Back on December 14th I wrote up a plain-and-simple recipe for oven-roasted portabello caps with olive oil, salt and pepper. Last night for Christmas dinner I made something along the same theme, but a bit fancier: this time I mixed up a sauce of olive oil, vinegar, tumeric and spices, poured over the caps; then I topped them with chopped veggies, including shiitake mushroom caps and white button mushrooms (when it comes to the 'shroom, for me less is never more.) I added whatever I had at hand, such as tomato and spinach, then topped the caps with two kinds of cheeses. After the 'shrooms were tender and I had removed the pan from the oven, I reserved some of the pan juices as a salad dressing over deeply-colored red leaf lettuce.
This looks like a "recipe" but is really more of a "suggestion" I think, because I've done the same thing previously but with different sauces and spices, different veggies, etc. (Bell pepper of any color made an especially nice addition on another occasion; and I can imagine adding a little scoop of quinoa atop the caps, or served alongside.) To make this completely vegan, simply use a vegan cheese such as almond cheese, or omit altogether. In a prior version I also chopped some canadian bacon into small dice and added it atop the caps; tasty, but unnecessary. The only essential here is the portabello caps themselves, the meatiest of 'shrooms and the foundation of the "stack". Beyond that, make any substitutions that your fridge and your fancy will allow. Portabello Mushroom Stacks with Tumeric Sauce serves 2 2 T olive oil, plus extra to coat baking dish 1-1/2 - 2 T "red" vinegar - red wine, apple cider; or balsamic 1/4 - 1/2 tea. ground tumeric black pepper to taste 1/8 tea. or about a pinch of ground cayenne 1 medium-size garlic clove, crushed and finely minced 1-2 small scallions (green onions), or whatever green shoots happen to be sprouting out of your onion basket, chopped fine 2 portabello mushroom caps, stems removed, any surface dirt wiped off veggies cut into very fine dice: carrot, shiitake mushroom caps (stems removed) and small or medium button mushrooms 1 small tomato, seeds and core removed, diced baby spinach leaves, about 6 (or substitute 2 mature leaves) parmesan or other hard cheese, grated 2 slices swiss cheese Preheat oven to 425 degrees F; coat baking dish (ceramic, glass or metal) with a thin film of olive oil. Combine the first five ingredients in a measuring cup, adjusting to your liking with each addition. Add the white and palest green parts of the scallions, reserving the darker greens for later. Emulsify well. Pierce the portabello caps with a fork randomly, especially in the thick center part-way or all the way through; lay on baking dish gills-side up. Pour 1/3 - 1/2 of the sauce over the caps, then layer the various chopped veggies, including the reserved darker parts of the scallions, over the caps. (Of course some will spill off the sides. No worries.) Layer the spinach leaves atop the veggies, pour the remaining sauce over all of it. Grate the parmesan over the stacks as much or as little as you wish; layer 1 slice of swiss cheese over each, grate on a bit more parmesan if you like, and finish of with a few more rounds or pinches of black pepper. Place the baking tray in the middle of the oven and bake until the very center of the mushroom are fork-tender all the way through; 9-12 minutes should do. Remove from oven and let sit a couple of minutes if you like to let the juices settle. Pour some of the juices over the stacks when serving, reserving the rest for salad dressing (below). Salad dressing (optional): Let the remaining pan juices cool and crunchy bits cool a little, then emulsify with some tangy plain yogurt or keifer, a splash more vinegar or lemon juice, and seasonings (salt, pepper, etc) to taste.
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(Photographs courtesy of Nancy Whitmarsh and used with permission.)
If Nancy Whitmarsh had sent me these photos and recipe for a vegan chocolate mousse using butternut squash (submitted to the Whole Foods website by "Laurie B") a year ago or even two months ago, I would have thought, "Weird, but interesting." Never mind that I've been making a vegan chocolate cake for quite some time using pureed summer squash (from a past year's garden). I had exactly that reaction two months ago when Carol Monnat told me that pumpkin and chocolate go together splendidly in desserts - which she then proved to me with her seasonal dark chocolate-pumpkin truffle. So when I received this from Nancy last night, the pump was already primed, and all hesitation on my part vanished. I'll let Nancy tell the tale: "My brother sent me this recipe for vegan chocolate mousse. It is from the Whole Foods Market website. It is vegan, no sugar, gluten free and super yummy! I made it for the first time today and can't believe that these ingredients made such a satisfyingly sweet dessert. I had a hard time finding canned pureed organic butternut squash, so I just bought a butternut squash, baked it and pureed it in my vitamix. Seems to have worked perfectly." Note: If you haven't a Vitamix, any old blender will do. Produce team associate Sue Guida was good enough to share her personal recipes for Creamy Tomato Soup after I begged her for the recipe. ("Ain't too proud to beg, sweet darling...") We posted this on the Fiddleheads FB page nearly a month ago, but it's worth revisiting as the weather has taken a definite turn toward something colder and crisper...sorta-kinda-maybe resembling late autumn/early winter. (Maybe.) The recipe incorporates chickpeas rather than dairy products to give it it's texture, and substituting veggie broth for the chicken makes it vegan. (The vegans and vegetarians amongst us already know that, of course; some of us are still finding our way there.) Included is the escarole salad she recommends as an accompaniment; I wasn't going to post the salad recipe here as I thought we weren't carrying any more escarole, until I walked into the co-op today and saw several heads of it that Anita Kopchinski and Bill Sokol had brought us from Hidden Brook Gardens in Ledyard on Friday.
