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Tackling beef bourguinon (sp) for the first time, tonight! Any tips appreciated.

do you have to eat the beef bourguinon tonight?

my mom made it for christmas dinner a few years ago - and the chef who gave her the recipe insisted that the bourguinon would be INTENSELY more flavorful and delicious if it was made a couple of days ahead of time.

and that we the best christmas dinner we ever had.

I'll be trying an experiment this weekend--not only in the kitchen but in the international connections the Internet makes possible. My most recent post on chili got a Brazilian food blogger talking about a basic Brazilian rice and beans dish. We ended up deciding that I would post her recipe on my blog next week--I'm also going to cook it with my own little tweaks [she uses a pressure cooker and I don't, for instance] and post the results.

I'm going to try Italian Soda with homemade pomegranate and ginger syrups.

Chickpea fries.

Double-batch of soup (half for the freezer) to keep good on my new year's resolution.

nick malgieri's supernatural brownies

been craving chewy chewy brownies lately - and they never seem to come out right. this recipe calls for 4 eggs - 2 sticks of butter - 8 oz of chocolate - 1 cup white sugar - 1 cup brown sugar - then baking for 45 minutes(!) and chilling(!) overnight then cutting and serving the next day.

anyone have luck with chewy brownies? that are CHOCOLATELY.

Cooking simple for a few days. Then, I will tackle spanokopita and baklava, since I have some leftover puff pastry.

Tonight I am having steak and garlic mashed potatoes with a salad.

i'm eating duck ragu with wide flat egg noodles and peas, lots of red wine and herb salad with a orange vinagrette. i made the duck recipe from cooking for mr latte for holiday dinner -- easy peasy but time consuming -- and turned the leftovers into duck ragu and froze it. it's very chilly this weekend in la -- the perfect weekend for a rich winey meaty pasta sauce!

Alexia, I love superchewy brownies. I use the recipe from the Joy of Cooking. The trick for chewyness (1) is to bake them in a shallower pan (9x13 instead of 9x9) and (2) and *definitely* to refrigerate them overnight.

I have been making a lot of Indian curries from the new cookbook Vij's (a famous Vancouver restauranteur) received as a Christmas gift. All the dishes I have tried have been phenomenal. I also became inspired by Ming Tsai's recipes on the internet, especially the incredibly delicious 'miso shallot vinaigrette'. It got rave reviews at a recent dinner party.

Thick as fog split pea soup.

Whew--been a while since I've stopped by! Was on vacation and then busy catching up on work I missed from being on vacation. Ah, the vicious cycle.

Made a huge Portuguese/Brazilian dinner for Xmas Eve a few weeks ago--spiced chicken, empanadas, potato kale soup, and custard cups were the highlights. So yummy!

Tonight, I'm stewing up some sausage barley soup. It's supposed to snow tomorrow and I have visions of curling up on the couch with a mug of soup in one hand and a mug of tea in the other. Mmmm...

Can anyone tell me how to prepare eggplant?

I'm new to daily cooking and on top of that, I'm allergic to most 'normal' foods. So eggplant will be a great, tasty substitute for me!

I tried baking it last week and was not impressed. Last night I tried to fry it in a pan with olive oil... it was okay.

What I need is advice on cutting it and cooking it. When I sliced it last night, I didn't know how to remove the seeds. Are you supposed to?
I don't really need a recipe... just knowledge on basic prep.

Thanks,
CC

Click Chick, I don't do a lot of cooking with sliced eggplant, but I love various eggplant dips, using roasted eggplant. You roast the eggplant (on a baking sheet) in a 475 degree oven (for a 1 pound eggplant it will take about 20-30 minutes, but can be longer) until it is fork tender. Remove from oven, slit open, let it cool a bit, then scrape out everything inside and puree it with a hand-hld blender or in a regular blender. You can use the puree in a number of different spreads and dips.

JenPDX, chickpea fries sound amazing--how do you do it?

