kale pasticcio
11 Nov 2010 1 Comment
in bread, casseroles, cheese, cupcakes, eggs, greens, onion, recipes, vegetables, vegetarian Tags: autumn, bread pudding, Brooklyn, CSA, dinner parties, gummy bears, kale, sprinkles
fantastical cupcakes
the radical muffin kitchen hosted dinner to celebrate our new winter farmshare wherein we decorated these schnazzy cupcakes. Seems the artists were either too enamored with the art or too stuffed from supper to eat them. So although the buttermilk cake is worth a post someday, the recipe everyone has been clamoring for is the make-do casserole served up alongside the root veggie soup.
let’s call it brioche kale pasticcio, shall we? In Italian, literally, “a mess.” Yet in la buona cucina, it is something divine. In the classic Italian kitchen, veggies and béchamel would snuggle amongst themselves or with some macaroni. This version holds custard not classic white sauce and is dense with rich bread, so emerges a golden savory bread pudding bedecked with greens.
slice and caramelize one medium mild onion in a heavy skillet with butter. Rinse and rip a generous bunch of kale into bite sized pieces and set aside.
butter a large casserole dish, and set your oven to 375°.
slice and cube a heap of day old brioche. We happened to have an acquired loaf lying around; brioche ain’t cheap. Although it is incomparable for soaking and cooking, as in for French toast or this, any dry bread will do. Play with whole grains, baguettes, etc. to create varying textures of wholesomeness. Toss bread cubes in a big bowl.
melt ¾ stick of butter in a small saucepan over low flame. Add a dash of salt, pepper and paprika, and slowly pour in about a cup and a half of whole milk. Bring just to a simmer then turn off the heat. In a bowl aside, whisk together three eggs. Pour the milk/butter in a thin stream into the eggs, merrily whisking all the while.
crumble about a cup of fresh white cheese. We had some marvelous German-styled something from our CSA. Farmer’s cheese, ricotta or feta would also work well. Shred as much hard salty cheese, like parmesan (as was used) or gruyére.
dump most of the custard and half the cheese into the bread crumbs and turn turn turn until all combined. Add in the onions and kale; mix well. Turn out into the casserole, shake the pan to settle it all together and maybe give a gentle pat. Drizzle with remaining custard (dot with butter if it looks too dry), and cover with the remaining cheese.
bake until the custard is cooked through and the cheese is all melty and browning in spots. About half an hour. We used a pretty deep casserole here so the high temperature did not overcook the delicate custard. Similar recipes often call for baking in a water bath, which hasn’t proven necessary. Of course, if you are a crunchy top junkie then use a broad shallow pan and cook for less time. Keep on eye on it any which way.
sweet transcupcakes from transsexual transylvania
it will be difficult to keep waiting diners at bay, but do let this set ten minutes or so before serving. More mouthwatering than cupcakes, apparently. Certainly, there was none left to photograph.
fryday friday
24 Oct 2010 1 Comment
in artichoke, broccoli rabe, cheese, chocolate, garlic, pineapple, potatoes, recipes, sweets, vegan, vegetarian Tags: autumn, Brooklyn, deep fry, dinner parties, drag, frying, marcella hazan, midwest, paula deen
in the kitchen I am happiest when I am frying. One reason is that frying takes the whole cooking process and condenses it into a continuously visible, uninterrupted sequence. It resembles those nature documentaries where the camera shows us tiny buds developing into full blooms, compressing weeks of growth into seconds. One is never out of touch with the food one is frying, even for a moment, and I find that very satisfying….
fried food must be eaten promptly, and cannot be reheated. In Naples they have a phrase for saying that one thing follows immediately upon another. It is frienno magnanno, which means, literally, frying and eating. And that is how it should be done.
marcella hazan, more classic cooking (1978)
and that is what we did. although the night ended in a resonant and reverential reading of Marcella, it began with Paula Deen.
turns out, our stunning drag performer darling is also a sick fry cook. The night we met, in the back garden of Ginger’s bar at Brooklyn Pride, we talked Paula Deen and fell into the deep fryer of food love. Fry night has been pending ever since. Come to think of it—Paula’s how I baited the preacher eater too. Seems i owe Ms. Deen some gratitude.
