Recipe Recreations...

This weekend I decided to recreate a couple of the dishes I loved at Poppy in Seattle.  Particularly the Crab, Avocado & Grapefruit Salad and the Eggplant fries.

First, the eggplant fries...
I was a bit nervous to try these because I don’t love eggplant - but I did love these at Poppy and I felt like I could make it work.  Also, I knew I wanted to bake them since I wanted them to be healthier and frying is just messy.  I found this recipe and felt it came close to what I was wanting.  It was a good start but I had to change it quite a bit.

I had also considered doing 2 batches - one just like the recipe and one where I dessicated the eggplant.  But the more I looked at recipes, no one was using the desiccation technique, so I decided it wasn’t worth it.

Initially I tried exactly what the recipe called for but it just didn’t work.  The eggplant is too slick and wet and the panko and breadcrumb mixture didn’t stick at all.  Michael suggested removing the “fries” and wiping them clean and then coating them in flour first.  That seemed to work at first, but when I got to the breadcrumb step again, still nothing stuck.  So I decided to start over entirely.  Luckily, I had planned to only use ½ the eggplant, so I had the other half to try some adjustments.

I got rid of everything and started from scratch.  After slicing the eggplant, I coated the fries in flour, then coated them in 2 WHOLE eggs, not just egg white.  I want them to be as low-cal as possible, but I just don’t think the egg whites have enough binder.  Then I coated them in the panko mixture and it worked perfectly.  I cooked them for about 12 mins and they were perfectly crisp and tasty.  And then, with the honey, they were ooey, gooey yumminess.  Truly a perfect sub for fries.

Some notes:
Pre-coat with flour (possibly add salt to flour)
Use whole eggs (may not need to do this - when I make these again I will try just the whites to make sure)
More salt in bread crumbs, plus add herbs
Maybe drizzle with olive oil before going in oven - the Poppy fries were more luscious (but I also think theirs were actually fried)
Michael suggested taking the skin off the eggplant, but it didn’t bother me

Eggplant Fries

Makes about 60-70 fries

Ingredients:

1/2 large Eggplant, sliced into thin strips

1/4 cup Flour

1 cup Panko

1/2 cup Plain Bread Crumbs

Seasonings - I used garlic salt, paprika, & cinnamon (but I would add Herbs and more salt next time)

2 Whole Eggs

2 Tbsp Honey

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400. 

Slice your eggplant into very thin strips.

Put flour in ziploc bag.

Whisk two eggs in a medium-large bowl. 

Add 2 cups panko, 1 cup plain bread crumbs and seasonings to a ziploc bag and shake.

Place a handful of your raw eggplant fries into the bag of flour and shake to coat.

Then transfer to bowl with the eggs and coat well.

Place egg coated eggplant fries into the panko/bread crumb mixture and shake all around to coat the fries with the mixture.

Place your coated eggplant fries onto your pan (not overlapping) and cook about 10-12 minutes, or until browned and crispy. 

Once out of the oven, sprinkle with kosher salt.

Serve immediately with your favorite dipping sauce - I drizzled them with honey

Nutrition Facts: Serving Size - 12 fries; Calories 168; Total Fat 2.67g; Sodium 167.28mg; Total Carbohydrate 30.47g; Sugars 2.8g; Protein 5.8g

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Then I made the Crab, Avocado, Hearts of Palm & Grapefruit Salad.  I just made this up from what I remembered.  Obviously I knew the main ingredients, but I couldn’t remember if there were greens and if there were, I didn’t know what kind.  I decided I wanted some kind of green.  I wanted to use watercress because I thought their delicateness would be a perfect compliment.  But I couldn’t find any, so I went with arugula because it’s my favorite green right now.

Then there was the dressing.  Again, I couldn’t really remember what they had, but I seem to recall a citrusy quality.  I went with grapefruit juice, lemon juice, apple cider vinegar, honey, salt and a little, really good olive oil.  I was super happy with this and may use it on other salads!

