Ramblings: eggplant, onions, and a tip about frying

School's out, we're back in town, and now I can make the apartment clean, clean, blessedly clean. I can also find the energy to make real dinners again. Last night we had roasted eggplant and red peppers with a walnut sauce, toasted pita bread, and potatoes tossed with olive oil, whole cumin, turmeric, fenugreek, and sesame seeds. I really ought to have made a salad, but I didn't have the stuff for it. It's funny how I go through phases with salad--sometimes they feel utterly not worth the effort, and other times dinner seems completely out of whack without one. It looks like I'm entering one of the latter periods.

Later today, I think I will fry up some crispy onion shreds to keep around for strewing over Middle Eastern dishes, such as mujadarrah. We had a very nice version of this dish at a restaurant in Pittsburgh, served with a chopped salad of cucumbers, parsley, and other nice things on top. I was dubious about this innovation, but it was just dandy, and I am planning to reproduce it for New Year's Eve dinner. I thought it would be nice to make really proper onion threads for the occasion. It is still unclear whether we will have two guests, or three, or five, but it will hardly hurt to make extra onions. If there are leftovers, all the better for us! A tip for draining fried food: try using a stack of coffee filters, the bigger the better. They're tidy and absorbent and nicely three-dimensional. I really wish our stove had counter space next to it.

Posted by redfox at December 30, 2002 12:46 PM (dinner reports)

all breads | breakfast | dinner reports | drink | eating out | essays | etcetera | lunch | news | recipes | salads | snacks | soups | sweets | tips | travel | vegetables | weekly meals |