Spicy Eggplant Napoleon

I don't know where the name came from (Eggplant Napoleon) but I have found a new favorite dish named exactly that. As usual, I have tweaked another recipe (this recipe has been altered from the Atkins recipe, Eggplant and Goat Cheese Napoleon) adding my own spin to it. I believe it is even better than the original.  If you have never tried eggplant or thought you didn't like it before, you should try this recipe. It may change your mind on the whole affair.

Ingredients:

• 1 Pound whole eggplant
• 4 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (garlic olive oil works really well here)
• 1 Teaspoon salt
• 1/2 Teaspoon ground black pepper
• 20 asparagus spears or two bunches of broccolini
• 5 1/2 Ounces log of goat cheese (Ashed Chevre works well)
• 4 Tablespoons tomato paste
• 4 Tablespoons water
• 1/2 Teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 Teaspoon dried thyme plus a little extra for sprinkling
• 1/8 - 1/4 Teaspoon of cayenne pepper (depending on how spicy you want it)
• 1/4 Teaspoon crushed dried rosemary
• 4 Sprigs of fresh basil

Directions:

1.  Slice eggplant into twelve 1/2-inch rounds, and sprinkle with 1/2 of the salt; let stand for 10 minutes on a cookie sheet that has been lined with paper towels.

2.  Heat grill to medium, or heat broiler. 

3.  Remove paper towels, and brush the eggplant slices with 2 tablespoons olive oil, coating all sides. Sprinkle with 1/2 of the cracked pepper. Let stand until grill is ready.

4.  Brush asparagus (or broccolini - my personal favorite to use in this recipe) with remaining 2 tablespoons olive oil, and sprinkle with remaining salt and pepper. Grill eggplant slices for 3 minutes per side or until they are golden brown. Grill asparagus until halfway cooked but still firm, 2 to 3 minutes per side (depending on thickness). Transfer each to a plate.

5. Cut the goat-cheese log into 16 slices. 

6.  In a small bowl, combine tomato paste with the water. Stir in oregano, thyme, cayenne, and rosemary.

7.  On a lightly oiled cookie sheet, place 4 eggplant slices down. Spread a small amount of the tomato mixture on each slice and then place 2 goat-cheese rounds on top of the tomato mixture. Repeat, layering until you have four eggplant stacks with cheese on top. If you have any tomato mixture left over, top the stacks with it.

8.  Place 1/4 of the asparagus spears or broccolini (cut into 2-inch pieces) on top of each eggplant stack. Sprinkle with a little thyme and heat in the oven for about five minutes, or until cheese has melted a little bit.

9.  Serve with a sprig of basil on top.

If you decide to fix this dish, write me and let me know what you think.  Cheers!

Learning how to make goat's cheese...

At the end of February 2013, I went to Leaning Oak in Mudgee New South Wales to take learn the ancient art of making cheese. Leaning Oak has workshops about once a month with the wonderfully informative artisan cheese-maker  Gloria. She is one of the owners of the farm (sharing the responsibility with her husband) and they make fantastic cheeses from their very own herd of sheep and goats.

The goats & sheep are a happy group.  They are well cared for and it shows.

We began the trip by getting into Mudgee on Friday and staying at a Farmer's Daughter Wines The Rose cabin. We booked a couple of months in advance to ensure we had somewhere nice to stay and very nice it was!! The cabin was a well equipped two bedroom, each with their own en suite, full kitchen, and living area.  I would definitely recommend them to anyone who wanted to stay near Mudgee proper and visit the area.

Cabin at Farmer's Daughter Wines
 791 Ulan Road, Mudgee, NSW

On Saturday, we awoke refreshed and after a light breakfast of oatmeal, we headed over to the Leaning Oak farm to begin our class to start at 9 a.m.  We were so excited and raring to go that we actually got there at 8:30 a.m. and consequently, had a bit of time to get to know our fellow class-mates (max class size of 6). There was another couple that had a herd of goats and were looking to learn how to make cheese from their milk. Also present was a lady who once had a herd of Boer goats and was interested in learning about cheese making as well. Those three, and our group of three made up the six person class size that worked so well together.

