Eggplant and Roast Tomatoes Gratin

A crispy top with tender eggplant inside... mmmm...

Yield 4 servings

Time 1 1/2 hours (most of this is oven time)

Source: NYT’s The Temporary Vegetarian column

Ingredients
    FOR THE BREAD CRUMBS:

    Panko parmesan bread crumbs

  • 1/2 cup grated pecorino or parmigiano
  • 1 cup panko (Japanese bread crumbs)
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
  • 2 teaspoons minced parsley
  • FOR THE EGGPLANT AND TOMATOES:
  • 1 cup red grape or tear-drop tomatoes
  • 1 cup yellow grape or tear-drop tomatoes
  • 14 basil leaves, roughly chopped
  • 1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 1 1/4 cups tomato puree
  • 5 large garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
  • 2 to 2 1/4 pounds eggplants, peeled and cut into 1-inch cubes
  • 1/3 cup extra virgin olive, plus more for drizzling
  • 1 cup fresh whole milk buffalo mozzarella or other mozzarella cheese, grated or finely chopped.
Method
  • For the bread crumbs: In a medium bowl, combine pecorino, panko, salt, pepper, olive oil, and parsley. Mix well until crumbs are evenly coated with oil. Set aside.
  • For the eggplant and tomatoes: Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a large bowl, combine red tomatoes, yellow tomatoes, basil, red pepper flakes, salt, black pepper, tomato puree, garlic, eggplant and 1/3 cup olive oil. Add half of the bread crumb mixture. With your hands or two spoons, gently mix the vegetables and bread crumb mixture until thoroughly combined.
  • Pour into a 9 x 13 baking dish and top with remaining bread crumb mixture. Sprinkle the mozzarella over the top. Bake, uncovered, until eggplant is tender and top is lightly browned, 45 to 60 minutes; if after 30 minutes the top is browning too rapidly, cover the dish with foil for the remaining cooking time. Remove from oven, and let rest for 10 minutes before serving. Drizzle olive oil to taste over each serving, if desired.
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Baby Potatoes with Cilantro Chutney (Chutneywale Aloo)

Source: Sanjeev Kapoor

Time: 30 to 40 minutes

Serving: 4 (or 6 if serving dal or other dish)

INGREDIENTS:

40 baby potatoes

1 cup cilantro, chopped

¼ cup mint leaves, chopped (optional)

4-5 green chilies, chopped

2 inch ginger, minced

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 lemon (large), juiced

2 teaspoons, cumin seeds

2 teaspoons, coriander powder

½ teaspoon turmeric powder

½ cup yogurt

¼ teaspoon garam masala powder

1 teaspoon sesame seeds (optional)

Salt, to taste

METHOD:

Boil the potatoes  (ideally in a pressure cooker) with some salt in the water. Drain and cool. Halve them without peeling.

For the chutney, grind together cilantro, mint leaves, green chillies, ginger and garlic to make a fine paste. Add lemon juice and mix. Heat oil a non stick pan or a wok. Add cumin seeds and saute for a few seconds till it starts to change colour. Add coriander powder, turmeric powder and mix well for a few seconds. Add green chutney and mix. Add potatoes, yogurt, salt and mix. Cover and cook on medium heat for eight to ten minutes. Add garam masala powder and mix. Dry roast sesame seeds and sprinkle over the potatoes. Serve hot.

NOTES:

I have posted this recipe the way I made it, which was a slightly modified version of Mr. Kapoor’s. SK adds 1/4 cup of mint leaves to the chutney. I did not have any mint leaves at hand, so I threw in some extra cilantro (which I do not account for in the measurements). Also, he does not use any oil while cooking, choosing instead to dry roast the cumin seeds, coriander powder and turmeric powder.  I did not realize I was not supposed to put oil in the pan till I started to post this recipe! Anyway, mine turned out really well so perhaps it is a good thing I do not read recipes very carefully :-)

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Zucchini Bread… errr, Cake?

Bread

So a friend of mine at work has a garden and one of the items he is growing is .  He calls me one day to ask if I’m a fan and I say sure, I like .  The next day he gives me the largest I think I have ever seen.  I feel bad that I didn’t take a picture of it before starting to shred it for this recipe, but it was about 10 inches long and 5 inches thick (ok, get all of the dirty thoughts out of your head!).  Having gotten so big, it wasn’t the most flavorful , so it was more suited to making cake… that’s right I said CAKE.  Not sure why it is called bread (only because you make it into a loaf and slice it like bread), but it is made the way cake is made, so I’m calling it as such.

The recipe below is pretty standard bread recipe, so there’s really no source for this.  Just do a google search and you’ll find a dozen recipes that are very similar to this one. Read the rest of this entry »

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An Amaranth and Eggplant Dinner

We made this a couple weeks ago, and it was surprising how well the amaranth (chauli) and roasted eggplant went together.  The sweet/spicy flavor of the eggplant is complemented very well with the ever so slight bitterness of the amaranth.

As usual, our introduction to amaranth was simply because our farmer’s market sells and and we decided to try it.  If you do come across this at your own market, I highly suggest giving it a try.  My taste buds are pretty sensitive to bitter things (arugula for example, is so bitter to me that it is basically inedible), so considering I really like this green means that it is not overly bitter.

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Udon Noodle Soup

Alright, so we may not get cold Winter nights here in LA, but that doesn’t mean we can’t enjoy some warm japanese udon noodle when it gets “cold” here.

As promised, this is the recipe I made with the green garlic chili paste.  Obviously, you can substitute regular garlic, or another chili paste if you like.

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Fennel Soup

may sound a little strange, but this is one of the best soups I’ve had/made in a while.  This recipe is slightly modified from one I found on gourmet.com.  Seems like something that would be difficult to make, but it is incredibly easy.  In fact, it is so flavorful that you don’t even need to use stock when making this.  Water will do just fine.

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Quinoa salad with shiitakes, fennel and cashews

My favorite preparation….  its outstanding when my personal chef make it for us ;-)

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Mushroom Burgers With Almonds and Spinach

In our attempt to consume less packaged food items, we have stopped buy veggie burgers. This means we are also trying to break away from the “vegetarian burgers = beans” mode. Here is one of our favorites so far.
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Quinoa Salad With Lime Ginger Dressing and Shrimp

I say optional for the shrimp because if you want to make this vegetarian, all you have to leave that out in the end.
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Soto Ayam (Indonesian Chicken Soup With Noodles and Aromatics)

I found this recipe on New York Times and it had been adapted from “Cradle of Flavor” by James Oseland which is a great book for Southeast Asian Recipes. Makes for great comfort food!

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