Spicy Szechuan Eggplant with Chicken

Ingredients:

1-2 eggplants, diced (and peeled if you like)
4 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup chicken stock
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp pepper
1 tbsp cornstarch
4 tbsp water
4 cloves garlic
1/2 red onion
1 tbsp minced ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil
1 boneless skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-sized pieces


Directions
Cut eggplant into 1 inch cubes. In a separate bowl, combine soy sauce, stock, sugar, and pepper.
In another bowl combine cornstarch and water. Saute garlic, onions, and ginger for a few minutes. Add chicken and stir for a few more minutes. Add eggplant and soy mixture, turn down heat and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in cornstarch mixture and heat through until thickened. Finally, stir in sesame oil. Serve over rice.

Flat Bread and Baba Ghanoush

OMG, an update! It has been quite awhile.

We have so much eggplant in the garden it's insane, so we made baba ghanoush and flat bread today. So simple, so tasty! This recipe for flat bread was from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine, not sure which issue. It is the best flat bread I've ever had, really good.

Baba Ghanoush

Ingredients:

• 1 eggplant
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• 1/4 cup tahini
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. Place eggplant on baking sheet, and make holes in the skin with a fork. Roast it for 30 to 40 minutes, turning occasionally, or until soft. Remove from oven, and place into a large bowl of cold water. Remove from water, and peel skin off.
3. Place eggplant, lemon juice, tahini, sesame seeds, and garlic in an electric blender, and puree. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Transfer eggplant mixture to a medium size mixing bowl, and slowly mix in olive oil. Refrigerate for 3 hours before serving.

source


Flat Bread

Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp active dry yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 cups all purpose flour, plus more for surface
course sea salt
pinch of sugar
1 tbsp plus 1 1/2 tsp olive oil, plus more for bowl and drizzling

Combine yeast, sugar, and warm water. Let sit 10 minutes, until foamy. Stir well. Combine flour and salt. Add yeast mixture and oil. Mix until dough forms, then begin to knead on lightly floursed surface. Knead 3-5 minutes. Shape into ball and place into oiled bowl. Cover and let rise in warm place until doubled in size, about an hour. Punch dough, divide into 4 pieces. Roll into 6 inch rounds. Drizzle each round with olive oil and sprinkle with coarse sea salt. Place on inverted baking sheet and let cook in 450 degree oven for approx 12 minutes. Let cool, then cut each in half crosswise and serve.

Ratatoille

This meal included about 95% ingredients from our garden. Exciting! I modified a few different recipes that I found.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium onion, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 lg zucchini, cubed
• 1 lg sweet pepper, diced
• 2 tomatoes, diced
• 3 tbsp wine, chicken stock, or veg stock (I used chicken)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• fresh basil and oregano
• salt and pepper to taste

Slice the eggplant in 1/2 inch slices, lightly salt and lay on a paper towel. This will draw out excess moisture and any bitterness in the eggplant. Let sit for about an hour, then rinse and pat dry and cut into cubes.

Saute the onions and garlic in the olive oil, until the onion is translucent. Add the eggplant, zucchini, pepper, tomatoes, stock, salt and pepper to taste. Bring to boil, lower heat and simmer for 10 minutes. Uncover and stir, then add the herbs. Let cook for another 5-7 minutes until the veggies are tender and serve! Great with brown rice or couscous!

Baked Eggplant with Savory Cheese Stuffing

Stuffed Eggplant, originally uploaded by Dayna Riley.

Remember that eggplant from earlier? Yeah, this is what it looked like after cooking. Mm!

I got the recipe from Brinnalee, who got it from Cooking Light

The only change I made to the recipe is that I used store-bought breadcrumbs instead of making my own. I served it alongside brown rice.

Ingredients

2 medium eggplants, each cut in half lengthwise (about 2 pounds)
Cooking spray
1 (1-ounce) slice white bread
1 teaspoon extravirgin olive oil
1 1/2 cups finely chopped onion
1 1/4 cups finely chopped red bell pepper
1 cup finely chopped seeded plum tomato
1 teaspoon chopped fresh or 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
2 garlic cloves, minced
3/4 cup (3 ounces) crumbled feta cheese
1/4 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Preparation
Preheat oven to 400°.

Score cut side of each eggplant half by making 4 crosswise cuts. Place the eggplant halves, cut sides down, on a foil-lined baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake at 400° for 25 minutes or until tender. Remove from oven; cool on pan 10 minutes. Carefully remove pulp, leaving a 1/3-inch-thick shell; reserve eggplant shells. Chop pulp.

Reduce oven temperature to 350°.

Place bread in a food processor; pulse 10 times or until coarse crumbs measure 1/2 cup. Drizzle the breadcrumbs with olive oil, and pulse to combine.

Heat a large nonstick skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat. Add onion; sauté 3 minutes. Stir in the chopped eggplant, bell pepper, tomato, oregano, and garlic; cover, reduce heat, and simmer 10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Uncover and cook 5 minutes or until liquid evaporates, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat; stir in cheese, parsley, salt, and black pepper. Stuff each eggplant shell with about 1/2 cup onion mixture; sprinkle with breadcrumb mixture. Place on a baking sheet; bake at 350° for 30 minutes or until thoroughly heated and lightly browned.
Yield

4 servings (serving size: 1 stuffed eggplant half)

First Eggplant of the Season!

054, originally uploaded by Dayna Riley.

This little sucker grew so fast! It was hiding behind the zucchini and I didn't realize that it had gotten so big. Also pictured are the first roma tomatoes of the season. These will be incorporated into dinner tonight!

Tomorrow we head off to San Diego for my birthday weekend. We're going to the Red Bull Air Race....I've never been to an air show before, it should be a good time!