Tourlou tourlou

Friday 25th of March 2016

With the seasons changing, my standby dish that straddles the shift from warmer to cooler weather is briam, the Greek version of the French dish ratatouille. Briam comes from the Turkish and also goes by the name, tourlou tourlou, which literally means all mixed together. It’s a dish that can be eaten both hot and cold.

Briam is one of the very first dishes I learned to cook at the hands of my mother when I was about 10 years old. I perched on a stool while she stood at the kitchen bench, her knife flashing as she chopped and diced a medley of vegetables. I had my own chopping board and used a paring knife to carefully slice the easier vegetables like zucchini.

Tourlou tourlou is an exceptionally versatile dish and can be made with almost any roasting vegetable. Here’s the traditional recipe I remember my mother making.

Kali orexi (bon appétit).

Ingredients

1 large eggplant
1 large capsicum
2 onions
4 medium potatoes
2 medium zucchini
2 ripe tomatoes
1 cup crushed tomatoes
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, chopped
½ cup of olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Slice the vegetables, roughly about the same size. Add garlic, parsley, salt and pepper, oil and crushed tomatoes. Mix well and place in baking dish. Bake in a hot oven (200C) stirring every 15 minutes for an hour or until vegetables are cooked.

Optional: Garnish with crumbled feta (Dodoni of course – what else would a self-respecting Greek eat!)