Stewed Chickpeas & Eggplant

We're cleaning up the garden and gleaning the last few eggplants, peppers, and tomatoes. Hence this dish. Not too much to say about it; it's a tasty dish of chickpeas stewed with vegetables. It takes some time but is not too heavy on the work requirements. Serve it with some rice or bread as a meal in itself, or a little salad on the side would add some greenery and crunch. 

 

3 to 4 servings

1 hour 30 minutes plus - 45 minutes prep time

NOT including cooking the chick peas

 

3 cups cooked chick peas

500 grams (2 medium; 1 pound) eggplant 

1 medium onion

1 medium red OR green pepper

3 to 4 cloves of garlic

500 grams (4 medium; 1 pound) tomatoes

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 teaspoon fennel seeds

1/2 teaspoon salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon red chile flakes

the juice of 1/2 lemon

2 to 3 tablespoons minced parsley

Cook the chick peas - you will need about 1 1/2 cups raw - by soaking them for several hours to overnight, then changing the water and simmering them for 1 to 2 hours until tender. I've been cooking them in the instant pot for 8 minutes, but I soak them in boiling (to start) water for only a couple of hours - 5 or 6 minutes will likely be enough if you soak them overnight. This can be done up to a day ahead.

 

Put a pot of water on to boil. 

Wash, trim, and chop the eggplant into bite-sized pieces. (You could peel it first if you like.) Peel and chop the onion. Wash, trim, core, and chop the pepper. Peel and mince the garlic.

Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for 1 minute, then transfer them to a bowl of cold water. When cool enough to handle, peel and chop them. 

 

Preheat the oven to 350°F. 

 

Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a shallow 2-quart pan that can go from stove-tip to the oven, over medium-high heat. Fry the eggplant until softened and lightly browned all over, turning as needed to cook all sides. Transfer them out of the pan for the moment. 

Add the remaining oil to the pan, and add the onion and pepper. Cook, stirring regularly, until softened and lightly browned. Add the garlic and spices, and stir in until fragrant; about another minute. Add the tomatoes and mix in well. Remove the pan from the heat. 

Mix in the cooked chick peas and eggplant, adding a little of the cooking water if the tomatoes don't look like they will be juicy enough. There should be just enough liquid to keep the chick peas from drying out as they bake, and you can add more as they cook if necessary, so err a bit on the side of caution. Add the lemon juice. 

Bake the chick peas for 45 minutes to an hour, until moist and saucy, avoiding both soupiness and dryness. Stir several times and check the liquid level as they cook. Garnish with a little chopped parsley and serve. 

Last year at this time I made Melanzane alla Pizzaiolla.

Eggplant Caponata

Caponata is a traditional Sicilian eggplant dish, and apparently sufficiently precise in the ingredients called for that any variations can usually be traced to a particular location. However, since I am nowhere near Sicily, as usual I don't much care about that, and put in all the features that sounded good to me. 

The result is a tasty dish with sweet and sour tang and a salty hit from the capers or olives. It looks stewed - it is stewed, really - but it is served more as a salad, or you can pile it on nice crusty bread. It's popular to serve it with tuna, to make it more of a main dish. In that case I would omit, or at least reduce, the capers or olives. Ideally, it should be good tuna packed in olive oil, but if not, drain it well and drizzle it with a little olive oil, then mix it into the caponata.

 

 6 to 8 servings

1 hour prep time - allow time for cooling

450 grams (1 pound; 2 medium) eggplant

2 stalks of celery

1 medium onion

1 small yellow or red pepper

2 or 3 medium tomatoes

1 or 2 cloves of garlic

4 tablespoons olive oil 

2 tablespoons red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons raisins

1/4 cup finely shredded fresh basil leaves

1 tablespoon capers OR 2 tablespoons chopped olives

Put a pot of water on to boil. Wash, trim, and cut the eggplant into smallish bite-sized pieces, and put them aside.Wash and trim the celery, and chop it. Peel and chop the onion. Wash, core, and chop the pepper. Put these 3 things aside as a group. Blanch the tomatoes in the boiling water for one minute, then rinse them in cold water. Peel them and chop them, keeping them separate. Peel and mince the garlic.

Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large non-reactive skillet. Toss the eggplant in it and cook over medium heat, stirring frequently, until softened and slightly browned. Once it is going well, drizzle over another tablespoon of olive oil. I found it helpful to add about a quarter of a cup of water in the middle of the process to help it cook down. This will take about 10 minutes. When the eggplant is well cooked, transfer to a bowl. Wash out the pan if it is very brown and crusty. 

Heat the final tablespoon of oil in the skillet over medium heat. Add the celery, onion, and pepper, and cook for about 5 to 10 minutes until softened and reduced in volume. Again, I added a quarter cup of water to speed the process and keep things moist. While this cooks is a good time to clean and shred the basil leaves.

Add the garlic and mix it in for about a minute, then add the tomatoes and mix them in well. Let them cook in for several minutes then add the vinegar and raisins. Mix in, and cook for another couple of minutes until the raw vinegar odour is cooked off. Everything should look well-done and quite amalgamated. Transfer the caponata to a storage container. Mix in the basil and capers or olives, and let the caponata cool to room temperature. It can now be served, or keep it refrigerated until wanted and bring it back up to room temperature before serving. 

Last year at this time I made Broccoli Salad with Vaguely Thai Peanut Dressing.

Melanzane alla Pizzaiolla

"Alla Pizzaiolla" means pizza-style, and that means tomato sauce and mozzarella. An awful lot of things are greatly improved by the addition of tomato sauce and mozzarella; eggplant is surely one of them. Throw in some basil, and some garlic... it has to be good. It's also pretty quick and simple to make. Some rice, quinoa, or even just some good bread and a salad will make this a complete meal. 

4 servings
1 hour prep time

500 grams (2 medium; 1 pound) eggplant
2 medium tomatoes
3-4 cloves of garlic
2-3 tablespoons olive oil
salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 cup tomato sauce
1 tablespoon chopped fresh basil OR oregano
180 grams (6 ounces) mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons finely grated Parmesan cheese

Wash, trim, and peel - if you like - the eggplant. Cut it into 1.5 cm thick diagonal slices, and sprinkle them with salt. Spread them out on a plate, and stack another plate on top, with a weight. Let them sit for 20 minutes or so.

