Unstuffed Turkish Eggplants for Dinner

Since our house is mostly fixed up and we accomplished Project Get Married, I've hosted people for Friday night dinner two weeks in a row! Last week was roast duck and rice with dried fruits, apples and butternut squash (recipe to come). This week, my friend Karol and her husband Shai were coming over. I originally was going to just serve snacks, but everything I wanted to make for snacks was nitpicky and I wanted something easy...so I stopped by a lovely Lebanese store after a meeting with a client on Friday and picked up a few pastries with spinach and cheese or meat, little containers of eggplant salad, yogurt with cucumbers, hummus, lovely olives and fresh baked pita. I put those out on the counter for people to nibble on with wine while I put up the Turkish Eggplant dish, unstuffed with a meat and rice mixture (I love having an open kitchen, where people can comfortably hand out with me while I cook!). It's much easier than the longish recipe seems, and the only sort of fussy step is initially cooking the eggplants on the stove top, but it is necessary. I call the eggplants unstuffed because I couldn't be bothered to stuff them before cooking, but they do end up looking stuffed when you serve them. 

Either or both the eggplant preparation and the unstuffing preparation can be done well ahead of time, and the whole thing can be assembled ahead of time as well and refrigerated until you want to cook it or just cook the whole thing the day before and heat it up in a low oven. The small amount of leftovers was delicious today!

Turkish Eggplants

4 -6 small Italian eggplants, peeled but with the top “cap” remaining, with a slit down the long side, soaked in very well salted water at least 20 minutes

4-6 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1 lbs ground beef or lamb

Tablespoon tomato paste

¾ cup basmati rice, cooked in 3 cups of water until par boiled, about 10 minutes

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon allspice

½ teaspoon Allepo pepper

Pinch of red pepper flakes

¼ cup of dried currants

½ cup each of chopped dill and flat parsley

Dried mint for garnish

Full fat plain (I suggest Greek) yogurt for serving

Handful of fresh pomegranate seeds for garnish (optional)

First, preheat the oven to 375 degrees and set the rice to cook in a small pot by bringing to a boil then turning down to a simmer. We are not cooking the rice to donenesss, nor are we trying to cook out all the water. Cook about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium sized dutch oven with a lid, saute the onion and garlic in olive oil until softened but not browned. After a few minutes, add the tomato paste and stir, then add the ground beef or lamb. Allow to cook until no longer red, then adding the parboiled rice along with the liquid remaining in the pot. Add salt, peppers, dill, parsley and currants. Cook for about 20 minutes on a low simmer. If there isn’t enough liquid that it’s a little soupy, add some more water or chicken stock, make sure it doesn’t dry out!

While the meat cooks, after soaking the eggplants in salted water for at least 20 minutes, pat them dry and pan fry in olive oil until browned and slightly softened. Put aside.

After the meat and rice mixture has simmered for about 20 minutes, lay the pan fried eggplants on top of the mixture and spoon some of it over them, so the eggplants are sort of submerged inside the mixture, but don’t worry about getting them completely covered. Put the lid on and bake at 375 degrees for 30 minutes. At that point, make sure that the eggplants are completely cooked; if they are a little hard, cook an extra 15 minutes, but if you softened them during the pan saute step, this shouldn’t be an issue.

To plate, place an eggplant in a small bowl open it up (I inserted tongs into the slit I made when I peeled the eggplants) and spoon in the meat and rice mixture. Overflow the eggplant with the mixture and sprinkle with dried mint and a few pomegranate seeds if you have them around. Serve with yogurt on the side if you wish; I did not.

Musings on Macaroni

I like Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. But I add extra salt. I think I like fancy macaroni and cheese as well, but it is rarely as good as I hope it will be. I don't eat it if it has pork in it, which is often in restaurants. My friend Marina made a really good one for her kids with leftover cheese from a New Years Eve party that was pretty damn good.

I think I like the idea of crumbs on top, of something crunchy. It should have black pepper. Shouldn't have mushy pasta...I will continue to muse on this topic. Any suggestions are welcome...

Could start with this from Gourmet (may he rest in peace) magazine:

Macaroni and Cheese

Serves20

• Active time:35 min
• Start to fnish:1 1/4 hr

August 2007

The toasted crumbs on top have a cheesy crispness, and the pasta beneath is creamy and rich. Kids will appreciate the individual servings, but the recipe makes plenty, so why not pour the extra into a baking dish to feed the ravenous parents?

