Wednesday, June 16, 2010


Berenjenas en Escabeche


I started out making this dish before I could even name it. I bought this eggplant at Farmer's Market and planned to make this chinese garlic and ginger dish I love, but I couldn't resist the Rick Bayless recipe from my previous post, and I didn't think I wanted to mix Asian and Mexican, so I thought I would just take the Asian flavors (ginger, garlic, Mirin, sesame etc.) out and replace them with Mexican flavors of garlic, onion, Jalapeno, oregano, cumin, and Cilantro.


It appears that this is a common everyday dish in Argentina, as a condiment to all that grilled meat or as a sandwich topping. The eggplant was a superb compliment to the pork steaks. Eggplant is such a happy little camper and plays well with so many cuisines and flavors. The additions of mango juice and the mango salsa garnish isn't traditional but it was quite beautiful and the flavors all worked so well together.


1 eggplant, thickly sliced, liberally salted and let to drain for 1/2 hour

1 small onion minced

1 clove of garlic, minced

1 small Jalapeno pepper

1/2 teaspoon ground Cumin

1/4 cup Mango juice

1/2 cup rice wine vinegar

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup olive oil

Chopped fresh Oregano and Cilantro


Rinse the salt off the eggplant and dry the slices



In a saute pan over medium high heat brown the slices in a little olive oil drain on paper towels



In the sam pan, add the onion, garlic, Jalapeno, and Cumin



Stir cook the flavoring over heat until they are softened, add the mango juice and vinegar



Reduce the liquid slightly-2 to 3 minutes-cool slightly and stir in the olive oil



Layer the eggplant slices attractively in a serving platter and pour the vinegar mixture over them



Salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle the chopped fresh herbs over the top



Optional Garnish:Fresh Mango Salsa




1 comment:

Chef Dennis Littley said...

ugly is not a problem as long as they taste good...and fresh home made tortilla's are to die for!! thanks for sharing!