Wednesday, September 9, 2009

Tips, Tricks 'n Recipes From the Garden


I just finished harvesting the last of our eggplants. We've been enjoying fresh ones. I do love them! We recently started growing white eggplants and I have to say that I like them better. They take less time to bake, are sweeter and have less seeds. And we get a better yield per plant.

I put up several quarts of eggplant puree in the freezer, which will be made into Baba Ghanoush later on in the year. To make the puree, I slice the eggplants lengthwise and roast, cut side down, on a baking sheet at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until I can easily pierce them with a fork. Cool, peel, puree in blender and pack into freezer containers. To use: thaw and continue with your recipe of choice.


One thing that I am going to try this year is freezing eggplant slices to use in Eggplant Parmigiana. For those I'm going to peel the eggplants (or not), slice 1/2" thick rounds, dredge in flour, dip in a mix of 2 eggs/1T olive oil and dredge again, but this time in breadcrumbs. I'll arrange those on a baking sheet, freeze and pop in freezer bags. This 'should' work. I guess time will tell.
Until next time.....