Wednesday, June 28, 2017

Feasting at Home

There are a few blogs that I follow and one is Feasting at Home http://www.feastingathome.com/
A week or so ago I saw this eggplant dish and I was smitten. I have had some zataar among my spices and was anxious to use again. This dish turned out great.  I served it with meatballs, yogurt tahini sauce, fresh yellow pepper and cucmber and pita bread. Delicious!

ingredients

  • 1 globe eggplant ( about 1- 1 ⅛  lb)
  • 1 ½ tablespoons olive oil
  • 1 tablespoon zataar spice mix-or see notes
  • ¼ teaspoon salt, more to taste
  • 1 fat garlic clove
Served with:
  • 2 cups cooked rice or grains ( freekeh, farro, quinoa)
  • 1-2 cups fresh chopped veggies- tomato, cucumber, radish, grated carrot or beets
  • your choice of tahini sauce, plain yogurt, or tzatziki
  • other options- Italian parsley, kalamata olives, aleppo chili flakes, feta or goat cheese crumbles

instructions

Preheat oven to 400F
Slice Eggplant in half, then slice deeply at a diagonal at one inch intervals -“crosshatching” careful not to cut through skin.
Season each side with ⅛ teaspoon kosher salt, sprinkling it into the slices if possible.
Mix oil, spices, garlic together in a bowl to make a paste. Brush or spoon the entire contents over the eggplant and place on a sheet pan in the oven and bake for 1 hour rotating halfway through. After an hour, pierce with a fork and if they are very tender and juicy, they are are done. Bigger eggplants may take longer.
When the eggplant is done, assemble the plates, topping the warm rice or grain with the roasted eggplant, then surround with fresh veggies and drizzle with tahini sauce, yogurt or tzatziki- or you could simply season the fresh veggies and rice with salt, lemon and olive oil. Add olives or cheese if you wish. Sprinkle with fresh Italian parsley. Enjoy!

notes

Notes- If you don’t have Zaatar- then use a substitution of:  ½  teaspoon cumin, ½ teaspoon coriander,  1 teaspoon sumac  (and if you don’t have sumac, sub 1 teaspoon lemon zest -or finely chopped preserved lemon),  ½ teaspoon dried oregano or thyme , ½ teaspoon sesame seeds and a pinch salt.
If using smaller eggplant, cross hatching may not be necessary, and roasting time will shorten significantly – check after 30 minutes, and cook until very fork tender. If using extra large globe eggplant, cooking time may increase.

3 comments:

  1. This is a very creative recipe; I’ve never seen eggplant cooked this way before. But it doesn’t look too hard to make. Thank you for sharing it.

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  2. this is a new recipe for me to try and it looks appetizingly pleasing. which gives me the idea that it is going to be a good one. keep updating us with mots of amazing recipes

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  3. This is great really. My all the http://www.huffpost.com/archive/ca/entry/to-pay-or-not-to-pay-someone-to-write-my-essay-for-me_b_14793970 friends really appreciated your interviw. I think you should share more quality posts. Thanks a lot.

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