Eggplant…Salsa?

Posted on August 18, 2010 by Anita!
The original name of this recipe is Eggplant Caviar.

Wait!  Don’t run away from the computer!  Please understand, I too have a precarious history with eggplant (a love/mush relationship, as it were).  It is further complicated by the three types with which I am familiar:
1. Indian or Baby Eggplant.  What my mom uses to make a delicious curry.  The dish’s name, unfortunately, sounds like “Bangin’ Bertha” in phonetic English.
2. Chinese Eggplant.  Both culinarily and aesthetically menacing.
3. Italian or Globe Eggplant.  What appeared in our City Fresh pickup this week, last week, and the week before that.  ‘Tis the season, apparently.
We’re waiting for particularly good recipes for Eggplant Parmesan and Baba Ganoush to fall into our laps.  Until then, we’ve been charged with making something edible. Eggplant may play a filler role in this and many other dishes, but after a background check you’ll find that it’s not so bad to have around. Try this…salsa…that uses eggplant rather than tomatoes.
Ingredients
  • 1 medium globe eggplant
  • 1 red bell pepper
  • 1/2 small onion, chopped
  • 1-2 cloves garlic, minced fine
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil + 1 Tbsp red wine vinegar + 1 Tbsp mayonnaise   mixed well
  • 2 tsp cumin
  • 2-3 tsp red chili flakes
  • 2 Tbsp chopped parsley
  • liberal kosher salt and pepper
Preheat your oven to 500F.  Place the eggplant and the red pepper on a baking pan, and roast in the oven for 30-45 minutes (if you’ve got a grill, send the veggies straight to Hades).  Turn 2-3 times with tongs.  When ready, the flesh of each should be soft and the outsides charred.  You can let both cool on their own before skinning them, or use the paper bag method (putting them in closed paper lunch sacks for 10 minutes will steam the skin off).  Chop both fairly well, and then mix in the other ingredients with a spoon until they’re distributed.
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Posted in Snacks, Vegetarian | 7 Comments

Revised Eggs Benedict

Posted on August 15, 2010 by Ari
If any of you know me, then you’re familiar with my egg obsession. Aside from Chipotle burrito bowls (yum), eggs are my favorite food. You can do so many things with them! They’re good in breakfast, lunch, first dinner…second dinner. They’re a necessary ingredient in almost any dessert, whether we’re talking ice cream or muffins. I think the best way to sum up the wonders of this ingredient is by referring to it by its proper name: The Incredible Edible Egg (check out this website for fun facts and recipes – all starring EGGS).
Given all this fanfare, it’s probably no surprise that the recipe we’re sharing today has eggs as the main ingredient. So sound the trumpets (dun dun duhhh), today’s recipe is “Poached Eggs with Lox and Hollandaise Sauce on an English Muffin”… The title is quite a mouth full (horrible pun intended). Just as a warning, this is a breakfast that’s definitely on the heavier side, but something that will satisfy the creamy-food-lover in all of us.

Quick side note, I realize that if you’re on a med student’s food budget, lox (aka smoked salmon) can be a little pricey. I recommend going to Costco or Sam’s Club and buying the large slab of smoked salmon, then freezing the extra. It keeps surprisingly well in the freezer and only takes an hour or so to defrost if you freeze it in small enough sections.

What you need:

  • 4 English Muffins
  • 4 Eggs
  • 4 Slices of Smoked Salmon
  • 2 tsp of Rice Vinegar (for poaching the eggs)
  • Hollandiase Sauce (recipe below)
  • Salt and Pepper to taste
  • Capers (optional)

What you need to do:

  1. Make the hollandaise sauce (see below)
  2. Poach the eggs (I found it easier to use a spoon to keep the egg whites together, but the can idea is a easy way to get started if you’ve never poached an egg before. Don’t forget to add the vinegar!!)
  3. While the eggs are cooking, toast the english muffins.
  4. Plate the lox on top of the english muffins then add the egg and hollandaise sauce.
  5. Top off with salt and pepper. Add capers for a little extra flavor!
  6. Enjoy!

