Posted By Lindsay on August 12, 2009
I always knew there were different varieties of eggplant. Even your ho-hum grocery store usually carries at least two. But on a recent trip to the farmers’ market, I was completely flabbergasted at just HOW MANY varieties there were. In the process of oogling the various shapes and colors of eggplant, we began thinking how wonderful it would be to see what the differences in flavor and texture these varieties produced. So we grabbed some bags and started collecting. All in all, we acquired 7 different kinds of eggplant. We nixed the run-of-the-mill purple globe eggplants in favor of the more unique ones.
If anyone out there is an expert on eggplant varieties feel free to butt in, but here’s what I’ve gathered from my intensive research (all I want is a picture and a name! How hard is that to find?). The best I could do was to determine that the long skinny fellas are Asian (whether they are Chinese or Japanese is up for debate), the one that looks like a giant purple tomato is Sicilian. The various light purple stripey ones are probably Italian, but I really couldn’t say. And the little dark purple ones? No clue.
For our experiment we picked out a tasty-sounding recipe, a pan seared eggplant with a ginger honey glaze. The plan was to cook all the eggplant in the same way, then perform a taste test to determine the best tasting aubergine.
To keep everything straight (and since I didn’t know what each of the varieties were called) I drew pictures of each eggplant on post its. We tried to keep the post its with each variety from the sink, to the cutting board, to the pan, to the plate.
We cooked two full pans worth of eggplant, the smaller pieces in one pan and the larger ones (that would take longer to cook) in another. And again, the post its stayed stuck above the stove in the same order as the eggplant went into the pan.
The final product, lightly browned, melt in your mouth, and drizzled with a sweet and tangy glaze.
The verdict? Inconclusive. Turns out all eggplant tastes pretty much the same. At least to us it did. We both thought the Sicilian (tomato-esque) eggplant, shown above, had the best texture – it was much firmer than the others and didn’t turn to mush when cooked. But we could definitely taste a bit of bitterness in it, as well as a few of the other varieties. Overall, my favorite were the purple Asian eggplants, Taylor liked the light lavender ones. But that’s only if you forced us to choose one. No one kind was significantly better or worse than the others. Should you take my word that these two varieties are superior to the others? Probably not.
And the recipe, in case you’re interested, is posted here. Taylor enjoyed it, but I felt the glaze was too strong. Too much ginger or pomegranate, maybe? It was almost too much for me to take.
So what’s next? A summer squash experiment, maybe? Heirloom tomatoes? Though maybe we should work on developing the intricacies of our palette before performing any more taste tests, heh. Actually being able to distinguish one from another would be a nice skill to have.
Posted By Lindsay on August 9, 2009
This might just be our hottest weekend yet. Even more of a reason to avoid turning on the oven at all costs. This recipe allows you to do just that. And, you know, add another carcass to your frozen chicken mortuary in the process (despite the heat, we’re going to make a giant vat of broth with all of them this afternoon.. At least, that’s the plan.)
This salad was refreshing. The sweet mango, savory chicken, pungent greens, all tossed with a sweet and spicy curried mango chutney dressing… it’s unexpected and delicious. The dressing is a snap to whisk together, and other than chopping a mango and shredding some chicken, there’s practically no ‘cooking’ required. Because, contrary to what you might think, we’re not the kind of people that make homemade pizza from scratch every night. Sometimes you just want a meal that will be done in 15 minutes, one that almost cooks itself, with little to no mess to clean up. And that, dear readers, is why this recipe is so wonderful.
Roast Chicken and Mango Salad with Yogurt
Makes 4-6 servings. Adapted from Bon Appetit.
Ingredients:
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons mango chutney, large pieces finely chopped
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 1/2 teaspoons (or more) water
1 5-ounce package arugula
1 3 1/2-pound purchased roast chicken, boned, meat coarsely shredded into bite-size pieces (about 5 cups)
1 large mango, peeled, pitted, sliced or 2 large peaches, halved, pitted, sliced
Plain nonfat yogurt
1 teaspoon nigella seeds* or cumin seeds
Directions:
Whisk first 4 ingredients and 1 1/2 teaspoons water in small bowl to blend. Add more water by teaspoonfuls if dressing is too thick. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place arugula in large bowl. Add half of dressing and toss to coat.
Divide arugula among plates. Scatter chicken and mango over each serving. Drizzle with remaining dressing. Top each serving with dollop of yogurt; sprinkle with nigella seeds.
Posted By Lindsay on August 5, 2009
Am I the only one that is deathly afraid of turning my oven to anything higher than 475 degrees? It’s just…. so… hot! But now that we have our own pizza stone, we thought we should give it a go. (And, just because we were curious, the absolute hottest our oven will even go is 525… what does that tell you?)
This was our first attempt at a pizza margherita, and while it tasted good, we’d do a few things differently next time.
1. Don’t get mozzarella in brine. Get some that is a bit drier. This cheese juiced all over the place, including onto our brand spankin’ new pizza stone, where it proceeded to burn to a nice black (that’s never coming off) crisp. Lovely. So the next time we make this, we’ll get some drier cheese.
2. Don’t use green tomatoes. While I love the taste of the Green Zebra heirloom tomatoes, they turn a not-so-appetizing shade of pea soup after a few minutes in a hot oven. Now that I think of it, the yellow tomatoes don’t look all that nice either. Maybe I’ll stick with red ones. And definitely pat them as dry as possible before placing them on the pizza.
3. Leave a bigger border, or make a dough ‘wall’. This pizza juiced all over the place, and since I spread the sauce pretty close to the edge, oozed off the pizza and onto the pizza stone. Next time, I’d leave a bigger border, and maybe even fold over the dough around the edges to keep all the juice in.
