Got milk?

Linda at make life sweeter hosts a food event called got milk? as the first week of august is breastfeeding week. (Did you know? No? Neither did I). I think food blogging events are so cool and I always want to participate in so many and end up missing all the deadlines. Pathetic, yes. I'm on time for this one so hooray! I don't even like milk particularly, never drink it, don't add it to cereals, only a drop in my tea, thank you. But cooking with milk - absolutely. Two recipes sprang to my mind. The first was latte in piedi, literal translation "milk standing up", an italian pudding similar to panna cotta which, at least in some versions, is prepared with only milk instead of cream. I'm not sure about the recipe I found, it might be the road to the culinary relevation of the year or complete disaster. I'll try it some other time and report back. The second and the one I chose for this event was Plattenmüesli which is Swiss German and stands for "dish muesli" - this is a funny language so don't ask. It might be that my grandmother used to make this, it seems to me that I have a vague memory of this dish but it was certainly not part of my mother's repertoire. It's simple as it gets - whisk eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla together and let it set in the oven. It's an old recipe and might have been something that (well-off) mothers used to make for their little children so they would grow strong and therefore a suitable dish for breastfeeding week.

Plattenmüesli
(serves 4 as dessert)

• 3 eggs
• 2.5dl milk
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• scraped seeds of half a vanilla pod
• a litte butter for greasing the dish

Preheat the oven to 150° C. Bring water to boil. Grease a medium-sized ovenproof dish. Whisk the eggs, milk, sugar and vanilla together and pour into the dish. Set onto a rimmed baking tray and slide into the hot oven. Carefully pour the hot water onto the baking sheet. Bake for twenty minutes or until completely set. Watch closely as the water must not come to the boil. Remove from the oven and let cool completely before serving.

Cooking for Karina

When I read about Cooking for Karina I immediately wanted to participate. Isaiah of Gluten-Free by the Bay came up with the idea to assemble a collection of recipes suitable for Karina of Gluten-Free Goddess, who recently discovered that there was a number of foods she was allergic to and of course also for other people suffering from food allergies. The following food groups are ruled out:

Cow's milk/cheese/whey/casein/goat's milk, egg whites/yokes, chicken/turkey, gluten, peanuts, almonds/walnuts, sunflower seeds, soybeans, lemon, avocado, pineapple, papaya, green beans, kidney beans, oysters.

A bit tricky. I read and re-read that list a few times, dishes sprang to my mind - and were discarded for containing one of the offenders. Finally, I settled on a korean eggplant salad with sesame and herbs. Eggplants being one of my favourite vegetables, I'm always looking for new ways of preparing them. I found this recipe here on waskochen, where a group of friends present a new recipe every week, complete with a chef-de-cuisine-film, shopping list etc. This salad is adorably quick and easy to make, wonderfully refreshing on hot days and light as the eggplant, seeing it is boiled rather than sautéd, does not have a chance to do its sponge-act and end up drenched in oil. Ha.

Korean eggplant salad with sesame and herbs (serves 1)

• 1 eggplant, washed and cut into large cubes
• 2 tablespoons rice vinegar
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• 1-2 teaspoons sesame oil
• salt and pepper
  
• 1 teaspoon toasted sesame seeds
• 1 tablespoon chopped herbs such as parsley, cilantro, mint etc.

Boil the eggplant in salted water for five minutes, then drain. Let cool. Combine all the other ingredients to make the dressing and toss with the eggplant. Lovely with a barbecue or simply a bowl of basmati rice.

I was unsure about the use of sesame and sesame oil. They didn't figure on the list but I know allergic reactions to sesame are not unusual. The sesame seeds can of course be left out and the sesame oil be replaced with any other kind of oil. Minced or finely chopped garlic can be added to the dressing.