guess it's about time I send something again. This is a recipe I found in a israeli women's weekly, "la-isha", ages ago. I love it, so here it comes. It is called maltese, probably because of the mint leaves in it. But go lightly with them. It's supposed to add a little fresh taste to the mild salad.

1. Peel and cut the eggplants in almost-small cubes-1cm3 . Let them soak in water with some salt for about 20 min. Discard the water. Shake excess water off the cubes.

2. Put the oil in a frying pan and when hot, fry the eggplant cubes in it until they are soft. Discard the remaining oil from the pan.

3. Add the tomatoes and the garlic and let cook on low to medium heat 5- 6 min. Add the sugar and a little salt (if you really feel like it), the vinegar and a little water if it gets too dry. Let simmer a little more. Then add the mint and finally the parsley and let the salad cool off. While cooking, be careful with turning and mixing so the little cubes will retain some of their shape and consistency. Serve cold or lukewarm.

This recipe has been done over and over and probably has been changed here and there. From my experience, salt is not needed at all. You can put less tomatoes than what is listed above. The proportion is: more eggplants than tomatoes.