Salsa de tomate frito

Ever since living in Spain, attending my first and only lesson at a cooking school there, and being obsessed with El País’s food blogger El Comidista, I’ve been into making Spanish food. With a stack of recipes from the cooking school and countless ones online, I’ve been able to make everything from croquetas to gazpacho. Still, one of my favorite dishes has always been pisto manchego.

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.

Chinese Scallion Pancakes (Finally, something not a dessert!)

The other day, Dan sent me a message and a link for making these flaky fried pancake things that we had tried.  He bought them and they were delicious so I was excited to make them myself.  Rolling them out reminded me of making tortillas with my grandmother and I was so proud that after a few tries I was able to make these great pancakes into perfect round circles.  A far cry from the Africa shaped tortillas we used to make with her.  Too bad they weren't her tortillas though. Or maybe not, because they were good but perhaps not nearly as bad for you as her tortillas.  That is until you fry these things.  Not in too much oil but enough to make these completely unhealthy for you.   Oh well.   In any case, the sauce for these is really what made them.  The girl who wrote this recipe sort of offhandedly wrote down some ratios of what to what would make a good sauce, and boy were her estimations right on.  So when making these, definitely don't forget the sauce or you'll be missing something.

Chinese Scallion Pancakes (adapted from Sel et Sucre)
Yield: 6 pancakes

Ingredients
2 cups flour
1/4 cup warm water + more as needed
the green parts of 1 bunch scallions, finely chopped
vegetable oil
kosher salt

Directions
1. In a large bowl, mix 2 cups flour with 1/4 cup warm water, and stir until water is absorbed. Continue adding more warm water one teaspoon at a time, mixing thoroughly, until dough pulls away from the sides of the bowl. The dough should be firm and barely sticky to the touch.
2. Knead the dough about twenty strokes, then cover with a damp towel for 15 minutes.
3. Divide the dough until 5 or 6 equal pieces and roll each piece into a ball.
4. Place a ball of dough on a well-floured work surface and roll out into a thin circle, approximately 1/16th inch thick. (this part was a bit tough for my weak arms!)
5. Brush a thin coating of vegetable oil over the pancake. Sprinkle kosher salt (be sure not to forget the salt! I did and some weren't as tasty) and about 1 – 2 Tbsp of the green parts of 1 bunch scallions, finely chopped evenly over the pancake.
6. Roll the pancake up from one end like a rug, then curl the roll around in a spiral and pinch the end to the roll so it stays wrapped.*
7. With the palm of your hand, press the roll from the top to flatten it. Roll the pancake out to 1/8th inch thickness (some scallions may break through the pancake, but that’s okay).
8. Repeat this process for the remaining pancakes. If you are not planning on cooking the pancakes right away, stack them between wax or parchment paper and store in a gallon bag in the freezer until ready to cook. The frozen pancakes do not need to be defrosted before being cooked.
9. To cook the pancakes, coat a pan with vegetable oil and heat over medium heat. Cook each pancake in the oil, frying each side until golden brown, adding more oil as needed. Serve warm with a dipping sauce.*

*This is difficult to explain without pictures, so I would go here to see the step photos of the assembly.

Dipping Sauce
Ingredients
2 tablespoons Soy Sauce
1 tablespoon Rice Vinegar
1 tablespoon brown sugar (trust me, it tastes good)
A dash of sesame oil
Leftover scallions

Directions
1) Combine all ingredients in a small bowl and whisk with a fork.
2) Serve with the warm Chinese Scallion Pancakes.

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

It was a Friday evening and my friend Dan and I had decided to make dinner. We all needed a trip to the store so Dan, Manoli, and I all jumped in the car and headed to Safeway. Wandering around for a bit, not sure of what to make that would not cost me very much money, I settled on sweet potatoes for sweet potato fries and a thin loaf of bread to make crostini. Pretty cheap. I then decided to make use of the beautiful heirloom tomatoes my boss had so generously given me, and the brie cheese which Dan had donated to me, in order to make us some appetizers while Dan prepared the real meal. Not everyone was a fan (Manoli doesn't like brie and Micah doesn't like tomatoes) but I think Dan and I enjoyed them. Or at least I did. Well anyway, I thought they were good and they were super simple as a nice appetizer...

Crostini with Brie and Tomatoes

Ingredients
Crostini
8 slices of french bread
8 slices of brie cheese

Tomato topping
1 fresh tomato, diced
2 teaspoons parsley
1 teaspoon oregano
2 teaspoons olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 375º F.
2) Slice the bread on the diagonal, into ½ inch slices. Top with a piece of brie cheese. Place baguette slices face side up on a baking sheet. Bake for 4-5 minutes, or until the brie is melted. Remove from oven.
3) Combine all Tomato topping ingredients in a small pan over medium-high heat. Simmer for about 3 minutes. Remove from heat.
4) Top crostini with about 1 tablespoon of the tomato. Serve immediately.

Savory Peaches

So my mom wanted us to do something with peaches for her birthday that was neither a cobber, a pie or a tart. At a loss for what to make I eventually stumbled upon this recipe, from the guys at The Bitten Word, when searching for appetizers. It's supposed to be made with pancetta but Giant Eagle just didn't have it (shocker) so I decided to use prosciutto instead and I think it worked just as well. We got rave reviews on these and I think the sweet and salty combination along with the juiciness of the peaches was just right.

Pancetta (or Prosciutto) Wrapped Peaches with Basil and Balsamic Vinegar

Total time: 30 minutes

Serves: 4

Ingredients

16 thin slices of pancetta (or prosciutto in its absence)

2 medium freestone peaches—halved, pitted and cut into 8 wedges each

Salt and freshly ground pepper

16 basil leaves

1 tablespoon olive oil


Aged balsamic vinegar, for drizzling (I don't think ours was aged balsamic and it was fine)

Directions

1. Lay the pancetta slices out on a work surface. Set a peach wedge at the edge of each slice, season with salt and pepper and top with a basil leaf. Roll up the pancetta to enclose the peaches.

2. In a medium skillet, heat the olive oil. Add half of the wrapped peaches and cook over moderate heat, turning occasionally, until the pancetta is browned and crisp, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a platter and repeat with the remaining peaches.

3. Lightly drizzle the peaches with aged balsamic vinegar and serve.