Eggplant and Garlic

...two of my favorite things! Dinner tonight contained copious amounts of both. And since it's already past my bedtime, we're jumping straight to the recipes without further ado... (after I apologize for any typo's that might appear, because I'm hitting send and going to bed!)

Lebanese Style Stuffed Eggplant

*******************Take 6 of the 5- or 6-inch long baby eggplants and hollow each out with a melon baller. Leave about 1/3 inch of eggplant flesh along the interior. Set aside.

Heat a small amount of olive oil in a skillet over medium-high heat. Fry about 3 tablespoons of pine nuts until golden...keep a close eye on them and stir frequently or they will burn! Once toasted, tranfer them to a mixing bowl.

Finely chop about 4 cloves of garlic and 1 large onion. In skillet, heat up a little more olive oil and saute half garlic and onion. After a couple minutes, add about 3/4 pound of ground meat (I used pork. you can use lamb, chicken, beef...whatever!) and brown with a bit of salt and pepper. After meat is cooked through, transfer to bowl with pine nuts. Add about 1 teaspoon of allspice and salt and pepper and mix well. Set aside for a minute.

******************In same skillet, saute the other half of the garlic and onions. Add about 2 cups of chicken stock and 14 oz diced tomatoes with juice...recipe called for canned - I used fresh. I also threw in some fresh parsley that I had chopped and a bit more salt and pepper. Simmer uncovered and go stuff the eggplants with the meat mixture.

Transfer stuffed eggplants to skillet with the sauce and simmer, covered for about 45 minutes to an hour. Carefully turn the eggplants once about halfway through the cooking process.

Once cooked, serve with fresh lemon juice and parsley sprinkled on top.

Roasted Cauliflower

Had this tonight too. It's my favorite way to cook cauliflower. Simply pre-heat oven to 425 degrees. Throw cauliflower florets into a baking dish. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle on thyme and fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Roast until golden brown, stirring frequently to avoid burnt spots. Tonight...I took it straight out of the oven and tossed it into a bowl of baby spinach. Once mixed, the heat from the cauliflower wilted the spinach a bit. It tasted good and looked pretty and snuck in yet another serving of veggies!

Garlic Sauce

I believe I've mentioned how excruciatingly delicious this stuff is! It's good on asparagus or green beans. Fresh yellow squash rounds are to die for when used to scrape the last of the sauce out of the food processor! It elevates a piece of fish or a chicken breast to haute cuisine! But be careful! It's NOT low fat! It has tons of flavor, so a little really does go a long way. And it will keep in the fridge for about a week!

****************** First mince 4 or 5 cloves of garlic...start by thinly slicing the cloves, then roughly chopping.

Once it's all chopped, add about 1 tsp of sea salt, then mash the hell out of it with the side of the blade of your chef's knife until it looks like this:

Once minced, throw it in a food processor. Begin processing, adding a total of 1 cup canola oil and 1/4 cup lemon juice...alternating a little of each at a time until all liquids are added. Easiest way I've found to do this is to stick a funnel in the top of my processor!



Once done, slowly add one or two egg whites while still continuously blending, until you get a nice mayo-like consistency. And that's it! Minimal input...amazing taste!

So there...three new recipes! Now it's time to go sleep!