No, It's Not Just a Movie

Listen, I love that little mouse, too.  But Remy's movie isn't just a movie for kids.  It's a movie for us foodies, too.  And, ratatouille is an actual dish.  Granted, like any good chef, Remy put his own spin on it.  What you'll see in a traditional ratatouille recipe looks more like a vegetable stew with a tomato sauce.  And it's fantastic.

Map via Google Maps

Ratatouille is a dish native to Provence, particularly around Nice.  In reality though, forms of this dish can be found all the way around the Ligurian Sea to Tuscany and even south to Rome.  In Italy, essentially the same dish is called ciambotta.

Photo via Epicurious

Yes, there are definitely variations in both ingredients and in how it's served.  Generally they will both contain a combination of eggplant, peppers, zucchini, and tomatoes.  Toward the east (France), the dish is flavored with marjoram and thyme.  As you go west, there is more basil and parsley instead.  In France, the dish is a casserole or the filling in an omelet and can be served either hot or cold as a side.  In Tuscany, the dish is thicker, and generally a stew, often with potatoes and olives and sometimes even meat.  Making either ratatouille or ciambotta is fairly simple, and the ingredients are now in season!

Photo via SmittenKitchen

For those of you who, like me, have a child who is a fan of the movie, you can't get away with making the dish if it doesn't look like Remy's interpretation.  Don't worry, I've got you covered.  There are two great examples (here and here) that will make you quite the hero.

So, do you have any of those peppers left from your box?

Eggplant Snack Sticks

It's here! It's here! It's Spring Crop Share time! Although it's starting to feel a whole lot like summer around here. For this round, we will be seeing more and more local produce. The first of the season local tomatoes we had last week were already on point. Makes me so excited for tomato sandwiches, watermelon and all things summer.

I came to love eggplant kind of late in life. I really discovered it when  I went vegetarian for a few months and had the most delicious eggplant lasagna. Something I would never order before. Since then, I've used eggplant in stir-fry, pizza, burgers and more. Having it lightly breaded with a little mozzarella, marinara and basil is probably my favorite way to have it. Turn it into a fun appetizer, and I am in.

Try out these snack sticks as a side dish or an appetizer at your next gathering. Get the recipe from Taste of Home here.

Want to make your own dip for these? Use those grape tomatoes and try this recipe.

Spice Roasted Eggplant

Two Christmases ago one of my dearest friends gifted me a cookbook called Simply In Season because she knew I had just joined a CSA and thought this cookbook based around seasonal produce would come in handy.  I'm embarrassed to say that this week was the first time I dove into the recipes.  That tends to be my relationship with cookbooks, I hoard them, if they have pictures I will drool over them, but once they get on my shelf, I always seem to forget to flip through them rather than sit and ponder what I should make.  Now with Pinterest, my cookbooks have really been feeling neglected.  But thanks to my personal social media fast for Lent, I've been left without my easy compilation of recipes, which meant my cookbooks finally made it back off the shelf, and Simply In Season was the first one I went to.

I was originally on a hunt for something different to do with asparagus, because I wanted to break out of my usual tried and true ways (in pasta, grilled, roasted, sauteed, in risotto, or as "fries").  And I did find a recipe for "sugared" asparagus that I'll be trying out in the next few nights.  But what really caught my eye was this recipe for Spice Roasted Eggplant from a woman in Senegal.  So tonight I baked up some za'atar crusted chicken and paired it with this delicious eggplant recipe.  The original only called for a pinch of cinnamon, but I'm a sucker for cinnamon so I increased it to a whole 1/8 tsp and I thought it was a lovely sweet balance to the heavy spice of the cumin.  For those of you who are cilantro-phobes, you could easily substitute parsley, basil or especially Thai basil.  And if  you have a grill, this would be delicious as grilled eggplant!  The charmoula-like sauce would make a great marinade for fish or chicken or poured over some skirt steak, much like a chimichurri sauce.  So this is definitely one recipe that can take you in multiple directions, especially as the weather continues to warm up!

