Mini Grilled Eggplant

When I saw these mini eggplants in the store I just had to buy them. I had no idea what I would do with them! The shop owner said that usually people cooked them with walnuts. I'm guessing that is a mediterranean way of cooking them. I searched the web but couldn't find anything that hit the spot, so I went out on a limb and created my own recipe.

Preparation time: 1.25 hours; serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:

1 kg	Eggplant (about 16 fruit)
1/2 - 1 tbsp.	Salt
3 tbsp.	Oil
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp.	Chilli flakes
1/2 tsp.	Ground cumin
	Black pepper, freshly ground
Ingredients for sauce
1/2 cup	Coconut cream
1 tbsp.	Miso paste
1/2 tsp.	Dark soya sauce
1/4 tsp.	Chilli powder
A few mint leaves finely chopped, to garnish Method:

Wash the eggplant and slice lengthwise down the middle. Leave the stem on so that the fruit stays together. It also makes it look pretty and gives you something to grab the fruit by once it is cooked and soft.

Place the eggplant cut side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Leave them to stand for at least 20 minutes, but no more than 1 hour. You should see beads of moisture form on the top of the eggplant.

While the salt is drawing out the water from the eggplant you can set about making the sauce. It's a really simple sauce to make, but it's full of punch. Simply put all ingredients in a small saucepan, put it on medium heat and stir to combine all the ingredients. I don't know if you can replace the coconut cream with fresh coconut milk. Maybe if you squeezed some fresh milk and then let it sit for a while in the fridge, you could skim off the cream. You might also be able to make a thick cream from Maggie coconut milk powder, but I have not tried it yet. I used canned coconut cream. The dark soya sauce give the sauce a bit of colour. Contrary to what you might think dark soya sauce has a lower sodium content than the light variety. Adjust the chilli powder to your taste. 

Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat (about 5 minutes) and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

By now the eggplant has probably been sitting for long enough. Wipe off the moisture that has formed on the top of the cut surface with a paper towel and try to take some of the salt off too. You don't need to get all the salt off because there won't be anymore salt added. Just the excess that fell on the baking tray and that sticks to your paper towel and hands.

If your grill needs to be pre-heated now is the time to put it on (a Foreman grill won't work because it will squash the eggplant).

Now with a very sharp knife score the top of the eggplant as show in the photograph below. Don't cut all the way through to the skin, but go deep enough so that the spices get inside and so that it cooks quicker.

Place the eggplants cut side up on a baking tray that can be used under a grill and brush the cut surface with oil. Then take a pinch of turmeric and sprinkle a tiny bit on each cut surface. Do the same with the ground cumin. Note that there is more cumin than turmeric so you should put twice as much cumin as turmeric. Finally crack some fresh black pepper on top and sprinkle with chilli pieces if desired.  

Flip the eggplant over and oil the skin sides of the eggplant.

Put the fruit under the grill at 240 C for 2 minutes or until golden brown. If the fruit is too close to the heat the skin will burn, which has it's own taste but might not be what you are looking for. I had mine on the second level from the top. 

Flip the eggplant and continue to grill for another 8 minutes. If your eggplants are not getting nice and golden on the top, but they are cooked, move the baking tray closer to the heat source. Keep a sharp eye out to make sure you don't burn them.

Reheat the sauce while the eggplant is cooking so it can be served hot.

Remove the eggplant from the grill and serve immediately with the coconut/miso sauce. 

You can sprinkle some finely chopped mint either on the eggplant (if you are serving the sauce on the side) or after pouring the sauce on the eggplant. 

Or you could cook them till they are just cooked and then put them back under the grill just before serving to brown the tops. Reheat the sauce, adding a bit more coconut cream if it has dried out, and serve hot. 

Here is a shorter version to use when cooking https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DgJXRfl66SHnFnMRu5S3xvAP8cbqOMmGMDFnXVNoOSE/edit?usp=sharing

Origami window dressing

 My window has been looking pretty empty after I took my Christmas decorations down. It's not totally bare because 3 of my orchids happen to be in bloom. I have a total of 5 orchid plants. I did not buy any of these plants. They were all gifts. The only indoor plants I buy are cacti because everything else dies. But apparently not orchids. I've even chucked them outside because I really did not want to deal with them, but they relentlessly survived. I feed them once a year if they are lucky and I water them once a week (which I'm told is plenty) and they just keep giving. My husband says I must be growing old because I have a knack for orchids and only old people grow orchids! But he's just joking, of course.

