Tortang Talong (Eggplant Omelette)

Summer means eggplant, and there's no better way to start off a Sunday than with this sublime combination of smoky eggplants and eggs.

Incidentally, the Filipino world is divided into those that add ground pork as a topping, and those that don't. The CC refuses to take sides in this particular debate. De gustibus ..., etc.



Ingredients

(serves 2)

2 eggplants
2 eggs

1 tbsp patis (substitute with salt)
oil

Recipe

Grill the eggplants until the skin is charred. If you don't have a grill (like the CC), stick them directly on top of the flame of the burner. Keep turning until it is nicely charred. Set aside.

When cool, the skin will peel off quite easily.

Gently smash the eggplant with a fork into a flat roundish shape (like the picture above.) Try not to puncture it. (If you do, don't worry too much. The eggs will seal it.)

In a separate bowl, crack the eggs. Add the patis and whip till blended.

Each eggplant will be dipped in this mixture and pan-fried.

Heat some oil in a skillet. When shimmering, add the egg-dipped eggplant. As the egg sets, you will need to gently wrap it around the eggplant.

Serve hot. (The topping above is Sriracha, of course!)

Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

This soup is a high-octane summer dish.

Those of you who own grills are probably going to be happier because the heat would dissipate outdoors. Those of you who will be forced to use a broiler are probably not going to be happy campers but it's summer so you takes your amazing veggie dishes where you get them.

The dish doesn't take a lot of work and the results are wildly out of proportion to the simplicity. (Maestro Maillard strikes again!)



Roasted Tomato & Eggplant Soup

2 large eggplants
6-8 garlic cloves
4-6 ripe summer tomatoes
1 large onion
1 sprig rosemary
4 cups broth

olive oil
salt
black pepper
1 tsp coriander seeds (ground fine)

2 oz goat cheese (or feta)

Recipe

Halve the eggplant along its length. Halve the onion. Peel the garlic cloves but leave them whole. Halve the tomatoes horizontally.

In a large pan, place all of the above with the cut surfaces facing upwards towards the broiler, and broil them for about 7 minutes. The CC had to do this in batches (eggplants, onions, garlic in the first; tomatoes in the second.)

If you grill them, the cut surfaces should be facing downwards (DUH!)

Cut up the grilled onion into chunks. Don't work too hard. It will not matter.

In a large pot, sautée the onions with some olive oil. Chop up the eggplants and garlic, and fry for about 10 minutes. Add the tomatoes, broth, ground coriander, salt and black pepper, and let simmer for about 20-25 minutes.

Purée the mixture.

Top with the goat cheese right before serving.

The Sufferings of Summer

The CC went to the farmers' market this weekend, and then his friend's mother gave him a "small" helping of the vegetables from her garden. Her version of "small" is enough to feed a small city!

The CC's kitchen overfloweth.

Prawn Curry with Eggplants, Long Beans & Soy

Ratatouille

Ratatouille over Couscous

Pasta with Vegetables, Anchovies and Tomatoes

Three Variations on a Theme

Same veggies. Different execution. Makes all the difference in the world.

(Recipes to follow.)
Pasta with Green Peppers, Beans, Summer Squash, Eggplants & Anchovies
Rotini with Green Beans, Green Peppers, Olives and Feta
Summer Pasta with Yellow Squash, Green Beans and Purple Basil

Vaangi Baath

Finally, the moment of truth.

Yeah, the whole thing is fussy and work but deal with it. As the CC said before, this is one of the joys of life.

The recipe is a myriad of textures. Each bite is different if you make it right because of the sheer multitude of textures in the combination.

(Source: modified from Cooking at Home with Pedatha.)

Ingredients

1 cup rice
1/4 tsp turmeric powder

2 tbsp vaangi baath podi

2 japanese eggplants (cubed)
1 potato (diced medium)
1 green pepper (diced medium)
1/2 cup peas

for tempering

1 tsp mustard seeds
2 tsp urad daal
4 green chillies (sliced vertically on one side)
1 tsp asafoetida
12-16 curry leaves

the paste

1/4 cup dry coconut
2 green chillies
1/2 bunch coriander leaves (yep, leaves only!)

the powder

1/4 cup urad daal
1/4 cup chana daal (bengal gram)

Recipe

Boil the rice in plenty of salted water with the turmeric until just under soft. Drain, let cool and set aside.

Roast the dry coconut until golden. Grind with the green chillies and coriander leaves into a fine paste with the minimum amount of water possible. Scrape into a bowl.

