If you love ratatouille, you have to try this brave, cheeky eggplant bowl

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In my family, certain Nigerian dishes were bound to certain days of the week, and the garden egi -sometimes called garden sauce -was what I always regarded as weekend foods. When I grew up, my family ate it on Saturday morning, served with cooked yams or judicial cooking bananas. When we made a big pot, he stretched out the week when we often add it with chopped leaf vegetables such as amaranth or herbs such as fragrance blade (similar to Japanese shiso or Korean perilla). This weekday version was perfectly over damped rice, while the remnants were just as good the next morning next to fried eggs.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine

Garden species belongs to the extensive global family of Auberginen and Tomato dishes-thinking about French RatatouillePresent Provenzal Tianor Catalan Jakobsmussel– But his taste profile and its texture are clearly Nigerian. The most important ingredient, garden eggs (a local kind of eggplant), are cousins from Thai eggplants and a distant relative of Globus -Aauberginen (Aubergines). Nigerian garden eggs are typically oval, about the size of a hen egg and a color in color from white to cream -colored to green, sometimes striped. They are eaten raw and cooked, and their earthy bitterness plays beautifully against summer products such as mature tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and chillies.

If you cannot find Nigerian garden eggs, Thai eggplants make an excellent replacement because they are similar in size, shape and taste. Standard -globe -aauberginen also work in a pinch. They are less bitter, but if they are salted and drained before cooking, they easily absorb the taste. Whatever you use, the eggplant (and zucchini) before cooking draws excess moisture, concentrates the taste and ensures that the stew is not watery.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine

The classic garden sauce is made from not refined red palm oil, which contributes a deep, nutty taste and a lively color. Peanut oil is a good alternative, although any neutral or slightly flavored oil can be used. Remember that everyone will give the court their own character.

Like many Nigerian stews, these aromas layer of a vegetable base with salty, umami-rich additions. Dried shrimp (often referred to as “cancer” in African food dealers) – available in African, Asian and Caribbean shops – are essential for their salt depth. They should be soaked in warm water to soften before cooking, which both restore part of their raft and strive for their concentrated salinity. Smokers or canned mackerel, another traditional component, adds enforceable smoke that do not contain similar to bacon or lardons in a French dish. For a plant version, mushrooms (especially dried shiitakes from rehydrated) offer a similarly fleshy bite and an intensity, and a dash of mushroom or vegan oyster sauce can increase the Umami even more.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine

When cooking, the stew takes on a mixture of textures: mixing a portion of the vegetable base gives the sauce body, while the unpleasant vegetables remain chunky and rustic. The result is cheeky, but considerable.

Serve it as you would do every classic Nigerian sauce: with cooked yams or cooking bananas, with rice or couscous or simply with bread to tear it up. With a fried egg, remnants are excellent on toast, folded into an omelet or even thrown with noodles as West African – Mediterranean hybrid. However you serve it, garden ego dead is a lively memory of the versatility of eggplants and how much a pot can be summer vegetables.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine

If you love ratatouille, you have to try this brave, cheeky eggplant bowl

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1 pound ((450 G))) Nigerian garden eggs or Thai eggplants or eggplants of the globe, the circumcised ends and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
1 large zucchini (to 300 G), Ended ends and cut into 3/4 inch cubes
4 teaspoon Diamond crystal kosher salt; Use half as much of the volume for table salt
1/2 cup ((120 ML))) Not refined peanut oil or red palm oildivided and more if necessary
3 medium red tomatoes (to 1 1/4 pound; 565 G overall), corrugated and thinly cut into slices
1 large Red pepper ((7 Ounce; 198 G), came, sow and cut into 3/4-inch cubes
1 medium red onion ((8 Ounce; 226 G), thinly cut
1/2 Scotch Motornet or Habanero peppercomes and cut into slices
2 teaspoon dried shrimpRehydrated in warm water in warm water for 10 minutes (see notes)
1/4 cup ((55 G))) smoked mackereldebonated, daring (if you want) and cut into pieces or dried mushrooms such as Shiitake (see notes).
1/2 teaspoon Cayenne

Place eggplants and zucchini in a sieve or a sail over a bowl. Season with 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and be combined well. Drain for at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. Discard the liquids that collect in the bowl.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine
As soon as they are drained in a large pot or a Dutch oven, heat 1/4 cup of oil over medium heat until it shimmers. Add tomatoes, red peppers, onions, Scotch Motornet (for taste) and 1 teaspoon of salt. Often stir until about 8 minutes are soft until they are soft. Put vegetables in a large bowl; set aside.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine
Add 1/4 cup more oil in the now empty pot and heat it over medium heat until you shimmer. Add the drained eggplant and zucchini and cook for about 8 minutes until you are soft.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine
Transfer cooked eggplants and zucchini to the tomato mixture to combine. Transfer half of the cooked vegetable mixture into a mixing glaz and mix, starting at low speed and increasingly high and loose. (Keep a folded kitchen towel over a glass lid and be careful when mixing, since the mixture is hot.)

Serious food / Maureen Celestine
Pick up cooked vegetables, vegetable puree and dried shrimp in the now empty large pot or the Dutch oven and cook them over medium heat, sometimes covered until it warmly and cheeky, 5 to 7 minutes.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine
Add mackerel or mushrooms and cayenne pepper, stir and continue cooking until the eggplant is tender, 2 to 3 minutes. If necessary with salt and more cayenne pepper taste, taste with salt and more cayenne pepper. If the egg sauce is still too wet, they continue to cook, partly covered with a lid Ajar until they are slightly thickened, 4 to 5 minutes. Surcharge.

Serious food / Maureen Celestine

Special equipment

Colander, large pot or Dutch oven, mixer

Notes

Vacuum sealed or freshly smoked fillets can often be found in the cooling case near other smoked fish in many markets. Some smoked mackerel come in cans or in glasses that are often preserved in oil or salt lake – these can work in a pinch, but the taste is stronger and salty. So use less and taste it as you go. If not available, smoked trout can be replaced.

Avoid the extra large varieties for the dried shrimp (often used for stocks or broth) and do not choose shrimp greater than a miniature image-like rehydrating quickly and break down well into the sauce. Find small to medium-sized dried shrimp (sometimes marked crabs), which are usually sold in plastic bags in the freezer or drywar section of African, Asian or Caribbean food.