Eggplant Parmesan

This recipe does not include breading and frying the eggplants or any real complex ingredients or spices. What makes this version of Eggplant Parmesan so good is the fresh ingredients we used, relying on them for flavor. This can be a bit hard to do though if you can't find really good, fresh, and in season produce.

Ingredients:

- 2 eggplants
- The most tasty Mozzarella you can find (Ours actually came from a penny market down the street, but it's the best we've found), cut into small squares.
- 4 Large Tomatoes, chopped into fair sized pieces
- 4 cloves of Garlic, chopped into fair sized pieces
- Parmesan
- Handful of fresh Basil leaves, chopped into fair sized pieces

First off slice your eggplant into thin 1/4 inch slices lengthwise and place them in a colander. Sprinkle them with salt and let sit for about 20 minutes or so. This will leech out some of the water that is stored inside. Squeeze all the water out of em as you can and drizzle them with olive oil, salt, and pepper.

Next bake your eggplant slices at about 300 degrees on a rack. Remove when they are tender and start to brown. While you are baking these lightly fry your garlic pieces in a tad of olive oil, be careful not to brown them. Place your chopped tomatoes into the pot and cook on medium-low with the garlic pieces. Salt and Pepper to taste. Don't over cook though, you want them to retain their texture when you take them out.

Now in a small glass casserole dish layer your eggplants around the edges and on the bottom, till they rest halfway into the dish and halfway over the edges of the dish. Now use a slotted spoon and place your tomatoes and garlic into the middle of the dish. You may also use some of the left over juice, but this sometimes makes it a bit soupy for my taste so I tend to leave most of it out. Now spread your mozzarella pieces and basil evenly over the tomatoes and garlic.

Fold the halves of the eggplant hanging over the lip of the dish onto the tomato mixture and cover the rest with the remaining eggplant, so that the inside mixture is completely surrounded by eggplant. Now top evenly with grated Parmesan cheese, use as much as you think you will want.

Bake in the over for about 15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until the Parmesan browns on the top. Enjoy!

Pumpkin Risotto

Maggy and I tried this recipe last night and while she didn't find it to great, I thought it was fantastic enough to put up on our blog. This was the second of two nights cooking with a Hokkaido squash, the first dish being pasta with pumpkin sauce and the other being pumpkin risotto.

We found both of the recipes on one of our favorite recipe sites called fxcousine.com, which we have linked on the left.

Ingredients:

2 cups risotto rice (arborio or some other type of short grain)
1/2 of a Hokkaido Squash, peeled and chopped
1 medium onion, chopped finely
1/4 of a small glass of a sweet white wine
4 tbs butter
1/2 cup parmesan (the real deal, not the pre-grated stuff if you can help it)
3 or 4 amaretti cookies (the dry and crumbly kind)
4 or 5 cups of Chicken, Vegetable, or Beef Broth
Salt and Pepper to taste

Firstly peel and chop the pumpkin into about 1 inch pieces, place within a small covered pot and add a small glass of water. Cook on medium heat until the pumpkin is soft enough to mash. Mash the pumpkin and mix with the remaining water until you have something similar to a pumpkin puree. Set aside.

Now start the risotto off by frying the chopped onion in 2 tbs of butter at medium/high heat. Cook until it's softened, but do not allow it to brown. Stir in the rice and mix until it is evenly coated in butter and let it fry for about 30 seconds while continuing to stir. Now add the white wine and mix evenly with the rice and onions.

When the wine has completely evaporated, add one generous laddle of broth and mix briskly, do not put more than one laddleful at a time. Now stand by the pot and continue to move the rice every 20 seconds or so, while adding a laddleful of broth when it starts to get dry. Due to the heat that risotto is cooked at, you need to constantly move the rice around to make sure that the grains remain covered broth and don't dry out on you. Continue to alternate stirring and adding broth for about 10 minutes then add the pumpkin puree. Continue to cook as before.