As for me, I made a major dinner Friday night. Using the recipe from "Sunday Suppers at Lucques," I made braised short ribs, served over swiss chard and pearl onions, and accompanied by a parsnip-potato puree. To start we had a cauliflower soup, and for dessert I made a Bon Appetit recipe for Caramel Pudding Tart, which had an almond shortbread crust and was topped with almond brittle! Everything took forever but came out well, and I have two leftover short ribs plus plenty of puree to serve for dinner tonight. It's snowing up here in NH, so short ribs sound perfect!

Like JenPDX above, I'm looking to make a double batch of soup to freeze for National Soup Swap Day on January 23! It's so hard to narrow down what I want to make though. EmmaC, that sausage barley sounds good! Perhaps I'll do two soups.

Re: eggplant

I slice it, brush it with olive oil (sometimes I mix balsamic or another vinegar into the oil), and then roast it for 25-mins at about 425 degrees.

From there, I add the eggplant to a variety of things like Thai Green Curry. Or saute some zucchini, combine with eggplant and a marinara sauce over pasta. Or make a sandwich with tomato, fresh mozzarella, basil, eggplant, on a nice crusty roll.

Lastly, I found this lovely cooking website the other day. There is an entry on the aubergine with some recipes that sound delectable:
http://www.hertzmann.com/
http://www.hertzmann.com/articles/2006/aubergine/

Thanks for the eggplant advice.
So, does one cut around the seeds or eat them too?

When I searched the web all the info I found made a big deal about the seeds.
If one is to avoid the seeds, what is the best way to slice it?

Thanks again.

For Chick chick: I consider eggplant Satan's vegetable (blech) so I can't give much direct advice but I would recommend looking at a copy of Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone. She typically gives very good advice on handling and prep. If you've got a copy around the Joy of Cooking or Bittman's How to Cook Everything are good resources as well.

As for my kitchen? I've got a batch of hummus and tabbouleh for my lunch box. Some carmelized onions just finished for throwing into blue cheesey pasta and I did a fridge cleaning batch of chicken broth.

I am now terrified of having to do the dishes tonight.

I've made a variety of things this weekend. Strawberry Napoleons, empanadas, creme brulee, and some baked pasta dish thing. not a very attractive description but it was wonderful. I'm new to this whole cooking thing but each dish i make, i'm becoming way more enthusiastic about cooking, and doing the dishes now seems to just be a small task to be done because i'm also figuring out how to use as little dishes as possible.

Miss Mann,
I love your term "Satan's vegetable". I've never been much of an eggplant fan myself....

I never worry about eggplant seeds. I've never heard anything about removing them and would think it to be nearly impossible. However, I usually salt sliced eggplant and then pat it dry before roasting or frying it.

Talking about eggplants and chickpea fries, here is something to try: Eggplant chickpea fries :-) I am not a big fan of eggplant but love these fries called Pakoras.

1 cup chick pea flour
½ tsp. Carom seeds (I think these seeds add a delicious crunch but they are optional)
1 clove of garlic ground to a fine paste (optional if you like your fires garlicky)
salt and red chili powder to taste
one egg plant sliced into disks (immerse in cold water with a dash of salt as they tend to oxidize very quickly)
Oil

Make a batter of all ingredients except eggplants adding a little water at a time. Batter should be thick enough to coat the back of a spoon well. Dip the eggplant disks in the batter and fry till golden. Lightly sprinkle with salt.

This is a yummy side, which I think goes really well with lentil soup. You can also make these fries with potatoes, onions, cauliflower florets and and green pepper strips.

Thanks all!

I'll check out that book.

I made the blue cheese ball this past week, and perhaps I'm just a stinky-cheese fiend, but I thought it was a little bland. The rosemary seemed to dominate. I did use fourme d'ambert, rather than a more pungent blue, as I was concerned with getting a soft-enough cheese to blend.
Now, what to do with all that leftover rosemary...?

Yeah, I used a super pungent Roquefort; maybe I should specify that in the recipe.

I did find, making those cheeseballs, that any moderately soft cheese, left out at room temp, then whizzed in a food processor, will get soft and spreadable. The Havarti isn't very soft but it worked well too.

