Awesome Eggplant

Many years ago, when if you had told me I'd marry an American and move to Los Angeles I would have scoffed, my mother and I made this eggplant dish for Canadian Thanksgiving.

It was just the two of us, and we thought eggplant was an excellent celebratory dish. Cooked this way, a recipe from Annie Somerville's book Fields of Greens, we were right.

The recipes in this book are a little more complicated than I usually make, but that adds to the layers of flavors that make these dishes extra special. It comes together in about an hour.

Roll forward many years, and my American husband Larry and I returned home to Los Angeles from our trip back East last week to find one of our pathetic eggplant plants actually had a large purple eggplant. This was cause for celebration, so I dug out this recipe. Awesome!

Awesome Eggplant
1 eggplant (3/4 lb)
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced onion
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups sliced mushrooms
2 tbsp white wine
2 sun-dried tomatoes, diced
1 tbsp almonds, slivered
3 tbsp parmesan

Preheat oven to 375°F. Cut eggplant in half lengthwise. Scoop out the center, leaving about 1/4 inch shell. If the flesh is very seedy, discard some of the seeds. Cut the flesh into dice.

Combine the tbsp olive oil and small clove of garlic. Brush the insides of the eggplant shells with this, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and put cut side down on a cookie sheet. Bake until tender, 10-15 minutes.

The bottom eggplant is the one we ate. The upper
one will be made into dinner later in the week.

Sauté onion in 1 tbsp oil with salt and pepper for about 5 minutes until tender. Add the diced eggplant and 1 minced clove of garlic. Sauté 5 minutes until the eggplant is tender. It will be dry and sticking a little to the pan, that's okay. Transfer to a bowl.

In the same skillet, heat 1 tbsp oil over high heat. Add the mushrooms, salt and pepper. Stir occasionally. When golden brown, about 5 minutes, add the remaining clove of garlic and cook another couple of minutes. Add the wine and simmer 1-2 minutes until the pan is almost dry.

Toss the mushrooms with the eggplant mixture. Scrape the pan well so all the browned parts are added. Add the sun-dried tomatoes and almonds. Stir in all but 1 tbsp parmesan. Place the eggplant shells in a casserole dish and mound in the filling. Cover and bake 25-30 minutes. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan and bake uncovered 5 minutes.

Serves 3-4 as a main course.

Warm leftovers in the oven - they are almost more delicious than the original.

Chickpea Eggplant Salad

In the fall the market is full of purple eggplants and red peppers. And, here in Southern California, it is hot. Too hot to feel like doing much cooking or eating.

So the other day I made this salad for dinner - the eggplant was spicy enough to tempt the appetite, the chickpeas added protein, and the crisp lettuce and fresh mint lightened it up. I adapted the recipe from Sunset's Edible Garden Cookbook, which always inspires me to plant more vegetables, even if I know they will be dug up by raccoons in August.

Chickpea Eggplant Salad
1/3 cup chickpeas (or 14 oz can)
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
3 tsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
2 tsp hot sauce (sriracha)
3 tbsp olive oil
1 medium eggplant
2 tbsp olive oil
butter lettuce
12 mint leaves, slivered
1/3 cup diced red onion, rinsed and drained

Cook the chickpeas in plenty of boiling water until tender, about 2 hours. Drain and set aside. (Or drain the canned chickpeas and rinse well.)

Roast the peppers over a gas flame or under the broiler until blackened all over. Put in a covered pot to steam and cool. When cool enough to handle, scrape off the skins with a small sharp knife, cut off the stems, and take out the seeds. Cut the peppers in 1/2 inch dice.

Whisk together a salad dressing of the vinegar, mustard, salt, pepper, hot sauce and 3 tbsp olive oil.

Wash the eggplant, cut off the stalk end, and dice it in 1/2 inch cubes. Warm the remaining 2 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Cook the eggplant until it begins to color, 10-12 minutes. It will stick a bit to the pan. That's okay, it adds extra flavor. Add the chickpeas, a couple of tablespoons of water, and salt and pepper. Cook, stirring, 2-3 minutes to blend the flavors.

