I love eggplant in every form, any way it is cooked. And I am not the only person from Turkey that loves eggplant. It is a cuisine that even includes eggplant jam, so go figure.

Charred (and peeled) eggplant is used in many recipes; salad or main dishes. Even though any size/shape eggplant can be used for this purpose, the globe type -obviously- yields more but the long variety takes less time to char. I use the globe variety usually and that’s what is growing in our backyard this year.

Usually accompanying a meat dish, this salad could be a meal on its own, too. We had it with fish (recipe to be shared next), let me know what you are pairing it with.

• 2 medium size globe eggplants (or 1 big one)
• 4 sweet green peppers
• 1/2 medium onion
• 1/2 bunch of parsley
• 3 medium tomatoes
• 1 tsp each salt, sumac
• Extra virgin olive oil

1. Start by washing and drying the eggplant and peppers. For eggplant, either prick it from various places and stick under broiler/top of grill or use your gas range to start cooking/charring it. This process is rather easy, takes less time for the peppers which I suggest you use your gas range and keep turning to make sure not to burn it. Once every bit of outer skin is charred, put them in paper bag to help them “sweat” for about 10 mins or so.
2. While the eggplant and peppers are in a brown bag, cut the onion in small halt-circles, add sumac and salt and squeeze the onions until they release juice, put them in a medium size bowl
3. Peel the eggplant and peppers, wash them under running water and using your hands (or a knife), make small pieces of both, add to the onion
4. Cube the tomatoes , add to the mix
5. Chop parsley, add to the mix
6. Put about 3 – 4 Tbsp olive oil, mix well and serve

Are you also `suffering` from the abundance of zucchinis that you are growing in your backyard? Running out of ideas on how to cook them? Everybody in your household, including you, says “no more zucchini, next year!” Well, if you answer at least one of these questions as “yes”, I invite you to try another recipe.

This one is kind of a cousin to; mücver, which I highly recommend, too. After all my husband asks for mücver even though he does not care for zucchini and does not even touch white sheep’s cheese. Here, I am purposely not calling it “feta cheese” as over the years I learned that either Turkish or Bulgarian “white sheep’s cheese” cannot be substituted by the feta cheese.

I learned this recipe from Tijen. She was kind enough to bake it for us when we visited her last year in Turkey. Once more, thank you Tijen for bringing us these regional recipes in your books!

And the last noite: I found this recipe very fault tolerant but I suggest you stick to these measurements until you feel comfortable with it.

• 500 gr (about 1lb) zucchini
• 1/4 cup of rice
• 2 – 3 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 150 – 200 gr white cheese
• 2 eggs
• a generous handful (or more) mix of green onions, parsley, mint and dill
• 2 cups milk — read the rest of the recipe to decide how much is needed
• salt, black pepper, red pepper to taste
• 1 tsp each sesame and nigella seeds
• a few tomatoes, green peppers to decorate the top

Start by grating the zucchini, crumbling the white cheese. Mix all of zucchini, cheese, eggs, garlic, greens, salt and peppers. Lay into a greased 13×9 inch baking pan. Slice tomato and green peppers, decorate. Pour as much milk as it takes to cover the zucchini mix. Sprinkle with sesame and nigella seeds. Bake in 375F degree oven for 40 – 50 mins, until the sides brown.