Spice Roasted Eggplant

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant, sliced into 1/4" thick rounds

1 bundle cilantro, chopped (or use another herb like parsley or basil)

1/4 cup olive oil

2 Tbsp lemon juice

2 tsp cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1/8 tsp cinnamon

Preheat your broiler on high heat and set top rack in the middle of oven.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, cilantro and spices until well combined.  Then with a pastry brush, brush the marinade onto both sides of the eggplant rounds and arrange onto a lightly oiled baking sheet.

About to get a suntan!

Broil eggplant on middle rack for about 10 minutes total, flipping about mid-way through.  You want to get both sides nice and golden and slightly crisp the skin, so keep and eye to make sure nothing is burning.

Would also be great to turn into a stacked salad with some fresh tomato slices, goat cheese and a few sprinkles of coarse-ground salt and a drizzle of olive oil!

Throwback Thursday: A (Short) Trek Down Crop Share Memory Lane

So I've apparently contracted some sort of plague, and while I've attempted to kill the germs with fire (inhuman amounts of garlic sauce from Baytna Mediterranean Kitchen in the Landsdowne Plaza and troughs of green tea), I still feel like someone hit me with a bus and then backed over me for good measure.  Thus, the new posts will be few and far between tonight.  Instead here's a smattering of past recipes centered around this week's items, and once I'm feeling less plague-like, gird your loins -- your sirloins that is -- for a homemade version of a Chinese take-away classic, Beef with Broccoli.  But until then, between sips of tea, I give you some past recipes...

Lentil & Potato Soup

Spaghetti with Broccoli, Sausage & Hot Peppers

Sausage, Potato & Kale Soup

Chipotle & Herb Roasted Sweet Potatoes

Eggplant & Pepper Curry

Leek & Potato Soup

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Wednesdays are typically my day off from Nalls Produce and that means I actually get to watch Barefoot Contessa.  Nothing relaxes me quicker than the soothing sound of Ina Garten's voice, even though I always feel like she's silently judging me.  Am I using good olive oil?  Would Ina approve of my faux cheeze?  And this week, as I slipped into a vicarious food coma, I watched as Ina whipped up Szechaun Noodles with Chicken & Broccoli.  Then I thought to myself, "Ooo, next time we get broccoli in the Crop Share, I'm making this!"  And then lo and behold...broccoli is coming home with all of us this week!  The version linked below is the bare bones version, but in the show she added shredded chicken from 4 roasted, bone-in chicken breasts and about a cup of blanched broccoli.  I'm going to use some of this week's cabbage and possibly some of the eggplant, as well, in this dish.  And since we're peanut free in this house, I'll see how it turns out with almond butter in place of the peanut butter called for in the sauce.  So be on the lookout for my follow up post after this weekend, but until then, I give you Barefoot's version...

Szechuan Noodles with Broccoli via Barefoot Contessa

Click through to view this recipe from Barefoot Contessa...

Stuffed Turkish Eggplant

Okay, raise your hand if you're one of the folks who received "these mysterious orange things" in your Crop Share box last week?  Don't feel bad if you were stumped, as I had no idea what on earth they were when they first arrived.  But they are, in fact, Turkish Eggplant (also known as scarlet eggplant, Ethiopian eggplant, orange eggplant, and even pumpkins-on-a-stick).  Slightly more bitter than traditional purple eggplant (think similar in flavor to a green bell pepper), they are used a lot in Asian cuisine and are great sliced and baked or grilled.  But I don't know about you, when I see the word Turkish in anything, I want to throw lamb all over it.  So that's just what I did.  The filling will work perfect for any stuffed eggplant, and this recipe makes A LOT, maybe too much filling (who am I kidding, there's never too much!), so it will be great for larger eggplants...or perhaps an entire case of them.

Stuffed Turkish Eggplant

Ingredients:
1 cup wild rice (cooked to package directions)
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, minced
2 tsp garlic, minced
1 lb ground lamb
6 Turkish eggplants (tops sliced off and reserved, and innards scooped out and chopped)
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp Kosher salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
4 roma tomatoes, diced
1/4 cup dried currants
Fresh mint, chopped for garnish (if desired)

Cook wild rice according to package directions.  Meanwhile preheat your oven to 375 degrees F.

