Help with making a mediterranean slice please?

I dont have a recipe but am trying to make a slice like the one i buy from a cafe i have eaten at.



It has a pastry base and on top is a layer of potato, grated carrot, egg plant and cheese aslo pepper and some tomato paste.



What kind of pastry would i use - would filo be ok? I assume i will soften the potato before baking but how do i prepare eggplant - i have never used it in a recipe



suggestions please???Help with making a mediterranean slice please?
First off, you are on the right path.



When making a mediterranean dish, you want a thin dough. You could make this from scratch, but I believe that your Phyllo dough will be the ideal fix for this.



For the potato, you could also grate it, causing less cooking time, or you could slice it very thin. However, this can be hard to do if you don't have a mandeloin for it - yet it can be done.



If you slice your potato ahead of time, there are some extra things you cna do. Rinse it in water so that you get the extra starch off if you want a thinner sauce/consistency. Or after grating it, place the grated potato on paper towels or to be more enviro friendly, on a cloth. Drying the water out will cause less of a watery sauce.



Eggplant...it is up to taste at this point. Some like the skin, many don't. My husband cannot stand it and I love it. IF THEY DONT LIKE THE SKIN...skin it, cut it, and use it quickly. Why? If you don't, you will see the color go from tan to darker color, which will be less attractive to the eye. You can prevent this by cutting and cooking quickly.



My straight advice - peel the eggplant - reason - better to have it off then on b/c the people that like skin will still eat it without. You dont need a peeler - use a sharp knife if you need to. Slice it thinly, in the circular fashion, not the length - do this b/c it is more difficult to make even slices on the long pattern.



Eggplant cooks quickly - so as long as you cut it thinly, you wont have a problem in your dish. Some people consider it near a tofu like ingredient, because it adopts the taste of the things it is around. That is why they often roast it or cook it by itself, so it has the flavor of eggplant, not everything around it. Think about eggplant parmesean - it tastes like delicous pieces of breaded heaven with sauce and cheese...if the eggplant is thin enough, you wont even know it is there.



I think you are going to have a great dish in this mediterranean dish - also, remember that you can layer the ingredients in smaller layers, using the phyllo in between them. And you dont have to use as much butter as they say you do with the dough - you can and it will taste buttery, but you dont need to if you are cutting calories or fat - I serve phyllo cups - homemade - often, and try to use less butter or oil so that I can reserve using those fats - like cheese or cream - in my spinach puffs or potato puffs.



Have a blast!~Help with making a mediterranean slice please?
I think filo pastry would be too flimsy and thin for such a slice and would use puff pastry.



Eggplant - slice into round 1.5cm thick. dust with salt, and sandwich between 2 paper towels, weigh down with cutting boards or just your hands. this draws out all the extra moisture.

you would shallow fry the eggplant.



hope this helps - sounds yummy