Zucchini and Eggplant Fries

My uncle has been gardening like crazy this year, which has essentially created a bumper crop situation in his backyard!  Every time we see him, we leave his house with a plethora of heirloom tomatoes, zucchini, eggplant, and an assortment of hot peppers!  Being that my dad and I are the only ones in the house that eat any of these items, it has been a little difficult to go through it all.  The other night I bit the bullet, bought my sister a bag of chips, and made these fries to go along side our turkey burgers! I will tell you that my mandolin slicer's french fry cutter was a huge help in making these, but is not a necessary piece of equipment to make these.  You can cut the veggies into steak fries or strips very easily with a knife!

Zucchini and Eggplant Fries
Yields 5 - 6 servings

Ingredients 
1 medium eggplant, cleaned, peeled, and cut into fries
1 medium zucchini, cleaned, peeled, and cut into fries
2 cups of oil, on high heat
4 eggs, beaten
2 cups bread crumbs
Dipping sauce of your choice, I opted for Woeber's Sweet Pepper Sauce

To Prepare the Fries 
1. After the veggies are cut, begin heating your oil over high heat. \
2. Dredge a small batch of the veggies through the eggs, and then the bread crumbs.
3. Cook them in the oil until they are golden brown and crisp.
4. Repeat these steps until you have cooked all of the fries.
5. Serve along side a sauce of your choice and enjoy!

Ratatouille over Homemade Pasta

I don't mean the movie!  Ratatouille is actually a vegetable stew that finds its roots in Nice,France!  The full name of the dish is actually Ratatouille Nicoise (pronounced Knee-Swah).  The traditional dish is comprised of eggplant, zucchini, bell pepper, onion, and tomato!  Ratatouille is usually served on its own, but it can also be served over rice or pasta, with a side of bread for dipping, in a savory crepe, as a side dish, or even as an omelet filling!  Some serving suggestions even say it can be served cold.  Ratatouille is sorta like lasagna...it tastes better the next day after all of the flavors meld together...but I usually cannot wait until the next day and have to serve it immediately!  It is filling (not loaded with calories), and great on a cold day (and very cheap to make)! 

Ratatouille 
Yields 5 servings

To Prepare the Ratatouille 
1. Peel and large eggplant.  
2. Cut the eggplant length wise and then into 1/4 inch thick half moons.

3. Cut a green bell pepper into strips. 

4. Cut a zucchini into 1/4 inch thick rounds.

5. Peel an onion, cut it in half length wise, and then cut it into 1/4 inch thick half moons.

6. Heat 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large pan over medium heat.
7. When the oil is hot, add the onions.
8. Cook the onions until they start to turn translucent and begin to brown around the edges.

9. While the onions are cooking, dice 5 cloves of onion.  If you are going to dice them by hand, you will need to take their thick skins off of them.  The easiest way to do this is to put a wide blade knife over top of the clove and pressing down on the blade with your fist.  Do this carefully so you do not end up with bloody garlic and stitches!  When you lift up the knife, the skins of the garlic will have started separating from the cloves, and can be easily peeled off in 1 or 2 pieces by hand.  If you are going to use pre-diced garlic (usually found in the produce aisle or with the Italian products at your grocery store), use 2 tablespoons.

10. Once the onions are translucent, add the garlic to the pan, as well as 1 tablespoon of salt, and 1 tablespoon of black pepper.

11. After the above mixture cooks for about 5 minutes, add the zucchini, bell pepper, and zucchini. 

12. Cook all of the ingredients down for another 5 minutes.
13. Add 28 ounces of tomato puree and stir well.  Cover and cook over medium heat.  Be sure to stir it often so it does not burn!

To Prepare the Pasta
*On a side note, if you do not own a pasta maker, you are probably better off going the route of boxed pasta.  Unless you have a lot of experience making pasta, not using a pasta maker is a very long, drawn out, and difficult process!  
1. Pour 3 cups of flour either onto a very clean surface or a bowl.  If you are going to do this on a counter or other surface, you will need to shape the flour into a bowl shape.

2. Mix 3 eggs and 2 tablespoons of olive oil into the flour.  You will need to mix it VERY well.  Use your hands to mix it...your body heat will help the dough come together.  You are going to need to put your whole body and a lot of force into making the dough.

