Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant

After living in Berlin for a year, I finally went to the Maybachufer Wochenmarkt (aka the outdoor Turkish Market) in Kreuzberg. All I can say is WOW. I cannot believe I didn’t take advantage of this resource Mecca sooner! Drew and I met up with a few friends, grabbed lunch, then sat and listened to music while we gorged in olives, schafskäse and lamb schawarma. There were endless amounts of goodies at our fingertips and our eyes were in sensory overload from the vibrant colors of fresh produce, spices and colorful locals. It was the perfect way to spend a Friday afternoon. After coming to my senses, I think I made a few wise purchases. I purchased light as well as dark purple eggplants, white peppers, and a pale colored green zucchini – only because these vegetables stood out of the norm for me (ok fine - not the dark purple eggplant).  I was so excited to see what I could make out of these market prizes. I stared at my ingredients for awhile until I came to the conclusion that I would make Mediterranean stuffed eggplant. Taaadaaaah!

Mediterranean Stuffed Eggplant

(serves 2)
Ingredients 
1 eggplant
¼ cup of diced up zucchini
1 small white bell pepper (or red bell pepper if white isn’t available)
1 small yellow onion diced
3 cloves garlic
Olive oil
Flavored bread crumbs (Germany only offers plain so I season them myself)
1 whitecap mushroom
1 tsp of pinenuts
1 tsp of cinnamon
1 small vine tomato
¼ cup of crumbled Feta cheese
½ tsp salt
Lemon juice

Step 1: Veggie Prep
Always rinse your veggies before handling. Dice up the zucchini, garlic, onion, mushroom, tomato and pepper. Cut the eggplant lengthwise and scoop out the middle leaving approximately .125 inch  buffer to the edge of the skin. (wow I prep my eggplant like I design an ad).  Set the insides of the eggplant aside. Lightly salt the inside of the eggplant and place face down in a glass oven dish until later use. Chop up the eggplant insides into smaller pieces and sprinkle garlic powder and a ½ tsp of salt over the top.


Step 2: Sauté Veggies
In a large skillet coat bottom of pan with olive oil. Add in onion, ½ of your minced garlic, diced zucchini and diced eggplant. Sauté vegetables on a medium heat. Add in pine nuts, chopped pepper, chopped tomato and cinnamon. Mix in the tomato paste and stir thoroughly.


Step 3: Prep the Breadcrumb Paste
In a medium sized bowl add the remaining garlic, flavored bread crumbs and olive oil. Mix together until it becomes a paste-like texture (adding more olive oil until you are happy with the texture).


Step 4: Mixing
Add the diced mushroom, the sautéed vegetables and the feta cheese into the pasty-breadcrumb bowl. Mix everything together so the breadcrumbs coat the entire mixture.


Step 5: Stuffing
Stuff the breadcrumb – vegetable mixture into the shells of the eggplant. Sprinkle lemon juice on top and place them in the middle of the oven on 350 degrees Fahrenheit (180 degrees Celsius) for 40 minutes.


Step 6: Serve
Remove from the oven and sprinkle more lemon juice over the top the eggplant, plate and serve.

Quick peek of the Maybachufer Wochenmarkt

 

Recipe: Fried Foccacia Caprese

My first recipe post: Lately, I have been trying to emulate the flavors of my trip to Campania (southern region of Italy which you may have read about in my last post). I have come up with a way to incorporate my latest pizza dough creation with a Caprese twist. Here are the results: “Fried Foccacia Caprese”

Oregano Pizza Dough (by hand):

ingredients
1 pkt or dry active yeast
1 ¼ cup warm water
1 ½ tsp of salt
3 tbs of sugar
1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves of garlic
2 ¼ tsp of oregano
4-5 cups flour

Step 1: Yeast & Water
To create the dough (by hand) dissolve the packet of yeast in the 1 ¼ cup warm water inside a large glass bowl. Make sure the water is not too hot, nor too cold - this could kill the yeast. To know if the yeast is active, it should bubble when you stir the mixture. Let the yeast dissolve completely before adding any other ingredients.

Step 2: Dry Ingredients
Once the yeast is dissolved, add 3 tbs of sugar, 1 ½ tsp of salt, 2 ¼ tsp of oregano and 1 tbs olive oil.
Mince 2 cloves garlic while these flavors adhere. Add the two minced cloves of garlic to the bowl.

Step 3: Flour
Before adding the flour, make sure the salt and sugar are completely dissolved. Add in the cups of flour in one cup increments, while mixing the dough together in the interim.

Step 4: Kneading (w/ TLC)
Knead the dough thoroughly but not too hard. Form your dough into a ball in the center of your bowl and cover it with either a very lightly dampened cloth or plastic wrap (I prefer the cloth).

Step 5: Rising
Let your dough rise for at least an hour and a half to two hours.

Step 6: Frying! (for purposes of this dish)
Roll out the dough into a small circular flat shape (roll it very thin). Coat the bottom of a large frying pan with olive oil. Heat olive oil (not too hot) and place the thin dough into your frying pan, flipping it back and forth a few times until it bubbles up and is lightly golden. Remove dough and place on a paper towel to absorb the excess grease. (Notes: You will have plenty of dough to make multiple batches. If you refrigerate the dough make sure you bring it back up to room temperature before handling again.)

Insalata Caprese:

ingredients
1 Fresh tomato diced
Fresh basil 7 leaves (amount of your desire)
Fresh mozzarella drained (1/2 of fresh medium sized ball)
1 clove garlic (minced)
Modena Balsamic Vinegar

Step 1: Mozzarella
Drain the fresh mozzarella of excess liquid. Then pull apart or chop up the mozzarella into bit sized pieces.

Step 2:  Tomato & Basil
Rinse and dice up tomato and basil

Step 3: Garlic
Crush and mince up a fresh clove of garlic

Step 4: Assemble
Sprinkle the minced garlic on the hot fried dough. Add the diced tomato, mozzarella and basil.

Step 5: Serve
Lightly drizzle the balsamic vinegar over the foccacia and serve.