Taste of Summer: Part III

Another week, another cooking experiment inspired by my Garden Club box.  This week's challenge - Eggplant!

I have historically liked eggplant dishes at restaurants, but have not really been able to successfully create eggplant dishes at home to my dismay. Earlier this summer, I had my first success with a simple recipe from Mark Bittman's How To Cook Everything, which is a common starting place when I'm trying to figure out an ingredient. (I will try to find and share that recipe soon - basically fry the eggplant pieces and serve over pasta with homemade tomato sauce).  I decided to take what I learned and try my own mixture from other ingredients in our cupboard. 

Summer's Sausage and Eggplant

Summer's Eggplant & Sausage

Ingredients:

1 pkg Smoked Turkey Kielbasa, cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes (or other similar sausages, I like these as they are lower in fat and flavorful.  Each package is usually just under a pound).

2 small or 1 large eggplant

2 tomatoes - cut into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes

2 garlic cloves, minced

2-3 T. Olive Oil

salt & pepper to taste

That's it! Super simple.

Instructions:

If time allows, cut the eggplant into 1/2 in slices and salt liberally on both sides.  Let it set for 30 min to 2 hours or so.   Rinse off the salt and proceed as below.  This can be skipped, but I feel like the taste and texture are somewhat improved.

Cut eggplants into 1/2 to 3/4 inch cubes.  Drizzle a large pan with olive oil and warm over medium heat.  Add the remaining ingredients, mix well, and another drizzle of oil on top so that the entire dish is lightly coated enough to not stick. Let cook over medium heat for 10 minutes or so without stirring.  Flip/mix the skillet's contents and let cook another 5 minutes.  Then turn up the heat to medium high and stir fairly frequently for another 5-10 minutes.  Taste and adjust seasonings as you like.

Notes:  When you start it is going to seem like a lot of eggplant, but be aware that a lot of water will cook off and there was actually maybe slightly too much sausage to eggplant for my taste, but it worked for my family's preferences. 

 I did not have the free hands today to play much with seasonings, but think sauteing some onions and garlic first would be good.  I also considered some crushed red pepper flakes for a little heat or some fresh herbs like thyme or rosemary.  

Reviews:  Brent and I really liked it. (This is saying something as Brent isn't into eggplants or veggie heavy mixes usually).   The kids happen to love this kind of sausage so they were more open to trying it than they might have been otherwise.  They seemed OK with it. My original vision had the eggplant pieces and sausage getting a little crispy at the edges.  Adding the tomatoes made it a bit saucier without much browning.  I think the original idea would work so long as the tomatoes were omitted and higher heat were used. I wasn't able to stand around the stove as the baby was pretty clingy so this slower approach worked and was a happy surprise. 

On a somewhat sad note, our Garden Club deliveries will be suspended for the next two weeks due to the oppressive heat and drought in Oklahoma.  We will get vegetables from the farmer's market and hoping we have better weather soon for the farmers and all of us!

Enjoy!