Mar

Eggplant Salad or Dip

AKA Baba Ghanoush, Salata de Vinete, and a variety of other Aliases

The first time I tasted this salad I was sitting at a table in the late 1980′s with people I didn’t know serving a meagre meal; however, every morsel of that meal was bursting with flavour. I am adventurous, but did hesitate when offered this dish. It looked like a transluscent bit of slime. Truly. I had no frame of reference for anything like it. I had never before even eaten eggplant in anything other than Eggplant Parmigiana. I took a little on my plate to try. When everyone was deep in conversation, I poked my fork into it, and tasted the tips of the tines. Even that tiny tidbit got me excited. I know I actually uttered an audible expression of pleasure without realizing it because all eyes turned on me as I was just scooping up the rest of the bit on my plate and stuffing it into my mouth. More moans of pleasure. Oh my goodness, this was a completely new flavour experience for me. “Pass the bowl please!” I could not get enough. “How do you make it?” My hosts were so excited with my interest that they described how to make the salad in detail. I, however, had never roasted anything on a grill at that point of my life. And, I was actually an early bloomer in food related adventures that were bursting onto our paririe stage throught the 1980′s.

So, I was not about to do this on my own for the first time, and invited Juliana, a friend who knew how to make it, over to my house a couple of weeks later (I would have had her the next day, had she been available) to teach me how to make this dish. I could have never accomplished the same results without her help. Tips from Juliana:

the small, firm eggplants are best as the larger eggplants have too many seeds
if there is a soft spot, that is a bruise and will taste terrible roasted
roast the eggplants until the skin is charred, an the vegetable has flattened and is soft inside.
slit the bottoms if they have not already opened through the roasting and drain the eggplant before peeling and using as the liquid is bitter and “not good for the stomach”
never use a knife as it will brown the flesh of the roasted vegetable; always use a wooden or a plastic knife (The best salad is the whitest salad.)
make sure to get every speck of the blackened peeling out of the flesh
the flesh closest to the skin is the most flavourful, so work to get every bit of it
never rinse the vegetable under water to remove the charred skin; instead, have water to rinse your hand in as you remove the skin from the flesh
cut it over and over in all directions to ensure the vegetable is completely soft and creamy
the onions must be minced extremely fine so that they are miniscule
the salt is very important; add it to taste, and you will add much more than you think you would add

The only thing I do not do is use a wooden or a plastic knife. I don’t have one, have never found one that was acceptable for using comfortably and find that my product is lovely anyway. (To me!) The first time I tasted the salad, it was infused with oil “until fully saturated”, my hosts instructed. Juliana said she prefers hers with mayonnaise, so that is how she taught me, and I never tried to make it with oil because I absolutely loved, loved, loved what we created that day. I have made it the same way for the last 20 years, and have never had one I liked better – yet.

So, to get started, pre-heat the grill to high. Place the eggplants on it, close the lid, and set your timer for 10 minutes. Go about your business as usual. When the timer rings, you may have to leave it in the same position for another 5 minutes. The skin should be blackened that was on the grill. When it is, turn it over 180 degrees. From now on, it will be less time for each side to turn. This one should take about 10 minutes to blacken. I then do the other two “sides” about 5 minutes each, depending. The weather blowing around your heat source will change the timing, as will the temperature of your grill, and the density of your vegetable.

I prop them into a bowl immediately after taking them off of the grill. If the bottoms have not already “crackeled” open, or even “burst” open, I slit them to let the liquid escape. I usually leave them a couple of hours, draining the liquid now and then, before I peel them. Some people peel them immediately, and then leave the flesh to ooze and strain before using. Either must be fine because what I am doing works very well, and the flesh seems to pull , or separate, from the skin better when cooled.

Not pretty pictures, but it is important to understand there will be a considerable amount of liquid you need to dispell from the vegetable, and it was also important to me, as a learner, to see and understand what the peeling looked like once the flesh was removed. Hope it helps!

You can see the flesh as it is after removed from the skin on the far left. Then, minced thoroughly, and at the far right, completely ready for the salad.

The onion must be minced into tiny little tidbits, then the mayo and salt is mixed in, and it is just that easy.

Eggplant Salad

Ingredients:

2 or 3 eggplants
1/4 to 1/2 of an onion, depending upon th size of the onion, and the size of the eggplant
salt
mayonnaise

Instructions:

As the amount of each ingredient for this dish is so difficult to determine (completely dependent upon the size of the eggplant, the strength of the onions, etc) I have provided a photo of above (middle) that shows the ratio of each ingredient. Follow the process outlined, and taste as you go.

2 eggplants, roasted, peeled and minced
1/4-1/3 cup of minced onion
2 – 3 teaspoons of salt
1/4 cup to 1/3 cup mayonnaise

There are no words to describe the unique flavour of this dish. The smokey flavour is there, but it is so much more than that. This is a staple in our house, and I just cannot make enough of it. Everyone usually loves it. Let me know how it works for you!