The Apple of Madness

The melanzana, or eggplant, has always been a mystery to me. I've never been quite sure how to properly cook one.

"I'm Pete, this is my brother, Re-Pete.  I'm Pete..."

It's not that I'm not an eggplant fan--I've had it before in salads and on sandwiches. I've had it on a pizza, or simply fried or grilled, like in a tempura or at a friend's bbq.

Simple enough, right? I must confess that I am a little daunted by the purple (or white) veggie because  the two of us have a bad past together.  Fall 2009: I made eggplant parmesean, and it was a mess. The eggplant was hard as a rock and tasted sour. A friend at the time suggested that I should have brined the eggplant, while others suggested that I probably just didn't cook it long enough.

Fine. Good. Okay. New Blog, different year, new outlook. I was at the Urban Harvest farmers-market the other day, and came across some Japanese eggplants. "Let's do this," I said to myself, and bought a few to attack and subsequently dominate.

That was, until, I lost time and those Japanese eggplants. Ok, I didn't *lose* them in the sense that they disappeared, I lost them in the sense that they went bad before I could do anything with them.

Admittedly, it was a waste of perfectly good, and locally grown, eggplant.  Not my best moment.

Not to let a thing like old eggplant cause a setback to my "eggplant challenge," however, I decided to try again, this time with grocery-store eggplant. I must get over my fear of eggplant, come rot or not.

A few clicks on the internet led me to information on pre-cook prep, and where I had gone wrong before (I'd link but the site took it down).  There are no two people with the same eggplant opinion, but from what I could understand, a brine is the best way to go with the kind of eggplant I had bought.  So: I halved them, made a brine of water and salt, soaked for 30 minutes, and then dried thoroughly.  Done.

"Call Johnson at the station.  Tell 'em we got a couple of floaters."

I came across this recipe for stuffed eggplant.  There were no real recipe hacks this time, as I wanted to play it safe to get accustomed to working with eggplant.  The only hacks: I used ricotta (per recipe suggestion) only subbed sweet Italian sausage.  I browned it in a pan and removed and let cool, using in place of the link-sausage in the recipe.  All other ingredients and steps were kept the same.  

Well, with one exception.  This recipe states to put the eggplant halves in a glass pan, drizzle with olive oil, season to taste, and then place in an oven at 400 degrees for "20 minutes or until tender."  Try the greater part of an hour.  I think it was either the choice of eggplant, or I did not brine long enough.

Pre-bake.  They look so hopeful...

The results? Tasty.  I know better next time to either have my eggplant prepared the day before or start this recipe way earlier than 5pm.  I'm still working on my timing with meals, and learning how to gauge the length of time for a recipe based on reading it.  This will come with time and experience, I know.  In the meantime, like tonight, J and I will have to eat at 9pm.

Before, and...

After!

 Similarly, I am beginning to realize that some dishes take a few days to prep.  Let me back up.  I am finding it easier to cook from day to day if I've already prepped some part of a recipe for the next. This is slightly different from my post about leftovers, as in I'm talking about chopping veggies, starting a marinade, or any other number of what have yous, a whole day ahead, and not re-purposing a dish already made.  It makes my days on (and off) work smoother when I prep a day or two ahead.  In some ways I feel as though I am cooking constantly, obsessing over the next dish.   This is probably not true, but it may be what I need in order to realize my dreams of being able to cook quickly and with better skill, and most importantly, with instinct.

(Pictured above with the stuffed eggplant: Nan bread, mango chutney, and chicken masala were made by local Indian food maker, Nisha! Big Props, it was delicious!)