Last year (2018) I was lucky enough to travel back to Canada for a visit with my family.

One night, in Vancouver, we had dinner at a Persian restaurant, and while everyone else had some kind of kebab or other meat dish, I went with a vegetarian entree, namely roasted eggplant. I am not vegetarian but I don't mind trying various foods. I'm always impressed when a vegetarian dinner completely satisfies me to the point of not missing meat or fish.

So it was on this particular night. The eggplant was fantastic! Simple though it was, it was unbelievably satisfying. That meal created a memory that has been hard to forget, and it seems, hard to replicate. Until recently.

A recent cooking experience suggests that I've come pretty close to replicating, at least in my mind's eye, that meal in Vancouver.

Should you wish to replicate the recipe, here's what I did:

Trim the tops from some eggplant, make some small slashes in the body of the eggplant with a knife, and microwave for about 5 minutes. This much time will basically cook the eggplant throughout.

While the eggplant cook, add some canned tomatoes to a baking dish, breaking up the tomatoes with your hands if there are large chunks. Add a good pinch of salt. Add some freshly ground pepper. Add a splash of red wine vinegar. Add 4-5 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped. Add about 2 tablespoons/30 ml of fried onions/shallots (I've been using fried shallots, as I was sent a can of fried shallots in oil). Add some olive oil.

When the eggplant is finished, remove from the microwave, slice in half, and add to the tomatoes. Bake at 250C for 30 minutes. Add 10 more minutes or so if needed.

The end result is eggplants in a thickened tomato sauce that is rich and delicious.

Serve with rice or bread. Enjoy.