Sweet Asian Eggplant

Another great eggplant recipe. I'd like to say it's spicy, but it's also sour and a little sweet. It's a melt-in-your mouth eggplant dish you'll want to make over and over again.

1 Eggplant

2 tablespoon Brown sugar

2 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar

2 tablespoon Soy sauce

1 teaspoon crushed pepper flakes

1/4 cup Onion (chopped finely)

4 cloves of Garlic (minced)

Slice the eggplant into 1/2 inch slices.

Put a tablespoon of oil in a non stick pan and fry the eggplant slices till they get soft. Should take about 5 minutes. You don't want to overcook the eggplants at this stage, as it will be cooked in the sweet soy, sugar sauce again.

Once the eggplants have been cooked set it aside. Gather all the ingredients.

Heat up 3 more tablespoons of oil and saute onions, garlic, and crushed pepper.

Add brown sugar to caramelize the onion.

Add in brown sugar and vinegar.

Now gently place the eggplant slices in one layer and cook for about a minute. Gently flip over and give it another minute.

 Be very careful when taking out of the frying pan as the slices will be quite soft. You want the slices ot be soft but not mushy. They should hold their shape.

Stack and serve hot with a side of Jasmine rice.

Frittata with a Touch of Desi Spice

Frittata is a dish very similar to an omelet. Vegetables are sauteed, beaten eggs are poured on top and then cooked on low heat or baked or broiled till the eggs sets up. This Desi flavored frittata uses onions, green chilies, tomatoes and gets its warmth from a little bit of ginger and a touch of cumin. Tastes marvelous with paratha.   

4 Egg whites

8 Cherry tomatoes

Oil

1/4 cup Onion (chopped)

2/3 green chilies

salt

cumin

ginger paste

Chop up onions, tomatoes and green chilies. Cherry tomatoes can be substituted with any other kind. 

Saute onion and chilies in oil till the onion turns translucent. This will take about 2 minutes 

After a while add tomatoes, ginger paste and cumin powder.

Keep cooking till the tomatoes are mashed up. This will take another 5 minutes or so.

Now add in the egg whites that have been beaten with a fork. instead of egg whites feel free to use 3 whole eggs.

Lower the heat and wait for eggs to set. Once you've poured the eggs, do not attempt to stir as you will end up with scrambled eggs. At this stage you can put the entire pan in the oven on broil for a few minutes. 

Or fold it over to give an omelet feel to it. 

Once cooked, plate it up and serve warm with any naan or paratha or any other bread of your choosing.

As always..ENJOY!!

Oven Fried Eggplants

Oven fried eggplants are kinda like oven fried chicken. It tastes like fried eggplant but is actually baked.

Fried eggplants or “begun bhaji” is a staple in Bangladesh. Nothing beats a simply seasoned eggplant dish that goes so seamlessly with flavored rice and lentil mixture commonly known in Bengali as khichuri. Although eggplants absorb flavor very easily it also soaks up all the oil you can throw at it.  So the only way you can enjoy fried eggplants is to not fry it at all.

Here I baste the slices in a little oil and bake at a high temperature. These perfectly seasoned baked eggplants come out soft but not so mushy as to be unappetizing. It reminded me of “begun bhaji” my ma used to make only they are not the least bit oily. I ask you, what could be better? :)

You can use a large eggplant for the recipe or multiple small ones. Be aware the smaller eggplants will have more densely packed seeds. Either way this a delicious dish without the guilt of calories that come with fried food.

Recipe

5 small eggplants or 1 medium sized one

Salt- 1/4  teaspoon (use 1/2 teaspoon if you like your food salty)

Red chili pepper- 1/2 teaspoon

Turmeric- 1/2 teaspoon

Cumin- 1/2 teaspoon

Sugar- 1/8  teaspoon

The small eggplants are usually available at Indian grocery stores. The greener the stem is the fresher the eggplants are going to be.

After cleaning slice the eggplants into ¼ inch thick slices.

Here’s another shot of the sliced eggplants.

Now sprinkle the spice mixture on top.

Mix it all up.

Pour oil and give a quick toss so all the slices have a light coating of oil.

Spread out  evenly on a baking tray making sure the pieces don’t overlap.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 15-20 minutes or till the slices are soft.

Serve with a side of lightly fried dried red chilies and enjoy with rice or khichuri.