Lamb shank with eggplant

Loosely followed from “Engryah”,  meat and eggplant, Cooks.com

Braised lamb shank with eggplant, a savory meal !

The shank was trimmed of silvery skin and fat.With a bit of olive oil, the trimmings were rendered when heated.

Brown up the shank, remove . The cracklings go to the cook !

Start the veggies with chopped onion…

A family member brought home some turmeric, Maybe sorta like a spicy carrot flavor ? Very bright color and a lot of staining power ! Turning things orange, will I turn orange if I eat too much …? :-), don’t  forget to bring on the garlic too ! (peel and diced the turmeric root) and a bit of ginger root.

What else is on the counter?… toss in the dried hot  pepper flakes if ya got’em…. some of mine were smoked and I have  some sun dried dried tomatoes.

Building flavors for the lamb, heat up some  veggie or chicken stock in another pan…

Add the shank back to the pan, add enough boiling stock to cover veggies and about 1/2 way up the shank.

 

 

Cover and simmer….

Were only halfway home ,now prep the eggplant. Peel to leave strips on the side. Salt , press, wait an hour, and rinse.

In a skillet , brown in olive oil,  mmmmm…. won’t be long now !

If frying in batches, set aside on paper towel…

Depending on the size and amount of meat, slowly cook til tender about 45 minutes or better.

Layer the eggplant over the meat, place tomato slices (I didn’t have any) on top. Sprinkled with lemon juice and sugar.

Now for the final cooking , simmer for 20-30 minutes.

Plate over rice is suggested but I thought of bulgar or couscous , snuck in somewhere along the way and a side of flat bread for a killer wrap. !!

Always looking for new combinations of the traditional “meat and potato”, this is a winner ! Flavor galore !Any beverage suggestions? A deep dark red wine comes to mind.

cherry berry pie

Baking pies not  a typical mid summer recipe, maybe if your up late at night or have a cooler day in the forecast.

Adapted from Step by Step, Good Housekeeping, making a cooked fruit pie filling. (Not canned !)

Roll out your favorite double crust recipe, here we have these zippered circular bags (2 sizes, one for the bottom crust and a smaller one for the top), that you put the chilled dough in and then roll it, you could use plastic wrap as an alternative.

Let’s see… about 2 lbs. of cherries, (frozen) and 1 lb. of hand picked raspberries from the garden. I weighed out the cherries and let them thaw in the fridge overnight.

The frozen cherries were a blend of dark cherries and light sweet cherries, 3 lb bag , Wymans.

Drain the fruit and reserve 1 cup of the liquid, as it turned out, I only got about one cup from the drained fruit, the cherries were previously defrosted and the raspberries were recently hand picked.

 

Combine about 3/4 cup sugar, sweetened to your preference, and 1/3 cup cornstarch, with a dash of salt,  I would have upped the cornstarch as I like the pie sauce thick.

Stir and bring the mix slowly to a boil and simmer several minutes to incorporate the cornstarch. Remove from heat, Now your supposed to add additional sugar (skipped),and  butter to the sauce with the drained berry mixture.

Having the prepared pasty ready fill the pie, your supposed to cut the remaining dough and lattice it on top, no I didn’t do that.

As a traditional pie, I topped it with the remaining full crust, brushed with cream.

Vents were cut in the top…..

….and bake this bad boy at 375 degrees for 25 minutes with some type of and edge guard on the crust. We have one of those aluminum rings, remove and bake for an additional 25 minutes or till brown and bubbly. Not something you typically do on a hot summer day…

Cool it off… the filling was still a bit runny for my liking so the pie was refrigerated and it firmed it up when at fridge temperature.

Some like it a bit on the tart side , I’ll agree,  so a side of vanilla chocolate swirl ice cream goes on the side , or atop if you wish…

One of the few times I’ve had homemade ice cream to accompany a slice of pie… That’s another post…

shopping

some recent prices

Roasted eggplant with veggies

What’s the easier way to prepare eggplant, other than grilling it ? just bake it !

Veggies prepped , place on a parchment lined sheet pan… eggplant, sliced, green peppers, julienne carrot and turmeric, sweet onions, dried tomato, salt and pepper. Toss  the veggies with olive oil, and brush the sliced, prepped (salted, pressed and rinsed) eggplant with olive oil.

bake in a hot oven….

  

Couscous would be good or Bulgar wheat, but raman noodles was quicker for now.

spicy omelet

Just a few additions to an omelet to spice up your morning !

Sweet onions, fresh turmeric, dried hot jalapeno, salt and pepper…. ahhh… that turmeric give a nice orange color to the onions!, similar to carrots but with a burst of flavor! Excellent pairing with hot peppers…

remove,  after sauteing with butter and olive oil..

two beaten eggs with a splash of heavy cream……

add the sauteed mixture and fold…..

No ! that’s not a poached egg atop, a scoop of fresh mozzarella !… and some hydroponic fresh chives.

Pan fry the bread , buttered in the fry pan  to clean up any oil and turmeric flavor….. DONE  !!!!

French press coffee aside and you have a first class breakfast !

Even Diane ate 1/2 of the omelet !!! said it was spicy, but she ate it …. progress !

Thanks to a family member for the fresh turmeric and mozzarella…   !