Eggplant Marinated in Oil

[Darienne]

Having become enamored of a commercial salad addition, eggplant marinated in oil, I decided to make my own: less costly, better taste, better ingredients, learning experience, possible hostess type gift, etc.

Found a recipe online which uses raw eggplant as its base. OK. Started to make it and in my usual inability to read a recipe through ahead of time properly, suddenly discovered that at one point I was supposed to add 1 tsp of vinegar to over 3 pounds of eggplant. One teaspoon to 3 pounds? Does this make sense.

Quickly, quickly, back online and found 10 more recipes for the same dish. ALL THE SAME with the 1 tsp vinegar thingy.

Just now I looked in Claudia Roden...where was my brain?...and found a different recipe which calls for poaching the eggplant in lots of vinegar for 5 minutes. Then drain the vinegar and add the oil. Sounds good.

Does anyone have a recipe for this dish?

[heidih]

There is discussion in the Tuesdays with Marcella topic (Italy Cooking and Baking) about such a dish. The discussion starts on page one and is sprinkled throughout the three pages. It sounds very appealing especially as eggplants are abundant right now. Good luck.

[greenmountain]

I worked at an authentic southern Italian restaurant, and we served a sandwich with the marinated eggplant on it, as well as put it on the antipasti plate. Peel eggplant, slice as thin as possible with a knife, we used a slicer, about as thin as a cotton shirt. If it is too thin, it will disintigrate when the vinegar solution is added. You will need enough liquid to cover the sliced eggplant, so make a mixture of 1:1 water to white vinegar. Add whole garlic cloves, oregano, chili pepper, bring to boil, add to eggplant, let sit at room temp overnight. Strain, squeeze, add olive oil, ground garlic, chili flake, oregano, touch of salt. Mix and refrigerate. As long as it covered with oil, it will last indefinately! Can even be jarred/canned. Enjoy! Add a touch of salt to vinegar solution if desired, and the solution can be reused, it just needs to be fortified with more vinegar and whole garlic.

[Darienne]

Thanks to Heidi and Green Mountain for their replies.

I nibbled another piece of the eggplant and realized that what was bothering me was not the vinegar, but the oregano. For some reason, it is not my favorite herb and using dried herbs is always a problem. I think I'll drain the oil out, save it for salads...DH loves oregano...and it can be easily modified to mask the oregano for me...and restart the eggplant process in the middle.

Thanks.

Forgot to ask: do you sterilize the container? I am a total novice at all of this and I sterilized the glass jar which turned out to be twice as large as needed. I'd like to love it all to a smaller glass jar. Can I? Can I put this into plastic even?

Edited September 16, 2009 by Darienne (log)

[nakji]

That recipe in Tuesdays with Marcella is (of course) a Marcella Hazan recipe from "Marcella's Italian Kitchen". I highly recommend it, as it makes excellent pickles for a sandwich or antipasti platter. I have even packed them into bento boxes with cheese and cold cuts. I usually use rice vinegar, as it's what I have on hand, but I believe Marcella calls for 1 cup of red wine vinegar for her method. I can't recommend this recipe enough!

[Darienne]

I think the rice vinegar is an excellent idea...not as harsh as regular or wine vinegar generally is. I am not a vinegar aficionado. Prefer lemon juice for acidic needs. DH loves vinegar.

Will get the book through Inter-library loan ASAP.

Edited September 16, 2009 by Darienne (log)