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

Vegetarian Lasanga

A few moments to make something a bit more time consuming!

This is not even going to be a recipe because you I totally forgot to weigh any of my ingredients.

All of our family love lasagna. But not all lasagna's. Obviously meat is off the list and so is spinach and feta (much loved in the USA). Other vegetables are quite okay. I used to have a recipe for a seafood lasagna but I got rid of it when we moved to Germany. [If I gave YOU the seafood cookbook, please copy the lasagna recipe and send it to me. It was my husbands favourite!]

Today's lasagna has egg plant, zucchini, mushrooms and corn in it. The corn is unusual and only found it's way in there because there was half a can left in the fridge.

As I said above, lasagna is time consuming. You can cut down the time by buying pre-made sauces, good lasagna and pre-grated cheese (I just learned how to spell lasagne!!). You can also divide the work up and prepare everything in advance so all you have to do is put the dish together and stick it in the oven. Great if you have time in the evening after the kids have gone to bed and not so much time the next day before dinner. Don't put the lasagna together and let it sit. The liquid will all run to the bottom and there will not be enough to cook the pasta on the top layers. Also the bottom layers will be over cooked because they have too much liquid.

For this lasagna all you need is:

4 Zucchini

3 Eggplants

400g Button Mushrooms

1 large onion

3 large cloves garlic, crushed (we love garlic)

1/2 can of corn

600 ml pre-made pasta sauce (tomato)

350 ml Milk

200 ml Cream

1 Tbsp flour

250 g grated cheese

200 g dried lasagna pasta

Oil

Salt and Pepper to taste

Oregano and basil (other herbs can be used)

A huge list as you can see...

The first thing you need to do is cook the vegetables. Slice the zucchini and eggplant to about 1 cm thickness. If needed sprinkle the eggplant with salt and allow to stand for 30 minutes, then wash off the salt (I usually skip this step). I used to fry my eggplant and zucchini, but I don't any more because it takes too long and uses up too much oil. Instead I brush them with oil and put them under the grill. Less mess and they don't need to be watched all the time. I grill them at 240 C until they are golden. The kids babysitter asked me how long I grilled them for and I can honestly say "I have no idea". Just grill them till they are golden on one side and then flip them over and grill on the other side. You can of course fry them if you don't have a grill, it tastes better because of the extra oil.

While you are grilling the vegetables dice the mushrooms and the onions. In a heavy bottomed pan saute the crushed garlic. If you don't like garlic you can leave it out or use less. My house always stinks of garlic after we've made lasagna, but it is a nice stink that none of us can smell. Then add the mushroom and the onions and saute until the mushrooms start letting some juice.

Sprinkle a heaped tablespoon of flour over the mushrooms and mix it in. Then pour in the milk and then the cream. Now I was going to make this without cream, and that would have been completely okay, but I just could not resist. The added calories of course give added taste. You can also use a cream substitute or soya milk. It will still taste delicious. (I've tried both, with the cream substitute no one notices the difference. It just costs more.) Bring the sauce to the boil, stirring all the time. Allow it to bubble a bit until the sauce gets thick.

Remove from the heat and stir in the corn, herbs (washed and chopped), salt and pepper. For the herbs use what ever you happen to have. Currently I have basil, oregano and rosemary sitting on my windowsill. I figured the rosemary would not match so I just used the other two.

Now once the vegetables are done you can put the dish together.

I use Barilla lasagna pasta. The reason is that it does not need to be cooked before hand and it is the closest I can get to fresh lasagna pasta. When I'm in Sri Lanka I just make the pasta from scratch but that adds another couple of hours to the preparation time. Not for the busy mother!

The first layer is lasagna and then I put some mushroom sauce on top making sure that all the pasta is covered so that it gets cooked properly. Then came a layer of eggplant; a layer of pasta; zucchini, mushroom sauce, tomato pasta sauce; layer of pasta; left over mushroom sauce; eggplant; tomato sauce; layer of pasta; grated cheese. Oh this sounds so easy when one writes it down, doesn't it?

Of course the pasta never fits exactly in the dish. I break mine so that it fits and make sure that there is overlap. I was just told that if you overlap it the pasta might not cook but that is why you need to make sure there is enough liquid covering it. I have one dish which has rounded edges. For that one, at least for the top layer, I have to patchwork it with little pieces.

Since I didn't put any liquid on the very top most layer I pressed the pasta down so that it would get wet. Sometimes I leave a bit of the white sauce to put over the very top layer before I put the cheese on (I seriously recommend remembering to do this). I guess you could also put pasta sauce on the very top, but it probably would not look very good. Should do nothing to the taste though. 

I also always estimate the amount of vegetables I need incorrectly. The solution is to make a small lasagna on the side (if there is too much) with what ever happens to be left over (currently the left over lasagna in the oven has eggplant, zucchini and a lot of pasta sauce, in it). Lasagna freezes well, and makes a wonderful pack lunch to take to work. Even if its not the best lasagna it sure beats cafeteria food. 

The cheese that you choose to use will also effect the taste of the dish. I used a cheap emmental. In Sri Lanka I use a local gouda. In the USA a cheddar. If I wanted to be really fancy I think I would use a mixture of original Swiss emmental and gruyere.

Gosh, I almost forgot. Bake your lasagna in the oven for around 30 - 40 minutes at 180 C in a fan oven. 200 C (400 F) in a conventional oven. Allow it to cool a bit before serving if you would like it to stay like a tower when you serve it. Be warned, it could fall over and the sauce could run out but it will still taste delicious. Now I just need everyone to get home from their various activities i.e. gymnastics and swimming, so that I can have dinner. Sitting here and staring at this lasagna has made me hungry!!