We made eggplant parmesan rolls with swiss chard and mint!

The other day, Hillary and Faryl came over for dinner. Alena and I decided it was finally time to make a recipe I had noticed on epicurious and emailed to her a long, long time ago, especially since eggplant and swiss chard are now in abundance, AND Alena happened to have some fancy ricotta cheese left over from making gnutti for her parents (girl when you gonna post that?).

Well, it was a complete success. This is a delicious, lighter, summerier alternative to eggplant parm or traditional eggplant rollatini. The eggplant is broiled instead of fried, the Swiss chard adds some green, and the fresh mint gives it a nice kick.

Eggplant Parmesan Rolls with Swiss Chard and Mint

Ingredients

• 2 medium eggplants (about 2 1/4 pounds total), trimmed, cut lengthwise into 1/4-inch-thick slices
• Coarse kosher salt
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 1-pound bunch Swiss chard, center ribs removed
• 2 large eggs
• 1 15-ounce container whole-milk ricotta cheese
• 1 1/4 cups finely grated Parmesan cheese, divided
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
• 3/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 15- to 16-ounce can tomato sauce
• 1 8-ounce ball fresh water-packed mozzarella,* drained, thinly sliced

Cover bottom and sides of each of 2 large colanders with 1 layer of eggplant slices; sprinkle generously with coarse salt. Continue layering eggplant slices in each colander, sprinkling each layer with coarse salt, until all eggplant slices are used. Place each colander over large bowl; let stand at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour. (We just laid them out on paper towels, which worked fine.) Rinse eggplant slices to remove excess salt; dry thoroughly with paper towels.

Position oven rack 5 to 6 inches from heat source and preheat broiler. Line 3 large rimmed baking sheets with parchment paper. Arrange eggplant slices in single layer on prepared baking sheets. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil. Broil 1 sheet at a time until eggplant slices are tender and beginning to brown, watching closely and removing eggplant slices as needed if cooking too quickly, 3 to 4 minutes per side. Remove baking sheet from oven and cool eggplant while preparing filling.

This was our first time using our oven's broiler!

Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add chard to pot and boil just until tender, about 2 minutes. Drain; rinse with cold water. Squeeze chard very dry, then chop coarsely. Squeeze chard dry again between paper towels. Whisk eggs and pinch of coarse salt in medium bowl. Stir in chopped chard, ricotta cheese, 1 cup Parmesan, mint, and black pepper.

Lightly oil 15 x 10 x 2-inch glass baking dish. Spread half of tomato sauce evenly over bottom of dish. Divide chard-ricotta filling among eggplant slices, placing about 1 heaping tablespoon filling in center of each. Starting at 1 short end of each, loosely roll up eggplant slices, enclosing filling. Arrange rolls, seam side down, atop sauce in baking dish. Spoon remaining tomato sauce over. Place mozzarella slices in single layer over rolls. Sprinkle with remaining 1/4 cup Parmesan cheese. DO AHEAD: Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover with foil and chill.

Preheat oven to 350°F. Bake eggplant Parmesan rolls, covered with foil, until heated through, about 30 minutes if freshly made or 40 minutes if refrigerated. Uncover and bake until brown in spots and sauce is bubbling, 15 to 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Here is us chilling on the fire escape while the eggplant baked:

And here is an aerial view of our meal. It looks like Hill's arm is moving SO FAST!!!

YUM.

We Made Kale Pizza

A few Saturdays ago Hill and Amy came over and we made pizza. Hill had the great idea to put kale on top!

I know this is my third post in the last month about greens - after the kale salad and collards posts - but hear me out. Kale on a pizza is delicious. I will post about something completely different next time.

Here's what you need:

Ingredients

I bought pizza dough at the pizza place near my house. (One day maybe I will make my own, one day.)
1 large can crushed San Marzano tomatoes
1 bunch lacinato kale
1 large ball of fresh mozzarella cheese - smoked mozzarella would be great too
grated Parmesan, salt, pepper to taste
olive oil (for kale)
We also used these toppings - fresh tomatoes, chicken red pepper sausage (OPTIONAL)

Preheat your oven to 400-450 degrees.

