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Engaging stories of love, joy, comfort and friendship with proven scrumptious, healthy recipes, we celebrate LOVE as the secret ingredient for wonderful food!

Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe

March 7, 2020 by Mary 2 Comments

Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe - on a white platter.

I have a marvelous neighbor named Marilyn. She takes care of my plants when I am away, keeps an extra set of keys for me when I get locked out and enjoys good food and wine. I try to have her over for dinner at least once every two weeks, which works out about right with my traveling schedule. That way, I feel I can get some healthy food into her at least once in a while. For my last dinner I made this Ottolenghi recipe of Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant and it was so delicious and different, I wanted to share it with you!

Brilliant cooking and ingredients in this recipe:

This recipe combines a unique way of cooking the eggplant that doesn’t use up oodles of oil, because you know how eggplant can easily absorb tons of it. Instead, you steam the eggplant in one of those little collapsible steamer baskets, or a fine mesh colander, which I think is just brilliant! And much lower in calories.

This dish also calls for many spring onions or scallions, as several Ottolenghi recipes do, and while I was unfamiliar with using so many, I now quite like the idea a lot and have been applying the concept to other recipes as well. They are delicious and add a lovely green spark.

The mirin, the salty and sweet effects of the different soy sauces, along with the crunchiness of the peanuts and toasted sesame seeds, all topped with cilantro, make this a super yummy dish. My kind of eating!

Marilyn and I both moved in at the same time when our building first opened nearly 13 years ago. She was a hot shot bankruptcy attorney with her own very successful private practice. (For example, early in his career, Mario Batali was one of her clients, before he started molesting the other women in the kitchen. And yay that Weinstein got his partial due but why did the jury have 7 men on it?)

Then Marilyn realized she started forgetting some things about her cases. And then she was diagnosed with early Alzheimer’s. So, she gave up her practice yet still lives next door with full time, live-in help.

Delicious!

I love Marilyn. She is always so positive and fun. Even today, she says she is happy and lucky. She subsequently named her two cats, Happy and Lucky and she uses the word, “delicious” to describe many things, including people. When in fact, SHE is delicious.

I cook and Marilyn brings the wine and we always have a hilarious time, discussing sex and old boyfriends of hers and my new online dating escapades.

And delicious is just the word she used over and over again for this dish, moaning mmm’s while she ate. Chop everything ahead of time and it is a one-dish meal that comes together quickly that I know you will probably want to make again and again.

So, give it a go and remember to serve it with LOVE and steamed rice. You can also think of Marilyn and me and our sex discussions!

Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe - served on a white plate with white rice.

Pork with Ginger, Spring Onions and Eggplant – An Ottolenghi Recipe – edited by me – serves 4

3 eggplants (2 lbs.), cut into 1¼” dice
Kosher salt
¼ cup peanut oil
3 bunches spring onions, chopped on an angle into 1¼” pieces
2¾” piece ginger (60g), peeled, julienned
5 large garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1 green chili, finely sliced, seeds in (I used ¾ of a large jalepeno chili)
1¼ lb. ground pork
3 Tbs. mirin
2 Tbs.dark soy
2 Tbs. keçap manis – it is a thick and dark molasses-like sauce with palm sugar and soy sauce as its base and with the addition of aromatic spices for flavor.  The word manis means “sweet” in Malay/Indonesian and so the sauce is often referred to as “sweet soy sauce.” Here is a link to make your own! https://bit.ly/2wFeIGB
1 tsp. sesame oil (I used toasted sesame oil)
1 Tbs. rice vinegar
3/4 cup cilantro, roughly chopped plus more for garnish
1/2 cup roasted and salted peanuts
1 Tbs. sesame seeds, toasted
Fresh lime wedges

As Yotam recommends, get everything chopped beforehand so you can just quickly throw things in the pan and have this ready in a jiffy!

Place the eggplant in a bowl with 1½ tsp salt. Mix well, then transfer to a steamer (or a colander). Fill a large saucepan with water to a depth of 1 inch. Bring to the boil, then place the steamer (or colander) in the pan and cover with the lid or seal well with tinfoil to prevent the steam escaping. Reduce the temperature to medium-high and steam for 12 minutes. Set aside.

Meanwhile, pour half the oil into a large sauté pan on high heat. Add spring onion, ginger, garlic and chili and saute for 5 minutes, stirring often, until the garlic starts to color. Transfer to a bowl. Add the remaining oil to the pan, add the pork and fry, breaking up lumps, for 3 minutes. Add the mirin, soy sauce, keçap manis, sesame oil, vinegar and ½ tsp salt. Cook for 2 minutes, then return the spring onion mixture to the pan. Cook for 1 minute, then remove from the heat – there should be plenty of liquid – and stir in the cilantro and one half of the peanuts.

Spread the eggplant on a platter and top with the pork mixture. Garnish with the sesame seeds, remaining peanuts and cilantro. A squeeze of fresh lime is also very nice!

Serve with steamed rice and LOVE, along with fresh lime wedges. Enjoy!!

