Baked Eggplant Parmesan

If I were to go back and teach cooking classes, the first thing I would teach would be making a simple, tasty, fragrant, and vegetable-packed marinara sauce.  It contains 3 of my all time favorite ingredients: olive oil, onions, and garlic. It is utterly simple, forgiving and tastes worlds better than bottled marinara sauces. Did I mention that it pairs up very nicely with baked eggplant parmesan?

Baked eggplant parmesan is crispy and flavorful, and is a no-fuss way to make a delicious meal. You could use summer squash and zucchini along with eggplant.  When making, prep the eggplant first.  Use the time the eggplant is baking to cook the pasta and marinara sauce.

Yield: 4 servings

Ingredients:
2 medium eggplants, washed and cut into 1/2" circles
salt for sprinkling on eggplant rounds
2 cups whole-wheat bread crumbs, or Panko breadcrumbs (you could also use a few days old bread)
1 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp dried rosemary, crushed
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp red chili powder
salt and pepper to taste
4 T shredded parmesan cheese (or romano)
2 eggs (or 1 egg plus 1 egg white)
cooking spray or olive oil to grease pan

Directions:

1. Put eggplant rounds on a large plate and sprinkle the tops with salt to draw the water out of the eggplant.  This will help dry out the eggplant and help it to stay crisp when baked.  After 10 minutes, blot the eggplant with a paper towel, and flip over and repeat on next side.
2. Preheat oven to 400 F and grease a jelly-roll pan with either cooking spray or a little oil.
3. Combine breadcrumbs, herbs, salt and pepper, red chili powder and parmesan cheese in a medium size mixing bowl.
4. Combine eggs in a separate mixing bowl.
5. For breading the eggplant, dip each eggplant round in the egg mixture and then dredge it in the breadcrumb mixture ensuring that both sides are covered. Place the rounds on a baking sheet.
6. Bake for about 30-45 minutes at 400 F or until the eggplant looks crisp and nicely browned. Use the baking time to make the marinara sauce and cook the pasta. 

Ingredients:
2-3 T olive oil
2-3 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1 onion, chopped
1 medium to small bell pepper chopped
1-2 T Italian seasoning or any combination of mixed herbs (oregano, thyme, rosemary, basil)
salt and pepper to taste
1 28 oz can crushed tomatoes
2 T water
splash red wine (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pan (with a lid) heat the olive oil over medium heat. Once shimmering, add the garlic. As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant add in the onions and saute 5 minutes. 
2. Add in bell pepper and continue to saute for 3 minutes.  At this point, put the pasta water on to heat. Cook pasta according to package directions. 
3. Add in herbs, salt, crushed tomatoes and water. Continue to cook over medium heat until the sauce gets bubbly. Cover with a lid and stir every 2-3 minutes, for about 10 minutes. Stir in red wine and adjust for seasoning, topping off with fresh pepper. Sauce should be slightly thick and chunky. 
4. When pasta is ready, reserve about 1/2 cup of the pasta cooking water, and then drain the pasta. Rinse under cold water to stop it from cooking. You can put the pasta back in the original cooking pot and toss with 1 tsp olive oil to prevent it from sticking. The pasta water can be used to prevent sticking and to warm it back up before serving (just add in as much water as you need).

Saag Tofu and Onion Garlic Naan

A healthier and skimmed down version of Saag Paneer, the ubiquitous creamed spinach and cheese dish that you can find at every Indian restaurant from the US to India.  South Asians are a group of people that could eat a lot healthier.  They have some of the highest case loads of type 2 diabetes and dysmetabolic disorders in the world - and yet they also have some of the largest micronutrient deficiencies in the developing world (iodine, vitamin A, and iron).  The burden of the nutrition transition.