our all you can fry event was an appropriate homage to the reigning queen of the deep fryer as well as a revelation to our visiting vegan friend from Sweden, the founding co-chair of the International High End Perverts Society (also the photographer, gratzi). Oreos, as it turns out, are vegan. And vanilla pancake batter, made with almond milk and egg replacer, fries up real nice.
the drag artist manned the fry pot in an old tourist’s souvenir “California” apron. the Texas fairy orchestrated a pile of golden okra nuggets that filled my great grandmothers punch bowl. reshma sprawled at the table—like Alice big from the Drink Me bottle in our kitchen too tiny for all her graceful limbs—dredging pickles with the enthusiasm only possible from a far-from-home Midwesterner with State Fairs in her heart.
fry me to the moon
This is what we fried:
vegan corn fritters
okra
breaded fresh mozzarella rounds
hallumi cubes tossed in flour & cornmeal
potato fritters with broccoli rabe and spinach
pickles
feta stuffed green olives
marinated artichokes
sprigs of flowering broccoli rabe
whole garlic cloves
morning star faux sausage
pineapple
oreos
mini-snickers bars
ring dings
fudge
in our orgiastic feasting, we surpassed ourselves before managing to fry up our marshmallows, cinnamon roll dough in a tube, and frozen butter slices. You can also fry beer, but we drank all ours.
of cabbages and kings (there were shoes in that bit too)
19 Jun 2010 1 Comment
in beets, casseroles, cheese, greens, lemons, pasta, recipes, vegan, vegetarian Tags: bread crumbs, Brooklyn, cabbage, Community Supported Agriculture, cooking, CSA, dinner, gardens, garlic, health, kim chee, kimchi, Napa, Savoy, summer, sustainable, tempeh
scape handler
Diogenes advised the young man, “If you lived on cabbage, you would not be obliged to flatter the powerful.” To this, the courtier replied, “If you flattered the powerful, you would not be obliged to live on cabbage. “
we still had a pound and a half of cabbage after the preacher eater’s adventure in kimchi. The fermenting project netted us a huge jar of fruity-peppery, gingery pickled cabbage and carrots with plenty to gift to the neighbors, but half a head of Savoy and an entire red cabbage began accruing squatter’s rights in the left crisper drawer.
virtuous, humble and reliable, cabbage earned accolades in ancient Rome and held its own among the French Court of Catherine de Medici. It plays mythical roles from beau diviner to baby-maker to faerie land wormhole gateway. Ubiquity and poor handling put this staple out of favor. Outside of the obligatory 4th of July coleslaw and a few dedicated sauerkrauters, we mostly avoid cabbage, rumored to generate stink as it cooks and after you eat it. Like so many misunderstood foods, these unfortunate experiences are not really the cabbages’ fault, yet the stigma remains.
so she was gasping when she called me from the farm share pick-up, Guess what’s in the share? Cabbage!
we almost swapped that cabbage out. Our CSA site has a box to trade stuff you might not want: hate broccoli? take your neighbor’s unloved turnips. One cook’s trash is after all…
we had a cart like that in grade school in the gym turned lunchroom. I kept my much maligned salami sandwiches to myself but always took a cruise around the table for anything interesting. It was perpetually teaming with inside-out pb&j sandwiches mangled in transit, bashed up bananas, and overly red apples that you knew were mealy despite stiff and shiny skins. Disappointing. Although the CSA swap box held far more promise, the farmer was giving us Napa cabbage, a new variety for our growing collection. Humbled to fate, perhaps, we decided to confront our cabbage surplus head on.
as soon as our newest cabbage arrived home, we went right for the heart, putting away 3 bunches of outer leaves and pulling the central leaves for instant salad. We also shredded that lingering red cabbage, mixing half with shredded new beets and olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper—jarred this.
