New Vegetarian Recipe Night #2. Or #3. I missed one.

[sabotabby]

I was very productive today. I made pickles (Official Pickle Day is September 6th), did some freelance work, found out that I am not apparently dying of anything (yay?), and had a New Vegetarian Recipe Night with zingerella.

Okay, here we go.

The Menu

Bhurtha-sabotabby
Sweet potato pie-zingerella
Chocolate eclipse cake-zingerella




This be an Indian dish called bhurtha. It is terribly tasty. The only problem is that the recipe does not make very much, and I had two small eggplants instead of one. It's very labour-intensive for the amount of food you get. So next time I'll double the recipe and use big eggplants instead of the little Japanese ones.

What you need

* 1 eggplant
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
* 1 medium onion, sliced
* 1 teaspoon chopped fresh ginger
* 1 large tomato - peeled, seeded and diced
* 1 clove garlic, minced
* 1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
* 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
* 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
* 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
* ground black pepper to taste
* 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

What you do

1. Preheat the oven's broiler. Rub oil on the outside of the egg plant, or coat with cooking spray. Place under the broiler, and cook until the flesh is soft and the skin is blistering off, about 30 minutes. Turn as needed for even cooking. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, and scoop the flesh out of the skin. Discard the skin; chop up the flesh, and set aside.

2. Heat the oil in a large skillet or wok over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds, and let them crackle for a few seconds and turn golden brown. Be careful not to burn them. Add the onion, ginger and garlic; cook and stir until tender. I don't let the onions get very brown. Stir in the tomato, and season with turmeric, ground cumin, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, salt and black pepper. Cook and stir for a few minutes.

3. Place the eggplant pieces in the skillet, and cook for 10 to 15 minutes so some of the moisture evaporates. Taste, and adjust seasonings if desired. Garnish with fresh cilantro, and serve.

Variation

You can also add peas to this dish. Stir in 1/2 cup of frozen peas when you are simmering the tomatoes.

What I did

Pretty much what the recipe says, except I don't know the difference between cumin and coriander, so I ended up substituting ground cumin seeds for the ground coriander. I also threw in a small red pepper that we grew in the garden because it was about to go bad.

The verdict

Fucking fabulous. Very spicy, very tasty. I won recipe night.


This is sweet potato pie. You can find the recipe here. I would particularly like to draw your attention to the following:

You see, you can substitute tofu for mozzarella in some recipes, and you can substitute tofu for yoghurt in some recipes, and I didn't have tofu, but I had mozzarella, so I figured it was worth a try substituting it for the yoghurt. This, my friends, is zingerella-logic.

The verdict

Tasty, if unusual. It was far sweeter than we'd expected (the recipe called it savory), but quite yummy.


Chocolate Eclipse Cake. Recipe here.

The verdict

Gooey, chocolatey, and delicious. Unfortunately, the pilot light went out on the oven, so it didn't totally cook, and then we had to find the pilot light, and okay, you can mock me for failing at gas ovens. I had a total Sylvia Plath moment of staring into the open oven and screaming.*


The Mistress of Chocolate Things at work.


Marinetti did not help at all.


zingerella says that my challenge for next time is to incorporate the food processor into my experiment. Suggestions?

* Here's how to fix a pilot light that's gone out.

Comments

[automaticdoor]

You could make some sort of soup. I've had a really good pumpkin soup, only it used chicken stock, but you could substitute veggie broth with no worries.

[sabotabby]

Oh, soup's a good idea, if it isn't too hot.

[class-matters.livejournal.com]

make pickle soup! it's quite yummy! (even though it sounds gross)

[sabotabby]

That does sound gross. But there's no way the pickles (assuming they taste good) are going to get as far as a soup. I can't keep a jar of pickles for a day.

[mycrazyhair.livejournal.com]

You can use Imagine brand no-chicken soup in any recipe that calls for chicken. It works really well.

[sabotabby]

That stuff is awesome.

[springheel-jack.livejournal.com]

what kind of pickles?

[sabotabby]

I sort of fiddled with it based on recipes from queerasmoi's and writer_grrrrl's dad, cpxbrex, and 5_miles. I used pickling cucumbers from the garden, but I didn't have enough for four jars, so I also bought some zucchini and tomatoes and threw those in as well.

We'll see how that turns out.

[seaya.livejournal.com]

Two smaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaall aubergines.

Did you make it at home for nothing?

(bad Goodness Gracious Me reference, tee hee)

I love me some bhangan bhartha.

[sabotabby]

I am going to tell you my aubergine story over IM.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Mmmm, hope this is as good as that last Indian recipe you posted... loved that one.

[zingerella.livejournal.com]

The bhurtha was at least that good. Possibly better.

[sabotabby]

Better taste-wise, I'd say. But it's a pain in the ass to make; the other one is such a good standby because it's easy.

[ghostwes.livejournal.com]

Do you eat fish? Can't remember... anyway, if you do, I have a great recipe for kedgeree.

[sabotabby]

Nope, alas. You can't get really good fish here anyway.

[ironed_orchid]

Domestic Goddesses, both of you!

Yum.

The sourness of yogurt might have cut the sweetness of the the sweet potato more than the mozzarella, but I find that most things I make with sweet potato or pumpkin are pretty sweet.

Marinetti doesn't cook. He eats.

[sabotabby]

I should cook for him one day. See if he'll eat it.