Stir-fried Eggplant

You know what else we did after we were all hot, sweaty and mosquito bitten but happy with pints and pints of freshly picked raspberries in the car? We cranked up the air conditioning, plugged in the trusty little GPS and went to another farm for veggies! Susies Garden Patch was just a few more miles down the road, past the baby ducks and the funky quail looking critters, past the horses, past the barns, and past the acres and acres of corn and soy as far as the eye can see. I was very close to stealing a cute little yellow fuzzy baby ducky but then I saw the papa duck...and decided to move along.

The veggies on the farm were a little disorganized, but that made hunting for them more fun. They had a bunch of zucchini plants with zucchinis the size of your leg. Those suckers were huge! They had rows and rows of tomatoes, and we made sure to pick up the pretty Roma ones. One or two may have not made it into the basket, memory is a but fuzzy. There was a long row of different kinds of peppers, going from hot peppers to green peppers to purple peppers, but my favorites were the eggplants.



I love eggplant, it goes great with everything. Baba ganoush, layered in lasagna, cooked with goat cheese and chorizo, yum! But lately, my favorite recipes are ones that can be made in just a few minutes, and I think I've gotten this one down to 5. How can you beat that? So here it is, my 5 minute meal:



Stir-fried Eggplant
by Me
Serves 2

2 small shiny eggplants, or 2 long Chinese eggplants
A bit of olive oil
A drizzle of soy sauce
A healthy squirt of Hoisin sauce
A touch of Sriracha hot sauce
A generous dash of garlic powder
2 or 3 tablespoons of water
A pretty bunch of green onion for garnish

- Slice the eggplant into even pieces about an inch or two long and maybe a half inch thick.
- Pour a bit of olive oil into a large pan set over medium high heat and layer the eggplant over it.
- As the eggplant starts to cook, open the fridge door and start pulling bottles out. First, pour some soy sauce into the pan, standing a bit back to avoid the possible spatter. Then pull out the Hoisin sauce and draw a few circles with it in the pan. Lastly, pull out the Sriracha hot sauce and add as much as you feel you can handle.
- Sprinkle some garlic powder over the whole thing and add the water.
- Stir everything together to make sure the eggplant is well coated, cover and cook for a few minutes, coming back to stir often, until the eggplant is tender.
- Server over a small pile of steamed rice and garnish with chopped green onion.

Cauliflower Love

I was told that my post about boiling an egg was lame, and I admit that it wasn't very special. I loved how the picture of the egg came out and I formed the post around it, but I'm hoping at least one of you will do the same the next time you see fresh farm eggs. You see, I've been trying to cook more recently. More importantly, I've been trying to cook healthier and I'm finding that in cooking, simple is best. I still love super complicated, many layered, dozen-dirty-bowls-minimum type cake recipes and I am still not intimidated by baking recipes that span 3 or more pages, but I know that I'd never be able to keep it up if it wasn't quick and easy, and while there's a great sense of achievement when the huge monster is complete, I'm usually wiped for at least the day or two. So I've been trying to keep things simple in the hopes that I could do this, well, forever. I was perfectly happy with the soft boiled egg, a small salad, and the gussied up Greek yogurt for dinner last night. Yummy, quick, and easily repeatable, so why not keep this up?

Mark Twain was quoted when he said that a cauliflower is just a cabbage with a college education. This quote has nothing to do with anything else that I'm going to say, but it's an awesome quote, don't you think? Okay, I'm weird, just keep going...nothing to see here.


I never gave cauliflower much thought and it was never really in my repertoire until I read and old post from the fabulous Orangette and I don't know...it just looked perfect. I picked one up at the grocery store and whipped it up for dinner tonight. The recipe couldn't have been simpler, and I only tweaked it a tiny bit. I definitely recommend you pick some up the next time you see one and give it a try. And don't be afraid of the colorful ones either. I already had mine in the fridge when I saw beautiful green and vivid purple ones at the French market today.


Caramelized Cauliflower
Adapted from Orangette

1 head of cauliflower, white or green or purple
Olive oil
Fine sea salt
garlic powder (everything is better with garlic)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit. Place the head of cauliflower on a cutting board, and slice it top-down into ¼-inch slices, some of which will crumble. Toss cauliflower in a large bowl with plenty of olive oil and a bit of salt and a few good shakes of the garlic powder, spread it in a single layer on a heavy sheet pan (or two, if one looks crowded), and roast until golden brown and caramelized, turning bits and slices once or twice, about 25 minutes. Pile onto a plate and don't forget to share...or not :D

Oh, and don't forget, there's still the Giveaway going on, so go go go and enter. There are some wonderful desserts people are coming up with :)