Mushroom, Lentil, and Chestnut Ragù

A ragu is meant to be a little bit sauce-like, but mine was more solid. This is my version of the Myra Kornfeld recipe in my favorite cookbook, the Voluptuous Vegan. I bought my copy about 10 years ago and have slowly worked my way through ever since, triumph by delectable triumph. Allow yourself a generous 3 to 4 hours. It tastes like Thanksgiving! All the picky eaters in my family loved it. Serves 8 hearty eaters alongside the broccoli rabe polenta--which you could make a few days before because it keeps well--of the previous post.


1 Cup whole roasted chestnuts from a jar
1 1/2 Cups French lentils (they keep their shape, unlike some lentils I could mention!)
cheesecloth
7-8 sprigs fresh rosemary
7-8 sprigs fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
12 ounces fresh shiitake mushrooms
2 large portabello mushrooms
6 Tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 Tablespoons shoyu or gluten-free soy sauce
2 onions, diced (2 Cups)
4 garlic cloves, minced
4 celery stalks, cut into large pieces on the diagonal
salt and freshly ground black pepper
juice of 1 large lemon

1. Cover lentils with 8 Cups water in a pot. Add a bouquet garni (tied in cheesecloth) of 6 sprigs rosemary, 6 sprigs thyme, and 2 bay leaves. Bring to a boil, then simmer, partially covered, about 30 minutes or until lentils are soft. Drain liquid, remove bouquet garni, and set aside.
2. Preheat oven to  375 degrees. Clean mushrooms. Remove stems. Cut the mushrooms into large chunks. Toss in a bowl with 4 Tablespoons olive oil and all of the soy sauce. Spread in a shallow baking pan and roast 30 minutes. Set aside.
3. In a very large saucepan, heat 2 Tablespoons olive oil. Add onions, garlic, and celery and saute about 10 minutes until softened. Salt it to taste.
4. Add the lentils to the onion mixture. Salt to taste. Add the mushrooms. Add the chestnuts, breaking them up by hand. Add about 1 Cup water. Simmer to marry the flavors and add any salt or pepper to taste. Turn off the heat.
5. Mince a teaspoon of rosemary, one teaspoon of thyme, and add it to the mixture along with the lemon juice. Serve immediately while wearing well-polished boots. 

Spring Sabzi, Persian Greens with Black-eyed Peas

In Farsi, the word "sabzi" means green and can refer to herbs or vegetables.  This version of Sabzi is hardly the last word on the matter and—although easy and quite delicious—is a far cry from the top-of-the-line meals I enjoyed at the home of my Persian friend Roshanak. Roshanak loves to cook together several kinds of greens and herbs into a dense stew, or ash (AWSH). Then her family spoons it over rice and mixes this delicious concoction with homemade yogurt. Although I haven't visited Roshanak in years, this Sabzi's combination of cooked greens, good creamy yogurt, and rice reminds me strongly of all the amazing meals she so graciously served me. The black-eyed peas are the real surprise here: their light freshness adds to the feeling of Spring provided by the mixture of leeks, parsley, spinach, and lemon juice.  And the unexpected sprinkling of cinnamon works magic, although I have no idea why it belongs in this dish!

I think I got a version of this recipe from Vegetarian Times, but I'm not sure.

Serve this dish with a side of refreshing tropical fruit like pineapple or mango, spritzed with lime juice.

Spring Sabzi

about 1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 leeks, white and light green parts only, chopped and washed in several changes of water
12 to 16 ounces fresh spinach
1/4 Cup fresh parsley, chopped
4 scallions (white and light green parts), sliced
2 16-ounce cans black-eyed peas, rinsed
3 Tablespoons fresh lemon juices
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
several gratings of fresh nutmeg

1. In an extra-large skillet or soup pot, heat oil. Add leeks and cook until soft, roughly eight minutes.
2. Add spinach, parsley, scallions, and 1/4 Cup water. Cook until spinach wilts.
3. Stir in the black-eyed peas, lemon juice, cinnamon and nutmeg. Heat 5 minutes until through. 

Serve over rice and offer people good quality yogurt or wedges of lemon.

Mexican Vegetarian (also Gluten-Free): Enchiladas, Tamales, Empanadas, Chile Rellenos

I hope the title didn't mislead you; I don't have recipes for the above foods. What I do have is a neighbor, Laura, from Mexico who barely speaks any English and who cooks to order from her home. Her food is quite inexpensive so I've been experimenting almost weekly with vegetarian requests from her (and learning Spanish food words). This post will report on some vegetarian possibilities for Mexican-style home cooking in the States, and you can use the post to create your own recipes.

The Goofy Family has the double limitation that we are eating gluten-free this month for medical reasons. We aren't concerned about the minute level of gluten contamination that causes problems for people with celiac disease, which is why we can eat gluten-free from my neighbor. Otherwise, with my language abilities that would be out of the question.

Spinach Enchiladas

Spinach is espinacas in Spanish and the Mexican people in my neighborhood exhibit a lot of familiarity with it, even though my Mexican-American neighbor pretty much never cooks with it or with any dark leafy green. I brought Laura an enormous bag of fresh adult spinach still attached to the crown and asked her for a batch (hornadas) of enchiladas, which turned out to be a dozen medium-sized enchiladas. I think she sautéed the spinach with generous amounts of garlic and onion, then rolled the spinach mixture tightly into warmed-until-soft corn tortillas. She piled the enchiladas up in two layers on a platter, poured a mild sauce over them, sprinkled on grated queso fresco (a mild white fresh Mexican cheese), and topped everything with a beautiful chopped salad of lettuce, tomato, radishes and avocados. They looked spectacular. She gave me a side of a very spicy salsa verde (tomatillo-based).  Everyone loved the combination of sauce-soaked corn tortillas, crunchy vegetables, chewy succulent spinach, and spicy fruity salsa. The key is to stuff a lot of spinach into each tortilla so that it makes a satisfying bite. Also, you need to add the sauce last-minute so that the enchiladas don't fall apart.

