Burnt eggplant, stovetop flatbread and roasted strawberries
Good morning!
I have a few containers in my minuscule backyard where I’m trying to grow some vegetables and herbs. We’ve had good success with lettuce, chives and mint, and the tomato plants are getting there, and the other day I ate my first snap pea. Just one pea, but it tasted so sweet. We’ve also been digging into our first local strawberries of the season. I hope wherever you are, you’re eating delicious fruits and vegetables too.
Quick hits
I’m a big fan of Samin Nosrat, and I loved her recent story in the New York Times about learning to make kimchijeon, crispy kimchi pancakes. Just look at them!
This easy chickpea salad sandwich was in fact both easy and tasty.
This piece by The Guardian’s environment editor debunks 18 arguments for eating meat.
These cardamom-roasted strawberries by Toronto chef and writer Shayma Saadat look divine.
A meal idea for grilling season
For the past couple of years, I have been hooked on Ottolenghi’s burnt eggplant dip, made with grilled-till-they’re-mush local eggplant. The recipe is from his book Plenty and I also found it online via NPR.
Like many British recipes for grilling, he suggests prepping the eggplant on a gas stovetop, but of course a barbecue is much better if you have one. Good eggplant are key here, not the giant spongey ones some grocers carry. Make sure to prick them before cooking. (I did once have exploding eggplant because I forgot.) And cook them longer than you think you need to.
I like to use Parallel’s smoky tahini in this dip, and the pomegranate molasses is key. (It’s widely available – I think mine is from Freshco. But if you can’t find it, this Smitten Kitchen recipe, adapted from David Lebovitz, is similar but different.) Note that I have never once topped mine with pomegranate seeds, since eggplant and pomegranates have basically opposite seasons here. Maybe it’s different in the Middle East.
I needed something to dip into this, but I didn’t want to turn the oven on, so, inspired by the stovetop sourdough naan of a few weeks ago, I went hunting for a stovetop pita. These quick and easy flatbreads from King Arthur Flour fit the bill.
As promised, they were very easy to make. I sneaked in some whole wheat flour, and did a half recipe so I wouldn’t have leftovers.
Add in a bowl of warm chickpeas with a simple lemon-tahini sauce and we were set for dinner.
Next on my list? Strawberry rhubarb galettes. I’ll let you know how that goes next week.
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