Marinated eggplant from the oven with shallots, tomatoes, figs and goat cheese and fennel cream

Ingredients for 4 servings:

• 2 m.-large eggplant(s)
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 4 tsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp honey, liquid
• 2 tsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp mustard seeds
• 1 tbsp, stalked thyme, dried
• Salt
• 3 m.-large shallot(s)
• 150 g date tomatoes
• 4 small figs
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 2 tsp pomegranate syrup
• ¼ tsp salt
• some parsley
• 100 g goat’s cheese
• 20 ml lemon juice
• 1 tsp fennel seeds, ground
• 1 pinch of salt

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 20 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 30 minutes; Total time approx. 1 hour 5 minutes

Wash the eggplants, trim both ends, and slice or grate the eggplant lengthwise into approximately 1.5 cm thick slices. Score the slices with a knife into diamond shapes, sprinkle with salt on both sides, and place on kitchen paper. Let the slices rest for about 20 minutes to drain some of the water, turning them over occasionally. Make a seasoning paste for the eggplants. To do this, dry-roast the mustard seeds in a pan for a few minutes until they smell nutty and start to pop out of the pan. Then grind the mustard seeds in a mortar. In a small bowl, mix the olive oil, soy sauce, honey, tomato paste, thyme, and ground mustard seeds until smooth, forming a slightly thick seasoning paste. Preheat the oven to 200°C (top/bottom heat). Place the eggplant slices on a baking sheet lined with baking paper, brush both sides with the seasoning paste, and rub some into the cracks. Bake in a preheated oven at 200°C (convection oven) for about 15 minutes on the middle rack. In the meantime, peel the shallots, remove the root ends, and slice the shallots lengthwise. Make a marinade from olive oil, pomegranate syrup, and salt. Mix the shallots in a small bowl and let it marinate for at least 10 minutes. Wash and slice the persimmon tomatoes. Slice the figs crosswise. Once the eggplant slices are pre-cooked in the oven, scatter the tomatoes over the eggplant, top with the marinated onions, and drizzle with the marinated onions. Finally, top everything with the figs and let roast in the oven for another 15 minutes. In the meantime, for the cream, mix the goat’s cheese with the lemon juice and ground fennel seeds until smooth and season lightly with salt. To serve, carefully transfer the now soft eggplant slices with the topping to plates using a spatula, drizzle with the cream, and garnish with chopped parsley. I calculated 2 eggplant slices with topping per appetizer serving. Notes: If you don’t like goat’s cheese, use regular cow’s milk cream cheese. However, the slightly more tangy goat’s cheese goes very well with the sweet figs and thyme. If you don’t have pomegranate syrup, use a little lemon juice and powdered sugar for the shallots instead. Vegans can use a vegan cream cheese alternative and agave syrup instead of honey. If you like, you can also garnish with toasted and roughly broken walnuts or almond slivers.