Meanwhile, blanch and peel the tomatoes. Cut them into slices about 1 cm thick. Peel and mince the garlic.

Rinse off the eggplant and drain it well. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet that has a lid. Fry the eggplant on both sides until browned, then reduce the heat a little. Continue cooking and turning them, until quite soft and cooked through. Add a bit more oil if needed.

While those cook, wash and chop the basil or oregano, and slice and grate the cheeses. 

Add the garlic, and mix in well until sizzling and fragrant. Add the slices of tomatoes, shifting the eggplant around to allow them to make good contact with the pan. Simmer for another 5 or more minutes, until the tomatoes are quite soft. Season with salt and pepper.

Drizzle the tomato sauce over the eggplant and tomatoes. Sprinkle the basil or oregano on, then add the slices of mozzarella evenly spaced around the pan. Sprinkle on the Parmesan. Cover the pan and let simmer for another 5 minutes or so until the cheese is melted and hot. Serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Pasta with Sausage, Pepper, & Onion Rosé Sauce, and also updated Lentil Loaf with Carrots.

Macedonian Eggplant Salad

We've been getting some very nice eggplants this year; they are one thing that seem unfazed by the very high temperatures we had earlier in the summer, and in fact even happy about it.

This would have done better - prettier at the very least - with some red pepper and tomatoes, but alas! Neither of ours have achieved a state of redness yet. Soon, I hope. 

 4 to 6 servings
30 minutes prep time

500 grams (1 pound; 1 to 3) eggplant
1 tablespoon mild vegetable oil
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup finely chopped parsley
1 tablespoon finely minced fresh oregano
1/4 large red OR yellow pepper
1/4 large green pepper OR 2-3 slices pickled hot peppers
1 or 2 small red tomatoes, optional
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
salt to taste

Wash and trim the eggplant, and poke it in a few spots with a knife or fork. Rub it - or them - with the oil. If you have only one large eggplant, or if they are much more than an inch thick, they should be cut into thick slices or halves before they are rubbed with oil.

Put the broiler on, and let the oven heat up for a few minutes, then cook them for 10 to 12 minutes one level away from the closest position to the broiler. Turn them half way through. Let cool enough to handle before proceeding. If you do outdoor grilling, that would be an excellent way to cook your eggplants. They can be cooked at least somewhat in advance, although if you chill them they should be brought back up to at least room temperature before being eaten.

While they cook, peel and mince the garlic. Wash, dry well, and mince the herbs. Wash, trim, and finely dice the peppers and tomato. Mix all these in a salad bowl. When the eggplant is ready and cool enough to handle, chop it finely or mash it coarsely, and mix it in with the oil and vinegar. Season with salt to taste. Serve soonish.





Last year at this time I made Thai Basil Fried Eggplant (huh) which I noted was the first of the year at the time. Wow! I think I picked the first for this year at least a month ago.

Broiled Eggplant with Tahini Dressing and... Red Currants?

Here's a very popular thing to do with eggplant these days. I saw Yotam Ottolenghi's recipe, with buttermilk dressing and pomegranate seeds and like so many others I was very taken by the pretty picture of green herbs and red berries on a creamy white ground.

I think a tahini sauce is perhaps a bit more traditional, and at any rate I try not to feed Mr. Ferdzy too much dairy, as it does not agree with him unless it's slightly elderly cheese. The other thing I did was replace the pomegranate seeds with red currants. Yes! Red currants! They are the right size, the right colour, the right amount of tart and zing, AND unlike pomegranates, they're growing right in my back yard. Which is where the eggplant came from too, and the cilantro, the garlic, and the summer savory. Pretty good!

The size of the eggplants is less a matter of weight and volume, so much as thickness - 2" at the thickest point, or less, and they should cook nicely. Anything thicker and you may want to cook them longer, at a lower temperature.

2 to 4 servings
20 minutes prep time PLUS 10 minutes to cool

Make the Za'atar:
2 teaspoons rubbed savory
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano
3 teaspoons sumac
1/4 teaspoon (to taste) Aleppo pepper
2 tablespoons sesame seeds

Start broiling the eggplants before you make the za'atar and dressing; then you can make them while it cooks.

Mix the za'atar ingredients together in a small bowl or jar (this is more than you will need, but it's nice to have a little extra in the pantry). 

Make the Tahini Dressing:
1 to 2 cloves of garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons tahini
2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice
2 to 3 tablespoons water

Peel and mince the garlic. Sprinkle the salt over it, and mash them together until they are a paste. Put them in a small bowl, and mix in the tahini. Mix in the lemon juice, then the water. Taste and adjust the amount of water and/or lemon juice if necessary. 

Cook & Dress the Eggplant:
2 medium long thin purple eggplants
1 to 2 tablespoons olive oil
salt
2 to 3 tablespoons minced cilantro, mint OR parsley
2 to 3 tablespoons fresh red currants

Preheat the oven with the broiler. Be sure the rack is not in the highest position, but in the next one down. 

Wash the eggplants and trim off the stems. Cut them in half lengthwise. Cut hatchmarks into them, being sure to cut fairly far down but not to the skin. Rub them all over with the oil, both skin sides and cut sides. Lay them in a single layer in a grilling pan that will get them well-placed under the broiler. Broil for 12 to 16 minutes, until tender and browned.

Just one minute or two before you judge them cooked, sprinkle a teaspoonful - or however much you think you would like - of the za'atar over each half eggplant. Finish broiling, then set them aside on a trivet to cool. If you want them on a more attractive serving dish, now is the time to move them.

When you are ready to serve, drizzle the tahini dressing over them. Sprinkle them with the chopped cilantro, and the red currants which have been washed and stripped from the stems.





Last year at this time I made Tart Mixed Berry Cheesecake Crumble. Got a much better berry harvest this year! Although much of it is already picked and gone.

Zaalouk - A Moroccan Eggplant Dish

This is generally described as a salad, but it really is more like a stew. At least, mine definitely was - perhaps my tomatoes were more juicy than would be ideal. Like a lot of Middle-Eastern/Mediterranean dishes, it is meant to be served just barely warm or at room temperature; maybe that's why it gets the salad description. We piled it on top of pita bread, and it seemed a bit more like a salad that way, I guess.

