Central Oregon Reboot... Summer Squash Style

Nevermind that it has been more than three years since I've updated this blog, I had bigger, badder, biking things to do in the interim.  Long story short, I quit my BigLaw job in Washington DC, biked all of Mexico, and now live the good life in Bend, Oregon.  It's the end of August, and while a CSA out east would have long since dispensed of summer squash, they are still thriving at Juniper Jungle Farms and are slowly taking over my kitchen.  In a Herculean effort to get caught up, I decided to make a massive batch of my favorite summer squash recipe... what I call the Summer Squash Sope.

A lot of my cooking is inspired by my 4000 mile bike tour through the backroads of Mexico, including this recipe that I improvised.  A sope is thick masa corn tortilla that is often topped with black beans, meat, and other veggie toppings.  I decided to incorporate as much of my CSA basket as possible into this bastardized version of a sope.

Just four of the gajillion sopes I made...

The recipe is pretty simple, just mix together the following ingredients, the proportions aren't exact and the recipe is forgiving:

• 1 massive zucchini, 1 medium sized ronde de nice, and 1 yellow summer squash, all shredded with extra moisture squeezed out (CSA basket ingredient)
• 1 bunch green onions thinly sliced diagonally (CSA basket ingredient)
• 1/2 medium red onion thinly sliced
• 4 large eggs
• 5 large handfuls of masa (I like the "masa amarillo," available locally at Colima market), plus more if squash releases extra liquid over time... it's okay if the mixture is quite moist because the egg and cheese bind the mixture together, it just shouldn't have any liquid floating on top
• 8 oz shredded cheese that melts and browns well (hard cheeses like parmesan are good, I used a pesto monterrey jack)
• 1 tbsp garlic powder (or to taste)
• 2 tsp salt (or to taste)
• 2 tsp ground pepper (or to taste)

With batches this big, it's hard to estimate how much masa to use... I ended up having to add about two more handfuls!

Over medium heat in a lightly greased cast iron skillet, drop racket ball sized blobs of the mixture and smoosh a bit with your fingers so it looks like a fat pancake.  For those not in the know, racket ball sized blobs is probably equivalent to an eight year old's fist.  Maybe.  After a few minutes, flip and press out with a spatula.  Top with sour cream, a sunny side up egg, yummy leftover cuban ropa vieja (okay, okay, okay, maybe I'm the only one who has yummy leftover venison ropa vieja in my freezer), or just eat with your fingers.  These also freeze really well, but make sure to separate pancakes with wax paper, parchment paper, or brown paper.

The first sope is always ugly and became dinner with some leftover elk cuban ropa vieja on top!

And not that anyone ever has problems using super awesome green beans from the CSA basket, but I like to do a spicy Asian ginger-soy-sesame refrigerator pickle with mine.  Pack a mason jar with cleaned cut green beans, and pour boiling pickling brine over them, let cool, then refrigerate for several days before eating them.  I like to just eat them out of the jar. 

For the pickling brine:

• 1 cup white vinegar + 1/2 cup water + 1 tbsp sugar OR 1 cup rice wine vinegar + 1/2 cup water
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tsp whole black peppercorns
• 4-5 whole crushed garlic cloves
• 1 inch piece of fresh ginger peeled and slivered
• dried red pepper to taste
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• optional: wasabi paste

Takorean Clones

The craze of korean tacos swept from Las Angeles with the Kogi truck (http://kogibbq.com/category/menu/) to Washington D.C. with the Takorean truck (http://takorean.com/menu/).  So, at my latest foodie party which just happened to be a Korean food throwdown, I decided to try to replicate these bad boys.  Takorean's philosophy is simple, (1) choose from bulgogi, carmelized tofu or tangy chicken, (2) choose from a napa cabbage slaw or a spicy kimchi slaw, and (3) then choose from an assortment of toppings, including lime crema, black sesame seeds, cilantro, and siracha.  I decided not to do the classic bulgogi taco and opted instead to attempt my favorite Takorean truck taco... the Carmelized Tofu Taco. 

Cup-Pakes Make Good Bribes

My friend Phil is the pake-master.  By this, I mean, he introduced to me the entire concept of a pake, a pie baked into a cake.  A pake is basically pared down cherpumple, which originally a three-layer cake with an entire pie baked into each layer—a cherry pie baked inside a white cake, a pumpkin pie baked inside a yellow cake and an apple pie baked inside a spice cake.  Phil's pake prowess became so famous that he now cannot be invited to any food party without the expectation of pake (in fact, at the infamous roasted pig head birthday party, we even deep fried the pake).  The leftover pake was stuck in the freezer and slowly enjoyed by me and the man friend... who has since become similarly obsessed with pake.

