the fire is on

This was a big day in.

Actually not most of it- mostly it was spent out laughing and eating with friends...

but in the 4 hours I've been home the count on dishes cooked is 4. The count on foodstuffs used up is 3.

First up: mayonaise.

Why? Why not! I've wanted to work on the "mother sauces," and I wanted to get rid of the last bit of olive oil in the jug. AND I needed it to make baked eggplant...so really, I couldn't not make it.

This was of course a Julia recipe, so it covered two pages and had all kinds of admonitions about "the crisis stage" of emulsification (down to how many whips per second at a minimum) and info on how to fix "turned" mayo. To clarify, this is not referring to mayo gone rotten. That's gross. Throw it out. Rather, mayo that comes out of suspension- yes, also gross, but only in that natural peanut butter way before you stir it.

I def used the Kitchenaid for this one-god knows I have neither the arm strength or interest in hand-whipping. It worked well on the #8 setting, but still it took a solid 15-20 minutes of adding oil drop by drop, then at most in a steady stream. The final product was incredibly heady-and will be great as aioli or on the eggplant. I'd like to try smaller batches with flavored oils, and different types of oils. Also bc perhaps not everyone is excited by slightly green mayo. But it is damn tasty.


The mayo was created for a dish, and the leftover egg whites created the need for a dish to use them up. So baked eggplant a la Barbara.

It's so fitting that dish that makes me think of my mom should start with a purple vegetable!

This is also, my favorite way to have eggplant-breaded with mayo and baked till crispy. The only down side is that you can rarely make enough to satisfy. You have to factor to eat a third when they are still cooling on the sheet before they get to the table, another third when they are on the table, plus at least five to be eaten cold out of the fridge the next day as your making a new dinner. I ran out of breadcrumbs too, so could only make half as much as I wanted to AND THEN had to resist entirely bc these are for a dish for tomorrow.

!!!

The home mayo made these incredibly tender-melt in your mouth good. And It was good knowing the flavor absorbed by the eggplant was good olive oil and fresh eggs. I barely needed to flavor the bread crumbs. So good, this is definitely an all-time favorite dish...and these wll be great with the cheese polenta and tomato sauce...




What about the leftover egg whites? Coconut Meringues.

These got what I consider the highest praise. Mr. Dave endorsed them with "maybe I've just have bad meringue before this..." And as he has the most extensive sweet tooth I know of, I'll take that compliment thank you very much.

They are pretty damn good- I actually don't like meringue either, but was giving myself a sugar headache eating them as they cooled. Bc I do like coconut. And the texture was amazing. Most meringues I've had have a thick chalky consistency, and crumble really without any flavor. But these were nice and crispy on the outside, and had just a little toothiness inside-which I'll attribute to the coconut, adding just the bit of moisture. These would also be good with the bottoms dipped into a good dark chocolate-they are really sweet, and that would temper it. Or even chocolate with a little coffee or cinnamon...