Roasted Eggplant Caponata-Delicious Goodness

I had been contemplating cooking this delicate and healthy dish for quite a while, ever since I tried and loved it at my sister-in-law's place, only to be sidetracked by Ina Garten, Chuck Hughes and Ree Drummond on the Food Network channel with their propensity for baked, barbequed, sauced, Flambed and every-other-technique-ever-known-to-man (read non-vegetarian) meals. I usually prefer cooking non-vegetarian dishes because I feel they provide me with a wider range of options and more room for innovation...However, this dish was never far from my mind, and I decided today, as I browsed through the vegetable aisle at the grocery store, to go for it, since I was craving something light and tangy and healthy...Besides, I frankly needed a healthy change from those oh-so-crispy and delicious wings and potato wedges that I usually pick up at the deli of our local Walmart (They are so good, I can never truly get tired of them!)

So I went ahead and picked up an eggplant and some vinegar, along with a few other items, Here are the ingredients:

1 huge eggplant
A can of italian seasoned diced tomatoes (You can choose the plain diced tomatoes or even the full tomatoes and add your own seasoning, I just like this canned variety because it tastes so good in my italian inspired dishes and makes great sauces)
3 tea spoons of distilled white vinegar (The actual recipe calls for red wine vinegar, which I am sure would be better, but it wasn't available at the time)
2 teaspoons Chole Masala (My own touch)
Italian seasoning (optional..I got the bottle at the store, you can add whatever combination suits your fancy, oregano alone, or oregano and basil, oregano, basil and thyme and so on..The seasoned diced tomato pretty much covers them all)
Chillie powder
Salt and pepper to taste
4 cloves of garlic (This is what makes the dish so delicious, besides the vinegar)
Canola oil or if you want to go more healthy, Olive Oil
1 large onion

To prepare the Caponata

First pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees. Cut your eggplant into small cubes, place them in a baking dish and sprinkle with olive oil. Place the baking dish in the oven for 20 minutes. Another recipe suggests baking the egg-plant for only 12 minutes at 200 degrees for a firmer texture. You can try that option if you choose. I personally don't mind the slightly 'Baingan Bharta' like texture, though we don't mash the eggplant for this recipe. 

While the eggplant is being baked, heat oil in a vessel. Cut the onions and mince your garlic cloves and cook them till they are transparent. By now your eggplant should be baked and ready. Add the cubed eggplant to the onion and garlic and saute them till they are browned, about 5 minutes. Add the diced tomatoes and two teaspoons of the vinegar (you can add the third spoon once your caponata is nearly done and if you feel you need a little more acidity). Mix them well, add half a tea-spoon of chillie powder if you like it spicy, and then, if you want to add your own indian touch, chole masala (I used two teaspoons), I loved the flavor and the color it gave to the dish..Add salt and pepper as needed, and if you crave a little more acidity add a teaspoon more of the vinegar. I pretty much started stuffing my face at this point. The tangy combination of tomatoes, eggplant and the light acidity from the vinegar was indescribable..

By now your Caponata should be ready, since you have already oven roasted it..If you would like your Eggplant's texture to be less firm, you could cook it for a few more minutes. The whole dish took me about 20 minutes in addition to the baking time. The best part about this dish is you can eat it hot or cold, with rice or without and also as a side dish. I had it with plain white rice, but it tastes equally good on toast, garlic bread, crackers and... pita chips. If you don't try this dish with pita chips, you will seriously be missing out!

It's dishes like this that make me contemplate turning vegetarian.While that will probably never happen...ever (I love my meat too much), I look forward to making this dish again..just to experience its heavenly tangy goodness all over again...Now excuse me, while I sign off to clean up my very messy kitchen :(

A Recipe from Heaven

This recipe takes me back to X'Mases past, when I was five or six, a slightly chubby kid in messy braids, denim jumpers, and red framed glasses which I hated but had no choice but to wear. One of my favorite christmas rituals was the exchange of Christmas goodies with our equally enthusiastic neighbours. We called them 'Kuswar' - a collective term for a variety of Christmas sweets prepared and exhanged among Goan and Mangalorean catholics all over. If I close my eyes and reminisce long enough, I can still get a faint whiff of the heavenly scents emanating from my mother's kitchen as she rushed to prepare her share of the christmas fare a few hours before the midnight mass- her delicious plum cake filled with plums, dates and nuts, those light-as-cloud cardamom flavored Nankhatais and last, but not the least, my favorite Milk Toffees (those caramel colored, cashew enriched squares of goodness), while I stuffed my face with store bought Marzipan. Usually, this (originally Sri-Lankan) recipe takes about 30-35 minutes to make and requires careful vigilance, as it involves the preparation of a sugar syrup, before adding the other ingredients. Waiting too long could cause the sugar syrup to over-crystallize, giving the toffee a brittle texture which would be hard to shape into squares- not what we are going for. 

However the recipe I use does not require as much vigilance and takes less than half the time to make. And what's more, you can make it in your microwave and it tastes just as good, perhaps better since the texture is softer and caramel-ier..;)...I actually needed just 8 and a half minutes to make it but the times may vary depending on your Microwave Power..

So here goes:

Ingredients:

I can condensed milk (not the fat-free variety please, that does not work and tastes...blecch)

2 Tablespoons of butter (Some recipes recommend using a whole stick of butter-I would rather you not, it just takes longer to set and gets too buttery tasting) 

3-4 cardamom pods crushed to extract the seeds (Optional, I personally prefer the cardamom flavor)

Cahew nuts or Almonds (Chopped or powdered, I like them chopped for that definite crunch)

1 cup sugar (350 g)

2-3 teaspoons brown sugar or cocoa powder  (This is completely optional, I just like my toffees to get that darker color, just to add to the decadence!)

