Experiencing with Eggplant

Eggplant is one of those vegetables which are prepared in my house every couple of months but no more than once the year. It is my way to say that, in fact, I don't like eggplant as much and if not for some books which make everything simple and tasty, I would not want to deal with it at all. In fact, not long ago, there were years since I was tasting any bit of eggplant. Trying new recipes and putting my tastebuds on trial is an interesting experience anyway, therefore after a couple of weeks of thinking I decided to finally use that eggplant languishing in my fridge.

For one hour, I tried to combine one moderately sized eggplant with different tastes and ingredients. The results were satisfactory, but it was more burned smell than necessary. Not sure if I would try anything soon - maybe, finally some Babaganoush one day - as for now, I am just gathering various experiences about this mysterious and not always easy going vegetable.

Here is my short cooking story:

I started by washing the eggplant and cutting the head. Next, I've sliced it into thin rounds, allowing a fast and efficient frying. I heated 3 tablespoons olive oil in the pan at 250 for 5 minutes prior to the frying. 

I tried to use different ingredients for each batch of eggplants. I fried 3 of them at once, allowing enough space to absorb the oil. In one case, I only added a pinch of sea salt. In another I added some Osem soup seasoning. In another I added some small slice on yellow cheese on the top. Black or Cayenne pepper are also good solutions. 

From the pan, I set the eggplant slices to rest on some absorbing paper to take the oil excess out. 

As side dips, my choice was relatively simple: some plain fresh yogourt and a very spicey soy sauce. 

Despite the smoke smell, it was a relatively easy dish, with a variety of tastes. I had them in a simple way, without anything else but fresh cherry tomatoes and some avocado. 

A great meal for a lazy evening at home after a full day of work, whose creation requests a bit of imagination and taste creativity.

My Indian food experience tour: patra

Genuine Indian restaurants outside India, serving more than curries and samosas, are quite a rarity in Germany, maybe because the need to adapt to the local tastes. Besides the knowledge of people bred and growing up there, there is also a chance to have a taste of special Indian foods through the special stores delivering original dishes, even though only in a box. At the recommendation of my friend, one of the many boxes purchased the last time was also the mysterious - for me - patra that I was courageous enough to finally try a couple of days ago.

Patra, patrode or alu vadi is a vegetarian dish specific to Maharashtra, India. Patra means leaf in several Indian dialects. It is made of colocasia or banana leaves stuffed with rice flours and various flavourings such as spices and tamarind. In the box, it is stored as a long roll batch that I cut into small buns.

The recommendation is to fry it in coconut oil or ghee - in both cases I still haven't give them a try - but I preferred to used some thymian oil. My patra has the following composition: aloo leaves, chickpea flour, green chilli, sesame seeds, poppy seeds, nutmeg, mustard seeds, coriander, turmeric, coconad shreds. I fried in the oven at 250C for around 10 minutes.

My first bit of patra was a real explosion for my palate. Such a diverse full of contrasts mixture was an extraordinary encounter, hard to describe. My first slice was consumed without any side dish as I was not sure what to expect. The sweetness and perfumed notes - added by the nutmeg, for instance - melts into the chilli notes, but what you feel at the end is just a strong spicy taste, I personally never experienced before. A couple of slices later, I still did not know how to match it, and didn't want to alter the original taste either, but most probably some simple sticky rice or some fresh tomato and cucumber slices would have been a good choice for the second bit after the patra.
I am happy to have tried this dish: it created a special food experience and brought new tastes and spices to my palate. One day, maybe I will be able to prepare my own, preferably in India.

Food52: A New Way to Dinner

I am a big admirer of the Food52  network, for the way in which makes every step of the kitchen management and any recipe achievement just a matter of time. For someone like me, growing up with the deep feeling that I will never be able to bake or cook anything but fried eggs, it is an invaluable incentive that helped me to go through the challenges of managing almost successfully a house with children and regular hungry guests. 

The founders of the website, Amanda Hesser and Merrill Stubbs, kept up helping lost-in-the kitchen people like me. A New Way to Dinner aims at offering first-hand and long tested assistance to busy family - of four - for managing the chores and challenges of having every day something new, healthy and tasty on the plate. Scheduled as one-week seasonal menus, with ingredients that can be easily switched and combined to create new dishes, the recipes suggested are easy to make and require a minimal time investment. In addition, you are promised to save money on groceries and waste less food, improve the shopping and cooking habits. Sounds delish, isnt't it? The aim: 'Gone will be that nagging to-do anxiety about what you'll put together for dinner after work'. 

You are offered a weekly plan, with details about the time you need to spend in various days for cutting or cleaning the veggies or for the cooking per se. You have reheating directions, advice about how to store the veggies or meat, what kind of storage containers you need. 

The menus are meat-based, but most probably not impossible to substitute them with meatless variants.  Although the portions are aimed for a family of four, with a but of flexibility and imagination, the recipes can be extended or restrained for bigger or smaller households. 

As I am an instant lover of everything that aims to better organize and manage the time, I loved the book even more. However, there are also some of the recipes that I have in sight for the next days, so expect soon to read about applesauce cake with caramel icing, meatballs with onions and zucchini or watermelon puree. 

Strongly recommended to anyone interested in tasty dinners with a minimal time and financial investment.

Disclaimer: Book offered by the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Looking for inspiration (in predictable places)

Between cooking and travel, I will always chose travel. I can be happy with a nice piece of black bread and a simple coffee, but if I don't travel for one month, or one week went away without I discovered some nice corner in my city, I am sad and lacking the necessary energy to survive the daily chores. Thus, I try to focus for the moment on my travels, with a modest creativity in the kitchen. However, wherever I go I keep an eye for the food products and local cuisine and as much as the time allows me, I will do my best to share some of the recipes and local insights about food and eating habits that I learn about during my travels. 

My problems in the last days are a relative lack of inspiration. I do have a couple of books to read and review, I have some new recipes that I tested lately, but because of the summer and holiday mood, I don't succeed to spend too much time in the kitchen. And my ideas of salads are as regular as possible, without creating anything outstanding. 

What you can do in such cases, when the cooking inspiration left you? Very often, I do make a tour of my favourite food bloggers. As I am on Twitter, I have access to lots of ideas and good food writing. When I want to leave my computer and get out in the real world, I am reading carefully the menus of the restaurants that I pass by. I am interested especially in the Vegetarian/Asian options. My latest passion is the Vietnamese cuisine: my first encounter was not extremely pleasant, as I did not enjoyed too much carrots in the veggie spring rolls, or some of the tofu combinations. However, I was invited recently to taste a coconut milk+peanuts+rice+tofu+beans+carrots+lemongrass and I loved the taste and the fine combination of vegetables. The spices were  As most Vietnamese restaurants I've seen are not exactly Vietnamese, the cooks being mostly from China, maybe I should pack and visit Vietnam for a real flavour of the local cuisine. And, most probably, when I am out of inspiration, I should consider taking more cooking classes or watching more food videos. For now, writing again on the blog was enough to boost my creativity for the next days.

Keep in touch!