4. Fresh basil. Which we usually have, but we had given our plants to some friends to ‘babysit’ while we were out of town. We hadn’t yet picked them up when we made this, so we used dried basil in the sauce. Still good, but fresh basil sprinkled on top would have been divine.
So despite the fact that we permanently stained our pizza stone, and had to turn the oven up just about as high as it would go, we ended up with a pretty darn good pizza. Sure, this recipe might say 6 servings. But the two of us managed to polish it off for dinner. I’d say that’s a successful pizza!
Pizza Margherita
Ingredients:
Crust:
3/4 cup warm water
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast (from 1 envelope)
1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
1 3/4 cups (about) unbleached all purpose flour
1 teaspoon whole fennel seeds
1 teaspoon dried thyme
Topping:
1 (14-to 15-ounces) can whole tomatoes in juice
2 large garlic cloves, smashed
2 tablespoons olive oil
4 basil leaves plus more for sprinkling
1/4 teaspoon sugar
6 ounces fresh mozzarella, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices
2 small or 1 large heirloom tomato, thinly sliced
Directions:
To make crust, pour 3/4 cup water into large bowl. Sprinkle yeast over; stir to blend. Let stand 10 minutes to dissolve yeast. Add oil, salt, and herbs, then 1 1/2 cups flour. Stir until well blended (dough will be sticky). Turn dough out onto generously floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, adding just enough flour to prevent dough from sticking, about 5 minutes (dough will be soft). Shape dough into ball; place in large oiled bowl and turn to coat. Cover bowl with kitchen towel. Let dough rise at cool room temperature until almost doubled, about 2 hours. Punch dough down; form into ball. Return to bowl; cover with towel and let rise until doubled, about 3 hours.
While dough rises, pulse tomatoes with juice in a blender briefly to make a chunky purée.
Cook garlic in oil in a small heavy saucepan over medium-low heat until fragrant and pale golden, about 2 minutes. Add tomato purée, basil, sugar, and 1/8 teaspoon salt and simmer, uncovered, stirring occasionally, until thickened and reduced to about 3/4 cup, about 40 minutes. Season with salt and cool.
At least 45 minutes before baking pizza, put stone on oven rack in lower third of electric oven (or on floor of gas oven) and preheat oven to 500°F.
Dust dough with flour, then transfer to a cornmeal-dusted pizza peel or large baking sheet. Pat out dough evenly with your fingers and stretch into a 14-inch round, reflouring fingers if necessary.
Spread sauce over dough, leaving a 1-inch border (there may be some sauce left over). Arrange cheese on top, leaving a 2- to 3-inch border. Top with tomato slices.
Slide pizza onto pizza stone. Bake until dough is crisp and browned and cheese is golden and bubbling in spots, 13 to 16 minutes. Using peel or baking sheet, transfer pizza to a cutting board. Cool 5 minutes before slicing.
Posted By Lindsay on August 2, 2009
To say this was the best thing we’ve eaten in a long time would be an understatement. This was by far the best pasta dish I’ve had in recent memory. It’s 10:22 on Sunday morning and I’m salivating just thinking about it. The red pesto (sundried tomato pesto) is divine, the roasted cherry tomatoes are practically candy, and the goat cheese is just the icing on the cake.
The crazy thing is, I never liked tomatoes until about this time last year. It was then we discovered the treasure trove of heirloom tomatoes at the Farmers’ Market. A good, ripe heirloom tomato will convert even the harshest of tomato critics. Now, just a measly 12 months after that discovery, our grocery cart is consistently filled with 3 or 4 different kinds of tomatoes each week (who’d a thunk?). Right behind the heirloom tomatoes, my favorites are the bite sized cherry tomatoes.
This week the farmers market had some yellow ones in addition to the normal red, and we thought they’d be perfect for this dish. I think using good tomatoes makes all the difference in the world. Because while barely ripe hot house tomatoes might suffice in the depths of winter, in the summer, you’re crazy not to make the most of the bounty available to you. Locally grown, vine ripened, perfectly plump and juicy… Tennessee tomatoes just might be the greatest thing ever. Well, right behind cupcakes. And goat cheese.
Red Pesto Penne with Roasted Cherry Tomatoes and Goat Cheese
Ingredients:
16 oz. penne pasta
2 ounces sundried tomatoes
2 medium cloves garlic
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon fresh thyme
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup pine nuts, lightly toasted
3 handfuls of baby spinach tossed with a glug of olive oil and a big pinch of salt.
2/3 cup oven-roasted cherry tomatoes
a bit of crumbled goat cheese
Directions:
To oven-roast cherry tomatoes: Heat oven to 350F degrees. Cut each tomato in half and arrange in a large oven-proof baking dish. Mix together a big splash of olive oil, a spoonful of brown sugar, and a few pinches of salt. Pour this over the tomatoes. Gently toss them a bit, making sure they all get coated. Arrange tomatoes cut-side up. Place in the oven and bake for 45 minutes or so, until the tomatoes are shrunken and sweet.
Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Salt generously and cook the penne per package instructions. Drain, but reserve about one cup of the hot pasta water (important!).
In the meantime, make the sun-dried tomato pesto by pulsing the sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, pepper flakes, olive oil, thyme, and salt in a food processor until it comes together into a textured crumble. Add the walnuts, and pulse a few more times - see photo. Set aside.
Combine 1/2 cup of the reserved pasta water in a large mixing bowl along with two-thirds of the sun-dried tomato pesto. Add the pasta and gently toss. Add more of the hot pasta water if needed to thin the pesto out - it should make a nice chunky sauce. Taste and add more of the pesto if you like - it's really a matter of personal preference at this point.
Arrange the baby spinach on a large platter and top with everything from the pasta mixing bowl. Top with the cherry tomatoes and a bit of crumbled goat cheese.
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