Fish with eggplant, almond and preserved lemon

Recipe by Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and her partner, Clarke Gayford, who say that even people who don’t eat eggplants love this dish.

½ cup almonds, toasted

2 garlic cloves

1 tbsp ground coriander

powder, toasted in a pan

¼ tsp chilli flakes

½ preserved lemon (skin only)

2 eggplants, sliced into rounds

2cm thick

1-2 cans chopped tomatoes

100g feta cheese, crumbled 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs (any combination of basil, parsley, coriander and mint)

4–6 fillets of fresh fish, such as

snapper, gurnard or tarakihi

1 Preheat grill to high. Put the almonds, garlic, coriander powder, chilli and preserved lemon in a blender or food processor and process until it becomes a crumbly paste.

2 Lay the eggplant slices on a baking tray, brush with oil and season with salt and pepper. Grill until the edges start to brown (about 10 minutes), turn, and grill the other side for a further 5 minutes. Alternatively, the eggplant slices can be fried in olive oil in a pan on both sides until they start to soften – they will soak up a lot of oil this way.

3 Turn oven to bake and reduce to 200°C. Grease a baking dish with olive oil and place a layer of eggplant on it (reserving half). Spoon the almond mix over top and cover with the remaining eggplant. 4 Pour tomatoes on top and sprinkle feta over this. Cover the dish with foil and bake for 20–25 minutes or until bubbling and hot and the eggplant is starting to feel soft. Remove the foil for the last 10 minutes.

5 While this dish is cooking, take the fish and season with salt and pepper. Pan-fry the fish in butter for a couple of minutes each side.

6 Serve on individual plates with the fish on top and a squeeze of lemon juice.