I hope my three-year hiatus from blogging didn’t leave you in the lurch. Can I call it a hiatus if I can count the times I blogged prior to my break on one hand? I guess the nice thing about it being MY blog is I can do whatever I want. To put it simply, I was out of the proverbial office (ootpo).
Since we last talked (or at least since I last talked at you), a lot has changed. And a lot has stayed the same! I’m (still) not a girl, not yet (although maybe closer to being) a woman. I am by no means a professional chef or professional cool girl in any way, but I am not afraid of trying, and as a wise man (rat) once said, “Anyone can cook, but only the fearless can be great!”
The culinary highlights of my past three years include braising a whole octopus, attempting (and failing) at making a Timballo, being told by strangers on Tiktok that I cut onions wrong, many impromptu fresh pasta nights, accepting canned tuna, miso pigs in a blanket, pairing fresh peaches with goopy stinky cheese, and learning to love (kewpie) mayo.
I also now have a cat named Polenta.
All of this is to say that I am back and better than ever. We’ll chat soon–until then, here are some snacks to hold you over.
peaches with basil and straciatella croquettas at El Champi in Old San Juangibson and onion rings at Fanelli shishitos and blistered red peppersoysters at Bad Luck Bar in Bed Stuymiso dijon pigs in a blanket
On Thursday, March 13th I came to Vermont with friends with the plan of staying for a weekend and returning on Sunday. Over the course of those 72 hours, things seemed to go wild in New York.
As a result, we decided to stay a few days longer. A few days turned into a week, and a week turned into a few weeks, and as of this coming Thursday, a few weeks will have turned into a month. I’m lucky to be safe, healthy, and with friends, and even luckier to be with friends who like to eat.
My therapist isn’t licensed to practice in Vermont and so I’ve been channeling my stress into increasingly-frequent bouts of moodiness, long walks, and cooking dinner every night.
The lighting at the dining-room table is sub prime, but it’s good enough to capture the deeply roasted melt in your mouth eggplant, and the crisp chickpeas we had last week. The yogurt is thinned with water, a drizzle of olive oil, and grated garlic. Crispy onions are the easiest way to turn anything into a culinarily masterpiece. If every recipe were rated with ability to warm your heart and take you elsewhere, this would score in the top tier every time.
Zaatar Chickpeas and Eggplant with Garlic Yogurt and Crispy Fried Onions
Ingredients:
For chickpeas and eggplant:
1 large eggplant
2 cans of chickpeas
Olive oil
2 tbsp zaatar
Kosher salt
For yogurt sauce:
1 cup greek yogurt
¼ cup room temp water
Olive oil
2 cloves of garlic, grated
1 tbsp cumin
Kosher salt
For crispy onions:
1 medium yellow onion
1 tbsp flour
Olive oil
Kosher salt
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet. Cube the eggplant (think 1 ½ to 2 inch chunks), salt generously, and dump onto one half of the baking sheet. Drain and rinse the chickpeas. Toss chickpeas in a tablespoon of olive oil and zaatar. Spread the chickpeas on the other half of the baking sheet. They should be in a single layer; if they seem too crowded, or your baking sheet is on the smaller side, use a second baking sheet. If the chickpeas are on top of each other they’ll steam rather than crisp. Salt the chickpeas, and bake for 40-50 minutes until eggplant is tender and chickpeas are roasted and crisp, turning half way through.
While the chickpeas and eggplant roast, whisk all of the yogurt sauce ingredients together until smooth and blended. Salt to taste, and add more cumin if you want it spicier. Set aside.
20 minutes before the chickpeas and eggplant are done, thinly slice the onions. Coat in the flour. Line a plate with a paper towel. Heat oil so it is about half an inch deep in a deep pot or frying pan. A dutch oven would be ideal, but I just used a skillet. Whatever you use, don’t crowd the onions. For a smaller skillet like I used, work in two batches. Once the oil is quite hot, fry the onions, turning only once, until they’re crispy and brown. Using tongs, move the onions from the pan to the paper towels, and salt generously. Don’t turn the onions or stir them; spread them out to prevent them from steaming and getting soggy.
Mix the chickpeas and eggplant together, and serve with a generous spoonful of yogurt sauce and handful of fried onions. We had this over rice with roasted cauliflower and a lemony, herby salad on the side.
I can post highly saturated flash on iPhone pictures to Instagram all I want, but I think it’s time I give you (the people, my friends) what you want. Recipes! Adaptations! (Both film and the garlicky kind). Exclamation points at the end of sentences complete with verbs instead of emojis! This is it! Coming soon will be the short ribs I pressure cooked for dinner Wednesday night, the subsequent onion soup I plan to make with the leftover onions from the short rib pot, and maybe a vegetable, because my mom slid into my DMs last night to tell me the meal I’d posted looked like it was lacking on that front. Who knew 2019 would bring us more platforms for our parents to tell us to eat our vegetables? Anyways, I “did the thing and” made a website. I don’t know how to change font colors or anything yet, so enjoy this easy to read formatting while you can.
Cool Girl Chef 