Baked Eggplant with Goat Cheese, Sun-Dried Tomatoes, Pumpkin Seed Pesto, and Chopped Hazelnuts

Appetizers | Latvian cuisine

⏳ Time

1 hour + 3 hours

🥕 Ingredients

🍽️ Servings

Description

Recipe taken from the book 'Taste Geography. Latvia' by John Smith.

Ingredients

Eggplants - 2 pieces
Olive Oil - 13 fl oz
Ocean salt - to taste
Ground Black Pepper - to taste
Goat cheese - 9.9 oz
10% cream - 3 fl oz
Meyer Lemon Juice - 1 fl oz
Hazelnut - 2.5 oz
Parsley - to taste
Pea shoots - to taste
Marinated cherries - 5.3 oz
Pumpkin seed oil - 7.1 oz
White Balsamic Cream - 2 fl oz
Olives stuffed with lemon - to taste
Fresh basil leaves - 0.7 oz

Step by Step guide

Step 1

To prepare sun-dried tomatoes, cut the tomatoes in half, season with salt and pepper, and dry in the oven at 176°F for 3 hours.

Step 2

For the pumpkin seed pesto, blend all ingredients (250 ml of olive oil, pumpkin seeds, white balsamic vinegar, a pinch of salt) in a blender.

Step 3

To prepare the 'soil', dry the olives in a combi oven for 25 minutes and blend them.

Step 4

For the green oil, blend the remaining olive oil with the herbs.

Step 5

Mix the goat cheese with the cream and add the lemon juice.

Step 6

Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise, score the flesh in a grid pattern, drizzle with olive oil, season with salt and pepper. Bake in the oven at 356°F for 15 minutes.

Step 7

To serve, place the hot baked eggplants on a plate, garnish with the cheese-cream mixture, sun-dried tomatoes, drizzle with pumpkin pesto, green oil, sprinkle with chopped hazelnuts, pea shoots, and the olive 'soil'. Garnish with herbs.