AZNIV'S EGGPLANT SALAD - PATLIJAN SALATA

At an elegant party in Washington, DC, soon after her trip to Egypt, Marash Girl met a fashionable woman whose name was Marion, and who, when she learned Marash Girl was Armenian, plied her with questions for the next hour -- Marion was fascinated, not by Marash Girl's trip to the Middle East, but rather by the fact that Marash Girl knew how to prepare eggplant in a multiplicity of ways.  Marion's favorite vegetable was eggplant, which was rarely served in Washington society. She hungrily sought new ways to prepare the exotic eggplant at her Washington parties.

Upon checking ArmenianKitchen.com a week ago Saturday, I was reminded of Washington's Marion, the lover of eggplant, and, in memory of Marion, Marash Girl decided to present you today with yet another (see recipe for babaghanoush) eggplant recipe,  the eggplant salad that her Marashtsi mother-in-law Azniv used to love to prepare in the summer, when she could get fresh tomatoes and parsley from her garden and broil fresh eggplant on the fireplace in Wilbraham.  For a delicious cold eggplant salad that can be made ahead and served any time, here's what she did.

Whenever Medzmama was preparing the fire for shish kebab, a fire that would have to burn down to be of any use in her cooking of the shish kebab, she would throw an eggplant or two on the iron cover that she used to put over the fire in its early very hot stages, i.e., before it had burned down to coals suitable for cooking shish kebab.  When the eggplant was very soft to the touch, she would remove it, and when it cooled (or even before -- Medzmama would pride herself on being able to handle hot vegetables right off the fire), remove the pulp (or peel off the blackened skin, whichever was easier,) and mash the eggplant pulp with a fork. While the eggplant was cooking, or earlier, or later, she would chop lots of fresh tomatoes, fresh parsley, fresh green peppers (though I omit the peppers), fresh scallions or chives, (fresh in her case usually meant fresh from her garden in Wilbraham), and the juice of one lemon or two lime freshly squeezed.  (If you didn't get the hint, fresh is the operative word here!) When the eggplant was room temperature, she would add the already prepared  chopped vegetables to the eggplant pulp along with salt, freshly ground black pepper, Aintab red pepper to taste (and I always add a bit of olive oil although she did not). She would serve this salad room temperature or cold for a wonderful (and unusual) summer salad.  You can tell that I can't wait until summer comes . . .

If you must prepare this eggplant salad but have no fireplace at your disposal, simply throw your eggplant in the oven with whatever you are roasting, or alone at a very high temperature, and continue  as described above.  Comment below on how it comes out, and thank Medzmama!