Mediterranean Eggplant Poppers #FishFridayFoodies

Mediterranean eggplant poppers combine the lovely flavors of za’atar, roasted eggplant, mozzarella and tomatoes for a great appetizer your guests will love. They are even more special topped with shrimp.

When I have the time, I like to head to the big hypermarket not too far from my house and wander around the fresh produce section looking for inspiration. They carry an amazing selection of fruit and vegetables from near and far, all shiny, bright, colorful and clearly full of nutrition and vitamins.

Just a couple of days ago, I came across the loveliest little eggplants there. I shifted through them looking for the smallest ones, trying to select ones of similar size, with good stems still attached. Right there, in my head, I made up this recipe. Like this: What goes with eggplant? Garlic and tomatoes. What goes with garlic and tomatoes? Mozzarella, of course. And because today I am joining the Fish Friday Foodies in sharing appetizers, I decided to top the whole lot with some seasoned shrimp.

And that is the weird and wonderful way my brain works.

Ingredients
8 small eggplants
2 cloves garlic
Generous handful parsley, plus more to garnish, if desired
olive oil
salt
pepper
2 teaspoons za’atar
1 ball fresh mozzarella (about 4.4 oz or 125g)
4-5 grape tomatoes
16 cooked medium-sized shrimp

Method
Preheat your oven to 400°F or 200°C.

Scrub the little eggplants clean then cut them in half, trying to split the stem as well. Scoop out the insides, chop and set aside. I use a melon baller for the scooping. Put them in a baking pan.

Mince the garlic cloves and chop the parsley finely.

Cook the eggplant insides in a small pan with a good drizzle olive oil, sprinkle of salt and pepper plus one teaspoon of the za’atar. When all of the water has cooked out of the eggplant and it’s browning, add in the garlic and cook for a couple more minutes.

Tip in the parsley and cook for another 30 seconds or so, until the parsley wilts. Taste the filling and add more salt, if necessary. Remove from the heat.

Cut the mozzarella ball into thin circles. Fit them into the eggplant halves. Add the filling, dividing it between the eggplants.

Slice the grape tomatoes and put one slice on top of the filling. Drizzle on some olive oil.

Roast in your preheated oven for about 15 minutes or until the eggplants start to slump a little and are browned around the edges. Some leakage happens but when you scrape those bits up with a metal spatula, you get to eat them. Score! Make sure you are in the kitchen alone when these come out of the oven and you won't even have to share that bonus.

Meanwhile, dry your shrimp and put them in a small bowl. Drizzle them with a little olive oil and toss them around to coat. Add the last teaspoon of za’atar and toss again.

Note: There are various za'atar recipes. I prefer what's known as Lebanese za'atar but you can use your favorite.

Ignore the little tails on the shrimp. I did remove those before I put the shrimp on the eggplant poppers.

Remove the baking pan from the oven and top each eggplant with one shrimp. Pop the pan back in the oven for another five minutes to warm the shrimp through.

Serve warm, sprinkled with a little more chopped parsley, if desired.

For a vegetarian option, skip the shrimp step. We love shrimp but these Mediterranean Eggplant Poppers are fabulous even without them. And they are just as pretty. Here they are pre-shrimp.

Update: Just ate a leftover eggplant popper straight out of the refrigerator. They are even good cold.

Enjoy!

Many thanks to this month’s Fish Friday Foodie host, Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm. If you are looking for creative holiday appetizers or first courses with seafood, you’ve come to the right place!

An InLinkz Link-up

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Roasted and Stuffed Eggplant #BloggerCLUE

Roasted eggplant filled with a deliciously flavorful stuffing of ground beef, brown rice, olives, artichoke hearts, sunflower seeds and salty Parmesan, is topped with more cheese then baked to golden perfection. This is a great main course that is as attractive as it is tasty.