Bean-and-Cheese or Poblano-Cheese Tamales

Katharina asked me if tamales are a very fancy food. I laughed and told her that tamales are the equivalent of peasant food. But it's true that tamales look quite appealing in their fragrant banana leaf packages. I asked Laura for a dozen cheese tamales, half with beans (frijoles) and half with strips of roasted poblano peppers (rajas). The tamales innards (the part that you eat), is soft masa, or corn meal, mixed with your specified ingredients. Laura packed the innards into fresh banana leaves and then steamed the tamales until the masa cooked. For the frijoles tamales, she made runny refried beans that mixed in an appealingly gooey way with the queso fresco.  The rajas tamales lacked the kid-friendly texture of the frijoles tamales but George and I appreciated the deep complexity of the roasted poblano. Because the tamales had such a mild flavor, Sally though they needed some salsa or hot sauce. George and I enjoyed them without.

Kale or Spinach Empanadas

l had on my hands an enormous bag of baby kale, which I washed and brought over to Laura. She didn't know the Spanish name for kale but she easily recognized it and knew how to cook it. I asked for a batch (a dozen) of kale-and-garlic (ajo) empanadas, and Laura nodded and mentioned tomatoes, onions, and a bunch of other Spanish-language flavorings (which I didn't understand) that she would add as a matter of course. In my cookbooks I had read a few recipes for empanadas and was concerned that she would put wheat flour (harina) in but she shook her head and said she only makes empanadas with masa.  Laura called empanadas "The Mexican quesadilla," which I found hilarious. Empanadas are stuffed crescents of dough; they have the shape of a paper plate or a pie crust folded in half. Laura deep-fried the empanadas in a large fry-pan and gave them to me very hot and fresh. The kale empanadas—pairing succulent chewy savory greens with bright corn flavor—were delicious,  but they didn't contain very much filling. I wondered if the empanadas were more difficult to maneuver around cooked greens without the flexibility of wheat flour in the dough. At any rate, they tasted wonderful both hot and cold but we all found the oiliness a little overwhelming. I know that there are baked version of empanadas which I would experiment with next time.

Chile Rellenos

We ordered this classic dish a few days before the gluten-free diet began, and the chile rellenos came in a fried batter, which contained wheat flour. Laura stuffed full poblano chiles with big blocks of queso fresco which somehow did not even get warm, let alone melt. Then she dipped the peppers in a batter and deep-fried them in a large fry pan. She poured a delicious thin sauce over the peppers that made what might have been a somewhat unsatisfying recipe into a pretty captivating meal. The good thing about making your own chile rellenos is that it is always, in my experience, extremely easy to peel off the fried batter. So if you're gluten-free (not celiac, obviously) or dieting, you can deep-fry your peppers, pull off the oily exterior, pour a warm delicious sauce over the whole thing, and dig right in.

I hope this post inspires you to try a little Mexican vegetarian cooking at home!

Mexican Vegetarian: Green Enchiladas

The Goofy Family is going gluten-free for two months to test for intolerance, so pretty much everything I'm posting for a while will be gluten-free. This coincides nicely with Passover, although the (Ashkenazi) Passover diet is much stricter. Let's compare gluten-free with Passover.

Gluten-free:

Nothing that contains wheat, rye, or barley.  Most oats are quite contaminated.

(Ashkenazi) Passover:

Nothing that contains wheat (except matzah). Nothing that contains rye, barley, spelt, or oats. No corn, millet, and sometimes rice. No legumes including beans, soybeans, lentils, and peanuts. Or anything made from any of those things.


So these enchiladas I just made definitely fit the gluten-free category, but they fail in the Passover category. To make these Kosher for Passover, you need to ditch the corn tortillas and serve the filling over rice (if you're cool with that) or quinoa, pouring the sauce on as a final touch. Plus, the sauce can only contain kosher for Passover ingredients.

I really "riffed" on this recipe, which is my first by Rick Bayless, famous famous cook of Mexican cuisine. I chose all the riffs because I am lazy to my core. The recipe that resulted certainly had its delicious components: a fruity and tangy sauce, the smell of fresh corn, and the satisfying chew of gently cooked spinach and mushrooms. Its Achilles heel was the texture of the tortillas, which I did not spray and bake in the oven until pliable like Bayless suggested. Instead I over-toasted them or under-microwaved them. Next time I'll probably cook them in oil in a huge fry pan so I can keep a close eye on their pliability. But the oven is definitely overkill in my opinion.

Green Enchiladas

The filling:

8 ounces button mushrooms, washed, stemmed and sliced
10 ounces fresh adult spinach, washed, stemmed and chopped
1 red onion, thinly sliced

The sauce:

1 16 ounce jar (2 Cups) of tomatillo salsa
1 Cup No-chicken or other vegetarian broth
3 Tablespoons crema or sour cream or half n' half

12 fresh corn tortillas

Optional: grated queso fresco


Directions:

1. Heat the salsa in a pot for 7 minutes. Add broth and simmer 10 minutes. Stir in crema. Cover and set aside.
2. Meanwhile, saute mushrooms in a large frypan on medium high heat until browned. Add onions and saute a few more minutes until softened and translucent. Add 1/4 Cup water and then as much spinach as you can fit into the frypan at a time until all 10 ounces are wilted.
3. Cook the tortillas until pliable. You might need to use oil or a frying pan or the oven or whatever you need.
4. Dip each tortilla in the sauce. Lay it on a plate. Add 2 Tablespoons of filling. Add the cheese. Roll up seam side down. Ladle more sauce over the top of each tortilla. 
5. Serve 3 enchiladas on each plate. Do not shout "Olé!"

Kimchi Fried Rice

I thought this kimchi fried rice would be exciting and invigorating. Instead I felt comforted and warmed. The spiciness increases gradually from the back of your mouth, but the rice keeps the heat from overwhelming your palate.

