What's for dinner

[Gonz]

i just finished a lovely glass of raw milk from a local creamery. yum yum taste that fuckin' grass. of course i'm prolly gonna die from it. yawn.

We used to go to the dairy & get whole milk in the glass jars, milked that day...tasty stuff.

 

[BeardofPants]

Well, I used to drink it straight from the cow. ... What?

 

[A.B.Normal]

Well, I used to drink it straight from the cow. ... What?

Don't you have to worry about getting kicked.

seriously though,we had cows when I was young and fresh milk definately can't be beat.

 

[BeardofPants]

My granny's cow (Mindy) didn't know how to be all kicky & mean. She was awesome. And I was like 3. I didn't know you weren't supposed to stick yer sticky 3 year old mouf on muddy cow udder.

 

[tonksy]

Lat night was fried green tomatoes with black eyed pea salsa along side a southern version of an antipasto plate to include pickled okra, pickled watermelon rind with sweet onions, brandied figs, ham, pimento cheese and rolls.

 

[tonksy]

Eggplant parmesan...man, I'd forgotten how much work that is.

 

[BeardofPants]

Wot is eggplant parmesan? I like eggplant, and I like parmesan...

 

[tonksy]

Eggplant slices dipped in seasoned flour, eggs, seasoned breadcrumbs then fried till browned (stored on paper towels till needed). Layer a baking dish with some tomato sauce, a layer of the eggplant slices, and a layer of fresh basil (but I used spinach last night) and then a layer of a modest amount of cheese (I use parmesan and some mozzerella). Repeat until dish is just about full ending with sauce making sure that nothing is uncovered by the sauce else it dries out or burns. Then you add more cheese on top. Bake at uncovered at 350 for about 30-35 minutes.

I want to say you'll need about 4 to 5 cups of sauce if you use 3 small eggplants, if that helps you judge quantities.

I served it with rigatoni noodles tossed with a bit of butter as the sauce is all but absorbed during baking.

 

[BeardofPants]

That sounds awesome. I'll give it a shot when I'm not actively dieting.

Here's mine:

Oven-baked Eggplant Risotto

You will need:
2 medium-large eggplants
250 ml (1 cup) frying oil (if deep-frying in a pan)
750 ml (3 cups) light stock
30 ml (2 tablespoons) olive oil
30 g butter, plus extra for greasing pan
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, crushed
400 g can italian tomatoes mashed
2 tablespoons finely chopped basil (or other herbs of choice)
salt & pepper
1 cup well packed arborio rice (or other italian rice)
125 ml dry white wine
50 g (1/2 cup) grated parmesan
150 g mozzarella (in whey), drained and cubed

1. Prep the eggplant. You can either fry the shit out of it, or oven-bake it as I do which makes it less greasy. I cut the eggplant into 1 cm slices and brush both sides with oil, then I bake both sides until slightly browned (approx 20 minutes at 180C).
2. Make the risotto next. Bring stock to a simmer, then set heat on a very low setting so stock does not boil and evaporate. Make your tomato sauce. Put the olive oil, and a little butter in a sauce-pan, and lightly saute the garlic and onions until a pale golden colour. Tip in the mashed tomatoes and add the basil, and salt & pepper to taste. I also like to add chillies and rosemary, but that's optional. Red wine is also good. You want to cook the sauce on a medium-low heat for about 15 minutes - the sauce should still be on the watery side. Half the sauce, and put one half aside in a bowl.
3. Add the italian rice to the pan with the other half of the sauce. Increase temperature to medium-high and stir for 2-3 minutes until the sauce moisture has evaporated off, and the tomato-rice mixture is sticking to the pan. Add the white wine and stir until wine has mostly evaporated. Add the stock incrementally, approx 1/4-1/8 cup at a time, making sure that you evaporate off the stock before adding the next lot of stock. You want to 3/4 cook the rice so that it is still a little chalky once all the stock has been used.
4. layer the ingredients into a greased oven-proof dish (16-18cm in diameter, and 8-9cm deep) in this order: rice, parmesan cheese, eggplant slices, tomato mixture, and mozzerella (or any other melting cheese of choice). Finish with a top layer of rice and parmesan cheese. (The dish can be prepared ahead of time to this point, refrigerated, then cooked when required, but it must be brought to room temp before cooking.)
5. Dot the top with butter and bake in a preheated oven (200C) for about 15-20 minutes until it is crisp on top and heated through. Allow to stand for 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4.

