Fall is definitely in the air here in California’s central valley. Already I am seeing winter squash at the Farmers Market and pumpkins being harvested in several fields adjacent to the river. Day and night time temps have cooled by at least ten degrees and my garden’s production has cooled down too. I’m getting a squash, a cucumber and a few eggplant every now and then.
Recently a friend shared an eggplant marinade with me that used coriander, aka cilantro leaves, soy sauce, rice wine, sesame oil, garlic and ginger. It sounded pretty good there were a couple of eggplants in the garden that would be ripe soon so I printed out the recipe, picked up some fresh coriander at the farmers market and waited for the eggplants to get eat’n size.
The eggplants finally being big enough to pick, it was time to give the new recipe a try. It’s a pretty simple recipe, although there is a 45 minute marinade time so it’s not something you can throw together last minute. You put all the marinade ingredients in to a blender jar, hit the switch until its well mixed then rub marinade into the eggplant’s cut side, place them in pan with remaining marinade and wait. The recipe recommends microwaving the marinaded eggplants but I’m not much for microwaving veggies so I grilled them. The link to the recipe can be found here.
All in all I thought the dish turned out pretty tasty. I was worried that I might have put in too much ginger but it seemed to be just the right amount and for those of you who who don’t especially like the strong flavor of coriander/cilantro I didn’t feel it was overpowering in any way. I think that a sprinkling of toasted sesame seeds would be a nice way to finish the dish. I not sure If I like this marinade better than my favorite green onion marinade but it’s a nice alternative I’ll use again. You can find my recipe for Sesame Eggplant with Green Onion here if you want to try a nice eggplant marinade but really don’t like coriander/cilantro.
As I started writing this I got curious about coriander/cilantro. I found out it is not only an herb it is also considered a spice, it has been cultivated and used as a medicinal and culinary herb for at least 3,000 years tracking back to the Mediterranean and Middle Eastern regions. It’s Asian use goes back several thousand years. Its also unusual as all parts of the plant; root, stems, leaves, flowers and seeds can be used. I found the site The World’s Healthiest Foods to have good information for those of you, who like me always, want who want to learn more.
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This looks great. Eggplant, cooked in a variety of ways, is one of my favorite “meat substitutes” in vegetarian cooking. I especially like the way your Eggplant with green onion looks, but both sound good! We still have not had a killing frost here, garden is waning, but the tomato harvest is just about the peak (in the next 7 days or so). Can’t wait for some fresh tomato sauce on quinoa pasta. Any suggestions on the best way to make an al fresco tomato sauce?
Hi Bill,
Al Fresco Tomato Sauce -Drop 5 large tomatoes into boiling water for one full minute. Peel, seed and chop. Put tomatoes into a large bowl with 1/2 cup of olive oil, a garlic cloce sliced in two (more if you like), 1 cup chopped fresh basil leaves, salt and hot red pepper flakes to taste. Let sit for a couple of hours. Remove garlic if you don’t like the taste of it raw. Pour over your hot quinoa pasta, add a little grated Parmesan cheese and you’ve got a yummy lunch or dinner. Hope you like this one. It’s a favorite of mine when I’ve got an abundance of fresh tomatoes.
Oh, that was good!~ Wow! Also went big with this topping on pesto chicken with shredded cheddar and fresh chives. Desert was baked acorn squash stuffed with pears and maple syrup! All from our garden and orchard.
That sounds fantastic especially the squash stuffed with pears and maple syrup. Glad you enjoyed the marinade.