Healthy Eating: Eggplant Parmigiana

My husband loves eggplants!  He can eat eggplants the whole day - fried, roasted, boiled, in a salad, what-have-you!  I thought of making eggplant parmigiana for him one weekend instead of our usual pasta snack (lasagna, baked mac, spaghetti).

This recipe is from Panlasang Pinoy.  The steps are very easy and the ingredients are readily available.  I didn't use the marinara sauce from this site though.  I used Giada de Laurentiis' Marinara sauce recipe from the Food Network.

You should try this one weekend.  It's a good side dish for lunch or you can get one serving for a snack.  I made baked salmon as the main dish for lunch with this as our side.  Nice combination!

Prepare the marinara sauce first.

Marinara Sauce
Recipe by Giada de Laurentiis from Food Network

• 1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 1 small onion, finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 celery stalk, finely chopped (didn't have this available)
• 1 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt (I used ordinary iodized salt)
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 1 (32-ounce) cans crushed tomatoes
• 1 dried bay leaves (didn't have this available

Heat olive oil in a pan.  Saute onions, garlic, carrots and season with salt and pepper.  Add the tomatoes and simmer for 1 hour.

Eggplant Parmigiana
Recipe from Panlasang Pinoy

• 2 pieces eggplants (the recipe used huge eggplants {check the tutorial video in the site}so I used 4 pieces of eggplants)
• 2 pieces raw eggs
• 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used Japanese breadcrumbs)
• 1 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 6 ounces mozarella cheese, shredded
• 2 1/2 cups marinara sauce (see recipe above from Giada de Laurentiis)
• 1/2 cup parmesan and romano cheese, grated (I used parmesan only)
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley flakes (didn't have parsley flakes so I skipped this)

Peel and slice the eggplants.

Lightly beat eggs in a bowl.

In a separate bowl, mix the bread crumbs, garlic powder, salt and black pepper.

Dip the eggplants into the eggs and roll in the bread crumb mixture.


Heat the olive oil in the pan and fry the eggplants until their golden brown. 

Place the fried eggplants in a plate covered in paper towels to absorb the extra oil.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

In an oven dish, pour 1/3 of the marinara sauce.

Arrange a layer of eggplants on top of the marinara. 

 

Pour some of the marinara sauce on top then sprinkle with parmesan.  Repeat this for 2 or 3 layers.

On the topmost layer, spread the shredded mozarella cheese.

Bake for 18-22 minutes.  Cool for 10 minutes and serve!

Pawis rating: 3 of 5 easy but I found that frying is time-consuming :-( 

Chicken Shepherd's Pie

Shepherd's pie is something I'd always order from one of the restaurants I'd regularly visit near our office. It's an all-in-one dish: carbs from the mashed potatoes, protein from the meat, and fiber from the veggies.

The dish looks pretty easy to make - like baked macaroni in individual ramekins. Searched through the sites I regularly visit and was glad to find this easy recipe.

The recipe is from Home Cooking Rocks, another site that is mostly devoted to Filipino dishes. I love that the author includes her recipes for some non-Filipino dishes as well. This one's a perfect example. From what I have tried so far, shepherd's pie is usually made out of beef. But this one's made of chicken breast fillets - just right for the health-conscious :-)

I think the hardest part in making this dish is preparing the mashed potatoes - scrubbing them, then mashing them is just painful. I say this because I don't have a nifty gadget to do this easily for me. Yes, I mashed them potatoes with my humble fork. I like my mashed potatoes with skin, so this saved me the pain of removing the skin from the hot potatoes before mashing them.

Next, the chicken dish - really good! The dish is very simple but the taste is just good. I didn't follow the recipe to the dot - I used chicken breast fillets and some Hungarian sausages because I don't have smoked ham. This combination worked well. When I started cooking this I thought the sauce would be very thick because the recipe calls for cream. So I had my milk ready. But I didn't use the milk at all. The taste and consistency of the sauce was just right.

Let's cook!

Chicken Shepherd's Pie
Recipe from Home Cooking Rocks

Make the mashed potatoes

• 3/4 kilo potatoes or 5 pieces of medium-big potatoes
• 1/4 cup butter
• 3/4 cup or more of milk
• salt and pepper
• few tablespoons of grated parmesan cheese

Wash and scrub the potatoes clean especially if you're keeping the skin. Pierce with a fork all over and drop in boiling water. Boil for 30 minutes or until you can insert a fork easily into the potato.

When the potatoes are done, put them in a bowl and mash them.

Add the butter.

Season with salt and pepper.

