In today’s cooking class, we had the unenviable task of introducing a vegetable that none of the students had ever tasted before, and they weren’t too excited about trying: Eggplant.
We were making Eggplant Parm and a simple salad, and, for most of the kids, it was the first time they had ever seen or even heard of the vegetable. It was a curiosity to them. And they had a lot of observations.
“It just looks weird,” said Angy Reyes. At least Taylor Rodriguez admired the dark purple color. And Laura Ramos observed that is was “kinda shaped like an egg.”
But when they started peeling and then chopping it, the texture unsettled them.
“It feels squishy,” said Angy. “And spongy,” said Milany Rupert.
“These look like pineapples cut up,” said Laura.
“But it doesn’t taste like pineapples,” said Angy, popping a small chunk of eggplant into her mouth. “It tastes like the white part of a watermelon.”
Once we get it all chopped, I told them, we are going to layer it onto a sheet pan, and roast it in the oven; then cover it with a layer of sliced tomatoes, with cheese and breadcrumbs on top. I told them to think of it like a pizza without the crust. And keep an open mind.
In spite of their strangeness to the new vegetable, they could get behind pizza, Angy and Milany chopped the two eggplants into cubes and then tossed them with olive oil, layed them on a sheet pan and into the oven it went.
Laura, Enzian Delgado and Brianna Veletenga cut the plum tomatoes into thin slices. And Taylor Rodriguez cut the fresh basil into thin strips that we would sprinkle on top after it came out of the oven.
Once the eggplant was roasted, the kids loved laying the tomatoes on top, and then sprinkling the cheese and breadcrumbs. “Make sure you spread it out evenly, every inch gets a layer of cheese,” I told them. Even though we could have used more cheese, it did resemble a rectangular pizza. “Sorta, kinda,” said Brianna. We popped the sheet pan back in the oven and got started on the salad.
All we had for the salad was two heads of lettuce, one butter and one romaine. “This is the simplest of salads,” I told them. “But we are going to make our own salad dressing.” Many of the students said their families made their own salad dressing at home, but not with lemon.
Once the lettuce was washed and dried, Enzian and Laura preferred to chop it, rather than tear it into bite-sized pieces. The others zested and squeezed the lemon, measured the olive oil, sugar, and a pinch of salt and pepper. Angy took on the job of stirring to emulsify. And that was truly a job she loved. She held that measuring cup filled with dressing and stirred it and would not put it down. She found it to be relaxing like the chopping she did last week, another activity that she felt could be an ASMR video (Autonomous Sensory Meridian Response). “Many people find cooking to be relaxing,” I told her, “Maybe you are one of them.”
When the eggplant came out of the oven, and the basil was sprinkled on top, everyone was eager to try it, but the response was not universally enthusiastic.
“I liked the eggplant because it was leafy and chewy, the cheese was salty and savory,” wrote Milany.
“The eggplant tasted weird,” said Angy. “At first it was sweet,” wrote Laura, “But then it tasted like a burnt potato.” Trying to find the positive, Laura went on to describe the cheese. “It was crispy and crusty and moist too,” she wrote.
But they all loved the salad: “The salad looks so good, it could make me drool,” wrote Taylor. “The dressing adds flavor and it was very yummy.” The kids ate every bite.
