Monthly Archives: August 2005

IMBB #18: Fried Eggplant

Linda from At Our Table is hosting this month’s IMBB and the theme is “Summer’s Flying, Let’s Get Frying!” Our garden produced a lovely little eggplant this past week and I decided that this event would be the perfect excuse to use it. Peel the eggplant and cut it into rounds. Then sprinkle each side […]

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tanvi - what a way to eat vegetables! it looks delicious, and i love that its all from your garden :-)

Zarah Maria - Lovely!

joey - Very nice and yummy sounding! I love eggplants and am always happy to find another way to eat them :-) I envy you your own-garden eggplant!

tara - My dear S hates eggplant, so I have found a similar method that he wil condescend to eat. Before the coating process, take two pieces of eggplant, sandwich around a tiny piece of cheese (mozzarella is good). There should be a boarder around the cheese, so that it doesn’t melt out. Then I procceed as above, giving them a bit of a chill in the fridge before frying. Crispy, succulent eggplant, with a gooey centre. Lovely. Truth be told though yours, without the cheese, looks more divine then I have ever made and I would happily much up a plate!

Sera F - Gemma…I am so proud of you and jealous all at the same time!!! EUROPE and ASIA!!!!!!!!! Good for you! Will you be posting? School starts back up for me on Sept. 6th. So happy for you…do you have any desire to work in the culinary field? thankyou for the great posts and pictures. I am still trying to get my blog updated, but it will take awhile. Take care, have fun, and the best of luck to you and John. Be safe!

gemma - Thanks tanvi, zarah and joey!
Tara, oh my how do I love cheese!? Next time it will have to be involved!
Thanks Sera, I will be posting! Most likely between this site when it is food related, and another Typepad webpage when with an obvious link when it is otherwise. I have a desire to work in the culinary field, though I feel that it might be fundamentally different from my desire to make things from scratch and by hand. I don’t mean to say that doing different is wrong, but for myself I can’t imagine using a bunch of machines to make bread (or something else) that I feel might be better and more fun to make without. I really hope you get to spend more time with your blog soon (and that you can borrow a digital camera to use to document your wonderful exploits!). I look forward to reading it!

bakeD - I don’t like eggplant at all but the pictures look so good that I might have to give it a try.

gemma - Hi bakeD, it actually took me quite a while to come around to eggplant. I still have a hard time with the taste when it is grilled with the skin on or something. It has been nice to learn to cook with it because then I can control some important factors, such as making sure the skin is removed before it cooks and, really, what isn’t made more delicious when fried?! Let me know if you do give it a try, I would be curious to see what you think. Thanks for stopping by and for the nice words!

Nupur - Oh my, that look so tempting! Kind-of a deconstructed eggplant parmesan!

gemma - Hehe, you’re right Nupur, I hadn’t thought of that but it kind of is.

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La Petite Crêperie

Last Saturday John and I went out to see my parents in Woodstock and attend a concert at the Opera House. Before we headed back to the city the next morning we all ate breakfast at a new restaurant on the square, La Petite Crêperie. Located on the Woodstock square, this tiny French restaurant was […]

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Joe @ Culinary in the Desert - That looks like such a fun shop – thanks for sharing!

Randi - we’re only about 60 miles from woodstock. The food looks great, unlike anything Ive seen in London.

gemma - Thanks Joe, it is a fun place. It is always nice to have some nice and new restaurants in the small town that I grew up in.
Randi, if you ever pass through by chance, feel free to drop me an email and I will give you some more suggestions for the area. They are few, but there are some quality establishments that are worth a try.

HANESSE - Bonjour j’aimerai faire un petit message à GERARD SAVOIR SI GERARD EST BIEN ARRIVER VOIR SI TOUT VA BIEN BISOUS à vous tous MARIE JO jean marc est à l’hopital il se fait opérer demain
A +

Bonnie’s Chocolate Zucchini Cucumber Muffins

I decided to use more of the chocolate that Patrick sent me in a batch of Bonnie’s Chocolate Zucchini Muffins. After mixing up the dry ingredients I began grating the zucchini for the wet ingredients. Lo and behold I found myself grating a cucumber. My friend Jane recently moved to Chicago and with her she […]

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Nic - What a useful substitution! I don’t grow zucchini anymore since they’re a rather agressive presence in the garden, but my cucumbers have been getting huge this year. I’ll have to give this a shot.

J - hi gemma, what a terrific idea – am sure they must have turned out really moist and lovely…glad new camera working out for you – pictures look great! cheers,j

Joe @ Culinary in the Desert - Thats an interesting sub! I would have probably done it too just to try it. Anything with chocolate has to be good though right? =)

Chanit - I love your site !!
thanks, Chanit from Israel :-)

gemma - Thank you! Yes, give it a go with the cucumber if you find yourself without zucchini and still want to have the chocolately goodness of a baked good with some sort of vegetable.
Thanks J, I am loving my new camera. I had become so attached that it was as if I had lost a limb after it was stolen.
Thank you Chanit, I am going to check out your site.