For topping

• 1/2 stick unsalted butter
• 2 cups panko (coarse Japanese bread crumbs) or 3 cups coarse fresh bread crumbs (from 6 slices firm white sandwich bread)
• 1/4 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (1 1/2 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano

For macaroni and sauce

• 1 stick unsalted butter
• 6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 5 cups whole milk
• 1 lb coarsely grated extra-sharp Cheddar (6 cups)
• 1/2 cup grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
• 1 lb elbow macaroni

Make topping:

• Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.
• Melt butter, then stir together with panko and topping cheeses in a bowl until combined well.

Make sauce:

• Melt butter in a heavy medium saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in flour. Cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes, then whisk in milk. Bring sauce to a boil, whisking constantly, then simmer, whisking occasionally, 3 minutes. Stir in cheeses, 2 teaspoons salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper until smooth. Remove from heat and cover surface of sauce with wax paper.

Make Macaroni:

• Cook macaroni in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 4 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1 cup cooking water and drain macaroni in a colander. Stir together macaroni, reserved cooking water, and sauce in a large bowl. Transfer to 2 buttered 2-quart shallow baking dishes.
• Sprinkle topping evenly over macaroni and bake until golden and bubbling, 20 to 25 minutes.

Cooks’ notes: Topping can be made 1 day ahead and chilled, covered.
Half of dish can be baked in 10 (6- to 8-ounce) ramekins for children (with remaining half baked in a 2-quart baking dish for adults).

Recipe by Gina Marie Miraglia Eriquez

Indian Autumn Soup

I continued my summer CSA habit with the monthly CSA box...my last pick up was three weeks ago, and I wanted to make use of some of the longer lasting veggies before they passed the peak of perfection.

I rough chopped three small onions and caramelized them over medium high heat with some kosher salt. Then I added three chopped cloves of garlic, one peeled and chopped celeriac root, and three ribs of celery. Mixed it all up. Added 6 CSA carrots, chopped large and about 2/3 of a butternut squash, unpeeled. Covered it all with liquid - you can use any or all of veggie/chicken stock (I don't use chicken if I plan to eat with yogurt) and water, some more salt and a lot of black pepper.

Now what made it Indian? Well, the spices, of course!

I usually add a mix of Indian spices that I bought at Patel Bros. Supermarket in Jackson Heights (a large Indian grocery) for a ridiculously low price, but I hope to be moving house soon, so I surveyed my spice rack and found some old mix of curry spice that was very nice but a few years old. I heated about two teaspoons of oil in a small pan and added about three tablespoons of the curry mix - I figured it was older, so it wasn't as potent, then added it into the soup. Cooking spices in hot oil is key to release their flavors and develop them as well. What I should have done is add them in to the onions and garlic before I added the other veggies, but I forgot...whoops! Also, I added about 1/4 teaspoon of fresh ginger powder.

Simmered for 30 minutes, then pureed with an immersion blender and continued cooking on very low for another hour, but probably not necesssary. Serve with yogurt and cilantro chutney from the Indian grocery.

Beef Short Ribs, Potato Latkes and Chunky Apple Sauce

Beef Short Ribs

The first time that I made short ribs, I think I spent over $100...I invited friends over to my parents' house, used two bottles of quite good wine in the braise, spent about $40 on the actual ribs...they were good, and that was fine, but it was an ordeal.

I also made a lavender infused pumpkin flan, and I have not idea where the recipe is, although I've been actively looking.

I've made them a few other times, and I think I've refined the recipe to be simpler, less expensive, less fatty, and quite delicious.