Stir in the peppers and remove the pan from the heat. Toss the vegetables with half the dressing.

Line a plate with lettuce. Sprinkle it with the mint and red onion. Pile on the chickpea eggplant stew. Serve the extra dressing on the side.

Serves 4

Leftover chickpea eggplant stew is great cold for lunch the next day.

Yummy Potato Casserole

I maintain that if you want someone to eat something weird, make it smell like pizza.

This casserole of eggplant, potato and tomato smells like pizza, and it tastes really good. The vegetables are layered in a dish, sprinkled with a little parmesan, and baked for a couple of hours. They soften and meld together like the best ratatouille but with very little oil and no stove-top cooking.

You will read this recipe and think it can never work: not enough liquid, everything will be dry. But the long cooking allows the vegetables to release their juices, and the flavor is unbelievable. I think it's similar to the long slow cooking of meat, but of course this is way better.

I prepped it Sunday afternoon, let it sit for a while before putting it in the oven, and then let it cook gently until we were ready to eat dinner. Wow. It should feed 6, but 4 will fight over it.

I feel this recipe is a throwback to when we cooked in clay dishes in the ashes of our fires. It is too hot to have a fire, but you'll get the same flavor in pyrex in the toaster oven. I cannot recommend this dish more highly.

Potato Tomato Eggplant Casserole
3 large tomatoes
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp tomato paste
2 cloves garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes
6 potatoes (18 oz)
1 large onion (8 oz)
1 medium eggplant (1 lb)
1/2 cup parmesan
fresh basil to garnish (optional)

Start by making the tomato sauce. Cut the tomatoes on the equator and scoop out the seeds with a small spoon or your finger. Core and chop the tomatoes into small dice. Stir together with the olive oil and tomato paste. Peel the garlic, chop it and mash it with the 1/2 tsp salt. Add to the tomatoes along with the red pepper flakes.

Peel the potatoes and slice thin. Peel and halve the onion and slice thin. Take the top and bottom off the eggplant. Slice the rest thin.

Butter a 6-cup casserole. Put 3/4 cup of the tomatoes in the bottom, spread thin. On top, put 1/2 the potato slices and season with a little alt and pepper. On top, put half the onion slices and season again Pour another 1/2 cup tomato sauce over top, then half the eggplant slices and more salt and pepper. Next put 1/2 cup tomato sauce and 1/4 cup parmesan. Then the remaining potato slices, salt and pepper, the onions, more salt and pepper. Finally, the last of the eggplant, more seasoning, and the last of the tomato sauce.

The vegetables will rise up above your casserole. That's okay. Squash a lid on them. Press it down while you preheat the toaster oven to 350°F.

Bake the casserole, covered, for 1 hour. Use a spatula to press the vegetables down (and peel them off the lid if necessary). Put the cover back on and continue to bake for another hour. Press the vegetables down again. Sprinkle them with the remaining 1/4 cup parmesan and bake, uncovered, for 10 minutes or so until the cheese is bubbly.

Let the casserole sit at room temperature at least 10 minutes before serving. Sprinkle with the fresh basil (I usually forget to do this).

 It's also good at room temperature and as leftovers reheated the next day.

Serves 4-6

I pressed the vegetables down with a jar of kamut while the
toaster oven was warming up. By the end of cooking, they
had shrunk down to below the side of the casserole dish.

The Joy of Leftovers

One of the great things about cooking a big meal is having leftovers.

And a great leftover to have is grilled eggplant slices. We had some left over from Saturday night dinner, so on Sunday I stirred them up into a tomato sauce that we ate on penne. That was a great break from healthy eating. The next night we were back to beans and greens.

If you don't have leftover grilled eggplant, then start by slicing an eggplant and grilling or frying it. I recommend using a grill pan because the eggplant can't absorb as much oil as it can in a fry pan.

This recipe is based on one in Anna Thomas' classic 1972 book The Vegetarian Epicure. This was one of my first vegetarian cookbooks, and I still turn to it regularly for basics like this sauce. Although, 40 years on, I find I automatically reduce the amount of oil and dairy products in the recipes. I'm sure she does now too.

