Eggplant Parmesan

Yesterday, as if mandated by some sort of genetic coding, I found myself unconsciously mimicking my grandmother, frying sliced eggplant in an olive-oil filled pan. It must be genetics, because I never fry eggplant in olive oil. I steam it, cube it, bake it - but I can never bring myself to add oil to my eggplant, because I know what a sponge it is.

I grew up watching my grandmother cook fried eggplant by the panful. I would stand to the side, eagerly gobbling it down with slices of Wonder bread, the oil soaking through the bread and running down my hands. God, it's delicious that way. But these days I'm more of a "dripper" than a "pourer" with my oil. I spritz it on my salad. I drizzle it for flavor. I really don't fry things.

But yesterday was different. I'd decided to make eggplant Parmesan, and the recipe in Joy of Cooking mandated fried eggplant. And Joy of Cooking is my bible. I had my parents mail my copy all the way from California to Berlin, and if the recipe calls for fried eggplant, it's not my place to argue.

So there I stood, tapping into some genetic code I didn't even know I had, frying batch after batch of eggplant. I had a giant bowl of freshly chopped tomatoes off to the side, marinating with garlic and basil. My friends had been put to work grating an unbelievable mound of Parmesan cheese. An American of Italian ancestry, making eggplant Parmesan in Germany. Could I get any more post-modern?

This dish, by the way, is a very different beast than the eggplant Parmesan you're probably used to in Italian restaurants. I usually think of it as a heavy, greasy dish - two slabs of breaded, fried eggplant smothered in mozzarella cheese and dense tomato sauce. It might be vegetarian, but when you're done you feel like you ate a whole cow.

This, on the other hand, is much lighter. I fried the eggplant with a light coating of beaten egg, but I left out the bread crumbs. It's gluten-free, low-carb, lower-calorie - what's not to like? And rather than a traditional cooked tomato sauce, I made a quick sauce of freshly chopped tomato, garlic and basil that was bursting with flavor. (Thank you, Joy of Cooking. You were right once again!)

And so, without further ado:




Eggplant Parmesan (adapted from Joy of Cooking)
The eggplant is normally baked in a single layer with sauce and cheese, but I needed to feed six hungry people and had only one pan, so we did it lasagna-style in layers. I think it's even better this way.

Sauce Ingredients:
5-7 large tomatoes, finely diced
1/2 cup fresh basil, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic
1Tbs olive oil
1 tsp salt

Casserole Ingredients:
4 medium eggplants (about 4 pounds), cut in 1/2 in. thick slices
2 eggs, beaten
Olive oil, for frying
2 cups shredded Parmesan cheese (about 8 oz)
2 cups shredded mozzarella (use fresh, water-packed mozzarella if you can)


1. Preparing the Sauce:
Dice the tomatoes and put them in a colander in the sink. Let them sit for about 20 minutes, so that all the extra liquid drains out. In the meantime, chop your basil and garlic. You'll have some extra time to use up here, so start slicing your eggplants up. When the tomatoes are drained, mix them in a bowl with the basil, salt, garlic, and olive oil and let it all marinate.

2. Frying the Eggplant:
Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in a frying pan. (Or, if you're coordinated, I recommend doing two pans simultaneously, to save time.) When the oil is hot, lower the temperature to medium. Briefly dip each slice of eggplant in the egg and shake off the excess, then toss it in the pan. Cook for 2-3 minutes on each side, until it is soft. Put the cooked slices on a platter off to the side.

3. Assembling the Casserole:
Preheat your oven to 350°. Spread about 1/3 of the sauce in the bottom of a large baking dish. Lay slices of eggplant on top, with edges touching. Sprinkle about half the Parmesan and mozzarella cheeses over the top, then add another layer of sauce and another layer of eggplant. Spread the remainder of the sauce over the top, then finish off with the rest of the cheese. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the cheese is melted and the casserole is heated through. Continue Reading!

Zucchini "Pasta" with Sauce

Every time I tell someone that I can't eat gluten, I get a similar response: "Oh my god! What DO you eat?"

Once, this conversation occurred while I was grocery shopping with a friend. I'd just told him that I'd have to skip the breakfast roll he was about to grab for me. Feeling guilty, he quickly cast his glance around in search of the nearest available substitute. "Um, can you have bananas?"

