Eggplant and Feta Cheese Gratin

Ah winter is finally here... I have to tell you I had the best day off yesterday. I just cooked, I ate, and I slept, all day hahaha. I made a yummy vegetarian dish, Eggplant and Feta Cheese Gratin, recipe I got from my friend's vegetarian cook book. I simplified the recipe of course, I had to make sure that it was still yummy and affordable :)

In my shopping list;
2 eggplants
2 canned chopped tomato (with basil and garlic)
100 gram feta cheese

And from the pantry;
1 onion, chopped finely
olive oil
parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, and a little bit of sugar to taste.

And here is how I cooked it;

1. Preheat oven to 200 degrees.
2. Cut eggplants into thin slices, sprinkle with salt, and leave them for about half an hour until all the bitter liquid comes out. Pat dry, and cook on chargrill pan until cooked and softened.
3. On a separate pan, cook onion with a dash of olive oil until softened. Add in chopped tomato, and a little bit of salt, pepper, and about a teaspoon of sugar to get rid of the acidity. Cook for about 20 minutes on low heat, until thickened.
4. Grease the baking dish, and arrange a third of the eggplant slices, then top it with the tomato mixture and a third of the feta cheese and some parmesan cheese. Repeat this step with the second and third layer.
5. Into the oven for 30 minutes, and that's it; Eggplant and Feta Cheese Gratin.

I love the mature flavour of the eggplant, and I love tomato and cheese too, that's why I can't think of anything I don't like about this dish. I actually added extra feta cheese when I cooked it. But some people might think it's a little too overpowering, but again, it's entirely up to you.

The actual recipe actually didn't salt the eggplant before cooking, but I think it tastes better after you get rid of the bitter liquid. I didn't use fresh basil either, it's just cheaper using canned tomato with basil and garlic, and it still tastes good. Having said that, I would recommend you to use fresh basil if you can afford it :)

I spent $11.14 for the ingredients, and that makes 4 serves. That's less than $3 a serve.

Javanese Banana and Bread Pudding

This one here is my Mom's favourite, and to be honest with you I hated it when I was little. The thing is when you live so far away from home you start missing those things that reminds you of home. I started craving for it a few weeks ago when I was talking on the phone with my Mom for our regular weekly catch up. So I thought I really just have to make it even when banana is so expensive.

Unlike traditional bread and butter pudding, this Javanese pudding actually uses coconut milk, so at the end it makes a different consistency. And if you find it looking a little bit like curdled coconut milk, don't worry, that's how it's supposed to be. I also use this 'soft butter bread' from Asian bakery, Bread Top, it's only $3.20, and it has a slight sweetness to it that works so well with the banana and coconut milk.

On my shopping list;

2 ripe bananas, cut into dice size.
1 pack 'soft butter bread'

From the pantry;

2 eggs, beaten.
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
2 cups coconut milk
1/2 cup sugar

And, let's start cooking;
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees.
2. Boil coconut milk on medium heat, and add in sugar, keep stirring.
3. Add in banana and cinnamon, cook for about 5 minutes. Set aside to cool.
4. Tear bread and layer in a baking dish.
5. Add the eggs into coconut milk mixture. Pour the whole liquid into baking dish, let the bread soak up all the liquid for a few minutes.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until set.

Yummm my apartment smells like home now :) It's sweet and very... Javanese, like very rich and sweet. Hope you like it.

It cost me $6.40 for the bananas (super expensive) and $3.20 for the bread. That make 4 serves, or $2.40 a serve, that's good enough to make me feel home.

Eggplant Stuffed with Mushroom - Julia Child Recipe, Simplified

I might've told you so many times before that I love eggplant.  And I might've told you as well that I love French food. And I loved it so much that my best friends bought me French cook books for my birthday. I got 3 books, and one of them is Julia Child's legendary 'Mastering The Art of French Cooking'.

I love the book and I love the recipes. I mean, they're definitely not easy cooking, but I love how each time I cook it, it surprises me how good the food turns out! You know, like, it's almost unbelievable how good the food is, I keep thinking 'oh my god, I made this?'

Now, this recipe is called Aubergines Farcies Duxelles or eggplant stuffed with mushroom. The recipe is actually quite intricate and time consuming, but it's very cheap to make and it's definitely worth spending some time in the kitchen.

