When life gives you eggplants, make eggplant parmegiana! And recently life has been very generous to me on the eggplant side so i feel like i should share this recipe with you to keep my good eggplant karma. Eggplant parmegiana is not something i make very often but maybe i should change that. I realized how popular it is at the dinner table and what a great accompaniment it makes to grilled lamb and other grilled meats. It’s also a dish that may have your guests fighting over the leftovers as it was the case at work a few days ago. Now you’ve been warned and i won’t be held responsible for any bruises and broken bones!

Another recipe where almost all the ingredients were grown on the property in the Hamptons or sourced locally. Except for the Sardinian olive oil and the parmegiano-reggiano. Poor little spoiled me.

Hope everyone had a great labor day week-end! Now let’s get back to work, friends. Chop-chop.

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It’s been a heck of a week out here in the Hamptons with lots of dinner parties and fancy guests staying over at Big Bossman’s house. The abundance of fresh produce around me has been boosting my creativity but this dessert is one of the only thing i had the time to photograph in the midst of all the madness. The apricots, lemon verbena and blackberries were grown on the property and the ricotta used in the ice cream was homemade as well. It doesn’t get much more local than that.

I just wish i could have a quiet day to share the bounty with you but it hasn’t happened yet and it’s not happening anytime soon since my backup chef hasn’t reported to duty because of an injury. Don’t you worry for me though, i may be zen but i’m a warrior, which makes me a ninja.. err.. or something like that.

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When life gets hectic and stressful (and believe me, it does even for a zen chef), there are a few things that i found to be therapeutic and they include doing the dishes, baking and making pasta from scratch. Everything else related to cooking i classify under ‘work’. And there’s plenty of work these days starting with a party for 40 guests in the Hamptons in just a few days and plenty more fancy guests arriving in the following days. Think of it as a little Bed & Breakfast (..and lunch, and dinner) for the ultra rich. And if you want to know exactly how i’m preparing for it you should click here. It will take you to a post where i demonstrate my high levels of professionalism.

So what do i do when i get a day off? Well, i make pasta of course, because it relaxes me. On top of that i wash the dishes. Are you impressed yet or do you think i’m just plain weird?

Okay, err.. i guess i shouldn’t have asked.

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I wasn’t planning to post this recipe. Why? Well, because there’s no big mystery to it and you could probably figure it out just from looking at the pictures. Plus, i’m lazy. Okay, make that the main reason. Here’s the story, a layer of frangipane goes on top of crisp and buttery rounds of puff pastry, some perfectly ripe green figs are arranged on top and glazed with apricot jam and served with a delicious fig-balsamic reduction to cut through the richness and sweetness of it all. After posting a photo on twitter and getting a big enthusiastic response from my friends i thought that maybe i should after all. When the big enthusiastic response turned into menace and i was warned i would get stalked if i did not, i knew this was a winner.

So here you have it, stalker friends. You win again.

Of course, the quality of the figs make all the difference in the world and i could go on and on about how good it is but the result is of course relative to the quality of the ingredients you are using. I was thinking that miniature versions of these fig tarts could also be turned into accompaniments to a more sophisticated cheese course. Just an idea if you’re so inclined to play with your food.

Now, can i go back to bed?

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It’s hard not to come across a bakery in Paris that doesn’t sell large slices of the popular Flan Parisien (also known as flan pâtissier) with its delicious thick custard browned on top and a buttery pâte brisée on the bottom. This flan couldn’t be any simpler, quicker or delicious and can only get better after spending the night in the refrigerator.

You could think of it as the “not-so-distant” cousin of the delicious Portuguese egg custard tart so popular in Portugal and all over Asia under the code name Tan-Ta. Ah, the calories! After coming back to New York i knew the craving would get worse. And get worse, it did!  At least that’s how i interpret the eye twitch every time i catch a glimpse of the dry pignoli cookies in the window of my local bakery.

So for medical reason i had to make my own version, to see if at last, it would take care of that damn eye twitch. I couldn’t resist scrapping half a tahitian vanilla bean into the custard but consider that ‘over the top’ for this simple and humble flan. I, or even you could get slapped by my grandmother for it. So add it discretely, and at your own risk.

As for my medical craving, i think i temporarily took care of it. Not sure how long the relief will last though.

In the meantime, enjoy!

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