Involtini

Ingredients
For the sauce
1 onion
1 garlic clove
0.5 tsp dried oregano
2 tbsp Olive oil, plus more for painting the aubergines
3 tins chopped tomatoes, 400g each
2 tsp Sugar
1 pinch salt and pepper, to taste
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
4 aubergine

For the stuffing
100g bulgar wheat
1 tsp dried oregano
350ml water, boiling
50g pistachio nuts, roughly chopped
200g Feta cheese, crumbled
1 garlic clove, minced
1 large spring onion, or 2 thin, finely sliced
2 tbsp capers, (drained of vinegar)
1 egg
1 pinch Cinnamon

For the topping
75g Feta cheese, crumbled
1 dash of Olive oil
1 pinch dried oregano

Method

1. Peel and roughly chop the onion and press on the garlic to loosen the skin. Remove it and then sling, onion, garlic and dried oregano to a food processor and blitz to a pulp.


2. Cook in a deep, generous-sized pan (with a lid) in the 2 tablespoons of olive oil, over medium to low heat, until softened – about 7 minutes.


3. Add the tomatoes and the sugar, stir well, cover and turn down the heat, and let cook for about 20 minutes, checking often to see that the sauce is not bubbling too vociferously (and therefore sticking or drying out, or indeed both).


4. Taste for seasoning and add salt and pepper, or maybe a pinch more sugar if you feel it needs it, then stir again, adding the extra virgin olive oil, and take off the heat, but keep the cover on. Leave till you need it.


5. Cut the aubergines in thinnish slices lengthwise and chuck away the two skin covered edges: you need to be able to roll the aubergine lengths up later and so you need the full extent. It may sound wasteful, but I’m happy if I get 4 – 5 good slices per aubergine.


6. Put some oil into a bowl and using a pastry brush, paint each slice generously with the oil. Then cook them on a hot griddle until bronzed, striped without and tender within. Or you can dispense with all the painting procedure and just fry the aubergine slices in a pan filled to about half a centimetre’s depth of olive oil. In either case, remove the cooked slices to sheets of kitchen towel to absorb excess oil.


7. When cool, you can either begin the stuffing and rolling, or set them aside until you want to. If I’m doing this in advance, I line a dish with baking parchment, arrange a layer of aubergine slices on top, then cover with baking parchment, then another layer of aubergines and so on, until I’ve packed them all away.


8. I tend to stuff the aubergines shortly before cooking them, measure the bulgar wheat into a bowl, add the dried oregano , pour over the water and cover with a plate, leave the bulgar wheat to steep for 30 minutes.


9. Meanwhile preheat the oven to 190°C/gas 5. Get out an ovenproof dish into which the involtini will fit snugly (I use a le Creuset one measuring 30cm by 21cm) and oil it lightly.


10. When the bulgar wheat has had it’s time, pour it into a large sieve and press down to remove excess water. Leave for a few minutes till it’s cooled a little and then decant to a large bowl.


11. Add about two thirds of the chopped pistachios (you just need to leave some for sprinkling on when serving), the crumbled feta, minced garlic, spring onions and capers. Stir to mix, but don’t be too heavy handed about it: a few goes with a fork should be enough to combine everything.


12. Beat the egg with the cinnamon and fork this in, too. I find it easier after that’s done, just to weigh in with my hands, squeezing everything together so you’ve got a cohesive knobbly stuffing in front of you.


13. Get out the aubergines and, one by one, place them in front of you, stalk end at the top, bulbous bottom nearest you. Add a dollop of stuffing at the bottom and roll up lengthwise away from you and put each fat little bundle in the oiled dish as you go.


14. When they’re all sitting there snuggly, pour over the tomato sauce, scatter over the crumbled feta, drizzle with oil and then sprinkle over a little dried oregano and cook for 30 minutes.


15. Remove from the oven and let stand at least 15 minutes before serving: this shouldn’t be piping hot. Scatter with remaining pistachios before bringing it to the table.


