(This post is dedicated to our friend Miss Francine, who alerted us to the edibility of the eggplant and was our inspiration for planting any at all.)
Well we learned that these papers (upon papers) that have taken over our person are Taxes. She is re-doing two years of taxes due to the good amount of extra refund she will receive. And it is indeed taxing. Last night we barely stayed an hour at the dog park before she wanted to go home back to her papers. You can imagine how little love and how few treats we are getting at this time. And the home is a disaster of files and printouts and little peels of label backing. The cat loves the skinny little label backs to play with, but there's nothing in it for a dog. So, I, Eli, went out to the garden to see what was what. The neighbor boys tried to catch me, which is ridiculous, I was going right back inside. I picked several lovely eggplants and thought we'd try another eggplant dish: the highly acclaimed Eggplant Parmesan, but baked not fried. Perhaps if we spend our morning at this, we will win the girl, Me, over with our epicurean acumen.
We may as well say that there are two websites in the world that matter, no, three:
1. epicurious.com
2. cooksillustrated.com
3. hounds who cook - the blog
The first site is where we live and breathe, where we learned to cook, and where we linger in the wee hours of the morning when the girl is asleep and no morsels were left on the counter for a hound's midnight snack. Then we surf through epicurious.com and dream of all of the delectables to make tomorrow. (I have to keep Guthrie back from the screen, or he will drool on the keyboard. Here he is pictured last night. See the big mess from taxes?)
The second site is a worthy one even though we object that it never pictures dogs. If you're going to illustrate something, you ought to include a fair representation of dogs. Still, they know how to cook and we like their fancy tips. Like the one today about baking, not frying, the eggplants and using Kosher salt even if you're not Jewish (which Me might be, partially).
The third site is probably your favorite one. Ours too. We are humble hounds but quite proud culinarians. (Guthrie wanted me to write culinicians. Later I'll let him make up a word.)
Here is our garden bounty that I, Eli, harvested this morning. The eggplants might be small for picking. If someone knows about picking eggplant, leave your valuable advice in the comments. We pretty much pick them whenever we want to cook one up. The tomatoes will all be made into luscious sauce for the e'plants (Guthrie's word). The cucumber is a snack for the cook's good pleasure while he's working. Look, just look, at the basil. Can you smell it? (A hound can smell things even across the Internet.)A word about peeling: Me's elder woman is insistent that The Eggplant should be peeled, so we did it for her because we're sure to share some with her. And Me's elder man is particular that The Tomato should be peeled. He peels them for every occasion, even for BLTs. (Which Me has tried to convince him to never eat anymore due to the B portion. (Bacons).) Dog's don't mind peel of any kind, but for the elders we peeled.
BTW, gentle pups, don't dismay at this long process. You will be well rewarded with your dinner then. Start early so as to allow time for the eggplant to steep in salt - 1 to 3 hours. And make all the other fixings and do your various gratings while you wait.
Here's how we eggplanted today. We adapted this from Cooks Illustrative and made it our dog-own. See if you like it:
Eggplant Parmesan
Me's Independent Rating: 3 of 3
Part One: The Eggplant
2 pounds Eggplant (exactly the amount pictured)
1 tablespoon Kosher salt (this is on purpose)
8 slices of whole wheat bread or buns (stale is fine)
1 cup just-grated Parmesan (2 ounces)
sea salt
pepper
4 eggs
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 cup whole wheat flour
Part Two: The Luscious Fresh Sauce
6-8 cups chopped fresh tomato (about 3-4 pounds)
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
4 cloves garlic, crushed and minced (see the "Chopping Garlic" post)
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves, chopped
Part Three: The Assemblage
2 cups just-shredded mozzarella (8 ounces)
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese (1 ounce)
10 fresh basil leaves for garnish
Part One: Preparing of the Eggplant
Cut off each end of the eggplants and peel them, if desired. Cut them crosswise into 1/4-inch-thick rounds. Toss them with Kosher salt. (Kosher because it won't dissolve as much and the excess can be wiped away before cooking, say our hounds at Cook's Illustrative.) and drain in a colander. Let stand 45 minutes to 3 hours - whatever you have to spare. Several tablespoons of liquid should drain off. Skip to Part Two and make the sauce while you're waiting, and grate the needed cheeses for later in Part One and Part Three.