And so, when man friend decided to upgrade his stationary bike trainer, I proffered pake as a bribe so I, too, could start my long road to cycling geekdom.  Or rather, he told me his bribe of choice was pake.  But I was thwarted by the limitations of my current baking pans.  I had a large pie pan but no cake pan.  What to do?  I eyed my mini-muffin tin and regular muffin tins with interest, recalling a link my friend had sent me of a a mini-pie baked into a cupcake.  The large bags of purple raspberries I had picked last summer were just waiting for a purpose.

And... so.... drumroll please... best... idea... ever... the Purple Raspberry Dark Chocolate Cup-Pake with Raspberry Buttercream Frosting was born. 

I spent an inordinate amount of time researching recipes, and then ended up throwing all caution to the wind and modifying them based on what I had on hand at the time, and barely measuring anything.  For the crust, I decided specifically not to use the perfect flaky buttery crust recipe I had discovered before because its (a) time consuming, and (b) time consuming.  So decided to cut together the following:

• handful of powdered pecans (basically, throw 'em in the blender and pulverize into dust)
• 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup all purpose flour
• 1 stick of chilled regular butter
• some half-and-half and a couple splashes of cold seltzer water (mostly because that was what I was drinking at the time)
• 1 tablespoon brown sugar
• a dash of cinnamon

Then I just took small handfuls and pressed them into the mini-muffin tin to line each side.  I saved aside some of the dough to roll out between wax paper and cut circles (my tablespoon measuring spoon turned out to be just the right size).  Pre-bake for about 5 minutes in an oven set to 400F.   Oh, and for the record, don't use seltzer water, it makes the crust rise.  I ended up having to mash the crust back down but overall, it has a pleasant nutty flavor and the texture was good enough that I could pop the pies out of the mini-muffin tins at the end.

The filling was super easy and its delicousness will depend on the quality of the berries you are using.  Luckily, my penchant for delicious raspberries means I go raspberry picking several times when they are in season at a local farm.  And so I took a package of beautiful frozen purple raspberries (approximately 2 cups), drained off about 1 tablespoon of the dark rich juices to add to the frosting, and then mixed it with 1/2 cup of brown sugar and 2 tablespoons of pulverized tapioca pearls and two tablespoons of corn starch.  That's it.  Easy.  Delicious.  Easy.  Did I say it was easy?  I baked the pies at 400F for about 10 minutes and then reduced the temperature to 350F for about 20 minutes.  I feel like I could have pulled the pies out earlier, but I was concerned that the filling wouldn't set.  All in all, they look and taste pretty good, I let them cool in the pan for 5 minutes and then popped 'em out to cool on a rack. 

I decided that I wanted to do the cupcake batter from scratch and have a dense dark chocolate blanket for my muffins.  I think the combination of dark chocolate... not too sweet... with a sweet buttercream frosting is the best.  Everything is about balance.  The recipe was easy enough and I mixed together all the dry ingredients first and then slowly added the wet ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups flour
• 3/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder (I used Giardhelli)
• 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 cup regular butter, softened
• 1/2 cup canola oil
• 1 1/2 cups sugar in the raw
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup half-and-half
• 1/2 cup seltzer water
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract

This recipe ended up yielding a thicker batter than I expected, but it worked out beautifully.  I lined the muffin tins with cupcake wrappers, and then filled each one about 2/3 full.  Then I pressed each mini-pie into the tin which made the batter fill up the sides and start to come up over the pie.  I used a knife to fold that overflow over the top of the pie and added dabs of the batter if needed.  The best part about having a thicker batter is that it allows you to shape the cupcake over the pie... you don't have to worry about it rising too much during cooking because there is relatively less muffin to cook than a regular muffin.  If that makes sense.  

Anyway, pop these bad boys in the oven for about 12 or 13 minutes at 375F.  Let cool just long enough that you can pop them out without burning your hands.  Of course, I had to test one to make sure there was proper cup-pake action going on.  Besides, I had made these the night before the man friend was due to come over for dinner so that they would have time to cool all the way before frosting (need at least an hour so the frosting doesn't melt all over the place).

