Introduction

Aubergine Salad is very tasty and makes a great starter served on bread or crackers. All the aubergine salad recipes I’ve read just add onion and oil to aubergine. Well, my mum’s recipe is rather special: it has homemade mayonnaise in it, and tastes creamier and deliciouser... As an added bonus, these are both very easy to make.

I think that you Americans call the Aubergine the eggplant, so I guess this is eggplant salad.

Homemade Mayonnaise

• 1 egg yolk, raw
• 1 hard-boiled egg yolk (keep the whites for decoration)
• ½ cup oil
• lemon juice (optional)
• salt & pepper

Crush the egg yolks together and turn them into a paste.

Start adding oil but in very small amounts, a few drops at a time, while stirring constantly.

When the oil incorporates, add another few drops and blend them in.

Keep adding oil and stirring until the mixture is smooth and creamy, add a few drops of lemon juice if preferred, and at the end mix in the salt and pepper.

Aubergine Salad

For the salad you need:

• 2 medium aubergines
• ¼ onion, very finely chopped
• mayonnaise
• salt and pepper if needed

Wrap the aubergines in foil and cook them in the oven for about 45 minutes at 180C, until they feel soft to the touch. When they are done the skin of the aubergines will be darker and a bit wrinkled.

Remove them from the oven, let them cool, then peel off the skin.

They may still contain a large amount of water, so place them into a collander/sieve over a bowl (and even place something heavy on top) to drain.

After about an hour the aubergines are ready to be chopped finely and mixed with the mayonnaise and onion!

The aubergines should be chopped as finely as possible (or use a food processor). Mix them with the onion and the mayonnaise, add salt and pepper if necessary and serve on white bread. My Mum swears blind that the mixture will curdle unless you only stir in one direction. I've never been completely convinced about this.

Check the taste, after you have put it all together. If necessary add more salt.