Eggplant Roulade

I got this from the show "Fearless in the Kitchen" on the W network. LOVE the show, especially since it makes me feel better about myself. (The people on that show start off as EPIC failures as cooks, but they get really good at the end).

They are little rolled eggplant appetizers, with cheese, dried fruit and nuts on the inside.


Ingredients: (makes about 12 bite-sized rolls)
1 long eggplant
4 oz cranberry bleu cheese
pecans
olive oil for frying


Method:
Cut the eggplant in half so you get two short halves.
Slice into 1/4" slices lenghtwise, so you have about 12 slices all together.
Fry them in batches, about 3 minutes per side.
Let cool.
Just before serving, roll a bit of cheese and nuts into the eggplant slice. Hold with a toothpick.
Warm in the oven set to 325F until cheese is softened.


Comments:
It was diffiuclt to cut the eggplant into equal thickness, which then makes it hard to cook all of them without overcooking. Once the eggplant is overcooked, you can't really roll it.

Keep a close eye for when the cheese just starts to soften; you don't want all that cheesy goodness to ooze onto the pan and be forever lost.

The original recipe called for currants and pine nuts. Currants are hard to find here, and pine nuts are crazy expensive. I was originally going to substitute the currants with dried cranberries, but the cranberry was already in the cheese, so I skipped it.


Verdict:
Good. I liked the cheese-fruit-nut combo. Would be mm mm good, but the bleu cheese was a bit too sharp, even with the mellowing effect of the cranberry.


Next time:
I would use a less crumbly cheese that is great with fruit, like havarti or brie. It was rather messy to get the bleu cheese off my knife and onto the eggplant.

I would also consider roasting the eggplant in the oven, because I got really impatient waiting for them to fry. Maybe also, to get that nice browned flavour, I would set it on the top rack and broil it at the very end of the roasting time.

I am also curious as to whether or not this would be good as a round... as in cut them into round slices, roast them, cool them, then top with cheese and nuts and bake in the oven. I'm not entirely convinced that toothpicks are compostable, so this would be one way to get around that.