Somehow I've never posed this question until now. It struck me as weirdly trashy. I assumed that without being roasted in oil or charred on the gas stove or fried, eggplant would taste bland and terrible. (And I guess despite owning a microwave, I have a bit of analog snobbery built in.)
But if you think about it, roasting a whole eggplant in the oven is not that different from microwaving. The roasty flavor doesn't usually reach the inside flesh, which gets just plain mushy.
So when a friend offered to demonstrate the so-called "nuke the bejeezus out of an eggplant" method, I figured I should let go of my aubergine snobbery and give it a try. As long as you sauté the microwaved eggplant in tasty oily stuff, it turns out great -- and most importantly, my Moroccan Zaalouk only took 20 minutes.
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| Delicious warm... |
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| ...or cold! |
Nuke Zaalouk
Ingredients
1 large eggplant
1 onion, diced
1 red and 1 green pepper, diced
a few fresh tomatoes, diced
a spoonful of tomato paste
3 cloves garlic, minced
olive oil
salt, pepper, cumin, paprika
parsley or cilantro
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| Slice eggplant in half and microwave for around 4-5 minutes on each side (total of 8-10 minutes). |
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| Fry up onions, peppers, and spices in olive oil. Add garlic, tomatoes and tomato paste to the mix. |
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| Remove skin and mash up the eggplant flesh. |
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| Sauté together with the other ingredients and salt to taste. This photo doesn't look terribly appetizing (wokbarf?), but the final product is much more photogenic: |
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| Yum! Eaten with dolmas, fried tempeh, tahini sauce, and pita. |
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| ...and a pomegranate for dessert. |
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| The next day it tastes even better! |
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