Eggplant and artichoke salads

Preserved lemons

Almost the entirety of this month's You Pick Two was inspired by a prized cookbook in my collection, Claudia Roden's The New Middle Eastern Cookbook.  I am a research guy at heart so I very much enjoy diving into cookbooks that read as literature or travel guides, and this book is very much like that.  The two salads I am posting today are from the book, with slight adaptations.  Before I get to the recipes though, I wanted to share some general thoughts on Middle Eastern/North African food that I have developed through reading about and cooking these recipes.

One thing that stood out very clearly for me is where I spent my time in the grocery store when I shopped for the meal.  I would say that 75% of my time was spent in the vegetable area of the store.  The remaining 24% was spent at the meat counter and in the dairy section.  The final 1% was up the aisles, and that was for things like bread flour, olive oil, and honey.  You can see why the Mediterranean diet is so good for you, it calls for very little packaged food and lots of fruits and vegetables.  It was kind of eye opening for me.  Now, I am sure if you picked a menu slanted more towards meats, then you would add more time to the meat counter, but I think it would still be hard to add time to the aisles.

The other effect making this food had on me was, in a small way, I felt much closer to the culture of this part of the world.  I have grown up, in all honesty, with a fair amount of fear of the Middle East based on the decades of conflict I read about and watched on TV.  But somehow, reading Claudia's recipes and making these dishes gave me an understanding of their traditions and made me excited to one day visit the region. And this is one of the reasons I love cooking so much, it can teach you things about a culture in a more immediate way than reading.  Ok, on with the recipes.

I call them salads, but in reality they are just cold mezze.  The eggplant salad, a north African dish, was a huge hit of the meal, even the folks at the table who did not care for eggplant enjoyed it.  The artichoke salad is a Moroccan dish that packs lots of flavor, thanks in large part to the preserved lemons.  Making preserved lemons was very enjoyable, I followed this recipe to make them - it's kind of a shortcut method but it worked.  I also used frozen artichokes for the salad, but you could easily substitute fresh artichoke hearts when they are in season or available.

Sweet and spicy eggplant salad

[serve cold or at room temperature]
Ingredients
2 medium-large eggplants, sliced into 1/3-inch rounds (leave skins on)
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 inches fresh gingerroot, grated (I used my microplane)
1 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (or large pinch of ground cayenne pepper)
5 tablespoons of honey
Juice of 1 lemon
2/3 cup of water
olive oil, for frying eggplant
salt

Directions
1.  If grilling the eggplant, do so making sure to brown or mark them - no need to cook them all the way through.  Or, heat a tablespoon of oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat and brown the eggplant slices on each side.  I did it this way and it took two batches to brown all the eggplant slices, adding a tablespoon of oil for each batch.  Make sure to season each slice with a sprinkling of salt while it's browning in the pan.

2. Remove the grilled eggplant to a dish.  Turn the heat down to medium-low, add another tablespoon of olive oil and add the garlic, ginger, chili pepper, and cumin.  Saute for about 30 seconds, making sure not to burn the garlic.  Then add the honey, lemon juice, and water.  Stir to combine everything and to make sure the honey melts.  Once the sauce starts to simmer, turn the heat down to as low as it will go and add the sliced eggplant back to the pan.  Try to make sure each slice of eggplant is somewhat submerged in the sauce.  Add another 1/2 cup water if you need a little more sauce.

3. Cook the eggplant in the simmering sauce for about 10-15 minutes, or until the eggplant slices are very soft.  Pour the slices and sauce on to a platter, let it all cool, then refrigerate overnight or for several hours at least to give the flavors time to integrate.  

Artichoke salad with preserved lemons

[serve hot, room temperature, or cold]
Ingredients
3 cloves garlic, crushed and roughly chopped
1/2 teaspoon ginger
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons of honey
the peels of 2 preserved lemons, cut into small strips
2 9-ounce packages of frozen artichokes, thawed
salt
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup water

1. Heat the oil in a saute pan that has a lid over medium-high heat for several minutes, add the chopped garlic and saute for about 10-15 seconds.  Take the pan off the heat and add the ginger, turmeric, lemon juice, honey, and preserved lemons.  Place back on the heat and stir to combine and heat through for a minute or so until the honey melts.

2. Add the artichokes to the pan.  Stir to mix with the other ingredients.  Add the water and a large pinch of salt.  Cover and reduce heat to low.  Cook over a low simmer for about 10 minutes, remove the lid and cook off any remaining liquid at the end.  Decant to a bowl and leave at room temperature or chill in the fridge overnight.