Hidden Gem

Cookbook number 4 of 98 just knocked my socks off!

I pulled it off the shelf and figured that this would be one that ended up in the discard pile at the end of this experiment.

Another relic from the late 1990's and the beginning of my relationship with my husband:

The White Dog Cafe Cookbook.

When I was first dating my husband, we were living in New York. He had grown up just outside of Philadelphia and I had never been there before. Being the crazy kids that we were, we decided to get in the car and drive to Philly so he could take me to the White Dog where we would eat nachos and drink Leg Lifter Lager. We literally drove to Philadelphia, looked at the house where he grew up (not telling his parents that we were driving right by) and then went into the city to sightsee and eat.

Ahh, young love. You can stay up all night and do impulsive things and it never seems to take a toll on you. After being married for 15 years I can barely make it until 10:00 before I start falling asleep!

The following year we went back to the White Dog Cafe with my husband's family for Christmas Eve dinner. It was not as good as the beer and nachos night.

As one of our gifts, my future mother-in-law gave us the White Dog Cookbook. I don't recall ever using it. I'm sure I paged through it at the time but it must not have spoken to me, so it sat on the shelf untouched.

Imagine my surprise when I took it out and found myself putting flags on multiple recipes! I guess I needed to grow into the book to appreciate it?

I chose a soup recipe because it is FREEZING here. Literally. It's going to be 0 degrees tonight. Brr.
Making this soup was a bit of a project, but fortunately it was well worth it!

Ratatouille Bisque

This soup was AMAZING. Well worth the effort. It wasn't hard to make, but it was what we call in Yiddish a "patchke." That means it was a bit of a mess. There are multiple roasting pans involved, lots of chopping, using the blender or food processor, etc. This doesn't bother me but I know some people don't care for too many steps and a bunch of pans to wash! Regardless, I think this soup is worthy of the time and mess. It was that good!

I did adapt the recipe just a bit to fit into the 17 Day Diet. I also cut it in half because I didn't want to be stuck with a huge pot of soup that no one liked if it wasn't very good. I'll post my version of the recipe here and just let you know that it can be doubled to make more.

Ratatouille Bisque

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

1 small head of garlic, roasted (easy to do...cut off top, pour on a bit of olive oil, wrap in foil and bake for 30 minutes at 375 in the oven. I threw mine in the toaster oven.)
1 large red bell pepper, chopped and seeded
1 large yellow pepper, chopped and seeded
1 sweet onion, peeled and chopped
1 bulb fennel, fronds removed and core cut out, chopped
1 eggplant, sliced lengthwise
6 large, ripe plum tomatoes, halved
1/4 cup olive oil
1 1/2 cups tomato juice
1 1/2 cups water
1 T Balsamic vinegar
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 packet of Truvia (recipe called for 1 tsp sugar)

Toss peppers, onion and fennel in a bowl with half of the olive oil.
Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast until lightly charred for 45 minutes

Toss the tomatoes with 1 T of the oil and spread on another baking sheet and roast until charred, about 30 minutes.

Rub the eggplant halves with the remaining oil and put them cut side down on baking sheet. Roast until soft, about 20 minutes.

When the vegetables are done, remove and let cool to room temperature.
Remove the eggplant pulp from the skin by scraping out with a large spoon. Discard skins. Squeeze garlic cloves out of their skin.

Puree all of the roasted vegetables in blender or food processor in batches.
In a large, non-reactive saucepan combine vegetables with the remaining ingredients. Taste for seasonings and add more tomato juice or water to thin if needed.

Depending on who is eating it, you can serve with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese or some crusty bread.

I'm really looking forward to seeing what other treasures this cookbook has in store!

Cooking With Friends

My mother likes to tell me about when she was young, and how her parents never cooked because they owned a restaurant. My grandmother couldn't boil water, and my grandfather was working six days a week. They either ate food from the restaurant or something from a can.

A good friend of mine is in a situation better than my mother's, but still pretty regimented. Her family owns a local restaurant, and her husband is there six days a week in the kitchen. She does cook at home, but has a fairly limited repertoire. We were having a playdate last week and she mentioned that I was always cooking different things and she needed to get more creative in the kitchen. I suggested we make an evening out of trying out some new recipes, and we got together the following week to experiment!

It was remarkably easy to find something that fit the bill for a dieter (me), allergies including wheat, eggs, nuts and dairy (her kiddos) and vegetarian (my husband).

Apparently my friend had been dreaming of ratatouille since her daughter's christening almost seven years ago. She ate some at the party and hasn't had it since. Seeing that this is the perfect season for all of the ingredients, we went for it!

Ratatouille is remarkably simple. The only real labor is cutting up the veggies. It consists of just seven main ingredients and a couple of added spices! No dairy, no sugar, no gluten, no carbs.

1/2 onion, finely chopped
2 garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
1 cup tomato puree
¼ tsp. oregano
¼ tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
2 tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 small eggplant
1 zucchini
1 yellow squash
1 long red bell pepper
Few sprigs fresh thyme
Salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Pour tomato puree into bottom of an oval baking dish, approximately 10 inches across the long way. Drop the sliced garlic cloves and chopped onion into the sauce, stir in oregano, crushed red pepper flakes, one tablespoon of the olive oil, and season the sauce generously with salt and pepper.

Trim the ends off the eggplant, zucchini and yellow squash. Trim the top of the red pepper and remove the core.

On a mandoline, adjustable-blade slicer or with a very sharp knife, cut the eggplant, zucchini, yellow squash and red pepper into very thin slices, approximately 1/16-inch thick.

Atop the tomato sauce, arrange slices of prepared vegetables concentrically from the outer edge to the inside of the baking dish, overlapping so just a smidgen of each flat surface is visible, alternating vegetables. You may have a handful leftover that do not fit.

Drizzle the remaining tablespoon olive oil over the vegetables and season them generously with salt and pepper. Remove the leaves from the thyme sprigs with your fingertips, running them down the stem. Sprinkle the fresh thyme over the dish.

Cover dish with a piece of parchment paper cut to fit inside.

Bake for approximately 45 to 55 minutes, until vegetables have released their liquid and are clearly cooked, but with some structure left so they are not totally limp. They should not be brown at the edges, and you should see that the tomato sauce is bubbling up around them.

Recipe courtesy of The Comfort of Cooking

Ready for the oven

After we've all attacked it! So good!

Knowing that the four children would need more than just ratatouille for dinner, I introduced my friend to two previous favorites here on Cooking With Auntie Ina. Balsamic Chicken and Chicken Souvlaki. Both are a big hit with my son, so I figured her kids would get on board. Again, healthy and allergy-friendly.

Let's just say it was a success…

Cooking with a friend can be so much fun! Especially one who has a gorgeous kitchen and fabulous oregano AND olive oil imported from Greece! The kids got to try some new foods, the adults had a delicious and healthy dinner and we got to catch up and have some laughs while we prepped it all. Followed it up with watching the kids play in the pool, it was a great night that we plan to do again. 

I can't wait to see what we come up with next!