know your audience.
the latest in the "cooking A Thing!" series!
Eggplant Thing, originally uploaded by miz_ginevra.
Originally a recipe that started as thai fried eggplant with basil, eggplant thing has come into being along with my CSA box this summer, and a gifted basil plant. Thai basil is better, but usually means a trip to the Sunset. The concept of cooking from the CSA box - especially this summer, when the produce is suffering from a lack of water here in California (and the east coast has the inverse problem) is more of a philosophy of OMG QUICK EAT IT BEFORE IT ROTS. I'm serious, my CSA tomatoes rot within two days of delivery. It's depressing, since I love tomatoes like it ain't no joke.
Moving along!
Eggplant Thing is meant to have a savory-sweet asian flavor, but I bet if you wanted to Italian-i-fy it with tomatoes and oregano, you could.
Eggplant Thing
veggies:
eggplants - chinese work best, chopped into 1-inch cubes
peppers - I've been using the red peppers from my CSA box, and red give the best color
onion - 1 medium, julienne
basil - as much as you like
sauce:
shoyu/soy sauce
sugar
rice wine vinegar
fish sauce (not too much, it's fishy)
red pepper flakes or diced thai chilis, to taste
hot water
if you're going for a thicker sauce, cornstarch
fry eggplant at high heat, put aside in its own bowl. I like to get at least one side super-toasty-brown, so I use a cast iron pan with just a wee bit of oil. Fry onions the same way (you can use water to sort of steam/deglaze to cut down on oil, a trick I learned from ChezBeau) and add peppers. When everything gets all tasty-looking, add back in the eggplant and the sauce. Stir in sauce, let cook for ~5 minutes.
You can fry the chilis first in the oil, for the spicy-spicy goodness.
You could also add in other veggies to taste, whatever you're trying to use up - squash would be good, as would zukes.
For Italian-i-fying, I'd sub the sauce with something like arrabiata (red pepper flakes, capers, tomato, parsley/oregano) and lots of cracked black pepper, instead of the umami of soy/fish sauce.
I just wanted to say the word "umami".
sidenote: some guidance on picking the best eggplants.
It must be a right-brained sort of day, one where I think about poetry before sunup. This is an old favorite, found squirreled away in someone's classical poetry anthology, thumbed through and on sale at Green Apple Bookstore on Clement Street. I can't recall what put me in a mind of it, other than the shrugging line of "so what?" when the narrator as good as admits that bitches be crazy, but that's alright by him because it beats the alternative.
It's totally sexist and totally sexy and dammit, I'm going on vacation tomorrow. So it seemed an unusual and lovely way to start the day: with the knowledge that we humans haven't changed our relations very much since Before the Common Era.
--
Elegy 8B
Ovid, 43 BCE-18 CE
translation: Peter Green
--
If I heard a voice from heaven say 'Live without
loving.'
I'd beg off. Girls are such exquisite hell.
When desire's slaked, when I'm sick of the whole
business,
Some kink in my wretched nature drives me back.
It's like riding a hard-mouthed horse
that bolts headlong, foam flying
from his bit and won’t answer the rein -
Or being aboard a ship, on the point of docking, in
harbour,
when a sudden squall blows you back to sea:
That’s how the veering winds of desire so often catch
me –
Hot Love up to his lethal tricks again.
All right, boy, skewer me, I’ve dropped my defences,
I’m an easy victim. Why, by now
Your arrows practically know their own way to the
target
And feel less at home in their quiver than in me. I’m sorry
for any fool who rates sleep a prime blessing
and enjoys it from dusk to dawn.
Night In. Night out. What’s sleep but cold death’s
reflection?
Plenty of time for rest when you’re in the grave.
My mistress deceives me – so what? I’d rather be lied to
Than ignored. I can live on hope. Today
She'll be all endearments, tomorrow throw screaming
tantrums,
Envelop me one night, lock me out the next.
War, like love, is a toss-up. If Mars is inconstant, he
gets that
From you, his stepson. You're quite
Unpredictable, Cupid, with your lucky-dip favours,
And more volatile than your own wings.
Maybe you'll hear my appeal though - your delectable
mother
Might help there - and settle in as king of my heart?
Then admit the flighty sex en masse to your dominions
and you'd have guaranteed popularity all round.
