Wonderful World Wide (www.) Cooking (.com) = Taina's Stuffed Eggplant, FTW!

The internets are a strange and glorious place. I've met many friends through my adventures at various sites; among them (and one of my favorites) is a lovely lady, Taina, who hails from Finland. We became acquainted through our shared love of Harry Potter, on a site that was for adults to discuss the ins and outs of that series. While there, we chatted frequently; often our conversations turned to food. This dish is my attempt to replicate a recipe that Taina posted about on Facebook when I talked about making pesto.

She described an eggplant dish that she makes...and it sounded so good, I thought I'd try to wing it and recreate it from her description. I've now made it twice...and altered it the second time based on her further comments. For lack of a recipe "name" I think I'll call it Taina's Stuffed Eggplant. I realize that this is taking major liberties, since I've neither seen nor tasted her version, but for her efforts in trying to school me (appropriate since she's a college professor) this post is dedicated to her. And as she told me in a message about the recipe, "Buon appetito!"

A photo of my second attempt:

The ingredients in the stuffing are basically the same each time, but I did alter the mixture assembly somewhat. I must admit to taking some liberties with her original description; I'll asterisk the items I added. Here's the recipe as I made it the second time around:

Stuffed Eggplant:
1 large eggplant, halved length-wise
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large cloves garlic, chopped fine*
4 ounces mushrooms, sliced*
2 Tbs olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

2 Roma tomatoes, diced
2 Tbs basil pesto

Added after further comments from Taina:
1/2 loaf French bread, hollowed
1 tin of anchovies, packed in oil
5 Tbs parmesan cheese
2 Tbs fresh parsley, chopped
2 Tbs butter, melted

Score the eggplant around the edges, being careful to not cut through the skin. Then, score length-wise and cross-wise:

Scoop out the "meat" of the eggplant, being careful to not rupture the skin. I did this with a spoon.

In a large skillet, sauté the eggplant, onion, garlic and mushrooms in the olive oil. Until just softened:

Add the tomatoes and the pesto to the skillet mixture:

Stir until incorporated and stuff the skillet mixture back into the hollowed skins of the eggplant:

In a food processor, add the bread, anchovies and their packing oil, parmesan and parsley. Process until crumbly:

Coat the top of the eggplant with this mixture and drizzle with melted butter:

Bake in a 350 degree oven until the mixture is bubbling and the topping is golden brown:

This is the first version I did, and while it was delicious, it is not nearly as appealing. Differences: There was no bread crumb top. The tomatoes were sliced and placed on top of the eggplant mixture and the pesto spread on that and baked. Micro-planed parmesan was added after it was baked:

I love cooking. I love sharing cooking ideas. I love the challenge of a new dish. This is the first time I've done a dish "blind", so to speak. I hope I've done it justice. If the remnants on Byron's plate are anything to go by, it was a hit!

Paula

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Oh, For the Love of Aubergine...Eggplant Noshing?

A while ago, we started a tradition called "appetizer night" on Fridays. That's the night that the shop is open late, so by the time Byron would get home it was too late to start dinner or eat a real meal. I got lazy after a while and it evolved into "crappetizer night." Anything frozen and yucky worked. Last June, we both vowed to make changes, so "crappetizer night" was gone. We haven't missed it. Now, we nosh most Friday nights; you can nosh with very healthy, easy foods.



This winter, Seitan Said Dance sent me "the Ultimate Vegan Cookbook", Veganomicon by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero. The day it came, I was headed out for an overnighter with the girls to play cards and told Seitan I would cook something from the book very soon. Well, as I scanned the pages, I found something that made me want it right then...Roasted Eggplant dip. I made it that night!

What is noshing? When is noshing dining?

Noshing is dining when you make the super awesome Eggplant/Aubergine dip from Veganomicon!

Veganomicon doesn't really have a recipe, per se, but a method for roasting the Eggplant/Aubergine, and some suggested ingredients for the dip. Here are the ingredients:



Eggplant/Aubergine, olive oil, lemon, salt and ground cumin. I added garlic and cracked black pepper to mine. On the garlic note, the first few times I made this dip, I just chopped up the garlic. I think the next time, I'll coat it in olive oil, wrap in foil and roast it in the oven along with the eggplant for a sweeter flavor.

The prescribed roasting method calls for pricking little holes all over the eggplant with a fork, placing it in a "cradle" of aluminum foil on a baking sheet, and baking it at 400 degrees for 25 to 35 minutes. I did that at the cabin and at home, I guess neither oven is correct on temperature, because it took way longer to get to perfect. So, this time, I cut the eggplant in half length wise and brushed it with some olive oil:



After 35 minutes in a 400 degree oven, mine looked like this:



The next step is the food processor. You could also just use a mixer/blender or an old fashioned potato masher.



First, you must scoop the sweet, wonderful meat out of the eggplant skin:



Put the eggplant, along with, to taste, the salt (1 Tbs kosher); lemon juice(three eggplant took juice of 1/2 of a very juicy lemon); the black pepper (2 tsp); the garlic (3 cloves); and the cumin (2 tsp) into the food processor.

[Note: Those are my measurements to my taste, but experiment with what you like. Also, remember I was using three eggplants; you would adjust the seasonings for fewer.]

Then as it processes, drizzle in some olive oil until the dip is just smooth:



If you are hand mashing, just drizzle in some olive oil, mash, drizzle, mash. It should end up looking like this:



Next, I just cut some whole wheat pita into triangles. I left mine double (you know, not split at the pocket, so they would hold up to the dip), brushed the triangles with olive oil and sprinkled on some kosher salt. I toasted them in the oven at 350 degrees until they were crisp:



Then, it was just setting it out. I made up a tray of the eggplant dip (I garnished it with a radish rose and a sprig of rosemary), the crispy pita triangles, some cucumber, radishes, red and yellow pepper slices:




Super fast...the longest part was the roasting time; super easy; super healthy; super light dining can be yours!

Join me as I nosh!

Paula

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