Fried eggplant salad with pomegranate molasses dressing
Youmna says "This is a lovely salad to have all year round, but perfect for late summer when you have eggplants and the tomatoes. I like to use coloured heritage tomatoes."
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Prep: 2 hours for disgorging the aubergines, then 20 mins cooking time
Serves: 4
Ingredients
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2 large eggplants
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6 tbsp pomegranate molasses ( rub remman in arabic)
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Oil for frying
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1 large tomato seeded and cut into small dices
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1 cup roughly chopped parsley
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2 chopped spring onions
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Optional: a tablespoon roasted or fried pine kernels
Method
Peel the eggplants “zebra” style. Slice into 1 cm thick slices , spread them on a tray and salt them slightly so they disgorge for about two hours ( or more if you want to prepare ahead).
Rinse the slices well, pat dry with kitchen paper.
Heat the oil in a large frying pan , enough to cover the eggplant slices.
Fry the eggplants until nicely brown on both sides, turning them often, but don't let them go dark brown
Set aside on kitchen paper to drain off the extra oil and cool. Mix the pomegranate molasses into a cup of water.
Once the eggplant slices are cool, set them out on a flat dish, pour the molasses on top making sure they all have some; decorate with the diced tomato, the chopped parsley and pine kernels and serve room temperature or cool.
You can add a bit of cayenne pepper or Piment d’Espelette if you like a bit of a zing. No need for salt as the eggplant slices will have retained some from the start of the recipe.
Suggested Pairing
Because of the complexities of this salad, with fried eggplants, parsley and the molasses which are very strong, let's start with the dry white Felicie or Felix, our lighter red blend of mainly Merlot.