Egyptian Eggplant Salad

Now seems like a great time to start Aubergening again, as I'm waiting for a certain PDF of a certain dissertation to compress so I can send it to a certain advisor. (Am I supposed to be feeling joy right now? Or is quiet disappointment OK too?)

I was thinking about cookbooks and food blogs—the fancy ones with thousands of hungry readers. I realized that even if I reproduced a recipe on my Podunk blog (© fail), I doubt it would stop people from buying the original book, because people buy these less for the recipes than for the fantasy. I know I do anyway. Just like the Apartment Therapy blog, the best food blogs and cookbooks have the same effect as an Office Depot, Whole Foods, West Elm, or even Ikea in that brief window before it becomes a labyrinth of torture. It's that dream of an organized, clean, clutter-free life, where all you have on your coffee table is an ornamental vase and two design magazines.

The dream can go too far; consider this ghastly thing, that cookbook/lifestyle guide featuring absurd photos of Gwyneth Paltrow showing off her legs in a field wearing oversized hemp sweaters. Recipes include barley mixed with raw beets topped with bourgy microgreens and served on the back of a horse.

Here's what a real coffee table looks like:

(Or to couch it in patriotic terms, a real, tough, American coffee table.)

And this is the reason I've spent many months not feeling like I could post on here, even though my love of eggplants has continued and shall continue for all time. Life feels too chaotic, too covered with dust, books, and cat hair, to create that fantasy of a perfect cooking life. A clean kitchen with big marble countertops and natural light, instead of old formica countertops with decorative brown specks (why did they design the formica to look dirty?) and so little light that all my in-process shots look like they were photographed in a shoebox.

My kitchen. Pictured: broken espresso pot, cajun seasoning, bowl of sweet potatoes to make hashbrowns to have an excuse to use cajun seasoning (ca. 85% weekly intake).

All this just to say, the following photograph cultivates that fake food-fantasy that doesn't match the chaos of real life.

Then again: it was a delicious dinner, and now and then it's nice to eat something wholesome and decorative and make yourself feel special. #selfcare #hugyourself #bingewatchingjanethevirgin

I give you: Egyptian Eggplant Salad with tabbouleh + arugula (tabbuguleh?)

My mom introduced me to this recipe. I used this version for the basic ingredients, though of course I had no patience to measure things. My only tweak was that I roasted the eggplants first, then mixed them in the sauce, instead of frying them and pouring sauce on top. The latter would be a nice presentation for a dinner party. The former is just going in ma belleh.

Photographed on a country farm table in the warm glow of a summer's eve.

I like this salad as an alternative to my favorite eggplant tomato stuff. The vinegar gives it a nice tang and it starts to taste a bit pickly and relishy after a few days. (Which I personally like.) Great with yogurt and sprinkled with sumac.

Rucolaaaaaaaaaaaaa. Getting some vitamin A.

So for now, farewell, my sweet tabbuguleh.
*klezmer violin wafts past*