Mini Grilled Eggplant

When I saw these mini eggplants in the store I just had to buy them. I had no idea what I would do with them! The shop owner said that usually people cooked them with walnuts. I'm guessing that is a mediterranean way of cooking them. I searched the web but couldn't find anything that hit the spot, so I went out on a limb and created my own recipe.

Preparation time: 1.25 hours; serves 4 as a main dish

Ingredients:

1 kg	Eggplant (about 16 fruit)
1/2 - 1 tbsp.	Salt
3 tbsp.	Oil
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1/4 tsp.	Chilli flakes
1/2 tsp.	Ground cumin
	Black pepper, freshly ground
Ingredients for sauce
1/2 cup	Coconut cream
1 tbsp.	Miso paste
1/2 tsp.	Dark soya sauce
1/4 tsp.	Chilli powder
A few mint leaves finely chopped, to garnish Method:

Wash the eggplant and slice lengthwise down the middle. Leave the stem on so that the fruit stays together. It also makes it look pretty and gives you something to grab the fruit by once it is cooked and soft.

Place the eggplant cut side up on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Leave them to stand for at least 20 minutes, but no more than 1 hour. You should see beads of moisture form on the top of the eggplant.

While the salt is drawing out the water from the eggplant you can set about making the sauce. It's a really simple sauce to make, but it's full of punch. Simply put all ingredients in a small saucepan, put it on medium heat and stir to combine all the ingredients. I don't know if you can replace the coconut cream with fresh coconut milk. Maybe if you squeezed some fresh milk and then let it sit for a while in the fridge, you could skim off the cream. You might also be able to make a thick cream from Maggie coconut milk powder, but I have not tried it yet. I used canned coconut cream. The dark soya sauce give the sauce a bit of colour. Contrary to what you might think dark soya sauce has a lower sodium content than the light variety. Adjust the chilli powder to your taste. 

Bring the sauce to a boil over medium heat (about 5 minutes) and then reduce the heat to the lowest setting possible and simmer for about 10 minutes. 

By now the eggplant has probably been sitting for long enough. Wipe off the moisture that has formed on the top of the cut surface with a paper towel and try to take some of the salt off too. You don't need to get all the salt off because there won't be anymore salt added. Just the excess that fell on the baking tray and that sticks to your paper towel and hands.

If your grill needs to be pre-heated now is the time to put it on (a Foreman grill won't work because it will squash the eggplant).

Now with a very sharp knife score the top of the eggplant as show in the photograph below. Don't cut all the way through to the skin, but go deep enough so that the spices get inside and so that it cooks quicker.

Place the eggplants cut side up on a baking tray that can be used under a grill and brush the cut surface with oil. Then take a pinch of turmeric and sprinkle a tiny bit on each cut surface. Do the same with the ground cumin. Note that there is more cumin than turmeric so you should put twice as much cumin as turmeric. Finally crack some fresh black pepper on top and sprinkle with chilli pieces if desired.  

Flip the eggplant over and oil the skin sides of the eggplant.

Put the fruit under the grill at 240 C for 2 minutes or until golden brown. If the fruit is too close to the heat the skin will burn, which has it's own taste but might not be what you are looking for. I had mine on the second level from the top. 

Flip the eggplant and continue to grill for another 8 minutes. If your eggplants are not getting nice and golden on the top, but they are cooked, move the baking tray closer to the heat source. Keep a sharp eye out to make sure you don't burn them.

Reheat the sauce while the eggplant is cooking so it can be served hot.

Remove the eggplant from the grill and serve immediately with the coconut/miso sauce. 

You can sprinkle some finely chopped mint either on the eggplant (if you are serving the sauce on the side) or after pouring the sauce on the eggplant. 

Or you could cook them till they are just cooked and then put them back under the grill just before serving to brown the tops. Reheat the sauce, adding a bit more coconut cream if it has dried out, and serve hot. 

Here is a shorter version to use when cooking https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DgJXRfl66SHnFnMRu5S3xvAP8cbqOMmGMDFnXVNoOSE/edit?usp=sharing

Stuffed roasted peppers with spiced rice

 I have a memory from many, many years ago. We visited a friend of my second cousin (together with my second cousin) up on a lonely tea estate. My parents went home leaving my sister and myself with my second cousin (who was quite a bit older than us and already married) because we really loved the place. We were served stuffed bell peppers for dinner. It was the first time I ever ate stuffed peppers and I found the dish absolutely delicious. Many years later, when I moved to the west where bell peppers are in abundance, I tried to replicate something similar. I was never successful. Eventually I even forgot what that delicious meal tasted like. I tried various different recipes because I knew, deep down, that baked stuffed peppers could taste absolutely divine. I had quite given up especially since my children did not share my obsession with baked peppers. How I came about the idea to give it another try a few weeks ago I have no idea, but try I did. I threw everything I had at it to a point where I thought it may taste disgusting. But I was pleasantly surprised by the outcome, which was a happy family gobbling down some healthy chow saying "But I don't like baked peppers. These are so good."

