Grilled Eggplant with your choice of toppings

This isn't so much a recipe as a few ideas.  With so many eggplant recipes that require sauteed, chopped up eggplant, they all kind of look the same.  So I wanted to find a different way of serving eggplant that's a little more unique and presentable.  Other pluses is that it is immensely easy to make, requires barely any time at all and is very versatile.

Turn the oven onto broil.  Slice your eggplant lengthwise, about 1/4 inch thick.  Brush melted butter or oil on both sides.  Season with salt, pepper, garlic, dried herbs or whatever you want.  Pop it in the oven for 3-4 minutes, flip the slices, and repeat.  You can eat the slices like this, or you can mound a topping in the middle of each slice.  Almost anything can be considered a topping.  I used canned chili beans and corn.  I also recommend tomato sauce with cheese and even a raw salad with balsamic vinegar dressing drizzled on top.  Or a chopped radish-cilantro-olive oil combination sounds great too.  Total time? 10 to 20 minutes.  Score!

Baked Eggplant, Potato and Onion Casserole

This was delicious!  The onions really made it.  I recommend it as an incredibly easy dish, though plan accordingly because it does take over an hour in the oven.

1 eggplant, sliced 1/4 inch
1 onion, sliced into rings
4-5 small potatoes (I had purple ones to add color)
Oil or butter
1 cup grated fresh Parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.  Cook potatoes until tender and slice into circles.  Fry the onions until well-done so the rings are moist (they'll dry out in the oven if you don't).  Grease your casserole dish and layer the bottom with eggplant.  It will overlap, but it's okay.  Sprinkle cheese on top.  This is optional, but I had leftover seasoning from another project and just sprinkled it on.  It was a combination of cumin, dried herbs and spices.  Then layer your potatoes, sprinkle more cheese, layer the cooked onion, and sprinkle on the rest of the cheese.  Pop it in the oven for 60-75 minutes.

Viola!  A super easy, super tasty dish.  The range of textures and flavors is really impressive for not very much work at all.

Money-Saving Tips

I am very frugal.  I splurge a little when it comes to making delicious foods and trying new dishes, but try to make up for it by being waste-conscious when cooking.  I also rarely go out to eat.  After a while, it seems like what you can make would be better than what you order.  And cheaper!

Rule 1: Nothing Goes to Waste
When prepping vegetables, we rarely throw anything out.  Why toss them when they do wonders for the kitchen and the garden?  Onion shells and butts, celery tops and ends, apple cores, tomato stems, potato peels, and much more are kept to create a broth later.  I just keep a ziplock bag in the freezer and add these items whenever they're available. Whatever I don't toss in there, like the tops of carrots (since they can sometimes make stocks bitter), we set aside for our worms.  There are many more ways to turn your trash into a worm's treasure.  The worms will create an amazing "black gold" soil for the garden and you greatly decrease your contribution to the landfills.  It's a beautiful cycle from the kitchen to the garden.  See my Vermicompost entry for such suggestions! 

Rule 2: Why Buy Tupperware?
Our tupperware cabinet, I admit, is an avalanche of containers.  It's messy but we'll accept that over buying pretty, matching tupperware that easily folds away like the infomercials on TV.  Why throw away good containers just to spend money on these other new containers?  You're bound to lose some, melt some, break some and re-toss and re-buy again.  Sounds wasteful.  Instead, we keep containers from foods such as mustard, peanut butter, plastic to-go boxes from the rare venture out, tupperware from family dinners and even a big one that used to hold paper labels from Staples.  If they have holes, convert them into a seed starter pot.  Truly, all that you require is a container that can store your leftovers.  And if you bring your extra containers to potlucks, people will love something to bring away food with, even if it's not in matching pink and blue. 

Rule 3: Reuse your Byproducts
I don't mean your poop (although the city can absolutely use human waste to produce algae biodiesel, but that's a whole other topic), I mean the foods that you're cooking up.  I try to cook bacon first and separately so the fat doesn't get absorbed by other foods.  I then store the fat in a glass jar in the fridge.  When we boil ribs in beer before barbecuing, that leftover beer and pork fat broth is simmered down and stored.  I use it for batter and soup.  Whenever we deep fry stuff, I'll let the used oil cool, layer a few paper towels in our funnel, and run the oil through the funnel into our empty olive oil glass bottle.  Then it goes in the fridge.  There are some concerns with re-using oil, so I usually try to use it within the week before tossing it.  I'll have to remember to mention in my recipe blogs if and when you can save your byproducts.

Baked Breaded Eggplant

I'm adding this Baked Breaded Eggplant to my favorite for-when-people-come-over list, as an appetizer or maybe as a side to a pasta or chicken.  These little patties are so pretty and unique.  At first glance, they look like a piece of bread with some tomatoes on top.  But you then realize "oh my, it's actually the elegant, beautiful and often overlooked eggplant!"  It's sure to elicit surprise and compliments. 

There are a few tweaks for convenience and taste.  Peel the eggplant before cutting.  I did a stripes system because I like leaving the skin on, although bread crumbs have a bit more trouble sticking to the peel.  Still, it produced a circus pattern on the eggplant, making it more unusual and pretty.  You'll see my eggplant slices are a bit thick.  Next time, I'll either cut them thinner or cook them longer because I didn't think these reached the tenderness I wanted.  Also, I recommend adding some salt, garlic and cayenne powder to the bread crumbs for an extra kick.  And instead of adding everything separately to the eggplant, I mixed the tomatoes, Parmesan and dressing together before divvying it up onto the slices.  I added some dried parsley and dried oregano to the topping for an extra Italian taste. 

