Kiopoolu

Kiopoolu is a very nice salad or vegetable spread made with roasted eggplant, garlic, walnuts and in some variants roasted red peppers;

My recipe for making Kiopoolu is relatively simple.  Take 3 mid-size or 2 large eggplant and roast them.  The actual preparation has two possible approaches – one FAST and a second, which is more tasty, but SLOWER. 

For the FAST one:  wash and prick the eggplant with knife to allow steam to escape during the cooking process.  Put on a plate (as the cooking will create quite a bit of juice) and place in the microwave.  Cook for about 8 minutes on a regular setting.  Check for donness — how do you check that?  Well, just feel with your fingers — when the eggplant is done it will feel like it is easy to peel the skin;   Based on your microwave you may have to cook it some more;

For the SLOW method:  wrap the pricked eggplant in aluminum foil and place on a gril on (may be while you are grlling other stuff); keep baking till the eggplant is done — you may have it open from the tin foil in the last 3-5 minutes to give it some nice smokey flavor;

While the eggplant is cooking, put 1-2 garlic segments, a tablespoon of salt, and a cup of walnuts in a food processor with a blade;   Buzz the ingredients till they are pulverized;   Once the eggplant is done – start scooping out the flesh from the eggplant and place in the food processor.  Mix well with the rest of the ingredients — you will know it is done when it is in a nice consistent mix.

Garnish with some parsley after you have added a couple of tablespoons of balsamic vinegar and a tablespoon of olive oil;  You are done!