Now crush about 3 or 4 amaretti cookies in a bowl. These cookies are as stated on fxcousine:

"tiny amaretti [ahmahraytee], bittersweet almond macaroons made from sugar, bitter almonds, egg whites and flour. I wouldn't cook this dish without amaretti and you need to get the right sort - dry amaretti with no extra flavoring."

Add the crushed cookies to the risotto and continue to stir. Continue to cook, tasting every 30 seconds now, until they rice is almost done but still about 1 minute away from having just enough bite but not too much.

Once ready take the pot off the stove and cover. Allow it to sit and cool for about a minute. Now add two tablespoons of butter, cut into small dabs. Quickly mix the butter into the risotto, not allowing it to melt until it is thoroughly mixed in. Now add the parmesan cheese and add salt and pepper to taste.

Enjoy!!! I sure did :)

Brioche

Maggy and I tried these the other day and were very impressed with how delicious and easy they were. They take very little time to make and work perfectly for breakfasts or deserts. The dough starts out with a "thick" texture, but once baked is surprisingly soft. We would recommend eating them after letting them cool for about 20 to 30 minutes. After shaping them you can also place them on a floured sheet, wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, and refrigerate them, to bake the next morning.

Ingredients:

500 grams of all-purpose flour
20 grams of fresh yeast or 1 1/2 tsp of instant dry yeast
1 tsp of salt
40 grams of sugar
50 grams of butter (melted)
250 ml of milk
1 egg yolk
1 egg

Toppings: Anything you like, Maggy and I used large granular sugar and poppy seeds.

Makes about 6-8 rolls

Process:

Warm the milk, then dissolve the yeast in the milk for 10 minutes. Add flour to a bowl, making a depression in the middle. Add sugar, salt, egg yolk, milk/yeast mixture, and melted butter to the depression in the flour.

Gradually mix the flour with the ingredients, then take the dough out of the bowl and knead for 5-10 minutes on a floured work surface. The dough will be "tough" and slightly "sticky" at this point.

Place within a bowl and cover tightly with plastic wrap and let "rest/proof" for 30-60 minutes at room temp. It should double in size.

Place the newly risen dough onto a work surface and divide into 8 equal portions. Form each of these into a design of your choice and let rest for 30 more minutes at room temp. At this point you may save your unbaked rolls for the following morning, by wrapping the sheet tightly in plastic and placing within the refrigerator.

Before baking beat one egg and brush each roll with beaten egg and sprinkle the toppings of your choice.

To bake place your rolls upon a baking sheet or bread stone and bake at 220° Celcius for 10 to 15 minutes. They should be soft and golden brown when you take them out. Let rest upon a rack with air flowing on all sides for 20 to 30 minutes after baking.

Raffaelo Chocolate Cake

I made this cake as something like a
belated
birthday cake for
Dan since I know how much he loves Raffaellos. The cake consists of a basic chocolate - coconut cake topped with a white creme that tastes pretty much exactly like the filling in Raffaellos. It is a pretty heavy cake but really good....especially if you like coconut :-)

For further reference: I would probably substitute the coconut flakes with slivered almonds as a topping!

Ingredients:

For the cake:

4 eggs
125 g sugar
125 g butter
125 g coconut flakes
125 g flour
1/2 package of baking powder
100 ml milk
25 g cocoa powder

For the creme:

200 g white chocolate
200 g cream cheese
200 g whipping cream

Garnish:

Coconut flakes, Raffaellos


Process:

Beat eggs and sugar together. Mix flour, coconut flakes, cocoa powder, and baking powder together. Mix butter (softened) and milk together. Gradually mix all three mixtures together.

Butter a cake form and fill batter into that form. Bake at 180° for about 30-35 minutes. Let cake cool on a rack.

Melt butter using the double-boiler method. Once the chocolate is melted mix in the cream cheese. Set aside to cool. Once the creme is cold, beat whipping cream and gradually mix it with the chocolate-cream cheese micture.

Slather the creme on the cake and top with coconut flakes and Raffaellos.