Cooking 101

Someone asked me yesterday what I blog about, and I said whatever interests me,

Today it's food:

On the rooftop a few days ago, while eating breakfast (nectarines, peaches and blueberries with peach yogurt and fresh mint from the balcony garden), my landlady came up to tend her garden and cut two perfect eggplants for me (she tried to give me three and I said too many).

I ate with friends a few weeks ago at a Bulgarian restaurant near 3 Alley Pub and had an amazing grilled eggplant and pepper salad so decided to try something similar.

I grilled the eggplant, one red and one yellow bell pepper (almost, I saved a slice of each to add crunch), a passel of garlic (I'm not sure how big a passel is, but it was a lot), a red onion and some yellow grape tomatoes. Tossed in olive oil and sprinkled well with Italian seasoning first.

Once cooked, I pulsed them in the blender then added the finely chopped raw bell pepper, finely diced raw red onion and a chili pepper (the landlady's garden) for crunch. And some balsamic vinegar. And heaps of fresh basil (my garden).

I gave some to my landlady's family, not sure if they would like it, but this is a Korean family that loves basil and cilantro/coriander (most Koreans dislike both).

The daughter this morning told me they loved it.

Yesterday, a dear friend had a BBQ. I wanted to contribute, and teach Americans that vegetables don't need to be boring.

I did a Kiwi/Mediterranean potato salad.

I boiled halved small potatoes with lots of mint in the water (I wish I could have had vari-colored potatoes but this is Korea, so you work with what you can get) and steamed chunks of sweet potato (they fall apart easier than potato, and I wanted them to stay solid).

Char-grilled a red bell pepper over the gas flame, then put it in a plastic bag to sweat so the skin would be easier to peel. Peeled and chopped it when cool.

Halved yellow and red grape tomatoes. Added fresh mint (garden).

Halved the bigger caper berries, left the babies whole.

Chilled a can of olives stuffed with salmon, ready to mix.

Picked a passel (again?) of fresh basil from the rooftop garden. And some more mint

Got to the BBQ, threw it all together, ripped the basil leaves into it (tear basil, don't cut it), ground pepper over the top.

Took it to the roof, where it got eaten. 

The view from the roof - I forgot to photograph the food.

As someone who cooks, the compliments don't count as much as the empty bowl.