Eggplant Parma-touille

I have a very interesting relationship with eggplant.  Though I enjoy it cooked by other people, I've never really found a good way to cook it myself.  Growing up, my grandmother used to cook the long, slender Japanese eggplant with preserved bean curd -- the result was a gray, pungent dish that, frankly, wasn't my favorite.  Since then, I've played around with baking it, grilling it, stir-frying it, just about everything I can think of.  Ultimately, this is the best eggplant recipe I've done. It has DNA of both eggplant parmesan and ratatouille but not enough of either to really by one or the other.

Prep time: 20-30 minutes
Cook time: 1.5 hours

Ingredients:
Sauce:
1 large can of crushed tomatoes
1 small can of tomato paste
1 small onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, diced
3/4 c mushroom, diced
salt/pepper

Eggplant:
1 medium/large eggplant, sliced into 1/4 inch slices lengthwise
1 c panko breadcrumbs
1/2 tbs herbs de provence
salt/pepper
2 eggs, beaten
1 large zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
1 1/2 c shredded mozzarella
1/4 c shaved parmesan cheese
handful of chopped flat leaf parsley

1. Preheat oven to 400. While the oven is preheating, set up your dredging station. In one large bowl, beat the eggs. In another large bowl, mix the breadcrumb and spices.  Line a large baking dish with foil and spray with nonstick spray.

2. Take each slice of eggplant and dip on both sides in the egg mixture.  Then, dip and pat each side in the breadcrumb mixture.  It helps to use your right hand for the egg and your left hand for the breadcrumb so you don't develop 3 inches of breadcrumb batter on your fingers.

Place each slice on the greased baking sheet.

3. Bake the eggplant for about 25-30 minutes, turning once during the baking. They should be slightly shrively around the edges and lightly browned.  Take out the slices and let them cool slightly. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees.

4. While the eggplant is baking, prepare the sauce.  First, saute the onion, garlic and mushroom in a generous drizzle of oil over medium heat.  I always try to cook the mushrooms first because Julia Child via Amy Adams via Julie and Julia tells me to.

5. After everything gets soft, dump in the cans of tomato.  Sometimes I feel guilty using things in cans, like it's cheating, but you know what  -- only crazy people with gobs of time and oodles of money sit there and stew their own tomatoes.  Just open a can and save yourself the hassle (I'm looking at you Giada). Salt and pepper generously (taste it to make sure it tastes like you want).  This is a good time to improvise a little bit -- add red pepper flakes or rosemary or italian spices, go a little crazy.  Just a little, this isn't Hell's Kitchen.

Once the mixture comes up to a boil, turn it down real low and just let it hang out while you get the rest of your act together.

6. Okay, now start to assemble. In a 9x9 baking dish, ladle a generous amount of sauce and a nice drizzle of olive oil. This is important or stuff will burn.

On top of the sauce, lay 3 slices of breaded eggplant. Cover the eggplant completely with a single layer of zucchini.  Top with a bit more sauce then a handful of the mozzarella.

7. Repeat these layers until you run out of stuff. You should get 3 full layers in, but maybe more or less depending on the size of eggplant you use.  If you notice you're running out of sauce, just put a can (or less) of water in to make it stretch.

8. Bake uncovered for about 30 minutes. Mostly, you want to be sure the zucchini gets cooked.  After 30 minutes, top with the parmesan and bake an additional 10 minutes until melted.

Top with the chopped parsley.

Now, full disclosure, casserole type stuff like this never really photographs real appetizingly.  It always sorta looks like brown mush, so sorry about that.

Falafel and Curried Cucumber Sauce

For some reason, I used to think falafel was some sort of magical food that was only procured from places with meats on spits. Turns out, falafel really isn't that difficult, in fact, it comes from the Arabian word meaning "Easier than you think" (actually it means 'little tasty food') -- in fact, you can probably throw this together in between episodes of season 4 of Arrested Development (No touching!).  It's best to eat them in pocket bread filled with your favorite veggie add-ins and slathered with tons of creamy cucumber sauce. This recipe makes a ton of falafels and are super good chilled the next day for lunch or for a quick, satisfying snack.

Note: You can also bake these in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once but really, really really -- they taste much better shallow fried.

