At the beginning of the year, I set out a monthly challenge to make dishes from seasonal products and see how my toddler liked them. To see upcoming challenges see my Happy 2014 Post here! The benefits of setting and sharing this challenge include:
1) Eating seasonally is budget and local farmer friendly
2) It stretches my cooking repertoire
3) Seasonal produce goes from farm to fork quicker and is nutritionally better for us!
3) It encourages new food appreciation for my family, especially my toddler.
February is Eggplant Month!
Recipe #1: Eggplant Chips
Toddler Review: She sucked the crumbs off and ate mushy inside of the chips – but left the skins behind.
Ingredients & Method: Sliced one large eggplant and cut into “steak fry” sizes. Coated with a drizzle of olive oil and then tossed in multi-grain breadcrumbs. Baked at 150oC for 40mins.
Recipe #2: Burghal & Pork Stuffed Eggplant
Toddler Review: Toddler loved the stuffing mix. However, was not fussed on eating the actual skin of the eggplant again.
Ingredients & Method: Take 2 Medium sized Eggplants and roast them whole in the oven at 150oC for 1 hour. Remove and let them cool down a bit. Make up your stuffing mix next by letting 1/3 cup of burghal absorb 2/3 cup of boiling water in a heat proof bowl (takes about 5 min). In a pan, sautee a diced brown onion in some olive oil. Once the onion is starting to go transparent, add 200g of pork mince and cook through, add the burghal, 2 tbsp of tomato paste, 1/3 cup of diced caspisum, 1 tsp dried oregano and a handful of chopped fresh basil. Cook all together for a few minutes until fragrant. Remove from the heat. Cut your eggplants in half and remove some of the larger veins of seeds. Add the flesh of the eggplants to your stuffing mix. Add an egg to the stuffing mix and combine well. Put the stuffing mix into the shells of the eggplant and finish with grated cheese.
Return the stuffed eggplants to the oven for a further 30 min until the stuffing is fully cooked and the cheese is browned. Serve with salad.
Recipe #3: Zucchini and Eggplant Dip
Toddler Review: “yum” – my toddler loves dipping sauces though!
Ingredients & Method: Roast 2 medium sized eggplants on 150oC for 1 hour with 1 medium – large size zucchini. Coarsley chop the zucchini (skin as well) and remove the flesh (including seeds) from the eggplants and put this into a food processor. Add 1 cup no fat greek yoghurt, a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, 2 tbsp of olive oil, 2 tbsp lemon juice (or juice from 1/2 a lemon) and 2 cloves of garlic crushed. Blitz in the food processor, spoon into serving dish and then top with an additional drizzle of olive. We had ours served with some sourdough rolls. It is also really great chilled and served later. A great dip to make ahead for a party or BBQ!
Play with Food 