Sue's specialty, IMO, is recipes that are almost Zen-like in their simplicity, no fuss, no frills and nothing unnecesssary. Simple, satisfying and just plain good. Sue Guida's Creamy Tomato Soup olive oil for sauteeing veggies 1 small onion, chopped 3 garlic cloves, minced 1 28oz can undrained diced tomatoes (Muir Glen is good) 1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed well 2 cups low-sodium, gluten-free chicken (or vegetable) broth dried rosemary to taste, chopped (or double the amount fresh), basil and oregano to taste 2 tea. sugar freshly ground black pepper, to taste Heat the oil in you heavy-bottom pot and saute the onions for a couple of minutes, add garlic and sautee a bit more (do not brown). Stir in the tomato and the drained chickpeas; add the broth, herbs and sugar. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 30 minutes. Cool enough to handle, then puree in blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to pot and heat through; season with pepper. Escarole or bitter greens salad makes a nice accompaniment. Note: Instead of dried rosemary you could add one sprig of fresh and not bother chopping; remove before pureeing soup. Escarole Salad Wash as much escarole as you want, drain a little, break it up and put in bowl; sprinkle with a little sea salt and black pepper. Pour some EV olive oil over escarole. Just as you're sitting down to the table and NOT before that, squeeze fresh lemon juice over the salad. EAT. (The lemon juice cuts the bitterness of the escarole just a bit.) This morning I decided that the "vine-ripened" tomato I had bought at Fiddleheads the other day was looking a little neglected and past it's prime, but would be perfect thrown into the tomato soup I was making from Sue Guida's recipe. I cut it open, and, lo and behold: "What the heck is THAT...?" "What the heck? Is that...what I think it is?" "It is. It's sprouts. INSIDE my tomato. I'll be damned." So once I had gotten over the initial shock, and reassured myself that yes, the tomato was sprouting within itself, and this was not some alien spawn come to steal my sweet soul, I had to wonder: Should I be more concerned with the fact that 1) my tomato is sprouting itself, or 2) the fact that this was the first time in my life I could verify that a store-bought tomato in my hand was a living, fertile organism capable of reproducting itself?
(Have you ever wondered why, on your favorite food blog, some recipe posts have a photo of a main ingredient used, but not the dish itself? Two possible reason: 1) The dish, while absolutely delicious to the tongue, is not so appealing to the eye and doesn't photograph well; 2) it's been gobbled up long before anyone thought to grab a camera. In this particular instance, both happen to be true.) Yesterday on this blog I nattered on about simplicity and sticking to the basics in my kitchen. A couple hours later my friend Miss Bliss, a woman of refined and particular tastes, popped in unexpectedly for dinner. And there I was, nothing prepared, not so much as a tahini-and-cucumber sandwich in sight. Fortunately, I had a crisper full of organic veggies at hand and was able to throw something together for my friend. Yes, it happened to be vegan and gluten-free, but that wasn't the point of the thing; it was quick to the table and satisfied both of us. So herewith - a simple supper idea. All the ingredients in this instance came from Fiddleheads Co-op (*shameless plug*). If you are not a lover of all things chard, substitute kale or any green of your choice. Roasted Portobello Caps & Zucchini, with Steamed Chard 2 portobello caps, stems removed 1-2 smallish zucchini (or one large; I prefer the younger, smaller ones) 1/2 bunch chard Olive oil, organic EV if you've got it sea salt and black pepper (freshly-cracked or not) to taste ground cumin to taste 1/2 bunch or so fresh chard cooked whole grain, such as long grain brown rice or quinoa (see Note) for accompaniment Fire up the oven to 425 degrees F. Slice the zucchini into large diagonal chunks; put them into a glass or metal baking dish (or a solid old pie pan) with the portobello caps. Drizzle enough olive over the veggies to coat evenly and thoroughly, and give a bit of a coating to the pan. Add sea salt and pepper over veggies, then a generous sprinkling or so of the cumin, toss everything to coat, adding a bit more oil or spices if needful. Place in upper half of oven, and bake until the caps are fork-tender all the way to the center, about 10-15 minutes, turning everything at least once. You will probably not need to add any more oil as the natural liquor of the 'shrooms is released. In the meanwhile, steam your chard over the stovetop; set the heat according to if you're at your leisure or in a crashing hurry. Do watch it however; chard can get away from one quickly. You don't want to let it overcook and get limp and tasteless, You want to steam until tender but still has identifiable color to it. (Unless, like