Prep time:
Cucumber sauce - 5 minutes
Falafel 20 minutes (plus 10 minutes cook time)

Ingredients

Cucumber Sauce - 

1/2 cucumber, grated (about 1/2 cup of pulp)

1 clove of garlic, grated
2 green onions, sliced
7 oz. plain greek yogurt
3.5 oz. light sour cream
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp paprika
juice from a small lime
salt/pepper and a squirt of honey

Falafel - 

1 16 oz. can of garbanzo beans, drained
3/4 cup (a BIG handful) parsley
1 sweet onion, quartered
3 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 egg
juice of 1/2 a lemon
2 tsp cumin
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking powder
drizzle of olive oil
pinch of cayenne, salt and pepper
1 c (plus more) plain breadcrumbs

Curried Cucumber Sauce

1. Grate the cucumber. Squeeze the juice out of the pulp in your (clean!) hands over the sink. Place drained pulp in a medium bowl.

2. Combine the remaining ingredients and refrigerate in an air-tight container. Tip - you can just fill the empty yogurt container half way with sour cream so you don't have to dirty a measuring cup.

                                                  

Falafel

1. Mash the garbanzo beans using a potato masher. It should be pretty lumpy still and you should be able to see the shape of some of the beans.

2. In the blender: parsley, onion and garlic. Don't do what Donnie Don't Does aka -- don't put your ingredients the way I did -- instead, put the onion and garlic at the bottom and the parsley on top. It will blend easier this way.

Eventually it'll look liks this appetizing pea-soup, vomit concoction. You'll have to shake and pulse and smash and pulse until it becomes creamy.  I know it looks gross but stay with me.

3. Add the parsley mixture to the mashed beans. I know, I know -- just hang in there.

4. Combine the egg, spices, baking powder, olive oil and lemon juice. Add it to the bean/parsley mixture.

5. Add a full cup of bread crumbs to the green mixture. Stir. Assess the mixture and add breadcrumbs a shake at a time until the mixture comes together and forms a pasty, applesaucy consistency. It should hold itself together in ball-form.

6. Start to form little discs. Roll a ball of the mixture (about 1.5 tbs, or the size of a ping pong ball) and then gently flatten it. 

7. Heat about 1/4 c oil in a heavy-bottom skillet. Bring the heat up to medium. When the oil is hot enough (you can test it with a bit of the falafel mixture, it should sizzle) start placing your falafel discs in a circular pattern around the pan.

8. Cook for about 3 minutes on the first side. Then, flip each patty over, browning the other side and cooking for an additional 3-5 minutes. 

9. Drain the patties on a paper towel and while they are still hot, sprinkle some more paprika and cumin.

10. Serve with a cucumber salad and the chilled cucumber sauce.

Coconut Ginger Salmon in Parchment

Cost: 8 dollars
Cook time: 20 minutes

So most of you know Paul -- most of you also know that there's a laundry list of things Paul won't eat (beans, asparagus, cooked spinach, most non-shell seafood)...and fish. So when Paul is out of town, I relish in trying out some fun fish recipes.

Here, I used salmon because it was on sale at Whole Foods which basically means regular-people prices at any other store.  I feel a lot safer getting my fish from WF over some of the local markets around my house that, um, well let's just say aren't the most hygienic.

I feel a little guilty posting this recipe, I mean it's simple and intuitive and you could probably figure out your own version on your own.  I used ginger and coconut water but you can sub any number of aromatics (dill, garlic, capers, etc).  The coconut water, though somewhat of a bougie ingredient, gives it a very subtle, tropical note.

Also, when wrapping the parchment, make sure you make a tight seal -- I don't have a good technique, just crimp the corners and tuck it under the fish; the tighter the seal, the more moist and delicious the final product.

And do yourself a favor -- serve it on a nice bed of sauteed spinach just like Paul would have not liked.

Ingredients:
Salmon plank - 5 oz per person
1 tbs olive oil
2 slices of lemon
1 tbs ginger, sliced
1/4 red pepper, julianne
1 green onion, sliced
2 tbs coconut water
salt/pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

2. Here are all the ingredients prepared.  And a knife.

3. Lay your parchment down. Rub each side of the fish liberally with olive oil. Salt and pepper each side.  Note -- put the parchment on a cookie sheet before you start layering the ingredients.  I didn't and the coconut water spilled everywhere.  Cooking like a teacher means learning your lesson.

4. Start with the lemon slice.  Then layer on the slices of ginger followed by the green onions. Put the most aromatic ingredients on first so the fish absorbs all that smelly goodness.

5. Then layer on the bell pepper slices.  I like the bright pop of red, but you can use any color of pepper (I guess...)

6. Pour on the tbs of coconut water. Be careful, it can spill.

7. Wrap and roll.  Again, this isn't a science, just make sure there's a tight seal. Crimp every edge, fold every corner and fold it all under the fish.

Place in the oven for about 15-17 minutes until tender.

I'd recommend serving each piece of parchment on its own plate and letting your guest open their own. Since I'm alone, hungry, and taking pictures for a blog, I jazzed it up a bit.