East Meets West Taste Safari Platter
Friends and family are always just dropping in to say a quick hello- which always extends to a glass of wine or a few whiskies at the least!
Quite often I end up spending lots of time in the kitchen getting a few bitings together which ends up defeating the point of them coming over to see me! So over the years – I’ve spent a lot of time in local farmers shops, tiny hidden delis to collect an array of preserves, syrups, cheeses, aged salamis, as a classic backdrop to the platters.
However – one of the things I really enjoy is making some of the deli products on my own, at home, with my own touch. One of the vegetables that I always have in abundance from the greenhouses are shiny baby eggplants . These are actually so much more flavourful than their bulbous cousins and produce a lovely nutty, smokey flavour especially when grilled . This is a very simple vegetarian addition to your platters that really do work beautifully with cheese, crusty fresh sourdough baguette, hand picked fresh aromatic basil and a strong, hard nubbly pecorino!
- 15 Baby aubergines (the long slim ones as opposed to the Thai round eggplant)
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil
- ½ tsp cracked black pepper
- ½ tsp dried thyme
- ½ tsp sea salt flakes
- Juice of half a lemon
- Heat your oven to 180 degrees centigrade.
- Slice your aubergine as thinly as possible lengthwise. It’s important to keep these very thinly sliced.
- Place these all spread out on a baking tray and pour over all the oil and the seasonings.
- Grill for 9 minutes on each side.
- Toss together and add a squeeze of lemon just before serving.
- Refrigerate the remaining aubergines.