Eggplant Timbales with Quick and Easy Tomato-Basil Sauce

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Remember these? Nice presentation and all, but a bit labor intensive. Enter an easier, just as tasty version that takes half the time to prepare and plate: Tah-dah! Eggplant Timbales: Take Two.

Prepping the filling for the timbales took about 1/2 hour. The sauce is easily made while the timbales are roasting in a water bath for 1 hour. Not bad for a weeknight, hmmm?

Eggplant Timbales with Tomato-Basil Sauce
Ingredients:
for the timbales-
4 cups peeled eggplant cubes (1/2-inch dice)
olive oil for the pan
Kosher salt
1 - 15-ounce container low fat ricotta cheese
1/3 cup toasted pine nuts
2 tablespoons chopped sundried tomatoes, packed in oil, drained
3/4 cup coarsely grated parmigiano reggiano cheese
1/3 cup toasted, seasoned bread crumbs
2 eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons Italian herb mix
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper

Preparation:
Pre-heat oven to 375 degrees.
Using a very sharp chef's knife, slice the peel from the eggplant, cutting off the stem and stern ends.
With the eggplant sitting upright, cut 1/2-inch wide lengthwise slices, then cut each slice in 1/2-inch wide lengthwise strips, then cut those into 1/2-inch cubes.
(It took 1 large and 3 small eggplants to get 4 cups of cubes.)
Place these in a large, well-oiled roasting pan and roast at 375 degrees for about 18 minutes, shaking the pan frequently, until the cubes are golden brown and softened.
Remove the pan from the oven, then the cubes from the roasting pan and set aside to cool.
Turn the oven down to 350 degrees, wipe the roasting pan and set aside. You will use this in a few minutes to bake the timbales.

Meanwhile, combine the ricotta cheese, pine nuts, sundried tomato, parmesan, bread crumbs, Italian herbs (crush them with your fingers as you add them to release the fragrance) and eggs in a bowl and mix well.
Fold in the roasted eggplant as soon as it's cool enough to handle. Mix well but don't break up the cubes.
Season to taste with kosher salt and black pepper if needed.
Fill 6 6-ounce, lightly oiled, ceramic ramekins with the eggplant filling. Place the filled ramekins into the roasting pan and pour enough hot water into the pan to reach halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Cover the pan loosely with foil and roast in the oven for 1 hour or until firm to touch and slightly golden brown.

Using tongs, carefully remove the ramekins from the water bath and set on a heat-proof surface.

While the timbales are roasting...

...make this delicious sauce.

Quick and Easy Tomato-Basil Sauce
Christine's original recipe
Ingredients:
1 cipollini onion, chopped fine
2 whole cloves garlic, peeled and minced
handful of fresh basil leaves, left whole
1 large can whole tomatoes (I used Muir Glen Fire-roasted organic, simply the best canned tomato, IMHO)
1/3 cup red wine (I used a fun little Cabernet that I found at our local Co-op for under $10.)
olive oil
flat-leaf Italian parsley for garnish

Preparation:
In a skillet over medium heat, add a teaspoon of good olive oil and the chopped onions and sauté until beginning to soften.
Add the minced garlic and continue to sauté a few more minutes until both are soft and aromatic. Keep the heat adjusted so no burning occurs.
Add the entire can of tomatoes, breaking them up gently with a wooden spoon, then the basil leaves and the red wine.
Allow this mixture to simmer gently for 5 to 7 minutes, then remove from the heat and let it cool slightly.
Pour the chunky sauce into a food processor and pulse until thickly puréed, about 30 seconds.
Pour the sauce back into the skillet and keep warm until ready to serve.

Speaking of serving:
Run a knife around the inside of each ramekin to loosen the timbale.
Place several spoonfuls of sauce on a warmed plate.
Invert the timbale into your clean hand and place upside down on the sauce.
Sprinkle with chopped, fresh flat-leaf parsley. Mangia!

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Artichoke Pasta With A Creamy Cheesy Tuna-Artichoke Sauce

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Warning: If you've come to this blog looking for my more traditional low carb offerings, skip this post. This dish is high in fat and high in carbs and utterly, decadently delicious. If that floats your boat, read on.

So, what got into me? It was the pasta's fault. I couldn't resist. I went into my favorite Italian market and deli (Roy's Toscano Market in Eureka, CA) the other day and these jumped out at me. So softly green. Made in Italy. Two ingredients: Durum wheat semolina and dried artichokes. Produced by Maestri Pastai, the pasta is made using bronze draw plates that give it a rough surface and allows sauces to adhere better. I was doomed.

Then I had to come up with a sauce, didn't I? "Why didn't I skip this step and just glue it to my hips?" is what I ask no one in particular when I've indulged in something as highly caloric as this. Thank goodness I don't indulge very often.

Truly a what's-in-the-pantry sauce, I even managed to use a few locally produced ingredients which delights me no end: Carvalho's "minimal mercury" hand packed white coastal albacore (see Cook's Notes), Midnight Moon aged goat cheese, Humboldt Creamery half n half, cipollini onion and garlic from the farmers market. It almost makes up for the calories. Almost.

