Summer of Eggplant Part III, Revenge of Eggplant

When I started this blog it was not my intent to feature an eggplant recipe every year.  The story behind the name is a different one than that of an innate love of eggplant.  But it has become expected of me and I guess I can do my best to help a vegetable (fruit actually) out.  This particular vegetable seems to have some pretty bad PR, even worse than the other ones.  This year’s eggplant installment is sponsored by Georgia Tech.  

The other day Jim, the kids and I were dining in the student center at Tech prior to our son’s drama camp play.  Like any food court it had a UN worthy assortment of ‘ethnic’ foods.  I got grocery store style sushi, the kids got some sort of imitation Chinese food swimming in sugar and sodium and Jim, functioning fully out of character, went Middle Eastern.  Now, the gyro or Middle Eastern food wasn’t so out of character, it was the side of baba ganoush that was off.  Stuffed grape leaves would have been in character but not eggplant dip.  He met me at the check out line pleased with himself ‘Tabbouleh and baba ganoush!’  Big smile. Unfortunately it was a truly insipid baba ganoush and I didn’t see any tabbouleh.  It was the sort eggplant dish that encourages people to hate eggplant.  It had the texture of baby food and it was beige except for the flecks of, was it carrots?  

So when I came home to a clean and empty house, save for two very exhausted dogs, I took the opportunity to work on the blog (and do laundry).  I tried to think of items I wanted to blog about but I could not get that bad baba ganoush out of my head.  I knew I had an eggplant dip recipe somewhere and it needed a day out.

Eggplant Dip 

1-1 lb. eggplant

3 tablespoons basil

Juice of 1 lemon

2 teaspoons tahini

2 tablespoons harissa

2-3 garlic cloves, blanched or roasted

3 tablespoons olive oil, divided

salt

Slice the eggplant in to 1” slices, place in a colander and sprinkle liberally with salt and rest for about 20 minutes. Rinse or wipe off the salt and leave to dry on paper towels for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375. Pat the eggplant dry again. Oil a baking sheet and brush the eggplant slices with half of the olive oil. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the slices are golden brown and the the interior is soft. Let eggplant cool. 

Place the eggplant and the remaining ingredients in a food processor and pulse until just combined.  Serve at room temperature with a bland cracker.  I prefer the olive oil variety.

Note:  I use this recipe for harissa, you can use store bought or whichever harissa recipe you prefer.  If you make it, it keeps for about a month in a tightly sealed container in the fridge.  It’s also really good on eggs.

You do not have to blanch or roast the garlic.  If you read this blog with any regularity, you know I cannot tolerate raw garlic, but if you can, by all means go ahead.  If blanching or roasting seems like too much effort there is the microwave.  I’ll deny I told you to do so, but about 8 seconds in the old micro should do it, or so I’ve heard.

Summer of Eggplant, the Sequel

When I started this blog last summer I thought for sure all my missives were being sent into the ether until I got an email from my neighbor Tova. She asked, ‘What to do with two large eggplants that would be kid friendly?’ Well, I knew the answer to that one, quite simply, eggplant meatballs.

For two weeks during the month of February of my senior year in college I squirreled away in the residence of my boyfriend’s parents’ Long Island home to focus on my thesis. I really wanted the bulk of it done before returning for my second semester and taking 2 weeks to focus on it seemed logical although lonely. While everyone else was at work I sat in my boyfriend’s childhood room, staring at the computer, for 8 hours, writing about and translating Spanish Absurdist theatre. To break up the day I would sneak behind the garage to smoke cigarettes, read a few Tales from the Crypt comics and wait for the humans to return.

Andrew’s Dad was from Greece and his mom Italian American, so dinner was an event. Every Sunday Andrew’s parents would go to Astoria and get the supplies they needed for the week; feta, olive oil, olives, etc. Then Lu, Andrew’s mom, would spend all day Sunday cooking. She would make all sorts of things to carry us through the week; hummus, lentil soup, stuffed grape leaves. These were just the snacks, she would make a full meal every night on top of everything she had prepared on Sunday. I had hit the lottery. Santa Claus is real only he’s not a fat dude from the North Pole, she’s a 5’1” travel agent from Brooklyn and she’s downstairs making baba ghanouj. I gained 7lbs. in 2 weeks.

Lu taught me how to make stuffed grape leaves. Her five ingredient fettucine alfredo is legendary. She also taught me how to make, one of my favorite dishes that she made, eggplant meatballs. She came to the meatless meatball out of necessity, two of her three children were and still are vegetarian and being the negotiator she had to come up with something to bridge the gap. Her recipe was adapted from Dom DeLuise. I lost Lu’s recipe but I have come up with my own version and it has worked quite well for many, many years. Now Lu used to fry these and they are much better fried but for the sake of my heart and my waist line I bake mine. You can use them in anything, on top of spaghetti, in a hoagie, in a pie a la Stanley Tucci or as an appetizer. Our son recently requested their presence on our dining table, so here they are.

