Baked Eggplant with Cheese and Tomato Pasta

No picture to go along with this recipe as we were too hungry to bother with dressing it up and taking photos.

This recipe drew inspiration from a particular issue of Cuisine magazine that I was browsing during our cafe lunch the same afternoon. There were certainly many other salivating recipes featured, but this one caught my attention because of the simplicity of ingredients and instruction, and most importantly, the week-old aubergine in my fridge that was crying out for me to use today or throw tomorrow.

So I read the instructions more carefully than others. Easy to remember, and straightforward enough to improvise according to our pantry stock.

When dinner time came, with the recipe still vaguely in my mind, we set about cooking the dish. Below is our improvised version, blissfully unaware that the original recipe is actually available online :)

Baked Eggplant with Cheese and Tomato Pasta
Serves two

1 eggplant
1 can diced tomato, or equivalent of fresh tomatoes
some gruyere cheese (or the likes), quantity according to how cheesy you want your pasta to be, I normally prefer to have less, cut half into 1 cm slices, and half into smaller pieces or shred.
3 large handfuls of pasta (choose smaller shaped ones)
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 onion, chopped
1/2 cup chicken stock
some fresh herbs, like basil or thyme (we had to use dried ones as the house painter tragically coated our bed of thyme with paint when he spray painted the house weeks ago)
drizzle of white wine
olive oil
salt and pepper

Quarter the eggplant lengthwise, and cut into 2 cm slices. Heat some olive oil and fry the eggplant until golden. Set aside.

Start cooking the pasta according to packet instructions. Also preheat oven at 180 degrees.

While pasta is cooking, heat some olive oil, fry chopped garlic and onions for about 1-2 minutes. Add tomatoes, chicken stock, herbs and wine and simmer. Allow the sauce to thicken and season to taste. Contrary to the original recipe, we opted for a thicker tomato sauce.

When the pasta is ready, drain and pour the pasta into a gratin dish. Follow by the eggplant, half the cheese, then the tomato sauce. Sprinkle remaining cheese on top.

Bake for 30 minutes until it is bubbling hot.

Basil Pesto

I love having fresh herbs. Unfortunately with apartment living, it is hard to keep my pots of herbs alive for long. They either don't survive the onslaught of wind outside, or the greedy bugs, or their roots outgrow the pot too fast. Especially my favourite basil.

We still like to have fresh basil in our salads every now and then, whenever we feel like it. And we do not like to buy the cut basil leaves from the supermarket and leave them to rot in the fridge (since we never know when we will feel like having basil in our salads). So what we're doing is to buy 1 pot of fresh living basil plant from the supermarket. It can usually last about 1-2 months with some tender loving care instead of just 1 week in the fridge.

And since we know my pot of basil will not survive long enough to provide for 100 servings of salads, we will almost always make some pesto to make full use of plant.


Here's a recipe from our favourite easy Italian cookbook.

Basil Pesto

20 large basil leaves
6 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
handful of pine nuts (well, recipe says 50g but we're very easygoing on this)
125g Parmesan cheese, grated
250ml olive oil (I can't bear to look at this)
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Either chop or puree basil, garlic, pine nuts and cheese in a blender (glad we've got one now). If using the blender, add a little oil so that the mixture can turn well. Pour the olive oil slowly while stirring until the sauce emulsifies. Season to taste.

Goes well with gnocchi.

Onion pasta

I've found a good way to use up cooked onions leftover from making Onions and Olive Tart. It's easy, fast (since it's already cooked) and yummy.

Here's my improvised recipe, if you're making this from scratch without making the onion tart first.

Onion pasta
Serves 2

about 3 onions, thinly sliced
plenty of extra virgin olive oil
1 bay leaf
chopped thyme
chopped rosemary
1 clove garlic
salt and black pepper

2 slices of bacon
some olives, green or black
pasta for 2

Heat oil. Be as generous with olive oil as you think your waistline can tolerate. Combine the onions and bay leaf. Cover and simmer over low heat for about 20 minutes until it is soft but not brown. Stir occasionally. Add garlic and the herbs and season to taste, cook uncovered for another 10 minutes over slightly increased heat. Set aside.

