Squacquerone Cheesecake

Eggplant Parm

I made this dish when we had friends over on Easter Monday and it went down a treat.

My crispy eggplant parmigiana is basically a mash-up of the traditional Italian and American versions of this great dish. The Italian parmigiana di melanzane is a baked dish made up of layers of fried eggplant slices, tomato sugo, cheese, and breadcrumbs. (See my eggplant and zucchini parmigiana recipe for an example). In the American version, eggplant slices are crumbed and fried before being layered with the sauce and cheese. Both have their charms, but I really wanted to emphasise the crispiness factor of the crumbed eggplant. I also liked the idea that all the components would be served in the centre of the table, and that people could make up their own plates with as much or as little of each component as they liked.

The mozzarella balls and basil pesto are both store-bought (although obviously make your own pesto if you prefer), and the tomato sauce is a simple pasta-type sauce. You sauté some onions, add some tinned tomatoes, and cook until thick. Ordinarily I'd add a few shredded basil leaves as well, but it always seems like such a waste to buy a whole bunch just to use a few leaves, and then have the rest of the bunch wilt, depressingly, in my fridge. Basil pesto provides the same green peppery freshness, but without the wastage. (I adore pesto and am always happy to have a jar on the go). The tricolore effect of the red-white-and-green is also very pleasing to my eye!

Now, let's talk about the crispy eggplant. I like to use a variety of eggplants (some round, some slender Lebanese ones) and slice them differently to get a variety of shapes so they look pretty on the platter. These pretty slices are crumbed and fried just like a schnitzel. I've always loved schnitzels - they were one of the first things I taught myself to cook (as an intrepid eight-year old, standing on a rickety stool next to the stove), and ever since German Sandra came into my life twelve (!) years ago, I have been inspired to continuously lift my schnitzel game.

Crumbed eggplant slices

Let me share some schnitzel tips with you. (I've shared some of these previously, but they're good tips and bear repeating). First up, good seasoning - salt, pepper, and cayenne in the flour; oregano and dijon mustard in the egg; and lots of grated parmesan in the crumb mixture. You wanna get the flavour all the way through.

When dipping the slices into the flour / egg / breadcrumbs, use one hand for the dry dipping, and one hand for the wet dipping. This will help avoid the dreaded schnitzel fingers.

Next up, you want to make sure the slices get crispy, and stay that way. Let your crumbed slices dry on a wire rack before frying. Make sure you use a good layer of oil, deep enough so the eggplant slices will be able float in the oil - "Sie müssen im Fett schwimmen!". And make sure the oil is hot before adding your eggplant slices, so that they start cooking straight away and don't just sit there absorbing cold oil. The slices should sizzle as soon as they hit the oil. (I like to test with some breadcrumbs first). Finally, once the slices are cooked, place them on a wire rack to drain in a low oven to keep warm while you cook the rest. Letting them sit on a wire rack, instead of a plate or paper towel, prevents steam from building up and stops them from going soggy.

That's a lot of tips. I guess I'm just deeply committed to the idea of your eggplant parmigiana being the best it can be. I believe in you.

Because this was a big quantity, I had two frying pans on the go. Efficiency!

Frying Eggplant

Once they're all cooked, you arrange the eggplant on a big platter with the pesto and cheese, and let everyone dig in!

Ready to eat!

Eggplant Parm

I served the eggplant parm with a green salad and some cheesy garlic bread. The green salad was a simple mix of baby rocket and baby spinach leaves, dressed in balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil, with toasted pine nuts and shaved Parmesan. And the bread. The bread! I did Nigella's chilli cheese garlic bread, which comes from her latest book, At My Table. I've made it a bunch of times and it is and is so damn good! You must.

Enjoy!

Crispy Eggplant Parmigiana
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
For the sauce
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion
2 x 400 gram tins crushed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
For the eggplant
3 large eggplants
1 cup plain flour
1 pinch cayenne pepper
3 eggs
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1 cup breadcrumbs
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan
Olive oil, for frying (lots)
To serve
120 grams fresh mozzarella balls
Basil pesto
Flat-leaf parsley

Method
To make the sauce, heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan over a medium heat. Peel and finely chop the onion and add to the pan. Season with salt and pepper and cook until softened. Add the crushed tomatoes and bay leaf and bring to the boil. Turn the heat to low and simmer for 20 minutes or until the sauce has thickened. Taste and season with salt and pepper. Remove the bay leaf to serve.
To make the eggplant, trim the eggplants and slice into 1-cm thick slices. Set out three shallow bowls.
In the first bowl, place the flour and cayenne. Season with salt and pepper.
In the second bowl, beat the eggs with the dijon mustard and oregano.
In the third bowl, mix the breadcrumbs and grated parmesan.
Dip each slice of eggplant into the flour mixture, followed by the egg mixture, followed by the crumb mixture. Place on a rack while you crumb the remaining eggplant slices. (Tip: have one "dry" hand and one "wet" hand to avoid schnitzel-fingers).
Heat 1 cm of olive oil in a frying pan. Once shimmering, fry the eggplant slices in batches for a few minutes on either side until golden brown and cooked through.
Keep the cooked eggplant slices warm in a low oven (75C) while you cook the remaining slices. If you have a wire rack that can go in the oven, use it! This will help keep the eggplant crisp.
To serve, arrange the cooked eggplant slices on a platter. Break up the mozzarella balls and arrange among the slices. Finely chop the parsley and sprinkle it over. Serve with basil pesto and the tomato sauce on the side.
Serves 5-6, depending on what sides you serve it with