Eggplant Pasta Sauce
2 tbsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic
1/4 - 1/2 lb grilled eggplant slices
1 green pepper
28 oz can whole tomatoes
2 tbsp sliced black olives
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp dried basil
6 oz tomato paste
1 cup dry white wine

Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the garlic and let it warm.

Chop the eggplant slices in chunks. Seed and dice the green pepper. Drain the tomatoes and chop them coarsely. Add all to the pan along with the olives and capers. Stir well, coating all the vegetables in oil. Add the basil, tomato paste and wine, stir again, and cover the skillet. Let simmer gently over low heat for about 1 hour until it is rich and dark. Stir occasionally to keep it from sticking, and add extra wine or water if it gets too thick.

Makes about 1 quart of sauce, enough for pasta for 4-6 people. It freezes well too.

Grilled Eggplant Salad

I know summer is the season of barbecuing, but I actually prefer to use my grill pan. I take an electric hot plate out on the patio, put my cast iron grill pan on it, and turn out great dishes like this eggplant salad.

Feel free to barbecue the eggplant if you prefer (especially if the barbecue is lit for another reason).

The greens on top of the eggplant are a combination of spicy arugula and lemony sorrel. If you can't find either, use more basil and mint and parsley. The idea is to have a fresh zesty contrast to the soft eggplant and salty feta.

I adapted the recipe from Jeanne Kelley's decidedly non-vegetarian book, Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes. (Warning - there's at least one dead animal picture in it.) However, the vegetable flavors she puts together are really good.

Grilled Eggplant Salad
1/2 lb eggplant
olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 small clove garlic
1 tsp cumin seeds, toasted
2 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup arugula
3/4 cup sorrel
1 cup mixed basil, parsley and cilantro
1 oz feta

Wash the eggplant, slice off each end and discard. Slice the rest into 1/2 inch thick circles. Brush them with oil and grill about 5 minutes per side until browned and tender. Remove from heat to a platter, and let cool to room temperature.

Whisk together the lemon, garlic, cumin and olive oil. Drizzle half over the cooled eggplant.

Add the greens to the remaining dressing and toss well. Put the greens on the eggplant, and scatter crumbled feta over the top.

Serves 2-3

Saturday Night Pasta

At the end of a long week, a big bowl of pasta hits the spot.

On Saturday Larry and I made a tomato eggplant sauce for our pasta that was pretty sensational, if we do say so ourselves.

I think the key was that I cooked the eggplant on my cast iron grill pan. I brushed it with oil, but because the eggplant wasn't sitting in the oil as it would have been in a fry pan, it developed a smoky flavor that shone through in the pasta sauce.

We used a red jalapeno pepper and a green long Italian pepper. I could have sautéed them with the onions, but I forgot. So I stirred them raw into the sauce to cook, and they did a good job of flavoring it.

This sauce would also be good stirred into cooked white beans.

Tomato Eggplant Pasta Sauce
2 cloves garlic, peeled and bashed
1/3 cup diced onion
1 tbsp olive oil
14-oz can diced tomatoes
1 jalapeno
1 Italian pepper
1/2 lb eggplant
parmesan to taste (optional)
1/2 lb penne

Sauté the garlic and onion in the olive oil until golden. Add the tomatoes and their juice. Stir well, season with salt and pepper, and simmer 10-15 minutes, adding water if necessary so it doesn't get too thick. Stir in the chopped peppers.

Meanwhile, warm a grill pan over medium heat. Slice the eggplant 3/4 inch thick. Brush the pan with oil and cook the eggplant until soft, 10-15 minutes, turning as needed. (You could also do this on a barbecue.)

Dice the eggplant into 1-inch pieces and stir into the tomato sauce. Add water as necessary to the sauce to keep a good consistency, and let it simmer 5-10 minutes for the flavors to meld.

Cook penne according to package directions. Drain and stir into sauce. Let simmer a couple of minutes to let the pasta absorb some of the sauce, then serve with parmesan on the side if desired.

