Culinary Smackdown Round-Up - and Winner Announcement

If I were judging purely on entertainment value, Boxer, that crafty diorama queen, would have taken it with this hilarious post. She threw herself into the Smackdown with a vengeance, even though she’s allergic to eggplant and didn’t actually cook (let alone cook meat). But I’d still love to try her recipe for lamb-stuffed eggplant!

Another competitor who went all out is Grumpy Granny, with two entries! Her Battle Eggplant Part 1 post was the first I received, and I found her Eggplant and Yogurt Spread with Red Onions and Olives on flatbread a scrumptious appetizer to the festivities that lie ahead.

Alessandra Zecchini, a food blogger friend from New Zealand, contributed this lovely recipe for Turmeric Eggplants and Chickpeas before heading off on holiday to the Polynesian isle of Niue. Whatever your personal predilections about this month’s theme ingredient, I’m sure you’ll find plenty to savor among the breath-taking photos from that trip in recent posts on her blog.

Photo and Recipe © by Alessandra Zecchini

Another Aucklander, Sue of Couscous + Consciousness, joined in the fray, with this tantalizing Roasted Aubergine, Mango + Soba Noodle Salad she adapted from a recipe by Yottam Ottolenghi, who our own La Diva has written about.

I’d like to welcome another newcomer to the Smackdown, Cincinnatian Stephie from Small Girl Adventures! Stephie took a break from working on her sister’s wedding cake to venture to the savory side, with this impressive Eggplant Lasagna. You can tell Stephie has been to culinary school by the precision of her knifework and excellent step-by-step instructions, although what set her entry apart for me was her fabulous herb-cheese filling (yes, I’m a sucker for all things cheese)!

If you’ve been following Buzz’s adventures at his community garden/farm (because, what with his job and his honey-do list and taking his son to Boy Scout camp, yadda yadda, he just needed to commit himself to one more thing, lol), you know that his plot was producing a single eggplant. Fortunately, it ripened in time. And even more fortunately, eggplant is one of the few vegetables The Mrs. actually likes. Buzz took his inspiration from Fishy’s recipe for Grilled Spanish Style Eggplant, which intrigued me for being marinated, with jalapeno, chili powder, soy sauce, and olive oil – a tempting, if not particularly “Spanish” sounding, combination. Quoth Buzzy: “Eggplant is one of those things that never really looks appetizing, no matter how you prepare it. It comes out of the garden, so you eat it.” However, he did a smashing job with the grill marks on these puppies! And paired them with bbq cocktail weenies and rice plus a tomato-cucumber salad with fresh basil. Now that’s a “make it work” dinner!

Buzz wasn’t the only busy blogger. Several bloggy friends and Smackdown supporters had mishaps, travels, and general what-not to contend with.

Aunty Belle had to dart off to Cajun country and rassle with Uncle over the winner of this week's haiku contest, but she shared her recipes for Moussaka and a cooling Mint Vinaigrette!

In addition to providing the inspiration for Buzz’s dish (well, not the cocktail weenies part), Fishy got derailed with a client meeting (in triple-digit heat), then found herself without internet service. But I am captivated by her recipe for Eggplant Fituras, featuring shredded eggplant, scallions, cornmeal, and nutmeg, which I’m happily imagining would blossom as they fried to look something like this gorgeous photo she did manage to post.

La Diva, alas, is sidelined with a serious leg injury suffered at the gym – Caution: exercise can be hazardous to your health :) But I want to thank her for supporting the revival of the Culinary Smackdown with this contribution, and for sharing her own recipe for Eggplant Caponata from her archives for the occasion. I would have been much better off going the caponata route than those disappointing eggplant pickles Cindie and I mangled. Sadly, no caponata photo included in either post, but Diva sure knows how to find some lovely pics on the web.

When I selected eggplant as this month’s ingredient, I failed to realize how many blogger friends (or their spouses) are averse to this veg. Sorry, and be glad this was a virtual dinner party :) Thanks to everyone for supporting the revival of the Culinary Smackdown with your comments and unique contributions – including the awesome Chickory, who, in addition to creating a stupendous painting for submission to a juried art show last week – and sharing the fascinating journey of her creative process on her blog – designed multiple variations of a our new badge!