Yes. I can eat bananas. I can eat almost anything that didn't come out of a bakery or a brewery... at least, as long as we're talking about raw ingredients and not packaged products. But I've been out of the habit of buying anything packaged for years now, so I rarely even think about that. Who needs beef-stroganoff-in-a-box, anyway?

I could get all the packaged stuff in a gluten free version, if I really felt like it. At the health-food shop across the street from me, I can buy gluten-free crackers, bread, cereal bars, pasta, cookies, pita bread, sponge cake... even rice beer if I want to. (It tastes a lot like sake, in case you were wondering!) But most of the time I don't. I'm a whole-food junkie, and besides, those replacement products are expensive! Most of the time, I'd rather just figure out a way around it.

That's how this particular recipe came to be. I was out of rice pasta one night and craving spaghetti, so I grabbed the nearest veggie and started shredding it. Tossing it into a pan with some turkey breast, tomato sauce, onions, and seasoning, I managed to whip up this simple one-pan meal in under 30 minutes.

Although it won't twirl around your fork or give you the joy of slurping foot-long noodles off your plate like real pasta, the zucchini noodles are delicious in their own right. I've always been a fan of zucchini with pasta sauce, but I'd never realized how important the shape is in recreating the "spaghetti experience."

When you cube the zucchini, as I normally do, the zucchini is more the centerpiece of the meal. Each mouthful gives you a sudden burst of... well, zucchini... as you bite into the larger pieces. But with the fine shreds I used this time, the flavors blended together and allowed the sauce to stand out in it's own right. And really, when you're eating pasta and sauce, the noodles are just there to help carry the spicy tomato goodness to your mouth, aren't they?





Zucchini Pasta with Tomato Sauce:
This recipe is for one serving, but you could easily double or triple it if you like. The sauce is a very basic "quickie," but of course you could vary it in any way you want - mushrooms and Parmesan cheese come to mind as nice additions.

Ingredients:
1 Large Zucchini
4 oz turkey or chicken breast, uncooked
1 small onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced

1/2 C. tomato sauce
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
pinch black pepper
pinch rosemary


1. Browning the turkey:
Cut the turkey breast into bite size pieces and toss it into a hot skillet along with the onion and garlic. Stir this all briefly to get the browning process started, then turn the heat down to medium and let it keep cooking.

2. "Noodling" you zucchini:
Wash the zucchini and make sure your chef's knife is sharp. You're going to slice the zucchini lengthwise as thinly as you can. This is a bit tricky with a large zucchini; you may want to cut it in half first to make slicing it easier. The shape isn't too important - I realized at some point that I was really whittling more than slicing. This will give you big, wide ribbons of zucchini "noodles," which work just fine. If you want thinner strips, go ahead and keep chopping.

3. Putting it all together:
Add the zucchini strips to the turkey and onions. Pour the tomato sauce over everything, and add the seasonings. Stir it all together, cover the pan with a lid, and let it simmer for about 20 minutes. Stir every so often to prevent sticking. Continue Reading!

Jörg's Birthday Cheesecake

It's becoming tradition that every year I make my flatmate a cheesecake for his birthday. This makes me happy for a number of reasons. First of all, because it gives me an excuse to bake. But more importantly, it made me realize that I've been here long enough to start establishing traditions. I have less and less "firsts" here; instead I find more and more moments of connection. Moments that feel like real life, before I uprooted myself from everything I knew.

We've been in this flat for exactly a year, and last year we celebrated Jörg's birthday in this same room with the same people. This year, I watched the same crowd show up, looking more or less like they did last year. They distributed themselves throughout the familiar background, and we went through the familiar birthday festivities. It could have been last year, at first glance.

The background was almost identical - the same furnishings, the same faces - but a closer look revealed the subtle changes of the last year. The table's been painted. There's a new poster on the wall. One of the couples is now married, another brought their new baby. I am, at long last, able to follow the German conversation going on around me. I felt like I was watching a painting come to life and slightly alter itself, so faintly that the casual observer might not have even noticed.

I'm watching life evolve here - my own and those around me. I'm not just the "new transplant" who everyone half-expected to head back home in a few months. I live here now. A network of people and places has slowly grown up around me. I'm a part of Berlin, and these people and places are all a part of me.

And I reflect on my last year here; on how much things have changed and yet remained the same. People think that when you go to a new country you leave everything behind - and it's true, you do, in a physical sense. But while the background picture of Jörg's birthday stayed the same, with only the details changing, I find that the opposite is true of moving countries. I've picked myself up and stuck myself into a new painting, but the longer I stay here the more I recognize the similarities to the old one. Life goes on, people meet and interact and grow together and then apart. We eat food and drink wine, and have our small dramas that fade into distant memory. Things haven't really changed at all. Everything stayed exactly the same... just slightly different.

