Eggplant has a bad rep...

Yesterday, after going out for an early birthday lunch with my co-workers, I had some extra time before my next commitment so I stopped in at the Cape Abilities Farm on Route 6A in Dennis. Cape Abilities is a very cool local organization that helps Cape Codders with disabilities take part in activities designed to maintain and improve skills for daily living, communication, personal safety and wellness. They do this in part by employing many of these folks on their farm and various retail stores across the Cape. I support the organization as much as possible because they really do great things and no matter where you go, you are always greeted with a huge smile!

What a haul for $7!

When I stopped in yesterday, my neighbor, who is in charge of the Cape Abilities business development projects, was there. He gave me a great tour of the greenhouses after I had bought some fresh veggies... And then he L-O-A-D-E-D me up with fresh cukes, more tomatoes, and so much eggplant of all varieties that I couldn't possibly eat it all... especially since I am the only one in my family that will eat it at all! My neighbor said that he's not sure if he likes eggplant but doesn't know how to cook it anyway... and his family won't eat it either. So tonight I cooked up about two pounds of eggplant and sent some across the street for him to try. An hour later he came over to return the dish and said, "That was SOOOOO good! I actually really LIKE eggplant now!" (Yay! A convert!) He also promised to load me up with more eggplant for the weekend. Apparently I now need to figure out how to preserve it so it won't go bad before I can eat it. I'm pretty sure I can't peddle my eggplant dish up and down the street since we have the reputation among the neighborhood kids as only having "that gross healthy food". (This reputation doesn't bother me a bit! :-))

Not as pretty cooked...

Anyway... many people tell me that they don't like eggplant because they don't know how to cook it but I think it's really easy! I don't get crazy with the parmigiana or breading it (my mom makes a delicious breaded eggplant though!) or anything outlandish, I just cube it, season it, saute it, and eat it. Perfection!

What you need:
Eggplant - wash it really well and cube it. (I had a reaction to pesticides on an eggplant once so I clean them like crazy - organic or not!)
Sea salt - this time I used smoked sea salt which added a nice dimension
Crushed red pepper - use sparingly or generously. Just put it in as soon as you start cooking so it has time to get infused into the eggplant
Olive oil - the trick to sauteing eggplant is using plenty of olive oil
(For my second batch tonight I also added some nutritional yeast which was tasty too.)

Season to taste, saute until it's soft and a little browned (especially if the inside of the skin is a little green when you cut it - that needs to be cooked well) but not until it's slimy - you'll lose your already teeny audience if it's slimy. And it's important to eat it while it's hot!

Enjoy!