A "Quick" Vegetable gratin

Vegetable gratins are full of pitfalls. The vegetables cook unevenly, there is too much liquid so they end up sloppy, toppings are uneven..

So to overcome these we need to think about cooking in "layers" or stages. This recipe details the stages and techniques.

Ingredients

1 Medium Italian eggplant (aubergine), peeled in stripes and cut into 1/2" thick rounds

1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil (divided use)

1 Tbs Aleppo pepper

2 Medium yellow onions coarsely diced

1 Red bell pepper cut into 1/2" pieces

1 1/12 lbs cherry tomatoes

1 Russet potato (coarsely grated - lke for hashbrowns)

4 Oz Melty hard chese (Cheddar/Gruyere) grated

Salt/Pepper to taste

Finely chopped chives for garnish/decoration

Method

Preheat the oven to 425F (Fan). Rack in the middle

Microwave the eggplant slices until they are soft and much of the water has been driven off. Meanwhile lighly oil a gratin dish.

Seperately saute the onions and red pepper using a little oil, Aleppo pepper, and salt ad pepper. The onions should become translucent, but not browned.

Place the eggplant slices in a single layer in the bottom of the gratin dish. 

Rinse the grated potatoes to remove the surface starch. Microwave the grated potatoes to mostly cook and dry off as much water as possible. 

Meanwhile, cover the eggplant with the sauteed onions/peppers. Sprinkle the tomatoes over the onions. Place the gratin dish into the oven, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. This will cause the tomatoes to wrinkle and soften.

MIx the grated potatoes with the grated cheese. Salt the gratin and then cover with the grated potato/cheese.

Return to the oven and cook until the internal temperature of the gratin reaches 200F.

Switch the oven to broil, and brown the potato/cheese topping until it is nice and crunchy. Sprinkle the gratin with the chopped chives.

Serve with a crisp dry wine and a side salad

Testing creativity

Madame is . just back from Europe and decided to have a creative time at the supermarket. Masses of green beans, red peppers, ginger showed up. So what to do?

Looking in the fridge, I found some pepitas, shallots, sesame oil, soy sauce. And then there was sherry in the wine cellar. So it was off the stove.

Madame pronounced it, "We can serve this to people", so I guess it turned out OK.

Ingredients

1/2 cup of raw pepitas (pumpkin seeds)

1 1/2 lbs green beans, top, tailed and cut into 1" lengths

1 T bacon fat (or olive oil if a vegan option is desired)

1" knob of ginger finely grated

1 small shallot, finely minced

1 red pepper diced into 1/4" dice

3T soy sauce

1T toasted sesame oil

2T dry sherry

Some hot sauce or hot peppers (to taste)

Method

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Mix together the soy sauce, sesame oil, and sherry, and hot sauce/peppers).

Meanwhile toast the pepitas in a hot skillet (about 5 minutes, tossing frequently). Salt the pepitas and set aside. Wipe the pan and add the fat (or oil). When the water has come to the boil, steam the beans for a few minutes (until they are cooked, but still crunchy). When the fat/oil is hot, add the  ginger, shallots and red peppers. Soften the shallots/ginger/red pepper gently. 

When the beans are cooked, empty the water from the pot, place the beans into the pot. Add the pepitas and immediately toss the beans with the soy/sesame/sherry/pepper mixture.

Serve immediately in a heated bowl with a little crunchy salt and freshly ground pepper.

Ajvar - red pepper and egg plant spread

An article about the Balkan dish called ajvar appeared in the New York Times recently. It looked insanely good, so of course I had to make it. I didn't exactly follow the NYT recipe, but I knew what I was trying to achieve, so went for it with gusto. And I am glad I did. It is amazingly good. Concentrated, smokey - one of those things that would make shoe leather taste good.

Ingredients

10 large red peppers

1 large Italian eggplant

1 garlic bulb

1/2 cup high quality olive oil (cold pressed extra virgin if possible)

Salt

Method

Over a very hot grill (charcoal in my case because I was cooking dinner at the same time) roast the peppers and eggplant until their skins are completely black. After the peppers and egg plant have been on for about 10 minutes, put the whole garlic bulb on too. Put the peppers into a bowl and cover to allow them to steam - this helps when it is time to peel them.

Peel the peppers, discarding skin and as many of the seeds as possible. Scoop the flesh out of the eggplant. Squeeze the roasted garlic out of the bulb. Place these ingredients into the food processor and pulse until slightly chunky.

Add the oil and salt to taste and process until almost smooth. Transfer to a saucepan and reduce the mixture by driving off some of the water. Do this over low heat to make sure it doesn't burn. When the volume is reduced by about 1/2 (probably 30 minutes), transfer to a heat proof container. Cover, allow to cool and then refrigerate overnight. 

Roasted Red Pepper Dip

This was one of those warm Texas evenings, a bottle of rosé , pita chips and the great outdoors kinds of recipes. We had a few red peppers, some pine nuts, olives, capers, anchovies and "secret ingredient" lying around. So of course a dip was the answer. Served with an Argentinian rosé (Pinot Noir).  Bagel chips as an accompaniment and we had very happy tummies.
It turns out that there are quite a lot of ingredients in this. But we happened to have them all to hand.

Ingredients

3 Red Peppers - roasted and cut into pieces

1/2 cup pine nuts - toasted

2T olive oil (not extra virgin - it becomes bitter with the use of the immersion blender)

1 salt packed anchovy

6 Niçoise olives, pitted

1T capers rinsed and drained

1t Habanero vodka (aka secret ingredient). May substitute any hot pepper sauce, but if vinegared, reduce vinegar in overall recipe

2T Sherry vinegar

Salt to taste

Method

Place all the ingredients except the vinegar and salt into the immersion blender's beaker and pulse until almost smooth. Crunchy peanut butter texture is what you are aiming for.

Taste once the desired texture is attained. Add salt (if necessary) and sherry vinegar to taste.

Chill and serve with pita chips