3. Once the dough comes together, form it into a ball, coat it with some olive oil, wrap it in saran wrap, and set it aside for a little bit!

4. After 30 minutes, the dough will be ready!
5. From this point on, follow the suggested preparation directions of your pasta maker!

6. Set a large pot of water to boil.  Once the water comes to a rapid boil, add your pasta.  I was really thrown off the first time I made pasta because it actually starts to foam for a second when you put it in the water!  This is normal...don't panic!  The pasta will cook in literally just a minute or two.  Serve homemade pasta immediately! 

Braciole with Fresh Stewed Vegetables over Rice

After receiving a message from one of my readers requesting veggie recipes for people that hate veggies, I started to think about how many adults actually hate eating veggies!  Many adults end up eating them or cooking them just to set an example for their kids, or just because we feel obligated to eat our greens.  So, with that being said, I decided to take a week long look at how to make vegetables more appealing or appetizing, and also how to incorporate them into easy to make meals!  Tonight's recipe looks at a tomato technique that removes the skins and seeds (which are the parts that most people hate), and can even be used as a vegetarian recipe (if you don't add the meat, of course)!  One of the reasons this recipe is great for people that hate veggies is because some of the heavier flavors (the meat, onions, garlic, salt, and pepper) mask the flavor of the other vegetables that many of us think of as less "appealing".  Once it all stews down, the tomatoes also help make a light sauce, too! 

Braciole with Fresh Stewed Vegetables over Rice
Yields 4 generous servings

To Prepare
1. Start to heat 3 - 4 tablespoons of olive oil in a large frying pan over low heat. 
2. Cut 1 large onion into rings, and then slice the rings in half, and begin to saute them in the oil over medium heat.

3. While the onions are cooking, dice 4 garlic cloves.  If you are going to dice them by hand, you will need to take their thick skins off of them.  The easiest way to do this is to put a wide blade knife over top of the clove and pressing down on the blade with your fist.  Do this carefully so you do not end up with bloody garlic and stitches!  When you lift up the knife, the skins of the garlic will have started separating from the cloves, and can be easily peeled off in 1 or 2 pieces by hand.  If you are going to use pre-diced garlic (usually found in the produce aisle or with the Italian products at your grocery store), use 1 tablespoon.

4. Once your onions have started to brown, add the garlic.  If you add the garlic before the onions have started to brown, the garlic will burn!

5. While the onions and garlic are cooking, start cutting your meat into strips, and then add it to the pan.  You don't have to use braciole...feel free to use chicken, tofu, no meat, ground meet, pork...what ever suits your taste!   

6. Slice a large zucchini into thin rounds, and then add it to the pan.

7. Slice a large green pepper into thin strips, and then add it to the pan.

8. While everything is cooking, put a large pot of water on to boil.  You will also need to make a large bowl of ice water.  (Remember to keep stirring your veggies and meat while you are doing this so they don't burn!) 
9. When the water comes to a rapid boil, put 5 whole tomatoes into the water for no more than 20 seconds.  After the 20 seconds are up, more the tomatoes over to the ice water.

Boiling

Chilling

10. Take a tomato out of the ice water and start peeling the skin off of it.  The boiling and then icing will make this process EXTREMELY easy!  Usually you will be able to find a place in the skin where it has started to peel, which will give you a nice and easy start!  Do this to all 5 of the tomatoes!

This tomato is so naked, that it even was stripped of its birthday suit!

11. Cut all of the tomatoes in half.  The direction to cut them will be like you were going to cut them into rounds!

12. Pick up half of a tomato with the cut end facing down and gently squeeze.  This will remove all of the seeds and mushy stuff that many people do not like!  You may have to use a finger to help it along!

No more seeds!

If you don't want to deal with this whole process, you can use tomato sauce to bring it all together! 
13. Cut all of the tomato halves into quarters and add them to the pan.

14. Add 1/2 a tablespoon of both salt and pepper, and cook down all of the ingredients while you make rice.
15. Serve over rice! 

These veggies tend to be my favorites for this recipe, but you can change them out for what you like (green beans, broccoli, snow peas, etc)!  If you want to make this vegetarian, but still want to use a protein, you can also add scrambled eggs right before you finish cooking it!