Indian baingan bartha

I've never been superb at Indian cooking -- it requires a certain degree of skill, training, and long cooking times that I've never been able to achieve. But that doesn't stop me from trying, and this time the result was a tasty spread of Indian classics: chana masala (tomato chickpeas), rasaam soup (tamarind sweet-and-sour), and of course baingan bharta (smoky eggplant stew).

We (as in me and co-chef Josh) ended up using this recipe for the baingan bharta. It turned out well -- my only rookie mistake was not cooking the eggplant enough before it went into the pan, with the result that the dish was more chunky and less creamy than it should be. 

We started by roasting the eggplants over the flame on my gas stove, then stuck them in the oven for a while, and finally peeled off the skin and mashed the flesh.

Coarsely mashed eggplant.

Other tasty ingredients ready to go.

Next we sauteed onions, garlic, ginger, and spices in oil, then added tomatoes and let the mixture cook down. 

Flavorful components break down in oil or butter: a typical step in Indian dishes.

Then we added the eggplant to the mix, cooked it down for a while and towards the end of the process, added green peas (not in the recipe, but a yummy addition).

Yours truly adds the eggplant to the mixture.

Co-chef Josh gives the goop a stir.

Simmering in the pan.
Note that photos are blurry because my kitchen is SO INSANELY DARK ALL THE TIME. Apologies.

Chana masala cooking alongside.

Lycopene goodness, again, as usual. Do I ever cook anything without  tomatoes?

At the end of the cooking process, we added chopped cilantro and lots of salt. Without the salt, it tasted pretty bland -- so don't skimp on the sodium!

The end result up close.

The oilier, the tastier!

Don't forget the flatbread and rice!

Naturally, the perfect addition to an eggplant-ful meal is eggplant relish, a spicy-sweet-sticky paste that is delicious with rice or bread and yogurt. Lime pickle is also a delicious condiment on the side.

Om-nomming our meal: a candid rather than posed portrait.

Eggplants of Chinatown, Episode 5: Lao Hunan

This post is part of an ongoing series, in which I venture through Tonu Hu's restaurants (simply because they have the most eggplant variety on their giant menus) in Chicago's Chinatown. The following posts will get you caught up:
Episode 1
Episode 2
Episode 3
Episode 4

I finally branched out and tried one of Tony Hu's other restaurants, Lao Hunan. The experience was completely bizarre. First of all, we arrived in Chinatown via the Water Taxi, which is by far the best method of transport to the area -- I'd highly recommend.

The top of my father's head and I pull up to the Chinatown pier.

As I expected, the food was delicious, no surprises there -- but I didn't anticipate the communist-China-themed decor. The waitstaff was clothed in the standard green pocketed uniforms of the early regime, like so:

Snapping a photo of our waitress felt a little too bold, so here's an image from Google instead. 

One long wall was plastered with a photo of Mao smiling across the masses, with the words "Serving People" in Chinese and English translation.

On the other wall, a list of notable figures from Hunan, some of whom were artists, writers, philosophers, etc. but many of whom listed simply, "Revolution Martyr."

Needless to say, the choice of decor -- and particularly the green waitstaff uniforms -- was a combination of hilarious and unsettling.

The food was fantastic, as usual, with a giant tome-like menu from which to choose. I'd highly recommend the wood-ear mushrooms appetizer, in which fresh wood-ears are marinated in a spicy, sour, pickly sauce.

Not sure whether the giant chunks of garlic are there for added flavor,
or whether people are actually expected to eat those. We abstained.

Naturally, I ordered an eggplant dish that I'd never seen at the other restaurants -- eggplant in plum sauce. This dish is actually my new favorite, if you can imagine anything to top the Lao Beijing House Special in my past posts.

The sauce tasted similar to garlic sauce, but with an extra sweet/sour component that distinguished it from dishes I've had in the past. I'm not sure that I could taste plum in particular, but it had the perfect balance of sweet, sour, spicy and salty that I expect in a Chinese stir-fry slathered in gooey sauce. The only downside was the extreme greasiness, which seems to be the norm for eggplant dishes in Chinatown.

Harmony of the Nightshades

Greetings, eggplantophiles.

Have you ever noticed how many recipes feature eggplants in conjunction with tomatoes? Apart from Asian cuisine, this particular ingredient combination is extremely pervasive around the world. Indian baingan bartha, Italian caponata, Turkish imam bayildi, French eggplant and tomato tart, Aubergenius's very own Mediterranean-inspired "lycopene stew"... the list goes on. This particular harmony of nightshades makes perfect sense: eggplant is a flavor sponge, while tomato (and especially tomato paste) adds richness of flavor. Combine with oil, spices, and other rich flavor components -- garlic, onions, herbs -- and a delicious dish automatically emerges.

Plus, both ingredients have the capacity to be extremely silly.

Crazy eggplants at the Issaquah farmer's market, photo courtesy of my mother.

Even crazier tomatoes somewhere in the world, photo courtesy of someone or other on the interwebs.

All this talk of eggplants and tomatoes brings me to a brief restaurant segment. Some time ago I made a trip to Sayat Nova, an Armenian restaurant in the Chicago Loop. Restaurant pros: a more interesting Loop option than the pervasive steak houses, casual dining chains, and Irish pubs in that area; beautiful decor; tasty food. Restaurant cons: given the Loop location, rather expensive for the food quality; food is tasty but not necessarily upscale, despite slightly upscale prices.

Among the items we ordered was a vegetarian cold combo, which included stuffed eggplant similar to Turkish imam bayildi (the countries do share a border, after all) and the best grape leaves any of us had ever had.

And to continue on the eggplants-tomatoes-vicinity of Turkey rant, I recently made a reincarnation of the dish with Georgian-inspired spices featured here -- but this time, I added tomato paste (and excluded the apricots). It was totally delicious. Turns out that Kmeli Suneli, the spice mix used in Georgian walnut sauce, is enhanced by the addition of tomatoes.

Kmeli Suneli-seasoned eggplant salad with tomato paste, olives,  onions, peppers, and parsley.
Featured with a great deal of hummus.

Totally delicious combo.

In the end, it doesn't really matter where the dish comes from -- virtually any combination of these ingredients yields delicious results. This is why I'm so reluctant to post actual measured recipes on this blog. Eggplant rarely needs recipes... if anything, recipes with too little oil or salt yield eggplant disasters, leading many people to dislike eggplant generally. It's better to work with guidelines for which ingredients combine well, which techniques are necessary for making eggplant delicious, and run with it!

[Anti-recipe soapbox dismount]