3-alarm plate of awesome
This is an older recipe I whipped together last year while Tracey was out of town. I'm posting it here because I don't keep track of the journal where it was stored anymore.
Okay, just had a successful kitchen experiment and had to blog about it. Been experimenting all week, what with Well_T. on hiatus up in Maine. Making foods that I know she wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole. Tonight's: roasted red peppers and roasted eggplant, tossed and fried in mustard oil, bay leaf, and spices (cayenne, cinnamon, turmeric). Served over polenta, and it was *perfect*.
Recipe, and sorry, this one's a bit involved, because roasting peppers requires attention:
- 2 red bell peppers
- 2 jalepenos
- 1 med. eggplant
- olive oil for brushing
- 1/2tsp cayenne
- 1/2tsp turmeric
- 1tbl mustard seed
- 1 bay leaf
- 1 shallot
Preheat the oven to 500 degrees, Coat the skin of the peppers in olive oil (lightly) and set down on a cookie sheet (you can use the bare oven, but be prepared for a mess if the pepper sags through). Roast on each side of the pepper 8-10 minutes, turning when the pepper is thoroughly blistered. Take out the peppers and then cover them for30 minutes so that they steam themselves. a bowl over a plate will do just fine. The point is that if they steam themselves, they're that much easier to peel.
Now, whlie all this is going on, slice the eggplant in half lengthwise, then cut a crosshatch into each half. Sprinkle with kosher salt and set aside for 30 min while the pepper is roasting.
When the pepper is done roasting, squeeze the eggplant face down, gently, over the sink so that the salty juice comes out, brush the salt off, and then coat the surface with oil (lightly, once again). Drop the oven down to 400, put the eggplant face down on some foil or cookie sheets, and roast those for another half hour.
If you time this right, the pepper will be ready to peel by the time the eggplant's ready to come out of the oven, and you'll feel like you know kung-fu for all your sheer perfect timing. If you're me, you peel the pepper and set it aside for 10 minutes.
Take everything that's roasted and chop it up. Heat a tablespoon and a half of olive oil in a pan until it shimmers. Add the bay leaf, chopped shallot, and mustard seeds and fry till the seeds begin to pop. add the turmeric and fry for no more than 10 seconds. toss in the chopped peppers and eggplant and add cayenne to taste. Stirfry for 5 minutes, remove from heat, and serve. My chosen side was polenta, but basmati rice would work just as well. As for pics, I'd post a pic, but I eated it...