Alright, ya pyro: next time you wanna roast an eggplant, leave it whole and then roast it until it's blackened and blistered and collapsing.
Then scoop the innards out, mash 'em up a bit, put them in a pot with a heavy tight lid, make yourself a cup out of an onion (trim the roots down flat, slice off about 1/4 from the top, scoop out all but the outermost couple-few layers) and put a 3-4 generous tablespoons of (liquid) ghee in it. Nestle the onion cup into the mashed eggplant.
Then go get yourself a couple small-enough-to-fit-inside-the-onion pieces of clean terra-cotta from a broken pot, or else a few clean large-olive-sized pebbles. Shove the terra-cotta or the stones into a fire until they're as hot as they're gonna get, and then drop them into your ghee-filled onion cup and slam on the lid. Wait 15 minutes.
Mince some cilantro (coriander) and maybe zest a lemon while you wait. When the time's up, take the lid off the pot, take the rocks/terra-cotta out of the onion cup, pour the ghee into the eggplant, sprinkle with cilantro, lemon zest if you want, and salt.
Consume however seems good to you, although you could do worse than to scoop it up with warm flatbread.
Oh and: if you haven't made a beurre blanc with deeply caramelized shallots? Do. It won't be blanc any more of course but it is incredibly tasty. Try it with a lightly grilled bit of firm white fish, or a scallop or two if you have some to thread on a skewer and show to the fire for a few seconds.
Hanne, this is an absolute riot. Thanks so much. What does the hot terracotta bring to proceedings? Is it just heat transfer or any flavour at all? I'm all about novel ways of burning things and this sounds like my cup of tea.
Dropping the hot terracotta or pebbles into the ghee in the onion cup gives a flavor to the ghee that's somehow between browned and burnt butter, just a little toward that burnt edge. It works so well with the eggplant, which loves ghee in any case.
I learned this from watching a northern Indian home cook, who flavored a mild eggplant dish this way.
Hey Mary. Thanks for the question. The sunflower cream would certainly keep for 3 days if kept well refrigerated with plastic wrap directly on top of it in a container. Or you could just use sour cream like I mentioned to reduce the amount of work. Definitely the beets can be roasted well ahead. Certainly 3 days. But then ideally you would peel and chop them no more than the day before. How does that sound? I feel like the product may deteriorate a bit if they were chopped up three days ahead. Certainly still edible though. Please let me know if there's any other food holding questions you have. Very happy to help.
That's a really good point. Of course, prepping ahead is one of the biggest parts of restaurant cooking. I'll give some thought to what I could write about this. Thanks, Mary.
Lots of recipes for Christmas that can be made ahead in my latest newsletter, Mary. I had our conversation here in mind when I wrote it. Hope it's helpful.
Wonderful! I forget and heavily burn a huge pan garden beets every summer (I usually burn them less then freeze them whole for winter and spring meals), and I always scrape and eat them right away.. But deliberate and substantive blackening, with intention, sounds wonderful. I can't wait to try it.
Thanks so much. I'm on a mission to encourage everyone to add burning things to their repertoire of cooking techniques. I think the way you put it "deliberate and substantive blackening" might be my motto. Thanks, Cary.
This recipe sounds delicious, I love to cook beets and often burn them accidentally! In your recipe, are the beets wrapped in foil or placed on a sheet pan or just put directly in the oven? Please clarify - thanks!
Hey, good question. It's important not to cover them as this would only slow down the burning process and reduction of water content, so definitely no foil. Roasting them on a sheet pan would work just fine.
No problem. I'll put it this way, I've cooked a lot of beets in my time and never had one explode like potatoes occasionally do. But there's really no harm in piercing them to be extra safe.
I did make this as a starter for Christmas dinner. It was a smash hit -and that was from the people I expected to be underwhelmed by a meatless dish. Thank you for this luxurious recipe.
