Tortino di Melanzane e Zucchine in Carpione

The ingredients: zucchini, eggplants, tomatoes and some garlic

The finished product

Zucchine in carpione

Since I could not climb, or really do any other physical activity I decided to cook two dishes that I have been meaning to try out for a while. The first was tortino di melanzane or translated in english little eggplant cake. The second was zucchine in carpione (I really don't know how to translate it in english). They are quite different but both dishes require chopping in layers and cooking zucchini, so I decided to make them both on the same day.

Tortino di melanzane:

4 eggplants sliced

6 small zucchini sliced

3 mozzarelle

1 tomato sauce

1 clove of garlic

extra virgin olive oil

a few basil leaves

oil for frying

The eggplants and the zucchini were cut, cooked in vegetable oil and left to rest on paper towels. In parallel to a sauce pan a clove of garlic was heated in a tablespoon of olive oil, the tomato sauce was added and left to cook for a few minutes after which the basil was added. Now the tortino was constructed by layering the ingredients: eggplants then tomato sauce then mozzarella then the zucchini then tomato sauce and mozzarella again. The layers were repeated until all ingredients were consumed.

The tortino was left to rest for a few hours and it was then placed in the oven at 200 oC for 30 minutes before serving.

Zucchine in carpione

4 zucchine sliced

1 red onion cut really thin

1 clove of garlic

some sage

1 cup of white wine vinegar

1 cup of white wine

1 tbs of extra virgin olive oil

The zucchini were pre-cooked but frying in vegetable oil, and they were left to rest on paper towels. to a large sauce pan the olive oil was added and heated. When the oil was hot the garlic and the onions were added and cooked until golden. The vinegar, wine and sage were then added and the mixture was cooked on slow heat for a few minutes after which it was poured over the zucchini.

Everything was left to cool and it was served chilled. Vegetables cooked in this was may be stored for a few weeks in glass jars.

More Jam!

Washing and chopping

All the ingredients ready for the spicy plum jam

Plum and grape vanilla jam

Cooking cooking cooking... and at the end canning...

A flower in my kitchen.

It was a rainy weekend, so it was time to make more jam. I went to the market and bought 5kg of untreated plums. I decided to chop them all up but then oh no I did not have a pot big enough so I made three kinds of jam.

1) just regular plum jam

2.5 kg of plums

1 kg of sugar

juice from 1 lemon

The plums and the sugar were mixed and cooked on slow heat for 2.5 hours.

2) plum and grape vanilla jam

500 g of plums

some grapes (I don't really know how many I put)

200 g of sugar

1 vanilla bean (this one was bought in indonesia and it's quite mild)

juice from 1/2 a lemon

All ingredients were mixed and cooked on slow heat for 2.5 hours.

3) spicy plum jam

2 kg of plums

800 g of sugar

2 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of nutmeg

10-15 cloves

2 cardamon seeds

juice from 1 lemon

All the ingredients were mixed and left overnight. The next day they were cooked for 1.5 hours. I don't know why this jam took much less to cook then the others.

All the jams were canned and the containers were left to cool upside down. Now all I have to do is start eating the jam!

Making peach jam and eggplant preserve.

Jars

Books which tell you how to preserve anything.

Eggplants cut into little

Eggplants and vinegar on the stove cooking.

Drying before canning.

All the ingredients.

The end result in the peach jam process.

It was a rainy day, and I took it as an excuse to make peach jam and eggplant preserve. I have been meaning for a while to make jams, but I have never really found the time to do it.

For the recipe I used an old book, in which you can find instruction on how to preserve just about anything.

For the peach jam:

1 Kg of ripe peaches

750 g of sugar

The peaches were peeled and cut into small cube. The peaches and the sugar were mixed and left overnight. In the morning the mixture was boiled for about 1.5h until it passed the teaspoon test*. While the peaches were cooking the glass jars were heated at 100 oC in the oven. In tow of the jars I placed some cinnamon sticks. The jam was placed while still hot in the hot jars. the jars were sealed and turned upside down to cool.

* a bit of the hot jam is placed on a plate. The plate is tilted, if the jam does not run down the plate then it is ready.

For the eggplants (recipe for 3Kg of eggplants, I only made 1.5Kg)

1 L of white wine vinegar

1 tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar

Cloves

Basil leaves

Rosemary

Garlic

The eggplants were peeled and cut into small cubes. They were salted and left to stand to drain some of the water out of them. They were rinsed and dried. The vinegar, salt and sugar were brought to a boil. The eggplants were cooked in the vinegar for about 3 minutes, after which they were placed on a towel and left to cool.

A layer of eggplant was placed at the bottom of a jar followed by some garlic, a few cloves, a few basil leaves, and some rosemary. Some of the vinegar was poured on top. The layers were repeated until the jar was full. At the end the jar was toped with some extra virgin olive oil.

Now all I have to do is wait at least 15 days before eating!