Another Simple Pasta Supper (and bonus brownies!!)

Ok, so I know my last post concerned pesto, but, especially in the summer, simple pasta dishes are just great. They're easy, relatively fast, and total comfort food. Plus, there are endless possibilities.

So for dinner a couple nights ago, I decided I wanted eggplant. This is mostly because I love eggplant and Iain's not a big fan, so since he's out of town I decided to capitalize on my chance to indulge as much as possible. I do not understand this dislike of eggplant, because eggplant is amazing, but, then, this is also the boy who doesn't like cheese. So sad....

A few notes on eggplant:

This is fairly common knowledge, but just in case-- it's a good idea to salt eggplant before you cook with it. Eggplants carry a lot of bitter juices, so about 20 minutes before you start cooking, cut the eggplant into slices and sprinkle salt onto them. This will cause the eggplant to release the juices. When there's liquid beading on the top of the eggplant slices, rinse them off and pat them dry with a paper towel. Well, at least that's how I do it. I know some people advocate sticking the pieces in a colander after you put the salt on. But just doing it on the counter works for me.

Personally, I don't much like to fry up eggplant. I mean, eggplant parm every once in a while is pretty awesome, but generally I find that broiling leaves in a lot more flavor and awesome texture. Plus it's super fast.

Also, I almost never peel eggplant. I really like the texture. And it's nutritious, I'm sure. But I know a lot of people who do like to peel their eggplant, so whatever works for you...


Anyway, I'll call this "Eggplant, Sun-Dried Tomato, and Basil Pasta" (creative, I know)



Ingredients

• half an eggplant, sliced thickly
  
• a few sun-dried tomatoes, packed in oil, cut into small pieces
  
• 1-3 cloves garlic, minced (as a rule, I tend to like lots of garlic, but if you like less, by all means stick to a clove)
  
• a handful of basil leaves, chopped into bite size bits
  
• olive oil. You'll need at least a tablespoon or two for the garlic. Use more at your discretion.
  
• a pinch of dried oregano
  
• salt and pepper to taste
• pasta of whatever variety you like. I found that about half a box of pasta was appropriate for the amount of sauce I made, but I'm sure everything could be easily doubled if you want to do a whole box.
  

Preparation

1. Brush a tray with olive oil and brush the top of each slice of eggplant with additional oil. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper, if desired. Broil five minutes a side, or until golden-brown and soft. Cut the pieces into strips.

2. Meanwhile, get some water boiling for the pasta. I used whole wheat penne, which in my opinion complemented the relatively light sauce well, adding more texture.

3. About five minutes before the pasta's done, heat the olive oil in a skillet and add the oregano, stirring. Add the garlic and turn down the heat so that it cooks relatively slowly, releasing flavor. You don't want the garlic to brown.

4. A couple of minutes before the pasta's done, add to the oil and garlic the pieces of sun-dried tomato and salt and pepper to taste and cook over low heat. Add the eggplant and basil just before draining the pasta, so it incorporates.

5. Serve with parmesan cheese, if you like. You may also need to add more oil to get the sauce to come together, but it's up to you really.

And....Bonus Brownies!

(adapted from a recipe I found online. I am so sorry that I didn't bookmark it so I can link you all directly, but I did mess with it slightly in 'baking adventure' fashion, so it wouldn't have been exactly the same anyway)

For the record, I do not believe in "the perfect brownie." I think that cakey and chewy both have their place, and although I generally prefer the latter, I do not think that it is inherently better. Generally, I go for recipes that have fewer than four eggs and use real chocolate (rather than cocoa powder exclusively). These, however, are awesome brownies. They're not so so sweet, so you really taste the chocolate, and the almond extract adds an awesome kick of extra flavor. My housemates seemed to like them too, as evidenced by the fact that this is the closest I have to a picture.

Ingredients

• 1 stick unsalted butter
  
• 4 oz unsweetened chocolate
  
• 1.5 cups of sugar
  
• 1/4 tsp. salt
  
• 1.5 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 a tsp almond extract
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup flour
• 2 TBS cocoa powder
• 1/3 bag chocolate chips-- I used semi-sweet, and the 1/3 bag is an estimate. Basically, throw some in if you got 'em.

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F and butter a pan. I used a 9in round pan. Probably an 8x8 would work well too.

2. In a double boiler, if you're fortunate enough to have one (if not, use a pot in a pan or skillet), melt the chocolate and butter together. For those who've never done this before, basically you want hot (not boiling) water in the bottom of the two containers. In the top one you want just the things your melting. Let them melt and when the chocolate is shiny, stir them together.

