Last night was our meant-to-be-monthly food group. We get together with a few other couples and all bring a dish or two that fits into a theme. It’s a fun way to have a low-stress dinner party–you get the cohesion and sophistication of a progressive dinner (not the random collection of stuff that shows up to a potluck) but with less shopping, less chopping and perhaps most important, less cleaning. In any event, last night’s theme was Moroccan. I was very excited to dive into my Arabesque cookbook by Claudia Roden (it has Morocco, Turkey and Lebanon chapters) and after much indecision and avoidance of anything with filo dough (of which I have an unreasonable fear), I found three recipes to make. Then I learned that one of mine overlapped a bit too much with someone else’s choice. And I decided that I wasn’t so sure about recipe 3. So I went to Claudia Roden’s Book of Jewish Food, which has recipes from all over the world, including Morocco. There I found the two other recipes to complete my trio of salads. All three salads–sweet potato, mushroom and eggplant–were great but I think the eggplant was the runaway favorite.
You’ll need:
2 eggplants, weighing about 1 1/2 lbs
2 red bell peppers
7 cloves of garlic
3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil (you could probably cut this down)
1/2 cup of wine vinegar (I used red wine vinegar and topped it off with balsamic to get to a full 1/2 cup)
1 1/2 tablespoons honey (or more to taste. I added more to make the dish a bit less sour)
Salt, Pepper and Cayenne to taste
1) Roast the eggplants and peppers together, pricking them with a fork beforehand, in a 550 degree oven for 30 minutes
2) Let the vegetables cool and when cool enough to handle, peel them and cut them into cubes
3) Chop your garlic coarsely and fry it in the oil until golden
4) Take your pan off the heat and add your vinegar, honey, and seasonings.
5) Stir well and bring to the boil
6) Add your eggplant and peppers and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes
Serve cold
Serving suggestions: We had this as part of a medley of salads. I think it would also be good with bread or maybe alongside some fish.
Laila Loves Lettuce 