It’s Blogger C.L.U.E. Society time again and my secretly assigned blog is annaDishes! Anna lives in Florida so her blog is full of lovely fresh recipes with locally grown produce. Our challenge this month was to hunt for and make a recipe that our own grandmothers might have made. While my grandmothers never stuffed eggplant that I am aware off, they certainly did stuff and roast bell peppers – my mom still does so with regularity – and spicy eggplant casserole was a favorite dish whenever we were visiting. I am pretty sure both of my grandmothers would have loved this dish. Aside from the addition of some red pepper and an unavoidable cheese substitution, I’ve made it pretty much exactly as Anna wrote it in her original post, which you can see here. I’ve noted any changes in parentheses and added the metric measures for my readers who use them.

Ingredients
1 cup (dry) or 215g brown rice
2 cups or 480ml chicken broth
1 large eggplant (I used two – weighing 1 1/2 lbs or 665g together)
1 package baby bella mushrooms (One large portabella – weighing 3 1/5 oz or 100g)
1 small onion, chopped (Mine weighed 3 1/2 oz or 100g.)
1/4 cup or 60g kalamata olives, chopped (Mine had pits. Weight before pitting: 3 oz or 85g)
3/4 lb or 340g ground beef
3/4 cup or 110g sunflower seeds
1/2 cup or 100g artichoke hearts, chopped
2-3 cloves of garlic, chopped
3/4 cup, grated, or 70g Parmesan cheese (I grated from a fresh wedge of Parmesan so the weight measure is probably more accurate than the cup.)
Shredded Monterey Jack cheese (I used 3 1/2 oz or 100g Colby Jack.)
Shredded Gouda cheese
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
(I also added 2 teaspoons crushed red chilies and a few fresh thyme leaves for color when serving.)

Method
First start the rice: Bring the rice and chicken stock to a boil with 1 tablespoon of olive oil. (I stir in the rice in the olive oil first to coat, then add in the stock.)

Reduce to low and cover. Cook rice over low heat for 55 minutes or until tender. (Mine took about 40 minutes, at which point I turned the fire off but left the cover on so the rice could steam gently until I was ready to use it. Then I fluffed it with a fork.)

Preheat oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Hollow out the eggplant making sure to leave 1/4 inch or a little more than 1/2cm on all sides. If the walls are too thin they won’t hold up with the stuffing.

Drizzle the baking dish with olive oil and place eggplant halves in center. Drizzle olive oil on eggplant.

 Roast in your preheated oven for 30-40 minutes, until cooked but not too soft.

Here they are roasted.

While the eggplant shells are cooking, chop 1/2 of the meat from the eggplant. (I used all of it.)

Eggplant, olives, artichoke hearts, onion, garlic and mushroom.

Combine the eggplant with onion, mushroom, olives, artichokes and sauté in pan until browned. (I also added a drizzle of olive oil to the pan.)

This is the "after" shot. The pan was almost full when I started but the vegetables cook down considerably. 

Remove from heat and set aside. In another pan, brown the ground beef until cooked through. (Once again, with a drizzle of olive oil for the pan.)

Combine all ingredients in one bowl. Add rice, sunflower seeds and Parmesan cheese.

(Taste your stuffing and add salt and pepper to taste. This is also where I added the crushed red chilies – since we like things spicy. Stir well!)

Transfer a large portion of the stuffing to each 1/2 of the eggplant. (I had stuffing leftover but that is a good thing. It’s delicious just on its own too.)

Cover with cheese and place in oven for 15 minutes.

Turn on broiler to brown the top.

Enjoy! I served each person a whole stuffed eggplant, sprinkled with a little fresh thyme, along with a green salad.

If you’d like to see more of annaDishes, you can follow her on Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest or like her blog page on Facebook.

Many thanks to Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake, Kate from Kate's Kitchen and Christiane from Taking on Magazines for creating this fun challenge.

Here's a link list to all of the intrepid blog detectives in our group! Follow the links to see which blogs they were assigned and the recipes that their grandmothers might have made.