Cooks note: I often make a southern Italian dish of involtini – aubergines, sliced thinly, griddled, cooled and then wrapped around a mixture of basil, pine nuts, breadcrumbs, garlic, provolone and parmesan, bound with egg, then baked in tomato sauce dotted with mozzarella. It’s fiddly, but not difficult and perfect for those times when you have the desire for a bit of slow pottering about in the kitchen. It also happens to be an incredibly useful standby for vile meat eaters like me who want to have something for a vegetarian at a dinner party or whatever.

I’ve still called this involtini, although in truth there is nothing Italian about its component parts. The flavours are more Greek in nature: sharp feta, which perfectly offsets the soft sweetness of the aubergines; and oregano , which is, dried and aromatic, the herb of the islands. It also occurred to me that using a dried herb made this a useful, year-round regular. In fact, it was my vegetarian option at my Christmas lunch last year.

I tend to do this in stages: the tomato sauce and griddle aubergines one day; the stuffing, wrapping and baking the next. And I love it at room temperature the next day, too.

 

[tonksy]

Thanks! I'll have to try one of those next time we get eggplant in our weekly produce bags.

 

[BeardofPants]

Tonight, I'm baking bread & making red capsicum (pepper) soup.

Last night I made -for the first time- pinto beans & cornbread. I'm sure that SnP would be rolling him his proverbial grave if I told him HOW I made them, but oh well.

Night before: tortilla soup.

I'm on a cooking kick @ the moment - if anyone has any *healthy* or can be *healthified* yankee recipes to share... ?

 

[tonksy]

Last night was an 6 oysters on the half shell with lemon,hot sauce, and horseradish followed up with an oyster poboy and a side of red beans and rice washed down with an Abita Andygator. Rob had a half muffaletta with fries and a sweet tea.

We've been eating out a bit as the kids are out of town.

 

[Nixy]

Thanks! I'll have to try one of those next time we get eggplant in our weekly produce bags.

Weekly produce bag? Are you guys part of a food sharing co-op or something? I've been thinking about looking into one of those, a guy I knew in Toronto was part of one. He paid so much a year and it covered the cost to grow all the produce and then every week the people who were members would share up the produce...atleast I think that's how it works?

 

[tonksy]

Some work that way, yes. Ours is different. We pay $96 ($8 a week for 12 weeks) upfront and then every week take delivery of a surprise bag of produce. We are the delivery point so we get one bag for free and pay for the second (there's 4 of us so we use it). There are 12 others that pick up from my front porch every Saturday morning.
The produce is from the "hub" that all the stores purchase theirs from so it's the same as the grocery but fresher and less picked over. We have been really happy with it so far and have discovered many new ways of cooking veggies.
For example, Rob detests eggplant and zucchini but he'll eat eggplant grilled in a balsamic glaze and he likes zucchini bread. The yellow squash is still all for me, though.
Also, we learned that cooking radishes gives them an entirely different taste that is not far from horseradish.
I am making a tsatziki sauce with the seedless cukes I have from the co-op and we will eat a persian variety of gyros for dinner tomorrow with an egyptian potato (from the co-op) and green bean (I'll have to buy those) salad.

It's really expanded our culinary horizons.

 

[Inkara1]

Yellow crookneck squash is da bomb. I like it better than zucchini. I grew up on both, eating plenty every summer.

 

[tonksy]

I love it too!
Yesterday while Rob was at Steve's I made a spicy pasta dish with one.
His issue with it is that it conjures up having to stomach underseasoned and overcooked tire tasting squash at his mom and grandmom's when he was a kid.

 

[Inkara1]

It's good steamed with Mrs. Dash sprinkled on it. I've had it in a lot of different recipes, though... when one plant is enough to feed a family of five, and there are three plants each of yellow crookneck, zucchini and "patty pan" squash to feed a family of three... well, let's just say squash was plentiful. No one could visit without taking home a bag full of squash.

My cousin has a squash casserole that's pretty good. She calls it "hurl." (Wayne's World was still current when she came up with the recipe.)

 

[2minkey]

...we will eat a persian variety of gyros for dinner tomorrow...

does that feature something like thinly-sliced kufta meat?

 

[tonksy]

It will feature beef shoulder tender butterflied and marinated in olive oil, lemon juice, and ground kabob seasoning which is the seasoning used for koobideh kabob (onion, salt, pepper, sumac, parsley, turmeric and other spices).
I am not grinding the meat though so it's different, closer to a sultani kabob....but yes, it will be thinly sliced on the bias.

 

[kuulani]

tonight is pizza and beer with friends.