Beef short ribs - I bought three pieces from my butcher. I asked him to cut 'em up, and each of them produced three pieces of meat on the bone. It was about 4 lbs, cost $17, and will serve at least   people.
Onion - I used one large one. Or two medium ones. Large dice
Carrots - 2 - large dice
Celery - 2 ribs, large dice
tomato paste - half a small can
thyme - 1 teaspoon, dried
rosemary - .5 teaspoon, dried
salt
pepper
red wine - 2 cups
water or broth

Step one - wash the meat, dry it and cover it with way too much kosher salt and pepper. Get a large and heavy pan, and heat it up. Place the pieces of meat in the pan and brown it very well, on all sides. DON'T crowd the pan. A lot of fat will release, and you should pour it off. I got over half a cup of fat! Take the meat out and place it in a dutch oven. (You could do all the cooking in the dutch oven, but I needed the extra space of the large pan to brown the meat.)
In the same pan, start cooking the onions, then add the carrots and celery. Add some salt and pepper. Add the tomato paste and cook it a bit, mixing it well with the veggies.
Add some wine and mix well, so all the yummy brown comes off the pan. Pour it over the meat in the dutch oven. Add more wine and water/stock/broth to cover the meat. Cover with the lid and cook it at 300 degrees for three hours. You can cook it faster at 375 for two hours, or longer at a lower temperature.

IMPORTANT STEP!!! Take the meat out of the liquid and cover both the liquid and the meat and store them in the fridge. After a few hours, remove the AMAZING amount of fat on top of the liquid. You can then leave the veggies whole or puree them with an immersion blender. Add the meat back in and heat it on the stove.

You could serve it over mashed potatoes or just as a stew. I served them with potato latkes. Recipe:

2 large potatoes, grated. Use the large holes on a box grater.
2 medium onions, i whirred them in my mini food chopper, that comes with the immersion blender.
1 egg
salt
black pepper
2 heaping teaspoons of flour
olive oil

Mix it all up and let it sit for 5-10 minutes. Heat up the oil to medium high, drop small tablespoons of mixture avoiding some of the liquid that the mixture has given off. Cook a few minutes on each side until nicely browned. Serve with apple sauce and short ribs.

Mama makes this apple sauce - peel, core and quarter two lbs of apples. Place it in a heavy pot. Add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice, small pinch of salt, two cinnamon sticks and a teaspoon of vanilla. Cook it over medium heat until it starts breaking down but it still chunky.

Orange and Mint...

Not oranges, but orange colored veggies. Pumpkin or sweet potato with mint is one of my favorite flavor combos. I first tried it in a little Afghani restaurant in Arlington, VA...my friend and I ended up ordering an extra order of lamb chops for dessert...and they had a pumpkin dish served with yogurt and dried mint leaves...loved it!
Yesterday my friend Hashem mentioned his mom bakes samosas, instead of frying them. And when I got up this morning, I evaluated the kitchen contents and found two sweet potatoes...I looked up recipes in my Jewish vegitarian cookbook...and then I figured out what I was going to make:

Sweet Potatoes, Feta and Mint Pies
I used a recipe for Sephardic Oil Pastry Dough, which was .5 c of oil, .5 c of lukewarm water, 1.5 tsp kosher salt, and 2.75 c of flour. Mix oil, water and salt, then add one c of flour. Stir to combine, then add in more flour until it forms a dough. Wrap in plastic and hold for 30 minutes - 2 hours. Super easy. Comes together in about 2 minutes from beginning to end.
I used muffin pans, lightly greased. I took little balls about the size of a walnut and rolled out circles between two pieces of saran wrap. I fitted the dough into the muffin cups and then filled them with:

2 sweet potatoes, steamed in the microwave until tender, mashed with some feta, Parmesan cheese, no salt, black pepper, some minced fresh mint from my window box and a big teaspoon of dried spearmint.

Added a little flat disk of dough on top, and baked about 35 minutes at 375.

Nice!!!

Cleaning out the fridge = Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew and Indian Veggies

This has always come easily to me...I can survey the contents of a fridge and/or pantry and come up with stuff. Here's how I riffed this time. It's all about techniques and building flavors.

Today, mindful of the fact that we have a CSA pick up tomorrow and a semi full fridge, I decided that it had to go. The contents of the fridge, that is. Eric and I like to bring lunch to work with us and have some dinner options prepared when we are too tired to cook.

