SimPle PleaSures (in EveRy BiTe)

Hi Ree,

This one is for you.  It took me literally FOREVER to figure out a dish that I think can flip your skirt up!  So I decided to make something that I am 93% sure (I love numbers) you will like.  I am saving the 7% for the other 1000 recipes you are receiving for your contest. Dangit!

To be honest, this dish really reminds me of your posting about your trip to Austin.  I, too, was there years ago, since I went to school somewhere close to that city (about 2 or 3 hours away.. hint hint..).

And I LOVE Egg plant. Don’t you?  I know you do.. You LOOOOVEE egg plant, come on, say it, say it!!  And I know Marlboro Man doesn’t really like fancy dishes as such (is it really fancy, btw?  I don’t know what I am talking about).  But, if he likes lasagna, he may like this one.

The taste of the eggplant is there, definitely, but blends with my lovely white sauce, which, for your information, was created while I was looking for tips to make cake moist… (there is a mayonnaisse part involved here that makes the dish taste yummy tummy..)

Ok, shall we?

Here goes.

Ingredients:

Egg Plant Mixture

1 egg plant
1/2 to 1 yellow onions or 3 cloves of shallots, minced
1 1/2 tsp of sage
1 tsp of nutmeg or less
1 cup of parsley
1 japapeno pepper, thinly sliced
1/2 apple (thinly sliced)—>  optional
2 tbsp light brown sugar
Salt to taste

White Sauce Mixture
1 cup of dried or fresh chives
4 tablespoon of REAL mayonnaisse (non of those fake stuff)
1 cup monterey jack cheese
1 cup cheddar cheese
(The cheeses can be substituted by your choice.. mozzarella and cheddar, mozzarella and mont. jack, asiago and havarti.. etc)
1 cup of milk
3 medium eggs
salt and pepper to taste.

You will also need the following to make this dish:

2 cups of bread crumb or cracker crumbs

2 lovely frying pans of your choice
1 rectangular (I love math) casserole dish of your heart’s desire..
Lots of love for your family..!

To make the egg plant mixture..

Slice one big purple egg plant (not the chinese ones) into thin pieces
Mince garlic, parsley, jalapeno peppers, and yellow onion (I sliced this thinly).
Slice the apple thinly as well.
Eat one slice of apple to lift your spirit up during this process (the apple may taste oniony..can you tell, I was making this at 4 am…!).
Saute them together in 5 – 6 tablespoons of olive oil in one of the frying pans on medium high heat until the onions kind of caramelize..and the smell of garlic fills up the room..


In the mean time, also cook the egg plant in the other pan. Saute the slices with at least 10 tbsp of olive oil or butter until soft and tender.. like this.. Add salt and pepper and sprinkle with Lea and Perrin sauce..



When they are done, put them aside… and now make the lovely white sauce..!  Ehhhhmm.. yummy!

To make tha! sauce:

Combine chives, milk, eggs, cheese, and mayonnaisse in a bowl or tupperware like this.. 





and mix or whisk together until well blended…

Observe for a moment.. are there bubbles?  Yes? Good.. it looks better when there are bubbles.. .
Don’t forget to add about  5 gulp of the lea & perrin sauce to this mixture..

That’s it for the sauce!

Now, get ready to get your good old spagetti sauce or tomato sauce or tomato paste..



If you use tomato sauce like Ragu’s, you will need about 1 cup of it.  If you use tomato paste, you’ll need to heat it up a bit with hot water so that combined it would be about 1 cup.

OK then.  Get ready to assemble your mixtures!!

Align the eggplants peacefully like soo…

Put crumbs on top of the eggplant, tomato sauce, and white sauce in sequence.

Repeat this layering until the rest of your ingredients are gone and cover with a final layer of white sauce.

Put into over that has been pre-heated to 300 F or 180 C.

Take out of the oven about 40 minutes into the baking.

And enjoy! 

 Ree, I hope you will at least try to make this, and I hope you’ll like it!

Ana

Boy, I am hungry.  Looking in the freezer, I only see prawns and celery.  Well, I also see whip cream, juice, cheese, and of course, cake!

in which none really helps me overcoming my hunger pangs begging for something salty, spicy, and filling.  Of course there is the nutritous part in it too, it’s just that my tummy doesn’t know that, and most of the time my tongue doesn’t quite care if my food in-take has an N sign in it, (for nutritious!  Smart eh?  what ever).

Anyhoo.. yuhuuu… need to feed me.. feed me…

But all I have are prawns (with FULL head and all).  I decided to buy those with heads this time, inspired by my lovely friend who said that prawn heads are the best things to eat in the whole wide world.  Yes.  We’ll see.  Plus, they are cheaper to buy with head-on. 

I usually don’t cook prawns by itself.  I love to make a batter that would go with it, but at this moment, am trying not to consume too much deep fried food,  So, I don’t think we are going to go there at the moment.

What else do I have.. hmm… celery!  Celery for the hair!  Heheh..It’s supposed to be for the hair.. you know, how celery and those with hair problems come hand in hand.  The celery is supposed to help stop the hair from falling.  MY head needs that.  But, I used up the celery to make soup the other day.  So what’s left is about 6 strands of them…

Since I need vegetable, but I need something scrumptious too (vegetable not scrumptious?), we’ll test my experimental cooking skills by…combining prawns and celery….

ta da! 

So, let’s get started!

First, cut up all of the necessary ingredients, cutting the celery, cutting some orange peppers and jalapeno peppers, AND clean the prawns.. but do NOT! butcher the heads.  It’s supposed to give some flavour to the dish. 

I am using 3 long stems of celery with leaves, 3 cloves of garlic, 500 grams of frozen prawns with head (did I say it’s got head?), 3 tbs of instant tom-yum paste, and 3 tbs of Bango sweet soya sauce.  .

Oh, and about 5 tbs of vegetable oil and 2 tbs of margarine or butter for the stir fry.

Cut the celery..

And the orange pepper (even though you feel like using it for table decoration..)

And also add one jalapeno peppers to kick the dish a little..

Do not forget to clean these babies.. free from their p**ps.  Man.. they are lovely creatures.. too bad they are yummy for some other creatures!

Pour the oil into your bestest-ever-and-was-on-sale-at-canadian-tire Lagostina pan..I am using canola oil..

and the butter..or margarine.. (Butter gives it a stronger flavour).

.. and this is how it looks like together…melting away.. aren’t they lovely?

stir-fry all vegetable together until they are somewhat softer than raw..and then put the prawns in, tom yum sauce, soy sauce, and a little salt to taste. Stir fry everything in medium heat until the prawns are done.  In general never cook seafood too long, they will harden and become chewier..

And this is the end product!

My husband did the dishes tonight.. I think he did it as an appreciation for me cooking this dish.  He said it tastes like those chinese courses in the restaurants. I thought, hm.. honestly I have never eaten prawns and celery together before in my life.  I don’t think they have it in the restaurants..  I’m afraid he was imagining things because he was very hungry.

So, there you go, you could make this quickly and it’s very good.  Bon Appetite

PS:  The prawn heads DO add flavor, and if you kind of suck some juice from its face  (I know it sounds EWWWWW! But…), it taste really good, but when I crunched it with my teeth some sort of bloody substance came out from the other end which totally made me wanted to puke.  So, I don’t think I would recommend eating the head.  Just nicely eat the main body and gently separate its head far far away from the meat.