Fearless Kitchen

Recipe: Scallop Fried Rice

I know I mentioned when I posted the braised pheasant recipe that we had some rice left over.  The rice was exceptionally tasty, between the lemony vegetable broth I used to cook it and the pineapple-coconut sauce over it.  A bit of the pheasant that the sauce cooked in came through, too.  It would have been a real shame to let my husband scarf it down slathered in Frank's Red Hot or Worcestershire sauce.  I decided to make some fried rice with it the next day. 

I'd already decided to use up the scallops in my freezer that day - changing from whatever I was going to make to scallop fried rice was no big deal at all.  I also decided to use the leftover nuoc cham as the stir-fry sauce, resulting in a subtly spicy flavor.  The scallops released a lot of liquid, making the dish a little soggier than I'd have preferred, but ultimately that didn't affect the flavor.  Both my husband and I really enjoyed this dish.  It will be difficult to replicate perfectly (unless, of course, I once again have leftover rice after making the braised pheasant dish), but it's still worth keeping in mind. 

Scallop Fried Rice (serves 4; approx. cost per serving not available)

4 cups leftover rice

1 eggplant, diced

Leftover nuoc cham

2 eggs, beaten

2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped

1 lb scallops

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

4 tablespoons soy sauce, or more as needed

3 tomatoes, quartered (I used fresh tomatoes from our garden)

Equipment:

• Wok

1. Heat the oil in the wok until shimmery.
2. Add the garlic and saute until fragrant. 
3. Add the eggplant.  Saute until softened. 
4. Add the scallops.  Saute until mostly cooked, but do not overcook.  This is important - they'll continue cooking as you continue with these steps.  Add the soy sauce, more or less as needed, to keep the scallops from burning. 
5. Add the rice.  Stir-fry until the clumps of rice break up and all the rice is colored by the pan juices. 
6. Add the egg.  Cook until the egg begins to set.
7. Add the nuoc cham and the quartered tomatoes.  Saute one minute, stirring.
8. Serve. 

Which Tomatoes were Better?

This is kind of a different post, although there will be a recipe included here because well, that's what you came for.  Last year our garden was a pathetic waste of space.  We got exactly one tomato and two jalapeno peppers.  The weather was attrocious last year - soggy and cold all "summer."  While we had similar weather for most of this summer (the last couple of weeks have been different,) we learned from our previous year's experience.  We obtained a grow light from my father-in-law.  We started our seeds later and transferred them to larger pots at the appropriate time, and we used the grow light in the evenings to help build stronger seedlings.  We put the stronger seedlings out in the garden later.  This allowed them to withstand the cold temperatures and lack of sun until August, when the garden really exploded into life.  We have a lot of tomatoes coming in right now (expect to see them used extensively in the coming weeks.)  Our eggplants, which did less than nothing last year, are coming along nicely, and even the broccoli that the woodchuck ate is staging a comeback. 

Now, my father-in-law has a real gift for gardening.  For as long as I've known him, he's been turning out amazing produce.  I only use bay leaves from his garden now, and his tomatoes are out of this world (and prolific, let me tell you.)  My in-laws came up from New Jersey recently bringing some of the bounty of their garden with them.  My husband, ever the competitor, decided that we should do a taste test between the Jersey and Massachusetts tomatoes.

There are a few issues with that.  First, the breed of tomato was different.  Our first fruits were Fourth of July tomatoes (which didn't come in until mid-August, but who's counting?).  I believe that the Jersey tomatoes were the Big Beef variety.  Second, the techniques used were similar but not identical.  For example, we got FIL's advice on when to fertilize, but we used the Stinking Fish Goo fertilizer while FIL used a different brand.  So really, we weren't comparing apples to apples here (or tomatoes to tomatoes.)  Still, it was an excuse to eat tomatoes, which I will almost always accept.  I made small composed salads with each type of tomato and half a cucumber each (also from our garden.) 

