Chef's Recipes

Eggplant, goat’s curd, katsuobushi and sesame

Australian Gourmet Traveller recipe for eggplant, goat’s curd, katsuobushi and sesame by Sean McConnell from Monster in Canberra.

Nov 23, 2014 1:00pm
By Sean McConnell
  • 15 mins preparation
  • 30 mins cooking plus salting, marinating
  • Serves 6
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Eggplant, goat’s curd, katsuobushi and sesame
"I love the eggplant dish at Monster so much I find excuses to visit Canberra. May I have the recipe?"
Sue Ward, Croydon, NSW
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Ingredients

  • 3 eggplant (about 425gm each)
  • 50 gm sea salt flakes
  • 180 ml vegetable oil, for shallow-frying
  • 1 tbsp each roasted black and white sesame seeds
  • 3 radishes, thinly sliced into rounds on a mandolin
  • 30 gm goat’s curd
  • 2 nori sheets, coarsely torn (see note)
  • To serve: shiso leaves and katsuobushi (see note)
Soy marinade
  • 125 ml (½ cup) light soy sauce
  • 125 ml (½ cup) rice vinegar
  • 2 tbsp white sugar

Method

Main
  • 1
    Cut eggplant lengthways into 2.5cm-thick wedges, sprinkle with salt and stand in a colander for 10-15 minutes.
  • 2
    Meanwhile, for soy marinade, stir ingredients in a small saucepan over medium-high heat just until sugar dissolves (2-3 minutes). Set aside.
  • 3
    Rinse salt from eggplant and pat dry with paper towels. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat, add 60ml vegetable oil and shallow-fry eggplant in batches until golden-brown on both sides and tender (6-8 minutes), adding oil as necessary. Transfer eggplant to a bowl, pour soy marinade over and marinate at room temperature (1 hour).
  • 4
    To serve, drain eggplant from marinade and arrange on a serving platter, dot the goat’s curd around. Scatter with sesame seeds, radish, nori sheets and shiso leaves and serve topped with the katsuobushi.

Notes

Note Nori sheets and katsuobushi, or dried bonito flakes, and are available at Asian supermarkets. Monster's chefs smoke their goat's curd but here we've gone with plain goat's curd instead.

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