Aubergine with a twist

I've got to confess that, I am not a healthy person. Started my day today with instant packaged noodle and grabbed a burger from McDonald with a medium size Coke on my way home from work. Yea, I love burgers, all kinds of burgers, mostly meat based burgers but I've tried a couple of vegetarian burgers. Feeling somewhat, surprised that I would actually order a vegetarian dish. Anyway, my first introduction to a vegetarian burger was from Four Ate Five Cafe, Surry Hills. That burger blew my mind away, simply because I never expected vegetarian food could be as tasty as that. Now am home, and for some reasons, I have an eggplant in my fridge. Weird. Got to be my mum who purchased it when she came here for her holiday.

Thinking of what I can do with this sad looking vegetable, then, I remembered I watched an episode of Gordon Ramsay making Aubergine Caviar and it looked so tasty. It looked very moist and its very intimidating for me just to see how it would taste like. I added my twist to his recipe by using chilli flakes, a touch of nutmeg and grated fresh Parmesan in the end.

Gordon Ramsay, used sour cream to incorporate his eggplant puree and I did not, simply because I didn't have any type of cream in my fridge today. Usually I always have thickened cream laying around. I do have a substantial waistline.  So, today, I decided to do my version, a tad bit spicy, not as smooth as a puree because I wanted some textures in it.

I was gonna keep it as a true-blue vegetarian dish, but, Jamons is in the fridge! Who could resist Jamons?! definitely not me. I'm a sucker for shiny, fatty, melt in your mouth, food. Wagyu, Pork Belly and Roast Ducks are my Achilles heel. Might grab some roast duck tonight actually. NO! I'm on diet! To prepare for my massive feast, 10 meals a day type feast, in Singapore, Japan and Hong Kong. Oww yes, holiday is coming very soon and I cant wait! This year has been somewhat, a packed year for me. Lots and lots of weddings to photograph and lots of overtime at work. Alright, I should stop venting and write this recipe down. Oh hold on! I need to give my dog his dinner first. No wonder he is looking at me with "Puss in Boots" eyes. Yes yes Marshall, my bad.

Alright, now back to this recipe.

Ingredients
1 medium size Eggplant
1 Clove of Garlic (Sliced)
Nutmeg (Whole or Powdered)
Chilli Flakes
Extra Virgin Olive Oil 
1 sprig of Rosemary
Fresh Parmesan
Salt & Pepper
Burger Buns


Directions
Preheat your oven to 200'C
Cut your Eggplant lengthwise and criss cross it with a sharp knife, about 1cm deep.
Stab your Eggplant with the Rosemary and wedge your sliced garlic in between the criss cross.
Sprinkle some nutmeg or grate fresh whole nutmeg on the Eggplant. Be easy on this, you don't want it to overpower the Eggplant. 
Drizzle some Extra Virgin Olive Oil on the Eggplant. Salt and Pepper to taste.

Put it on a baking tray and wrap it with aluminum foil and cook it for about 40 minutes.

Once cooked, spoon the Eggplant's flesh using a spoon to a chopping board and roughly chop it until the consistency you want it to be have been achieved. 
Once chopped, incorporate grated fresh Parmesan and fix the seasoning using salt & pepper if needed.

Plating up
Cut your Burger Buns in half and grill it and spread some butter. Spoon your Eggplant to the bottom half of the bread and put any kinds of toppings you like. I put some Jamons on mine!