Last weekend I tried out a few more new recipes. The sweet potato gratin recipe came from The Voluptuous Vegan, and the eggplant chickpea stew recipes came from The Very Vegetarian.
The stew was excellent! I will probably make that again unmodified. The eggplant melted in my mouth, and the combination of vinegar, sugar, and some crushed red pepper was the perfect spice combination.
The gratin was only so-so, and I am not sure I would make it again. I did make one mistake. It called for cornmeal for the topping, but I only had corn flour and polenta on hand. I chose the polenta, which turned out very crunchy — too crunchy. Nevertheless, there was still something off about the flavor. It might have just been lacking salt. I am not itching to try that one again though.