Also, we tried to be thrifty and bought claw meat - being from New Orleans we both love the claw meat, but for this salad, you really need the clean, fresh flavor of the lump.  And, ideally, the freshest crab possible.

Overall it was quite yummy - very light and full of citrus flavor, which makes it a perfect spring salad.  Honestly, you could leave the crab off entirely and it would be a good, inexpensive, weeknight salad.

Some notes:
Use fresh, good quality, lump crab meat
Loved everything else, especially the dressing
Would like to try it with watercress

Crab, Avocado, Hearts of Palm and Grapefruit Salad
Makes 2 salads


Ingredients:

For Salad:

2 cups Arugula Or Watercress

¼ Avocados, diced very small

4 - 6 Tbsp Lump Crab Meat, separated into chunks

2 stalks Hearts Of Palm, sliced finely

½ Grapefruit, separated into segments

For Dressing:

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp Grapefruit Juice

1 tsp Lemon Juice

2 Tbsp Honey

⅛ cup Apple Cider Vinegar

¼ tsp Salt

Directions:

For the dressing: whisk all ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.  (note: this makes more than the 2 salads, so you can save what's left for other salads)

For the salad:

Place 1 cup arugula in a bowl

Add 1 Tbsp diced avocado (about ¼ of ½ avocado)

Add 2 - 4 Tbsp crab

Add 1 stalk, sliced hearts of palm

Add 4 grapefruit segments

Cover with 2-3 tbsp of the dressing and mix gently with fingers to keep everything from breaking apart

Serve

Repeat for second salad.


Nutrition Facts:
Salad: Calories - 68; Total Fat - 4.4g; Sodium - 170mg; Sugars - 2.8g; Protein - 2.6g
Dressing: Calories - 40; Total Fat - 2.7g; Sodium - 58mg; Sugars - 3.7g; Protein - 0

Grapefruit cake

For the last several years, my husband’s brother and his wife have given us the Harry and David “Fruit of the Month” for Christmas.  We love it because we get yummy, fresh, seasonal fruit delivered to our door once a month. Sometimes though, it’s more fruit than we know what to do with.  Last month it was oranges and grapefruit.  I made a fruit salad out of most of it, but I had seen this recipe for grapefruit cake and thought I would give it a shot.

I didn’t want something really big, so I cut the recipe down and just used one 10-inch round cake pan. And I topped it with French Vanilla yogurt and honey. It came out so yummy and moist and perfectly tart.

Adapted from Yankee Magazine

Makes 6-8 servings
Prep time: 30 mins; Cook time: 40 mins
Ingredients:
Nonstick Cooking Spray
1 ¼ cups All Purpose Flour
4 Tbsp Cornstarch
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
3/4 tsp Table Salt
1/2 cup Unsalted Butter, 2 sticks, at room
temperature
1 cup Granulated Sugar
Zest Of 1 Grapefruit
Juice of ½ lemon
2 Eggs, at room temperature
Juice of 1/2 Grapefruit

Toppings:
French Vanilla Yogurt
Honey

Directions:
Preheat oven to 325°. Mist a 10 inch cake pan with cooking spray.

In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, and salt. In a separate bowl, beat butter with an electric mixer until color lightens, about 2 minutes. Add sugar gradually; then beat until fluffy, about 4 minutes. Add grapefruit zest and lemon juice; beat thoroughly.

Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add one-third of the flour mixture; then beat until just incorporated. Add 1/4 cup grapefruit juice and another third of the flour mixture; then beat until just incorporated. Repeat with the other 1/4 cup grapefruit juice and the remaining flour mixture.

Pour batter into prepared pan. Tap pan on counter to get rid of any air pockets. Bake 40 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.

Remove cake from oven and place on a cooling rack 10 minutes; then turn cake out of the pan onto rack.


[Nutrition info (cake only): Cals - 301; Fat - 12.9; Sodium - 315mg; Carbs - 43.8g; Protein - 3.5g]