Start cooking pasta.

Meanwhile, cook the bacon until it is slightly crispy. Add onions and olive. Mix everything with cooked pasta and serve.

Mushroom and Blue Cheese Pasta

When I was a kid, I knew only two types of cheese: Kraft and Cheesedale Cheese. Both are cheddar cheese, but it doesn't matter. I had enjoyed a slice on my toast, with tuna, in burgers, on the Jacobs cream crackers, or just on its own. As I grew older, I learned that Mozzarella and Parmesan are good for pasta and pizzas. And there's this Philadelphia cheese that I made my cheesecake with.

French food culture is as much about cheese, as it is about wine. So you can imagine that there's a very steep learning curve for me in terms of cheese, and I may be able to rattle off only a dozen more names of cheese at most. My lame attempt in understanding cheese led me to buying this book titled "The World Encyclopedia of Cheese" a few years back.

While I have barely read its informative explanation of different varieties of cheeses, I have found this blue cheese pasta sauce that Rémi tried and we enjoyed last night. We did not use Gorgonzola as suggested by the recipe, but with another type of blue cheese produced locally. New Zealand is afterall a cow and sheep country.

Bon apetit!

Mushroom and Blue Cheese Pasta

Pasta

Sauce:
Olive oil
Fresh mushrooms (about 150g)
1 garlic clove, crushed
100ml cream
100g blue cheese (eg Gorgonzola), crumbled
salt and ground black pepper
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
chopped walnuts

Cook pasta according to packet instructions.

Heat oil in pan and sauté the mushrooms for 5 minutes. Add garlic and cook for 1-2 more minutes.

Stir in the cream, bring to boil and cook for 1 minute. Stir in the cheese but do not boil. Adjust consistency of sauce with water, according to your own preference. Season and toss with cooked pasta.

To serve, toss in the walnuts and parsley.

Those who can't stand the strong smell of blue cheese can happily omit it from this recipe, as mushroom and cream still go well together. It's just like having wanton noodles without wantons.

Fresh Pasta with Prawns and Scallops

So what do you think I would do with the leftover fancy ingredients from the fancy Pre-Christmas dinner. Well, cook up another fancy meal the next day.

With leftover scallops and fresh lasagna sheets, we made another buttery seafood pasta. We had reckoned that a tomato or cream base would be too overpowering and mask the taste of the fresh scallops. It's very simple and fast, and can be done with dried pasta. Recipe has been adapted from my ultimate fish cookbook.

The dish also gives us the pleasure of using our fresh parsley from the pot, which is growing very well. Growing our own herbs doesn't actually save us any money, as we end up spending on soil, fertiliser, pots, even organic pesticide...but it gives us much pleasure to pluck them whenever we need them.

Fresh Pasta with Prawns and Scallops
Serves two

Pasta (quantity left out, as I find that different people have different portion size)
handful of prawns
handful of scallops
50g unsalted butter
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tablespoon fresh parsley, chopped
salt and ground black pepper

As we were using our lasagna sheets, we trim them into thin strips. Lasagna sheets give much flexibility, can try cutting heart shapes out of them for a valentine's dinner perhaps. :)

Cook pasta in large pan of lightly salted boiling water.

Melt butter in a large heavy pan with the garlic and parsley. Toss in the prawns and scallops and cook over medium heat for about 8 minutes, until the seafood are cooked.

Drain pasta thoroughly and rinse with boiling water to remove any starch.

Stir pasta into the prawn mixture. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

Open Ravioli with Parma Ham, Asparagus and Basil Butter

Wellington is known for its cafe culture. We have so far spent many a weekends exploring the diverse selection of cafes, each with its unique and individualistic character. Well, I don't really drink coffee, but always enjoy my brunch at a local cafe, each with a different menu and using the freshest local ingredients in season. Many times, at a place with a view to die for, be it by the wild coastline, in a valley, nested in a quiet suburb or by a busy street.

And some Italian cafes make you linger longer (and spend more) with their gourmet store alongside the cafe. Like this one, that we passed by, and ended up with a salami, mascarpone and Parma ham (all not quite local), after we said we are planning to prepare a nice dinner of ravioli and tiramisu, and looking for dried sausage for a camping trip. They certainly cost more, but the Parma ham is oh so good.