Kimchi Fried Rice

adapted from one of my favorite recipe authors on Serious Eats, Nick Kindelsperger

Serves 4

vegetable oil
4 Cups kimchi, chopped into bite-sized bits (DON'T TOUCH IT for crissakes)
4 Cups white rice, preferably a day old
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon go chu jang, Korean red pepper paste
1 Tablespoon sesame oil
4 eggs

1. Heat up a little oil in a fry pan over medium heat. When the oil shimmers, add the kimchi. 
2. Once the kimchi is warm, in about 2 minutes, add butter and go chu jang. Stir until completely coating the kimchi. 
3. Add the rice, breaking up clumps, and stir until evenly distributed through the kimchi.
4. Pour sesame oil over the rice and stir again. 
5. Allow the bottom of the rice-kimchi mixture to develop a little crust.
6. Take out the mixture and divide among 4 bowls. Cover with plates to keep it hot.
7. Turn down the heat in the frypan, add some more oil, and scrape out bits of leftover rice.
8. Break 4 eggs into the pan. Cook slowly. When the egg is still a little oozy, turn off the heat. Put one egg on top of each bowl of kimchi rice. Serve at once.

Bread Pudding Casserole

This casserole took me a whopping 4 hours to make!


…Are you still here?

Even without careful rationing the casserole fed me through three-and-half days of lunches and dinners, so it ended up saving me about 2 hours.  The picky Goofy Baby loved it, I loved it, and its gorgeousness warmed my hungry heart.  The bon appétit site from which I adapted the recipe tried to market this recipe as a vegetarian Thanksgiving centerpiece, but I don't think so. I would never serve a cheesy dish at Thanksgiving, let alone as the centerpiece. I know some families have a broccoli and cheese casserole tradition on that day, but not as a turkey substitute!

The vegetable ingredients stay in season for months, so you can enjoy this from November through March or even April.

* This dish adapts really well to the gluten-free diet because the baguette I used had to be toasted until it was completely crisp. GF bread has no trouble getting crisp. I think you could use toasted gluten-free bread or even large, unseasoned GF croutons as a substitute (The brand Ener-G makes some). Just be careful to use gluten-free alcohol.

Butternut Squash and Kale Bread Pudding

2 pounds butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and cut into 1 inch cubes
olive oil
1 baguette, * sliced into 1 inch pieces and toasted until crisp.
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
7 large eggs
1 pint cream
6 tablespoons dry white wine, sake, or Chinese Shao xing wine
4 large shallots, chopped
1 pound kale, ribs removed, coarsely chopped or torn into small pieces
8 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, grated

1. Preheat oven to 400ºF. Toss cubed squash with 1 Tablespoon of oil. Spread on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake 20 to 25 minutes, until tender.
2. In a large bowl, beat eggs. Whisk in cream, wine, and kosher salt. Add baguette pieces. Mix gently together and allow to sit for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3. In a large pot, heat 2 Tablespoons oil over medium-high heat. Add shallots. Sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add kale. Cover and cook 2 to 7 minutes until kale has wilted a little but is still bright green.
4. Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF. Butter a 9x13 baking dish.
5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer half of the bread from the egg mixture to the baking dish. Arrange it to cover most of the dish.
6. Spoon half of the kale-shallot mix over the bread.
7. Spoon half of the squash cubes over the kale.
8. Sprinkle half of the cheese over the squash cubes.
9. Repeat steps 5 through 8.
10. Pour remaining egg mixture over the bread pudding.
11. Cover the bread pudding with foil and bake 20 minutes. Remove foil and bake uncovered 20 minutes.
12. Cool and serve.

Greens and Quinoa Pie

I made this pie first thing after the major December holidays had finished up. For my recipe I adapted an old Myra Kornfeld recipe in the March 2010 Vegetarian Times feature on Passover.* Passover recipes in magazines usually fail to follow the rigorous dietary requirements of Ashkenazi Jews in one way or another, but I suspect that with a name like "Kornfeld," Myra figured out the rules the natural way. Anyway, this pie is ingenious because quinoa is technically NOT a grain—and technicality is everything in Jewish law. Quinoa, related to spinach and chard, has the added advantage of a complete set of amino acids and as a bonus, also lacks gluten!

Don't place this pie side by side with your grandmother's brisket because you will break the laws of kashrut. This pie features two kinds of cheese, so use the pie for a dairy Passover or any dairy meal during Passover, like on the fourth night.  But like I said, it's December right now and the recipe works really well for those of you who want something light and refreshing and festive.


*The other Kornfeld Passover recipes included a Chocolate Mousse Cake made with almond flour, Garlicky Leek and Artichoke Soup with basil pesto, and Tunisian Carrot Salad with radishes and olives. You might be able to look them up at the Vegetarian Times website.

Greens and Quinoa Pie

1/2 Cup white (not red) quinoa
1 large bunch escarole, curly endive, or chicory (about 1 1/4 lb.)
1 head Romaine lettuce
2 medium onions
4 to 5 scallions, washed
1/4 Cup fresh dill, washed
1/4 Cup (1 ounce) feta cheese, preferably marinated
1/4 Cup (1 ounce) Swiss-type cheese, grated
3 eggs
olive oil
salt

Special equipment: a 9-inch pie pan

1. Thoroughly rinse off the saponin (bitter coating) on the quinoa in several changes of water. Drain. Combine with 1 Cup of water and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small saucepan. Cover, bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium low, and simmer, covered, 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Alternately, combine the water, quinoa, and salt in a rice cooker and set for the regular cycle. Fluff with the rice paddle.
2. Meanwhile, remove damaged outer leaves and core from escarole, chop roughly, and wash and dry. Set aside.
3. Repeat Step 2 with Romaine lettuce.
4. Heat a large pot over medium heat. Add escarole and cook up to 5 minutes, or until mostly wilted, stirring frequently. Add Romaine and wilt that too. Transfer the greens to a strainer and push out excess moisture with a wooden spoon. Allow greens to continue draining while you complete additional steps.
5. Preheat oven to 350ºF. Peel and thinly slice onions. Heat some olive oil in a frypan over medium-high heat. Sauté onions about 10 minutes or until softened and browning. Allow to cool 
6. Chop your drained, wilted greens until they are in quite small pieces. Return them to the large pot (without heat). Add quinoa. Thinly slice scallions and add. Chop up dill and add. Crumble the feta cheese and add. Add grated Swiss cheese. Add cooled onions. Mix thoroughly all together.
7. Lightly beat the eggs and add to the pot. Mix again. 
8. Pour 1 Tablespoon oil into the pie pan. Place pan in oven for 5 minutes. Remove and swirl oil to coat the bottom. 
9. Put the quinoa-greens mixture into the pie pan and smooth the top. Bake 20 minutes.
10. Remove pie, drizzle with 1 Tablespoon olive oil, and bake another 20 to 30 minutes, until the pie is golden brown.
11. Eat hot or eat cold or eat from the pot nine days old.

