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! www.em-i-lis.com

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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