sautéed garden eggplant

Anytime I feel a little under the weather, my favorite comfort food is rasam and rice with some vegetable curry on the side. I had a bit of a stomach flu last week and didn't cook anything much as I couldn't stomach anything much, and a simple pepper-cumin-garlic rasam was all I could stand.

Finally, when I felt strong enough to have some solids, I wanted to have rasam+rice with some vegetable curry. The dozen Ichiban and Neon eggplants we harvested from our garden last week came in handy to make this sautéed eggplant side dish...

Nothing could be simpler, really - this eggplant curry is easy to make, yet tasty.



Ingredients:
6 Ichiban eggplants, chopped (or any other favorite variety, adjust quantity as needed)
1 medium yellow onion, sliced thin
salt to taste
1-2 Tbsp cayenne pepper powder or red chili powder (lesser if preferred)
2 Tbsp canola oil
Tempering: 1 tsp mustard seeds, ½ tsp cumin seeds, 5-6 curry leaves (optional)

Preparation

Heat the oil in a pan, when it shimmers add the mustard seeds, when they pop, add the cumin seeds and curry leaves, then the onions; sauté till onions turn translucent; then, add the eggplant, salt, chili powder, toss around a bit, leave on medium high and stir every once in a while till eggplant is cooked and gets a little crispy on the skin.

Serve with hot rice and pepper rasam.

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p.s: thanks to Ashaji's comment in another post, I am now aware of the Green Blog Project event (GBP) and this will be an entry for my Summer 2007 GBP event hosted by Deepz.

A few plant facts: The eggplant varieties in the picture are Ichiban and Neon, long fruits - about 6-7 inches long and about 1½ inches wide. This is Zone 5, in Portland Wilamette Valley, with an average of 200+ days of growing season.

We planted it early Summer/late Spring after the frost was gone. We still had some chilly nights, but warmer days, so these survived. It takes about 70 days to harvest, but this seems an early variety so we started getting a few fruits within 8 weeks of planting. Here is some information that helped us decide on when to plant these in our garden.

Eggplant is a cold-sensitive vegetable that requires a long warm season for best yields. The culture of eggplant is similar to that of bell pepper, with transplants being set in the garden after all danger of frost is past. Eggplants are slightly larger plants than peppers and are spaced slightly farther apart. Eggplant requires careful attention for a good harvest. Small-fruited, exotic-colored and ornamental varieties can be grown in containers and used for decorations.