But whatever you want to call it, it's very tasty! Perhaps half-way between ratatouille and babaganoush in terms of ingredients and form, the spices make it quite distinctive as its' own thing. It should have been garnished with finely chopped cilantro or parsley, but as usual we had eaten half of it before I remembered. All our cilantro is brown, seedy sticks at the moment anyway, but I could have scrounged up some parsley.

4 servings
1 hour - 30 minutes prep time

Prepare the Eggplant:
500 grams (1 pound; 2 or 3 medium-small) eggplant
3 tablespoons olive oil

The eggplant can be cooked however you like and if you are able to grill it, so much the better. However, it was a skillet for me. Wash, trim, and cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and then in half width-wise. Heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat and cook the eggplant skin down. Add a little water and cover it for the first 5 minutes or so. Then, remove the cover and turn the eggplant to cook on the other sides until lightly browned  all over. Transfer the cooked eggplant to a plate and allow to cool, at least enough to handle.

This can be done up to several hours in advance; just leave it in a cool spot. Peel the eggplant pieces if possible and if the skins seem tough.

Prepare the Seasonings:
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1/2 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 to 1/2 teaspoon Aleppo pepper (to taste)
2 to 3 cloves of garlic
1 bay leaf

Grind the cumin seed with the salt and put it in a small bowl with the rest of the seasonings. Peel and mince the garlic, and add it, along with the bay leaf.

Finish the Zaalouk:
600 grams (1 1/4 pound) tomatoes
1/2 cup water
lemon wedges to garnish
chopped cilantro OR parsley to garnish

Put a pot of water on to boil and blanch the tomatoes for 1 minute. Transfer them to cold water until cool enough to handle, then peel and chop them.

Put the eggplant back into a large skillet and reheat it over medium-high heat. Once it is hot and sizzling, dump in the bowl of seasonings and mix in well. After cooking them in for a couple of minutes, add the tomatoes and the water. Simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring regularly.

Once the tomatoes are cooked and the mixture moist but not liquid, remove it from the heat and let cool. Serve warm or at room temperature, with lemon wedges and garnished with a little chopped cilantro or parsley.





Last year at this time I made Thai Basil Chicken.

Thai Basil Fried Eggplant

Our first eggplant out of the garden! It's a little late this year, like an awful lot of things. We planted all our remaining basil seeds in the spring and it turned out about two-thirds of it is Thai basil. Since I've decided not to freeze pesto this year, that's fine, I guess, but I'm going to have to find more things to do with it. This was a very good start! Next up, the ubiquitous zucchini and green beans, probably cooked in a very similar way. 

2 to 3 servings
30 minutes rest time plus 30 minutes prep time

Prepare the Vegetables:
3 small (500 grams; 1 pound) slender oriental eggplants
1 large onion
1 green, yellow, or red pepper
1/2 cup loosely packed Thai basil sprigs

Cut the stems from the eggplants, and then cut them from top to bottom in half; cut each half in halves or thirds again to form long, thin strips. Put them in a strainer and sprinkle them generously with salt.

Peel and sliver the onion. Core and de-seed the pepper, and cut it in long, thin strips. Remove the basil leaves from the stems, discarding the stems and rinsing the basil well. Set it aside to drain thoroughly.

Make the Sauce:
3 cloves of garlic
1 teaspoon red chile flakes
OR 1 to 2 small orange thai chiles 1 teaspoon arrowroot or cornstarch
2 teaspoons Sucanat or dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons water
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar

Peel and mince the garlic, and put it in a small bowl. Remove the stem and mince the chile, if using fresh, and add it to the garlic. If using dry chile flakes, add them to the bowl. Add all the other sauce ingredients and mix them well. Set aside. 

Finish the Dish:
3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1/2 of a large lime, cut in wedges

Heat the oil in a large wok or skillet over high heat. Rinse off the eggplants, and lay them in the pan to fry, skin-side down. Sprinkle them with a couple tablespoons of water. When the water is gone and the eggplants are cooking, turn them over. Continue cooking, sprinkling on a little water again. Once it evaporates and the eggplants start to brown, add the onion and pepper. Continue cooking and stirring until they too soften and acquire brown spots.

Mix in the basil leaves, and immediately mix up the sauce ingredients again, and add them to the pan. Continue mixing well until the basil is wilted and the sauce coats the vegetables. Transfer everything to a serving dish and serve garnished with the lime wedges.

Turkish Eggplant & Potato Kofte

These were yummy! And a rather different take on the theme of Turkish patties. They make a good appetizer or vegetarian main course. Serve them with rice and salad. If you had leftovers, I think they would make a different and interesting sandwich filling. Not that we had leftovers.

In addition to being vegetarian, these are gluten-free.

4 servings
1 hour puttering around to start
about 45 minutes to form and fry the kofte

Cook the Eggplant & Potatoes:
2 medium or 3 small (675 grams or 1 1/2 pounds) eggplants
3 or 4 medium (350 grams or 12 ounces) potatoes

Preheat the oven to 375°F. Wash the eggplants and pierce them in several places with a fork. Lay them on a baking tray and bake them for 40 minutes to an hour, until tender. Let cool at least enough to handle.

Meanwhile, wash the potatoes. Put them in a pot with water to cover them and bring them to a boil. Boil for 15 to 20 minutes, until they can be pierced fairly easily with a fork but are still quite firm. Drain them and let them cool. 

These steps can be done up to a day in advance, and the cooked vegetables refrigerated until wanted.

Make the Yogurt Sauce:
1 or 2 cloves of garlic
1 cup thick plain yogurt
a pinch of salt

Peel and grate the garlic, and mix it into the yogurt with the salt. Keep covered in the fridge until wanted.
 
Finish the Kofte:
1 medium onion
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1 teaspoon ground Aleppo pepper
1/4 cup chick pea flour
1 large egg
oil to fry
1/2 cup chick pea flour

Peel and chop the eggplants, and put the flesh into a mixing bowl. Grate the potatoes, discarding any skin not inclined to grate. Peel the onion and grate it as well. Add both of these to the eggplant. Peel and finely grate the garlic, and add it to the bowl, along with the finely chopped parsley.

