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

Stuffed roasted peppers with spiced rice

 I have a memory from many, many years ago. We visited a friend of my second cousin (together with my second cousin) up on a lonely tea estate. My parents went home leaving my sister and myself with my second cousin (who was quite a bit older than us and already married) because we really loved the place. We were served stuffed bell peppers for dinner. It was the first time I ever ate stuffed peppers and I found the dish absolutely delicious. Many years later, when I moved to the west where bell peppers are in abundance, I tried to replicate something similar. I was never successful. Eventually I even forgot what that delicious meal tasted like. I tried various different recipes because I knew, deep down, that baked stuffed peppers could taste absolutely divine. I had quite given up especially since my children did not share my obsession with baked peppers. How I came about the idea to give it another try a few weeks ago I have no idea, but try I did. I threw everything I had at it to a point where I thought it may taste disgusting. But I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome, which was a happy family gobbling down some healthy chow saying "But I don't like baked peppers. These are so good."

Preparation time: 1.5 hours; serves 4

Ingredients:

2	Rice cooker cups of basmati rice
2 tbsp.	Oil
1/2 tsp.	Mashed garlic
65g	Onion, diced (about half an onion)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1 tsp.	Salt
3	Rice cooker cups of boiling water
1 tbsp.	Oil
4	Red bell peppers
1 tbsp.	Oil
65g	Onion, diced (the other half of the onion)
1 tsp.	Mashed garlic
180g	Vegetarian mince
1 tsp.	Salt
1 tbsp.	Nutritional yeast (substitute with a veggie cube)
1/2 tsp.	Cumin powder
1 tbsp.	Tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1	Green chilli, finely sliced
3	Green onions or two very small leeks with lots of leaves, finely chopped
1 can (265g)	Chickpeas, lightly mashed
3/4 cup	Tomato puree
1/4 cup	Water

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (fan oven) [200 C convection].

Wow! That is a long list of ingredients. My advice is to get all the ingredients together, measured and prepped before starting with this. At least the first time you make it. Else you'll end up totally stressed out and overcooking something or spilling stuff everywhere. I talk through experience!

Start off with the rice. I used 2 rice cooker cups of rice because this is all I need for 4 people. If your lot eats more than that then increase as necessary. Alternatively, reduce as necessary. Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clean and allow to drain while preparing the rest of the ingredients, i.e., mashing garlic, dicing onions and heating 2 tbsp. oil on high heat. Once the oil is hot enough to make your onions sizzle add them to the oil together with the garlic and stir. Reduce the heat to medium. Stir fry them for around 30 seconds and then add the rice to the saucepan. Keep stirring the rice else it will stick and burn. I use a galvanised aluminium, heavy bottomed saucepan and it works well. I imagine that if you don't have a heavy bottomed pan the rice might stick, in which case you should probably add more oil. Immediately after adding the rice add the turmeric and salt. Keep stirring and frying the rice for 7 minutes. In the mean time put on your kettle and boil 0.5 L water. Once your 7 minutes are up carefully add 3 rice cooker cups of boiling water to your rice. Be careful the steam will burn (again talking from experience!). Reduce the heat to the minimum possible, stir the rice, put on the lid and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes. 

Now to the bell peppers. Cut them in half and take out the seeds. As you see in the picture I left the stems on and so had to take a sharp knife and cut out the white parts of the pepper. 

You can use any pepper you like. We don't fancy green peppers and love the sweet taste of red ones. You can also take the whole stem off. I washed my peppers to get rid of some of the seeds, but if you do this make sure you dry them afterwards else the oil will not stick. Take 1 tbsp. of oil and brush a baking tray (or 2) that will hold all your peppers. Then brush the insides and outsides of your peppers and place them with the cavity facing to the sky. Bake them for 12-15 minutes at 180 C (fan oven) or until slightly tender. You want to avoid over baking them because they will go back into the oven again and there is nothing worse than overcooked vegetables. 

Could only fit 6!

While your peppers are baking make the stuffing. Drain and wash the chickpeas then mash them slightly. I pulsed mine a couple of times in a food processor. It's okay to have a few big chickpeas, but make sure you don't have mush. On medium heat fry the remaining onion and garlic in 1 tbsp. of oil for about 1 minute. then add everything else, in no particular order and mix. Allow it to cook for about 3 minutes or as long as you like as long as it does not burn!

Once the bell peppers are done remove them from the pan and set aside. There may be some juice in the peppers or in the pan. Wherever it is just leave it there. Turn the rice into the baking dish and arrange the bell peppers on top of it with the opening to the sky. Stuff the peppers with the filling. You can heap the filling if you have too much (this will depend on the size of your peppers). 

Bake for 10 minutes. I did not cover my baking pan with foil (trying to reduce that carbon footprint) but you could cover it if you were afraid it would dry out or don't like having a bit of crunchy rice. 

Serve hot! 

You can find a more printer friendly version here.