1000 pizza doughs: Eggplant challenge(d)

Eggplant challenge(d)

The last couple weeks have been crazy busy, and though the CSA baskets are bigger and more colorful at the end of the season, I just haven't been able to dedicate hours to cooking. So I've been cooking a hodge-podge of mostly quick things, using as many CSA vegetables as I can. For instance, tacos with Hedgeapple Farm beef and local onions and peppers is one of my weeknight standbys.

I've cooked some things recently that I've never made before. Zucchini pancakes, butternut squash pansotti (definitely NOT a quick dish, as it requires making fresh pasta), and this fried chicken:

Fried chicken is not something I would add to the regular line-up, for the sake of our arteries, but I had a craving, and it was really crispy and tasty. Served it with roasted CSA fingerling potatoes and barley-stuffed green peppers.

I also did something else new recently: I used my iPhone for dinner ideas. There's an app called AllRecipes; it includes something called a "Dinner Spinner" if you prefer a casino-like approach to meal planning. I needed to use an eggplant, so I used the search feature instead, and came up with the predictable: eggplant parmesan. It was also quite simple and promised to be quick, so I decided we had a winner. (I have to admit, I am a little intimidated by eggplant. Maybe it's the regal purple color, or the strangely smooth skin. Or maybe it's just that I never even tasted eggplant until I was well into my 20s.)

I had never made eggplant parm before, but I could tell the recipe was a little off (I don't think it actually said how much eggplant to use). So I adapted it quite liberally. The recipe said nothing about salting the eggplant, but after my ratatouille experience, I wanted to make sure the eggplant retained no trace of bitterness, so I sliced and salted it and let it sit in a colander, while I chopped some other local vegetables (red pepper and green and yellow beans) and put them on to roast.

I rinsed and dried the eggplant slices, then breaded and pan-fried them in olive oil. Then, I put them in a baking dish (lightly coated with non-stick spray), topped them with tomato sauce, red pepper flakes and mozzarella, and baked at 425 for about 10 minutes. After removing the other vegetables that had been roasting, I turned on the broiler, and let it brown the cheese for about another minute. I served the eggplant parm over whole wheat pasta with the roasted vegetables mixed in, and topped it with fresh basil.

While this is not likely to win any creativity challenges, it was a great (vegetarian!) dinner with lots of local ingredients that I put together in a reasonable amount of time on a weeknight. For those reasons, and because it was darn tasty, I'm going to call it a keeper, "winner" or not.

And finally, I have to share. Our house got a new "kitchen" this weekend, for the small chef in the family. So far, she's "cooked" pizza, eggplant(!) and donut soup.