And speaking of eggplant...

Is Grimace an eggplant? As a kid, I never really pondered what Grimace was, but as an adult it has started to bother me.

Fry Guy? Ok, get that one. Hamburgler? Yup. Officer Big Mac? Pretty clear.

But Grimace? A purple McNugget? No way. He has got to be an eggplant. But obviously there isn't any eggplant on the McDonald's menu. Perhaps he is a holdover from a long lost menu item...Eggplant McParmesan?

WHAT ARE YOU GRIMACE?

Simple Eggplant Triumph

After work on Saturday I needed some vegetable QT. I haven't been cooking because of a fairly busy travel/work schedule, and the lack of fresh veggies in the house was getting to me.

So I hit up my favorite co-op, Wild Oats Market, in Williamstown.

I can always find staples and interesting new things to try in their produce department. Plus they have a really simple visual system in place for identifying local, organic and conventionally grown products. Orange = Local (and will also be labeled organic if grown that way), Green = Organic and Yellow = Conventional. Saturday I was not disappointed. I took home a tasty looking white peach, a green zebra tomato and finally an italian eggplant.

These lovely veggies are much more reasonably sized for a single-serving cook, not to mention their white and purple skins are just so pretty sitting in the kitchen! (Still not my photo...digi cam coming soon!)

Today I didn't have to work, so I decided to get a jump on the cooking for the week (something I always tell myself I will do...then never actually manage to. So go me.). I considered making pasta sauce or baba ghanoush but both of those things, while simple, still seemed like way too much work for a day off. So instead, I whipped up some quick eggplant dip/spread/mush of glory. And all took were 3 ingredients and 4 spices!

First, I had to prepare the the eggplant. If you don't want your eggplant to come out gummy, you have to draw out some of the natural moisture. For this recipe I chopped the eggplant into about 1 inch cubes, threw the whole mess into a colander and sprinkled it all with about a 1/2 Tbsp of salt. After tossing the eggplant together I left the colander resting over a bowl for about 20 minutes (or just the amount of time it took me to hand-wash the dishes). During that time, a liquid that looked suspiciously like whiskey collected in the bottom bowl. I bet there is something you could do with that liquid (my friends father bakes bread with veggie liquids!) but I was just not in the mood to do that round of googling tonight, so that went down the sink. I then rinsed the salt off of the eggplant and squeezed all of the water out of the veggie chunks. I mean, really really SQUEEEEEZED. Give your hands a workout, you will be happy later!

I heated about 2 Tbsp of olive oil in a non-stick skillet, then tossed in my well wrung-out eggplant. I added a bit of salt (just a bit! sometimes the eggplant stays a bit salty after the draining process), about a teaspoon of cumin, a dash of ground coriander and a dash of turmeric (turns the whole thing really yellow!). Finally I tossed in 2 roughly chopped cloves of garlic and cooked the whole thing just until it started to smell delicious.

After letting this yellow, garlicky tastiness cool for 5 or so minutes, I buzzed it all up in my small-sized food processor (which is mine courtesy of my mom's friend...who I am not sure knows that the food processor lives with me now). I drizzled in about a 1/4 cup of extra virgin olive oil until the texture was spreadable, but not exactly smooth.

Then I promptly toasted up two slices of Anadama bread from Cricket Creek Farm, grabbed a bit spoon and spread away. Helllllloooooo simple and delicious. Plus, an italian eggplant about the size of a softball gave me a cup and a half of spread, more than enough to last me through the week. Yay planning ahead!

Did you know...?

In the name shish kebab, it is actually the term shish that means "skewer," not kebab as we tend to assume. Kebab is actually more of a catch-all term referring to meat dishes that can be grilled, fried or roasted and consist of many different meats.

So...the next time someone tries to serve you a "fruit kebab," gently suggest that perhaps they should change the name to shish fruit.

Shish fruits for everyone!

Image from http://www.4u.co.nz/recipes/Recipe.aspx?RID=155

Oh, Canada!

True Confession: I don't own a digital camera.

Yup, I started a blog dedicated to food with no way to create my own food porn. What was I thinking?

Well, I was thinking that my birthday is coming up, and a digital camera is the only thing on my list, so hopefully it will also be in my hands in less than a month. In the mean time, I will rely on my friends with cameras, and posts that I can easily create senza camera.

And thus, the following review.

