We recently hosted a birthday dinner for our son-in-law, Sacha. We started off with smoked salmon served on Baba Ganoush – a Middle Eastern eggplant dip recipe – garnished with home-made pesto and dried pink peppercorns. These can be bought from The Essential Ingredient and are not the same as the ones in brine. They’re slightly sweet and fragrant, rather than peppery and go really well with any salmon dish. They also look pretty as you can see from the photo.
For the second course I served Winter Beef Carpaccio from Michael Moore’s cook book Moore to Food – thinly sliced beef fillet, garnished with roasted onions and mushrooms, goat’s cheese and micro-herbs and drizzled with roasted black pepper oil. Sacha is a fan of carpaccio and ceviche, which both use raw fish or meat as the main ingredient, so I knew this dish would appeal to him. Passionfruit Cheesecake made a refreshing end to the meal.
Hi Linda, what about the recipe for Baba Ganouche? I love egg plant.
Love
Marianne
FANTASTICA PAGINA LINDA. SIGUE DANDONOS BUENAS IDEAS.
HE HECHO VARIAS RECETAS Y TODAS ME HAN RESULTADO MUY BIEN.
Linda, that looks lovely, but what is roasted black pepper oil? And do you cut the beef yourself? Electric knife? Mx
It’s easier to cut the beef thinly if you have it semi-frozen. For the oil, heat a tablespoonful of black peppercorns in a dry frying pan for a minute or so, stirring then crush in a mortar and pestle. Place in a jar and add half a cup or more of olive oil.
omg that egg plant looks so delicious ! what is the recipes for that ?
Baba Ganoush (Eggplant dip)
500g eggplants (2 or 3)
1 large or 2 smaller cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbs olive oil
lemon juice and salt, to taste
2 Tbs mayonnaise
1 small pot of Greek-style plain yoghurt
If possible, barbecue the eggplants over charcoal. This gives the dip a distinctive, smoky flavour. If not, cook them under a hot grill on both sides, until they collapse and the skins are black and blistered. When cool enough to handle, remove and discard skins and chop flesh finely by hand, gradually adding olive oil and remaining ingredients. Using the food processor makes it too smooth, so best done by hand. Chill for several hours or overnight and serve with pita bread.