Caramelized Onion and Fried Eggplant Crostini

Caramelized Onion and Fried Eggplant Crostini – Recipe Below

I have been experimenting with small plate recipes over the last few weeks.  In Spain, small plates of food are called Tapas.  In Crete, they are know as Mezze.  Often eaten in taverns and coffee shops, Tapas or Mezze are devoured slowly for hours at a time usually with glasses of wine or tea.  They can be just a snack or a meal.  One of my favorite Tapas restaurants is Tapeo on Newbury Street in Boston.  If you sit at the bar you can get $5 tapas and enjoy the Mediterranean ambience.

Me at Tapeo in Boston

This is my latest small plate creation.  Delicious for a fancy party or small gathering.

Caramelized Onion and Fried Eggplant Crostini

1 large eggplant, sliced thin

Fried Eggplant

3 sweet onions, cut in half and sliced thin

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

4 teaspoons balsamic vinegar

½ pound fresh mozzarella, sliced

1 teaspoon dried oregano

4 slices hearty on the outside, soft on the inside whole grain bread

1. Lay eggplant slices out and lightly salt both sides.
2. Add 3 teaspoons of olive oil to a skillet.  Heat onions on medium heat.  Sauté onions until they begin to brown (approx ½ hour).  Stir more as caramelizing begins.  Be careful not to burn.  Add a little salt.  Turn off heat and stir in balsamic vinegar.
3. While onions are caramelizing, fry eggplant slices in olive oil in another skillet on medium heat.  Fry until slices start to brown.  You may need to add more oil as the eggplant tends to suck up a lot of oil.  Drain cooked slices on a paper towel.  Continue until all slices are cooked.
4. Turn oven on to broil setting.
5. Place bread on top rack of oven and toast for a few minutes (be careful not to burn bread).
6. Remove bread from oven.  Top each piece of bread with a quarter of the onion mixture.  Lightly salt.  Cover the onions with 2 slices of eggplant and then top  with a slice of mozzarella and then oregano.
7. Broil until cheese is melted and is just beginning to brown.
8. Serve immediately.

Serves 4

Recipe by Bill Bradley, R.D.

Every Dish has a Past

Lamb Stew from Andalusia!

Last week, I spent 3 days at Old Deerfield in Deerfield, MA learning how to tell the story of the Dandelion.  Sandra Oliver, author of Saltwater Foodways and Food in Colonial and Federal America was an animated and incredibly knowledgable teacher who taught me 1) how much I don’t know about the history of food and 2) what an incredible journey it is to learn.

Me with Sandra Oliver, Food Historian

We had all come together to “Every Dish has a Past” to learn how to research and tell the story behind old traditional recipes.  After researching an ingredient or recipe for the first two days we would cook an old recipe containing that ingredient and we would cook it on a traditional hearth fire.

I felt a bit intimidated as soon as the class of students, who were mostly highly knowledgable food historians, began talking.  At times, I felt like I do when I am in a Spanish speaking country, understanding every other word, but not quite able to understand what was being said.

We were supposed to come to the class with an idea of which food ingredient we wanted to research.   Since I am gluten free I thought that corn meal would fit the bill.  Sandra thought that I should research the “lovely Indian pound cake”.

Of course, my focus quickly wandered when I got to class and I decided to research the lovely dandelion instead.  Sandra thought that might not be the best idea since she had only found historical references in a couple of books and didn’t think I would find much more.

Somehow, I got the idea that it wouldn’t be that hard and I plowed forward researching the dandelion.  I believe that the  set of neurons in my brain that told me I would find more on the dandelion, in just two days, than a noted food historian who has been researching food most of her life are the same neurons that told me it would be a good idea to film myself eating an entire package of oreo cookies and share that with the world.

After a day of research I discovered the following:

Dandelion has many alternate names, one of them being “Pissybed” because it was considered a diuretic and people would piss the bed if they had too much.

In every cookbook I found, there were only very slight variations on the “universal” pre-1910 American dandelion recipe”:  Cook some bacon, pour the fat on the dandelion greens, chop the bacon, and then top greens with the bacon.  The only other variation I found was cooking it with vinegar.  You can also make a bitter coffee substitute with the root, ferment some dandelion wine, or use the flowers to garnish a punch.

After day 1 getting me almost zero historical references for the dandelion, Sandy told me I should look at all greens including spinach.  By the end of day 2 I found that the “universal” American pre-1910 recipe for spinach was:  Cook some bacon, pour the fat over the spinach, chop the bacon and then top greens with the bacon.

At this point, I hadn’t found a recipe nor had I prepared for my presentation.   I realized that there wasn’t much hope in finding a great American greens recipe so I decided to go Mediterranean.  I found a 13th century Andalusian (Spanish) cookbook on-line and looked through it for a recipe with greens.  Pretty quickly I found what I was looking for (this is the original recipe exactly how it was written in the cookbook):

Tharîda with Lamb and Spinach, Moist Cheese and Butter
This used to be made in Cordoba in the spring by the doctor Abu al-Hasan al-Bunani, God

have mercy on him and pardon us and him.

Take the meat of a fat lamb, cut it and put it in the pot with salt, onion juice, pepper, coriander seed, caraway and oil. Put it on the fire and when it has cooked, put in it chopped and washed spinach in sufficient quantity, grated moist cheese [a soft, fresh cheese] and butter.

When it has cooked, take the pot off the fire and add more butter. Let there be crumbs of bread moderately leavened [add the crumbs to the liquid first, then] put your meat on it.

And if he, God have mercy on him, lacked lamb meat, he would make a tharida of spinach, moist cheese, butter and the previously mentioned spices and eggs instead of meat.

Making my own adjustments:

My big insight in the 3 day recipe research class was that even though they had plenty of spices in pre-1910 America, they rarely used them on greens.  In the Mediterranean though, spices have been used with greens for hundreds of years.

Since there were no amounts listed for the recipe I came up with my own amounts from my knowledge of Mediterranean cooking.  Here is my recipe:

Tharîda with Lamb and Spinach, Moist Cheese and Butter

½ cup extra virgin olive oil

2 Tablespoons butter

1 ½ pounds lamb

2 onions, grated (with smallest grate, so it is liquid)

½ teaspoon coriander

½ teaspoon caraway

½ teaspoon black pepper

½ teaspoon sea salt

1 pound spinach

½ pound panir

2-3 pieces pita bread

1. Heat oil and 1 Tablespoon butter.  Add lamb, onions and spices.
2. Simmer, covered for 1½ hours.
3. Add spinach.  Let it cook down.
4. Add panir.  Cook, covered, for another ½ hour.
5. Toast pita.
6. Spoon liquid on plate.  Top with toasted pita and then meat.  Serve.

Serves 8

After speaking with Sandy, we decided to use Panir cheese instead of feta.  I think either would work fine, but the panir didn’t melt at all which still gave you the feeling you were eating little bits of cheese.

Here are some pictures of my preparation and cooking over the hearth.

Hearth Cooking is Hard Work!

 

I have to say that the lamb was delicious and was gone rather quickly which is always a good sign.

Besides learning a great deal about how to research the story behind a recipe, I think the biggest insight I had was that in the future I am going to consult food historians when I write a cookbook.  They are full of amazing stories and valid information.

Thanks Sandra Oliver for a great class!