Back in the day, when I traveled on occasion to New York for lessons, I used to eat at a Chinese restaurant near Lincoln Center.  There wasn’t all the much remarkable about the restaurant except for one dish that I particularly fell in love with called Purple Moon.  I have no idea how it was made, and I haven’t been able to find any more information about it on the internet, so all I really have to go on is memory.

I’m pretty sure the version that I ate there was made with Chinese eggplant and was deep fried, so what I made for dinner a couple of nights ago is a slight departure, but the results were delicious.  I grilled them instead of frying them, and I also used a garden variety eggplant, which is quite a bit larger than the Asian variety.

Basically, they are eggplant sandwiches filled with shrimp mousse.  The grilling gave them a bit of and outdoors flavor.  I’ve been on a kick with the grill pan, craving the spring, which seems to be here to stay for the immediate future!  I served my purple moons up with “Szechuan” green beans.  I sauteed the beans in vegetable oil, added a touch of garlic, chili flake, and oyster sauce.

For the Shrimp Mousse

1.  Combine 3 eggs white, and 1 yolk in a food processor with 6 to 8 cooked, peeled, and deveined shrimp.  I used U16’s that I bought frozen at my local grocery.  They work fine for this sort of thing.

2. Puree the shrimp and eggs in the food processor until it’s nice and fluffy – you’ll want to whip in as much air as you can.

3. Fold in chopped a few cloves of chopped garlic, half a smalled onion, minced, a teaspoon of Chinese Five Spice Powder, and finely chopped chives.

For the eggplant:

1. Slice raw eggplant into 1/2 inch slices as uniformly as possible.

2. Toss the eggplant in vegetable oil and season liberally with salt and pepper.

For the “Purple Moons”:

1. Heat the grill, or grill pan to medium heat and spray with non-stick spray.

2. Make sandwiches with the mousse and the seasoned eggplant slices.

3. Grill the purple moons on each side for 8 minutes, or until the egg in the mousse begins to set.

This recipe was easy to make and tasted great with Szechuan green beans.  The oyster sauce really brought everything together.  If I were to serve the Purple Moons on their own, I would probably top them off with a bit of hoisin or oyster sauce to round the flavor out a bit.  You’re in for a relatively healthy and delicious treat if you give this a try.  Bon apétit!