Eggplant, Sweet and Sour Indian Style

 
   We have so many eggplants this year, in so many different varieties (yeah, I went a little nuts there) that I have been nearly at a loss as to what to do with them all.  Fortunately Indian cuisine loves the eggplant and there are at least five times as many recipes for eggplant as the eggplants in my garden, and that's going some. Every day when we take our lunch break from writing, I go out to the garden to see what's up and I usually come back with eggplant.

So, I've done them spiced, roasted, how about sweet and sour. Whoa, you only thought sweet and sour was found in Chinese recipes?  Well, the Indians do sweet and sour too and it's amazing. What I like about cooking these recipes is that they're very, very, quick. Once the eggplant has been rubbed with salt to remove the bitter juices, it's rinsed and then the quick part. It's microwaved for 4 minutes which makes it soft enough to work with but not fully cooked. Sweet and Sour Eggplant is fast enough to get on the table when you don't want to mess around too long in a hot kitchen which makes it a great end of Summer, early Fall weather dish.

Sweet and Sour Eggplant

Here's What You Need:
2 large or 5 small Japanese eggplants
1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
1 shallot finely chopped
2 Serrano chilies finely minced, seeds and all.
1 Tbs tamarind paste (lemon juice can substitute but tamarind can be found in most supermarkets)
1 cinnamon stick
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 Tbs ground coriander
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt
2 Tbs crumbled jaggery (Indian palm sugar) or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 tsp garam masala


Here's What To Do:
Wash and slice the eggplants on the diagonal.

Place them in a collender and sprinkle them with kosher salt.

Rub the salt into the eggplant slices and let them sit for about 10 minutes to let the bitter juices drain out.

Rinse the salt off the eggplant and you are good to go.

Place the eggplant in a microwave-safe bowl with a cover and cook it for 4 minutes.

 While that's happening, mince the Serrano chilies together with the shallot and set them aside.

Halve the onion and cut it into thin slices, set it aside.

Heat 2 Tbs of vegetable oil, (I use coconut oil) in a skillet or kadhai.
When the oil is hot, toss in the cumin seed and cinnamon stick.

As soon as they start to sizzle, add the onion slices.

Cook the onion slices until they start to turn golden. This takes about 8 minutes.
Add in the Serrano chilies and shallot.

Stir everything around well and saute it for about 30 seconds.
Take everything out of the kadhai and  into a bowl and set it aside.

Add the cooked eggplant to the pan.

Stir it around. This won't take long because you've already precooked it in the microwave. Had you not done this, the next step would take about 15 minutes or so to get the eggplant nice and soft.
Add the onion mixture back into the pan along with the ground coriander, cumin, and salt.

Cover the pan reduce the heat and cook for about 3 minutes to make sure all the flavors have blended.
Add in the tamarind paste (or lemon juice)...

...and the jaggery or brown sugar.

Mix everything around then toss in your chopped fresh cilantro.

Check the seasoning, and add more salt if you need to.
 Other than that...that's it.
You can serve it up.

This dish goes well with just a simple Basmati rice dish, and some chapatti, or it can also accompany any Western style meal. Even my eggplant (let's not say hating) husband liked this dish, and all the eggplants that have been set before him are starting to win him over. Actually I think he;s just relieved because of everything we planted this spring the only thing that didn't come up ...was the okra. So he's feeling pretty welll....good might be the word.

   Coming up next.,. the butternut squash is here, and there are a lot of fast and easy ways to cook those monsters. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

New Eating For A New Year

   When I stop and think about it, it seems as though 2012 was hardly here. One minute I was just plain cooking and writing, the next I was plunged into parental illness, and bobbing back there in the rear view  mirror was the Mayan Calendar End of the World As We Know It. I feel like I have to add that last part since the planet is still whirling and maybe we just don't know enough yet. So there's that.

  I spent most of last month sick with some sort of bug that's still left me with croaky vocals and I've now emerged from a haze of antibiotics, cough lozenges and desserts (can't forget those) into 2013. It seemed only right that I get back to some healthy Indian vegetarian cooking in order to start the New Year off right. Yes, my pants guilted me into it. I wanted to make something simple for lunch that didn't involve sugar or chocolate. I was also eager to try my new toy.
 
   A couple of weeks ago I was contacted by a company named GitaDini.

   GitaDini makes housewares based on traditional Indian kitchenware and gives them a contemporary tweak. They asked if they could send me a couple of their items to try in my home kitchen and I was intrigued. One of the things they sent me was a Yin Yang spice box, or as they're called Masala Dabba. The box fits together in a nice snug pattern that nestles next to wherever you need it.

And once you open it, there's all the spices you need right at your fingertips in cute little stainless steel containers.

   I've always wanted one of these but have never bought one because, well what else do I have an incredibly messy pantry for? God forbid I should ever get organized, 'cause what's more fun than being in the middle of a big cook and shrieking "Where the hell's the damn coriander seed?!!" while spilling a bottle of peppercorns all over the floor and racing the dog to pick them up. Using the spice box however, nice and easy and nobody gets hurt. See?

So, I busted out the YinYang box and set out to make the first healthy dish post Mayan Calendar.

