Deceptively easy grilled eggplant: Vegan MOFO Post 3

Eggplants, in my gardener's heart, are one of the loveliest foods you can grow. Truthfully, I only knew two ways of cooking them in my "pregan" days: as a centerpiece in Eggplant Parmesan and also folded into my Dad's Indian Chicken Curry recipe. And yet I have continued to grow them anyway, because it was such a delight to watch their progress, much like witnessing a living painting. I tend to check on them every day in the summer just to marvel at them.

Here are some lovely babies that grew in my garden this year and last.

Early summer, the eggplants are just peeping out their little heads.

D'awww....

They come in so many shapes and sizes.

If you listen hard enough, you can hear them giggle as you lift the leaves.

Eggplants are native to the Indian Subcontinent, which includes the countries of India, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka. Wherever I've traveled (unfortunately never to these countries -- yet) I've always sought out the markets to stare blissfully at the eggplants and the hot peppers (a post for another day). France was no exception. I lived there for 9 months back in my early twenties and knew them there as "aubergine," which builds off the french word "alberge," which is an apricot. Like apricots, eggplants are fruit, though we often lump them into the vegetable category. They're also in a class of fruits called "nightshades," which I purposely never looked up because I love the romantic images it conjures up and don't want the scientific information to mar up my poetic thoughts. In English-speaking countries, we came up with the name eggplant, since several varieties do resemble the eggs of a chicken.

Last year, I had the best intentions to cook up my healthy harvest. Alas, it was one of the many fun tasks I never found time to do. And they all ultimately found their way to the compost pile. "NOT THIS SUMMER!" I vowed. And true to my word, I tried a very simple recipe which kept me satisfied all summer and allowed my crop to escape waste: grilled eggplant.

I feel funny even posting it because it's so darned simple. But I feel it's my responsibility to share because it's died-and-gone-to-Heaven-good. Though Ryan still does not enjoy eggplant (it's a texture thing for him, I think) he has often been good enough to grill the eggplant for me, as grilling is one of his summer pleasures.

The eggplant we grew was typically long and slender, so we could just make one slice in the center and they were ready. If you have a larger eggplant, I'd recommend slicing them into 3/4 inch-wide pieces.

Then you can paint them with some olive oil on both sides. (I'm continuing with the living painting analogy here.)

It's hard here for me to focus on the eggplant, when my favorite person is looking so camera-ready.

Throw on some kosher/sea salt and pepper all over them.

And then you throw them on the grill. I think it was a medium-ish heat. Just grill each side a few minutes until it starts to look cooked. You want the inside to be soft.

Here's the final product, ready to eat, skin and all. My mouth is watering looking at this. When you bit into it, the eggplant kind of melts in your mouth and has a very round, satisfying taste that pleases the whole palette.

We (I) enjoyed the eggplant for dinner with a salad that came from the garden (except for the canned cannellini beans), corn on the cob, rice with peanut/tahini sauce, and Swiss chard (cooked up with a teensy bit of oil, lots of garlic, barely a brush of salt, and some cider vinegar splashed in at the end).

As I said, this is an easy eggplant recipe, but the taste is unbeatable. Sometimes all you need is a little olive oil and salt to make the true flavors shine. I really hope you try this, because you'll have a new favorite to throw into your routine.

What are some old stand-bys in your routine?

Hot town, summer in the suburb! (back of my neck gettin' dirty and "pretty")

Sergio, braving the carpeted cat bed.

Kaci prefers the the cool flat expanse of the coffee table.

It's warm out there, folks. At least it is in Massachusetts.

The cats aren't too crazy about the heat and spend their days trying to stay as comfortable as possible, experimenting with various surfaces and laying on their backs in front of the fan when it's on.

My garden, on the other hand, is completely loving this weather. The heat has been especially kind to the tomatoes.

Last year, you may remember, I paid homage to my vegetable garden. This year, I continue to be wonderstruck by the simple daily changes in this rectangle of goodness, and I couldn't hold back from sharing how things are shaping up thus far.

Here is our first-ever crop in a small raspberry patch I've been tending to for almost two years. I was starting to give up on it when it just exploded in red sweetness this year! The fruits seem to ripen hourly.

Last year, I moved our mint to a section by the house because it was valiantly attempting to take over the garden.

Spearmint

Believe it or not, this is chocolate mint. It tastes like an Andes Candies.

Here's sage (a perennial, I discovered!) that I transplanted along with the two types of mint. 

 I planted a variety of tomatoes this year, all of which shouldn't take too long to ripen. (The cherries have already started!) I used to order beautiful heirloom seedlings in the mail, but they needed a longer summer than we typically get here. So now I shoot for tomatoes that have a shorter growing season.

Just yesterday, I pruned all the tomato plants, as they were getting out of control. I don't know a whole lot about pruning, so I just basically go by instinct. I was told a few years back that if you don't prune them, all their growing energy mainly goes into the leaves and stems rather than into the fruit itself.

Speckled Romans

Either Speckled Romans or Romas...

Either Speckled Romans or Romas...

Romas ... Already have one close to ripe!

Sungold. Impossibly sweet! If you ever want to start a small garden, this is a great variety that will give you instant results. I love the way they grow like grapes!

These had a fancy name, but I can't recall it. I call them Little Reds. 

