On the topic of eggplant lasagna

[chuckro]

I made an eggplant lasanga on Monday night. The first thing to note is that I did the Williams-Sonoma recipe, and they are, by nature, not designed to be quick and easy. It's an annoying amount of work, even more than a normal lasagna. You need to salt and drain the eggplant, then roast all the veggies and pre-cook the noodles (it only bakes for 20 minutes and is relatively dry, so you can't use no-boil noodles), then assemble the thing, then bake it again. And it's a very problematic to cut when it's still hot, as I learned when I covered our breakfast nook with a spatula-full of it. It's tasty, but not really worth this amount of work.

I think my next attempt will incorporate some of my "faux-moussaka" experiment--microwave the salted eggplant to dry it faster (thank you, Cook's Illustrated), broil the eggplant in large rounds (instead of roasting in small dice) and use an actual sauce instead of diced tomatoes, which should allow me to use no-boil noodles. The one thing I'll definitely be keeping, though, is the cheese: 11 oz of goat cheese to 1 cup of ricotta and 1/2 cup of heavy cream. Delightfully creamy and tangy.

Also, a whole lasanga is food for 8 people; or feeds two people for a week. You'd think I'd remember this by now.

Comments

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I figured you just didn't want to worry about what to eat before class.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I grew up on eggplant lasagna, as my mom couldn't have the regular red sauce kind. I've always been leery of eggplant, but my mom's lasagna was still pretty good.

[(Anonymous)]

Other things that feed two people for a week, as we recently discovered: fajitas, and pulled pork barbecue. Especially the latter. If for any reason I have to feed a crowd of 20-30 people, that's absolutely what I'm serving.

Recipe for pulled pork barbecue that is totally win:
http://ablogaboutfood2.blogspot.com/2009/04/pulled-pork-sandwiches.html
Especially since it works in a crockpot :-)

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

Oops, that was me.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

I was wondering about that--usually, anonymous comments come from my mother, but she hates crockpots and wouldn't make pulled pork.

Actually: How do you feel about your crockpot? Do you leave it unattended? Do you have to worry about overcooking things, or things boiling over?

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Maybe I'll make a variant for the gaming group at some point.

[(Anonymous)]

Perhaps you should retitle your blog as "The World of More-Than-Sufficient Food."

[lithoglyphic.livejournal.com]

The only thing I've made so far is the pulled pork, and it was pretty foolproof. Basically? (1) Rub pork shoulder with spices. (2) Stick pork shoulder in crockpot. (3) Fill with cider broth. (4) Cook for 8-12 hours on low. Yes, the recipes really say "8-12 hours." I went with the whole twelve, setting the crockpot before bed and shredding the pork in the morning.

For anything you want fall-apart tender, I'd say the crockpot is the way to go. So obvious crockpot recipes are really things that /can't/ overcook. Soups. Stews. We don't eat beans, so the obvious chili recipes are out. But I'm thinking about making a chicken cacciatore, a Moroccan tagine, some posole or chicken chili. It's hard to find crockpot recipes that don't suck - but any soup or stew or dutch oven recipe that takes 2-4 hours of simmering can probably be converted to crockpot easily. The only weird thing is the heat is low enough that the water doesn't boil off, so don't expect it to reduce on its own... you'll probably want some kind of thickener.

And these are just my observations from recipes, the manual, and my initial attempt. So your mileage may vary. Unfortunately crockpots aren't trendy right now, so there aren't a lot of "modern" recipes out there - so far I haven't seen a crockpot cookbook that wasn't full of 1970s American recipes, which is to say, chili and pot roast. Which is annoying. I mean, a slow cooker is basically a dutch oven or a tagine. People have been slow cooking things for centuries. Could we get a little diversity/variety please?

Basically, the crockpot I have has a "high" setting and a "low" setting. I think they're probably fairly safe to leave unattended on low. I'm not sure what temperature is reached, but it's the mildest of mild simmers, so no boiling over. If it were turned to high, it might be a different story. High is for cooking quickly (in 2-4 hours) and in that case it's not that much different from the stove.

Other than boil overs, there's just not that much that can happen - basically the outer shell of the pot has an electric element that heats the stoneware crock inside (which distributes the heat evenly).

That's all I've got. Not a particularly informed commentary, but ask me in a few months :-) It's so ridiculously easy to use that I'll probably be trying things fairly often.