Palestinian Preservation: Makdous and Pickles

Ingredients

• 1 kg baby eggplant, small, uniform in size
• 30 g fine salt, for pressing, plus more for the stuffing
• For the stuffing
• 150 g walnut kernels, crushed, not finely ground
• 4 cloves garlic, finely crushed
• 1–2 red chilli, finely chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• To preserve
• 500 ml extra-virgin olive oil, enough to cover completely; quantity will vary with jar size

Method

1. 1
   Wash the baby eggplants, remove their caps, and cut a deep slit lengthwise into each one, keeping the base intact so it opens like a pocket. Pack them into a colander, salt them generously, and press under a weighted plate for several hours or overnight, so the salt draws out the bitter dark moisture from the core of each eggplant rather than just its skin. They are ready when they feel noticeably firmer and drier to the touch and the liquid pooled beneath them has run dark.
2. 2
   Combine the crushed walnuts, garlic, red chilli, and salt in a bowl, mixing until the stuffing coheres into a rough paste. Taste it now — it should read sharp, saline, and distinctly hot, because the flavours will mellow and knit together during the week of preservation, and a timid stuffing will vanish entirely into the eggplant.
3. 3
   Squeeze each eggplant firmly between the palms to expel any remaining moisture, then open the slit and pack the walnut stuffing inside, pressing the eggplant closed around the filling. This is where the dish lives or dies: residual water in the jar breaks the seal the olive oil creates over the eggplants, and what should be a slow, fragrant cure becomes spoilage — the eggplant must be as dry as the salting and pressing can make it.
4. 4
   Pack the stuffed eggplants tightly into a sterilised 1-litre jar standing upright, then pour over enough extra-virgin olive oil to submerge every eggplant completely, tapping the jar gently so that any trapped air pockets rise and escape, since a pocket of air beneath the oil is as damaging as residual water. The surface of the oil should sit at least 1 cm above the topmost eggplant; seal the jar and set it aside at room temperature, away from direct light.
5. 5
   Leave the jar undisturbed for a minimum of one week, during which the oil will deepen in colour and take on the mingled aroma of eggplant, walnut, and chilli. At seven days, open the jar: the oil should smell rounded and deeply savoury, and the eggplants should yield to a gentle press with a silky, supple give that tells you the stuffing and the flesh have become one. They will continue to improve for months thereafter.