for Instant Gratification CSA Salad, combine a quarter of a red cabbage, shredded, with the innermost pale green leaves of Napa cabbage in a huge glass bowl. Rinse a handful each of the finest of spinach and beet greens. Stem the spinach and roll the beet greens up like a cigar, slice them and add to the other greens. Scrub and slice thin three Japanese radishes—not those leg of lamb sized Daikon, these were round like typical red radishes but pure white and milder—and add to the salad.
then come the scapes, wonderfully loopy and green, like bracelets. Discard the stringy tips at the bulb end then slice the bulb just below the neck then slice it open lengthwise. Slice a few inches of the green stem the same way, long, elegant, on the diagonal. Rinse off a handful of pea pods, pop off the stem end if it is tough (ours were utterly edible). Slice in half if they are long then lengthwise, right through the peas, split their tiny equators. The cutaway of the inner landscape is pretty like the scapes. Heat a small frying pan over a medium flame and pour in a few slugs of olive oil. Toss in the scapes and the peas, salt and pepper and toss them around over high heat for a few minutes, until the peas are bright green. Dump right from the pan into the salad bowl and toss. Squeeze half a lemon over the whole thing, toss some more and serve. This salad accompanied BBQ tempeh sandwiches to our table.
the next night, several bunches of Napa leaves went into a skillet pie reminiscent of stuffed cabbage rolls but far less work:
break dried spaghetti into 1-inch lengths for about a cup of broken noodles; boil and drain them. Cook a cup of quinoa for about 15 minutes in 2 cups of boiling stock. While the grains and pasta cook, chop several scapes (or garlic) and shell some peas. We had about ¼ cup of peas and saved the pods for miso soup. Toss garlic and peas with the pasta and grains in a big bowl along with salt and pepper. The stock we had on hand was deep with mushroom flavor, which I think made this the best sort of comfort food, a dish that draws the eater in to pause then wraps you in thick, familiar flavor, smelling really good.
in a big, cast iron skillet, sauté half an onion, chopped, in a bit of butter and olive oil. Add ½ a pound of tempeh, chopped, along with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes and paprika, turning and cooking until it begins to brown. Ladle in about a cup of stock and a few stalks of spicy basil or other herbs then bring to a simmer, steaming the tempeh. When the stock has evaporated, turn the tempeh in with the grains and stir. Let this all cool just a bit then crack in an egg, stir.
preheat the oven to 400° and wipe out your heavy skillet. Melt 3 tablespoons or so of butter and spread a layer of bread cubes (about 3 slices of bread, cubed) along the bottom of the pan. Season and toast the bread over high for a few minutes, turning to coat all sides in butter. Smooth out the bread layer and cover with the grain/tempeh and over that layer several rounds of Napa cabbage leaves. Crumble fresh feta and shred some parmesan cheese over the leaves; dot with butter and sprinkle with paprika. Bake the whole thing for about 20 minutes, until the leaves are soft and cheese is melted. In a bigger casserole, there could be a few layers and, I imagine, delectable.
summer jewelry
we have some of the remaining cabbage earmarked for miso soup, and surely the last bit of red cabbage will go into our daily lunch salads, or maybe this kale and cabbage slaw. Getting through all this cabbage was originally about conquering it, but this affair turned out much tastier triumphs. And we still have kimchi.
** with affection to alice & her creator, who gave me so many things to talk about then eat
spring soufflé
13 Apr 2010 Leave a Comment
in carrots, cheese, eggs, mushrooms, recipes, vegetarian Tags: asparagus, french cooking, healthy food, joy of cooking, souffle, spring, whole foods
eggs
those joyous ladies, Irma & Marion, in their 1953 edition of the New Joy of Cooking, call the soufflé the “misunderstood woman of the culinary world,” and go on to give brisk and efficient instructions along with 26 recipes for variations on the foundation. Unfortunately, these include “Jiffy Soufflé with Canned Soup” and lead straight into to ring molds. Le sigh.
thirty years later, American whole foods home-cooking gurus Nikki & David Goldbeck would agree that, “despite the French name and elegant reputation,” the soufflé is simple, useful, delicate, and tempting. Even, apparently, if you put wheat germ in it.
