Bowl of Fired Eggplant Salad
(click to enlarge)

Fried Eggplant Salad


Turkmenistan   -   Gowrulan Badamjanly Salat
Makes:
Effort:
Sched:
DoAhead:  		 2 #
**
1-1/2 hr
Part		 This flavorful salad offers an unusual contrast in textures. The dressing has no oil or salt, as these are provided by the fried eggplant. Caution: the eggplants can be a real problem, so read Note-4 carefully.




1-1/2
1
3
1-1/4
3
7
3
2
2
1/2
------
1
2
#
T
T
#
lrg
oz

T
T
t
---
cl
T
Eggplants (1)
Salt
Oil (2)
Tomatoes
Lettuce Leaves
Bell Pepper
Scallions
Dill, fresh
Parsley, flat
Chili Flake (3)
-- Dressing
Garlic
Lemon Juice

This recipe will make 5 to 6 salad size servings.

Make   -   (1-1/2 hr - 25 min work)
  1. Peel EGGPLANTS and cube about 3/4 to 1 inch. Immediately tumble with 1T Salt and hold aside, tumbling now and then, for about 1/2 hour. Rinse moderately, then drain well. Gently squeeze out excess water.
  2. In a spacious skillet or sauté pan, heat Oil very hot and fry Eggplant, tumbling frequently until lightly browned all over. Drain well and let cool.
  3. Dice TOMATOES 3/4 inch. Chop or tear LETTUCE coarse. Dice BELL PEPPER about 3/8 inch. Chop SCALLIONS fine. Chop DILL and PARSLEY fine. Mix all.
  4. Mix Eggplant and Chili Flake into the salad.
  5. Crush GARLIC and chop fine. Squeeze Lemon Juice. Mix well.
  6. Pour Dressing over salad and tumble until well distributed. Serve lightly chilled.
NOTES:

  1. Eggplant:

      preferably, a regular Globe Eggplant since that is easiest to peel (see Note-4). I use a very sharp "Y" type vegetable peeler. For details see our Eggplants page.

  2. Oil:

      Use a durable high temperature oil such as Pure Olive Oil (not virgin), Peanut Oil, or the like. For details see our Cooking Oils page.

  3. Chili Flake:

      I use 1/2 t Korean chili flake, very common in these parts. Korean is fairly mild, so that much doesn't have a big impact. Use your own preference for type and amount. For details see our Chili Powder / Flake page.

  4. Method:

      The pattern recipe called for chopped eggplant, but later calls it "eggplant cubes". They are to be soaked in salted water and drained. This produced mush, with either shallow or deep frying, and well before any browning occurred. My method, salting without water and draining, worked well some of the time. My method failed with eggplants so young the seed mass was very white and seeds not yet well developed. In this case, I tumbled the salted cubes with the Oil and roasted them lightly brown on a baking sheet in a 450°F/230°C oven, tumbling them several times. These did not bring enough oil with them, so I added 1 T oil to the Dressing. The photo with the pattern recipe seems to show eggplant with purple skin on, but my experience is that simply fried, as in this recipe, the skins can be tough as leather. Other than these changes, I followed the recipe as given.
  5. U.S. measure: t=teaspoon, T=Tablespoon, c=cup, qt=quart, oz=ounce, #=pound, cl=clove in=inch, ar=as required tt=to taste
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