So who will serve as the host, judge, and “theme picker” of the next Culinary Smackdown?

The winner is – Grumpy Granny! She gets a giant “E” for “[eggplant] effort” for her two delectable dishes. I mentioned her yogurt-y Middle Eastern flatbread spread above, and I fell in love with her second entry, Roasted Eggplant Ratatouille, where she describes her strategy thus: “Eggplants are notorious for soaking up oil like sponges. This dish is great because it slowly releases the other vegetable juices and the eggplant grabs that instead of more grease.”

Granny is training for an epic swim around Alcatraz on September 17, and she’s pretty determined in the kitchen as well. She was one of the people who prodded me to revive the Smackdown, and I’m confident I’m passing it into good hands. So, GG, head on over to Chicky’s place and select whichever version of the new badge you’d like to claim your wall, then let us know what theme you’re throwing down to test our culinary imaginations for the August Smackdown. It need not be a single ingredient – and I sure hope you come up with something more popular than I did :)

Thanks to all for playing, commenting, and all 'round supporting this little contest. And I can’t wait to see what Grumpy Granny comes up with!

xoxo, eggy

Team Eggplant Does Eggplant - Our Entry for the Culinary Smackdown

Team Eggplant finally got 'er done, despite a couple of delays and disappointments. Before heading to the river to join friend Cindie and her husband, Odie, to cook, I made a quick trip to Findlay Market Saturday morning to replace the sausages and tasso that Cindie thawed – and forgot – the previous weekend when our cooking plans got derailed.

And I was glad I did! In a city where German heritage – and love of sausage – runs deep, Kroeger + Sons Meats makes some of the best – and most diverse – sausages you can find. We had tried their Parma (an Italian-style sausage with red pepper) on our last trip, so I picked up a couple more of those, along with a linguiça (Portuguese sausage) and this tasso (a spicy Cajun ham-like cured pork).

Even better, I found two quarts of local blackberries at Madison’s Findlay produce stand, which, despite her dislike of the seeds in blackberries, Cindie had agreed to turn into a pie. She assembled it in no time, then popped it into the oven of her brand new stove, which we would give a good workout before the day was over.

In the veg department, I had plenty of peeling and slicing to do for my two dishes. One would grow up to be Stuffed Eggplant. True to my namesake, I innovated this one as I went. While the pie was in the oven, I roasted these halved eggplants, then removed the softened innards to add to a mixture of linguiça and Parma sausages I’d removed from their casings and cooked with onions and shallots.

“How about adding some tomato sauce?” I asked Cindie. We debated the merits of tomato sauce vs. paste for this use, and settled on sauce. As she pulled a can from her well-stocked cupboard, Cindie suggested we add rice, so that went in as well. I chopped some parsley and tossed in some cheese, then refilled the eggplant shells, and these puppies were ready for a quick trip back into the oven to warm them up and melt the cheese.

The other dish I had my sights set on was a riff on this recipe for Eggplant, Oyster, and Tasso Gratin I found on epicurious.com by New Orleans chef Susan Spicer published in The Southern Foodways Alliance Community Cookbook. Cindie and Odie love oysters, and I thought this would be a slam-dunk in the approval department until Cindie pointed out to me that July does not have an “R” in it. Although this adage may be less true than it once was, I knew it was best to come up with an alternate plan and decided to go with shrimp.

For this preparation, I decided to use the variety of smaller eggplants I’d picked up at Hyde Park Farmers Market last weekend.

As vibrant and varied as the colors of their skins may be, when I peeled, sliced, and sautéed them with onion, shallot, and red pepper, the only difference among them I could detect was that some cooked more quickly than others, depending on how firm and ripe they were.

For those of you who’ve asked about these Egyptian/Turkish orange eggplants I posted about earlier, I confess to being a sucker for cute “baby” vegetables and exotic varieties.

