Vegan MoFo: More Eggplant until it's gone

So I spoke about this in a pre-mofo post, but up until recently, I really wasn't buying or eating much eggplant except for the once-in-a-blue-moon eggplant in baba ganoush served on my mezze plate or the bharta served at Indian restaurants. I think improperly cooked and seasoned eggplant can be really sucky.

Now that I think on it, I have a bunch of vegetables in my fridge right now that, improperly cooked and seasoned, are due to make me gag: more eggplant, brussel sprouts, and okra. Perhaps that's my theme for the next few days -- doing it right so I don't gag.

Ever since I picked my own fresh last month, I've eaten eggplant at least 5 more times since then. For whatever reason, I've been in a cookbook mood as of late, so all of my eggplant dishes have come from cookbooks. The cold peanut dressing eggplant from Hong Kong in World Vegetarian that I talked about yesterday, the "Baghara Baigan" (I mistakenly called it "Bharta" in my previous post) cooked in the Hyderabadi Style from World of the East and today's eggplant, "Khatte Baigan," sour eggplants from Kashmir.

Those last two eggplants were my favorite as I really favor the spicing of that region. Today's eggplant called for whole fennel seeds, but I used ajwain, a spice known for its aromatic qualities (used in India and Pakistan a whole lot) but also for its digestive properties. Before we even started to mix the spices, my heart was racing at the smell of the ajwain. It also called for cumin seeds and "black cumin seeds," which is really the spice "kala jeera," which I'm lucky enough to have from some well-timed trips to the spice market. Rounding out the flavors were ginger, turmeric, cayenne, tamarind (one of my favorite flavors ever), and a pinch of asafoetida. Did you know it's prononunced more like "asapetida?" Now you do.

I made the rash decision to peel the eggplants since poor refrigerator placement yielded moisture marks on the skin, and then I fried slices of these. While it's true that sliced and fried eggplant is delicious on its own, in a dish such as this where the eggplant gets stewed with all of these delicious spices in a paste that also included oil, I felt like it was an unnecessary step.

We paired our Khatte Baigan with Chana Dal with Cucumber, also a Madhur Jaffrey recipe, though in truth we really used our own instincts with this one, minus the addition of cucumber which is an unusual (but surprisingly delicious) addition. Since we were running out of chana, we used half chana and half mung dal, and it was creamy bursting with ginger, cayenne, cumin, and curry.

p.s. Eggplant just might be one of the least photogenic vegetables every. Moly.

Vegan MoFo: World Vegetarian Day: taking it literally, one day late

If you're reading this, you probably know Kittee or at least "know" her. It's common knowledge that Kittee is awesome. Now Kittee is someone who when she speaks about food, I always stop and listen. She speaks my culinary language.

For example, the other day:
Kittee: I just made a dish from WORLD.
Me: World Vegetarian?
Kittee: Yup.
And then she went on to tell me about something awesome that she made.

When my other, also culinarily fantastic friend Stacey wrote me on Tuesday to wish me a Happy World Vegetarian Day, I remembered my conversation with Kittee, and it came to me right away that it had been far too long since I had taken up the World Vegetarian project of our youth (well, two years ago). Back when Stacey and I both lived in New York City and had little else to do, we were cooking dish after dish from this most awesome of vegetarian tomes. This, and one of my first cookbooks ever, The World of the East Vegetarian Cooking, are two of my favorites of all time, but it wasn't until I met Stacey that I checked out World Vegetarian from the library for the first time. After renewing and returning over and over, my mom finally sent me a copy of my own. Reunited!

Neither of these books are vegan, but almost all of the recipes including dairy and eggs are in a separate chapter of the book, and if I don't look in that chapter, I forget they are there. I have learned a ton about the cuisines of other countries through these books, and what I've learned has definitely influenced my own flavor and spice experiments in the kitchen.

Anyway, I already had beans a cooking (this time, fresh "haricots tarbai" from the farmers market, mixed with parsley/coriander pesto) so I waited until today to break open this old favorite. Today we made Cold Eggplants with Spicy Chinese Peanut Dressing (p. 181) and Bean Curd with Hot Sauce (p. 100) (above). The spicy peanut dressing really complemented the soft and creamy baby japanese eggplants we scored at the market nicely. The bean curd (tofu!) wasn't all that hot, but it was certainly flavorful. The heat from both dishes came from the sambal oelek, a ground chili paste found at most asian markets, and it's a good thing to use for heat when you don't want to chop up lots of chiles. All of it came together right quick, which was great, cause soon after we headed out to a party to watch the VP debate and laugh at Sarah Palin, neither worldly nor vegetarian.