This is a bit of a play on words - au couteau means prepared with a knife and is a term used for steak tar tar, ‘au couteau,’ prepared by hand with a knife - if you ever see this on a menu it's fabulous! So I've applied the same concept to eggplant caviar and instead of pureying it in a food processor, we just mince it up by hand with a knife and fork which makes for a chunkier consistency.
The most important thing about this recipe is using fresh shiny eggplants- don't bother making it if you can't find nice firm
Shiny fresh eggplants as the older squishy ones are too bitter.
Serves 4-6 as a dip
Ingredients:
2 whole medium firm shiny eggplants
6-8 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons nice quality extra virgin olive oil
Fleur de sel finishing salt
3 of 4 color mix of fresh ground peppercorns
1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon Fresh Basil à la chiffonnade
Start by heating your oven to 375 degrees
Poke a few holes in the whole eggplants to avoid them exploding in the oven. Put them in the back of the oven for 35 minutes or until soft all the way through.
Cut the garlic cloves in half, leaving the skins on and place in a small baking dish with a drizzle of high heat oil, sunflower or other non flavored oil. Bake for 35 minutes in the middle of the oven until soft and lightly browned.
Take out the eggplants - they should be very soft, and let them cool for 4-5 minutes. The garlic may need an additional 5 minutes, it should be soft and light brown.
Cut the eggplants down one side to open them up - keeping the skins in tact as they make a nice presentation with the caviar or eggplant meat served inside the eggplants skins. Either remove all the inside flesh with a spoon or scrape it away from the skins leaving it inside the skins - chopping it into a chunky mince adding the olive oil, salt, pepper, the roasted garlic, lemon and fresh basil. Serve warm or cold as a dip on bread.
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