italian Archives - Author K. Williams

Culinary K’s Eggplant Parmesan

April 30, 2021 By Captain Maiel

Everyone thinks they have certain recipes down pat, but I found that all Eggplant Parmesan recipes left me wanting something different. The eggplant is always mushy, regardless of serving time. For those with texture issues, this can be quite a problem. You find yourself gagging on an otherwise tasty dish.

Did you know that people can be allergic to eggplant? I worked with two people who were deathly allergic to this food. Even the smell of it could send them to the hospital. So, when we did catering at the University, eggplant of any kind was out! You’d be surprised exactly where you’ll finds this ingredient. For instance, one of the dishes served at a conference was simply a vegetable soup. Due to missing the ingredient list, the individual was hospitalized for a week, just because they stirred the soup and smelled it! The smell alone had swelled her throat, cutting off air. Anaphylactic shock is no joke!

Anyway, allergies and texture aversions aside, try this version if you like and can eat eggplant…

Image by PDPhotos from Pixabay. a wedge of parmesan cheese

Image by Jacqueline Macou from Pixabay, wet eggplant stacked in a wooden crate at market

What you’ll need: small eggplant, Italian or plain panko breadcrumbs, sea salt, grated parmesan cheese, grated Romano, garlic powder, 2 eggs, plain vegetable oil, favorite marinara, grated mozzarella, knife, peeler, skillet, flipper or tongs, two breading dishes, a fork, dipping bowl.

Ingredients:

1 – Eggplant
2 – Extra Large Eggs
1/2 TSP – Garlic Powder
2 Cups – Panko Breadcrumbs (Italian or unseasoned).
1/4 Cup – Grated Parmesan Cheese
1/4 Cup – Grated Romano Cheese
Sea Salt and pepper to taste (a couple twists on the grinder is what I use).
Vegetable Oil (enough to submerge most of the eggplant).
Marinara Sauce
Grated Mozzarella

Peel the eggplant then cut it into long thin slices. You may also do this as rounds if you really wish. However, I find the long slices work best for time and the dish.
Place the eggplant on paper towels to blot for about twenty minutes, or while you prep the other parts.
Whisk the two eggs with the garlic powder in one of two breading dishes. In the other breading dishes, combine the breadcrumbs, Parmesan, Romano, and the salt and pepper.
Heat a large skillet with enough oil to submerge the eggplant on one side, and the edges, on medium.
Once the oil is ready for frying, dip the first piece of eggplant into the egg and coat fully. Move to the breadcrumbs mixture and coat both sides. Use a fork to press the slice and crumbs. Place in the oil. Repeat until you’ve filled the skillet.
Fry the eggplant until golden brown and flip. Fry the other side until golden brown. Put cooked pieces on paper towels to blot, and sprinkle with a tiny bit of parmesan and mozzarella.
Repeat the breading and frying steps until all the pieces of the eggplant are cooked.
Plate the fried eggplant and serve with a small dipping bowl marinara and a side of spaghetti and sauce. Goes great with garlic bread, too!

This version avoids layering the eggplant and soaking it in sauce that will make the breading mushy, creating a texture nightmare for some eaters. You can also fry the eggplant in spears (or straws sized pieces). If doing this in coin slices, follow the same steps as above.

Remember to discard any leftover breadcrumbs. Once contaminated with egg, it’s not safe to store. You can cook any remaining egg mixture for your dog so long as there is no onion in them (onion is poisonous to dogs). Some vets do not recommend feeding garlic to your dog, either.

Did you know that eggplant is part of the toxic nightshade family?

If you enjoyed this recipe, support the site by subscribing to the weekly newsletter. Donate by buying a book.

Culinary K’s Quick Batch Spaghetti (Marinara) Sauce

February 15, 2016 By Captain Maiel

The Culinary K series strives to bring you realistic recipes you can easily incorporate into your life.

Making marinara sauce probably conjures all sorts of long Sunday memories. It was either around your nonna’s table or your mom’s. In my house, mom was the great cook. She says she started because of a high school home economics class. She wasn’t raised with much, and cooking wasn’t her mother’s strong suit. Gramma did her best. Despite everything, she raised one hell of a daughter. I was the beneficiary of that, I and my brother.

I started to cook at a young age with my mom. I would help in the kitchen where I could, of course, when the whim took me. I have always loved food, so it took me more often than not. Today, many of the recipes that I share on the blog are family recipes that I have learned. Some recipes are things I have developed on my own with ingenuity and know how.

I believe that anyone can cook. It is a learned skill.

The things that help to inform a good cook is a good background in some science, so you understand the chemistry behind cooking: what heat will do to certain substances, what one substance does to another, and so on. Art is another background, as well as history and literature. The mixture of these topics inform the cook in ways that you will not always realize.

But, you are here to catch a quick recipe for making spaghetti sauce. Let’s get started…

What you will need:

1 medium sauce pan, wooden spoon, measuring spoons, garlic (fresh), onion (fresh), olive oil, pack of crushed or chopped tomatoes (Pomì brand is best and it comes in a foil pack box, sold right by the cans), basil, parsley, sugar, salt, pepper, bay leaves, oregano, parm (Parmigiano-Reggiano) and Romano cheese mix (fresh grated).

1 Pomì pack (26.46 oz) of chopped tomatoes
1/2 small onion sliced or chopped
3 medium cloves of fresh garlic chopped
2 TBSP Olive Oil
2 TBSP Parsley
2 TBSP Parm/Romano cheese fresh grated
2 TSP Basil
1 TSP Sugar
1 Large Bay leaf (dried, some are small so use 2 if this is the case)

Directions:

Chop your onions and garlic. Grate your cheese if not already done.
Add olive oil to a medium saucepan and heat on medium.
Add chopped onion and sauté until translucent. Add chopped garlic half way through the process (about 2 or 3 minutes in). Salt and pepper to taste. (If you’re using mills, a couple turns usually is enough.)
Reduce heat. Cut open the Pomì tomatoes and poor over the onions and garlic.
Add parsley, parm/Romano, basil, sugar and bay leaf. Stir together well.
Simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour.

