Nicole
One of the first things you learn when you begin to cook is that burnt equals bad. The sight of a blackened slice of toast, too-crispy chicken, or bitter sugar is never a good thing if it happens by accident — and it can happen by accident in a split second. But what if you burned your ingredients on purpose? “There are so many [burnt] things in this world that we love: really charred grilled meats; bourbon, which uses burnt charred barrels,” chef Edward Lee says. “To me, the flavor of burnt is not necessarily a negative thing.”
Take, for example, Lee’s recipe for eggplant, bologna, and mushroom burnt toast, a dish he teaches in his class for YesChef, a subscription-based streaming platform offering cinematic cooking classes taught by world-renowned chefs. No individual ingredient of the recipe is fully scorched, per se, but each is cooked until a “charred note” comes out. Roast a head of garlic until soft to make a garlic mayo; sear Japanese eggplants and slices of bologna in pecan oil to bring out some caramelization; and throw chanterelle mushrooms into the same pan to pick up all those flavorful juices. Think the eggplants are ready to come off the heat? Push them just a little further. You want that sweet char to come through.
“Probably the worst mistake you can make in the kitchen is to burn something, right?” Lee says. But with this upscale bologna sandwich, it’s a must. That “burnt” flavor is what adds complexity to the dish, lending more adult flavors to a favorite dish from Lee’s childhood. — Dayna Evans
Eggplant, Bologna, and Mushroom Burnt Toast
Serves 2
Ingredients:
For the roasted garlic mayonnaise:
1 garlic head
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 pinch salt
1 ½ cups mayonnaise, such as Duke’s Mayonnaise
1 pinch ground black pepper
For the seared bologna, eggplant, and mushrooms:
1 Japanese eggplant
4 tablespoons pecan oil
Kosher salt to taste
2 thick slices of bologna per sandwich
½ tablespoon unsalted butter
3 ounces chanterelle mushrooms or oyster mushrooms
Black pepper
Sherry vinegar
For plating:
½ tablespoon unsalted butter
2 slices brioche bread
1 tablespoon roasted garlic mayonnaise
1 pinch flake salt
1 teaspoon pecan oil
Fresh parsley to garnish
Instructions:
For the roasted garlic mayonnaise:
Step 1: Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.
Step 2: Place a halved garlic head on a baking tray lined with aluminum foil and drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt. Reassemble the garlic head before loosely wrapping it with foil.
Step 3: Place in the oven for 30 to 40 minutes until soft and golden brown.
Step 4: Remove the garlic cloves from their skins and add to a medium-size bowl and mash into a paste.