Two Kinds of Pasta with Beans

My friends, I apologize for how long I have gone between posts. I am doubling down on my dissertation prospectus, and meanwhile the Goofy baby has been battling an ear infection and my life is a whirlwind of insanity. Thank goodness I am not a snob about food, and I have been managing to get enough nutrition by eating these two cheap, quick dishes. And actually, they're good enough to serve to company that stops by unexpectedly.

Fragrant Rigatoni with Saucy Pinto Beans

1 lb. rigatoni or other textured pasta
1 Tablespoon olive oil
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
1 4 ounce jar artichoke hearts, drained, rinsed, and chopped
dried basil
dried oregano
1 15 ounce can pinto beans, drained and rinsed
4-6 ounces cheddar cheese (or to taste), grated or cubed
2 scallions, sliced


1. Cook pasta until al dente.
2. In a sauce pot, sauté garlic in olive oil until golden and fragrant.
3. Add tomato sauce, and add basil and oregano to taste.
4. Heat slowly until bubbly.
5. Stir in pinto beans, and reheat until bubbly again.
6. Mix sauce with pasta and cheese. Add scallions right before serving.


Elegant Penne with Cannellini Beans

1 lb. penne
1 15 ounce can cannellini or Great Northern or any white bean, drained and rinsed
2 Tablespoons mayonnaise
1 1/2 Tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and chopped
1 large bunch spinach
salt
6 ounces Swiss cheese, grated or cubed


1. Cook penne until toothy.
2. Mix with mayonnaise, beans, and Swiss cheese.
3. Meanwhile, saute garlic plus some salt in olive oil until golden and fragrant. Add spinach and keep stirring until all is wilted and covered in garlic oil. Toss spinach with pasta mixture and serve.

How to Reduce Food Waste, and an Easy Autumn Supper

After reading some good advice on how to reduce food waste, I now wash and/or prepare almost all my vegetables as soon as I get back from the market. Because of this one change,  I waste almost zero fresh food and eat more vegetables. Plus, I find that simple meals like this one come together much more quickly and with less expenditure of my waning end-of-day energy. 

Some people think vegetables will spoil more quickly if you wash them days in advance. Well, I keep all my washed vegetables in airtight plastic or glass snap-ware in the refrigerator, and they don't seem to spoil any more quickly than dirty vegetables. The only vegetables I don't wash in advance are mushrooms because I fear their turning slimy. 

This autumn meal for 2 is very simple, attractive, easy, and quick. Plus it's comfort food!

Meal Components:

1 stone fruit like peach or plum, washed and sliced

1 can vegetarian baked beans, warmed on stove or in microwave

1 recipe of Joy of Cooking's buttermilk cornbread

1 bunch collards, stemmed, torn into bite-sized pieces, and washed

The cornbread mix comes together in about 3 minutes and bakes for 25 minutes. The collards should simmer in salted water for 12 to 25 minutes, depending on your preference. Drain the collards and press out the excess water with the back of a wooden spoon.

On each plate arrange one slice of cornbread, a heap of collards, and a fan of fruit slices. Add a small pretty bowl to the side of each plate with some warm beans.

Enjoy with iced tea or a mug of cider.  Offer seconds of everything.

Skillet Pizza

"Kid tested, mother approved!" 

How many times have I heard that slogan? So annoying. (Thanks a lot, 1978 Kix cereal ads.) And I don't believe that slogan for a second. I don't believe there exists a single cooked or processed food that the children in my neighborhood like AND I consider healthy.

So when 11-year-old Hannia told me she liked my skillet pizza—as long as she picked off the zucchini first—I knew she liked it because skillet pizza is unhealthy. Is it as unhealthy as most of the pizza you can buy around here (Costco, Papa John's, freezer aisle pizza)? No. But it's pizza. So will your kids or the Kid-In-You enjoy this recipe? Definitely. But try not to make it a weekly staple.

This recipe makes two small pizzas. You can just make one pizza, refrigerate half the dough in a ziplock bag, and make the second pizza the next day. I did it, and I quite liked the results.

Some people don't like ricotta. Fine, just add a bit more mozzarella. Other people don't like zucchini on pizza. Feel free to cook some mushrooms or open a jar of olives or whatever and add that instead. Some people don't like vegetarian pizza. Well, Buddy, the lemur's out back, he's all yours, but I'm warning you: he's quite a fighter.

Thanks to Vegetarian Times, Mark Bittman, George, and Hannia for their input.

Skillet Pizza

Special Equipment: 
food processor
An 8 or 10" cast iron frypan, or equivalent oven-safe fry pan
A rolling pin
An oven
A large wooden or bamboo cutting board


Dough:
1 1/2 Cups bread flour
1 Cup whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup stone-ground cornmeal
2 teaspoons instant, bread machine, or rapid rise yeast (same things)
2 teaspoons good quality coarse salt (kosher or sea salt)
3 Tablespoons olive oil, divided
1 to 1 1/2 Cups water

Toppings:
2 tsp. vegetable or canola oil per pizza
a small jar of prepared refrigerated pesto or low-sodium, high-quality tomato pasta sauce
less than 1 Cup grated low-moisture, part-skim mozzarella
a few Tablespoons low-fat ricotta cheese
half of 1 peeled zucchini, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds

Directions:

1. Combine flour, yeast, and salt in a food processor. Turn the machine on. Add most of the water and 2 Tablespoons of oil through the tube while the machine whirrrs.
2. Process about 30 seconds until the dough wads into a ball around the blade. It should be slightly sticky. If it seems too wet, add a little more flour. If it seems too dry, add a little more water. Then process until it's all copacetic.
3. Dump dough into a large plastic or metal bowl. With well-floured hands, knead a few times until the dough comes together into a smooth ball. Pour 1 Tablespoon olive oil over it and turn the dough until it's evenly covered with oil. Cover the bowl with a damp cloth and let sit in a warm, moist location to rise for 1 to 2 hours, until doubled in size.
4. Preheat the oven to 500ºF and set the oven rack in the lower third of the oven.
5. Divide the dough in half. On a lightly floured board, roll out 1 ball of dough evenly until it is roughly the size of your fry pan. 
6. Heat the vegetable oil on high heat in the fry pan. When it's sizzling hot put the dough in. Cook 3 minutes until brown and crisp on the bottom. Turn off the heat and, using two spatulas, flip the dough over in the fry pan. 
7. Spread the nicely browned dough with pesto or tomato sauce. Sprinkle mozzarella evenly over the surface. Top with dollops of ricotta spaced apart and place zucchini slices around the ricotta. 
8. Bake in the oven for 8 to 10 minutes until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Drizzle pesto/sauce over the zucchini slices. Cut the pizza into 4 wedges and serve hot hot hot!
9. Repeat with the other half of the dough.