You may need to add water, as the sauce can thicken up considerably in the cooking process. If that is the case, use a small glass to add a little bit at a time until you get the desired consistency, but only if you are going to use the sauce right away. If you are storing the sauce to use later in the week, or freeze, do not add the water until you reheat.

This sauce freezes great to make ahead and use later. It will make about 4 meals for the average person (1/2 cup to 2/3 cup per serving).

Tip: remove the bay leaf at the end of the cooking. Many bay leaves will make you sauce bitter if left in the sauce during storage.

This sauce is great for spaghetti, eggplant or chicken Parmesan, meatball sandwiches, etc.

Note: this is not how I make my large batch sauce, but you can multiply this recipe to make a bigger batch that will work just as well as Grandma’s Sunday sauce.

Enjoy!

If you like what you read, sign up for the newsletter to have my posts sent to you once a week in an email. It’s simple! Just enter your email address in the box on the top right of the page.

What’s So Special About Where You’re From? Open Book Blog Hop #14

July 21, 2015 By Captain Maiel

‘Do you like to read? Wouldn’t you like to know more about your favorite authors? Well you came to the right place! Join the MMB Open Book Blog Hop each Wednesday and they will tell all. Every week we’ll answer questions and after you’ve enjoyed the blog on this site we’ll direct you to another. So come back often for a thrilling ride! Tell your friends and feel free to ask us questions in the comment box.’

Topic: What is special, unique or fun about where you live? We are from all over the world, tell us about where you are.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you enjoyed Stephany Tullis‘s response to the topic of where they live, and maybe found a new interesting book to read from her library.

There are a few things about the place where I was born that are special. Upstate New York, no really upstate, near the mountains of the Adirondacks, is swathed in history. It was and still is the home of many Native American tribes. The Battle of Saratoga was fought there. The National Cemetery honoring our fallen service members is located there. And, President Grant passed away there. It is famed for the ‘healing’ spring waters and summer concert series at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center.

Most of all, it’s special because I grew up there. It’s the home being referred to when I say, I’m going home for the holidays. That’s where the turkey is carved and the tree lit.

In the early 1900s, my great grandfather came as a young boy from Italy to the area. He and his family took a derelict looking steamer across the cantankerous Atlantic. So too, my father’s grandfather came from the Netherlands to be there. I still have to ask, why there? Usually the larger cities are more attractive to immigrants, for both work and convenience. The truth is, that the areas they chose had workers from

their respective backgrounds, and they likely came for work and familiarity. New York was a Dutch colony. Saratoga attracted rail workers, both Italian and Irish, for the resort work and trains. I don’t know much about these men, as they both passed away well before I came to the world, so much of that is conjecture from historical evidence.

The fact that President Grant enjoyed Broadway in Saratoga, as I did growing up, is just exciting. If you’ll remember, I wrote a US Civil War novel called Blue Honor, and it centers around the Federal Army of the Potomac, to which he was later in charge. By the time Grant came to live in the area, he was destitute from speculation by fortune hunters and dying of throat cancer. You can visit the home on Mount McGregor as it has been preserved since his death. It’s a nice tour and you learn a great deal about our 18th president.

Over in Schuylerville, named for General Schuyler, you’ll find the Saratoga Battlefield, site of two battles that created a major turning point of the war. North of Mount McGregor, you can enter the historic Lake George and Fort Ticonderoga area. The lakes were the setting of major revolutionary battles. You can tour the forts and witness reenactments annually. Colonials, Natives and Red Coats battle it out on the field for a living history play that takes up the whole field. The sound of booming cannon from miles up the ridge, to right next to you on the field is thrilling.

There is so much more I could share, but it would take a book!

Why don’t you hop on over to Tracy Krimmer’s blog and see what’s so special about the area in which she lives. Pick up a summer beach read anthology she’s featured in for free!

Stephany Tullis’s life changed dramatically in the fall of 2008. When her oldest son asked, ‘why don’t you just write a book? Do what you love to do?’, after a few weeks of thought, she decided to give it a shot.

From inception to publication, Stephany worked for four years on her first novel, The Master’s Plan, A Novel About Purpose. When thinking about how much she continually enjoys reading her debut novel, she writes, “I still laugh at all my favorite chapters and have yet to decide who is my favorite or least liked character. It’s amazing! I was able to spin a tail around two frameworks that have had a major influence on my life: church and government politics. In writing The Master Plan, I was reminded of what a blessed life I have had and that despite what appeared to be very dismal circumstances, I was able to use my creativity and love of writing in a different way. Truly, I can see and believe, it was all part of a master plan.”

Stephany Tullis graduated from Russell Sage College with a Masters in Public Service Administration. She is the recipient of several leadership and career related rewards. She continues to consult for not for profits and lives in Georgia with her family.

Tracy’s love of writing began at nine years old. She wrote stories about aliens at school, machines that did homework for you, and penguins. Now she pens books and short stories about romance. She loves to read a great book, whether it be romance or science fiction, or any genre in between, or pop popcorn and catch up on her favorite TV shows or movies. She’s been known to crush a candy or two as well. Her first romance novel, Pieces of it All, released in May 2014 followed in December with Caching In, a romance mixed with the hobby of geocaching. She also has written several short stories.