Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce

Jun 262012
 

My new favorite thing to eat is eggplants. It was something that I did not love as a child and have not given it much of a break as an adult, but all my preconceived notions are now gone. This easy rustic recipe will convert even the skeptical ones of the bunch about this beautiful glossy purple vegetable.  The buttermilk sauce is excellent on the eggplant or slathered over any other grilled vegetables, lamb chops, etc. I am using fat free Greek-style yogurt these days, but whole milk would taste even better. It is a lovely side dish or serve it with some crusty bread or pita and you have a great little lunch. I served this pretty platter on a dinner buffet. Big hit because of it’s taste and beauty. I made it ahead of time because it more flavorful at room temperature, which freed me up for other dishes that needed to be prepped right before.

This is my adaptation from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe from his great vegetable cookbook, Plenty. He uses za’tar spice at the end to sprinkle over the buttermilk sauce. I did not have it, so I just stuck with the thyme and pomegranates, but then added some pomegranate molasses because it was handy and I thought the sweet tang would add something to the dish. This worked out great.

In my attempt to imitate Nigella’s scene of a late night raid of the fridge, I pulled out the cold eggplant that was beautifully slathered with buttermilk sauce and coated it with copious amounts of sriracha sauce. Oh, was this so fabulous. I washed it all down with an ice cold beer. I certainly was not as sexy as Nigella doing this. First of all, I had no makeup on and she wears red lip stick for her late night raid. Let’s not even mention my worn-out night shirt I was wearing. I did moan a bit like she does, because it was that tasty. Frankly, it is way too hard to see what is going on in the kitchen with just light from the fridge. How does she do that? This was all done for the sake of art, by the way. LOL.

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Eggplant with Buttermilk Sauce
This is my adaptation from Yotam Ottolenghi’s recipe from his great vegetable cookbook, Plenty.

Author:
Cuisine: Vegetarian
Recipe type: Main Entree
Serves: 2

Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Ingredients
Eggplat
  • 2 large and long eggplants
  • ⅓ cup olive oil
  • 1½ teaspoons thyme leaves
  • sea salt and black pepper
  • ½ cup pomegranate seeds
  • ¼ cup pomegranate molasses
Sauce
  • 9 tablespoons buttermilk
  • ½ cup Greek yogurt
  • 1½ tablespoons olive oil, plus a drizzle to finish
  • 1 small garlic clove, crushed
  • 1 pinch salt

Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
  2. Cut the eggplants in half lengthways, cutting straight through the green stalk (the stalk is for the look; don’t eat it).
  3. Use a small sharp knife to make three or four parallel incisions in the cut side of each eggplant half, without cutting through to the skin. Repeat at a 45-degree angle to get a diamond-shaped pattern.
  4. Place the eggplant halves on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
  5. Brush them with olive oil—keep on brushing until all of the oil has been absorbed by the flesh.
  6. Sprinkle with the lemon thyme leaves and some salt and pepper.
  7. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, at which point the flesh should be soft, flavorful, and nicely browned. Remove from the oven and let cool completely.
  8. To make the sauce, whisk together all of the ingredients. Taste for seasoning, then keep cold until needed.
  9. To serve, spoon plenty of buttermilk sauce over the eggplant halves without covering the stalks. Drizzle with pomegranate molasses and plenty of pomegranate seeds on top and garnish with thyme leaves as well.

 

Enjoy this super easy and healthy recipe. Make the buttermilk sauce all on it’s own. Fabulous. Let me know about your best Nigella imitation. Meanwhile, I will try to get a life. LOL.

Pull up a chair,  Elizabeth

 

Braised Coconut Spinach and Chickpeas over Sweet Potato

Feb 232012
 
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I was on the hunt for a hearty vegetarian recipe. You know the one that a carnivore wouldn’t miss the meat at the meal kind of recipe.  Coconut Braised Spinach and Chickpeas over Sweet Potatoes is the exact kind of recipe that I was searching for. I could taste every flavor of each vegetable. There is heat and sweet, tang and subtle flavors in one bite. TheKitchn.com is great stop for a last minute recipe and it is where I found this one. Of course, I changed it around a bit, but this is a great resource.

My young son did not like the spinach and chickpeas at all. He was shivering as he was asking me if he had to eat it. He really hates anything with spinach. He love, loves, loves sweet potatoes, though.  That is what he ate. I had plenty of leftovers, which I used in soup and in a frittata.  This is also a great side dish. I have served it with lamb chops. Perfect compliment.

 

 

Braised Coconut Spinach & Chickpeas 
serves 4/main dish or 6/side dish

2 teaspoons oil or
1 small yellow onion
4 large cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 tablespoon grated ginger, from a 3-inch piece
1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
1 large lemon, zested and juiced
1 dash of red pepper flakes ( I have also used roasted hot peppers. Your call)
15-ounce can chickpeas, drained
1 pound baby spinach( or frozen, thawed and drained)
14-ounce can coconut milk
1 teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 teaspoon ground ginger or grated from fresh
4 oz. cream cheese (vegan variety is also an option.)