Gradually add the milk. Do not pour the milk all at once. You'd want to put a small amount at a time till you get the consistency you want.

Add the parmesan.

Set aside.

Prepare the chicken filling

• 1/4 kilo chicken breast fillets
• 3 pieces hungarian sausage
• 1 large onion
• 1 small pack frozen vegetables (corn and carrots)
• 1 small can sliced button mushrooms
• 1 cup of cream
• salt and pepper

Thaw your frozen vegetables.

Chop the onions.

Cut the chicken breast fillet into cubes. Season with salt and pepper.

Slice the sausage about a quarter inch thick.

Melt butter in a pan. Cook the chicken until lightly browned.

Add the hungarian sausage and cook for about 3-4 minutes. Add the chopped onion.

Add the vegetables.

Pour the cream and season with salt and pepper.

Assemble the pie

Place the chicken filling in an 8" baking dish.

Spread the mashed potatoes on top of the chicken.

Bake in a preheated 180C oven for 20-30 minutes. The pie is done when the top is lightly browned.

Nice and brown and dripping at the sides :-)

Pawis rating: 2 of 5 very easy! A simple, very tasty, all-in-one dish that even kids will like :-)

Healthy Eating: Very Easy Parmesan Broccoli

I first saw this in Can You Stay for Dinner? and then at the Food Network website. The recipe was so easy and looks delish!

So why not try?

Parmesan Broccoli from the Food Network

• Broccoli florets
• Minced garlic
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Grated parmesan
• Japanese breadcrumbs

Preheat oven to 450F. Blanch the broccoli florets

Drain the hot water and place in a bowl. Add the minced garlic, a few drops of extra virgin olive oil, a few tablespoons of grated parmesan and Japanese breadcrumbs.

Place in a cookie sheet. Bake in the oven for 15 minutes.

Transfer to a plate and serve.

Pawis rating: 1 of 5 super easy!

Baked Macaroni

Make this your specialty :-)

Do you have a go-to recipe for events, gatherings or parties? My husband's Kapampangan clan has all sorts of specialties. Each would bring their own specialty in almost every family event.

Mine is this one. I am proud to say I can make a mean baked mac. It's very easy!!!

Again, this probably comes with age, I forgot where I got this recipe from. So if you recognize this, please let me know :-)

Baked Macaroni

• 225 g of macaroni (penne or ziti), cooked according to package directions undercooking by 5 minutes

Sauce:

• 3 tbsp of butter
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
• 1/4 kg of ground beef
• 1/4 kg of smoked ham/bacon/salami/pepperoni
• 1/4 kg of sliced button mushrooms
• 1/4 kg of tomatoes, chopped
• 1/4 kg of onions, chopped
• 4-5 green or red bell pepper, cored and chopped
• 1 whole garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup of tomato paste
• 3-4 cups of good meat broth
• bunch of basil leaves or 1 tsp of dried basil
• salt
• pepper
• sugar

Topping:

• 1/3 cup butter
• 3 tbsp flour
• 2 cups milk
• 1 cup water
• 1/2 of 225g quickmelt cheese
• 1/2 of 225g cream cheese, softened then cut into small pieces
• salt
• pepper

Cook the pasta sauce:

1. Heat the butter and olive oil together over med-high heat
2. Add ground beef, breaking up the lumps
3. Add garlic and cook until meat starts to brown
4. Add ham/bacon. Stir and cook for few minutes
5. Add the vegetables and cook.
6. Add tomato paste and stir. Pour the meat broth. Season with salt, pepper and sugar.
7. Bring to boil, cover and simmer for 20-30 mins.

Cook the topping:

1. While pasta sauce simmers, prepare cream cheese topping.
2. Melt the butter in saucepan.
3. When frothy, add the flour all at once, stirring. Let the flour cook for about 5 minutes. Usually the flour is cooked when the mixture starts to turn golden brown.
4. Pour in the water in a thin stream, stirring as you do. Mixture will be lumpy at this stage.
5. Pour in the milk slowly, again, stirring as you pour. By the time the milk has been incorporated in the mixture, it will appear to be a little thin. The cheeses will thicken them to required consistency.
6. Add the cheeses. Set the heat to low and let the cheeses melt, stirring occassionally. Turn off heat and season with salt and pepper.

