Saturday, January 9, 2010

Stuffed Eggplant

I discovered Purple Foodie's blog a couple of months back..I love the way she comes up with one interesting dish after another...Though I never venture too much into the desserts area, which I think she does complete justice to, I did try out her crispy apple crumble and it turned out awesome...
The cake from my previous post is also from her blog..

The day I saw this Stuffed Eggplant Goodness on her blog, I had decided I must try it out..Bookmarked it and then completely forgot about it...

stuffed eggplant

In the market, I saw this beautiful eggplant (bharte wala baingan) and picked it up with the bharta on my mind. Chopped the onions and tomatoes for it and then remembered Purple foodie's eggplant, went back to my bookmarks, saw that the ingredient list, at least most of it, was available in my kitchen and went ahead to vegetarianise her recipe. I did not have parmesan cheese, but had 2 cheese slices...

side

This halved, loaded eggplant looked like a complete meal to me, but I was sure TH would ask me 'This is dinner ?', so I quickly spiced up some leftover rice with olives, red chilli flakes, garlic and shallots. Served the eggplant on the bed of rice - was a pretty picture and tasted good too
Thank you Shaheen, for a brilliant dinner...

Here's the link to the original recipe and here's my tweaked vegetarian version...

What you need -

1 large eggplant
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 onion
1 bayleaf
3-4 cloves garlic
1-2 tomatoes
1/2 cup crumbled paneer
1 tsp oregano
1/2 tsp mixed herbs
1/2 tsp chilli flakes
salt and crushed pepper

What you do with it -

Slit the eggplant lengthwise
Pre-heat oven to 200 C
Grease the baking dish with some olive oil and then place the eggplant, cut side up
Sprinkle oil over the eggplant with a chopped clove of garlic and some oregano
Bake for about 25 mins, or till tender
Scoop out the flesh from the eggplant and mash it up gently with a fork
In a pan, heat the 2 tablespoons olive oil over medium heat
Add the onions, chopped garlic, bayleaf, oregano and red chilli flakes
Then the tomatoes, salt, pepper and mixed herbs. Once its a little mushy, add the crumbled paneer and the eggplant flesh
Remove the bayleaf
Lower the oven temperature to 190 C
When the mixture cools a bit, fill it back into the eggplant shells (Shaheen uses egg here, which would give it a nice binding, but I didnt have any at home, so skipped that)
Return the shells to the baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil
Bake the eggplant for 30-40 minutes or until the shells are tender when pierced with a skewer
During the last 10 minutes of baking, add bits of the cheese slices onto the eggplant and bake till done. You could use a lot more cheese here, I had run out of cheese !

15 comments:

Sayantani said...

eggplant with melted cheese on top, that looks divine I need to make it too...

Home Cooked Oriya Food said...

looks so beautiful... I want to have a slice now!

Usha said...

This looks really delicious ! I love all things eggplant:-)

Unknown said...

Eggplant with cheese that sounds interesting!

Parita said...

I have been following Shaheen akka purplefoodie's blog from quite soemtime and i really love her bakes!! Stuffed eggplant looks awesome!

Uj said...

I have never tried this combo with eggplant.. Looks delicious..

Miri said...

What is it with our men and the carbs!!!

Looks absolutely sinful and just right for this cold weather!

Sayantani said...

Arch, An award is waiting for you to be picked up at my place. Please do check in.

The Purple Foodie said...

Hey! I'm smiling now :) thanks for trying this out and blogging about i :))

Pari Vasisht said...

Hi. First time here I guess so..
firstly congrats on ur bloganniversary. The stuffed and baked eggplant looks so good. I am tempted to have it now,must have tasted awesome on that flavored bed of rice... I am adding ur blog in my list.
Do try visiting my space.
http://cooking-goodfood.blogspot.com
Pari

Padhu Sankar said...

That sounds really delicious!
New to your blog.Do drop by
http://padhuskitchen.blogspot.com/

FH said...

Looks yum Arch. I made a Middle eastern dosh similar this. Really tastes good. Cheese on top looks mouthwatering! :))

Only MTR product I use is Rasam Pd, sometimes Vangibhath pd mix but lately it started to taste odd with too much hing in it, so I stopped buying that too. hope they don't change too much so often.old powders were good.

Hayley said...

Hi Arch
congrats on your blogs 1st b'day..and hey i am too from ahmedabad, living in U.K now..great blog and recipes..i love eggplant..your looks yummy..i'm following you

cheers and do visit
Joy Of Cooking

Pavithra Elangovan said...

Oh my god thats totally tempting.. Hope I am first time here.. Really enjoyed browsing thru ur recipes.. I am following u from now to visit urs yummilicious recipes.

Vani said...

Oh, do, do let me know when you're in BLR, Arch! Would love to meet you. Email me at mysoorean at gmail dot com when you;re here.
Eggpalnts look might delish!

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