Serves 4 to 8 people, depending on a bunch of factors.

Bean Tacos

After making the below taco salad, my refrigerator overflowed with taco-friendly leftovers: sour cream, scallions, cilantro, lime, and avocado. So I bustled over to my local Mexican tienda and purchased fresh hand-made corn tortillas, a can of black beans, and some fresh tomatoes. As soon as I had laid taco fixings out on my kitchen counter, hungry neighborhood people began mysteriously drifting by, needing food. Luckily it takes only about a minute to make a nice bean taco once you have the fixings ready for degustation.

Five-Minute Bean Tacos

Makes up to 12 tacos

1 can of black beans, mostly drained but not rinsed
juice of 1/2 lime
a handful of freshly-washed cilantro
a few shakes of Old Bay or other preferred spice

Lightly purée the above ingredients together in a blender until cohesive but still chunky. Meanwhile, in a toaster over or in a dry frypan on a stove or in the oven, heat:

a bunch of corn tortillas

When the tortillas are pliable, warm, and cooked, spread the black bean mixture on them and top with any combination of:

chopped tomatoes
sliced scallions
sour cream
some ripe avocado

Fold and serve immediately with plenty of napkins.

Quiche with Carmelized Onion and Gouda

I think my camera broke when it realized it was supposed to photograph this wreck of a quiche. George and I laughed when we saw it and so did Sally. Picture this in your mind: a craggy, ragged square brown crust with a flat, thin puddle of bright yellow goo leaking from a crack in the side. Two inches tall of crust empty of any filling. The egg did NOT puff up into the thick, fluffy golden cake that every quiche exhibits.

Where did it all go so wrong? I don't know. I followed the recipe pretty closely except that we didn't have cream so I used soymilk. From Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian, I used the onion quiche recipe, but I substituted aged gouda for 1 Cup of carmelized onion. I used his savory pie rust recipe, with half all-purpose flour and half whole-wheat flour. I prebaked the chilled crust for 10 minutes weighted down with buttered foil and dry beans. I carmelized the onions using the recipe in Perfect Vegetables from the Editors of Cooks' Illustrated. The onions tasted divine; they weren't the problem. By the way, carmelize onions this way:

2 lbs. thinly sliced onions (cooks down to about 1 1/4 Cup)
1 Tablespoon unsalted butter
1 Tablespoon canola oil
a few pinches salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar

1. Use an enormous non-stick skillet. On high heat, melt the butter with the oil.
2. Add the spices, stir, and then the onions and cook, stirring, 5 minutes until they start releasing their juices.
3. Turn the heat down to medium and continue to cook another 30-40 minutes until they are as brown, oozy, and sweet as you like them.


Anyway, then I took the prebaked crust from the pan and stuck it on a baking sheet, per Bittman's instructions. Sally thinks I probably shouldn't have done that—then the egg wouldn't have leaked out the crack in the side. I mixed together 6 eggs, 2 Cups soymilk, 1 Cup carmelized onions, 1 Cup grated gouda, and poured it into the prebaked crust. I baked the whole thing for about 40 minutes. It tasted buttery and flavorful after chilling several hours in the refrigerator but  looked absolutely ridiculous. I won't be making that again. Sally told me she despises Bittman—maybe next time I try quiche I'll go with Deborah Madison or Molly Katzen, or better yet, Gil Marks.

Comments and suggestions welcome!

Leek and Greens Sephardic Jewish Pie

The Mediterranean: bright, sea-lit crescent of romance and fresh simplicity. After leafing through Vegetarian Times' Mediterranean issue this month, I decided it was time to improve my repertoire of recipes from the region.

I turned to Gil Marks' Olive Trees and Honey, a history lesson cum cookbook of vegetarian Jewish recipes and food traditions around the world. Marks omits regions lacking a centuries-old Jewish culinary tradition, so South America, the Far East, sub-Saharan Africa, North America, and Antarctica receive short shrift.

For Shabbat this week I made a Sephardic Pie. The Sephardic Jews include the diaspora of Jews who fled the Spanish inquisition, settling in North Africa, the Middle East, Central Asia, and even as far as India. Some of these Sephardic Jews mixed with those Jews who already lived in the Middle East, having never traveled as far as Europe during the first wave of the Diaspora in the first millenium of the Common Era. While the United States Jewish population is mostly Ashkenazi, Sephardic Jewish cultures have dominated Israel from its founding. In short, Sephardic cooking has maintained a Mediterranean character for the last 500 years.

But I would have to admit that this pie I made was not simple, nor romantic, nor shingled with the dancing light of the sea. On the cusp of summer, I made the pie in a sweltering North Carolina kitchen over the course of 3 days. Each slice was a dense, thick cube of leafy greens, onions, eggs, cheese, and dill, encased in a solid pastry crust. I served it fresh from the oven with two sides: crisp slices of Asian pear and a cup of red lentil soup tart with tamarind. Everyone requested seconds. The next day the pie tasted delicious cold.

George and I agree that though the pie took quite a bit of effort, we would make it again because it satisfied us so deeply.

