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
My mother in love is Italian & she too, n 5 minutes can have a feast ready 24/7. Lots to be said for that old school feed everyone approach!
I’m not a big eggplant parmesan lover, but those fritters of your mom’s sound delicious.
The Italians I know make a day of it, Hell they make a week of it! It never ends! LOL
Great. I like the ‘lots of real garlic’ part :-)
There are all sorts of recipes for them; but my Granny just salted them for awhile, squeezed them out dry, dipped them in seasoned flour and then egg, and fried them up.
(She probably used bacon grease ;-)
I just got back from visiting my mom & she was reminiscing about how her mom would try up bread in bacon grease & how delicious it was.
: )
I’m serious Brother The Party never ends.
Now its all Heavy Metal and Dippy Rap
I’m going to have to check all of this out tomorrow. It’s bedtime, Darling.
G’nite :-)
Did we ever decide what size Instapot I should buy?
Understood, Thank God for Sunday.
Gnight
It’s not low carb, but I would imagine one could sub low carb dry bread crumbed for regular bread crumbs. I make it with baked eggplant slices dipped in egg, salt and peppered bread crumbs, sprinkled or sprayed with oil and then baked in the oven.
I do not like it with an Italian type sauce. It makes it taste like a variation of spaghetti with marinara sauce. If I want that I will eat spaghetti.
I use just tomato sauce, but I put very liberal amounts of basil layered in it on top of the sauce. It is layered with moz cheese, parm cheese, egg plant and tomato sauce with the liberal amounts of basil, also salt and pepper to taste.
There is an amazing draw between the flavors of the eggplant, cheeses and the basil. There is nothing like it. Yum!
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