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Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label easy. Show all posts

Friday, October 1, 2010

Roasted Tomato and Eggplant on Toast with Homemade Aioli and Arugula + Bloody Ceasars

This was another one of my toaster oven creations from the two weeks when we didn't have gas in our apartment.

First, I cut up the eggplant into about 1 inch cubes and tossed them with salt, pepper and olive oil before roasting them at about 425 dergees. Next, I sliced a few roma tomatoes in half, again, tossed them with salt, pepper and olive oil, plus a few sprigs of thyme and roasted them at about 425 as well. For the aioli, I crushed up some garlic and then in a separate bowl, combined an egg yolk, sherry vinegar, dijon mustard and salt before slowly streaming in a combination of vegetable and olive oil. I then toasted a few slices of bread, spread on a little aioli, next lay on a roasted tomato and a few pieces of eggplant and then topped it with a handful of arugula and a little of my fancy balsamic vinegar that Lucas bought for me.

Now, for drinks we had a couple of Bloody Ceasars. Apparently it's a SUPER Canadian drink that doesn't really exist in the US, but think of it as basically the same thing as a Bloody Mary but with Clamato juice instead of tomato juice. Clamoto juice is tomato juice mixed with clam juice. Sounds really gross, I know, but it's just soooo delicious, you have to trust me!!! Instead of using store-bought Clamato juice, I opted to buy separate bottles of tomato and clam juice to make my own. This way, it's easy to control how clammy it gets... So anyways, the other ingredients are lemon juice, worcestershire sauce, tabasco (not pictured), horseradish, tons of pepper, vodka and celery salt around the rim of the glass. I don't have a recipe, so it helps to just put in a little of everything at a time and keep tasting until it's just right. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.










Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Deborah Madison's Pasta with Chickpeas and Parsley

My mom has been making this dish forever and it's always been one of my favorites. It takes less than 20 minutes to prepare so it's always a great fall-back meal for a busy night.

First, chop an onion and sautée it in about 1/4 cup of olive oil for 2 minutes. Add in 2-3 minced garlic cloves and however many chili flakes you'd like, cook on medium-high heat until the edges are golden. In the meantime boil water and cook pasta (I usually use orecchiette). Chop 1/4-1/2 cup of parsley (Deborah Madison also calls for sage, but I didn't have any). I also use thyme when I have it on hand. Rinse a 14oz can of chickpeas and fry them up with the onions at the last minute. Mix everything together, add some reserved pasta water if need be, and top with parmesan!