Dinner Time

On Sunday, we had a couple of friends come over for dinner, and we had a wonderful time. Here's what was on the menu:

To cook the Turkish Orange eggplants I picked up from the Madison farmer's market, I made Mualle, a Turkish eggplant and lentil stew. The recipe is very simple - basically chop up the eggplants - I used two kinds, the orange ones and the green Thai eggplants, some tomatoes, onions, garlic, green chilies, mint / basil and some lentils. I used a pressure cooker for this dish - oil the bottom of the pan, layer the eggplants, and a mixture of the rest of the ingredients, and the lentils. Add salt according to taste. Top off with some pomegranate molasses, and cook for three whistles (or about 3o minutes). The Mualle is served with rice and yogurt.

I made a simple yogurt sauce, instead of plain yogurt to go with the dish, with some chilli garlic paste. The side dish was sauteed brussel sprouts.

Dessert was pears poached in a lemony butter-sugar sauce, topped with rum-raisin mascarpone and a date. Yummy!