Preparation time: 1.5 hours; serves 4

Ingredients:

2	Rice cooker cups of basmati rice
2 tbsp.	Oil
1/2 tsp.	Mashed garlic
65g	Onion, diced (about half an onion)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1 tsp.	Salt
3	Rice cooker cups of boiling water
1 tbsp.	Oil
4	Red bell peppers
1 tbsp.	Oil
65g	Onion, diced (the other half of the onion)
1 tsp.	Mashed garlic
180g	Vegetarian mince
1 tsp.	Salt
1 tbsp.	Nutritional yeast (substitute with a veggie cube)
1/2 tsp.	Cumin powder
1 tbsp.	Tahini (sesame paste)
1/4 tsp.	Turmeric powder
1	Green chilli, finely sliced
3	Green onions or two very small leeks with lots of leaves, finely chopped
1 can (265g)	Chickpeas, lightly mashed
3/4 cup	Tomato puree
1/4 cup	Water

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 180 C (fan oven) [200 C convection].

Wow! That is a long list of ingredients. My advice is to get all the ingredients together, measured and prepped before starting with this. At least the first time you make it. Else you'll end up totally stressed out and overcooking something or spilling stuff everywhere. I talk through experience!

Start off with the rice. I used 2 rice cooker cups of rice because this is all I need for 4 people. If your lot eats more than that then increase as necessary. Alternatively, reduce as necessary. Wash the rice in a sieve until the water runs clean and allow to drain while preparing the rest of the ingredients, i.e., mashing garlic, dicing onions and heating 2 tbsp. oil on high heat. Once the oil is hot enough to make your onions sizzle add them to the oil together with the garlic and stir. Reduce the heat to medium. Stir fry them for around 30 seconds and then add the rice to the saucepan. Keep stirring the rice else it will stick and burn. I use a galvanised aluminium, heavy bottomed saucepan and it works well. I imagine that if you don't have a heavy bottomed pan the rice might stick, in which case you should probably add more oil. Immediately after adding the rice add the turmeric and salt. Keep stirring and frying the rice for 7 minutes. In the mean time put on your kettle and boil 0.5 L water. Once your 7 minutes are up carefully add 3 rice cooker cups of boiling water to your rice. Be careful the steam will burn (again talking from experience!). Reduce the heat to the minimum possible, stir the rice, put on the lid and allow to cook for a further 10 minutes. 

Now to the bell peppers. Cut them in half and take out the seeds. As you see in the picture I left the stems on and so had to take a sharp knife and cut out the white parts of the pepper. 

You can use any pepper you like. We don't fancy green peppers and love the sweet taste of red ones. You can also take the whole stem off. I washed my peppers to get rid of some of the seeds, but if you do this make sure you dry them afterwards else the oil will not stick. Take 1 tbsp. of oil and brush a baking tray (or 2) that will hold all your peppers. Then brush the insides and outsides of your peppers and place them with the cavity facing to the sky. Bake them for 12-15 minutes at 180 C (fan oven) or until slightly tender. You want to avoid over baking them because they will go back into the oven again and there is nothing worse than overcooked vegetables. 

Could only fit 6!

While your peppers are baking make the stuffing. Drain and wash the chickpeas then mash them slightly. I pulsed mine a couple of times in a food processor. It's okay to have a few big chickpeas, but make sure you don't have mush. On medium heat fry the remaining onion and garlic in 1 tbsp. of oil for about 1 minute. then add everything else, in no particular order and mix. Allow it to cook for about 3 minutes or as long as you like as long as it does not burn!

Once the bell peppers are done remove them from the pan and set aside. There may be some juice in the peppers or in the pan. Wherever it is just leave it there. Turn the rice into the baking dish and arrange the bell peppers on top of it with the opening to the sky. Stuff the peppers with the filling. You can heap the filling if you have too much (this will depend on the size of your peppers). 

