One of the best aspects of my fall setup was my apartment with a fully equipped kitchen. I got really used to being able to cook whatever I liked, whenever I liked with everything right there. Cue spring semester, and I’m in a little single in Keohane. Sure, there’s a kitchen downstairs, but good luck finding a spatula, let alone a saucepan, or a whisk, or a stockpot… and groceries are a pain to get if you don’t have a car. #cookslament
I was always one to pin my lack of culinary exploration at Duke to my ridiculous schedule and few resources, but enough is enough. This semester, I’m going to be doing quite a bit of kitchen surfing. I’m going to be taking my talents all over Durham, from West Campus to West Village, bringing delicious meals, snacks, and sweets to those lucky enough to welcome me into their kitchen.
First stop: Trinity Commons with Shilpi Kumar.
This cooking adventure was a great surprise! Shilpi and I are both newly vegetarian (starting back in July) so we often find ourselves chatting about our latest veggie discovery. The other night, Shilpi invited me over to try one of her kitchen experiments: stuffed baked zucchini. This meal is dually light and hearty, with lots of great flavors with just a few ingredients.
Stuffed Zucchini
What you’ve gotta have:
· 2 ripe and plump zucchinis
· 1 medium whole tomato
· 1 medium onion
· 1 eggplant
· 1 small carton of sliced mushrooms
· olive oil
· your choice of seasonings
What you’ve gotta do:
- Preheat your oven to 400F.
- Start by washing all of your vegetables. Dice the eggplant and put it in a corningware dish with a generous amount of olive oil, salt, and pepper to roast. Allow it to bake until the eggplant is easily forked, and remove it from the oven.
- Put a saucepan on the stove at low heat with about 2 tablespoons of olive oil. Dice your onion, and toss it in. As the onion is cooking, dice up your tomato, and add it to the stove as soon as the onion begins to become translucent.
- Finally, toss in the mushrooms. Add roasted eggplant. Sprinkle in your favorite seasonings – we chose salt, pepper, and oregano. Leave the mixture to cook, but make sure to mix regularly to make sure it cooks evenly!
- In the meantime, cut the zucchinis hotdog style, and spoon out the insides. Your zucchini halves should look like canoes.
- Set them in a small corningware dish (or anything that can safely be put in the oven). At this point, you should be ready to spoon the filling into the zuccanoes (see what I did there?). Be generous with the filling!
- Put the dish into the already preheated oven, and let it bake until the zucchini can be pierced with a fork, so about 10 minutes.
- Remove your zuccanoes from the oven.
- Get your nom on.
Bon appetit!
Ashley