Dry roast the two daals on low heat until they turn golden. Grind to a fine powder. Set aside.

Add half the paste, the vaangi baath podi to the rice and mix gently. (This can most effectively be done with your hands so jump in there and mix them gently.)

Heat the oil. Add the mustard seeds until they pop; add the urad daal. Add the rest of the tempering ingredients (curry leaves, asafoetida, green chillies.)

Add the chopped vegetables, and stir-fry without adding any water until done. (The order, in case it is not obvious, is necessarily potato, green pepper, eggplants.)

This step takes a looooooooooooong time so the CC advises that you chill during this step (and yes! the not adding any water makes all the difference in the world!)

Add the peas, the remaining half of the paste, and all of the prepared powder. Cook for 3-4 minutes on a low flame.

Mix all the ingredients together and serve.

Vaangi baath

Bellini-ssimo

Named to honor the famous opera by Bellini, Pasta alla Norma is a cult Sicilian dish.

Chances are that the dish was already a Sicilian staple but it took the eyes of the theater director, Nino Martoglio, to declare the dish "una vera Norma". In his eyes, the dish and the opera matched each other's perfection.

What eggplants and tomatoes and ricotta salata have to do with an aging druidess whose lover runs out on her with a younger woman, and who declares this all her fault, and decides to immolate herself with him is best left to the imagination.

And the pleasures of the dish are definitely far from the "Casta Diva" of the opera.

Food is anything but chaste; food is pure unashamed unabashed sensuality. The idea of food being "chaste" is as ludicrous as ludicrous can be.

Not to mention that the pairing of food and tragedy is a bit of a travesty too. Try telling your dinner guests next time that the food portion of the dinner will end in a tragedy next time. Drop the CC a line if that works out for you.

Pairing of dinner and tragedy? Probably takes a particularly Teutonic mind to do so. Definitely un-Sicilian.

However, if we can accept the metaphor that there is something quite lovely about both this dish and the opera, then in the spirit of that mindset, the CC can begin to show you how to make the dish.

Just like a dramatic coloratura soprano is non-negotiable in the opera's title role, you must use ricotta salata. It's a salted cheese made from sheep's milk but pressed (sort of like a very dry feta but less crumbly.)

If you don't use it, the CC will find out about it, and come by and immolate you.

Ingredients

2 large eggplants (sliced vertically; see here)

1 large onion
4 cloves garlic (finely diced)
8-10 tomatoes (or use canned "San Marzano" peeled tomatoes)
3 dried red peppers

basil (snipped)
sea salt
black pepper

ricotta salata (grated or just chopped)

Recipe

The recipe proceeds in three separate parts all of which you will "assemble" at the end. They are respectively: eggplants (two different sizes, fried), tomato sauce, and the pasta.

If you use fresh tomatoes, they must be peeled.

Y'all already know how to make a tomato sauce but the pictures are repeated for emphasis.

Heavily salt the eggplants, and let them sit for at least an hour. They will let out copious moisture which you must discard.

Then you must wash each slice individually to remove all the salt.

Half the eggplants must be cut into "small" pieces, and the rest into "large" pieces. See below for a picture.

Fry the garlic.

And the onions, and the dried red chilli peppers. Fish the chilli peppers out at the end of the frying.

Add the tomatoes.

Let the tomatoes reduce at a very low heat. Yeah, this takes time. Go drink a martini or something.

Add the snipped basil leaves towards the end.

Fry the smaller pieces of the eggplants.

Push them to a side, and fry the larger pieces too.

The dish is a straightforward assembly of the al dente pasta, the two kinds of eggplants, the tomato sauce, and the ricotta salata on top, garnished with basil leaves.

Part of the pleasure of this dish is that you leave the different components separate; a sort of "mix 'n match" of different textures and tastes. Exactly the same thing that Norma's ex-lover, Pollione, was attempting with his chippy on the side except things didn't quite go his way, and he got scorched.

Pasta alla Norma

Frying Eggplants

Ever heard the cliché that they "absorb too much oil"?

It's not rocket science, folks. You need to slice them vertically.

It's a question of which way the fibers are aligned. Think of it differently. If they absorb oil, it must be going somewhere. Cut the eggplant vertically, and you are cutting across the fibers that normally would store the oil.

Do it properly, and soon, you'll be frying them like a Sicilian mamma.

(And a little hat tip to my "culinary assistant" for taking such an excellent picture.)