Eggplant Bruschetta

I meant to write about my last cook of the quarter and the beautiful results from it, but haven't had the chance with finals, Christmas, and my sister's baby shower (so exciting!! Much more about that later).  But, now that I have time, I wanted to focus on a couple of recipes from the amazing meal that my housemate and I made.

It was our final cook of the quarter and we were determined to make up for our previous cook (let's just say that our previous meal didn't exactly go as planned).  Determined to make up for it, we decided on a meal which consisted of beef brisket, flatbread with honey and thyme, mashed potatoes, salad, eggplant bruschetta, and a Bulgarian pastry with cottage cheese.

You may be thinking, “wow, that's a lot of food”, and honestly, it was about enough food to feed our house of 40 plus some.  We really wanted to make sure we didn't run out of food.  Yet despite the vast quantities, we managed to make a pretty delicious meal.  One of the dishes which was particularly loved was actually our vegetarian option.  We (with our mass amounts of food) ended up having enough eggplant bruschetta for everyone to try it, and they gave us tons of compliments on it.  Here's the recipe so you can try it out for yourself!

Eggplant Bruschetta (adapted from the Smitten Kitchen)

Yield: About 4 salad/appetizer portions, assuming people will eat 2 rounds apiece.

Ingredients:
2 to 3 tablespoons plus 4 teaspoons olive oil
1 1/2 pounds eggplant (about 2 medium), cut into 3/4- to 1-inch slices
2 ounces (1/2 cup) feta cheese
2 tablespoons capers, drained
1/3 cup finely diced red onion
3 seeded, diced medium tomatoes (1 1/2 cups)
3 tablespoons minced fresh mint leaves
2 teaspoon red wine vinegar plus a bit more
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1) Preheat oven to 425ºF.
2) Finely dice the 1/3 cup of red onion and place it in a small bowl.  Soak the onion in red wine vinegar, just to cover.  Let sit until you assemble the salad. This is intened to soften the onions a bit and make the onion flavor a little less intense, (especially important if you're like me and don't like raw onions).
3) Coat a large baking sheet generously with olive oil, 2 to 3 tablespoons. Arrange eggplant rounds in a single layer. Sprinkle with salt and freshly ground black pepper.
4)Roast, without disturbing, for 15 to 20 minutes. Flip each piece: the undersides should be blistery, dark and a bit puffy and should release from the pan with no effort. If they don't look this way, allow them to cook longer. Once flipped, sprinkle them with additional salt and freshly ground black pepper and return the pan to the oven for another 10 to 12 minutes or so, until the undersides match the tops.
5) Meanwhile, mix your feta cheese, capers, onion*, tomatoes, mint, vinegar and remaining 4 teaspoons olive oil in a small bowl. Taste for seasoning; feta cheese tends to be quite salty so this dish shouldn't need any salt.  Add freshly ground black pepper, to taste.
6) When the eggplant discs are done, arrange them on a serving platter. Scoop a spoonful of the salad over each round. Eat immediately.

Tortilla de patata or Spanish tortilla

It's been a while since I've written a blog post and I suppose that's a good thing since it means I was studying hard for finals.  But, now that they're over, I wanted to post the recipe for something which is (finally) a non baked good and Spanish.  I did, after all, study in Spain for six months and take a cooking class while there.   In fact, I got the recipe for Spanish tortilla from the cooking school we went to as a group in Madrid.  The only problem is, it's only a good recipe in terms of portions. The real reason I know the whole procedure for making them is the maid who came to my host mom's apartment every couple of weeks.  My host mom insisted they were the best so one day I decided to watch how she did it.

Since then, much to my surprise, I've found cause for making tortilla española fairly often. Like a large and very thick omlette made with potatoes and eggs, the Spaniards often cut it into small slices or squares and eat it for tapas.   It is also very common for it to be made at home and simply eaten as part of the meal.   My first opportunity to make it came when my housemate, Charlie, and I prepared Spanish food.  Our meal was Spanish from start to finish and consisted of paella (vegetarian and meat), tortilla española, and arroz con leche.  Then, since I am also a Student Advisor for the Madrid Study Abroad program, my fellow SA and I purchased tortilla española or tortilla de patata (that's what they call it in Spain) for our cultural orientation.  However, for our final event of the quarter before the Madrid group goes abroad for the the winter, Nick and I decided to try our hand at making the tortilla. The results were quite good and it's not as difficult to make as you might think. The hardest part is flipping the tortilla (a fact Nick discovered when he dropped one on the floor) so I would recommend using a small, very non-stick pan to flip.  Otherwise, you'll end up with tortilla on your floor or stuck to your pan.