Creamy, Cheesy Tuna-Artichoke Sauce Over Artichoke Pasta
Christine's original recipe
Ingredients:
4 cups (about 1 pound) artichoke pasta or other small-shaped pasta
water
kosher salt for the pasta water
olive oil
1 cipollini onion, peeled and chopped
2 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 7.5-ounce can premium albacore tuna, broken up with a fork
1 jar marinated artichoke hearts, cut into small bites
1 3/4 cup half n half
1 1/2 cups grated Midnight Moon goat cheese
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
pinch red pepper flakes
kosher salt and freshly ground black peppercorns to taste
fried capers for garnish

Preparation:
Fill a pasta or stock pot with water and bring to a boil. Add at least 1 tablespoon of salt and the pasta. Bring back to a boil then lower the heat and keep at a simmer until the pasta is just tender.
Drain the pasta and return it to the pot. Drizzle with a small amount of olive oil, toss and keep warm, covered.
In a skillet over medium heat, add 1 tablespoon olive oil and the chopped onion and sauté until softened.
Add the garlic and red pepper flakes and stir until the garlic has softened but not browned.
Add the tuna and the cut up artichoke hearts and stir until warmed through.
Pour in the cream and bring just to a simmer. Do not allow to boil or it will curdle.
Off the heat, add the cheeses, stirring until melted.
Adjust seasonings with Kosher salt and black pepper to taste.
To serve, place the pasta on a warmed plate, spoon the sauce over the pasta and garnish with a few fried capers.

Cook's Notes:
Carvalho's hand-packed albacore is roasted in the can in its own juices so please don't throw the liquid down the drain. Just stir it into the sauce with the tuna.
I highly recommend frying up a handful of capers before beginning to make this dish. It takes no time at all and really gives the sauce a flavor punch.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Farmers Market Soup

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All the vegetables showcased in this soup were locally, organically grown and bought at yesterday's farmers market: Carrots, celeriac, red bell peppers, cipollini onions, garlic and mushrooms. We served this to two weary travelers who arrived from the rainy Northwest craving a warm, hearty soup. Now how did I know that?

To bring out the sweet goodness of the vegetables, they were first sautéed to a golden brown then added to the hot stock. Hot steamed rice and grated Midnight Moon aged goat cheese from our local Cypress Grove Chevre were offered along side as additions to the soup as each person desired. Crusty Brio Whole Wheat Walnut bread rounded out our mostly locally-sourced meal.

Farmers Market Soup
Christine's original recipe
Ingredients:
2 quarts vegetable stock, preferrably homemade
2 cipollini onions, peeled and cut into small dice
5 cloves garlic, peeled and finely minced
1 large celeriac bulb, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
5 large carrots, scrubbed or peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 large red bell peppers, seeded and cut as above
3 portobello mushrooms, gills removed, sliced then cut as above
1 bay leaf, fresh if you have it, dried if you don't
2 teaspoons freshly dried thyme
Kosher salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste

Preparation:

Begin by putting the vegetable stock in a large stock pot with the bay leaf and thyme. Bring to a simmer over medium heat while you prep the veggies.

Place a large skillet over medium high heat and add 1 tablespoon of good olive oil.

When the skillet is hot, reduce the heat to medium, add the onions and sauté for about 5 minutes until they've softened.

Add the carrots and continue to sauté until they are just barely tender, taking care that the onions don't burn.

Scrape all this into the pot of vegetable stock and add a bit more oil to the skillet.

Sauté the garlic and the celeriac next. Don't let the garlic burn. When the celeriac has reach a golden brown, add the mushrooms and sauté a few minutes more until the mushrooms are tender. Place all of this into the stock pot.

Next, sauté the bell peppers in the pan with a little more oil if needed and add them to the soup.

If you happen to have a glass of white wine on hand you can deglaze the skillet at this point, scraping up all the delicious browned bits then adding it all to the soup pot.

If you don't have a glass of white wine on hand, don't whine. Just ladle a bit of the stock out of the soup pot into the skillet and proceed.

Let your soup simmer until all the veggies are tender and you're done.

To serve, fish out the bay leaf, line up the steamed rice, the grated cheese, the soup pot, serving utensils, bowls and soup spoons and let your guests dish up to their heart's content. A basket of crusty artisan bread at the table will be appreciated. A glass of deep red wine can't hurt.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Beginnings Of A Winter Garden

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Good Horsey

11-9-07:

I think I should have been a bit more descriptive with this photo montage:

Photo #1 - lovely Arab mare, Emi, aka the compost maker.

Photo #2 - gigantic pile of composted horse poop, courtesy of Emi.

Photo #3 - red worms happily breaking down the horse poop.

Photo #4 - composted horse poop being shoveled onto and mixed into garden beds.

Photo #5 - Chard, broccoli and arugula starts.

Photo #6 - the compost maker up close and personal.

Ah, country life!

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Ugly Duckling Chiles Rellenos

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No, they're not beautiful, but the peppers came fresh from the farmers market and they're organic. Yes, the batter was a bit too thin, causing some of it to slip off the peppers while cooking. So they're not so pretty.