Bake for 10 minutes. I did not cover my baking pan with foil (trying to reduce that carbon footprint) but you could cover it if you were afraid it would dry out or don't like having a bit of crunchy rice. 

Serve hot! 

You can find a more printer friendly version here. 

Sri Lankan Vegetarian Cutlets

This recipe has been a while in the making. While I can make fish cutlets pretty well it doesn't do us much good because my kids are vegetarian and it is only my husband who is a pescatarian. Cutlets are a popular Sri Lankan short eat, but they are also served with rice and curry unlike other short eats. Like all Sri Lankan short eats they take time to prepare and are best eaten piping hot. 

Sri Lankan's have all kinds of myths as to why cutlets pop. I've been given years of advise about how to make the perfect cutlet. I've followed all instructions but none of them work consistently. But fortunately, after around 20 years, I finally realised why these snippets of advice actually work and why cutlets pop.

Cutlets pop because there is too much moisture in the cutlet and/or the oil is not the right temperature. [This is exactly the same reason why my falafel used to pop (passed tense since I've perfected my falafel!)] And it is as simple as that. Reduce the moisture, use a thermometer and you too can make the perfect cutlet. So you might ask "then why did it take so long to perfect this recipe?" The answer is a simple combination of "it's not so easy to reduce the moisture with just vegetables" and "it's hard to find the time when you have a full time job and two kids". 

Preparation time: 2.5 hours; makes 24

Ingredients:

500 g	Floury potatoes, peeled
250 g	Carrots, peeled
1 tbsp.	Butter
100 g	Leeks (tender green part)
1	Garlic clove (small), minced or pulped
1/4 tsp.	Bullion powder (or bullion cube)
1 tsp.	Salt
1/4 tsp.	Pepper
1/4 cup	Breadcrumbs
1 l	Oil - for deep frying
1 lrg	Egg
1 tbsp.	Flour
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp.	Breadcrumbs

Method:

Make sure you use "floury" potatoes. In SL this would be the yellow ones. Unfortunately I don't personally know which type these are in other countries. According to the BBC Food Desiree, Estima, King Edward and Maris Piper are floury varieties. In Germany they are sold as "floury cooking" (mehlig kochende) potatoes! If you use what German's call "firmly cooking" (festkochende) the potatoes will not be as easy to mash and seem to retain too much water because they have to cook longer to become mashable. 

In case you need it (maybe floury=fluffy?)

Cut the potatoes roughly into large dice (~2 cm cube) and add them to boiling water. Cook for around 8 minutes or until soft and mashable. Don't cook them so that they disintegrate. You want some body to your cutlets. This is what distinguishes them from croquettes. Drain the water and allow the potatoes to cool.

While your potatoes are cooking prepare your carrots. I've struggled for a long while trying to figure out how to integrate carrots into my cutlets. I don't know why but I just feel like carrots are the right thing to have in there. What I've found with carrots is that they don't smash very well (unless you put them in a food processor and turn them into puree) and if you boil them forever they absorb too much water. So to incorporate them into my recipe I had to figure out how to cook them and get rid of some of the water. I finally accomplished this by grating them and then steaming them in a cheesecloth.

I like to use organic carrots because they tend to taste of something. I mean, they actually taste of carrots! You should grate the carrots on a coarse setting (the coarse setting of any "old" grater should be fine). Then line your steamer with cheesecloth and place the grated carrots in the cheesecloth. Steam them in this way for about x minutes or until they are soft. How long you actually have to steam them will depend on how coarsely you grated them. When you remove the carrots from the steamer pick them up in the cheesecloth and leave them in a colander to cool.

Leeks are another must have in cutlets. However, leeks cannot be mashed. So apparently the trick is to fry them in butter until they are soft else they will cause your cutlets to pop. I'm actually extrapolating from advice I have been given about onions! Use the leafy part of your leeks. If you are in SL or ever have been marketing in SL you will know that Sri Lankan leeks have way more green top than white bottom. In Germany it is completely the opposite. My theory is that Germans just leave their leeks in the ground for so long that the green tops are too hard to be eaten and thus have to be trashed. I personally cannot buy leeks with soft enough leaves that they could be used in a cutlet. But I'm hardcore and decided this year was the year for cutlets so I planted my own leeks. And they do not have a thick white bottom AND they have lots of nice soft green leaves (at least now they do!). If you cannot find leeks with soft leaves you can substitute with green onions (scallions, spring onions, whatever you want to call them). And if you are not in SL you know exactly what all these things are!

