Cycling Foodie

Last night was one of those, “what’s in the refrigerator?” dinners.

Thursday on my way home from work, I stopped by Trader Joe’s to pick up a few staples. I saw some of the most beautiful eggplant I have seen in a while, and for only $1.29 each, I had to get it.

To pick an eggplant, I always look for one that is plump and shiny. Eggplants bruise very easily, so be polite to your fellow shoppers and grocer and do not squeeze them, but handle them very gently.

To prepare eggplant for cooking, I peel it, slice it 1/2 to 3/4-inch thick, lay the slices out on a towel, and then grind some sea salt over it, turn the slice over and salt the other side.

I just use a little salt, but if you accidentally use too much, you can rinse it later; just be sure to pat it dry if you rinse it. The purpose of the salt is to draw some water out of the eggplant. Some eggplant, especially if they’re a little more mature, can be bitter. (Kind of like some people we all know!) The salt will help to draw that out, too. Then cover the salted eggplant with another towel and let them sit a while.

How long you let the eggplant sit depends on the eggplant. This was just about the most perfect eggplant I have seen in a long time and it didn’t need to sit for long, maybe 10 minutes? You can see from this eggplant that the seed were very small and hardly noticeable. That’s what you want. When the seeds get a little bigger, and dark, that’s a sign that your eggplant needs to salt a little longer. It may take some trial and error.

I cooked these on my George Foreman grill. To grill, brush or drizzle with a little extra virgin olive oil and place it on a pre-heated grill. One thing to keep in mind is that the eggplant will absorb a lot of oil, so be careful how much you use! It might look like there’s not enough, but you really don’t need much. I used medium heat. If you’re using a GFgrill, then put the top down. After about 1-2 minutes, I rotated the slices to get that pretty criss-cross grill mark. Put the top back down and cook until desired doneness. These cook quickly, so keep an eye on them.

These keep in the refrigerator for a day or so, so don’t worry if there are leftovers. It’s good cold in salads, can be used on pizza, as a quick and light eggplant parmigiana (just pour a little marinara over top, a little cheese, and heat it through – tastes so much better and is far healthier than deep fried!), or just reheated.

I made dinner, so it pretty much goes without saying that there will be salad. This was a very simple salad – artisan greens, heirloom cherry tomatoes, Persian cucumbers, fresh thyme, a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil, and a couple of grinds of sea salt. I buy these greens at Costco:  http://www.artisanlettuce.com/. They’re a whole head, a pack of 6, and it’s a great deal. I have always been happy with the quality and they keep for the whole week.

 

I also had some shrimp, so I made a quick shrimp cocktail. I just steamed the shrimp. Normally I would roast or grill them, but tonight it needed to be quick. Just thaw them (at least most of the way) and toss them in a steamer, and steam a few minutes. You really have to just go by color on these. For the cocktail sauce, I used a prepared cocktail sauce (Trader Joe’s seafood cocktail sauce) and added some extra horseradish. I’ll often add a little lemon, too.

There were also a few veggies left from last week’s Farmers’ Market – asparagus, brussel sprouts, and spinach. I steamed them lightly, just to warm them up.

I was invited to my first ever Christmas Eve Lumpia Party this year. Lumpia? For Christmas Eve? Why not? After all, what better way to celebrate the holiday season than friends gathering to play with food?

There are different types of lumpia. We made a Filipino style, fried lumpia with a pork based filling – ground pork, cabbage, green onions, garlic, egg, and seasonings.  I think this is the recipe that these lumpia were based on, but if not, it is very similar:  http://allrecipes.com/recipe/filipino-lumpia-2/

 

Some recipes call for the filling to be cooked, others not.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We cooked the filling.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Once you get all of the ingredients set up, it’s actually fairly easy to assemble the lumpia. You’ll need the prepared filling, separate the lumpia wrappers and be sure to keep them covered with a moist towel because they dry out easily. Be sure to have a moist towel to cover the rolled lumpia also.

Once you have everything in place, then start wrapping. To wrap, take one wrapper and place some filling on the corner, as shown below.

Now the lumpia are ready to cook.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Serve these with an assortment of sauces, such as Sweet Thai Chili Sauce, Hoisin Sauce, Plum Sauce, or whatever sauce will pair nicely with the filling.

 

We also made some dessert lumpia – one with a honeyed mascarpone and blackberries, and one with bananas.

     

          

 

Honeyed Mascarpone Blackberry 

 

Banana with Cinnamon 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Then, as you could probably predict, we began to experiment. What else could we fill these with? We had some homemade fudge, so we wrapped up some with fudge and nuts, and a few with fudge and blackberries.

What a fun tradition! I am already looking forward to next year!

 

So I’ve been struggling for a few weeks now about what the heck to make for a potluck we’re going to tonight. Having worked as a baker for many years, I typically whip up some yummy baked goods, but I wanted this to be different. Potlucks always seem to have so many desserts, I wanted to make something else. Stumped. I was completely stumped. What was everyone else bringing? What did we NEED? Inspiration eluded me.

We had dinner with a friend last week and he gave us a bottle of wine, a 2009 DeLoach Sonoma County Chardonnay Vinthropic Cuvee.

When it comes to wine, I like white wine, but I will almost always go for red. So this posed a fun challenge for me. What the heck could I make to pair with this wine?  I Googled it. This is what DeLoach recommends:  “a perfect complement to alfresco dining, and pairs well with creamy risotto with shitake mushrooms or a freshly tossed Caesar salad with grilled prawns” ( http://www.boissetfamilyestates.com/products/ProductDetails.aspx?PrdId=767)