Yesterday Beth and I wandered around town for a good while buying junk (like a bike helmet [that makes me look like an alien :) ] for me even though I don’t yet have a bike). After a few hours of this, we cooked a recipe from one of the Moosewood cookbooks and watched Run Lola Run while we ate.
I (of course) have seen Run Lola Run many times (I’m kinda an evangelist, actually) so I knew how good it was already. It seems that Beth has been sufficiently indoctrinated.
The bell pepper that we used in our stew had a mysterious growth (see right), but we ate it anyway (the pepper, not the growth). Beth says it looks like a seed started to sprout inside of the pepper, and then didn’t know what to do so it just turned into a blob. I just think it looks kinda cool.
The food itself was good- tasty, wholesome, heatlhful, blah blah blah. Everything you’d expect out of a Moosewood recipe. Actually, I thought it was nontrivially yummier than most stuff I get at the actual restaurant. :)
Here’s the recipe. I encourage anyone who tries this and likes it to acquire their own Moossewood Cookbook (so rather than plagiarizing, this can legitimately be considered advertising/sampling). We served this over white rice.
Total time: 35 minutes; Servings: 4; Per 8-oz serving: 107 calories, 2.3g protein, 3.7g fat, 18.2g carbohydrate, 258mg sodium, 0mg cholesterol
Eggplant Mykonos
2 medium onions, chopped (about 2 cups)
2 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium-laarge eggplant (6 cups cubed)
1 large red or green bell pepper
3 cups undrained canned tomatoes (28-ounce can)
½ cup unsweetened apple juice or water
½ teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground fennel
2 tablespoons chopped fresh dill (2 teaspoons dried)
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
3 cups chopped rinsed fresh spinach, packed (about ½ pound)
salt and ground black pepper to taste
1 cup grated feta cheese (optional)
In a nonreactive stewpot, sauté the onions and garlic in the olive oil until translucent. Cut the eggplant into 1-inch cubes and add them to the pot. Slice the pepper into 1-inch square pieces. Crush the tomatoes. Add the peppers, tomatoes, apple juice or water, salt and fennel to the pot. If using dried dill, add it now. Cover the pot and simmer, stirring frequently, until the eggplant is completely tender, about 15 minutes. Stir in the fresh dill, if used, and add the lemon juice and spinach. Simmer for another minute or two until the spinach wilts but is still bright green. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Serve topped with grated feta cheese, if desired.
Reprinted from Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home, Copyright © by Moosewood, Inc., Simon and Schuster/Fireside, publishers, New York.