And on that note: I move on to the recipe for this year's cheesecake! Last year I tried to use a recipe I found on line, but the cheesecake ended up in a puddle once we took the Springform pan away. This year I just gave up on the recipes and forged my own path. Not the best way to approach a cake destined for an audience of 30 people, but I got lucky.

This is a very German-style cheesecake. German käsekuchen is very firm and more cake-like than custard-like. It holds it's shape and lets you really pile the cheesecake on top of the crust without risk of collapse. The sturdy surface lets you spread your choice of toppings freely over the surface without any trouble, and as the cheesecake itself is fairly mild and lightly-sweetened, you can go crazy with the toppings.

The one trick with this recipe is that it is based on Quark. Click the link for a wonderful explanation of this cheese, but in short just know that it's flavor is basically the same as cream cheese, with a texture closer to that of ricotta. I had never seen it before I came here, but apparently it is available through a few creameries in the US - you may be able to find it at a high-end grocery store. If you're very curious you can also order it online at GermanDeli.com If you can't locate quark anywhere, feel free to substitute a low-fat (or full fat, if you like) cream cheese in place of it. It won't be exactly the same as what I made, but hey... almost the same, just a little different!



German Cheesecake with Plum Topping
This basic recipe could be a great starting point for a number of variations. I topped mine with the last jar of my cinnamon-plum jam, but orange marmalade or strawberry jam could be excellent as well. I'm looking forward to trying it with a squeeze of lemon and a tangy lime glaze, or with some goat cheese blended in to the filling for extra bite!

Crust Ingredients:
1/4 cup breadcrumbs (GF if necessary)
1 1/2 C. ground almonds (5 ounces if you're buying pre-ground)
3 Tbs sugar
1/4 tsp cinammon
1/2 C. butter
pinch salt

Cheesecake Ingredients:
48 oz lowfat Quark (or cream cheese)
2 medium eggs
1/4 tsp. almond extract
3/4 C. sugar
1/3 C. cornstarch
pinch salt

Crust Preparation:
Preheat your oven to 350°. Take out a 9" Springform pan, and cut a circle of parchment paper to cover the bottom of it. Reassemble the pan and lay the parchment paper down inside.

Mix the dry ingredients together in a small bowl. Melt the butter over low heat (or microwave on low power). Add the butter to the dry ingredients and stir until the ingredients come together. Scoop the mixture into the pan and pat it into an even layer. Bake this in the oven for about 10 minutes, to give it a nice toasted almond flavor.

Preparing the Cheesecake:
Briefly mix the corstarch, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl. In a large mixing bowl, stir the quark (or cream cheese) until it is soft. Add the two eggs and almond flavoring, and blend until you have a smooth mixture. At this point, stir in the dry ingredients little by little. Make sure they are thoroughly blended into the cheese mixture.

Pull the crust out of the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Pour your filling into the crust and smooth the top with a spatula. If you'd like a swirl effect in the center of the cheesecake, you can do that now. Take a few tablespoons of topping and plop it in the middle of the filling. Then, take a butter knife, stick it about halfway-deep into the filling, and draw a rough spiral shape from the center of the filling heading out. This will incorporate the topping into the center part of the filling.

Bake for 60 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the middle comes out clean. Let the cake cool completely, then remove the walls of the Springform pan. Spread thick blanket of preserves over the top, and slice into at least 12 pieces. This is a thick cake - it doesn't take much to make a serving! Continue Reading!

Honey-Sesame Chicken Salad

I've been totally addicted to the combination of honey and sesame lately. The bitter-sweet combination of tahini paste and honey with apples, or on toast - or straight out of the jar. Crunchy almonds drizzled with honey and sprinkled with sesame seeds. The nutty-sweet sesame candies they sell in the Turkish supermarket. I can't get enough of the stuff.

Eventually, though, all the sweets and goodies had to give way to proper food. I started contemplating a honey-sesame treat that I wouldn't leave me worrying about my next trip to the dentist. And bingo! Inspiration came to me one day as I peered into my nearly empty fridge to find a head of napa cabbage and a lone chicken breast.