Well, it was supposed to be a fancy dinner, so we ended up with fancy ingredients. Very Italian too with recipe from my "easy Italian in minutes" cookbook, except that we replaced sage with basil. It's quite straightforward to prepare.

Open Ravioli with Parma ham, asparagus and basil butter
serves two

100g asparagus
125ml white wine
65g butter, cut into tiny cubes
half teaspoon white wine vinegar (we used red wine vinegar, I guess the deviation is not significant)
bunch of fresh basil, finely chopped (important to have fresh herbs for this)
Parma ham, cut into thin strips (recipe calls for 60g)
Parmesan, shaved
salt and pepper
125g fresh lasagna sheets (having fresh pasta really makes the difference)

Cook the asparagus gently with the tips out of the water for 3-4 minutes in boiling water until tender.

Heat the wine and reduce the liquid to 1 teaspoon, then slowly add the butter over low heat. Add vinegar and season to taste. Carefully fold in the chopped basil.

Cook the fresh lasagna sheets according to the pack instructions (we're not adventurous enough to make our own pasta yet).

Arrange one lasagna sheet on a plate and spread with a little herb butter, then place some of the cooked asparagus and strips of Parma ham on top. Layer up with more sheets of lasagna and filling. Repeat for the other portion.

Using a vegetable peeler, shave the Parmesan cheese and sprinkle over the pasta.

Parfait.

Pleasure in simplicity: Spaghetti with Garlic and Olive Oil

I used to take pride in the fact that homecooked food has allowed me the freedom to add as much ingredients as I like. Think pizza. It's not a surprise that my homemade pizza is overladen with more than enough ingredients, bursting with too much taste that the flavours of some food are buried among others.

This spaghetti recipe is surprisingly minimalist, and handy when your fridge is empty. It is also recommended as a hangover dish, according to my Olive Oil cookbook by Tess Mallos.

Spaghetti with Garlic and Olive Oil
Serves two

125g dried spaghetti (about a handful)
1/4 cup (70ml) extra virgin olive oil
3-4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 finger-length red chili, thinly sliced, chopped (optional)
1 big tablespoons chopped parsley
salt and black pepper
canned anchovy fillet, to serve (optional)

Toasted breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons soft white breadcrumbs

Prepare the toasted breadcrumbs first by heating olive oil and tossing the breadcrumbs over medium heat until golden and crisp. Takes just 1-2 minutes. Set aside.

Bring a large saucepan of lightly salted water to boil and cook the dried pasta until just tender. Remove from heat and toss with 1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Cover and set aside. It must be ready to use immediately after the next step.

Heat remaining olive oil and saute the garlic and chili over medium heat until fragrant and just golden. Do not overcook. Remove from heat and immediately pour into the pan with the spaghetti. Add parsley, salt and pepper to taste and toss until well blended.

Transfer to serving bowls and top with anchovy fillets and serve with the toasted breadcrumbs.

The toasted breadcrumbs may be optional, but they really make the pasta taste better. The chili is considered as the hangover cure.

Fresh parsley is always preferred to dried ones, but my pot of parsley is half dying, so have to use dried ones so that I don't kill my half-dead but still surviving parsley.

Lazy Peperonata and Mushroom Spaghetti

A lazy evening warranted a simple, easy to cook dish, that required minimal reference to recipes and washing. And the big red and yellow peppers bought last Sunday was screaming their wish to be devoured. So I got the inspiration to cook Spaghetti out of this sweet and sour peppers dish I had learnt from my Italian cookbook "Easy Italian in Minutes" sometime ago.

It's very simple, but not the fastest. Basically, it involves simmering peppers of various colours in olive oil for half an hour, and seasoning them with sugar, salt and red wine vinegar for a sweet and sour taste.

I ended up using just my yellow peppers. If you use a combination of red, yellow and green, I'm sure the dish would look prettier. And don't be tempted to just use green peppers, as red and yellow peppers are crucial in adding a touch of sweetness to the dish.

