Posts tagged as:

garlic

Marinated Eggplant with Garlic and Herbs

November 23, 2009

Did you miss me? I hope you did.

Let me tell you what I was upto – I was writing a chapter for 55 Knives. Erm, what’s that? That is an upcoming e-book that will feature some really, really awesome food bloggers, including Nicole of Pinch My Salt and Sprouted Kitchen. I was (and still am) beyond flattered to know I’m in such good company. So, through last week, I was writing, rewriting, editing and proof editing my chapter of 1200 words.

Now this should be easy because writing a chapter is like writing a long blog post, right? Wrong. Unlike blogging, where I can assume you already know me, I had to write this book for a reader who doesn’t know me at all. Plus, it was deadline work. And while I can write up a blog post in well under an hour, writing this chapter was a whole ‘nother ball game. I finally turned in my first draft on Friday. One week late (see, I told you I don’t like deadlines) – with much of a push from orangefoodie.

UPDATE – MAY 2010: The 55 Knives book is now available and selling wonderfully! And if you haven’t had enough of your eggplant cravings, you can read my recipe for Stuffed Eggplant on page 71 of the book along with a short story on my love for food and cooking. So get your copy of 55 Knives today!

In other news, my mango chutney has been featured on Saveur. So happy to be on their list! There will be some bigger, better news soon enough but I need to hold on to it for just a little bit.

Now let’s get to that gorgeous eggplant recipe, shall we?

Eggplant, yellow chilli, sweet marjoram and marinade

I have been leafing through the recipes in the Ottolenghi book ever since I got it, and every recipe looks absolutely stunning. With loads of garlic and lemon in most of the recipes, I think this book was written just for me. Given my recent fascination with eggplant, I tried the marinated eggplant recipe. And my, was it delicious – served with a garlicky tahini sauce, I loved it! My mom enjoyed it so much, she reserved some to take for lunch to work the next day.

I recently found a yellow chili plant at a local nursery which I used instead of the red chilies. And I substituted oregano with its milder cousin, sweet marjoram. Plus I used the awesome infusion technique I learned when I made the now-famous garlicky baked fries instead of simply plopping the garlic into the oil. Fantastic results!

Marniated Eggplant with Tahini Sauce

Adapted from: The Ottolenghi Cookbook

Serves: 4

1.5 lb. / 750g eggplants

Olive oil for brushing

Salt and pepper for seasoning

Marinade:

1 mild red chili or 3-4 mild yellow chilies

2 tbsp coriander/cilantro, finely chopped

2 tbsp sweet marjoram, finely chopped

1 garlic clove, crushed

3 tbsp lemon juice

4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp coarse sea salt

1 tsp cayenne pepper

Tahini Sauce:

1/3rd cup / 75g tahini paste

1/3rd cup / 75 ml water

3 tbsp / 40 ml lemon juice

2 garlic cloves, crushed

Preheat oven to 220C/425F.
Trim the eggplants; cut them into wedges such that each wedge has skin on it.
Place the wedges in a roasting tray and brush with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Bake this for 15-18 minutes until they are golden brown and soft inside.
For the marinade, heat 4 tbsp oil with the garlic until the garlic is fragrant and just begins to sizzle. Turn off the heat. Let this cool a little and then add the other ingredients and mix well.
As soon as the eggplants come out of the oven, toss them with the marinade and let it sit at room temperature for at least 2 hours before serving. You can refrigerate this for up to 2 days. Make sure to serve them at room temperature, though.
For the tahini sauce, whisk together the tahini paste, water, lemon, garlic and salt thoroughly. The mixture should be smooth and creamy. If the mixture looks too thick then add a little more water by the teaspoon.
Serve the tahini sauce with the eggplants.

{ 34 comments }

Parmesan Roasted Broccoli

November 11, 2009

Does this look like the same old broccoli that we are all used to?