Review: Highly Recommended!  Classy, unique, healthy and delicious yet with a very simple taste.  Goes well with wine, chicken and pasta.

School Gardens Rock!

Sadly, today was my last day at Farm King, a campus garden at Thomas Starr King Middle School.  Hidden inside the walls of this urban Los Angeles school, Farm King is a delicious treat and natural getaway for the students, gardeners and cooks.  Almost every Tuesday for the last few months, I have volunteered to help students in gardening, harvesting and cooking from their organic garden.  I am sad that I can't continue to volunteer, but my career calls and 11 to 4 on a Tuesday just isn't possible anymore. 

Please check out the blog here:  Farm King Blog.   It talks about all the wonderful projects, activities and meals we have with the students, including fabulous pictures.  Need the motivation to get your garden thriving?  Volunteer at a local community garden.  You'll feel immensely inspired to grow your own garden and reap all the healthy benefits.  It really is a fabulous way to spend a few hours outside catching some rays. 

Coconut Milk Eggplant

I had some leftover coconut milk and pot sticker dipping sauce and made this amazingly tasty eggplant dish.  Its aroma is sure to make people say "Wow, what's cooking?!" 

1 tbs olive oil
1/2 onion, cut into 1 inch pieces
2 tbs. minced ginger
3 cloves garlic, minced
A small eggplant, cut into 1 inch pieces
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 tbs. soy sauce
1 tbs. rice vinegar (or other light vinegar)
1/2 jalapeno, diced (optional, but I do love the spice!

1) Heat oil in a skillet.  Add onions and sautee.  Add garlic and ginger.  Cook for about 2 minutes and add the eggplant.  Occasionally stir for 8 minutes.
2) Stir in the different liquids.  Cover and simmer for 8 minutes.
3) Sprinkle with chopped mint.  Serve with rice.  

The combination of eggplant with so many Asian flavors (ginger, coconut milk and soy sauce) is fantastic.  It's moist and soft, really delicious.  I was so excited to eat it, I forgot to take a picture!

Pea Pre-Sprouting

A sudden frost killed a few of my pea plants so I thought I would show you how to pre-sprout peas.  The success rate is high in this method, so use as many seeds as you'd like to grow.  Wrap them loosely in a light towel.  Wet it just below dripping, then set it in a warm place.  You have to wet it daily to keep it moist enough to sprout.  I wasn't too good at remembering, so I put a little bit of water in a plate and left the towel in it.

Though some sources say to just soak the seeds in a cup of water, this can actually overwhelm the peas and stunt their growth.  I've found this towel method as a good compromise.  After a few days, you'll see little roots sticking out.  Then you can plant them, 1 inch deep and 2 inches apart with roots pointing downward.  This gives them a good head start, and it gives you the confidence of seeing your seed sprout, unlike when it's buried underground.

Indian Baingan Bharta Eggplant: Cook-Off!

I found two recipes that sounded really alike: Bangan ka Bhurta and Baingan Bharta.  They are similar, but differ slightly, so I decided to do a comparison of the two in a cook-off.  

First, the Bangan ka Bhurta was a lot faster.  I don't have a microwave, so I left it in the broiler for longer (about 12 minutes).  I'm not sure what the difference was supposed to be in making the move from broiler to microwave, but it turned out fine.  I had less problems with this dish, but it's also not as flavorful as I would have wished.  It's very simple and bare, for lack of a better word.  But if you're up for a very au natural kind of dish that celebrates the taste of onion, tomato and eggplant, this is a good option.

Second, the Baingan Bharta turned out a lot drier than expected.  I would have liked it better moist and a even a little runny because it would help to balance the dryness of the rice.  Spiced dishes, as opposed to salty ones, are better poured all over your rice grains.  For those of you who like to salt your eggplant to remove excess moisture, don't.  You'll need that extra moisture.  I found that I didn't need that extra 5 minutes of cooking uncovered at the end and instead needed to add water to the mixture in the 10 minutes it was steaming.  I also definitely recommend using a teflon pan.  Lastly, from the reviews on the site, I question the authenticity of this recipe because of the yogurt and curry additions.

Although the second has better flavoring, I'd choose the first recipe simply because the second is drastically dry.

Eggplant (Non-Meat)Balls!

Really good.  They actually inspire me to make meat-free spaghetti for my hippie friends.  I followed Aunt Mary's Eggplant Balls on AllRecipes.  This recipe is great because besides the eggplant, everything else is pretty commonly found in a regular household.  
I wasn't quite sure how the eggplant pieces and just that little portion of bread crumbs would be enough to shape balls, but they were actually quite easy to form and kept their shape.  Out of nervousness I added maybe 1/3 cup more of bread crumbs, but I think next time I'll just try it as is.  I'll also probably add either powdered onion or chopped onion, and hope it doesn't mess with the shape.  Otherwise, they were great!  I made some spaghetti with tomato sauce and topped it with these eggplant balls for an almost guilt-free dinner.  (If I had used multi-grain spaghetti and made my own sauce it would have been completely guilt-free, but hey, nobody's perfect.)