This salad is lightly sweet, nutty and mildly flavored, with a sharp kick from the ginger and pepper flakes. The Napa cabbage is a wonderful base - crisp, refreshing, and with none of the bitterness you get from lettuce. Combined with a light vinegar dressing, it's the perfect salad for a hot summer evening.




Honey-Sesame Chicken Salad for 2
I would use this marinade on damn near anything, given the chance. Tofu, veggies - you name it, it would probably taste good. I wasn't even hungry when I finished photographing everything, and I still couldn't resist snacking on a few morsels.

Ingredients:

1 Tbs light honey
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbs mild oil, like Canola
2 Tbs sesame seeds
1/2 in. cube ginger, minced
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4-1/2 tsp hot pepper flakes


6 oz chicken, cut into bite-sized, thin strips
1 head Napa cabbage
1/4 yellow bell pepper
1/4 red bell pepper
1-2 spring onions

3 Tbs rice vinegar (or other mild vinegar)
2 tsp Canola or other mild oil
1/4 tsp salt
pinch black pepper

1. Preparing the Marinade
Mix the first 8 ingredients together in medium-sized bowl. Add the chicken and stir everything again until the chicken is well-coated. Pop this in the fridge to marinate for at least 20 minutes.

2. Cutting the Vegetables
Slice the cabbage as finely as you can. Don't chop it - you want long, thin strips of cabbage when you're done. I like to use the whole cabbage, from the tips down to the base. Slice the bell
peppers thinly, like matchsticks. Chop the spring onions, including the green stalks. Divide the cabbage between the serving bowls, making sure each bowl gets an even blend of the curly leaves and the crispy base pieces.

3. Cooking the Chicken
Heat your pan on high, with a little extra drizzle of oil to help prevent sticking. When it is nice and hot, toss in your chicken and start stirring. Turn the heat down to medium, and cook until the chicken is no longer pink inside. Divide the chicken between the two salads.
4. Making the Dressing and Finishing the Salad
Let the pan cool briefly, then pour the rice vinegar in. Stir the vinegar around the pan - you will see its color darken as it collects the accumulated seasonings from the chicken. Pour this into a small bowl, add the oil, salt, and pepper, and whisk briefly with a small whisk or fork. Drizzle this over the salads, and sprinkle the green onion and bell pepper pieces over the chicken. Toss on a few pinches of sesame seeds for the finishing touch. Continue Reading!

An Evening in Little Tijuana - the Salsa Edition

Last week, two friends of mine came to visit Berlin. They've both been living out of the US, for over a year, which means they haven't had decent Mexican food in at least that long. And I'd been dying for an excuse to cook for a bunch of people.

The Menu:
Shredded pork, refried beans, mild salsa, spicy roasted red pepper salsa and HOMEMADE CORN TORTILLAS. Oh man. My stomach still hurt two hours later, and even with that I had to forcibly refrain from chowing down on leftovers.

This is home-style cooking the way it's meant to be. When I cook like this, I devote an entire day to it. I put the beans and meat on in the morning and let them simmer all afternoon. I roast peppers, chop vegetables, run to the market for things I forgot, and generally... cook. It's a meditation in flavor and textures, and sometimes it's as relaxing as yoga.

I love feeding my friends. I love watching everyone stuff their faces and grin and come back for seconds. I love that I can make something that makes everyone around me happy. It isn't about the compliments (although those are nice too) - it just makes me happy to see everyone around me sharing a meal and enjoying it.

The recipes I'm including here are starting points. I never follow them exactly. I go into these cooking sessions with an idea in mind - a concept, a list of ingredients. I taste as I go, adding a splash of this and a dash of that, until the flash of "Yes!" hits me. Then it's time to eat.





Mild Tomato Garlic Salsa
This salsa has practically no burn to it at all, so you can pile it on your food without overwhelming yourself with spiciness. We like to call it "kinder salsa" (kid's salsa) in my house.

Ingredients:
2-3 small onions
2 spring onions
3-4 medium tomatoes
1-3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 bunch cilantro

1/2 lime, juiced
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 pinch sugar
1/2-1 tsp salt
splash or two of vinegar

Chop the onions until each chunk is around the size of your little fingernail. Chop the spring onions finely. I use about half the green part of the spring onions as well as the white. Cut the tomatoes about the same size as the onions, maybe slightly larger. Mince the garlic as finely as you can, and chop the cilantro leaves coarsely. Dump these all into a bowl and mix together.

