Tiny Eggplants; Large Delight

For a large American supermarket, Jon's is unbelievably quirky. Sometimes you'll go looking for something relatively basic, like cauliflower, only to find that they don't have any. And then, when you least expect it, the most delightful things will pop up in the produce department, like Goji berries or chayote squash (also in other departments--I once spotted pants for sale in the cleaning aisle).

So while I often make Indian eggplant dishes with the large, more de facto eggplant that's always in the store, I was delighted to find the little round ones that many recipes actually call for. I thought about making this dish (kind of an eggplant-dal hybrid?) but ultimately settled on this one: Gingery Eggplants in Coconut Sauce. I followed the recipe to the letter, except I didn't add any salt because I used salted peanuts. WOW. This was absolutely fantastic. Add plenty of water to the sauce, and don't skimp on salt or sugar; they balance out the bitterness of some of the spices and the eggplant itself.

Gingery Eggplants in Coconut Sauce

(recipe at Holy Cow!)