CSA Week #12

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture.  Essentially, one purchases a ‘share’ in a local farm – much like the stock market, one then has a vested interest in seeing the farm succeed.  Dividends/pay outs come in the form of produce – vegetables and sometimes fruit.  Different farms do things differently; my farm happens to be also organic, and I pick up my box each week – Tuesdays for me – from a local location.  Join me on this journey – my inaugural season with a CSA – as I explore the various vegetables I receive and what I can do with them to turn them into delicious happiness…
For more information on CSAs, click here.  To find a CSA local to you, you can click here or for one in NYC, visit JustFood.org.  I found mine by typing “Forest Hills CSA” into Google – my neighborhood name + the word CSA, and I’m sure that would work for you as well.  Good luck and enjoy the fruits of your labors… har, har. 

And here comes Week #12… almost halfway through the season, kind of crazy, right?  If you clicked through the link, you’ll see I got some fairly standard items; potatoes, peppers, tomatoes (mine EXPLODED! I had it on the counter and one day I came home, smelled something slightly earthy, went into the kitchen, and it was leaking all over my counter!), more zucchini, etc. 

And yes, I once again chopped up the zucchini and sauteed it with some fresh garlic (from past CSA weeks), crisped it up nicely, then fried an egg to put on top.  And it was delicious, as I expected. 

But there was another vegetable on there… one I’d never cooked in my entire life! 

In fact, one that I’d hardly ever eaten in my entire life.

That would be… eggplant.  Asian eggplant.  It looked like zucchini, but purple – long, skinny.  I wondered what to do with it.  Do I peel it?  Do I have to soak it, as I’d read?  What do I do???

Thankfully, Facebook once again rescued me, as Lizz let me know that I could ‘wilt’ it and skip the soaking process. 

I formulated my own recipe in my head, and whipped up a batch.  And my gosh, served over fluffy white rice, it was absolutely delicious, and I will totally make it again. 

You should make it, too. 

1 Asian eggplant, cut into inch long sticks
1/2 pack of medium firm tofu, cut into same/similar size/shape
garlic, minced
onion, minced
soy sauce
hot bean paste (optional, but it adds a nice lil kick)
cilantro (if you don’t like that, it’s optional)

In a dry skillet over high heat, “wilt” the eggplant a bit.  Remove eggplant to a plate.

In same skillet, add a little bit of oil – olive or sesame if you like.  Add garlic and onion, stirring a bit, until fragrant. 

Add eggplant, then a splash of soy sauce, stirring everything all around a little bit.  Add a bit of the hot bean paste to taste (go easy; it gets spicy super fast because eggplant likes to absorb everything!).  Add cubed tofu and stir around. 

(If you want a saucier dish, add a bit more bean paste, a little more soy sauce, and then add cornstarch slurry to thicken.  Yum!  Gravy!) 

Top with lots and lots of cilantro.  Or chopped scallions would work nicely as well!  You could also add ground pork to this if you wanted a meatier dish.  Lots of variations here!  😉

Serve with fluffy white rice.

Happy eating!!! 

Previously:
CSA Week #1
CSA Week #2
CSA Week #3
CSA Week #4
CSA Week #5
CSA Week #6
CSA Week #7
CSA Week #8
CSA Week #9
CSA Week #10
CSA Week #11