like many French dishes that have soared into the gastronomic stratosphere, seemingly out of reach for us mere culinary mortals, the soufflé is humble in origin. Basic foodstuffs handled with thoughtful love. Our new friend monsieur Louis Diat exclaims:
soufflés have for so long been associated with haute cuisine that many people, unfortunately, never attempt to make them. Expensive, they say, and difficult to make. Quel dommage! It’s a pity—because neither fact is true.
soufflé is no more complicated or decadent than an omelet; it just has fabulous architecture. A homey, table-scaled rendering of the flying buttresses of Notre Dame. Baked “the French way,” it delivers a comforting, custardy center whether savory or sweet. Although luscious, it is only inappropriately rich in taste or cost if you make it so. Mundanely, it is a graceful vehicle for leftovers. The only real trouble with making soufflés is the process seems to invariably dirty a lot of dishes, and i dislike washing dishes very much.
much of the magic is in the egg whites, but some of it is in the pan: a medium straight-edge casserole will hold a 5 egg soufflé and be plenty puffy. To coax the thing even loaftier, use a smaller pan lined with a collar of parchment paper. Butter and lightly coat your pan with breadcrumbs, cornmeal, grated hard cheese or some combination. We used Panko breadcrumbs for this soufflé. Heat your oven to 375°.
measure out 1 ¼ cups of whole milk and set it atop the stove to warm. Separate 5 cold eggs: the yolks go in a small bowl and the whites in a much larger bowl and quite clean, because they will double in volume later and any grease will debilitate maximum loft.
melt 3 tablespoons of butter over low heat in a heavy sauce pan. Whisk in scant 3 tablespoons of all-purpose flour; and cook, whisking, until the roux turns golden brown. Grate in fresh nutmeg, a pinch of cayenne pepper and some salt. Slowly whisk in the milk. Continue whisking and just simmer, cooking until the béchamel reduces to 1 cup. Turn off the heat; leave to cool.
onion
heat a sauté pan over a medium flame. When the pan is hot, add a pat of butter. Peel and chop half an onion and add to the pan. Peel and finely chop a carrot and add to the sautéing onion. Chop half a clean Portobello mushroom head; slice the other half and set aside. Add the small mushroom pieces to the pan, stirring well. Salt and pepper, adding a little more butter if necessary. Cook until the onions and carrots are soft but not browned then set aside in a bowl, scrapping the pan well. Toss in the slices of mushroom and sauté for about 3 minutes, turning frequently with a fork.
snap the heads off a bunch of asparagus, reserving the stalks for some other use (like sautéing lightly with red pepper flakes then storing in olive oil and lemon juice for salad). Remove the mushrooms to the casserole dish and replace them with the asparagus, with a splash of lemon if you like and a little salt and pepper. Cook just briefly and scatter over the mushrooms.
whisk a tablespoon or so of the just warm white sauce into the egg yolks then a bit more sauce. Pour the tempered yolks into the saucepan and whisk thoroughly. Stir in the chopped vegetables, and grate in a ¼ or so of Parmesan cheese.
whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form, glossy but not dry. This is one of the few times i break out the electric beater; it really angers my forearm to get to stiff peaks by hand, though it is not impossible. If you have a kitchen friend, you can take turns.
fold about a fourth of the stiff whites into the sauce until thoroughly combined. Gently fold in the remainder, no more than a third at a time. To fold, use a spatula to cut through then beneath and lift the batter over and around the egg whites. Patiently combine the two without deflating the whites. Carefully turn the whole mess into the casserole dish. Run your finger along the inside edge of the pan to create a groove an inch down.
bake for 25 minutes to half an hour, which will make for a firmer soufflé. The one thing all accounts of soufflé making seem to agree on is the maxim: you wait for the soufflé; the soufflé does not wait for you. Like all dreamy things, that spun scaffolding only holds its grand form a brief time. And that divine, luxuriant center is at its best oven to table to dish. Serve with excellent bread, a sourdough French is ideal of course. Include a bright, herby salad.