This saag paneer dish has been transitioned to a healthier version.  Extra-firm tofu has been used in place of the paneer, and their is no cream (the oil for pan-frying the tofu lends itself quite well to the rest of the dish).  I served this with some whole-wheat onion-garlic naan.  Prep the onion-garlic naan ahead of time, including the onion-garlic topping. The naan takes 4-5 hours to rise, and about 30 minutes to cook and prep.  You can cook the naan while you make the saag and both will be done around the same time.

Saag Tofu
Ingredients:
1 block tofu, quick-drained, and then prepared like this (except see directions below)
3 T oil (use the leftover oil from the tofu prep) - it may be more
1 and 1/2 cups tomato chunks, either from fresh tomatoes or canned diced tomatoes
1 T Thai curry paste (I used green curry paste)
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 T cumin
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 10 oz packages frozen chopped spinach or one 16 oz package
salt as needed

Directions

1. In a non-stick skillet prepare tofu with the soy-cumin pan-roasted tofu recipe - you will have some of the oil leftover. Carefully remove the tofu with a slotted spoon, and reserve the oil. Add the tofu back to the pan and add 1 T soy sauce and stir together quickly. Remove tofu and add oil back to pan. Continue to heat over medium heat. 
2. In a mixing bowl add tomatoes, Thai curry paste, turmeric and cumin and stir together well. 
3. Once oil in pan is hot (it won't take long) add in cumin seeds until they sizzle and crackle. Stir in the tomato mixture and continue to heat for about 5-6 minutes over medium heat. 
4. Add in the 2 packages of frozen chopped spinach and cover, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
5. Adjust salt as necessary, tasting before it is served. If you wanted a creamy version, you could stir in 1/2 cup of coconut milk or heavy cream just before you serve it. 
6. Add in tofu and stir to combine.

Whole-wheat onion garlic naan
Ingredients:
1 tsp yeast
3/4 cup warm water
2 T oil
3 T yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups whole-wheat flour (mine was flecked with bran) plus 1/2 cup extra for kneading
1/2 cup pastry flour (you could do reverse proportions with all-purpose instead so 1 and 1/2 cups all purpose with 1/2 cup whole wheat, but I like the whole wheat instead)
oil for oiling bowl

For naan cooking time:

melted butter (about 2 T, melted)

Squirt bottle with water

Onion-garlic topping
Ingredients:
1 onion, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, chopped fine
1 tsp chopped dill
1 tsp oregano (or cilantro, chopped)
1/4 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp cumin
squeeze of lemon juice
salt to taste

Directions for onion-garlic topping:

1. Combine all ingredients in a mixing bowl and adjust for flavor and salt. This can be prepared in advance and chilled in the fridge until ready to use. 

Directions for naan:

1. Mix together yeast and warm water until bubbly or foamy. 
2. In a large mixing bowl add flour, oil, yogurt, and salt. Mix together until crumbly. Stir in yeast mixture and combine until it comes together. 
3. Turn out dough on a lightly floured surface and continue to knead for 5 minutes. 
4. Oil a large bowl (about 1 tsp) and place dough in bowl, turn once, and let rise in the oven for 4-5 hours.  Next you can prepare the onion-garlic topping
5. When ready to make the naan, remove the dough from the oven and preheat oven on broil setting. If you have a pizza stone, set it in the oven to preheat. If you don't have a pizza stone, just get out a jelly-roll pan or whatever you do have and set it on the side. 
6. Turn the risen dough out on a floured surface and gently knead it together and form 6 balls. Let the dough balls rest about 10 minutes. 
7. With your hands very carefully pull the dough out in a circular motion being careful not to tear the middle. You will be stretching it ever so slightly with your hands. If you roll the dough out, you will lose the air bubbles so just carefully pull it out. Flour your hands and the surface so you don't rip the dough. I promise it is easy, just take your time. 
8. You'll notice that the dough wants to shrink back, when you have a circle about 5" in diameter, give it a quick butter wash, and place 1 T of topping on the top of the naan, spreading it out over the naan.  You can pull it out a good inch or so more and it should stay. Now, if using a stone work quickly to get them on the stone. Pick up with your hands and set on stone. You should have 2-3 ready to go. Broil 3-4 minutes. It all depends on how hot your oven is, you may need more or less time. Now if you are using a baking pan, set out as many naans as will fit (2 or 3) and pop in the oven and set the timer for 2-3 minutes. Again, it may take longer or shorter depending on the heat. If using a baking pan, after 1 minute, you can pop open the oven and hit it up with some water misting. Your naan is ready when golden on top.

