Eggplant two-ways

I made two recipes with eggplant this week, just out of random inspiration. First, my roommate brought home some dried oregano from a friend's garden, so I knew I needed to make pizza.

For the pizza I started with a whole wheat crust similar to this one. I've been eating pretty cheap lately, so I just used plain tomato sauce and packaged cheese. Looking back, I wish I would've upgraded as both were a bit too salty for me. Anyway, while the dough was rising I cut the eggplant into 6 thin slices and grilled it for a few minutes on our panini press.

When the dough was done, I spread the sauce on, sprinkled on some dried oregano, and then the shredded cheese. I also added capers, because capers on pizza is the best. Then finally the eggplant. It turned out quite nicely, besides the saltiness. I served the pizza with a side salad of arugula, cherry tomatoes, and a soy-ginger dressing. I bet this would have been good with some grilled zucchini or asparagus on the pizza as well.

A few days later I made an eggplant stir-fry, inspired by something my Chinese friend brought to a recent potluck. To start I drained and baked some tofu (425 degrees, 30 minutes, stir after 15). Then I sliced and stir-fried a white onion in canola oil, adding cubed eggplant, 4 cloves of garlic, and some grated ginger when the onion was done. Once those were almost done I added a handful of baby spinach. Meanwhile, I prepared a sauce based roughly on this one, though without the orange juice, less sugar, and more red chili flakes. I'm sure there are other sauces that would work. I added the sauce and tofu at roughly the same time, and cooked on low until the eggplant was very soft. I served this over rice noodles, with sesame seeds sprinkled on. The eggplant was a bit bitter, which I know could've been solved with some pre-salting. Alas, I was lazy.

On the bright side, my food photos are getting better, no? I've learned that a combo of natural light and the close-up setting on my digital camera often works best. Also I've slightly gotten into food styling (for example, sprinkling some sesame seeds on top). Personally I find it unauthentic to have everything extremely styled, so I just take photos to document what I make.