Leeks straight from my garden

Chop your leeks finely. Add the butter to a pan and pan fry the leeks (scallions, green onions, spring onions,...) together with the garlic. If you want to add onions you can also fry them in the butter. Just make sure you dice them really, really small. If you over fry any of these ingredients they will become hard. You don't want this. So very lightly fry them and as soon as they are soft remove them from the heat. 

By now your potatoes are cool enough. You can smash them with the back of a fork or use your hands. Don't use a potato masher because then you will have croquettes and (just a reminder) we are not making croquettes. Move over to the carrots. Pick them up in the cheesecloth and squeeze some of the water out. Don't squeeze all the water out. Just give it a light squeeze. Too much squeeze will make the carrots very dry and not very tasty. 

Add the carrots to the potatoes along with the leeks/garlic, salt & pepper, bullion powder, breadcrumbs and mix all the ingredients together. 

Now we come to forming the balls. It's very easy and unlike popular belief, they will not pop if they are not perfectly spherical. How big your balls are depends on, well, many things. But mainly it is a matter of taste. I like smaller balls. About a tablespoon full or something that fits neatly in the palm of my hand. So take a tablespoon of mixture and roll it into a nice tight ball. The first time you attempt this recipe you should make all the balls first and line them up on a baking tray (or a large plate, chopping board, etc.). Next, in a bowl, whisk together a tablespoon of flour and one egg. Pour the remaining breadcrumbs into another bowl. 

The next part some people find very messy and end up getting egg into their breadcrumbs and loads of stuff sticking to their hands. To avoid this use my two hand method. 

Take a cutlet (in your right hand) and drop it into the breadcrumbs. Use your left hand to pour some breadcrumbs over it. Once the surface is no longer damp pick it up in your left hand and squeeze it a bit so that the breadcrumbs stick and the cutlet becomes tighter. Dip a bit of this cutlet into the egg mixture and then move it to your right hand where you can roll it about so that the egg dampens all the surface. Then drop the cutlet back into the breadcrumbs, pour some breadcrumbs over it, pick it up in your left hand and put it back on the board until it is ready to be fried. So left hand dry, right hand wet. Of course you can switch the hands. Or if you are really lucky have someone else to do the dry/wet part.

Somewhere along the line you can heat up your oil. You need enough oil to deep fry. If you are using a deep fryer just follow the deep fryers instructions. I use a saucepan and fill it with 1 litre of sunflower oil. You can use whatever oil you like. Nothing can make a cutlet healthy! If you do not use a deep fryer make sure your pan is deep enough so that the oil is only half way up to avoid the oil from overflowing. Heat your oil to 350 Celsius and fry your cutlets until they are golden brown. You should lower them into the hot oil to prevent splashing. I usually fry 3-4 at a time. If you put too many in the temperature of the oil will drop too much and you can only guess what happens then (yes, POP!). If your cutlets sink to the bottom and stay there (mine do) then the part touching the bottom of the pan will burn. So you need to figure out a way to prevent this from happening. I stick my skimmer mesh under them to keep them off the bottom. 

(In case you are wondering what a "skimmer mesh" is)

Drain on paper towels. Enjoy hot with ketchup, Sriracha sauce, or your favourite dip. Or serve them along side rice and curry. Check out my Sri Lankan curry recipes for rice and curry inspiration. 

You can find a printable pdf here.

French Toast

I was first introduced to French toast by one of my boy friends. He was studying abroad and on one of his trips back home he requested "French toast". I personally had never heard of it until then! But he showed me how to make it and ever since then I've been making it. The smell of hot butter, cinnamon and melted sugar is comforting and Christmassy and puts everyone in a good mood.

Serve it as a side for your next Sunday brunch or try it out as a snack. If you are a light eater then just have a few slices for breakfast smothered in maple syrup.

Preparation time: 40 minutes; serves 3  (i.e. approx. 7 slices)

Ingredients:

5	Eggs, large
2 tbsp.	Milk
1/4 tsp.	Salt
7 slices	Sandwich bread (i.e. white, rectangular, spongy)
1/2 tsp.	Ground cinnamon
1 tbsp.	Sugar
50 g	Butter

Method:

These are super easy to make however please make sure you have a cast iron frying pan for the best results. You'll also need paper towels.

Basically all you do to begin with is to make a batter like for scrambled eggs or omelettes. So beat together the eggs, milk and salt. If you like you can add some freshly ground pepper and more salt if you like salty.

