Fairy Tale Eggplant

[joes]

Mine is just a sprout right now. Thanks for the lessons learned. Hopefully, I will gently pollinate the flowers and get more fruits.

[Sher]

Joes, I see three more small ones this evening, but will wait a few days to post another picture. Hopefully there will be more by then.

[Sher]

I am so happy! I am finally getting baby eggplants, and it looks like a lot more are on the way!

[mike]

Wonderful!

[Shawn]

You are doing really well with these.

[joes]

Very pretty plant. I hope mine looks like that someday. Right now it is about an inch and half tall.

[Sher]

Sept 23, 2020 15:49:59 GMT -5 joes said:

Very pretty plant. I hope mine looks like that someday. Right now it is about an inch and half tall.

Once it takes off, it grows fast!

Your eggplants look divine, sher!

Do you have some recipes to use these? It seems the only way I really know how to cook eggplant is by using the larger ones and baking them in the oven.

But I found the skin on the baby ones so tough I never grew them again because I did not have a suitable recipe for them.

If you (or anyone) have a good recipe for the baby eggplant please share because I would like to grow these again this winter.

[Sher]

I'm at a little bit of a loss on how I'll prepare these. After I started growing the eggplants, my doctor put me on a low carb diet. And eggplants are carby.

My very favorite way to eat eggplant is battered and fried, and that's out now.

I have thought of marinating them in Zesty Italian Dressing, sprinkling them with herbs, and cooking them in an air fryer.

I also love Baba Ghanoush dip with pita chips.

I think I will eat the large one tonight since it's so much bigger than the others. I wonder if cutting it in slices would make the skins not seem so tough.

I'll let you know.

[mike]

I don't fry anymore. But I try air frying with my NuWave Oven. It'll never be as good as frying. But for vegetables, I like making an egg batter with eggs, grated parmesan cheese, chia and sesame seeds, butter, garlic powder, Old Bay, chipotle powder and basil. I like it. 

[Sher]

That sounds good, Mike.

I am also toying aroung with the idea of making a single serving eggplant parmesan of sorts.

[Sher]

@cornne, this is what I did with the large eggplant along with one of the smaller ones.

It was delicious. I left the skins on to preserve the shape of the eggplant slices.  The skins were soft and unnoticeable--and I thiught it was superb -- especially since it was a single serving made up recipe.

To make the sauce, I just used 3 Tb tomato sauce with garlic powder, onion powder, oregano and basil.

I sauteed the eggplant slices in a little olive oil.

Then I took a silicone cupcake cup, put shredded mozzarella and parmesan, a little bit of sauce, a layer of eggplant, more mozzarella and parmesan, sauce, another layer of eggplant, then more sauce and cheese.

I overbrowned it a bit by baking it in my Ninja roaster for 12 minutes on 350. It probably would have done better in a toaster oven or oven.

It didn't want to come out of the cup, so it looks messy. But I really enjoyed it!

[mike]

Yumm!

[waterphoenix]

That looks so delicious. Kudos on the low carb creativity 

[Sher]

Sept 27, 2020 7:30:35 GMT -5 waterphoenix said:

That looks so delicious. Kudos on the low carb creativity 

Thanks! It was loosely adapted from this recipe.

[Sher]

I have gotten all the eggplant I want now.

The three at the top were going bad in my refrigerator.

I'll cook the rest tonight tonight because Ron wants eggplant lasagna.

[Shawn]

What a haul!

now the recipe can be expanded to a casserole an we can all pop on over for a virtual lunch

[Sher]

Shawn, that doesn't include the 2 we already ate, or the one small one I left on the plant.

They really do produce!

[Sher]

Oct 10, 2020 8:59:38 GMT -5 @cornne said:

now the recipe can be expanded to a casserole an we can all pop on over for a virtual lunch

Y'all come!