Posted on 07/28/2018 4:12:20 PM PDT by Jamestown1630
Eggplant Parmigiana is one of my favorite dishes, but it’s a time-consuming dish to make and messes up a lot of dishes. And even though we’ve used for years a great, easy recipe from America’s Test Kitchen which involves baking instead of frying the eggplant, my husband’s commitment to low-carb eating makes any recipe that uses breading less than ideal.
Looking for a fast, low-carb alternative, I happened to find ‘Cooking with Pina’ on YouTube, and Pina’s quick, throw-together recipe. It may not be like what you are used to, but if you like eggplant for itself and are low-carbing, this might be a good way to get your ‘fix’ and vary your diet. You can use your own sauce, or buy bottled stuff. (We are actually making this right now, and tonight we’re using bottled because our year’s worth of the homemade stash is finally depleted :-(
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zuWw56O0P4w
(Pina's is a really nice website for Italian cooking - check out her Marinara sauce, using pesto, and the Potato Pie. And she finally taught me how that cute little stove-top espresso pot works - I must have one!)
Here in Maryland our 'Beautiful Swimmer', the Blue Crab, is the State Crustacean; and crab soup is a big deal. Ocean City throws a festival and crab soup cookoff every year, where local chefs compete in both Red and White categories. My favorite cookbook for traditional Chesapeake recipes has always been John Shields’ original ‘Chesapeake Bay Cooking’, and here is a recipe from that book for a traditional style Crab Soup:
Crab Soup at Cross Street Market (Baltimore)
Serves 10
4 quarts water
2 cans (1 lb. 10 oz.) tomatoes or 5 cups peeled tomatoes
1 can (10 oz.) tomato sauce
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup barley
1/2 cup fresh parsley -- chopped
1 Tablespoon Old Bay Seasoning
3 stalks celery -- diced
1 large onion -- chopped
2 ham shanks
1 beef bone
8 blue crabs -- cleaned/quartered
2 pounds claw crab meat -- picked for shells
1/2 head cabbage -- chopped
2 medium potatoes -- diced
4 cups mixed vegetables, fresh or frozen (corn, green beans, peas, limas, carrots)
salt and pepper to taste
In a large soup pot, combine the water, tomatoes, tomato sauce, bay leaves, barley, Old Bay, celery, onion, ham shanks, beef bone, salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, and simmer for 1 hour.
Add the soup crabs and backs. Continue cooking for another 30 minutes. Add the cabbage, potatoes, and mixed vegetables. When the vegetables are tender, add the claw meat, and simmer a little longer. Discard the backs. Pick meat from the shanks, and add to soup.
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There are probably as many ways to make Maryland Crab soup as there are families who make it; this article from Mid Atlantic Cooking offers a history of the soup, and an exhaustive compendium of historical recipes; it also includes a recipe for making your own Old Bay seasoning from scratch:
https://midatlanticcooking.wordpress.com/2012/08/16/maryland-crab-soup/comment-page-1
And here's the link to John Sheilds' original 'Chesapeake Bay Cooking':
-JT
Mom made Zucchini and Pumpkin bread in these Black Diamond Walnut tins, Her Mother gave her the old tin cans, Now My brother has them and still makes the bread.
I just laugh, Really? Old tin cans is the legacy?
It’s mighty good slathered in butter..
I was saying the other night, I was lucky to grow up before supermarkets.
I used to churn butter with my great Grandma. I would help her with the bread.
We would make donuts for the guys in the field, I was to little to mess with the oil, but I got all the donut holes I wanted sprinkled wit sugar and cinnimom and that warm bread slathered with fresh butter an sprinkled with sugar still makes me smile
Come June yall had to get all the strawberrys in.. then weeks of putting them up and me and the brothers spelling each other off cranking the strawberry ice cream...
I baked Homemade bread for the first time this week! It was delicious!
I’m a late bloomer when it comes to cooking. Haven’t figured out how to enjoy the clean up afterwards..LOLOL
I saw a way to make doughnuts without all the fuss....and I will try it...Just use Grand dairy biscuits...cut hole and deep fry...roll in whatever after.
For a lot of really inventive low-carb recipes, look up Dottotrot.com. She and her husband have a website and YouTube channel - check out the Baked Radish alternative to loaded baked potato.
The eggplant turned out very well; but depending on how thick you cut it, I would do the initial baking of the eggplant a little longer than she suggests. And we didn’t peel ours, but I think next time I’ll partially peel it in strips; that way you get the benefit of some of it, but aren’t overwhelmed by all of the peel.
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Thanks for the link and the tips, Jamestown1630!
what an odd day lol
It has Hawaii on the brain, I met the wife there in Eva Beach finally got out of here and blammo! there is Honolulu Lulu at the grocery store..
Pineapple and Uncle Tito’s please...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ud0IYMG1MCo
I usually make this on Fridays and munch on it for days.
Pull back the fat and stuff pineapple slices under the fat.
Get a pork picnic roast and wrap it in twine.
Pour a can of pineapple juice in a crockpot and put the roast in it.
Turn that on Saturday morning around 9
Let that slow roast until 4 pm
Then you can smoke it for 3 hrs or throw it on the upper rake of the bbq grill for awhile.
Don’t forget the twine or you’ll never get it out of the crockpot.
Since the crockpot is already dirty throw in a can of sprite on some baby
Backs them soak over night. Cook them the next day on noon for four hoursl. Finish them on the grill for about 20 minutes, lots of sauce.
Roasted corn on the cob.
5 gallon bucket put in milk, water, and sugar.
Shuck the corn and let it soak all day
Wrap them in foil, quarter turn every 15 mins
Butter on pop tarts. Try it, you’ll like it.
Put it to the fire..
Can you get mojo and sour orange juice?
We can do any thing in TX!
Down the road I go...
My mom & I used to make those when I was young. Melt in your mouth......
Your Med feast sounds so yummy!
My dad growing up wartime in Britain said the same thing. His foster family couldn’t get bacon so they would fry pieces of toast in bacon grease. He loved it. Lol, not a traditional Jewish food.
I would love to make good smoked salmon. The filleting and deboning scares me, though.
I think I just had a fast food cheap version of your wonderful Chinese eggplant dish. Panda Express (sorry) makes one with tofu and that eggplant was so good it made me sit up and ask about it. So thanks for this real recipe.
Minced lamb and rice with sumac wrapped in grape leaves simmering in pots of marinara with garlic and hot chili flakes at 2 AM.
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