Hearty Eggplant Parmigiana Bake

I go through phases of being addicted to certain foods. Currently I'm completely stuck on eggplant. Soft and creamy when it's cooked properly, it's amazing how rich tasting a vegetable can be! And it's good for ya, so it's a win-win situation for me really. I end up eating it religiously for a few weeks then move on to the next thing, but it comes back around every few months, like an old loyal friend. Oh eggplant.

Anywho, I've done the eggplant schnitzel thang, and I felt it was time to layer and bake. I ate it like lasagne, with some veg on the side the first time but then realised, hey, eggplant is a vegetable, why double up? I made up for that by adding a ton of mozzarella ;)

Baked Eggplant Parmigiana

Serves 4

1 large eggplant
1 700ml jar tomato passata
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 pinch thyme (dried or fresh
250g grated or slice mozzarellla
1 handful of breadcrumbs (optional)
salt & pepper
olive oil


Slice eggplant in to ~1.5cm slices, drizzle with olive oil, salt and pepper. Grill under a medium heat in oven or on stove top until colored and nearly cooked through.

Meanwhile, saute the sliced garlic in olive oil for a few moments, add passata, thyme, salt and pepper, and let it bubble away on a low heat reducing slightly.

Layer sauce, eggplant and cheese in a medium baking dish (I used a square cake tin), in that order, and repeat ending with a layer of sauce, cheese then breadcrumbs if desired.

Bake at 200°c for about 20mins or until golden on top and eggplant is melting and soft.

Rest for 10mins before serving or it will slop everywhere.


PS: It's even better re-heated.

Silverbeet!

My housemate has a friend who grows abundant amounts of silverbeet in her yard and every time they visit each other we get adorned with a mountain of the stuff. I'd never tried it until the first time she brought it home and I loved it! So delicious and nutty, not what I was expecting at all. I sort of imagined a watery bland leaf with a bitter nasty flavour, but that's just the anti veg child in me coming out.

We had so much that I thought I should utilise it well and make something that required a large amount. I tossed around some ideas and then remembered a failed attempt at quiche I had long ago and wanted to redeem myself. Okay, so I didn't make quiche, but turned it in to a silverbeet-rich baked frittata (I guess you could call it).

The beet was mostly leafy with small stems which is preferable to me, I shredded it and tossed it in olive oil with sliced mushrooms and some saute'd garlic and  spring onions to wilt it a little and mixed it up with beaten eggs, cream salt and pepper before covering with a nice layer of parmesan and baking ;)

 

Silverbeet and Mushroom Frittata

Serves 6

1 large bunch silverbeet, sliced
500g mushrooms, sliced
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 spring onions, sliced
olive oil
4 large eggs
150ml cream
150ml milk
1/2 cup parmesan, gruyere or cheddar cheese
salt and pepper to taste


Method

Preheat oven to 180 degrees Celsius. Slice silverbeet, musrooms, garlic and spring onions. Saute garlic, onions and mushrooms until mushrooms begin to cook. Add silverbeet and toss until wilted.

(I do this in the dish I'm about to bake in) Mix eggs, cream, milk and salt/pepper in the dish an add beet/mushroom mix. Carefully stir together to combine and make sure the beet is distributed evenly/there are no air pockets.

Sprinkle cheese on top and bake for 40 minutes or until set in the middle and cheese is browned on top.

Makes a nice lunch served with a simple side salad.

Inappropriately Chocolatey Cookies

I saw these cookies on an episode of one of Nigella's shows recently and died at the sight of them. I brought the ingredients around to the boy I babysits' place one night and we made them and they were just as good (if not better) as I imagined!

The biscuit part is actually quite bitter but once you load it up with chocolate chips all bitterness goes away, so don't freak out if you eat the mix and they don't taste right. They will, and with THAT many chocolate chips how can they not?!

I actually made this batch in the photo's with some caramel chips my boyfriend bought and sent me off to bake with. They were pretty sweet and I prefer dark choc chips instead but still so so good!

125g good dark chocolate (the stuff you eat! trust me it tastes best)
150g plain flour
30g cocoa powder
1 tsp bicarb
1 tsp salt
125g butter, softened
75g dark brown sugar
50g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 med (cold from fridge) egg
350g dark chocolate chips (or milk if you prefer, in my case caramel)

Pre-heat oven to 170°c

Melt the 125g of dark chocolate in either the microwave or over a pan of simmering water.

Cream the butter and sugar in a separate bowl (or stand mixer if you have one) then add the melted chocolate and combine.

Beat in the egg and vanilla then stir in the flour, cocoa powder, bicarb and salt.

Finally mix in the chocolate chips.

Scoop the mix out in to 12 equal portions on to 1 or 2 lined baking trays ensuring there's plenty of space between each as they will flatten a lot. Do not flatten them! An ice cream scoop is easiest but I don't actually have one so I just used 2 big tablespoons scraping the mix off one with the other.

 

Bake for approx 18mins or until a cake tester comes out clean. If you hit a chocolate chip try again.

Let cool slightly before removing from the trays and enjoy! Best served warm straight from the oven.

Focaccia

So busy lately with uni commitments, but, a few days ago I received my letter of acceptance in to a masters program in food studies! Hooray! I've finally found a few free hours now so here are some things I've been making lately, starting with this soft fresh home baked focaccia.

Home bread making can be quite easy if you choose the right type of bread to make! I picked up an adorable little European bread making cookbook in Portland on my travels last year and haven't made anything from it till now. I did tweak the recipe a little to suit my needs and I added a caramelised onion and herb topping.

Update: Here are some new pictures of a herb and olive focaccia I made a while back. I did this one in a pizza pan and made it round. Turned out so good!

Basic Focaccia

1 heaped tsp dry yeast
1 tsp sugar or honey
1 tsp salt
good lug of olive oil
1/2 cup warm water initially plus more
3 cups plain flour

Topping

Top it how you wish! I just caramelised 1 large onion and strewed it ontop before baking along with some chopped garlic, rosemary, thyme and a good helping of olive oil however you can push olives in to the bread, slices of garlic, any woody herb or top it with cheese.

Mix yeast, sugar/honey, olive oil and 1/2 cup warm water in a bowl, let sit for ten minutes so the yeast can activate and feed on the sugars.

Add the salt and flour and begin to combine, you will need to add more water at this stage, just add it little by little until you form a soft, pliable but not sticky dough. I prefer to not give measurements as it always varies by type of flour, humidity and temperature.

Knead the dough for a few minutes until it is smooth, place in a floured or oiled bowl, cover and set aside for 40mins, longer if it's a cold day shorter if it is especially hot.

Place the dough back on the bench and punch down the dough, knead the dough for 5 or so minutes and then flatten out to the final shape you want it. (I made a big rectangle but a circle is a popular shape).

Let rise again in a warm spot for another 40mins, after it has risen dimple the dough by gently pushing your fingers on to it. Pre-heat the oven at 200° toward the end of the 2nd rise.

Cover the bread with your topping of choice! Bake for 15-20mins (depending on the thickness of your focaccia) and enjoy!

Pre-bake

Tip: It was very cold in my house and my dough was rising super slow so I turned the oven on its lowest setting for a few minutes then turned it off again and placed the covered tray in the oven to rise, it worked fantastic just make sure your oven isn't too warm or the yeast will die. Only downside is that you have to wait and pre-heat the oven before you can put the bread in.

Tip: For a nice basic rosemary garlic mince 1 clove of garlic with 1 tsp of fresh chopped or 1/2 tsp of dried rosemary, a pinch of salt and 2 tbsp of olive oil. Sprinkle on top just before baking.