urban odds & ends

Eggplant Casserole serves 4
adapted from Mamma Maria! Familenrezepte aus Sizilien by Cettina Vicenzino

4 mid-sized eggplants
3 gloves garlic, cut into thin slices
500g tomatoes, roughly chopped
70g ham, chopped
125g mozzarella, chopped
100g freshly ground parmesan
fresh basil, leaves roughly, stems finely chopped
salt & pepper
oil

Remove the stem from the eggplant, than slice into 1cm thick discs. Using a big bowl, place them in layers, each layer sprinkled generously with salt. This procedure removes excess water and bitters. I used my heavy stone mortar to put some extra weight on top helping the water to drain. This step should take around 1 hour. After an half an hour we can start with the tomato sauce. Heat up a large pan with 1 tbsp oil over medium high heat and throw in the sliced garlic while the pan is still cold. This infuses the oil much better than cooking the garlic right away. When the garlic starts to brown add the basil stems and the chopped tomatoes. Cook until it looks like a thick nice sauce. Season with salt and pepper.

Heat up your oven to 200°C (400°F).

Now back to our main actor: Monsignore Eggplant. Discard the liquid and give the eggplant slices a quick rinse. Take 3 slices in your hands and squeeze as much water as possible out of them. Repeat until all slices are dry. Grab a deep casserole and start with a layer of tomato sauce, followed by a layer of eggplant slices. On top goes some ham, mozzarella, basil and parmesan. Now repeat until all ingredients are used. The last layer should be tomato sauce with plenty of parmesan on top. Bake 30 minutes until the top is golden brown and the sauce nice and bubbly. This dish doesn't need any side dish besides maybe some crusty bread, sprinkled with olive oil and flaky sea salt.

Simple, yet delicious. This is the way I like my meals on weekdays, when I'm learning most of the time and there's no time for time-consuming preparations.

Zucchini Pancakes makes 4 pancakes
adapted from The Wednesday Chef

1 medium zucchini, shredded
100g feta cheese, crumbled
3 spring onions, thinly sliced
2 tbsp all-purpose flour
1 large egg
salt & pepper
oil

Mix the shredded zucchini with 1 tbsp salt, place in a colander and drain for about half an hour. Transfer to a clean kitchen towel and squeeze to release as much liquid as possible. In a large bowl combine the zucchini, egg, feta, spring onions and flour. Season with salt and pepper. Heat a large pan on medium high heat with 1-2 tbsp oil. By the time it's hot place the batter with a spoon in the pan making four pancakes and flatten them with a spatula.Fry until golden on each side - for about 7 minutes - until crisp.

I ate it with a simple yoghurt sauce, made with greek yoguhrt, a little lemon juice seasoned with salt and pepper. Yummy!

Oh my... these are long gone but they were unbelievable delicious. Now I understand this whole macarons hype going on for months. Macarons are flavored-buttercream ("ganache") filled almond meringues (from the lips to the hips I would say), a pastry for which Paris is famous for. The best pâtissieres selling les macarons are Laduree and Pierre Hermé. And since I don't have a second residence in Paris I absolutely need to try making macarons by myself, even if they're not easy to make. So if you want to try  (read as "...you need to try...") and join me in this adventure ;) I'll include some yummy recipes for you.

Making French Macarons Instructions
Macaron Chronicles 1,2,3,4,5,6,7
Chocolat Macarons
Spiced Chai Latte and Salted Caramel Macarons
Rapsberry and Pink Peppercorn Macarons
Powdered Strawberry and Vanilla Bean Macarons
Pistachio and Grapefruit Macarons
Milk Chocolat and Coffee Macarons