Serves 3-4

Eggplant Pasta

Larry was out one evening last week, so I took the opportunity to indulge in arugula and eggplant.

Actually, I think he would have enjoyed this too.

I had leftover grilled eggplant, which I diced and stirred into some crumbled goat cheese. I cooked some penne, stirred in the eggplant goat cheese mixture, and then tossed in some chopped arugula. I covered the pot and let the residual heat cook the arugula and warm the eggplant.

A good grating of black pepper, and I had a simple feast.

A Simple Eggplant Dinner

We stayed outside until dark the other day, sitting on the stoop in the garden, letting the dusk settle around us, feeling the heat dissipate, listening to the crickets start their evening song.

Then we realized we hadn't eaten dinner.

Fortunately I had picked a couple of eggplants, and I cooked them up with tomatoes, tofu and mint for a light yet satisfying meal. The fresh mint really enhanced this dish, giving it a perkiness that basil or oregano would not have done.

Tofu is a good quick protein source. Slice off a couple of pieces and fry them for a few minutes on each side. It doesn't get easier than that. Always buy organic tofu -- the non-organic kind is probably made from genetically-modified soybeans.

I used a can of diced tomatoes, but 2 cups of fresh ones would have been great too. (Although then the decision of to peel or not to peel comes into play, and it was still too hot in the kitchen to think about peeling tomatoes.)

The spice combination comes from Marie Simmons in her book Fresh & Fast Vegetarian. Her recipe was a little more complicated than this, but the spice combo is a winner.

I cooked the tomatoes in a stainless steel skillet and then added them to the eggplant and tofu in my cast iron frypan. While it's not recommended to cook acid foods like tomatoes in cast iron because they break down the surface of the pan, 10-15 minutes does no harm. I figure a little cast iron in my food is not a bad thing anyway.

I used a long white eggplant -- Doughboy -- and a round fat one -- the label has disappeared, but I think it's an Italian one. I didn't salt and drain them. I just sliced them and added them to the pan. An advantage of using cast iron is I could use just a little oil, and then let the eggplant sear in the hot pan after they'd absorbed the oil.

Quick and delicious. It doesn't get much better than that.

Eggplant Tofu with Mint
14-oz can tomatoes
1 tsp curry powder
1 small clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp grated fresh ginger
1 cinnamon stick
1/4 tsp salt
sprinkle of hot chile pepper flakes
2 tbsp chopped fresh mint
3/4 lb eggplant, sliced in 1/2 inch rings1 tbsp oil
2 1/2-inch slabs of tofu

Combine the tomatoes, curry powder, garlic, ginger, cinnamon stick, salt and chile pepper flakes in a saucepan and cook until warm and thickened. Stir in 1 tbsp mint.

Warm the oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the eggplant and cook about 5 minutes until lightly browned. Turn the eggplant slices over and cook another 5 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Wrap the tofu in a folded dish towel and press it with your palm for 30 seconds to squeeze out extra moisture.

Put the tofu in the hot pan, adding a little more oil if necessary. The tofu should sizzle for about 3 minutes. Turn it over and cook another 3 minutes.

Add the eggplant and tomato sauce to the pan with the tofu. Stir together and let cook until warm.

Sprinkle with the remaining tablespoon of mint and serve.

Serves 2

Autumn Eggplant

I think fall is my favorite time at the farmers' market. The vegetables are so beautiful in their purples and reds and greens.

Last week I selected a shiny purple eggplant and rosy red non-heirloom tomatoes to add to large white lima beans for this delicious fall dinner.

The eggplant and tomatoes are roasted with garlic and served over white beans with a saffron pan sauce to make a Mediterranean stew with a wonderful flavor. I served it with crusty rolls to sop up the saffron-flavored broth, but if you are feeling less decadent brown rice would work well too.

Autumn Eggplant

1 eggplant (about 12 oz)
2lbs tomatoes
1/2 bulb garlic (bulb, not clove)
2 red jalapenos
1 tsp honey
1/4 cup olive oil
1 cup dried lima beans or cannelini beans, cooked (or 1 can, drained)
pinch saffron

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

Wash the eggplant and cut off and discard both ends. Cut the middle into quarters lengthwise, and then each quarter into 2 inch pieces. Cut the core out of the top of each tomato, then cut in halves or quarters depending on size.