And in my shopping list;

2 medium size eggplants
1 1/2 tablespoon Philadelphia cream cheese
1 medium size brown onion, chop finely.
1 small shallot, chop finely
250gr button mushroom

And from the pantry;

2 tablespoon butter
1 table spoon of thyme (leftover from my Tuna Salad)
salt

Let's get cooking;
1. Cut the eggplant in half, lengthwise. Sprinkle with salt to draw out the bitterness. Leave it for about half an hour, and dry the liquid out with paper towel.
2. At the meantime, mince mushroom finely, use your electric chopper if you want to save some time. Then using a towel or muslin cloth, squeeze all the liquid out, this way the mushroom can perfectly sauté.
3. Melt a tablespoon of butter in a pan until it starts to bubble and sauté mushroom and chopped shallot for about 5 minutes until brown. Set aside in a mixing bowl.
4. Melt the remaining butter and add in chopped onion until brown, but nor caramelized. Mix in with sautéed mushroom. Add in thyme and cream cheese as well. (You can add chopped parsley too)
5. When the eggplant is ready, carve the flesh carefully so it's easier to remove. Place in roasting pan, flesh-side up. Pour around 1 cm hot water into the pan, and place under hot broiler for 15 minutes, or until lightly brown on top and a little softer.
6. Carefully remove the flesh and mix it with the mushroom mix. I used my scissors to cut the eggplant into finer pieces.
7. Place the stuffing back into the eggplant shells, and place in roasting pan. Again pour some hot water into the pan, then bake in pre heated 180 degrees oven for 30 minutes.

You can also put some bread crumbs and gruyere cheese on top and baste with melted butter before baking. But to me it's already rich in flavour, I don't think it's necessary.

That's it! One really decadent dish, I love it! I not only recommend you, I urge you to give it a go!

To make this dish, I only spent; $4 for the eggplant, 40 cents for the onion, 10 cents for the shallots, and $3.20 for the cream cheese (and I only use a little bit of it). That's $7.70 for 2 serve of beautiful French dish.

Cannellini Beans and Tuna Salad

Have you ever been to Journal Cafe on Flinders Lane? Go there and I recommend you to try the Cannellini  Beans and Tuna salad. I used to love going there because it's next to the City Library, so I would borrow some books and read it while enjoying the coffee and the salad for lunch. Hmmm... too bad, now I have to save some money for New York. But not too bad because I've been able to make my own version of this salad.

As always; on my grocery list;

400gr cannellini beans.
130gr good quality canned tuna in spring water.
2 celery sticks, chopped into bite sizes.
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved.
just a tiny bit of red onion, chopped finely.

And from the pantry;

1 tablespoon of olive oil
about a tablespoon of fresh thyme leaves (leftover from my Irish Stew)
1 clove of garlic, crushed.

This is how you make it;
1. Rinse and drain cannellini beans.
2. In a big salad bowl, mix crushed garlic with olive oil, and thyme.
3. Add in the vegetables, beans, and drained tuna. Mix well.
4. Serve by itself, or on top of sourdough toast.

I always love tuna, and I love all the ingredient here, especially thyme (they didn't use it as the Journal cafe). It's just very fresh and light. If you like you can add some avocado in, and drizzle a little bit of lemon juice on top.

I can't believe how cheap this recipe is; $1.25 for the canned beans, $2.98 for the tuna, $2.98 for the whole pack of cherry tomatoes (we only use less than a quarter of it), 54 cents for the celery sticks, 56 cents for the red onion. That's $8.31 all together, and that serves 3, so it's $2.77 per serve. Yummy and super affordable...

Cinnamon Apple Cake

This is a slightly modified recipe from a book called "At My French Table" by Jane Webster. My best friends actually gave me this book for my 25th birthday :) Anyway it's a fine recipe called 'Normandy Apple Cake'. But instead of using freshly grated nutmeg, I used the traditional spice; cinnamon.

This cake is very moist, and I also love how it's not too sweet. It's perfect having this cake after a long day at work, and I love having it with tea. My housemate loves having it with ice cream. Yummm... beautiful cake always makes my day, especially when I don't have to spend a lot of money to make it.

