Surprize ! That never came from a chicken !

Some things in life are really surprising. A chance encounter with a new person becomes your life long BFF, that accidental wrong turn brings you to discover a new favorite place and so forth. It can happen with food as well. We become culturally conditioned that certain foods go together and certain foods do not. Biscuits and gravy go together, while biscuits and lemons- not so much. Then one day, if we are lucky, we come across a way that combines what we believe to be inharmonious foods in a very delicious way. The following dish is one of those.

It includes potatoes and eggplant

two foods that most people would not normally combine. Why exactly is an eggplant called an eggplant ? It does not look or taste like an egg. Who knows. Who cares ! One thing is for certain- it is from the botanical family called nightshade, and that family includes things like tomatoes, peppers and potatoes. Most of these got their start in Central America. Columbus brought these back into Europe, where they did fantastic things with them . This dish was shown on an episode of David Rocco's Dolce Vita, and I figured out what it should be called in Italian - always makes a dish sound more exotic !

Melanzana patatina fritta con Trapanaise

1 pint grape tomatoes
4 garlic cloves, de-germed and sliced
a bunch fresh basil leaves, torn
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil , plus extra for frying eggplant and potatoes
salt to taste
2 eggplants, cubed
3 large potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced into strips
1 lb pasta mufalda
1 cup pecorino cheese, freshly grated ( or any hard cheese you like, freshly grated)

 Place tomatoes, garlic and basil in a large mortar, or smash with an immersion blender(this is a raw sauce)
   
Add extra virgin olive oil, salt and use a pestle or immersion blender to crush the ingredients into a paste. If it looks too dry, add more olive oil.Crush the ingredients until the pesto sauce is even in consistency.
   

Heat up extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan and fry eggplant until golden.
Place fried eggplant on an absorbent paper towel to drain excess oil.
Season the eggplant, while hot, with salt.
Do the same to fry up the potatoes.
Place pasta in a pot of boiling salted water. Stir initially to prevent from sticking.
Drain the spaghetti when it is al dente­.
Place the spaghetti in a large mixing bowl, add the pesto sauce, half the quantity of eggplant, potatoes, pecorino cheese and mix thoroughly.Toss in remaining eggplant and potatoes and toss with cheese. Serve.
   

It makes for a very tasty and hearty dish ! While potatoes and tomatoes can be thought of as going together ( think french fries and catsup), potatoes and eggplant not so much. But it works and it works well ! It's yet another meatless dish that can make the whole Meatless Fridays in Lent seem like Feasting Fridays in Lent.

Plugging along

I rested, I rallied, and in the afternoon and evening I got back on that horse again. Managed to push through the pain to get a final total of 5 minutes bike time and about 3 minutes walking time. I also tried to work with my resistance bands, but at this point they seem a little too intense, so we will put them aside for now. 8 minutes total for the day - yay me ! Best thing about it was that after the pain stopped I felt more stable and mobile, so it is indeed time to do this. More today.

I was really happy to discover I had planned something comfort food wise for dinner ! When I was little , my mom would make something we called Scalloped Potatoes from scratch. You take peeled potatoes, flour, salt , pepper, butter and milk, layer and cover with milk to bake. It made a Bechamel sort of sauce, and it was always creamy and comforting. Through the years I stopped making it because it was too starchy. White potatoes + white flour make for a not so good thing. A while back I stumbled across a recipe for this sort of dish but made infinitely better. It seems that if you combine a starch like potatoes with a higher level of fat and protein, it will not provoke the insulin response that a starch alone will. I think potatoes get an unfair bad rap these days. They have long been a nourishing staple of many cultures for the energy and satiation level they provide. If prepared properly, potatoes are a good thing. And this dis was indeed a good thing- very satisfying, nourishing and pleasing to the pallete !

 Cheddar Cheese Scalloped Potatoes

  2 1/2 cups  heavy cream
     3/4 cup  finely chopped shallots or onions
  2 teaspoons  chopped fresh rosemary (or 1 teaspoon dried)
  2 teaspoons  sea salt
     3/4 teaspoon  ground black pepper
  4 russet potatoes peeled, cut into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
  2cups  grated sharp  cheddar cheese (about 8 ounces)

Preheat oven to 375°F. Butter 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish. Whisk cream, shallots or onions, rosemary, salt and pepper in medium bowl to blend. Place half of potatoes in prepared baking dish, overlapping slightly. Sprinkle with 3/4 cup cheese. Top with second layer of potatoes. Pour cream mixture over potatoes in dish. Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Cover gratin with foil and bake 1 hour. Uncover and bake until top is golden brown and potatoes are tender, about 45 minutes longer. Let gratin cool 10 minutes before serving.

I wound up serving it with some Parmesan crusted pork chops and red cabbage- made for a yummy winter evening meal !