wendy werner Archives - Good Food St. Louis

Wendy, here, still guest posting while Jean continues to gallivant through France and its vast culinary landscape. I know we are all looking forward to her stories of food in France. In the meantime, we in St. Louis have been blessed with some beautiful weather which makes cooking often more enjoyable than those overheated days in August. And yes, despite the title of this post – I am well aware of the fact that we are looking at Monday in the rearview mirror. But another one is coming soon.

I don’t know if you are trying this or not – but I have been working on that idea of eating more vegetables and having more meatless Mondays. Okay, sometimes they come on Tuesdays or Wednesdays, but nonetheless I am often on the lookout for recipes that seem like they would be a filling main course without the addition of meat. This one has been a winner.

Melissa Clark, of the New York Times, writes approachable recipes and has some great videos posted on line that are helpful when you aren’t quite sure what the directions mean and you want to watch another cook in action. I have made this recipe multiple times and can vouch for it having good flavors and being quite filling. I think what really makes the recipe is the spice profile.

This one comes with a recipe and a video. And by the way, you can sign up for the New York Times cooking site and the app, for free. http://cooking.nytimes.com/. With 17,000 recipes – and you can save those that you like for future use – you will never run out of cooking options.

One of the other great things about this recipe is that it is just perfect for this time of year when we still have an abundance of summer vegetables – eggplants and tomatoes being the stars of this one. It also calls for mint chutney at the finish and some plain yogurt. If it seems like too much trouble to make the chutney you can skip it – or if you prefer you can make it with parsley or cilantro; but now I am getting ahead of myself.

The key flavor add-on element is garam masala. According to Epicurious, garam masala is the Indian equivalent of herbs de Provence, or the Chinese five spice powder. The mixture changes based upon where you are in India, but it typically contains black and white pepper, cinnamon, nutmeg, mace cardamom, bay leaf and cumin. Of course you can make your own – but I just run over to Penzey’s and buy a small jar. Leave it to say that it is aromatic, complex and exotic. I often think of chick peas as being a relatively dull blank canvas – but when you coat them in garam masala they suddenly seem far more exciting.

Fried Eggplant with Chickpeas

Ingredients:

2 pounds baby or small Italian eggplant, sliced into 1/4-inch-thick rounds
Fine sea salt, as needed
3 to 4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, more as needed
1 large white onion, halved and thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 ½ teaspoons garam masala
½ teaspoon sweet paprika
¼ teaspoon black pepper
⅛ teaspoon cayenne
1 pound ripe tomatoes, chopped (about 2 cups)
1 ¾ cups (one 15-ounce can) cooked chickpeas, drained and rinsed, if canned

Directions:

The first thing to do is slice and fry the eggplant – which is easiest if you are using those long skinny ones; but you can cut the bigger ones in half or quarter pieces to cook. When they are browned, set them aside.

Next comes the onion and the tomatoes, and you will want to add the spices. The chickpeas are added and then your already prepared eggplant. Let the flavors marry for a few minutes – and then you are ready.

She suggests using rice or naan bread to make a full meal, but I just made an extra vegetable/salad side dish and I was ready.

Sautéed eggplant awaits the rest of the dish.

Sautéed onions and spices, added chickpeas and cooked tomatoes. Now add the eggplant and let the flavors marry.

Mint Chutney

1 cup mint leaves
1 cup cilantro leaves and tender stems
1 serrano or jalapeño pepper, seeded and roughly chopped
1 scallion, cut into 1-inch lengths
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
2 teaspoons lemon juice, more to taste
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt, more to taste
Plain yogurt, for serving (optional)

I can vouch for the fact that this tastes delicious when it’s served and equally so the next day as leftovers.

It is not pretty! But it tastes delicious and is very good for you.

It’s Wendy Werner here. Jean is dining through Paris, going to cooking school, and probably headed for the countryside to have more food adventures there. But we have something going for us here in St. Louis, too, It’s fig season. I don’t remember when I ate my first fresh fig. But what I do know, is that it was a revelation. Yes, I grew up on Fig Newtons; but that dried fig filling was nothing at all like the sweet sensuality of a fresh fig. You may or may not be aware of this – but there is a fabulous fig tree in the courtyard of St. Roch’s Catholic Church in the Skinker-DeBaliviere neighborhood.

Monsignor Sal Polizzi is responsible for that tree and each winter it is carefully boxed and covered to protect it from hard winter freezes. It had a rough time in the winter of 2014, but managed to survive. I saw it once when I was at a community meeting in the church’s basement and said I wanted to return when the figs were ripe. I am sure lots of people in the neighborhood would like to as well.

From what I have read (there was a great article in Sauce magazine in 2014 about Missouri figs) part of the interest in figs in St. Louis has to do with our plenitude of Italian immigrants who grew figs in their homeland and wanted to continue the practice here. Evidently that winter of 2014 killed many of those local trees. I know that it killed my hardy rosemary bush, that had lived through three previous winters and had grown to a very respectable size.

Figs are great because they pair well with both sweet and savory dishes. You can grill them quickly, they are wonderful with lamb and pork, and you can have them for dessert. I recently made an almond and fig crostata from Martha Stewart that was free form and easy, not to mention delicious. It’s not a difficult recipe, particularly if you have a food processor and the results are delicious.

Rolling out the dough after refrigerating for at least an hour

Roll out the dough after refrigerating for at least an hour.

Slice the figs and add some lemon juice

Brush the crust with a beaten egg for browning

Out of the oven

It used to be hard to find fresh figs locally at the grocery store. But now they seem to be in abundance. Recently I have found a two pound box at Trader Joes for $4.99. Now that is a sweet indulgence. With so many figs I have been using them in new ways. With yogurt and honey for breakfast for starters.

In light of the abundance, I also put figs on a pizza. What? I know it sounds a bit off, but as I indicated figs swing both sweet and savory. This one was made with bacon (we all need a bit of protein) fresh mozzarella, goat cheese and caramelized onions. Delicious.

Sweet and savory pizza

So get them while they are here. We will be thinking about those fresh figs in the depths of winter, hoping that those precious local trees make it through.