Baked Samosas

It was torture. First, the smell of these baking, then you pull them out of the oven (at least 5 minutes went in taking some pics), then within 30 minutes nearly all of them (well, 6 out of 8), gone. Devoured. I will probably never try and find another samosa recipe after this.  It was that good.  It's also a lot healthier than fried samosas, so you can feel entitled to eat nearly all of them.  It takes about 2 hours start to finish.

I blame (I think, I mean thank) Sara. While she was visiting we found a market here that sells prepared samosas. So we went there twice, and also bought some frozen ones from another market.  The prepared samosas look on and off.  The first time, they looked appetizing, the next, they looked stale and oily.  I knew I had to find a fix. Today, after sending off a job application, I settled in for some samosa searching.

I found an absolutely fantastic recipe with instructions from Aarti Paarti
(she is also a contestant on the Next Food Network Star)
Her video instructions were really easy to follow, illustrating how to make the dough and put together all the ingredients.

2 quirks: For the dough, I wanted a whole-grain or whole-wheat crust, so I used a whole-wheat flour instead. I didn't have buttermilk on hand, so I used yogurt.   Next, I don't cook meat so I tried my best to use the ingredients I had on hand to match her deliciously awesome recipe.

Samosa Dough:
Follow her directions but with 1/2 cup whole-wheat flour instead of all-purpose. I kept the pastry flour, because I'm convinced it makes the dough supple.

Samosa stuffing:
Now this is where I am deviating, but I think it's a nice adaptation. The spicy filling holds up well to the nutty dough.

1 large baking potato, scrubbed and washed (I left it unpeeled)
1/2 cup apricot preserves
1 tsp cumin
1 T smoked Spanish paprika
1 T Thai chili sauce
zest of 1 lime
juice of 1/2 of a lime
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1/2 cup peas, frozen
1/4 cup chopped cilantro

1. Boil the potato while you make the dough.
2. While the dough is resting you can smash the potato and add in the other ingredients, stirring in the 1/2 cup of peas and cilantro last.
3. Set aside and start rolling out the dough (back to her directions).

Roasted Cauliflower with Red Kidney Beans and Capers

If you buy cauliflower thinking you'll do something with it, and then find it after a week, this is a nice way to use it up.  This is an excellent dish to serve with other tapas.

Ingredients:
1 medium head cauliflower, chopped into rough pieces
1/2 zucchini, sliced into quarters
1 14 oz can red-kidney beans, rinsed and drained
6-8 cloves garlic, minced fine
2 T capers, rinsed
juice of 1 lemon
2 T olive oil
2 T mint or parsley, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. 
2. In a large mixing bowl, mix together cauliflower through olive oil. Add about 1/2 tsp of salt and mix together. 
3. Place the cauliflower mixture in a large roasting pan, and bake for 25 minutes. Cauliflower is done when golden-brown.
4. Top with mint or parsley and season with pepper. Adjust taste for salt (I find that lemon and capers  do a fine job seasoning and choose to omit most of the salt).

Sara's Lovely Leuven Visit and Photos

Europe 2010

Sara came for a visit and brought along some very yummy American goodies (my favorite Duck Rabbit beers, some brownie mix - which is NOT the same in Europe - Two Hearted's, Founder's Breakfast Stout, The Poet Oatmeal Stout (can you tell how great of a friend she is!?) 

