Bachelor Roast

This is what happens when your wife and kid split. For vacation that is; I should have clarified.

I had plenty to cook with, having again received a massive infusion of fresh my farm veggies from the parental garden. But unaccustomed to the empty quiet of a baby-less house, I was scattered and unthoughtful of my order and ate the eggplant much later than anticipated. This worked out for the better as I was able to savor every little nuance of the roasted vegetables untouched by anything else. Absolutely delectable. The taste of garden fresh roasted eggplant is one of the most amazing flavors. It is melt in your mouth earthy goodness surrounded by chewy caramelized savory skin, crackly in some spots. The course salt & pepper still in place from where it landed, roasted and somehow melded with the flesh. The pasta was unrelated but still tasty. Could of used one more ingredient..but I don't know what that is. The simple salad is one of my all time favorites and should be a post all on its own.

• Japanese eggplant, split lengthwise,
• bell peppers, split in half, de-seeded
• rotilli pasta
• Roma tomatoes, cut in chunks
• handful of shallots, sliced
• sherry

Brush both eggplant and peppers with olive oil and s+p - place on baking pan in 400º oven.
Cook for about 45 min - 1 hour. Should look like this:

In fact, I was so hungry by the time these were ready that forgot to snap a photo right away. These were near perfect. I was watching Blade Runner and left them in about 10 min too long. They were still super soft inside and crispy roasted on the outside. The pepper was so caramelized it was chewy.

Simple salad will have to be it's own post.

Here's the pasta recipe - ridiculously easy, make it in the time it takes to cook the pasta.
Saute shallots in olive oil. add tomatoes. cook. add sherry. s+p.
drain pasta & save a cup of water.
add tomato mixture to pasta...add water as needed. hit with bit of evoo.

done. bed.

Dutch Oven Ratatouille

My folks gave me a huge basket-full of vegetables from their garden and it was great, except...my wife and daughter left town for 2 weeks. I knew I had to do something with them STAT, but what could be an easy one-shot deal? Then I remembered we recently bought a cast iron dutch oven and haven't really used it yet.

The best part of this meal is how good your house will smell when you're done.
The worst part...probably how long it takes: 1 hour in the oven. It might have been a better idea on my part to do this in the winter, considering it's one of the hottest summers on record. But regardless, was fab.

Here's what I had and here's what I made....substitute if you dare:

(everything is rough chopped into 1 - 1.5 inch cubes)
• 3 Japanese eggplants
• 2 squash medium to large
• 1.5 boxes of baby portobello (halved if large, whole if not)
• 1 large red onion
• 2 medium tomatoes (I would've used 2 more if I had them).
• 5-7 garlic cloves, whole
• 1 bell pepper
• several glugs of olive oil
• several generous sprinkles of salt and crackles of pepper
• for later, have about 15 basil leaves ready

Mix well in a huge bowl and toss into the dutch oven, preheated to 400º, covered...40 min.
Open and uncover, cook for 20 - 30 more minutes - the mushrooms should be shriveled, the whole mess will be half it's original size, with a nice broth developed. Fold in the basil leaves.

I served this with a spicy couscous, but could go well as a side with pork chops or crusty bread too.
1:1 ratio ----> couscous : water
To the water, add sage, thyme, dried parsley, salt pepper and 1tb sriracha sauce. When boiled, remove from heat & add couscous. Cover and fluff in about 5 - 10min.

This made a ton, so share it.

Old Tomato Meets Young Tomato Pasta

I accidentally put too much cayenne in this one, but we still ate the hell out of it. The contrast of that heat with a cool crisp salad was absolutely perfect. The toddler was out of the house so I decided to make something hot as shit, because I usually can't. The cayenne has an interesting way of creeping up slow and burning deep and low in the throat, so it actually helps to just keep eating it...almost like a boa constrictor killing its prey. Awesome.

• 6 - 7 cloves of garlic, rough chop
• 1 medium white onion, chopped
• 1 1/2 cup grape tomatoes, halved
• 1/3 cup sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
• 1 cup feta cheese, cubed
• 1/3 cup dry sherry
• large handful of fresh basil (from your own garden, come on)
• olive oil & butter
• chopped chives
• simple greens or bitter, for salad
• large handful of fresh cilantro (from same garden)
• ground cayenne pepper, to taste
• nutmeg, a few good dashes
• white pepper, same
• sugar, 2 teaspoons
• s & p

Add some light & extra virgin olive oil in a steel pan together, once heated (4) add garlic and toast them nice and golden...but don't burn! Add onion when color looks like above. If too hot add half the sherry and let it become translucent. Add the sun-dried tomatoes first, then the raw after a few minutes when the pan is nice and dry. Drop in 3 pats of butter & let them melt. Add the rest of the sherry and all the spices: sugar, cayenne, nutmeg, white pepper, and s&p.

Once water is boiling, add salt and the pasta. Pick something bite size, we had O's and that seemed perfect. The sauce should be starting to get sticky, keep it stirred every once in while to scrape the bottom...don't burn it, keep it riding the evaporation/reduction wave.

Once pasta is al dente, drop in a cup to a cup and a half of pasta water into your sauce. Stir well & scrape up ovalit.  Put in the pasta and then the basil, coat well. Place in bowl and fold in feta. Serve ASAP with the simple greens tossed with rough chopped cilantro. Coat the salad with plain ol' olive oil, red wine vinegar, s & fresh ground p.

Oy, just writing this makes me want to go raid the fridge for some more.