aubergine! oh, but you yanks call it eggplant...

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

I bought one yesterday and I'm having the girls over for food tommorrow. One is Vegitarian and instead of just roasting all the veg and making a risotto of epic veggie proportions with that included I wanted to do something nice to snack on with the eggplant/aubergine.

Spices wise I am limited. I have a bit of saffron, some chilli flakes, some cajun seasoning and some sambal. 

I had this crazy idea of dipping thin slices in egg with saffron and chili flakes and then frying, finishing them in my new  combi microwave grill oven by sprinkling some pumpkin seeds on the top whilst the egg is still not quite cooked, to add some crunchy to the proceedings.

Any other tips? I seriously went nuts at the supermarket so I cannot go and get anything else. Also my cupboard is full so nothing else will fit.

I also has courgette I can do similar to if needs be. 

Halp?

[Triple Zero]

Hm, my first thought is that you might not want to coat the aubergine with just egg, but rather a mixture of egg milk and flour, as more proper batter.

But then, your culinary heritage is more knowledgeable on the topic of covering things with batter, so it's your call.

I just fear if you bake the egg coating all crunchy, it will taste like crunchy fried egg. While if you use egg-milk-flour batter, it'll more taste like pancake, which is better.

And then, there is the problem of aubergine generally being a very weird vegetable, being all spongey and such. It usually soaks up all the liquid you put it into contact with. Then after you fry it for a while it will lose its sponge structure and let loose all the liquids again. Kind of like shrooms do as well, but even moreso. I have no idea how this will work if you dip it in batter. It might soak up all the batter first, but then as you fry it, the batter will become more firm, and the eggplant can't really let it loose? So something very interesting might happen.

I think you just gotta try it

And if not, there's this EXTREMELY GOOD Afghan dish Jenne posted a while ago using eggplant and tomato. It requires a lot of olive oil. And you serve it on a plate that is covered with yoghurt sauce (yoghurt mixed with cumin garlic and other spices) and then eat it with (turkish) bread.

ah found the recipe:
http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=16850.msg555750#msg555750 (link to post containing my pics of preparing it, the recipe is a few pages back, some other eggplant recipes in there too btw)

more: http://www.principiadiscordia.com/forum/index.php?topic=20270.msg691062#msg691062

good luck!!

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

spongy veggies are good if you salt em to absorb the water. maybe some kind of aubergine fritter, and see if i can do the same to the courgettes.

it looks like I may have to bite the bullet and buy some flour, or get one of the girls to bring a little bit.

imma work on the chilli flakes and a touch of saffron in the batter, bit of garlic, maybe toast the pumpkin seeds and sprinkle on the top....

but I DO has parmigiana. (it is made from cow rennet, but veggie friend will probably not mind, she accidentally ate some bacon last time I was over after I dished up her portion, i added bacon to the dish, and she was like..."oops! that was not a vegetable, oh well you warned me when I went for the second portion...")

[Jenne]

Baba ghanoush, baby!    That's a no-brainer...

And thanks, Trip, for pushin' mah recipe!  The dish is really VERY vegetarian and easy as pie...just takes a lot of garlic, oil and tomatoes.  Better the next day, even.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like the idea of aubergine fritter, I bet that would be good.

I slice and drizzle them with olive oil, garlic, and soy sauce, then broil or grill them until they're on the verge of scorched. They go well on buns that way, or eaten plain.

[Payne]

I like the idea of aubergine fritter, I bet that would be good.

I just spoke to Pixie on the phone, and apparently they totally are.

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

I like the idea of aubergine fritter, I bet that would be good.

I just spoke to Pixie on the phone, and apparently they totally are.

WANT!

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

It worked!

K recipie went-

One aubergine. Slice at about 4mm.

Plain flour 2 tablespoons ish
1 egg.
Teaspoon of chilli flakes
Water and beer.

Make a thin batter, adding the beer last, heat up oil and dip slices in batter and just fry it off. I had too much batter in the end so next time imma do 2 aubergines.

My mates liked em. Imma use moar chilli flakes next tiem.

There are no pics cos the girls ate em all!

[Mesozoic Mister Nigel]

That sounds fabulous, I'm gonna have to try it.

[NWC]

I've made a recipe a couple times that works pretty well.

Cut the eggplant in long, thin slices. Cutting them in half is slightly easier to eat, but slightly less pretty - your choice.

Prepare 2 bowls, 1 with a mixture of milk and 1 egg, the other a mixture of flour, breadcrumbs(a little more flour than breadcrumbs), and spices. If you have granulated garlic and some paprika that's plenty. If you have no spices it's not really a problem either. Dip the strips in the liquid mixture, then the dry one, then fry in oil, trying not to use to much oil.

At the same time, make a small tomato sauce in a saucepan. Basically just tomatoes, basil, garlic, and some salt.

Serve the strips of fried eggplant in a circle around the bowl of tomato sauce/dip. Dip and enjoy

[Pope Pixie Pickle]

That sounds tasty!