Easy Eggplant Appetizer

Following up Bulgarian cuisine, let me present you The Kyopolou – Easy Eggplant Appetizer.
Similar to Ljutenica, this eggplant appetizer is indeed delicious with Feta Cheese. What isn’t in the Balkan cuisine after all.

You can serve it warm or cold on a bruschetta with fresh parsley, pickled peppers, fresh tomatoes or any kind of tasty chorizo. This is a great tip how to use an eggplant. This appetizer is little heavy, therefore, I recommend to serve a shot of Rakija, cold beer or glass of wine with it.
Impressive for any gathering with friends. Добър апетит!

Total Time: 2 hours

Shopping List

1 large eggplant, washed
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
2 splashes of olive oil
1 splash of vinegar
1 handful of fresh parsley, hardly chopped
Pinch of sea salt

Instructions

First, prepare the eggplant, the same way as peppers in The Recipe Balkan Meatballs.

Preheat the oven to 160 degrees.

Poke the eggplant with a fork. This way you avoid any possible explosion in the oven. Then, wrap it in aluminium foil and place in onto a small baking tray. My tip is to add garlic with it. Baked garlic is one of the most amazing thing (just takes time). It gives beautiful sweet taste to it. Perfect timing for both as you need to bake the eggplant anyway.

Bake it in the oven until very soft. You can carefully open the foil and poke with a fork to find out, whether it is soft enough. However, it usually takes about 45 minutes (depending on size of eggplant).

Next, take it out, remove the aluminium foil (and garlic, of course) and cover the tray with a cling foil. Sweating it out helps to remove the skin easily. After 10 minutes, clean, peel and chop. Place it into a blender.

Peel the garlic, chop it hardly and add into the blender. Add 2 splashes of olive oil, splash of vinegar, season with salt and finish with fresh parsley. Blend into a smooth homogenous paste. Taste and season accordingly. Note that the longer Kyopulou stays in the fridge, the more flavour comes out. Let it chill in the fridge and serve.

Makes 1 small glass jar.