Grow Your Own #33 August 15: Grilled Eggplant Salad

Recipe at bottom

I will be hosting Grow Your Own # 33 for August 15. It is a twice-a-month blogging event created by Andrea "that celebrates foods we grow or raise ourselves and the dishes we make using our homegrown products. If you have a food blog, farm blog, gardening blog or any blog related to home and garden or fun activities to do with children, you can can write a post about some of the edibles you have raised, grown, or found and cooked with."

To participate, there are three simple rules:

1. Make a dish using at least one item from your indoor/ outdoor/container garden or farm and post about it in your blog by August 15.

2. Anything edible (herbs, sprouts, vegetables, fruits, nuts, edible flowers, legumes, spices, seasonal crops, livestock, eggs) that you've grown or raised qualifies. You can also use something given to you as long as the giver personally grew or raised the item and you did not have to pay for it. You can participate even if you don't live in the U.S. It will be exciting to get entries from different parts of the world.

3. To include your post in the August 15 round-up, send an email to momgateway@gmail.com by August 15 with the following information:

• Subject line: Grow Your Own #
• Your name and location (country, state if applicable)
• Your blog URL
• Permalink to your post
• 300×300 pixel photo of your dish (As long as the photo is no larger than 300 pixels in either direction, it will work.)
• I will post the round-up a couple of days after Aug 15.

Andrea says, "For an event like this I think it’s useful and interesting to see what is fresh and available from different regions at different times of the year, so please make sure you include the location information when you submit your entry."

Here's my Grilled Eggplant Salad entry to Grow Your Own #33 :

Grilled Eggplant Salad

1 lb eggplant
1/2 medium onion, finely diced
1/2 tomato, finely diced
1 stalk scallions, sliced
2 Tbsp vinegar
1 Tbsp lime juice
2 cloves of garlic
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar
dash of pepper

Grill the eggplant on the stove top till skin is charred. Turn it so all sides are evenly charred. This intensifies the flavor of the eggplant and imparts a nice smoky flavor. It's very important that the eggplant is uniformly soft. Transfer eggplant to a plate then use a fork to lift, peel off and discard the charred skin. Flatten the eggplant on the plate and cut it up into tiny cubes. Sometimes I prefer to cut it after adding the vinaigrette or just before serving it.

To prepare the vinaigrette, mix vinegar, lime juice, garlic, salt, sugar and pepper in a small bowl. You can adjust the amounts of vinegar, lime juice, sugar and salt depending on your taste. I like a strong vinegar taste. Add diced onions, tomatoes and scallions and pour vinaigrette over eggplant. Serve immediately with grilled chicken or beef.