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The eggplant caviar on Romanian plates is the ultimate spring harbinger, the same way the snowdrop is for everything else. At the beginning of spring - that officially arrives in Romania on the 1st of March, and in spite of the fact that sometimes there are several centimeters of snow on the streets even when April is there - all good hearted cook (and cooking is almost the exclusive realm of women in Romania) joyfully rushes to open the jars full of roasted eggplants she stored in her freezer or larder, to make this tasty starter of oriental influences.
Located in Eastern Europe (some are placing it at the Eastern side of Central Europe) Romania was under the authority of Ottoman Empire for more than 4 centuries (from 1396 to 1878) which means that it inevitably borrowed and adapted Turkish (and Greek) dishes to its climate and ingredients, dishes that you'll get to recognize over time, provided that I get to post them as frequently as I wish to :) And then it did the same with other dishes and other influences which I'll definitely tell you about when the time comes. Mysteryyy!!!...
Well, here goes the eggplant caviar recipe (salata de vinete), my own gourmet way to emphasize the arrival of spring and the transition to lighter food. Winter is finally gone!!! ...at least on paper...
Ingredients (serves 4, or 2, or 1):
Everything I use is organic, of course!!! :P
* 4 medium eggplants (mine weighted all 1kg)
The quantities - let's say the normal ones - are about one eggplant per person, but I usually eat at least the double every time (and sometimes even more, read: until the bowl that had the chance to hold the caviar starts gleaming :) )
* oil - 4-6 spoons of a neutral tasting oil (in France I use the organic grape seed oil, while back in Romania I used to buy sunflower oil - the one I find in here, the organic one, tastes too strongly and covers a great deal the smoked taste, which is essential in this recipe IMO. Similarly, I don't put olive oil in it unless I'm menaced with death threats to use it...)
* optionally, you can use 4-6 spoons of a sweet mustard mayonnaise instead of oil
* onion cut in small cubes
* salt-n-pepa
All quantities are given as a rough estimate only and you will definitely have the opportunity to see that a lot of Romanian recipes (as it's the case with most of the countryside cuisine recipes from around the world) are made using extremely precise measures of type: "enough", "to taste", or "at will". I, for example, when I get to cook the eggplant caviar all for myself, I'm adding much more mayonnaise in it than the decency would normally allow (furthermore, I'll eat the remaining mayo with a spoon, because I'm always making more than needed, I wonder why...). I'm just giving you these details so you are better able to realize who's the crazy lady giving you advice on Romanian cuisine :P
The eggplant caviar is either served with raw tomatoes (when I was a little girl during the communist times of food shortage, we always got to find the first tomatoes of the year with great difficulty and a lot of networking efforts often involving barter of products or services. Those tomatoes, which we used to call "of greenhouse", had a rather pale complexion and most likely not a super-duper taste, but, for us, an eggplant caviar with tomatoes was at that time the summum of sophistication and a feast fit for a king!...) or with grilled bell peppers marinated in some oil, vinegar, salt and pepper.
If you managed to read so far, I am heartily congratulating you and am rewarding you with the (real!) way of making the (real!) eggplant caviar, the Romanian style:
1st step: grilling the eggplants - if you have a wood or charcoal fire grill at your disposal it's as if you won the eggplant caviar lottery, because it all starts with grilling, like most of the things in life. The flesh of an eggplant grilled directly on a wood fire is simply divine: creamy, sweet and tender, with a subtle smoked taste, it's the Rolls Royce of eggplant caviars! Or else, if you have any possibility of exposing the eggplants directly to an open fire of any kind (careful not to burn down the house, though!), just do it, the result will be even better!
But for us, the common of mortals, we are left at the mercy of our ovens so let's try to make the best of what we have. Make a small incision in each eggplant with the help of a sharp knife and place them in an oven preheated at high temperature (me, 250°C), on a wire grid shelf or wire oven rack, whatever you have. Lucky me, my oven comes equipped with a grill - and hopefully yours too - so at first I heat the grill at maximum power then I place my eggplants on the rack, making sure that they really touch the grill's hot wires. There will be some smoke, watch out the smoke detectors, but that's exactly what should happen: in this case smoke is gooood!...
As soon as the skin begins to harden and it crackles when touched, I turn each eggplant on another side (I usually get four sides). On a real wood fire grill (yeah, I know, I have the nostalgia of the good 'ol wood fire grill...) the direct fire contact will cover the eggplant skin with a sort of a whitish dust, which is the signal that the time has come to turn it over.
2nd step: cleaning out the skin of the grilled eggplants - don't put it in water in any case and in the same time try not to leave any black grilled slivers on the flesh (practice makes it perfect, I'm wishing you lots and lots of good luck!). After taking out all the burned skin, the moment has come to taste the result (the flesh, not the skin!!!). If you find it's bitter don't panic, just cover it with milk for a couple of hours, which theoretically will take away any bitterness that's left. In both cases, you should squeeze the eggplant flesh in your hands or aided by a towel in order to remove as much liquid as possible, or else it will end up in your bowl the following day. Better late than never!
3rd step: finely chop the skinless eggplants - using wooden utensils (recommended) or plastic ones (quel horreur !) only; in any case, don't use metal. The legend says that all contact with metal will make the caviar bitter, so I don't advise it. I've never done it though and I've always got the best results (and modesty is not my better trait either!). But if someone ventures to use metallic knives or recipients in the process, please don't forget to let me know the result, see if it's true or just a Romanian urban myth...
4th step: mixing the chopped eggplants with oil like when doing a mayonnaise (and we insist a little more, it will make the color of the caviar even lighter) or, if you're using mayonnaise, just mix the eggplants with mayonnaise. Add the onion cubes, salt and pepper.
5th step: You're eatting it, finally!!! hooraaaaaaay!
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