Eggplant Rolls with Feta and Garlic: Cold Meze Appetizer
The appetizers traditionally served with strong drinks around the Mediterranean usually include light vegetable dishes, cheese, fresh herbs and olives. The common name for these small plates is meze, from the Persian word for taste or snack. Among meze you'll often find eggplant with cheese, all kinds of rolls with a cheese filling, eggplant stuffed with feta, and so on.
People often say meze is a strictly fixed set of well-known appetizers. Maybe so, but every time I'm struck by the variety and by the way each dish is presented on a huge platter. Among the appetizers, I especially love the cold salad baba ganoush, which is so nice to scoop up with a torn-off piece of lavash. Or eggplant with walnuts or with brynza, or rolled up. And even simple slices of cheese with vegetables are always pleasant and tasty.
When vegetables are in season, making stuffed eggplant rolls couldn't be easier. Eggplant cheese rolls come together quickly. One medium eggplant gives 5-6 individual rolls. And even though eggplant soaks up oil like a sponge when fried, you can easily make this appetizer fairly low in fat. The rolls are small, literally a single bite, like canapés.
For the cheese filling you can make any salad of brynza, feta, salted cottage cheese or Adyghe cheese. The Bulgarian snezhanka (milk salad) of yogurt with herbs and cucumber works well too; it's a cousin of Greek tzatziki. The filling should be thick, like a pâté, so the eggplant cheese rolls don't fall apart. Eggplant with feta turns out perfect: this cheese is firm and great for salads and fillings.
Eggplant with cheese is served chilled and goes beautifully with an aperitif. If you make the rolls spicy or well seasoned, they'll do a great job of whetting the appetite.
Eggplant with brynza can be made ahead: after a rest in the fridge it only gets tastier. Serve it on its own or as part of a meze spread, adding a cold salad like tabbouleh or sliced tomatoes and cucumbers. Eggplant with cheese pairs wonderfully with hummus made from chickpeas and tahini. In the Middle East, appetizers like this are often served with pomegranate seeds and fresh herbs.
Ingredients
10-12 rolls
- Eggplant 2
- Brynza or feta 150 g
- Cilantro 0.5 bunch
- Hot chili pepper 1
- Garlic 1-2 cloves
- Vegetable oil 3-4 tbsp
- Pomegranate seeds to taste
- Salt, sweet dried paprika, aromatic herbs to taste
Step-by-step recipe
- To get small, bite-size rolls, buy cylindrical, medium-sized eggplants with dark skin. Ideally the eggplant shouldn't have started forming seeds yet: they're hard and just get in the way of enjoying the appetizer. The eggplants shouldn't be limp, or they'll fall apart while frying.
- To keep the eggplant from soaking up too much oil, don't pour oil into the pan. Instead, brush the bottom of the pan with vegetable oil using a silicone brush; you'll use very little. Trim the ends of the eggplant and slice it lengthwise into thin slabs. Each eggplant gives 5-6 slices. Lay the slices in the hot oiled pan and immediately brush the tops with oil as well. That's really all the oil you need. Fry the eggplant until golden, then transfer to a plate and let cool completely.
- Get the freshest soft cheese you can, feta or brynza, preferably not too salty. Wash the cilantro and remove the tough stems. If the herbs are limp, soak them in cold water beforehand. Peel the garlic: it's optional, but the rolls should have a light garlic flavor; that's when they're at their best. I also recommend adding a fresh hot chili pepper.
- Put the cheese in a bowl and mash it with a fork. Finely chop the cilantro with a knife. Chop the garlic too rather than grating it, so there's less garlic juice. Remove the seeds and white inner membranes from the hot pepper, since they carry most of the heat. Finely chop the pepper with a knife. Add the cilantro, garlic and hot pepper to the cheese. For a more aromatic appetizer, I suggest adding sweet dried paprika and aromatic Mediterranean herbs. Salt the filling to taste if the cheese is mild. Mix the cheese filling thoroughly until smooth.
- Carefully lay the fried eggplant, cooled to room temperature, on a cutting board or a flat plate. Put a tablespoon of the cheese filling on a slice. Use a knife to gently spread the filling over the eggplant, leaving the last 3-4 cm uncovered. Don't rush or press hard: eggplant with cheese is a delicate dish and tears easily. If the filling is too thick, you can add 1-2 tsp of vegetable oil or sour milk.
- Carefully roll up the eggplant around the cheese so that the uncovered edge ends up at the very end, on top of the roll. Transfer to a plate. Roll up all the fried eggplant slices with cheese filling one by one. Put the plate in the fridge. That said, if both the filling and the eggplant have cooled to room temperature, you can serve them as an appetizer right away.
- Before serving, arrange the eggplant with cheese on a suitable plate or platter next to the other appetizers of the meze spread. Sprinkle with 1-2 tbsp of pomegranate seeds and, if you like, finely chopped cilantro. You can also drizzle over 1 tbsp of pomegranate juice, optionally. Serve the appetizer with an aperitif or as an accompaniment to a side dish.
| Yield: | 10-12 rolls |
| Calories: | 114 |
| Prep: | 30 mins |
| Cooking: | 15 mins |
| Ready in: | 45 mins |
| Category: | Snacks and Sauces |
| Cuisine: | Middle Eastern |
| Rating: |
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4.7
(7)
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