 And finally, it was time to do the frosting.  I decided to get a little fancy, and creamed together the following:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
• 3 cups powdered sugar (about an entire box)
• 2 tablespoons milk
• 1 tablespoon half-and-half
• 2 tablespoons raspberry juice

Then I shaved some dark chocolate I had picked up on my last business trip to Paris with a microplane on top.  Seriously, dude.

Given the richness of both the pie and the dense cupcake, and the creaminess of the buttercream frosting, vanilla bean ice cream served as the perfect complement.

Pork, the Other White Meat

I have a profound love of homecured bacon, homecured sausages, roasted pig head, and pork spareribs... it might be a borderline unhealthy love of pork products.  Just because I ordered a bacon omelet with double bacon and bacon on the side does not mean that I have a problem.  Right.  Anyway, I realized the other day that while I love pork, I rarely actually make it at home, reserving it for special occasions or trips to a BBQ shack in West Virginia or Kentucky.  So I decided I would try to make a healthier dinner using pork as the centerpiece the other night and used my Special Man Friend as a guinea pig.  The verdict was that the Chipotle Crusted Pork Tenderloin served with baked sweet potato fries and Broccoli Slaw was a hit.  Learning from the Cuban feast overindulgence, we sadly only took seconds of the broccoli slaw (and compensated for it by eating a couple newly delivered Girl Scout cookies). 

Pork tenderloin, when cooked properly, is an amazingly tender and juicy cut of meat, and relatively lean.  My favorite way to cook meat to use a covered cast iron skillet with high heat with a blackening season of some sort.  It guarantees a wonderful crust and a little mini oven of joy to get the inside perfectly cooked.  Pork tenderloin is no exception.  I decided to depart from my traditional blackening seasoning (equal parts powdered onion, powdered garlic, cayenne, paprika, white pepper, black pepper, and seasoned salt), and went for a spicy-sweet seasoning to create the Chiptole Crusted Pork Tenderloin.  Simply combine:

• 2 teaspoons garlic powder
• 2 tablespoons chipotle chile powder
• 1 1/2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• 3 tablespoons loosely packed brown sugar

Then cover a small pork tenderloin (mine was about 3/4 of a pound) with the mixture and dump it into a ziploc bag with the extra seasoning.  I let it sit in the fridge for about an hour, and then took the tenderloin out about an hour before I wanted to start cooking to let it come to room temperature for more even cooking.  Heat a cast iron skillet with a lid over medium high heat, make sure your stove fan is on and windows are open, and then put the tenderloin in and quickly cover.  About every 2-3 minutes, turn the tenderloin so that all sides get charred.  Check the internal temperature to make sure it reaches 155 F before letting the meat rest.  If the outside is charred to your liking but the internal temperature is not ideal, finish off a 350 F oven.  Let the tenderloin rest for at least 10 minutes and then slice in 1/4-1/2 inch slices.

I have to admit that I sort of cheated on the Broccoli Slaw.  I wanted something veggie laden that I could make ahead and didn't feel like checking what ingredients I had when I was at Whole Paycheck.  So I bought the Bolthouse Farms yogurt based coleslaw dressing to toss with my baby broccoli (1 small bunch, florets only), shredded carrot (1 carrot), thinly sliced purple cabbage (2-3 cups), sweet onion (1/4 medium onion), dried cranberries (1 handfull), and shredded granny smith apple (1 apple).  The Bolthouse Farms coleslaw dressing is a creamy semi sweet dressing, so I added some tang with a dollap of Miracle Whip and about 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar.  Once I had tossed everything together, I stuck it in the fridge for about 2 hours before it was served and it was the perfect complement.

Triathlon Training Recovery Leads to Overindulgance in Cuban Feast

So once upon a time, I put together a bucket list of sorts, involving adventures such as skydiving and exotic travel, and feats of endurance and strength, such as triathlons and marathons.  I've been more than successful at the fun adventures, but not so much with the feats of endurance and strength.  And so, bolstered by the success of running two 10ks and a half marathon, 2011 became the year of running, biking, swimming, and generally being out of breath while I train for a half marathon, two olympic triathlons and a marathon.  My special man friend is also similarly nuts and has been into road cycle racing for the last several years.  This all requires lots of delicious but well balanced calories... my favorite part about burning 500-1000 calories a day training.  Of course, after one particularly grueling day, we probably negated the effects of training by eating some ridiculous amounts of Cuban food -- Venison Ropa Vieja served over white rice, black beans stewed in sofrito, pan-fried plantains, and Sauteed Vegetetables in Mojo Marinade.  In our defense, it was amazingly delicious.

