Showing posts with label eggplant. Show all posts
Showing posts with label eggplant. Show all posts

Cook Eggplant Zalouk for Comfort, Taste & Health

1:58 PM | Labels: , , ,


I have a love-hate relationship with eggplant. Really, it’s mostly love, but I may be a bit snobby about how it should be prepared, and this can lead to some dissatisfying eggplant experiences. If it’s not cooked thoroughly enough, it’s spongy. If it’s cooked in too much oil, it’s mushy. And if you peel it, as so many people I know prefer because for some reason the skin irks them, it just looks like a soft brown blob. That soft brown blob, to me, is not eggplant. Eggplant is darkly vibrant, a soft-textured vegetable that doesn’t disintegrate in your mouth; it’s not bursting with flavor but it does have a distinct taste; it adds heartiness to stews and casseroles without being heavy. Like I said, I do really love eggplant. You just have to do it justice when you cook it.

The first thing is that it takes patience, since you really should let it sweat out for a good 30 minutes before you even start to cook with it. Yes, I really do cover my eggplant slices in kosher salt (and then rinse them like crazy once they’re done draining, of course!). In fact, this one step is the only thing in this recipe for Eggplant Zalouk that’s even remotely difficult or time consuming.

The best part about this dish is that you can taste all of the spices without having them right in your face in an overpowering way. The cinnamon in particular comes through beautifully, reminding me just how much I adore that spice, particularly in more savory recipes. I did leave out a few of the seasonings – I didn’t have any caraway seeds or cilantro on hand, and although I’m not very familiar with caraway seeds, I know that the cilantro would’ve been a great addition. The consistency was a little mushy, a little stew-like, and so it certainly benefitted from the crunch of a toasted pita. Even just a side salad with some nuts, homemade croutons or romaine lettuce would balance out the texture of the main dish really well. You could also eat this as a chunky pasta sauce, stuff it into the pita for a sandwich, or even bulk it up with more veggies (and maybe some beans or tofu) for a filling winter stew. I thought as I was eating it that a green like spinach thrown in would add a nice pop of color. It’s an incredibly enjoyable meal – L even liked it, and he and eggplant do not have as amicable a relationship as I do with the purple veggie.

One Year Ago: Mexican Fiesta Omelet

Eggplant Zalouk, adapted from 64 Sq. Ft. Kitchen
Yield: 2 servings
(printable recipe)

The Ingredients
1 eggplant, diced
1 teaspoon minced garlic
½ teaspoon paprika
2 tomatoes, diced
½ teaspoon ground coriander
½ teaspoon cumin powder
pinch of cinnamon
1 ½ tablespoons olive oil, divided
freshly ground black pepper, to taste
warm whole grain bread, for serving

The Method
Arrange the diced eggplant in a colander and coat generously with kosher salt. Set aside from approximately 30 minutes to draw the bitterness out of the vegetable. Rinse and pat dry thoroughly, then preheat your oven to 400° Fahrenheit.

Spread the eggplant pieces in a single layer on a baking sheet and drizzle with ½ tablespoon of olive oil, or more as needed to coat each piece. Season with pepper and toss gently to coat. Bake until the eggplant becomes golden brown and tender, but not too soft, approximately 20 minutes.

While the eggplant is cooking, heat the paprika, coriander, cumin and cinnamon in a pan over medium heat. Stir the spices around until they release their fragrances, then add the remaining tablespoon of oil, tomatoes, and garlic. Cover the pan and lower the heat to medium-low, cooking approximately 10 minutes. At this time, add in the cooked eggplant and any other pre-roasted or delicate (i.e. spinach) vegetables you may want to use. Toss the ingredients together well, add additional oil if needed, and cook for another 2 minutes or so.

Serve with the bread or pasta to soak up all of the juices.