Baking:

1. When the sauce is done, add the cooked pasta and toss well. Let the mixture cook over low heat and occassional stirring (5-6 minutes).
2. Pour the pasta and sauce into a baking dish. Make sure that the dish is large enough so that the mixture is an inch below the rim.
3. Pour the topping onto the pasta mixture, spreading to seal the edges. If you don't seal the edges, the exposed pasta will dry up during baking.
4. Bake in preheated 180C oven for 20-25 mins or until top is lightly browned.
5. Let the baked mac rest for 10 minutes before cutting.

I bought a pyrex 9X13 baking dish last week and was very excited to try this today. Lo and behold, the dish wouldn't fit my measly oven!!! Damn you cheap oven! I had to be resourceful and find an alternative.

This must be my unlucky day because I decided to use my 9X13 teflon pan to make classic crumb cake (which I have not posted yet, lazy me). So that is not an option. I used my 10" round teflon pan and 8X8 pyrex baking dish. A little tedious but this tactic actually worked.

Mixing the pasta and the sauce

Arrange the pasta in your baking dish
Pour the topping
Bake - I wish you can smell this


Eat :-D

Pawis rating: 4 of 5 - This is not at all difficult but it had so many steps and so many ingredients I needed to chop! My hands are tired :-(

Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Me: Marion, I will cook lasagna today.
Marion: Mommy, pagkain ng pusa yan (Mommy, that's cat food)
Me: Ano?! (What?!)
Marion: That's what Garfield eats!

Does this look like cat food? I'm sure cats would eat this cheesy, meaty goodness but this sure is safe for humans too.

I actually forgot where I got this recipe from (if you know, please message me and I'll acknowledge the chef/cook).

Edit: I found the chef!!! This recipe is from Pinoy Food Blog! Thank you Ms. Noemi Lardazabal-Dado for making this on Mother's Day! (And thank you to Facebook for the regular updates hihihi)

Lasagna with Bechamel Sauce

Bechamel Sauce

• 3/4 cup butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 2 cans evaporated milk (1 can is equivalent to 225 ml or 1 cup)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg

1. Melt butter in a pan.
2. Blend in flour until bubbly.
3. Gradually stir in evaporated milk.
4. Cook until bubbly and a bit thick. Make sure not to burn the milk by lowering the flame.
5. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.
6. Set aside

Cooking the bechamel sauce. This should come out thick and bubbly.

Tomato Meat Sauce

• 3/4 kilo ground beef
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup butter
• 4 cloves garlic, crushed
• 6 tbsp white wine (optional) - I did not use this as I obviously skip every optional ingredient in every recipe (that's just me being lazy)
• 1/4 tsp nutmeg
• 1/3 tsp oregano
• 1 tsp salt
• 4 tbsp basil leaves, shredded - I used dried basil
• 1/2 tsp pepper
• 1 cup beef broth
• 2 cans tomato paste (150 grams each)
• shredded mozzarella cheese to add in between layers and for topping - I did not use this, you can see my explanation below.

1. Heat olive oil and butter.
2. Brown the garlic, add the onions and cook until soft.
3. Put in the ground beef, wine and spices.
4. Allow to cook for a while then pour in the beef broth and tomato paste.
5. Simmer gently until thick. A little flour may be needed to thicken the sauce. - I didn't need the flour as the sauce was already thick.
6. Set aside.

Very tasty meat sauce

Lasagna cooked according to package directions

I was scared to cook lasagna pasta for fear of breaking the pasta. It's so easy pala! And you only need 4 minutes :-) Don't overcook or you'll have soggy pasta when you take the lasagna off the oven.

Assemble the lasagna

1. Grease a rectangular dish (around 10X17 inches) with butter.
2. Pour 1/3 of bechamel sauce.
3. Arrange a layer of pasta. Spoon in tomato meat sauce and sprinkle with cheese.
4. Repeat number 3. End with bechamel sauce on the top layer.
5. Sprinkle with mozzarella cheese.
6. Bake 350F until golden brown.
7. Let stand 5 to 10 minutes to set before serving.

To explain myself - I did not use mozzarella cheese because we don't have it available anywhere near my house. I would give a reward to anyone who can find mozzarella cheese near our town. So I used quickmelt cheese instead (I know, so cheap). Plus cream cheese (not so cheap). I still got the cheesy gooeyness I wanted.

Next time, I would use a bigger (or deeper dish) so I can use the entire box of lasagna pasta. And I will double the meat sauce recipe. I find the meat sauce not enough for a 4 layer lasagna. I had to be careful in proportioning the potful of meat sauce so I have enough to put on top.

Serve this during family reunions, parties or dinner with friends and you'll be instant bida! Guaranteed bestseller! Best served with crusty bread :-)

Pawis rating: 1 of 5 super easy, no need to use your brains :-)