In my shopping list;

2 or 3 granny smith or jonathan apples. Cored, peeled and roughly chopped

250gr unsalted butter

And from the pantry;

4 eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon of brown sugar

1 cup caster sugar

2 cups self-raising flour

1 cup milk

around a teaspoon ground cinnamon

And this is how I make it;

1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees

2. Cook apples in some water and brown sugar for 10 minutes, then drain and sprinkle with cinnamon.

3. In a big bowl, mix butter and caster sugar with electric mixer until combined.

4. Add eggs, one by one. Then sift in the flour and add milk. Beat again until combined and soft mixture is formed.

5. Add in half of the apple, and then pour mixture into cake pan, and top with remaining of the chopped apples.

6. Bake for 50 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with fresh cream or...  ice cream. Or if you can't afford it, just dust it with icing sugar :p

Unfortunately my housemate threw out my shopping receipt, so I can't tell you exactly how much I spent to make this cake... I think it's about $10 and that makes 8 slices, so it's $1.25 per slice. A lot cheaper, and (I think) it's better than most cake you get from cafes. I'm gonna have the last slice now, yummm....

St Patrick's Day Special - Irish Stew!

It was my first attempt and I didn't expect it to be this good! I mean, my Irish friend, Brendan, told me about Irish stew and he told me how he hated it! So I thought of trying it, and then it was St. Patrick's day a few days ago, so it was perfect timing. So here it is, St. Patrick's Day special - Irish Stew!

I find it interesting how the meat doesn't need browning, instead all the ingredients are just put together in an ovenproof dish and cooked slowly for 2.5 hours.

Here is what I needed to buy from supermarket;

around 600gr Lamb forequarter chop

375ml beef stock / chicken stock

4 sprigs thyme

1 large parsnip

2 carrots

2 large potatoes

1 brown onion

a handful of parsley.

And from the pantry I only need;

2 tablespoon of tomato paste

a dash of worcestershire sauce

salt and pepper

And all you have to do;

1. Preheat oven to 160 degrees

2. Chop parsnip, carrots, potatoes and onion coarsely.

3. Place all the ingredients in an ovenproof dish, and cook for 2 hours, covered.

4. Uncover, cook for another half an hour, add salt and pepper to taste. Garnish with chopped parsley.

That's all. I was quite surprised with how simple it is, and yet all the ingredients made beautiful flavour combination. I used chicken stock because I think beef stock can be a little overpowering, but may be I should try it next time.

All the ingredients cost me $14, and that's $7 a portion. Not bad, I would cook this again next year in St. Patrick's day, and drink lots of beer. And I'll make Brendan eat my stew :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Beef Stroganoff

Hmmm... Why do I love this dish...? I just love it. I mean, I love mushrooms and sour cream and I also love love love dill, it's funny how this simple combination makes flavourful, delicious dish. I really like the sauce, so I add more sour cream and mushrooms, I think they're the best part of the dish. I'm not too sure but I think the actual Stroganoff recipe uses dried sweet paprika powder, but I couldn't find it in supermarket, so I used fresh red capsicum, and add a bit of sugar... I hope that makes sense.

Let's get cooking. I bought from supermarket;

about 500gr beef Stroganoff cut
300ml sour cream
200gr sliced button mushroom
fresh dill, chopped coarsely.
1 small lemon (just need a little bit of the juice, so if you have that bottled lemon juice, just use it. I personally like fresh lemon juice.)
1 red capsicum, sliced thinly.
1 small brown onion, sliced thinly.

And from the pantry I already have;

1 clove of garlic, crushed
just a dash of red wine
1 tablespoon of tomato paste
2 tablespoon of butter
1 teaspoon of sugar
salt and pepper to taste

And I cooked it, like this;
1. Melt half of the butter and brown the meat, set aside.
2. Using the remaining butter, brown the onion and crushed garlic until soften, then add mushroom and sliced capsicum.
3. Add in the beef back to the pan, and add a dash of lemon juice and red wine, and just a little bit of water until boils. Simmer and cover for 10 minutes until the water reduced.
4. Add sour cream, tomato paste and dill, cook and stir until heated through. Add sugar, salt and pepper to taste.
5. Serve it with rice or pasta.

I love this better with rice, cause it soaks up all the sauce and it's really yummy. I think this recipe would be the most expensive recipe I have cooked since I started the blog, but it's actually not that bad. It cost me about $17 in total, but that serves 3. So that's just a little over $5 per serve, and I mean, yes I'm on budget but every now and then I feel like I still have to treat myself without going over my budget...