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Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
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Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
Australian houses, from architectural masterpieces to suburban family homes, Victorian terraces, mid-century marvels, coastal shacks, city apartments, and everything in between.
Award-winning Australian architecture, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top architects.
Award-winning Australian interior design, inspiring homes, and interviews with Australia’s top designers.
In depth features on Australia’s most beautiful gardens and landscape design.
Studio visits with Australia’s most talented creatives, from artists to architects, ceramicists to stylists, furniture makers to lighting designers.
Studio visits with Australia’s top artists, and unmissable art exhibitions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and beyond.
Weekly recipes and meal ideas from our favourite cooks, authors and foodies.
Unique travel destinations, design-led accomodation and day trip ideas in Australia and New Zealand.
I fell in love with eggplant on my travels to Turkey. I had the most delicious smoked eggplant dip on the pristine South coast, in a fishing town called Fetiye. It was so heavenly my friend and I went back to the same restaurant again and again. We couldn’t get enough! Notes were taken of all of the flavours, and I have done my very best to create a similar version of the dish, in more of a salad-y style.
For this recipe you need to smoke the eggplants. I do this directly on the flame of my gas cooktop, however if you don’t have gas, I would recommend barbequing them instead. This step in the recipe is where all the magic happens. The outside turns to a crisp, whilst the inside becomes a silky soft, smokey delight. The flavour that results from this simple step is quite incredible!
2 large eggplants
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped
½ small red onion, finely diced
2 shallots, finely sliced
½ cup flat leaf parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp cumin, ground
½ tsp hot paprika
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
Good pinch of salt
Using a fork, prick the eggplants all over the skin. This will ensure that the skin doesn’t burst while you cook them. Place eggplant directly onto gas flame or BBQ grill, let char on each side of the eggplant, turning every couple of minutes with metal tongs. This will take around 15-20 minutes. The eggplant should turn limp, be totally blackened on the outside, and very soft on the inside.
Take eggplants carefully off the heat – they will be very hot! Let them cool down before peeling. Use the back edge of a knife and run down the length of the eggplant. The skin should slide straight off.
Place eggplants onto a chopping board, sprinkle over the cumin and paprika and chop eggplant up with the spices until it turns to a pulp. Spread eggplant over your serving platter. Layer with remaining ingredients and finish with vinegar and olive oil. Enjoy!
For more of Gemma's beautiful styling work, do check out her folio website – and like every self respecting foodie, she has her own recipe blog too!
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