Eggplant

[morningsunshine]

I'd love to try it, but I've heard that people either love it or hate it... what do you think? Do you have any good recipes you could share with me? I'd love to try some!

[Herbmama]

I love eggplant...I actually just made baba gannosh today. Eggplant and garlic are made to be togther. I like eggplant roasted or grilled best...

[ladywithafan]

I like Eggplant when it comes fresh out of the oven, but if it sits out too long then it gets some weird texture to it. Baba Ganoosh is quite yummy!

[hedgewitch]

Baba Ganoosh hey. That's a new one for me, I'll have to google it.
I LOVE Eggplant, it's called Aubergine in the UK. I like it baked, but here's a recipe for Mousakka:
The best Moussaka ever!
And its vegetarian!

Béchamel sauce mix:
¼ cup butter
2 cups hot milk
2 tsp. Flour
2 free range organic (Eggland’s best) eggs
½ tsp salt

1 large eggplant
½ large onion finely chopped
½ large can dice tomatoes
1 small 5 oz. Can tomato sauce
2 tsp chopped oregano (in jar with olive oil) or more to taste
2 tsp basil (dried id ok, fresh is better) or more to taste
1 tsp. Cinnamon or more to taste
3-4 garlic cloves (pressed in garlic press) more is okay too!
½ bag veggie crumbles (Morningstar Farms)
1 3.8 oz. Jar black olives (drained) or 1 cup fresh black olives chopped
1 ½ cups cheddar cheese
1 ½ cups Mozzarella cheese
1 cup green olives (chopped)
Olive oil/Vegetable oil

1. Slice whole eggplant into ¼ inch slices. Fry in until tender ½ inch of vegetable oil. Drain and set aside.
2. Sauté the onion, veggie crumbles, black olives, oregano, garlic, cinnamon, and basil in a skillet with a generous amount of olive oil. It is good to use a lot of olive oil to give the taste and consistency of ground beef. Cook until veggie crumbles become a golden brown, and the onions are thoroughly cooked. Your relatives and friends wont even notice its not beef!
3. Add the diced tomatoes (1/2 of the can, with juice) and the tomato sauce (entire can.) Cook for an additional 10 minutes on low. Remove from heat.
4. While this is cooking, make the Béchamel sauce.
5. Béchamel Sauce: In a saucepan, melt butter. Whisk in flour, and cook slowly until smooth. Add salt. Remove from heat. Add hot milk (microwave it, but don’t burn it! You can even cheat and put the butter in the milk when you microwave it for 2 minutes..), whisking rapidly, and return to heat. Cool until thick and bubbly, whisking constantly. (think, all the calories you’ll be gaining will be reversed by all the exercise you’re getting!) Incorporate slightly beaten eggs with wire whisk to make fluffy sauce.
6. Grease a 13x9x2 baking dish with olive oil.
7. Line baking dish with eggplant slices first, then cover with Tomato/veggie crumble mixture. Drizzle with Béchamel sauce. Sprinkle with ½ of cheeses. Repeat eggplant layer, top with remaining tomato/veggie crumble mixture, then the remaining Béchamel sauce again, and top with remainder of cheese. (You should have 2 thin layers of eggplant.) Bake for 35 minutes at 350 degrees, or until cheese begins to brown. Garnish with green olives on top.

[hedgewitch]

O.K I just googled it and here's what I found.

1 1/2 lb Eggplant
3 tb Lemon juice
1 ts Salt
2 ts Minced fresh garlic
3 tb Sesame tahini
-- (optional: substitute
-- yogurt or sour cream)
1/4 c Chopped parsley
1/2 c Toasted pine nuts
2 tb Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick eggplant all over with a fork.
Bake whole until tender (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven, halve
and scoop out the flesh. Blend in a food processor with the lemon
juice until smooth. Mash the salt and garlic together and combine
with the eggplant, along with the tahini. Cool and stir in the
parsley and pine nuts. Before serving, drizzle with the olive oil.
Serve as a dip with tortilla chips or triangles of flat (pita) bread.

