Punjab Eggplant

Summer's here and a neighbor gives me a HUGE bag of organic eggplant she proudly harvested from her garden. I do not like eggplant. In fact when I was younger, it's the one vegetable I avoided in Pinakbet (a popular Filipino mixed vegetable dish my Dad loved). I was determined though to make good use of vegetables given to me. At the organic center where I work, we sell Tasty Bite's Punjab Eggplant. I looked at the ingredients and kind of worked out how it was made and added my own twists. Now, I find myself buying eggplant just to make this dish. It's that good!

 2 eggplants

oil for brushing on the eggplants

butter for sauteing

1 t grated ginger

1 small onion chopped

1-2 cloves garlic crushed

½ t turmeric

1 t cumin

½ t coriander

½ cup crushed tomatoes (I use half a box of Italian tomatoes)

salt and pepper to taste

chili or cayenne pepper (optional)

chopped fresh cilantro for topping (cilantro is not usually available in Japan so I usually make this dish without but it's wonderful if you have access to cilantro!)

Brush eggplants with oil. Roast for 30 minutes in the oven (roast or broil setting). Cool and peel off skin and discard. Chop up eggplants. Heat pan/pot, melt butter. Fry up onions, garlic and ginger in butter. Add the spices. Add the tomatoes. Season with salt and pepper. Simmer. If you have a Thermos Shuttle Chef, leave the pot inside until ready to serve. 

Not Your Dad's Red Lentil Curry

I have never cooked lentils before and never had them growing up. We recently received a big sack of red lentils and I had absolutely no idea what to do with them. Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything came to the rescue (Every home should have this book!). I went with what looked like the easiest lentil recipe: lentils with curry or dal. Bittman had a basic recipe and a variation and because I couldn't decide which one to do, I combined them and used whatever spices I had and omitted some that I didn't. The result was so good my husband who didn't like lentils before* said he's now converted and can eat this everyday, twice a day even.  I don't think that big sack of red lentils will last us very long.  (*His dad used to cook lentil soup which they dreaded, thus, Not Your Dad's).

1½ cups red lentils, washed 
4 cups stock (if making this vegetarian, use vegetable stock; I like chicken stock though)
salt and pepper to taste (some stocks already contain enough salt)
1 T curry powder (Mark Bittman has a curry powder recipe but I just used ready-to-use curry powder)
1 pinch ground cloves
1 pinch ground cinnamon
¼ t ground cardamom
½ t ground cumin
2 T butter
1 T minced garlic
1 T grated ginger
cilantro, chopped for garnish

Put everything except the last four ingredients into a pot and bring to a boil. Lower the heat cooking gently and stirring occassionally until lentils are soft and mixture thickens. Heat butter in a separate skillet and add the garlic and the ginger and cook until they almost begin to brown but not quite. Remove from heat and pour everything including the butter into the lentils and mix. Top with chopped cilantro.

My husband also likes to top this with shredded cheese.

Excited to try this recipe? Get red lentils from iherb now here.

Just Spoil Them Premium Carrot Cake

I love a good slice of carrot cake -- I like my carrot cake moist, perfectly spiced, accompanied by delectable nuts and raisins and dressed in the classic tangy cream cheese frosting. I always thought carrot cakes are one of those things that are too difficult to make, until my friend Abi learned a recipe from the Miriam Adult Education (MAE) bakeshop and shared it with me. Whenever I make this carrot cake, the kids request to have a slice of this for breakfast, and my husband thinks they're spoiled. The cake is wonderful by itself but if you have time to make the frosting, do so. I've had guests use their fingers to get the last bit of frosting.

Cake ingredients:
2 cups flour 
1¾ cups sugar
1 t baking soda
1 t baking powder
1 t salt
½ t ground cloves
1 t ground cinnamon
4 eggs
1 cup oil  (I used olive oil)
1 t vanilla
½ cup cold orange juice (If Abi were going for super premium, she would squeeze out the juice of an orange)
2 cups grated carrots
½ cup nuts (I often use almonds as they are the nuts that get left behind in mixed nuts but for this batch, I used cashews)
½ cup raisins (dried cranberries upgrades the carrot cake by several levels)

Beat all ingredients (except last three) for about 10 minutes. Fold in carrots, nuts and raisins. Bake for 40 minutes at 190°C or  375°F or until done. Allow to cool. Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy, I omit the icing and the cake is still a scrumptious treat as is. But if you're feeling decadent, the icing is worth the extra work. 

Icing ingredients:

1 packet cream cheese

½  cup butter
½  cup icing sugar
1 small can crushed pineapples

Cream butter and cream cheese. Add icing sugar. Fold in crushed pineapples. Spread over cooled cake, or just serve the cake with a dollop of icing.