Syrian Moussaka

Anyone who knows moussaka from Greece expects a baked tray with mince and a bechamel top. The Syrian plate has none of that. Fried aubergine, boiled chickpeas, onion, garlic, tomato and pomegranate molasses cook down together over a low flame and are then left to cool. It comes to the table cold, and it belongs to the olive-oil dishes — vegetables cooked slowly in oil and eaten at room temperature.

What makes it different

Three things are missing: bechamel, minced meat and the baked layers. The Egyptian and Turkish versions are different again, so the name travels further than the recipe. What the Syrian plate shares with the rest is the aubergine and the word. Here the weight comes from chickpeas and the sourness from pomegranate molasses, and no meat goes in at all, which is why it appears in Lent and during the long days of Ramadan.

What goes in

The aubergine is cut into thick slices and fried, or baked if the cook wants it lighter. The chickpeas are soaked overnight and boiled separately; thrown straight into the pot they stay hard and ruin the dish. Onion and garlic soften in olive oil, tomato and tomato paste follow, and the pomegranate molasses goes in last. That is where the balance between sweet and sour comes from, and it is more pronounced in the Aleppo version.

Why the aubergine is salted first

Aubergine takes up oil like a sponge. At home the slices are salted and left for half an hour, and the water that beads on them is wiped off before frying, which saves a good deal of oil. The other route is to bake them dry. Restaurants usually fry, and the plate arrives heavier for it.

Where you will meet it

On the mezze table, at breakfast, and in home-style kitchens that cook in pots. If you do not see it written down, ask: olive-oil dishes often sit in a tray on the counter and never reach the menu. Bread and a green pepper beside it are enough.