On the Table: Stewed Eggplant

I think last week was probably the end of eggplant at the farmers' market, and since, well, I could eat eggplant every day, I figured I should make one last fantastic dish for the season.  I had recently had a delicious eggplant dish at an Afghan restaurant, so I decided to make something similar.  This version was fantastic!  It featured this little guy (I think he told some lies!)...

...and this little guy (the lighter eggplant seemed to have a sweeter, slightly onion-y flavor - it was great mixed with the darker variety).

To prepare:

Dice up the eggplant into approximately one inch pieces.

Dice up half a yellow onion.

Dice up a large tomato (it's also the end of the season for them!).  The pieces can be be fairly big (up to an inch long) because they are going to shrink a lot during cooking.

Dice up four slices of thick-cut bacon.

Put a 3.5 quart pot oven medium/low heat and put just a splash of canola oil in the bottom of the pan.  Add the bacon to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the bacon gets nice and crispy.  Scoop it out of the pot and onto a paper towel-lined plate.  Leave the bacon fat in the pot!

Add the onions to the pot.  Cook, stirring often, until the onions become translucent.

Add the eggplant to the pot.

Stir well to coat in the bacon fat (!!).  Add the tomatoes to the pot...

...along with chicken stock to come about 1/3 of the way up the eggplant, a dash or two of cinnamon, salt (be careful, since the bacon and the chicken stock can both add a lot of salt to the dish), and freshly ground black pepper.

Bring the liquid to a simmer, lower the heat just to maintain a simmer, and cover the pot.  Allow to cook for about twenty minutes.  Remove the lid and cook for five minutes, then stir in about a cup of rice and cook for another five minutes.  Taste and adjust seasoning.

Serve topped with the bacon.

Enjoy!