Sunday, June 26, 2011

Eggplant Caponata

As I may have mentioned, virtually every time I’m in the grocery, I buy an eggplant. And probably a good 30% of those eggplants are subsequently converted into caponata, one of my favorite side salads/bread toppings. Like most Italian dishes, caponata has an array of styles and variations ranging from a coarse, oily chop to a smoother, silkier paste. My personal favorite is a strong, rich, tomatoey caponata with a deep red color that is sure to stain your clothes. White-wearers beware.



One nice thing about caponata is its versatility. It’s delicious on virtually any kind of bread, tasty by itself or alongside a mild cheese (especially goat cheese, one of my favorite flavor duos ever), and it goes well with most Italian, Mediterranean, and even Middle-Eastern flavors.

This time, I forgot to buy parsley (pardon its absence in the photos) but I attained an even richer flavor than usual by using a dollop of roasted garlic paste I made earlier in the week: I coated whole garlic bulbs in olive oil, roasted them on low heat for ages, then mashed the softened cloves with salt and pepper.

Ingredients
Makes enough for many meals

1 large onion, diced
Several celery stalks, diced
1 medium/large eggplant, cubed
1 red bell pepper, diced (optional)
1 6-oz can of tomato paste
4-5 ripe tomatoes -- or, in winter, a large 28-oz can of diced tomatoes with juice
2-3 cloves crushed garlic
About 3/4 c green pitted olives, whole or sliced
About 1/4 c capers
About 1/8 c balsamic vinegar
About 1/4 c olive juice
A dash of caper juice
About 1 1/2 tsp sugar
About 1 tsp salt
Black pepper to taste
A handful of minced flatleaf parsley
Lots of olive oil

The “about” in my instructions starts to get redundant after a while – just keep in mind that, as I articulated in an earlier entry, I do all my cooking by taste and I advocate intuitive use of quantities. Start out with the approximate quantities I’ve listed here, then adjust seasonings to balance the sweetness (sugar), tartness (vinegar), and saltiness (either olive juice or, of course, salt).

Start out by sautéing* the onions in olive oil for a few minutes, then adding tomato paste, stirring frequently to avoid burning. Continue to sauté until the tomato paste turns a darker shade.

One of the most fragrant beginnings I know.
 
Add the diced celery and bell pepper (if using) and stir. After cooking for a couple minutes, add the cubed eggplant, coat with the tomato paste, and add another hefty swoop of olive oil, making sure the mixture is moist enough for the eggplants to soften.

The grand addition of our star vegetable.

Add the chopped tomatoes along with the garlic. Allow the tomatoes to break down and the eggplant to soften, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes.



Add the olives, capers, olive and caper juice, and the balsamic vinegar. Simmer for a while longer until the mixture becomes deep red and the eggplant is fully cooked.

I've just eaten this stuff for the last three meals and the photo still makes me hungry.

Turn off heat. Season with sugar, salt and pepper to taste (using caution with the salt – there’s quite a bit of salt already in the olive juice). Continue to balance seasonings using salt, vinegar and sugar until the caponata has a bold flavor (but try not to overpower the natural tomato-ey-ness). Stir in fresh parsley.

This recipe – along with most anything that involves cooked tomatoes – tastes best the next day. It's fine either warm or cold from the fridge, but I like it best at room temperature with warm bread.




*Now that I’m studying French (mais oui!) this word seems a little silly, with the accent aigu and the anglicized "ing"... maybe it should be a fully anglicized "sawtaying"? 

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Persian-style Eggplant Yogurt Salad

This Iranian dish, called Borani-e Bademjan, is one of a variety of eggplant-yogurt salads that are easy, delicious, and – after cooling the fridge for a few hours – refreshing in hot weather. One can easily vary the seasonings to reflect different cuisines: paprika and parsley for Turkish, garam masala, coriander and cilantro for Indian, miscellaneous spices for Miscellaneous. The dish is especially good with the stiff, dense yogurt sold in Iranian groceries, such as Golchin brand, but is delicious with runny varieties as well.



This dinner, which consisted of yogurt salad, a greens salad, and homemade flatbread, was aided by sous-chef and photographer Dan, whom I also credit with conceiving the name “Aubergenius.”

And also credited with discovering a really great $8 wine.

The flatbread I made was tasty, but not quite good enough to post a recipe, so I’ll just recommend that you use your favorite bread recipe or storebought pita.


This flatbread recipe called for the breads to be cooked dry in the pan, but they were improved by frying in olive oil.

Ingredients
1 large or 2 medium/small eggplants
12-16 oz plain yogurt
A handful of fresh mint leaves
1 clove garlic
Salt, cumin and coriander to taste

Cut the eggplant into slivers by slicing down the length of the eggplant, cutting long strips, and halving the strips.






Roast the slivers on a baking sheet at 350°, coating them with a generous quantity of olive oil (i.e., if they don’t turn yellow-green, it’s not enough oil). Be sure to toss the eggplant slices every 10 minutes. Cooking time takes about 20-30 minutes total. Meanwhile, mix the yogurt, diced (or scissor-snipped) mint leaves, crushed garlic, and salt to taste. Add a small dash of cumin and coriander – I prefer a small quantity of spice to avoid overwhelming the mint flavor.

Use of an oversized, red plastic bowl is imperative.

Remove eggplant slices when they are soft all the way through, without any spongy patches, and have a nice golden brown sear.

The proper state of oily mushiness.


Mix eggplant slivers with the yogurt sauce and add more salt if needed.



This salad is delicious warm and cold. If you wish to make a richer salad, you can mash up feta into the yogurt in lieu of salt.

Sous-chef, an empty bowl, and a kitty strung out on catnip.