Recipes and News From The Golden Harvest
Today’s Recipe:
Melitzanes Skordostoumbi
Melitzanes Skordostoumbi
“If you take Greece apart, in the end you will be left with an olive tree, a vineyard and a boat…which means that with these items you can rebuild Greece.—Odysseas Elytis, (Nobel Prize for Literature, 1979)”
Greece has been one of the few country’s that-- knock on olive wood--tourists have felt comfortable traveling to this summer. Today’s recipe comes from The Golden Harvest’s Greek co-producer, Diana Farr Louis.
From Zakynthos Island, it translates into “eggplant smothered in garlic” for obvious reasons and is one of Diana’s favorites from her cookbook on the Ionian Islands, Prospero’s Kitchen. For tourists, we also recommend her latest book (with Alexia Amvrazi and Diane Shugart), 111 Places in Athens that You Shouldn’t Miss. Among the wonderful finds in this book, we of course recommend Ariana, the ultimate olive warehouse, and tea at the 19th century Black Duck Garden. The Irish Times chose it as the guide book to Athens this year. Read more here.
Ingredients:
4 lbs (2 kg) large round eggplants, unpeeled and cut in 1-inch/2 ½ cm slices
olive oil for frying
4 lb (2 kg) ripe tomatoes, peeled, halved, seeded, and grated or 2 lb (1 kg) canned tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ teaspoon sugar
2-3 tablespoons vinegar or sweet red wine like Greek Mavrodaphne or port
1 head garlic, peeled and chopped
PREPARATION:
Diana says `’This is an ideal summer dish because you can make it well ahead when you’re in the mood and it’s cool and enjoy hours or even a day later. Always make more because it really does improve with age, as do all dishes cooked with olive oil…Also, don’t be alarmed by the amount of garlic and don’t be tempted to saute it first. It does lose some of its bite in the oven and its sharpness contrasts beautifully with the rich, meltingly soft eggplant and the acidity of the tomato sauce.”
Sprinkle the eggplant slices with salt and leave them in a colander for at least 40 minutes to shed some of their liquid. Rinse and dry the slices well. Heat about an inch (2 ½ cm) of olive oil in a frying pan and gently fry the eggplant slices on both sides in batches. Drain on paper towels.
In another saucepan simmer the tomatoes with salt, pepper, and sugar until a thickish sauce forms. Stir in the vinegar or wine. Arrange the eggplant slices in layers in an ovenproof dish, sprinkling chopped garlic between each layer. Pour the tomato sauce over the eggplant and bake in an oven preheated to 375°F/190°C for 30 minutes. Leave in the oven to cool and serve several hours later or the next day, not immediately!
This goes well with fresh sourdough bread, feta, and plenty of wine. 6-8 servings.
UpDATES ON THE GOLDEN HARVEST:
We’re delighted our film will play in several festivals this fall—we just wish for better days when festivals can be in person. Chicago, Boston, and yes, finally Dubai, coming up. Next is the city we love to eat in, Toronto. See the Festival line up here.
Stay tuned for more festival updates
IN THE NEWS:
Impact of COVID-19 on Olive Oil. Olive picking in Italy and elsewhere likely to suffer without migrant labor. Read more in Olive Oil Times.
Between Beirut and the Moon. We still think about Lebanon and is struggles this week. That’s just one of the reasons we recommend of Between Beirut and the Moon, released today as the warm, funny, touching debut novel by Naji Bakhti. See the National interview with the author here.
The novel launches today.