Why It Works
- Salting the diced tomato drains off excess water, concentrating the flavor and improving the texture.
- Sprinkling the fried eggplant with salt while it's still hot ensures that it will be well seasoned.
I'm convinced that one of the world's greatest sandwiches comes from the Middle East. And I amnottalking about falafel. My focus is thesabich, a pita sandwich stuffed with fried eggplant, hard-boiled egg, hummus, tahini sauce, and farmers salad and pickles. To me, it's not even a contest.
For whatever strange reason, I've never loved falafel the way most people do. Sabich, on the other hand. Oh, sabich. The Serious Eats office was once a few blocks fromTaïm, an Israeli restaurant run by the talented chef Einat Admony, where the focus is falafel. I've had the falafel there, and it's good (for falafel), but that's not what I order. My usual is the sabich, and each time I eat it, my devotion only grows stronger. It's drippy, it's messy, it's shamelessly moist and flavorful. There are creamy swaths, and squishy bits, and crunchy chunks, and tart bursts. It hails from Tel Aviv, where Admony is from, and is apparently the city'sotherbeloved sandwich, a creation of the city's Iraqi Jewish community. As far as I'm concerned, it's Tel Aviv'sonlysandwich.
I'm lucky enough to have the one at Taïm within walking distance of work, but not everyone can be so fortunate, so I recently spent a day coming up with a recipe based on it. As you might imagine, there are many variations on this sandwich, including ones with potato shoved into the pita along with everything else, but I stuck to a Taïm clone.
First, let's look at the main components. They include: eggplant slices, fried until tender and creamy; sliced hard-boiled egg; Middle Eastern pickled cucumbers; thinly shredded cabbage;amba, a pickled-mango sauce; pita bread; a simple farmers salad of diced tomato, cucumber, parsley, and lemon juice; hummus; and tahini sauce.
I'll tackle each in turn.
For the eggplant, I cut an Italian eggplant, which tends to be denser and has fewer seeds than other varieties, into half-inch rounds, then fry it in oil until golden. As soon as they're done, I transfer the fried slices to paper towels to drain, sprinkling them with salt while they're still hot so that it adheres well. There are lots of tricks for purging an eggplant before frying, like salting the cut slices and letting the water seep out through osmosis. Some people say this is to remove bitter fluids; another explanation is that it's so the eggplant absorbs less oil during frying. I've never had an issue with bitter eggplant in all my time cooking, so I mostly don't worry about it. (Unless the eggplant is very mature and has big, hard seeds in it...but then it won't be a good eggplant anyway.) And, in the case of this sandwich, a couple of oil-rich slices are actually really delicious. So I just skip all the extra steps and fry the slices as they are.
Thehard-boiled egg method I use is from Kenji, who spent an insane amount of time, and dozens upon dozens of eggs, to determine the best technique. In short: Start the eggs in boiling water, simmer them for 11 minutes, then shock them in ice. While there are no guarantees, the whites are less likely to stick to the shell when the eggs go straight into boiling water, instead of being dropped into cold water and then slowly heated. The ice bath stops the cooking more quickly and helps prevent the dimple from forming on the bottom of the eggs.
Then I stole a couple of Kenji's other recipes for this, including thetahini sauce(which he adapted from thechef Michael Solomonov's recipe) and thehummus. His version creates an unbelievably smooth, silky texture.
For the farmers salad, I use a trick we often turn to when tossing raw tomatoes into a salad: I salt them first and let their excess liquid drain for 30 minutes. This concentrates their flavor, which is particularly important when you're working with less-than-stellar tomatoes...i.e., the tomatoes most of us get 99% of the time.
The remaining ingredients are most easily purchased. Pita is the easiest to find, thoughgoodpita, tender and fluffy, takes a little more effort, depending on where you live. Amba sauce, a tart preserved-mango sauce flavored with fenugreek, and Middle Eastern pickled cucumbers, which are spicier and more tart than American bread-and-butter pickles, can be bought from an Middle Eastern or international foods grocer or ordered online.
Once you have all your components in order, it's just a matter of assembly. I start by smearing the hummus inside a split, warmed pita, then stuffing a couple of slices of fried eggplant on top of that. Then I drizzle in some tahini, followed by the egg slices and pickles, more tahini, the amba sauce, the farmers salad, more tahini and amba, and then some shredded cabbage at the end.
Just...grab a napkin. Or 10.
March 2016
Recipe Details
Sabich Sandwiches (Pitas With Eggplant, Eggs, Hummus, and Tahini)
Prep10 mins
Cook20 mins
Active40 mins
Resting Time30 mins
Total60 mins
Serves4 servings
2 plum tomatoes (7 ounces; 200g), cored and diced
Kosher salt
Olive oil or vegetable oil, for frying
3/4 pound Italian eggplant (about 1 medium eggplant; 350g), sliced into 1/2-inch-thick rounds
1/2 large seedless cucumber (7 ounces; 200g), diced
2 tablespoons (30ml) fresh juice from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon minced flat-leaf parsley
1/4 cored head cabbage (7 ounces; 200g), thinly shredded
2 tablespoons (30ml) white wine vinegar
4 fresh rounds pita bread, warmed and split just enough to form a pocket
3/4 cuphomemadeor store-bought hummus (6 ounces; 170g)
1/2 cup (120ml) homemade or store-bought tahini sauce (note that tahini and tahini sauce are different products)
4hard-boiled eggs, peeled and sliced
Middle Eastern pickles, for serving (see notes)
Amba sauce, for serving (see notes)
Directions
Place tomatoes in a fine-mesh strainer set over a bowl and toss with a generous pinch of salt. Let stand 30 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat 1/4 inch oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat until shimmering. Working in batches if necessary, fry eggplant slices, rotating for even browning and turning once halfway through, until golden on both sides and tender throughout, about 5 minutes; lower heat if oil begins to smoke. Transfer eggplant to a paper towel–lined baking sheet and sprinkle with salt.
Transfer tomatoes to a medium bowl and discard drained liquid. Add cucumber, lemon juice, and parsley to tomatoes. Season farmers salad with salt to taste and mix well.
In a medium bowl, toss cabbage with vinegar and season with salt.
In each pita pocket, smear 3 tablespoons (45ml) of hummus in an even layer. Layer 2 to 3 slices fried eggplant on top of each. Drizzle each with 1 tablespoon (15ml) tahini sauce, then top with sliced eggs, pickles, and remaining tahini sauce. Spoon some of the farmers salad and seasoned cabbage into each pita, drizzle with amba, and serve.
Special Equipment
Fine-mesh strainer
Notes
Amba, a sauce made from pickled mango, and Middle Eastern pickles, which are spicier and more tart than American bread-and-butter pickles, are available from international and Middle Eastern grocers and online.
Read More
- The Best Smooth Hummus
- Tahini Sauce With Garlic and Lemon
- Perfect Hard-Boiled Eggs
- Middle Eastern
- Vegetarian Mains
- Boiled Eggs
- Eggplant