I have two vegetables that I've attempted to master, without success: artichokes and eggplants. Tonight, I achieved my mastery with eggplant. It was an effort based on impulse, much like the rest of my cooking (hence the name, "Scratch and Sniff"), and I'm glad to say, ended in happy tummies.
These are the ingredients I decided to play with:
*Lamb stew meat
*One jalapeno, diced fine
*1/4 sweet onion, diced fine
*Shallot, the butt end left over from another recipe
*Flour, enough to coat the meat prior to browning in oil
*Spices-curry, ground cloves, cinnamon, turmeric, garlic salt
*Butter, one tablespoon
*Sweet diced canned tomatoes
*Eggplant, peeled, diced into apprx one inch cubes, and soaked in salty water for apprx 45 minutes
*Coconut Milk-one can
*Dash of Chicken Broth
*Olive Oil (assume that's in all recipes I cook with, unless it's some sort of baking dish)
Before deciding exactly what I was cooking, I had lamb stew meat. I love lamb, and wanted to do something savory and sweet and delicious with it. I diced the large stew chunks into smaller, bite-sized pieces, then coated them with at least two tablespoons of curry, a tablespoon of ground cloves, about a teaspoon of cinnamon, a DASH of turmeric (I'm still trying to figure that flavor out), and some garlic salt. {Garlic salt has more salt and less of that heavy garlic flavor that stays on your breath for the next three days... It's just a favorite of mine. Salty, but better. I digress.} Flour-about four tablespoons-and some olive oil went into the bowl with the meat. Everything was stirred together and then allowed to sit for a while to meld the flavors.
Having made a quasi-decision about what sounded/smelled good, I first diced the onion, amid some tears, and the medium sized jalapeno. It was not too fiery, based on the amount of oil it released as I cut it up, so I left a lit bit of the veins and seeds in this time for a bit of heat. Into the sautee pan they went with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, until the onions were transparent and the jalapeno was less...raw. This was achieved with medium heat. I dumped these in the slow cooker, already set on low heat for six hours.
The meat/spices/flour mixture went into the same non-stick pan, and I browned the meat on medium-high heat in a few more tablespoons of olive oil. The dash of chicken broth and tablespoon of butter helped keep the floury meat from becoming a muddled, burnt mess in the bottom of the pan once the oil dispersed. When the meat had browned up nicely, I added it and the can of sweet diced tomatoes to the onion/jalapeno mixture in the slow cooker.
The peeled, cubed eggplant, which had been soaking in salty water to remove the bitter taste, was drained and tossed in the now empty pan to crisp for a few minutes. Since the stove had been on for quite a while at this point, I turned the heat down to a little below medium heat. Once the pieces had a slight browned appearance, I added them to the slow-cooker mixture.
The final addition to the slow-cooking concoction was a can of coconut milk. This was for thickness, creaminess, and the marrying of flavors. I cooked this wonderful group of ingredients on low for six hours. Even my daughter, who literally turns her nose up at EVERYthing unless it's stuff-crust cheese pizza, tater tots, or macaroni and cheese, ate a bowl of this. I served it with smoky basmati rice.
The flavors that stood out most--the stars of this performance--were definitely the semi-hot jalapeno, the ground cloves, and the coconut milk. I need an inspirational name to highlight this happy Scratch and Sniff success!