my friend Miss Bliss, you prefer yours on the grey side of the spectrum.) If you're using kale instead, you'll need to give it a bit more time as kale tends to be less delicate. Divvy up the 'shrooms, squash and chard on two plates; sprinkle a bit of salt on the chard (it won't need anything else if it hasn't been overcooked.) Serve hot with the plain rice or quinoa, with the pan juices and extra spices poured over them. Serves 2 Variations on a theme: Instead of ground cumin, try whole cumin seeds, perhaps dry-roasted skillet beforehand, until they begin to "pop" but do not burn. Note: If you haven't got any grain already cooked and you are in a crashing hurry, quinoa cooks up nicely in only 10-15 minutes. A harried hosts' best friend. So, now that I had made and fallen madly in love with roasted, glazed brussels sprouts, I of course went crowing about them to anyone in Fiddleheads co-op who would listen to my yammering. (Co-oper's are such a patient souls, bless them.)
Except for one gentleman who got right to the point, ever so gently: "So you're candying them and covering up the flavor?" (Bless him.) To which I stammered something along the lines of "No, I'm improving them!" before I made some lousy excuse to head to the back of the co-op. "Well, he did have a point," my friend, Miss Bliss (who would cringe seven ways to Sunday if I used her real name), replied when I recounted the incident to her. "They are a little too sweet." "Then you don't have to eat them," I said through gritted teeth. "No, I like them, all right. They're just a little sweet." *sigh* Everybody's a critic. But once I'd gotten over my initial defensiveness, it seemed a perfectly reasonable question, and a challenge: what did roasted brussels sprouts taste like without the sweetening glaze, and was I ready for it? And the timing was excellent, as it happened, to find out. In truth my cooking, or more broadly my relationship to cooking and to food in general, has evolved over the past two years, and for everything "there is a season" as the Psalmist sang. In the springtime it was sauces, all sorts of sauces, as I finally became truly comfortable with the ingredients at hand and what they could do together. "If I put this and this and this in, how will it taste?" became "I'll put this and this and this in, because I know it will taste good." The summertime was about the grill, about cutting the hardwood I found on the land myself, firing up that ancient, second-hand Weber, and letting the maple smoke infuse anything and everything: organic onions, zucchini, portobello caps, all from Fiddleheads, wild-caught salmon filets, local grass-fed beef from Four Mile River Farm, even sage and basil leaves from my garden. Then autumn came slowly, very slowly this year; the grill eventually went cold and was replaced by a new crockpot (slow cooker); the first one I've had since my mom's, as I went indoors and taught myself how to make soups, stews, and stocks, oftimes with scraps, seconds, and discards from the co-op. Now winter has...well, in truth I have no idea if winter is actually here or not (and would it please make up it's mind?), but the latest season of my culinary journey has come upon me and this time, it's lessons in simplicity. Fewer veggies in the pot, or the wok, or on the salmon fillet. Paring down to the essentials: good extra-virgin olive oil. Freshly cracked pepper. Grey or pink sea salt, oft ground fine in my mortar and pestle. A touch of cayenne, or a dash of cumin. Perhaps some freshly-grated ginger, depending. A few drops of apple cider vinegar as needed. These few ingredients go just as well on roasted brussels sprouts, perfectly respectable and not a hint of glaze in sight, as they do on broiled salmon steaks; these are the items that I'm certain I cannot be without in my kitchen. (Not that I'm surrendering my maple syrup, stoneground mustard, coconut oil, vanilla beans and extract, or bottles of cardamon, cinnamon and coriander any time soon. If ever. "Simplicity" is one thing, "insanity" is quite another.) Oven-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Cumin 1 lb (approx.) fresh organic brussels sprouts, stem ends pared and halved or quartered, smallest ones left whole) 4 T olive oil sea salt and black pepper (pref. freshly cracked) to taste generous sprinkling of cumin to taste (did I measure how much? Of course not.) Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F); lightly oil a baking tray. Trim and half or quarter, depending on size, the brussels sprouts; leave smallest ones whole. Toss in a bowl with olive oil to coat, then sprinkle with the salt pepper and cayenne. If any leaves came off the sprouts during the trimming process, add them to the bowl. Spread sprouts on tray, place on rack in center of over and bake for 15-25 minutes or until fork-tender and slightly crisp on the outer leaves; use your own personal preference of what crispy/tender balance you prefer to guide you. (These can cook in the oven a bit longer than their glazed cousins because there is no sugar on the surface.) Serves four as a side dish. This dish is best served hot, right out of the oven, as the sprouts loose their crispness as they cool. Note: Instead of ground cumin, try dry-roasting whole cumin seeds in a hot skillet until they begin to "pop", let cool slightly then add to the sprouts, oil and other spices at the beginning. (A modified version of this post originally appeared on CatchAFallingAniseStar )