• Lemon Mascarpone Layer Cake from Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Beef Barley Soup from Kate at Kate's Kitchen 
• Scrambled Egg Sandwich from Christiane at Taking on Magazines
• Mexican Hot Chocolate Mix from Debra at Eliot's Eats
• Ginger Snap Cookies from Lisa at Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Scalloped Potato Cottage Pie from Ramona at Curry and Comfort
• Lemon Chicken Thighs from Janet at From Cupcakes to Caviar
• Cranberry Cream Cheese Dream Bars from Christy at Culinary Diva
• Persimmon Syrup and Persimmon Smash Cocktail from Alice at A Mama, Baby & Shar-pei in the Kitchen
• Smoky Potato Corn and Poblano Chowder from Azmina at Lawyer Loves Lunch
• Apple Butter and Body Lotion from Kelli at Kelli's Kitchen
• Roasted Honey Rosemary Pecans from Kim at Liv Life
• Hershey's Candy Cane Cookies from Susan at Create Amazing Meals
• Best Ever Ginger Snaps from Aly at Cooking in Stilettos
• Brats and Kraut from Lea Ann at Cooking on the Ranch
• Chocolate Pecan Fudge from Kathy at Bakeaway with Me
• Pumpkin Scones from Anna at Anna Dishes
• Roasted and Stuffed Eggplant from Stacy at Food Lust People Love
• Swedish Dark Rye Bread from Wendy at A Day in the Life On a Farm
• Spelt Dinner Rolls from Jean at Lemons and Anchovies
• Rum Spiked Chocolate Chip Cookies from Liz at That Skinny Chick Can Bake

Garlic Roasted Eggplant and Tomato Pasta

It’s summer time and the tomatoes are easy!  Actually, the eggplants are here in abundance as well.  As you all know roasting vegetables concentrates their flavors and adds a hint of smokiness that enhances everything under the sun.  Here’s a simple dish that is tons tastier than the effort required to make it.  Because it is made from the ripest tomatoes and the sweetest baby eggplant brushed with garlic-infused olive oil and roasted until sticky and intense.  Just toss them with pasta to spread the love.

Ingredients

11 small eggplants

Sea salt
2-3 cloves garlic

1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil plus more for greasing the baking sheet

3 medium red ripe tomatoes

10 1/2 oz or 300g your pasta of choice (I used whole wheat penne.)

Parmesan for serving (optional)

Method

Preheat our oven to 400°F or 200°C and grease your baking sheet with olive oil. 

Cut the eggplants in half lengthwise and layer them in a colander.  Sprinkle each layer with salt and leave to drain.

Mince the garlic and pop it in a small pot with the 1/4 cup or 60ml olive oil.  Heat the oil gently and remove it from the stove as soon as the garlic starts to sizzle a little bit.  You do not want it to turn brown at all.

Slice the tomatoes into thick slices and cut the little core pieces out.  Lay the slices out your greased baking sheet.

Rinse the salt and the brown stuff off of the eggplants and line them up on the baking sheet with the tomatoes.

Brush the eggplants and tomato slices with the garlic infused olive oil.  Sprinkle everything with sea salt.

Pop the baking pan in the oven and roast for 20-30 minutes or until the edges of the vegetables are turning brown.  Turn them over and brush them again with more of the garlic olive oil.  

Return the baking pan to the oven for another 10-15 minutes.

Meanwhile, cook your pasta according to package instructions in some lightly salted water.  When the pasta is boiled, reserve a cup of the pasta water and drain the rest. 

Return the pasta to the hot pot and pour the remaining garlic olive oil into the pasta and stir.

When the vegetables are done, scrape the baking pan to remove the eggplants and tomato slices and any sticky stuff you can get off of the pan as well.

Add them to the pasta pot and stir thoroughly.  

If the pasta seems dry, add a little of the reserved pasta water. Serve with some grated Parmesan, if desired.

This dish is so rich and flavorful!

Enjoy!