3. Remove from heat and cool slightly, then add the sugar, salt, extracts, and eggs (one at a time). As a side note, feel free to experiment with the extracts. Almond is my new favorite, but I'm sure mint or orange or something could be excellent too.

4. Stir in the flour and cocoa powder. The batter should be stiff at this point, so don't worry if it's a bit difficult to stir. Then add the chocolate chips.

5. Dump the batter into the prepared pan. The batter should be seriously thick at this point. Do not think slightly-lumpy-but-still-liquidy cake mix brownie batter. If that's the consistency you've done something...well...I won't say wrong, but certainly different, and you'll need to have a baking adventure all your own!

6. Bake until a toothpick comes out with a few crumbs sticking to it and cook slightly. I highly recommend serving with milk. Also, these are super rich and clearly dessert brownies--- not "I just got home from work and want a snack" brownies. I learned this the hard way yesterday and wasn't hungry for dinner until a while after I'd planned to start cooking.

Mmm... pesto!

So I got a new toy today.... Everybody meet Mr. Mini-Prep, courtesy of Cuisinart and an amazon.com gift card. I've been waiting for this little guy's arrival for about a week now, and for one purpose above all others-- the production of pesto from the large force of basil in my back garden.


Pesto and I go way back. We first met when I was a very small girl who refused on principle to eat anything green except for perhaps green M&Ms and maybe a pea or two. Pesto was green; ergo, pesto and I were not friends.


This changed when I was perhaps eight or nine because of one Mollie Katzen and her cookbook for kids, Pretend Soup (for any parents out there, I highly recommend it. There's a companion book for slightly older kid chefs called Honest Pretzels). In this cookbook was a recipe for "Green Spaghetti," and, skeptical as I was, I'm fairly certain that it was by seeing a pesto recipe put into picture book form that I finally worked up the nerve to give it a try. I only regret that I waited so long.


My family's pesto recipe is lifted almost entirely from Mollie Katzen's book The Enchanted Broccoli Forest. At some point, I will devote a post to Mollie Katzen and how amazing she is both for vegetarians and for good, wholesome cooking in general, but that post is not this post. So, anyway, the moment I decided to grow basil in my garden, I'd intended to use it to make at least one delicious batch. Actually, I mostly planted basil so I could have fresh pesto. When the end of summer arrives, chances are I'll turn whatever basil hasn't been used for other purposes into lots more batches, because pesto freezes fantastically. The secret? Don't add the parmesan until after you defrost it. But yeah, just pop the frozen container in the microwave or in a bowl with lots of hot water in it, add some cheese and some boiling water (I'll get to that in more detail later), and use it however you normally would. My family probably still has pesto in their freezer from last summer.


Pesto is of course best known as a pasta sauce, but it's also great in panini. Pesto mayo is awesome, and I hate mayonnaise in any other form. Pesto also makes a nice sauce for roasted or grilled veggies (and probably meat, but I don't go there). In the end, I'm not sure if anything can quite beat out that bowl of pasta though....


So, without further adieu, here, lifted with slight variations from Mollie Katzen is a killer pesto recipe. Also, I apologize in advance for the lack of pictures. I was so excited to finally be making pesto that I forgot about my camera until it was done.

Ingredients

• 3 cups of packed basil
• 2-4 cloves of garlic
• 1/3 cup walnuts or pine nuts, preferably toasted
• 1/4-1/3 cup olive oil
• 1/3 cup (or however much you want, really) parmesan cheese
• salt and pepper to taste

Preparation

1. (Note: If making pasta, you can probably put up water to boil at this point)Use a food processor to mince the basil and garlic. If you have a small food processor like me, you'll need to do this in batches, probably. I like my mini-prep, but it is mini. Also, I have tried this in a blender with poor results. I am not one to use unnecessary kitchen appliances--I do almost everything prep-wise by hand-- but this really is a recipe that requires a decent food processor.

2. Add the nuts and keep the food processor going until they're ground in. Pine nuts are commonly associated with pesto, but honestly, they're so much more expensive than walnuts that if you're not really treating yourself you'd do better to go with the cheap option. Nuts are mostly a texture thing. The pine nuts do, in my opinion, taste better, but pesto's so good already that I don't always feel the need to add the expense.

