I believe in letting certain foods call out to me and, while shopping last week, these beautiful baby eggplants drew me close. They were perfect with unblemished, shiny skins and radiated health.
I have often loved eggplant in restaurants, but never knew how to cut or cook it. It seemed a very mysterious plant to me. But these called my name. It was time for me to delve into that mystery and go on an eggplant adventure.
I bought five of these small creatures and spent a few days admiring them in my kitchen. They seemed succulent and full of the promise of delight.
So, it was off to the internet, where I perused numerous sites, recipes, and youtube videos. I gleamed enough information to dare to try a recipe of my own and see where it might take me.
I decided to make stuffed eggplant.
I began by cutting the tops and ends off of two. Then I cut them both in half the long way. There were, to my surprise, no seeds to speak of. So I scooped out a cavity in each half but kept the pieces too.
Next –and this is important to preparing eggplant and something I didn't know but that the internet advised me on– I salted both sides of each piece and each half of the little creatures and left them on a paper towel covered plate for 40 minutes. This is to remove any of the potential bitterness. I have since learned that more seeded and thicker skinned eggplants are more bitter, that some eggplants with thicker skins need to be peeled. that some thinner skinned eggplants have delicious skins, and that there are over a dozen varieties. From what I now understand, they all will benefit from this salting which causes them to weep fluids and remove any bitterness. At this point, I confess I was just getting introduced to an eggplant that hadn't yet told me it's kind. (When I looked up varieties on the internet, I thought the kind I had were too large to be baby eggplant. Later, I discovered that they can vary and that these were indeed baby eggplant, just a little larger than the internet examples, and grown hydroponically in Canada by Pure Flavor (www.pure-flavor.com). The picture -above- is from their website too.)
After 40 minutes, I rinsed my halves and pieces well in cold water. I am not a salt eater generally, so I wondered about this, but they washed very clean. I patted them dry and placed them in the refrigerator.
Next, I threw out my old olive oil. I smelled it and it seemed off. I think it is always important to smell the foods and ingredients you use. So I used my sunflower oil and about two teaspoons of Earth Balance soy free blend (from the health food cold section in my store). I heated this up hot in a skillet and chopped two big white button mushrooms into bits and threw them in and cooked them until they were very small and very browned. I added black pepper, lemon pepper, parsley flakes, and paprika as I cooked these.
I added one chopped fresh tomato and several tablespoons of DelMonte original stewed tomatoes (both pieces -that I chopped in the pan with my spatula- and juice). I threw in bits of fresh rosemary, sage, and thyme and shook three shakes of cinnamon into the mix. Then I cooked and stirred this concoction for a while. When it all reduced, I threw in a couple of good splashes of vegetable stock (chicken would have worked too) and stirred all the reduced flavors back up from the bottom of the pan and cooked this until it was thick.
At this point, I removed it from the heat and stirred in a big handful of fresh baby spinach leaves, wilting them. I then added a handful of pine nuts and a handful of grated Romano cheese.
I pulled my baby eggplant halves and pieces out of the fridge, coated a round glass pan with olive oil Pam, took a spoon and amply stuffed the halves (but not packing it down) with the mixture and put the remainder over the pieces in between the halves.
I took an open jar of Paul Newman's Sockarooni spaghetti sauce from the fridge and topped each half and piece with a big spoonful.
Then I put the pan, -without a top- into a preheated 400 degree oven for 50 minutes.
I served these with grated Asiago cheese sprinkled over the tops with a few fresh cilantro leaves.
OMG!!!!! It was delicious!!!!!!! It was Dinner!!!!
Yeah Adventures in Foodland that make you feel Awesome!
-bbffair
Ingredients List:
2 (five to six inches long or the equivalent) baby eggplants
salt
Olive Oil and Soy Free Earth Balance
2 big fresh white button mushrooms
black pepper
lemon pepper
parsley flakes
paprika
1 medium fresh tomato
Del Monte original stewed tomatoes
fresh rosemary
fresh sage
fresh thyme
cinnamon
chicken or vegetable stock
fresh baby spinach
pine nuts
grated Romano cheese
Paul Newman's Sockarooni spaghetti sauce
grated Asiago cheese
fresh cilantro
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