Venison Ropa Vieja was born out of a desire to use my crockpot and to use the venison stew meat I got by bartering homebrews to my "living off the earth" second parents.  Sure, beef is the traditional meat, but local venison hand butchered by people I trust sure as heck beats cows raised in their own poo and processed in a huge facility.  I browned about 2 pounds of venison stew meat in canola oil and then transferred this to my crockpot before I went to work.  Then I threw in the following and set my crockpot to low for 10 hours:

• 1 small onion, sliced
• 1 green bell pepper, seeded and sliced into strips
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 cups of pureed tomato (when I get a surplus of tomatos in the summer from my CSA or a mysterious bag dropped off by a friend when their tomato plants overproduce, I pop 'em in a blender and freeze them to use in place of tomato sauce in recipes)
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 1/2 packet Goya sazon with achiote and culantro
• 2 tablespoons white vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

About 5 minutes prior to serving, use two forks to shred the stew meat and stir well so all the pieces soak up the sauce. 

I love my freezer.  Mostly because it allows me to keep the bounty of summer and fall and maintain the bright freshness of those flavors that often gets lost when dehydrating food or canning it.  Wonderful but delicate herbs like cilantro are often thrown away because it is nearly impossible to use the huge bunch you get before it goes bad.  So I often make Sofrito to stash away in my freezer (if you freeze it in ice cube trays and then transfer to a ziplock, its easy to grab a few every time you need some) for amazing stewed black beans done Caribbean style.  Caribbean style sofrito is basically done by blending together tomato, cilantro, onion, some sort of pepper (I've used everything from green pepper to anaheim to jalapenos and habaneros).  Take about a cup of it for a can of black beans, saute it lightly in canola oil, add a dash of white vinegar and 1/2 a packet of Goya sazon with achiote and culantro, and you'll have the best black beans ever.

With the hearty dense flavors of the black beans and ropa vieja, I wanted something light to accompany the meal.  Cuban food tends to be very heavy, often fried, and usually laden with sweet sweet carbs (rice, plantains, yuca, you name it).  I was researching Cuban vegetable recipes and, no big surprise, there were almost none.  Mostly fresh salsas used for garnish.  I did, however, come across a traditional Cuban grilling marinade usually used to marinate meat and fish.  The flavors incorporated a very bright citrus accent, and I decided I would buck tradition and do Sauteed Vegetables in Mojo Marinade. 

I basically just sliced a bunch of different kinds of bell peppers, red onion, summer squash, and tomatillos and just barely sauteed them over high heat.  At the last minute, pour the mojo marinade over the veggies and cover to steam for a couple minutes (not too long, still want the veggies to be crisp).  The marinade was simple and could easily be made ahead, just put the following ingredients in the blender and pulse until its all incorporated and as smooth as you can get it:

• 6 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 cup minced yellow onion
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon fresh oregano (dried if you don't have fresh, I happened to have some leftover in my fridge)
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup chopped cilantro
• 1/2 cup olive oil

We basically ate until our stomachs hurt, but it was worth it.  Lesson learned... next time stick the leftovers in the freezer first and then dig in. 

When Life Gives You A Pig Head, Roast It!

I went to the Capital Bacon and Beer Bash, and lo and behold, one of the features of the event was a pig butchering demonstration by Chris of SausageCraft, a wholesale small batch craft sausage company.  I had never heard of the company before so I stalked their website before the bash.  You see, craft sausage has been on my food project list ever since I had the life-changing venison brats from Momma Keeler and ever since my mom bought me a book on how to make sausage for my birthday.  But I digress.  Much to my chagrin, they do not sell retail and as far as I can tell, their clients are mostly in Richmond.  Sausage fail.

Anyway, as we all attempted to digest the 10,000 calories worth of bacon and bacon products, the butchering demonstration began.  I like butchering.  It's something I'd like to do more but don't really have the opportunity to do.  I've had the basic venison butchering tutorial.  Much to our joy, Chris explained each cut and then started handing them out to the various spectators.  I'm pretty ruthless when it comes to food.  Life is too damn short to stand back and be a wallflower. 

