“No salads?” asked dad as he sat down for dinner on Friday evening. “I didn’t get to it” answered mom, and started detailing what she did get to that day. She cleaned the house, baked two trays of bourekas, 3 trays of cookies and a cake. Even though it might sound like it it was not a lot, we were 5 kids after all.
Not only that , but she prepared the Chamin (a traditional Jewish meat stew for Sabbath) to stew overnight, made lunch for all of us and some snacks for the afternoon, made sure we all bathed (in our single bath apartment) and of course cooked Shabbat dinner. I get tired just from trying to list all of it. Now, don’t get me wrong, there were 2 or3 salads on the table, not to mention the soup, fish, meat, sides, and dessert. But Sabbath without 7 or8 different salads was a Sabbath without salads. Come to think of it I don’t understand how we weren’t all overweight. Presumably because we played basketball on court and not NBA 2016 on an XBOX or whatever it may be. Years later when I ask friends what should I bring for dinner, they answered a salad. I called mom for a recipe and naturally ended with a handful. Carrot salad, beet salad, eggplants salad and many more. To this day I have friends that ask only these salads. I know mom is somewhere up there looking at us with delight as we share her salads time and again around dinner tables with both family and friends.
Ingredients”
1 large eggplant - cut into 1x1 inch cubes
2 red pepper - cut into 1x1 inch pieces
1 hot green pepper (optional) - finely chopped (without the white seeds)
4 garlic cloves - slices lengthwise
½ chopped parsley
1 tsp sweet paprika
½ tsp paprika
½ tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cumin
¼ cup olive oil
Juice from one lemon
1 TSP kosher salt
Place the eggplant cubes on a cooling rack. Sprinkle them with the kosher salt, and let rest for 1 hour.
Wash the eggplant cubes and dry with paper towel.
heat the olive oil in a non stick deep pan. When hot, add eggplants, red pepper, hot green pepper and garlic. Cook on high heat for 2-3 min, add spices and mix well. lower the heat to low flame and simmer for 20 min, mixing frequently so it won’t stick. Add the parsley and lemon juice, mix and cook 10 more min until vegetables are tender. Serve hot or cold.
