Grilled eggplant and goat ricotta puree

I mentioned in my last post that in the morning, before getting all wrapped up in the LiveSTRONG initiative, I was getting ready to post a light, healthy recipe.

On Sunday our close friends C&R baby-sat our offspring and sent us off to a morning at a SPA. Not bad, huh? To then spoil us with a homecooked picanha (a Brazilian cut of beef) lunch.  

Now, we are not really SPA habitués, preferring to indulge in a meal in a restaurant over a hot tub (I am sure you knew that). But our four closest friends treated us to gift cards to this place just a few months after our  second child was born. I think they saw the dark circles around our eyes and decided we needed some quiet, alone time. Time passed and we never really got our act together. There was always some obstacle: finding a baby sitter, leaving the baby for more than a few hours, work...until we realized the gift cards were about to expire.

In stepped C, who accepted no "buts" and "ifs".

"You are not allowed back before 1.30pm, you will not have cell phones on you so don't even think about checking in to make sure everything is ok. We are taking care of the kids, we will think of lunch and I don't want to hear another word from you. You are not allowed to hurry or worry!" 

And that is how we were floating in bubbly, warm tubs, enjoying lavander face scrubs, sweating in saunas, standing under waterfalls, sampling fig walnut bread, yogurt and fresh fruit from the Light Buffet to the notes of new age music while they were feeding two toddlers (one is their own) and a pre-schooler, changing diapers, cooking lunch and picking up toys strewn all over their apartment after a trip to the playground. That is what I call friends.

I felt so full after the deliciously fatty picanha and rich farofa (toasted manioc flour) plus the two different cakes for dessert (see pictures in previous post) light and healthy after a morning at the SPA that all I could think of posting was this eggplant recipe. Not a recipe really, just a simple twist on your everyday way of making eggplant for the family.

Ingredients

5 long purple eggplants

goat ricotta (or any fresh goat cheese or even feta)

salt

pepper

cumin

olive oil

coriander

Preheat oven to 200°C. Cut the eggplant in half lengthwise, rub it with olive oil and salt and place under the grill. When it has turned soft and it is roasted, take out and let cool. Scoop out the flesh with a spoon, making sure you do not break the skin/shell, and put into a bowl. Mash with a fork and mix in (to taste) the goat cheese, pepper, salt, cumin (previously toasted and ground in a mortar) and a little more olive oil. Fill the empty skins with the puree, drizzle over some coriander flavored olive oil (a few days prior I had chopped up some left over coriander and mixed in some olive oil and kept it in the fridge for later use) and serve . We ate the whole lot, roasted skins included, but you can also just scoop out the puree.

What is the nicest thing a friend has done for you recently? Do you like getting pampered at a SPA?