3. If your food processor allows for it, add the oil while still mixing the basil, garlic, and nuts. This should really help everything come together, and whatever didn't mix well before will probably be incorporated. Mollie Katzen calls for 1/3 cup, but I've found that I need less to suit my tastes. I like my pesto to still be relatively grainy.

4. When your mix resembles a paste, stop the food processor, dump the pesto into a bowl, and add the cheese, along with the salt and pepper. Mix well. In terms of cheese, I've lately gotten obsessed with fresh-grated stuff, but, honestly, the green can isn't so horrible in pesto. The consistency actually matches better than freshly-grated parm, unless you grate it really finely.

Et voila!

Now, before you mix your awesome pesto with your awesome pasta, you're going to want to take a couple tablespoons of the boiling water from the pasta pot and put it in with the pesto. It loosens it up nicely, I suppose, and makes it easier to mix? To be entirely honest, I just do this because my parents do, and I tend to trust them. It's not that the pesto won't work if you don't add the extra water, so relax if you've already drained your pasta, but it does help a bit.

If you've got them, sun-dried tomatoes are absolutely incredible in pesto. I like to chop them into little bits and mix them in. I sometimes actually drizzle a bit of the oil they're packed in on top of my bowl. It's also nice to add more cheese, if you like it.

One more note: this stuff is great cold, so if you want to bring leftovers into the office, there's no need to find a microwave (although leftovers warmed up are lovely too). Really, you can't go wrong. It's pesto. It may just be my favorite food, and that is saying something.

Vegetarian Tamales

Howdy all!
So here is my first food post. I hope you enjoy it!

Vegetarian Tamales
Ingredients:
5 ears of corn
1 canister of cornmeal
Lime Juice
Garlic Powder
Salt
1 can of frijoles negros (black beans)
6 Tomatillos

1 Onion
Cumin
Chili Powder
2 Jalapenos
Cheddar Cheese

Kitchen Equipment
Knives
Cutting Boards
Skillet
Medium Bowl
1 can of frijoles negros (black beans)
Large Pot
Metal Caulinder
Pan for soaking

Music Listened To:
The Rough Guide to Irish Music

So Tamales are a pretty intimidating dish. That's why I'd never attempted them before now - everything I'd heard made them sound pretty difficult, and they're supposed to take forever to make.

BUT

It actually turned out to be pretty straight forwa rd. It all broke down into 3 basic steps of 1) prepare masa 2) prepare filling and 3) put masa and fillings in husks and steam for 2 hours. If I can make them, you bet your butt you can too.

Part I: Making Masa
So if you have a nearby place that will sell you true masa, go ahead and buy it and prepare it according to package directions. That is, if you want to be boring. The way I chose was far more amusing to me.

1. First of all, I shucked my five ears of corn, being careful not to tear the husks. Set these aside to soak in a pan, bowl or sink.


2. Cut the kernels away from the cob into a bowl. Be generous - every bit of corny goodness helps. The cobs can just be thrown away.

3. This is the part where I felt simply deranged. If you have a blender and want to be boring/sane, go ahead and use it. I, on the other hand, used the nearest available equipment, and bashed the hell out of the corn with a can of black beans. Aside from taking half an hour, it was actually quite fun. Don't waste your time pounding up and down, though, as fun as it is - pressing straight down and twisting the can back and forth to grind the kernels is much more effective. Do this until the kernels are barely recognizable as kernels.

4. There should be a fair amount of liquid in the bowl at this point. To make the consistency more masa-ish and to get rid of the liquid, start adding cornmeal and mixing it in. Keep adding it until you get something resembling the consistency of chunky peanut butter (probably about 2 cups of cornmeal, give or take).

5. Mix in some lime juice, a generous amount of salt (at least a teaspoon) and a generous amount of garlic powder. Congratulations, you now have masa fresher and yummier than anything you'd get in the store. Set it aside.


Part II: Making the Filling
The nice thing about making vegetarian tamales is that, since tamales are normally made with meat, there is no standard of what to put in them. Pick whatever veggies or cheeses you want. The important thing is to get plenty of cumin and chili powder in there. Being a fan of beans, tomatillos, onions and Jalapenos, I used those. If you prefer tomatos, avocados, bell peppers and Japanese eggplant, go ahead and use those.

1. Chop your veggies, grate your cheese, all that good stuff. Make sure to throw away the tomatillo husks - they aren't edible. If using hot peppers do NOT stick your finger in your nose after chopping. Seriously.