I had soaked and cooked a pound of organic chick peas, and they were in the fridge in their liquid. Also in the fridge were sad celery, a small head of cabbage, leftover ratatouille and a piece of lamb I had bought last Friday. An onion was in the bowl on the counter top, and a single potato was also available...so, here we go:

1. Provencal Lamb and Chickpea Stew
Base - aromatics - I had one red onion E and I had bought at a farm stand last week. A rough chop and into some hot olive oil in the bottom of a small dutch oven. I trimmed up the sad organic celery and chopped about half a cup finely, adding that to the onions after they had gotten a little color. Let that soften, added salt. In went the leftover ratatouille, which was squash, onion, zucchini and tomato with lots of basil. Some fresh rosemary from my window box, but it hasn't been growing too prolificly (isn't that a word?) so I supplemented with some dried. A glug of white wine that wasn't doing anything else in the kitchen. I heated a saute pan smokey hot, added a few drops of olive oil (canola would've been better) and seared my piece of lamb on both sides, salting it well beforehand. I laid that on top of the veggies, covered it with water and then added about two cups of beans and some of the cooking liquid. Bring to a boil, bring down to a simmer, and I'll let that go about 2-3 hours until the lamb falls apart.

2. Indian veggies. I shredded the cabbage and smashed/rough chopped 4 fat cloves of garlic. I would've liked onion too, but I was out. Ditto bell peppers or carrots.
In some hot oil, I "bloomed" about 1.5 teaspoons each mustard seeds, cumin seeds and fenugreek seeds. Added the garlic and a handful of cabbage. Added the same amount turmeric and twice the amount of some nice curry powder that was a bit old (that's why so much), then about 3-4 tablespoons tomato paste (from the tube, lasts longer than opening a can) cooking it well directly on the heat before mixing in the rest of the ingredients. That would be the rest of the cabbage, tossing to cover it all with spices and flavor. There was salt, and a little more oil as it was getting dry. Then some chili flakes, a handful of dried cranberries and the rest of the beans and their liquid. I'm also thinking about chopping and adding the potato, but I may be too lazy to do that. Will be done in about 20-30 minutes.

She still cooks.

And there is even a new book.

I've been sniffing around a volume called Olive Trees and Honey; A Treasury of Vegetarian Recipes from Jewish Communities Around the World.

I haven't had a chance to peruse extensively yet, because I went directly to the borscht.

See, E had decided to make borscht a few weeks before and it came out watery and tasteless. So, the first step in Russian Jewish cooking for me, call Mama! She asked why I was cooking borscht, as it was 10,000 degrees outside. I told her it was cold borscht. She then instructed me to boil an egg, boil a potato, have some sour cream, traditionally some chopped cucumber...

-BUT, Mama, how do you make the actual BORSCHT!?!

-You buy it, of course!

Yes, reader, you heard me...my mama, along with cousin Olga, Eric's parents, and all Russians I know buy their cold borscht in glass jars that look like this:

This couldn't be! I had organic beets from the CSA, and I was on a mission! I reviewed some recipes on the internet, but when this  book arrived from Amazon, I was so pleased to read their entire BORSCHT SECTION!
Of course, I can't ever follow a recipe properly, but very strongly based on this book and conversations with my mama, I present:

Cold  Borscht
It's light, refreshing and tasty.

2.5 lbs of beets. I prefer smaller ones, think they have nicer flavor.
one large onion
either: sour salt/citric acid OR lemon juice OR apple cider vinegar - to taste - depends on the flavor you like. I use about 3/4 teaspoons of citric acid, or 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
kosher salt, about 2 teaspoons
sugar, I use 3 heaping teaspoons. you could also use splenda, but I think this small amount is just fine
fresh ground pepper

garnishes: hard boiled egg, sliced or roughly chopped, chopped cucumber, sour cream or greek yogurt (make sure it isn't non-fat, that won't give great results. I would try to use at least 2% or even full fat for this), chopped dill and a boiled potato, peeled and chopped.

Peel beets and cover with water in a pot. Add in the onion, whole. Add the citric acid, if using. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 45 minutes, until they are soft. Add the salt, sugar, pepper and lemon juice/vinegar if you are using those. Cook another 10 minutes. Remove the beets and taste the liquid. If it tastes thin, then raise the heat and let it cook down and the flavors concentrate (that is the step I am doing right now!)
Meanwhile, chop or shred the beets. If you have a food processor, that would be a great use of it! Return then to the soup liquid, discard the onion.

You can serve this hot or cold.

Hot, add a few cubes of boiled potato, a dollop of sour cream or full fat greek yogurt and chopped dill.

If you serve it cold, you can include chopped cucumbers as a garnish, as well as some sliced egg. And all the stuff above.