What's Cooking: Eggplant Moussaka, Pork Chops & Sweet Corn Polenta, Baba Ganoush, Za'atar Sheepshead & More!

Here’s our weekly cooking ideas from our (tiny) kitchen at Local Cooling Farms.

Everything I make I intend to eat as leftovers and these dishes served us well all last week. There’s only a few ingredients used here that weren't sourced from our own farm or our market!

Eggplant & Potato Moussaka with Caveman Ground Beef

This is one of my absolute favorite ways to use eggplant and every time I make it I wonder why I don’t make it more!

It is time consuming, so maybe that’s why! There’s four important distinct layers that all need to be done right.

First I roast thinly sliced potatoes. The béchamel sauce on top and the potatoes are what make the whole thing so delicious, in my opinion. Then I roast slices of Italian eggplant in the oven, as well. Eggplant and potatoes are traditional, I have also done a summer squash or zucchini layer in the past.

Next, the meat sauce. I have used ground lamb, goat and beef. When I was vegetarian, I even did lentils in the tomato sauce instead of meat. This time I used our Caveman ground beef blend with heart and liver ground into it for extra nutrients.

I browned the meat, seasoned it with allspice, black pepper, coriander, fenugreek, mustard seed, oregano, paprika and thyme, then added onions, garlic, sweet peppers and eventually tomatoes to cook down into a rustic meat sauce.

The final step is a béchamel sauce for the top. This time I used goat milk since Southern Maids had just delivered to the farm and I was low on Feliciana’s Best cow’s milk! You start with equal parts butter and flour, whisk to incorporate and toast it a little bit, then add milk, stirring regularly over a low heat to thicken. Once it thickened I added some parmesan and then took it off the heat to add egg yolks.

The moussaka comes together with potatoes on the bottom, then eggplant, then meat sauce, then béchamel and cheese on top. Often feta is used, this time I used fresh chèvre. It was everything we wanted it to be and more and the leftovers were so good, too!

Caesar Snap Beans with Walnuts

To go with the moussaka, I made a caesar dressing for Dragon’s Tongue snap beans. Many of you don’t seem to like these as much as regular green beans, but I think they are delicious. (I will say that since they lose their purple spots when you cook them, they are aren’t the most photogenic and really could have benefitted from some green herbs to top them off!).

For the dressing, I use an avocado oil based mayonnaise, parmesan, anchovy paste, a little dijon, nutritional yeast, lemon juice and lots of black pepper. I am already missing salad greens, but making caesar dressing for other veggies does help with that! And then we topped the caesar beans with walnuts for some extra crunch and contrast.

Grilled Pork Chops & Okra, Polenta with Peppers & Sweet Corn

Grant has been on his grilling game every week, and this week it was a bunch of pork chops for meal prep! We seasoned these simply with garlic and onion powders and paprika and made sure each one got nice and crispy on the outside (and juicy on the inside).

Sweet corn is almost done for the season (although I do have some that we grew already shucked in my freezer!), so I made a polenta dish with some bell peppers and shucked corn. We also threw some whole okra in a grill pan after the pork chops were done and it was a simple, tasty summer dinner.

Overnight Oat & Chia Blueberry Pancakes with Pecan Butter

I’m mostly a savory breakfast person, but I love these pancakes so much! This time I decided to make them because I used egg yolks for the moussaka and needed something to do with the egg whites — pancakes are perfect for that.

For the overnight oats, I soak 1.75 cups of rolled oats, along with about a half cup of chia seeds in yogurt and milk (you can also use buttermilk and you want about 2 cups equivalent of yogurt/milk).

Then in the morning, you whisk together a half cup of flour, baking soda and baking powder and brown sugar and then add that to the oats, along with the eggs (or egg whites) and melted coconut oil. I spiced these with cinnamon, nutmeg and cardamom and added frozen blueberries, as well.

They are delightful just with maple syrup, but I love them with pecan butter for a little extra protein and substance, as well. And they’re great leftover reheated in the toaster oven.

Roasted Baba Ganoush

Even after the moussaka, I had more eggplant to use up, so it was baba ganoush time. I had both Italian and Japanese varieties and I just roasted them whole or halved in the toaster oven until they were completely falling apart (I don’t remember exactly, probably at least 45 minutes).

Often I scoop out the flesh from the skins, but I was too lazy for that this time, so I just put them into the food processor whole, skins and all. I first minced some garlic in the food processor before adding the eggplant, then I added olive oil, tahini, lots of lemon juice and salted to taste and topped with sumac. It’s ugly, but so delicious!

Za’atar Sheepshead Filets with Summer Squash & Cucumber Tomato Salad

To go with the baba ganoush I made some simple sheet pan roasted sheepshead filets, seasoned with za’atar. Sheepshead gets a bad reputation sometimes because it’s a fish that is hard to clean, but Anna Marie Seafood does all that for us and it’s light and flaky and delicious.

With the fish and baba ganoush, we had roasted summer squash and a salad with cherry and slicer tomatoes, cucumbers and chèvre, dressed with a little Texas olive oil, oregano and lemon juice.