eggplant fritters

eggplant fritters resting on a soft cuddly bed of greens and with companions of roasted chicken and green onions, covered with a blanket of olive oil and balsamic vinegar (all very cozy)

This recipe (from Martha Stewart) takes a bit of preplanning and some initial steps, but it's easy to space it out a bit during the day when you have a minute or two in between other activities. And my family declares it's entirely worth the few extra minutes of effort.

One of my beans had fallen in love with an eggplant at the market and begged me to buy it. I remember asking my mom for kiwi at Publix and she always obliged, so how can I say no to fresh produce?

Well, it languished a bit in the fridge drawer and I decided to do something about it--Googling eggplant fritters was like mining for gold and hitting a vein!

Of course I changed the glutenized breadcrumbs for something a little more us, and left out the dairy, so here's the finished product (my changes included).

You'll need:

• 1 large eggplant (aubergine), about 2.5 pounds
• 1/4 C. olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2 T. chopped parsley
• 3 large eggs, beaten (you need all three because of the coconut flour)
• 1/4 C. coconut flour
• 1/4 t. ground cumin
• 1/4 t. ground coriander
• a few shakes of Chinese spicy mustard powder (or British mustard)
• 3/4 t. kosher salt
• 1/4 t. freshly ground pepper
• 2 T. coconut oil
• greens 
• balsamic vinegar for topping

Do this:

Preheat your gihugic 1950s oven to 425 F/220 C and wipe your brow. Whack that big eggplant in half (lengthwise), plop it into a glass Pyrex dish, brush with olive oil, and roast till soft (mine took about 45 minutes, but check yours after 35). Let cool and then scoop that lovely soft flesh out of the royal purple skins (compost those skins), and place the flesh into a colander to drain. When it's dry enough, grab a big mixing bowl and stir up the eggplant, eggs, garlic, parsley, cumin, coriander, mustard powder, salt, and pepper, then sift the coconut flour over and stir that in as well.

Form into patties and fry in the coconut oil till crispy and wonderful. Drain on paper towels. Ms. Martha suggests grabbing some greens and making a dressing of equal parts olive oil and balsamic, dressing those naked greens, and then placing the fritters on top. We like a little extra protein with ours (see above photo), and have had them with fish or chicken.

I just can't make enough of this to keep my three boy-beans happy and I usually at least double the recipe.

I'd love to hear if you make these and how you like them--maybe we could have a contest to see whose disappear first. I'm bettin' on the beans.

guava bbq sauce

So wonderful. So easy. So versatile. So more-ish!

We've had this guava BBQ sauce on roasted chicken, pork tenderloin, and over homemade meatballs and saffron rice. And all within one week.

Comes by way of AllRecipes and you can find the original recipe here.

OK, here's how I did it...

You'll need:

• a smidge of water
• about 1.5 cups rozen guava pulp (no sugar added)
• squirt of honey
• 1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
• a splash of white wine (I didn't have any rum)
• bit of ketchup (no tomato paste in the house)
• splosh of bottled lemon juice (ditto for fresh lemons)
• onion powder
• ginger powder
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 2 teaspoons Worcestershire sauce
• 2 minced garlic cloves
• pinch of cayenne pepper
• kosher salt and pepper

Do this:

Splash it all together and simmer in a pan till it reaches your desired consistency.

That's all, folks.

P.S. As you can see, I deviated quite a bit from the original ingredients listed. Ah well, such is life.

And life is YUMMY.