Quick and Easy: Spicy Summer Eggplant Poriyal A Simple Vegan Lunch.

  
   Our garden here in Sonoma is bursting at the seams with all the stuff we planted earlier in the year. I am starting to get overwhelmed with eggplants. I suppose that's what happens when one plants 4 different varieties of the same vegetable. Fortunately Indian cuisine is filled with dishes that star eggplants, so there's no need to repeat anything. The eggplants keep on a coming, so do the Indian recipes.
    
   The eggplants aren't the only prolific thing around here. We've been finishing director's notes for our TV pilot, and I've been working on recipes for the new CocoaPlanet Tasting Room opening soon here in Sonoma. So, there's not a lot of time for fancy-pants cooking. Simple easy and fast are the keys to a weekday lunch at our house, and if it involves eggplant, that's all the better.
   
   We've also been watching an extraordinary Indian cooking show that's currently streaming on Netflix Raja Rasoi Aur Anya Kahaniyaan.

To call it a cooking show is an understatement as it's so much more than that. It's definitely binge worthy with the only warning I'd give... don't watch on an empty stomach. The other day we saw an episode on the cuisine and food history of Tamil Nadu which caused me to dig out some poriyal recipes... specifically ones using eggplant.

I prepared this simple lunch dish of eggplant, tamarind, and coconut served with a spiced Basmati rice. Another great thing... almost everything was straight out of the garden

Kathirikkai Poriyal 

Here's What You Need :
3 cups of cubed eggplant
2 onions halved then sliced thin
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1 tsp mustard seeds
1 dried red chili
a few curry leaves

You'll also be adding a spice powder

Spice Powder 

Here's What You Need:
4 tsp vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)
1 Tbs coriander seed
3 small dried red chilies
2 tsp urad dal
2 Tbs grated dried unsweetened coconut
I Tbs tamarind
1/4 tsp salt

Here's What To Do:
Heat 2 tsp of vegetable oil in a small skillet.

When the oil is hot add in the coriander seeds, 3 red chilies, and urad dal.

Stir everything around and cook until the spices get fragrant and the dal starts to turn color and darken.
Take everything out of the pan to cool.
Add another 2 tsp of oil to the pan and toast the coconut until it turns golden. (this doesn't take very long so look sharp.)
Add the toasted coconut to the other spices you just roasted  .

Place everything in a spice grinder and grind it up. Stir in the tamarind paste.
Set the Spice Powder aside.
Add 1 Tbs of oil to the same pan you've been using
when the oil is hot add in the mustard seeds, chili, and curry leaves.

When the mustard seeds start to pop, toss in the thinly sliced onions...

...and 1/2 tsp turmeric.
Saute everything for about 3 minutes then add the eggplant cubes...

...1 tsp of salt, and 1/4 cup of water.

Stir everything around well, lower the heat, cover the pan and let things simmer for about 10 minutes. Check on it every once in a while to make sure nothing is sticking or burning.
When the eggplant cubes are tender and the water has been cooked off, sprinkle the dish with the Spice Powder you have made.

Blend it in well.

And serve it up!

Combined with some spiced Basmati rice you've got a great and simple vegan lunch, perfect for Meatless Monday.
  

   The dish is delicious, sweet and spicy and very filling. Working my way through our bumper crop of eggplants never was so easy. This dish can be made using our Indian Spice Kit  from The Chaunk.

Sign up for the free The Chaunk newsletter as we're going to be offering a special deal (among other things)  for our readers later this month.
  
Coming up next, dessert Indian Style and more vegetable adventures. Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

Warming Winter Vegetables, Eggplant and Mint

   A funny thing happened on the way to my turnips. I had decided to pick a few of my them and make an Indian turnip dish involving the turnips and their greens. Healthy and delicious. Well, when I went out to the garden to pull a few turnips, beautiful greens waving in the breeze... there weren't any turnips attached. Who knew? Meanwhile as I was trying to figure out where my turnips went, I turned to my eggplant bed and there were still plenty of them left. At least these weren't a surprise, I could see what I was getting. I picked two Japanese eggplants and decided to cook an Indian Eggplant and Fresh Mint dish.

Eggplant and Mint 

Here's What You Need:
2 Japanese eggplants
2 Tbs of coconut oil
1 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1/4 tsp fenugreek seeds lightly crushed
1 large shallot finely chopped
2 fresh serrano chilies chopped
5 curry leaves
1 Tbs coriander
1 tsp fresh chopped mint
1/4 tsp of turmeric
1/2 tsp of salt
1/2 cup finely chopped fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp amchur powder (dried ground mango)

Here's What To Do:
An easy and less fattening (oily) way to put eggplant on the path to easy cooking is to microwave them for a couple of minutes.
Wash and slice the eggplants on the diagonal. There's no need to pre-soak or salt them for this dish.

Place the eggplant slices in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave them for about 4 minutes. Meanwhile, chop the shallot, serrano chilies.

Mix them with the cumin seeds and mustard seeds, and set them aside.
Place fenugreek seeds in a mortar or spice grinder and crush them up slightly.

Mix then fenugreek seeds with the cumin seeds, mustard seeds, shallot, and chilies. Set them aside.
In another bowl mix the turmeric, salt, ground coriander, curry leaves and chopped mint and set this aside.