Being just the beginning of February I felt it was too early for spring and flowers. God forbid, it is still snowing outside. I thought we need a bit of peace and goodwill and someone really needs to use up all that origami paper that has accumulated over the years. I don't know if anyone else has this problem, but when I see cheap origami paper I just have to buy it. I have no idea why. I also buy origami books. I have one math book which describes the geometry of origami. I have another in which the origami insects are so complicated that I have never managed to complete a single one. I actually know why. It says you should use the highest quality paper to prevent tearing. And cheapo me does not have any high quality paper and is not going to invest in any. This is how I came up with the idea to make strings of origami cranes to dress my window. 

All you need to make these strings are:

1. Origami paper
2. Fishing nylon, beading nylon or any other thread
3. A needle with a head big enough for the thread to fit through
4. One weight per string 
5. Blue tac, a glue gun 

First of all make the cranes. I will not go through how to do this because there are hundreds of instructions out there. If you are like me and like an old fashioned paper instruction try this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orizuru (I'm trying to be neutral here!). If you prefer a video ... well you know exactly what to do. Some cranes are slightly easier than others. The one on Wikipedia is the easiest type. If you don't know the origami notation then probably a video is a better option for you. 

I used multicoloured origami paper so I lay them out on the table and swapped them around until I was happy with the colour combination. I mean, I wasn't totally happy with my combinations, but I really didn't want to make anymore cranes so I made do with what I had! 

Measure how much string you need and add on about 30 cm so you have some extra to tie knots and adjust the length. Start with the bottom most crane. Thread the string into your needle, gently press your crane flat, and then pass the needle through the hole in the bottom and out through the middle of the body. By pressing the crane flat it is easier to see where the middle is and it is less likely that the paper tears.  Continue threading your cranes until you have the desired number, which in my case was 4. 

You'll need a weight at the bottom of the string because the cranes don't weigh enough to keep tension in the string. You can use anything for the weight. I happened to find these "things" in my basement. I bought them on sale at a crafts store because they were pretty (and on SALE). I'm sure I'm not alone on this one. My husband keeps me out of craft stores because I can't help myself. And if I do wander in because I really, really need something (like a pot of glue) I always head over to the sale rack, and I ALWAYS find something that has my name on it. I remember when I picked these up. I was standing outside with my husband while my kids were inside buying stuff. Then my husband popped into the bakery opposite to pick up some bread. One of my kids popped their head out of the store just then (I'm sure they noticed that I was alone) and asked me if I could come and look at something they wanted to buy. Unable to resist I took that bold step into the store, I looked at their potential purchase and then was told by my eldest "hey mama, you know they have some nice stuff on the sale rack". I gave her a scolding, told her that she would be in trouble with her father (as would I be), and all too willingly headed to the back of the store. My kids had a field day of it, picking things up and enticing me with them. "Mama, wouldn't this look good", "Oh mama, look how cheap this is. Are you sure you can't use it?", "This looks really, really cute". They got so much fun out of it and I got a whole heap of stuff that was so cute, so cheap, and I so did not need. Including these metal lattice hanger things. When we came out of the store my husband just shook his head in despair and I blamed it all on the kids 😉

Now string your weight on to the bottom and secure it with a double knot.

My window is above my kitchen sink and I have to climb on a stool and lean over the sink and kitchen counter to get to the top. So it's not very easy to adjust things in situ. So I hung my strands onto a curtain in my living room using a safety pin. Then I figured out how to space the cranes. I used a tiny piece of blue tac to hold the cranes in place. A tiny piece right at the bottom. Because I used blue tac I was able to adjust the heights so that they matched. It is also much easier to adjust if you find it doesn't work when you move it to where it should be. You could of course use a glue gun to place a small bead of hot glue at the bottom of the crane. But you then have to be sure that you have the right place. If you don't have blue tac you can use any other type of poster tac or you could use plasticine, clay or play doh (although the play doh may not work quite as well). If you want to be really fancy you can string a bead on before you string on a crane and tie the bead into place. The problem with this is of course that it would be really hard to change it later and you would have to tie that knot before you put the next crane onto the string. 

Then you are done. All I had to do was to move the cranes over to my kitchen window! 

If you are wondering how I attached them to my window frame I used some self adhesive ceiling hooks. I'm so happy with these hooks that I bought a heap more so that I could dress all my windows for Christmas. Needless to say the hooks are still in a drawer and the windows were completely naked! Well maybe I'll get round to it next Christmas.