Late summer harvest & an eggplant recipe

Tomatoes are the garden star in August, followed closely by those glowing purple eggplants.

After a strange summer with a June that tried hard to be winter—and almost succeeded— and many night temps in July and August dipping near 50 degrees, the garden has finally come around. The fruits of our labors are spilling into the garden trenches, and the bounty pictured above is typical of what we harvest a couple times a week in late August into mid-September.  Melons are peaking and yesterday we picked seven more of the sweetest juiciest-imaginable cantaloupes living up their name, Ambrosia. 

To see more of the garden, click. 

 

The eggplants are abundant but a challenge. What to do with about 100 of them? Here are a couple ideas:

Eggplant Parmesan is the standard. Recipes abound. But I've taken a major shortcut, as I am wont to do, and after subjecting sliced eggplant to salt for 20-30 minutes, I rinse, blot dry, and saute only in beaten eggs, salt & pepper, before layering with marinara sauce and cheese. Skip the breading. It isn't missed at all. This year I've sauteed and frozen several eggplant meals.

Here's an eggplant  recipe from my friend, Jeanne, who is a fabulous cook year-round, but especially excels during harvest season. She says:

Turkish stuffed eggplant is inspired by an article in Sunset about 1975, “Low-cost Cooking from the Middle East.”  I still cook so many things based on that article!

Cut eggplant (Japanese style) in half, brush with olive oil, broil until brown and soft (not too close to flame.)

Cook some brown rice and lentils (recipe says together, I do better separately.)

Saute a big pan of onions (Walla Wallas of course) until soft and browned.  Add lots of chopped garlic, paprika, and cinnamon. Salt and pepper to taste.  Simmer in light bath of canned tomatoes or use fresh. 

Mix lentil-rice with onions.  Nestle eggplant halves down into mixture and bake 20 min or so, enough for flavors to mingle.

Especially good on a cooler fall-like evening. The carb-fearful could leave out the rice.  Sunset called their version “Imam Bayildi” or “the priest fainted,” presumably of delight.