pork and aubergine casserole

this past weekend, i was browsing the clemson farmer's market and started talking to a local farmer (of walker century farms).  as i was buying some ground pork from him, he was providing commentary on how it is hard to mess up cooking (unless you simply fail to pay attention to what you're doing).  as it turns out, this fellow also likes to cook, and he was kind enough to provide me with a recipe.

this is not that recipe.  but he did give me an idea.  and the concept for this particular dish didn't get finalized until i was halfway through preparation.  so this pork and aubergine casserole is truly an experiment.  "aubergine" sounds so much more sophisticated than "eggplant," don't you think?

prep time took about 30 minutes, and cooking time took upwards of 40 minutes.  this gave me about 6-7 servings.

ingredients:
- 1 aubergine (one goes a long way...these eggplants are a lot bigger than they seem)
- about 1 pound of ground pork, thawed
- 1 pint diced tomatoes (these happened to be home-grown and home-canned)
- 15 oz can of corn
- 8 oz (or so) of feta cheese
- parmesan cheese (real, not fake kraft version)
- basil
- garlic powder
- oregano
- black pepper
- ground hot pepper
- cayenne pepper
- tarragon
- thyme
- paprika

preparation:
i drained the corn and mixed it with the tomatoes in a bowl.  with it, i mixed basil, garlic powder, oregano, cracked black pepper, ground hot pepper, and some tarragon.  i happen to like basil and oregano with tomatoes (it feels so italian), and since mom doesn't add anything to the tomatoes when she cans them, i added quite a bit of herbs.  the pepper was mostly to keep things from getting too bland, and i thought that the anise-flavor of the tarragon might add a little extra zip.  whether it made a difference or not, i let the mixture sit for about half an hour in hopes that the flavors would meld a little more.

thinly slice the eggplant, and add a layer to the bottom of a 9" x 13" baking pan.

brown the pork over medium-high heat with garlic powder, cayenne pepper, thyme, black pepper, and paprika.  i figured that some of the cayenne would cook off (and/or be lost in the grease), so i added a bit more than i might otherwise have thought appropriate.  browning took approximately 10 minutes, after which i drained the excess grease.  the pork was surprisingly lean, i must say.

once the pork is drained, stir into the tomato and corn mixture before pouring the entire bowl into the baking pan.  layer any remaining eggplant on top.  crumble the feta cheese on top and bake at 350°F for 25 minutes.  sprinkle parmesan cheese on top and bake for an additional 3 minutes.

verdict:
flavor-wise, this turned out surprisingly well.  the herbs and spices weren't overpowering, but i also managed to avoid underseasoning the dish.  in and of itself, that is impressive.

to be self-critical, though, this casserole had several flaws:

• too watery: i think i should have drained the tomatoes as well as the corn.  also, the tomato wasn't really all that present.  either i should have used more tomatoes, or i should have added some tomato paste to help coat the meat.
• upper layer of eggplant was a little tough: i probably should have brushed the top layer with olive oil or something before adding the cheese.  it still tasted fine, but you could tell the baking process left the eggplant a little dry.
• lack of binding agent:  i'm not sure this was particularly cohesive dish.  in some ways, it felt like a deconstructed soup.  fixing the first point may solve the problem, but i wonder if a thin egg mixture poured on top would have helped, too.

all that said, i would probably cook something similar again.  however, i'd probably dice the eggplant instead of having thin slices.  homogenizing the ingredients might prevent a tough(ish) layer of eggplant on top and make things feel more like a single, cohesive dish.

live and learn, right?  and yes, i realize the pictures are kind of pitiful this time...everyone has an off-day!

heaven

calvin and hobbes is arguably one of my favorite comic strips of all time.  so much so that i bought the box set of the entire collection (which was supposedly one of the heaviest books on the new york times best-seller list).  basically, it's a set of three coffee table books containing ten year's worth of comics.  who wouldn't love this?

i decided it was time to reread this collection, and now i'm remembering why i've always thought this comic was so fantastic.  case in point, the january 8, 1986 strip:

clearly, this is an awesome view of things, and it's an afterlife i wouldn't mind for myself.


incidentally, there's a calvin and hobbes search engine out there that will let you do a keyword search on the comics.  pretty much awesome.

spinach and feta stuffed chicken

i decided to experiment last night...in this case, i stuffed some chicken breasts with spinach and feta cheese.  i've never actually cooked with feta cheese before, and now i'm wondering what took me so long.  and because i got distracted, i neglected to upload the description until today.  shameful, i know.

prep time was on the order of 15 minutes, and cooking time was about 25 minutes.  i would consider this to be a moderately fancy meal, and it takes less than an hour altogether...who'd've imagined?!  if you serve the chicken with rice and vegetables on the side, what i cooked amounts to about six servings.

