No exact amounts of anything!

Some delicious ideas from this month's cooking experiments, but no exact recipes.

1. Eggplant and potato stew with lemon basil

• one small Italian-style eggplant
• new red potatoes from Henry's Farm CSA box -- the potatoes are pink inside!
• chicken broth powder and water
• one sprig's worth of leaves from Henry's Farm lemon basil
• cook together over low-ish heat on camp stove for a very lemony-tasting stew that is almost too sophisticated for camping

2. "I don't feel like turning on the oven when it's 90-plus degrees outside" zucchini casserole

•  one pound of ground turkey
•  a whole bunch of zucchini, thinly sliced
• my favorite seasonings that go well with turkey: Penzey's Spices Mural of Flavor mix, sage, Lawry's seasoned salt, pepper
• one can condensed cream of mushroom soup
• the rest of the box of potatoes from Henry's Farm plus some more that were in the cupboard
• brown the turkey in a bit of oil, add spices, add potatoes, soup, zucchini and a splash of water and simmer covered until the zucchini and potatoes are fully cooked. Could all be covered and baked instead on a cooler day.

3.  Sausage and kale pasta

• heat salted water for a pound of pasta
• when water is just about ready to add pasta, put first ingredients into pan for sauce, then cook pasta while waiting for sausage to brown
• sauce: olive oil with 3 cloves smashed garlic and about one pound Italian sausage (I would have used local turkey sausage, but I only could find local pork sausage -- Twin Oak Meats sausage is very lean) is all cooked together until sausage is mildly browned. A few ladlefuls of pasta water and a couple handfuls of kale are added at the same time. Cook covered until saucy but no longer watery, then mix together with drained pasta.

4. Tourteletes
A modern-equipment take on tiny medieval fig pies. The original recipe in Forme of Cury calls for deep-frying the pies, but I decided to bake them instead.

• 1 part butter cut together with 2 parts flour, a sprinkling of water to bind into rollable crust
• filling: chopped dried mission figs, ground cloves, ground nutmeg, ground pepper, all moistened with a) water with saffron moistened and crushed in it and b) honey
• roll out crust thinly, cut into circles with large cookie cutter, place filling into circles and fold over to make little half-moon-shaped pies, seal pies and bake at 350 degrees until starting to turn golden-brown

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Chinese-style eggplant

After eating this, my husband declared that I had successfully replicated his favorite eggplant dish from his favorite Chinese restaurant in Madison, WI, which, sadly, closed a few years back. At least we can remember Yan's fondly when we eat this dish.

General note on stir-fried dishes: once cooking is underway, there is no time between steps to prep things, so make sure that all vegetables are chopped, all ingredients are collected and sitting next to the stove, all condiment containers are opened and have spoons in them already. Letting the pan go unattended while you look for a spoon to scoop sauce out of the bottom of a jar means overcooked stir-fry.

Chinese-style eggplant
serves 2 to 3

2 large Asian eggplants (the long, skinny purple ones), sliced thickly on bias
2 cloves garlic, sliced
2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
2 to 3 Tbsp oyster sauce
fresh grated ginger, soy sauce and sugar or honey to taste

Heat sesame oil in a large pan or wok on high heat. Cook garlic slices briefly, then add in eggplant slices and stir-fry until some browning occurs. Add a little soy sauce and water to the pan to finish cooking the eggplant with boiling water and steam. Add oyster sauce, fresh ginger and honey or sugar and stew the eggplants a few minutes until tender. If the liquid in the pan is getting sticky instead of making a smooth sauce, add more water. Serve over cooked brown rice (my preference with this dish) or white rice.

If a meaty dish is desired, this dish could be started by cooking very thinly sliced beef in the sesame oil until browned and then adding the rest of the ingredients in order. If you already have leftover cooked beef bits, add them in near the end of cooking to heat through.

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