In a saute pan, heat olive oil over medium high heat.  Add in onion and garlic and saute for 2-4 minutes, until translucent.  Add in ground lamb and cook for 5-7 minutes, until meat is cooked through and browned.  Add in chopped eggplant innards, and then all your spices.  Simmer for an additional 1 minute then add in diced tomatoes.  Cook for an additional 3 minutes and add in currants.  Allow currants to heat through and then stir in your cooked wild rice, combining all the flavors evenly, and remove from heat. You may also stir in some crumbles of feta or ricotta cheese.

Take each eggplant and fill over the brim with the stuffing.  Cap with it's top and place into a baking dish.  Repeat until all eggplants are stuffed.  If you have reserved stuffing (which you likely will), save to eat as is, or stuff additional eggplant varieties.  Drizzle tops with olive oil and bake at 375 for 15-20 minutes.  Garnish with fresh chopped mint, if desired

You can see I had to round up more eggplant to stuff.  And that one I topped with some crumbled dairy-free ricotta! 

Eggplant & Pepper Curry (Plus Tips on Freezing Basil)

Who doesn't love a good curry?  Okay well I'm sure there are folks who don't enjoy curry, but I question whether or not they despise all that is good and wonderful in the world.  Be it a traditional Indian or Thai curry, German currywurst, or a thick, pub style curry in the UK, if it has curry in it, I want to eat it.  So the other night having a fridge full of basil, eggplant and bell peppers I decided it was curry time.  You'll be getting a whole bundle of basil this week, so this quick and easy curry will be a great way to use up a good portion of it, and then freeze the rest to preserve it.  Just snip the leaves from the stem, rinse and allow leaves to dry on the counter for about 30 minutes.  Then loosely layer leaves in a freezer bag and place in freezer for future use.  When you want to use them, just remove the bag and allow to gradually thaw.

But enough of that...now onto the curry!

Eggplant & Pepper Curry

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 sweet onion, chopped
3 baby neon eggplants, cubed
3 bell peppers (1 green, 1 white and 1 purple), seeded and chopped
2 Tbsp Dizzy Pig Bombay Curry-ish seasoning (now in store!)
1 cup plain Greek yogurt (or Tofutti Sour Supreme for dairy-free/vegan)
2 cups water
3 Tbsp basil, chopped
Jasmine rice for serving

In a saute pan, heat olive oil and cook onions over medium high heat until they begin to caramelize.  Add in eggplant and bell peppers and cook for 3-5 minutes or until eggplant begins to brown.  Stir in Curry-ish seasoning and cook for an additional 1-2 minutes.  Mix in Greek yogurt and then add in water.  You may not need the full two cups or you may wish to add more, whatever your sauce thickness preference is.  Simmer for an additional 3-4 minutes, and stir in chopped basil.  Serve over jasmine rice.

Grilled Vegetable Skewers via Proud Italian Cook

Pardon my lack of original content this week, I'm out of town for a wedding and my lonely share is waiting for me back at Nalls.  :(  So for all you Crop Share newbies, don't worry, cooking does actually happen in Nalls' Kitchen!

In the meantime we can all drool together with some gems I discovered thanks to Pinterest, like this Grilled Vegetable Skewers from Proud Italian Cook.  A great way to use up the corn, bell peppers, broccoli and even slice up the tomatoes into wedges to skewer.  I hear grilled cantaloupe is fantastic!  Though probably hold off on grilling the spinach, something tells me that's a bad idea.

So follow the link below to view this recipe that has me ready to fire up the grill at 9am!