Add the seasonings and the 1/4 cup of chick pea flour, and mix well. Break in the egg and mix well.

Heat enough oil to cover the bottom of it generously in a large skillet. Meanwhile, put the remaining chick pea flour in a shallow bowl. Take the mixture by large spoonfuls and form it into balls, then roll them in the chick pea flour. Fry them until firm and quite brown, turning once or twice to cook them evenly. Flatten them to ensure they cook through in the middle. You won't get them all into the pan at once, so fill it up - not too crowded - remove them to a serving dish as they cook, and add new ones to the pan. If the oil is all used up, add a little more.

Serve with the yogurt sauce.





Last year at this time I made Gingerbread Pear Crumble. Oh la la! I need to make it again!

Tender Pan-Fried Eggplant

This Turkish method for frying eggplant is a little picky compared to the usual slapping it in the pan, but I think it has some definite advantages. The par-boiling means that the eggplant will be very soft and tender, and it is also not quite the sponge for oil that it is when it goes into the pan raw. Overall I don't think the 2 cookings take longer than frying from raw either.

I did both cookings together, one after the other, and that was fine. Still, I want to try par-boiling the eggplant ahead of time, and just doing the dipping and frying part during the heat of the dinner battle.

I also think that I would like to try it with the slices dipped in breadcrumbs and finely grated Parmesan. I wonder how they would do laid on an oiled baking sheet and baked... lots to think about here.

The boiled eggplant became tender very quickly; about 5 minutes for me. Do watch it carefully, as if you boil it too long I am quite certain it will fall apart. It should just pierce nicely with a fork. I actually peeled the eggplant after I had boiled it, and while it worked quite well I could see that the eggplant could easily become too fragile for that to be a practical goal, so I suggest you peel it while it is raw.

2 servings
30 minutes prep time

1 medium (250 grams; 1/2 pound) eggplant
1 large egg
1/2 cup chick pea flour
1/2 teaspoon salt
seasoning to taste - black pepper, red pepper OR paprika;
             - rubbed oregano, basil, rosemary OR thyme
mild vegetable oil to fry

Put a large pot of water on to boil; you are going to boil the eggplant. As it comes to the boil, salt it generously, as you would for pasta. A tablespoon of salt is by no means too much.

Peel the eggplant. Cut the eggplant into quarters lengthwise if it is thin enough; otherwise cut it into slices. The pieces should ideally be a slightly generous half-inch thick.

When the water boils, put the pieces in and boil until tender. This should be about 5 minutes. They will want to float, so occasionally turn them about to make sure they cook evenly.

Drain them well.

Break the egg into a shallow bowl and beat well with 1 tablespoon of water.

Sift the chick pea flour into another shallow bowl and mix with the salt and whatever other seasonings you like - about a teaspoon of most dried herbs, although I would use a fair bit less if it was rosemary.

Cover the bottom of a large skillet with about 1/4" of oil, and heat over medium-high heat. While it heats, dip the eggplant pieces thoroughly in the egg, then roll them through the chick pea flour. Lay them in the hot pan to cook. They will cook quite quickly; 4 or 5 minutes per side should be enough.

Lift out and serve at once.




Last year at this time I made Melon, Cucumber, & Feta Salad.

Mallorcan Eggplant Pastel

Our eggplant this year did not do wonderfully well; you've heard that tune somewhere before. However, what did get produced happened all at once. I now have a pile of eggplant to use up. With the zucchini over and the tomatoes and peppers never really having happened, we will not be freezing any Ratatouille this year.

A little searching brought me to this recipe; Pastel Mallorquín de Berenjenas. Which is to say, Mallorcan Eggplant Cake. It is in fact another flat Mediterranean meatloaf. The recipe did not specify what kind of meat to use, and I have changed the proportions a fair bit. I didn't intend to get ham to put in the tomato sauce, although I did intend to get mushrooms, but then I forgot to go out and buy any. And then I forgot to put the tomato sauce on at all...

Never mind. This was very well received and it was quite delicious. Four of us did some pretty heavy damage to this the first time around, then I crumbled the leftovers and heated them in the forgotten tomato sauce, and served them on pasta for lunch.

I used a combination of lamb and beef. Between the lamb being a bit fatty and the amount of oil needed to sauté the eggplant, when I took it out of the oven the pastel had quite a lot of oil sitting on top. I drained it off, and after that it did not seem too greasy so no harm, no foul.


6 servings
2 hours 30 minutes - 1 hour 30 minutes prep time

Prepare the Eggplants & Peppers:
800 grams (1 3/4 pounds) eggplants
2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil, or more I'm afraid
250 grams (1/2 pound) red peppers

Wash and trim the eggplants, and slice them about 1/2" thick. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brush the eggplant slices with the oil and cook them gently in the skillet until lightly browned on both sides and fairly soft. You will need to do them in batches and you may (likely) need to add a bit more oil - if there is not enough they will scorch rather than cook. Pile them up on a plate as they are done, and continue with more slices until they are all cooked.

Meanwhile, wash and dry the peppers, and roast them under the broiler until charred on all sides - turn them as they go to char them evenly. Set them aside to cool once they are done, then peel them, core them, and discard the seeds. Chop them fairly finely.

This can be done a day ahead. Otherwise, just let cool enough to handle. The eggplant, once it is cool, should also be chopped fairly finely. They can be mixed together.

Finish the Pastel: 
1 large onion
3 or 4 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
500 grams (1 pound) ground beef, lamb, or a combination
a little oil if needed
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano
1 teaspoon rubbed savory
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
4 large eggs
2 to 3 cups of tomato sauce, heated

Peel and chop the onion. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash, dry, and chop the parsley.

Heat the large skillet to medium-high heat again. Add a little oil if your meat is very lean, otherwise crumble it into the pan. Add the onion and cook, mashing and breaking the meat up into fine bits until browned through. Add the eggplant and pepper mixture and mix in well. Cook, stirring regularly, until it all seems fairly well amalgamated; about 5 or 7 minutes.

