It comes under many names. Aubergine is most common in UK and comes from French. In Italian it's called melanzana, in Polish bakłażan. It used to be called a love-pear, supposedly because of its shape (although the anatomy association doesn't really add up). It came to Europe from India with the Arabs in the Middle Ages. In many European countries it used to be considered poisonous, but has always been regarded highly decorative.
If you are not a fan of the eggplant on its own, ratatouille is a great way of using it up. Ratatouille is simply a vegetable stew. It comes from Provence and there are various ways of preparing it, with different proportions and different techniques. Some recipes recommend preparing all the respective vegetables separately and then combining them in layers and stewing or baking. Some discard the liquid and use a selection of spices, basil included. It makes for a great starter or a main course. It's perfect for vegetarians or even vegans since it doesn't contain any animal products. You can serve it with rice, pasta, but I think it's best with just a piece of bread.
Ingredients:
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 large onion
2-3 garlic cloves
2 medium eggplants
2 medium zucchinis
2 medium (or 3 small) red or yellow (or both) bell peppers
4 medium tomatoes
1 tsp Provencal herb mix
salt and pepper
Start with the eggplant. Preheat the broiler in the oven. Slice the eggplant into 1cm rounds (less than 1/2 inch). Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking parchment and broil until they brown a little, then turn to the other side and brown a bit again. It should take just a couple of minutes. Leave to cool down. If you want to you can brush them first with olive oil, but it works fine without it and it's less calories this way.
Cut the onion in half and slice thinly.
Heat up olive oil in a large pot, add the onion and saute over medium-low heat for about 10 minutes, stirring every once in a while.
While the onion is sauteing remove seeds from the peppers and cut them into fairly large, bite-size pieces. Cut the zucchini into thick slices and chop garlic cloves.
Add peppers, zucchini and garlic to the onion and keep cooking for about 10 more minutes stirring occasionally.
In the meantime cut the eggplant slices into cubes. Cut tomatoes in half and remove seeds, then cut them into small cubes.
Add the eggplant, tomatoes, Provencal herb mix, salt and pepper to the pot. Cover and simmer for about 20 minutes over low heat stirring occasionally. Uncover and continue cooking for 25 minutes more
Serve warm. It should serve 6, but it's also great reheated.
I try to reduce calories where I can so I don't use much oil. If you wish you can add more oil to the pot before sauteing onion. You can also brush the eggplant with olive oil before broiling, but be careful not to use too much since eggplant will absorb almost any amount of oil.
If you are going to use large eggplants they might be a bit bitter. To take the bitterness out of it you need to salt each slice of the aubergine and leave for a couple of minutes, then rinse and pat dry.
If you have issues with tomato peel and you have the time you might want to remove it. To do so, drop tomatoes in boiling water (it helps if you cut a cross on top) and leave for a minute. The peel should come off easily. I usually don't just because it takes extra time. If you peel them, this should be the first thing you do.
If you don't have much time or fresh tomatoes aren't exactly in season (hence the flavour isn't the best) you can use chopped tomatoes out of a can.
And in case you wanted to know, it only has about 30 kcal/100g the way I prepare it, so it's really light. It's great as an evening meal.
No comments:
Post a Comment