Lazy dessert after dinner came in the form of a perennial favourite of Remi: Melted dark chocolate with sweet pears and vanilla ice-cream. He always makes sure we have a bar of dark chocolate in our store cupboard for such decadent delights. Melt chocolate with milk over a water bath for the perfectly thick and rich consistency.

Peperonata and Mushroom Spaghetti
Serves two

1 yellow pepper (or even better, combine half red and half yellow or green)
1 tablespoon olive oil
big handful of fresh button mushrooms
red wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sugar
salt
a few slices of chorizo or smoked ham
sprinkle of pine nuts
Spaghetti
Chopped parsley
Grated Parmesan cheese

Deseed and slice the peppers in long strips.

In the proportion of 1 tablespoon of oil to 1 pepper, heat oil in saucepan and add the peppers, tossing well to coat them in oil.

Fry over low heat, covered and simmer for 30 minutes until the peppers are soft. You don't really have to watch over it. Add the mushrooms sometime in between, say after 15 minutes. Season with sugar, vinegar and salt. Proportion of vinegar about 1 tablespoon or less, depending on taste. Can also replace red wine vinegar with balsamic vinegar.

Add the chorizo and pinenuts.

Meanwhile, cook the spaghetti and stir the cook pasta into the cooked peppers dish. Sprinkle with chopped parsley and cheese.

Asparagus season is in: cooking risotto with it.

I found a book The Country Store that wrote about discovering the pleasure of the changing seasons amidst our busy and hectic modern life, from baking, pickling, preserving to natural remedies, seasonal decorations and food:

The sowing of seeds, even if it is just a pot of parsley on the windowsill, is the beginning of a relationship with the plants that germinate, the picking of apples from the garden follows the beauty of spring blossom and the slow growth of the tiny green fruit to their full-flushed maturity when we can enjoy the satisfaction of our own harvest".

- Stephanie Donaldson

Coming from tropical Singapore, seasonal changes are guided by window displays in shops, screaming SUMMER SALE, NEW WINTER COLOURS, GSS SALE NOW ON; or when my father declares that the durian season is in with the fragrant smell of the fruit filling up the house; or when the rainy season sets in and I can't leave home without my brolly.

Our taste buds nowadays are hardly guided by seasons, as we import fresh produce from both the Southern and Northern hemisphere and we are able to indulge in every culinary whim whole year round.

Kiwiland being so far from everywhere, the sense of changing seasons is more marked now that 1. we shop for our grocery weekly; 2. we see more and more new produce appearing in markets with the arrival of Spring; 3. we feel the price difference between seasonal produce and imported food.

And it brings me great pleasure to welcome the Asparagus season!!! Soon, I'm sure I'll be able to smell strawberries in the air soon.

As asparagus do not keep long in fridge, I've been scouring my recipe books on how to utilise my new bunch to the fullest.

This Asparagus Risotto recipe comes from Jamie again. I'm very convinced by his guide to making me a better cook (and Christele Le Ru rocks in the dessert department), as it contains many useful and easy to cook dishes.

A word on making risotto. It's expensive to buy the real rice, so we've tried making it with Thai rice several times. Though it can't be compared with the real thing, it is more economical when it comes to practice. For this dish, we used medium grain rice. And we used a wok to cook the risotto. Worked well.

Asparagus and Lemon Risotto
serves two

Basic risotto:
1 cup risotto rice
about 250 ml vegetable or chicken stock
olive oil
1 tsp butter
1 medium onion
80 ml white wine

6-8 stocks of asparagus (stems sliced finely, but tips kept intact)
6 prawns (more if you're less stingy than me)
125ml chicken stock
grated Parmesan cheese
zest and juice of half a lemon (yes, our lemony quest continues)
sea salt and ground black pepper
olive oil

Bring stock to a simmer in a saucepan. Put olive oil and butter in separate large pan, add onion and celery (we didn't use celery) and cook gently for 15 minutes until soft. Add rice and turn up heat, stirring continuously.

Quickly pour in wine, stir until wine has evaporated.

