stuffed eggplant

I’ve prepared eggplant before, mainly sliced into about 1 inch slices and prepared.

A different method this time. Basically sliced lengthwise, scoop out some of the interior leaving a shell (x2).

Prepare your favorite stuffing with the removed eggplant diced.

Sparing the details, such as peeling the eggplant, and salting and draining etc, precook the shells in an oven.

Add the stuffing to the shells and baked again till cooked through and soft.

Not the most appetizing pictures of the finished product but similar to a pizza with an eggplant crust.

the shells before baking

prepped ingredients and stuffing preparation

pre baking the shells

A small amount of cooked rice added with sauteed onion,diced green pepper and celery along with seasoning.Later, (not shown) add tomato sauce, diced, cooked sausage. spoon into shells, top with sliced mozzarella cheese.

The finished meal , Placing one of the shelves at the upper most position results in a broiler effect if you like the eggplant a bit more well done. Oven temp was about 350 degrees F Timing was by eye.

Chicken with wine

 

Catching up on some recent meals to post.

An easy recipe for a classic way to prepare chicken. One of the many adaptations of coq au vin. I won’t post the recipe as there are so many variations. Basically a braised chicken with wine.

 

beef soup with noodle squares

a few pictures

a hearty beefy soup, wit the addition of a thickening agent, a stew

a beef soup/stew for the instant pot

prep the following:

egg noodle semolina recipe, roll out and cut into good size noodle squares, set aside

prep veggies, onion, carrot celery, a pinch of oregano, paprika, parsley and thyme, a bit of tomato paste and a few garlic cloves minced

leaf a few brussell sprouts, slice mushrooms

slice and cube beef season with salt, pepper and marinate if possible

set instant pot to saute, high and let come to temp

with a bit of oil, brown beef, remove from pot

add to pot onion, celery and carrot mixture with your seasonings

cook till wilted and soft

add sprout leaves, mushrooms and tomato paste to pot

mix and cook several minutes

return beef to pot, with broth top to fill line of pot.

cover, reset and set to stew soup setting about 15 minutes low pressure

at end of cycle release pressure , remove cover, reset to saute high, add noddle squares when the pot begins to boil

cook the noodle squares till tender, reset and set to keep warm setting

add more broth if necessary.

serve with crusty bread

 

 

 

 

 

Eggplant something or other (moussaka)

I found I did get the basis of this recipe from a WP blog  Mostly Greek Eggplant Mousskasa , Eggplant Moussaka    after a search for eggplant recipes.

The eggplant is my fav meal, and at times better than the chicken or beef or used as a filler with meat.  So here we go.

I used ground pork instead of beef

I stuck with the cinnamon spice for the Greek style taste of the tomato sauce

some canned diced tomato for the suace

a bit of melomel replaces the wine

process the tomato sauce

salt and let sit for while to draw out some water, test fit in the baking dish

brush with olive oil, broil till browned, both sides

make the bechamel sauce

into the baking dish

add the tomato sauce

top with the bechamel and some grated parmensan, bake.

after baking, let cool a bit.

excellent flavor the eggplant, tomato sauce and bechamel compliment each other

not overly watery or runny, just right, perhaps a glass of wine and a chunk of fresh bread.

 

 

 

 

 

Chili Bean Wrap

A simple chili bean mix , made a few flour tortillas to wrap it up.

Saute some diced green peppers, in this case 1, add some diced onion and saute till translucent. Add some seasonings. Now some boneless pork ribs thin sliced are added in, the pork cooks quickly and then add can of Rotel tomatoes with chili peppers. The seasonings can be your choice, a bit of ground cumin, cumin seeds, dried cilantro, etc. Perhaps some garlic or garlic powder. The red chili beans were cooked in the microwave to hurry them along, in water to cover and then at low power for about 20-30 minutes. As the beans cook, let the tomato mixture simmer and reduce and add liquid like some broth or wine and continue to simmer. When the beans were finished, add to the tomato mixture and simmer to incorporate.

