I´m waiting for dinner: escalivada. / myLot

Chile

July 6, 2019 7:07pm CST

I bought eggplants last week and I love them so much that I prepare them in many ways. Today I made a sort of escalivada. This is a traditional dish from Catalonia, Spain. The traditional one has many veggies baked in olive oil. I have made my own recipe, using only those veggies I prefer. And today, I added some fruit on the side. I have some pineapple and a green apple. I wonder how they will be among the salty dish. It can be eaten with bread, crackers or alone. What are you having for dinner?

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9 responses

Just an Ordinary Owl?

@owlwings (43915)

• Cambridge, England

7 Jul 19

This sounds something like a ratatouille except that in escalivada one roasts (rather than boils) the vegetables all together, preferably in the embers of the fire (the name, apparently, means "baked in the ashes"), and it would have quite a different smokey taste and texture done this way. A little research tells me that there is a Catalonian dish called 'Samfaina' which is, perhaps, closer to what we call ratatouille, but it seems to be eaten as an accompaniment to meat or with meat or fish mixed in. In the UK, the 'traditional Sunday roast' was accompanied by roast potatoes and parsnips but, lately, there has been a trend towards roasting onions, sweet potatoes, bell peppers, tomatoes and other such vegetables (including aubergine, occasionally) in a pan under the meat. I find it very interesting that different cultures often do very similar things with their ingredients - and then are likely to hotly defend the fact that 'their dish is different' (which it will be, of course, because each culture will have it's own particular methods and additions like which herbs and spices to use and so on!). Yours sounds quite delicious and I would be quite happy with the addition of some pineapple and slices of apple. A little sharpness and sweetness would go well with the overall savoury mix of vegetables.

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Just an Ordinary Owl?

@owlwings (43915)

• Cambridge, England

8 Jul 19

@marguicha Raw meat? I have only once had beef raw and that was as Steak Tartare (finely ground beef mixed with raw egg and seasonings). I didn't dislike it, though it was very rich and I didn't need much of it, but the meat does have to be very fresh, of course, and very finely minced. The recipes for kibbeh that I saw all say that the filling (of minced meat, onion and spices) is well cooked until brown and the 'dough' casings (actually made of meat and fine bulgur wheat) are filled with this mixture before being deep fried. Apart from using couscous instead of bulgur wheat, is this not how you would make them?

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marguicha

@marguicha (215428)

• Chile

11 Jul 19

@owlwings There is a kind of kibbeh that is a mixture of very fresh ground raw meat mixed with couscous. I added salt, pepper, lemon juice an a bit of cumin. I served the balls with hummus. It is not fried. Bulgur and couscous are 2 words for about the same thing

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marguicha

@marguicha (215428)

• Chile

7 Jul 19

My mother made Samfaina when I was a child. I did not like it. But then I liked next to nothing then. I wish that now there were at least some dishes I don´t like