Eggplant extravaganza!

One of my original goals, in starting this, was to get more of my food from local sources. The reasons for this are two-fold: first, I know I need to make vegetables and fruits a bigger part of my diet, and since locally-grown produce is usually fresher and riper, it is usually more tasty and therefore more appealing, to lure me away from my heavy-starches-and-fats habits. Second, small-scale farming is better for the environment, and local produce uses a lot less fuel in carting produce from farm to consumer. This is the reasoning behind my weekly farmers' market sprees.

The next step, of course, is actually to eat the food before it spoils. This has often been a stumbling-block for me. Luckily, I'm a teacher, so my greatest free time coincides with the greatest availability of fresh, local produce.

Two items in my refrigerator this week have been a block of tofu (grocery store, not farmers' market) and an eggplant. I'd been thinking about how I might like to prepare the tofu, and decided to try stuffing tofu "steaks," similar to the way Japanese chefs stuff tofu with spiced meat. Being a vegetarian, I tried to think of other things, and settled on eggplant, among others.



I think the recipe for the "steaks" shown above, currently raw, will appear after I bake and eat one, probably tomorrow night. But can I just say? I love my Kitchen Aid mixer!

The problem was, I knew I was only going to need a small amount of eggplant for this recipe, and that the eggplant would spoil more quickly once it was cut. What else could I do? I went ahead and cooked the rest, two ways: grilled slabs that I will make into sandwiches on Chebe foccaccia, with fresh tomato and basil, and small cubes that I sautéed in olive oil and garlic and will put into a risotto at some point.



I love my Forman grill, too, incidentally. :-)

I used to hate eggplant, by the way. The turning point, for me, was when I learned to salt it and let it sweat before cooking it. Cuts the bitterness and brings out the sweetness beautifully. If you're worried about your salt intake, you can rinse it gently after it has finished sweating; otherwise, just pat or spin it dry. I used my salad spinner, which I also love.