I am so not good with titles.

Here is the recipe. I constructed this whole thing on a foil-lined pan, so clean up of the baked on cheese was nothing.

I cooked it in my toaster oven.

• cut thick slices of eggplant
• drizzled then with olive oil
• broil in toaster oven on one side, then the other, until each side just starts to brown a little
• top each eggplant slice with several fresh basil leaves
• top those with thick tomato slices
• broil until the tomatoes start to look like they are actually cooking (not too long)
• sprinkle with shredded mozzarella and or other good cheese. Feta would be nice, too.
• broil until the cheese is all melty, bubbling, and brown.

I went to college in Gainesville, GA. At the time, Gainesville was the poultry processing capital of the world. I once attended the Annual Poultry Festival. I stopped eating chicken when I lived there because of gut trucks. I still don’t eat chicken. My motto became: Fowl is foul. (I confess that I accidentally ate the turkey gravy at Thanksgiving, though, and it was pretty tasty…)

No more chicken noodle soup for me.

Gainesville is a 45 minute – 1 hour drive from Athens, GA. For various reasons I ended up spending a fair amount of time in Athens, though I never did learn to find my way around the town.

One of my favorite things in Athens was The Grit. The “indie-rock Moosewood.” One of my favorite things at The Grit was The Golden Bowl: browned tofu cubes sauteed with soy sauce and nutritional yeast served over brown rice. Now, you can get vegetables and in your Golden Bowl, but I always preferred them on the side, leaving a perfectly beige, perfectly delicious mix of the best tofu you have ever eaten, brown rice, and cheese. Umami and yet just bland enough without being boring. A perfect comfort food.

After I moved outside of easy driving distance to Athens, I was compelled to figure out how to make a Golden Bowl at home because the meal is an addiction. I succeeded. My home-made Golden Bowl hit the spot.

A couple of years later, The Grit published their cookbook. Sure enough, I had nailed the recipe and technique except for that second frying of the tofu that creates a little extra crispiness.

I make mine with tamari instead of soy sauce, and with mozzarella cheese. It is what I’ve been eating for the past couple of days. With veggies on the side, of course.

Here is the recipe: Continue reading →