But the taste. Ah, the taste. Puffy and crispy with a taste only a very fresh pepper can give, then runny and cheesey on the inside with the contrast of chewy rice and tender chicken. It was delicious. A bit hot, but delicious.
Did I make these? Nope. Mr CC did,all by his very own self. Clever guy. All I had to do was eat and enjoy. My idea of a perfect meal.

Mr CC's Chiles Rellenos
Ingredients:
4 poblano chiles
3 eggs, separated
1/3 cup white whole wheat flour, more if needed
1 cup good beer
salt and pepper to taste
cooked, shredded chicken
rice (we like Trader Joe's Rice Medley, a combination of brown rice, black barley and daikon radish seeds)
Monterey jack cheese, shredded
oil for the pan
Preparation:
Have all your ingredients at hand when you begin.
The rice was cooked in advance. Ours was cooked in chicken broth with cumin, corriander and ancho chile powder. We keep shredded, home-rotisseried chicken in small packages in the freezer for times such as this.
Char, peel and de-seed the peppers, keeping the stem ends intact. Allow to cool. I wish I'd taken photos of the process, but I wasn't in the kitchen at the time.
Stuff each pepper with rice, chicken and cheese. Close the peppers up as best you can. Not always easy to do, but do your best.
Whisk the egg yolks, flour, salt, pepper and beer until well blended. Add more flour if the batter isn't the consistency of pancake batter.
Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks then gently fold into the batter.
Heat a cast iron skillet over medium high heat and add about 1/3 cup of oil, such as canola.
Gently dip a stuffed pepper into the batter mixture, coating it all over.
Ever so gently, drop it into the hot skillet.
Repeat with the remaining peppers.
Using tongs, rotate the peppers in the skillet until they are tender and golden brown on all sides.
Remove to paper towels to drain.
Serve with a cooling cucumber and tomato salad.

Cook's Notes:
Although these were labeled poblanos at the farmers market, which I've always found to be a mild chile, a few of them had turned red and were quite hot to the tongue (and the rest of the mouth), which was a surprise to me. I would suggest you ask your vendor about the heat scale of the chiles before buying.
You can read about charring and peeling peppers, plus see a recipe for a sauce that would go well with this dish by clicking here.
Sorry about the lighting in these photos, it was night time.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

Homemade Applesauce

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Easy as pie!

You pick your apples, sweet ones please, Golden Delicious and Gala are what grow in our garden, wash them, cut them into quarters, put them into a pot with a bit of water, add sugar, a cinnamon stick, bring to a boil, simmer until fall-apart tender, drain, put through a chinois and voilà! - applesauce.

This is for Paz, who really liked the photo of the applesauce I posted here.

Christine's Homemade Applesauce
Ingredients:
Apples, as many or as few as you wish, I had about 5 pounds (see Cook's Notes)
sugar (I used Splenda Sugar Blend), about 1/4 cup (or less to none) per pound of apples (ditto)
1 cinnamon stick
juice of 1 lemon
water to just cover the apples

Preparation:

Wash, cut up the apples and place them in a large pot. No need to peel or core them, the chinois does that for you.

Sprinkle the lemon juice and sugar over the apples and toss to coat.

Pour in just enough water to cover the apples, toss in the cinnamon stick and bring to a boil over high heat, stirring awhile to dissolve the sugar.

Adjust the flame so the apples just simmer and leave until they become very soft and tender and that wonderful apple-cinnamony perfume permeates the kitchen. Add more water if needed to keep the apples from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

Remove the pot from the heat and allow the apples to cool just a bit.

Using a slotted spoon, first fish out the cinnamon stick and discard, then scoop the apples into the chinois, which has been placed over a large bowl, and stir with the pestle until the applesauce is in the bowl and nothing is left in the chinois except the seeds and peels. You may have to do this in several batches.

And what have you got? Applesauce. Magic.

Cook's Notes:

Please use sweet apples for this, not Granny Smith.

The sweeter the apples the less sugar is needed, possibly no sugar. It all depends on your tastebuds.

Want it chunky? Then you have to peel, core and dice the apples before cooking them. Omit the chinois step. When the apples are tender and saucy to your liking, they're applesauce.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved

What I Did Last Week

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It rained all last week. All the days long and most of the nights. And me laid out flat with the flu. I still had to slog my way outside each day to feed the horse and dogs, letting them know they were still loved. Slogging in the rain with the flu - that was fun. No cooking, little eating, just me wrapped in a blanket with a cup of herbal tea, feeling sorry for myself.

'Round about Friday afternoon, as I began to feel better, I made applesauce. Which was fun.

On Saturday I made some really delicious beans then yesterday I roasted several butternut squashes and stuffed them with the beans. Fun and very good but not very photogenic.

Right now there's lamb stew on the stove.

The mojo returneth. Recipes to follow.

Oh, and the sun came out.

Oh, dear. I really meant to include the photos the first time.

Copyright © 2005-2007, Christine Cooks. All rights reserved