Silver linings...

[cyan_blue]

While I wouldn't exactly choose to have our DSL go down for close to 24 hours, I do get rather more done in a morning when logging in isn't an option. Before 12:30 this afternoon, I cleaned the fridge, did the dishes, scrimped together a very yummy no-fry eggplant parmesan using leftover veggies, returned some phonecalls, and beaded a necklace. Hmm...

Comments

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Was the eggplant baked? It's the only vegetable I'm uncertain of, along with okra. I mean, I like eating them, but think that in the ocoking department, they're out to get me.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Yes, it was baked (raw eggplant is *not* my cup of tea). Eggplant is challenging to learn to cook, but it's possible to coax wonderfulness out of it. My favorite eggplant recipe is a very smoky baba ghanouj, which I made up myself after being inspired by some incredible baba ghanouj in the Glebe in Ottawa.

The cooking process for the eggplant parm was as follows:

- Peel eggplant, slice into 1/2" rounds
- Layer eggplant slices in colander, salting each layer lightly. Put plate atop layers, and put heavy water-filled pot atop plates, to squeeze out excess fluid from eggplant slices. Let sit for 1/2 hour like this.
- Drain off fluid, pat-dry slices.
- Dip slices in veggie broth and then in breadcrumbs; coat well.
- Arrange slices in lightly oiled baking pan, and bake in preheated-to-350 oven for 30 minutes.

After the thirty minutes they will be tender and succulent and ready to eat. At this point I tossed my garlic-zucchini-tomato sauce atop the slices, sprinkled some grated hard gouda atop that, and baked for another 15 minutes, then took out and topped with mizithra. Yum...

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Thanks.

[drcristin.livejournal.com]

I adore baba ghannouj. what did you do to make it smoky-tasting? that sounds fantastic.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Well, the first step is to slice the eggplants in half and bake them in the oven for an hour (whatever your standard recipe tells you to do). How I get them smoky-tasting is to put some of the eggplant skin in along with the pulp when I puree the pulp.

[cyan-blue.livejournal.com]

Oh, and okra plays real well in veggie gumbo.

[eleanor.livejournal.com]

Yes, I know what to do with okra in gumbo. It's just serving it as an actual veggie that always defeats me. I have yet to make it without it getting slimey, except for frying.