Cut your butter into cubes. This makes it easier to portion. It would have been great if I had 7 cubes but 8 was just so much easier! Note that you might not need all 8!

If you like you can cut off the crusts of your bread. I don't like to waste food and find that the crusts help make the soggy bread easier to handle so I always keep the crusts on. Cut your bread diagonally down the middle.

You can also use any kind of sugar, but I advise a smaller grain. The smaller grain will stick to the bread better and you'll have less sugar falling into the frying pan i.e. less clean up. Make sure you have proper cinnamon. The best, of course, is Sri Lankan cinnamon and freshly ground is so much more flavourful than the pre-ground stuff that you buy in the supermarket.

Heat your pan on medium-high and while it's heating start soaking your first slices of bread. My pan fits 3 pieces at a time. You should figure out how many you can fit in your pan so that you don't soak the bread for too long. We don't like our French toast to be soggy so I don't let the bread soak for too long. Just enough that all surfaces are coated. I achieve this by fully immersing the bread into the egg mixture. Leaving it in for about 10 seconds and then removing it. My bread is rather fluffy so also if I soak it for too long the bread falls to pieces.

Once the pan is hot enough add a cube of butter. Now we always have the problem of what is hot enough. In this case the butter should start melting as it hits the pan, but it shouldn't turn brown i.e. burn. If it does burn you should tip out the butter and wipe the pan out with a paper towel and after letting the pan cool a bit, try again. Once the butter has melted and covered the surface carefully place the egg soaked bread into the pan. Sprinkle a pinch (with 3 fingers) of sugar and a pinch (with 2 fingers) of cinnamon on to each slice. You can add more or less of sugar and cinnamon depending on your taste. Once the bottom is cooked, golden brown (lift up with a spatula to inspect the underneath surface) flip and cook the other side.

Here are some things to pay attention to:

• at some point your pan will be too hot and the butter will start burning. Reduce the heat, tip out any burnt butter and wipe out the pan. 
• the sugar may burn on your pan. This will cause subsequent toasts to turn black. Wipe out any residue sugar with a paper towel.
• add a cube of butter when ever the pan dries out, i.e. is not oily

Also note that you can use regular oil to make French toast, it just does not taste as good. 

Enjoy your toast by itself or with maple syrup or anything else that calls to you.

P.S. It's probably really good with bacon, but we are vegetarian and can't get vegetarian bacon in Germany :(

Vegetarian stuffed zucchini

I planted some seeds this year that were to yield some edible flowers. I was so looking forward to them but when it came round to it I just did not have the time or energy to use them. So I let them just grow. Turns out that one of the plants was a zucchini plant and it did really well. I have two plants and have not bought any zucchini all summer long. It's been a challenge to find different ways to cook them. But today I harvested two fruit and since it was such beautiful weather, probably the last of the season, I decided to stuff them and grill them on the BBQ. So in case you are looking for a different way to cook your zucchini, or are just looking for something fun and vegetarian to throw on the grill, this is for you.

Preparation time: 1 hour; serves 4  (as a side)

Ingredients:

1/4 tsp. Garlic powder

2	Zucchini
1/4 cup	Shallot, finely chopped
1 clove	Garlic, finely chopped
1	Medium tomato
3 tbsp.	Olive oil
2 tbsp.	Bread crumbs
1/2 cup	Parmesan, finely grated
3 sprigs	Oregano
2 sprigs	Thyme
1/4 tsp.	Garlic powder
	Salt and pepper

Method:

Split your zucchini lengthwise and scoop out the inner flesh leaving a pretty thick shell. Remember that zucchini gets really soft when cooked and so if you want it to keep it's shape the shell has to be a bit thicker. I noticed on my zucchini that on the inside there were two different colours. It was very subtle but the inner part where the seeds were had just a slightly different colour. I scooped out along this line. Roughly chop the scooped out zucchini.

Finely chop the shallot and dice the tomato. My tomato has such a funny shape because it also came straight from my garden. Hence the beautiful red colour.

Heat 2 tbsp. of the oil in anything you like and saute the shallots until they become transparent and soft. Add the garlic and stir it in. Then add the zucchini and fry over high heat. I like zucchini when it's done over high heat because it turns golden and it has a much better taste. However, this means that you have to stir it all the time to prevent it from burning. Once the zucchini is cooked add the tomato and continue cooking until no large chunks of tomato are visible. Note that I try not to skin my tomatoes. Skinning them takes away so much nutrients and so much tomato goes to waste.