 

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Posted by toni

Thirty Minute Thursdays: Not-So-Traditional Caponata

11:52 AM | Labels: , , , , ,


Snow. In October. I know that’s not so uncommon in parts of this country, but for here, it’s a little disheartening. True, I may be speaking too soon – right now the precipitation is cold, wet rain, but the temperatures are preparing to plummet and I can feel the rain clouds getting ready to turn into snow clouds. I almost feel as though I’ve been robbed of autumn: it was so warm throughout September, and just when the leaves were turning and the crisp air came in, we get hit with this unseasonably cold front. My meals have consisted of chili, soup, and more soup, and the bundles of firewood at the grocery store have come very close to finding their way into my cart.

Enter Rachael Ray’s Emmanuel Nini’s Caponata – and if that’s not enough of a mouthful for you, I don’t know what is! This is another reliable recipe from her Classic 30 Minute Meals cookbook, but not one that I went stark-raving-mad over. It was a standard, perfect-for-cold-weather meal: warm and comforting, though not wildly seasoned so ultimately pretty simple. Every once in a while you get a sweet burst from a hidden raisin, which is a really nice surprise. I ate it with some toast, but I think it would make an even better chunky, hearty sauce for pasta. Later on I snacked on some leftovers with added parmesan cheese and a dollop of plain greek yogurt, and then that meal had me at hello! It was creamy, and absolutely killer. I broke tradition, I know, and may not even be allowed to call it a caponata anymore, but I’m including that dollop of yogurt in the recipe below because it was fantastic.

I took some other liberties, nixing the capers and olives (those pesky salt monsters!), using all green peppers because my poor little red one was infested with mold when I cut into it, and opting for a full can of diced tomatoes with added time for reducing/thickening because when you try to scale down the recipe, you’re left with two half-containers of different tomato products.  The only other change I would make, and it’s really not so much a change, would be to serve it with a fresh side salad for extra crunch and freshness.

Not-Really-Anymore-Emmanuel Nini’s Caponata, adapted from Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals
Yield: 6-8 servings
(printable recipe)

The Ingredients
4 large cloves garlic, minced
½ teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
3 tablespoons olive oil
¼ cup (packed) golden raisins
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
1 medium Spanish onion, chopped
1 medium eggplant, chopped
1 celery heart, chopped
32 ounces diced tomatoes
13 ounces crushed tomatoes
chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 ounces pine nuts, toasted
1/3 – ½ cup plain non-fat greek yogurt (optional)
¼ cup parmesan cheese (optional)
cooked pasta, for serving

The Method
Heat the garlic, red pepper flakes, and olive oil in a deep skillet or pot over medium, and sauté until the garlic begins to sizzle. Add in the raisins, peppers, onion, eggplant, and celery. Cook, covered, while stirring occasionally, until the eggplant begins to break down, 7-10 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and parsley and cook long enough to heat through, then turn off the heat. Stir in the yogurt and cheese, if using, and serve hot over pasta (or any temperature with bread). Sprinkle with pine nuts just before serving.





 

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Posted by toni

Eggplant & Feta Salad to Rock Your World

1:06 PM | Labels: , , ,


For a long time, I didn’t think it were possible to love eggplant any more than I already did. I loved it breaded and fried and layered with sauce and cheese, but I loved it even more gently sautéed with garlic and rosemary and simply kissed with marinara and mozzarella; I loved it roasted as a side for chicken; I loved its skin and its flesh: I was, and will likely always be, head over heels for this purple vegetable. So when I found a recipe for Eggplant and Feta Salad, I thought it would be a refreshing and safe dinner option. Little did I know that what I was stumbling into was the best eggplant dish I have ever eaten.

I made a lot of changes to the recipe – or at least, a lot considering how simple the recipe was to begin with. I forgot the red wine vinegar, used bottled lemon zest instead of rind, and added some greens as a base. Even with these changes, it was so, so good! I think the best change I made was to decrease the oil and cook it in a grill pan instead of a skillet. From now on, I think I will be doing a lot of eggplant grilling, because it produces the most fantastic texture and flavor – no more soggy eggplant, no more dried out eggplant. Just perfectly flavored, perfectly cooked discs of vegetable ready to be spruced up with – what else? – a little bit of cheese.

