It's rare that someone mentions a type of food or a particular dish and I have never heard of it.   This happened to me recently when I was out with a few girlfriends.  Someone mentioned Caponata and I had no idea what they were talking about.  So the next day I did a litte research and I found a "million" recipes/versions of the Sicilian dish/appetizer Caponata.  I couldn't wait to make it and try it for myself.  I decided on this particular recipe from No Recipes because the combination of ingredients appealed to me the most out of all the recipes that I read.  I really loved the combination of sweet eggplant, smokey roasted peppers, salty capers and tangy balsalmic vinegar.  I brought this to the beach for an appetizer last weekend and everyone loved it.  I will defintely be making this again.

 

Ingredients:

 

1 medium eggplant peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1 Tbs kosher salt (less if you’re using table salt)
1 red bell pepper quartered, seeds removed
1/4 C olive oil
1 small onion chopped
1 tsp fresh thyme
3 Tbs balsamic vinegar
2 Tbs drained capers
1 clove garlic minced
1/4 C leaf parsley, stems removed and chopped

Put the eggplant in a colander and sprinkle with 1 Tbs kosher salt. Toss to coat and leave it over a colander for an hour.

Grill red pepper directly on your BBQ or over a flame on your gas stove top until the skin is charred then wrap in foil or put into a brown paper bag and seal.  Leave the pepper until cool. Trapping the steam like this makes it much easier to remove the skins. When cool, peel the pepper and remove any excessively charred bits. Slice into thin short strips.

When the eggplant is done salting, rinse in a bowl of cold water to remove excess salt. Squeeze the eggplant with your hands to wring out as much moisture as you can.

Heat the olive oil over medium heat and saute the onions until until they are translucent and just start turning brown around the edges. Add the eggplant, bell peppers and thyme. Salt and pepper to taste stirring until the eggplant is very soft and starts to loose its shape.

Add the balsamic vinegar and capers and stir until there is no liquid left. Take off the heat and add the garlic and parsley. You can serve this immediately with some crusty bread, but it tastes even better the next day.

 

 

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We are so excited because this is our first month joining the Secret Recipe Club.  This is how it works.  A large group of blogs are assigned another blog in which they need to make a recipe from.  It's a secret! We can't tell anyone whose blog we have been assigned.  Once we choose a recipe we re-create it and then all the blogs post their recipes on the same day. We then get to see who had our blog and see what recipe from our blog they decided to make.  It's a great way to get to know new foodie friends!  This month we were assigned to JBean Cuisine.  I loved all of her delicious recipes and her use of spices that most people don't use very often.  A South East Asian Cuisine theme runs throughout her blog which was exciting since I absolutely LOVE Indian and Thai spices and flavors.  Although funny enough I chose a recipe that was very simple and straight forward because I knew my husband would love it and also I thought it would take a really pretty picture.  There's nothing wrong with wanting a pretty picture to display is there?  Here is The Perfect Stack......Delicious cripsy eggplant, tomatoes, mozzarella and fresh basil. YUM!

The Perfect Stack:

Crispy Eggplant, Tomato and Mozzarella Salad

Ingredients:

1/2 small eggplant
1 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced in half
1/4 cup flour
salt and pepper to taste
2 – 3 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium tomato, sliced into 1/4 inch slices (or however thick you like)
3 slices of mozzarella, about 1/4 of a ball, sliced into desired thickness
3 small leaves of basil
2 tablespoon balsamic vinegar reduction
1 teaspoon olive oil (optional)

TIP:  To make the balsamic reduction, simply heat 1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over medium-low heat.  Allow the vinegar to reduce by half, or until it coats the back of a spoon **

Preparation:

For the Eggplant:

Slice eggplant into 1/2 inch slices.  Rub both sides of the eggplant slices with garlic cloves (switch garlic halves about half-way through).

Sprinkle both sides of the eggplant with salt and pepper.

Place flour in a shallow bowl. One by one, place each piece of eggplant into the flour, press down lightly to coat the eggplant evenly.  Tap lightly to remove extra flour.

Heat a large frying pan (or sauté pan) over medium-high heat.  Add the oil and heat until glistening.

Add the eggplant slices and pan-fry for 2-3 minutes per side.  Keep careful watch as not to burn them.  If they brown too quickly, lower the heat.

Flip each slice over and cook the other side, until nice and crisp (and golden brown).

Remove from frying pan and place on paper towel to drain off excess oil.

To Assemble the Salad:

Place a piece of the fried eggplant on your plate, top with a slice of tomato, then 1 slice of mozzarella and top that with 1 leaf of basil.  Repeat the layers until all ingredients are used up.

Drizzle the salad with the balsamic vinegar and 1 TBSP of olive oil (if desired).

Enjoy!

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I have had my crock pot for years but I never know what to make in it.  It always seems to me that most of the crock pot recipes require a can of some kind of creamed soup and that wouldn't go over very well in my family.  So I don't use it as often as I would like.  It would be really nice to just throw something together in the morning and just forget about it until dinner time.   So I'm on the search for good slow cooker recipes.  If anyone has one please leave a link in your comment so I can try it out.  Having said that, this crock pot eggplant lasagna was delicious.  My husband really loved it and so did my 21 month old son.  I used eggplant in everyother layer inplace of the pasta to help "lighten" this recipe a tiny bit. 

Ingredients:

1/2 lb of no boil lasagna sheets

1 medium eggplant sliced into 1/2 inch slices lengthwise

1 lb of ground beef (chicken or turkey would be good too)

1 1/2 jars of pasta sauce

1 small container ricotta cheese

1 egg

1/4 cup parmesan cheese

2 cups of mozzarella cheese, shredded

salt and pepper to taste

non-stick cooking spray (to spray inside of crock pot)

Preparation:

Spray entire inside of crock pot ceramic pot.  In a large skillet brown ground beef, drain off excess fat.  Add pasta sauce to meat and stir to combine, take off heat.  Mix ricotta cheese, egg and parmesan cheese in a small bowl and set aside. 

Assembly:

Spoon a couple large spoonfuls of meat sauce in the bottom of crock pot, next add a layer of pasta sheets (break them up to make them fit across the bottom of pot) Next add a layer of ricotta cheese mixture, sprinkle with a handful of mozzarella cheese. Spoon more sauce then add a layer of sliced eggplant, ricotta cheese mixture, mozzarella cheese and sauce.  Continue layering using pasta sheets and then back to eggplant until all ingredients are used up.  End with a top layer of mozzarella cheese.  Cover pot and cook on low for 4 hrs.

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