Cooking | Featured Food of the Week: Eggplant!! (Lazy Eggplant Parmesean)

[Ladios]

Pictured: Sweet-Potato Chips in Coconut Oil

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Food is good. Tasty food is better. Being a the chef of many a delicious dish is not out of your reach, the first step is the courage to try cooking [size6pt](and of course permission from your parents if you are too young to use the stove)[/size]

Share your favorite recipes for your fellow Blocklanders to try here or maybe learn a new recipe yourself. If your recipe is popular enough I will try to be sure to post it up here to be found easily.

Food of the week
EGGPLANT



Eggplants are awesome.

There really shouldn't need to be any more explanation than that, but if you are not convinced here's some info.
They are one of the only plants that provide a significant source of nasunin, which protects cellular structure from oxidation. They are also high in several forms of vitamin B while being extremely low in calories.

Furthermore they are extremely versatile. Eggplants have made their way into the cuisine of many countries in many varieties of dishes. From ratatouille in France, to Eggplant Parmesean in Italy, the Greek moussaka, all the way to India to be used in curries and chutney varieties.

While there are many ways to cook eggplants the way to best get the most nutrients out of them is simply sauteing them in vegetable broth in a pan for seven minutes stirring occasionally.
In most cases you do not need to prepare the eggplants beyond washing and cutting them up, the skin may be tough though on globe eggplants and can be removed before cooking (although this is less necessary for Japanese or Chinese eggplants, being much thinner), and adding acid such as lemon juice can help prevent them from oxidizing and turning brown as you cook them.

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[Ladios]

In case this page gets too long too quickly, it made sense to move this part to another post, as new featured foods and recipes get added
Featured Recipes:

Baba Ghanoush
Difficulty: 4/10 (REQUIRES A FOOD PROCESSOR)
Eggplant's Saute for: 7 minutes
Sesame Seeds grind for: 7 minutes*
The total time was approx: 30 minutes
Ingredients: Eggplant,  Tahini/Sesame Seeds*, garlic, olive oil, cumin, salt, parsley, (other spices may include sumac, basil, cayenne pepper, turmeric, paprika, don't be afraid to experiment)
Directions:
Heat a quarter cup of vegeteble broth or so (depending on the size of the pan, have a small layer) in a pan, Wash off eggplant, if necessary peel it, and chop into cubes. Saute the eggplant for seven minutes stirring occasionally.
Meanwhile if you have Tahini great, if not, make it, start the food processor with some sesame seeds in it (I eyeballed it, the recipe suggested a quarter cup but theres no harm in having too much tahini) for several minutes, stopping to scrape the sides.
Depending on the type of sesame seeds you are using you may have to add some olive oil to get it to start blending more.

When the eggplant is finished add it in batches to the tahini, blending in between, until all the eggplant is added, add the garlic now unless you want more chunky garlic in your dish.
Afterwards continue blending, stopping to stir the sides occasionally whilst adding a 3/8 cup of lemon juice, and 1/8cup of olive oil. Add the spices and garlic if you havent done so already and blend, adding more spices, salt, lemon juice, or what have you to your taste preference.

To serve spread on top of naan (or tortillas if you have none handy) and make it into a tasty wrap, or eat it as a dip with carrots or what have you. The possibilities are endless.

Baba Ghanoush is a popular dish in Levantine cuisine, traditionally made from mashed eggplant (instead of the scary-yet-convenient modern method of shredding it to pulp with technology) and when served as a dip it is customary to drizzle some olive oil in a well formed in the middle of it.


Sweet-Potato Chips in Coconut Oil
Difficulty: 3/10
Prep time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 15 minutes
Ingredients: 1 medium/large sweet potato, some coconut oil.
Directions:
Wash off sweet potato, and chop into thin slices.
Heat enough coconut oil to coat the bottom of the pan over medium-high heat. (in the pan
Place a layer of slices in and flip after 1-2 minutes depending on how thick they are cut, and how hot the pan is.
Cool on wire rack or paper towel, adding more slices to the pan until all the potato is cooked.

Sweet potatos are usually not much more expensive than regular potatoes, yet are much healthier. While a regular potato is pretty much all starch sweet potatos actually have a reasonable vitamin count per dollar. Coconut oil is awesome and should be used in most cases when you need heated oil (provided you can get it for cheap enough, costco sells them in huge tubs at discount), as coconut oil doesnt release the same deadly gasses many other oils such as corn oil or butter, and it doesnt degrade in nutrition with heat like olive oil.


check back later for ladios's guide to spices and how to use them in a tasty manner

[TheABELBOTO]

If I wasn't lazy I'd try this Q-Q

[Ladios]

Ok you want easy?


Eggplant Parmesan (lazy version)
Difficulty: 2/10
Prep time: 4 minutes
Cook time: 7minutes
Ingredients: Eggplant, (optional: broth, lemon)  Olive oil, Tomato, Garlic, Basil, Mozzerella cheese, Parmesean cheese,
Directions:
Skin eggplant if nessisary and cut into slices, (optional: brush lemon over them to prevent browning). Heat olive oil (or broth, the healthier option) in pan and place eggplants in pan.

Cook for approximately 4-5 minutes, meanwhile slicing a tomoato and flip once the eggplants then add tomato slices on top and slices of mozzerella cheese.

Continue to cook for 3 minutes meanwhile crushing garlic into some olive oil, and adding in basil.

When cheese is melted place on plate and brush oliveoil mixture onto each eggplant thing, sprinkling parmesean cheese ontop.

[Zanaran2]

The only things I know how to cook consistently are scrambled eggs and omelettes :(
I don't have very many ingredients on me

[Zay]

this thread is gonna be so useful omg

[Badger]

cookin is e-z