Briam

I have made a post with “briam” before. It was titled “roasted zucchini with tomatoes” but there were some problems the way I made it then, as you can see, if you visit the link. That was not fair for the recipe, which makes a delightful summer dish, simple, tasteful, and wholesome. I made it again this past week while we were in Greece and this time it came out superb. Get eggplants, zucchini, peppers, potatoes, and tomatoes and start chopping. It’s a bit more expensive to make in the  U.S. but in Greece, eggplants, zucchini, peppers, and tomatoes abound and are very tasty.

Recipe

Ingredients (approximately)

• 5-6 medium potatoes
• 4-5 medium zucchini
• a variety of 4-5 peppers (green, red, or “kerato”)
• 3-4 eggplants
• 2-3 onions
• 4-5 tomatoes
• parsley
• salt, pepper
• about 3/4 cup olive oil
• about 3/4 cup water
• 1 tablespoon of tomato paste (optional)

How to make: Wash the zucchini, peppers, tomatoes, and parsley. Remove the ends of the zucchini and slice them. Remove the seeds of the peppers and slice them. It’s OK if you only have one type of pepper. Green bell peppers are quite common and they taste great. Avoid any hot peppers, though. Remove the ends of the eggplants and slice them or cut them in medium size chunks. Peel the onions and slice them in rings. It’s OK to chop them if your family doesn’t like to see them in big rings. Peel the potatoes, wash them and slice them or cut them in chunks.   Cut the tomatoes into 4-6 chunks each.

Time to combine. Use a big shallow roasting pan  and arrange the veggies. First, make a layer with the potatoes to cover the pan. Add salt and black pepper. Add the onions, zucchini, sliced peppers, and eggplants. Add salt and black pepper. Add the tomatoes on top.  Add salt and black pepper, generously. Add the parsley, chopped, but save some parsley to add it fresh when you serve. Drizzle olive oil over the veggies, generously. Optionally, melt the tomato paste in the water and add it to the dish. You need to add some water even if you don’t use tomato paste. At this point, I actually use my (clean) hands to stir the veggies a bit and make sure there’s oil and liquids everywhere. I prefer not keep the onion rings covered so they don’t get burned. Cook the veggies in a pre-heated 400F/200C oven for about 2 hours. Check the dish a few times and stir the veggies gently with a wooden spoon. When all the veggies are soft and nicely browned, take the dish off the oven and serve with fresh parsley. If you want, you can add Parmesan or feta cheese.

Enjoy!