Add the garlic, and all the seasonings to the meat mixture and mix in well. Continue to cook and stir for a few minutes more.

Remove the pan from the heat and let it cool while the oven preheats. Preheat the oven to 375°F.

Beat the eggs, and mix them into the meat and eggplant mixture. Press it down into a shallow baking pan such as an 11" x 13" lasagne pan, or other 3 quart/litre pan. Bake for 1 hour.

When the pastel is done, let it rest for 10 minutes before serving. If it has a lot of oil on top when you remove it from the oven, drain it off as best you can. You can serve it from the baking dish or unmould it onto a serving platter. At any rate, serve it with the hot tomato sauce.




Last year at this time I made Acorn Squash Stuffed with Quinoa & Feta Cheese.

Spicy Fried Eggplant - Baingan (or Begun) Bhaja

Here is my take on a classic Bengali treatment for eggplant. The eggplant is sliced, marinated in a spice paste, then coated in flour and fried. As usual I looked at a lot of recipes, picked the features I liked from each, and adapted for the fact that I can't get certain ingredients easily. I was pretty pleased with the results and we both enjoyed this very much.

This is rich enough to be a vegetarian main course, served with rice or Naan, or it will work well as one of 2 or 3 dishes (or more) comprising a fancier Indian-style meal.

While the salting and draining of the eggplant, followed by the marinating period makes it quite slow, this was really very easy to do and the actual work is divided up into 3 sessions of about 10 minutes each.

2 to 4 servings
1 1/2 hours - 30 minutes prep time

Salt & Drain the Eggplant:
1 medium eggplant (300 grams; 10 ounces)
salt

Wash and trim the eggplant, and cut it into slices about 1/4" thick. Peel off the skin from the side slices, as much as possible, and maybe trim them a bit to make them reasonably flat. Salt them generously and layer them on a plate. Set another plate on top, weight the plate, and let them sit for about half an hour.

Rinse off the eggplant slices and gently squeeze and pat them dry. This will draw off any bitter juices, and help speed up the cooking process.

Make the Spice Paste:
1 teaspoon coriander seeds, ground
1/8 to 1 teaspoon Aleppo or other hot ground chile
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground ginger
2 or 3 cloves of garlic
2 tablespoons apple butter
2 tablespoons mild vegetable oil

Grind the coriander seeds and mix them in a small mixing bowl with the chile powder, turmeric, salt, and ginger. Peel and mince the garlic and add it, along with the apple butter and vegetable oil. Mix thoroughly.

When the eggplant is ready, stab each piece all over with a fork, on both sides. Spread the paste evenly over the slices, on both sides.

Fry the Eggplant:
about 1 cup chick pea flour
about 1/2 cup mild vegetable oil to fry
a good handful parsley or cilantro to garnish

As you finish spreading the spice paste on each slice, lay it on a plate generously sprinkled with chick pea flour. Sprinkle chick pea flour between each layer as you stack them up; the eggplant slices should be thinly but completely dredged in the chick pea flour.

When the are all done, let them rest for about half an hour.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil - enough to generously cover the bottom of the skillet - in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Once it is hot, lay in as many of the prepared eggplant slices as you can while still having room to turn them. Fry for 2 or 3 minutes per side, until well browned. Add a little more oil to the pan as needed, generally when the slices need to be turned or new ones are being added. Put the finished slices on a plate and keep them warm in a 200°F oven until they are all done. Garnish with chopped parsley or cilantro and serve hot.

Sausage or Ham & Cheese Eggplant Casserole

This isn't the first time I've made an eggplant casserole with bits of bread in it; in fact this is basically the same thing as before with tomatoes taken out and sausage and peppers put in. The tomatoes are still there, just in the form of sauce now. In spite of the fact that this is an odd duck of a dish, it never fails to be popular. It's very rich which no doubt helps.

It makes a complete meal in itself, although if your sausage is spicy a cool pudding, jelly, or fresh fruit will make a gratefully received dessert. If you want something else with the casserole, a green salad would be ideal.

If you want ham instead of sausage, just dice it up but don't sauté it. Just plonk it in the baking dish, sauté your vegetables in the oil, and carry on from there. 

It's best the first time around but leftovers do heat up reasonably well.

6 servings
1 1/2 hours - 45 minutes prep time

750 grams (1 2/3 pounds) eggplant
1 large onion
2 to 4 cloves of garlic
1 large red pepper, such as Red Shepherd or Chervena Chushka
1 small loaf baguette, preferably whole wheat but definitely stale
750 grams (1 2/3 pounds) spicy Italian sausage
sunflower or olive oil to sauté

salt & freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon fennel seed (optional)
a little cayenne or other red chile (optional)
1 cup chicken stock
200 grams (1/2 pound) cheese curds or grated Cheddar

2 cups tomato sauce, heated

Wash, trim, and cut the eggplants into bite-sized cubes. (Eggplants vary in size but you are likely to need 2 or 3). Salt them well and put them in a colander to strain, with a plate and a weight on top.

Peel and chop the onion. Peel and mince the garlic. Remove the seeds and stems, and chop the peppers fairly finely. Cut the baguette into bite-sized cubes.

Chop the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Cook it in a large pan until browned all over; you may or may not need to use a little oil to keep it from sticking. It depends on how much fat is in the sausage. Once it is well started, add the onion and cook until softened and slightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just a minute longer. Remove the sausage, onion, and garlic to a 9" x 13" shallow baking (lasagne) pan.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Rinse and drain the eggplant very well. Add it to the pan in which the sausage was cooked; you will likely need to add a little oil first but it depends on how much the sausage has left behind. Hopefully your sausage is not so greasy that it has left lots, so add enough oil to have about 2 tablespoons in the pan. Cook the eggplant over medium heat, stirring and tossing frequently, until it is evenly softened and slightly browned in spots. You may need to do this in 2 batches and you will almost certainly need to add a bit more oil as it cooks. There is no stopping the eggplant from soaking it up, and the alternative is that it will scorch.

When it is ready, mix it in with the sausage etc, along with the cubes of baguette. Season with the salt and pepper, and the fennel and chile ONLY if your sausage is inadequately spiced. Spread the mixture out evenly. Pour the chicken stock as evenly over the mixture a you can and sprinkle the cheese evenly over the top. Bake for about 45 minutes, until the cheese is bubbly and browning.