Mais oui , bien sur ! The burned beets with the ketchup and I used sauerkraut instead of pickled onions because it’s pissing with rain here and it was all I had , it tasted just like steak tartare made with aged beef
I try not to oversell things in life but I totally agree. Especially the first time I had a version of this at a restaurant I worked at, I thought it could have been beef as well.
Johnnie! So glad you gave it a try. What do you make of the burned beets? Oyster cream sounds like a really interesting diversion. Do you make that yourself?
I've just been writing about cooking over coals and a chef friend cane to mind. He'd been awarded something like Gourmet Traveller's Young Chef of the Year, but his thought on accolades was "I'm a chef. To degrees, I burn things for a living. "
Also laughed out loud on praise from Finns. In a past career one of my clients was Huhtamäki Oyj the global packaging giant. They were a very tough crowd.
I had the same reaction to the Finn joke. I’ve worked with Finnish clients and learned to catch the subtle but definitive praise. Also, their food is underrated. One client flew me out for a week, and the hotel brunch was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. I still think about the rhubarb custard cake. While there, I ate at another restaurant that served reindeer: delicious.
This is giving me ideas... What do you think about leaving out the ketchup, using brine-soaked and dehydrated crispy pumpkin seeds, fermented red onions in lime, and piima cream?
Sounds like some lovely substitutions to me, Lisa. Particularly if that piimä cream is thick and holds its shape nicely. I have certainly made it with and without ketchup, ive also used beetroot ketchup when I have had it in the past. It's a nice seasoning but only a small amount is used so not a major component.
Alright, ya pyro: next time you wanna roast an eggplant, leave it whole and then roast it until it's blackened and blistered and collapsing.
Then scoop the innards out, mash 'em up a bit, put them in a pot with a heavy tight lid, make yourself a cup out of an onion (trim the roots down flat, slice off about 1/4 from the top, scoop out all but the outermost couple-few layers) and put a 3-4 generous tablespoons of (liquid) ghee in it. Nestle the onion cup into the mashed eggplant.
Then go get yourself a couple small-enough-to-fit-inside-the-onion pieces of clean terra-cotta from a broken pot, or else a few clean large-olive-sized pebbles. Shove the terra-cotta or the stones into a fire until they're as hot as they're gonna get, and then drop them into your ghee-filled onion cup and slam on the lid. Wait 15 minutes.
Mince some cilantro (coriander) and maybe zest a lemon while you wait. When the time's up, take the lid off the pot, take the rocks/terra-cotta out of the onion cup, pour the ghee into the eggplant, sprinkle with cilantro, lemon zest if you want, and salt.
Consume however seems good to you, although you could do worse than to scoop it up with warm flatbread.
Oh and: if you haven't made a beurre blanc with deeply caramelized shallots? Do. It won't be blanc any more of course but it is incredibly tasty. Try it with a lightly grilled bit of firm white fish, or a scallop or two if you have some to thread on a skewer and show to the fire for a few seconds.
Hanne, this is an absolute riot. Thanks so much. What does the hot terracotta bring to proceedings? Is it just heat transfer or any flavour at all? I'm all about novel ways of burning things and this sounds like my cup of tea.
Dropping the hot terracotta or pebbles into the ghee in the onion cup gives a flavor to the ghee that's somehow between browned and burnt butter, just a little toward that burnt edge. It works so well with the eggplant, which loves ghee in any case.
I learned this from watching a northern Indian home cook, who flavored a mild eggplant dish this way.
How wonderful. Thanks so much for sharing. And the onion is discarded after being used as a butter cup?
Technically.
(I mean, one could eat it. I hear.)
How long will this hold. I would love this for Christmas dinner but would need to prep at least 3 days in advance
Hey Mary. Thanks for the question. The sunflower cream would certainly keep for 3 days if kept well refrigerated with plastic wrap directly on top of it in a container. Or you could just use sour cream like I mentioned to reduce the amount of work. Definitely the beets can be roasted well ahead. Certainly 3 days. But then ideally you would peel and chop them no more than the day before. How does that sound? I feel like the product may deteriorate a bit if they were chopped up three days ahead. Certainly still edible though. Please let me know if there's any other food holding questions you have. Very happy to help.
