The reputation for madness may have originated in India because of a folk etymology connecting vatingana with the word for wind, which is associated with madness in India as the moon is in Europe. In any case, Arab doctors warned their patients that eggplant would cause madness, cancer, freckles and hoarseness, among other evils (European doctors would later say the same), but the man in the street didn't necessarily pay attention. The 9th-century poet Kushajam wrote:
"The doctor makes ignorant fun of me for loving eggplant, but I will not give it up.
"Its flavor is like the saliva generously exchanged by lovers in kissing."
"The doctor makes ignorant fun of me for loving eggplant, but I will not give it up.
"Its flavor is like the saliva generously exchanged by lovers in kissing."
So....er....ummm...yeah. Saliva. Kissing. In any case, I'm going to go out on a limb here and say the following recipe will most likely NOT cause you to go insane. However, I will not be held responsible for any kissing that may ensue after consumption.
Baked Polenta with Tomato and Eggplant
Serves 6, Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees
What you will need:
1.5-2 lbs. fresh vine ripened whole tomatos, roughly chopped (this is about three large tomatos)
1 Tablespoon olive oil
1 bay leaf, 2 basil leaves (dried basil is fine, too)
1/2 cup finely chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
salt, pepper
1 tube of pre-packed polenta
1 large eggplant, sliced and grilled
vegetarian cheese substitute
What you will do:
1. Heat olive oil and add tomato, bay leaf, basil, onion, and garlic. Cook for 20-30 min. or until tender. The mixture will begin to break down and look like your favorite tomato sauce. (In fact, you can use this part of the recipe as a base for all your Italian dishes.....) Season with salt and pepper.
2. In the meantime, slice the eggplant into thin rounds and grill the rounds on a lightly oiled skilled. (I use a grill-pan with ridges to get the nice grill lines on the eggplant.)
3. Lightly grease a casserole dish and spread the sauce over the bottom of the pan. Arrange sliced polenta over the sauce and then layer the grilled eggplant on top of the polenta. Crumble the vegetarian cheese substitute on top. Bake 25-30 min. or until golden. Let cool slightly and slice. Serve over wilted spinach.
what is polenta?
ReplyDeleteTaffany, POLENTA is made from ground yellow or white cornmeal, mixed with water and salt and heated. It can be served warm, like a porridge, or can be cooled (it will take the form of whatever container it is in) and then sliced and baked or fried. In this recipe, I use pre-packed polenta and then just slice it. You can find it in either the organic section of your grocery store or sometimes in the cold section, near the dairy.
ReplyDeletePozdrav iz Banjaluke! I just found your blog and love it. Decided to try this recipe here in Bosnia, but OF COURSE there is no pre-packaged tube of polenta available at the piaca. ;o)> Did you ever make this here and is the shape of the polenta slice important? I suppose I could 'pre-pack' my own and then slice it? Puno hvala u naprijed!
ReplyDeleteMark ZDRAVO! No, I never made this dish in BL, but the shape of the polenta isn't important, so you can just make a pot of it from scratch and then put it in a casserole dish or on a cookie sheet to cool in the fridge and then slice and layer. I think that'd be the easiest. In fact, I just made my own batch of polenta from scratch for another dish...this time I added lots of chopped broccoli to the polenta and then chilled it. The next day I pan-fried it in pieces and served it warm with a basil pesto sauce poured on top......yummy!
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