Leek and Greens Sephardic Jewish Pie

For the crust:
1 Cup lukewarm water
1 Cup vegetable oil
1 1/2 teaspoons table salt
About 5 Cups all-purpose flour

For the filling:
12 ounces of the white and light green parts of leeks (about 6 leeks worth)
1/4 Cup unsalted butter
1/4 Cup olive oil
2 large onions, chopped
2 pounds spinach
2 small heads chopped Romaine lettuce
2 Cups (8 ounces) grated Gruyère
10 eggs, lightly beaten
6 chopped scallions
4 Tablespoons fresh chopped dill

To finish:
oil for greasing the pan
1 egg, beaten with 1 Tablespoon water
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds

Equipment: 1 9x13 baking pan and an oven

Directions:
1. The day before, cover the leeks with cold water. Bring to a boil, turn low, and simmer 20 minutes or until tender. Drain. In a large skillet, heat the butter and olive oil over medium heat. Sauté the leeks and the onion until soft, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.
2. Wash the spinach and while it's still wet, wilt it in a large dry pan.  Chop the spinach finely and wring it dry with several clean towels. Set aside.
3. Wash the lettuce and wilt it as well. Drain.
4. Make the crust: in a medium bowl, combine the water, oil, and salt. Stir in the flour 1 cup at a time. It should make a soft, cohesive dough. Cover with a damp towel and allow to rest 30 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, mix together all the filling ingredients in a bowl.
6. Preheat the oven to 375ºF. Grease a 9x13 pan.
7. Form a large ball of dough out of two-thirds of the pasty and a smaller ball out of one-third of the pastry. Lightly flour a large work surface. Roll out the larger dough into a rectangle about 1/4 inch thick. Fit it into the 9x13 pan, so that it closely adheres to all the corners and comes up over the rim. Prick it all over with a fork. Trim off the excess dough.
8. Spoon in the filling.
9. Roll out the smaller ball of dough and place it over the filling, crimping the edges with a fork to seal. Trim the edges. Cut several slits in the top to vent the steam. Brush the top with the egg mixture and sprinkle with the sesame seeds.
10. Bake until the crust is golden brown and the filling set, about 45 minutes. Let stand at least 10 minutes before serving either warm, at room temperature, or cold.

White Pizza

I've been making my own pizza crusts with the aid of Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. You know how he gives you a hundred choose-your-own adventure options for any dish? Well, here is the dough I chose:

1 1/2 Cups bread flour
1 Cup white whole wheat flour
1/2 Cup cornmeal
2 teaspoons instant or bread machine yeast
2 teaspoons sea or coarse salt

1 to 1 1/2 Cups water
2 Tablespoons olive oil plus 1 Tablespoon olive oil later

1. Put all the dry ingredients in your food processor. Whir.
2. Slowly add water and 2 Tablespoons oil to the food processor as it runs. In about 30 seconds you should have a sticky dough that wads around the blade.
3. Turn off the food processor.
4. Dump the dough into a nice sturdy bowl. Form into a ball. Knead for two to five minutes until it seems really cohesive.
5. Add 1 Tablespoon oil and turn the ball of dough in it until evenly covered.
6. Cover the bowl with a wet towel and allow to rise in a warm, moist place for 1 to 2 hours.
MEANWHILE MAKE AND COOK YOUR VEGETABLE TOPPINGS
7. Preheat oven to 500º F.
8. Take out two baking sheets. Cover each with parchment paper.
9. Divide your ball o' dough in half. Take one of these halves, pat it into a sphere, and place it in the center of a baking sheet.
10. Use a rolling pin and roll the dough out as thinly as you can (it will double in thickness in the oven). Prick the dough with a fork in a few places. Immediately stick the baking sheet in the oven and bake for 6 minutes.
11. Take out the dough, add your vegetable toppings and any cheese or sauce, and pop the pizza back in the oven for another 6 minutes.
12. Remove your pizza and serve at once.
13. Repeat steps 10-12 with the other half of the dough.

Great toppings I've used successfully:
7 sweet onions carmelized in butter, olive oil, and a bit of salt and sugar
roasted mushrooms with pats of Gorgonzola

Vegetarian Baked Pasta Casserole, Better Than Almost Any Lasagna

To understand why I started making this dish, you need to know that I am 36 weeks pregnant. I am hungry all the time. ALL THE TIME. And thirsty. Luckily, it's Clementine season, and that tends to solve both problems at once. But before we bought the Clementines, Julia told me the same story over and over about how when she was in her last weeks of pregnancy, she got the nesting instinct and just started obsessively making lasagna over and over again and freezing it. Finally, after the baby was born, she and Doug enjoyed this fabulous lasagna for weeks.

I have heard this story at least 10 times, no joke. That lasagna must have some sort of symbolic meaning deep in Julia's pscyhe, like it's the Lasagna of Life or something.

Anyway, I entered the latest phase of my pregnancy, and Julia was about to visit, and inevitably my brain turned to lasagna. As in, "Going to have a baby soon, better make some lasagna." That is called conditioning, folks. But there were some problems. First, I do not enjoy meat, so I always make vegetarian lasagna. Second, over the last decade I have learned that actually I do not like making lasagna; it is a complete pain. I like eating lasagna, I like buying delicious, well-made vegetarian lasagna (so rare!), but the whole cooking process just annoys me no end.

So I invented this dish as a lasagna substitute. It is much easier to eat than lasagna because you don't have to worry about layers slip-sliding all over the place when you cut into it. It is also easier to put together, and if you like tasty vegetables as much as I do, it is much easier to fill with different vegetables than lasagna is. In short, I think this dish I invented is BETTER THAN LASAGNA. Except for the Lasagna of Life that Julia made—obviously that tasted better than any other food in the entire world. Too bad it is gone forever.