Thanks
As a home cook learning to prep and hold has always been a gap. Would be a great course for someone like you to offer us amateurs!
That's a really good point. Of course, prepping ahead is one of the biggest parts of restaurant cooking. I'll give some thought to what I could write about this. Thanks, Mary.
Lots of recipes for Christmas that can be made ahead in my latest newsletter, Mary. I had our conversation here in mind when I wrote it. Hope it's helpful.
Wonderful! I forget and heavily burn a huge pan garden beets every summer (I usually burn them less then freeze them whole for winter and spring meals), and I always scrape and eat them right away.. But deliberate and substantive blackening, with intention, sounds wonderful. I can't wait to try it.
Thanks so much. I'm on a mission to encourage everyone to add burning things to their repertoire of cooking techniques. I think the way you put it "deliberate and substantive blackening" might be my motto. Thanks, Cary.
This recipe sounds delicious, I love to cook beets and often burn them accidentally! In your recipe, are the beets wrapped in foil or placed on a sheet pan or just put directly in the oven? Please clarify - thanks!
Hey, good question. It's important not to cover them as this would only slow down the burning process and reduction of water content, so definitely no foil. Roasting them on a sheet pan would work just fine.
That’s a good clarification. Thanks!
Thank you for clarifying. Is there any need to poke the beets, as you would a potato, to keep it from exploding in the oven?
No problem. I'll put it this way, I've cooked a lot of beets in my time and never had one explode like potatoes occasionally do. But there's really no harm in piercing them to be extra safe.
I did make this as a starter for Christmas dinner. It was a smash hit -and that was from the people I expected to be underwhelmed by a meatless dish. Thank you for this luxurious recipe.
So glad to hear it. You're very welcome Mary. And thanks for letting me know.
Definitely going to try this, I'll do it in the oven first, but when we next light the big Joe I think the BBQ smoke will really enhance the flavour.
Something like a big Joe is perfect. Directly on the coals is the ideal way.
It’s the texture that does it and the ketchup as a seasoning adds exactly the right amount of acidity
I think you're spot on there. The texture after that cook really makes a difference.
Mais oui , bien sur ! The burned beets with the ketchup and I used sauerkraut instead of pickled onions because it’s pissing with rain here and it was all I had , it tasted just like steak tartare made with aged beef
I try not to oversell things in life but I totally agree. Especially the first time I had a version of this at a restaurant I worked at, I thought it could have been beef as well.
Damn this is good , didn’t stick to the vegan theme though , served it on a bed of oyster cream instead of sunflower !
Johnnie! So glad you gave it a try. What do you make of the burned beets? Oyster cream sounds like a really interesting diversion. Do you make that yourself?
I've just been writing about cooking over coals and a chef friend cane to mind. He'd been awarded something like Gourmet Traveller's Young Chef of the Year, but his thought on accolades was "I'm a chef. To degrees, I burn things for a living. "
Also laughed out loud on praise from Finns. In a past career one of my clients was Huhtamäki Oyj the global packaging giant. They were a very tough crowd.
I had the same reaction to the Finn joke. I’ve worked with Finnish clients and learned to catch the subtle but definitive praise. Also, their food is underrated. One client flew me out for a week, and the hotel brunch was some of the best food I’ve ever eaten. I still think about the rhubarb custard cake. While there, I ate at another restaurant that served reindeer: delicious.
This is giving me ideas... What do you think about leaving out the ketchup, using brine-soaked and dehydrated crispy pumpkin seeds, fermented red onions in lime, and piima cream?
Sounds like some lovely substitutions to me, Lisa. Particularly if that piimä cream is thick and holds its shape nicely. I have certainly made it with and without ketchup, ive also used beetroot ketchup when I have had it in the past. It's a nice seasoning but only a small amount is used so not a major component.
I’ve got some nice, thick cream. Beetroot ketchup sounds interesting.