Grilled Eggplant Salad

Here's another dish that I made at my Blooming Glen Farm demo last week.  This is easy, quick and really tasty--nice fresh flavors of lemon and tarragon.

Use globe eggplant for this recipe--the Asian eggplants are too thin and turn to mush pretty quickly.  I used cherry tomatoes instead of regular ones--just halved them.  Parsley can be used if you don't have or don't like tarragon.

GRILLED EGGPLANT SALAD (adapted from The Barbecue Bible by Steven Raichlen)
Serves 4

INGREDIENTS
1 pound eggplant
2 medium tomatoes, seeded and cut into 1/4" dice
3/4 cup tarragon, chopped
2 scallions, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, minced
2 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (or more to taste)
2 Tbsp lemon juice (or more to taste)
Salt and pepper

• Preheat grill to high.
• Place eggplant on hot grate until flesh is very soft, turning as needed, 15-20 min for smaller eggplants or up to 30 min for large.  Transfer to a cutting board to cool.
• Cut stem end from eggplant and pull skin off.  Cut into 1/4" dice and transfer to a serving bowl.  Stir in tomato, tarragon, scallion, garlic 2 Tbsp oil, 2 Tbsp lemon juice, salt and pepper.  Taste for seasoning and adjust to taste.

Choka

I always like to grill--but especially in the summer, I try to find as many ways to cook on the grill as I can.  This recipe is easy and if you've already gotten the grill fired up, why not make an appetizer for before dinner?

If you grill whole eggplant long enough, the flesh inside becomes very soft and mushy--perfect for a dip.  Be sure to use the thin Asian eggplants--they will get to the desired consistency much quicker than globe eggplants.

Serve the dip with tortilla chips, pita chips, crackers or whatever you have on hand.  It's great hot off the grill, but still really tasty at room temperature.

CHOKA (GRILLED EGGPLANT DIP) (from The BBQ Bible by Steven Raichlen)
Serves 8

INGREDIENTS
2 pounds thin eggplant
8 garlic cloves, cut in half lengthwise
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4 cup cilantro, chopped
3 scallions, finely chopped
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp fresh grated ginger root
2 Tbsp lemon juice
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
Salt and pepper to taste

• Preheat the grill to high.
• Make slits around each eggplant and insert a half clove of garlic in each slit.
• Grill eggplant, turning occasionally, until skin is charred all over and the flesh is very soft, about 20-30 min.  Transfer to a plate to cool.
• Open the skin and scrape the flesh out into a medium bowl (with the garlic) and mash to a course puree with a fork.  Stir in the rest of the ingredients and serve.

Down on the Farm, Part II

Back at the end of May, we planted our garden.  You may remember my previous post about it.  Well, not much more than a month later, things are looking pretty good!  In fact, it's the best our garden has done in a long time--maybe ever!

A mix of nice garden weather--hot and humid--and our using mushroom soil this year are the causes of our green success.  Already, we've picked more zucchini and squash than we can use--there are about 7 or 8 in our fridge and we've made muffins and fried & grilled squash.  Gotta be creative.  Our tomatoes aren't getting red yet, but they will.  We've had a nice dinner with our beans and there are eggplants, peppers and watermelons starting.  And there will be loads of ground cherries.  If I only knew what to do with them.  Hello, Google!

As you can see from the pictures, the plants are growing like gangbusters--almost growing too much.  The squash plants that ate Blooming Glen!  I'm worried that the plants in the middle won't get enough sun, but I'm sure they'll be OK.

Mary Beth deserves pretty much all of the credit for our gardening success.  She's the one who spent so much time pulling weeds and getting the beds ready.  The least I can do it make her some dinner.  Something with squash, perhaps.

Have a great holiday weekend!