My cooking style could be described as experimental. It usually works out well, but last night’s dinner was amazing. So much so I’m going to try to lay it out for future use and so you could play along.
So, until we ate it (devoured it) I didn’t realize how epic it was going to be… therefore I didn’t photo document the process.
There was a lovely eggplant in the fridge, so that was my muse to start. I sliced it into rounds about 1cm thick. Really, 1cm is the best description, so more than a 1/4 inch and less than 1/2 inch.
Toss the slices in salt in a large bowl and let stand for 30-60 minutes.
Rinse salt off and let drain in a colander, while you rinse and dry the bowl. Gently squeeze liquid from each slice and put back in the bowl. Add olive oil and some Tony’s – here’s where eye balling comes in, you just need enough oil to lightly coat all the surfaces.
Lay on a sheet pan and pop into a 400 degree oven for 11 minutes, or until the bottom of the eggplant slices are golden and crisp.
During that 11 minutes you get to blend some of the magic. And this is where I got super experimental and lucky.
I was thinking along lines of a pizza, we have a cherry tomato challenge going on, and I wanted to use some up. So I needed a “sauce”.
I grabbed the small Vitamix blender and added a handful of pecans, about 15 capers, two heads of black garlic, and a tablespoon or so of mayo. Blend to a smooth paste.
Flip each eggplant slice over and dollop some of the “sauce” on and gently spread it out.
Cut cherry tomatoes in half length-wise and place some on top. Put back in oven for another 11 minutes.
Add a little parm to the top of each round and back in the oven for 3:33 mins. (I rarely use round/standard timer settings. Whole minutes are kinda arbitrary, I just use a number that feels right).
These little circles of delight were firm enough to pick up as finger food… But Derek and I both made a sandwich on left-over rolls* from the day before:
After the sando’s we just ate the rest breadless while sipping on some red wine.
Make these. Get creative with the “recipe” ad-libbing is good.
*so, I’ve been winging bread without recipes. These rolls had teff, barley, whole wheat and white flours in roughly even amounts, also stone ground oats. A splash of apple cider vinegar, olive oil and water. I sprinkled Birch Syrup Spit Salt on top. They turned out light, spongy, delicious.
Quillpig 