Eggplant Parmesan

Get ready for lots of pictures. As I loaded up my pictures to iPhoto I realized how much has happened in the last week. This happens to me every week when I go to write a new post so I shouldn't seem so surprised every time. The main recipe for this post was inspired by 99 cent eggplant at the Hamilton Farmer's Market and a bunch of tomatoes courtesy of my Tatone :D
You will also notice the lack of measurements. This is due to the fact that I was hungry and impatient, what else is new.

Eggplant Parmesan

1 very large ripe eggplant
salt
oil
breadcrumbs
quick rolled oats
basil
oregano
parsley
garlic powder
salt
pepper
1-2 eggs

Slice the eggplant into thick pieces (3/4 inch?). Layer slices in a colander sprinkling with salt in between layers. Place a heavy item on top and allow to sit for 30 to 60 minutes to draw out any excess water. Wipe slices dry with paper towel. Lightly grease a baking sheet with oil and preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Mix together about 1:1 of breadcrumbs to oats. (I only added oats becuase I ran out of bread crumbs but it turned out quite nice). Sprinkle basil, oregano, parsley, garlic powder, salt and pepper to taste.

You can hardly see the spices in the mix there and I would probably add more next time. I would say 2 tsp each (basil, oregano, parsley) if you use 1/2 breadcrumbs and 1/2 cup oats. Whisk the egg until mixed. Dip each side of eggplant in the egg and dredge through the breadcrumb mixture to coat well. I didn't bother dipping the sides of the slices (I was trying to conserve breading mixture). Place on the greased baking sheet and bake in the oven for about 7-10 minutes on eat side. Watching carefully that they don't burn.

While this was all happening I was also making some sauce. Very similar to the recipe I posted a while back (found here). With these soft delicious eggplant slices you could layer with some sauce and parmesan and bake some more, OR you could make a sandwich.

The sandwich consisted of whole-wheat toast, eggplant slices, fresh tomato sauce, and parmesan cheese. Adding the cheese to the hot eggplant and sauce allows it to melt without toasting the sandwich further (another time saver). I loved this sandwich and loved how the eggplant turned out. The leftover eggplant was good on its own with some sauce and cheese. If you are wondering, on the side there I had some chicken and roasted red peppers cooked in red wine and balsamic vinegar, probably one of my favourite food combinations.

Now as promised, here is a series of pictures from the past week.

Jenna's Birthday celebration


Carrot Spice Birthday Cake (made by me..isn't it pretty?! haha)


Sweet Potato Quesadilla's from the Bean Bar


BFT....Bacon Fig and Tomato Sandwich

Chicken Cacciatore

Chicken cacciatore is one of my favourite dishes. I have never been 100% sure what it is exactly but as long as it is a stew with chicken and tomatoes I put it into the cacciatore category. This past weekend I was at my Nonna and Tatone's (Italian Grandparent's) house for dinner and I had mentioned that I had made some cacciatore. "Cacciatore? What made it a cacciatore?" They were interested to see how "Americanized" my version was. I told them how I did it and they nodded in semi-approval. At this point I was really interested as to what authentic cacciatore was. So I asked.

Cacciatore in Italian means "hunter" and chicken cacciatore means a chicken dish prepared hunter style. This dates back to when hunters would go out for days on end to hunt for meat. Their meals would consist of meat cooked with whatever vegetables they could gather and of course, wine. I would say my recipe is quite authentic in this case...minus the hunting part. This makes me happy. I just wish my Grandparent's could have given it a taste, as I thought it was delicious.

This recipe is very easy, so some of the quantities are vague becuase I just threw stuff in. There is a lot of wiggle room here. As long as you use quality ingredients you will get quality results. This is especially true when it comes to the tomatoes.

Chicken Cacciatore

3 ripe plum tomatoes
1 tbsp olive oil
2 chicken breasts, cut into bite sized pieces
cm of chili pepper
2 cloves of garlic
2 small leeks
1 carrot
1 celery stalk
1 small chinese eggplant
roasted red peppers (I used about 1/3 of a ziploc bag full - about 3 Shepard peppers) *
red wine

To remove skin and seeds from tomato:
Bring a pot of water to a boil, leaving enough room for tomatoes. Make very shallow slices all around the tomato to make a cross shape. Add tomatoes to boiling water. Boil until skin starts to peel back, a minute or two. The riper the tomatoes are, the quicker this will happen. Remove from water and allow to cool. Peel off the skin and cut off the tough stem areas.