Pull the garlic cloves apart, but don't peel them. The chiles will be added in whole just as seasoning, so wash them but don't cut them.

Put the eggplant, tomatoes, garlic cloves and chiles in a roasting pan. Drizzle with the honey and olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 1 1/2 hours, basting occasionally, and draining off any tomato liquid if too much accumulates. (The other night it was too hot to turn on the big oven, so I used the toaster oven. Because the vegetables couldn't spread out enough, they started off steaming in the tomato juices rather than roasting. Every 15 minutes or so I drained off tomato juice (saving it to add back in later) so the vegetables could roast more than steam.)

When the eggplant is very soft, remove the roasting pan from the oven. Remove and discard the chiles. Pick out the garlic cloves, crush them, and put the flesh back into the roasting pan, discarding the skin.

Make a layer of hot beans in the bottom of the serving dish. With a slotted spoon, put the vegetables on top.

Crumble the saffron between your fingers and add it to the hot tomato juice from the roasting pan (and whatever you've poured off during the cooking). Pour the sauce over the vegetables and serve warm.

Serves 4

Eat organic

I'm fortunate to be able to eat a wide variety of organic produce. It helps to live in southern California and shop at the Hollywood Farmers' Market.

I know that not everyone is as lucky as me, so here is the annual list of foods that are safe to eat even if they are not organic.

Every year the Environmental Working Group tests US-grown food for pesticide residue. Although we don't know what long-term use of pesticides does to the human nervous and endocrine system, there are standards as to what is too much to consume.

The first list, The Dirty Dozen, refers to foods that should never be eaten unless they are organic, because the pesticide residue is too high in the conventionally-grown kinds.

The second list is of foods which have a minimal level of pesticide residue when conventionally grown.

Notice that greens must be organically-grown. Don't let that stop you from eating greens. Instead ask your produce manager or favorite organic farmer to stock organic greens. They're available, they're delicious and they're healthy. And even at $2.50 a bunch, they're a better deal than a multi-vitamin.


Dirty Dozen: eat only if organic
apples
bell peppers
blueberries
celery
cucumbers
grapes
green beans
kale / greens
lettuce
nectarines - imported
peaches
potatoes
spinach
strawberries

Low Pesticide Residue: These 15 foods are lowest in pesticide residue, and are considered safe to eat even if not organic.
asparagus
avocado
cabbage
cantaloupe
corn (probably gmo if not organic)
eggplant
grapefruit
kiwi
mangoes
mushrooms
onions
peas
pineapples
sweet potatoes
watermelon

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

Eggplant and Potato Hotpot

I love eggplant. Larry is less keen. But when I combine it with potatoes and tomatoes, it makes a stew that even he enjoys.

This is a dish of complex flavors from the chickpeas cooked in a tangy broth to the roasted vegetables seasoned with coriander and lime juice. I think it would convert anyone to loving eggplant.

The chickpeas need to be soaked overnight (or all day) on a cool countertop or in the fridge. Most of the gassy qualities will be rinsed away in the soaking water, and the tumeric added to the cooking water will help make the chickpeas very digestible.

I've adapted the recipe from one by Yamuna Devi in her 1992 book Yamuna's Table.

I used a slotted spoon to remove the vegetables from the juice and served them with sides of steamed green beans and corn on the cob - it made a great fall meal.

If you like, you can leave the vegetables in the flavorful juice and serve them with rice or barley to soak up the deliciousness.

Eggplant and Potato Hotpot
1/2 tbsp mustard seeds
1/2 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 lb tomatoes, chopped
1/2 cup chickpeas, soaked overnight in water and drained
5 cups water
1/2 tsp ground tumeric
2 tbsp chopped cilantro
1 1/2 lbs eggplant
1 1/2 lbs potatoes
olive oil
1/2 tbsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tbsp lime juice

Place the mustard seeds in a heavy pan over medium heat. Cover and cook until the seeds start to pop. Add the ginger, tomatoes, drained chickpeas, water, tumeric and cilantro. Bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until the chickpeas are tender.

