Melitzanosalata or Eggplant salad?

Whilst preparing papoutsakia I kept thinking what should I do with all this eggplant flesh I was scooping out of the eggplant?

Shall I make melitzanosalata (meaning eggplant salad but it is actually a dip). I was skeptical as I knew that to make melizanosalata, the eggplants should be pierced with a fork and baked either in the oven, grilled or best to be charcoaled so as to have a smoky taste. Then I thought that we don’t always charcoal the eggplants, so when baking the eggplants in the oven there is no smoky taste. Why then do we do this? The reason is that we want the inside part to become soft and in any case we discard the outer part. So, why not make melitzanosalata or eggplant dip? I gave it a quick thought, grabbed a Pyrex and start putting the eggplants in there. I was thinking that I had nothing to loose as the oven had to be preheated for the papoutsakia and the worse scenario was that I would be charged a little bit more with electricity bill. I set the oven to 180 degrees. When all eggplants were emptied I sprinkled a few drops of olive oil on them and put them in the oven. I left the pyrex uncovered for 5 minutes and then I realized that they would burn, so I covered it with aluminum foil. I baked them for 45 minutes and then removed them from the oven. I tried mashing them with a fork and saw it was quite soft, so I set it aside to cool down and put the poupoutsakia in the oven to bake.

Note: as you will see in the pictures the eggplants have no seeds inside. If yours have seeds, you’ll have to remove the seeds.

Again I kept thinking ways to prepare it. Shall I make the classic Greek dip or shall I make an eggplant “real” salad, or shall I make half the mixture into a classic dip and the rest should I deep freeze it to prepare some more another day? I rejected the last thought and I said to myself, “Why not make both?” I quickly peeled three cloves of garlic, wrapped them into a small piece of aluminum foil and placed it in a corner, where the papoutsakia were baking. I left it there for half an hour.

When the eggplants cooled down, I started by mashing them in the pyrex and tasted it. The flavor was not bad. It was well cooked and not bitter. I added the olive oil and mixed it with the fork, added salt and mixed it again until the oil was absorbed.

I then peeled and cut an onion in two. I cut the half into smaller pieces and placed it in the multi mulinette, I also peeled a clove of garlic and added that as well and pureed them. I opened the multi but the mixture was still in small pieces. I added a spoonful of olive oil and a spoonful of wine vinegar and half the pulp and mashed them again. Now it was nice and creamy. I tried it and found the taste perfect. I did not need to add anything more.

All I had to do was to put it in a small bowl and decorated it with an olive. Et voilá!

Now I started preparing what I wanted to make of an eggplant salad. I finely chopped and I mean really finely chopped the other half of the onion and added it into the eggplant. I mashed the cooked garlic with a fork and added it as well. I finely chopped some parsley and added two spoonfuls to the other mixture; I peeled a ripe tomato and cut it in the middle. Half of it I cut into small cubes and added it as well. I added one teaspoonful of capers. Here, I had the dilemma if I should add balsamic vinegar or cider vinegar. I preferred the latter and added one teaspoonful since the capers are preserved in vinegar. Now for seasoning I added, half a teaspoon of garlic powder and pepper. I mixed them well and placed them in a small platter, which I decorated with the remaining half tomato, some olives and sprinkled some parsley on top. Finally, I sprinkled some paprika as well.

The result was excellent, more than I thought it would be.

This is my entry for Leftover Tuesdays #11 hosted by Pam at Project Foodie.

Melitzanosalata and Ivy’s Eggplant Salad

Ingredients for both:

The flesh of five eggplants

1/3 cup of olive oil

Salt

Additional ingredients:

For Melitzanosalata (Eggplant dip):

(Half of above mixture)

½ medium onion

1 clove of garlic

1 spoonful of olive oil

1 spoonful of wine vinegar

All above, blended in multi mulinette.

For Ivy’s eggplant salad:

Remaining ½ of above mixture

1 tomato

3 spoonfuls of finely chopped parsley

3 cloves of garlic (roasted)

½ onion finely chopped

1 teaspoonful of capers

½ teaspoonful of garlic powder

Pepper

Paprika

Some olives

Enjoy!!

Tags: Jams and preserves, lenten, nistisima, Vegetables