A quick mix of water, bacon fat, salt and flour to a dough, rolled and browned in a hot cast iron skillet for the wraps. A bit of yogurt for topping, nothing fancy. (but a few diced green onions would look nice for the picture and a sprig of cilantro)

North African Chicken Couscous

From 177milk Street

I modified some of the ingredients and scaled it back to a large single serving or for 2 serving dish.

• Curry powder mix in place of ground tumeric
• White onion instead of red onion
• Dried Japanese chili pods instead of Jalapenos
• Sambal instead of Harissa

This technic allows you to steam the couscous  while the meal is cooking.

Didn’t get any pictures of the process here’s the result

Very tasty meal.

 

Stuffed Chicken Breast

A basic stuffing, onions, celery with bread cubes. Make as usual with a bit of the Bell’s seasonings and wet with stock. Of course you could use a prepared stuffing mix.

A family member brought home some surplus bread, too much to consume before it would go stale, so I processed it into bread crumbs by broiling the slices, and processing in the food processor to different textures.

A sliced chicken breast, just some salt and pepper with addition course bread crumbs.

spread the crumbs on a tray with baking paper

place half of the chicken breast on the tray and cover with stuffing

Place the other half of the breast atop the stuffing, top with additional crumbs

bake and broil as necessary

serve it up…

served with some steamed carrots

shrimp stir fry

A few ingredients for a meal, frozen shrimp available and some veggies with noodles from a soup kit, less the seasoning package. You can get an idea of cooking times from the time date stamps on the pictures.

Start with onions and oil

Add grated tumeric

…. grated ginger

mushroom, brocolli, and celery

stir and fry , add a bit of water or stock if necessary, adjust seasonings

add the frozen shrimp, stir and fry till shrimp are cooked

Add the noodle, I had the noodle packet frozen in the fridge, gave it a couple of seconds in the microwave than added to the mix

finished the cooking process with some dark soy sauce

lo mein

With the abundance of fresh veggies and with the addition of noodles, lo mein was an easy choice, though prep would be essential to the recipe.

A slicing of the veggies was done using the rotary slicer of the kitchen aid attachment.

One of those recipes, the more you look the more variations you find , you settle as with most “authentic” recipes to the ingredients you have available to the village or are grown locally.

I didn’t  get to list all the sauce ingredients and amounts, but loosely followed several recipes that I researched by listing all the ingredients that compose the sauce to get an idea of the basics. I modified it by adding a bit more cornstarch and a good amount of stock as I prefer s saucy-er thick coating to the dish.

The sauce was a build up from the basic soy sauce/rice wine/sugar combo. Some of the associated components are: soy sauce, rice wine, fish sauce, shrimp paste, chili paste, ginger root, galangal root, garlic, sugar, honey, salt and pepper with sesame oil.

The sauce, less the stock.

The veggies are the same deal, use what you have. Pea pods and the baby bok choy were included as they were fresh and attractive from the market. The carrot was also crunchy as they were fresh, large diameter and not very tapered as the packaged carrots were.

Stir fry the veggies in oil.

 

While stir frying the veggies, prep the noodles, I used rice noodles instead of the wheat noodles, so just a brief toss in hot water is all that’s needed, drain and add to wok.

 

Mix well , then add the sauce… serve….

 

 

 

The result is as good or better result than restaurant  because you have control of the ingredients. So if you like salad with noodles with a sauce here it is.

I made this dish twice and this post is a compilation of the pictures from both.

chicken and mushroom dumplings

quickly made and frozen, good for soup or sauce.

• diced sautéed mushroom
• diced cooked chicken (preferable from chicken carcass)
• salt and pepper
• grated turmeric and ginger
• shredded lettuce.

beech and white mushrooms

added cooked chicken meat from simmered chicken carcass a small grating of ginger, turmeric

ready to go, water for sealing dumplings

I find that some plastic wrap placed over the dumpling maker makes them easy to remove.

trayed for the freezer, didn’t trim the excess wrap.

the cooks sample, boiled, the wrappers are very thin and hold the content well. Deep fried, steamed or pan fried?