The results were mixed, as will often happen when there are two judges with markedly different tastes.  My husband preferred the Jersey tomatoes, because they were "sweeter."  Well, I tend to shy away from sweet foods, so I preferred the Massachusetts tomatoes.  Either way, they were fresh, home-grown tomatoes and we loved them. 

The blue-and-white plate holds the Jersey tomatoes.  The white plate on the right holds the tomatoes from our garden.  You can see that the Jersey tomato was larger, both because of the variety and because of the better weather.

If you care about the composition of the salads:

Slice two tomatoes and arrange them on two plates.

Sprinkle the tomatoes with sea salt.  (Kosher salt will also work, but fresh home-grown tomatoes really deserve the good stuff if you have it.)

Top the tomatoes with cucumber slices.  Sprinkle with a little more sea salt.

Sprinkle 1 tablespoon of capers on top of each plate.

Squirt approx. 1 tablespoon lemon juice over each composed salad.

Serve.

Recipe: Water Spinach with Nuoc Cham

Recipe Source: Basan, Ghillie.  The Complete Vietnamese Cookbook.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 190.

This dish was prompted by no other urge other than the fact that I found water spinach at the Brookline farmer's market the week before.  I like water spinach.  Well, I like leafy green things.  I also like side dishes that come together quickly and easily.  This satisfied both needs.  It was a little spicy, which was fine for me and my husband, but might not fill you or your diners with enthusiasm.  You can substitute jalapenos for the serranos to mitigate the heat if necessary. 

Stir-Fried Water Spinach with Nuoc Cham (serves 4; approx. $0.84/serving)

2 tablespoons hot pepper sesame oil

7 garlic cloves, crushed

2 serrano chiles, finely chopped

1 bunch water spinach, trimmed

3 tablespoons nuoc cham

Equipment:

• Wok or saute pan

1. Heat the oil in the wok.
2. Add the garlic and chiles.  Heat until chiles are softened. 
3. Add the water spinach.  Saute until the water spinach is just beginning to wilt.
4. Add the nuoc cham.  Cook another minute, then serve hot. 

Recipe: Nuoc Cham

Recipe Source: Basan, Ghillie.  The Complete Vietnamese Cookbook.  Anness Publishing, London, 2007 p. 222. 

I made this sauce for a specific recipe, which will be posted tomorrow.  I'd originally planned to write up the sauce as part of that recipe, so I wouldn't be posting two recipes from the same source so close to each other.  I changed my mind for two reasons.  First, this recipe made a lot more sauce than I needed for the water spinach recipe.  Secondly, this is a fantastic sauce in its own right.  I used it as a dipping sauce for the pheasant dumplings, and then I used the rest as a sauce for the scallop fried rice I made with the leftover rice for the braised pheasant.  It's versatile, it's easy, it's delicious.  In fact, it is so easy that the only change I made was to add more garlic.

Nuoc Cham (makes about 16 tablespoons; approx. $0.15/serving)

1 head green garlic, roughly chopped

2 red Thai chiles, roughly chopped

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

5 tablespoons lime juice

4 tablespoons fish sauce

Equipment:

• Mini-prep food processor

1. Combine the garlic, chiles and sugar in the food processor and process to a paste.
2. Add the lime juice and fish sauce.  Process until a thick sauce forms.
3. Serve.

Recipe: Braised Pheasant in Coconut-Pineapple Sauce

Recipe Source: Le, Ann.  The Little Saigon Cookbook.  Insider's Guide, Guilford, 2006 p. 150

For some reason, I tend to crave food from South-East Asia when it's cold.  I guess I must just be distracting myself from the misery of winter by thinking about places that are warm.  At some point last winter, I left this book in the bedroom.  While I was trying to come up with inspiration for last week's menu, I picked up this book.  This recipe was the first one I opened up to.  I said, "Inspiration!"  (I will admit, I frequently pick up this book, open it to a random page, and say, "Inspiration!"  Then I fall asleep and forget again - I told you it's been living in the bedroom!) 