Baked Pasta Casserole

Serves 8-12

1 lb. whole wheat bow ties (farfalle)
1 15 ounce can tomato sauce
dried basil and dried oregano
1 onion, chopped
handful of frozen pearl onions (optional)
2 handfuls frozen chopped peppers (optional—or cut up peppers yourself)
several handful fresh spinach leaves
1 Cup or more grated cheddar cheese
1 Cup or more freshly grated Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano

Broccoli Version: 3 to 6 stalks broccoli, chopped really small and boiled or steamed until tender
Mushroom Version: 48-ounces any mushrooms, washed, stemmed, chopped into small chunks, and sautéed until tender

Directions:
1. Cook pasta in a large pot until tender. Drain and return to pot.
2. Meanwhile, in a large fry pan sauté chopped onion five minutes.
3. Add tomato sauce, healthy shakes of spices, pearl onions, and peppers. Cook a few more minutes. You can add sautéed mushrooms to the sauce at any point if there’s room in the fry pan. Turn off heat.
4. Preheat oven to 375º F.
5. Mix sauce, cooked broccoli or mushrooms, and several handfuls spinach into the cooked pasta. Stir to evenly distribute ingredients.
6. Take out a 9x13 glass Pyrex pan. Pour 1 half of the pasta mixture into the pan in an even layer.
7. Sprinkle the cheddar cheese lightly and evenly on top.
8. Pour the 2nd half of the pasta mixture on top of the cheddar cheese layer.
9. Evenly sprinkle the Parmigiano or Pecorino Romano over the top.
10. Bake in the oven 10-15 minutes or until the cheese on top has melted, bubbled, or browned.
11. Either serve at once or let cool on stove, cover with aluminum foil, and stick in the refrigerator. Lasts about a week in the refrigerator. Obviously, if you're PREGNANT, you should freeze it.

Broccoli Fried Rice

"Broccoli" is such a weird word. Where the hell did it come from? Oh, Italian. Thanks, Wikipedia! Anyway, broccoli's a weird plant too. It looks like a bunch of trees stuck together; that's why the Italian word is plural. No wonder most children don't want to eat it--it belongs in the uncanny valley of foods.

I remember the first time I really enjoyed broccoli. In sixth grade everyone had to take Home Economics for about six weeks. At that time my cooking could best be described as hilarious. Home Ec straightened me out. I developed a lot of my food preferences during those six brief weeks, including which apples or cheeses I liked the most, that I hate cooking with raw animals, that cheese cake has way too much cream cheese in it, that I hate meringue and marzipan and rocky road pizza, and that I LOVE LOVE LOVE stir-fries (and soy sauce).

My stir-fry had crispy stalks of broccoli, water chestnuts, and baby corn and it was Totally Freaking Awesome. I was so proud of myself as I munched the miraculous goodness all the way home. If you have children who are vegetable averse, teach them to make a nice Chinese stir-fry and watch them poke around at all the curious little treasures they find in their tasty food.

This dish is in memory of you, Home Ec.

Broccoli Fried Rice
Serves 4 or 5.

1 head of broccoli, washed
12 fresh shiitake mushrooms or 8 oz. of any old mushroom, washed, destemmed, and sliced
2 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
1 egg, beaten (optional)
1 Cup or so cold-leftover rice
soy sauce (GF optional)
salt
pepper
juice of 1 lime

Directions:

1.  Slice the head of broccoli in half so that the florets have a much shorter stem. Separate the florets with your knife. Slice them lengthwise into quarters. Meanwhile, slice off the tough outer skin of the stem half. Cut the stem into 2-inch matchsticks quartered lengthwise.
2. Heat up a medium-large or large frypan with some vegetable oil. Pour in all the broccoli. Sauté about 8 minutes on medium heat or until cooked through and delightfully crisp. Remove from frypan and set aside in a bowl.
3. Add the sliced mushrooms. Cook on medium heat until they release their juices. Season with soy sauce. Push to the side of the pan.
4. Add the beaten egg and keep bothering it in the for about 40 seconds until it becomes not-quite-set scrambled eggs. Push to another side of the pan.
5. Add rice.  If it remains clumped together and too dry, add up to 1/2 Cup of water. Break it up with your spatula-turner. When it seems like a good texture and not too wet, season with soy sauce. 
6. Add the garlic. Return the broccoli to the pan. Heat through and mix everything together for about 2 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste.
7. Remove from heat. Squeeze lime juice over everything. Serve piping hot and watch those little imps scarf it down.

Fig Walnut Blue Cheese Pasta

Kay found the very first recipe I ever entered into my book of personal recipe successes. Even back then, she was an inspiring/ depressingly creative cook. We were 20 years old and I didn't know how to do anything except make toast, boil lentils and heat up canned tomato soup. Kay read the back of a dried Mission Figs bag and found this pasta recipe and realized its potential. So we made it together and it turned out to be a gourmet success. I was so proud of us! Julia also adopted this pasta recipe because even someone with her impeccable standards enjoyed it.

Skip forward 11 years. The other night I actually skipped the recipe and just ad-libbed with whatever we had on hand and it still turned out great. So I'm going to share this sloppier, easier version with you.  This fruit, salty, crunchy, gooey dish looks fantastic next to a side of broccoli or green beans.

To the Gluten-Free: This dish would be taste superb with Tinkyada Brown Rice Pasta. I promise.

Fig Walnut Blue Cheese Pasta
Serves 4.

Ingredients:
8 ounces good-quality whole wheat spaghetti or brown rice pasta
vegetable oil
1 onion, sliced or chopped up
5-8 dried mission figs, stemmed and chopped small
3 to 4 handfuls of shelled walnuts, chopped small
2 or 3 handfuls of your favorite crumbled blue cheese

Directions:

1. Bring water to a boil. Add pasta and cook until tender and toothy. Drain.
2. Meanwhile, slowly cook onion in a fry pan with oil until sweetened, soft, and a bit darkened.
3. At the same time, toast walnuts until fragrant in a dry fry pan.
4. Mix everything together and serve hot. Make sure all the good bits don't fall to the bottom of the mixing bowl. Tell your guests, "For you, my best."

The pasta actually tastes pretty amazing as a cold leftover too.

Gluten Free Vegan Allergen-Free Meal

Sometimes it's hard to think of a meal that absolutely EVERYONE IN THE WHOLE WORLD can eat. That's why I was surprised to realize that my dinner the other night was just that, even though I was just rooting around in the fridge for some leftover goodies.  I really enjoyed the comforting hominess of the meal, so I thought I would share that this meal contains:

no gluten
no dairy, egg, animal products, mammal, seafood, or fowl
no nuts
no soy (bunches of people have soy allergies, did you know?)

I don't think the meal works if you're on the Atkins diet, though. Oh well!

Vegan Garlic Mashed Potatoes
Quick Collard Greens without Pork
Parsleyed Crowder Peas (recipe follows)

Obviously, you could easily fill this out with a fruit salad or another vegetable side like sautéed mushrooms or a NUT-ENCRUSTED PORK SANDWICH WITH MAYONNAISE. I kid! I get my jollies where I can.

