Tonight, Sean is out of town. It’s warm in Oakland: We’re having our typical October summer. I decided to skip the gym after work, and ran a few errands instead. Good errands, the kind I love: crafting supplies and groceries. I stopped by A Verb for Keeping Warm to buy a zipper for a skirt I’m making, and then visited the big, overwhelming, farther away grocery store, the one that makes Sean anxious with its crowded aisles and huge, pushy carts. The one that makes me swoon with the possibilities of all that it contains. I browsed and binged on peaches and apples and pasta and avocados, and on my drive home, even the traffic on the 580 couldn’t irritate me.
I got home right as the sun started tinted the building outside of our window a delicate rosey lavender, and I started cooking dinner, the perfect kind of single-lady dinner I like to make when I’m on my own. I sliced half an eggplant leftover from last night’s dinner, and dipped each slice into egg, and then into fine, herb-flecked cornmeal. I fried the slices in a slick of olive oil, two batches, gently browning and then drying them on a paper towel-lined plate. Some leftover ragu from the freezer warmed in a saucepan, and as each eggplant slice was dipped and set to fry, I stood quietly in the kitchen, barefoot, apron on, and balancing carefully on one leg the way I find myself doing when I’m in a zen state of concentration.
I haven’t been able to reach that zen state of concentration lately. There has been so much going on, and I’ve been in a frantic, productive mood the last few weeks, eager to clean and organize and create and learn and read and exercise and do laundry and do every thing I want to do in the few hours of the evening that are left to me after work. So tonight, it felt especially good to stand calmly in my kitchen, frying up a simple but oh-so-satisfying dinner. It felt wonderful to sit quietly at the table while the sun set outside, slowly eating my eggplant and tomato sauce, and savoring every crispy, silky, acidic bite.
As I ate, I thought about how much of our lives are spent rushing to do the things we need to do. Even when they are things we want to do, things we are excited about, even when they are things that makes us feel great, we can let ourselves get over-scheduled. If you, like me, are the kind of person who likes to be organized, to have a plan, then you know how that can be both a blessing and a curse. Sometimes, I need to give myself a window to stop planning, a slice of time in which I let myself do exactly and only what I want to be doing in any given moment. Tonight gave me a tiny taste of that important and necessary selfishness, enough, I think to provide me with the calm and stability I need to balance the energetic productivity of the rest of my days.
In truth, this is sort of a quick and dirty Eggplant Parmesan. If you want the real thing, I have a great Eggplant Parm recipe for you.
| Fried Eggplant with Tomato Sauce |
- 1 medium eggplant
- 2 eggs
- about 1 cup finely ground cornmeal
- a good pinch of salt
- about 1 tablespoon dried oregano
- about 1/4 cup olive oil
- about 1-2 cups marinara or other tomato sauce
- Parmesan to taste
- Trim the green top and the end off the eggplant, and slice it in half lengthwise. Cut each half into half inch thick slices and set aside.
- Whisk the eggs in a shallow bowl until they are well mixed. In another shallow bowl, stir together the cornmeal, salt, and oregano.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat, and add the olive oil.
- Dip each eggplant slice first in the egg mixture, then in the cornmeal, patting with your fingers so the slices are well-coated in a thin layer of cornmeal. Lay the slices into the hot oil, and let each slice cook for about 3-5 minutes, or until they are just golden brown. Flip the slices over and cook for another couple of minutes, then remove them to a paper towel-lined plate or wire rack. Don’t crowd the eggplant into the pan; you’ll probably have to fry in three to four batches, depending on your skillet.
- While you’re frying the eggplant, warm the marinara sauce in a saucepan over medium-low heat.
- Once the eggplant is fried and the sauce is hot, put a few slices of eggplant on a plate, and top with marinara and a dusting of Parmesan. Enjoy your simple dinner and spend a little while in quiet contemplation of all the things you’ve accomplished today.