Marinated Eggplant Stuffed with Carrot and Garlic

Cooking method

1. Step 1:

   

   How do you make marinated eggplant stuffed with carrot and garlic? Choose good, firm eggplant with bright skin. You want eggplants of the same size so they look nice in the marinade. Wash them well. Trim off the tops and ends, then slit each one lengthwise—but not all the way through.

2. Step 2:

   

   Bring a pot of water to a boil, add two pinches of salt, lower in the eggplants, and boil for 10 minutes over medium heat, turning them now and then so they cook evenly. Be careful not to damage the skin or split the eggplants in two.

3. Step 3:

   

   Drain the water from the pot and turn the eggplants so the slits face the side.

4. Step 4:

   

   Set a plate smaller than the pot on top of the eggplants and press down gently. Then weight the plate with anything heavy—an ordinary glass jar filled with water works fine. Let it sit for about two hours. In that time all the excess liquid will drain from the eggplant, taking the bitterness with it.

5. Step 5:

   

   Scrub the carrot well under water with a brush. Peel it and grate it on a coarse grater. Peel the garlic and slice it into thin slivers. Wash the parsley, pat it dry with paper towels, and chop it.

6. Step 6:

   

   Heat a heavy-bottomed skillet (so the vegetables don't burn). Add the vegetable oil. Add the grated carrot. Add the parsley root to taste (you can skip it). Fry, stirring with a spatula, until the carrot is soft.

7. Step 7:

   

   In a suitable bowl, combine the fried carrot, parsley, and sliced garlic. Salt to taste and stir.

8. Step 8:

   

   Take the pressed, drained eggplants and gently open each one like a book, then fill it generously with the carrot stuffing. Don't worry if some filling spills out—we'll fix that in the next step.

9. Step 9:

   

   Tuck the filling back in with your hands and stuff the eggplants as full as you can—but not so full they burst or tear at the side. Tie each one with thick kitchen twine to hold it together. Don't worry, we'll take all the twine off later. While the tied eggplants rest off to the side, let's make the marinade—we held off until now because it needs to go on hot.

10. Step 10:

    

    Pour water into a pot and add salt and pepper to taste. Bring it to a boil, turn off the heat, and pour in the vinegar. Lower the eggplants into the hot liquid right away—there should be enough to cover them completely. Weight them again and leave them until the marinade cools completely. Then refrigerate the pot of stuffed eggplant for two days. When the time's up, take them out, snip off the twine, and they're ready for that first taste!