At any rate, I wound up having to make a few changes, but you knew I would.  The biggest change was the type of fowl used.  I mentioned yesterday that I couldn't find duck at my local Whole Foods, so I substituted pheasant.  (This brought the cost per serving up dramatically.  Pheasant is not cheap.  Duck can be.)  I couldn't find my stock of five-spice powder, so I substituted plain old ground coriander.  Finally, my local Whole Foods also lacked coconut juice AND coconut soda as called for in the recipe.  The closest I was able to find was pineapple-coconut juice.  I don't think that I lost out here.  (I'd also like to point out that the pineapple-coconut juice would probably pair very nicely with rum.  Since I'm holding off on the rum for another few months, perhaps my good friend Carol would be willing to experiment in my stead.)  Another change (I know, another change after I said "finally" is not only bad grammar but misleading.  Sorry.) is that I served it on a bed of basmati rice that I cooked up with a batch of my Lemony Vegetable Broth.  This is only important in that the broth lent a unique flavor to the rice that combined exceptionally well with the sauce from the pheasant.  There was plenty of rice left over, so I used it the next night for some fried rice which I'll post at a later date. 

I would easily describe this dish as "delicious."  It was the first time either of us had tasted pheasant.  It's not really like anything we've had before.  The nearest thing I can compare it to would be turkey, but that doesn't convey the unique flavor of this bird.  Like I said earlier, pheasant is not cheap, so I'd reserve it for a special occasion.  If you happen to be a very small crowd for Thanksgiving, consider pheasant in place of turkey.  You won't be disappointed! 

Braised Pheasant With Pineapple-Coconut Sauce (serves 4; approx. $8.22/serving)

1 pheasant, skinned

2 tablespoons turbinado sugar

2 tablespoons ground coriander

2 heads green garlic, chopped

1/4 cup fish sauce

1 teaspoon black pepper

2 scallions, thinly sliced

2 1/2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon minced ginger

1 fresh Thai bird chile, sliced into rings

2 cups coconut-pineapple juice

Chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

2 cups basmati rice, washed

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon hot pepper sesame oil

3 1/3 cups Lemony Vegetable Broth

Equipment:

• Large shallow saute pan with lid
• Saucepan with lid
• Small saucepan

1. Bring the broth to a boil in the small saucepan.
2. Heat the sesame oil and hot pepper sesame oil in the saucepan.
3. Add the rice and saute briefly, about a minute.  Make sure that all the rice gets treated with some of the hot oil. 
4. Pour the boiling broth over the rice.  Return to a boil if necessary, then reduce heat to a simmer and cover.
5. Simmer five minutes, then turn the heat off and let sit, lid-on, at least half an hour.  Do not succumb to any urges to peek.
6. Meanwhile, make the pheasant.  Sprinkle the pheasant all over with the sugar and the coriander powder.  Let sit 15 minutes - this would be a good time to prep your other ingredients.
7. Heat the 1 tablespoon olive oil in the saute pan. 
8. Add the pheasant and brown on all sides, making sure that the sugar caramelizes.  You will certainly want to use your range hood here - it may smoke up a bit.
9. Combine the garlic, fish sauce, black pepper, scallions, 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil, ginger and chile.  Add them and 1 cup coconut-pineapple juice to the pan and bring to a boil.
10. Lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook about an hour. 
11. Add another half cup of the coconut-pineapple juice to the pan.  Deglaze, cover, cook another 15 minutes.
12. Add the remaining coconut-pineapple juice.  Deglaze again.  The internal temperature of your bird should be around 180.  If it isn't, cover and continue to cook until it is.  (Pheasant cooks quickly, just so you know.)
13. Put the rice in your serving vessel.
14. Put the pheasant on top of the rice, and pour the pan sauce over the lot. 
15. Sprinkle with the fresh cilantro and serve. 

