[extropy-chat] Melanzane alla Parmigiana (Eggplant Parmigiana) (was: The Extropy of Cooking)

[Eugen Leitl]

On Sat, Jul 22, 2006 at 09:24:30PM -0700, J. Andrew Rogers wrote:
> Cooking Report:
> 
> My crop of all the plant ingredients came in and I tried this recipe,  
> plus a little experimentation as well.  In short, Amara's basic  
> recipe is an *excellent* baseline, and the best rendition of this  
> classic dish that I have ever had.  It was universally liked across  
> my taste-testing audience that was subjected to it.  There were a  
> couple points where the instructions were a bit sparse, but after the  
> first attempt, the corrections were easy.  I made about a 2/3 recipe,  
> which served approximately 6 people.  It is worth noting that the  
> caloric density of this recipe, as best I can compute it, is quite  
> low despite the cheese and similar.
> 
> Some notes based on my experience:
> 
> - The tomatoes need to be significantly reduced (certainly more than  
> my first attempt) to come out right.  The construction of this dish  
> interferes with evaporation, so counting on reduction in the oven  
> will make a very watery result.  For the most part, any reduction  
> that needs to happen should happen on the stove.  I do most of my  
> work on the stove, so my relative lack of oven cooking experience bit  
> me here.
> 
> - Per Amara's instructions, I used "a lot" of fresh basil from the  
> backyard which turned out excellent.  Extremely coarse chopping is  
> all that is needed (the leaves on my plants get huge), and it behaves  
> almost like spinach in the dish.  Don't be shy with the quantity, it  
> works great.  It is unlikely that one will find it sold in grocery  
> stores in quantities so large that you should have leftovers.  It  
> would be really difficult to ruin this with too much basil.  I have  
> about 20 very happy basil plants which fortunately provide all the  
> basil I need.
> 
> - I would reduce the cooking temperature to 300F and increase the  
> typical cooking time to more like an hour.  As with most dishes of  
> this type, the cooking time is defined by the point where the water  
> in the top layer evaporates sufficiently to allow caramelization.   
> When the top starts to caramelize, it is done.  Amara made mention of  
> it, but I will reinforce it: this dish is better behaved when cooked  
> slowly.
> 
> - This is an eminently hackable recipe.  If you like the basic  
> flavors, there is no reason at all that some addition flavors cannot  
> be added in the layers.  I like it exactly how it is, but I can  
> easily imagine a half dozen different tasty modifications.  It  
> actually needed a bit of salt (or salt sources) in my preparation,  
> which I compensated for.
> 
> Overall, a really proper and basic recipe that is a worthwhile  
> addition to any repertoire.  I have certainly added it to mine.
> 
> 
> Out of curiosity, do Europeans cook in Celsius?  While I know  

Of course.

> everything is metric for the weights and measures, I don't recall  
> ever seeing many cooking temperatures in anything but Fahrenheit.

I have yet to see a recipe with heathen units in it.

-- 
Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> http://leitl.org
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