Warning: this recipe asks you to do a lot. First, the shopping. You
must track down two obscure Turkish spices, maras-biber (a hot
and sweet bright red spice) and urfa-biber (the blackened, smoky
version of maras-biber). Lo builds the dish around these two
spices, pairing the maras-biber with steamed eggplant and the urfa-
biber with charred eggplant. It makes for a dish so unusual and so
worth the effort, you’ll never look at eggplant the same way again.
Be sure to strain the yogurt the night before you make this.
1 cup plain yogurt
¼ cup vegetable oil
2 shallots, peeled and sliced thin
Kosher salt
4 large Japanese eggplants of relatively equal size and
thickness, stems removed
2 tablespoons maras-biber
¼ cup red onion, minced
3 cloves garlic, minced
Zest and juice of 1 lemon
Olive oil
2 tablespoons urfa-biber
Chives, sliced into small strips
The day before you make this, line a sieve with cheesecloth and
place the sieve over a bowl. Pour in the yogurt and place in the
refrigerator overnight, allowing the yogurt to strain*.