Meanwhile, roast the vegetables. Preheat the oven to 375°. Cut the eggplant and potatoes into 1" pieces and toss in a small amount of olive oil. Spread onto two lightly-oiled cookie sheets. Sprinkle with ground coriander and bake about 45 minutes until crisp and golden brown.

Sprinkle the lime juice over the hot vegetables, then add them to the chickpeas. Season with salt and pepper. Cover and barely simmer for 10-15 minutes.

With a slotted spoon, remove the vegetables and chickpeas from the broth and place in a serving bowl.

Serves 8

Reducing pesticide exposure

I make a point of eating organically-grown food because it is better for me, the farmworkers and the planet.

However, I realize not everyone is fortunate enough to have a great farmers market nearby, or a family who is willing to eat seasonally.

Since it is always better to eat non-organic produce than to avoid fruits and vegetables, I present here a list of produce which is safe to eat even if not organic.

The list is compiled by the Environmental Working Group, which tests fresh U.S.-grown produce for levels of pesticide residue.

You can find their full report here. They mention that if you choose your daily 5 servings of vegetables from the Clean Fifteen list instead of the Dirty Dozen, you will reduce your pesticide intake by 92 per cent. That's worth doing.

New on the toxic list from last year: spinach, blueberries, potatoes and collard greens. Make sure to find those in the organic section of your supermarket. Grapefruit, mushrooms and cantaloupe are new on the safe to eat even if conventionally-grown list.

Dirty Dozen - eat only if organic
apples
celery
strawberries
peaches
spinach
nectarines - imported
grapes - imported
bell peppers
potatoes
blueberries
lettuce
kale / collard greens


Clean Fifteen - safe to eat even if not organic
onions
sweet corn
pineapples
avocado
asparagus
peas
mangoes
eggplant
cantaloupe
kiwi
cabbage
watermelon
sweet potatoes
grapefruit
mushrooms

Caponata

East Coast Trip Part 2

When we travelled back East in September, we spent most evenings with friends and family. We reminded them beforehand that I'm vegetarian, so everyone planned dinner accordingly.

I never feel bad about letting people know my dietary preferences ahead of time. It gives them a chance to pick up something suitable for me to eat, or cook extra vegetables or pasta to go with the meat. And it lets them be the good hosts they want to be.

I would feel terrible if I cooked a special meal only to find my guests couldn't eat it, so I ask ahead of time if there are food preferences or allergies. And I'm happy to cook or buy food according to whatever their parameters are.

I think the whole point of breaking bread with people is to be inclusive and sharing. And the friends and family we visited did a great job of it, sharing food that both Larry and I enjoyed.

Our first stop was in Arlington, VA, with our friends Ramsay and Bill. We arrived late in the afternoon, a little worn out by our 4 a.m. start, cross-country flight, and the D.C. beltway traffic.

Ramsay set out an Italian eggplant relish with some sliced baguette, and poured a glass of red wine. All the travel stress drifted away, and we settled in for a good visit.

She had made this relish (which I am calling caponata) in August and frozen it. I could not tell it had been frozen and thawed, so good did it taste. So I asked for the recipe, because I love having good food in my freezer.

When we got home I watched impatiently as our Black Beauty eggplant slowly ripened. Finally, on Sunday, we sat by the fire eating this delicious caponata on slices of fresh baguette. It was worth the wait, and it brought back memories of a great trip. Thanks Ramsay!

Caponata
1 eggplant (about 9 oz)
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced celery
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 large red pepper, diced
1 small clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp tomato paste
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp capers, drained
1/4 cup oil-cured black olives, pitted and sliced

Peel eggplant and cut into 1/2 inch cubes. Warm oil over medium heat. Add eggplant, cover and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Take the lid off and keep cooking until eggplant is browned, about 10 minutes more. Stir occasionally but don't worry if the eggplant sticks to the pan. It will unstick later and add good flavor.