Add stock into rice a ladle at a time, stirring and waiting until it has been fully absorbed before adding the next ladle. Cooking with low fire/heat, continue to add ladlefuls of stock until all have been absorbed, and the rice is beginning to soften but still a little bit firm.

Now, according to Jamie, if you're not cooking your risotto immediately, you have to put the part-cooked rice into a waiting oiled tray, spread them out evenly to cool down. And you can keep this risotto base in the fridge for a couple of days in a tupperware container.

But since we're hungry for our dinner, we went straight to the next steps, which involves pouring in the second batch of chicken stock into the risotto base with the asparagus stalks and tips and the prawns. And stirring all the time, bring gently to boil, and turn heat down and simmer until almost all stock has been absorbed.

Add the rest of the stock a ladleful at a time until rice, asparagus and prawns are cooked. You do not need to finish using all the stock.

Turn off heat, beat in Parmasan, and almost all the lemon zest and juice. Add salt and pepper if needed. Original recipe uses mint as well, so add some fresh mint leaves if you like a minty taste.

Serve with a drizzle of olive oil and more cheese if you like it more cheesy.

Thoughts from Lasagne

I recently came across a quote saying "if you can organise your kitchen, you can organise your life". It reminds me of my late mother, who not only singlehandedly managed her kitchen to feed many mouths EVERYDAY (no weekend breaks), but also gave comfortable lives to her children.

She worked her kitchen with ferocious efficiency. On the rare occasions when I have to break into the kitchen to prepare for my Food and Nutrition practical tests, she would gladly dish me plenty of advice, but also chide me for my habit of using too many utensils, leaving a big pile of washing at the end. To her (and also to my domestic helper Indar), the chore of everyday cooking can be lighten by efficient cooking, which involved using just 1 wok and 1 pan for 3-4 dishes, and constant washing along the way, so that you don't get the pain of having a huge pile of washing at the end. After all, a dishwasher is not a luxury we have.

So when I was attempting this Lasagne recipe from Jamie's Italy, I wasn't comfortable with its use of 4 pans. Too technical for someone like me, who is still struggling with keeping my kitchen neat while cooking. And I don't own so many pans.

I altered the recipe slightly, using ready made pasta and replacing roasted shredded meat with minced beef. Not sure what went wrong, but the sauce was too juicy the first night we ate it. When we had the remaining half for lunch the next day, it was just perfect.

Lasagne alla minced beef
serves 2-3

Lasagne
Parmesan cheese for grating
mozzarella cheese (according to taste, I personally prefer my pasta to be not overly cheesy)
a handful of fresh sage leaves, if available
olive oil

for tomato sauce:
150-200g minced beef
olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
rosemary
2 bay leaves
1 tin plum tomatoes

for white sauce:
300 ml milk
sprig of parsley
pinch of nutmeg
1/2 onion, sliced
2 black peppercorns (I used white ones)
30g butter
20g plain flour (quantity estimation, as I've divided the original quantity by 3)
Parmesan cheese, freshly grated
sea salt and ground black pepper


Heat a pan and add some oil. Fry garlic until lightly coloured, add the minced beef. When it's more or less cooked, add the rosemary, bay leaves and tomatoes. Cook gently for 45 minutes with a lid on.

When the tomatoes are nearly done, put milk, parsley, nutmeg, onion and black peppercorns into another pan and bring gently to boil.

Melt the butter in a 3rd pan and add the flour. Mix well, then strain the milk and add slowly, stirring well until you have a thick smooth white sauce. Bring to boil and simmer for a couple of minutes, then take off heat and add Parmesan. (adjust consistency with milk or flour if necessary)

Preheat oven to 180C and butter a baking dish.

Bring a pot of salted water to boil, add some oil, blanch the dry lasagne stripes 2-3 at a time until they are relatively cooked, then cover bottom of dish with the pasta. Top with some tomato meat sauce, then some white sauce followed by Parmesan. Repeat layers until tomato meat sauce is finished. Top with white sauce, sprinkle more Parmesan and scatter mozzarella and sage leaves over. Drizzle with olive oil. Bake for 45 minutes until golden.

So we had our dinner past 8.30pm again. It was good, but being a slow cook, I will do it only if I have more time.