Cheesy Spinach Fritatta

 

This Spinach and Cheese frittata is perfect when served for breakfast, lunch or dinner. Frittatas, omelettes and eggs, whether poached, scrambled or fried, are in general a popular choice for brekkie or brunch when we are dining out. Here we have a really delicious frittata that you can easily cook and eat in the comfort of your own home, for 4 people, and very economically. Think comfort food as well.

Baked Eggplant or Aubergine with anchovies, parmesan and crunchy garlic breadcrumbs

 

These tasty baked globe eggplants or aubergines are delicious enough to be the hero and stand alone served with a salad, or will still hold their own as a part of larger banquet. This is such a delicious way to cook and serve eggplant. The peak season for growing eggplant in Queensland is from December to April, so they are still at their best right now. I was gifted these eggplant by our good friends who have a very sunny garden which really suits the growing of eggplant, so whilst the vegetables were still only a couple of days old, I needed to cook them. They need to be really fresh for this kind of recipe where they are baked and aren't cooked in a sauce. However being organic and home grown, they weren't as large or as consistent in size as those at the supermarkets. At the supermarkets they would be called the Odd Bunch, however I think they are the Perfect Bunch.

 I had spotted iconic Australian cook Maggie Beer's eggplant recipe during the week, and this was the perfect opportunity to cook it. I'm so glad I did because this is just the best way to enjoy eggplant and it's a cinch to make. I wish my photos were as good as Maggie's in the magazine though, however minus professional stylist Michele Cranston and photographer Con Poulos, it was just me, but  I'm pretty sure they taste just as good as the ones Maggie cooked. Next time though I will remember to leave the stalks on the eggplant, oops. Not that the stalk is edible, it just gives the eggplant a better shape in the photo. 

 I ate two of these for dinner, and Mr. HRK who can generally take or leave eggplant ate one and really enjoyed it. There is still a variety of opinion as to whether or not eggplant needs to be salted before cooking to remove the natural bitterness. Because these were so fresh I didn't salt them and I rarely do these days, and there was no bitterness at all.  

Let's cook:

Ingredients:

Serves 4

Preparation and cooking time 40 minutes

2 medium (600 g) eggplants

1/2 cup (125 ml) extra virgin olive oil 

4 (20 g) anchovies

2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped

1 cup (75 g) coarse sourdough breadcrumbs 

1/3 cup parmesan or pecorino cheese, finely grated

2 tablespoons each of mint and parsley, coarsely chopped

Method:

Preheat the oven to 240 deg. C (220 deg. C) fan forced

With a small sharp knife, cut the eggplants in half lengthways, leaving the stalk in tact. Then remove the eggplant flesh carefully, so as not to pierce the skin of the eggplant.

Place the eggplant skins and the flesh on a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper.

 Measure out 1/4 cup of the olive oil, and drizzle this over the eggplant. I also used a pastry brush to distribute the oil evenly over the eggplant shells and the flesh.

Season with freshly ground black pepper and salt and bake for 15 minutes. The skins should be crispy and the flesh tender. If the eggplants are very fresh, and hopefully they are, this might take longer than the recommended 15 minutes.

Select a small frying pan, add the remaining olive oil, and over a low heat gently cook the anchovy fillets and the garlic. This should only take a minute for the anchovy fillets to break down and the garlic to soften. You will also smell the heady aroma of the garlic and the anchovies cooking.

Add the breadcrumbs and cook for 2 minutes until they are lightly toasted in the pan. 

This is tasty enough to eat on it's own like this.

Remove the pan from the heat and combine the toasted breadcrumbs in a bowl with the cooked eggplant flesh and 1 tablespoon mint.

 

I used some extra mint because I love it.

 Spoon the eggplant mixture into the eggplant skins. Top with finely grated parmesan and a drizzle of olive oil, and place the eggplants back in the oven for 10 minutes until golden.

When cooked, remove from the oven, place tray on a cooling rack and rest the eggplants for 5 minutes.

Before serving, add the remaining mint and the parsley to serve. I also added a few basil leaves because I grow them.