Photos taken by Michael Cover

Hollandaise Sauce – What you need:

  • 4 Egg Yolks
  • 1 tbs Freshly Squeezed Lemon Juice
  • 1/2 cup Unsalted Butter (melted)
  • Cayenne and Salt (to taste)

Hollandaise Sauce – What you need to do:

  1. Heat butter in sauce pan.
  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, lemon juice and salt.
  3. Remove sauce pan from heat and slowly add (while whisking) egg yolk, lemon juice and salt.
  4. Return to heat and continue whisking until the mixture thickens slightly
  5. Serve immediately
(Side note, when making the hollandaise sauce I added the egg yolks to the sauce pan when the butter was a little too hot which caused them to congeal slightly. Be careful of this and make sure you whisk thoroughly when adding the mixture to ensure this doesn’t happen.)
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Posted in Breakfast, Eggs | 6 Comments

Caramelized Onions

Posted on August 12, 2010 by Anita!
There is not a huge backstory to this recipe.  What I will say is that you don’t need a fancy balsamic vinegar to top it off — a sharp vinegar adds acidity to the sweetness of the onions and the sugar.  I once grabbed my mom’s imported (read: expensive) balsamic by accident and used most of the bottle to get the same tangy flavor.
During the long cooking time, you can occupy yourself with other chores.  I alternated between stirring the onions and running upstairs to frantically clean my room for an epic potluck with my beloved FCM group.

Ingredients
  • 3 large red onions, sliced into half rings
  • 1 Tbsp unsalted butter
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • salt
  • 2-3 Tbsp brown sugar
  • 4 Tbsp balsamic vinegar
    • In a large skillet, melt the butter with the olive oil on medium high heat.  After a minute or two, add the onions and a generous sprinkling of salt and toss to coat.  Turn down the heat to medium-low after 5 minutes, and stir only occasionally.  The onions may take anywhere from 30-60 minutes to caramelize; keep sampling until they brown a bit and taste soft and sweet.  Turn up the heat, add the brown sugar and the balsamic vinegar, and stir periodically until all of the loose liquid has disappeared.  Allow to cool before adding the onions to your salad, sandwich, grilled cheese, galette, pizza, burger, baked potato…
    A nice addition to any of these would be some goat or feta cheese.
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    Posted in Salads, Vegetarian | 2 Comments

    Quinoa with Soy, Kidney and Green Beans

    Posted on August 8, 2010 by Ari

    aka Priya and Andrew’s Visit (2/3)

    If there’s one thing I love, it’s cheap, tasty food. Thankfully, Cleveland seems to be full of it. One of the great lesser known “cheap, tasty food treasures” is Whole Foods’ 5 X 7. Basically, every Friday from 5pm to 7pm you can show up at Whole Foods, and for $5 ($4 if you bring back your old wine glass) you can sample delicious wine and food pairings. If you happen to be driving, you can choose to eat 2 helpings of each food sample and forgo the alcohol. It’s a fun thing to do when you’re bored, don’t feel like cooking, or just happened to have finished a particularly difficult anatomy exam. What’s even better is after you find a dish that you’re particularly fond of, you can go home and find the recipe on their website…and that’s exactly how we came up with the next green themed item served during Priya and Andrew’s visit.

    Photo taken by Michael Cover

    Since this isn’t a recipe we came up with ourselves, we will share pictures, but rather than posting the recipe, we will direct you to Whole Foods website. We will, however, note the few differences in our dish versus the original recipe…

    First of all, we didn’t add the salt or pepper…now I’m gonna claim that I was trying to be more health conscious, but in reality, I just forgot to add it. Next, we didn’t have easy access to roasted red peppers or dried tarragon, so we didn’t add those either. Finally, while I understand that Whole Foods is gonna try to promote their own products on their website, it is not necessary to purchase the “brand name” items. We bought shelled edamame at Tink Holl (my favorite asian grocery store in cleveland!!), and generic kidney beans and italian dressing at Dave’s Market. Despite all these changes, the dish still turned out absolutely delicious, and we plan to make it again in the future!


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    Posted in Salads, Vegetarian | 4 Comments