I made a grilled eggplant sandwich that was delicious. It was one of those dishes that makes me remember why I love to cook: because I love to eat! If I had more eggplant, I would have immediately made another one. I will definitely re-create this sandwich.
I only had two very small eggplant in my CSA bag. So that is what I used. It ended up being the perfect amount for one sandwich.
Ingredients:
2 tiny eggplant
1 hardy bread (I used a sub roll)
1 tomato
olive oil
5 basil leaves
cream cheese (I used whipped cream cheese because that is what I had in the kitchen, goat cheese or regular cream cheese would work as well)
First, mix about 3 tbsp cream cheese with generous amounts of salt and pepper and several sliced basil leaves. Set aside.
Second, mix about 4 tbsp olive oil with generous amounts of salt and pepper and several sliced basil leaves. Set aside.
Next, wash and thinly slice the eggplant length-wise.
Then brush the olive oil mixture on both sides of the sliced eggplant.
I grilled the eggplant for about 5 minutes on each side. I lost a few of the smaller pieces in the grill.
In the last few minutes I also put the bread on the grill to toast it.
I spread the cream cheese mixture on the bottom piece of the toasted bread, then put eggplant on top of the cream cheese.
Then I added some sliced tomato (not from the CSA, I had it on hand) and put the top on the sandwich. Hello Yummy Goodness!
To go with the Sandwich I made baked radish chips.
The ingredients were:
one bunch small radishes
garlic salt
pam
(pictured below is olive oil as well, which I decided against using)
I pre-heated the oven to 375.
Then I cut the leaves and thin roots off the radishes.
Then I washed the radishes well (they are a root!) and sliced them thin. I placed them on a paper towel then pressed several paper towels over the sliced radishes to try to extract some of the water. I should have put the garlic salt on, let them sit for awhile, then come back and pressed the water out again. I did put the garlic salt on at this point.
I sprayed a cookie sheet lightly with pam, placed the sliced radishes on it, and put it in the oven.
I baked them for about 15 minutes, then flipped the radishes over with a spatula and baked them about 10 more minutes.
The radishes shrunk, and about half were crispy. I was very happy with the taste but not the texture. Next time I will let them sit after salting and press more water out, then cook them on a little higher heat (probably 400). I also think I was afraid of burning them so I jumped the gun a little on taking them out of the oven. Even if the texture was a little soggy on some of them, the radishes had a unique and nice flavor, and the garlic salt worked well with it. I have also seen recipes out there for using cracked red pepper instead of garlic salt. I am not such a fan of really spicy stuff, so I went with the garlic salt, but probably any seasoning that suits your taste would work.
They were a delicious side dish to go with a delicious sandwich!
As a side note: Upon reflection of yesterday's Beet and Apple dish, I realized that I could substitute 1/2 cup of apple juice for the butter, boil down the liquid, and puree the entire thing for a good an nutritious baby food.
Supper tomorrow: pork chops with mustard greens and stuffed patty pan squash.
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