And speaking of Fairy Tales… We are irresistibly drawn to present, for your approval, a wild and crazy, yet fundamentally healthy dish you can whip up alongside any cookout main. Behold! Fairy Tale Eggplant with Crispy Shallots and Thai Dressing…
You’d have to ask recipe contributor Joe Ogrodnek why he characterises his intriguing blend of cook-ing techniques and flavours as a Fairy Tale. He doesn’t disclose in the recipe itself. But the dish both looks and tastes otherworldly in its own unique way…
Secret’s in the sauce…
While the grilled eggplant itself is a treat, the Thai dressing is the star of this show. And it’s full of classic Asian ingredients including Coconut Palm sugar, lemongrass, ginger, fish sauce and Thai chilis.
And though Ogrodnek classifies the ‘additional ingredients’ as optional, you really shouldn’t skip even one of them. That would be like performing a symphony with one of the instrument families missing.
Pretty straightforward
The procedure is pretty straightforward, even more so for anyone familiar with Asian cooking tech-niques and grilling.
However, the chef says using hot water to dissolve the sugar for the dressing is a point you really should observe for best results.
Grill the eggplants covered, over indirect heat, turning occasionally to ensure they’re marked on all sides and cooked through.
You can ‘grill’ the eggplants in a heavy skillet (cast iron preferred). I’d use my cast-iron grill pan if I was making this dish in January, when my backyard grill is frozen stiff under a mantle of snow that’s been accumulating since early December…
You can use a less-expensive and more commonly available substitute in place of the prepared crispy shallots Ogrodnek specifies. I’ve used good old French’s Crispy Onions to good effect in other recipes that called for something more exotic. In my view, the crispy shallots are more for texture than flavour in this dish, anyway…
As always, you control the heat by adjusting the amount of Thai chilis you add.
My take
I guess, on balance, I have top admit that Ogrodnek’s eggplants do have a kind of other-worldly look to them. And the overall effect is really more light and airy, like a Cinderella saga, rather than some dark, cautionary tale such as Hansel and Gretel, or Little Red Riding Hood.
In more real-worldly terms, Fairy Tale Eggplant is light, bright and summery – just the accompani-ment for your most luxe grilled mains!
~ Maggie J.