Food Focus - April 2024 - Eggplant and Tomato Torta
When I see the word "torta" I do not picture what is pictured here. I picture a sandwich. Now, depending on where you're from and what types of cultures you're exposed to, a torta can take on various sandwich styles. The identifying features are a crusty roll filled with meats and other ingredients, such as sauces and garnishes and typically are bold and maybe even spicy.
In the Northern or Tagalog-speaking provinces of the Philippines, A “torta” is an egg omelet with ground meat. Interestingly enough, it is also a delicious looking sponge cake made in the Visayan region.
The writer I follow made a vegetarian torta related to the tortang talong (Chinese eggplant omelet) and as we made it on Meatless Monday, this felt appropriate. Her tip about draining the sauteed vegetables was great, as you don’t get those watery wells from the vegetables.
I struggled with the Chinese Eggplant. I tried to char it over the flame, but it just didn't seem to char evenly and then when I opened it, it was so heavy with seeds I didn't know what to do. If I'm being honest, I had a mild stress attack, because the insides were too much of a horrific trigger for me... I can't even go into now. {shoo away you bad thoughts}
So in the end, I was not able to add the Chinese Eggplant to my dish and ended up just making a Tomato and Onion Torta. And it was delicious. I was sneaky and put Banana Ketchup on it. (I sometimes like a little ketchup on my ... breakfast scrambles...) You can read more about Banana Ketchup in my entry on Fried Okra.
This dish was very simple to make. I wouldn't make this exact recipe again, but I'd rethink adding tomatoes to an omelet in the future.
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