Form your dough into a flat circle - it should probably seem TOO flat, as it puffs up a bit in the oven. If you have too much, set it aside for pizza #2!
(We formed the dough into two pies - one was large and very flat, and one was a bit thicker and more free form.)


Spread a thin layer of tomato sauce over the dough, along with some salt and pepper. Slice the mozzarella cheese thinly and layer it on.

If using other toppings like tomatos or sausage, layer it over the cheese. (Although our sausage was pre-cooked, we sauteed it for a few minutes in a pan with some olive oil to get it a bit crispy before layering it on.)

Wash the kale well and remove the thick stems/stalks, leaving only the soft leaves. Chop roughly and toss in a light coat of olive oil and layer over the pizza. It REALLY cooks down in the oven, so don't be stingy, even if the leaves seem to be over flowing from the dough.

Grate some Parmesan cheese and sprinkle salt and pepper over the kale.





Put it in the oven!! Depending on your oven, probably needs to bake for a different amount of time. Keep an eye on it. You want the kale to brown a bit and get crispy, but not burn. It comes out looking like this:






This goes really well with some cold beer.

I know it sounds crazy, but I was so into this crispy kale topping that I ended up making a baked pasta dish later in the week, and instead of topping it with cheese, I topped it with more kale. I baked it and it gave me the same results - crispy and tasty.

I guess the moral of the story is, don't feel weird about putting chopped up kale on top of everything you bake. (OK, almost everything.)

We made a Middle Eastern feast!

YO! SG here. It's been a while, but I'm back on the Who Cooked What scene to tell you about this Middle Eastern feast in which M, Hill, Lanez, Nat and I participated a couple weekends ago. As you can see, we enjoyed it picnic-style on a blanket on the floor. Because sometimes it's more fun to eat that way.

I made some baba ganoush:


Followed the recipe pretty exactly. I tried roasting the eggplant over an open flame on the stove, which is pretty simple. You just need some tongs to keep turning them. But I got scared and took them off too early because this skin was so charred--but I guess that's what is supposed to happen. I roasted them a little longer in the oven after that to get them soft enough.

Natalie made some delish hummus:


M was in charge of falafel (I believe we used the Moosewood recipe, right M?):


I wanted to make avgolemono, which is really Greek and not Middle Eastern, but I was getting over a cold and was really in the mood for this comforting, nourishing lemony rice soup I used to get from a local Greek restaurant back in Jersey. I found this recipe in a comment on epicurious. There were a million comments after it, all saying how much better the recipe posted by "A Cook from Boston" was than the actual epicurious recipe! We followed it pretty exactly. Thank goodness I had Martha to help me "temper" the eggs, which I had never done before.

Here it is copied and pasted:

I'm 34 and have been making this since I could stand up on the stool in my Yia Yia's kitchen (my grandmother who is now 80 yrs. old). Soupa Avgolemono: 8 c. homemade chix stock, 1 c. orzo, 4 eggs/ separated, juice of 3 lemons, fresh ground black pepper. This recipe will make a perfectly balanced salty, rich, filling, comforting soup. Boil broth, add orzo and simmer until tender 20 min. Whip whites until medium peaks, add yolks beating continuously, add juice, beating. Temper eggs with 2 c. broth, adding in constant slow stream while continuing to beat furiously so you do not curdle the eggs. Add egg mixture back to remaining broth and serve. When reheating, do not re-boil - heat slowly until very warm or you may curdle the eggs. Garnish with thinly sliced lemon. I sometimes add more than juice of 3 lemons, as the sourness is the best part of the taste! You should taste lemon, richness of eggs, salt of chicken, and starch of rice, in that order and you've made it perfectly. You can also add thin pieces of shredded chicken meat (pull off bone in strips), although classic recipes don't include chicken, vegetables, garlic or any of the ingredients many reviewers added to "fix" this recipe. Try mine and you'll be hooked for life!

And here is what the finished product looked like:

Here is us enjoying the meal by candlelight:


And this is how full we were after:


Here are two vids. The first is of us all putting Hill's pitas in the oven, and the second of us dining to some jams.