Clearly, I needed to work out some strategery.  First, a bacon and beer bash generally attracts testosterone-laden and slightly overweight men.  Being a little asian woman probably didn't hurt.  Second, apparantly, people in DC are pretty boring.  They just stare and watch demonstrations.  I believe in interactive demonstrations and banter with the presenter... especially when its a pig butchering.  Come on folks, take the fork out of your um... yea, and have a little fun!  Third, a clear and vocal appreciation of meat will get you everywhere.  Fourth, be helpful.  Really.  Logistically, bagging up ice and putting each cut in a plastic bag kind of sucks, so I decided to pitch in to help expedite the process.  So for all you jerks who just stood there and watched these guys run there butts off for you so you could get your piece of meat, this is why you didn't get the head.  Being nice never hurt anyone and so when I asked for the head (and I also somehow managed to get a rack of ribs too... ), it was mine, no questions asked, much to the chagrin of the trio of guys behind me (who, I might add, basically stalked me to the car).  I wasn't a jerk about it, one woman asked if she could have the ears and I also gave up one of the cheeks, which for me was the coveted part of the pig head.

When I got home, I stuck the head in the freezer and got to researching.  I had a little time as I was planning on using the pig head as my centerpiece for my birthday party.  Most of the options seemed well, not shocking enough.  Head cheese, souse, blah blah blah.  Until I came across a Filipino recipe for crispy pig head.  I decided to modify that recipe and then making different dipping sauces for the meat and the crispy skin.

First, I took the liquid I had braised the pork spare ribs in which was basically water, soy sauce, onion, garlic powder, salt and a crapload of whole peppercorns and brought it up to a boil in a 6 gallon pot.  Yes, I own a 6 gallon pot.  It's pretty handy for brewing beer, canning, and scalding a pig head.  Anyway, after playing around with the head for about thirty minutes (seriously, making a pig head talk is the best kitchen prep ever) and making sure all the hairs were shaved down with a bic razor (yes, I took the moisturizing strip off), I dropped it into the boiling broth and turned the heat off.  I let it sit for about 45 minutes. 

I ladled out the broth and stuck it into quart canning jars to give to friends as party favors.  A wierd party favor but I think this broth would make some epic Korean style ramen.  Plus it made it easier to take the head out.  Then I patted him dry and brushed on a glaze of equal parts water to honey, with a squeeze of lemon, garlic powder, salt and pepper.  Bake at 315 degrees for 4 hours and....

I let it rest for about an hour and then set it out with a spicy horseradish honey mustard sauce, barbecue sauce, bacon ketchup, and hot sauce.  We picked away at the crispy skin which tasted amazing, and dug into the cheek meat.  And so that's what I did when life gave me a free pig head. 

Using Leftover Phyllo Dough

I used to be scared of phyllo dough.  Until last weekend when a friend of mine made spanikopita for a party and I decided to try to make spanikopita myself.  I would have probably blogged that recipe, too, if it hadn't been for the fact that (a) I took no pictures and (b) I've decided since then I prefer the handy cute pastry triangles in lieu of the big casserole.  The wonderful thing about making savory pastries is that you can really throw in whatever leftovers you've got and make something pretty tasty.  Blue Cheese Butternut Squash Pastries are deceptively fancy and tasty.... just the thing for a party to make people think you spent hours and hours in the kitchen, when, in fact, it took about 15 minutes of prep time and 30 minutes in the oven.

So when I peaked into my fridge and saw half a tub of ricotta cheese, some leftover blue cheese, and some butternut squash, my first thought was a nice butternut squash ravioli... except made with phyllo dough!  I roasted the butternut squash, and then mixed some minced garlic in with everything else for the filling.  Take one sheet of the phyllo dough and ... drum roll please ... use a pressurized oil sprayer or spray olive oil instead of brushing butter on.  This lets you get the finest mist of something lovely and fatty to make the phyllo dough cook into flaky goodness.  I sprayed just the right half of the phyllo dough sheet, then folded it in half.  Put some filling in the bottom then "roll" it up into triangles, folding the bottom edge to the side.  Place seam side down on a baking pan lined with parchment paper and bake for about 30 minutes until golden brown.

Sneak Attack Tomatos

A good friend of mine has a garden plot which is producing tomatos like crazy right now.  I've never viewed an abundance of tomatos as a problem, as they can be dried, canned, and otherwise turned into deliciousness with very little work.  Except when a paper bag full of random tomatos mysteriously shows up on your doorstep about 5 hours before you are leaving for a long "meteor shower watching, camping, whitewater rafting, and ziplining" weekend.  And so I threw the paper bag into the fridge, crossed my fingers, and hoped that maybe some would make over the long weekend.  I thank him that at least it wasn't zucchini.