Stir in celery, onion, peppers and garlic. Cook, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft, about 5 minutes.

Combine tomato paste, water, vinegar, capers and olives and add to the pan. Cook, stirring more frequently, until the sauce is thick and the eggplant is soft, about 10 minutes.

Serve cold or at room temperature. Leftovers will last a week in the fridge, and freeze well for at least a month, probably longer.

Eggplant Dip

Last year I planted a variety of eggplants: Thai, Italian, African, Chinese - and all produced like mad. I called it the International Year of the Eggplant.

We ate them in ratatouille, on the barbecue, in spaghetti sauce and stir-fries.

Larry did his best to be appreciative but he was happy to see the season come to an end. This spicy-sweet dip, however, was gobbled up rapidly even in the waning days of eggplant season.

It is from Sarah Leah Chase's Cold Weather Comforts. She based it on a Chinese dish called Strange Flavor Eggplant.

Serve it with pita chips. (Sarah's recipe to make your own: cut 4 large pitas horizontally into 2 rounds, brush them with a combination of 1/2 cup vegetable oil and 1 tbsp roasted sesame oil, and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cut into irregular bite-sized triangles and bake at 350° 7-9 minutes until lightly browned. Let cool and store in an airtight container. Warning: these are addictive.)

Use whatever eggplant you have: small round white ones, big purple ones, or anything in between. The roasted sesame oil is essential - you can find it and brown rice vinegar at your local independent health food store.

Eggplant Dip
1 1/2 lbs eggplant
3 tbsp vegetable oil (or less)
2 tsp roasted sesame oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
3 scallions, trimmed and minced
1/4 tsp dried red pepper flakes
3 1/2 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp light brown sugar (or less)
1 tbsp brown rice vinegar
1 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)

Preheat the oven to 425°F. Prick the eggplants in several places with a fork and coat them with a little oil. Roast, turning once during cooking, until very soft, 20-40 minutes depending on the size of the eggplant. Let rest until cool enough to handle.

Peel and stem the eggplant. Process in food processor until smooth, or dice it very fine and mash it a little.

Whisk together the soy sauce, brown sugar and vinegar until sugar is dissolved. Set aside.

Warm 2 tbsp vegetable oil and 2 tsp roasted sesame oil in a medium-size pan over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, scallions and red pepper flakes. Cook, stirring, one minute. Whisk soy sauce mixture again and add to pan. Bring to a boil. Stir in the eggplant and simmer 3 minutes. Remove from heat and add lemon juice and optional cilantro.

Serve warm, at room temperature, or chilled, accompanied by toasted pita chips.

Makes about 2 1/2 cups

Safe Produce

Living green and eating organic is trendy, but I've been doing it for twenty years. It's the most life-supporting thing I can do (for me, the farm workers and the earth) and it's not easy. There are the logistics of buying and cooking organic produce while maintaining a busy schedule. I can do it because I've had a lot of practice, I live near the Hollywood Farmers Market, and my husband supports me in this endeavor.

For those of you with more finicky eaters in your families, here is the Environmental Working Group's 2009 Shoppers Guide to Pesticides, a concise look at the foods to avoid and those that are safe to eat. (Visit their site to download an iphone app of this list.)

They update the list annually based on mainstream agricultural practices.

Although it is always better to eat fresh fruit and vegetables rather than packaged foods, the following contain larger traces of pesticide residue than are considered safe. Avoid them in any form unless organic.

Eat only if organic:
apples
bell peppers
carrots
celery
cherries
grapes (imported)
kale
lettuce
nectarines
peaches
pears
strawberries


The following are considered by the Environmental Working Group to be safe to eat if non-organic. They have minimal to no pesticide residue. (Some of these surprise me.)

Okay to eat non-organic:
asparagus
avocados
broccoli
cabbage
eggplant
kiwi
mango
onions
papaya
pineapple
sweet corn
sweet peas
sweet potatoes
tomatoes
watermelon


(Source: Environmental Working Group)

Remember, eat food, not too much, mostly plants; and support local organic farmers whenever possible.