Boredom makes for good food - recipes

Published Sep 30, 2014

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Washington - My hand shook as I reached into the bin of deep purple brinjals. None of them were farm-fresh or locally grown. With bruises and scars, they certainly weren't Instagram-worthy. But that's not why I was trembling.

After more than a decade in Washington, I had just moved to Lausanne, Switzerland, with my soon-to-be husband, JP, and the enormousness of it all had kept me awake for the entire overnight flight. So now, as I picked through the eggplant, I shook from exhaustion, caffeine, excitement and anxiety. My entire body vibrated.

I wandered through the grocery store, a glorified 7-Eleven, picking up supplies to get us through our first few meals in corporate housing and resolving to find a wine shop immediately and a proper market the next day.

That night, in our Ikea-dressed apartment, I diced the eggplant and sprinkled it with salt to draw out the bitter juices. I chopped an onion and a few cloves of garlic and sauteed all three until they softened. I added a can of diced tomatoes and let everything simmer, for a poor-man's ratatouille served over pasta. We sat on the patio and, as the spring sky darkened, drank a bottle of wine and toasted to our first meal in our new country.

Cooking in Switzerland wouldn't be that easy again for months. Grocery stores are smaller, with fewer options. They close early on Saturdays and completely on Sundays. With fewer preservatives, meat and produce spoil much faster. Spicy and ethnic ingredients are rare. And translating pounds to grams, dollars to francs and English to French turns asking the butcher for a filet of lamb into a calculus-level endeavour with the potential to seriously offend.

But the biggest challenge in becoming Frau Chef was the frau herself. In Washington, work schedules, fantastic restaurants and too-easy-to-grab takeout meant I cooked only twice a week. Because I waited until I had the time to spend, my cooking sessions were often experimental and fun. Now that I was cooking every night, I quickly found myself bored with my limited repertoire of easy, healthful weeknight meals. Suddenly, finally, I knew firsthand what so many home cooks are really up against.

My first step in breaking the kitchen monotony: I got organised. I downloaded Paprika, a recipe manager app, imported the stack of recipes ripped from magazines and bookmarked on my computer, tagged them as “Untried” and started making at least two new dishes a week.

My regular market is small enough that new items stand out, so I started playing with seasonal ingredients. Persimmon would arrive, and I would sift through Google and develop a salsa for grilled chicken or pork. But finding some things I considered staples was surprisingly difficult. So on trips to the States, I would bring back ingredients that are super-expensive or impossible to find here: chia seeds, canned pumpkin, even brown sugar.

I also taught myself to make the things I missed. Spicy ethnic food topped the list, so I experimented with pad thai, General Tso's chicken and tikka masala, making substitutions where necessary and rejoicing when I discovered a small Asian market that stocked fish sauce. Unearthing Rasika chef Vikram Sunderam's recipe for lamb rogan josh in Food & Wine was cause for champagne.

Then, just as I would hit culinary burnout again, we would slip out of town, often because I had a freelance assignment.

After a quick train ride to Paris or a cheap flight to Rome, I'd binge on restaurants, cafes and tiny food stands and return home reinvigorated. For a story on Barcelona, I bellied up to Bar Pinotxo at La Boqueria, the city's vibrant market. A dish of chickpeas and botifarra, a Catalan white sausage, inspired me once I returned to Lausanne to hunt down a spicy Italian sausage at an out-of-the-way meat shop that supplies restaurants and try to create something similar, in salad form.

In Greece, I ordered grilled octopus at almost every meal, savouring the fresh seafood I couldn't find in landlocked Switzerland. Back at home, I started exploring Greek cooking, and I developed a lighter version of moussaka, a layered eggplant-and-meat dish.

When we returned from our honeymoon in Turkey, I played with the chicken kebab. I ditched the idea of the flatbread we'd eaten it with in Istanbul and added pomegranates and crushed pistachios for a kebab-inspired chicken salad.

Not all of my travel-inspired dishes work out well, of course. A joyful discovery of frozen calamari at our supermarket after our Greece trip quickly turned into a flaming disaster on the grill. And after multiple attempts, my farinata pizza crust, inspired by a weekend in Cinque Terre, Italy, remains mushy in the middle.

