Tuesday 1 February 2011

Roasted Baby Eggplant Halves with Herbs

The inspiration for tonight's dinner came from here with a few changes of my own.

Ingredients fresh from the garden:
Baby eggplants
Rosemary
Thyme
Parsley
Chives
Garlic (dried and stored)
Green Beans

From the store:
Potato
Olive Oil
Salt
Butter

Eggplants hanging on the bush, I purchased a punnet with 4 eggplant seedlings from Foodland. I planted, watered every couple of days and was surprised to find little baby eggplants growing. No pests or diseases and they are planted in a thin layer of good soil with thick clay underneath.

Three baby eggplants for dinner (I'm not sure what size they should be???)

Freshly picked parsley, rosemary, thyme , 3 cloves of garlic, salt and olive oil waiting to be processed in my rocket blender. Only a new purchase and it is going fantastically. Picked up for the bargain price of $30 from Cheap as Chips.

Blended mix

Eggplant with crosses cut into the flesh, not through the skin though

I've spread the herb, garlic, oil mix over and into the eggplant

After being roasted in the oven @ 200 degrees for about 25-30 mins

Freshly picked and steamed green beans, mashed potato with chives and butter and my baby eggplant with herbs.
I was hesitant to taste the eggplant as it doesn't look appealing, but after the first bite I was hooked and ended eating all three little baby eggplants. A few things I noticed was that the skin of the eggplants were quite tough and chewy, but still ok to eat, not sure if that is normal or not. I also would like a little more garlic and the rosemary could be chopped a bit finer. Otherwise I am rather pleased how this turned out. I have only eaten eggplant in a stew, so I am really looking forward to experimenting with my baby eggplants.

3 comments:

  1. Your eggplant are just lovely! We eat them all the time but I haven't made this particular recipe in far too long, thanks for the reminder!

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  2. Ha ha, i thought that blender was a special herb-growing device til i read your text properly!

    Your eggplants look great. Are they the lebanese variety which i think are like the "baby" eggplants and smaller than the other ones. I go back and forth on eating eggplant too. I think it has to be cooked well. I've enjoyed a delicious sweet potato and eggplant curry (with coconut milk), eggplant schnitzels and eggplant parma. Now i'm hungry!

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  3. Peta I couldn't actually find the tag that tells me the type of eggplant, but they are growing long and skinny. Eggplant schnitzels sound yum as does the curry and parma. Mmmmmm

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