Briam is a basic Greek summer vegetable stew – part simmered on the stove top and part baked in the oven. The three veggies required are aubergine, courgette and potato. Sometimes a pepper is thrown in for extra flavour along with a handful of herbs from the garden. Its all about using ingredients that are fresh from the garden, plentiful at this time of year.
Too young to pick, but in a day or two, more briam will be on the menu.
On nearly a weekly basis, young baby aubergines, tender finger length courgettes and perhaps a few mildly hot green chilli peppers appear on the kitchen table, newly harvested from our vegetable gardens. The natural answer is briam.
Briam
A summer staple when the vegetables are plentiful in the garden. Making it with freshly picked tender vegetables, I believe, improves the flavour.
- 4 to 5 baby aubergines (eggplant)
- 4 to 5 baby courgettes (zucchini)
- 3 medium Potatoes
- 1 red onion
- 1 green chilli pepper (mild to medium heat)
- 400g Tomato Passata
- Bunch of fresh mint
- Bunch of parsley
- salt and pepper
- pinch of sugar
- Olive Oil
- 200ml water
- Feta cheese
Put some olive oil in a large heavy bottomed frying pan and turn on medium high heat. Finely chop the onion and sautΓ©e in the oil until transparent. Thickly slice the aubergines and courgettes and cut the peeled potatoes into chunks. Put the aubergine and then courgettes in with the onions and cook until slightly wilted. Add the potato, chopped parsley and mint. Mix and cook until the potatoes are lightly brown before adding the passata, pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. Add the water and let the whole mixture lightly boil until the sauce is reduced and passata has thickened.
Place the briam in cassarole with a lid (or cover with foil. Bake in the oven set to 180 degrees C for about 30 to 45 minutes. Add more liquid if necessary while it cooks. In the end, the potatoes should be soft.
Serve at room temperature (lukewarm) with a sprinkling of crumbled feta on top. Have slices of warm baguette ready to mop up the juices.
Looks so very delicious! I just love such summer dishes. π
LikeLike
Very delicious, easy and inexpensive. Can’t beat that trio!
LikeLiked by 1 person
That sounds delish Deb! Yum. Love eggplant and zukes.
LikeLike
It’s a good combo – a classic for a reason.
LikeLike
This looks super tasty!
LikeLike
Definitely super!
LikeLiked by 1 person
On the menu next week!
LikeLike
Yummo, I have these ingredients to hand, that’s tomorrow’s dinner sorted, thanks.
LikeLike
It’s one of our standard lunches (we eat our main meal mid-day as common in this country). I didn’t used to like it as it is often made without herbs and heavy on the oil when you order it in tavernas. Making your own with fresh garden ingredients is a huge difference.
LikeLike
Wonderful!! My kind of food βΊοΈβΊοΈβΊοΈβΊοΈ
LikeLike
Absolutely your kind of food, aubergine girl! πππ
LikeLiked by 1 person
Ha ha!! ππππ
LikeLike
I love your addition of mint to the briam and your restraint with the olive oil! Too often briam swims in oil.
LikeLike
You are absolutely right. On too many occasions we’ve been presented with bland, oily briam in tavernas across the land. We had just harvested the mint for freezing and use in various recipes. It seemed only natural to add it.
LikeLike
[…] Meanwhile, throughout the month, the garden continued producing aubergines, peppers, courgettes and a few tomatoes. The usual response was briam, a Greek stew of these vegetables plus a few potatoes which I recently posted about in Basic Briam. […]
LikeLiked by 1 person
This really does sound good, Debi. There’s something special when a dish on the table was freshly picked in your garden that morning. I’ve got the eggplant, to be sure, but my zucchini is having some sort of a problem. I thought it was rabbits eating the flowers but I’ve installed a fence and the blossoms still fall off. Even so, nothing says that I cannot buy a couple of zucchini from the farmers market. I do want to make this dish!!!! Thanks.
LikeLike
Hi John, The briam is very good and is a classic Greek summer dish for a reason – to use up all those veggies coming out of the garden. Sorry about your zucchini. Ours is now dust, having shrivelled up in the recent heat and the tomatoes have not done well this year with some sort of rotting blight. Luckily those eggplants are still producing and we have a weekly market just up the street where farmers bring in produce from the countryside.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I love Briam, tasted it for the first time this summer in the Greek Islands, thanks for the recipe!
LikeLike
It really is an easy recipe and one that is very popular in Greece in the summer – for obvious reasons!
LikeLiked by 1 person