Cut into quarters. Remove seeds and put into a fine strainer over a bowl. Cut remaining tomato flesh into bite sized pieces. Once all the tomatoes have been seeded, move the fleshy seeds around in the strainer to remove all the juices. Add these juices to the diced tomatoes.

Heat olive oil in saucepan over medium-high heat. Add pieces of chicken breast and cook for 5-8 minutes until almost cooked through.

Add chili pepper and garlic and saute for 3 minutes. Add leeks, carrots, celery, and eggplant.

Cook until vegetables are beginning to brown. Add tomatoes and roasted red pepper.

Once simmering, add a splash of red wine and stir.
Allow sauce to simmer for about 20 minutes, until desired consistency is reached.

almost there...

This can be served on it's own or with any kind of bread or pasta. I had it on couscous with Asiago cheese on top. Delizioso! (yes I had to use an online translator for that)

Crostini and Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers

For my parent's anniversary they received a wonderful gift basket from a friend with lots of Italian food products. It came with a jar of mushroom bruschetta and ever since, my Mom and I have been thinking about eating it with some nice crusty bread. While we were at the store yesterday we picked up a whole-wheat french baguette. We had all that we needed.

Before we began I wanted to make sure I would like this mushroom bruschetta. It looked delicious but I had no idea what it would taste like. So I tasted a bit and wasn't a big fan. I love mushrooms but didn't enjoy this preserve at all. So this led to creating two different kinds of crostini since my Mom liked the mushroom brushcetta.

I sliced the baguette thinly. Normally when making crostini you would toast the slices first, and then top them, but I was a little impatient. I topped half of the fresh slices with the mushroom bruschetta, and half with thinly sliced tomato and jarred hot banana peppers. Then I sprinkled them all with a bit of Parmesan cheese. I set the oven to broil and they took about 5 minutes to toast. So simple and delicious!

I had my crostini with barbecued eggplant and zucchini that my Dad had made the day before. I am not quite sure how he does it, but this is the BEST way to eat eggplant and zucchini. I will make a post on that recipe in the future.

For dinner I got together with Jenna to make a recipe from Healthy Girl Cooking. We have been eying multiple recipes from this site, and finally got around to making something. We decided to make Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers.

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers, modified from healthygirlcooking.com

3 large bell peppers that stand up well
1 cup cooked quinoa
1 cup beans (any kind you like)
1 cup corn
1 tomato, chopped finely
10 basil leaves, chopped finely
parmesan cheese

Mix the quinoa, beans, corn, tomato and basil in a bowl. Cut off the tops of the peppers and cut out any seeds and white flesh.

Stuff pepper with as much filling as it can handle.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes. Sprinkle Parmesan cheese on top and bake for another 3-5 minutes.

Boy were these guys filling. They are very nutritious as well. They were lacking in the flavour department though. I would not serve these to guests until making some adjustments with the flavour. We brainstormed some ideas to increase the delicious factor for these peppers and came up with a few ideas:

• after filling the peppers half-way, add a layer of cottage or goat's cheese, before filling the rest with the stuffing, OR mix in the cheese with the stuffing.
  
• add a bit of salt, simple as that.
• add cumin or coriander; there are endless possibilities in the spice department here.
• cooking the quinoa in flavoured broth or tomato juice, or mixing in some tomato paste after cooking.

Any other ideas for making these stuffed peppers spectacular?

Breaded Eggplant

Did you know that eggplant is also called aubergine? I didn't! Usually when I cook with eggplant it is a failure. It often comes out spongy in stir-fries, which is my go-to method of cooking vegetables. Sometimes when eggplant is not fresh, it is neccessary to salt it, so that it doesnt act like a sponge.

Yesterday I bought an eggplant and was trying to think what to do with it. I had some leftovers of the black bean tomato sauce, so I thought an eggplant parmesan-type dish would be nice.

My Dad keeps a bowl of a good breading mix on hand. It is about a one to one mixture of whole-wheat bread crumbs and cornflakes. It also has some oregano in it. Any of a variety of spices can be added depending on your taste. Some classics would include oregano, basil, parsley or chili flakes. Some interesting ones to try would be cumin, coriander or even dill. I sliced the eggplant into about 1 cm slices. They were dipped in egg whites and then dredged in the breading mixture. They were then baked on a lightly oiled pan at 400 degrees F for about 12 minutes each side.


A great addition to this would be a little bit of parmesan cheese. They could be used to make a veggie sandwhich, or eaten on their own with some tomato sauce like I did.