3 medium-sized eggplants
1 head of garlic
2-3 T olive oil
28-oz good-quality can of tomatoes (I like TJ's whole plum tomatoes with or without basil)
2-3 sprigs of fresh mint
1/4 cup toasted pine nuts
~2 T balsamic vinegar or lemon juice
salt & pepper
red chili flakes if desired
rigatoni pasta
Parmesan cheese
Cube the eggplant and remove the skins of the garlic. Pour the olive oil in a roasting pan or 9X13" baking pan, and mix the eggplant and garlic in. Roast at 375-400 degrees for approximately an hour until the eggplant is nicely browned. Remove from oven and pour in the can of tomatoes.
Chop the mint leaves and assemble the food processor or blender while waiting for the roasted veggies to cool a little. Start the pasta. Spoon in as much of the veggies and mint as will fit, and puree. Continue until all has been pureed, adding it back to the pan when finished. Season to taste. Mix in the Parmesan cheese, and then mix the pasta in. Serve, and sprinkle pine nuts on top.
Feeds approximately 4.
Notes: We didn't have any pine nuts, and it was fine without. You could puree them as well if you wanted.
I forgot the lemon juice or balsamic vinegar, and it would have been better with one of them, especially combining with the mint.
I didn't have red chili flakes, and it would have been good with a spicy kick.
I didn't have rigatoni pasta, although the point of this recipe is a vegetarian way of doing a ziti, since the eggplant looks sort of like ground meat, so I used linguini. It was good.
I had some fresh mozzarella balls I almost added in addition to the Parmesan, and I wished I had. It would have been good.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Sweet potato waffles
We had sweet potatoes from the CSA to use up, and I was thinking of making a potato pancake or potato fritters type dish with them, when it occurred to me to make sweet potato waffles with our new waffle maker.
Honestly, this was over a month ago, and I cannot remember if I used the standard waffle recipe, or the following waffle recipe. I'm fairly certain it's the latter.
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (or a mix of APF and whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 3/4 cups milk
2 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup olive oil
2 egg whites whipped till stiff
I used 3 or 4 sweet potatoes that had been steamed in the pressure cooker, then pureed, allowed to cool a bit, and added with the olive oil. I used a little less than 1/2 cup olive oil because I was worried that the sweet potatoes and oil would make for too much moisture, but the waffles did stick enough that I had to spray the waffle maker between each waffle, so the full amount of oil would probably be best. I used as much flour as necessary to bring it to the right consistency before folding in the egg whites.
I didn't want these to be sweet waffles, so I didn't put in the 1 1/2 T sugar and 1 t vanilla this recipe also calls for.
You mix everything together but the egg whites, and then whip those to peaks, and fold them in. Makes nice crusty waffles.
We had ours with a choice of monastery honey in clover and orange flavors, maple syrup, or treacle on top. They would have been really good with fruit as well.
Heather declared them to be the best waffles she's ever had.
Update: After much begging from Heather, I made these again, and this time I roasted the sweet potatoes. I don't think I'll do that in the future because I ended up losing some over-browned sections. I also used the immersion blender to mix the batter, and just pureed the potatoes in with the batter. I did the whipped egg white recipe with a cup of whole wheat flour, and this time had to add quite a lot more milk to get the right consistency. They were delicious, with melt in your mouth centers.
Honestly, this was over a month ago, and I cannot remember if I used the standard waffle recipe, or the following waffle recipe. I'm fairly certain it's the latter.
2 cups unbleached, all-purpose flour (or a mix of APF and whole wheat flour)
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 t cinnamon
1 3/4 cups milk
2 beaten egg yolks
1/2 cup olive oil
2 egg whites whipped till stiff
I used 3 or 4 sweet potatoes that had been steamed in the pressure cooker, then pureed, allowed to cool a bit, and added with the olive oil. I used a little less than 1/2 cup olive oil because I was worried that the sweet potatoes and oil would make for too much moisture, but the waffles did stick enough that I had to spray the waffle maker between each waffle, so the full amount of oil would probably be best. I used as much flour as necessary to bring it to the right consistency before folding in the egg whites.
I didn't want these to be sweet waffles, so I didn't put in the 1 1/2 T sugar and 1 t vanilla this recipe also calls for.
You mix everything together but the egg whites, and then whip those to peaks, and fold them in. Makes nice crusty waffles.
We had ours with a choice of monastery honey in clover and orange flavors, maple syrup, or treacle on top. They would have been really good with fruit as well.
Heather declared them to be the best waffles she's ever had.
Update: After much begging from Heather, I made these again, and this time I roasted the sweet potatoes. I don't think I'll do that in the future because I ended up losing some over-browned sections. I also used the immersion blender to mix the batter, and just pureed the potatoes in with the batter. I did the whipped egg white recipe with a cup of whole wheat flour, and this time had to add quite a lot more milk to get the right consistency. They were delicious, with melt in your mouth centers.
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