The Melitzanosalata

Whenever I throw a dinner party, I get incredibly anxious. I want everything to be perfect, everyone to have a good time and above all, I want everyone to like the food. No, correction, not just like the food, love the food.

I get a little paranoid with the menu, trying to come up with something original, something that will not be too extreme or too mainstream flavor-wise, and I end up doing countless hours of research, going through cookbooks, surfing the net reading my favorite blogs or sites, trying to find inspiration and recipes that will not only excite my guests but me as well.

I hate cooking the same thing twice for dinner parties so many times I choose to make dishes that I have never cooked before, which of course causes me even more anxiety because firstly, I'm not sure if I can actually cook them well and secondly, I don't know if I'm going to like the result. Surely, I know flavors so I can imagine what the dish will taste like, but it may need tweaks or bigger changes that are impossible to make after the fact. The guests are arriving!
(Come to think of it, I'm sort of treating my guests like guinea pigs, testing recipes and ideas on them. Thankfully none of them has complained yet.)

The only food I'm really comfortable cooking when I'm in a bind, in a hurry or extremely stressed out, is Greek food. I know I can never go wrong with the food I know, love and can't get enough of and whenever I cook dishes I'm familiar with, I feel more relaxed and confident and I can have more fun. That's the ultimate reason of having friends over, right?

One of the things I love to do for dinner parties is prepare a collection of Greek mezedes (plural for mezes), have the table filled with small plates with delicious nibbles, spreads, salads, vegetable-, meat- and cheese-based dishes along with my favorite rice dish (I can't believe I haven't blogged about it yet) and my roasted potatoes, that everyone can just pick and choose from. Nothing fancy, no first-second-third courses and above all, stress-free.

One of my favorite mezedes is the classic and delectable melitzanosalata. Melitzanosalata literally means eggplant salad, but like taramosalata, it's not actually a salad but a dip or spread. Its ingredients are only a few but its flavor gives you the impression that a lot more went into it. The smokiness of the char-grilled eggplant, the sweetness and juiciness of its flesh intermingling with the pungent but not overpowering garlic, the rich creaminess of the olive oil and the freshness of the lemon and parsley—the flavor combination is simply amazing and its rough and chunky texture is superb.

I love serving it as an appetizer or as an accompaniment to grilled steaks or chicken but I also like to spread it on toasted sourdough bread and top it with Kefalograviera (Greek cheese similar to Gruyère) or Manchego and a small, hotter than hot, yellow chilli pepper.

Melitzanosalata - Greek Smoky Eggplant Dip

You need to char-grill the eggplant in order to get that smoky flavor that's so important and characteristic of the Greek melitzanosalata. If you don't have an open grill, try scorching the eggplant on a gas stove-top or in the oven. Below, I'm including instructions for all three ways.
Also, what's important is the texture. You don't want a puréed, smooth mass but a chunky, beautiful mixture of eggplant flesh.

I found some white eggplants at the market, which are sweeter and have less seeds than the purple ones, but you can definitely use purple eggplants.

This Greek dip may remind you of the Levantine baba ganoush and even though the two are similar, they're not exactly the same. The melitzanosalata is all about the eggplant, its smoky flavor and tender flesh, and the small number of ingredients added to it, make it shine even more.

Yield: enough for 4-5 people as an appetizer

Ingredients
3 large purple or white eggplants (about 1,300 g)
100 ml extra-virgin olive oil, plus extra for drizzling over the top
1 large garlic clove, mashed
Juice of 1 lemon, freshly squeezed
Salt
Freshly ground black pepper
A handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves, finely chopped, to garnish

Special equipment: colander


Preparation
Rinse the eggplants well under cold, running water, drain them and prick them in a few places with a fork.
Using an open grill, place them whole on direct heat and char-grill them for about 30 minutes, depending on how hot your grill is, turning them around periodically with tongs in order to char them evenly all around. In the end, they should have a blackened skin that crackles and falls off when you touch it and they should be soft inside.
Using a gas stove-top, sit the eggplant on the flame of the gas burner and scorch the skin, turning the eggplant around from time to time. It's ready when the skin has blackened and the flesh has become soft.
Using the oven, preheat it (on the grill setting) on 200 degrees Celsius / 390 degrees Fahrenheit. Line a baking sheet with foil and place the eggplants on it. Place baking sheet on the upper rack of the oven and grill the eggplants for about 50 minutes, turning them over regularly, until their skins are charred and they are soft inside.

Once the eggplants are ready, allow them to cool for 10-15 minutes and then cut them in half lengthwise. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon and place it in a colander. Alternatively, you can run the charred eggplants under running water, holding them by their stem, and remove the skin. Don't worry, their flesh will not be affected or spoiled by the water.

Allow the flesh to drain from the juices for 10-15 minutes. Then place the eggplant flesh in a medium-sized bowl and using a fork, mash it roughly by pressing it against the bowl. You don't have to remove the seeds and I actually love their texture. Add the olive oil, the mashed garlic, the lemon juice, salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste, and mix and press again with the fork until you have the desired consistency. Don't purée it or mash it too much, it shouldn't be smooth but rough and chunky. Give the melitzanosalata a taste, checking if it needs more salt, pepper or lemon juice. Drizzle with some olive oil, garnish with the finely chopped parsley leaves and serve.

You can keep the melitzanosalata in the fridge, covered with plastic wrap, for 2 days, but it is ideally served the same day it was made or the next.