All About Eggplant

Despite the hot, summer weather, I still felt like baking eggplant parmigiana last night.  Normally when it's hot and sticky out, I don't want to eat warm foods.  I'd rather have a sandwich or salad, than a casserole.  Not to mention, I don't want to be in my sweaty kitchen.  See, I technically have air condition, but it's not central air;  it's a small window unit that's positioned in the living room, which is nowhere near the kitchen.  Even when I have it on the coldest possible setting, it still doesn't make its way down my long, narrow hallway to cool off the kitchen.  So it's kind of unbearable to be there when it's pushing 90 degrees outside.

Nonetheless, I was set on making eggplant parm.  There are two ways you can do it: buy an actual eggplant and slice it up, or buy pre-cut, pre-breaded eggplant.  Normally, I avoid option two because it has bad ingredients and it's usually coated with egg.  But, when I found Dominex all-natural, vegan eggplant cutlets in the natural foods section of the grocery store, I didn't think twice.  It was reasonably priced, low calorie, and seemed like it had enough for a few single servings, or a very hearty meal for two people (with leftovers).

The recipe on the back says to spread a layer of tomato sauce in a pan, position the eggplant on top and cover with more sauce and cheese, then bake for 35 minutes on  425 degrees.  I thought that might make it all soggy, though.  Instead, I separately baked the eggplant in a pan coated with olive oil for about 10-15 minutes on each side.  On the stove, I heated up Newman's Own Roasted Peppers & Garlic pasta sauce, and then boiled some linguine.  After draining and cooling the pasta, I put some of that on the plate and covered it with a light layer of sauce.   Then I put the eggplant on top, put more sauce on that, and then sprinkled shredded mozzarella as the finishing touch.  It turned out a lot better than the last time I attempted to make eggplant parm from scratch.  (I later found out that because it's a very watery plant, you need to let it drain on a paper towel for about an hour before you start cooking.)

Havana Feast

A few weeks ago, I wanted to cook a special meal for a special occasion.  For some odd reason, I decided I wanted to make Cuban food.  I had been searching for days on Food Gawker, and even though I found 100 recipes I wanted to try, what ultimately happened, was that it gave me ideas for my own recipes.  And it just kinda of worked out that all the foods centered around a Latin theme.  As I picked up some of the staple ingredients at various grocery stores, it took me back to a time in my life where I lived within walking distance of a fantastic Latin-American restaurant.

I vividly remember the first time I ever went to Cafe Citron.  I was living in Baltimore for the summer with one of my best friends, and we went to DC one night to pick up a chair or drop off a chair from someone (okay these details are fuzzy, but I swear I remember everything else). Well, my brother had been living there for a few years and he wanted to meet up with us for dinner.  So a group of us went to Cafe Citron in Dupont Circle.  I remember I was wearing a children's XL bright orange Syracuse t-shirt and jeans (which is strange, because I never wear t-shirts like that in public, unless I'm coming back from the gym and have to take care of an errand).  The restaurant decor is outrageous and fun and bright, with yellow walls and a two girls covered in glitter and feather headpieces dancing on the bar, and loud Latin music that makes you want to get up and sway your hips.  They have the best and strongest mojitos in the world.  I promise you will never find a better mojito anywhere.  Seriously.  They're amazing.  They also have delicious food that is reasonably priced.  Years later, when I moved to DC, I would take anyone who came to visit me there for dinner and drinks.  And after my evening GRE classes, me and one of my classmates would find ourselves sitting at one of the high, round bar tables sharing a pitcher of mojitos, and slowly erasing everything we just re-learned about seventh grade algebra.