While this is cooking chop the herbs and grate the cheese.

Once the tomato is cooked remove the stuffing from the heat and add the breadcrumbs, herbs and half of the parmesan. Stir well until everything is combined. Your filling should be relatively dry. If it's not cook it a bit more to get rid of any excess fluids. However, you should do this after adding the breadcrumbs and before adding the herbs and cheese. Add salt and pepper to taste. If you like spicy foods consider adding some chilli pieces or sauce.

Now brush the zucchini shells with the rest of the olive oil and sprinkle with salt, pepper and garlic powder.

Grill the shells with the cut side down for 3-5 minutes on a hot BBQ (or grill). Remove them and then stuff them with the filling. Topping with the left over cheese. Put them back on the grill for another 5 - 7 minutes or until the cheese is just melted. Note that you don't want to over cook the shell because then the whole thing will just fall to pieces. So keep an eye on your food!

Persian Omelette (Spinach and Potato Omelette)

Well now it is time for another one of those easy delicious meals. Fresh spinach seems to have become more available and less dirty. I remember using only fresh spinach in  the USA and not liking to cook with it, even though it was a favourite. It always took me so long to get all the sand out. And I do quite plainly remember that when we first came to Germany the spinach was equally as gritty. Thus I switched over to frozen spinach, but as I've said before nothing beats the fresh stuff. So if you have the time use fresh spinach to make this omelette. If you don't, it's still worth making it, because as my teenager said last night "This is really good" and I was using frozen spinach!

Preparation time: 3/4 hour; serves 2-4

Ingredients:

450 g	Fresh spinach OR
225 g	Frozen spinach
225 g	Potatoes
3 tbsp.	Oil
50 g	Onion
4	Eggs
1/2	Organic lemon
	Salt and pepper

Method:

First and foremost note that the preparation time does not include cleaning the fresh spinach. Depending on the state of it you can add on between 5 and 30 minutes!

Secondly note that this used to be plenty for the four of us but that was a while ago. Yesterday we ate it with a loaf of bread and it was enough food, but if this is all you are serving for a person with a normal appetite you may only get 2 portions out of it. You can also use it as a starter, in which case you should get 8 small servings. Another idea would be to cut it into cubes, stick tooth picks in it and serve it as finger food.

And a small third note before you get started. You need a lid for your frying pan. If you don't have one fashion one out of aluminium foil before you get started.

Fresh spinach: put the clean and still wet spinach into a pot with a lid and cook on medium for about 5 minutes or until the spinach is tender.

Frozen spinach: put in the microwave for 1 minute. Check if it is defrosted, if not put it in for another minute. Continue until the spinach is defrosted. The good thing about this recipe is that you don't mind if the spinach is cooked, or how well it is cooked. So you don't have to waste your time using the defrost setting of your microwave. If you do use the defrost setting you will be adding on a considerable amount of time to the preparation time.

While your spinach is cooking/defrosting you can peel and dice your potatoes and onions. The smaller you dice your potatoes the quicker they will cook and the better the omelette will hold together when cut. I cut mine really fine, maybe about 2-3 mm dice. ("Dice" just means cut into cubes.) The onions you can cut a bit larger.

By now the spinach is either cooked or defrosted. You now have to squeeze out as much water as possible. I use the method of squeezing it between two plates. It works especially well if your spinach is hot, as is the case in this recipe, because you don't have to touch it. Place all the spinach on a regular sized plate. Put an identical plate on top of it. The second plate should NOT be upside down. Put it in the same orientation as if you were stacking the plates for storage. Then hold the plates over the sink, perpendicular to the ground, and squeeze hard. I shake mine a bit to get the excess liquid out faster.

You can now let your spinach stand for a bit while you finish dicing the onions and the potatoes. Once you are done dicing them put a heavy bottomed frying pan or skillet on the cooker on medium high and add 2 tbsp. oil. Once the oil is hot add the potatoes and fry for 5 minutes. To make them evenly brown you will need to stir them every now and then. After 5 minutes add the onions and continue to fry until the potato is just tender. Here again, how long this takes will depend on the size of your dice.  For me it took 5 minutes but it could take up to 10 (unless you have REALLY large dice!). Remove from the heat and set aside.

Now while the potatoes and onions are frying it's the perfect opportunity to finely chop the spinach and put the rest of the omelette together.