Cook's tips:

• This dish isn't suitable to freeze
• Small cubes of sourdough bread instead of breadcrumbs, might be an easier way to incorporate the sourdough, and works really well. One thick slice of sourdough bread cut into small squares works well, or use breadcrumbs.
• If you really enjoy the flavour of anchovies, add another few to this recipe.
• If your eggplant are over a few days old, draw out the natural bitterness by sprinkling them with salt and stand for 30 minutes. Rinse off the salt before you cook them. Because the ones I used were so fresh, I didn't salt them.

I just had to share a photo of my beautiful Cattleya orchid with you, I hope she brightens up your day. She is flowering on my patio at present.

Her name is: Blc. Haadyai Delight x Blc. Laddawan Beauty. I bought her from a local orchid nursery in 2021, and I am thrilled she has flowered for me again this year.

Have a wonderful weekend,

Warm wishes,

Pauline

Showcasing In My Kitchen, October 2020

 

I've been going to make Golden Syrup Dumplings  for MR. HRK for a while now, definitely one of his faves, and when I saw Maggie Beer make a guest appearance on journalist Annabel Crabb's  recent TV show, "Back in Time for Dinner", broadcast on the ABC here in Australia over four Tuesday nights,  I couldn't put it off any longer. I've made Golden Syrup dumplings a  few times in the past, always delicious, but I thought I would try Maggie's recipe this time. Yes I'm quite a fan of Maggie Beer, show me someone that isn't.

Watching this series was quite nostalgic in a way for our age group as we found ourselves reminiscing over  the various pieces of kitchen and garden equipment that we remember from our childhood days. Not during the wartime era I hasten to add, we definitely weren't around then or even thought of, however by the 1950's and the 1960's some of those old Aussie things, now vintage, were still around in some homes.

Something I found interesting during the 1920's episode of "Back in Time for Dinner"  was the revolutionary appearance of canned food in the kitchen pantry in the 1920s and the excitement that caused for the woman of the house. Offal was still a readily available and popular choice for meals, and we even ate our fair share of it, but suddenly the housewives were creating a plethora of meals out of canned meat, canned fish, and canned fruit and vegetables. There was no disgrace in serving a meal out of a tin, and it's still ok if it's baked beans, sardines, tuna, salmon, or spaghetti. Now it seems there is no disgrace in serving a meal out of a bottle, although as you know if you read my posts regularly, I like to mainly cook from scratch now that I have the time. However pantry staples such as tinned food are still important as an economical and  time saving resource. As well as all of the homemade jams, chutneys and pickles in my pantry, I keep a good stock of tinned tomatoes, chick peas, corn, pulses, sliced beetroot, sardines, tuna, sliced apples, pineapple pieces, and condensed milk as a minimum. Does that sound like your pantry these days?

No bully beef or Spam in sight though, as were the staples in the wartime era. After the First World War, attention turned to manufacturing food for the population, instead of the soldiers. Post War in the 1920's, the Ad man arrived, and gas ovens, couches, lino floors, new household appliances, and tinned food, sparked up everyone's lives. Let's not forget the glamourous Flappers either, it was party time.

Along with the tinned food innovation,  came the humble can opener, and some subsequent kitchen accidents, as these weren't easy appliances to use. The old can opener was really sharp, and a warning to watch your fingers came with it. I would have hated that can opener, and I can remember it still being around in kitchens in the 60s. This a photo of the one in the show. 

Then along came this one, a slight improvement. I remember trying to wrestle with this one in my Mum's kitchen. They seemed to go blunt quite quickly.

When the electric can opener appeared, in the 70s I think, it was revolutionary and everyone had to have one to make life easier. We still laugh when remembering that Mr. HRK and I received four  electric can openers for wedding presents in 1977, that's how popular they were. They were all the same, and yellow if I remember correctly,  and we know where in Rockhampton our young friends went to purchase them. It was at Millroys, a much smaller version  of Myer today, no clothing though that I remember. The electric can opener looked something like this, I don't have fond memories of that one either.

