Stuffed Eggplants

Once again a fun find at our grocery store prompted a new recipe. This time the culprits were Indian eggplants. Eggplants are a food I always want to do something with (their color is so alluring), but for some reason I find them intimidating. Indian eggplants are small though, which makes them much less intimidating and much more “I can do something with you.” So here it is:

Stuffed Eggplants

• 5 Indian eggplants
• 1 small bell pepper, chopped small
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• ~1/4 cup rehydrated arame
• roasted peanut oil
• 1 tablespoon wheat-free soy sauce
• black pepper
• crushed cayenne pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF.
2. Cut the tops off the eggplants. Then slice in half lengthwise. Use a spoon to scoop out the inside so that approximately 1/4 an inch of flesh is left. (You will have to use some pressure with the spoon.) Oil the inside and outside of the eggplant halves with peanut oil and place in a baking dish. (I used an 11×7 pan.) Chop the part you scooped out into small chunks.
3. Heat about a tablespoon of peanut oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Toss in the bell pepper and chopped eggplant. Season with a couple cranks of black pepper and dash of cayenne. Fry for a few minutes, then add in the garlic. Cook for a minute more. Then turn off the heat, add the arame and soy sauce, and mix well.
4. Divide the eggplant and pepper mixture between the eggplant halves. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 30 minutes.

Serves 2-3

I liked the stuffed aspect, as it showed off the size of the eggplants. Also–as compared to an attempt to make stuffed eggplants using globe eggplants–I can say that it was much easier to scoop out the flesh of the smaller eggplants.

While I liked these, I felt that they could use something. Haven’t yet put my finger on what that might be. I suppose I’ll let you know if I do.

Update: While trying to go to sleep last night, I remembered that when I originally thought of the recipe I wanted to include fresh ginger. However, there is a bunch of sludge on the ground right now, so I didn’t want to make a special trip to the store for just one thing. Hence, no ginger. Perhaps that’s the something it’s missing.