7.24.08 Eggplant, it’s whats for… dinner?

Category: dribblings

at the RBC farmer’s market yesterday i purchased two eggplants. they were squatty, yet called to me, “jaimie, purchase us. it’ll be fun!” and they were only a buck each. look how cute they are!

now, i’m not in the habit of buying those things and really, the only ones i’ve ever dealt with are the skinny japanese ones, and they fry up like french fries and are delicious. so i figure the squatty ones can’t be too different.

things you might should know before you start screwing around with an eggplant:
1. you see the green stem and leaf part? that shit has thorns all over it. tiny ones. so don’t grab it blindly and try to pull it off like it’s some kind of hat that’s resting gently on the eggplant’s head. cos it doesn’t pull off like how you think it will.

2. as soon as you cut up the eggplant it starts to oxidize.

3. after you cut it, let it soak in cold salt water for 20 – 30 minutes. this will help get rid of it’s bitterness. the seeds are bitter and very small, but this salt water thing really helps.

so i cut one of those things up, soaked it. threw some olive oil in a skillet with some chopped onion, minced garlic, and saltnpeppa. i seasoned the eggplant and threw it in the skillet for about 6 minutes. then i took the eggplant out and put it in a bowl to sit and think about what it had done. then i tossed some cut up chicken in the skillet and fried that up. then i boiled some penne. chopped up some kalamata olives, a tomato, and chopped up some smoked mozzerella that i happened to have (i was going to use feta, but the feta i had was fuzzy, so i went with the mozzerella) then i tossed all of that junk together and KABLOOIE! dinner.

Jaimie’s Chicken Eggplant Pasta Especial

not bad at all. even jimmy liked it.

i also bought a sack of peaches at the farmer’s market, but the cobbler i made wasn’t very pretty. oh it was delicious, ask West. it just looked terrible because the top peaches dried out a bit and looked like peach jerky. but they tasted just peachy. pun!

and here’s a bonus Roxy pic.

she’s quietly judging you.