week 14

Cooking in Season
week 14

I am so happy. It has been a few months of searching through the massive amount of apple trees at work, taking a bite out of each tree to find plenty of cider apples or wild apples with that mealy texture and mild taste, thinking maybe they’re not that bad. This tree is it. Laden with a bunch of juicy but crisp apples, these are the apples I was searching for. I know I asked the name and it’s one of those combo names that’s escaping me right now like jonafree or jonagold. In any case, they are delicious and no spray… but I still strongly advise as I always do to wash before eating. Most blemishes are only skin deep, but with all apples, a small hole can mean someone already found the tasty fruit and might still be inside. Oh, and we should be pressing cider soon, which is always exciting.

We also have a couple grapes too scattered throughout. They all have seeds. I have a concord seedless planted, but at the rate it’s growing, it will be years before I start picking the fruit. If the seeds are too much for you, you could always enjoy some juice, although one bunch really won’t give you that much. The internet has some creative ways of extracting juice like boiling and straining, but if you just want a glass of very fresh grape juice, just wash and stem the grapes, put them in a ziplock bag, mash, and then strain. You don’t get a lot of juice, but it’s delicious and no seeds to worry about..

Anyway, on to the veggies…
I remember the first time I ever cooked eggplant. It was at the start of my culinary explorations when I was young and I picked up an eggplant out of the produce aisle for it’s beautiful purple color and lovely shape. I figured it couldn’t be that hard and it reminded me of zucchini so sliced it up and sautéed it in a pan all by itself. Excited to try my new dish, I shoveled the first flimsy piece in my mouth only to spit it back out. The texture was like a raw fish, it soaked up all the oil like a sponge, and there was this overwhelming bitterness to it which made me vow never to cook it again.
I have since gotten over that with a simple tip I plucked out of a vegetarian cookbook – an hour before cooking, slice your eggplant, lay it on a paper towel and flip it halfway through with a dash of salt and it will sweat out all of the bitter juices. So that was one problem solved. The next was how to cook it without saturating it completely with oil and loosing the firm texture. I find that with all super absorbent veggies, when sautéed I used half water and half oil, allowing the water to soak in first and then adding the oil so it doesn’t stick. A step up from this is throw it on the grill and brush with seasoned oil or butter. In the end, I find it has a firm texture which reminds me of steak or a good portabella mushroom.
After the initial fear of eggplant left me, I found it is great stacked into a lasagna or sautéed with squash on a bed of scalloped potatoes. This recipe is simple (and would be great with a grilled half of a sweet pepper too) and with the sweating preparation out of the way, it might make you look at this beautiful vegetable in a different light. If not, well it’s always great breaded, deep fried and covered in cheese like a good eggplant parmesean.

Grilled Eggplant Sandwich
4 teaspoons Olive Oil
1 clove Garlic, finely chopped1 1/2 teaspoons chopped, Fresh Basil2 small Eggplants sliced1/2 cup Cream Cheese, Low-Fat Whipped, or Goat Cheese4 pieces Focaccia or other good quality bread, sliced in half, lengthwise2/3 cup kale or other greens, washed and dried4 slices Tomato
Preparation:Preheat grill to medium heat. Add olive oil, garlic, salt, and fresh ground pepper and ½ teaspoon fresh chopped basil to small bowl. Stir to combine. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil mixture. Grill eggplant over direct heat, 3 minutes per side. Mix cream cheese, 1-tablespoon fresh chopped basil, salt, and fresh ground pepper in small bowl. Spread 4 halves of focaccia bread with cheese mixture. Top with kale, slice of tomato and focaccia bread slice.

See you next week ~janee