Fire Your Eggplant! Eggplant in Coconut, Spices and Buttermilk

    I've said it before and I'll say it again, I am simply nuts for Fall. Mmmm, Fall, nuts, yes. Must buy nuts.  Aside from my obsession with cherries which is the one bright spot in Summer for me, I like the colder months. I don't do well in direct sunlight, and yes it's because I have the coloring of that white asparagus that comes in cans, and I handle heat about as well as one of those 1970 Jaguars where one couldn't run the air conditioning and the radio at the same time without breaking down in the middle of the street.

   Winter is fabulous, and has all the stuff I love, cold, rain, and fog. But, it also has all those pesky stress inducing holidays. At our house that includes all the usual suspects plus Alans' birthday and our wedding anniversary (don't know what I was thinking when I planned a December wedding.)  Spring has rain, rain, rain, mud and flowers coming up, wonderful tender young vegetables but that dang summer is right behind and I just can't forget.

    I am an autumn. 
  
   Remember those late night TV info-mercials about finding your color? Are you a Spring, a Winter, a Summer or a Fall? Usually it was hosted by some lady who was buried in a mountain of neck scarves and a couple of coats of spackle passing for blush.

   She'd hold paint chips up against your face ask you about your relationship with your mother and  declare, "You're a Spring!" then sell you a butt-load of make-up Not Found In Stores!!!  This always invlolved about six easy payments of $39.99 plus shipping and handling to an address in Parsippany New Jersey. Bottom line: You probably could find out the same information cheaper hanging around the paint department at Home Depot.
   
   But seasonal beauty hints aside, we are now smack dab in the middle of Autumn for real, and all that that implies. Around here, one of the main things is eggplant, fire roasted eggplant. I've cooked eggplant in a variety of ways in all the years I've been cooking Indian food, and flame roasting it is one of my favorite ways to go. Prepared this way, eggplant can be an appetizer, a side dish, and even a flatbread or pizza topping. Also, it makes up quickly which is always a plus in these pre holiday, sports watching, days.

Flame Roasted Eggplant With Spices, Coconut, and Buttermilk

Here's What You Need:

1 large eggplant
5 dried red chilies
1 tsp of black mustard seeds
1/2 cup of grated fresh or frozen coconut or dried unsweetened coconut
4 whole shallots
1 and 1/2 tsp of salt
1 cup of buttermilk
2 tsp of vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)

Here's What To Do:

Rub the eggplants with a bit of vegetable oil.
Place the eggplant directly on a grill or over the flame of your stove.
(You can also roast them on a cookie sheet on the top rack of a 450 degree oven)
Roast them until the skin is charred on the outside. Rotate them as you cook.

Let them cool and then peel away the charred skin.

Mash the eggplant, put it in a bowl, and set it aside.

Put 3 of the dried chilies, 1/2 tsp of mustard seed, coconut, shallots, 1/2 tsp of salt and 1/2 cup of water in a blender, grinder or food processor.
Grind it all to a fine paste.
Pour the buttermilk into the eggplant and stir it in.

Add in 1 tsp of salt.
Add in the ground spice coconut paste.

Set it aside.
In a small pan or skillet, heat 2 Tsp of vegetable oil.
When the oil is hot toss in 1/2 tsp of mustard seeds.
When the seeds start to pop, tear up the last 2 red chilies and drop them into the pan.
Saute everything for about 30 seconds.
Pour the hot oil, and spices into the eggplant buttermilk mixture then cover the pan so that the heat and spices permeate the eggplant.

Let it rest for a bit, then take the lid off and serve it up.

   This is an excellent cold salad to serve as a side dish, a killer dip with pita chips or flat bread and a relish that would be great on a lamb or chicken sandwich. This is one of those basic recipes that can be used for a variety of purposes. It's the Swiss Army Knife of my kitchen and it can dig you out of all sort of dinner crunches.
 
   Coming up next, rooting for root vegetables more fall specials and fun with turnips. Yes, turnips. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Smoke Your Yogurt!

Ever since I was a kid, I've been a sucker for flamboyant table gestures. You know what I'm talking about. The Caesar salad made at the table, the flaming Cherries Jubilee, the blazing Baked Alaska, all those guys at Benihana flinging sharp knives around. Drama!
  So it was the gesture I was looking for last night. Paula Wolfert was coming to dinner at our house and I decided to go for the drama with an Eggplant Bharat. This is a dish I've made for years. I'd first read about it in an early book by Madhur Jaffrey. It is a form of raita where an eggplant is smoked and charred  then peeled.  After the eggplant is mashed, yogurt and spices are added, and then the piece de resistance, it's smoked again with live coals right at the table!  Very dramatic. I couldn't wait to show Paula.
  Turns out she'd never heard of this technique before and was very eager to see it done. Drumroll please!
 Well wouldn't you know it, after talking about this and cooking it for many people over the years, my coal wouldn't ignite properly. There I was with Paula, her son and my husband all crowded around my  clay pot and fizzle......pfft. No sparks, no smoke. Nada, nothing, zero, zip. I felt like that old Warner Brothers Cartoon featuring Michigan J Frog.

  "But, but..I've done this before! Really..it works, and there's smoke and and........"
"Don't worry about it" Paula said. "Things don't work perfectly all the time every time. Blog about it anyway. Be truthful! You know it works, let people know what can go wrong. It's still delicious."
   So, in the name of truth, I'll explain how to do this dish, and meanwhile I'll be making it again and experimenting with my coals so that I can show a proper smoky picture, because when this works it really works and people will be righteously impressed.
 Here's how to do it.
 Roast a whole eggplant over an open gas flame on a stovetop, on a barbecue grill, or if you don't have access to that, in the oven. Place the eggplant on a foil-covered cookie sheet in an oven preheated to 450 degrees. Keep an eye on it, turning it often until it blackens. In the oven it will take about 1 hour, over an open flame a lot faster. The flame method will give the eggplant a nice smoky flavor, the oven less so, but you take what you can get.

   Once the eggplant is roasted, let it cool. Peel away the charred skin.

Place the eggplant in a bowl and mash it well.

Add in:
 2 finely chopped green onions

1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp of salt.

Add in 1 cup of plain yogurt

Mix it in well.
Now for the magic....or maybe not.
Halve an onion and scoop out the inside.

 Heat 1 Tbs of hot ghee..or melted butter. Pour it into the cup of the onion.
Take a small charcoal. I use the sort that's sold in stores that sell incense. Heat the coal unit it sparks and smokes. This can be done over a flame or on a grill. When the coal is smoking hot, drop it into the butter-filled cup of the onion and quickly place the lid on the pot.

Leave it closed for 5 minutes. When you take it off, the buttery smoke will have infused the eggplant yogurt mixture with a delicious campfire fragrance....or not.
 As I've said. I've been straight up honest. This dish takes practice to get right, but practice makes perfect and that is what this dish is. Simply perfection!