Fancy aubergine (eggplant) fries
I’m opening a new topic here for the next few weeks and that’s cookbook reviews!
Reviewing cookbooks is something new for me as well as cooking more than one dish from any cookbook I own, but over the past months I’ve been looking at the my shelves packed with books I’ve bought (and paid a fortune for), but rarely cook from, and started feeling a little guilty. So the last few weeks I’ve done nothing else than cook from the books I have and jeez what an experience that was.
For starters it just goes on to say how many useless and poorly written cookbooks are out there. Surely they have nice looking, styled to perfection dishes, but so so many recipes have not been tested enough and sometimes miss clear instructions on the seasoning, which in my humble opinion is crucial to any dish.
To sum up, I’ve had a few fails, one or two quite epic, but also a plenty of delicious dishes. Most of all, I’ve got plenty of inspiration to create my own recipes, to try new flavor combinations and all that comes along with, which for me has always been the main criteria in judging how good a cookbook is.
I’ve had every bit of intension to write down the first review today, but as Ieva and I were photo shooting all the things yesterday (what’s a cookbook review without showcasing at least one dish from it anyway?), after a few glasses of wine we’ve got inspired to do some creative plating and this is what we’ve come up with.
In fact, this is nothing more than simple aubergine fries (which on their own are rather divine) with a couple of easy relishes, all done in a matter of minutes and quite the definition of comfort food, but with the help of a few brushes and patience in arranging comfort food can look rather fancy? Can’t it?
- 2 large aubergines (eggplants)
- 100 grams flour
- 100-200 ml sunflower oil
- salt
- Large bunch of fresh coriander (cilantro)(3-4 handfuls)
- 1 -2 chili peppers, chopped
- 1-2 tablespoons pistachios
- 1-2 cloves roasted garlic
- dash of lime
- salt
- 5 tablespoons
- Extra virgin olive oil
- 3-6 tablespoons yogurt
- To make the relish base: first roast the garlic skin on in the oven under a grill or simply on a griddle pan until the inside is soft. As garlic likeness depends on personal taste, add 1 roasted garlic clove a first and the second if needed.
- Next, pound the coriander with pistachios, garlic, chili and a little dash of olive oil into a fine paste and divide in half.
- Mix one half with yogurt, season with salt and lime juice according to taste.
- For the other half drizzle more olive oil continuously beating till it looks like pesto. You can add more pistachios, coriander or chili as needed. Season with salt and add a dash of lime juice just before serving, otherwise the acid might turn coriander black.
- To make the fries, slice the aubergine as shown in the photo and coat with flour. Heat the oil in a deep pan and fry the coated aubergine slices in batches until golden brown, turning them all the time to get an even crisp. Then quickly transfer them onto a paper towel to absorb excess oil and sprinkle lightly with salt. Take care to watch the salt levels on the fries and in both relishes.
- To get this fancy looking dish, brush the center of the plate first with pesto, then slightly overlapping with yogurt sauce. Carefully arrange the aubergine slices on top and decorate with some cress.
- Alternatively, just serve a bowl of aubergine fries with two dipping sauces on the side. Enjoy!
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That’s why I made myself promise to cook at least one thing from the magazine that I buy
These eggplant fries are really fancy..
Scrumptious! So prettily presented.
Cheers,
Rosa
those look awesome, I don’t cook much with eggplant, but I think I would really like these.
Love your plating, these eggplant fries look delicious. I’m looking forward to your reviews!
Very interesting…i would never thought that this could be done! Beautiful fries, very tasty looking and your presentation is stunning! Well done!
I do love aubergine and your recipe is really creative!
I totally agree with you about there being so many poorly-written, unimaginative and shoddy cookbooks. Cookbooks need to show passion, soul and skill or else they are just boring and even make me a little bit sad. I like cookbooks that can be bedtime reading as much as anything else – tomes packed with information and inspiration.
Yes I have my failures following recipes from books. Now I am very careful when I make something from a book. These eggplants look very crispy and delicious!
I honeslty never want to eat potato fries again my friend – these look wonderful
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
I am a big fan of aubergines and these look fabulous. I have never seen them prepared this way. Thank you for sharing this wonderful idea. I am looking forward to read about cookery books!
Eggplant fries – Yes, please! Love the way you presented it! So so pretty!
You are right about some cookbooks.
Note to Danes who cook from scratch: Don’t buy the US-ones that are full of a can of this- and a pack of that-stuff you don’t know what is – and may not want to eat, especially if you knew!
your eggplant fries look so crispy! i love the presentation, definitely fancy
Wonderful presentation! I so agree. So many cookbooks, but very few with truly amazing recipes. Thanks for the post.
This is a dream come true for eggplant lovers like me! Sounds wonderful and I’d love to try this. I can already imagine the flavors…. probably I’ll be addicted to this for a while! Great presentation and photos!
What gorgeous-looking frie–I would definitely eat these! Gorgeous presentation too.
Great presentation here – and inspiration from the wine: lot to be said about that, Lol. Cheers to your fancy aubergine!
oooh those look goood! Can I have some?
beautiful plating! Love the swipe of pesto!