In this recipe, the grilled aubergines are joined by black Spanish olives and capers and a mild garlic cream on baked garlic.
The recipe is from the cookbook Olives & Olive Oil by Henrik Vilan and Ingo Schauser.
In the cookbook, the couple reinterpret classic Spanish dishes and make their own. All the recipes in the cookbook contain olives grown in the Garden of lemons in Andalusia, from appetizers to main courses to the sweet spot.
Garlic, like aubergines and olive oil, is synonymous with Mediterranean cuisine, but in its raw state, garlic is a powerful master that can easily overpower a dish in terms of flavour. So Garden of lemons often bakes garlic to bring out a caramel sweetness in them.
In this dish, raw garlic would be too strong, so here the couple have gone in search of the milder notes of garlic, which will make a soft garlic mayonnaise stirred with olive oil a perfect accompaniment to the whole, grilled aubergines.
The flavours of the dish are enhanced with tangy, slightly salty capers and black olives. Choose a sun-dried olive and calculate one whole aubergine per person. Grilled aubergines will be soft and mild, with a flavour that would make the angels sing, if they were allowed to sit at the table.
Grilled whole aubergines with capers, black olives and garlic cream
4 pers.
4 starting
4 tbsp capers, drained
50 g black olives, sun-dried
coriander leaves or other herb
Garlic cream
2 whole garlics, baked
1 egg yolk
lemon juice, a few drops
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 dl olive oil
1 dl neutral oil
Wrap the 2 whole garlics in foil and bake them at 180 degrees for 40 minutes. The garlic can be baked the day before. Cool the garlic and pull or press each clove out of its casing. Put them aside.
Bake the aubergines in the oven, or grill them on the outdoor grill – they definitely taste best on the grill. Score the aubergines 3-4 times lengthways with a sharp knife, just barely going through the coloured outer layer. If cooking in the oven, bake the aubergines at 200 degrees for about 30 minutes. On the grill, place them on the grate and turn every 5 minutes for 25 minutes. The aubergines are ready when they start to collapse a little. Put them to cool.
Make your own mayonnaise, or use 150 grams of good store-bought mayonnaise, and mix it with the mashed baked garlic. Season the cream with lemon, salt and pepper and set aside.
When the aubergines have cooled, carefully peel off the skin with a small, pointed knife from the stem down. Keep the seal stalk as decoration. Split the aubergine lengthwise without cutting through the stem and turn the two halves with the cut side up. Drizzle them with a little olive oil, and put all the aubergines under the grill in the oven to get a little colour on the cut surface and to bake until done.
Serve the aubergines warm, portioned with garlic cream, capers, black olives and coriander leaves. A simple salad of different leaf salads and bread is also good as a side dish.