Once tea/coffee were drunk and visiting was finished, Gloria came in and explained what we were going to do on our first day and checked to see if we had brought our extras (change of shoes, ice cream or other containers, and an optional apron) from the list she had sent us in advance of the class.  The extra shoes were for cleanliness, one for out in the dairy/on the farm, and the other for inside the cheese making room.  The containers were for bringing your cheeses back home in and of course the optional apron was to protect your clothing in case of spills.  Once all the ground work was laid, we went off to try our hand at milking the goats the old fashioned way.

Milking goats by hand is not as easy for some as it was for others. The process is time consuming and the milking machine makes faster work of it. Makes much more sense to machine milk than it does to try and hand milk but the experience of doing it that was is something that will not be easily forgotten. The goats are harnessed in a milking bay and they are given grain to eat while they are being milked.  They are perfectly content and happy with not a care in the world.  The milking machine is quick and efficient.

Happy goats, waiting to be milked

After milking, we go back and change our shoes to go into the cheese making room.  The first thing we are taught is how to pasteurize the fresh goats milk.  We use the double boiling system with the stainless steel jug of fresh milk sitting on a trivet in a vat of boiling water. Heat the milk to 68 degrees Celsius and keep it at that temperature for 2 minutes.

Once you have pasteurized your milk, you must bring the temperature back down to make cheese.  Putting the milk container in a cold water bath will accomplish this quickly.  Keep an eye on the milk to ensure that the temperature only comes down to about 34 degrees Celsius. Decant about 3 litres of milk in one container for the fresh cheese and about 6.5 litres into another for making feta. Everything should be sanitized appropriately before hand.  Cleanliness is very very important here. No unwanted bacteria need apply!

Measuring out the milk

Once you have the milk measured out and at the right temperature, you add your starter to the containers and mix. Use a stainless steel spoon to mix with but never wood. Wooden spoons can harbour bad bacteria that you don't want in your cheese.

Starter: It has the consistency of runny yoghurt

Once you have added the amount of correct starter (bacterial controlled milk that has been mixed ahead of time) needed to each container of milk, you stir it in gently for about two minutes with a sanitized stainless steel spoon.  You want an even mixture but don't be to vigorous with it.

Supplies: Milton Anti-bacterial solution, Liquid Calcium and Vegetarian Rennet

Next, measure out the rennet and the calcium into separate containers that a little cooled pre-boiled water has been added to. Add these each to the milk one at a time and gently stir for approximately 2 minutes to distribute the calcium and rennet evenly. Do not stir the mixture to much or the milk will split and create a separated product that is useless in making cheese.  Luckily, we didn't have this problem.

Rennet and Calcium containers

Just a little side note for those interested; The reason we add calcium is that it fortifies the protein in goat's milk to aid in coagulation. Goat's milk does not contain as robust protein as cow's or sheep's milk. The rennet makes a firmer cheese creating curds and whey.

After adding these products and stirring the milk, maintain the setting temperature and wait for curd to form.  The room will need to be kept warm during this process to encourage the cheese to set. In about 90 minutes, the curd will be ready to cut. The process for checking to see if it is, in fact, ready to cut is to first cut a vertical incision and then a horizontal one across it.  Press gently downward until you see that the curd is firm and the whey has an opaque greenish colour to it. Test #1, have a reasonably transparent whey. If the whey is milky, give it some more time.

Checking the curd

For the feta, cut the curd by cutting straight down in even 1 to 1.5 centimetre lines and then again across the grain, equally spaced apart. Cut at an angle next to have basically cubed curd.  Test #2, does the curd hold it's shape when cut at an angle?

Cubing

Note: The curd should actually go down to the bottom of the container with the whey on top.  Floating curd is a sure sign of contamination.  

Next, stir and lift the curds with a sterilized stainless steel spoon. This process needs to be repeated several times at certain intervals. Once the allotted time is complete, the curd gets hooped.

Gloria has these beautiful stainless steel draining trays to aid in the whey extraction process.  At home, you can use a baking tray with a wire rack over it.  If I ever get to the point where I'm making cheese frequently, I will definitely invest in one (or more) of these trays!

Leave the cheese to drain in these hoops for a while and turn them on timed intervals. With gloves, grab one hoop and turn it into your opposite hand. Put the hoop down, turn the cheese over into you other hand and re-hoop it. The following pictorial shows this process.

Step one

Step two

Step three

Step four

Step five

Once turned a few times and at the correct stage, put the cheese in containers. The feta will go into a brine solution and the fresh cheese will go into a container on it's own lightly salted.

