Tonight we took a trip to Turkey to eat some (fake) beef and savor the juices and flavors of eggplant with excellent linguine-in-lemon-zest as a side.
Dish number one was called Turkish Eggplant and went like this:
(Original recipe in "The Little Big Mediterranean Book" by McRae Books)
Ingredients: (please note, original recipe calls for 3 eggplant but we cut the recipe down to a third)
1 large eggplant
1 large onion
2 medium-size tomatoes
salt and pepper
olive or vegetable oil
1 lb minced beef (we used Morning Star crumbles... the veg way to go)
1 cup stewed canned tomatoes - with Italian seasoning (substituting another full fresh tomato)
Some dry parsley and pinch of garlic powder
Directions:
Don't do like we did and follow each step carefully.
1. Cut eggplant in half. Make long, deep lengthwise cuts in each half of the eggplant. Sprinkle generously with salt and let eggplant sit in colander for an hour to drain juice.
2. In the meantime.... finely chop onion and saute in preferably olive oil until golden and translucent with a pinch of salt
3. Add in about 3/4th of a pound bag of Morning Star crumbles and cook until the fake meat isn't cold anymore
4. Chop 1 of your fresh tomatoes and throw it into the meat mixture with the canned tomato (you can certainly use all fresh tomatoes if you prefer), a pinch of black pepper, a teaspoon or a bit more of dried parsley, and a teaspoon of garlic powder
5. Simmer, covered, until tomatoes are thoroughly cooked; set aside
6. In the meantime, your eggplant should be just about dehydrated and ready to fry; RINSE OFF THE SALT (this is very important), dry it off, and fry eggplant open-face down under a lid until it goes soft but not quite mushy. Turn the eggplant over as necessary so that it's cooked both on the top and bottom and add oil as you go, since anyone who's ever fried an eggplant knows those things suck up oil like nobody's business. Should take you at least 10-12 minutes to cook eggplant sufficiently.
7. When eggplant is thoroughly fried and soft, take a teaspoon and spoon your meat mixture into and onto the soft eggplant. The long slits you made in the beginning should allow for ample mixture to fit in and on the eggplant halves
8. Remember that other fresh tomato? Slice it into thin, pretty slices and cover each stuffed eggplant half with these slices
9. Sprinkle the top of each eggplant with some dry (or fresh, if you've got it) parsley for taste and presentation
10. Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees and bake stuffed eggplant for 15 to 20 minutes or until the fresh tomatoes on top start to wilt
** The original recipe called for a cup of water to be added to the stuffed eggplant pan before baking (to keep from drying) but we didn't think it was necessary and our eggplant released at least that much juice on its own**
Dish number two was a lemon-zesty pasta
(Original recipe in "The Fruit Cookbook" by Nicole Ruthier)
Ingredients:
1 lime
1 lemon
1 c heavy whipping cream
1 lb linguine
1 T brown mustard
1 1/2 T tapioca (cook-quick)
salt/pepper
Directions:
1. Zest both lemon and lime and chop zest finely.
2. Peel and de-pith your lemon and lime. Then section out the fruit leaving out any seeds.
3. Bring to a boil in a saute pan, add the zest, fruit sections, mustard, cream, and tapioca.
4. Stir often.
5. Separately, boil salted water and cook pasta al dente.
6. Once pasta is al dente add to sauce and mix. Eat this up.
