Last year our family doctor retired and as a result, we were forced to look up the lists provided by the Municipality of Milan for the name of a new doctor who would take charge of our small family.
As soon as he got on the scales of his immaculate study, the young doctor, zealous and efficient as only neophytes can be, immediately activated himself prescribing an infinite series of exams, from which emerged a not very brilliant situation.
In fact, at our next meeting, based on the parameters indicated in the results sheets, he immediately ordered us to make an appointment with a dietician.
In Italy it falls into the category of the obese as soon as a one bites a cannolo more than the necessary and therefore once marked with the hideous epithet, we diligently went on a diet.
After 10 months our eating habits have changed quite severely but my passion for cooking has not stopped. Rather, I’m learning how to cook without or with very little fat, to make appetizing dishes that by nature would be on the edge of sadness, to mix carbohydrates, proteins, and vegetables to create a nice rich dish instead of three sad loners.
Nazim naturally benefits from my obstinacy to eat happily despite the impositions of the young doctor. The results are encouraging, we have lost a lot of weight and all in all we still have devoted friends.
Of course, because I forgot to mention when you do the diet, in social occasions one must run away like the devil from holy water if you want to resist and our possible transgressions are confined to only one free meal per week in which we can finally get to see our friends in turns who have had the patience to wait for us.
The recipe that I propose to you today is part of the experiments of the last 10 months: it is a simple, fast (but not very fast) thing to prepare that can be eaten even a few hours later although I recommend, in case you did not eat it fresh from the oven, to heat it a bit before consuming it because in this way its flavors are livened up.
All right, let’s start with the ingredients:
1 large long dark aubergine
200 gr of millet (a type of grain)
80 gr Grated Parmesan
1 egg
200 gr of feta cheese (light for the real nerd)
oregano
a pinch of salt
if you like the grated peel of an untreated lemon
First of all, place the millet to cook in abundant salted water (like pasta when the water boils). Millet is great because it tends to grow a lot during boiling so 100 gr of millet becomes a great big lump. In diets, the dry weight is always considered.
Remember that this cereal is rich in mineral substances such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and silicon. It performs a strengthening action on nails and hair and supports the health of bones and dental enamel. Millet is a cereal with multiple properties and that gives a lot of benefits: it contains vitamin A and above all many types of vitamin B.
Furthermore, it has always been considered a kind of natural anti-stress that helps with memory functions. Since it does not contain gluten, it is suitable for feeding celiacs or those who are intolerant.
In Italy, it was widely used before the discovery of the Americas and consequently the import of corn. (If you want to see another sweet recipe that uses this cereal go to the article “PAN DE MEJ”: the Milanese biscuits).
After having praised the qualities of this ancient cereal (the first time I proposed it to Nazim he replied: “The millet you can give it to the birds”!) Let’s continue with our recipe.
On a hot plate or in the oven, put your eggplant to roast, turning it by hand so that it becomes like a parallelepiped, (a black box). When all the sides have become hard and scorched, lay it on a cutting board and open it with a knife. Extract all the pulp taking care not to scratch even the burnt skin and put it in a colander so that it loses some water.
Once cooked, drain the millet well (read the necessary boiling time on the package), place it still hot in a bowl, add the pulp, Parmesan, the whole egg, oregano salt (grated lemon skin if you want) and the crumbled feta.
Mix the mixture so that there are no lumps. Grab two sheets of wet wax paper, squeeze them and place the spread wet squeezed parchments in two baking trays; with the help of two spoons, create discs of about 5/6 cm in diameter, slightly spaced apart.
Put in a preheated oven at 180 ° for about 25 minutes. Check now and then and invert the position of the trays so that the cooking is uniform. When they are golden brown, take them out of the oven and let them cool down a little before serving.
Excellent as an aperitif served along with fresh vegetables.
Enjoy your meal
Betti
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