Now add your lime juice, pepper, sugar, and a 1/2 teaspoon or more of salt. A splash or two of vinegar will help give this salsa a little "kick". Toss everything a few times like a salad, and pop it in the refrigerator to marinate for at least 30 minutes.





Roasted Red Pepper Salsa
I don't know the name of the sweet peppers I used for this recipe. I buy them at the Turkish market and have never seen the name in German or English. They look like elongated bell peppers, and the taste is very similar - slightly sweeter and less tangy than a bell pepper, but I think either one could be used successfully for this salsa.

Ingredients:
4 - 5 large, sweet red peppers
3 onions
2-3 spring onions
3-6 (or more) Holland chilies

1/2 lime, juiced
1/2 - 1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
Splash or two of vinegar

1. Roast the Peppers
Start up your broiler. Cut the peppers in half and lay them on a baking sheet. (I recommend a layer of baking paper underneath, if you have it handy.) Leave them under the broiler for about 10-15 minutes, until the skin starts to blacken and blister as shown in the picture.

2. Chop the other ingredients
While the peppers roast, chop the onions into pinky-nail sized bits. Chop the spring onions finely, using about half or two-thirds of the green ends. Chop the Holland chilies as finely as you can - they're hot! If you can't find Holland chilies, you could try a few Thai chilies (the tiny, fiery hot peppers in many Chinese dishes) or any other fresh, hot chili you have available.

3. Peel the Peppers
When the peppers are done roasting, toss them in a paper bag or a covered bowl. The steam they produce will help soften the skins, making them easier to peel. After they have cooled a bit, slide the skins off. You should be left with big, meaty strips of roasted peppers. Chop these into chunks about the same size as the onion pieces.

4. Mix the Salsa
Toss all the chopped ingredients into a bowl. Add the lime juice, salt, and pepper. Again, a splash or two of vinegar gives this a little extra kick. Let this marinate in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.


Continue Reading!

Banana Surprise Pancakes

Last week I found a recipe on 101 Cookbooks that piqued my curiosity. It was a gluten-free brownie recipe, using pureed black beans as the base. Always willing to experiment, I made a batch for a friend's birthday party.

They were delicious. As promised, no one detected the slightest hint of bean-flavor. The combination of sweet chocolate, butter, and eggs completely concealed the secret ingredient, and the beans lent an unexpected light and creamy texture that had everyone coming back for seconds.

Intrigued, I started brainstorming other ways to incorporate beans into my baked goods. Beans are chock full of fiber and vitamins, and I really don't eat enough of them. I've been longing for a decent pancake breakfast, however, and I decided to see where the beans would take me.

I started by blending together a can of pinto beans with sugar, cinnamon, and milk, and fried up a test-cake. The flavor wasn't bad, but the texture was crumbly and - not surprisingly - too reminiscent of refried beans. While pondering my options, I spotted a couple of over-ripe bananas in our fruit basket. The wheels started turning.

I've always loved banana pancakes. Back in my vegan days, I would make pancakes using only mashed bananas and flour, and I still remember the wonderful moist springiness the bananas gave those hotcakes. I grabbed a banana, blended it into the bean mixture, and tried again.

Success! Well, almost. The flavor issue was fixed, but the cakes still weren't holding together very well. I tossed in a small handful of rice flour. This time I had it. The outside of the hotcakes browned beautifully; the interior was moist and dense. Banana and cinnamon exploded in my mouth with a wonderful nuttiness from the rice flour. The beans were indetectable.

I think this is my new favorite recipe. It's low-fat, high-fiber, and isn't any harder to make than a standard pancake, as long as you have a blender. I ate the entire batch for breakfast and lunch that day, and I didn't even remember dinner that night.

Banana Surprise Pancakes

These pancakes have a delicious whole-grain flavor, and the fiber will keep you full until lunch. I made this batch with Pinto beans, but I think cannelloni or navy beans might be even better due to their mild taste. I use fructose rather than table sugar because it has a minimal effect on blood sugar levels.

Ingredients:

1.5 cups (1 can) pinto or white beans
4Tbs milk
1 egg
2 Tbs fructose or 2.5 Tbs table sugar
1 large or 2 medium ripe bananas

1/3 brown rice flower
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinammon

Heat your frying pan over medium heat.

Prepare the Batter:
While the pan gets hot, puree the beans with the milk, egg, sugar, and banana until very smooth. Mix the dry ingredients in a small bowl, and add them to the bean mixture. Mix thoroughly, and your batter is ready!

