While we were home in Champaign, Liz & I took a trip to the Urbana Farmer's Market (Pictured Above) to get some walking in, pick up a watermelon & sweet corn, and see the Urbana Farmer's Market Music Man (Pictured Above) who proves time & time again that sweet, sweet music can be made with a plastic kid's rake and some old tin cans. While we were buying our sweet corn, the stall we were at was also selling eggplants, so we picked one up with no idea what to do with it, until I recalled an article I had read in the New York Times about deconstructed Eggplant Parmesan. Since I couldn't find the article, I decided to wing it and make up a recipe on my own.
Recognizing that eggplant can be very bitter, I washed the eggplant and sliced into medium-thick rounds, placed them in a strainer in the sink, and doused them with a liberal helping of kosher salt before letting them sit for 20 minutes. This process leaches out not only water inside the vegetable, but also the bitterness.
As the eggplant sat in the strainer, I cut a couple of tomatoes into slices before quartering the slices into half moons, and did the same with some leftover buffalo mozerella that we had used to make our caprice salad.
We had the grill at the Sterling going for flank steak and t-bones, so when the meat came off to rest, the eggplant went on for a quick grill.
After the eggplant came off the grill, we plated them on a platter, topped them with tomatoes and mozerella, and finished them a piece of fresh basil, salt & pepper, and a little extra virgin olive oil. In thinking through the dish post-consumption, I think a the final product could be served hot & melted via a quick trip under the broiler.
.
.
0 comments:
Post a Comment