In Palestine you can get fattet anything. It refers to the pieces of bread that have been torn into pieces at the bottom of this dish. For me this is a lovely homely dish and a wonderful celebration of my favourite vegetable, the aubergine! It reminds me of a time most Palestinians only know through the oral tradition of story-telling of dancing and olive picking and camping out under the stars and pickling summer veg.
I can’t recommend this dish enough and I guarantee if you try it, it will become a go-to favourite!
ingredients
2 pita breads, cubed
1 aubergine, cubed
1 ltr yoghurt
4 garlic cloves minced
2 tbsp tomato puree
50 ml water
Salt
Handful of baby plum tomatoes, quartered lengthways
Handful of chopped parsley
Handful of blanched almonds
A few cups of vegetable oil
method
- mix the crushed garlic with the yoghurt and put in the fridge for an hour
- put the vegetable oil in a heavy bottomed pan and deep fry the Almonds, bread and aubergines separately but in that order. The almonds only want 30 seconds in a hot oil before being removed, the bread a minute and the aubergines wants a few minutes.
- Once the aubergines are cooked add them to a saucepan over heat with the water and tomato puree until you get a nice thick paste coating the aubergines
- Once everything is cooked (and immediately before you want to eat it), begin layering in a serving dish; layer of bread, then the aubergine and tomato mix, then the yoghurt, then scatter with the parsley, almonds and tomatoes.
The Olive Tree Kitchen 