229. Turkish eggplant & yogurt
Ingredients
2 big eggplants
1 tablespoon + 1 teaspoon salt
1 cup greek yogurt (or drained plain yogurt)
1 1/2 teaspoons smashed fresh garlic (generate from 2 big cloves)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
freshly ground black pepper to taste
vegetable oil to fry eggplant
Instructions
Peel the eggplant partially like zebra stripes, cut off and discard stem, halve eggplant into shorter chunks, then cut into 2 parts lengthways. Melt salt in a large bowl with water, add eggplant into salted water and place a heavy lid on top (to keep eggplant under water surface) for 1 hour. (See foot note 1)
(option)
If you use plain yogurt, drain it with several layer of cheese cloths or coffee filter, for about 45 minutes to 1 hour.
Add yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper into a small bowl and mix well, set aside to let spices to blent into yogurt.
Take eggplant out of salted water and squeeze water out of it. Slice each part into thinner stripes, about 2cm (0.8 inches) thick. If there’s water on surface of eggplant, dry it with kitchen towel.
Place 2-3 layers of kitchen towel on a plate. Heat a non-sticky skillet on medium high heat and add vegetable oil to cover the bottom of skillet.(See foot note 2) When oil is hot, fry eggplant side by side, till turning golden brown. If the skillet is not big enough, fry eggplant by smaller batches, one batch at a time. Place cooked eggplant on kitchen towel to soak extra oil.
When eggplant cools down a bit but still warm, throw the kitchen towel away, pour yogurt mixture on top of eggplant and serve as appetizer, or with bread. You can also serve this dish cold.
Notes
1. Peel eggplant like zebra stripes for soft texture.
The way of peel partial skin from eggplant and soak in salt water is a good way to create better texture. After soaked in salted water, the eggplant will turn softer and loss bitter juice. Remove partial skin will help salt water penetrate into eggplant and thus help with the soften process.
2. How to fry eggplant with less oil
Add yogurt, garlic, lemon juice, 1 teaspoon salt and black pepper into a small bowl and mix well, set aside to let spices to blent into yogurt.
Take eggplant out of salted water and squeeze water out of it. Slice each part into thinner stripes, about 2cm (0.8 inches) thick. If there’s water on surface of eggplant, dry it with kitchen towel.
Place 2-3 layers of kitchen towel on a plate. Heat a non-sticky skillet on medium high heat and add vegetable oil to cover the bottom of skillet.(See foot note 2) When oil is hot, fry eggplant side by side, till turning golden brown. If the skillet is not big enough, fry eggplant by smaller batches, one batch at a time. Place cooked eggplant on kitchen towel to soak extra oil.
When eggplant cools down a bit but still warm, throw the kitchen towel away, pour yogurt mixture on top of eggplant and serve as appetizer, or with bread. You can also serve this dish cold.
Notes
1. Peel eggplant like zebra stripes for soft texture.
The way of peel partial skin from eggplant and soak in salt water is a good way to create better texture. After soaked in salted water, the eggplant will turn softer and loss bitter juice. Remove partial skin will help salt water penetrate into eggplant and thus help with the soften process.
2. How to fry eggplant with less oil
Eggplant does not taste good if you cook with too little oil. But I don’t like using too much oil to fry for health sake, so I figured you can grill fry the eggplant one side at a time by using less oil only enough to cover the skillet. When the eggplant is cooked well inside, the oil soaked in at the beginning will start to seep out. When the eggplant color turned to golden brown and soft, you can squeeze oil out back to skillet by a tongs before taking eggplant out. By this way, you can cook very tasty eggplant by only using 1/3 of oil for frying.
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