Kerala Style Coconut Eggplant

Here's What You Need:

1 Eggplant
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 Tbs of grated unsweetened dried or fresh coconut
2 dried red chili peppers
1 green serrano chili seeded and chopped
1 large shallot chopped
One medium onion  peeled and choped
2 tsps ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala
1/4 tsp of garam masala for garnish
1/2 tsp of turmeric
4 thin slices of peeled fresh ginger
3 Tbs vegetable oil (I usually use coconut)
salt to taste
1 Tbs lemon juice
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 Tbs chopped fresh mint

Here's What To Do:

Cut an eggplant into 1 inch pieces. Set aside.
In a food processor or blender grind the green chili, red chilies, ginger, onion, shallot and grated coconut into a paste.
Add in the turmeric, coriander and 1 tsp of garam masala.
Heat the vegetable oil in a kadhai or skillet.
When the oil is hot, toss in the onion coconut paste.
Cook for about 4 minutes or so.
Add in the c
oconut milk, salt and the eggplant pieces. Cook over medium high heat for about 5 minutes.

Turn the heat down, put a lid on things and cook for about 25 minutes or so.
Check it every now and then and give things a stir to make sure nothing is sticking or burning.

Add in the lemon juice, cilantro, mint, and cook everything for another couple of minutes.

Put the eggplant in a bowl and sprinkle with 1/4 tsp of garam masala.

Serve it up. The ear flaps hat is because our house gets really cold this time of year and in the interest of energy saving, we like to bundle up rather than turn on the heat if we possibly can. Also I was having a classically bad hair day.

This recipe will serve about 4 people as a side dish.  Probably you can stretch it a bit further if you run it through the woodchipper.

   
   I want to thanks the nice people at GitaDini for sharing their wonderful Yin Yang spice box with me. If you don't want to use it for Indian cooking it makes a great stash box for nuts, candies, or whatever you've got floating loose around your kitchen.

   Coming up next, an easier and lighter version of an Indian sweet, because after you've eaten your vegetables what could be better? Also I give the Rotito from GitaDini a test run. What pray tell is a Rotito? Well, stick around and find out. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Mission Possible... Eggplant Mughlai Style

   I've been cooking a lot of vegan food for the last three weeks as our friend was preparing for his radiation treatment /isolation period for thyroid cancer. There is a very specific non/low iodine diet that's prescribed for patients, and fortunately most Indian recipes fit comfortably into that slot. My Mission if I chose to accept it was to find interesting and taste tempting treats that could keep our friend's taste buds excited through the three weeks he'd have to be off his regular vegetarian diet and in vegan land. I love a challenge. Sexing up eggplant wasn't exactly like dropping on wires through a deadly laser trap... but for me it was close. Really.

Imagine how much more exciting it would have been for Tom Cruise if he'd had to find a new and  interesting way to fix eggplant rather than whatever the hell he was looking for on those wires.
   But why the eggplant obsession you may ask? Good question. For one thing, eggplants were on special, and most importantly eggplants have a great texture when preparing any vegetarian or vegan food. Eggplants are up there with mushrooms for providing a nice "meaty" mouth feel.
   Most of the eggplant recipes I'd been fixing had been savory with tomato playing a major part. But three weeks in, I was looking to expand eggplant's flavor profile and take it in a different direction. I looked to the north of India. I found an eggplant dish fragrant with cinnamon and cardamom, studded with raisins. I'd found a Mughal Eggplant dish.
   The influence of Mughal  cooking is strong in the North of India. There's less heat and more aroma. Paula Wolfert and I were talking at the Tuesday Farmer's Market a couple of weeks ago about the similarities between Moroccan Food and Indian Food. They use the same spices and many of the same cooking technique. In fact, when we talked about some recipes, they seemed to be virtually the same. I haven't run this one past Paula yet but I'm sure she's going to tell me there's something in the Moroccan kitchen that resembles it.
   While turning out a lot of different vegan dishes regularly, I needed dishes that could come together easily with easy to get ingredients. Alan and I are also on a script deadline trying to get our latest piece of work out of the house, so there wasn't the usual amount of time. Enter Mughlai Eggplant.

Mughlai Eggplant

Here's what to do:
Wash, quarter, and quarter the eggplant again.

 Put the eggplant in a colender and sprinkle it with 4 tsp of kosher salt.

 Let it sit for about 10 minutes then rinse it thoroughly.

Pat the eggplant dry and heat 3 Tbs of vegetable oil.
 When the oil is hot toss in:
  1/2 tsp of mustard seeds
  1/2 tsp of cumin seeds
Stir fry them until the mustard seeds start to pop.

Add in:
 2 onions thinly sliced
 The eggplant slices

Stir them around until the onions start to brown and the eggplants cook through.
 Add in:
  1/4 tsp of Kashmiri chili or 1/8 tsp of cayenne mixed with 1/8 tsp of paprika
  1/2 tsp of coriander
  1/4 tsp of turmeric
  1/4 tsp of cinnamon
  1/4 tsp of cardamom

Stir it all around so that the spices are mixed into the dish, and continue cooking until the eggplant starts to brown.

 Mix together:
   2 Tbs of chopped cashews
   2 Tbs of golden raisins

Sprinkle them over the eggplant spice and onion mixture.

Stir everything together while the cashews and the raisins brown. Salt to taste.

 Scatter the eggplant with:
  1 chopped seeded fresh green chili
  A 1 inch piece of fresh julienne ginger
  Chopped fresh cilantro

  There it is. Sweet, spicy (but not too) crunchy eggplant ready as the star of the table in less than an hour. Serve it with rice and some chapatti or dal and another vegetable, or go totally out of the Indian arena and pop it down next to any meat entree. I can tell you from personal experience, it goes just as well with an Italian meat dish.
   As for our friend, he had his final scan at the hospital this morning and got his all clear! We couldn't be happier. Thanks to all of you who sent me great hints and dessert recipes during the last three weeks.
 Coming up next , once again I go for The Big O for all you Okra Lovers out there. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori