I come from a long line of proud, pork-eating Jewish women. From my grandmother, who is said to have placed a roast ham in the refrigerator every time her orthodox father-in-law visited (so there wouldn't be any ambiguity about the trafe status of the kitchen), to my mother who never met a BLT she didn't like, we are pig-meat lovers. I've mostly given up feeling bad about it, but sometimes I get a little sad and then I need to comfort myself with something delicious, like a piece of bacon.
Tonight I was facing a bit of a cabbage crisis. I had purchased two large heads - a green and a red - anticipating a kimchi-o-rama, but have yet to get up the gumption for that process. Rumors were starting to spread about the deteriorating state of the green and and I knew something had to be done. As is so often the case in my house, pork came to the rescue! I pulled some chops out of the freezer, rustled up some apples and onions, and created what I'm calling:
Pawk Chawps and Apple/Cabbage Braise
2 inch-think pork chops (really all quantities are loose and goosey here - cook as many chops as you want)
about 3 cups of shredded cabbage, mix of red and green
about 2 cups of sliced onions, again mix of red and white
3 large cloves of garlic, chopped
2-3 apples quartered and sliced
1 cup white wine
3/4 cup prune juice (yes! the secret ingredient)
1/2 tsp of thyme
1/2 tsp of sage
salt and pepper
vegetable oil
Preheat the oven to 300. Start by sauteeing the onions, garlic, cabbage and apples in a large dutch oven that has a close fitting lid. You may have to do this in batches - I did all the onions and garlic first, and then the cabbage and apples. They should be softened, but don't need to be fully cooked. Remove from the pan to a bowl.
Add some more oil to the dutch oven and get it nice and hot. Brown the pork chops well on both sides - about 3 -4 mins per side, depending upon how big they are. Again, you may need to do this in batches and you don't want to fully cook the chops, just get them nicely browned. Remove to a plate.
With the heat still on, add the wine and prune juice to the pot and stir well to deglaze . Now add the veg back to the pan and mix well with the sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Let cook for a minute or two. Turn off the heat. Add the chops back to the pan, tucking them into the veg so they are covered. Put the lid on the dutch oven, and put the whole thing into the oven. Roast for 80 to 90 minutes, checking after 60. The meat should be tender enough to pull away with a fork. Taste the vegetables and sauce for seasoning, adding more salt or pepper if necessary. Serve the chops with lots of veg and sauce. This would be great with potatoes or spaetzle.
This dish is a great example of flavor balance. You've got the bitter with cabbage, the sour with the wine, sweet with apples and prune juice, salt-y with salt, umami with meat. The onions and garlic add depth and sweetness, too. Most often when I find a dish is lacking flavor, it's a problem with sweetness or sourness (occasionally with fat, but that's rarely a problem with my cooking!). It took me a long time to recognize how important sweet-balance is to getting good flavor, but once I caught on to that, I started experimenting with all kinds of ways to add sweetness and depth to my dishes. Juices are great for this, but also dried fruit (raisins or prunes would have been interesting addition to this braise). Jams and jellies are also fun to experiment with, especially when reducing a sauce, as they can really add a depth of flavor that's later hard to pinpoint in the dish. So next time you've got a soup or stew that seems to be missing something, try foraging in the fridge or cabinet for a touch of fruity sweetness. You'll often find it was just what you needed.
And before I sign off for the night, let's raise our glasses to pork - l'chaim!
Sunday, March 20, 2011
Saturday, March 12, 2011
Mushroom Soup
I happened to find myself with about 2lbs of fresh mushrooms in the fridge, and anyone who has ever purchased large amounts of fresh mushrooms knows they create a ticking clock in the back of the mind - dawdle just a bit too long, and one is left with a nasty brown slime where once there were lovely fungi.
So I rushed home from my day of mentoring, cogitating upon things to do with mushrooms. I decided upon a soup. Not the cream-of-mushroom soup of my childhood, which tasted great poured over chicken parts and baked (see the recipe for that further below), but something where the star vegetable was chunkier and featured more prominently in the dish. I was out of onions and heavy cream, but had some fresh rosemary in the fridge and (hurrah!) some bacon in the freezer. The whole thing was quite delicious, though not as thick as I wanted. The recipe below is pretty much exactly what I did, but you might use heavy cream our more roux to get that thicker version.
Mushroom soup
4 slices of bacon, cut into chunks
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced, stems reserved
3/4 lb shitake mushrooms, sliced, stems reserved
4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thin (reserve one peeled and whole)
3-4 cups water
chicken bouillon mix (I used the stuff that comes in a jar)
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 Tbsp butter
2/3 c whole milk
2 Tbsp flour
In a small saucepan, simmer the mushroom stems and the whole clove of garlic for about 20 mins to make a mushroom stock.
In a large dutch oven or soup pot, brown the bacon until the pieces are crispy. Remove the crispy bacon and drain on a paper towel. Add the sliced mushrooms and garlic to the bacon fat and cook over a medium low heat until the mushrooms are just soft. Add the rosemary and cook a bit more. Strain the mushroom stock through a sieve and add the chicken bouillon, about 2 tsps of it. Add the stock mixture to the mushrooms and cook all that for about 5-10 mins.
Now add about 2 Tsps of butter and the milk to the mushrooms, and get that simmering. Melt the remaining butter in a heavy saucepan and then add the flour. Cook, stirring, for about 3 mins. Add liquid from the mushroom pot in 1/2 cupfuls to the flour mixture, stirring vigorously. When you have a thick sauce, scrape all that back into the soup pot and cook for another 10 mins or so over medium hot. Taste and check for salt (I didn't need any because the bacon and bouillon together were already salty). Serve garnished with the crispy bacon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was in grade school, my mother decided to pursue and MBA and started attending classes every Monday night. This left my brother, my stepfather and I to trade off cooking duties. We stuck with admirable consistency to a rotation of the same dishes: my brother made macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs on top, my stepfather made 3-alarm chili, and I made chicken with mushroom sauce, rice and peas. Eventually my mother abandoned her plans for higher education. However, I've never forgotten the recipe for that chicken, which is quite tasty, if not exactly wholesome.
Baked Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce
1 chicken cut into individual pieces (actually, this is even better with just chicken thighs - I think the recipe would easily cover 6-8 of them)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small container heavy cream
salt, pepper, paprika
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the chicken pieces, pat them dry, and salt and pepper them. Place them skin side up in a baking dish. Mix the can of soup with the heavy cream and resist the urge to start eating this by the spoonful. Pour the soup mixture over the chicken and sprinkle the whole dish with paprika. Bake for 1 hour, or until the chicken is done. Serve with white rice and peas. Make your brother do the dishes.
So I rushed home from my day of mentoring, cogitating upon things to do with mushrooms. I decided upon a soup. Not the cream-of-mushroom soup of my childhood, which tasted great poured over chicken parts and baked (see the recipe for that further below), but something where the star vegetable was chunkier and featured more prominently in the dish. I was out of onions and heavy cream, but had some fresh rosemary in the fridge and (hurrah!) some bacon in the freezer. The whole thing was quite delicious, though not as thick as I wanted. The recipe below is pretty much exactly what I did, but you might use heavy cream our more roux to get that thicker version.
Mushroom soup
4 slices of bacon, cut into chunks
3/4 lb cremini mushrooms, sliced, stems reserved
3/4 lb shitake mushrooms, sliced, stems reserved
4-6 cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced thin (reserve one peeled and whole)
3-4 cups water
chicken bouillon mix (I used the stuff that comes in a jar)
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
4 Tbsp butter
2/3 c whole milk
2 Tbsp flour
In a small saucepan, simmer the mushroom stems and the whole clove of garlic for about 20 mins to make a mushroom stock.
In a large dutch oven or soup pot, brown the bacon until the pieces are crispy. Remove the crispy bacon and drain on a paper towel. Add the sliced mushrooms and garlic to the bacon fat and cook over a medium low heat until the mushrooms are just soft. Add the rosemary and cook a bit more. Strain the mushroom stock through a sieve and add the chicken bouillon, about 2 tsps of it. Add the stock mixture to the mushrooms and cook all that for about 5-10 mins.
Now add about 2 Tsps of butter and the milk to the mushrooms, and get that simmering. Melt the remaining butter in a heavy saucepan and then add the flour. Cook, stirring, for about 3 mins. Add liquid from the mushroom pot in 1/2 cupfuls to the flour mixture, stirring vigorously. When you have a thick sauce, scrape all that back into the soup pot and cook for another 10 mins or so over medium hot. Taste and check for salt (I didn't need any because the bacon and bouillon together were already salty). Serve garnished with the crispy bacon.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
When I was in grade school, my mother decided to pursue and MBA and started attending classes every Monday night. This left my brother, my stepfather and I to trade off cooking duties. We stuck with admirable consistency to a rotation of the same dishes: my brother made macaroni and cheese with sliced hot dogs on top, my stepfather made 3-alarm chili, and I made chicken with mushroom sauce, rice and peas. Eventually my mother abandoned her plans for higher education. However, I've never forgotten the recipe for that chicken, which is quite tasty, if not exactly wholesome.
Baked Chicken with Mushroom Cream Sauce
1 chicken cut into individual pieces (actually, this is even better with just chicken thighs - I think the recipe would easily cover 6-8 of them)
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 small container heavy cream
salt, pepper, paprika
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Wash the chicken pieces, pat them dry, and salt and pepper them. Place them skin side up in a baking dish. Mix the can of soup with the heavy cream and resist the urge to start eating this by the spoonful. Pour the soup mixture over the chicken and sprinkle the whole dish with paprika. Bake for 1 hour, or until the chicken is done. Serve with white rice and peas. Make your brother do the dishes.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Washington DC Update
After letting this blog languish for a year, I'm resurrecting it to act as my official "Letter from the Capitol." Wow! How exciting to even write that.
As most of you know, I'm at the beginning of a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). You can learn more about it here: http://fellowships.aaas.org
This fellowship program takes people with advanced degrees in science and engineering and puts us to work for the federal government for a year. Some of us work in the Congressional Branch, as staffers on Capitol Hill. The rest of us work in the Executive Branch across a dozen different agencies. I'll be working in the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, a part of the State Department. This office administers PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I'll write more about my job and PEPFAR in a later posting, once I've actually started.
This week marked the beginning of the AAAS orientation for all fellows. This is eight days of lectures and workshops designed to give us some minimal background on how the federal government functions, its history, and how its cultures contrast with the ones we've all come from. This is also our only chance to spend significant time together as a group of fellows. Once orientation ends, we'll all split up and head to our various agencies (or to the Hill to placed for the Congressional Fellows).
It's been a fascinating week, if a bit exhausting. We started Wednesday. The highlight was a talk by Mark Talisman, a "Public Affairs Consultant to emerging democracies and other interests." This remarkable renaissance man is more like a walking encyclopedia of American history, congressional lore and DC knowledge. He lectured us eloquently on the history of the writing of the American constitution, contrasting it with his experience helping countries write their own constitutions. He talked about George Washington's strained relationship with his wife and the methane vapors that gave Foggy Bottom its name. He became the first of what I suspect will be many to talk to us about the changing nature of presidential power, and the carefully built-in tensions between the congress and the administration. Lastly, he invited us to a specially arranged visit to the Holocaust Museum (he sits on the board and was one of the founders).
Thursday we spent at Cannon House, a Congressional office building that houses, among other things, the staff to the Republican Finance Committee. We spent the day learning about congress and how bills become law. Only our last speaker pointed out that we were sitting in the room where most of the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee were held. Well, there's your feel-good history and then there's the rest.
Yesterday, we had an excellent session with Kei Kozumi, a former AAAS Fellow and employee, who now works in the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy. He walked us through the budgeting process before we all pretended to be the House appropriations committee for Commerce, Justice and Science charged with producing a budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The whole process reminded me of taking statistics my first year of graduate school. Everyone warns you how boring and awful it will be, but encountering it when you know you are going to need it really focuses the mind. We rounded out the day with a brief talk by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a professor from U Penn, who talked about the role of the President and how that has changed. She was quite funny, especially in how she managed a variety of arcane questions from us fellows. You can take the scientist out of the lab, but you can't take the nerd out of the scientist.
Well that seems like quite enough about orientation for now. I'll wrap up by saying that I'm well and happy, but missing my friends, family and colleagues in Madison plenty. Take care and stay in touch!
P.S. New pictures added to my flickr stream.
As most of you know, I'm at the beginning of a Science and Technology Policy Fellowship sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). You can learn more about it here: http://fellowships.aaas.org
This fellowship program takes people with advanced degrees in science and engineering and puts us to work for the federal government for a year. Some of us work in the Congressional Branch, as staffers on Capitol Hill. The rest of us work in the Executive Branch across a dozen different agencies. I'll be working in the Office of the Global AIDS Coordinator, a part of the State Department. This office administers PEPFAR, the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief. I'll write more about my job and PEPFAR in a later posting, once I've actually started.
This week marked the beginning of the AAAS orientation for all fellows. This is eight days of lectures and workshops designed to give us some minimal background on how the federal government functions, its history, and how its cultures contrast with the ones we've all come from. This is also our only chance to spend significant time together as a group of fellows. Once orientation ends, we'll all split up and head to our various agencies (or to the Hill to placed for the Congressional Fellows).
It's been a fascinating week, if a bit exhausting. We started Wednesday. The highlight was a talk by Mark Talisman, a "Public Affairs Consultant to emerging democracies and other interests." This remarkable renaissance man is more like a walking encyclopedia of American history, congressional lore and DC knowledge. He lectured us eloquently on the history of the writing of the American constitution, contrasting it with his experience helping countries write their own constitutions. He talked about George Washington's strained relationship with his wife and the methane vapors that gave Foggy Bottom its name. He became the first of what I suspect will be many to talk to us about the changing nature of presidential power, and the carefully built-in tensions between the congress and the administration. Lastly, he invited us to a specially arranged visit to the Holocaust Museum (he sits on the board and was one of the founders).
Thursday we spent at Cannon House, a Congressional office building that houses, among other things, the staff to the Republican Finance Committee. We spent the day learning about congress and how bills become law. Only our last speaker pointed out that we were sitting in the room where most of the hearings of the House Un-American Activities Committee were held. Well, there's your feel-good history and then there's the rest.
Yesterday, we had an excellent session with Kei Kozumi, a former AAAS Fellow and employee, who now works in the President's Office of Science and Technology Policy. He walked us through the budgeting process before we all pretended to be the House appropriations committee for Commerce, Justice and Science charged with producing a budget for the 2010 fiscal year. The whole process reminded me of taking statistics my first year of graduate school. Everyone warns you how boring and awful it will be, but encountering it when you know you are going to need it really focuses the mind. We rounded out the day with a brief talk by Kathryn Dunn Tenpas, a professor from U Penn, who talked about the role of the President and how that has changed. She was quite funny, especially in how she managed a variety of arcane questions from us fellows. You can take the scientist out of the lab, but you can't take the nerd out of the scientist.
Well that seems like quite enough about orientation for now. I'll wrap up by saying that I'm well and happy, but missing my friends, family and colleagues in Madison plenty. Take care and stay in touch!
P.S. New pictures added to my flickr stream.
Sunday, August 24, 2008
Darn!
It's one of those tasks that I only remember when I can't possibly do something about it. I'll be driving, or showering, or squirting chemicals into tiny tubes and I'll think "I gotta learn how to darn." How many lovely but holey pairs of socks have I thrown away after finally acknowledging that hanging around in my sock bag was not magically mending them. Sigh.
But today, I was poking around on my favorite knitting site, www.knitty.com, and I found these very clear instructions on how to darn. Woo hoo! Of course, now I actually have to DO the darning, but it seems like something satisfying to do in front of the TV or on the bus.
Anybody else out there darn?
But today, I was poking around on my favorite knitting site, www.knitty.com, and I found these very clear instructions on how to darn. Woo hoo! Of course, now I actually have to DO the darning, but it seems like something satisfying to do in front of the TV or on the bus.
Anybody else out there darn?
Saturday, August 23, 2008
Energy Talk - Let's Get Real
OK folks, I've had just about all I can take of the so-called energy debate. I understand that high gas prices are causing real hardship around the country and the poorest people, as usual, are the hardest hit. And this situation surely is not their fault. But let's get real: we have known for as long as I've been alive that the supply of fossil fuels available to us is finite, unless we somehow want to put ourselves in suspended animation for the billion or so years it would take for the earth to turn more organic matter into crude oil.
Our current problems are not really a function of increased demand from the Chinese, or liberals blocking oil drilling, or speculators in the oil market. Our current problems stem from an absolute refusal of our political leadership to form and enact any kind of real plan for shifting the nation from an infrastructure that relies on oil to one that relies on renewable energy. Jimmy Carter tried, Ronald Reagan put a stop to it and no one's had the balls to do it since. That's the reality. No amount of hand-wringing will change the fact that we now have dramatically less time in which to make this transition and that more people are suffering and more will suffer because of it.
So let's stop pretending that any of the short-term measures proposed - gas tax relief, drilling in Alaska, punishing speculators, or even corn-based ethanol (which consumes as much energy as it produces) - are going to solve this problem.
And by the way, if you own an SUV or another gas-guzzling vehicle, you are screwed. Sorry to say "I told you so" but I did (to numerous friends and family members). I advise you to graciously accept the loss you will inevitably take when you trade that sucker in for the smaller Japanese car you know you should have purchased in the first place. And no, my friends, 27 mpg is NOT fuel-efficient. It's a joke. If you are driving a car that gets less than 33 mpg on the highway, you've been had. (By the way, my 1994 - that's not a typo - Honda Accord gets 33 mpg on the highway, so no excuses).
So what do we do now? Well, first of all we realize that Exxon Mobile and the other members of the big oil cabal are not our friends. They will not tell us the truth and they do not have our best interests at heart. They are happily enjoying the biggest profits they have ever earned, alongside huge tax breaks courtesy of their friends in Washington, D.C. So when they say that the technology just does not exist to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, you ask yourself "Well, have we really tried? And should we believe people who stand to make billions if we continue to do things their way?"
Then you take a deep breath and look around and realize that our oil-based infrastructure - interstates, country roads, etc. - was paid for by us: the taxpayer. Big oil, the trucking industry, Detroit did not pay for us to have a car and truck-based economy, we did. They just profit from it. So if we are going to switch to an energy-efficient economy and free ourselves from our "addiction to big oil" we are going to pay for it. Oh I hear all the republicans crying out! Taxes! Taxes! Well, if we spent one month's worth of Iraq spending on re-building our national energy infrastructure, we'd be well on our way and we managed to come up with that money, didn't we? And think of what we could save if we stopped subsidizing big oil.
We need a massive, WPA-style effort to build windmills, install solar panels and rapidly improve the technology for making ethanol from crops that don't require fertilizer, like grass. We need huge programs to help people make homes and businesses more fuel efficient. And guess what? These programs will put people to work, pump money into our flagging economy, address global warming, and (possibly) bring some of our precious nation back from the brink of destruction by pollution and over-development. So if they cost us in taxes and increase our already staggering debt, at least they are an investment that will pay real dividends back to us, the people (unlike the investments we've been making into Corporate America and Big Oil, which, as far as I can tell, have been returning jack).
Will it be easy? Of course not. Few things worth doing are easy. Will it be painful? Sometimes, and more for some people than others. But it will also be exciting, rewarding and fun. All of us feel the anxiety that comes from knowing we are living a lifestyle that cannot last. We get in our cars and drive to the mall, and part of us wonders "How much longer can this go on? What happens after it's all over?" Let's stop wondering and worrying. Let's stop waiting for a scientist to discover a solution. We already have the solution. Let's take the Nike pill and "Just Do It."
Our current problems are not really a function of increased demand from the Chinese, or liberals blocking oil drilling, or speculators in the oil market. Our current problems stem from an absolute refusal of our political leadership to form and enact any kind of real plan for shifting the nation from an infrastructure that relies on oil to one that relies on renewable energy. Jimmy Carter tried, Ronald Reagan put a stop to it and no one's had the balls to do it since. That's the reality. No amount of hand-wringing will change the fact that we now have dramatically less time in which to make this transition and that more people are suffering and more will suffer because of it.
So let's stop pretending that any of the short-term measures proposed - gas tax relief, drilling in Alaska, punishing speculators, or even corn-based ethanol (which consumes as much energy as it produces) - are going to solve this problem.
And by the way, if you own an SUV or another gas-guzzling vehicle, you are screwed. Sorry to say "I told you so" but I did (to numerous friends and family members). I advise you to graciously accept the loss you will inevitably take when you trade that sucker in for the smaller Japanese car you know you should have purchased in the first place. And no, my friends, 27 mpg is NOT fuel-efficient. It's a joke. If you are driving a car that gets less than 33 mpg on the highway, you've been had. (By the way, my 1994 - that's not a typo - Honda Accord gets 33 mpg on the highway, so no excuses).
So what do we do now? Well, first of all we realize that Exxon Mobile and the other members of the big oil cabal are not our friends. They will not tell us the truth and they do not have our best interests at heart. They are happily enjoying the biggest profits they have ever earned, alongside huge tax breaks courtesy of their friends in Washington, D.C. So when they say that the technology just does not exist to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy, you ask yourself "Well, have we really tried? And should we believe people who stand to make billions if we continue to do things their way?"
Then you take a deep breath and look around and realize that our oil-based infrastructure - interstates, country roads, etc. - was paid for by us: the taxpayer. Big oil, the trucking industry, Detroit did not pay for us to have a car and truck-based economy, we did. They just profit from it. So if we are going to switch to an energy-efficient economy and free ourselves from our "addiction to big oil" we are going to pay for it. Oh I hear all the republicans crying out! Taxes! Taxes! Well, if we spent one month's worth of Iraq spending on re-building our national energy infrastructure, we'd be well on our way and we managed to come up with that money, didn't we? And think of what we could save if we stopped subsidizing big oil.
We need a massive, WPA-style effort to build windmills, install solar panels and rapidly improve the technology for making ethanol from crops that don't require fertilizer, like grass. We need huge programs to help people make homes and businesses more fuel efficient. And guess what? These programs will put people to work, pump money into our flagging economy, address global warming, and (possibly) bring some of our precious nation back from the brink of destruction by pollution and over-development. So if they cost us in taxes and increase our already staggering debt, at least they are an investment that will pay real dividends back to us, the people (unlike the investments we've been making into Corporate America and Big Oil, which, as far as I can tell, have been returning jack).
Will it be easy? Of course not. Few things worth doing are easy. Will it be painful? Sometimes, and more for some people than others. But it will also be exciting, rewarding and fun. All of us feel the anxiety that comes from knowing we are living a lifestyle that cannot last. We get in our cars and drive to the mall, and part of us wonders "How much longer can this go on? What happens after it's all over?" Let's stop wondering and worrying. Let's stop waiting for a scientist to discover a solution. We already have the solution. Let's take the Nike pill and "Just Do It."
Monday, August 18, 2008
Imam Bayildi and Long Beans - The Sequel
Yesterday, I blogged about my experiment with Imam Bayilidi. I decided to add a novel ingredient - asian long beans - and promised to report.
Well, it was good last night and really good today, especially when I cooked an egg in it in the microwave. The long beans are a lovely addition - they're chewy enough to hold onto their texture through the braising, taking on the flavors of the dish nicely, and develop a deep green color that really complements the eggplant and tomatoes. Couple of things I would do differently the next time:
~ use smaller eggplant, or cut a big one up into smaller pieces. The parts of the huge one I used that didn't get direct contact with the sauce were a bit bland.
~ more salt (though salting the finished product also works well)
Many more variations are possible (some herbs, some pepper), but here's a basic recipe based on what I did:
1 - 2 lbs of eggplant
4 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 - 2 yellow onions, chopped
bunch of olive oil (just have the bottle handy)
4-5 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped.
kosher or coarse sea salt
1 bunch of long beans (regular green beans would probably work, too), tipped, tailed and cut into 2-3 inch lengths
black pepper
1. peel strips longways off the eggplant to create a nice striped pattern.
2. If you're working with medium or small eggplants, cut them in half, lengthwise and then cut a slit down the middle to make a pocket. Sprinkle the whole thing, including the pocket, with salt and set on a paper towel for 30 mins. If you have one big eggplant, you could either cut it in quarters, or slice it. Either way, sprinkle with salt and let rest, as above.
3. While the eggplant are exuding bitterness and water, make the sauce. Start by sautéing the onions in some olive oil. When they have softened just a bit, add the garlic and then the tomatoes. Salt and pepper this to taste and let it cook for about 10 mins or so, just to get the whole thing blended. Set aside.
4. When yer eggplants are done, rinse them well to get rid of the extra salt. Dry them off and then brown them cut side down in olive oil, in a big, deep sauté pan. When they're nice and brown, flip them over.
5. Now, tuck the beans around the eggplant, and add the sauce. If you have pockets in the eggplant, stuff some sauce in there, and pour what's left over the whole shebang. Add about a quarter cup of water.
6. Cover the pan, and let the stuff cook over medium heat for 30-50 minutes, until the eggplant are very soft. Check occasionally to make sure there's enough liquid in the pan.
7. You can serve this right away (code for "you can eat this right out of the pot with a spoon"), but it's yummier if you let it cool and eat the next day - it's good room temp or heated up.
One note - don't be stingy with the olive oil. If you're worried about too much fat, make a different dish. Part of Imam Bayildi's unique deliciousness comes from luxurious amounts of olive oil, and it just won't taste really good without it.
Well, it was good last night and really good today, especially when I cooked an egg in it in the microwave. The long beans are a lovely addition - they're chewy enough to hold onto their texture through the braising, taking on the flavors of the dish nicely, and develop a deep green color that really complements the eggplant and tomatoes. Couple of things I would do differently the next time:
~ use smaller eggplant, or cut a big one up into smaller pieces. The parts of the huge one I used that didn't get direct contact with the sauce were a bit bland.
~ more salt (though salting the finished product also works well)
Many more variations are possible (some herbs, some pepper), but here's a basic recipe based on what I did:
1 - 2 lbs of eggplant
4 roma tomatoes, roughly chopped
1 - 2 yellow onions, chopped
bunch of olive oil (just have the bottle handy)
4-5 cloves of garlic, coarsely chopped.
kosher or coarse sea salt
1 bunch of long beans (regular green beans would probably work, too), tipped, tailed and cut into 2-3 inch lengths
black pepper
1. peel strips longways off the eggplant to create a nice striped pattern.
2. If you're working with medium or small eggplants, cut them in half, lengthwise and then cut a slit down the middle to make a pocket. Sprinkle the whole thing, including the pocket, with salt and set on a paper towel for 30 mins. If you have one big eggplant, you could either cut it in quarters, or slice it. Either way, sprinkle with salt and let rest, as above.
3. While the eggplant are exuding bitterness and water, make the sauce. Start by sautéing the onions in some olive oil. When they have softened just a bit, add the garlic and then the tomatoes. Salt and pepper this to taste and let it cook for about 10 mins or so, just to get the whole thing blended. Set aside.
4. When yer eggplants are done, rinse them well to get rid of the extra salt. Dry them off and then brown them cut side down in olive oil, in a big, deep sauté pan. When they're nice and brown, flip them over.
5. Now, tuck the beans around the eggplant, and add the sauce. If you have pockets in the eggplant, stuff some sauce in there, and pour what's left over the whole shebang. Add about a quarter cup of water.
6. Cover the pan, and let the stuff cook over medium heat for 30-50 minutes, until the eggplant are very soft. Check occasionally to make sure there's enough liquid in the pan.
7. You can serve this right away (code for "you can eat this right out of the pot with a spoon"), but it's yummier if you let it cool and eat the next day - it's good room temp or heated up.
One note - don't be stingy with the olive oil. If you're worried about too much fat, make a different dish. Part of Imam Bayildi's unique deliciousness comes from luxurious amounts of olive oil, and it just won't taste really good without it.
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Blueberry muffins?
I love blueberries, and the precious few weeks they're in season are some of the happiest of my year. But you won't find any recipes for blueberry muffins, pancakes, waffle or pie on my blog. For me, heat only hurts a blueberry. Once you cook them, blueberries lose the tart freshness that distinguishes them, taking on a kind of sickly sweetness. So once the season is over, I bid farewell to my fine, blue friends and turn to other fruits.
But before that happens, I'm going to delight in as many blueberries as I can, with a few raspberries on the side. My favorite way to eat berries this summer has been mixed with strained yogurt, walnuts and honey. Mmmm....
But before that happens, I'm going to delight in as many blueberries as I can, with a few raspberries on the side. My favorite way to eat berries this summer has been mixed with strained yogurt, walnuts and honey. Mmmm....
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