Archive for April, 2009
Eggplant Parmesan, Salsa is not Spaghetti Sauce
Posted by JT in Main Course, Recipes on April 4th, 2009
I belong to a CSA, where every Saturday they drop of a bag of fresh produce from the farm at my front door. What I receive in that bag every Saturday informs what I will be cooking for the next week. I find that it forces me to be creative and use ingredients I wouldn’t normally use. Recently I got an eggplant, so my mind immediately went to either ratatouille or eggplant parmesan, since I had fresh pasta and some pecorino in my fridge I decided on eggplant parm.
The problem was I didn’t have spaghetti sauce or the ingredients to make it (I usually make it, garlic, basil, oregano, crushed tomatoes, red wine.) Looking in my fridge I realized that I did have an abundance of fresh salsa from the deli section of my grocery store. I looked at the ingredients, tomatoes, onion, green chile, then a bunch of, contains less than 2% of… I thought, mistakenly, that I would be able to transform this salsa into a pasta sauce. I sautéed onion, garlic and a little carrot, added the salsa, added massive amounts of basil, sundried tomatoes, oregano and garlic salt. Brought the whole thing to a boil then simmered for 45 minutes. The whole house had the wonderful smell of pasta sauce, but for some reason the tomatoes in the salsa never broke down, they stayed hard little dices (how unripe would they have to be to maintain this structure?) and most importantly they never lost their acidic zing that says “salsa.” It tasted like spaghetti sauce with a bunch of lime juice added. In the end I had to go out and buy the ingredients to make a fresh batch of sauce.
Eggplant Parmesan
1 Eggplant
Salt
8 oz pasta
Pasta sauce
2 Eggs
Breadcrumbs
Flour
Olive oil
Pecorino or Parmesan
Fresh parsley
1. 24 hours in advance slice your eggplant and salt liberally on both sides, place on a baking sheet with paper towels on both sides and place another baking sheet on top. This forces some of the liquid out of the eggplant and removes some of the bitter flavor it can have.
2. Fill a large pot with water and really salt the water. I always heard it should taste like sea water, and my pasta never tasted great until I realized just how salty the water should be. If you use enough salt then your pasta will taste great plain. Bring the water to a boil.
3. Set up a breading station. 1 plate with flour on it, 1 plate with the 2 eggs beaten, 1 plate with a mixture of the bread crumbs and some of the parmesan. Bread your eggplant slices, into the flour, into the egg into the breadcrumbs.
4. In a pan, pour enough olive oil to cover the bottom of the pan. When the oil starts to shimmer add in the slices of eggplant. Cook until golden brown on one side, then flip. Once they are cooked on both sides set on paper towels to drain. They should be crunchy on the outside and creamy in the middle.
5. When your water is boiling add your pasta, I am lucky enough to get fresh pasta from a local source so the pasta cooks in 1 minute.
6. Drain the pasta
7. Assemble the dish – Pasta, Sauce, Eggplant, Cheese, Parsley
Turkey Tom 2007
Posted by Anju Santos in Desserts on April 2nd, 2009
It is established that between the both of us, Van likes to cook. I cook too, but I prefer to bake and decorate food for presentation more than anything. One of the traditions I maintain annually is to make a turkey-looking item. My mom usually comes home with a cutout from a food magazine of something edible & cute for me to recreate. Thanksgiving 2007 she found a cake idea for my project. This was basically a poundcake (two separately carved spheres – one for the body, one for the head) covered in chocolate frosting, decorated with colored Nila wafer feathers and candy corn multiple roped beard (I tried to make him a prize turkey!). The beak & snood are Jelly Tots (reshapen) and the feet are Swedish fish.
Maybe you call them something different, but this candy (Jelly Tots) is what I used for the beak and snood.
Swedish fish used for the feet
This was one of my favorite projects. It is something I look forward to doing every year. The other side project that I love doing , with my sister, which is creative and sounds deceivingly edible, is constructing no-bake diaper cakes! I’ll have to save that for another post though… but feel free to let me know if you’d like to see some of the stuff we’ve done.
Crockpot Cornish Hens with Carrots and Potatoes
Posted by Van Santos in Main Course, Recipes on April 1st, 2009
There is just something about the magic of Crockpot cooking. Maybe it’s the meat falling off the bone tenderness or the set it and forget it attitude one can take when cooking…. I don’t know. With a recent post about Cornish Hens over at Tina Culbertson’s blog, I got the itch to make a Cornish Hen meal.
Here is the recipe:
- 3 Cups of Chicken Stock
- 2 Cornish Hens
- 1 Bunch of Parsley
- 4 Garlic cloves
- 8 Carrots, pealed and cut
- 6 Yukon Gold Potatoes, quartered
- 1 Onion, diced
- ½ tbsp black pepper
- ½ tsp salt
1)Stuff the Cornish Hens with the Parsley, Onions and garlic cloves (2 cloves per bird).
2)Place Hens in Crockpot, add Chicken Stock, Carrots, Potatoes
3)Set Crockpot on low, cook for 4 hours
4)At for hour mark add the salt and pepper, cook for another three hours
This is a very easy to make meal, if you don’t mind waiting the 7 hours. The carrots and potatoes capture the flavors of the Chicken stock, as well as the Hens, and is fantastic. The onion really didn’t have much of an impact on the overall flavor, but the garlic was subtlety noticeable.
To me, Cornish Hens have a unique taste. While they are not “game” hens, the flavor and texture does remind me of of game meats. When I make this dish again, I have the intent of complimenting the game aspect in some way. I’m not sure how, as of yet, but adding that little big of “something” has the ability to make this an outstanding dish.
Not there yet, but the potential is there.
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