“Well, you don’t have tell them exactly where it is,” says Elaine Granata, about her garden, whose location I can describe no more precisely except to say that it’s somewhere near Olivea, on 17th Avenue. As she says this, I notice an armful of colorful rainbow chard soaking in what looks suspiciously like a kid’s wading pool — the Tupperware she used to wash her greens disappeared a few weeks ago, and so, before that, did the handsome aluminum washtub. Such are the perils of keeping an urban garden.
The garden — at the restaurant we jokingly refer to it as Granata Farms — is a 30-by-20-foot plot on which Elaine grows cucumbers, eggplant, greens, herbs, string beans and summer squashes that she sells to us, as well as Marczyk Fine Foods and a few community-supported-agriculture subscribers.
A few times a week, Elaine will show up with just-picked squash blossoms or purple basil or chard or kale or my favorite — miniature Fairy Tale eggplants as dainty as earrings. The Fairy Tale eggplant, which we tempura fry and serve with yogurt and tomato sauces, are just the way eggplant should be, mild, sweet with a creamy texture and no bitter aftertaste.
Cooking eggplant can be frustrating. Eggplant — especially the large, spongy Black Beauty variety, which is by far the most common type of eggplant sold in this country — can be bitter and bland at the same time and have a tough leathery texture when cooked. It can be a sponge for oil. It’s as perishable as the most delicate of salad greens and extremely sensitive to odors in the refrigerator.
Many recipes will tell you to salt, weigh and soak the eggplant before cooking, but even this complicated procedure will not guarantee you sweet, tender, greaseless eggplant.
My solution is to use only smaller, milder varieties, like Japanese or Thai (pictured here) — or even Fairy Tale, if you can find them — and to buy the freshest eggplant you can find and cook it right away.
This dip is good served with pita or grilled bread or even shrimp.
John Broening cooks at Duo and Olivea restaurants in Denver.
Roasted Eggplant Dip
Makes 2-3 cups.
Ingredients
2 pounds Thai (above), Fairy Tale or other small eggplant
1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
2 teaspoons minced garlic
1 teaspoon toasted ground cumin
Juice of 1/2lemon
Pinch cayenne pepper
2 tablespoons chopped basil, parsley or cilantro
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
Place the eggplant on a baking sheet. Toss with 1 tablespoon of the oil. Season with salt and pepper.
Roast for about 1 hour, or until completely soft (the part of the eggplant near the stem will soften last).
Remove from the oven. Allow to cool slightly, then split the eggplant and scoop out the flesh with a spoon into a bowl.
Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Serve at room temperature or slightly warm with toasted pita, bread or grilled shrimp.