Thankfully now, most of the cans are ring top making life a lot easier. However I wish cans of condensed milk still needed to be opened with a can opener as boiling a can with a ring top to make caramel always worries me, even though I have had no disasters as yet. Touch wood! Which raises the question my friends, do you still have a can opener in your kitchen, or do you prefer an electric one or do you use one at all? I like my hand operated can opener, an easy one to use and occasionally I still need to use it.

Enough reminiscing, let's cook some dumplings, requiring no can openers. When I have cooked dumplings in the past, I have placed them in the frying pan to cook with the simmering sauce just as we sat down to eat the main meal, and they were ready when we finished eating. Although I always checked them after 20 minutes. However if you like a long interval between the main course and dessert, just slide them into the sauce as soon as you finish your main course. How you do it,  could depend on whether you are eating with your family, or entertaining guests. Golden syrup has been around in kitchen pantries for a long time, definitely since the 1940s anyway, and these dumplings have been a very economical and popular dessert through the decades.

Golden Syrup Dumplings, this recipe originally by Australian cook and chef, Maggie Beer

Ingredients for dumplings:

1 cup self raising flour

Salt to taste

20g  butter

1 egg

50 ml milk

Ingredients for Golden Syrup Sauce:

1/2 cup golden syrup

3/4 cup brown sugar firmly packed

30g  butter

2 cups water

METHOD:

• Sift the self raising flour into a bowl and add a pinch of salt.
• Rub the butter into the flour until it resembles breadcrumbs, and then add the whisked egg and stir to combine.
• Slowly add the milk and mix gently until the dough just comes together and resembles a scone mix (do not over work the dough or it will be tough instead of light and fluffy.) Set aside.
• Combine all sauce ingredients into a large frypan. Bring to the boil to amalgamate before reducing heat to a gentle simmer.
• Flour your hands and roll the dough into the size of a twenty cent piece. Smaller dumplings will absorb more sauce.
• Slip the balls off the baking paper all together into the syrup. Cover the frypan with foil to form a tight seal and cover with the lid. Cook for about 10 minutes before turning them over to cool for another 10 minutes on the other side. (Turning them over is optional.)
• Remove with a slotted spoon and serve with the remaining sauce and a jug of runny cream or ice-cream or even custard. Whatever you prefer. The dumplings will steal the show anyway.

Where would we be without this Golden elixir called Golden Syrup

There is reference to a version of Golden Syrup being produced at the Spiller's Sugar Plantation here in Mackay, North Queensland, in 1868. Outback shearers and station hands bought their golden syrup in 70lb. (30 kg.) tins, naming it "Cocky's Joy". Small farmers in Australia were also called a cocky in the first half of the 20th century. Cattle farmers were called cow cockys. Golden syrup was much easier to transport in tins than jam and often used as a substitute for butter on their damper. Who doesn't love Aussie damper with Golden Syrup, especially over a campfire? This  Golden Syrup story reinforces what a culinary icon it still is in our kitchens. Mine is in a plastic bottle here but I generally buy it in a decorative tin. 

What is the most valued appliance in your kitchen my friends? I would have to say mine are my Kitchen Aid, and our Rancilio Coffee machine and coffee grinder. The slow cooker and pressure cooker are great as well, we are lucky aren't we?

I like to collect  pretty milk and water jugs, which I use so I thought I would share a few of these with you.  I also love these beaded jug covers which are very useful. I inherited these, and still use them although I wish I could crochet as a couple are in need of a little repair. 

This past 12 months of living with the pandemic, has meant that some of the survival skills needed during the 1900's to 1950's as discussed in the show have been needed in our own homes. Simple home cooking, growing our own food, making our own coffee, avoiding supermarkets when we can, and just general resourcefulness have become a saviour during difficult times. Resourcefulness and resilience is surely in our DNA if we tap into it.

I've written this post as part of the In My Kitchen series hosted by Sherrys Pickings. It is worthwhile dropping over to her posts if you haven't already.
 

Warmest wishes

Pauline

                   

Sherrys Pickings