In the French reptatoire, cooking “en escabèche” is a technique that straddles the line between cooking and preserving.  This is because the item to be cooked (in France, typically a filet of fatty fish such as mackerel or sardines, or sometimes whole bone-in fish) is fried then bathed in a rich marinade made with shallots or garlic, lots of herbs, the olive oil from frying and LOTS of vinegar.  The dish is then left to infuse at room temperature for several hours up to a day or two before serving.  All that vinegar acts as a preservative so that, in theory, the dish had a longer lifespan without refrigeration. Now days, I refrigerate if the dish will be served more than than 3 hours after cooking.

This vegetarian version is a easy way to use up all that late-summer eggplant. I sometimes give this dish a middle-eastern accent by finishing with feta cheese, pine nuts and pomegranate seeds.