In a skillet or kadhai heat 2 Tbs of coconut oil.

When the oil is hot toss in the shallot, cumin seed, mustard seed, fenugreek, and chilies.

When they start to sizzle, quickly add in the bowl of curry leaves, turmeric, mint, salt, and coriander.

Add the eggplant. Stir everything around and saute for about 2  minutes. Add the chopped cilantro and then cover the pan, lower the heat, and cook until everything is well blended. This takes about 6 minutes.

Check it every now and then to make sure nothing is sticking and burning. When it's all cooked, sprinkle in the amchur powder and serve it up.

This eggplant dish can be served with a simple rice and dal or a steak or burger, it's that versatile and easy. Coming up next, when the weather gets frosty, I return to my Tuscan roots, plus more info on The Chaunk my Indian Spice Kit.  Follow along on Twitter @kathygori

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

Fast Cooking For Hot Days. Indian Spiced Eggplant With Cilantro.

   We're moving into the dog days here in Sonoma. Even though we have our burst of heat waves during the Summer months, as it gets closer to Harvest Season in the vineyards, daytime temperatures start to soar. Evenings here are getting crisp and cool but the time of day when most of the cooking is getting done still can be too hot to handle. So what do the smart ones do when the kitchen is the homes' hot spot and not in a good way? I mean besides going out to eat... we look for things that can be cooked quickly and easily which brings me to eggplant.

   Growing up in an Italian household and spending the last 25 years cooking Indian food, eggplant is not something I associate with speed. My experience with eggplant usually involves smoking, or soaking or some combination of that but an eggplant dish that can be put on the table with a minimum of fuss and bother and no soaking...???? I'm in. Which brings me to this Indian dish with a modern twist aka The Microwave. I'm not a big "Science Oven" user but I have found lately that they can come in handy when speed is of the essence..as long as there's no metal involved.



This handy device makes this dish one of those straight from garden to table  in 30 minutes or less miracles.

Indian Spiced Eggplant With Cilantro

Here's What You Need:
 2 Japanese eggplants (aka lumbae baingan or long eggplant)
2 Tbs vegetable oil (I use coconut oil)
1 tsp cumin seed
1/4 tsp crushed fenugreek seeds
1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 large shallot finely chopped
2 serrano chilies finely chopped
1 Tbs chopped curry leaves (optional if you don't have any)
1 Tbs ground coriander
1 tsp chopped mint
1/4 tsp turmeric
salt to taste
1/2 cup finely chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp mango powder aka Amchur powder (lemon juice is a substitute)


Here's What to Do:
 I went to the garden an got myself a coupe of Japanese eggplants.

Yes, those are eggplants in my pocket and I am happy to see you! Since we try to be as thrifty as we possibly can with our water use, we were excited when the nice people at Rain Machine sent
us an HD 12 model.

This nifty device works with one's drip irrigation system (a must in California drought country) and  connects with NOAA via WiFi every 6 minutes to deliver the most accurate weather information available. Thus, it saves water by automatically tailoring water flow in real time to weather conditions.

When we bought our house we made it as environmentally efficient as possible, meeting CalGreen standards for energy and water use. We took out all lawns and xeriscaped with drought tolerant plants, We have a drip system for our property and our vegetable growing beds. So when we received this device we were pretty excited. We haven't installed it yet because we still have to set the baseline for our vegetables and fruit but we are pretty stoked to try this thing out as anything we can do to save water, we will. Anyway, I think the eggplants are going to like it!

Meanwhile back to the recipe.  Wash and cut your eggplants on the diagonal, no soaking or salting necessary.

Place the eggplant slices in a microwaveable dish, cover it, and pop them in your science oven for about 4 minutes.

While they're cooking, chop the shallot.

Place the fneugreek seeds in a mortar and coarsely crush them.

Finely chop the serrano chilies.

Get your spices ready.

Meanwhile heat  2 Tbs of oil in a skillet or khadi.

When the oil is hot toss in the shallot, fenugreek, cumin, mustard seeds, and chilies.

The spices, chili, and shallot will sizzle when they hit the hot oil.
Add in the curry leaves if you have them, mint, coriander, salt, and turmeric.

Saute them for about 30 seconds then add in your cooked eggplant.

Cook with the spices, mixing everything well for about 2 minutes, then place a lid on things, turn down the heat and cook for another 5 minutes or so until the eggplant is tender.

Snip yourself some cilantro.

Chop it up and sprinkle it over the dish.

Mix in the mango powder or lemon juice and serve it up.

This is pretty dang easy. Like 20 minutes easy!!! It's also spicy and delicious. I like to serve this stuff in my earthenware casuelas from Spain. I get these locally from Salsa Trading Company  

They have a whole kingdom of clay over there! So if you're in Sonoma you're likely going to find me in there at some point in the day fondling pots.

    I really like this thing of growing my own vegetables, two steps out the back door and I've got lunch or dinner. I did go a little overboard on the eggplants this year and don't even mention the army of butternut squash as big as my head. The one thing I planted that didn't take was okra, Alan's thanking his lucky stars it never grew...but there's always next year!!!!!   Coming up next, more harvest vegetables for the Fall season. Follow along on Twitter@kathygori