Okay, I think I have posted before about my passion for seeing what's in the el-cheapo-we-will-toss-em-if-nobody-buys-em section of the local grocer, now called my rescue fruit and veg. So I thought I would start putting up pics and descriptive recipes (meaning don't expect detailed quantities and timings and such) of what I do with what I rescue.
Here are today's dishes.
Broad beans and roasted eggplant salad: The beans were boiled till just soft and not double shelled (you can take the harder outer skin off the beans, but you know I am a texturephile). The eggplant was scored [that is I made a couple of deep cuts into its flesh - it stops the eggplant exploding in the oven] roasted whole in its skin at 250C till the flesh was very soft. [Ideally you would roast the eggplant over wood coals but it's a lot of trouble to go through and besides there is a total fire ban on right now]. The eggplant flesh was scooped out and added to the cooked beans. I crushed a clove of garlic with some rock salt and added a little quite peppery olive oil sourced from a small grower in the Riverina [that's not a pretentious note, it's to say that local olive oil can be marvellous - okay, it's a little pretentious too :)] and mixed this through the beans and eggplant. I added a grind or two of black pepper. I then added shredded young flat leaved parsley that had self-seeded in a pot in the backyard [okay, that note is totally pretentious :)].
PS: Crushing the garlic in a mortar with the salt is a neato trick for making sure you retain the garlic juice.
Risotto stuffed zucchini in a tomato sauce: These are what I call bottle zucchini - squat and fat and perfect for stuffing. I cored them and stuffed them with some left over mushroom risotto Marilyn made last night [the highlight of which we all agreed was her sloshing some slightly spritzy Portuguese white wine while the rice was cooking]. I sliced up some of the zucchinis that were too narrow to stuff. I put the stuffed and sliced zucchini in a baking dish and poured about a third of a can of tomato pulp over them, a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt. I baked them covered with foil in an oven at 250C till the zucchinis were nice and soft and the tomato had sauced nicely with the olive oil. I then turned the oven off, took off the foil and let the zucchini cook off while I made the eggplant and broad bean dish. This let the zucchini brown a little and also reduced the water content of the sauce. I wanted the sauce wet enough to work with the side dish as per below.
We ate these dishes with more of the left over mushroom risotto served cold. I like cold rice dishes.
For the record: the rescue vegies cost $6. I reckon the total cost, adding in the other ingredients on hand, was probably $10 and there was enough for three of us.
Here are today's dishes.
Broad beans and roasted eggplant salad: The beans were boiled till just soft and not double shelled (you can take the harder outer skin off the beans, but you know I am a texturephile). The eggplant was scored [that is I made a couple of deep cuts into its flesh - it stops the eggplant exploding in the oven] roasted whole in its skin at 250C till the flesh was very soft. [Ideally you would roast the eggplant over wood coals but it's a lot of trouble to go through and besides there is a total fire ban on right now]. The eggplant flesh was scooped out and added to the cooked beans. I crushed a clove of garlic with some rock salt and added a little quite peppery olive oil sourced from a small grower in the Riverina [that's not a pretentious note, it's to say that local olive oil can be marvellous - okay, it's a little pretentious too :)] and mixed this through the beans and eggplant. I added a grind or two of black pepper. I then added shredded young flat leaved parsley that had self-seeded in a pot in the backyard [okay, that note is totally pretentious :)].
PS: Crushing the garlic in a mortar with the salt is a neato trick for making sure you retain the garlic juice.
Risotto stuffed zucchini in a tomato sauce: These are what I call bottle zucchini - squat and fat and perfect for stuffing. I cored them and stuffed them with some left over mushroom risotto Marilyn made last night [the highlight of which we all agreed was her sloshing some slightly spritzy Portuguese white wine while the rice was cooking]. I sliced up some of the zucchinis that were too narrow to stuff. I put the stuffed and sliced zucchini in a baking dish and poured about a third of a can of tomato pulp over them, a drizzle of olive oil, and some salt. I baked them covered with foil in an oven at 250C till the zucchinis were nice and soft and the tomato had sauced nicely with the olive oil. I then turned the oven off, took off the foil and let the zucchini cook off while I made the eggplant and broad bean dish. This let the zucchini brown a little and also reduced the water content of the sauce. I wanted the sauce wet enough to work with the side dish as per below.
We ate these dishes with more of the left over mushroom risotto served cold. I like cold rice dishes.
For the record: the rescue vegies cost $6. I reckon the total cost, adding in the other ingredients on hand, was probably $10 and there was enough for three of us.
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