2. Start cooking the onion first, then add the tomatillos and beans. This stage of the process looks really pretty. Put in plenty of cumin (at least a tablespoon) and plenty of chili powder (at least two tablespoons). Stir in your cheese and Jalapenos towards the end. That's all for that section, folks!


Part III: Assembling and Steaming Tamales
Here's where things get fun (well, funner, at least. It's hard to beat bashing the corn though...) Use the pictures as a guide.

1. Put your pot with a little water on the stove to boil.

2. Take a corn husk and hold it open in your palm. It should be nice and pliable after soaking. Take a few forkfuls of masa and spread it around the husk, leaving 1/3 of it on the right side clear, and probably only covering the bottom half of the husk. If it is a small husk, feel free to cover the whole thing and down the line use another small husk to finish the wrapping bit.


3. Take a light spoonfull of the filling and make a little trail of it down the center of the masa. If you put in too much, the tamale will be difficult to wrap shut. If you are Emily or generally sympathetic to her love of cheese, feel free to add some cheese on top of the filling.


4. Wrap the tamale into a cylinder, using the uncovered third of it to cover up any exposed masa or filling. There should be a little "tail" of husk that doesn't have any masa or filling in it. Bend the tail so that the tamale can sit upright. Set it in the caulinder vertically (most recipes call for a real steamer, but hell if I'm going to spend $40 on a pot and steamer so I can make tamales). Repeat steps 2-4 until you have as many tamales as you can fill.



5. Set the caulinder on the rim of the pot and leave the tamales to steam for 2 hours. Use this time to watch a bad movie, snuggle and/or make a side dish (we did spanish rice, you could also do rice and beans, or whatever you want, really).


And there you have it, folks! Veggie-friendly tamales! Definitely something to do when you have a few spare hours to do cooking - not just a weekday dish, but it's definitely worth the time. Enjoy!

Hello!

Hi everybody! We're Iain and Emily, a couple of recent graduates of Macalester College up in St Paul, Minnesota. Over the last year we've done a whole lot of cooking together. It's been both a source of stress-relief (I have a ten page paper due tomorrow. I'm baking cookies NOW!) and a fun way to try something that isn't connected to a grade, something that you can take pride in right away just because you made it...even if it didn't turn out quite how you expect.

Now that we have diplomas on our desks, our cooking adventures have grown in size and scope (we believe this has nothing to do with the B.A.s and everything to do with the fact that Iain doesn't start his job until September and Emily gets off work at 4 PM). We'll use this blog to share these dishes with all of you, and we might also throw in some posts relating to our favorite cookbooks/enjoying kitchen life/cooking on a budget/etc. We'll see what we're inspired to write!

Let's be clear here. Neither of us has a lick of professional cooking training. Both of us grew up in families that cook, so that taught us the basics, but almost everything we throw together these days is an experiment of sorts. Whatever the reason, we both thought it'd be fun to chronicle some of our eclectic kitchen adventures. Feel free to try them yourselves, but mess around! Don't always use exact proportions! Change up the vegetables! Listen to music and sing in the kitchen and above all, HAVE FUN! After all, that's what cooking's all about, right?


If you're just interested in the cooking stuff, stop reading here, but in case you want to know more about the two of us, here's a bit more info.

Iain: Iain majored in Studio Art with a minor in Computer Science. He has an avid interest in computer animation and sometimes wishes that he'd picked up a geology major/minor too. He's a musical dude, playing (in order of proficiency) penny whistle, guitar, voice, and bagpipes. He's a Chicago native, born and raised, and wants everybody to know it. Although not actually a vegetarian, he lives and cooks with one (Emily) and so ends up consuming most of his meat while out at restaurants or in bacon-form as a special treat. In the religion category, Iain describes himself as an Episcopalian Pantheist. In the kitchen, he has a flair for frying and loves chopping garlic.



Emily: Emily majored in history with minors in music (she's a soprano) and Chinese. Her secondary instruments are penny whistle, piano, and bagpipes. (Macalester has an endowed piping program. Lessons are free.) Emily grew up mostly in Virginia, but beyond that where she's from gets a little confusing. She's Jewish and actually thought about going to rabbinical school for awhile, but at the moment at least that doesn't seem as likely. She does want to go back to China next summer/fall. Emily is, beyond all other kinds of kitchen usage, a baker. "Baking Adventures," in which she throws together cookies/cake/muffins/whatever without any attention to proportions but somehow usually ends up with something delicious anyway, are her favorite kind of cooking.