There's a great product in garden stores that helps keep your tomatoes growing in the cages. It looks like a spool of thick green ribbon, but it's velcro. You just cut off a bit and then velcro the stem to the cage so that the plant doesn't sprawl across the ground. You can reuse these year after year. I kept losing them, though. Just this morning, it occurred to me that I could keep them on the fence when I was done using them, and have them ready for next year.

The last of the sugar snap peas. We have been eating these like they're going out of style. Just trim the strings off, put them in a steamer basket, and let them steam for just a minute or two. Then, if you're feeling fancy, put them in a bowl with a tiny bit of toasted sesame oil and salt. 

As the peas start to leave us, the string beans are emerging. How cute is that thing? It's like a string bean ultrasound.

Cabbage. Does it get any more artistic? I mean, look at the way that thing grows! Gorgeous! Thanks to my sister-in-law Ida for gifting me with four cabbage plants -- something I had never tried growing before. (That's why it's good to have gardening buddies. They expand your horizons.)

Kale alert! If you want to start your own garden or a small container garden, kale is one of the easiest things to grow. And it LOVES the cold, so you'll be harvesting it well into the fall. I tried three kinds this year.

I should mention here that when we first dug up the garden and put the fence around, we put chicken wire about a foot and a half under the ground. It was a pain, truly, but well worth it since we now have a family of groundhogs who eyes our garden hopefully. One of them (when it was still small enough) squeaked through the space where the gate opens and had a fun time inside. In fact, both s/he and a baby bunny got in at the same time  -- who are friends, I swear. They're always hanging out together -- and demolished our lettuce and some of the peas. They didn't touch the curly kale or lacinato kale, but made sweet love to the purple kale. Who knew?

Curly kale! One of two patches of it we have, because you can never have enough of this stuff. (The Thai Basil to the left, is not as hardy as it's been in the past. Usually it becomes a monstrous shrub. The leaves are delicious with green curry.)

"Nom, nom, nom," said the hungry groundhog.

Lacinato Kale, also called Dinosaur Kale due (I believe) to its ressemblance to dinosaur skin. (We are overrun with dinosaurs in Framingham, so I KNOW.)

Some of the red-speckled lettuce that survived groundhogpalooza.

     

Swiss Chard. Some of the prettiest stuff on the planet. I want to do a painting of Swiss Chard.

Believe it or not, this is a Brussel Sprout plant. I got four tiny plants ($1 each!) back in April as a fun experiment. They're doing great so far!

These are Chioggia Beets. When you slice them, they have a gorgeous red and white striped bullseye throughout. I love how the tops peek out of the ground. It's so cute, I can't stand it. 

Next is the massive, prehistoric rhubarb, which originally came from my grandparents' house. I gave away half of the root to my brother- and sister-in-law this spring, and the thing has STILL spread. This is, by far, Kaci's favorite part of the garden.

And you may have noticed our new hummingbird feeder, given to us by Peg, my mother-in-law. Below is a better view. We have a feeder closer to the house as well. Hummingbird feeders are such great and cheap entertainment. Often the hummingbirds will come when I'm in the garden, reading, writing, or weeding. You'll hear what sounds like an extra large bee, and when you look up you see a tiny, green, glistening little hummingbird, politely dipping into the red plastic flower and then taking off into the sky about a minute later when it is done. (The attached red ribbon helps attract the birds to the feeder. They love red.) To make your own solution, just heat some sugar in water until the sugar is dissolved. Sugar - water; 1:4. So 1/4 cup sugar, for example, and 1 cup water. Just replace it every few days.

And a garden isn't a garden without basil. Mmmm...

We have quite a few pepper plants, both hot and sweet. I forget the names of most of them, but here they are regardless. :)

Green pepper, I think.

Pepperoncini! I got these for Ryan, who goes nuts for them pickled. As to who is going to pickle them, stay tuned...

Ryan's not an eggplant guy, but I always plant a lot of it anyway. They are so gorgeous. Look at this little one, just poking its head out!

And you have to have cucumbers. I just got one kind of plant, and found a cucumber over a foot long this morning! I forgot to take a picture of it, but it's so indecent looking that it's just as well. Here is a less sizable one on the vine.

I planted tons and tons of nasturtium all around the perimeter of the garden. The groundhogs LOVE nasturtium,  and wiped them out from two sides of the garden. We put in a (mild) electric fence which has discouraged them from ravaging all the remaining prettiness. Groundhogs tend to stick very close by their burrows, as they lack speed for getting back quickly. (As Ryan so aptly put it, it's like watching an undulating small carpet run across your lawn.) Thus, they ignored the other two sides because they were too far away for comfort.

Both the flowers and leaves of the nasturtium are edible. They have a light peppery taste to them, reminiscent of radishes, lending themselves beautifully as an accent to a fresh salad.

I have beautiful marigolds planted throughout the garden, as they are a natural pest deterrant.

And here is the overall view of this most happy of places .

Groundhog/Rabbit view. (I just planted some new lettuce and arugula in the bare patch in the foreground.)

So that's the garden so far. Stay tuned for later posts when more things ripen!

P.S. SSW is now on veganblogs.org. If you could click on this link and then click on the "boost" button, it would help substantially in getting more visibility to this blog. I'm told you can go one once a day and boost it. And if you're up for sharing any thoughts, it would be great to get some comments (hopefully favorable!) added below it. The more boosts and comments, the better the visibility online. Thank you!