Have you made this recipe? Leave a comment below! Tag me on Instagram @sarahcooksblog and hashtag #sarahcooksblog

Other eggplanty and parmy goodness from the archives:

• Eggplant and Zucchini Parmigiana
• Imam Baildi
• Chicken Parma and Fast Fries
• Eggplant Parmigiana Focaccia Sandwich

The Grand Dining Room

Another birthday post! So, as I mentioned in my Sarah's Birth Month post, I managed to squeeze in an extra birthday meal - a birthday degustation at The Grand Hotel, in Richmond. You may remember I attended their Italian Yum Cha (on an invite) back in November and loved it, so I was looking forward to visiting again!

Tiramisu

When I was little, my mum and I would often make tiramisu, using a recipe that a friend gave her. It's been about ten years since I last made it, but it tastes better than any other recipe I'd tried since then, and I'd been meaning to formalise the recipe and blog it here. I thought our recent eggplant parmigiana dinner party was the perfect excuse to give it a go!

So, I asked my dad to take a photo of the recipe and text it to me...

Tiramisu recipe

I have no idea how I used to follow that and make a consistent tiramisu! Sugar, coffee and rum to taste? Anyway, I decided to use the ratio of 6 eggs to 500 grams mascarpone (I halved it), and googled a dozen or so different recipes to get an idea of how much sugar, coffee, and alcohol to use. My cobbled-together recipe is what appears at the bottom of this post.

Ingredients

I brewed a fresh batch of coffee using my beloved Chemex coffee pot (1.5 cups boiled water and 2 heaped scoops ground coffee), but I've also made tiramisu successfully using plunger or percolator coffee. And I haven't tried it, but Nigella says you can use instant espresso powder (9 teaspoons espresso dissolved in 375 millilitres of boiled water).

Sandwich!

So last weekend, I made this awesome eggplant parmigiana sandwich. You make an eggplant parmigiana, you make a focaccia, you put the eggplant parmigiana IN the focaccia and then shove it in your face. Amaze! I saw the recipe in Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food (which is a fantastic book, by the way!) and knew I just had to have it! The only problem was that Jamie's recipe serves sixteen people (ahem), and even using all of my amazing mathematical prowess, I could only scale it down enough to make it a four-person parmigiana... so there was nothing else to do but throw an eggplant parmigiana-themed dinner party!




We invited fellow eggplant-enthusiasts (yes, it's a thing) Jenni and Jimbo, and I decided to make tiramisu for dessert, because it fit in with the Italian theme and JJ both love coffee. As a bonus, I'd been looking for an excuse to formalise my mum's old tiramisu recipe which a friend scribbled on a piece of scrap paper for her 20 years ago. It essentially says: "6 egg yolks, 500 grams mascarpone, coffee, alcohol and sugar to taste, savoiardi biscuits, cocoa on top". (Spoiler alert: the tiramisu worked, hooray! I wrote down all the quantities I used and I'll publish the recipe here soon!) The espresso martinis were added to the menu because, espresso martinis.

When friends ask what they can bring, my habitual answer is: "alcohol", so that it doesn't mess with my menu (heh), but I have to stop saying that, as we have way too much booze at home! Over the years we've amassed dozens of bottles of wine and spirits, but we almost never drink at home, especially throughout the week, and only if it's a special occasion or if we've got friends over. Our wine racks and liquor cabinet have literally run out of room!

So this time I asked JJ to bring snacks, "like chips and dip or something". They brought this...

Cheeeeeeese

Speaking of alcohol, Sandra was on cocktail duty, making Pimm's Cups with freshly muddled strawberries, citrus and cucumber. Soooo tasty.

Cocktail Station!

I was super organised and had done all the cooking and preparation in the afternoon, so I was free to get stuck into the cheese and cocktails until it was time for dinner. Here's the focaccia! (Confession time: I also bought a back-up focaccia, just in case mine didn't turn out right. But mine did. Phew!)

Focaccia dough

Homemade Foccacia

Also, how good is grilled eggplant? Scroll down for the full recipe, but basically it is layers of grilled eggplant, basily tomato sauce, mozzarella cheese, breadcrumbs and parmesan cheese. Boom.

Eggplant!

Here it is, all topped with melty mozzarella and baked.

Eggplant Parm

Focaccia

Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwich

It was super yum. I was actually impressed that the eggplant parm sandwich managed to sustain structural integrity as I was eating it - much less messy than anticipated! Although having said that, everyone else ate very daintily with a fork and knife on their plates.

Then it was time for dessert! Plus cheesy 90s music because, well, why not! The espresso martini was perfect with the tiramisu (good job, mixologist-Sandra!) So much caffeinated alcoholic goodness.

