Army of Baked Vegetables

A few weeks ago I was watching Food Network Canada and Michael Smith, a retired chef and food personality was dishing up some great food.

He featured a Parmesan Baked Zucchini and Tomatoes and the simplicity and sheer beauty of the dish caught my eye.

In the first photo, I followed his recipe closely and my only major substitution was to split cherry tomatoes in half (there were no decent plum tomatoes around).

In the last photo, I added slices of Japanese eggplant, now I have a re-telling of a ratatouille.

What you get is this what I call an army of baked vegetables. For some reason, the tray of veggies reminds me of the Xian Terra-Cotta Army in China.

Folks, this is a super-easy side dish for dinner. The hardest parts of this dish are seeking out vegetables that are roughly the same size and them lining them up side-by-side.

I've haven't been excited about vegetables for a long time...it's beautiful, it's easy, it's delicious. Serve the Baked Army of Vegetables to your guests. Present the whole baking tray to the table....wait for the Ooooooh's and Ahhhhhhh's!

Army of Baked Vegetables

6 ripe plum tomatoes, sliced
2 zucchini, sliced
2 Japanese eggplants,
5 onions, sliced
olive oil
1 cup of grated Parmesan
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. Italian herb mix
bread crumbs for

Pre-heated 375F oven

1. Place a large skillet over medium-high heat and pour in oil. When it's hot, add onions and salt and pepper. Sauté until the onions are softened and beginning to caramelize. Pour into the bottom of a 14" by 12" baking dish.
2. Begin layering tomato slices along the left side of the pan to form an overlapping row. Overlap zucchini slices along edge of tomato row, and then the eggplant and repeat alternating tomatoes and zucchinis and eggplant, adjusting as necessary until the pan is filled.
3. Sprinkle with salt and pepper, a good drizzle of olive oil, mixed Italian dry herbs, grated Parmesan and and a sprinkle of bread crumbs.
4. Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until top is golden and juices are bubbling.

Versatile Lentils

Today, I'm sticking with lentils to show you all that they are indeed a versatile legume. Us Greeks usually have them in a soup called Fakkes.

Yesterday I showed you how delicious and easy braised lentils can be and today, I'm using up leftovers to make a tasty, hearty pasta.

An oft-used pasta in Greek cookery is "kofta makaronia" or cut macaroni. The Italian term for this pasta is Tubetti.

I'm labeling this dish Greco-Italiano as I've combined a Greek based recipe (braised lentils) and I'm using Italian pasta (Tubetti) and some smoked thick-cut bacon from a Polish deli.

The base for this dish is my leftover braised lentils. Now I'm not asking you to make this pasta from scratch but if you're so inclined to make some braised lentils, I highly recommend using your leftovers to make this delicious pasta dish. It's ready in 15 minutes!

Tubetti With Lentils and Smoky Bacon
(for 4)

350gr. pkge of Tubetti pasta
1/2 cup diced smoky bacon
1/4 cup olive oil
1 small onion, diced
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 cup cup of chicken/vegetable stock
1 cup braised lentils (1/2 cup reserved)
4 ripe plum tomatoes, diced
(canned or fresh)
reserved pasta water
2 Tbsp. dried oregano
2 Tbsp, chopped fresh parsley
salt and pepper to taste
Extra-virgin olive oil
freshly grated lemon zest

1. Get a large pot of water boiling. Add a generously amount of salt and cook the pasta according to package instructions.
2. In a small pot, heat up your stock and bring to a boil. Add JUST a 1/2 cup of your braised lentils and stir for a few minutes and allow it to heat through. Take off the heat.
3. Use a hand blender or food processor to puree the mixture. Reserve.
4. In a large skillet over medium high heat, add your diced bacon and saute for 5 minutes or until crispy. Remove with a slotted spoon and reserve.
5. In the same skillet, drain any excess grease (leave some) and return to a medium heat. Add your onions, garlic and tomatoes and simmer for 5, allowing the veggies to soften and the sauce to thicken. Add the pureed lentil sauce, the remaining 1/2 cup of braised lentils, the dried oregano and simmer to heat through and reduce to a thick sauce.
6. Your pasta should be about ready, reserve some pasta water and drain your Tubetti.
7. Toss your pasta into the sauce and stir to coat. Add some pasta water if the sauce is too thick. Continue to stir until you achieve your desired consistency. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper
8. Plate the pasta and drizzle with good extra-virgin olive oil, chopped parsley and some grated lemon zest.
   

John Dory Fillet With Lentils (Χριστόψαρο με φακή)

As I've written in some of my earlier posts, Greek cuisine is going through an awakening. Much like other cuisines, the Greeks are reinterpreting traditional dishes with new ingredients and offering "new takes" and presentations.

One such Greek chef at the forefront of this movement is Lefteris Lazarou. He's well-known inside Greece and his star is slowly rising outside of Greece too. He's one of the few Greek chefs to earn a Michelin star.

This fish dish that I've prepared is inspired by a dish I recently came across. He (Lefteris) pairs John Dory Fillets with lentils.

Greeks usually enjoy lentils as a hearty soup (Fakkes) but here lentils are braised to a thicker form, more akin to a stew than a soup.

I really enjoyed eating the lentils in this form. They were an excellent side to my fish and the leftovers made for a delicious pasta with lentils.

