Thoughts on approaching this week’s box from subscriber Conne Ward Cameron.
Such pretty little habanero peppers (I think) in the small brown bag. What did you do with yours? We’ve not received too many hot peppers in the past, beyond jalapenos, so you won’t find much guidance at https://grassfedcow.com/
Today, I’m concentrating on the gorgeous eggplant in today’s box. I talked with someone who plans to peel it, slice it, salt it, then rinse and dip in an egg wash and bread crumbs before frying. Very traditional, very delicious.
I just finished testing an amazing roasted eggplant soup from an Italian restaurant in Florida. We’ll be running the recipe in the AJC right after Labor Day, so I can’t share it right now, but it involved roasting diced eggplant, peppers and squash (yes, yellow squash), then pureeing them in a seasoned vegetable broth mixture. Absolutely delicious and even my eggplant-averse husband loved it and had seconds. I’ll share that recipe when I can.
In the meantime, pay heed to the information at https://grassfedcow.com/
You’ll find two dozen or so eggplant recipes there, but I’m going to try this one from “Chinatown Kitchen” by Lizzie Mabbott. Just basically browned eggplant with herbs and my favorite Vietnamese dipping sauce. Perfect summer dish. You could use a little habanero in place of the bird’s eye chile. Not traditional, but still delicious. Lizzie’s recipe calls for making the nuoc cham in a mortar and pestle. Full disclosure – I’ll be doing this in a food processor.
Grilled Eggplant with Nuoc Cham
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1 large eggplant,
cut into fingers
1/2 handful of mint
Handful of fresh cilantro
Nuoc Cham (see below)
Handful of toasted cashews,
coarsely crushed
Heat the oil in a wok until almost smoking, then turn the heat down to medium and fry the eggplant until golden, turning occasionally. Do not burn. Transfer the eggplant to a baking dish. Cook under a preheated medium broiler for 20 minutes, turning the eggplant halfway through.
Chop the mint finely, and the cilantro leaves coarsely. Set aside. (If you have roots on your cilantro stalks, wash them well, chop them finely, and add them to the mortar to be ground into the nuoc cham sauce.)
To assemble, place the eggplant in a serving dish while warm, top with the mint and cilantro, and dress with the nuoc cham. Finally, scatter the dish with the cashews to serve.
Nuoc Cham
Nuoc cham is a Vietnamese dipping sauce, commonly served with noodle salads, egg rolls, summer rolls, and banh xeo (a crêpe-like pancake stuffed with bean sprouts and protein). Essentially, this sauce should be made with the component parts as you prefer. So keep tasting and adding them according to your taste, because you might like it more sour, more sweet, or more or less spicy. This is how I like mine.
1 fat garlic clove
2 teaspoons soft dark brown sugar
1 red bird’s-eye chile (use more if you like it really hot, less if you don’t)
Juice of 1 lime
2 tablespoons fish sauce, or to taste
2 tablespoons water, or to taste
Peel the garlic clove and crush with the sugar using a mortar and pestle until it is a smooth paste. Seed the chile, chop it coarsely, and then add it to the mortar and give it a good pounding. Add the lime juice and mix well.. Add 1 tablespoon of the fish sauce and taste. Add 1 tablespoon water and taste. Keep doing this until you have the desired piquancy or pungency. Remember that you can always add but you can’t take away.