Today is Labor Day in the U.S., which means a national holiday and some rare free time to indulge in cooking.
Yesterday, after a fruitful trip to my old college BFF’s melon fields in the heart of the Sacramento Valley, I didn’t just come back with melons and fruits — I also scored a haul of peppers, eggplants, and tomatoes of all kinds.
The hostess mentioned that a food expert who jets around the world to source new and exciting vegetables for Michelin-starred restaurants was particularly taken with these small round eggplants. He even FedExed a few to New York City for top chefs to evaluate.
Hearing that got my creative juices flowing, so I decided to whip up a dish I learned from my trip to Dunhuang, an oasis in the desert of the northwestern region of China, starring eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes for today’s main course. A couple of days ago, I snagged some super fresh golden potatoes and garlic sprouts straight from a local farm through Weee!, so I threw those into the mix for a little extra oomph.
After chopping up the eggplant, I couldn’t resist popping a piece into my mouth — it was that good! If I were a Michelin chef, I’d be inspired to create a dish featuring raw eggplant, no question.
But alas, my enhanced eggplant-pepper-tomato dish ended up overcooked — way overcooked. I completely forgot that veggies picked fresh from the fields are at least two notches more tender than the so-called “fresh” ones you usually get from the store. By the time I took the dish off the stove, the peppers and tomatoes had vanished into thin air. Only about a third of the eggplant remained, but it melted in your mouth, packed with flavor. The golden potato chunks had soaked up all the goodness, but they were also becoming mesh to the point of almost losing their own identity.
Note to self: next time, cut the cooking time in half.
Actually, 99% of the produce on Weee! is sourced directly from local farms in California, so it’s incredibly fresh. Take the Chinese cucumber in the picture, for example — complete with flowers and thorns — it’s unbelievably delicious.
