I was looking around for some inspiration for dinner tonight and I'm starting to think I need to get my hands on some polenta. First, there's the latest episode from Vegan A-Go-Go, featuring Grilled Polenta with Mushrooms, and then I found Polenta Lasagne at The Hook and I. Delish! I've also now got a hankering for linguine with olives, thyme and lemon and Cocoa Fudge cookies. Does that not sound like the most awesome dinner ever?
In the meantimes, I'm sticking to stuffed eggplant with oregano roasties and a salad. I'm stuffing the eggplant with a mixture from the lentil and chickpea stew I made the other day. It's a fab way of using up leftover stew without having to face three of the same meals in a row.
ingredients:
1/2 medium-sized eggplant, cut lengthways
2 cups leftover stew (i.e. lentil, any kind of squash, mushroom, seitan, etc. -- as noted, I used lentil)
olive oil
coarse salt
optional:
1 tomato, coarsely chopped
handful fresh spinach, 'grated' (i.e. stacked, rolled and cut into slices)
1 small fennel bulb, coarse chopped
1 small zucchini, halved and sliced
method:
Preheat oven to a low-medium heat (I really need an oven thermometre!). I don't usually use salt with my eggplant, but I want this one to be particularly tender, so as soon as I cut into the eggplant I rubbed about a teaspoon of coarse salt over the exposed flesh (the other half I've covered and stuck in the fridge for tomorrow). I heated up some olive oil in a shallow pan in the oven and then placed the eggplant cut-side down on it and let it warm through for about fifteen minutes. In the meantime I strain as much of the water as I could out of the stew and mushed up the larger pieces a little. (The liquid that remains I poured into a container and stuck in the freezer for stock; I've been a bit Ration Era lately with using everything up.)
Once the exposed eggplant flesh has started to soften with the oil, and there's a growing lightened patch on the bulbous side where the skin is being effected by the heat, I removed the eggplant from the oven. It wasn't very hot, so I was able to carve out the pulp immediately, leaving a shell with a 1/2-inch border from the skin. I chopped the pulp into small pieces and combined into the leftover stew. At this point I also added some freshly chopped tomato and some crumbled Stilton -- I didn't add any spinach and I'm already regretting it.
Then I filled up the eggplany shell, piling the lot up and pressing down slightly to pack it all in once it was full. It's now been in the oven, on a medium heat, for about thirty minutes and it smells gorgeous. I reckon I'll let it cook for another ten to fifteen (which is actually about as long as it took to write up the next part and do some editing, so now I've even got pictures!).
I actually put it in with the potatoes at the same time, so that it can all be served together. My oregano-roasties are pretty simple, so simple that I'm not going to bother with ingredients lists. All you need to do is cut up your potatoes to the size you prefer and boil them until they are beyond tender -- the skin comes away a bit when you test them with a knife -- and drain in a sieve. Heat up about two tablespoons of olive oil. Put the potatoes in the pan, sprinkle with salt, pepper and crushed dried oregano and return the pan to the oven.
In my mind there are two key actions to make a perfect roastie: give them a rough shake in the sieve before adding them to the pan -- it seems to soften them up just right, and make sure they cook on the oven's topmost rack.
Mm... that looks delicious. You're right about shaking up the roast potatoes, it really helps them to get crispy. Yum yum. Must try them with oregano! x
Posted by: jane | May 02, 2008 at 12:03 PM
Oh, that looks delicious. I got home late and had crisp sandwiches for dinner. I think yours sounds better. Might give it a go over the weekend.
Posted by: Teaandcakes | May 01, 2008 at 09:01 PM