Fare Exchange: Eggplant and jelly? Explaining Bragg Aminos

The trees are budding and the flowers are blooming and the plants are being planted, so fresh produce, locally grown, is surely on everybody's agenda. And how about your best recipe for meatballs? Finally, did you clip a recipe for a Smoked Salmon Reuben sandwich?

Welcome to the middle of April so please contribute your spring specialties: spaghetti squash dishes, Brabson House tea, tacos as served at Fuzzy's Tacos in Athens, Ga., and any and all favorite ways to use vegetables.

The trees are budding and the flowers are blooming and the plants are being planted, so fresh produce, locally grown, is surely on everybody's agenda. And how about your best recipe for meatballs? Finally, did you clip a recipe for a Smoked Salmon Reuben sandwich?

M.C. Coffey, who visits our city regularly from her home in Virginia, gets a quantity of spaghetti squash in her Community Supported Agriculture market basket and has found it too watery in consistency to use in a recipe. In return for your spaghetti sauce wisdom and recipes, she gives you a Just a Dash hint at the end of today's column. She also wants to know the unique cheese blend and how to prepare Fuzzy-style tacos. What we need, really, is instruction from any taco expert.

June Roberson Ormesher, once a local and now a Dallasite, "spent many happy lunches at the Brabson House. And when they went out of business I actually bought the recipes. I cannot locate the tea recipe. I know it had pineapple juice and the great almond flavoring, but I need the particulars." The recipe has appeared in this column before, and it is safe to say, from experience, that one doesn't want to just guess at ingredients and proportions. The Brabson House got it just right.

John McNeal Wilson of Monteagle read last year about a healthier Reuben sandwich: "smoked salmon instead of corned beef, light mayonnaise instead of Hollandaise sauce I'd really like the exact recipe."

EGGPLANT AND JELLY?

Barbara calls for meatballs in the recipe she sent below, and so now we need a recipe for meatballs. She started the discussion of vegetable dishes with this one, "a copycat recipe from Olive Garden. I always serve meatballs with this dish."

And who would have thought eggplant Parmesan called for grape jelly?

Eggplant Parmesan

1 eggplant, peeled, cut into -inch slices

Flour

Oil

Seasoned salt, to taste

16-ounce jar Prego meat-flavored sauce

1/4 cup grape jelly

14-ounce can stewed tomatoes

Thick sliced mozzarella cheese for topping

Coat eggplant slices lightly in flour, quickly brown in hot oil, dusting with salt. Transfer to baking pan. In a saucepan, combine flavored sauce, jelly and tomatoes that have been broken up. Heat until warm and jelly is melted. Pour over eggplant, put mozzarella over the top, and bake at 375 degrees until bubbly. Yields 4 servings.

BRAGG AMINOS

M. C. Coffey noted last week's recipe calling for Bragg Amino Acids and hastened to tell us more. "This is a soy sauce substitute. You can read this and more at Bragg.com: 'Bragg Liquid Aminos is a healthy alternative to Soy and Tamari sauce. No table salt or preservatives are added.' So use it wherever you would use soy sauce. Here are two recipes from that website, attributed to Ellen Wood. I recommend you use your favorite salad dressing with the addition of aminos."

Salad Dressing with Bragg Aminos

"When mixing oil and vinegar, add flavor and health benefits with a splash of Bragg Liquid Aminos and, if you're not planning on kissing someone, put some chopped garlic in it.

"Jacques Duvoisin became famous in his town for his salad dressing. Guests would practically beg him for his secret, but he wouldn't tell. Then one year Jacques was at a Christmas dinner party among friends and gave each couple a gift: a small bottle of Bragg Liquid Aminos, the secret ingredient in his dressing."

Breakfast Scrambled Egg, Quinoa and Veggies

Quinoa

Vegetables (say, broccoli and asparagus)

Coconut oil

Raw egg

Pepper

Bragg Aminos

Soak quinoa overnight (enough for a few days), then next morning rinse and drain. Be sure to drain in a strainer with SMALL holes; you will lose most of it if you use a spaghetti colander.

Then put fresh water in -- about 1 cups water to 1 cup of quinoa -- and cook until water is absorbed, about 8 to 10 minutes. You will need less than 2-to-1 water to grain when it has been soaked.

Cut up some vegetables (broccoli and asparagus are a favorite combination) and braise them in a frying pan in coconut oil. Olive oil is okay but coconut oil is better.

Add the quinoa, then mix up a raw egg or two with a fork and pour the mixture on top. Grind in some pepper and moosh it all around. Then add some Bragg. It has a salty taste, so don't add extra salt. Be aware that teaspoon of Bragg has 160 mg of sodium. But it also has all those good liquid amino acids.

INDIAN DISH

Linda Leake sent this Indian recipe out of the "Chez Piggy Cookbook" from Ontario, Canada.

Machli Ki Tikki (Indian Curried Sole)

3 pounds sole (or other mild white fish like turbot or cod)

1/2 cup lemon juice

1 teaspoon coarse salt

2 tablespoons butter

2 medium onions, chopped

2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 (1-inch) piece of fresh ginger, chopped

1 fresh chili, chopped

1 tablespoon turmeric

1/3 cup fish stock or water or dry white wine

Coarse salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/4 cup fresh dill, chopped

Marinate sole in lemon juice and 1 teaspoon salt for a few minutes or up to 2 hours, but no longer (otherwise, lemon juice will start to cook the fish).

Heat oven to 350 degrees. Melt butter in a large skillet and sauté onions, garlic, ginger, chili and turmeric over low heat until onions are translucent. Add stock, water or wine; season with salt and pepper to taste, and simmer for 5 minutes. Add dill; remove from heat, and set sauce aside.

On a greased baking sheet, bake sole for 8 to 10 minutes, or until fish is flaky. If using a fish other than sole, you may need to cook for a few minutes longer. Transfer to a serving dish and spoon sauce on top.

Makes 6 servings.

Just a Dash

Here's a current favorite healthful dinner from M.C. Coffey. "Buy broccoli slaw which, of course, is intended for salad. But steam the contents and put them in a bowl. Top with spaghetti sauce and fresh-grated Parmesan cheese."

There you have it. Another satisfying week, and an appetite-enhancing week ahead, thanks to all of you. How about next week?