Recipe: Pheasant Dumplings

I had originally intended to make these for one of our Sunday open houses, and I had originally intended to make them with duck breast.  Another recipe I planned to make during the week called for the dark meat of the duck, so I expected to have some duck breast to use up and that seemed like a good enough use for it.  Unfortunately, my local Whole Foods was low on duck and going to the other supermarkets in the area tends to make me a little nuts.  Whole Foods did have pheasant, however, so I got a couple of them.  Then, when Sunday came around, I looked at my pheasants.  One of them was mostly thawed.  The other was distinctly not thawed.  I had to re-evaluate my plans.  I decided that I would use the meat from the thawed pheasant for the dumplings and use the whole pheasant, not just the dark meat, for the other dish later in the week.  Unfortunately, I didn't think that I had enough meat to make enough dumplings for the number of people we had.

Was I ever wrong.  If you were there that Sunday, I apologize.  There was plenty.  Of course, I guess that's relative, since my husband heroically ensured that there were no leftovers.  ("They won't keep," he insisted.)  I served them with two dipping sauces - one was a store-bought plum sauce, although I have no idea who bought it or at which store, and the other was some nuoc cham I made for another dish that night that will be posted at a later date. 

Pheasant Dumplings (serves 8 - 12 comfortably, can be stretched if you've got enough other food; approx. $3.54/serving)

Meat from one pheasant

One generous handful dried black-and-white Chinese mushrooms, rehydrated at least 30 minutes in warm water

1 head of green garlic, crushed

1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger

3 scallions

1 package wonton wrappers (I used Nasoya brand)

Equipment:

• Food processor
• Steamer
• Pastry brush
• Cup of water

1. Combine all ingredients except the wonton wrappers in the food processor.  Process to a thick paste. 
2. Brush one wonton wrapper with water. 
3. Put a small amount of filling on one half of the wonton wrapper.  Fold the other half down on the filling and press to seal.  Flip the wonton over and gently bend the ends forward.  Place your dumpling in the steamer basket and repeat with the remaining filling.
4. Steam 10 minutes.
5. Serve warm.

Recipe: Nicoise Salad

Recipe Source: Doeser, Linda.  Fish and Shellfish.  Anness Publishing, London, 2003 p. 92

This was another dinner salad that I made in response to my own desperate post-vacation craving for fresh, tasty vegetables.  It also appealed to me in that it contained fish, which is apparently important for fetal brain development.  Okay, okay, that's not why the fish appealed to me, that's an excuse for me to eat more fish despite the fact that fish is generally expensive.  I got around that in this recipe because it called for canned tuna, but I would probably not do that again.  I couldn't justify paying the $16.99/lb for fresh tuna right now, but in hindsight the canned tuna just didn't cut it for me. 

All in all, the salad succeeded in spite of the bland flavorless stuff from a can.  I made a few changes, naturally.  I skipped the cucumber, because my husband ate it before I could use it in the salad.  I skipped the green bell pepper, because I don't recall bell peppers having been in this classic salad when I've had it at its best.  I omitted the basil garnish for the same reason.  As for the garlic croutons, I suffered a bad attack of Lazy.  Instead, I made plain whole-wheat croutons from a baguette.  I also omitted the sunflower oil and reduced the olive oil in the dressing. 

I was very surprised when my husband liked this salad - especially since when I described it to him, he turned up his nose and said, "Ick."  Don't omit the anchovies, at least not in the vinaigrette.  They really do take the dressing to a delightful new level. 

Nicoise Salad (serves 6; $2.89/serving)

1 lb green beans

1 lb new potatoes, cut in 1" dice

White wine vinegar

1 head romaine lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces

4 tomatoes, quartered (we used the first tomatoes from our garden, the 4th of July variety)

2 handfuls black salt-cured olives

1 8-oz can tuna, drained

2 2-oz cans anchovy fillets in olive oil, drained

4 teaspoons grainy brown mustard

1 head green garlic, roughly chopped

1/8 cup lemon juice

1/8 cup white wine vinegar

1/4 cup olive oil

1 whole-wheat baguette, cut into relatively thin slices and dipped in olive oil

Equipment:

• Large pot to cook the potatoes and beans
• Baking sheet
• Colander
• Skimmer
• Bowl of ice water
• Mini-prep food processor

1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
2. Arrange the oil-dipped bread slices on the baking sheet.
3. Bake 10 minutes, flipping once during baking, or until toasted to your liking.  Set aside to cool.
4. Fill the large pot with salted water and bring to a boil.
5. Blanch the green beans for no more than three minutes.  Evacuate to the ice-water bath with the skimmer. 
6. In the same pot with the same water, boil the potatoes until tender enough to eat. 
7. Drain them in the colander and sprinkle immediately with the white wine vinegar.  I don't know why, but this really makes a big difference. 
8. Lay out the romaine leaves on your serving platter.
9. Assemble the remaining vegetables, including the olives, on top of the romaine leaves. 
10. Sprinkle the drained tuna over the vegetables, and lay the drained contents of one of the cans of anchovies over that. 
11. Combine the remaining ingredients in the miniature food processor.  Process until well emulsified.
12. Drizzle the dressing over the salad.
13. Serve, with the croutons passed along the side.  It sounded odd to me too, but they will be wonderful dipped into the dressing when you've devoured the vegetables. 

Recipe: Sunflower Sprout Salad with Cashew Dressing

Recipe Source: Yan, Martin.  Martin Yan's China.  Chronicle Books, San Francisco, 2008 pp. 57 and 141

Our Sunday open houses center around specific activities.  Specifically, they involve a lot of people doing very strenuous physical activity in my backyard.  One recent Sunday those people were doing that very strenuous activity in heat that registered over 95 degrees.  As a general rule, my husband really wants carbohydrates when he's sweating a lot.  The hotter the temperature, the more he sweats, and the more carbs he wants.  Of course, you want protein when you're working out to help build those muscles, and it's important to me to have a lot of vegetables on the table.  This dish covered all of those needs. 

I made a few changes.  Okay, I  made a lot of changes.  I doubled the quantity of noodles.  I couldn't find bean sprouts at my local Whole Foods (honestly!), so I substituted something that looked "interesting."  That "interesting" product was sunflower sprouts, which none of us had ever tried before but which everyone seemed to like.  I omitted the fish sauce, both because it's definitely an acquired taste and because someone had put it away someplace weird at some point and I couldn't find it.  (This problem has since been rectified.)  I also changed anything with the word "peanut" into cashew products, although I forgot to add the cashews at the end. 

The resulting dish was a major hit.  It was the favorite dish of the night for most of our guests.  I've always tried to avoid making food that was too spicy, lest our guests not come back, but the little bit of kick to this dish tells me that it's probably okay to loosen up a little. 

Please note that because I used egg noodles for this dish, it is neither vegetarian nor vegan.  However, if you can find an appropriate substitute for the egg noodles, this would be an excellent vegan dish. 

Sunflower Sprout Salad with Cashew Dressing (serves 12; approx. $1.38/serving)

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 bulb green garlic

2/3 cup Lemony Vegetable Broth (or other stock or broth, the original called for chicken)

1/4 cup hoisin sauce

3 tablespoons smooth cashew butter

1 teaspoon chili garlic sauce

2 9-oz packages fresh Chinese-style noodles (I like Nasoya brand.)

2 packages sunflower sprouts

6 scallions, thinly sliced

1 cup (2/3 bunch) cilantro, chopped

1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon white pepper

1 teaspoon hot pepper sesame oil

Equipment:

• Large saucepan
• Colander
• Mini-prep food processor

1. Combine the first 6 ingredients in the mini-prep and process to a sauce-type consistency. 
2. Fill the saucepan with water and bring to a boil.  Cook the noodles according to package instructions.  Drain and rinse well with very cold water.
3. Put the noodles in the serving bowl. 
4. Add the remaining ingredients and toss well.
5. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss well again.  Serve chilled or at room temperature.

