Charred brinjal salad (Patlican salata)

1 Pierce the brinjals with a fork and char the skins by placing them directly onto the flame of a gas stove. Using tongs, move the brinjal around to evenly blacken, then remove from the flame. Peel off the skins and put the brinjal pieces in a colander to drain for about 10 minutes.
2. Blacken the skin of the red pepper over an open flame in the same way. Put the pepper in a bowl and cover with clingwrap to sweat. Leave to cool. Once the pepper is cool enough to handle, peel off the skin under cold running water. Discard the stalk and seeds.
3. Pick the parsley leaves, discard the stalks, and finely chop the leaves. Wash the spring onions, remove the roots and tough outer leaves, and chop finely. Roughly chop the roasted brinjal into a chunky purée. Finely dice the roasted pepper. Mix the vegetables and parsley in a bowl. Add the salt, pepper, olive oil, lemon juice and apple cider vinegar and mix well.
4. For the topping, mix the pomegranate molasses and olive in a small jug to make a dressing. Serve the patlican salata at the table for people to help themselves. Swirl the pomegranate dressing over the brinjal and decorate with the pomegranate seeds.

Cook’s note: To make your own pomegranate molasses, simmer pomegranate juice in a heavy-based saucepan until reduced to a quarter of its original volume. No need to add sugar.

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Extracted from Somer Sivrioglu's Anatolia with permission from Jonathan Ball, featured in our July 2020 issue. To get your copy, head here.