Oven-Fried Eggplant

This simple recipe comes from about.com.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp plus half tsp salt, divided

2 eggplants

2 cups fresh breadcrumbs (Adrienne's note: I used panko)

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

pinch of cayenne

2 tsp vegetable oil

2 eggs

Directions:

In a large bowl, dissolve 2 tbsp salt in one cup of warm water. add 3 quarts cold water. Set aside.

Trim eggplant and cut into 1/2-inch thick, 3 to 4 inch long sticks. Put in salt water, submerge with an upside-down plate, and let sit for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, combine breadcrumbs, remaining 1/2 tsp salt, pepper, and cayenne, if you like. Add oil and use your fingers to work the oil into the breadcrumb mixture. Transfer to a large plate or shallow bowl. Set aside.

Whisk eggs to break them up completely. When you lift the whisk up, it should be as lifting it out of water.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Liberally oil a large baking sheet or use nonstick.

Drain and thoroughly dry eggplant sticks.

Keeping one hand dry and one hand wet, dip an eggplant stick in the eggs, lift it out and shake off any excess egg, put stick in breadcrumbs mixture and coat completely, lift out and shake off any excess breadcrumbs, transfer stick to prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining sticks.

Bake, turning once, until brown, crispy, and tender to the bite, about 30 minutes. Serve hot.

Kale Hummus

WOW! I finally learned how to make hummus. It's so easy! I'm so excited about making more with different ingredients: roasted red pepper, roasted garlic, roasted eggplant, and more! We had this hummus with toasted pita wedges.

This recipe comes from the blog 365 Days of Kale. I guess there are some kale MANIACS out there!

Ingredients:

1 cup cooked garbanzo beans, drained

2 tbsp tahini

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup chiffonaded curly kale

Directions:

Put all ingredients in a food processor except the kale. Pulse until smooth.

Put kale in food processor with hummus-- pulse until kale is chopped into very small green flecks but still with enough texture that it is just slightly lumpy.

Baked Kale Lumpia!

This was an experiment that worked out! And the possibilities are endless for different filling combinations. Next time, we might used glass noodles, chopped peanuts, chicken, etc. We might halve the amount of kale and double the amount of pork, etc. Have fun with this!

Ingredients:

1/4 cup chopped green onions

4 cups chiffonaded curly kale

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 garlic cloves, minced

1 inch ginger nub, minced

1/3 cup shredded carrots

1/4 cup ground pork

1/3 cup chopped onion

2 tbsp shoyu

8 lumpia wrappers

Pam spray

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, pour in 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Sweat the garlic and ginger until fragrant. Add in the onions and stir until translucent. Add in pork and break in and stir until cooked. Add in green onion and shredded carrot. Mix well and season with salt and pepper and 1 tbsp shoyu. Set pork mixture aside.

Wipe out saucepan. Pour in 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Wilt in the 4 cups of chiffonaded kale. This should take about 5-10 minutes. The kale will reduce in volume to about 1 1/2 cups. Season with 1 tbsp shoyu.

Pour pork mixture into kale in the saucepan and mix well. This is the filling mixture. Set aside to cool. Feel free to experiment with different ingredients in different proportions.

While you wait for the filling to cool down, cover a cookie sheet with foil and spray Pam all over the sheet.

Peel off one lumpia wrapper at a time. Place the lumpia wrapper-- oriented like a diamond-- on the table in front of you. Imagine a line dividing the lumpia wrapper in half horizontally. Place 2 tbsp of cooled filling centered a little below this dividing line. Pull up the bottom corner over the filling, fold in the left and right corners, and roll the lumpia up.

Place the filled lumpia on the foil-lined cookie sheet and Pam-spray them liberally on both sides.

Bake in the oven for 20 minutes, flipping halfway through.

The lumpia will be crispy and relatively lower in fat than if fried in oil. Serve with dipping sauce (we are classy mofos and used our extra Jack in the Box sweet and sour sauce).

Easy Cod Ceviche

Willie is becoming a ceviche MASTER! For this ceviche, he used a combination of Meyer lemons and lime for the citrus and a combination of cod and shrimp for the seafood. Next time, he says he'll use just the cod (which we get individually frozen from Costco). We topped this ceviche with ripe avocado chunks, which provided a smooth and creamy contrast to the sharp and tangy citrus and onions. (Recipe from Claire Robinson, available on foodtv.com)

Ingredients:

2 lbs fresh sea bass or flounder fillets, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 cup freshly squeezed lime juice

1 cup chopped and seeded tomatoes

1 habanero pepper, seeded and finely minced

1 tsp salt

1/2 red onion, finely diced

Directions:

In a large glass bowl, combine all the ingredients, except the onion. Toss well and put the onion on top. Cover with plastic wrap and allow it to sit in the refrigerator for 1 1/2 hours, then stir to incorporate the onion. Let sit in the refrigerator for 1 hour and up to 3 hours.

Abbondanza!

What came in the CSA box this week....

Oyster Sauce Baby Bok Choy

This recipe comes from Willie. The night we ate this, he also cooked rice and bought some roast duck and roast pork from Nam Fong.

Ingredients:

3 small heads of baby bok choy
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 tbsp garlic, minced

1 tbsp ginger, minced
3 tbsp shoyu
2 tbsp oyster sauce

Directions:

Pour the vegetable oil, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic into a cold wok. Set heat to medium and continuously stir ingredients together so that they become aromatic and well married. After about 5 minutes, throw in the bok choy. It should start wilting after 2 or 3 more minutes. Pour in the shoyu, cover, and simmer for about 5 minutes. The leaves should be fully wilted, but the stalks should remain firm. Remove from heat and garnish with oyster sauce.

Shake-and-Bake Green Beans (EXPERIMENTAL)

This recipe was inspired by a Safeway frozen food side dish. The beans came out too dry and chewy, so the recipe below is what I think is right, but we are still experimenting.


Ingredients:
1 bag of string beans, with ends cut off
1 bag of Shake and Bake
1 egg, mixed
1 tbsp milk

Directions:
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Parboil string beans for 5 minutes. Set aside, cool, and dry.
Mix egg with milk. Dip string beans into the egg wash. Pour Shake-and-Bake onto a plate. Toss the beans in the Shake-and-Bake mix to coat. On a greased foil-lined pan, place the string beans in a single layer and bake for ten minutes. Serve with Green Goddess Dressing as a dipping sauce.