A couple months ago, Seb and I went to a Lebanese restaurant where I ordered this dish, enjoyed it, and decided that it seemed so easy that even I could make it. (NB: Whenever I have had this thought, the result was that I could not, in fact, make it. Restaurants do serve a purpose, it turns out.) So I looked up the recipe, gathered the ingredients, and attempted to make it, twice. (The first time, I underestimated the complexity of eggplant--FAIL.)
The problem (once I conquered the eggplant roasting process) is that one person cannot consume one eggplant in one sitting. However, eggplant is not amenable to having a fourth of itself lopped off for use while the remaining three-quarters are put back in the fridge. Same goes for one can of chick peas, or one tub of yogurt. Some of these things can last longer than others, certainly, but the basic dilemma is that when you make one bowl of eggplant fetteh for dinner one night, you will be making eggplant fetteh every night for half a week to use up the tupperwared remnants in your fridge before they go bad. And, in my house, where three different people regularly cook for one (and one person does not appear to comprehend the concept of cooking), the fridge is an impressive maze of precariously balanced tupperwares. So it goes for almost every meal I attempt beyond the highly portion-controllable, toaster oven-prepared cheese quesadilla. And man cannot live off quesadillas alone, although Miss Self-Important has come pretty close at times.
The problem here is not that I am a harried and important professional whose work-life imbalance forces her subsist off Lean Cuisines and Chinese take-out. Most nights, I have enough time to prepare a basic dish. My problem is that I don't have enough time to eat it all before it goes bad. Attempting variety is the worst--then the lettuce and eggs go bad while you're busy finishing off the mushrooms and the chicken. Now, I understand that this is a problem that arises out of luxury--I can afford to live alone (in a house full of strangers), cook meals every night, and buy fresh food every week. But it is still a problem! What is the solution to my woes? The only thing I can think of is to get married and have two children--no more, no less--so that the standard four-serving recipe and the standard eggplant will both always perfectly meet my needs in one sitting. Anything shorter term?
Monday, April 20, 2009
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14 comments:
Well, we have three children. And they won't eat eggplant, yeccch. Nor much of anything else interesting. A friend of ours said her son was on the Beige Diet: peanut butter, bread, cheerios, milk... surprising how healthy they can remain for long periods on what looks to us like imbalance.
Don't misunderstand me: marriage is wonderful! But your kids will not solve your food problems.
The Giant at Virginia Square has a lot of loose vegetables, so you can choose how much you buy. They even often have (pricey, stylish) little eggplants. dave.s.
I live alone and have a similar problem. What i've grown accustomed to doing is making whatever it is all at once (Like a big pot of spaghetti and meatballs)and then refrigerating the rest. These things tend to last longer once cooked, and then i don't have to cook for the next 2-4 days. And at least with spaghetti and meatballs, I can use them with different things (meatball subs, spaghetti chili, etc.) And you can always freeze things (pancakes do remarkably well frozen).
This isn't to say i don't have things go bad, because after chili 3 days in a row I get tired of it. But it certainly cuts down on throwing away food.
The answer is to have lots of dinner parties. Also, won't Seb eat eggplant? Cooking for two makes things much easier.
As for the highly portion controllable and delicious, I recommend this: http://community.livejournal.com/food_porn/4561368.html.
Try halving recipes. I cook for two and pack us each lunches from the leftovers from dinner, and halving recipes makes just enough for that without getting sick of the dish. Before that, I would be the one eating day after day of the same dish, since I eat lunch at home. Nowadays I cook a new dish every day and feel like I'm getting a good variety of nutrients and flavors, and throwing out less food. I also have gravitated toward cuisines that lend themselves easily to being halved/doubled as needed: stir-frys, curries, soups, ragu-type Italian dishes, simple cutlets of meat pan-fried, etc. If roasting, I buy smaller cuts now, or quarters of chicken, and just use my instant read thermometer to check the doneness rather than going by some recipe's prescribed pounds/hours.
Halving doesn't work as well for baking though. I learned that the hard way.
Baby eggplants?
Dave S: The problem is clearly that you had one too many. Also, I will cultivate and coerce mine into consuming my leftovers.
Coyote Rose: I do this for lunch, but since I'm eating the same lunch every day for a week, I like to eat different dinners.
Cheryl: How am I supposed to have dinner parties if people like you refuse to come to Virginia? But recipe printed.
Dana: Yes, but you can't halve an eggplant. The leftover half turns brown and cries. And you can't halve defrosted meat, at least not unless you plan to use part 2 the next day. And stuff comes in huge quantities--like bunches of basil and boxes of grape tomatoes. Not conducive to my lifestyle.
BB: Do they taste the same?
Smaller recipes, and freezer space. (Like for the meat, don't freeze it in one giant portion, break it out while raw and freeze single portions.
Also, freeze leftovers.)
Still won't work for the eggplant, but sometimes you just have to live with throwing something out. Or find other eggplant recipes, so you can eat a lot of eggplant, with variety.
There are various Indian and Thai recipes that use eggplant, I believe...
1. 'cultivate and coerce' - get back to me after yours are six, and let me know how it worked out. I mean, I'm rooting for you, and all, but do get back to me...
2. she's not too many. she's lovely. and she is in the running for Queen of the Karaoke Corner in elementary school extended day.
3. we barbecue fairly often, and slices of eggplant can last several days refrigerated after being dunked in marinade, wine vinegar and garlic and olive oil. So that's something you can do with your leftover 1/2 egg plant.
dave.s.
I think the solution is that we move closer together and have a leftovers club. I have so much sour cream and bags of lettuce that go to waste.
Sour cream otherwise known as smetana or kaimak can not go bad. It gets eaten way too fast. A big tub will only last a couple of days even for one person. This is especially true if you are eating soup leftovers. If I am eating with my girlfriend and her children it goes really fast.
" one tub of yogurt."
huh?
Yogurt doesn't go bad quickly-- certainly not on a produce or meat timetable-- and has enough different kinds of uses (with fruit for breakfast, as tzatziki for one dinner, in lieu of sour cream on spicy dinners if the yogurt's thick enough, etc) that I can't imagine a tub of yogurt going bad before it's used up.
To Anonymous:
Yeah, I'd wish Miss S-I good luck, too, except that I'm sure she was joking.
I did have friends who made such pronouncements about kids before they had them. "They are just a product of their environment" was my favorite (although even at the time they couldn't explain to me why the family dog didn't wear clothes and go to preschool, if that was true). I asked that friend about his opinion after he had two kids that were at least 3 years old, and he replied: "Shut up."
And to Miss S-I: smaller eggplant and little bitty containers of yogurt, or just start eating a lot more. My wife and elder daughter actually prefers the little eggplants for roasting, for what it's worth.
Sigivald: Freezing--done.
Dave S: Have you tried telling your children that they were only conceived to consume the fourth serving in a four-serving recipe? Maybe that will help them understand.
Alex: Replace sour cream w/ yogurt. Then we can consolidate our provisions.
J. Otto Pohl: In order for that to work, I would need to subsist off of pots of borscht. Can't happen.
JT Levy: How do you make tzatziki?
Hardlyb: Are the small eggplants the same as the big ones in taste and preparation?
I asked my daughter, because I haven't tried the eggplant. She says that the little ones taste basically the same, but have a slightly more delicate flavor that she prefers. And as far as she can tell, they cook "the same" as the bigger ones, adjusted for size. She likes them because she can roast them in a pan on the stove easily (the big ones burn before the inside is done, I think).
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