The recipes I've collected and created -even the mistakes -have done more than bust me out of a culinary rut. They are tangible proof that this dream experience is real. And it's why that simple ratatouille-like dish still makes an appearance in the rotation: It kicked off my love affair with Switzerland, and one bite is all it takes to recall the exhilarating taste of an adventure about to begin.

 

RECIPES

Lightened-Up Moussaka

6 servings

This streamlined take on the Greek classic skips the potatoes and heavy bechamel and roasts the eggplant instead of frying it. A light, tangy cheese sauce goes on top.

MAKE AHEAD: The eggplant needs to be salted for 20 to 30 minutes and later baked for 20 to 25 minutes. The moussaka can be assembled and refrigerated up to 3 days before baking; it can be frozen - baked or unbaked - for up to 3 months.

Ingredients

1 large eggplant (brinjal), trimmed and cut crosswise into 1/4-inch (6mm) slices

Kosher salt

2 teaspoons coconut oil or olive oil, plus more for roasting the eggplant

1 small onion, coarsely chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

1 pound lean ground beef or ground lamb

1 cup dry red wine

8 ounces (230ml) canned, plain tomato sauce, preferably Pomi strained tomatoes

2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground allspice

1/2 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg, plus a pinch

Freshly ground black pepper

7 ounces (about 210ml) cream cheese

6 ounces (about 220g) feta cheese (crumbled or block, chopped)

1/3 cup whole or low-fat milk

Steps

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees (200degC).

Lay the eggplant slices on a baking sheet lined with paper towels. Lightly salt them; let them sit for 20 to 30 minutes. Rinse and pat dry. Discard the paper towels on the baking sheet; line the sheet with aluminum foil, then arrange the slices on the foil. Lightly brush/coat the eggplant slices on both sides with oil. Roast for about 25 minutes, until softened; remove from the oven. Reduce the heat to 350 degrees.

Meanwhile, lightly grease an 8-to-10-cup-capacity baking or casserole dish with cooking oil spray.

Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion and garlic. Cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Add pinches of the meat; cook until no trace of pink remains, about 7 minutes, stirring to break up any large clumps.

(At this point, if desired, drain off and discard some of the fat and juices from the pan.)

Stir in the wine, tomato sauce, cinnamon, allspice and the 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg. Season lightly with salt and pepper. Once the mixture begins to bubble at the edges, reduce the heat to medium-low. Cook for a few minutes to blend the flavours.

Also while the eggplant is in the oven, combine the cream cheese, feta, milk and the remaining pinch of nutmeg in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring until well blended. Remove from the heat.

Line the bottom of the baking dish with some of the eggplant slices; they can overlap a bit. Spread the meat mixture evenly over them, then cover with the remaining eggplant slices. Spread the cheese mixture evenly over the surface. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, until lightly browned on top.

Serve hot.

 

Chickpea-Sausage Salad

6 servings (makes about 7 cups)

Lots of texture and savory flavour make this easy salad a go-to for potlucks as well as a quick weeknight meal.

MAKE AHEAD: The salad can be refrigerated for up to 4 days. Bring to room temperature, or warm over low heat on the stove top, before serving. You might wish to add a small extra handful of parsley.

Ingredients

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup olive oil

1 medium onion, cut into small dice

1 clove garlic, minced

12 ounces (about 340g) spicy (uncooked) sausage, casings removed

1/4 cup pine nuts

30 ounces (about 850g) canned, no-salt-added chickpeas, drained and rinsed

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

1 or 2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley

Balsamic vinegar

Steps

Place the raisins in a small bowl. Cover with warm water; soak for 10 minutes, then drain.

Heat 3 tablespoons of the oil in a large saute pan over medium heat. Once the oil shimmers, add the onion and garlic, stirring to coat. Cook for 6 to 8 minutes, until the vegetables have softened but haven't started to pick up colour.

Add pinches of the sausage meat, the pine nuts and the soaked raisins to the pan, stirring to incorporate. Cook for about 12 minutes or until all of the sausage is cooked through.

Stir in the chickpeas; once they have warmed through, taste the mixture and season with salt and pepper to taste.

Just before serving, stir in the parsley (to taste). Transfer to a serving bowl. Drizzle with the remaining tablespoon of oil, then add a dash of vinegar, tossing to incorporate. Serve right away.

Nutrition Per serving: 480 calories, 17 g protein, 33 g carbohydrates, 32 g fat, 8 g

Washington Post

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