Pour the batter:
When the pan is hot enough that a drop of water sizzles, turn the heat down slightly and pour your batter in. You want these hotcakes small - hold both your hands up to make a circle, and aim for pancakes about that size. Otherwise, they take too long to cook and are hard to flip.

Cook the pancakes:
After you've poured a couple of small hotcakes worth of batter into your pan, cover it with a lid and let them cook for five or six minutes. The edges will dry out, but you won't get any air bubbles like with a traditional batter. When the edges look dry, flip the pancakes over and cook for another two or three minutes. The first side should have a nice brown look to it - although if you use table sugar instead of fructose, don't expect as much browning as in the photos. Fructose browns at a lower temperature.

Serve:
Dish these up with a sliced banana for garnish. They are great plain, but a tiny drizzle of maple syrup adds a delicious kick.

Continue Reading!

Celeriac Soup

This was supposed to be an Easter post. I was even going to make a cute reference to the egg-like shape of the celery root (celeriac) that I picked up the other day... but then life intervened, and the Easter-egg reference is now all-but-useless.

I had a giant celery root (celeriac) forcibly gifted to me at the Turkish market the other day. I bought a handful of bell peppers from a shop keeper who obviously had an over-supply of root vegetables on hand, and he snuck a celeriac in my bag when I wasn't looking. It sat around my kitchen for almost a week, looking lumpy and forlorn, before I finally got around to using it for something.

That something ended up being this tangy, creamy soup. I find the taste of straight celeriac too strong - think of the inner stalks of a bunch of celery - but I found that the eggplant and lemon helped balance that into something a bit friendlier-tasting. In fact, in the future I might even use a few more eggplants for a smoother taste.

You'll need either a blender or immersion blender for this soup, but as long as you have that available you could do dozens of variations on this theme - for example, adding curry powder, or some chopped apples. (Think of the scrumptious flavor of fried apples and onions, then imagine the pleasant surprise of finding apples in your dinner soup.) Leave out the bacon for a vegetarian version, substitute soy milk for a vegan treat. I think it would be hard to go terribly wrong with this base.




Celeriac Soup
I left this soup rather thick, but you could thin it down with more milk if you want. Leaving it thick, I think it would make a nice veggie dip as well - especially with a bit of tahini blended in.

Ingredients:

2 Leeks
1 Celeriac
2 small eggplants
1 cube vegetable bullion
4 ounces bacon, cut into small pieces
1 orange bellpepper, chopped (reserve about 1/4 for garnish)

6 Tbs milk
2 Tbs lemon juice
about 1/2 tsp each, cinnamon and pepper

Prepare the Celeriac and Leeks:
Slice leeks thinly, and cut the celeriac into cubes about the size of dice. Dump them all in a pot and just cover with cold water. Crumble your boullion cube over the top, and bring to a boil. Turn down the heat and simmer until very soft, about 30 minutes.

Broil the Eggplant:
Meanwhile, halve the eggplants and put them under the broiler until the skins wrinkle and they get more-or-less squishy. This should take about 20 minutes.

Brown the Bacon and Bell Peppers:
While the eggplants are broiling, brown the bacon over medium-high heat until the fat is mostly melted off. Dump off most of the fat, leaving just a tablespoon or two. Add the bell pepper and sautee for a few minutes, until the pieces are softened. Turn the heat off and let this sit while you prep the eggplant.

Peel the Eggplant:
When the eggplant is soft, pull it out of the oven and let it cool a few minutes. When you can handle it comfortably, peel the skin off. You should be able to just grab the skin on one and and peel it back, like a banana. Throw the skin away.

Blend the Soup:
Chop the eggplant into rough chunks, to help it blend more easily. If you have an immersion blender, you can can add this to the pot with the celeriac and leeks. Hold off on the bell pepper for now. If you have a regular blender, dump the celeriac, leeks, cooking liquid, and eggplant in together. Add about half the milk and start blending. Add the rest of the milk slowly, blend thoroughly, and add the lemon juice. When the soup is nice and creamy, add the bell pepper and bacon and blend for a few more pulses. You want to leave a little bit of texture here. Stir in the cinnamon and pepper.

To Serve:
Dish up the soup and sprinkle a bit of chopped bell pepper on top for color. Sprinkle with cinnamon and pepper (fresh ground, if you have it).
Continue Reading!