Tiramisu & Espresso Martini

Eggplant Parmigiana Sandwich

Recipe adapted from Jamie Oliver's Comfort Food

For the Focaccia

3.5 grams dried yeast (half a sachet)

500 grams strong bread flour

Extra virgin olive oil

For the Eggplant Parmigiana

2 medium eggplants

Olive oil, for frying (you will need lots)

2 cloves garlic

4 sprigs of basil

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

75 millilitres red wine

800 grams tinned crushed tomatoes

200 grams mozzarella cheese, torn up or finely sliced

50 grams breadcrumbs

50 grams Parmesan cheese, grated

50 grams rocket leaves

Method

For the Focaccia

Whisk the yeast into 300 millilitres warm water and set aside for 5 minutes. Place the flour and 1/2 teaspoon sea salt into the bowl of a stand mixer and knead slowly using the bread hook until the dough comes together. Turn the mixer up to medium and keep kneading for 5 minutes, or until the dough is smooth and elastic. Cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Knock back the dough to de-gas it (heh), then push it out into a large rectangular shape on a baking tray. Poke it all over with your fingertips, to make dents all over the dough. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil, and sprinkle generously with sea salt and pepper. Set aside in a warm place to prove for an hour, or until doubled in size.

Preheat the oven to 180C. Bake the focaccia for 30-40 minutes, or until golden brown and cooked through. Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

For the Eggplant Parmigiana

Slice the eggplant crosswise into half-centimetre thick rounds. Brush with olive oil and grill or pan-fry until cooked through and softened. Set aside.

Finely slice the garlic and basil stalks (reserve the leaves for later). Heat some olive oil in a large saucepan, and add the garlic, basil stalks and oregano. Cook for a few minutes or until lightly golden. Pour in the red wine and allow to bubble away. Add the crushed tomatoes. Bring to the boil, then turn the heat down to low and simmer, partially covered, for 30 minutes or until the sauce is thickened.

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Lightly oil a 20 x 30cm roasting tray with high sides.

Cover the base with a third of the eggplant slices, followed by a third of the tomato sauce, basil leaves, mozzarella, breadcrumbs and Parmesan. Repeat with the remaining ingredients to make three layers in total. Drizzle with a little olive oil, and cook in the preheated oven for 30 minutes, or until golden brown and piping hot all the way through. Allow to stand for 30 minutes before cutting into portions and stuffing into the focaccia, adding rocket leaves.

Serves 4-6

Lobster Spaghettini

Lobster spaghettini! I made this for a wallowing-in-indulgence Boxing Day supper using the leftover half lobster tail from Christmas Dinner, and loved it so much that I just had to share the recipe with you!

Lobster Spaghettini

I used similar flavours to another favourite of mine, spaghetti alle vongole (clam spaghetti) - garlic, shallots, chilli, parsley and white wine - and I steeped some saffron threads in the wine for an extra luxurious touch. Spaghettini (AKA angelhair spaghetti) only takes two minutes to cook, and the sauce takes less than five minutes, so it makes sense to slice and chop all the ingredients first before you start cooking.

Ingredients prepped and ready to go

I started by sautéing the garlic and shallots in extra virgin olive oil, then adding the chilli and lobster meat. I then threw in the saffron-tinted wine and let it bubble away to a thick, syrupy sauce. I was worried the lobster meat might overcook and turn mushy, but it was slightly underdone when we bought it, so this wasn't an issue.

Wine simmering away

Finally, I tossed through the chopped parsley and the cooked spaghettini. Ta-dah!

All mixed together

Obviously I made this with lobster because I happened to have some leftover, but I think that an equivalent amount of firm white fish, prawns, crab meat, or clams would be a good substitute - just adjust the cooking time depending on your protein.

Lobster Spaghettini

Lobster spaghettini

Yum!

Yum, yum, yum. What a special treat! Enjoy!

Lobster Spaghettini
An original recipe by Sarah Cooks

Ingredients
1/4 cup white wine
1 pinch saffron threads
2 garlic cloves
1 small shallot
1 small chilli
Small handful flat-leaf parsley
Meat from half a lobster tail (approx. 140 grams), cooked
85 grams spaghettini / angelhair spaghetti (or more if you are hungry!)

Method
Place a saucepan of water on to boil for the spaghettini. Cook according to packet directions.
Place the white wine in a small bowl and sprinkle in the saffron threads. Allow to steep while you prepare the rest of the ingredients.
Finely slice the garlic cloves, and finely chop the shallot, chilli and parsley.
Chop the lobster meat into small-ish chunks.
Heat a good slug of extra virgin olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic and shallots with a good pinch of salt, and cook gently until fragrant. (Don't let it burn and turn bitter). Add the chilli and stir for a minute. Add the lobster pieces and stir until covered by the oily, garlicky mixture.
Turn the heat up to high and pour in the saffron threads and wine. Allow to bubble away until reduced and syrupy.
Add the drained spaghettini and chopped parsley to the pan and toss to combine.
Season with salt and pepper (and dried chilli flakes if you like), and tuck in!
Serves 1 generously