Eggplant salad November 17, 2008

Eggplants by chichacha

This eggplant salad might seem a bit hard to make at first, because you’ll need to roast the eggplants. Roasting them can be messy, as a friend remarked recently: eggplants may burst in your oven or on the BBQ. To avoid that, you can either cut them in 2 and bake them in the oven – or you can pierce them with a fork. You can roast in the oven, at 350 – 400F. I prefer to roast them in a pan (no water, no oil, just put them in a pan), on the stove – you’ll need to flip them regularly. Oh, and do make sure you watch the fire alarm, because roasting can sometimes be a bit smoky. (Here’s another post I found on roasting eggplants)

Ingredients: 2-3 eggplants, 1 onion, 1 yolk, lemon, olive oil, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Roast eggplants. If you roast them in the oven, they are ready when they are really soft and wrinkled. If you roast them on the stove, they are ready when the skin is burnt. Peel the skin – or scoop the eggplant with a spoon.
2. Mince the eggplant – either you put it in a food processor or you can mince it using a wooden spatula (some 2-3 minutes).
3. Add 1 egg yolk, 1/2 onion cut into small pieces, some olive oil (maybe 1-2 tablespoons), salt and pepper. If in love with garlic, you can add it to this salad too. Squeeze a bit of lemon juice (this will make the eggplant turn just a bit whiter). If using a food processor, put all ingredients together with eggplant and mix. Otherwise, just use a spoon and mix thoroughly.
4. If you want, decorate with sliced tomatoes. Goes really really well with any type of white soft cheese, whether salty or not, and tomato salad.

Steamed Salmon with Asparagus November 4, 2008

There’s a lot of salmon available in Calgary. This is an easy and very tasty way of cooking it. You’ll need:

A piece of salmon, 1 bunch asparagus, lemon juice, 2 garlic cloves. For the sauce, you’ll need: 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon lemon juice, 1 teaspoon honey, 1 tablespoon dill, 1 tablespoon olive oil.

Steamed salmon and asparagus

Here’s what you need to do:

1. Wash and trim asparagus. Steam it in the steamer with salt and pepper and 1 garlic clove.
2. Wash the salmon, then sprinkle salt and pepper. Squeeze half lemon on it, then pour a bit of oil. Store in fridge for some 30 minutes to marinate.
3. Steam salmon. For enhanced taste, crush 1 garlic clove on top of the salmon.
4. Start preparing the sauce which you’ll pour over the salmon: mix Dijon mustard, lemon juice, honey, dill, olive oil, salt and pepper.
5. Serve salmon on top of asparagus, with a bit of the sauce.

I’ve got the recipe from the World Healthies Foods, so if you want more ingredients or more precise instructions, check them out. I had the fish today, with the Moroccan-Style Carrots as a side dish, and it was just amazing!

Moroccan-Style Carrots November 3, 2008

Carrots by John Morgan

With carrots, I always go for the easiest option: peel, cut and boil with 1 teaspoon of sugar and salt, then drain and add a bit of butter. But today I wanted something fancier, and since I’ve started using the steamer, I opted for this interesting recipe called “Moroccan-Style Carrots”.

You’ll need some 1kg carrots (peeled and cut in any shape or form), 1 tablespoon of yogurt, 1 tablespoon of lemon juice and 1 teaspoon of butter, salt and spices: parsley, cinnamon and cumin.

1. Put carrots in steamer and sprinkle with salt, cinnamon and cumin.
2. When carrots are tender (try them with a toothpick), put them on a plate.
3. Separately, mix together yogurt, parsley, lemon juice and butter.
4. Pour mixture over carrots and serve.

If  you’re not serving them right now, just save the mixture for later, in the fridge. When you want to eat, heat the carrots, then pour mixture.