Sunday Morning
A roundup of various items I found this week and thought might be of interest to you. There were too many to do separate posts and, some of them required little or no comment. Savor and enjoy!
Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant
Meanwhile, Back in the Kitchen writes about Jenni Ferrari-Adler’s book of essays, wittily entitled, Alone in the Kitchen with an Eggplant (which I am also hoping to get sight of soon, courtesy of Jenni), in which “A mishmash of foodie writers dispute, humorously or more self-seriously, the pros and cons of cooking and dining alone.”
A quote I can certainly identify with:
“I liked to think of myself not as a student on a budget, but rather as a peasant, a member of a group whose eating habits, across cultures, had long appealed to me.”
The book is currently available for pre-order via Amazon
A Dish Best Served Lukewarm
I’ve been to Greece and, I have Greek friends in the UK, so I can happily concur with Freya in that:
“Much like Italian cookery, Greek cuisine is entrenched in history. It is lovingly prepared and enjoyed with such gusto that visitors to Greece cannot help but be entranced by their simple, delicious meals.”
As with Spanish cuisine too. In fact, it would be hard for me to choose a favorite out of the three of them.
Anyway, Moussaka - to me - wouldn’t be the same without lamb and aubergines (eggplant) - neither of which one sees here very often - so it is simply years and years (I’ve been here 15) since I had any.
And the very best Moussaka is home made. Sure, this is not a simple throw together meal, but, it’s worth it. Well worth it, even if it is supposed to be out of fashion. Personally, I could care less about fashion and more about my own personal experience. This is definitely happy-making food.
Moussaka can, of course, be bought frozen (well, an inferior facsimile of it), so I can see no reason why we could not make a batch to freeze.
What I didn’t know, was that it can - should - be eaten chilled.
Freya also suggested substituting the aubergines in the Moussaka with courgettes (zucchini), which I guess could work, though probably not one this big! Vegetables that size, were definitely not grown for single cooks. 
Mind you, I have a vegetable marrow (summer squash) in my kitchen right now that my landlady brought round and it’s nearly as big as that!
A Smorgasbord of Samplings
Fancy a fish? Try Whole red snapper with mint, basil and feta, about which says The Inadvertent Gardener, “I didn’t know the first thing about working with a whole fish, and now that I’m cooking for one, I was going to have to figure it out.” She adds, “I did what any resourceful girl would do: threw the whole thing in the freezer and ignored it for a few weeks.”
At least hers came pre-gutted! The fish that’s delivered here around the villages, straight from the sea, by van is wonderful, but if you’ve ever tried gutting fish, for the first time, without instructions and preferably without looking, then you’d know what a farce it was. Now I prefer to go to the fish stall in the market and have them prepare it for me.
Solo Supper: Greek Pasta Returning to foods with a Greek flavour, here’s something much simpler to prepare: Sarah’s Summer Greek Pasta, which is a marriage of whatever pasta you have handy with the ingredients of Greek Salad, to make a quick weekday supper for one.
Speaking of salads - and this may be the only thing you *cook* in summer - this Cucumber Salad with Mint and Feta really appealed to me.
Firstly, because it just has to be ultra cool and fresh and, secondly, because I like salads that have one predominant ingredient, as this does. Well, the truth is I’ll buy only the one, best, freshest item. That way, I can use it up before it wilts, which can be a problem if you buy too many salad items at once.
Living Alone is Bad for the Environment apparently, because people who live alone are the biggest consumers of energy, land and household goods (I’ll have more to say on that at some other time). For now, you can probably counter that with the news that “microwaves are more than 4x more energy efficient than traditional ovens.” We singles do love our microwaves.
Superbee’s Philosophy posted part of an interesting article on Cooking for One that originally appeared in the Washington Post. There are various statements that will make you smile and that are bound to ring true, like: “There’s nothing like very garlicky Tuscan white bean soup for breakfast, lunch and dinner for a week to teach one to cook smaller.”
Food-Ku: In Need of Good Food (think Haiku for single eaters) will, similarly, bring a smile of recognition. Yes, it’s that all-purpose breakfast / lunch / dinner / supper / late night snack we all turn to at times.
Small Batch Popovers A recipe small enough for when you are only cooking for one or two. You know, I swear we Brits call these Yorkshire Puddings. We don’t pop them over anything: the proper Yorkshire way to eat them is to have them first, before your dinner, with just gravy on them.
Too much vegetable marrow (summer squash) for one? Here are some Marrow (summer squash) recipes and this tells you How to make vegetable marrow soup, which is an extremely good way of using your bumper crop of marrows (besides, the made soup could be frozen in portions). Of course I looked those up to find ways to use the big guy sitting in my kitchen!
Perfect Summer Finish: Peach Crumble
Where I live there is a huge durasno tree right at the edge of my patio that is groaning with fruit. Durasno is pretty similar to peach and can be used in much the same way. There are two more of those, 2 apple trees, a pear tree, five quince trees, green plums, red plums, three damson trees and enough vines to produce 200 liters of wine in the backyard. Then, growing wild here are figs, prickly pears, blackberries and countless other things. At this time of year, I don’t lack for fruit and I certainly don’t have to buy it, but I also can’t bear to see any of it going to waste. What I can’t eat can be stored for later.
Lightly poached fruit freezes well. So does uncooked crumble mixture.
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Sponzurz
The book sounds good. It’s in my shopping cart.
Moussaka- you can get sheep or goat cheese? I made a vegetarian moussaka once, substituting lentils feta and percorino for the lamb. I turned out quite good. Is lentil and zucchini moussaka too weird when you have a craving?
Popovers- the batter is pretty much the same as Yorkshire Pud, but there are differences. Most of us in the US use muffin/cupcake tins and fill them 1/2 to 3/4 full. The ideal popover should be taller than it is wide, wider on top like a hollow champaign cork (not bowl shaped). They are often treated like a quick and dirty choux pastry, filled with fruit and/or whipped cream. Very rarely they are serve with some sort of stew (that can act as a filling). In my family we only had them with Mexican pot beans (pinto beans cooked with beef) served with raw onions, mild chilis and grated cheese on the side. I’ve never met anyone else who has eaten pinto beans and popovers, just my family.
I occasionally make a batch for myself, but I’ll make a smaller one-egg batch.