Click Chick, if you're still checking in here, lots of seeds in an eggplant means it was left on the vine too long--it's too mature. I'm not sure how you go about knowing this when you buy them, but I try to choose the smaller ones and make sure they're very firm with a tiny tinge of green under the leaves. Usually works for me.

My favorite eggplant dish is old-fashioned, authentic capunatina. Saute eggplant and set aside; then saute onion, garlic, celery separately from eggplant. Add tomatoes, the sauteed eggplant, a little tomato paste if using fresh tomatoes, basil and simmer awhile. Then at the end add ripe green olives (if you can't find these, use ripe black olives, not brined green olives) some capers, red wine vinegar and a little sugar. Serve at room temp.

Sorry I don't have quantities, just do it to your taste. Use lots of olive oil.

I just have to add - regarding Satan's Vegetable...
Try making (or ordering) more than one meal/dish that does not contain ANY of the following:
Fish and/or Seafood
Chicken
Eggs
Carrots
Celery
Tomatoes
When you're allergic to 'normal' food - you quickly learn to like what you CAN eat. ;-)

CC

click chick,
You have my deepest sympathies. All those dietary restriction have to be really rough.

nadarine,
Rosemary loves potatoes. I do them in a foil package in the oven. Sprinkle salt, pepper and olive oil on sliced potato and onion. Add sprigs of rosemary (and thyme and cayenne if you like). Roast in tightly sealed foil packet for about an hour.

click chick, my sympathies too!

Here is a simple eggplant dip recipe, which my boyfriend’s mom gave me.

1 large eggplant brushed with oil and roasted in the oven at 400 till the skin is completely brown and the eggplant is soft.
1 cup of yogurt (Greek is better)
3 or 4 spring onions sliced fine with some of the greens
1 pinch each of salt and paprika
Toasted cumin for garnish

Scoop out the pulp of the eggplant and coarsely chop it up. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and garnish with toasted cumin. Nice with pita bread triangles. I also like to add chopped roasted red peppers to this dip (skin removed).

Mmm.. that sounds great.

So you scoop the seeds and all and add to the dish? no wonder I wasn't thrilled with the one I baked! The instructions I found indicated that the seeds were to be avoided so you can imagine there wasn't much left!

Thanks all!

I never thought about taking the seeds out. I imagine it would make for better presentation but then I’d use 2 eggplants instead of 1.

http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chickpea-fries

This is the recipe I was looking at for the chickpea fries. But I plan to spice it up with Coriander or Cumin or something else. There's a re$taurant here in Portland that is well-known for their chickpea fries. I had them in June 2006 and they are still on my brain.

Eggplant - it is the FOIE GRAS of vegetables. When properly cooked (usually with lots of oil!) eggplant is unctuous, velvety and rich. It all depends on how you believe Satan works...

(No need remove seeds if you've got a good one. You may want to try asian varieties that are long and thin rather than globe shaped eggplant.)

Sambal Terasi to make a spicy Indonesian-style fried rice with crab and pork (out of Essentials of Asian Cooking/Corrine Trang), Caesar salad (out of Zuni book)
and
lamb ragu (out of Babbo book)

Guess the resolution is learning new tricks out of cook books.
So far, it's working!

Continuing to do the classics: a fresh ham for Christmas (incredibly easy) and flour gnocci for New Year's.

Yesterday I made a serious coq au vin, which meant using blanched bacon to fry the chicken in, braising little white onions separately (as well as sauteeing mushrooms), flambeing the chicken with brandy.

It was a success though next time I will include the garlic (Ok, I didn't follow the recipe to the letter) and experiment with a fruitier wine, like a Chianti.

Happy cooking in 2007.

Hi all--
I'm making a lamb ragu with rigatoni for a dinner party (though making a new recipe for guests always makes me nervous...) The recipe (From Guiliano Hazan) says to cook it for at least two hours-- if I cook it longer, will the lamb get more or less tender? Can it be overcooked? Is lamb "stew meat" ok for this? (The recipe just says boneless lamb, cut into dice.)