband and wife team of Itamar Srulovich and Sarit Packer who have both been chefs in one of Ottelenghi's restaurant in London, they aim to bring childhood memories of home cooked food to the masses.This is what they've done with fresh, clean, well balanced, simple dishes that burst with flavours! The cakes are magnificent too! Even though we've only tried the very moist and moreish chestnut cake, i've heard rave reviews of some of the other items especially the Chocolate Krantz Cake.(search for it and I'm sure you'll be happy just looking at it!) We will definitely be going back soon to check out the rest of the menu.

Very Appetising Marinated aubergine that gets the tastebuds moving

Melt in the mouth Ox cheek sofrito with quince and bay leaves

Tender Pomegranate molasses chicken, served with a texture and flavour amazing cracked wheat salad with pistachios and barberries

Warm, moreish and moist Chestnut cake, salted caramel sauce, vanilla cream

My Lovely hubby then surprised me with Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi latest cookbook, Jerusalem but not before I tried making the marinated aubergines. Once I get some basic middle eastern ingredients such as Pomegranate molasses, barberries, sumac and zatar, I'll be so 'getting my hands dirty' cooking from this book!

Ingredients (From Delicious Days)

3 medium sized aubergine

olive oil for brushing

fine sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Marinade:

5 tbsp olive oil

5 tbsp lemon juice

1 small red chili

3-4 tbsp finely chopped coriander

1-2 garlic cloves

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

Method

1) Preheat the oven to 200°C (~390° Fahrenheit) and line a baking tray with parchment paper. Trim both ends of the aubergine, then cut each in two equal sized halves width-ways. Now cut each piece into six to eight wedges, depending on the aubergine's  initial size. Key is to obtain (almost) equally sized wedges.

2) Generously brush the wedges with olive oil, place on the tray (skin side down) and season with sea salt and black pepper. Bake in the oven (middle level) for 20 to 25 minutes or until the tips have turned brown and the wedges feel soft to the touch.

3) Meanwhile prepare the marinade: In a large bowl mix together the olive oil, lemon juice, chopped red chili, chopped coriander, chopped garlic, sea salt and black pepper. Set aside.

4) As soon as the aubergines are done, dump them into the bowl of marinade while still hot and carefully stir (the wedges should not be mashed!) until everything is well covered. Serve after an hour at room temperature, or keep in the fridge (in a container) for some days. Enjoy with bread.

Panko crusted eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce

In addition to the Negi Miso Chicken I mentioned in my last post, i also made some Panko crusted aubergine/eggplant with Sesame Ponzu sauce to go with it. I actually combined 2 recipes(Eggplant with Sesame Ponzu Sauce and the Eggplant Parmesan with Meat Sauce) I came across on Nami's Just One Cookbook Blog for this dish so I think I may have bastardise her recipes. Hope you don't mind, Nami! 

I just made a trip to the Japan centre supermarket in London(it's not often that I shop there) and bought myself a pack of Panko breadcrumbs as well as a bottle of Ponzu. As always, I was excited to use these new ingredients so I thought why not combine both to create a somewhat new dish. It actually worked quite well as the eggplants were a little oily from being deep fried so it was balanced off by the sourness of the Ponzu sauce which cuts through the oil nicely.

Adapted from Just One Cookbook
Ingredients
1 medium eggplant/aubergine
1 spring onion, chopped
Flour
2 eggs,beaten
Panko
Oil for frying


Dressing
2 tbsp Ponzu
1 Tbsp Sesame Oil
1 pinch of salt


Method
1) In a small bowl, combine all ingredients for the dressing and set aside in the fridge until ready to serve.
2) Cut the eggplant into 1/3 inch thick rounds and soak in water for 10 mins. According to Nami, this will get rid of the tart taste and prevent the eggplant from changing colour.
3) Dry the eggplants with paper towels.
4) Dip eggplant in flour, shake off the excess, then dip it in egg, again, shaking off the excess. Finally dredge it in panko until evenly coated. Side this aside and continue with the rest of the slices.
5) In a large non stick frying pan, heat 1/4 inch of oil on high heat. When the oil is hot but not smoking, deep fry the eggplants until golden brown. When it's done, transfer them onto a plate with paper towels so that the excess oil can be soaked up.
6) Placed eggplants on the serving plate, sprinkle spring onions over it and either dip the eggplant into the sauce to eat or pour the dressing over the eggplants to serve.