Beautiful shiny aubergine
Aubergine salad is a classic of the Turkish meze table. Patlıcan Salatası (pron: putt-ler-jun) or Ezmesi /purée . A in Turkish is pronounced u like in umbrella and c is j. You will be served it everywhere: in restaurants and in private homes. And in my home.
patlıcan salatası/aubergine salad
If I do seem to be having a bit of an aubergine fest these days, forgive me but living out here in our village, meals are 100% dependent on what’s available at the market. Right now it’s the height of the season and it’s aubergines and tomatoes plus peppers, both red and green, – and more aubergines and tomatoes! If you don’t do something with these, you will starve!
In the recent recipe for Ali Nazik, I grilled the aubergines over the gas flame on top of the oven. You can also bake them inside the oven if you prefer: less mess but the taste won’t be so good. Make sure you slit them otherwise they may explode and then you really will have a huge mess on your hands. By far and away the best method of grilling aubergines is on the barbecue: easy as you just throw them on while your meat is cooking, and the flesh acquires a delicious smoky taste, the mark of an authentic patlıcan salatası. If you have a Turkish husband, he will love you forever if you do it like this.
Aubergine grilled on thebarbie
· When cool enough to handle, strip off the blackened skin. Roughly chop the soft inner flesh and put in a colander, allowing any bitter juices to drain away.
Stripping off the skin and then scooping out the soft flesh
· In a bowl, combine the aubergine, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and yogurt. Season with salt and pepper and mash into the consistency of a purée. You could use the food processor if you prefer a smoother consistency. Refrigerate until required but ideally serve at room temperature.
decorated with parsley sprigs and black olives
Tips
I have used Angie Mitchell’s recipe from Secrets of the Turkish Kitchen but basically the ingredients of this salad are to taste: add more garlic or lemon juice if you like, or an extra spoonful of yogurt, it really doesn’t matter.
If you leave out the yogurt, you can ring the changes by adding a little chopped tomato,onion, and parsley.
Texture of this aubergine salad
Why don’t you try this meze? It’s easy!
Afiyet olsun!
Looks simple and tasty. I love the first photo and wish i could get fresh aubergine here in Virginia. I know what to look for at the farmers market tomorrow.
http://polwig.com
One of my favorite recipes! Thanks for reminding me how easy it is to make. Especially now that I'm not afraid to put the eggplant on the burner.
Well, considerably less afraid. I intend to overcome the fear over the weekend.
Take care!
Kathy, I wish I could send you some aubergine from here! It's everywhere!
Stranger: go for it!!Dying to hear how the grilling goes!
i am so hungry right now i could eat my computer screen! i can't wait to make this!
This looks so delicious..I am bookmarking this so that I can give it a try! Beautiful photos!
Love the top photo – worth a frame!
Hello Claudia – I'm glad I found your site. I have some Aubergine's in the kitchen that I just bought from the local farmers market.
I love my visits to Turkey — I could live on Meze and Ekmek! As well as all of the Aubergine dishes, I'm a fan of the spicy red pepper dish – but can't remember it's name.
I love it, one of my favourite meze, and the cigara below too, I ate so many when I was in Turkey, all your food is so yum!!!
Ciao
Alessandra
A big thank you to you all for being so enthusiastic! I really appreciate your comments.
Roving Jay – Hi! Do you come here a lot? Sounds as if you do as I have checked out your blogs.
Alessandra, so glad you like it!
let's see if this comment goes through ….
Hi there, what a delicious recipe. When things are finally due to calm down mid-September I'm going to give it a go. Hope all is well with you. x
Hi there Froggie! How nice to read your comment! You'll love it, I'm sure! Thanks….x