During her visit, we went to Brugge and Ghent, and spent some days in Leuven. Over the weekend, Sara's brother, LJ, was able to visit as he was in London for work and stopped off in Brussels. Our weekend trip was planned to head to some Saison breweries in the Hainaut province of Belgium. Saison's are farm-house style ales that are typical to the Walloon  (French-speaking part of Belgium) regions. Most of the beers in Belgium are heavily influenced by the yeast strains, often many of them being wild, or many of them only existing within the Belgian valleys. The second stop was to Fantome Brewery in Soy. This took us through the Ardennes through some gorgeous country side. We also stopped briefly to view the Roquefort Abbey (also a Trappist abbey producing Roquefort beers), and ended our day to watch some World Cup games in Libin. 

The next day we got our history on and stopped in Bastogne (WW2 Battle of the Bulge) to see some historical war memorials. The main square of Bastogne features a US Tank and memorial to many of the soldiers who fought off the Germans. From here we headed to Monschau, Germany; a lovely small town that is famous for their mustard. Here we sampled some mustards and began our trek towards Koln where we intended to watch the Germany vs Australia game. Once in Koln, our hostel staff gave us some recommendations of where to try the best Kolsch (the beer style originates in Koln) and where to view the game.  The city had put out a huge screen and free entry to the grounds of the FIFA World Cup Stadium! This was a true European football watching experience - and seems like once in a lifetime for us. Germany won so it was a very happy day to be in Koln.  After the game, we headed to a local brewery to celebrate with some Kolsch's.

The next day we explored Koln and stopped by the Koln Cathedral. You can climb up the belfry tower (some 500 steps up a winding staircase) to get a lovely view of the city and surrounding areas. To end our trip, we headed back to Leuven just in time for viewing another World Cup game in our main city square, the Oude Markt. 

Sara's photos (click above album) or click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/swobker/Europe2010#

Focaccia with Rosemary

Focaccia with rosemary:
This recipe has been adapted from two recipes (my Deborah Madison cookbook and a Cuisinart food processor recipe) to include whole grains and less oil.  This is a fairly easy bread to bake, as it is forgiving with the knead time, and is really difficult to screw up.

For proof, this pic is of the first time I baked it:



Ingredients:
1/4 cup warm water
1 package yeast
1/2 t sugar
1 cup warm water
3 T olive oil (plus about 2 T extra for topping and oiling the bowl)
2 1/2 - 3 cups flour such as a mixture of all-purpose and whole-grain (such as wheat) flour
1 teaspoon salt (plus a little extra for topping)
1-2 T rosemary, chopped or crushed

Directions:

1. Combine 1/4 cup warm water, yeast and sugar in a small bowl and set aside until foamy.
2. Meanwhile, combine flours, salt and rosemary, stir together well.
3. Add 1 cup warm water and olive oil to the yeast mixture and stir to combine.
4. Add in yeast mixture to flour mixture and stir together until combined.
5. Turn out the dough (it should be crumbly) onto a floured countertop and knead until combined, adding extra flour as needed. Kneading should take 5-7 minutes.
6. Pour about 1 tsp of olive oil in the bottom of a large bowl and add dough, turn once or until coated.
7. Let rise until doubled in size about 1 hour.
8. Grease a jelly roll pan or other large pan (you could use a baking stone as well - see note at bottom). Turn the dough out onto the pan or stone and let rest about 10 minutes. Then shape the focaccia to fit the pan.  Let rise again for about 45 minutes (the oven is a nice place for it to rise, if left on countertop cover with a large towel so the top doesn't dry out - or just put it in the oven).
9. Take the risen focaccia out, and preheat the oven to 400 F.  Poke some nice dimples along it. Brush the remaining olive oil over the surface and sprinkle with a little bit of salt and rosemary.
10. Bake for 35-45 minutes. It's done when golden.

Note: When putting the focaccia on the pre-heated stone, you can shape it however you like; slash it a few times across the top and pull out the bread for a nice shape, and then sprinkle with oil, rosemary and salt. Reduce the cooking time so you check on the focaccia 20 minutes into its baking time, and then every 10 minutes after.