I’ve written about Yotam Ottolenghi here before. He is one of my favorite cookbook authors and his newer vegetable cookbook Flavor, written with Ixta Belfrfage, has quickly earned a prominent place on my cookbook shelves.
Ottolenghi has written a number of best-selling cookbooks. Flavor is the third in his vegetable series after previously-published Plenty and Plenty More. In Flavor, you’ll find a lot of recipes showcasing Middle Eastern ingredients (Ottolenghi is Israeli by birth) but also recipes with many other international influences. Flavor is available to purchase at your local bookstore or on Amazon.
Part of Ottolenghi’s “magic,” as a chef and recipe developer, is his enthusiasm for presenting foods in a vast variety of ways. Interestingly, in the introduction to Flavor, he confesses to grappling with the pressure to come up with new ways to present vegetables: “I must confess to a small niggling doubt that creeps in now and then. How many more ways are there to fry an eggplant, to slice a tomato, to squeeze a lemon, or to roast a cauliflower? How many more secrets are there to be discovered in a handful of lentils or a bowl of polenta? The answer, I’m delighted to report, is many.”
I own all of his cookbooks and I’m in awe of the number of very different recipes he presents for eggplant, for example. I confess that eggplant was not always one of my favorite foods. Don’t get me wrong, it wasn’t in a league of kale for me but it wasn’t a vegetable I would call a favorite. Ottolenghi has changed my mind.
This Stuffed Eggplant in Curry and Coconut Dal is a stellar recipe. You can find the link to the original recipe (published in The Guardian) here.
Stuffed Eggplant In Curry and Coconut Dal
Ingredients
- For the Eggplant
- 3 large eggplants (washed and sliced lengthwise into generous 1/4 inch thick slices)
- 3 T. olive oil
- Salt and pepper
- For the Coconut Dal
- 3 T. olive oil
- 5 shallots (peeled and chopped finely)
- 1 1/2 oz. fresh ginger (peeled and turned into a paste in your processor)
- 2 red chiles (chopped finely)
- 30 fresh curry leaves(optional)
- 1 t. black mustard seeds
- 1 t. ground cumin
- 1 t. ground coriander
- 1/2 t. ground turmeric
- 2 t. curry powder
- 2 t. tomato paste
- 1/4 c. dried red lentils (washed)
- 1 13.5 oz. coconut milk
- 2 1/2 c. water (or more)
- 3/4 t. salt
- For the Stuffing for the Eggplant
- 8 oz. grated paneer (or firm tofu)
- 2 limes ( zested and juiced to 2 T. fresh juice)
- 1 1/2 oz. hot mango pickle (roughly chopped)
- 1/4 C. cilantro (roughly chopped)
- Salt
- 3 1/2 oz. spinach leaves (medium-sized leaves)
- 1 T. olive oil
Directions
- Step 1 Prepare two baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.
- Step 2 Slice eggplants and toss with oil and salt and pepper in a large bowl. Once you have tossed the eggplant slices in the oil, lay them out on the prepared baking sheets and bake at 450 degrees F. for 25 minutes (turn the slices over at about 12 minutes). Remove from oven and set aside to cool.
- Step 3 To prepare the dal, heat oil in a large pan and saute shallots for about 8 minutes until the shallots are beginning to brown. Add the ginger paste, half the sliced chiles and half the curry leaves to the sauteed shallots and cook for about 2 more minutes. Add all the spices, tomato paste and lentils to the pan and stir. Add the coconut milk, water and salt to the pan, bring the mixture to a boil (decreasing the temperature to a medium simmer after it boils) and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. You want the sauce to thicken and the lentils should become soft. Pour this lentil sauce mixture into a baking dish and set aside.
- Step 4 Prepare the stuffing for the eggplant. Add the grated paneer (or tofu), the lime zest, 1 T. of the lime juice, the mango pickle, cilantro and 1/4 t. salt together. Stir. Set aside.
- Step 5 Clean spinach leaves and remove the stems. Place one spinach leaf on top of a slice of the cooked eggplant. Spoon 1 large tablespoon of the filling on top of the spinach leaf (You can use less filling if your eggplant slices are smaller.) and fold the eggplant, starting from the small end) until you have rolled the eggplant into a compessed roll. Set rolls aside. Place the eggplant rolls on top of the dal sauce and press them gently into the sauce. (Do not submerge the rolls into the sauce.) Bake the eggplant rolls and sauce for 15 to 20 minutes at 450 degrees F. You want the sauce to be bubbling hot and the rolls to be browning to a golden brown color. Remove the rolls and sauce from the oven and allow them to cool on the counter for 5 minutes.
- Step 6 Heat 1 T. olive oil in a shallow pan over medium-high heat. Add remaining red chile slices and curry leaves. Fry for about a minute until the curry leaves become crisp. Just before serving, pour this oil sauce over the eggplant rolls and drizzle the rolls with remaining 1 T. lime juice. Garnish with chopped cilantro.