We had a picnic!

This was that weekend that spring came to NYC all at once in a crazy explosion of 95 degree weather in the middle of April. We celebrated by throwing together a picnic in Fort Greene Park.

In my humble opinion, picnic food should be easy. Easy to make, easy to eat, easy to carry, easy to keep in the sun without spoling. BUT IT ALSO MUST BE DELICIOUS! Is it possible? you may be wondering.

Well the answer is yes. Just take a look at this spread.


Clock wise from top:

I made black bean salad (recipe follows).
Hill made AWESOME brownies.
Alena brought some fruit.
Billy brought a refreshing celery blue cheese salad.
Joey brought "Summer Pasta", which is basically tortelini with basil, cherry tomatoes, garlic and olive oil. He taught me how to make this when we were in grad school together and having almost nightly dinner-making/study dates. This is sooo easy to throw together--just throw all the ingredients besides the pasta in a bowl, let sit so the flavors infuse the olive oil, and then toss with the pasta. You don't have to use tortelini--bowties work well if you want something less heavy.

Here is the recipe for my black bean salad. It is inspired by something I found on Epicurious, but I can't find the original recipe, and I've tweaked it so much anyway that we can just say I invented it.

Ingredients
Salad:
1 can black beans, rinsed and drained
1 can corn, drained
1 can heart of palm, drained and sliced into medallions
1 diced tomato
1 green pepper, chopped
1 red onion, finely chopped
1 bunch cilantro, chopped

1 avocado, sliced

Dressing:
1 clove garlic
Juice of 2 limes
Tb olive oil
tsp white vinegar
splash hot sauce if you want

E-Z:
Toss all the salad ingredients in a bowl. Then toss all the dressing ingredients into a smaller bowl and whisk together. Combine bowls. Toss that salad. Through some pretty avocado slices on top.

Done. Simple, refreshing, good. Look at how happy it made us:

We made Lemon-Basil Gimlets!

Hi.  This is Hillary's brother, and I have a recipe for you.  Normally, I wouldn't describe making a cocktail as cooking, but this actually involved applying heat to ingredients, so I think we'll count it.  Besides, they were delicious.

First you have to make the Lemon-Basil simple syrup.  Here's the recipe:

• 4 cups packed fresh basil sprigs
• 4 cups water
• 2 cups sugar
• 9 (4 by 1 inch) strips of lemon zest (I ended up with lots of smaller strips, but it served the same purpose... these are really tasty after they come out of the syrup, by the way)

Bring all the ingredients to a boil in a saucepan, stirring until the sugar is dissolved.  Then let stand at room temperature, covered, 1 hour.  Then transfer to air tight container and chill until cold, about 1 hour. Strain into a bowl, then squeeze solids to get out extra liquids.  Syrup will keep in fridge up to 5 days.

Cocktail:

• 1 cup Lemon Basil syrup
• 3/4 cup vodka (we put a little extra splash of vodka into the glasses... they're a little sweet as is)
• 3/4 cup fresh lemon juice
• Ice cubes
• Basil sprigs for garnish

Stir together all ingredients in a pitcher until cold, then strain into 8 to 10 ounce glasses half-filled with ice.

Bad camera phone pictures of mason jars filled with the syrup:

I made Hill's Dad's Thumbprint Cookies!

The title says it all. I wanted to bake some cookies to bring to a LOST-viewing party on Wednesday, and the choice was clear - these cookies. I followed the recipe precisely, except I substituted raspberry jam for apricot jam and omitted the almonds (just in case anyone at the party had a nut allergy.) They were so popular, and every last cookie was eaten. People were very impressed that I had made them, but as Hillary noted in her post, they are very simple to make!

If you decide make these with raspberry jam, I recommended heating the jam over the stove until it liquifies slightly, and then pass it through a strainer to separate the seeds (that is what I did). That way your cookies will have perfect circles of smooth, flavorful jam with no crunchy seeds getting in the way.

But seriously, check out Hill's post and make these sometime, they are so delicious. (I bet Hurley would love them.)