1. Heat the oil in a large, deep Dutch oven or heavy pot over medium-high heat.

2. Add the onion and cook for about 5 minutes, or until the onion is beginning to brown.

3. Add the garlic, ginger, sun-dried tomatoes, lemon zest and red pepper, if using. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring frequently.

4. Add the chickpeas and cook over high heat for a few minutes or until the chickpeas are beginning to turn golden and they are coated with the onion and garlic mixture.

5. Toss in the spinach, one handful at a time. This will take about 5 minutes; stir in a handful or two and wait for it to wilt down and make room in the pot before adding the next handful. When all the spinach has been stirred in, pour in the coconut milk and stir in the salt, ground ginger, and lemon juice. Bring to a simmer then turn down the heat and cook for 10 minutes or until the chickpeas are warm through.

6. Stir in cream cheese until it melts.

7. Taste and add more salt and lemon juice, if necessary.

Serve with:
Whole roasted sweet potatoes
Pomegranate seeds, to garnish

You can bake a sweet potato quicker then a russet potato. It  will take about 40 minutes at 400F. You can always cut the sweet potatoes in half if you want them to cook quicker. I have used pomegranate molasses over the top as well when I can not find fresh.

You can’t even feel guilty about this recipe. It is super healthy. All the flavor is the bonus. This is the dish that you make for your friends that are vegan, gluten free, dairy free come over.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

 

Gabe’s Bacon Summer Squash

Sep 172011
 
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Gabriel, my seven year old, took one look at the summer squash that I had bought at the farmer’s market and said, “Are you going to steam the squash again? I hate squash.”

“ We are having the squash, but how would you cook it if you had a chance?” I replied.

“We should cook it with bacon and make the outside really crispy and then I would probably like it.” Gabriel said with a big smile on his face. He knows my long time held belief on most things taste better with bacon. I decided at that moment, I was going to help Gabriel learn how to create what he had envisioned.

“Okay, then bacon it is, but how do you think that we should make the squash crispy?” Gabriel was perplexed. I said, “What  are some other things that we eat that start out sorta tender and we make crisp to eat?”

“I know. Fried Chicken.” Good answer. So we decided to toss the squash in some rice flour and seasonings and saute’ it in bacon, garlic and olive oil. We used 2 strips of bacon for the entire dish. Gabe was right, it sure was tasty. It was salty, smoky, crispy and tender all at the same time.  Gabriel ended up eating a huge portion of it and told me he loved the taste. It tasted like what he had dreamt it would.

Being able to visualize how something is going to taste is one of those skills that is important to becoming a good cook. Thinking out the steps on how to get to that taste and then mastering the technique can only be done by actually cooking. You are not going to learn how to cook without cooking.

I can not imagine sending my child out into the world without the basic skill of cooking. You need to be able to feed yourself decent  and healthy food daily. Period. Gabriel learned a lot by cooking his vision on this day and he ate all his summer squash with gusto.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Gabe’s Bacon Summer Squash

2 slices bacon
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 T. olive oil
3 summer squash, cut in cubes
1/4 cup rice flour (you can use what ever flour you have on hand)
1 t. creole seasoning
1 t. salt
1 t. pepper
a few sprigs of chives.

 

1.  Slice up bacon in small strips. Place in a sauté pan that has been warming over medium heat.
2.  Cook until bacon is crispy.
3.   Take bacon out of pan with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towel.
4.  Place garlic and olive oil in a sauté pan to heat.
5.  Place squash in a bowl and toss in flour, seasonings, s&p.
6.  Toss squash in flour mixture and then place in warm pan.
7.  You want it spattering a bit, but not burning. Let it wait a bit to brown on one side before turning.
8.   The entire cooking time should take no longer then about 10 minutes.
9.   It is not a perfect coating, but it does crisp up and cook the squash at the same time.
10.  Remove from pan and drain on paper towel.
11. Toss squash and bacon in a bowl, then cut up chives on top. I had my son use the kitchen scissors to cut the chives.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Kale, slow simmered in wine & bacon

Apr 202011
 
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We have a policy at our house. Before you say that you do not like a particular food, you must try it. My pet peeve is the person that will not eat something because they do not like it, but has never even tried it. Actually, truth be known… I can’t stand picky eaters.

Kale is a vegetable that my son loves. One reason is the technique I use in cooking it. He prefers it over spinach. Gabriel says that spinach gets stuck in his throat. He starts hacking and holding his throat, turns around in circles and then asks if me if he has had enough. Kale, he will eat up and ask for seconds.

