Spicy Hoisin Glazed Eggplant

This is a Bobby Flay recipe. The glaze is rich and spicy!

Ingredients:

1 tbsp canola oil

1-inch piece fresh ginger, roughly chopped

2 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1 tsp red chili flakes

1/2 cup hoisin sauce

1 tbsp rice wine vinegar

1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce

1 medium eggplant, ends trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch thick slices, lengthwise

6 tbsp olive oil

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp freshly chopped cilantro leaves

Directions:

Heat the oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the ginger, garlic, and red chili flakes and cook until soft, about 3-4 minutes. Remove from the heat and whisk in the hoisin, vinegar, and soy sauce until combined and then strain, reserving the sauce.

Heat grill to high. (Adrienne's note: We use a George Foreman grill).

Brush eggplant slices on both sides with the oil and season with salt and pepper. Place slices on the grill and grill until golden brown and slightly charred, about 4-5 minutes. Brush with some of the glaze, turn over and continue grilling just until cooked through, brushing with more of the glaze, 3-4 minutes longer. Remove from the grill and brush with the remaining glaze. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with the cilantro.

Roasted Eggplant Hummus

There is hummus among us! This recipe comes from Lillian Russo at Just A Pinch Recipe Club.

Ingredients:

1 lg eggplant

1 lg bulb of garlic

1-15 oz can garbanzo beans- drained and rinsed

1/3 cup flat leaf parsley

3 tbsp fresh squeezed lemon juice

1/3 cup olive oil, extra virgin

1/4 cup olive oil, extra virgin, for roasting the eggplant and garlic

1 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp pepper

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F.

2. Cut the eggplant into about 2 inch pieces. Cut the top portion of a garlic clove so that the garlic is exposed but be careful not to cut the garlic loose just yet. Put the garlic bulb on the cookie sheet and then spread the eggplant on the sheet making sure they are all separated, and then lightly drizzle the olive oil over the eggplant and garlic. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Then toss to make sure the eggplant and garlic bulb is coated with the salt and pepper.

3. Place in a 450 degrees F oven and roast for 25 minutes and when done let cool, approximately 15 minutes.

4. In the meantime place the rinsed garbanzo beans, parsley, lemon juice, salt and pepper (to taste) in food processor and quickly pulse just to incorporate the ingredients. Taste and adjust seasoning.

5. Next add the roasted eggplant and squeeze the roasted garlic out of the bulb (yum, yum) and turn the food processor on and stream in the olive oil until the ingredients resemble[] a spread.

6. Place in a serving bowl and serve with pita chips or crackers.

Oven-Fried Eggplant

This simple recipe comes from about.com.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp plus half tsp salt, divided

2 eggplants

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (Adrienne's note: I used panko)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

pinch of cayenne

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 eggs

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve 2 tbsp salt in one cup of warm water. add 3 quarts cold water. Set aside.

Trim eggplant and cut into 1/2-inch thick, 3 to 4 inch long sticks. Put in salt water, submerge with an upside-down plate, and let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, and cayenne, if you like. Add oil and use your fingers to work the oil into the breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to a large plate or shallow bowl. Set aside.

Whisk eggs to break them up completely. When you lift the whisk up, it should be as lifting it out of water.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Liberally oil a large baking sheet or use nonstick.

Drain and thoroughly dry eggplant sticks.

Keeping one hand dry and one hand wet, dip an eggplant stick in the eggs, lift it out and shake off any excess egg, put stick in breadcrumbs mixture and coat completely, lift out and shake off any excess breadcrumbs, transfer stick to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining sticks.

Bake, turning once, until brown, crispy, and tender to the bite, about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Purple Eggplant Tempura

Purple Eggplant Tempura

Ingredients:

Fat man and little boy (eggplants, left) sliced into third-inch rounds. No need to salt or soak these.

An inch of vegetable oil in a small frying pan

Store-bought tempura mix

Directions:

Heat the pan of vegetable oil over medium heat. Follow the directions on the store-bought tempura mix to create the tempura battter. Coat the eggplant slices in the tempura batter. Fry over medium heat in the vegetable oil (about 2 or 3 minutes per side) until the eggplant slices are light golden brown. Serve hot with white rice and tempura sauce.

Roasted Leeks and Eggplant with Polenta

Roasted Leeks and Eggplant with Polenta

For the roasted leeks and eggplant: Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Trim leeks: cut off roots, cut off most of green part, split the larger ones down the middle. Slice eggplant into quarter-inch discs. There's no need to salt/soak these eggplants. Spread vegetables in single layer on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and salt and pepper. Roast in oven for 15 minutes.

For the polenta: I followed the recipe on the back of a bag of Goya Corn Meal. It instructed me to boil 6 cups of water seasoned with one and a half teaspoons of salt. Once the water begins to boil, add in one and a half cups of the corn meal slowly, whisking continuously so that the polenta doesn't clump. After all of the corn meal is in the boiling water, reduce heat to medium and stir continuously for half an hour with a wooden spoon (or else the polenta will stick to the bottom of the pan and/or clump up). Towards the end of the half an hour, mix in one and a half tablespoons of butter. This actually kept the polenta from sticking to the pan. When I removed the polenta from the heat, I spooned myself a heaping helping of it then poured the rest into a glass baking dish greased with olive oil. It cooled rapidly into the dish but didn't stick to the sides. I think I'll cut the polenta up into squares and saute the squares in butter or grill them and serve them as a side dish for another day.