On that historical Tuesday last week, aka Election Day, my cousin J, my sister and I went to Avli, a cute Greek restaurant in Bayside, Queens.
My sister, who had been there before, recommended ordering the eggplant dip, which was described on the menu as “roasted eggplant dip with olive oil and garlic.” For $5, it was a pretty good deal! It also came with warm pita slices. Delicious!! (I didn’t take a photo of theirs.. but here’s my version below.)
That was my inspiration for this replica recipe. I figured, how hard could it be to make?
It looks ok. But how did it taste? Read below to find out.
First, let me share the recipe and instructions.
Makes 2 servings
Ingredients:
2 large eggplants
3 tbs of olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 tsp of honey
Juice of 1/4 of a lemon
2 slices of pita bread, cut into triangles (or any other kind of bread)
A few pieces of parsley, diced for garnish
Sprinkle of salt
Procedure:
1. Heat oven to 350 F.
2. Wash and dry your eggplants.
3. Using a fork, pierce each eggplant, creating a bunch of holes all around. Place on baking sheet.
4. Bake for an hour and a half, or until the eggplant has withered and the insides are a dark purple. Open a little piece with fork to test.
5. In the meantime, finely dice garlic, and wash the parsley. The lemon juice can wait until later.
6. Remove from heat and let it cool.
7. Peel eggplant skin using your fingers. The skin should come off easily. Transfer insides to a bowl.
8. Transfer onto cutting board and chop into big chunks, running your knife over it a few times.
9. Transfer back to bowl and stir in lemon juice, garlic, honey, and olive oil. Sprinkle a hint of salt.
10. Heat up pita bread in a pan or in the oven. Cut into triangles and serve.
I had these delicious slices of roti bread so that’s what I dipped mine in. I love how it gets all poofy and then flattens. Yum!
Similar to my last post, if the dish is going to take a while, I want to have a little more than 1 cup of dip in the end. So that’s why my recipe calls for 2 eggplants.
Now, here’s where I went wrong:
I sliced the eggplant prior to baking; causing the eggplant to burn, despite my efforts to brush it with olive oil beforehand. The dip was still good, but not as good as it could have been!
So there you have it. I hope yours is better than mine! You can do it!
haha. how did it turn out?
November 13, 2008
i looooooove eggplant. one of these days AD, I will try one of these recipes and make mama proud.