Next squeeze the e'plants between clean kitchen towels, (the cotton flour sack kind, not the nappy kind) which have been folded twice into 4 layers of cloth each. Lay the e'plant slices in a single layer on one folded towel, cover with the other, and have your brother press on each one. For dogs, we can do 4 at a time. A person may like to try pressing over them repeatedly with a rolling pin. Wipe off any obvious salt.
Heat up the oven and two baking sheets ahead to 425F.
Grate the bread with a large-holed cheese grater, or pulse in a food processor for about 5 cups of fine crumbs. Mix together crumbs, 1 cup Parmesan, 1/4 teaspoon sea salt, and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Set aside.
Combine flour and 1 teaspoon pepper in a bag and shake. Set aside.
Beat eggs. Set aside.
Line up these three set-asides on the counter top and work with 7 or so e'plant slices at a time as follows:
- Shake in flour to coat. Jiggle off excess.
- Dip in egg, letting excess drip off.
- Coat with crumbs
- Set aside on a rack
Remove hot baking sheets from the oven and coat each one with 3 Tablespoons oil. Arrange e'plants in a single layer on each pan. Bake 8 minutes for small slices (3-inch diameter) or 10 minutes for larger slices (4-5 inch diameter) then switch and rotate pans. Bake 8-10 more minutes and turn over eggplants. Bake 8-10 more minutes til browned and crisp.
Part Two: Preparing of the Luscious Fresh Sauce
Puree about two-thirds of the chopped tomatoes until almost smooth. Heat olive oil, garlic, and red pepper flakes in large cast iron (if you're Guthrie) pan. Stir just until fragrant and garlic is golden, don't burn the fragile garlics. Stir in pureed tomato and remaining chopped tomato. Bring to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer, stirring occasionally until slightly thickened and reduced. About 30 minutes. Stir in chopped basil and season to taste with sea salt and pepper.
Part Three: The Grand Assemblage - a Standard Method
Standard procedure now would have you alternate layers of tomato sauce, eggplant slices and cheese, like a lasagne type of layering, ending with cheese on top. Do that if you like, leaving the Parmesan and part of the mozzarella for the top. Bake 13-15 minutes until bubbling and browned. Cool 10 minutes and garnish with basil leaves. However, we hounds devised a preferred method for the Grand Assemblage:
Part Three: The Grand Assemblage - the Hounds-Who-Cook Preferred Method
We hounds believe that the liklihood of the e'plants soggying up is just too high with the standard method. (Whatever you do, don't port it across town to your elders' house. It's sure to have sogged up by then.) We think this is the most delicious way to serve these exquisite elements:
Prepare to broil each serving separately in ovenproof bowls. Ladle 1/2 - 3/4 cup tomato sauce into the bowl, cover with eggplant slices, layering them over each other so each is only partially in the sauce. Sprinkle with mozarella and parmesan and put briefly under the broiler just to melt the cheese. Serve post haste while the eggplant is crispy and succulent. If the company has not arrived, eat without them. Tell them an excellent eggplant parmesan waits for neither human nor hound.
Tips from Guthrie: (a) We think we picked the eggplants a bit too skinny which meant more work salting, squishing, breading and cooking them. If only someone had told us when you can pick them. (b) We worked all day, snout to the ground, as they say, slaving on this and made the dire mistake of Not eating it immediately. Guess who's idea that was? Not a hound's, I can tell you that. The girl insisted we take the supper to the elder's house.
Well, anyone knows something crispy becomes soft when covered, even a hound. We don't know what we were collectively thinking. All of that effort to acheive the perfect crispness - only to lose it all with the covering of the pan for 30 minutes. The flavors were still unmatched. Utterly unmatched, but the crispness was sacrificed in the transporting. The elder man liked it anyway because he loves all things with tomato sauce, as do we. The elder woman thought such small eggplants should have been cooked a bit less to still be moist and meaty. We could have done without the mozzarella and just kept it Parmesan all the way, too was my feeling.
Tips from Elias: Any cheese is good cheese - keep the mozarella in. Soft or crisp, since when does a hound need crisp? It was an entirely worthy meal and I don't know why our person, Me, keeps telling me "Snout out" of the bag. It's what she says when I am nosing where I'm not allowed. I'd be happy to eat the remains of the meal that we brought back, but it's "snout out" so I'm retiring to the living room where the Gute is snoring and moaning like a true hound and the cat has taken my chair. I believe I'll just tell him, "Snout out."
No comments:
Post a Comment