A Yemeniyah's Recipes

Eggplant and yogurt are two of my favorite foods, and when they are paired up in a dish then that makes three of my favorite foods. This is a pretty easy salad to make, and very delicious. It’s also a very pretty dish. You will need:

1) An egg plant, peeled and cut into

2) Olive Oil for frying

3) Salt to taste

4)  1/4 tsp ground cumin

5) 2 finely minced garlic cloves

6) 1 cup of Greek yogurt of any plain yogurt of your choice

7)  chopped cilantro for garnish

8) ground paprika or red chilly powder

9) 1 tsp of fresh lemon juice

Place eggplant fries in a colander and sprinkle a little salt on them and leave aside for 15 min. This helps pull the moisture from the eggplant  so there’s no oil spatter while frying. This also prevents the eggplant from absorbing a lot of the oil. But if you’d rather skip  this step, it’s perfectly okay.

Now place a frying pan under medium/high heat and add some olive oil. I don’t like immersing the eggplant fries in oil because they become rather fragile as they cook and hence too soft to handle-especially since the skin has been peeled and there’s nothing to hold the eggplant meat together as it cooks. So, just add enough oil to brown one side and then flip on the other side and brown. Then place them carefully on a paper towel to drain some of the oil.  Once you are done it is time to mix the yogurt.

Place the yogurt in a bowl and dilute with 1/4 of a cup or so of water–you do not want it to thick or too thin. I like it in between. I use a whisk to get a nice smooth texture. I then whisk in the cumin, garlic, and fresh lemon juice with the yogurt.  Add the salt to your taste . Then add the eggplant fries and gently fold with a spoon, then sprinkle the paprika or red chilly paper on the “face” of the salad,  as we say in Yemen,  and garnish with the cilantro. Serve chilled.