Pacman eats Baba Ghanoush

Aug 4th, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 3 Comments

Little arabic lesson, Baba Ganoush, really pronounced “Ghannouj”, is literally translated as ”father cute”. Don’t ask. I have no idea why.lol.

I have one issue with the western adaptation of this dish. Baba Ghanoush and Mutabal are often mixed up and interchanged. They are very similar dishes, but are distinctly different. Baba Ghanough contains no tahini whatsoever, while Mutabal does. It is frequently Mutabal that is refered to as “baba ghanoush” in the west.

SO, I decided to introduce you to the REAL Baba Ghanoush. Very simple recipe. Completely vegetarian/vegan, healthy, and quick. Best part is it holds up well in the fridge and you can enjoy it for several days…mine is usually gone before it even cools

It is best served cold. And I think the eggplant is one of the least utilized veggies, so here it is, an ode to you my aubergine friend!

First, you start by repeatedly stabbing ur eggplant friend…all over…way to start off a friend ship 

Next, place in preheated oven at 350F for about an hour or till tender. Don’t cover it or put any oil or anything. Simply pop them in after stabbing em.

Now the traditional way calls for burning over an open flame on the stove, but this is far too messy for me, as it requires you to put it directly on the stove top flame. If you have a maid (i don’t), then go for it.lol. Otherwise, into the oven they go. The only negative is you don’t get the smoky flavor.

Pull em out when they are as wrinkly as your grandmothers buttocks. Sorry, too much?

Then, carefuly peel off the skin(after it cooled), keeping the flesh intact. If you have cooked this enough, then it should be fairly easy.   

I like to take out the seeds, just simply pull out the ’sacks’. 

Now this is VERY important. Grab the eggplant between your plams and squeeze. SQUEEEZE. You will be surprised how much water comes out. Keep doing it till barely any comes out. If you don’t you will end up with a soggy mess.

After, just roughly dice it all up. I like it chunky. 

Other ingredients you need:

• 1 tomatoe
• 1/2 onion
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 lemon
• olive oil
• salt 

Crush garlic, and squeeze the lemon into the eggplant. Add salt. Mix. It should be really lemony to be good. 

Top with the tomatoe, then the onion. Then drizzle with olive oil. You can add mint or parsely.  

Then guess what happened? PACMAN decided to join. 

Sorry, i’m a nerd. I couldn’t help it.

So basically this is delicious and I ate it all then licked the plate. Your turn to eat real Baba Ghanoush.Ok? Ready, set, GO!

SKW3VCG2CBH5

Mexican Banana Icecream

Jun 22nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | 7 Comments

If any of you watch Jeff Dunham, you know of Jose, the Jalapenjo on a stick. His voice is stuck in my head as I make these. “kh-ellloo…I am kh-0se, kh-alapenjo…on a stick” If you don’t, you HAVE to click here to watch. You just have to see it. I said you have to.

 If you don’t I will find you and tickle you with a feather till you pee, or die, whichever comes first.

So…basically… when your mother in-law comes over and launches a bunch of bananas on your counter do u make A) smoothies B) bananas foster C) Banana Icecream (please pretend you didn’t read the title of this post…haha). If you know me, you know I love any frozen yummy wummy thing. This is easy peezy breezy, fast, very healthy and yummy alternative to  icecream. It’s lactose free, gluten free (if u dont include the tortilla chips), and very low in calories. Totally guilt free(but I never feel guilty about eating.lol).

Use some bamboo skewers and run it carefully thru the banana.

Now at this step, you can either  freeze the bananas first (at least an hour, but not too long because they become really hard), and then move on to the next step (chocolate), or, you can do the next step and then freeze. I like to freeze first then dip in chocolate (so you can actually taste the chocolate).

This is a case where double dipping is not only allowed, but encouraged!

Melt and temper some chocolate and add some chilipowder, some cinnamon, some nutmeg, some black pepper and some smoked paprika. Sweet and spicy!

I LOVE eating these straight off the stick, but that day, i had company coming, and wanted to serve in a plate, so I improvised a way to keep the chocolate from going everywhere before I slipped the banana off into a plate.

The final touch, some cruched tortilla chips. Perfect touch of salt and crunch!

They were gobbled up too fast for me to take a final pic, but believe me, this is a crowd pleaser, and totally kid friendly, and easy for them to make.

Bananas freeze amazingly well and end up having a texture like icecream. You HAVE to try this!

Salt baked Fish + GIVEAWAY

Feb 2nd, 2010 by ++Mira++ | Comment

I have never made this before. I’ve seen it once and funnily enough bobby flay made it this week on iron chef, though in a slightly different way

So, what i used was lemons, red snapper (1 lb each), salt,lots of salt,lol, and bay leaf and seasoning.

i cant live without lemons, i looooove them…yum

i ended up using 3 salt boxes/cans, i think u can get away with 2

i filled the bottom of a pan with it, NOTE, wet the salt and make it stick to each other

red snapper is one of my favorite fish, its sooo delicious and easy to eat

I actually like my fish whole, i just get it gutted and de-scaled, however NOTE that i read that its better to leave the scales on the fish, so the skin peels off easier with the salt. If i had read tehis before i wouldve tried each fish one way

in tony montana voice: say hello to my little friend…

stuff with lemon, seasoning and bay leaf

wet the salt with water

so its this consistancy, dont mind the writing on my hand, thats my to do list.lol. if i write it on paper i lose the to do list so i forget what i have to do.lol

mound the salt around the fish. NOTE bobby flay and martha stewart both add a couple egg whites to the salt instead of water and bobby also put some parchment paper over the fish before covering with salt. I would reccomend this because if you are not careful preparing this parts of the fish exposed to the salt can be too salty

i baked at 350 for 30 min, its really 15 min per pound according to martha.

I struggled a bit with “uncracking” this and revealing it, and salt flew everywhere! haha..so be careful.

Ta dahhhhh!

also, u need to peel the skin right off

So here it is! sorry for the plating but my camera was running outa battery so i had to hurry lol

It was really cooked perfect inside, just make sure you get all the salt off before plating it(because i made the mistake of not wetting all the salt)…hehe..so enjoy..if u make this let me know of any tips!

also, this is a great book: Martha Stewart’s Cooking School and they have this recipe in it so i’m giving a new copy away!

To enter you must be a US resident, You can either tweet an entry @MiraUncut, RT to your followers, or comment here, or do all and it counts as 3 entries!

====> to enter just tell me what your favorite cook book is!

this giveaway will end on friday by 5 pm ET and i’ll announce on saturday. good luck!

UPDATED TO ADD: the winner is KATE from thisamericanwife.net! yay!!