Eggplant Meatballs - Makes 1 dozen

1 large eggplant

1/4 cup prepared Italian breadcrumbs

1 large egg

3 garlic cloves - roasted or blanched, minced

Olive oil

kosher or sea salt

1 tablespoon basil - chopped

1 tablespoon parsley - chopped

Slice the eggplant in to 1” slices, place in a colander and sprinkle liberally with salt and rest for about 20 minutes. Rinse or wipe off the salt and leave to dry on paper towels for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 375. Pat the eggplant dry again. Oil a baking sheet and brush the eggplant slices with olive oil. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the slices are golden brown and the the interior is soft. Let eggplant cool. Place all ingredients in a food processor and pulse until combined. The batter should be gooey. At this point you could put the batter in the refrigerator for 20 minutes so the it is less runny and easier to work with. Re-oil the baking sheet. Scoop the batter and form into 1” ‘meat’ balls by tossing from hand to hand. The batter is really sticky and I find I must wash my hands a couple times during the ball forming process. Bake for 20 minutes at 375.

Notes: I have also made these vegan using egg substitute. I typically roast or blanch garlic because the sharp flavor does not appeal to my palette.

Summer of Eggplant

We are beginning eggplant season so it’s time for an eggplant recipe. As a former vegetarian I am armed with an arsenal of eggplant recipes. I attempted to write the eggplant blog a few weeks ago using an old favorite but I stopped. The first eggplant recipe has to be one capable of changing people’s minds about this maligned fruit.

Like mayonnaise, people have very strong opinions about eggplant. I have many friends (and I can name you all) that profess to HATE (and I mean hatehatehate) eggplant; Jim’s brother-in-law claims he’s allergic to it. I’m not sure if it’s an allergy or a phobia. Even Jim, who will eat anything, including bugs, when I asked him a what foods he didn’t like said, ‘I don’t care for eggplant or brussels sprouts.‘ He eats both now and is enjoying them. So I know I can change someone’s mind. So while I was typing out my original eggplant recipe I said ‘Nope, the first one has got to be Kevin Rathbun’s Ya Ya Eggplant Fries’. Simply because they don’t taste or have the texture of eggplant. These things are, well, indescribable in a way that sounds appetizing, but I’m going to do my best. They are kind of like sublime eggplant doughnuts in french toast stick form with hot sauce and powdered sugar. Yes, they are good.

I Googled it and Rathbun’s has the recipe on their website. Lucky me. However I was skeptical, it seemed too easy. Really, I envisioned Kevin and Kirk performing some sort of eggplant voodoo in the kitchen to make it so fluffy and light on the inside. And what was the sauce, the hot sauce? Rathbun’s does not list it on their website. Someone on the internet speculated that it was simply Tabasco. I needed a trip up the street to taste test them from the source before committing to making them or blogging about them.

My custom at Rathbun’s to sit in the bar area and share a few appetizers rather than eat a full meal in the main dining room. We sat down and ordered drinks and discussed our options beyond the imminent eggplant fries. A few moments later a friend who works there came by to chat, she asked about my blog and I said the blog was the reason for our visit. (And Jim and I really deserved a date night.) I explained the eggplant situation and we talked about it and then she said ‘Oh wait, let me just go ask the guys in the kitchen.’ As Jim’s son would say ‘sweet victory.’ She returned and reiterated the recipe on the website, the fry temperature vacillated by 10 degrees, and, yes, it is Tabasco and no, they do not salt the eggplant before frying.

A couple changes or things we did not have and other bumps in the road. We didn’t have canola oil, we used corn; we didn’t have a fry-o-lator, we used a pan; I accidentally bought reduced fat buttermilk. The rest is basically the same. But it also produced an interesting litmus test. The kids usually eat eggplant in meatball form and love it. The point is they aren’t prejudiced against it yet. The powdered sugar certainly was an incentive to eat it. Jim’s daughter really enjoyed and expressed this by singing to it and asking for more, his son ate it, kind of, but not a home run. When we did the dishes and our geriatric dogs came begging I looked at the options and fed each of them a fry, they enjoyed it. One of those dogs recently turned her nose up to offerings of pepperoni pizza bones.

The result: ours weren’t as light and fluffy as Kevin’s, but they were close. Our favorites were the ones I double dipped in egg wash and bread crumbs. Let them sit for 10-15 minutes before serving, they remain lava hot for an extended period of time. So if you are willing to give eggplant another chance, try the fries.

Eggplant Fries - adapted from Kevin Rathbun - Serves 4-6

1 1lb. eggplant

2 cups bread crumbs

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

3 eggs

1 cup buttermilk

Oil for frying

Cut the eggplant in to 1 1/2” fries, leaving the skin (I trimmed the seeds off of several to make them uniform and rectangular). Combine the eggs and the buttermilk and make an egg wash. Combine the breadcrumbs and the cheese. Heat an inch of oil in a cast iron skillet to 350 degrees. Dip the fries into the egg wash and then the breadcrumbs, repeat, fry in batches for roughly 3 minutes until they are golden brown. I found 1 eggplant was equal to about 16 fries and I fried 5 at a time so as to not overcrowd the pan.