Cold Noodles with Spicy Eggplant and Cucumber Salad
This recipe is really 3, 4, or 7 different recipes bundled into one package: 1. You could make just the spicy cucumber salad. 2. You could make just a spicy eggplant salad.
Roasted Eggplant “Salsa”
What do you get when you mix two classic condiments: a creamy roasted eggplant dip and a tangy, fresh tomato-based salsa? A colorful cross. And why not? I always liked the brightness of adding fresh citrus juice to roasted or grilled eggplant. It sort of livens the greyish thing up. I also get frustrated, sometimes, spilling the juice of a fresh tomato salsa while trying to scoop it up with a tortilla chip. Or getting one piece of onion on … Read More
Roasted Eggplant and Chipotle Dip
Some like it smoky. If you’ve been cooking out a great deal this summer, perhaps you’ve grown fond of the lingering woodsmoke scent in your hair and clothes (designer fragrance idea: “Campfire”) and that bitter, mineral edge on slightly burnt food. You can embrace this essence when cooking indoors as well; I especially like it on eggplant, and to reinforce that smokiness, with a hint of chipotle, too.
Eggplant Caponata, For Safekeeping
They say a photo’s the best way to capture a moment in time. But I tend to think of mason jars when it comes to keeping some of my favorite ones. Here is the moment: I’m rushing through a not-very-bustling strip of the Greenmarket in Carroll Gardens, adjacent to a park, and in the late afternoon. It’s not a market I go to often, but I’m making use of my chance location by picking up various things for various projects … Read More
“Shallow-Fried” Eggplant with Feta, Capers and Pickled Swiss Chard Stems
I’m fond of using up kitchen “scraps.” I was working in the kitchen of a soon-to-be new restaurant in Brooklyn, when I scraped together a family meal (aka nosh for the staff) using some celery trimmings, chicken legs, and somewhat dried-up knobs of ginger after they were grated to the last stubs. Here, I’ve salvaged the stems of a leafy bunch of Swiss chard to chop finely and quick-pickle, and pair with capers and crumbles of feta cheese in a … Read More