A Life, Lived: Chicken with Baked Eggplant and Tomato

This is my entry for this week's Weekend Herb Blogging round up. This blogging event was started by Kalyn from Kalyn's Kitchen. This week's host for Weekend Herb Blogging is the team of Jai and Bee at Jugalbandi- be sure to pop by to see what other bloggers have come up with.

I ate and drank so much over the weekend in Savannah that I have had to be very careful this week. For dinner the other night we had one of my favourite low-fat meals - chicken breasts wrapped in pancetta served with a baked veggie mixture that is similar to ratatouille. The recipe is from the low-fat cookbook by Helen Aitkin. This recipe has 4.5 g of fat.

The veggies bake in a hot oven for a lengthy time making this a better choice for a weekend dinner if you, like the rest of the world, are hard at work during the week.

We like to serve it with rice.

Chicken with Baked Eggplant and Tomato

1 red pepper
1 eggplant
200 g button mushrooms, cleaned and halved
3 tomatoes, cored and quartered
1 onion, cut into wedges
cooking spray
1 1/2 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 low-fat chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
4 pieces, thinly sliced pancetta
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts
4 small sprigs of rosemary

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Cut the red pepper and eggplant into bite sized pieces and combine in a large oven-proof baking dish. Mix in mushrooms and onion. Spray lightly with cooking spray. Bake for 1 hour, or until starting to brown and soften, stirring once.

Mix together the tomato paste, stock, and wine. Pour over the vegetable mixture. Stir and bake for 10 more minutes, or until thickened.

Meanwhile, wrap the pancetta around each chicken breast, securing with a toothpick. Poke a sprig of rosemary underneath the pancetta. Pan-fry in a lightly oiled frying pan, over medium heat, until browned on both sides. Cover and cook for 10 - 15 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked through. Remove the toothpicks. Serve the chicken on the vegetables, surrounding with sauce.

The key ingredient in this dish is the eggplant - a vegetable I don't use very often. In fact, I think the last time I used it was after the infamous 'slowtravel Melanzane battle' when I had to whip up a batch of melanzane alla parmigiana to discover for myself what the fuss was all about.

Although originally from India and southeast asia, eggplant is a staple of mediterranean cooking (it was introduced by the Arabs) - you'll find it featured in greek, italian, spanish and southern French cooking.

The raw fruit can have a somewhat bitter taste, but becomes tender when cooked and develops a rich, complex flavor. Salting and then rinsing the sliced eggplant (known as "degorging") can soften and remove much of the bitterness. Some modern varieties do not need this treatment, as they are less bitter. The eggplant is capable of absorbing large amounts of cooking fats and sauces, allowing for very rich dishes, but the salting process will reduce the amount of oil absorbed. The fruit flesh is smooth; as in the related tomato, the numerous seeds are soft and edible along with the rest of the fruit. The thin skin is also edible, so that the eggplant need not be peeled.

The eggplant is used in cuisines from Japan to Spain. It is often stewed, as in the French ratatouille, the Italian melanzane alla parmigiana, the Greek moussaka, and Middle-Eastern and South Asian dishes. It may also be roasted in its skin until charred, so that the pulp can be removed and blended with other ingredients such as lemon, tahini, and garlic, as in the Middle Eastern dish baba ghanoush and the similar Greek dish melitzanosalata or the Indian dishes of Baigan Bhartha or Gojju.

It can be sliced, battered, and deep-fried, then served with various sauces which may be based on yoghurt, tahini, or tamarind. Grilled and mashed eggplant mixed with onions, tomatoes, and spices makes the Indian dish baingan ka bhartha. The eggplant can also be stuffed with meat, rice, or other fillings and then baked. In the Caucasus, for example, it is fried and stuffed with walnut paste to make nigvziani badrijani.

Eggplant is high in fibre, low in fat and contains an array of nutrients, such as vitamin A and C, niacin and folic acid and the minerals iron, calcium, magnesium and potassium. The skin of the eggplant is rich in flavonoids and other antioxidants, which can help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It's also packed with compounds called terpenes, which can help to lower cholesterol.

Studies of the Institute of Biology of São Paulo State University, Brazil (Instituto de Biociências of the UNESP de Botucatu, São Paulo) showed that eggplant is effective in the treatment of high blood cholesterol hypercholesterolemia and in the control of cholesterol (about 30% reduction). One study in rabbits found that drinks of eggplant juice significantly reduced their blood cholesterol while improving blood flow. Chlorogenic acid, one anti-oxidant found in eggplants, is especially potent, with research suggesting it has anti-cancer, anti-microbial and anti-viral properties, as well as an ability to help reduce levels of "bad" LDL cholesterol