Spicy Squash Soup

It happened again, a pattern is starting to emerge. SO thinks up a great idea for dinner, finds a recipe that sounds good, and lets me cook it.  I'll go even further and say there is inevitably a few ingredients we don't have, or there is something I don't like about the method - so I'll start the substituting game. Sometimes it is something we can't eat (SO and bell peppers, or me and grapefruit), or prefer not to eat, such as cheap and easy pre-packages foods. Why not go fresh if you can? Things such as "real" parmesan, fresh veggies, fresh spices (or freshly ground, such as pepper and coriander) all make a huge difference. Anyhoo. So it is fall, and one starts thinking about squash more and more. I've actually really wanted to get into soups more, so here's my chance. It turned out really good, if a bit spicy for SO's taste. Just right for me.

Spicy Squash Soup

So one thing that I think really saved a lot of time and made this a much quicker dish was the use of an immersion blender. The kind with a metal shaft, not plastic. Makes quick work of the blending, without getting out the food processor, and its 50 plastic parts that all have to be taken apart and washed. Not to mention blending in batches, re-heating the soup, etc.

Next Time: maybe a bit less spice for SO's benefit; even more cilantro; better quality or home-made broth

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a - are you kidding? Soup? Maybe in a couple years.

Fast, Low-Cal Spaghetti Carbonara

Uh-oh, the fridge is empty. Well not empty exactly, but you know, not a lot in there for a creative pull-it-together last minute supper. Two apples. Half an onion. A bit of lettuce. Part of a green pepper. Some cheese, eggs, milk. Not a whole heck more, not counting condiments, pickles, etc. Oh wait, some left-over cooked bacon (no really! how did that happen anyway). I think there's some "crappy" pre-grated parmesan. What about a carbonara, suggests SO. Unfortunately there is no cream, half and half or even cream cheese. So I'll try a simple white sauce thickened with flour, with a bit of  butter and milk? Close enough. Hopefully it is edible.

Basic white sauce, looking good.

So the basic sauce went well enough. Usually I either burn something at this point or have lots of lumps that just won't go away. Being thus paranoid, I used a really low heat, and added the flour very slowly to the melted butter. I should credit our awesome gravy/sauce making flat whisk at this point. Something like this. I didn't cook it long enough before slowly adding the milk, so next time I'll watch for that. Next comes the parmesan and bacon.

White sauce with parmesan and bacon. Looking better!

At this point, it is easy to add a little more milk if too thick. Added this to the drained pasta, and voila, quick decent dinner. By the way, I say "low-cal" as a relative term here. Milk and a couple Tb of butter compared to a cup of heavy cream and gosh knows what else. 

The finished dish - Fast, low-cal Spaghetti Carbonara

Next Time: maybe 1% milk if we had it instead of skim; fresh parmesan would definitely help.

Me: 8/10

SO: 7/10

SSO: n/a (as usual, he had most of this in deconstructed fashion: bacon on the side, etc.)

Baked Eggplant Rollatini

This was another find of SO's.  Turns out it isn't really so much a middle-of-the-week recipe, as it too me quite a while to cook and assemble.  I started shortly after 6pm and we ate at 7:30pm. Mind you I was stopping to help SSO with homework throughout, and being the first time I tried this, it wasn't the fastest process.  I'm sure I could cut down the time significantly next time.

Anyway, this is a traditional Italian dish even if the word Rollatini is not. A quick search reveals that the Italians call it Involtini di Melanzane. There are recipes everywhere for this, strange I've never come across this before. Maybe not so strange, I'm not the biggest eggplan fan, except for one huge exception: in Thai restaurants there is a dish with Asian eggplant that is to die for. OK maybe two exceptions - good Chinese restaurants will have a dish with eggplant and black bean sauce. Yum.

I think a few key things helped make this successful - the thinness of the eggplant slices, and the prociutto. I've seen some recipes calling for 1/2" slices - too thick in my opinion. I've seen all sorts of strange ways to combine cheese and egg, too complicated. Also suggested was pre-sprinkling with salt to rid excess moisture and bitterness.  Well maybe I would do this, but there are so many strong flavours going on here that I never noticed any bitterness.  I actually messed up the beginning part - you are supposed to dip, crumb, and fry the eggplant in that order. I was so tired and in a rush that I forgot to dip and crumb even though I had prepared it and the bowls were sitting in front of me. So after frying (and after it had cooled a bit) I dipped and crumbed, and re-fried for a minute. Turned out awesome.

Eggplant Rollatini - before baking

Next time I will use home-made spaghetti sauce, rather than stuff from a jar. Other than that, there wasn't much I didn't like about it. SO was very happy with it - it is just the sort of dish she really likes. Was sort of satisfying rolling the little bundles up too. It took time, but was just, well, easy. We ended up serving with Cappelini (meaning: thin hair), which (I had to look this up too) is one step up from angel hair pasta. I will also say that it is one of those dishes that isn't a 10/10 to look at, but certainly scores big in the taste department.

Eggplant Rollatini - after baking

Next Time: will use fresh/home-made spag sauce

Me: 8/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a