Pecorino and Pumpkin Pie

I bought a pumpkin and was browsing recipes and found an interesting one for a savoury pie thing. I modified it quite a bit as the original recipe looked fairly bland.

Prepare dough:
-Sift together 3 cups of flour with 1 tsp sea salt and 1 tsp rosemary
-Mix together 1/2 cup of extra-virgin olive oil, 1/3 ml of cold water and 1 egg
-Make a volcano out of the flour and add the liquid in the middle. Beat with a fork to form a dough, switching to hands once it gets too tough

-Knead for a couple minutes (add a bit of water at a time if it gets too grainy) until smooth
-Put in a plastic bag and place in the fridge for a couple hours

-Roll the dough to about 2mm thickness (pretty thin)
-Cut 2/3rds of it and mold it to fit a greased 6 1/4in x 10 1/2in baking sheet-The other 1/3rd of the dough should be cut into strips
-Place in the fridge for half an hour

Prepare filling:
-Preheat oven to 200C/400F
-Dice pumpkin, about 2 or 3 cups worth
-Coat in oil and a bit of salt and put in a roasting pan and into the oven
-About 20 minutes afterward, mix up the pumpkin and place 4 cloves unpeeled garlic in the pan
-Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl
-Grate about 2/3 cup of pecorino cheese into the egg-Once pumpkin is soft, remove from oven
-In the bowl, mash pumpkin and garlic (removed from skin)-Add a tsp each of sea salt, crushed black pepper, nutmeg, and basil

Cook:
-Place the filling into to the dough, smoothing out
-Place the strips diagonally across the pie-Bake for an hour or a bit more until the pastry is crisp and goldenTips:
-This made more than I wanted, so I assembled a whole small pie and put it in the freezer and baked it a week later, happily
-It was tasty but seemed to lack something that I couldn't put my finger on. Everyone else thought it was really tasty. I found the whatever-lacking was fixed by eating the pie with either a fresh, watery vegetable such as radish or cucumber or by spreading fresh pesto or schug on top.

Eggplant Lasagna

I bought a bunch of eggplants in the market and wanted to put them to good use. I scoured the internet for ideas for how to make lasagna and found a good recipe for the cheese mixture. I also found a recipe for homemade pasta and embarked on the mission. It was a bit labour-intensive but so tasty and well worth it for the thanks from my friends.

Prepare lasagna sheets:
-On a clean, wide surface make a mound of 3 cups of flour with a dip in the middle (volcano)
-Crack an egg into the middle and beat with a fork within the volcano, picking up flour on the way; repeat with 2 more eggs for a total of 3

-Once you can't beat anymore with the fork, knead with your hands for a while - at least 5 minutes
-Set aside for about 30 minutes-On floured surface, roll (and roll and roll). It will most likely be easier to divide the dough in half and roll that way, otherwise it takes up too much space.
-Once it's flat enough to almost be transparent, cut into rectangular sheets-Get the widest slightly-deep pan you have and fill it an inch or two with water and set to boil
-Cook the sheets for a minute or two in the boiling water and then place aside to drain

Prepare eggplant:
-Preheat oven to about 200C/400F
-Cut a couple eggplants into 1/2inch thick slices.

-Place on a tray and coat with olive or canola oil
-Roast for about 5 or 10 minutes, then flip over and roast again

Prepare cheeses:
-Cube about 2 1/2 cups of fresh mozzarella, 1 cup provolone, 2 cups ricotta, 1 cup grated parmesan
-Mix in a large bowl with 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic and an egg to hold it together

Prepare sauce:
-Make or buy a tomato sauce. I have a couple recipes on the site. I just made a basic one: sautee onion and garlic in olive oil with a bit of balsamic vinagrette. Add 2 or 3 tins of peeled tomatoes, 1 fresh tomato, some bay leaves, 1 tsp of stock powder, 1 tbsp tomato/chili paste, 1 tsp oregano, a bit of honey and some salt and pepper. Let simmer for about an hour (so start this before the pasta sheets)

Prepare lasagna:
-Line the bottom of a deep baking dish with eggplant
-Pour some sauce to cover eggplant
-Add the layer of cheese
-Repeat until everything is used up, trying to end with sauce on top. On the top place large pieces of mozarella
Cook lasagna:
-In an oven preheat to about 190C/380F, bake for about 30 or 40 minutes
-Take out and let cool for about 10 minutes so you don't burn the roof of your mouth
-Enjoy

Tips:
-I know it's labour-intensive. I made everything from scratch and from start to eating took less than 3 hours. But it was 3 full hours. Timewise, the best way to do this is to start the sauce, then make the pasta dough and roll it out; once it's flat and cut do the eggplant and while the eggplant is in the oven, cook the eggplant sheets in the boiling water. This way the oven can still be on once the eggplant is taken out of the oven and the lasagna can go right in.
-Rolling is pretty hard (especially with a wine bottle!). The best strategy, I find, is to roll a bit and then flip the dough over and rotate 1/4 of a circle clockwise. Once it gets pretty flat, it's harder to roll and you have to kind of press down as you slide the roller. Make sure stretch your fingers every now and then.
-This recipe for pasta is the same as any kind of pasta, so you can use it for any shape you'd like etc (I had more sheets than other material and so cut it into fettuccine and froze it)
-I don't peel eggplants because I like the texture and taste of the skin. I also have stopped salting them before hand since the newer varieties aren't as bitter and don't need that done

Lentil Burgers

Last week was Ekka holiday. It is some random holiday whose function or reason is unimportant. What is important, however, is that BBQ was involved. I wanted to give a go on making veggie burgers, using lentils, for all my vegetarian friends. I got a couple ideas around the internet and the results were really quite tasty.

Prepare:
-Soak 1 1/2 cups of dried green lentils in water (more than cover) for several hours/overnight
-Change water and simmer for about an hour or until the lentils are soft. Drain and set aside to cool-Mix about 1/2 cup bread crumbs with a tablespoon of cumin seeds and toast in a pan on low heat for about 5 minutes

-Dice half an onion
-In a food processor, mince a couple cloves of garlic and a couple hot chili peppers with a bit of coarse salt
-Add the lentils to the processor and 2 eggs and pulse until completely mixed

-Add 1tsp honey and 1 tsp soy sauce
-Mix in bread crumbs/cumin seed mixture and the onion

-Check consistency - if too fluid (they should be able to hold together fairly well) then add more breadcrumbs
-Make several medium-sized patties (about 8 or 9, I got)

Cook:
-On a hot grill with some oil, place patties and cook for about 7 or 8 minutes on either side until brown and crispy

Tips:
-These were really good, even with non-vegetarians. They do look pretty nasty, though, so try to hide them, uncooked, from people.
-Even with a decent amount of breadcrumbs, they still were a bit viscous. This was no problem once thrown on the grill, though.
-They're totally fine to taste before BBQing, so make sure to check spiciness/saltiness etc (I added some extra cayenne pepper to a batch and it was great)
-It would be good if you made a thicker patty and then cut in the middle and put tomato or avocado or cheese or something
-Freezes well