Brining

Day two of our workshop focused on making Camembert/Brie and blue cheeses.  The process was slightly altered with the addition of moulds but still very similar to the steps taken the day before. The entire process from start to finish is not nearly as difficult as I had imagined it would be. We had a fabulous time and made some new friends along the way. We've eaten the fresh and feta cheeses already. They were absolutely the best of their kind that we have ever had. The Camembert and blue cheeses are still ripening away and we look forward to eating them soon.  

The finished feta cheese

I did not have the space nor the inclination to get very detailed on this process. I have left out a great many important things and would recommend that you not utilize my post here as the way to make cheese. Seek out an experienced teacher or even a book on the process. Gloria is a wonderful teacher and I would recommend her workshop to get a good understanding of the entire process. If you have the desire to learn about making goat's milk cheese, Leaning Oak is a wonderful place to do it. The location is idyllic and the cheese sublime. If you go, drop me a line and let me know how you liked it.

Stay tuned for my next post in which I will show you a recipe that I created using one of the feta cheeses we made during this workshop. Until then, bon appetit!

Millet Pilaf with Tomatoes and Goat Cheese

My husband and I have been eating more meat free dishes lately.  I won't say vegetarian because they sometimes contain cheese and/or chicken stock but they are meat free.  You could make either of the entrée's here vegetarian with some simple modifications but I will present it to you the way we made it.

For starters, I would like to suggest the Millet Pilaf for anyone who is gluten sensitive as it is a gluten free dish.  It would readily replace stuffing in your Thanksgiving Dinner (for those in the USA or contemplating a Thanksgiving abroad).  We love it so much that it has become a staple at our house and yes, we have replaced stuffing entirely with this dish.  We make enough for four and take the left overs to lunch with us the next day.  It travels very well in Tupperware type containers.

I use organic ingredients whenever I can.  For this recipe, I've found organic Millet but not much else.

You start with 3 cups of vegetable or chicken stock brought to a boil.  I used chicken stock here and love the flavour but I have used vegetable stock as well and am very happy with that final taste also.  Once the stock is heated through to boiling, add the millet and reduce the heat to a low boil.  Stir it often until the liquid is all absorbed.  Once that happens, cover and remove from heat to sit for 10 minutes.

While your millet is resting, sauté a sweet yellow or red onion (I used red) in olive oil until translucent and slightly caramelized.  Add the pistachios and continue to sauté for a minute or two more.   Once the millet has rested the full ten minutes, fluff it up with a fork and mix it into the onion/pistachio mixture.  Add your cranberries and coriander (cilantro) and stir until heated through.

Serve with fresh vegetables or as a side for any meat dish (turkey for example) and enjoy!

For my side dish, I thickly sliced four tomatoes and placed them on a prepared oven proof oblong baking dish.  Over the top, I lightly sprinkled olive oil, chopped garlic, a little salt, and some "Herbes de Provence" and baked in 190-200 degree Celsius oven for about 20-25 minutes.  I have used "Roman Herb Dukkah" as a seasoning instead of "Herbes de Provence" with equal success.  Try whatever strikes your fancy.

Once browned slightly on top, take the tomatoes out of the oven and place neat rounds of goats cheese atop each slice.  Turn the heat to the broiler setting and place back in the oven for a minute to three, until cheese is hot but not runny.

You'll notice the goat cheese here has some black flecks on it.  For this recipe, I've tried all kinds of goat cheese and found that I really prefer the ash coated variety so that it what you are seeing.  The ash coated goat cheese is flavourful but not overpowering.  It's a delight to the senses.

Arrange the tomato slices on individual plates with your meal or on a serving platter and sprinkle lightly with balsamic vinegar.

Oh my mouth is watering just thinking about it.

Here are the ingredients listed out for each dish:

Millet Pilaf

1 cup of millet

3 cups of stock of your choice

olive oil

1 onion, sliced thin

1/2 cup pistachio, chopped

1/2 cup dried cranberries, chopped

handful of coriander, chopped

(notice - no celery!)

Grilled Tomato with Goat Cheese

4 organic tomatoes

olive oil

2 cloves garlic, chopped

pinch of salt

1/2 - 1 teaspoon of herbs of your choice

("Herbes de Provence" or "Roman Dukkah" is preferred)

150 grams goat cheese

balsamic vinegar

We enjoy this type of meal very much and believe you will too!  Bon appétit!