Recipe: Renaissance Chicken "Tortellini"

Recipe Source: Scappi, Bartolomeo.  The Opera of Bartolomeo Scappi.  Terrence Scully, transl.  University of Toronto Press, Toronto, 2008 p. 230

I was asked recently to teach a brief, one-hour class on Italian Renaissance cooking at an upcoming event in September.  The class may or may not happen (long story), and I'm okay with that really.  It's an exciting topic, I've got lots of research materials available on the topic and it gives me an excuse to try more of the recipes from said research materials.  On the other hand, I'm an atrocious public speaker.  I've actually been known to get up in front of a crowd and forget how to speak English, my first language.  (The combination of languages that comes out can be very entertaining, I'll admit.) 

Anyway, so while the class may or may not happen, I figured that I should be prepared for it.  One of the things I'd like to be able to do at this class is offer samples of a few of the foods from some of these sources.  This was the first recipe I made toward this goal.  I served it at one of our Sunday dinners - I've got a whole host of willing and eager guinea pigs, so why not? 

Maybe I should have chosen a different recipe.  The recipe says specifically to make the dough with rosewater.  I wound up adapting a dough recipe from Jack Denton Scott's The Complete Book of Pasta.  It did not work as well as I'd have liked.  The dough was very tough to work with, to the point where I could not actually fashion tortellini with it.  I wound up having to make ravioli with it instead, and even that was more of a challenge than I'd expected.  I also had to use a lot more moisture than the original dough recipe called for, and all of it was rosewater.  This was a bit of a waste, as I'm not sure how much of the rosewater flavor came through in the final dish. 

I did not cook the meat before putting it into the ravioli as was called for in the original, because I didn't quite see the point and because I was distinctly lacking in the boneless beef marrow, chicken fat and boiled veal udder called for in the original.  I used chicken instead of capon, because my understanding is that they're pretty darn similar.  I omitted the saffron because my saffron stock has disappeared (long story again, but a different long story from above).  For the handful of herbs I used tarragon, because the mint and marjoram suggested were a) an allergy trigger for The Spouse and b) unavailable at the time.  The cheese I used to sprinkle on the final product was pecorino; it's kind of my default cheese.  I used store-bought chicken broth to boil the ravioli, because the original specifically said to boil it in chicken broth.  I used turbinado sugar for the sprinkling before serving, because I wanted to give it an interesting visual effect and because I like the flavor better.

The results were much better than I expected.  I personally thought the dish was a little too sweet for my tastes, but the entire dish was devoured before I brought out the next dish, and that's always a good sign. 

Renaissance Chicken "Tortellini" (serves 8 as a side dish; approx. $4.34/serving, which you can probably bring down by getting cheaper chicken and not using rosewater.)

2 lb ground chicken breast

12 ounces cream cheese

1 cup sugar

2 tablespoons cinnamon

2 teaspoons pepper

1 teaspoon ground cloves

1 teaspoon nutmeg

4 ounces currants

1 bunch tarragon, chopped

4 egg yolks

2 eggs

7 cups flour

2 teaspoons salt

4 eggs, lightly beaten

2 tablespoons olive oil

6 ounces rosewater, or more

2 ounces (approx.) grated pecorino cheese

1 tablespoon ground cinnamon

1 tablespoon turbinado sugar

12 cups chicken broth

Equipment:

• Large bowl
• Sharp knife
• Rolling pin
• Large saucepan or pasta pot
• Ladle
• Slotted spoon
• Smallish glass or round cookie cutter
• Stand mixer with the dough hook attachment