Ally Graves - You suck and i dislike your site very much. why the hell wouldny you put a fucking recipe on it??? We dont want fucking pictures we want fucking recipes..
Love,
Ally

mindy - Ally,
If you follow the links Gemma provided you can easily find the recipe.
http://www.whitelaceinn.com/choczucmufns.htm
I believe the only change is that Gemma has used cucumber instead of zuchini.
Way to throw some hostility out into the world, though. Very nice.
Lovely weekends all,
Mindy

gemma - Hi Ally. If you ‘dislike my site very much’ you should not visit it. I bake because I find it soothing and somewhat cathartic. I hope you can turn your anger into some delicious muffins that will make your day brighter.
Thanks Mindy. You are correct, the cucumber subsitution was the only change I made to the original recipe.

Sourdough Bread

We are moving soon and due to the length between leaving this apartment and when I will next have an apartment, I decided I would have to abandon my sourdough starter. Had I thought it was exceptional, I could have possibly conscripted a friend to feed her while I was gone, but I am viewing […]

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Joe @ Culinary in the Desert - Have you tried to dry your starter at all? We’ve done that in the past to preserve it and send it to friends. It usually works quite well!

nosheteria - Yay, this helps a lot, and the eGullet site is amazing. That is some serious bread.

gemma - No, Joe, I hadn’t heard of that! That would be a very helpful thing to know. Do you dry it in a dehydrater or simply on a sheet of platic wrap or something? How ingenious!
I’m glad you found the links helpful nosheteria! Good luck with yours!

Kim - Hi Gemma,
Dry it on a piece of wax paper(I use air dry)and wrap it with saran wrap and then put it into a freezer bag.You then keep the bag in the freezer till you return from your trip. Have a nice trip.

keiko - Hi Gemma – what a fantastic looking sourdough! and I wish I could have your special sourdough starter! (didn’t know about drying, how interesting!) I started baking bread ‘again’ but I have a long way to go… Many thanks for the recipe for Pane al Cioccolato, I’ll definitely try it – do I have to use very good chocolate for that?

gemma - Hi Kim, thanks for the advice on drying and freezing, I feel so liberated!
Keiko, I don’t think you necessarily have to use very good chocolate for the bread. It does take on much of its flavor from the chocolate however. So, what I guess I mean is, don’t use chocolate that you wouldn’t enjoy the taste of on its own. When I make this again, I will definitely use the bittersweet variety again. I think it may have been too sweet for my tastes if I used regular sweetened. I hope that helpls!

Pane Al Cioccolato

My lovely friend Patrick mailed me some fantastic chocolate to bake with as an early birthday gift. E. Guittard Bittersweet Dark Chocolate and Sharffen Berger Unsweetened Dark Chocolate. I decided to make bread using the bittersweet chocolate. I followed the Pane Al Cioccolato recipe in Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter. Pane Al Cioccolato […]

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Joe @ Culinary in the Desert - Wow that looks so good!

tanvi - i love that whimsical shape!

Zarah Maria - Tanvi took the words right out of my mouth – I love that shape! And the bread looks gorgeous!

keiko - Gemma, this looks sooo good! Any chance you’re posting the recipe…? BTW, I’m glad you got a new camera ;)

Molly - Gemma, that thing looks sooo luscious! And I second Keiko in requesting the recipe…if you don’t want to post it, any chance you might e-mail it? Wink, wink…

gemma - Thank you Joe, Tanvi, and Zarah!
On the recipe issue, Keiko and Molly, I have never been quite clear on the nuances of posting published recipes. . . If I credit the authors and the book, am I allowed to post the recipe or would that infringe on their copywriting of the recipe? I will be happy to send it along via email, but it would be good to know the answer to this question for the future and also to share the recipe with others who might be interested. Your thoughts on the matter would be appreciated!

Molly - Hey there…
I’ve heard from people in publishing that most of the time, you can safely reprint one or two recipes from a cookbook, as long as you properly credit the source. It’s good publicity for the book or magazine, and it’s only a single recipe.
Now, that said, lists of ingredients are *not* protected by copyright; only the text (instructions, etc.) of the recipe is. So in reality, you can post recipes to your heart’s content as long as you make at least a few significant changes to the recipe text (i.e. not just a few words rearranged). A lot of the recipes I post come straight from cookbooks, but I always change the text, mainly because I find that I have a different way of explaining a method, or I did things in a different order, etc. I give the author credit and usually say that I’ve “adapted” from his/her recipe. Ultimately, it really depends on what you’re comfortable with.
Hope that helps!

gemma - Hi Molly, thank you so much for your input on the topic. It helped me quite a bit!

Shannon Richards - I just made this bread and it turned out great! For some reason it fell during baking, may have been that I had to substitute instant yeast and therefore only let it raise a short while the first time, and double the second, but either way it tastes delicious and the texture is perfect as well.
Thanks so much – I immensely enjoy your blogs and have now tried several of your recipes!
-shan

Katie Smith - made the bread this evening after eyeing the recipe for a week. We great right out of the oven, I did bake it in 2 small Le Crueset dutch oven pans because I’m going to freeze one of the lofts.
Great recipe, will try your other ones in the future.

gemma - Hi Katie,
I am very happy that you had good results with the recipe. For the record, it is based on a recipe from Bread by Christine Ingram and Jennie Shapter (just to give everyone their due).
I think I need to make this again soon as well.
Gemma

Jude - Found your blog when I was searching for this. I have a recipe for it as well and I’ve been wanting to try it out.
Looks so good.
Looks like we own the same pyrex over there. :)