Let rest for 5 or 10 minutes before serving. Pass with the hot tomato sauce.

Moussaka

It's a good idea to cook the meat sauce a day in advance if you can; when you take it out of the fridge you can then remove and discard as much solidified fat as possible. Both the eggplant and the bechamel could also be cooked a day in advance if you like, and the whole thing assembled the next day just before baking. I heat up the meat sauce a little in the microwave, just enough to make it easier to work with, once the fat has come off.

I have listed preparing the eggplant after making the meat sauce, but in the interests of efficiency the eggplant should be sliced and salted before you start the meat sauce so it can drain while you do that. 

4 to 6 servings

3 hours - 2 1/4 hours prep time. Yeah; sorry -
and not including post baking rest time.

Prepare the Spices:
1 large bay leaf
1 teaspoon rubbed oregano
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon ground allspice
a good grind of black pepper

Just measure them out into a small bowl and set them aside until you need them. They go into the meat sauce.

Make the Meat Sauce:
4 to 5 cloves of garlic
1 large onion
500 grams (1 pound) ground lamb
2 cups chopped or crushed tomatoes

Peel, trim, and chop the garlic finely. Peel and chop the onion. Keep them separate.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and crumble in the lamb. As it begins to cook, mix in the onions. Cook, stirring frequently, until the lamb has lost all pinkness, the onions are soft and starting to brown, and the mixture is fairly dry; this may take a good 15 or 20 minutes if the lamb is moist. Mix in the prepared spices, then the garlic. Cook for a minute or two more, stirring as  you do, then add the tomatoes. Mix well, and simmer for another half hour to 40 minutes, stirring regularly, until the mixture is again quite thick and not juicy.

Cook the Eggplant:
1 kg (2 pounds) eggplant
salt ad lib
up to 1/4 cup olive oil

Trim, and at least partially peel the eggplant. Cut it into slices lengthwise, about 1/2" thick. Lay them on a plate, piling them up in layers, and salting each layer heavily. Top with another plate, and add a heavy weight on top. Let rest for about 1 hour.

Rinse and squeeze dry the slices of eggplant. Rub them with oil on both sides, then lay them in a single layer in a baking tray. Cook them under the broiler for about 10 minutes per side, until lightly browned and bubbling. Check them regularly, and move them around if necessary. You will almost certainly need to do this in 2 if not 3 batches.

Make the Bechamel & Assemble the Moussaka:
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons soft unbleached flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
a good grating of nutmeg
1 cup milk
1 large egg
1 cup smooth ricotta cheese
1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

Heat the butter, flour, salt, and nutmeg in the bottom of a saucepan, and cook, stirring constantly, until well blended and hot and bubbling throughout. Slowly stir in the milk, a little at a time, and when it is all in and the sauce is thick and smooth remove it from the heat.

Let it cool for about 15 minutes, then beat in the egg and the ricotta cheese.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Line a 9" x 11" casserole with half of the eggplant, in whole slices or cut into smaller chunks as you prefer. Cover the eggplant with half of the meat sauce, then repeat with the remaining eggplant and meat sauce. Pour the bechamel over the casserole and smooth it out. Sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over the top.

Bake for 40 to 50 minutes, until golden brown and bubbling. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Babaganoush

Here's a classic recipe for eggplant, and very good too. If you can cook the eggplants on a grill, so  much the better. If not and you can find smoked paprika, that will help supply the smoky quality that makes this so nice. Serve it with pita bread of course.

about 2 cups dip
2 hours to prepare the eggplant
20 minutes to finish the dip

Roast the Eggplants:
3 medium (1.5 kg or 3 pounds) eggplants
salt
2 tablespoons olive oil

Wash and trim the eggplants, and cut each with 2 or 3 deep gouges, to the other side but not breaking the skin, and sprinkle salt generously into each cut. Set aside for 30 minutes or an hour, then rinse out the salt. Rub the eggplants with the oil and roast them at 350°F for about 45 minutes to an hour, until quite soft. Let cool.

This can be done up to a day ahead, refrigerating the cooled eggplants until needed, in a covered dish. 

Finish the Babaganoush:
3 tablespoons tahini
3 to 6 cloves of garlic
the juice of 2 lemons
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
1/2 teaspoon smoked sweet OR hot paprika
1/4 cup finely chopped parsley OR cilantro

Scrape the flesh of the eggplants from the skin, and discard the skin. Mash the flesh well with a fork, or if you prefer a smoother texture, put it into the bowl of a food processor. Add the tahini, the garlic peeled and finely minced (or left whole, if going into the food processor), the lemon juice, the salt, the pepper, the paprika, and the parsley or cilantro. Mix well, or purée until well blended.

Eggplant Cordon Bleu

Well I can't say this looks very glamorous, which is too bad, because it was quite fabulous. If I had been ambitious enough to run out and pick a little parsley or basil to garnish it might have helped. At any rate it did not sit around long enough for its looks to matter much. The list of ingredients is short and simple, and so is the technique, but the results are delicious!

I'm saying this takes an hour and a half to make, but an hour of that is salting the eggplant and letting it drain. This is less to pull out bitter compounds (not much of a problem with modern eggplants) than to soften it up and allow it to cook quickly, which in a pan it needs to do. I suppose you could bake this on a sheet of parchment paper, but I have not tried it. If I were to try it, I would do it at 375°F and bake it for 20 to 30 minutes. Could it take as long as 45 minutes? I don't know; I haven't tried it. This way was perfectly good.

2 servings
1 1/2 hours - 1/2 hour prep time

1 medium (450 grams; 1 pound) eggplant
100 grams (4 ounces) thinly sliced old Cheddar cheese
100 grams (4 ounces) thinly sliced lean ham
1 large egg
1/4 cup soft unbleached flour
1/2 cup fine breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1/2 to 1 cup tomato sauce

Trim the skin off 2 opposite sides of the eggplant, so as to leave them fairly flat. Cut off the stem and cut the eggplant in half lengthwise. Peel the remaining skin from the eggplant pieces. This should leave you with 2 very similar flat "filets" of eggplant. Carefully cut a pocket into one side of each filet, right through as close as you can reasonably get to the other side without detaching it, leaving about a 1/4" seam.

