Eggplant with Peanut Sauce

Our eggplants have been challenged this year -- possums kept digging the plants up and looking underneath for grubs. You can only replant an eggplant so many times before it gives up.

But the Japanese eggplant is finally producing, so I picked a couple for dinner the other day. I grilled them and served them with peanut sauce because I wanted Larry to really enjoy our home-grown produce. Eggplant is not his favorite food, but I'm pretty sure peanut butter is in his top ten.

There are as many variations of peanut sauce as there are people. The basics are a little salt and a little sour added to the peanut butter. Some people add sweet too, but you've probably already discerned my anti-sugar bias.

I've previously posted a peanut sauce with yogurt and orange juice, which is really good.

The one I served the other night was flavored with soy sauce and lime juice, which nicely complemented the grilled eggplant.

Japanese eggplants are the slender kind. If you have the heftier Italian kind, slice it crosswise in 1/2" rounds.

We ate baked sweet potato fries and Indian cabbage with the eggplant, making an unusual but enjoyable meal.


Grilled Eggplant with Peanut Sauce
2 slender Japanese eggplants
olive oil
1 tsp roasted sesame oil
1 garlic clove, minced
dash red pepper flakes
2 heaping tablespoons crunchy peanut butter
1 tsp tamari soy sauce
1 tsp lime juice
1-2 tbsp water

Cut the caps off the eggplants and discard. Slice the eggplants in half lengthwise, and smear a little olive oil on the cut sides. Grill in a cast iron grill pan on the stove (or directly on the barbecue grill) until soft.

In a small pan, heat the sesame oil, garlic and red pepper flakes for about a minute. With a fork or a whisk, stir in the peanut butter, soy sauce and lime juice. Add enough water to make a thickish sauce. Keep warm until the eggplants are cooked.

Put a dollop of sauce on each eggplant half and serve.

Serves 2