For the lentil stew, I used the traditional ingredients found in Fakkes and the fish was simply pan-fried and finished off with brown butter caper sauce.

When pan-frying a fish fillet, I recommend using a non-stick pan as it's a safe method for keeping your fish in tact.


John Dory Fillet With Lentils (Χριστόψαρο με φακή)
(for 4)

For the Lentils

500 gr. green lentils
1/3 cup olive oil
2 bay leaves
1 carrot, diced
1 medium onion, diced
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 cup diced red pepper
1/2 tomato passata
2 cups of vegetable broth
2 tsp. dried oregano
salt and pepper to taste
splash of white wine vinegar

For the John Dory

4 John Dory fillets
1 tsp. Vegeta seasoning
1 tsp. sweet
1/8 tsp. cayenne pepper
4 Tbsp. olive oil
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/4 cup Chardonnay
4 tsp. of capers

1. Rinse and drain your lentils. Place in a medium saucepan with just enough water to cover them and bring to a boil, drain in a strainer and rinse with cold water.
2. In the same saucepan, add your olive oil, onions, carrots, peppers, bay leaves and garlic and saute for about five minutes to soften. Add your lentils and stir to coat.
3. Now add your tomato passata, vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
4. Simmer covered for 45-60 minutes until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper, add your dried oregano and white wine vinegar to taste.
5. Reserve and keep warm.
6. Rinse and pat dry your fish fillets. Season with Vegeta, paprika and some cayenne and reserve.
7. In a small saucepan, add your butter and melt over over medium heat and watch over the butter until it turns to a nut-brown colour. Take off the heat and reserve.
8. In a non-stick skillet, add your olive oil over medium high heat and just when it begins to smoke, add your fish fish fillets and saute for 2 minutes a side. Saute in batches and keep warm.
9. In the same skillet, throw in your wine and reduce over medium heat for a minute or two. Add the brown butter and capers and swirl your skillet to blend everything and to warm through.
10. Serve over your John Dory fillets with the lentil stew.
    

Melitzana (Eggplant) Parmesan

There are two vegetables that are almost as satisfying as eating meat. They would be mushrooms and eggplant.

The Greeks and Italians share the same name for eggplant - melitzana. Here, I have an Italian classic that's a vegetable-like lasagna.

This dish is very simple...use good ingredients like quality mozzarella, good canned plum tomatoes, fresh basil and some homemade breadcrumbs.

Whenever I go to my Italian neighbor's home, one of the first things I notice is the smell. The house and the aromas coming from the kitchen smell Italian.

That was my goal. To prove my point, I invited our neighbor over "for a coffee" just as I had thrown the eggplant parmesan in the oven.

She immediately was curious as to what I was making and I made her wait for the dish to be ready.

She only had to wait about 30 minutes for what would be a surprise to her. I think we all have a little bit of snobbery when it comes to others outside of our ethnicity trying to "do our own food".

I could see my neighbor holding her nose up high...until she saw the slab of eggplant parmesan. She love the form (did not collapse), the aroma already won her over and she said, "Peter, this tastes like Sicily"!

I told her, " it better...I added a few anchovy fillets when I made the sauce".

Melitzana (Eggplant) Parmesan

2 large eggplants, sliced lenghtwise to 1/2 in. thickness
coarse sea salt
1 can of whole plum tomatoes, hand crushed
3 Tbsp. olive oil
3 anchovy filletss, chopped
1/2 medium onion, diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
salt and pepper to taste
1 1/2 cups of bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
sunflower oil
1/2 cup chopped fresh basil
grated Mozzarella
grated Parmesan

1. Cut the ends of your eggplant off and then using a mandoline, cut the eggplants lengthwise into 1/2 inch slices. Lay the slice out on a tray and sprinkle each slice with some coarse salt. Allow the bitter juices to leech for 40 minutes.
2. In the meantime, Place a skillet on the stove over medium-high heat and add your olive oil add your olive oil and anchovy fillets and saute for 3 minutes to soften and perfume the oil.
3. Add your onions and garlic and lowert to medium-low and saute for 10 minutes to soften. Now add the tomato sauce, salt and pepper to taste and simmer until the sauce is nice and thick. Reserve.
4. Wipe the excess salt and moisture from your eggplant with kitchen towels. Now set up your dipping stations of eggplant slices, a large bowl of egg/milk mixture and your breadcrumbs. Get another large skillet on the stove and throw on enough sunflower (1/2 inch) oil over medium-high heat.
   
5. If your cooking on your own, pre-dredge your eggplant so that you may pay full attention to frying the batches of eggplant. If you have help, have the other person do the dredging and other to do the frying. Dip the eggplant in egg/milk mixture, then the breadcrumbs and fry on both side until golden brown. Fry in batches and reserve on paper towels. Discard the sunflower oil.
6. Preheat your oven to 400F (middle rack) and commence assembly of your eggplant parmesan.
7. Grease a 14" X 12" baking dish and spread some tomato sauce on the bottom. Now place a layer of eggplant, some sauce, scatter some basil, grated Mozzarella and Parmesan. Continue layering these ingredients until your you've reached your fourth and last layer of eggplant and pour over the remaining sauce, basil and grated Parmesan.
8. Cover the baking dish loosely with aluminum foil and bake for approx. 20 minutes and then allow it to cool for 10 minutes before serving.