Lots of Broth on Hand - Low on Ideas

My gentleman friend cooked chicken curry for the two of us last week. He soaked the chicken in salt water before adding them to the crockpot to make them more tender and flavorful. Then he realized that there wouldn't be enough leftovers for his brother, so he hurriedly cooked up some more chicken in a pot of salted water in order to add the already cooked chicken to the curry sauce in the crock. He was about to pour all that chicken stock down the drain when I stopped him. I asked him to put it in some containers for me to bring home. Since it wasn't cool yet when I left, he didn't bring it until the next day. I repackaged it into my own containers and froze it for future use. I have about a quart and a cup of chicken broth frozen.


Yesterday, I re-cooked the bone portion of my ham with frozen green beans in water. Because my daughter doesn't like potatoes cooked in with the ham, I left them out. There was plenty of ham stock in the pot, so when I was putting everything away, I poured off the stock into containers and froze them along with the green beans we didn't eat. I have around 30 oz. of ham stock now in the freezer. 


I'm going to try to make some ham salad with some of the ham with my meat grinder. Maybe even some ham croquettes. But, I've also never used ham stock to make anything before. This will all be new to me.


I'm thinking of making some bean soup with the pinto beans I also cooked this week (I have no idea what has got into me with all this cooking - maybe Mom's paying a visit this week?) I think I'll add some carrots and potatoes, maybe some celery and onion. I love pintos and so does my daughter, but neither of us has ever had pinto bean soup before. How different can it be from regular bean soup? I used some of the ham to flavor the beans near the end of their cooking, so soup seems to be a natural extension of that. By the way, the beans are frozen in containers, too.


I would love to have some more ideas on using the ham stock (other than cabbage - that is NOT a vegetable of choice here). If you leave me comments and have an idea, I'd really appreciate it.

Tasty Ideas for Eggplant

When I was growing up, we had eggplant a lot. Mom had an old French fry cutter that she'd use to cut the eggplant into sticks that she'd bread and fry for us to have at dinner time (I can't remember with what since I tended to pig out on the eggplant). She'd also make Eggplant Parmesan much like you'd make lasagna, except she'd use breaded and fried eggplant "coins" instead of pasta. It never occurred to me that we had many vegetarian meals until I grew up. But, that Parmesan was how I introduced my stepdaughter to eggplant. It really works with kids!

One version of Eggplant Parmesan. -Wikimedia Commons

I've since had Eggplant Parmesan that was entirely different than Mom's in that the eggplant was sliced lengthwise rather than into coins, sometimes in coin shape, but served on the plate with sauce and cheese and pasta on the side. Mom's didn't have the pasta, but it was still good.


Another tasty idea is grilled eggplant. Usually brushed with olive oil and then salted and peppered, it picks up all the essences that only grilling can offer, such as that smoky taste and those wonderful grill marks. Thinly sliced eggplant cooked this way briefly tastes fantastic as a pizza topping. You can also experiment with a variety of marinades to add more deeply embedded flavor before grilling.

One Way to Grill Eggplant. © Amihay Shraga | Dreamstime.com

Another way I like eggplant is Moussaka, a type of Mediterranean Eggplant Parmesan. There are two distinct kinds depending on what region originated the recipe. One has sliced potatoes along with eggplant, meat sauce and bechamel sauce and the other has no potatoes. That is the one I prefer. The picture comes from the  recipe site that is exactly the way I like it. FYI - although it won't be authentic, you can use straight ground beef.

Moussaka Recipe

Then there is Eggplant Rollatini. As far as I'm concerned, Rollatini is just another way to make Eggplant Parm, except the eggplant is sliced lengthwise and rolled around the filling. Often it is found with chopped spinach in with the ricotta cheese filling, but it's wonderful without it, too. Another link to a recipe will follow the photo from that recipe's site.

Eggplant Rollatini Recipe

There is another recipe I just love but I haven't found anything online that duplicates it. It is called Mediterranean Medley and I order it when we go to Norma's Mediterranean Restaurant in Cherry Hill. OMG, I love this stuff. It has eggplant, zucchini, onion, bell peppers and tomatoes all cooked down in a seasoned tomato sauce and served with rice pilaf. Oh, heavens, that is good stuff. Who cares that there is no meat when you have that kind of yumminess on hand!! 

That's about it, though, for my tasty ideas for eggplant. I've always been a hardsell when it comes to trying new things, so I understand how uncomfortable it can be. That's why I'm offering such "middle of the road" ideas for you to try because I do think that, even if you don't love them, you definitely won't hate them. Let me know if you try any of them and how you liked them, if you would.