Tortilla de patata or Tortilla española (Recipe translated and lightly adapted from Cocina Cayena)

Yield: about 2-3, 9-inch tortillas

Ingredients
2.5 pounds of potatoes (brown russet potatoes work fine for this)

8 eggs

1 onion

3 cups of extra virgin olive oil

salt to taste

pepper (optional)

Directions

1) Peel and wash the potatoes. Using the widest opening of a box grater, grate the potatoes into thin slices. Set aside. Next, slice the onion into thin strips.

2) Combine the potatoes, onion, and salt in a large pan and add olive oil almost to cover. (I know, it looks like a heart stopping amount of olive oil, but trust me, it's necessary. And besides, no one ever said this was a healthy recipe, though I bet you didn't know it was this bad for you!) Stirring often, allow the potatoes and onions to simmer in the olive oil for about 30 minutes or until potatoes are tender.  Stir occasionally to make sure the potatoes and onions don't stick to the pan

3) Once cooked, dump the potatoes, onions, and obscene amounts of olive oil, into a paper-towel lined colander to drain.

4) In a large bowl (large enough to combine the eggs and the potato mixture) whisk 8 eggs with some pepper to taste. Though the Spanish would never use pepper since they can't handle even the remotest bit of spice, I like to add a bit.

5) Add the drained potatoes a bit at a time to the eggs, careful not to cook the eggs as the potato mixture will still be hot. Mix well.

6) In an 8 or 9 inch non-stick skillet (really make sure it's non-stick!!), heat a tablespoon of olive oil over medium heat. Swirl skillet to coat.

7) With a ladle, add about 1/3 of the egg and potato mixture to the pan. Stirring very slightly in the middle (be sure not to break through the bottom layer) continue until the egg is cooked about halfway through along the edges.

8) Using a large plate, cover the pan and carefully but quickly flip the tortilla onto the plate. Then very carefully slip it back into the pan, uncooked side down.  Return to flame.

9) Continue cooking over low to medium heat until it is cooked through.

10) Once it's done, slip it onto a large plate. Make the other 1 or 2 (depending on the size of your pan) and cut into squares or slices to serve.  

Chocolate Stout Cake

Things have been super busy this quarter and as you can see by the frequency of my posts, it's been a while since I've had the chance to bake.  But, there was a need with it being one of my best friend's birthdays.  I missed his birthday last year as a result of being abroad, so I decided I need to make up for it this year in the form of a cake.  Since the birthday I'd missed was his 21st, I thought I'd make this cake to show Kyle that I hadn't forgotten that I still owed him a drink. The resolution: make a chocolate stout cake.

In addition to being pretty delicious and quite moist (I am always afraid of overbaking cakes) it was pretty simple to make. It also looked pretty nice, that is until I decided to add some lettering to the cake. I tried to practice beforehand, but my lettering still needs some work (there's a reason the lettered version isn't up here). I guess I'll just have to keep making birthday cakes in order to improve!

Chocolate Stout Cake (Lightly adapted from the Smitten Kitchen)

Ingredients:
1 cup stout beer (such as Guinness)
1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter
3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch-process)*
2 cups all purpose flour (I used half whole wheat flour and half all purpose since it was all we had)
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking soda
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
2/3 cup sour cream (I used 1/3 cup plain yogurt and 1/3 cup crème fraiche because it was also all we had)

*Recipes always say this and I always ignore it because I don't have the money to buy Dutch-process and my co-op has a perfectly acceptable billion pound bag of cocoa. But one day, I'll buy it. If you do use Dutch-process cocoa, let me know how it works out.

Directions:
Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter or spray a bundt pan well; make sure you get in all of the nooks and crannies. (Some people even go so far as to brush the inside of their bundt pans with melted butter–you cannot be too careful!). Bring 1 cup stout and 1 cup butter to simmer in a medium size saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.
Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and 3/4 teaspoon salt in a large bowl. Using electric mixer, (I almost never use one and it still comes out well) beat eggs and sour cream in another large bowl to blend. Add slightly cooled stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined (Do not overmix!). Pour batter into prepared pan. Bake cake until tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 35 minutes. Transfer cake to rack; cool completely in the pan (be sure it's really completely cool or you might get chunks of cake stuck to your pan!), then turn cake out onto rack for drizzling ganache.

Ganache:
Ingredients:
6 ounces good semisweet chocolate chips
6 tablespoons heavy cream
3/4 teaspoon instant coffee granules (We didn't have any instant coffee, so I skipped this and just made regular ganache.)

Directions:
For the ganache, melt the chocolate, heavy cream, and coffee in the top of a double boiler over simmering water until smooth and warm, stirring occasionally. Drizzle over the top of cooled cake.