Eggplant "Parmesan"

I love eggplant. I always buy eggplants at the market in the summer and we eat them roasted on the bbq. I make a smoked eggplant biryani that is wonderful. Today I decided to try eggplant parmesan. I remember making this dish for my father years and years ago when I was a teen because I knew he liked eggplant. I'm sure he didn't enjoy the dish (not his style of cooking at all) but he was gracious enough to eat it and not complain.

Eggplant "Parmesan"

1 large eggplant sliced into 1/2" slices
Soy milk
Flour
Salt, pepper, italian spices
Bread crumbs
Olive oil

1 onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 red pepper, cut into chunks
1/4 cup green olives
1 cup passata (tomato sauce)
1/2 cup water
Salt, pepper, italian spices, basil
Nutritional yeast
Grated Cheddar "cheese"

Heat a layer oil in a cast iron frying pan on medium-high.

Put the milk into a bowl. On a plate, mix the flour, salt, pepper and spices. On another plate, pour a layer of bread crumbs. Have a third plate for the coated slices.

Dip the eggplant into the milk, dredge in the flour, dip in the milk and dredge in the bread crumbs. Place on the third plate. Repeat with all the slices.

When the pan is smoking, turn the heat down slightly and fry the eggplant slices. Flip and fry the other side. You will need to add more oil as you go. Once all the slices are fried, turn down the heat and place the slices all in the pan (if your pan can't go into the oven, arrange the slices in a lasagna pan.)

Turn the oven on to 375 degrees.

In a medium saucepan, heat some olive oil. Fry the onion and garlic until fragrant. Add the peppers. Once they are sizzling, add the passata and the water. Bring to a boil and add the olives, salt, pepper and spices. Adjust the seasonings as you wish. You can add chilli peppers if you want to add some heat.

Sprinkle nutritional yeast over the eggplant slices.

Pour the sauce over the eggplant. Careful! If you are using a cast iron frying pan, the sauce will bubble and splatter.

Top with the grated "cheese." Place in the oven for 20-30 minutes until the edges are bubbling and the sauce looks quite thick.

Remove from oven and let sit 5-10 minutes before serving. It will be very hot!

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Baked Beans

So Corey and I have started griping about our limited and boring repertoire of food. Maybe it's the grey days but we are both uninspired when it comes to cooking and both of us are starting to crave pizza on a daily basis. However, we are trying our best to fight against this cooking lethargy and we are attempting new recipes from our plethora of cookbooks.

Tonight I tried a recipe for baked beans and we ate them on top of pasta (one thing to note - rice pasta does not freeze well as I found out when I reheated the pasta we had in the freezer... ugh! I just cooked a new bag.)

Baked Any Type of Beans

5 cups cooked beans (I used my frozen black-eyed peas but you could use kidney or pinto or other beans)
1 cup water
5 cloves garlic, gently crushed with the side of the knife
3 tbsp minced ginger
4 tbsp soya sauce
3 tsp dijon mustard
3 tbsp maple syrup
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tsp salt
1/4 cup tomato sauce
1/2 cup smoked tofu in small cubes
4 drops liquid smoke (or more or less depending on your smoked tofu or preference for the smoky flavour)

Preheat over to 375. Mix all the ingredients together and put into a bean pot or deep casserole dish with a lid. Bake for 45 minutes. Easy!

Green Bean, Olive and Pasta Salad

We are currently getting organic green beams from Mexico and while that is a long way to travel, green beans are a nice break from kale, collards and chard. Plus there were organic tomatoes from Israel last week at the supermarket so by comparison, beans are from my own back yard!

Green Beans, Olive and Pasta Salad

1 lb green beans, trimmed and cut in half
454 gram bag of pasta
12 stuffed olives, sliced
1/8 cup balsamic vinegar
1/8 cup raspberry balsamic vinegar (or just 1/4 cup balsamic total)
1/4 cup olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tsp dijon mustard
1 tsp salt (or to taste)
Cracked black pepper

Get a pot of water up to boiling and put the green beans in to boil 3-5 minutes. Remove with a strainer and throw into a sink of ice water. Continue to use the boiling water and cook the pasta.

While the beans are cooling, mix the vinegars, oil, mustard, garlic, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Toss in the sliced olives. Drain the beans (save the water to cool the pasta) and toss them into the bowl. When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss into the sink of cold water. Swish around and add more cold water if necessary. When the pasta is cool, toss into the salad. Mix and let sit a little for the flavours to mix.

If you taste the dressing before adding the salad ingredients, it will seem quite sweet but once the beans, olives and pasta are in, the flavours balance well.




- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad