aubergine fondant with tomato confit and avocado coulis

I used to wonder why celebrity chefs with award-winning restaurants would write cookery books disclosing all their secrets. The answer is, of course, that they don't. The recipes in these books are vague approximations of their Michelin starred creations and turn out looking nothing like the accompanying photos. Some ingredient or technique has been omitted - unlike Delia's "take a brown, free-range egg weighing 25.3g in your left hand" approach. (I came across one of her vinaigrette recipes the other day and she actually tells you to put the lid on the screw-top jar before shaking - lest you forget!).

Joël Robuchon is one such chef, but his ideas (using paper-thin slices of turnip instead of pasta in ravioli of langoustine) not to mention his presentation (a vegetarian Scotch egg  pierced with a miniature pipette of chorizo oil), are inspired, but I have to do a lot of experimenting to arrive at a good result. 

The method for aubergine fondant with tomato confit and avocado coulis failed to tell me when to sieve or liquidize or use white pepper instead of black (you don't want black specks spoiling the aesthetic of your silky smooth avocado coulis), but I got there in the end.

This is a stonker - yet so simple. It's the marriage of different textures, flavours and colours that's genius.

 

Recipe

Serves 4

 

Tomato confit

4 ripe tomatoes (ideally plum tomatoes)

sugar

salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 sprigs of thyme

1 clove of garlic, peeled

olive oil

 

Preheat the oven to 80° C/160° F. Place the tomatoes in a pan of boiling water for 60 seconds. Remove and refresh in cold water for a few seconds then remove the skins.

 

Quarter the tomatoes and remove the seeds. Place the quarters on a baking tray and sprinkle each one with a pinch each of salt, pepper and sugar, some thyme leaves and some chopped garlic. Drizzle with olive oil and cook in the oven for 2 hours. When cooled, place in the fridge until required.

 

Aubergine fondant

6 medium aubergines

6 cloves of garlic

45 g black Niçoise olives, roughly chopped

olive oil

a pinch of curry powder

juice of 1 lemon

salt and freshly ground black pepper

10 mint leaves, roughly chopped

Preheat the oven to 180° C/350° F. Cut the ends off the aubergines and prick all over with a fork. Make a couple of incisions in each aubergine with a small sharp knife and insert ½ a garlic clove in each.

Place the aubergines in the oven for 40-50 minutes until the skins are charred and the insides feel soft. Cut the aubergines in half and scoop out the flesh using a spoon. Heat some olive oil in a frying pan and fry the aubergine flesh for a couple of minutes to dry out a bit. Transfer to a blender, add the curry powder, salt and pepper, lemon juice, chopped olives and mint and blend to a purée. Place in the fridge until required.

 

Avocado coulis

1 ripe avocado

1 egg yolk

juice of ½ a lemon

a pinch of curry powder

a pinch of sugar

salt and white pepper

15 g crème fraîche

1 tbsp olive oil

Mash the avocado flesh with a fork, mix in the other ingredients then pass through a sieve. Place in the fridge until required.

 

To serve

Divide the tomatoes between 4 glasses then add a layer of aubergine fondant and top with a layer of avocado coulis. Leave in the fridge for at least 30 minutes before serving then sprinkle with curry powder and chopped chives or sprigs of mint. Eat with a spoon.