Method:

In a Microwave safe bowl, mix the can of condensed milk, butter, sugar and cardamom seeds thoroughly to form a thick mixture. If you add the cocoa powder or brown sugar, the mixture will get this yummy looking marbelly brown tint which is awesome as well :). Place a lid on the bowl to prevent splattering, put it in the microwave and set the timer for 2 and a half minutes. You need to microwave it for short periods of time to ensure that the mixture does not boil over. 

Take the bowl out carefully, using oven mitts if you have them (It will be hot I promise) and stir the mixture. Put it back in the microwave for another two and a half minutes, and take it out again to stir. At this point, the mixture will be smelling and looking delicious but resist the urge to taste it if you don't want to scald the insides of your mouth (I've been there too many times, thanks to my impatience!)..Put the mixture back in for the third time and for 2 minutes and 30 seconds again. 

After the third spin in the microwave, you will notice that the mixture has almost reached the brown color seen in the picture above. It will also be very hot. Stir it carefully, add the slivered or powdered nuts now, cover it and put it back into the microwave, but for not more than 1 minute. Anything more and the mixture will get burnt. You really don't want that, unless you like the taste of burnt caramel. My advice would be to microwave it for 30 seconds first and if the mixture does not look like its sputtering/over boiling, put it in for another 30 seconds more so it finally gets that perfect brown toffee color. I don't think you need more time than that, but trust your intuition on this. If you want it a little darker, you could try for 30 seconds more, but do so at your own risk. As you stir the mixture, it should appear sticky and semi-solid, almost like a thick paste. If the texture still appears fluid like against your spoon, heat it for 30 seconds more. Either way, it will solidify as it cools down. Transfer the mixture to a buttered tray, cover it with a foil, and leave it undisturbed for atleast 10 minutes.

So to summarize: 3 spins in the microwave for 2 and a half minutes each, making sure to stir all three times,  fourth spin for not more than one minute, before which you add the chopped nuts. Then, set aside for about 10 minutes to cool. 

At this point the mixture has probably hardened to a delicious looking caramely mass and you can cut it into pretty little squares/diamonds with which you can impress your friends. Or if you are like me and don't feel the need to share, you can give in to your inner fat girl and just scoop it off the tray with a spoon (or a shovel) and indulge in its nutty-caramely goodness. It tastes delicious either way! :)

If you have the patience of a saint and don't mind toiling over your stove, you can follow this recipe:
http://www.infolanka.com/recipes/mess4/286.html...I personally prefer the shortcut!

Happy Early Christmas! ;)

The Power of the Fake Phone Call

I was on my way to my local grocery store a few weeks ago to pick up a few necessary items when I heard someone call out from somewhere to the right of me,  “Hey girl, let me be your daddy”. Oh boy, I thought gritting my teeth, here we go again. It was 11 am for Gods sake!…From the corner of my eye, I could tell it was a middle aged man in shabby clothing carrying a laundry (?) bag ..I kept walking, neither acknowledging nor looking at the source of this highly unflattering attention…He, being the persevering soul that he was, tried again, in a voice that sounded like he was drunk/stoned, “C’mon baby girl, give me a little smile, pretty please”, eliciting an almost involuntary eye-roll and grimace from me...Bad idea, as this not-so-subtle reaction only served to incense him..”Hey, don’t you be rollin' your eyes at me” he called out, in a menacing tone of voice. Uh-oh..That’s when I reverted to a familiar old habit, my favorite coping mechanism during those moments of anxiety that arise when I am forced to attend a necessary social event where I don’t know anyone, or when I am talking to my crush at a party and we suddenly run out of things to say: Answering the fake phone call or even composing the fake text just to make myself appear preoccupied….As frivolous as it seems, my phone has been my savior during such situations. So, I whipped out my cell phone like it was a weapon and pretended to answer a silent vibrating phone ring knowing that he was too far away to tell if my phone had really rung or not…”Hey! Yup I am on my way… will see you in a minute” I  paused, before continuing in panic, trying to sound normal…”btw did you remember to bring the QA report from last time?…I think it will be a good form of reference…Sure I have that with me...”  loud enough to be heard but not too loud so as to sound unnatural...I was basically blabbering nonsense, but how the hell would he know?…He muttered something about educated folks and kind of faded away from my line of vision in a few minutes, as I continued walking and fake talking till I was sure he was not around anymore..

Since then, I have found myself resorting to this method everytime I am accosted by a persistent cat-caller on my way to class, grocery store, work, anywhere…and it actually works…In fact it works better than simply ignoring them as some of them simply don’t seem to give up…The fake phone call gives me a good excuse to ignore them, as it seems like I am not paying attention since I am apparently too engrossed in my fake conversation to hear them…So they stop trying. In fact my intuition in this regard has become so fine tuned, like most woman having to face this situation everyday, that I whip up my phone atleast a second or so before I am about to encounter a potential cat-caller, so my sudden phone call seems natural and not manufactured in reaction to them...

So ladies, if you are tired of the especially persistent eve teaser who does not seem to get the message, and you want to look for creative ways to make him leave you alone, the fake phone call does the job beautifully..Of course, I would advice you to make your necessary grocery store trips in the day time, when its well lighted, rather than in the late evening hours or have your friend drive you instead..but you know, it never hurts to have a few tricks up your sleeve, when there is no choice at the time but to walk alone…and ofcourse, have your pepper spray ready in your purses just in case.