I love broccoli. I mean, what’s not to like? It’s healthy, it’s fresh, it’s colourful, it’s crunchy, it’s tasty, it’s great!

It stumps me when I read stories about parents have a tough time shoving broccoli down their little ones’ throats while they make a fuss about eating their greens. In fact, the only vegetable I thought I didn’t like was green beans. That was until I tried a green bean stir fry at a restaurant in NYC. I couldn’t believe I asked for more! That’s when it struck me that it’s not about that vegetable, it’s about how it is cooked. Each vegetable is different and it needs to be cooked right to extract the maximum flavor from it.

So the other day while I was flipping through the pages of Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics, I stopped at the photo of Parmesan roasted broccoli. Whenever I read Parmesan, my heart tends to skip a beat. And now that I had a few heads of broccoli in the refrigerator (along with all the other ingredients – yeah, I was surprised too!) this was the perfect opportunity to make myself some Parmesan roasted broccoli!

Just something that I’d like to share with you – I love this book a lot because it is filled with simple ideas that are so easy to put together in minutes. It is the ideal cookbook to refer to when you want a fix yourself a quick, healthy dinner. This and Nigel Slater’s Real Fast Food are kept together in my bookshelf for meals that take under 30 minutes.

Back to the broccoli. It took about 10 minutes to prepare, and the parmesan along with the broccoli was so cruncy and flavourful! What complemented the broccoli the most was the lime zest (I love you, my Microplane zester, you made zesting so much easier!) – it added such a zing to the dish. Loved when my mouth was hit with some grated zest that had held together. And no points for guessing that I doubled the quantity of garlic involved.

Parmesan Roasted Broccoli

Serves 6
Adapted from: Barefoot Contessa Back to Basics – Ina Garten

4-5 pounds / 2kgs broccoli
8 garlic cloves, peeled and thinly sliced
4-6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
2 tsp lemon or lime zest (I used lime)
2 tbsp lemon or lime juice (lime, again)
4 tbsp pine nuts, toasted
½ cup parmesan cheese, freshly grated
2 tbsp basil, julienned
Salt and pepper to season

Cut and wash the broccoli into chunky florets (they will reduce in size after roasting). Then lay the broccoli out on a kitchen napkin to dry (like, very, very dry) while you prep things up.
Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C.
Now in a sheet pan, arrange the broccoli in a single layer and toss the garlic on it. Drizzle with 4 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil. Season with salt and freshly ground pepper.
Roast for 20 minutes or until the broccoli has browned a bit and the broccoli has a crisp-tender texture.
As soon as you remove it from the oven, toss it with 1-2 tbsp of olive oil and the rest of the ingredients – lemon juice, lemon zest, pine nuts, Parmesan and basil. Serve hot.

Some points that will help you along the way:

Make sure to dry the broccoli very well before you roast them – if they have water on them they will tend to steam more than dry roast. You could lay them on a kitchen napkin for 30 minutes after you’ve washed them.
Let your pan preheat in the oven so it gets scorching hot, and then toss the broccoli on it to get maximum crispiness.
I think the lemon is the key part – don’t skimp on the lime zest – add a squeeze of the lime juice if you like (I didn’t though).
I loved the pine nuts in them. I think walnuts would taste fab too.

I hope this works and you get your family to eat their greens. Though, I still haven’t replicated that green bean recipe, I’m so scared I might fail and go back to hating green beans!

{ 49 comments }

Garlicky Baked Fries

April 12, 2009

GARLIC FRIES

I’m never going to make garlic potato fries any other way.

These garlic fries, win hands down as the best garlic french fries I’ve ever made. Plus they are baked – so I won’t feel too guilty if I make it every time I’m craving for some potato comfort.

