Slightly brown chopped eggplants in butter on a non-stick pan. Season with salt-pepper. Add some white wine and steam the veggies until soft.
At the same time lightly oil a copper pan and fry the mince with chopped garlic until slightly crispy, season with cajun spice.
Mix everything on the first pan, then shift the solids to the side to reveal any liquid (wine, eggplant juices, oils). Tilting the pan poach an egg in that for 1-2min.
Eat on brown rice.
Quite fast, simple and very very tasty :)
Tamarind (a.k.a "turds growing on overgrown ferns", as some people have put it) for dessert. Found an unexpected cheap half-kilo box on sale the other day, D had never eaten any, so for once I got to show off my botany-classes-garnered knowledge. Is a tree, is a legume, nothing to do with ferns, can be eaten fresh, although maybe not too much at a time, is supposed to be mildly laxative. Taste is sort of a mix of dried dates, sour citrus and something else. Frequently used in savory cooking, which sems like a total waste to me, because the fresh ones are so tasty and tons of fun to eat. Procedure:
- Take dried pod, rinse and gently dry.
- Thoroughly dry hands to avoid causing extra slimy/sticky mess.
- Squeeze until the pod breaks into shards and essentially drops off.
- Remove all of it and reveal the even turd-ier looking pulp inside.
- If any parts have molded or been eaten by worms, toss those segments.
- Hold by the nub on the tip where the tentacles meet.
- Peel off the tentacles (like a banana).
- Bite off one turdblob at a time from the narrow connecting part.
- Eat the pulp and inner shells as you would a cherry.
- Avoid biting into the pit, spit it out.
- Be amazed how much the shiny seed looks, feels and sounds like a piece of stone.
- Keep the seeds, because...
- Toss the tentaclecage.
- Repeat.
- Wow everyone who has never heard of this thing before with the experience.
Cheers,
Hedi