Salt the insides of the pockets and the outsides of the filets of eggplant. Lay them next to each other on a plate, top with another plate and put a weight on top. Leave for 1 hour to drain.

Rinse the eggplant pieces well, including the pockets, and press dry in a tea towel or a bit of paper towel. Fill the pockets with the cheese and ham, as evenly spread out in it as possible, with as little of it hanging out as possible. I trimmed off the overhangs and stuffed them back inside.

Sift the flour over the slices of eggplant, turning them to coat both sides. This is an approximate measure of flour; they should be evenly coated.

Beat the egg in a shallow bowl or plate with some sides to it, and coat the stuffed eggplant pieces all over in the egg. Heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in a large skillet over medium heat - no hotter.

Have the breadcrumbs ready in another shallow bowl or deep plate, and coat the eggplants pieces all over in the crumbs.  Fry them in the oil for 5 or 6 minutes each side, adding the extra tablespoon of oil when you turn them. Make sure they do not brown too fast, and if you have a spatter guard to put over them as they cook, so much the better.

Meanwhile, heat the tomato sauce is a small pot and pour it over the cooked eggplant pieces just before serving.

Eggplant with Anchovies

It's plainly time for some slow-baked dishes around here (brr!) so here is a good one. You do have to like both eggplants and anchovies, but then we all do. You can adjust the quantity of anchovies to suit yourself - anywhere between a mere whisper of them to frequent salty little nuggets. I've aimed for somewhere in the middle; about half a small tin of them, or perhaps a little less.

6 servings
1 hour 30 minutes - 30 minutes prep time

700 grams (1 1/2pounds) eggplant
3 to 4 shallots
1/3 cup sunflower seed or olive oil
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
8 to 12 small anchovy fillets
freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup unsalted chicken, beef or vegetable broth

Wash and trim the eggplants; peel them if you like. I didn't, but I suspect that next time I would, for a smoother textured dish. Slice the eggplants a scant centimetre thick. Peel and chop the shallots.

Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a skillet, and fry the eggplant slices on both sides until they are softened and slightly browned. You will need to do this in batches, adding more oil as needed. Set the fried eggplants aside on a plate as they are done.

In the same skillet, fry the shallots in a little oil until they too are softened and slightly browned. Scrape them into a small bowl, and mix them with the minced fresh parsley, and the anchovy fillets, which should also be minced quite fine.

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a small casserole dish with 1/3 of the eggplant slices, then sprinkle 1/2 of the shallot, parsley and anchovy mixture over them. Top them with another 1/3 of the eggplant slices, the remaining chopped anchovy mixture, and finally the last of the eggplant slices. Pour the broth over the casserole, and cover it with a lid or with a snuggly fitted layer of aluminum foil. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour, until very tender.

Fish & Eggplant Casserole

Well, that was a busy week. Far too much interfacing with the medical system to get much cooking done, but I did make this. It was also peak tomato harvest last week, so in between times we have been making vats of tomato sauce.

Dad has now had his second cataract operation done, which seemed to go well, and everyone else seems to be doing okay too. I'm hoping the next few weeks may be calm enough for us to start cleaning up the garden.

We've had a bumper harvest of eggplants this year for some reason, so here are some more of them. This is based on a popular Chinese dish but simplified quite a bit, particularly by not deep-frying the eggplants then stir-frying them with the other ingredients. Stir-fry first, then bake - much less greasy but just as tasty, and no last minute hanging around the stove.

4 servings
1 hour - 40 minutes prep time

Make the Sauce:
2 tablespoons Sucanat or dark brown sugar
2 tablespoons arrowroot or cornstarch
4 tablespoons apple cider or rice vinegar
3 tablespoons soy sauce
1 cup water

Mix the brown sugar, cornstarch, vinegar, soy sauce, and water in a small bowl, and set aside.

Finish the Casserole:
500 grams (1 pound) long, narrow Japanese eggplants
1 large mild red or green pepper
1 or 2 Jalapeno peppers or other fresh mildly hot peppers (optional)
4 stalks of celery
2 medium onions
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
400 grams (scant pound) boneless whitefish fillets
1 tablespoon finely minced ginger
1 tablespoon toasted sesame oil

Preheat the oven to 400°F. Cut the eggplants into 1/2" slices and the remaining vegetables into slightly smaller pieces.

In a large skillet, sauté the eggplant slices in 2 tablespoons of the oil until soft and slightly browned on both sides. Place them in a shallow baking (lasagne) pan with the fish, cut into large bite-sized chunks, and the finely minced ginger. Sauté the remaining vegetables in the remaining oil until soft, and add them to the casserole.

Mix the sauce up well and pour it evenly over the casserole. Drizzle with the sesame oil and stir gently to mix everything up. (I don't so much stir, as lift and turn gently with the spatula used to sauté the vegetables.)

 Bake at 400°F for 20 to 30 minutes, until the fish is done to your liking. Serve with rice.




Last year at this time I made Pot-Roasted Chicken with Tomato-Sage Gravy, and Apple & Blackberry Pie.

Lamb Stew with Eggplant & Peppers

One of the things that set off the post on how to store produce was a rookie error I made this week - I sliced up tomatoes for a meal, and did far more than had any chance of being eaten! Since eggplants and peppers are starting to arrive in the kitchen as well, it seemed like a good time to make a stew. Especially since the weather has been feeling more like October than August! I hope the rest of our tomatoes are going to ripen!

This was simple, filling, and tasty. Nothing fancy, but just the thing for a chilly summer day.

4 servings
1 hour 45 minutes - 45 minutes prep time

2 medium onions
2 medium green or red sweet peppers
1 head garlic
2 medium (450 grams; 1 pound) eggplants
2 cups chopped tomatoes (fresh or canned)
2 to 3 tablespoons mild vegetable oil
1 cup lamb broth, beef broth, or water
450 grams (1 pound) lean ground lamb
1 tablespoon fennel seed
1 tablespoon coriander seed
1 tablespoon sweet Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon hot smoked Hungarian paprika
1 teaspoon salt
freshly ground black pepper to taste
2 to 3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro or parsley

Peel and chop the onions. Core and chop the peppers, into bite-sized pieces. Peel and mince the garlic. Wash and trim the eggplants, and cut them into bite-sized pieces. Wash and chop the tomatoes if using fresh tomatoes.

Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add the eggplant and toss to coat, then cook, stirring occasionally, for about 10 to 15 minutes until fairly evenly browned and soft. Transfer it to a large stewing pan, and add the chopped tomatoes and the broth or water. Bring to a simmer. 

Heat the remaining oil in the skillet, and add the onions and peppers. Crumble in the lamb, and sprinkle the seasonings over it. Cook, stirring frequently, until the onions and peppers are softened and the lamb has lost all signs of pinkness. Stir in the garlic and cook for another minute or so. Transfer the lamb and vegetables to the pot of eggplant and tomatoes, and simmer gently for about 1 hour, stirring regularly. Taste, and adjust the seasonings.

Serve the stew with crusty bread or rice, garnished with the cilantro or parsley. This can be made a day ahead and reheated to serve.




Last year at this time I made Cream of Corn Soup and Cheesy Zucchini Bake.

Kamo Eggplant

So there it is; the first eggplant of the season, our just-about 1 pound Kamo eggplant. I feel a little badly, sometimes, that so many of the vegetable varieties that I grow in my garden and write about are pretty much completely unavailable, unless you grow them yourself. I'm afraid this is one of them.

Kamo is a kyo yasai, or traditional vegetable variety from Kyoto. It is named for an old village which is now part of the city, where these eggplants were grown for hundreds of years. As the old capital of Japan, Kyoto accumulated the best produce the country had to offer, and from them developed the varieties of vegetables that are now so highly regarded. The fact that it had a large Buddhist population, and less access to fresh seafood than most Japanese cities also contributed to the development of a large number of traditional Kyoto vegetable varieties.

This eggplant caught us by surprise. We did not even know it was coming along. We have been keeping our eggplants and peppers under hoop-houses quite a bit this summer, as it has been quite cool  here, rarely making it past 25°C and getting down well under 20°C at night - often ridiculously close to 10°C. When we decided to have a look and discovered this one, I was amazed. They are usually not even this big, never mind so early in the season. The actor depicted on that wrapping cloth, by the way, is pretty much life-sized, to give you an idea of the scale.

Kamo is a solid, rather smooth fleshed eggplant. The flavour is very fine, but mild. It is supposed to absorb less oil than other, coarser fleshed eggplants, but I'm not so sure about that. Maybe it's true. I will have to cook another, and another, to be sure. At any rate, this eggplant is very suitable for making tempura.

Kamo is usually described as round, but it isn't, quite. I think of it as purse-shaped; it has a flattish bottom it will sit on, usually, and sometimes the top of the fruit is almost pleated into the calyx. The calyx tends to be quite thorny, so be careful when handling one. The colour of the skin is lovely; a rich purple when ripe, and shows almost a wood-grain quality to it before it is ripe.

Like all eggplants, it should be started indoors 8 weeks before last frost date, and kept as warm as reasonably possible all through its useful life. A hoop-house is definitely a good idea. Given good conditions, you should have eggplant about 2 months (65 days) after planting them out. I think our first eggplant hit that date almost exactly. Kamo will grow to about 2' tall, and should bear 3 or 4 eggplants around here. 

Quinoa Salad with Eggplant & Cucumber

We got our very first eggplant from the garden this week, and it was spectacular! It was a Kamo eggplant, a classic eggplant from Japan, and it weighed in at just a few grams short of a pound. (Why yes, I am a Canadian of a certain generation; why do you ask?)

Anyway, a special eggplant requires a special dish, so I got to work! This was really delicious and it will be made again. I actually thought the only way it could be better was if it had a bit higher proportion of eggplant in it, so feel free to be generous with it. Of course you will need a bit more oil in that case too. I try to keep the oil down to a dull roar when cooking eggplant, but if it doesn't have enough, it doesn't cook to a nice brown, it just sits and sits in the pan doing nothing, then eventually scorching. Apart from the little bit of sesame oil, though, it does provide the oil for the salad.

6 to 8 servings
30 minutes advance prep time
plus 20 minutes assembly time

Cook the Quinoa & the Eggplant:
1 cup quinoa
1 2/3 cups water
pinch of salt
450 grams (1 pound) Japanese eggplant
1/4 cup mild vegetable oil

Put the quinoa, water, and salt into a rice cooker, and cook until tender. Let cool. This can be done up to a day ahead. You can also cook it in a pot by bringing it all up to a boil and then reducing the heat to minimum for 15 to 20 minutes. You will need to watch it more carefully, though.

Wash and trim the eggplant, and cut it into 1 cm wide slices. Heat 1 tablespoon of the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, and cook the eggplant slices on each side until the slices are soft through and well browned. Add more oil when you turn the eggplant slices. I found it easiest to brush each slice with oil as it went into the pan, if it was replacing one that was coming out.

As they are cooked, lay the eggplant slices on a plate to cool. They too can be kept, covered in the refrigerator, until the next day if you wish. Both quinoa and eggplant should be at least cool before you proceed.

Make the Dressing:
2 large cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon finely minced peeled ginger
hot chile flakes or powder to taste
1 teaspoon sugar
2 tablespoons peanut butter
1 teaspoon toasted sesame oil
3 tablespoons apple cider or rice vinegar
2 tablespoons soy sauce


Peel and mince the garlic and ginger very finely. Put them in a small mixing bowl and stir in the chile flakes, sugar, and peanut butter. When well mixed, stir in the remaining ingredients, 1 tablespoon at a time.

Finish the Salad:
1 medium slicing cucumber
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh mint
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro or parsley

Chop the cooled eggplant into bite-sized pieces. Trim and chop the cucumber. You can peel it if you like, but I tend to think this salad could use the boost of green from the skins, so better to pick one with a nice, tender skin and leave it on. Wash, dry, and finely chop the herbs.

Mix the eggplant, cucumber, and herbs with the cooled quinoa. Toss the dressing into the salad.





Last year at this time I made Green Bean & Apricot Salad.