ingredients:
- boneless, skinless chicken breasts (i used three, or a little less than two pounds)
- feta cheese (i happened to get some flavored with garlic and herbs; about 3-4 oz)
- fresh spinach (a handful or so)
- olive oil
- salt/pepper
- basil
- paprika
- ground hot pepper

preparation:
coarsely chop the spinach, add to a small bowl, and mix the feta cheese, a little basil, some cracked black pepper, and a little olive oil (just enough to coat the mixture).  the trick is judging how much spinach and feta will fit inside the chicken.

cut horizontal slits in the chicken breasts and stuff the spinach and cheese mixture inside.  basically, i made the chicken into a piece of pita bread and made a pocket...make a suitably large pocket because you want to fit all the spinach and cheese inside!  i ended up using toothpicks to hold the stuffing inside the chicken (two per chicken breast).  rub the chicken with some more olive oil, some paprika, salt and pepper, and a little ground hot pepper, and brown it in a pan over medium-high heat (about 3 minutes per side).  move to an oven-safe pan and bake uncovered at 375°F for 20 minutes.

verdict:
this is a splendid meal; not to sound immodeset, but i am particularly impressed with this experiment.  however, i will admit that it could be improved by wrapping the chicken in pancetta.  many of the recipes i saw online called for a pancetta or bacon wrapping, but i didn't bother this time.  maybe i will go for that in the future though...besides being bacon (and who doesn't like bacon?), it would have kept the spinach and feta properly on the inside of the chicken during the pan-sear.  live and learn, i suppose.

biscotti

my ice cream bread, though interesting, did not turn out to be my favorite recipe.  so i decided to experiment with it.  despite the self-rising flour (and probably because of my choice of baking pan), it was sort of a flat loaf.  though not particularly bread-like, it had potential for a transformation into biscotti.

after eating about a quarter of the bread plain, i cut the remainder into about 1/2 inch slices and baked them at 300°F for about 11 minutes.  i've never made biscotti, and waiting until the next day to do the  second baking probably isn't the best way to do it, but this is the most recommended temperature i found online.  the 11 minutes seemed to be about the time it took for the slices to get crispy on the cut sides.

my sister told me that i need to use a tablecloth when i'm taking pictures (to add a little bit of color contrast).  a wrinkled cloth napkin will have to do for now.

anyway, dipped the finished product into caramel sauce (yes, aunt ame, i still have some left over from christmas...it's tasty, so i've been rationing it), this seems to work quite well.  although i may not care to keep making ice cream bread as bread, i would certainly make it again as the first stage of biscotti!

oops. the caramel dripped.

ravel or unravel?

i like words...it comes from having read voraciously since kindergarten.  and i find it amusing that some unlikely (and seemingly opposite) words should in fact mean the same thing.  for example, "flammable" and "inflammable" both mean essentially the same -- even though one has the "in-" prefix.

in the same fashion, both "ravel" and "unravel" mean to disentangle, to unweave, or to cause to come apart.  granted, merriam-webster does list an obsolete definition for ravel as "to become entangled or confused," but still.  words are funny like that.

greetings to all the fiber artists from ravelry.com currently reading my blog.  i hope you find something you might like to try!

ice cream bread

so my sister showed me something that looked like magic.  namely, the ability to turn ice cream into bread.  too good to be true?  apparently not, according to this article.  i decided to see what all the fuss was about...and use some praline pecan ice cream.

 ingredients:
2 cups ice cream
1.5 cups self-rising flour (as i have written earlier, you can make your own)
a handful of shelled pecans.

preparation:
mix the flour into the ice cream until all the flour is thoroughly moistened.  i also tossed in some extra pecans -- because you can never have too many pecans in anything.  add the mixture to a greased pan and bake at 350°F for about 40-45 minutes.  it should be golden on top, and a toothpick poked into the crust should come out dry.

verdict:
my loaf was not particularly nice-looking.  i attribute it to the fact that i didn't have a loaf pan and thus had to use a too-large (and round) cake pan.  the mixture spread out instead of being properly contained.  as a result, the crust is particularly crunchy...almost too much so.

all that said, it has a consistency more like poundcake than a loaf of bread, and i didn't catch much of the caramel swirl from the ice cream.  as a baking experiment and all-around curiosity, i think this was successful.  it will probably also taste nice toasted and spread with fig preserves.  but i'm not sure i'll try it again...unless i obtain a pan more suitable for bread loaves.

also, i may just cut the loaf into pieces, bake them again, and end up with a version of biscotti.  i have some caramel mix in my fridge, come to think!  (and in fact, biscotti does work well)