Eggplant Salad...Very Greek







Eggplant season is during summer in Greece and therefore tasty and inexpensive. Yes we can buy eggplant all year long but the quality and taste is not the same.

Greeks use eggplant in many recipes... one of the most known is the famous Moussaka, internationally known.

When handling eggplant it is important to work quickly to prevent oxidation . This is caused by the iron. Eggplant is very rich in iron and therefore very healthy.

A very common salad in Greek restaurants is the Eggplant Salad...
 I am herewith including the recipe by our Vefa Alexiadou who is Greece's Betty Crocker!

You will need :
Serves 4-6 as a side dish.
  • 1.5 kg black, firm, shiny eggplant. (She uses 1 kg but I used 1.5 kg because I love eggplant. all other ingredients are the same).
  • Salt to taste.
  • 2-3 cloves of garlic crushed into a paste.
  • 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil.
  • 1/4 cup cider vinegar.
  • 2 Tbsp. finely chopped parsley.
  • 1 hot chili finely chopped.
  • 1 medium tomato cut in wedges for decoration.
  • Some black olives (optional).
Method: 
  • Cook the eggplant over hot coals or on the stove top grill on high heat and keep turning to cook and sort of "burn" the peel. The eggplant will soften and feel hollow when cooked and the peel has taken this smoked, burnt look. This needs a bit of patience to make sure the eggplant is cooked from all sides.


  • Turn off heat, and transfer eggplant under cold running water till cool to the touch.
  • Peal quickly to prevent blackening of the eggplant. 
  • Place in a colander to drip off excess liquids. 
  • Place in a blender and combine salt, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, parsley (keeping some for garnish at the end), chili, 


  • Using the pulse button of the machine, pulse to nearly a pulp still keeping some chunks eggplant if possible. 

Serve with meats, fish, poultry or by itself as a dip.

Enjoy!
Stelio

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Bamia Mafroukeh--Ladies fingers with beef or lamg -Taste of Sudan.

S udan is the largest country in Africa. Lately there was a quarrel between the North and South (Juba). The reason: Oil. Chevron and other Petroleum companies found lots of Oil reserves in the South and so the fight started. I personally visited the village of Bentu, in the South during one of my visits to Chevron Oil Company in the South. As all countries, the Sudan also has its local foods. A very popular one is Molokhia which grows only in summer. Bamia, in Arabic, lady's fingers or internationally known as Okra can be readily found all year round. Bamia Mafroukeh is a delicious food eaten with the Sudanese bread called Kisra. The term Mafroukeh is act of breaking down the bamia when it well cooked to turn it into a thick, soup. There is special wooden utensil the Sudanese use. Ingredients: - 1 kg bamia Lady's fingers or Okra. - 1 kg beef or lamb bone free. - 1/2 kg fresh tomatoes cut in quarters. - 1 big onion roughly cut. - 6 cloves of garlic finely cut. - 
Read more

First Post (after a long time) January14th 2020 Pommes Dauphinoise

Image
A  most delicious common side dish for the Christmas Holidays, where fresh cream may be consumed without too much worry, is baked dish of sliced cream potatoes or culinarily the French would call  Pommes Dauphinoise. Please bear with me as it has been over 3 years I haven't blogged or used this program. Ingredient: - 1.4 kg of potatoes. - 500 ml full cream 35% - 500 ml full fat milk. - 2 cloves of garlic very finely cut. - some butter, salt and pepper to taste. Procedure: - Buy the potatoes as clean as possible. Peel and slice without washing into half inch slices. -  Mix sliced potatoes into a pan which can withstand the fire of the hob,all the milk and all the cream. Mix well. - Add the garlic. - Season with salt. pepper and nutmeg to taste. - Boil the potato mix till the potatoes are nearly soft. - At this point scatter a few pieces of butter around the pan and immediately transfer the pan into the oven till a nice color is obtained. 40 to 60 minutes. Carefu
Read more

Brandade de Morue - Cod / Potato Mash Gratin.

Image
T his recipe is based on Jacques Pepin's with a slight twist from myself to suit Greek taste. This recipe is for 4 persons as a starter. Ingredients : - 1 kg of salted cod fillet. - 1 kg of potatoes skinned. - 1.5 cups full fat milk. - At least 6 large cloves of garlic - 2 tsp. grated lemon zest. - 4 tsp, lemon juice. - Cayenne pepper to taste. - 1 cup of olive oil. - Freshly ground black pepper to taste - Freshly grated Parmigiano cheese. Procedure : - Preheat oven to 200 deg. C. - Skin the cod fillet and immerse into cold water and refrigerate. - Change water as many times as possible over the next 24 hours to desalinate. - Meanwhile boil the potatoes till tender (fork easily pearces potato).Peel and cut into pieces when cool. - When the cod is desalinated, cook in water by lightly simmering water until fork easily pearces the fish. Do not over cook the fish lest it becomes too hard. - Once cooled, make sure to the best of your ability to omit all the bon
Read more