Grilled Sourdough and Eggplant Sandwich

  I saw a great recipe on another blog that I like to read and it inspired me to make this sandwich. I wanted to put a link on this entry to that recipe, but after searching through the contents I couldn't find it. However, the blog has a lot of good stuff on it and here is a link to it, http://www.eatdrink onewoman.com/.

  This was a natural evolution for me. I really like all the components to this sandwich, so it was inevitable. I prepared it the same way I would a grilled cheese sandwich. Butter two slices of sourdough bread. Put them butter side down in a pan on medium heat, pile a little shredded mozzarell cheese on each slice, put a slice of grilled eggplant on each slice of bread and put a little red sauce on one side. When the cheese has melted a little, invert one slice on to the other and brown each side until done. Enjoy!

TTFN

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Fire Roasted Eggplant With Garlic

  This is a pretty versatile preparation. I was driven to try this because we had some eggplant lying around getting soft and roasting it on the grill sounded like a great idea. You can see I cut couple of slits in each half lengthwise and stuffed whole cloves of garlic in there to roast along with the eggplant. The picture above is the eggplant right off the grill. The following pics are prior to and during grilling:

  To prepare the eggplant for grilling, I simply sliced it in half, made four or five slits for the garlic cloves, drizzled a little olive oil on top and finished with a little sea salt and cracked black pepper. Each side was grilled for about 5 minutes and then I shut half the grill off and placed the eggplant on the 'cold' side and closed the lid for about 20 minutes. All the grilling was done on the lowest flame.

  After roasting, the eggplant can be scooped out and placed in a bowl. It is now ready for several wonderful dishes including a rustic mixture of feta, roasted tomatoes and herbs served over rice, quinoa or couscous as well as roasted eggplant pesto. These particular beauties ended up mashed together with roasted red peppers and olive oil and served on thin slices of toasted sourdough bread. Use your imagination. I am sure there must be at least a dozen excellent ways to use roasted eggplant. Enjoy! :-)

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Ratatouille with Quinoa

  Around our home anything that remotely resembles the recipe below is called Ratatouille. Maybe we're wrong, but one thing is for sure, if any combination of eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, yellow squash and zucchini is available, we cook it and call it the R-word. I'll list the ingredients for this version, but it isn't likely this exact recipe will be repeated here again. We even cook it different depending on the time of the year. In the summer we tend to use the stove top more and try to get it cooked relatively fast to avoid heating the kitchen up, but in the fall we make it in the oven and roast everything. As many ingredients as possible were used from the bucket garden.

Ratatouille with Quinoa

1 small Lavender eggplant cubed

2 small to medium zucchini cubed

3 small yellow squash cubed

3/4 medium white onion chopped

1 yellow bell pepper chopped (light green really ...)

4 plum tomatoes chopped (seeds removed)

1 14 oz can diced tomatoes

1/2 c canned mushrooms

2 cloves garlic (pressed)

1 1/2 c celery chopped (leaves and all)

6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch parsley chopped (reserve small amount for garnish)

1 small bunch oregano chopped

1 small bunch basil chopped

4 c cooked quinoa

grated mozzarella cheese

salt

pepper

  In a large skillet heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onions and garlic. Stir until soft and the aromatics are released. Add celery eggplant, and yellow squash. Lightly salt to help the vegetables to weep. Saute for 5 minutes. Add zucchini peppers and tomatoes. Once again, lightly salt. Saute for 5 minutes. Add additional salt and pepper to taste. Add parsley, oregano, basil and mushrooms. Stir well and simmer for 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Serves 4. Plate over quinoa. Melt cheese on top. We use the microwave. Garnish with chopped parsley. Enjoy!

TTFN

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