Eggplant Delight

 Eggplants/Brinjals/Aubergines-not my favourite veggie but as a baked dish sounds exotic and tastes divine. Infact recently a friend wrote me a simple recipe of a Brinjal Rice...I replicated the same and it was just awesome! Thanks LK :) later she suggested another dish with this same purple fatso veggie...but I didn't get a recipe...so I kind of figured out, if I were to conjure up all these ingredients,perhaps I would come up with what she prompted.

So,here as the pic denotes, I have taken a voluptuous babe(brinjal) and removed and discarded its stalk and cut it lengthways into how many slices it gives you-keep in mind to cut them quite fine. I did have one or two which turned out quite chewy and those were the ones I cut thickly :( So they are all laid out n a nice oiled baking sheet/foil. I brushed them lightly with some olive oil (Thanks Pa,another one of those last supplies that you brought for me)

Once oiled, season with salt and pepper. Set the oven to 180 degrees and Roast for around fifteen minutes until they get real soft. Allow it to cool.

Once cooled spread a mixture of curd, tomato paste(I've used tomato sauce) and dried oregano. I know it sounds weird but then, I needed something of spreadable consistency and that which would help the eggplants to shrivel and soak in the flavours.

 You can roll these if you wish when you place them into your baking dish by tucking their ends underneath, but I wasn't so patient, so I just laid them like so.

Turn up the oven to 200 degrees now.

Do set aside some fresh breadcrumbs and grated cheese and sprinkle this mix over the roasted brinjals which is now coated with that curd-tomato-oregano mix. Pour some olive oil over the dish and bake the dish covered for around five minutes. Remove the foil cover and then let it continue to bake for anoter ten minutes until all the cheese has melted . Serve hot!

These are my garlic bread slices, I have spread the same mixture over each slice, also poured over it lightly tempered olive oil with crushed garlic and dried rosemary herbs and sprinkled the same mozarella cheese over each slice. As the overn was hot with the ongoing baking, I placed these as well in the lower rack to toast and melt.

 Once out of the oven, I have sprinkled some chilly flakes over the dish as a part of the garnish and presentation.

 The combo of this Eggplant delight with the cheese garlic bread was to die for.

Forget about your waistline whenever you handle dishes with cheese...the guilty feelings do sink in later on :(
Enjoy it while it lasts, life's too short for too many compromises,right? just hit the treadmill tomorrow or take a nice long walk in your park!