argentinian marinated eggplant

Hello friends!
This week I’m sharing another recipe from Argentina, marinated eggplants or “berenjenas en escabeche”.
I’ve learnt to appreciate this kind of “pickles” while I was living in Buenos Aires. While I was working at Turner (CNN, Cartoon Network, etc.) I used to go to a little food shop on my lunch break where a very grumpy old lady sold the most delicious sandwiches with cheese, chicken milanesa (kind of a fried breadcrumbed chicken) and these marinated eggplants.
Going to that little shop was something like the soup nazi episode from Seinfeld. The sandwiches were amazing, so we used to ordered quickly, pay and leave before the old lady yell at us 😛
So, here’s my recipe for the marinated eggplants. Nowadays, I used them on a grilled cheese sandwich. It gives it an extra special garlic-oily-spicy flavor that it’s amazing!
You’ll need:
  • 1 large organic eggplant
  • 2 organic bay leaves
  • 1 organic garlic
  • 1 cup white vinegar
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 cup olive oil
  • 1 tbsp dried oregano
  • 1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
  • 1 tsp salt

Peel and cut the eggplant in thick slices (about 0.4 inches each).

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Put the slices in a colander and sprinkle the teaspoon of salt over them. Let them rest at room temperature for about 30 minutes.

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Prepare the spices and the olive oil.

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Mix the spices -oregano, garlic, red chili pepper- with the olive oil in a bowl and stir it with a spoon.

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Remove the slices of eggplant from the colander, quickly run some cold water over them and pat dry with a paper towel.

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In a medium sauce pan, mix the vinegar with the water.

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Bring the water already mixed with the vinegar to a boil and add the bay leaves. Cut slices of the eggplant and add them to the boiling water.

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Let it cook for about 5 minutes and remove the eggplants.

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Let them drain.

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In a sterilized jar, add about 1/4 cup of the olive oil and spices mixture.

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Add part of the eggplants and some more of the olive oil mixture.

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Continue doing this until, layer by layer, until finished.

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Let it cool at room temperature and then save it on the fridge.  You can eat them the day after if you want, but the more days go by, the more tasteful it will be!

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Enjoy!

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