Tag: eggplant recipe

Eggplant millefeuille with fresh goat cheese and basil recipe from Chef Fabrizio

First it was divine food of Vietnam….now it’s mouth watering delicacies from Europe! Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur has brought us another gastronomical extravaganza with “Tastes of Italy”.

# – Inspiring Italy (4 – 12 June 2011) at Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur.
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Headlined by the master of contemporary Italian cuisine, Chef Fabrizio, hailing all the way from Prego at The Westin Beijing Financial Street, foodies can now discover a new perspective to Italian dining experience at the Favola Italian Restaurant, Le Meridien Kuala Lumpur.

# – Favola Italian Restaurant.

# – With Le Meridien’s Executive Chef, Chef Antoine Rodriguez and Chef Fabrizio.

To my delight, Chef Fabrizio demonstrated some of his signature dishes for “Tastes of Italy” and the eggplant millefeuille particularly caught my attention. What a beautiful dish…the colours, the layers! I can’t wait to make this at home!

# – Chef Fabrizio in action.

Allow me to share the steps to making the gorgeous dish….

For the millefeuille:

  • 800 grams of eggplant, sliced to medium thickness
  • 200 grams of flour
  • 400 grams of tomatoes, sliced thinly
  • 120 grams of parmesan cheese, grated
  • 20 grams of basil leaves
  • 100 grams of goat cheese (or any kind of cream cheese)
  • Salt & pepper to taste

For the pesto:

  • 200 grams of basil leaves
  • 30 grams of parmesan cheese
  • 200 grams of olive oil
  • 30 grams of pine nuts
  • Salt & pepper to taste

# – First, slice the eggplants to medium thickness.

# – Season generously with salt & pepper. Cover and leave to rest for 30 minutes till the water’s expelled and the eggplant slices shrink in thickness.

# – Dust the eggplant slices in flour.

# – Deep fry the eggplant slices till golden.

# – Slice the tomatoes.

# – You can use a pastry ring for a better appearance but it’s okay if you don’t. Build a millefeuille by starting with a layer of fried eggplant, followed by tomato, basil and parmesan and repeat till it reaches a desired height.

# – In the meantime, chuck all ingredients for pesto in a blender till…..hey, pesto! :)

# – Sprinkle grated parmesan cheese over the millefeuille and top with a dollop of goat’s cheese.
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# – Spoon some pesto around as decoration and perch a piece of thin toast on the goat’s cheese if you like.

# – Eggplant millefeuille with fresh goat cheese and basil, DONE!

Besides this Eggplant Millefeuille with Fresh Goat Cheese & Basil, there are also over 20 items to choose from in the menu of “Tastes of Italy”. They include Crispy Seafood & Red Capsicum Risotto, Maine Lobster with Fresh Spring Herbs and many more. Of course, not to be missed as well are the desserts, with tantalising names such as Hazelnut Creme Brulee, Vanilla Floating Island, Dark Chocolate Tiramisu and Strawberry Pie with Vanilla Ice-Cream.

# – Crispy Seafood & Red Capsicum Risotto.

# – Maine Lobster with Fresh Spring Herbs.

Besides getting a sneak peek to the menu of “Tastes of Italy”, I got to meet up with my fellow bloggers!

# – With the delicious Cindy and Haze.

# – And ever gorgeous Mei.

# – BF was there too!

“Tastes of Italy” (4 June – 12 June, 2011)
Favola Italian Restaurant @ Le Meridien
2, Jalan Stesen Sentral, Kuala Lumpur Sentral,
50470 Kuala Lumpur
03-2263 7434

A la carte from RM25++ to RM130++, one can certainly live and dine like a true-blue Italian as Chef Fabrizio whips up his special Italian creations.

Spicy eggplant strips with dried shrimps.

When I was little, I used to abhor eggplants. My mom used to cooked them in pretty large pieces and I thought they looked like mangled snakes with the slightly wilted, browned purple skin and gooey flesh.

But thanks to a trip to Gohtong Jaya, Genting Highlands, my aversion towards the purple vegetable had been overturned. There, I ate the most delicious eggplant dish I had ever had. It was most unforgettable.

# – I <3 eggplants. What do you call them? Aubergine? Brinjal?

The strips of eggplant were crispy on the outside and soft in the middle, and had completely absorbed the taste and aroma of the dried shrimps with the caramelised onions contributing some delicious moisture to an otherwise dry dish. Perfect with rice but REALLY good eaten on its own too.

To be honest, I don’t know the actual recipe, but I think I managed to replicate the dish to as close to the real McCoy as possible. So yeah, I am quite pleased with myself :D

The ingredients:

  • 1 large eggplant, cut into strips with skin on
  • 1 handful of dried shrimps, soaked in water for 1/2 hour and drained
  • Some flour
  • 3 dried chillies, seeded and cleaned
  • 1 tablespoon of chinese wine
  • 1 tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce
  • 1 red onion, diced
  • 1 stalk of spring onion or scallion, diced
  • 3 tablespoons of water
  • 1/2 tablespoon of salt

# – First of all, lightly coat the eggplant strips in flour.

# – Next, deep fry the eggplant strips in hot oil till the strips are shrunken and browned, not burnt. As I didn’t want to waste so much oil, I only use like 2 centimetres of oil and deep fry in a few batches.

# – Place the deep fried eggplant strips on a kitchen towel to drain off the oil.

# – Now in a saucepan, heat up some oil and throw in the chopped spring onions and onions.

# – When the aroma hits your nose, throw in the drained soaked shrimps.

# – Now throw in the dried chillies.

# – Then a tablespoon of chinese rice wine.

# – Followed by a tablespoon of Worcestershire sauce.

# – And about 3 tablespoons of water to allow some emulsification going on. Stir!

# – Now throw in the deep fried eggplant strips and mix till they’re well coated with the yummy shrimpy bits.

# – Lastly, throw in 1/2 a tablespoon of salt and stir.

# – Plate it up and garnish with a sprig of parsley because we’re all fancy like that.

# – Eaten with rice. Yummy!

Crispy, soft, flavourful and aromatic, who knew the vegetable that reminded me of slimy snakes could taste like this?