When I read that there is garlic infused oil involved, my heart skipped a beat (in a good way, not the way oil would otherwise treat your heart). I got down to making them immediately. I used extra virgin olive oil instead of vegetable oil because I just love the aroma that garlic and olive oil combine to impart. And added to potatoes while baking – how could it be anything short of perfect? I also used more garlic to make my french fries extra garlicky fries!

crispy golden baked fries

These garlic fries are incredibly simple to make and are so full of flavour. They were gobbled down as soon as they were out of the oven. I had to hear a lot of “Take the photos next time!” and “Can I pick just one?” while I was trying to capture some shots of these crispy, golden babies.

crunchy potato skin

Garlic Fries
Adapted from: Lottie + Doof

8 garlic cloves, minced
6 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
3 russet potatoes (about 8oz each), each cut into 12 wedges
3 tbsp cornstarch/cornflour
1 1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp garlic powder
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

warm and soft interior

Preheat oven to 225°C/440° F.
Combine the garlic and oil in a large bowl, warming it until the garlic is fragrant, about 1 minute.
Transfer 5 tablespoons of the oil (leaving the garlic in the bowl) to the baking sheet, coating it well.
Add the potatoes to the bowl with the garlic mixture and toss to coat. Wrap tightly in plastic wrap and microwave on high power until the potatoes are translucent around the edges, 3 to 6 minutes, shaking the bowl to redistribute the potatoes halfway through cooking.
Combine the cornstarch, salt, pepper, garlic powder, and cayenne in a small bowl. Sprinkle over the hot potatoes and toss well to coat.
Arrange the potatoes in a single layer on the prepared baking sheet and bake, turning once, until deep golden brown and crisp, 30 to 40 minutes.
Serve with ketchup, mayo or sour cream.

Update: Given that I do not like to use the microwave for cooking, and plastic cling wrap is a little scary to use, I have tried making these garlic fries by par-boiling the potatoes and then letting them steam dry by laying them in a single layer on kitchen napkin. I proceeded with step 5 and it turned out to be SO GOOD!

{ 355 comments }

The Stinking Rose

January 15, 2008

Garlic

The Egyptians worshipped it and the Greek athletes turned not to steroids, but to this bulb vegetable to enhance their performance. Garlic was so highly-prized; it was even used as currency. That is the power of the Stinking Rose.

That said, garlic is something you’d either love or loathe. There is no in-between. I for one, love garlic and could do with the golden fried garlic garnish with most of my savory foods.

Chopping, crushing or mincing garlic will have all the juices released. Add a little salt and you’ll have some more juice. One raw finely chopped garlic clove releases more flavour than a bunch of cooked whole cloves. Sauté, poach, oven roast, fry or grill. From a crispy garnish to a creamy lump to make a paste for mashed potatoes, garlic shows versatility. When garlic cloves are cooked or baked whole, the flavour mellows into a sweetish nutty flavour (yes, garlic can be mild too, that how it’s used in ice-creams). And don’t be fooled by the size, small bulbs of garlic can be as much as 20 times as intense in flavour as the larger bulbs.

When sautéing garlic, do so on a low flame, because garlic cooks very fast and can quickly turn awfully bitter. To counter an overdose of garlic in soups and stews, fill a tea ball with parsley flakes and put it in the pot until it soaks up the excessive garlic flavor.

Garlic is also most nutritive when freshly crushed before cooking. For this I find the garlic press to be quite a nifty tool instead of banging my knife on the board or bring out the mortar and pestle for a larger quantity. The garlic press is quick and effective.

Oh, and simply rubbing a clove on a warm slice of crusty bread imparts the most delicious hint of garlic. I like a stronger flavour so what I do is prepare some garlic butter and keep for later use for making some quick garlic bread.

During winters my grandma used to make some ladoos with fresh green garlic and pearl millets for breakfast. The garlic warms the body and the yoghurt eaten along with it balances the heat. You can have a look at the recipe and method of cooking at Chachi’s Kitchen. The difference being that my Grandma use clarified butter and smokes the mixture with hot charcoal before making the roundels.

Garlic may not always bring good luck or protect against evil or ward off vampires, but it will transform a meal into a bold, aromatic and healthy experience.

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