Recipe 3: Kale, slow simmered in wine & bacon

1. I cut  two slices of thick cut bacon into lardons and put in a large saute’ pan over medium heat. If you do not have bacon or wish not to use it, heat up a couple tablespoons of olive oil. This is how I love to use bacon. Just enough to add a lot of flavor to a dish.

2. While your pan is heating, I clean, de-stem, and cut my big bunch of kale. Add kale to warm pan. Coat kale in bacon.

* If you want you can add sliced onions and garlic to the pan when you add the kale. I would suggest this if you are not using bacon. It will add a nice layer of flavor.

3. I then add some white wine. A couple pours, then stir. Let it the wine absorb.

4. Add more wine, water or broth. Whatever you prefer. Add, stir, and let it absorb again.

5. I repeat this method a couple more times until the greens are soft and almost creamy. This whole process takes about 30 minutes.

6. Taste and adjust seasoning. A little pepper or salt. Sometimes I like to finish with a squeeze of lemon.

**The wine is a nice acid and the broth adds another layer of flavor. I will often put one pour wine, one pour broth, and rest of the pours water.

This is the kind of recipe that you can convert the vegetable hater into a veggie lover. You can make kale this way to add to pasta for a meatless dish.

Hope that this has been healthy fabulous for you… pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Healthy Fabulous Dinner, Recipe 2: Baked Breaded Zucchini & Tomato

Apr 192011
 
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It’s spring break this week. My son is off to spring break day camp. After camp yesterday we went out for burgers and fries at a diner we love.  I saw a man pick up 5 dinners to go. Nothing was said between him and the server except, “See you tomorrow”. No money exchanged even. What? I just had to ask. Our server said that he picks up dinner for him and his family everyday. It is the exact same order everyday. Just under $60 a day. He pays the bill weekly. Really? I mean, really?

It is no secret to anyone in my life, that I have always struggled with my weight. My worst choices are done with no thought. My best choices are done with being present and have a bit of idea what I have on hand and what I would like to cook. I made this entire meal for under $10. It is low in fat and sodium.

Roasted Spatchcocked Chicken
Baked Breaded Zucchini & Tomato
Kale, pan simmered in wine & bacon

Recipe 2: Baked Breaded Zucchini & Tomato
6 servings

3 slices whole wheat bread, made into crumbs
2 1/2 T. olive oil
5 cloves garlic, finely chopped
5 green onions, finely chopped
handful of basil, finely chopped
2 zucchini, grated
6 roma tomatoes sliced
1t. dried oregano
1/2 t. sugar
1/2 t. salt
1/2 t. black pepper

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Coat a ceramic baking dish with cooking spray.
2. Heat a large saute’ pan over medium-high heat.
3. Place olive oil, garlic, onion, basil, zucchini, tomatoes, oregano, sugar in pan. Heat until liguid starts to exude from tomatoes.
4. Turn off heat and stir in bread crumbs.
5. Place mixture in ceramic dish. Bake for about 20 minutes until top is crisp and browned.
6. Cool 5 minutes before serving.

I think bread crumbs are an excellent way to add grains to your diet. This recipe is a little over a 100 calorie a serving. As I said, healthy fabulous meal. Yummy.

Stay tuned for tomorrow. My favorite recipe of them all…slow simmered kale for the complete healthy fabulous meal.  Hey, pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Grilled Salt & Vinegar Potatoes

Feb 092011
 
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When vinegar is boiled into a root vegetable you have a perfect marriage.  I love the vinegar tang you taste when you bit into a creamy potato or a sweet beet .  Now, I am not one of those people that loves the salt & vinegar potato chips, but these potatoes are addictive. Make as many as you want.

1. Slice  potatoes about 1/4 inch thick.
2. Place sliced potatoes in a saucepan and cover completely with white vinegar.  Bring to a boil and cook until potato is fork tender, but it still holds it shape.
3. Let cool in vinegar. About 30 minutes. Drain.
4. Heat up grill pan over medium heat. Brush both sides of potato slices with olive oil, then place on  grill pan. Brown each side. About 3-5 minutes.
5. Sprinkle with sea salt.

I boiled these peeled beets in 1/3 apple cider vinegar to 2/3 water. They taste great warm or cooled. On this day, I served them tossed in some olive oil, salt and pepper on a bed of arugula with some feta cheese crumbles and pea shoots on top. I could eat this salad everyday. Tangy, sweet, creamy, crisp, and fresh.

Break out your vinegar and add this healthy tasty technique to your root veggies.  Ohhh, I have to go and make some right now.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Spicy Rice Cakes

Sep 202010
 
spicy cake

The neighbors have congregated on the back porch of our three flat while we chat and watch the kids run around the yard and alley… typical Saturday afternoon in Chicago. Beer and wine are a part of this meet up, but man, I could use a little bite of something and I have nothing. Wait, I always have something. Hmm, I have leftover rice. My mind started racing… I told the congregation to hold tight and I would be out with a quick bite in about ten minutes.

