Tsakonian Eggplant

Η eggplant as one of the most characteristic ingredients of Mediterranean cuisine but also of Greek cuisine, it has been deified in dishes such as moussaka, eggplant salad, eggplant shoe, briam and imam bayldi. This is the eggplant, which sometimes has a mild taste (when baked), sometimes intense (when fried), which has the ability to mix and combine with other Mediterranean foods (garlic, onion, oil, tomato, zucchini, pepper, etc.) but also to be cooked with various meats (pork, beef, rabbit, lamb).

With the imperial of purple color, the eggplant is the symbol of love and pleasure, let alone of gastronomic pleasure.

A fertile valley, a blessed place, protected by impressively crimson rocky hills with a well-preserved settlement, of Leonidio, which was characterized as traditional in 1977, is the homeland of the Tsakonian eggplant.

Wanted for its elongated shape, its color, for its exquisite sweet taste and the privilege of not needing to peel or clean its skin before frying, the Leonid Tsakonian eggplant is among the 107 Greek products PDO. It is cultivated in an area of ​​700 acres with the traditional way of irrigation and its production amounts to five thousand tons per year.

Leonidio is its capital Kynouria and Tsakonia, the country of Prasiotia that for centuries remained due to its geographical location - isolated from the wild mountains - away from the intrigues of the conquerors, managed to win the favor of the well-known 19th-century pro-Greek Filmermager who claimed that only Greek is still spoken here and that only the Tsakonians are the real Greeks.

Η Tsakonian eggplant refers to Theophrastus and Dioscorides as "edible shrub of the great, armpit I have many, harm the herb to taste". Although its cultivation has been tried in other nearby places (watch out for the imitations - aubergine type aubergines) it seems that only in the plain of Leonidio did it find the best soils and the ideal microenvironment to give its best.

Every year, in Leonidio, the Tsakonia Festival takes place, where local cooks and renowned chefs from Greece and abroad present proposals inspired by the national cuisines of the Mediterranean.

In one of them the great researcher of Greek gastronomy Evi Voutsina presented some eggplant recipes:

• Protsuma - something like lagana - with eggplants (Leonidio)
• Spaghetti from wheat variety "mavragani" scalded with goat butter and fried eggplants (Gythio)
• Eggplant salad Xanthi
• Eggplant Macedonian (eggplant, toast, yogurt, tomato, garlic, fennel seeds)
• Yam aubergines
• Eggplant with chickpeas (Volos)
• Wraps with eggplant (Thessaloniki)
• Imam Eggplants (Asia Minor)
• Sheep with eggplants
• Chian eggplant
• Eggplant pie "barefoot" (Dodecanese)