I’m excited to bring you today a recipe that is both easy to follow and one of my very favorite foods that I’ve had here. It’s called Mother-In-Law’s Tongue, and it’s basically deep fried battered eggplant with tomato and a garlic mayonnaise. It has the extra benefit of being something that is very easily to duplicate in an American kitchen! You will need:
- Eggplant
- Tomato
- Egg
- Salt
- Raw garlic
- Mayonnaise
- Sunflower (or other) oil
Slice the eggplant into circles or into long strips (by cutting it long-ways). Slice the tomato into circles. Take a few cloves of garlic and put them through one of those garlic pulverizer thingies, or crush it and mash it up until it is kind of like a puree. Mix two or three cloves’ worth with about a tablespoon or two of mayonnaise (I don’t like mayonnaise, but I do love garlic, so I personally would go light on the mayo). Mix well until uniform.
Take one or two eggs and beat them in a bowl. Heat some sunflower oil in a frying pan on the stove. Take a strip/circle of eggplant, dip it in the egg, coat generously (same as French Toast) and fry in the oil until golden. Remove the eggplant from the pan and let it drain on a plate or paper towel. I love me fatty oil, but this is some deep-fried realness, and it can be really greasy if you don’t let enough drain out.
Next, spread a thin layer of the garlic mayo on the strip of eggplant, add a circle of tomato, and fold the strip over (or add a second circle of eggplant if you’re using circles instead of strips). Repeat until you run out of ingredients! These can be served immediately or also refrigerated and served as an appetizer at a later time.
If your tomato circles are really small, you can also cut them in half and roll them into your eggplant strips and make something that looks like sushi but doesn’t actually have any common ingredients.
Seriously, these are SO good. My host mother makes fun of me for how much I love to eat them. Why it’s called Mother-In-Law’s Tongue has not yet been explained to me, and my host family just calls it “salad.” If deep fried eggplant and garlic counts as salad, then I’m in.
Give it a try and let me know what you think in the comments!