This sounds yummy!

[tinydancer_83]

Eggplant has been my craving latley!!!!! i eat it at least once a week orr i geek!! my fave to do w/ egg plant is fry or grill it dressed in olive oil & garlic w/ all your fave spices, or just be lazy and put some italian dressin on it and call it yummy. but yeah grill it and make a yummy sandwich w/ spinach red onion and provolone cheese on a toasted onion roll!!!! YUMMY!!!!! can you tell that is what im craving today? but also good is egg plant parmisan w/ portibella mushrooms!! fungi always makes life soooo goood!!! esp. bein a veggie like me self!!

[morningsunshine]

Originally Posted by hedgewitch

O.K I just googled it and here's what I found.

1 1/2 lb Eggplant
3 tb Lemon juice
1 ts Salt
2 ts Minced fresh garlic
3 tb Sesame tahini
-- (optional: substitute
-- yogurt or sour cream)
1/4 c Chopped parsley
1/2 c Toasted pine nuts
2 tb Olive oil

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Prick eggplant all over with a fork.
Bake whole until tender (about 30 minutes). Remove from oven, halve
and scoop out the flesh. Blend in a food processor with the lemon
juice until smooth. Mash the salt and garlic together and combine
with the eggplant, along with the tahini. Cool and stir in the
parsley and pine nuts. Before serving, drizzle with the olive oil.
Serve as a dip with tortilla chips or triangles of flat (pita) bread.

This sounds yummy!

Yeah, it does sound good but I'm not a fan of pine nuts. Would it ruin the recipe if I left them out or substituted another kind of nut? If so what kind would be best?

[okiemama]

we don't eat eggplant very often round my house, as the hubby doesn't really care for it, but when i do make it, we have it one of two ways...either eggplant parmesan (which is so easy it's amazing) or a ratatoullie recipe i got from my mom. (i have no idea how traditional eggplant is in ratatoullie, but it's wonderful!) i'll have to hunt that recipe down in my myriad of cookbooks where i might have stashed the stained bit of paper it's on, so i'll get back to you on that, but here's how i make eggplant parmesan:

slice one med. sized eggplant into about 1/4" slices, dredge in milk (water does work, though not as well, if you aren't a milk person), and then in a mix of parmesan cheese and basil. toss in a hot skillet with a little oil (i use olive oil), and fry til golden on both sides. make your favorite pasta, top with sauce (i home-make mine, cuz i have a lovely garden full of romas) and put a slice or two of the fried eggplant on top. it's lovely and easy and quick. plus you can feed a lot of people for cheap. (i have 5 to feed, plus anyone alse who might stop in, i feed half the world sometimes i think! but i don't mind, good food and good company mix well.)

and if you have never made homemade sauce, that's really easy too:

take about 8-10 good, plump, ripe roma tomatoes and dice. (some ppl skin them, i don't. i like the skins! but if you want them skinned, dip them in boiling water for a few seconds -- use tongs! --, the skins then slip right off. works for peaches too.) heat a couple of tbsps of oil or butter (butter adds a wonderful flavor, but olive oil is more traditional), sautee some chopped fresh garlic, and some chopped onion for a minute or so till they are soft and add your tomatoes and whatever spices you like. (i tend to add only basil and oregano, the kids don't like the "twiggy-ness" of rosemary.) then just cook for about 10-15 minutes over medium low heat. romas almost melt into sauce at the touch of heat. easy, quick, and can be multiplied to feed as many as necessary with a minimum of effort.

oh, and a trick i learned with garlic cloves, as i do not have a press -- after peeling the cloves, smash them with the flat of the blade of a knife. they split and are soooo much easier to mince up. anyway, hope you can use all this info, and i will search for the ratatoullie recipe, as it is almost winter now and almost cold enough to make lots of soup. happy eating!