Tradition or Ease in the Kitchen

How much time do you have to cook?

Photo taken by Author

I love many things old fashioned. Food is usually better if you spend the time to make something from scratch.

This has led me to value traditional preparations over the quick and easy in many recipes. I’ll take 2 days to make sourdough bread, or smoke a brisket overnight, simmer a pot of stock for 3–5 hours, you get the idea.

When I watch Top Chef, I get anxious watching the contestants perform their quick-fire challenges, just because there are so many significant cooking accomplishments that take more than 30 minutes. I feel like viewers are missing out on so many other recipes that only take longer to prepare.

You can’t even begin to appreciate good food until you realize that it will be done when it’s done and not necessarily at dinner time when the clock strikes 6 o’clock.

But…how much time do you have to think about eggplant?

In the garden, fall is eggplant season, and eggplant gets a deservedly bad rap. On top of it being mushy and seedy, most people undercook it, it absorbs too much oil, and on top of everything, it’s not even photogenic, when you need to look up a recipe online.

I never ate eggplant until I was almost 30 years old. And, regardless of the fact that this…