Sweating the Small Stuff: Eggplant

This past weekend we planted a couple of apple trees, a Gala and a Red Delicious, in our side yard, but, curiously, the domestic advancement that was most exciting to me was finally picking our eggplants (about 80 days from the time we planted our seedlings in the square foot garden) and making some Eggplant Parmesan with homegrown basil.

A Black Beauty eggplant from one of our square foot gardens

Between picking them and baking the dish, I embarked on the practice of sweating the eggplant – this was totally new to me, and really kind of neat. The claim is that the slices of eggplant will avoid any potential bitter tastes if you sprinkle them on both sides with course salt. It’s an optional extra step, but, since I was cooking a meal for five children to enjoy that evening, I wanted to make sure the eggplant would taste as appealingly as possible.

Just-cut eggplant slices

Mark Bittman recommends one hour, however I left them for a good two and a half hours while picking up my apple trees at the nursery and they turned out fabulously. Within minutes of distributing the salt, the eggplant slices started excreting brownish juices.

Sweaty eggplant slices

This is only after a few minutes, but you can already tell that they are dehydrating a bit

I had the slices of three eggplants to salt, and so I had them stacked on a cookie sheet with paper towels lining the bottom and between each layer. By the time I was disassembling the slices and preparing them to be put in the colander and rinsed off before the cooking the paper towels were completely soaked. This dehydrating process also made frying the floured slices in olive oil a much smoother, less splattery process, and, even though I rinsed the salt off of the slices, I did not apply any further salt to the dish. The seasoning was perfectly salted as-is.

It takes some pre-planning to get the timing right, but I definitely will be doing this every time I’m cooking with eggplant and it’s feasible.

Here is Mark Bittman’s Eggplant Parmesan recipe that I used. It’s a winner! Sure, eggplant shares the stage with cheese, but it really isn’t overdone, and I promise you won’t feel like you got dragged into an Olive Garden afterwards…

Shrove Tuesday Food and Pre-Lenten Baking

Today was a snow day for everyone in our house, so it was the perfect opportunity to begin wrapping up Ordinary Time with the help of our pantry.

The oven has been going almost all day, as I’ve been getting ready for a simple yet delectable Cajun meal tomorrow night and preparing some unadorned foods to snack on for Ash Wednesday and beyond.

Shrove Tuesday

Tonight I’ll be soaking the kidney beans for this New Orleans Red Beans and Rice recipe. I’ll post an update on how it went.

For my birthday, I received a copy of Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything and have really enjoyed exploring the diversity of recipes. A cookbook like this is like the GPS in my car. I know how to get around most places in Cincinnati, but it’s sometimes fun to use it just to find quicker and/or more interesting ways to do so. One of my favorite things about the book is how Bittman includes arrays of variations after basic recipes, so you can mix it up a little or better utilize ingredients you’ve already got in the fridge. I’ve used his recipe for sandwich bread, but tomorrow I’ll be making his Fast French Bread baguettes, which are also found in his book. I’ll also be improvising something green.

King Krispies

I considered making this King Cake for tomorrow night with a small fetal model we happen to have around the house, but considering all the pretzel making today and plans for baguette making tomorrow, I just couldn’t bring myself to crack open two more packets of yeast. Thus, King Krispies were born. I followed the basic recipe for Rice Marshmallow Treats and, with alternating stripes of green, purple, and yellow sugar sprinkles, Mardi Grased them.

Preparing for Lent

Sourdough Pretzels

Pretzels. It’s a little bit difficult to consider them a food of penance because they’re just so tasty, but the Church has done just that for a very long time. Since I’ve been on a sourdough kick for several weeks now, it was natural that I would gravitate toward this gem of a recipe from King Arthur Flour for Sourdough Pretzels. They are definitely worth the effort, but you will have to be careful to restrain yourself – they ARE for Lent, after all. Fr. Saunders offers a concise history of the pretzel which is just fascinating, and Catholic Culture provides Pretzels for God, replete with a Ceremony of the Pretzel (yes!), prayer, and even a link to a printable card.