Parsleyed Crowder Peas or Herbed Beans

I make this with fresh or frozen crowder peas, but the recipe works equally well with any fresh or frozen bean.

If you are using dried beans, do the whole process: soak 4 hours, drain and rinse, cover with water in a pot, bring to a boil, turn heat down, add the fresh herb stems, and simmer until bite-able. Salt the water and simmer until it reaches a tender consistency (you have to taste it every 15 minutes or so to be careful). Drain and proceed as in recipe below.

Ingredients:
a full package of fresh or frozen crowder peas, black-eyed peas, purple peas, or beans
extra-virgin olive oil
salt
1 large fresh bunch of your herb of choice: parsley, mint, cilantro, thyme, you name it

Directions:

1. Wash your peas or beans. Remove any stones or weird-looking alien intruders.
2. Put peas in a pot. Cover with about a 1/2 inch of water.
3. Heat up the water. Meanwhile, wash your parsley or other herb. Separate the stems from the leaves. OFF WITH THEIR HEADS.
4. Bundle the stems together and stick them on top of the peas in the water. If you have cooking string or cheesecloth or whatever, tie them together for easier removal later.
5. Bring water to a boil. Turn down to a simmer. Cook until tender.
6. Meanwhile, chop up the herb leaves.
7. Turn off heat. Remove as much of the herb stems as you can with tongs or chopsticks (NOT your poor widdle fingers). Drain the beans. Remove rest of herb stems. Immediately pour beans into a serving bowl with ample space for stirring. 
8. While beans are still warm, add just enough of your best extra-virgin olive oil to coat. Salt the beans until they don't taste like bean-cardboard anymore. 
9. Let the beans cool until they're not so steamy. Add the chopped herb leaves on top. Serve with a spoon and an apple-cheeked smile.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! George and I are hosting this year and we are making:

blue cheese autumn salad
cucumber spears with lime and cilantro
green beans tossed in vinaigrette with carmelized shallots
2 kinds of mashed potatoes--whipped with butter and milk and vegan garlic rosemary
Julia's Buttery Vegetarian stuffing
shiitake mushroom gravy
2 kinds of cranberry sauce, 1 straight from the can
Julia's clover leaf rolls
(our guests are making a turkey and maybe turkey gravy)
Julia's pumpkin pie
Julia's pecan pie
mulled cider

We'll see which foods people enjoy the most. Feel free to share your vegetarian Thanksgiving plans in the comments! Ha ha, just kidding, I know you are all cooking.

Omelette Rice

Zombies walk among us. I know because yesterday I was one of them. But I invited Gavin over for dinner anyway because it was Shabbat and I just wanted to have a calm, civilized dinner at home. After 2 hours of trying to plan a simple dinner that I could make while exhausted, I gave up, called Gavin, and told him I was just going to have to make a frozen pizza. Then I took a short nap.

Twenty minutes later, I sprang up, human again, and remembered the Japanese comfort dish Omu Raisu. I've never eaten Omu Rice because it usually contains chicken, but I've seen it in many pictures plus this great scene from Tampopo, the most delightful meditation on food ever filmed:

In this scene a bum breaks into someone's house and make a little boy some vegetarian Omu Raisu. He cooks the omelette with chopsticks! The Japanese are crazy physical geniuses.

I did not exactly make Omu Raisu, but it served as my inspiration. I cooked some hot fresh rice in my rice cooker. Then I filled small bowls with chopped onion, chopped tomato, chopped bell peppers, some fresh baby spinach, some shredded chedder, and chopped avocado. All of these ingredients remained from previous cooking ventures.

The jewel of my left-overs was a head of roasted garlic from our garden. Roasted garlic works wonders squeezed into savory dishes, mashed potatoes, or on top of fresh-baked pizza. All you do is wrap a head in aluminum foil and bake it at 400º for an hour (you can do this while cooking a sweet potato or something). You can store it in the refrigerator at this point if you want. Then you slice off the very top and squeeze from the bottom; all that golden goodness oozes out.

I didn't bother trying to fold the egg over—an invariably messy and disappointing proposition. Instead, after the eggs had set over the sauteéd vegetables, I sprinkled the avocado and cheese on top and covered the fry pan with a lid for a minute. Once all the cheese and melted and bubbled, I divided the omelette into 4 equal parts like a personal pan pizza. I served each part over a bowl of fresh hot rice and offered taco sauce, hot sauce, Pick-a-Peppa sauce, and sour cream as condiments. 

George didn't like it. Gavin enjoyed his so much he started spooning George's leftovers into his mouth. And I really, really enjoyed it with taco sauce and sour cream. In my mind, I was eating American Sarah's Omu Raisu.

Omelette Rice

1 and 1/2 Cups dry rice, washed and cooked

1/2 Cup chopped onion
1 large steak tomato, chopped
1/2 Cup chopped peppers, broccoli, or vegetable of choice
1 head roasted garlic
several handfuls fresh baby or chopped adult spinach

4 large eggs

1/2 avocado, cubed
1/4 Cup shredded cheese

Optional Condiments: taco sauce, ketchup, sour cream, fresh herbs, hot sauce, etc.

Directions:

1. Put on rice to cook. When it's done, keep it warm.
2. Meanwhile, heat up a medium wide fry pan on medium low heat with some oil or butter. Sauté the onion until softened, darkened, and giving off a mellower scent.
3. Add the tomato. Cook one minute. Add peppers or optional vegetables. Sauté 3 minutes or so until they seem mostly cooked.
4. Squeeze in roasted garlic. Mix. Add spinach and cook down.
5. Meanwhile, beat eggs together. You can add a little milk or soymilk. Salt and pepper to taste.
6. Make sure vegetables are evenly distributed in fry pan. Pour egg mixture over. When the eggs start setting, gently lift edges with a rubber scraper/ spatula and tilt the pan so runny egg on top trickles under.
7. When most of the eggs aren't runny any more, sprinkle avocado and cheese evenly on top. Cover with a lid and wait 1 to 2 minutes.
8. Turn off the heat and divide into sections. For each person put a layer of rice in the bowl and top with some omelette. Offer condiments.

Serves 4.