In a large bowl lightly beat the eggs. Then grate the rid of half of the lemon and add it to the eggs. Because you are using the rind you have to check carefully if the rind is suitable to eat. If it is organic it probably is, hence I try to always use organic lemon. But even some non-organic lemons have a note on them saying that the rind can be eaten. If you use non-organic ones and it does not say anything I would be cautious and not use the rind. Then add the juice of half the lemon, the spinach and salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything well and then add the fried potato and onion and mix.

If you like, once the omelette is cooked you can put it under a grill to make the top a bit brown. If you want to do this make sure that for the next step you use a frying pan or skillet that can be put under the grill. If you don't have such a frying pan, don't fret you can just leave the grill out altogether. It will do nothing to the taste.

Heat your frying pan over medium heat and add the oil if necessary. If you use the same pan that you used to fry the potatoes it is highly likely that you have enough oil in the pan. I usually do. Once the oil is hot add the mixture. Put a lid on the frying pan. If you don't have a lid cover it with foil. Cook gently until the egg is just set i.e. no longer soggy. The bottom of the omelette should not burn if you keep the heat on medium. It takes 10-15 minutes to set.

If you like you can now stick the whole thing under the grill to brown the top.

I served this with a fresh loaf of pumpkin seed bread and salted butter. It was a hit! But you could also serve it with a salad.

Enjoy!

Eggplant with Tofu - Chinese

This year I planted eggplant in my small vegetable patch. It amazingly survived 3 super hot summer weeks without water and produced a decent number of fruit. Not enough for our normal consumption but enough to enjoy.
I also had a cabbage plant that did not do well at all. It grew tall and flowered. The blooms were really pretty so I just let it be. Turns out that the seeds from the cabbage dropped all over my vegetable patch and late in the summer I had literally hundreds of tiny cabbage plants. I had to thin them out because there was no way that any would survive at that density.
So there I was with a couple of eggplants and heaps of very young green cabbage and dinner to cook! I figured I'd try and put them together Chinese style because I also happened to have a pack of tofu in the fridge.

Served over udon noodles

The resulting experiment was very well received, which led to me having to jump up from the dinning table and grab a pen and paper before I forgot what I had put in to it. It took me a while to revisit the recipe, but that is exactly what I did last night. I didn't have any homegrown produce so I thought it might not taste as good. This didn't seem to be a problem. My teenager stuffed her face and could not keep saying how good the food was! This is not the normal reaction I get these days. Normally I get "oh, not that AGAIN!". So I figured I better post this recipe before I loose my notes!

Preparation time: 1.5 hours ; serves 8 (together with a couple other dishes) 

Ingredients:

800 g	Eggplant
1 bunch	Any type of greens (mustard, leafy green cabbage, etc.)
1 pack	Firm tofu
8 tbsp.	Oil
1 tbsp.	Minced garlic
1 tbsp.	Minced ginger
Sauce
1 1/2 tsp.	Bulion powder or 1 veggie cube
250 ml	Water
4 tsp.	Soya sauce
1 tbsp.	Hoisin sauce
1/2	Lemon, juice of
1 tbsp.	honey (substitute maple syrup if vegan)
1 tsp.	Sirachara sauce

Method:
First of all let me say that the amount of eggplant and greens that you use is not that precise. I used 2 eggplants and I am pretty sure they were much smaller the first time around. If you eat a large amount of tofu you could use 2 packs instead of one. And I really can't tell you what a "bunch" is!! Chopped up I had a cereal bowl full (how big is your cereal bowl?). Sorry that I forgot to weigh the greens :(

Start by cutting the tofu into this slices about 5 mm thick. Lay the slices out on a paper towel, cover with a second paper towel and leave them to allow the water to be absorbed. While your tofu is drying cut the eggplant into 1 cm dice (fancy way to say 1 cm cubes) and wash and roughly chop your greens. You can really use any greens that you like. First time around I used a bowl full of young cabbage plants, the second time around I just picked up some nice looking green stuff from the local Turkish store. I don't even know what they were, but they looked mighty like kale. It might be a good idea to try greens that won't loose too much water when you cook them.

Heat 2 tablespoons of your oil in a frying pan, over medium high heat and add a layer of tofu rectangles. You need to make sure there is no overlap. Fry each side until slightly brown and then flip them over and do the other side. Drain them on paper towels. I had to do three batches. The best type  of pan to use is of course a cast iron pan. I happened to use a heavy bottomed non-stick skillet this time around and it worked fine.
If you're pan runs dry of oil add another tablespoon. If there is not enough oil your tofu won't become golden brown and will dry out before giving you any colour.

