by jphilo | Aug 2, 2012 | Three Thoughts for Thursday
Despite the drought of 2012, some green stuff is growing like crazy around here. The abundance of certain garden produce led to these three horticulture thoughts for Thursday:
- Attention all mulberry lovers: based on the deposit left on my shirt by a vindictive and highly accurate bird yesterday, the mulberries in Central Iowa are ripe for the picking. Have at it!
- The veggie stir fry medley Hiram and I enjoyed during supper Monday night led to the following horti-mathematical observation. In recipes, zucchini and eggplant perform a function similar to that of zero in mathematics. They have no value or flavor in and of themselves, but serve as a placeholder to enhance the tasty veggies around them.
- Sweet potato vines look hearty, but when when the weather gets hot they are wimps. Mine go all limp and wilty unless they’re watered every other day. How about yours?
by jphilo | Aug 31, 2011 | Recipes
The end of August means we are flooded with eggplant and tomatoes, barely able to tread water as they pile up. So a few nights ago, I decided to reprise the Eggplant Pomadora Pasta recipe that received our double thumbs up earlier this month.
But I added a little twist, inspired by a comment Hiram made when I served Chicken Stew with Ratatouille Veggies. “This would be good with sausage,” Hiram said. “Hmm,” I thought, “maybe it would be good in Eggplant Pomadora Pasta, too.”
Turned out it was good. Really good. Really, really good. So I’m reprising the recipe for you, complete with the few alterations that turned this from a good meal to a winner-every-time meal. See what you think, and if you have a variation your family loves, please leave a comment. Food’s more interesting when it includes a new twist now and then.
Eggplant Pomadora Pasta with Sausage
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium eggplant, (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onions, chopped
5 tomatoes, peeled and diced
1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 pound Italian sausage, cooked and crumbled
12 ounces pasta
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and onions. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add tomatoes, olives, vinegar, salt, pepper, crushed red pepper, and sausage. Bring to boiling, then turn down and simmer for 1 – 2 hours.
20 minutes before serving, bring pot of water to boil. Cook pasta in boiling water until just tender, about 6 minutes or according to package directions, then drain. Serve pasta and sauce piping hot.
by jphilo | Aug 11, 2011 | Recipes
Sorry this post is so late. My computer was dead, dead again this morning, so another flying trip to the Apple Genius Bar was required. Everything is fixed for the moment, so here’s the recipe Hiram and I field tested yesterday. It turned out to be a triple hit, falling into the oh-good-another-recipe-with-lots-of-garden-vegetables and the yahoo-another-recipe-where-eggplant-doesn’t-taste-like-cardboard and the miracle-of-miracles-it-uses-zucchini-too categories. Best of all, Hiram and I both liked it enough to make it again!
With all those qualifications, the only thing left to do is give credit to the Cook Smart column in the US Weekend Magazine which came in Sunday’s paper. The original recipe called for 8 medium, boneless chicken thighs. But my version reflects what was on hand at our house.
Chicken Stew with Ratatouille Veggies
Veggies:
1 medium eggplant, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
1 large sweet onion, coarsely chopped
1 sweet pepper (red, yellow, whatever) cut into 1 inch pieces
2 medium zucchini, trimmed and cut into 1 inch cubes
12 peeled, halved garlic cloves
1/4 cup olive oil
2 teaspoons dried thyme
salt and ground black pepper
2 cups cherry tomatoes
Adjust oven rack to lowest position. Heat oven to 425 degrees. Combine all vegetables except tomatoes in large bowl. Add olive oil, thyme, and salt and pepper to taste. Toss to coat. Turn vegetables onto a large, rimmed baking sheet. Roast veggies until golden brown on the bottom, about 20 minutes.
Remove pan from oven. Add tomatoes and stir mixture. Continue to roast until tomatoes have started to release their juices, about 15 minutes. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature. This can be refrigerated up to 5 days.
Stew:
2 cups roasted ratatouille
2 large chicken breasts, cut into fourths
1 tablespoon olive oil
salt and ground black pepper
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup chicken broth
12 coarsely chopped, pitted, kalamata olives
2 tablespoons chopped, fresh basil leaves
Drizzle chicken with oil and a sprinkling of salt and pepper. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add chicken and saute, turning only once, until golden brown on both sides, about 7-8 minutes per side. Add wine and reduce by half. Add broth, ratatouille, and olives. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, about 10 minutes, until thick stew consistency. Stir in basil and serve.
Note: This recipe won’t use all the veggies roasted. Tonight, I’m topping toasted bagels with pesto, ratatouille, and mozzarella cheese, then broiling them until the cheese bubbles. Hope it tastes as good as it sounds!
by jphilo | Aug 5, 2011 | Recipes
We usually celebrate the arrival of eggplant season by stashing the big purple veggies that come in our weekly CSA share in the refrigerator’s vegetable bin. A month or two later, we celebrate the end of season by removing several rotten eggplants from the vegetable bin and throwing them in the trash can.
The reason for this wasteful behavior is obvious to Hiram and me. We are eggplant impaired due to parental neglect. Neither of our gardening mothers grew eggplant, nor did they ever, ever, ever cook with it. So the weird, purple, tasteless food never entered our culinary paradigm. (That was some pretty good jargon there, don’t ya think?)
But in last week’s CSA newsletter, there was a recipe for eggplant pomadora pasta that sounded good enough to try. So I gave it a whirl. And guess what? It was both easy and mighty tasty. So tasty, in fact, that I’m going to make it again. Which means that at least some of our eggplant crop will experience death by glorious digestion rather than a seedy, slow death in the vegetable bin.
The recipe originally came from Eating Well, but I messed around with it enough to claim it as my own. Give it a try and leave a comment with your opinion and changes to the recipe.
Eggplant Pomodora Pasta
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 medium eggplant, (about 1 pound), cut into 1/2-inch cubes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup onions, chopped
4 plum tomatoes, diced – I used 4 of whatever tomatoes came in our CSA bag
1/3 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
2 tablespoons red-wine vinegar
3/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
12 ounces pasta
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley, or basil – I can’t believe I forgot to add the basil!
Put a pot of water on to boil.
Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium heat. Add eggplant and cook, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add garlic and onions. Cook, stirring, until fragrant, 30 seconds to 1 minute. Add tomatoes, olives, vinegar, salt, pepper and crushed red pepper. Cook, stirring, until the tomatoes begin to break down, 5 to 7 minutes more.
Meanwhile, cook pasta in boiling water until just tender, about 6 minutes or according to package directions. Drain and divide the pasta among 6 shallow bowls. Spoon the sauce over the pasta and sprinkle parsley (or basil) on top.