They were very hard when I brought them home, so I left them unrefrigerated for a few days, during which their green stripes faded into overall oranginess. I spotted a recipe for stuffing these orange lovelies, but mine were only about the size of a golf ball and would not have been worth the effort to try to stuff. I sliced them thinly, hoping for a little color and assured by reports that their skin would be edible (unlike the bitter skins of many purple eggplant). Leaving the skin on worked just fine in this preparation.

Susan Spicer’s recipe calls for a white sauce that incorporates the liquor/juice from shucked oysters. Since we weren’t going the oyster route, I brought some bottled clam juice (one of my go-to substitutions to add seafood flavors when I don’t have seafood stock on hand) – and put Cindie in charge. Cindie always makes her white sauce in the microwave, and it always turns out perfectly! As with any technique, years of practice help :) Someday I’d love to do a step-by-step post of how she does it, but on this occasion, I was happy to leave it in her capable hands to adapt this recipe to her tried-and-true methods and the ingredients we had on hand.

We didn’t end up with a lot of white sauce for the dish we were making. So it’s just as well I ignored the directions in the original recipe to put some in the bottom of the casserole dish before adding the eggplant. We spread some of the white sauce over the the sautéed eggplant-tasso-onion combo, then before reheating, added shrimp, the rest of the white sauce, and a crumbly mixture of bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley, melted butter, and olive oil.

At this point in the afternoon, we’d done enough prep work and people were starting to get hungry, so I decided to forget about another dish I’d had in mind, and we moved on to Odie’s contribution. As soon as Cindie and I started talking about reviving the Culinary Smackdown and attempting Battle Eggplant, Odie piped up: “Poor Man’s Shrimp.” It’s a floured and deep-fried preparation he and Cindie had eaten at the old F+N Steakhouse in Northern Kentucky before it went out of business. Odie loved it and worked with Cindie to come up with a way to replicate it at home. F+N served theirs with cocktail sauce and tartar sauce to pump up the illusion you’re eating shrimp. Cindie wedged and floured the eggplant ahead and refrigerated them.

Cindie hates the residual smell of deep frying in the house. But we ran into a glitch trying to use the fryer outside. With four air conditioners going, breakers blew. Fortunately we at least managed to get the back refrigerator online again. We won’t talk about the future of the electric golf cart . . . Here’s Odie, aka The Frymaster, at work once we brought the fryer inside.

And here are some of those Poor Man's Shrimp fresh out of the fryer.

I’d found these burgundy okra at Hyde Park Farmers Market the weekend our cooking date was postponed.

So we had Odie fry them up as well.

We also broke out the pickled eggplant Cindie and I had prepped two weeks earlier. I love all things pickled (or so I thought), and was inspired by this Italian recipe. But Cindie and I didn't follow it. Instead of putting the pickles in a glass jar, we used an airtight plastic container, and we were wary of following the instructions that said to dunk the eggplant in the boiling pickling liquid and then just pour off the liquid. So we let them soak in the fridge. Odie got into the action as well, hard-boiling some eggs to pickle with the eggplant. Don't let this photo fool you. Despite Cindie's photo-styling efforts, none of it tasted like much. Although I did learn one of Cindie's secrets: She always boils a pickling mixture before she adds it to veg, even something like that summertime favorite of tomatoes, onions, and green peppers.

The entrees, however, turned out well enough, even though, as usual, we made way too much food. Here's the gratin.

And here are the stuffed eggplants.

But the best thing was probably that blackberry pie.

Thanks to all for playing, for visiting all the fine entries, and for supporting this revival of the Culinary Smackdown. A big thanks to Chickory for our new badge! Hope you all had as much fun as I did. I'll be back later in the week to recap the entries and announce our winner.

EGGPLANT RECIPE ROUND-UP AND SANDWICH SMACKDOWN UPDATE

Here at the Intuitive Eggplant kitchen, we aim to please. This post will be neither as celebrity-studded nor as fashion-filled as Big Shamu's close encounters of the Michelle Bernstein kind in answer to a question from Moi. But I recently received a plea from Grumpy Granny for recipes to use the abundance of eggplant ripening in her garden - preferably without tomatoes.

