Roasted Garlic & Eggplant Dip with Almond Crackers

I picked an eggplant out of my garden this morning and went looking for a recipe to make a garlic eggplant dip. I found this recipe on pinterest ... I watched the video, took a couple notes and had it in the oven 10 minutes later !

While the eggplant was roasting, I went back to pinterest (my starting point for any recipe search these days!) and found an interesting looking recipe for crackers made out of almond meal. They looked easy to make. They were. 

I'll just write down the steps for the eggplant and then I'll tell you how to do the crackers.  Watch the video for the dip ... it's quite good and it's easier to understand than the written instructions will be.  And it cracks me up at the end when they just stand there munching on the crunchy crackers !

For the dip ... no real measurements as you'll see in the video.
Eggplant
Garlic cloves
Green chilli, I took the seeds out of mine and sliced them long
Olive oil
Salt
Lemon, for squeezing
Red Onion, finely diced
Fresh Coriander (Cilantro), chopped

Preheat oven to 230C/450F.

Make four long slits down the length of the eggplant.  Don't cut all the way through but go down far enough that you can stick stuff inside it.  I had to slice my garlic to fit inside the slits but in the video they leave them whole.  Put garlic and green chilli into the slits.  Put eggplant on a piece of foil and then drizzle eggplant with olive oil and sprinkle with salt.  Wrap up foil tightly.  Place in a small casserole dish and bake for 1 hour.  

When done baking, immediately remove eggplant from foil and put into the casserole dish.  Score skin on underside and then mash everything with a potato masher ... yep, skin and all !  Set aside to cool.

When cool, add red onion and coriander.  Season with salt and lemon juice til it's to your liking.

For the crackers ... 
I found this recipe on Home Cooking In Montana and she found it on Caveman Food.

1 cup almond meal
1 egg white
salt

Preheat oven to 350F/180C (although, I think I might go a bit cooler next time ... maybe 160/170)

Mix almond meal, egg white and pinch of salt.  Mix with a fork.  Roll into a ball.  If it's too sticky, add a bit more almond meal.  Put ball between two pieces of baking paper and roll out thin.  Cut (I used a pizza cutter) into squares and then lay on a baking tray.  I used the baking tray upside down because the crackers hung over the edge a bit ...

Bake 5-8 minutes or til crackers are golden.  Watch them towards the end because they brown up real quick !

Baked Brie

We had this at a friends house last year on Christmas Eve and I've wanted to make it ever since !  I don't think they did the jam though ... that was the addition of the friends we made this with last night !

This was so easy ! Not to mention DELICOUS !

All you need is:
1 sheet of puff pastry, thawed
1 wheel of brie
strawberry jam
crackers

All you do is:

Put the brie on top of the pastry. Top with strawberry (or your choice of)jam. Fold the pastry up to wrap the jam covered brie. Bake in 400F/200C oven til pastry is golden. We did it for 25 minutes last night ... I might try a little longer next time. 

Serve with crackers or fresh slices of crusty bread.

SO stinkin' yum !

Cheesy Crackers - Take One

I found this recipe for Cheese Crackers and decided to give it a go. I changed it a bit. I wasn't 100% happy with them but I'll try them again with a few modifications and I think they will be better ! Having said that I wasn't happy ... we are all still eating them !

125 gr. flour - I used 1/2 wholemeal spelt and 1/2 wholemeal millet.
Next time I'll go 100 % plain old wholemeal.
½ teaspoon paprika
pinch of salt
pinch of pepper
80 gr. butter
125 gr. gouda cheese - I used tasty cheese. Next time I'm going to try Parmesan.
1 egg yolk
2 tablespoons lemon juice.


Preheat oven to 410F/210C.

I'm pretty much cutting and pasting these directions ... Put all the above ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until it resembles coarse bread crumbs. Pulse a little bit longer; mixture should come together into a ball. (I did it too long, I think and it got too sticky. I'll be more careful next time.) Let it rest in refrigerator for 20min. (I think I let it rest longer and it probably wasn't good.) Roll the dough out thinly about 1/8" thick using generous amounts of dusting flour. Use fork to poke holes in the dough. (oops, just realized I forgot to poke holes !) Bake until the crackers start to get just golden on the edges. Remove from the oven, and transfer to a cooling rack.

Perfect Crackery Crackers !

I got this recipe from Smitten Kitchen. They were so easy. Delicious !

And I'm so excited at the possibilities that cracker making brings for 2010 and the whole unprocessed thing !

Most of this I'm just copying and pasting from her instructions but there is one major difference ... she used white and I went with the whole wheat spelt flour.

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 &1/2 cups whole wheat spelt flour


Stuff to put on top. I used sea salt, dried onion bits, flax seeds, toasted sesame seeds and mustard seeds on these ones ! I am excited to try lots and lots of variations. In fact, we're taking these to a New Years Eve party tonight and I'm going to try two different toppings ... I'll let you know how those go !

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F / 180 C degrees. Dissolve the salt in 1/2 cup of cold water. Stir in the spelt flour until combined. Knead the dough a few turns until a ball forms.

2. Flour an overturned (as in ... UPSIDE DOWN) 12-by-17-inch cookie sheet and roll out the dough on top of it, using as much flour as needed to prevent sticking, until the dough covers the sheet from edge to edge. Do your best to get them as thin as possible, because the thicker parts become quite hard when baked. Using a spray bottle filled with water, spray the dough to give it a glossy finish. Prick the dough all over with a fork. If you choose, sprinkle with sea salt or seeds. For neat crackers, score the dough into grids. ( I scored mine !)

3. Bake until the dough is crisp and golden and snaps apart, 15 to 25 minutes. (Check after 10 minutes to make sure it does not overcook.) Break into pieces and serve.

Go check out this video if you aren't convinced at how easy these are ...