Once the tofu is done add 4 tablespoons of the oil and fry the eggplant. Give it a good stir at the beginning so that all the pieces are coated with oil. Fry the eggplant until cooked through and possible browning. You'll need to stir it once every minute or so to make sure it browns evenly, and doesn't stick or burn. While you're doing this you can mix the sauce together. Just get a large enough bowl and mix all the "sauce" ingredients. You can also get your ginger and garlic ready. There should be plenty of time! Eggplant takes a while. Once the eggplant is cooked tip it out into a bowl and return the pan to the cooker.

If you are preparing other dishes and want this to go to the table piping hot you can stop right now. The rest will take you about 10 minutes to put together.

 Add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and tip in the ginger and garlic. Saute for 5 seconds. Don't let them burn, although browning is okay. Add the sauce, mix well and bring to the boil. Then add the tofu to the pan and bring it back to the boil. Use a slotted spoon to remove the tofu and arrange on a serving dish.

Add the eggplant to the pan and toss in the sauce. Bring to the boil and then using a slotted spoon spoon out and place on top of the tofu.

Finally add the greens to what is left of the sauce. Saute until cooked (i.e. the greens are limp) and tip the greens together with the remaining sauce onto the eggplant.

Serve steaming hot with jasmine rice or with udon noodles.

Here is a printable version

Cheesy cauliflower bake

I found a nice cauliflower at the grocery store and decided to  turn it into a baked cauliflower, like my mum always used to make. Haven't had it for a while. We are going to enjoy it with some bratkartoffeln and vegetarian schnitzel.

Preparation time: 1 hour 15 minutes; serves 4 - 6 

Ingredients:

1 medium	Cauliflower
80 g	Peeled onion
1 tsp.	Minced garlic
50 g	Butter
30 g or 1/4 cup	Flour
500 ml	Milk
1/8 tsp.	Ground nutmeg
50 g or 1/2 cup	Grated cheese
3 tbsp.	Parmesan
	Salt & Pepper

Method:

Remove the green parts from the cauliflower and wash well. If you suspect that there are caterpillars, or other creepy crawlies, in it, place the cauliflower submerged in a bowl of salted water for about 15 minutes. They should all float to the top. I didn't know this the first time I made this on my mothers request. It was a very protein rich cauliflower!

Place the cauliflower in a steamer and steam for 15 minutes. You don't want your cauliflower to be completely cooked and definitely you don't want it overcooked. So keep an eye on it while doing the next step.

In the meantime you can put together the white sauce. First slice the onions and mince the garlic. Once this is done melt the butter over medium heat in a heavy bottom saucepan. Don't let the butter burn else the sauce will be ruined. If it gets a bit brown this is okay. While the butter is melting you can measure out the flour. Add the onions and garlic to the melted butter and allow to cook for about 2 minutes stirring all the time. Next add the flour and continue to stir. Allow the flour to cook for about 1 minute. Then add all the milk at once and keep stirring. If you stop stirring at any other point in time it's not so critical, but if you stop here you will end up with a lumpy sauce. If you didn't have the onions and the garlic even this could be saved, but with them it's neither possible to see the lumps nor to toss the whole thing into a blender. So keep stirring. To ensure that nothing gets stuck to the bottom I like to use a wooden spatula. If you buy one made out of a hard wood it can last for ever. Mine is almost 20 years old and still works well.

Stir until the mixture boils and then reduce the heat so that it is just simmering. Stir all the time. Now keep stirring until the sauce has thickened. Now you can remove it from the heat and stop stirring!

At which point my cauliflower was done. Perfect timing! Remove it from the steamer and run under cold water to stop the vegetable from cooking. If you are in the middle of making your white sauce and cannot stop what you are doing just dump the whole saucepan with the cauliflower in the sink and let cold water run over it until you have time to deal with it.

Add salt and pepper to taste, 1/8 teaspoon of ground nutmeg and the grated cheese (I used emmental but you could use anything that is at hand) and stir until it is well combined. Now place the cauliflower in an oven proof dish and pour the sauce over it. Sprinkle the top with Parmesan and bake at 180 C in a fan over for 15-20 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown. Garnish with some green herbs to make it look pretty. I used chives since they are growing wild in my garden!

And if you are wondering why there are so few photos with the instructions it is because white sauce and white cauliflower looks really bad on an overcast fall afternoon.

And finally since I have some extra time here is a printable version i.e. a version without all the noise ;)