Those of you who are addicted to food related television will be familiar with the new kid on the block in foodvision: Cooking Channel. Replacing the Fine Living Network (but keeping late night Japanese Iron Chef--hooray!), Cooking Channel gives us food related programming "by food people, for food people." Well, I have been watching since the launch--about a month now--and I must say I have been enjoying the hipster little brother of the Food Network. Even if they do show way too much Giada.

The truth about Cooking Channel is that it is basically Food Network, but with Canadians. A quick cross reference of the "new" shows on Cooking Channel reveals that most of them have been seen in Canada for a little while now...which explains the Degrassi-style lilt in the accents of the new chefs. But our neighbors to the north have not disappointed, and I have collected a few of my new faves to share with you today.

First, we have Food Jammers. Three hipster buddies who like to wait a really really long time before they eat.

Ok, so the premise is a bit more complicated than that. Basically these guys try to make commonplace foods into JAMS.

As in, way cool versions of regular foods. For example: 3D Pizza. Instead of just a flat pizza, these crazy guys made a pizza staircase, a pizza dome and a pizza cube. WILD! Cooking tends to take a back seat in this show, mostly to trips to the hardware store and failed equipment tests. To be sure though, these guys really understand what goes into food creation on many levels from ingredients to chemical reactions to cooking equipment.

My fave thing about these guys is how incredibly hipster they are. But, because they are Canadian and Toronto based instead of Williamsburg based, there is something much less annoying about their hipster-hood. But they represent in the Goodwill tshirts, ironic trucker hat/mustache combos and totally unkempt hair. Oh, and the dog is named Brooklyn.

Overall, a super entertaining show. Kind of a cross between Good Eats, New Yankee Workshop and Myth Busters. Not a bad combo. One small complaint: They always talk about how hungry they are AT THE BEGINNING of the show. I don't think, if you are truly hungry, that you would wait to build an in-table griddle top to cook a burger. That probably took DAYS. Did they really wait DAYS to eat their burgers? Doubt it.

But as I mentioned overall, super fun.

Next up on the block: Everyday Exotic. The host of the show, Roger Mooking, picks an "obedient ingredient" for each episode, and includes it in at least two of the dishes he cooks.

I like this show in particular because he tends to use cooking techniques that are simple and universal, but challenges the viewer with his ingredient choices.

His cooking is mainly influenced by his Trinidadian roots, and often his ingredient choices are Caribbean classics. Recently I saw his episode on tamarind where he made lamb kebabs with tamarind sauce, and his own version of tamarind balls-- a Caribbean snack. I loved how easy the techniques were--the most difficult thing about these recipes would be FINDING packaged tamarind. His pantry is always beautifully stocked with spices and ingredients...but somewhat unrealistically for a single-serving cook myself.

Finally, Roger sings his own theme song. At first, this got quite an eye-roll from me. I equated this musical endeavor on par with Shaq rapping on the Shazam soundtrack. But I have to say, Roger is so upbeat and exciting that every time he segues into the final music (yes, he plays the CD player EVERY SHOW), I just can't help but be right there bopping with him... "When you come along with its always good for us...lets go on a journey, so much better when we TRUST!"

Ooops, sorry, got distracted by the catchy song for a minute.

So, if you like smiley people, Caribbean food and the occasional cheesy pop tune (wow, that sounds just like me), Everyday Exotic is your show.

Finally, we come to Chuck Hughes of Chuck's Day Off aka my new chef-lebrity crush.

On Chuck's Day Off, we see Chuck cooking for various people on the day his restaurant, Garde-Manger, is closed. He cooks for his tattoo artist, he cooks for his business partners, he cooks for the firemen who stopped the restaurant from burning down. WHEN WILL HE COOK FOR ME?

Ok, to be real, Chuck can be a bit much. His food does always look delicious, but I do cringe every time I see the ad where he proclaims "Passion has always been my favorite ingredient to cook with."

Gag.

But then I watch him make alphabet pasta risotto for the kid who lives upstairs. And I swoon again. Plus, he is bilingual (this Canadien is from Montreal) and from time to time you can hear a little French-Canadien accent slip out. SO dreamy. And he has food tattoos. Like "Bacon" and "Arugula" tattooed on his wrists. And sleeves of shrimp and lobster. I love it--kind of a bad boy, kind of a huge food dork. So Chuck, if you read this, give me a call. Also, we both have gaps in our teeth, so we would be totally cute together.

There are many more great new shows on the Cooking Channel, but these three have become some of my new go-tos. If you haven't given it a try, it is worth it for the new and fresh perspectives and personalities. Plus, Cooking Channel shows The French Chef in the afternoons...how can you beat that?

all photos courtesy of www.cookingchannel.com