1. Combine the dough, 4 beaten eggs, 2 tablespoons olive oil and rosewater in the bowl of your stand mixer.  Combine until you have a smooth, elastic dough, adding more rosewater if necessary.  Cover with a kitchen towel and let stand at least half an hour.
2. In the large bowl, combine the first eleven ingredients and mix well with clean hands. 
3. Roll out the dough, working in batches, to as thin a consistency as you can get it. 
4. Use the cookie cutter or glass to cut out round pieces of dough.  I had to use a knife to finish cutting these out, as my dough was very tough.  It is okay to re-use the scraps ONE TIME ONLY, otherwise your dough will be very tough and possibly inedible.
5. Spoon a small amount of the filling into the middle of each round.  Fold the round shut and crimp to seal.  You may have filling left over; freeze it for another use.
6. Bring the chicken broth to a boil in the pasta pot. 
7. Add the ravioli and cook thoroughly.  You'll know they're done when they float to the top of the pot.
8. Using the slotted spoon, evacuate the cooked ravioli to your serving vessel. 
9. Use the ladle to pour a bit of broth into the dish.  This will help prevent the ravioli from sticking together. 
10. Sprinkle with the remaining cheese, cinnamon and turbinado sugar.  Serve warm. 

Recipe: Roasted Eggplant with a Yogurt-Turmeric Sauce

Recipe Source: Batmanglij, Najmieh.  From Persia to Napa.  Mage Publishers, Washington DC, 2006 p. 118

I served this at a recent Sunday open house.  I chose the recipe because I came up with some interesting looking eggplants at the Brookline farmers' market and wanted to see how they'd work out.  My friend Carol, who is a big fan of eggplant, usually makes it to the open house, so I knew that at least someone would enjoy this! 

Of course, I made a few changes, one of which was to the sauce.  Not being able to find any of my saffron (long story), I just increased the amount of turmeric.  When I tasted the combination by itself, I made a face and said, "Ick."  Then I decided that maybe I should get another opinion before I rejected the sauce, so I had Carol try it.  She too made a face and said, "Ick."  I looked at the finished dish without the sauce and said, "Well that looks like ****."  On a whim I grabbed a fork, stuck an eggplant chunk onto it, and tried them together.  It actually worked! 

I made a few other changes too.  The original recipe called for kashk, a Persian sun-dried yogurt, to be diluted with water.  I hadn't any kashk.  I used fat-free Greek yogurt instead.  I know that this is wildly inauthentic and distinctly not the same, but it's what I had and seems to have worked reasonably well under the circumstances.  I used green garlic, because I like it best.  I used a lot less oil than originally called for.  Finally, I omitted the mint, because my husband is allergic.  The result was a reasonably tasty and definitely distinctive side dish.   

Roasted Eggplant in a Yogurt-Turmeric Sauce (serves 12; approx. $0.89/serving)

6 Italian eggplants (I actually used 3 white, thin eggplants and 3 purple and white, globe-style eggplants)

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 large onions, thinly sliced

1 head green garlic, crushed

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 teaspoon kosher salt

1 teaspoon black pepper

1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt

1 teaspoon turmeric

1 cup walnuts

1 cup fat-free Greek yogurt

1 cup pitted dates

Equipment:

• Wide roasting pan
• Kitchen towel
• Bowl
• Whisk
• Wok or saute pan

1. Cut the eggplants into small pieces.  There is no real need to peel them.
2. Spread the eggplant pieces onto the kitchen towel and sprinkle with the salt.  (A colander would work just as well.)  Let them sit at least 20 minutes.  This should remove any bitterness in the eggplant.
3. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.
4. Heat the oil and saute the onions and garlic until soft.  The original recipe said to get them to "golden brown," but this variety of onion has never gotten to golden-brown for me.  I used my judgment instead. 
5. Remove from heat and add the first teaspoon of turmeric and pepper. 
6. In the baking dish, alternate layers of the eggplants and the onion mixture, adding some of the first cup of yogurt as you go.  It will be very difficult, at best, to actually layer that yogurt.
7. Bake 40 minutes.
8. When you are ready to serve, whisk the second cup of yogurt and teaspoon of turmeric together in the bowl. 
9. Transfer the eggplant to the serving dish. 
10. Drizzle the sauce on top in an attractive manner - a little goes a long way and you may have some left over. 
11. Scatter the walnuts and dates over the mixture.
12. Serve.