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Old February 16, 2018   #20
zipcode
Tomatovillian™
 
Join Date: Jun 2010
Location: Romania/Germany , z 4-6
Posts: 1,582
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Quote:
Originally Posted by clkeiper View Post
I am going to have to try to make this to give away samples of it's flavor. can you just dip it with a cracker you think?
It should work yes, we usually eat it with bread. It goes great with tomatoes and/or some salty cheese, as well as various smoked meats (preferably the boiled/hot smoked vs the cold smoked ones)

I think it can be tricky to do by just what I said (it took me a few tries to get it right even knowing how my mom does it), so I'll try to present it in more detail here in case anyone wants to try it. I think the recipe is originally from Greece or Turkey.
For one portion (3-4 people) something like two nice sized eggplants, picked when elastic. So feel them, they should not be too soft or too hard, somewhat elastic and shiny. So I think immature but full size? (seeds should not be noticeable or barely). Very fat eggplants (like those italian round big ones) are not that good, hard for the heat to penetrate. We use in the range of 300-400g/fruit, somewhat slender 'normal' eggplants.

We use open gas flame (like the lateral burner of a grill) (there should be a way to come in direct contact with the fire). There will be a certain amount of dark liquid running around so I do a whole batch at once since it's messy. Can be frozen with excellent results (cooked but not prepared) for 1-2 years.
Just put it on the fire and turn a few times to cook the whole surface. You should turn it when the part exposed to the fire starts to become somewhat ashy (a few minutes, doesn't take long). It will crack a bit and steam (which smells fantastic) should come from it.
After you take it from the fire, the 'meat' should be fairly light coloured white-ish yellowish, slightly greenish. If it's more greenish than whiteish it usually suggests it's not cooked enough. I dip my hands in cold water and peel it with my hands while it's still hot (you can also leave it but the black charcoal colour will start to sip into the interior). The discarded part should not be too thick, a millimeter or so, and feel mostly crumbly and not too 'peely'.
Cut the green stem attachment off (usually this part will be a bit undercooked but it's ok), then along in two or three to allow the juices to run out for an hour or so (gets rid of most of the bitterness).
I then just make a puree with the mixer blade, add some salt, and add oil in the style of mayonnaise (don't mixer the oil, just use a spoon or whatever). It's hard to say how much, I think about 1/4 - 1/3 of the puree volume, I look for a certain shininess but not too much.
The way we always did it in my family is with onion, and I am biased towards it vs the garlic one (which seems more popular in those mentioned countries). For those 2 eggplants for example I would use a small shallot very finely cut.

That's it. It is usually not eaten warm, but room temperature. If you like the smell of that burning eggplant on fire you will absolutely love this recipe. It has a smooth texture, a bit smoky and really rich.

Last edited by zipcode; February 16, 2018 at 11:38 AM.
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