Upon my return, I had a bunch of really really ripe tomatos, and one mushy sad dead tomato.  What else do you make with a ton of tomatos that are about to go bad?  Marinara Sauce.  There is nothing better than a basic pasta sauce with fresh heirloom tomatos.  This is a sauce where the quality of the tomatos is what makes or breaks the flavor.  If done properly, it needs needs nothing except a sprinkling of shaved parmesan and pasta al dente.  I decided to go for a deep sweet flavor which finishes with a spicy kick.

I used about 2 TBSP light olive oil which is better for high heat to sautee one large Spanish onion diced along with about 1 TBSP dried basil, 1 TBSP dried oregano, 1 TBSP garlic powder and 2 tsp red pepper flakes.  I let the whole thing go at medium heat until the onions were carmelized and brown.  Then I threw in all the tomatos, diced, skins and all (mostly because I don't mind the chunks) and added salt and pepper to taste.  I let everything simmer for about an hour, using a potato masher to stir and squish all the tomato-ey goodness.  About 20 minutes before it was done and thickened up, I added about 1 TBSP of balsamic vinegar and 1 TBSP of extra virgen olive oil for flavor.  This is important to do at the end of your simmer as high heat destroys the flavor of olive oil.  The result was beautiful, rich, deep, sweet, and spicy all at once. 

Getting Creative With My CSA, The Eggplant Diaries

I rarely buy eggplants.  I just don't know what to do with them half the time.  The other half of the time I panic over the amount of oil they absorb when sauteeing.  My CSA crate has brought me several eggplants and forced me to move my repetoire beyond the traditional greek dishes like moussaka.  I love moussaka.  I made one last week that was absolutely amazing, but took about 3 hours of prep.  I stared at my latest eggplant in dismay.  I didn't want to spend 3 hours making it delicious.  And I didn't have to because I have finally learned the secret of Middle Eastern grandmas.  The secret of perfectly smoky non-bitter eggplant puree to form the building blocks of delicious spreads to dip toasted pita and sliced cucumbers into... from kashk bademjan to Baba Ghanoush. 

This recipe yields a wonderfully smoky, tangy, and rich baba ghanoush.  Its actually better than any other baba ghanoush I've ever tasted.  Start with a medium to large eggplant.  Now here's the secret of grandmothers all over Greece and the Middle East.  Char the skin on all sides over medium to high flame on a gas burner so the skin turns black and crispy.  Keep rotating the eggplant every minute or so to get all parts as best as possible.  Then wrap loosly in tin foil and bake at 350 F for 30 minutes and let cool.  After it cools, the skin should come off easily, just peel it off and set aside.  No oil required.  No messy pans and gross amounts of oil.

Dump the eggplant pulp and the juices in the tin foil into a blender.  The rest is ridiculously easy.  Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/4 cup tahini, 4-5 cloves of garlic roughly chopped, and salt and pepper.  Blend until smooth.  Then stir in about 2 TBSP olive oil.  Refridgerate at least 3 hours (preferably overnight) to let the flavors come together.  I ate mine with an extra drizzle of olive oil atop sliced cucumbers from my CSA crate, which adds a bright fresh note to smoky flavor of the eggplant.

A Taste Of Germany

Sometimes I eat things just to make people jealous.  I generally aim for making the masses jealous.  This time, I was able to appease Boy's love of all things hotdog and target my jealousy campaign at one friend in particular, who I will call Jealous Dude to protect his identity.   I've been making a ridiculously large number of batches of sauerkraut due to cabbage showing up in my CSA crate repeatedly.  Jealous Dude has repeatedly threatened me with needing a saukerkraut tasting due to his unhealthy obsession with sauerkraut.  Claims that he will bring the brats have not come to fruition and so, after a long day of kayaking, mini-golfing, salsa dancing, and parkour training, I decided it was time for my tribute to Germany.

I went to Balducci's on a whim.  Mostly because it was on the way home from the park and because I knew it was supposed to be a fancy grocery store.  Fancier and more outrageously expensive than Whole Foods.  But I knew that I needed to find a brat and buns worthy of my homemade sauerkraut.  Balducci's did not fail me. 

We chose Binkert's Bauernwurst on the recommendation of the meat counter guy, a beef and pork mixed brat which incorporates mustard into the seasoning mix.  The whole wheat buns were hearty and looked like they could stand up to the brats.  A dollop of spicy brown mustard and some grilled sweet corn from my CSA crate rounded out the meal and my plans for delicious, amazing, perfectly balanced German amazingness was complete.