"I hate brussels sprouts" I declared with the definite arrogance of the close-minded. I was staring at the season's first shipment of raw, organic sprouts that had just arrived at Fiddleheads, flicking over ancient childhood memories of those greyish, overcooked, nasty little nobs that came from a can. "Try them roasted and glazed," other members of the co-op insisted. "You'll fall in love with them." By that point I had already roasted (and grilled) kale chips and all manner of green things, so when I looked up recipes online, I found the technique was quite similar: rub with olive oil, salt and pepper, bake in oven, sit back and enjoy the compliments. Cathy Elton's version had a recipe with a fabulous-sounding maple-mustard glaze, but she roasts them whole and the cooking time is 40-50 minutes. I needed mine done in under 25 for dinner. One of Cathy's favorite sites, Leafy Greens and Me, has a variation in which the sprouts are cut in halves or quarters to speed the cooking time to about 15 minutes. Perfect...except that the glaze consists almost entirely of maple syrup, after having roasted the veggies with a bit of olive oil and salt and pepper. So I smashed the two recipes together, added some twists of my own - onion, cayenne pepper - and gave it a go. Consider me a convert. Oven-Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Maple-Mustard-Cayenne Glaze 1 lb (approx.) fresh organic brussels sprouts, stem ends pared and halved or quartered, smallest ones left whole) 4 T olive oil sea salt and black pepper (pref. freshly cracked) to taste 1/4 tea or generous dash of cayenne pepper, or to taste (optional) 1/4 Grade B maple syrup organic stoneground mustard (coarsely-ground) to taste (about 1 T) 1 T extra-virgin olive oil juice of 1/4 freshly squeezed lemon 1/4 medium-sized yellow or white onion, chopped Preheat oven to 425 degrees (F); lightly oil a baking tray. Trim and half or quarter, depending on size, the brussels sprouts; leave smallest ones whole. Toss in a bowl with olive oil to coat, then sprinkle with the salt pepper and cayenne. If any leaves came off the sprouts during the trimming process, add them to the bowl. Spread sprouts on tray, place on rack in center of over and bake for 10-15 minutes or until fork-tender and slightly crisp on the outer leaves; turn 2-3 times during cooking process to bake evenly. (Any loose leaves tend to cook quickest and become tasty little miniature chips.) In the meantime combine remaining ingredients for the glaze, emulsify until thoroughly blended and opaque. When sprouts are tender, remove from oven and turn temperature down to 375 degrees. Pour enough glaze over the sprouts to coat thoroughly when tossed on tray, but do not "drown" them; store any remaining glaze in the fridge for future use. Return to the oven and bake for an additional 5 minutes. Serves four. Note: Replace cayenne with fresh hot red pepper, finely chopped, or dried pepper flakes if desired. (Previously posted on Facebook Fiddleheads Food Co-op )
Sue Guida shared this "simple" and lovely recipe for escarole soup, which she adapted from one by Dom Deluise. Yes, I know what mental picture popped in your head when you saw Dom's name : the loveable but VERY overweight actor. Me too. Rest assured Sue's adaption is very heart-healthy. (Substitute gluten-free vegetable broth to make it vegan.) This recipe also solves a problem for those - like me - who've seen the lovely heads of escarole we have from Hidden Brook Gardens and misidentify it as lettuce, or wonder what to do with it otherwise. 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 onion, chopped 2 carrots, sliced 1 potato, peeled and diced (some of the local potatoes in the co-op would be great for this) 4 cups chicken broth or vegetable broth 1 good-sized head of escarole, well-washed & coarsely cut good-quality freshly-grated parmesean cheese or vegan substitute (optional) In soup pot heat olive oil and gently brown garlic (do not burn). Add prepared onion, carrots and potato if using (which breaks up and thickens the soup nicely.) After 1 minutes add the broth; add chopped escarole, cover and bring to a boil. Lower heat and simmer 1 hour. Serve sprinkled with grated cheese. Have some hot italian bread on the table. |
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Text and photos copyright 2011-2013 Janice Janostak unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved.
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