Eggplant & Feta Salad, adapted from Healthy Green Kitchen
Yield: 4 servings
(printable recipe)

The Ingredients
1 large or 2-3 small eggplants
coarse salt
1 tablespoon olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic
handful of parsley, minced
1 teaspoon lemon zest
¼ cup crumbled feta
3-4 cups salad greens

The Method
Cut the eggplant into ½-inch thick slices and place them in a colander. Sprinkle both sides of each slice with coarse salt, and set aside for 30 minutes to allow the eggplant to sweet. Rinse the slices well under running water, pat dry, and set aside.

Grease a grill pan with the olive oil and heat to medium-high. Arrange the slices in a single layer on the pan and cook for 6-8 minutes, turning halfway through. The slices should be lightly brown on each side. Work in batches if necessary, and set the cooked slices aside on a paper towel to cool.

Arrange the greens on a serving platter and top with the eggplant slices. Sprinkle with garlic, parsley, lemon zest, and feta.



 




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Posted by toni

30 Minute Thursdays: The Sicilian Eggplant Marinara That Nearly Wasn't

2:44 PM | Labels: , , , ,



This is the story of a girl, a day that left no time for cooking, and a meal that demanded way too much time in the kitchen. I left the house just after 10 in the morning to volunteer at an involvement fair on campus. Straight from there, I drove home for a doctor’s appointment. I managed to fit some study time in there. Straight after the appointment, I drove another 40 minutes back to school. Oh yeah, and it was torrentially downpouring. And there was construction on the highway. I walked through the door of my apartment at 8pm, cracked open my cookbook, and realized that this Eggplant Marinara Pasta that I had picked out for that night was no quickie. So I did what any tired, hungry person would do in this situation – I took shortcuts. I didn’t measure, I didn’t wait for things to roast or cool, and I didn’t really do much of anything the recipe told me to do. I burned some of the ingredients, too.

But in just 20 minutes, I had a piping hot bowl of food in front of me, and even if I was still tired, I at least wasn’t hungry anymore.

And when I took my last bite, I stood up, walked back into the kitchen, and started baking a cake for L’s birthday.

Yeah. It was a long day.

At least the meal was enjoyable, never mind the fact that it’s a far cry from how Rachael Ray intended it. This is another solid recipe from her cookbook. Allowing the eggplant to roast fully (as I didn’t) would probably add a depth of flavor, but I certainly liked it a lot the way I made it. It was comforting and filling, but it did make a strange amount of food. Granted, I did a lot of pouring and dumping of food into skillets, and not a lot of measuring, so maybe I just made a whole lot more food than I should have. Still, I think this more appropriately serves 6 than 4, especially if you add in sides like a salad or crusty bread.

Sicilian Eggplant Marinara over Penne, courtesy of Rachael Ray’s Classic 30 Minute Meals
Yield: 6 servings
(printable recipe)

The Ingredients
1 pound penne rigate
1 medium eggplant
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 large cloves garlic
fresh parsley, to taste
28 ounces crushed tomatoes
20 leaves fresh basil (or roughly 2 teaspoons dried)
grated parmesan or asiago cheese, for topping
warm, crusty bread, for dipping (optional)

The “Real” Method
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for the pasta, adding in the penne once it reaches a rolling boil. Cook until al dente, then drain.

Cut a few slits down one side of the egg plant and place the eggplant, slit side up, directly onto the oven rack. Roast for 20 minutes then set aside to cool before gently removing the skin (this should pull away easily with the help of a sharp knife). Add the eggplant to a food processor and blend into a paste.

Heat a skillet over medium or medium-high heat. Add to it the garlic and olive oil, cooking until the garlic begins to sizzle. Add the eggplant paste and season with pepper before also adding in the parsley, tomatoes, and basil. Allow the sauce to heat through before tossing with the pasta and topping with the grated cheese. Serve alongside crusty bread, a side salad, or just a big fork!

The Method, a la Floptimism
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. Meanwhile, set a pot of water to boil for the pasta, adding in the penne once it reaches a rolling boil. Cook until al dente, then drain.

Cut a few slits down one side of the egg plant and place the eggplant, slit side up, directly onto the oven rack. Start to roast the eggplant.

Turn your attention to the sauce. Heat a skillet over medium or medium-high heat. Add to it the garlic and olive oil, cooking until the garlic begins to sizzle. Accidentally burn the garlic.

