This #homamadeMonday´s #guestchefseries brings you the most Romanian food ever – eggplant salad. The way my friend Adina learned it from her mom, who learned it from her own mom. And while usual eggplant salats are quite fatty due to the mayonnaise, this one is a healthier version with egg yolk instead. Essentially, the Romanian eggplant salad is a smokey spread that we love eating on bread all year long. It might not be the first thing you think of when picturing brunch, but I feel it´s a spread that is right up there with hummus, so I catalogued it as brunch food and made it part of my #brunchseries . It´s not my favourite dish, but its cultural value to Romania is so significant that I just had to share it with you. That, and it was tons of fun having Adina teach me and Sara how to make it.
Ingredients
(serves a party of six)
7 eggplants
an eggyolk
half a red onion
3 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper
Instructions
1. The very first and most time consuming step of this process is roasting your eggplants on a barbecue. In total this will take about 2h as you´ll want to roast them until the skin easily peels off. Rotate them regularly to roast on all sides.
2. Once done, but while still hot, peel the eggplants using a pair of gloves.
3. Chop the eggplant into a paste using a knife. Note: You can use a blender but it just wouldn´t be the authentic Romanian way if you did-
4. Add the eggplant paste, half a chopped red onion, three spoons of olive oil and an egg yolk to a bowl and mix . Note: Many Romanians will use mayonnaise instead of egg yolk, but the egg yolk is way healthier and just as yummy.
5. Salt and pepper according to taste and serve on a thick piece of rustic bread, along with some garden tomatoes.
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