Filed Under: Dinner, Meat Tagged With: delicious, eggplant, ginger, ground pork, Ottolenghi recipe, quick weeknight dinner

Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, Olives & Slow Roasted Tomatoes

January 24, 2016 by Mary 16 Comments

Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, olives and slow roasted tomatoes in a white bowl.So once again on a weeknight this past week, we got home from work late, starving, and of course wanted to eat something super quick. I had planned on a meatless dinner and yet again, my husband protested. (Does yours, all you women out there?) I acquiesced with a small can of tuna here, which is how I came to make this Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, Olives & Slow Roasted Tomatoes dish. It was delicious!!

Additionally, we were supposed to have a dinner party this week and I was going to serve this Spicy Beef Ragout but one of the guests messed up on the date and we had to reschedule, and I had already bought everything for the dinner. So I went ahead and made the stew and froze it. (It will be better! :)) But the roasted Roma tomatoes would not wait 2 weeks and I didn’t think would freeze very well. So the day before this dinner below, I slow roasted those tomatoes anyway, not really knowing how I would use them. They are so easy to make and super delicious!! You just need the time for the two hours. Slow roasting makes them super sweet and totally yummy! You’ll really want to eat them with anything so I knew it wouldn’t be a problem.

I threw this dish together in literally 30 minutes and it was terrific!! My husband even talked about it the next morning and you know it’s really great when they’re still remembering it at breakfast.

A quick minute in the microwave revives the tomatoes and rather than chopping and mixing them in, which I considered, I thought it was much more elegant to just position them on the side, so you could decide to have a bite with or without them. Much nicer.

At any rate, this whole combination is super satisfying, quick, easy and full of flavor. Using the same pot of water to blanch the broccoli rabe (which removes the bitterness) and cook the pasta in is the real time saver. I hope you’ll try it and maybe always keep some slow roasted tomatoes on hand. I’m thinking I should do that. Serve with LOVE and enjoy!!

QUICK PASTA WITH BROCCOLI RABE, TUNA, OLIVES & SLOW ROASTED TOMATOES – serves 4

½ lb. spaghetti
1 large bunch of broccoli rabe, stalk ends trimmed, chopped in 1” pieces, washed in a water bath
1 Tbs. coarse sea salt
5 large cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
3 Tbs. olive oil, plus 1 more Tbs. for finishing
1 5 oz. can white Albacore tuna, packed in water and drained
¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives, drained and chopped
2 Tbs. fresh grated Romano cheese
8 – 9 slow roasted Roma tomatoes
1 Tbs. olive oil
Thyme leaves from 4 sprigs of thyme

Roma tomatoes on the pan, ready to roast.TO MAKE THE ROASTED ROMA TOMATOES: DO THIS THE DAY BEFORE. Line a rimmed baking sheet with aluminum foil. Pile tomatoes on top, add 1 tablespoon of the oil, season with salt and pepper and toss. Add leaves from 4 sprigs of the thyme, toss again. Spread the tomatoes in a single layer on the foil-lined baking sheet, skin side down. Roast on the top shelf in the oven at 300 degrees for 2 hours. Let cool and store in a closed container in the refrigerator.

In a large pasta pot, place the washed broccoli rabe. Fill the pot with water to be at least 2 inches above the broccoli rabe. Add in the salt and stir to combine. Place the pot on high heat.

Meanwhile, warm the 3 Tbs. olive oil in a large skillet on low heat, (large enough to hold the broccoli rabe and pasta too), add the garlic and stir. Do not let it brown.

When small bubbles appear around the edges of the pot with the broccoli rabe, remove the rabe with a slotted spoon into a colander over a bowl and let drain. Let the water in the pot come back to a full boil. When that happens, add the pasta and cook for 3 minutes less than the lower number on the package directions.

Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, olives and slow roasted tomatoes - rabe and tuna in skillet.While the pasta is cooking, (be sure to stir every once in a while), put the broccoli rabe in the skillet with the garlic. Cook a bit more, and toss. Add the tuna, flaking it as you stir.

Quick Pasta with Broccoli Rabe, Tuna, olives and slow roasted tomatoes - pasta and rabe in a skillet.When the pasta is near the end of cooking, take a large coffee mug and scoop out some pasta water. Drain the pasta and add it to the skillet with the tuna and broccoli rabe, stirring with tongs to combine. Add about ¼ cup of pasta water and the grated Romano cheese to make a loose sauce. Stir and taste until the pasta is done. Stir in the black olives to combine and finish with a drizzle of a tablespoon more of olive oil.

Taste to your liking with more salt or more cheese and some fresh ground black pepper.

Warm the tomatoes in the microwave for a minute or two. Serve the pasta in warmed bowls, with the tomatoes on the side as pictured above.

A complete meal in a dish and so delicious!!

We just had the leftovers for lunch today – still yummy!

Filed Under: Dinner, Fish Tagged With: broccoli rabe, quick pasta, quick weeknight dinner, slow roasted tomatoes, tuna in pasta

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Mary Frances

Mary Frances

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