Dinner with Yotam and Sami

Well, not really, but kind of. For our Meatless Monday sup, I made two dishes from Jerusalem: roasted eggplant with fried onions and chopped lemon; and Swiss chard (though I subbed lacinato kale and turnip greens) with tahini, yogurt and buttered pine nuts. Wonderful!

I cannot for the life of me remember the name of these darling, delicious little eggplants. Purple, round, with a flesh not the least bitter and in fact, per my husband, somewhat artichoke-like, I bought these at the farmers market Sunday and hope to buy more next week. They are so good!! Should I rediscover them Sunday, I will let you know the varietal name.

For this recipe, Yotam and Sami have you halve and score the aubergine, brush liberally with olive oil, season well and then roast until soft. Meanwhile, you make a lemon-garlic-chile mess and some fried onions with sumac, cumin and chiles. I love fried onions of any stripe, but these were really fabulous. The kick of the pepper and pretty, tangy oomph of the sumac made them something special. Towards the end I stirred in best-quality feta and then you just pile everything onto everything.

Meanwhile, I quick-boiled my greens, made the tahini sauce and sauteed the pine nuts. And then, once again, you sort of just pile on. I suspect T, poor man without the bitter-loving allele, would have preferred this dish with the chard it calls for, but I myself enjoyed it quite a bit.

And did I mention I made this divine ricotta-olive oil-plum cake yesterday? I just had to. Last o' the season plums, you know? The boys adore it but won't eat the cooked plums. More for me, tee-hee.