Give up on the eggplant; remove from the oven. Don’t wait for it to cool, don’t bother with the food processor, don’t even take the time to peel it (the skin is healthy, anyway!) – just chop it up as finely as you can, and dump it into the skillet with the garlic. Season with pepper before also adding in the parsley, tomatoes, and basil. Allow the sauce to heat through before tossing with the pasta and topping with the grated cheese. Serve alongside crusty bread (also burnt) and a big fork. 


 





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Posted by toni

Savory Eggplant Croquettes

10:23 AM | Labels: , , ,


This week kicks my seasonal baking plans into high gear. Between now and Saturday, I have 2 birthdays, Christmas Eve, and Christmas Day, not to mention the baked goods I'll be preparing for actual gifts. I just went to the store and stocked up on a dozen eggs, heavy cream, whole milk - my fridge is brimming with the promise of dessert, and I'm ready to go. However, it's around this time of year that I also start gravitating toward healthier main dishes. I figured I might not be the only one, so here's a little vegetarian meal that I found on Closet Cooking and had to try: eggplant croquettes. I made some mistakes with it, but am overall pleased enough with the result to give them another shot. That is, when I get around to repeating the recipe...

My biggest mistake was that I made fairly enormous patties out of the eggplant mixture, meaning the outside started to burn before the inside transformed from mush to delicious croquette texture (not that I have any idea what that is supposed to be, other than not what mine turned out to be). If you make a greater quantity of thinner patties, I think you'll have a much more appealing end product. As they were, thick and not fully cooked (which, by the way, is not unsafe in terms of this recipe), I still enjoyed them. I served them over a bed of spinach, drizzled with some honey mustard marinade I had made for another recipe that week. The original recipe calls for a red pepper and tomato topping, which I can imagine would taste delicious (think eggplant parm, but better), and I'll definitely be trying that out the next time around. The only other comment I have is that I thought, even for a sauteed croquette, these called for a high amount of oil. I decreased it a little and found it to be too much, but perhaps that has to do with the fact that I had a lesser quantity of thicker patties, and if I had had twice the amount of patties taking up space in the pan, I would need the extra oil. Just something to keep in mind.

Disregarding the unfortunate texture mine had in the center (which my taste buds easily forgave), these croquettes are savory and bursting with flavors, underscored by a mild saltiness from the cheese (and if you add more salt). The honey mustard drizzling that I added created a sweet contrast, and I would imagine that a red pepper or marinara could do the same, or add a little element of heat, which would be equally nice. Despite being pan fried, these don't feel heavy (particularly if you don't make monstrous patties as I did, or so I would imagine), but serving them with something simple like a salad is an appropriate balance nonetheless. I will definitely be making these again, and encourage you to try them out as well.

Eggplant Croquettes, courtesy of Closet Cooking
Yield: 2-3 servings (about 6 normal-sized croquettes)

The Ingredients
1 medium eggplant, cut into 1/4" slices
1/4C + 1C bread crumbs
2 cloves garlic (I used about 2tsp. minced)
1/4C parmigiano reggiano (yes, I use the cheap stuff in a can, though likely not for much longer)
1 Tbsp. parsley, chopped (1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano)
salt and pepper, to taste
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 Tbsp. oil

The Method
Broil the eggplant, 7 minutes per side, until slightly golden-brown in color. Allow the slices to cool before removing the skin (although they more or less peeled right off, I found it easier to cut around some of them to do this).

Place the eggplant, 1/4C breadcrumbs, garlic, parmesan, parsley, salt, and pepper into a food processor, mixing until chopped and combined. Grab a handful and form it into a patty, taking it and dipping it first into the egg mixture and then into the remaining 1C of breadcrumbs.

Heat the oil in a medium pan and sautee the patties, roughly 1-3 minutes per side, until golden brown all over. Repeat as necessary to use up the mixture, then serve topped with a red pepper or marinara sauce, the recipes of which can be found on the original post; since I didn't use them, I'll just direct you to the above link. Alternatively, you could use a honey mustard topping as I did, which I very much enjoyed, despite its non-traditional elements - this was just a ratio of 2:1 of coarse-ground mustard and honey, whisked together.