So I went through my bulging files of saved recipe links and shared them in the comments to Grumpy Granny's own post.

Then I thought to myself, GG may not be the only reader looking for new and different recipes to use - or use up - eggplant this season. So I offer you here links to some eggplant recipes I've collected over the years - both with and without tomatoes - in case you find yourself in a rut and in need of new inspiration. We've got Thai, Indian, Lebanese, Moroccan, Greek, Turkish, not just Italian (a rut I tend to fall into). We've got wraps, roulades, salads, grain-based dishes, and pizza. We've even got a recipe for eggplant pickles (I'm all about the pickles)!

I share these with you with a few caveats. 1) Sadly, I have not actually ever made any of these recipes myself. 2) If you try any of them, please come back (via comment or email) and let me know what you thought of them or how you tweaked them. 3) I believe a few people have stumbled upon my humble blog thinking it is solely focused on eggplant recipes - not so. Someday I may post about how I came to have this screen name. Until then, on to the recipes!

Best Eggplants Ever – That's the title the Food Network gave this Madhur Jaffrey recipe with a tomato-chickpea sauce with yogurt and Indian spices.

Grilled Eggplant with Garlic Sauce and Mint – Bobby Flay goes a little Asian with this one.

Grilled Eggplant Wraps with Lemon Aioli, Feta, and Mint – The title of this Sara Moulton recipe pretty much says it all.

Herbed Broiled Eggplant with Capers and Olives – The eggplant in this Batali recipe gets an interesting stuffing treatment.

Shlada De-al Bedenjan – The lemons and spices in this Moroccan salad intrigue me.

Grilled Eggplant and Goat Cheese Salad – Personally, I’m a sucker for anything with goat cheese and pine nuts.

Pasta Shells with Roasted Vegetables – The artichoke hearts and roasted red peppers in this one, plus balsamic, Dijon, and fresh herbs, piqued my interest and could probably be adapted any number of ways.

Nonna's Pickled Eggplant – Need I say more?!!!!

Stuffed Eggplant with Sun-Dried Tomatoes – From Courtney at Epi-Ventures, a local blogger who cooks in, dines out, is going to culinary school, is (or soon will be) working in the kitchen at one of my favorite restaurants, and unfailingly delivers beautifully written and photographed posts that inspire me.

Spicy Grilled Eggplant with Red Pepper and Parsley – From blogger Kaylin of Kaylin’s Kitchen – her post also includes links to a bunch more eggplant recipes!

And this up just today from Joanne at Eats Well With Others, a witty and culinarily fascinating blog I’ve recently discovered: Sultan's Delight or Hunkar Begendi or Turkish Beef Stew with Eggplant Puree.

Then there's the wealth of inspiration you can find at Smitten Kitchen, one of my go-to sources for veggie-based recipes that appeal to my personal taste. Deb’s blog also features great writing, photos, and search capability, and she credits and links back to the original sources she adapts from. Here are a few of her eggplant offerings.

Mediterranean Eggplant and Barley Salad – Oooh, with barley!

Lebanese Stuffed Eggplant – Another interesting middle eastern dish.

Grilled Eggplant and Olive Pizza – Oh, yeah, pizza.

Thai Smoky eggplant salad with chiles, lime, avocado and tomato. Deb's post about it here. 

Or if you're an intuitive cook who gets your inspiration from great photos (but infrequent recipe posts - lol), you can check out this kicked-up Eggplant Parmesan from DoggyBloggy at Chez What?

As last month's winner, DoggyBloggy is also hosting the August Culinary Smackdown: Battle Sandwich. The Smackdown is a friendly little cooking/blogging contest where the victor usually takes only bragging rights and the opportunity to post this badge on their blog.

But DoggyBloggy has upped the incentive this month by offering a $100 CSN gift certificate to this month's Smackdown winner!

So get your sandwich ideas together and throw in for this throwdown. Or send me your favorite corn recipes, because I received a delightfully unexpected package today.