Aubergines on top of yoghurt

"the composition is inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi’s unbeatable formula of flavoured yoghurt base + roasted aubergines + vibrant toppings." Ixta Belfrage

This is Ixta's Aubergines with lime yoghurt and tomato, cinnamon and chilli oil - a recipe from I'm not sure where. Anyway I thought her words might be an opening into a post - most likely I thought - about how everyone was copying the technique.

You know the one - I talked about it recently - a base of something creamy. your main ingredient on top of that and then on top of that either some sauce, or some crunchy, or herby toppings, plus the inevitable drizzle of oil. Maybe I restricted myself by deciding to restrict myself to eggplant and yoghurt, because the end result was really somewhat disappointing. To demonstrate - I just scrolled through eleven pages of ten recipes each - 110 recipes on the delicious. website and there was not a single one with that structure. Now there are 85 pages in total, so maybe there is one tucked in somewhere. But it's hardly a trend.

Disappointing, or just interesting? Obviously you can do a lot of thing with eggplant other than dumping it on a yoghurty base. Nevertheless you would think eggplant was an ideal candidate for the treatment because of the colour contrast, and also because of the fact that eggplant and yoghurt are a good match taste-wise. Maybe I would have got more if I had focussed on carrots.

Nevertheless I have assembled a short list - most of which are Ottolenghi based - Ottolenghi himself, and his disciples Noor Murad and Ixta Belfrage.

Even the home cooks don't seem to have picked up on it all that much although one - the writer from a website called Desert Island Dishes, presented this Roasted aubergine salad which she introduces by saying:

"My career in cheffing coincided with the rise of Ottolenghi so all the lunch jobs I catered would ask for “Ottolenghi style salads” and this was a firm favourite. It’s so simple and so good."

I also found another couple of examples from the lesser-known sphere - the first from Join Your Life - Roasted eggplant with yoghurt sauce which departs from the more common round slices, and looks better for it perhaps; and two from an Instagram cook with the tag johngs which I discovered stands for John Gregory Smith. His first one ended up more like a dip I suppose, but nevertheless looked pretty good - Smoky harissa aubergines. I shall come to his second in a moment:

I have separated his second - Aubergines with yoghurt and tomato sauce (Borani banjan) because Borani banjan is in fact an Afghan dish and there are several example of it on the internet, including one from Adam Liaw's The Cook Up on SBS, contributed by Hedayat Osyan - a social entrepreneur - Borani banjan (braised eggplant with yoghurt) but yes this is a traditional dish with that yoghurt base, so in a way you would think that other countries would have thought of the same approach wouldn't you? Did Ottolenghi copy it from them?

Of the rest of my admittedly usual suspects the only one I found was from Nigel - Aubergine, mint and cucumber yoghurt and I have to say that it does look rather wonderful, and is very simple. Nothing from Jamie, delicious. both here and in the UK - as I have demonstrated already, nothing from Taste or Bon Appétit or Serious Eats ...

Maybe the trend has not yet hit the US.

So I'm left with Ottolenghi and his two disciples, Noor Murad and Ixta Belfrage - Baby aubergines in tomato sauce with anchovy and dill yoghurt - Yotam Ottolenghi; Burnt aubergine with feta and harissa oil - Yotam Ottolenghi- this one is a bit of a cheat because it's feta not yoghurt; Burnt aubergine pickle with garlic yoghurt - Noor Murad - well I think it was Noor not Ottolenghi; Roasted aubergine with mango sauce, lime yoghurt and sesame salt - Ixta Belfrage/Maldon Salt

Apologies - a bit underwhelming, although if you like eggplant there's plenty to choose from there for your summer feasts.

Yesterday's equally underwhelming Scotcheroos from The New York Times, which according to Wikipedia:

"are dessert bars made with chocolate, butterscotch, peanut butter, and Rice Krispies. The recipe was originally printed on Rice Krispies boxes in the mid-1960s. They are popular in the Midwestern United States, especially Nebraska, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota."

Maybe they hand them out at Halloween.

YEARS GONE BY

November 1

2024 - Herb cream or tahini sauce

2023 - Not a cassoulet - leftovers 3

2022 - Nothing

2021 - The attraction of pretty wine bottles

2020 - Missing

2019 - MIcrowave tips - first recipes

2018 - One last try at tomatoes

2017 - Lamingtons - how Australian can you get?

2016 - Chicken and champagne