Mike van de Elzen: Smokey marinated eggplant with yoghurt and tahini dressing

Smokey marinated eggplant with yoghurt and tahini dressing 

Cook time: 20 minutes 

Prep time: 20 minutes 

Serves: 4-6 

2 eggplants, sliced length ways into 1cm thick slices  

1 cup oregano leaves  

2 cups coriander leaves  

1/2 tsp smoked paprika  

3 cloves garlic, peeled  

Juice of one lemon  

Flaky salt  

1 fresh chilli de-seeded  

3 tbsp olive oil  

Garlic yoghurt dressing  

150gm plain yoghurt  

2 tsp tahini paste  

2 cloves garlic, crushed  

2 tbsp olive oil

Sea salt 

Brush the sliced eggplant with a little bit of oil before grilling over a hot BBQ or Engel fire until well coloured and tender.  

Place the rest of the ingredients into a blender and blitz until smooth.  

Spoon the marinade over the top of the eggplant and mix through until all the eggplant slices are covered. Set aside and allow to marinate for at least 30 minutes before serving.  

To make up the dressing simply, combine the yoghurt, tahini and garlic in a bowl, slowly whisk in the olive oil and season with a pinch of salt.  

Plate your eggplants and spoon over the yoghurt dressing.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News talks'b.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Time to Talk Food. I Love my Food and Mike
vander Elsen has website It's Good Food from Scratch dot
Code ont NZ. Now, Mike, I didn't realize. I know
all the night shades. I thought tomatoes potatoes, but the
aubergine is in that family too.

Speaker 3 (00:27):
It is. It is tweater like. I'm doing a bit
of research on it yesterday. And whilst that's termed as
a vegetable, technically it's also a berry.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Get out of here.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
Don't don't ask me why. It's something to do with
the seeds I saw them. I'm sure there's someone else
out there that would know better than what I would.

Speaker 2 (00:47):
Wow, that's weird, isn't it. What would you do with
an aubergine these days?

Speaker 3 (00:51):
Well, I was going to I was going to quiz
you Roman, but you jumped the gun on naming the vegetable,
so I was going to go. It's most commonly purple
with a spongy texture. It's used globally in very different
culinary creations. The Greeks bacon and their mousaka, the French
included in their classic lapati and the Turks use it

(01:12):
and probably one of my favorite dishes. And I was
tossing up whether to do this dish today or this
one that's coming right now. It's called in the It
is the less oh yum spiced curried eggplant Yum?

Speaker 2 (01:28):
Is it really tricky and fancy pants? Will it just
take me days and days?

Speaker 3 (01:31):
No? Okay, maybe I'll do it next week. What do
you reckon if we're if we're still on eggplant trails,
I'll do in the ANBOLDI next week.

Speaker 2 (01:39):
Okay, all right? So what else? What are we doing
today with the with the aubergine eggplant? Why do we
change the name from allbergene to eggplant?

Speaker 3 (01:47):
Well, I think aubergine is the French culinary term for it.
The eggplant is probably the English slash American coulory term
for it.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
Okay, all right, So what are we doing this?

Speaker 3 (01:56):
The corset and the zucchini very nice?

Speaker 2 (02:01):
Yeah, that's true. I love those two.

Speaker 3 (02:03):
Yeah. Okay, So smoky marinated egg plant with a yogat dressing,
because that sounds jolly delicious on a Sunday afternoon. Take
two egg cluants, cut them length ways. One tendimeter thick.
I just take a bit of oil, doesn't matter. Just
get some some flour or brush it on there. Heat
up your barbfu're an angle fire really hot, and then

(02:24):
put your sliced eggplants onto them and then color them
up until they wow colored and tend to take them off,
set them to a side, and then into a blender.
You want to put a cup of fresh oregano leaves.
They're around plentiful at the moment, two cups of crayander leaves,
half a teaspoon of smoke cupreger. That's the smoky element.
We're adding in three clothes of garlic, the juice of

(02:45):
one ready juicy lemon, some blaky salt and chili that's
been deceeded, three tablespoons of olive oil. Chuck that into
a blend that blitz it all up, and then rub
that all over your chargrelled egg clant and allow that
to marinate for at least thirty minutes. The dressing super simple.
Take one hundred and fifty grands of playing yogurt, add
two teaspoons tini taste too close a garicent's to get

(03:08):
crushed up, and then westkin two tablespoons of olive or
and maybe a pinch of salt. Once the air claps
be marinated, you're good to go. So use that sorr
impact on the side of the road and all these
cars suddenly use it to as in a compliment to
maybe some grilled fish, maybe some tunea, maybe some salmon,

(03:29):
maybe some chicken, or even just some grilled halloomi, or
use it as a salad by itself stand alone. It
is honestly, try this romance and come back to me
with what you think, because I think it's just sensation.

Speaker 2 (03:42):
It does sound absolutely delicious. I think a lot of
people are making this up. But I think a lot
of people walk into the supermarket and they stare at
the aubergines and then they walk along and they grab broccoli.
And to have a good, simple recipe like this that
you can actually make and really enjoy just might inspire
people to get back into the love of the allbergine.
What do you reckon?

Speaker 3 (04:01):
Yeah, I think so, and go on to the days
where you know, we need to soak our aubergines like
slice aubergines in salt to draw out. But because they've
grown the business out of the ubergine, so that steps
no longer required, so don't be afraid of the aubergine exactly.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
I love this and I actually am genuinely going to
try this because I'm a big fan of the aubergine.
I love my Bubba Ganooshian stuff like that. Now, Mike,
is this available on your website?

Speaker 3 (04:25):
Yeah? Good, some scratch or it'll be on New Films today.

Speaker 2 (04:27):
Oh yeah, brilliant. Good on you, Mike van Dervelsen. There,
Vanda Elsen, what a beautiful recipe. If you don't like aubergine,
if you never try to try doing something like this,
and go to Good from Scratch dot co dot nz
to grab that.

Speaker 1 (04:39):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to News Talk ZREB from nine am Sunday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio