Monday, May 10, 2010

Dead simple grilled eggplants: and I'm back in the game!

I know, I know, I know... I've been MIA for almost 6 months... I apologize.

I have now moved from Amsterdam to Boston, and after a couple of months, I finally got to cooking again. Things are not quite the way I want them though, as most of my utensils and appliances are still in Europe.

But it wasn't enough to keep me away from the stove any longer.

I am back with a vengeance, and I hereby present you with: ta-da! My dead simple grilled eggplants. You can seriously do this with your eyes closed, it's that simple!

First, gather a few ingredients:

- fresh basil and mint


- a lemon, zest and juice


- a clove of garlic

- eggplants (three eggplants lasted me a whole week!)
- extra virgin olive oil
- coarse salt (fleur de sel is better, but I didn't have any)
- freshly ground black pepper


Here goes:

- slice eggplants (1/4 inch slices are good), and brush them with a little olive oil

- grill them on a hot griddle pan until they are marked, nice and brown. Be careful not to burn them, but make sure they are cooked all the way through! Nothing less appealing than undercooked eggplant...

- while they are cooking, zest and juice one lemon. you can also take care of chopping the garlic clove very fine. I use a microplane to grate it, but chopping will give you a chunkier garlic. I only use the microplane because I just bought it ;)




- when the eggplants are cooked, place them in a serving plate, and drizzle with lemon juice, zest, garlic and olive oil

- as a finishing touch, sprinkle with salt, pepper and chopped herbs



Voila!