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Posted by toni

Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan: The Meal That Christened My Kitchen

10:08 AM | Labels: , , , ,


It's official: I have my very own kitchen (okay, that I share with a roommate)! The moving process, which took place all this past week, is to blame for my all-too convincing disappearing act, but now I am back and cooking up a storm in my teensy tiny kitchen. It also happened to be my birthday last week, and while I wanted to write an entry about all of the delicious food made for that, pictures were taken on a family member's camera and have not made their way onto a computer. So, more on that later.

Instead, I come bearing photos and ingredients for the meal that christened my new (old and not at all state of the art) kitchen. For my first night here, I decided to make a batch of chicken and eggplant parmesan. My game plan is to cook in bulk (i.e., for 2-4 people instead of just little ole' me) and freeze/reuse all of the extras. That way, when I get home from class at 5pm, I'll have a quick and easy option. Kind of like my own, homemade tv dinners! The chicken and eggplant parmesan turned out well, although - in keeping with it being a recipe that I thought up dans ma tete - it can definitely use some polishing. The sauce came out too thin, the eggplant got a little dried out, and I think a little bit more layering action would keep the whole thing together as opposed to being several ingredients sitting on top of one another. Still, a very delicious and fairly easy recipe, and I am looking forward to some chicken and eggplant parm sandwiches later on in the week.

Chicken and Eggplant Parmesan
Yield: 4-6 servings
The Ingredients
3-4 chicken breasts (approx. 1 1/2 lb.)
3/4 - 1 C tomato sauce (I used this recipe, but left out the spicy components to try to simplify my grocery bill*)
1 medium or 1/2 large eggplant
1 C spinach
3/4 - 1 C mozzarella cheese
1/4 - 1/3 C parmesan cheese

The Method
1. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees while you wash and prep your ingredients.
2. Pour 1/3 of the sauce into the bottom of a glass baking dish; mine was 8x8 because that's all I have here.
3. Place the chicken on top and pour the remaining sauce over that.
4. Cook the chicken in the oven for approximately 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, slice the eggplant into roughly 1/4" slices (or however thick you like).
6. Remove the chicken from the oven and spread the eggplant slices in a single layer over the chicken.
7. Return to the oven and bake until the eggplant and chicken are both almost completely cooked, approx. 10 min. I found that flipping my eggplant slices halfway through helped.
8. Finally, add a layer of spinach and a layer of cheese to the chicken and return to the oven until spinach is wilted and cheese is melted, roughly 5 minutes.

I just ate this as is to save room for dessert (you can see where my priorities lie), but I considered pairing it with a traditional spaghetti or side salad for a more filling meal.


Here are a few changes that I might make next time:
-Have thinner slices of chicken, and layer it in a lasagna type of way with the eggplant, spinach, and sauce to keep everything together.
-Thicken the sauce somehow, either by trying a different recipe or adding more tomato paste.

*Note: The sauce recipe makes a whole lot of sauce. I poured the extra into ice cube trays to freeze in 1 Tbsp. portions so that I can pull more out as needed. The extras only took up 1 1/2 trays for me once I was done with what I wanted to use in the recipe.


I think this has all of the same components of both a chicken and an eggplant parmesan, and while it may be a work in progress aesthetically, the flavor and textures are there. There's just enough cheese to make it gooey and savory without completely overwhelming the dish, and combining the eggplant with the chicken adds a nice flavor duo that you don't seem to see all that often. Nutritionally, eggplant isn't a good vegetarian option for the center of a meal, at least in terms of protein and those "good" carbohydrates. Plus, it's low in calories, so adding it to the chicken doesn't make this a heavy dish by any means.

Hopefully I can get a hold of those birthday dessert pictures so that I can share those recipes with you, as well. In the meantime, not only do I still have backlogged recipes from this summer, but now that I have my own place, I should be doing a whole lot more cooking than I used to. I'm pretty excited now, but I have a feeling that coming home from a day of classes and having to make dinner is going to get old pretty quickly...

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