So let's get back to the feast I cooked and how ridiculously good it was...  I made spicy jumbo shrimp using olive oil, crushed garlic (yes, I actually used my new garlic press), and cayenne pepper in a ziplock baggie.  I kind of guessed with the cayenne pepper, and maybe went a little overboard.  The shrimp was freakin' spicy!!  We enjoyed it anyway, but maybe next time I won't put as much in.  I wish I could give exact measurements, but the truth is, I have no idea.  See, my mom sent me a jar of cayenne pepper in the mail, but somehow the glass broke in transit.  Needless to say, my new, white gym socks, which were also in the package, were a lost cause.  But I managed to salvage most of the pepper and just kept it in a plastic baggie.  So I wasn't even shaking it out of a jar, rather, I was actually taking spoonfuls and throwing it into the bag until everything looked kind of red.  I popped the shrimp in the oven for about 20-25 minutes, flipping them over a few times.  I'm paranoid about cooking things thoroughly, so I may have left the shrimp in longer than needed.  

I also made a salsa-type mixture of black beans, mangoes, tomatoes, fresh corn, and avocados.  That was easy, but it took a surprisingly long time to dice everything.  Just drain and rinse the black beans, chop up the mangoes and tomatoes into cubes, and use a tool to get the corn off the cob (I actually have this little tool, since I'm technically not supposed to bite into corn because of my dental work).  Throw all of it in a bowl and toss with a little bit of lime juice.  Serve it on a plate, and lay sliced avocados across the top.  I've actually seen similar recipes like this served on top of quinoa.  I may have to try that next time.

Lastly, I made oven-fried plantains.  Imagine larger, denser, and tastier fried bananas.  It baffled me that I was even able to find plantains in a small town, but I did.  And they were perfectly ripe too.  All the recipes I found online said to use plantains that are mostly black on the peel because that's how you can tell they're ripe.  After peeling them, I cut them in half, and then sliced them into think strips.  I threw those on a baking sheet and then drizzled olive oil and sea salt.  They were in the oven for a very long time.  I was following a recipe that said to put them for 10 minutes on each side on 450*, but I felt like I kept them in there for a half hour to make them extra crispy.  I've noticed that I use recipes as loose guides, and kind of alter them to what I think works better for me.  My recommendation is to put them in there for 30 minutes, flipping them every ten minutes.

My dinner was quite the success!  It was paired with a nice bottle of pinot grigio that was recommended to complement spicy foods, and it certainly helped with the shrimp.  I felt very pleased with the way everything turned out and would have to say that this is probably the best thing I have ever cooked.  There were many different flavors and textures, and overall it turned out to be a pretty healthy and balanced meal. 

Let's Talk Tofu

I like tofu in restaurants because they always know how to cook it.  For a vegetarian, I actually don't know how to cook it, so I never really eat it.   Tofu is soybean curd (I am having a hard time even writing that because the word "curd" kind of disgusts me for some reason).  It's low in calories and saturated fat, contains no sodium or cholesterol, and is really high in protein.

Well, the other day, I decided that I was going to figure out how to cook it.  This is what I came up with.  Turns out that it's not hard to cook tofu.  The great thing about it, is that tofu picks up whatever flavor you want it to have-- kind of like chicken.  In this recipe, I sauteed leftover broccoli, baby carrots and sugar snap peas in olive oil, garlic, and some Italian herbs (a blend of basic, oregano, red bell pepper, garlic, thyme, fennel and black pepper).  In a separate frying pan, I cut up the tofu into little cubes, and pan fried that with the same type of seasoning.  I cooked that until both sides were browned and crispy.

Okay, so it didn't taste like a restaurant at all.  But it had a nice flavor and served its purpose, which was to provide me with a healthy meal.  I liked that it wasn't saturated in a thick sauce, too.  Too often Chinese and Thai restaurants have their tofu drenched in some sort of liquid.  While it tastes delicious, it also means it's probably not the best for you and are loaded with calories and fat.

I will make this again.  It's super inexpensive, it's easy enough for someone who doesn't know exactly what they're doing in the kitchen, and it's healthy and filling.  This is one of those recipes where you can kind of make it up as you go along.  Try chopped up squash, or fry the tofu with garlic instead.