The Greek Food

Tag: aubergines

  • Aubergine Stew with Olives and Capers

    Aubergine Stew with Olives and Capers

    Aubergines must be my favourite summer vegetable. Many times when i try to think of different dishes to cook with aubergines i get lost from the various combinations you might have.

    In this case i got the ideam from the famous imam baildi and i tried to spice it up a bit with some more ingredients. Eggplants, or aubergines or whatever you want to name them are in the heart of Mediterenean cuisine and you can get a variety of similar dishes if you are at some point in Greece.

    As my father used to say it is important to manage and boil it properly and keeping the full texture of the vegetable. In the same time though the aubergine needs to melt in your mouth rather than having to chew it.

    Difficult? Well, that’s life!

    INGREDIENTS FOR AUBERGINE STEW WITH OLIVES AND CAPERS

    • 6 large aubergines
    • 2 medium onions sliced
    • 2 cloves of garlic
    • Around 20-30 olives without the stone
    • 20 cherry tomatoes cut in the middle
    • 1 glass of red wine
    • 1 tomato can juice
    • Oregano and Parsley
    • 300gr of Greek Yoghurt
    • Olive oil
    • Salt and Pepper

    METHOD

    • In cutting board start putting your aubergines and cut them in cubes with sharp knife.
    • In a deep pot add some olive onion and the onion and the garlic until it becomes brownish. Make sure you stir them all the time so they don’t get burned.
    • Add the olives, and the capers together with the tomato juice. Continue to stir them for couple of minutes.
    • Next, add the aubergines and leave them for couple of minutes. Pour the wine and let it for a minute more. Throw in the tomatoes , salt and peeper and lower the hit.
    • Keep boiling it for 25-30 minutes until they aubergines are done with out loosing there texture as we said before.
    • Just a bit before the end, add the oregano.
    • Serve in a deep plate by adding a big spoon of Greek style Yogurt on top
    Aubergine Stew with Capers

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  • Oven Aubergines

    Oven Aubergines

    Couple of day ago I was talking with my dad who reminded me how much he liked to try different recipes that include aubergines which is I think a characteristic ingredient in Greek, Turkish and in general middle east kitchen.

    Looking back on the recipes I have done, I can find a lot that include aubergines and most probably I can think couple also that I haven’t even tried to cook until now. The following reminds a lot of the aubergine salad I did some time ago but it is a nice idea, especially if you are having a barbeque and you want something to have together with the meat you are grilling.

    (more…)

  • Chicken wrapped with aubergines

    Chicken wrapped with aubergines

    Sometimes I come to think about how all the foods have similarities and are kind of the same. You don’t need to have any special knowledge rather than huge imagination to change the ingredients and from one dish to create a whole new one.

    For example I remember when I did that recipe with the towers of aubergines and I realise how similar to the following it is.  You add one ingredient and maybe…re-arrange the others and you have a completely new dish.

    Aubergines are always popular to Middle East and so in the following recipe play an important role even if the chicken helps also a little bit…

    So the basic idea is to create some small wraps with aubergines that we can add inside the chicken or whatever we can…

     

    Sizzle the pieces of chicken in a pan and add Salt and Pepper. In the same time slice the aubergines as thin as you can and add them in a pan on the oven while you have sizzled them with olive oil. Leave them in the oven for a bit to become softer.

    As the chicken is cooked then remove the aubergines from the oven and try to make the small wraps, using a toothpick. Pour the tomato juice on top and add any seasoning  you would like and place them back to the oven. Ready!

    *On some of them when I was preparing them I added pieces of feta cheese which made it even better.  Be creative and try more!

     

     

  • Tower of aubergines

    Tower of aubergines

    I’ve been feeling a little bit vegetarian lately as I said on my last post. Maybe too much of meat food of the last few days has brought me in this stage.

    Last time I went to the market I saw a man selling aubergines and I wanted to make papoutsakia again at some point. Nevertheless, I have realized in the past few months…that when you cook…you start from something…and sometimes you end up to something different…

    I always liked aubergines and loved any relevant recipes

    Not sure why, i guess it is my Asia Minor heritage or the fact that my father did a lot of work to introduce them to our weekly menu.

    Christmas is coming!

    In Greece when the summer comes, those vegetables are the ones that really shine most above all and you can find them in many different dishes. Sometimes though you do like to improvise and see how lucky can you get.

    So for this case, i decided to make a fun recipe that focuses on aubergines as a main ingredient and …really looks nice. Even if i am biassed in this occasion..

    Ingredients for Aubergine Towers

    • 2-3 Aubergines thinly sliced
    • 2 tomatos sliced
    • 1 onion
    • 200gr of Feta cheese
    • 250gr of teen can tomato juice

    How to Cook them

    Clean the aubergine slices and fry them in a pan, 2-3 minutes from each side really quick.

    When you finish, you place them in the side and get ready to make the small aubergine towers. The idea is to put one ingredient over the other creating a mixture of flavors.

    So first a slice of aubergine, onion, aubergine, tomato, aubergine and on top a teaspoon of tomato juice. Top it up with sprinkled feta cheese

    Repeat until you are done with all the ingredients.

    Wrap the pan, in a baking foil and cook it in the oven for an hour or so, removing the oven in the last 15 minutes.

    You can never go wrong, with feta, aubergines and tomatoes!

    Aubergines with feta cheese-1