Dinner tonight: Scallops with Green Tea Cream and Miso-Garlic Broiled Eggplant

Ok guys, I have a really good excuse this time for not blogging for a while. I was sick. Not like, dog-ate-my-homework sick, but like, I didn't want to think about food, let alone blog about it, sick. Fortunately, we have moved on, hopefully to more delicious meals!


The farmers' market last weekend had some really fun looking eggplant...they looked like long, squiggly purple worms. I had no idea what I was going to do with them, but I really couldn't help myself. Turns out they were pingtung long eggplant, an Asian variety. So of course our meal had to be Asian-themed!

I prepared these eggplants as miso-garlic broiled eggplant. Rather than making slices, I just cut each eggplant lengthwise. And no sesame seeds because they seemed superfluous and not worth the purchase. Otherwise, prepped as is...I believe it took a few minutes fewer than the recipe calls for. The eggplant was delicious--spicy, sweet, substantial. But with some pretty major caveats. First, it was WAY too hard to find miso. I went to three different places (the Teeter, World Market, and Whole Foods) before I actually found it. Also, the cooking of this dish creates a really sweet, heavy smoke and aroma. While this is really exciting when you're anticipating dinner, it's not so yummy when it lingers and you're trying to get to sleep. Or when you wake up the next morning and it's still there (sorry Pat :( ). So, go ahead and make this if you a) know where to find miso ahead of time and b) have a VERY well ventilated kitchen. Otherwise, I recommend a pass.

The eggplant was just the side though. Our protein for the evening was scallops with green tea cream (see? Japanese theme!). These were pretty good. Rather than buy macha, I just ground some green tea in a mini-grinder. I totally undercooked the scallops (while perhaps irreversibly scorching the pan), so I would recommend cooking m-h heat at 4 min per side, rather than high heat at 2 per. And maybe a bit more macha on the scallops themselves. Pat really liked the sauce that accompanied them though, and I agree. It certainly added some much-needed character to the dish.

Overall assessment: not bad. There was really nothing bad about this dish, and yet, there were enough drawbacks that I wouldn't do it again. I could make a joke here about ex-boyfriends, but we'll just leave it at that. ;)