Eggplants with chèvre – a delicious appetizer

Recipe serves 4

Ingredients:

2 eggplants

olive oil

a generous 1/2 pound cherry tomatoes

fleur de sel

2 tbsp aceto balsamico

1/2 pound chèvre or buffalo mozzarella

a handful of basil leaves, plucked into small pieces

Preparation:

Cut eggplants in slices, about 1/3 of an inch, brush generously with olive oil.

Place the slices on a baking sheet and bake them on both sides for about 10 minutes at 400 F until a golden crust forms. Let them cool on a paper towel.

Cut cherry tomatoes in halves, place them into a heat resistant  dish, drizzle generously with olive oil and bake for 60 minutes at 200 F.

Sprinkle with fleur de sel and the aceto balsamico, roast for another 60 minutes in oven, let them cool.

Place one eggplant slice on 4 individual plates. Add tomates. Cut chèvre or bufflao mozzarella in slices and individually place on top of eggplant. Add basil leaves, fleur de sel and pepper from the mill. Sprinkle with a little olive oil. Repeat until all ingredients are used. Serve at room temperature.

Light cream - all the good taste but with less calories

While shopping in Europe, I discovered something I would like to be able to find at every food store in L.A. Pure, fresh whipping cream as well as sour cream with only 18 to 25 % milkfat. According to the California Milk Advisory Board there is a product called 'light whipping cream' with reduced milkfat, which makes me wonder why I can't find it in the refrigerated shelves of food markets. So far, I have only been able to get the 'heavy whipping cream' and regular sour cream. Dear dairy buyers, please get us some of the light stuff for all of us to indulge without the calorie overload. Many thanks!

I LOVE MY BREAD!

I am currently in Europe and have been shopping at this bakery (see picture above) in Zurich, Switzerland, an experience that immediately catapulted me into bread nirvana. Look at those beauties, at the incredible variety! Trying to describe the different breads, I feel that I ultimately will be failing. How will I ever be able to describe breads, that are so different from what we know in L.A.? Unfortunately, American bakeries seem to take their inspiration mostly from the French and Italian baking traditions. While France and Italy are undisputedly great food nations, they are somewhat limited in their bread making. Sure, who doesn't love a baguette or a ciabatta, but looking into the German baking traditions that is prevalent in Switzerland, opens up a whole new bread world, that, trust me, goes way beyond the hard-to-love Pumpernickel. It's a world filled with artisanal breads, each carrying intense flavors that remind me of the fifth taste Umami. Bread making is not difficult, but it's an art, where the perfect ratio of water, yeast or sourdough, salt and flour matters, where the kneading method has a crucial impact, where a puritan approach using a simple recipe and the best ingredients (NEVER using industrial flour) is key, and where the baker has to be not only patient, but in tune with the forces of nature surrounding the bread making process. I wish, hope and pray that L.A. will soon have bakeries sprinkled all over town that celebrate bread as the most elementary and most wonderful culinary pleasure. Breadbar, Le Pain Quotidien and the original La Brea Bakery are a good start, but we could even do better. A lot better.