What I found in the fridge:

cooked rice
sofrito (blend of green pepper, garlic, onion, & cilantro)
fresh hot pepper
egg
baking soda
Mexican melting cheese
bread crumbs
canola/vegetable oil

The amount of ingredients depends on how much leftover rice you have.

1. Place rice in bowl. Separate with hand.

2. Chop up hot peppers and add to rice. I like mine spicy, so I put almost a whole one in.

3. Grab the sofrito. I am lucky that I live close to nice size latin grocery store. I buy a nice amount of super fresh sofrito for about $2. I use it in a lot of things. From soups to chicken dishes. It works perfect here, but you can easily make up your own a batch to use yourself. This is my idea of a convenience good. Totally fresh. I add enough to add some color to the rice.

4. Add beaten eggs. Add one at a time until your rice is covered like mayo covers tuna for a tuna salad. Mix well.

5. Mix in grated Mexican melting cheese or any nice melting cheese through out the rice mixture.

6. Add about a tablespoon of baking soda. You will see a little bubbles forming. That is great. It is working at making things puffy. Salt and pepper to taste.

7. Scoop up a nice little patty of rice and then roll in bread crumbs.

8. Heat up a saute’ pan over medium high heat, then add oil. Let that get hot, then place patty in oil.

9. Brown both sides. Should not take long and you may have to turn your burner down to medium. Salt when you take them off the heat.

10. Serve immediately. I served mine with salsa verde. They would taste great wrapped in a little lettuce and cilantro as well. Yum.

This literally took ten minutes. I came back outside and was huge hit. Oh, I mean my spicy rice cakes were a huge hit. An ice-cold beer and good conversation were the perfect accompaniment to this amuse bouche on a Chicago Saturday afternoon.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Fresh Heirloom Cherry Tomatoes and Peas.

Jul 282010
 

This is recipe is about having the freshest, highest quality ingredients at hand and letting them do the talking. I love this dish. Super simple, but can only be had at this time of year. It is such a treat. I can still get fresh peas in the midwest and tomatoes are starting to reach perfection. I use the best butter that I can buy, a beautiful Chardonnay, and sea salt to make this perfect. I am putting down that this feeds 2 people, but I could eat the entire plate and a glass of Chardonnay and feel completely satisfied.

Serves 2

3 pads of sweet butter
1 cup fresh peas
1 cup heirloom cherry tomatoes
1 1/2 tablespoon chives, finely chopped
1 splash Chardonnay
sea salt and cracked pepper, to taste.

1. In my favorite 10 inch skillet, I melt the butter over med-low heat.

2. Add peas, tomatoes, & chives. Cook, tossing occasionally for about 5 minutes.

3. Add splash of wine, s&p and cook until tomatoes start to crack open and peas are tender. About 5 minutes more.

4.Serve warm. So simple and good.

Super delicious does not mean complicated. Hope that you enjoy.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Roasting a Radish?

Jun 022010
 

When I was in France, fresh radishes came with salt and butter to dip into. When I was in Mexico, almost every meal had radishes accompanying them. I love their sharp fresh taste, but I would never dream of roasting them until I read this article in The New York Times. Roasting radishes mellows them out in a really cool way. It takes the sharp bite out and leaves it quite luscious. Esthetically, the color and texture were another surprise. Beautiful. Some cool facts about radish is that it has as much potassium as bananas and is a member of both the mustard and broccoli family.

Flank steak with some mushrooms that had been sauteed with onions, garlic, fresh tarragon and a little cream was a perfect entree to have the roasted radishes with.

I had a couple of parsnips that I sliced in half and stuck on a baking sheet with radishes cut in half. No peeling necessary. Coated them with olive oil, a little salt, pepper, and thyme, then stuck them in a 375F oven for about 30-40 minutes. My meal took hardly anytime or effort, but was fresh and really hit the flavor sensation highway.

My offical taste tester, my six year old, loved the radishes roasted, but does not like them raw. I will definitely make them again. Try them out yourself. Let me know what you think? I envision lots of different ways to use this colorful healthy veggie.

Pull up a chair, Elizabeth

Sauteed Spinach with Kalamata Olives and Raisins

Mar 122010
 

This go-to side dish has saved me on more than one occasion. It is fast, but the flavors are complex. The bitter earthiness of the spinach compliments the saltiness of the olives and the sweetness of the raisins. Adding the pine nuts, give it yet another layer of texture and depth.

It takes about ten minutes to prep and make. No fooling. You will also be surprised how many things that it goes with. I have made it as a side dish at Thanksgiving. It goes well with other poultry, fish, pork and beef. It is really a life savor.

Make the recipe and let me know what you paired it with. It really is a taste explosion. You will have your guests pulling up a chair for more.

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