Grilled Vegetable Skewers

Julia Child's Eggplant Pizzas

Before she started blogging, Natasha from Tash's Noshes and Crop Share member, was dishing out the healthy noshes left and right and Instagramming the whole delicious journey.  Sometimes I got to be on the receiving end, as was the case with a memorable asparagus risotto (dairy-free even!).  But one that's had me drooling just from the photos has been her rendition of Julia Child's Eggplant Pizzas.  I love eggplant and I love pizza, put the two together and I'm all over that!  So next time you're feeling a family pizza night, make a toppings bar and slap them on some eggplant slices for a healthy, yet delicious meal.

Julia Child's Eggplant Pizzas - Tash's Style

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant
Salt
Extra virgin olive oil
Ground black pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups tomatoes, finely chopped and seeded
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp Italian seasoning
10 basil leaves, thinly sliced
1/4-1/3 cup shredded, low-fat mozzarella

Slice off ends of eggplant and then slice into 3/4" thick rounds.  Place on paper towels and sprinkle well with salt -- this is to help draw the moisture out of the eggplant so they don't get too soggy during baking.  Allow to rest for about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.  After the salted eggplant has rested for 30 minutes, wipe off excess liquid and salt then brush both sides with olive oil.  Season with ground black pepper and place on a baking sheet to bake for 20-25 minutes.  Remove from oven and set aside.

While the eggplant rounds are baking, heat a Tbsp of olive oil in a pan on medium high heat.  Add in minced garlic and saute for about 2 minutes.  Pour in diced tomatoes, oregano and Italian seasoning, stirring to fully combine.  Once bubbling, reduce heat and simmer for 5-10 minutes or until sauce begins to thicken.  Add water if sauce appears to become too thick.

Preheat broiler to high.  Evenly distribute tomato sauce onto eggplant rounds.  Sprinkle with thin strips of basil, and top with shredded mozzarella.  Place under broiler until cheese has melted and begins to bubble.

Serve it as Natasha did with a refreshing side salad of rocket greens/arugula with a grapefruit vinaigrette.

Grilled Eggplant Dip

Wellp, Miss Paula Dean has done it again. I think this dip would make a great lunch, appetizer or snack. I know it's too col to be out there grilling, but I know that doesn't slow many of you down. For those of you who don't grill in this weather, you should own a grill pan anyway or a panini press will do the trick!

Ingredients:
1 tsp of your favorite all-purpose seasoning
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
3 tablespoon lemon juice, plus lemon wedges for serving
3 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil, divided 
4 tablespoon tahini
6 garlic cloves, each cut into 3 to 4 lengthwise wedges
2 eggplants
3 tablespoon minced fresh flat-leaf parsley
Boston Lettuce leaves
Paprika
Grilled pita bread, for serving

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://www.pauladeen.com/recipes/recipe_view/grilled_eggplant_dip/

Eggplant Parmesan Cups

I tried going vegetarian for a few months and I have to say, eggplant parmesan was the one thing that kept me going. It filled the void and is just oh-so tasty! Now imagine the deliciousness of eggplant parmesan with puff pastry... yeah, can't resist.

Ingredients:

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 medium eggplant, diced (about 3 1/2 cups)
1 cup Italian Sauce (McCutcheon's Marinara is great for this!)
1/3 cup grated Parmesan cheese
All-purpose flour
1/2 of a 17.3-ounce package Pepperidge Farm® Puff Pastry Sheets (1 sheet), thawed
1/4 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
2 tablespoons shredded fresh basil leaves

Click through to view the rest of this recipe: http://www.campbellskitchen.com/recipes/recipedetails?recipeid=61098&fm=internal_search

Eggplant Parmesan Sliders

We love sliders! Burgers, chicken sandwiches, you name it. So we were very excited to come across these little gems. They make a great appetizer for any get-together or a fun dinner for Meatless Monday!

Ingredients:
2½ lbs. (about 2 medium) eggplants
1 cup all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
2 cups Italian-style breadcrumbs
1 lb. fresh mozzarella cheese, sliced into rounds
Vegetable oil, for frying
2 cups tomato sauce
2 dozen brioche slider rolls

To view the rest of this recipe, please visit: http://www.justataste.com/2011/10/eggplant-parmesan-sliders/