the leftovers are likewise delicious, as many fallen things are.
vol au vent mushrooms
25 Feb 2010 4 Comments
in cheese, garlic, mushrooms, recipes, vegetarian Tags: antipasti, Brooklyn, casserole, cooking, dinner, garlic, italian cooking, marcella hazan, moscato d'asti, mushrooms, parmesan, paul stamet
vol-au-vent: a large shell of light, flaky pastry for filling with vegetable, fish, or meat mixtures.
origin: 1820–30; < F: lit., flight on the wind
marcella hazan writes that mushrooms are nature’s own vol au vent.
begging to be filled and bedded and baked together.
these are not flaky bottoms, no, but succulent and earthy with notes of ancient witchiness.
for our most recent feast, i translated this nonna di cucina’s cappelle di funghi ripiene recipe for the radical muffin kitchen. so I omitted the pancetta and anchovies, but I did add the egg, which I think binds the whole thing together and is hazan’s best advice. i also left out the parsley, only because i forgot, and it wasn’t missed.
with just a dry towel, we wiped off about two dozen mushrooms, a mix of cremini and shitake, then chose those with the deepest, sturdiest hollows for stuffing. Any casserole of an accommodating size will work, and we had a wonderful piece: a round shallow, terra cotta casserole with a glazed interior and raw exterior. Sweep your casserole with olive oil and nestle the mushrooms in side by side, touching but not over lapping. You won’t use so many mushrooms – i think a baker’s dozen fit in our pan- so save some for the filling and some for something else wonderful. Unless, of course, you have a huge pan then double the recipe for the filling and have a grand fete…
mince half a red onion and begin sautéing it in a hot fry pan with melted butter, about 4 tablespoons. Use 1/3 cup olive oil if you want less dairy fat. Mince and add 4 or 5 mushroom heads and 3 or 4 cloves of garlic. Salt a bit; pepper a bit. Find your zen. When the onions are translucent turn off the heat and add several stripped stems of thyme.
in a bowl, mix together ¼ cup each ricotta cheese, shredded parmesan and bread crumbs. Add a beaten egg then the cooled onion/mushroom mixture along with several shredded leaves of basil. Pack each of the mushroom heads generously with the cheese mixture.
in a smaller bowl, mix about ¼ each of bread crumbs, shredded parmesan, and chopped and whole pine nuts. Sprinkle this over the stuffed shrooms. Dash with paprika if you like. Bake at 375° for half an hour or until the top is beautifully crusted and golden. Partway through baking, it is lovely to splash a little moscato in the pan if you are drinking it anyway. Turn the pan at least once for good measure. Serve to friends just out of the oven or throughout dinner; they sit fairly well.
manga manga!
Ridiculously good chard tart
01 Dec 2007 Leave a Comment
in cheese, greens, pastry, recipes, vegetarian Tags: lemon zest, radical muffins love good food, screwing, sea-vegetable, stained glass, thanksgiving
Thaw a package of puff pastry. More power to you if you make your own. Puff pastry is so labor intensive, however, that even the most ambitious cooks typically buy it, like phyllo dough.
Chop a pile of chard. Oh—that sounds so brute! considering the chard we had in hand this November. After the bunch was rinsed, I held a leaf up like an X-ray, a stained glass, to the window, and with the sunlight shining through, it was a cartooned tree of tall, cumulous shape in sea-vegetable Green with Fuschia branches, pink veins edged in lit white. Layer the leaves on top of each other and roll like a cigar, slice from the end to your fingers to make long shreds. Then slice across these shreds to make bite sized pieces.
Peel and chop two shallots. Toast a handful of pine nuts in a dry skillet. Zest a lemon (again – organic, the peel!). Hold these ingredients in little bowls or dishes until you are ready to incorporate them into the dish.
Heat your oven to 375º. Heat a shallow skillet over medium heat to cook your greens. Melt about a tablespoon of butter and toss in the shallots. Let the shallots cook for a few minutes (3-ish) and then toss the shard over it along with half the lemon zest. Cook the greens down, stirring occasionally. About 10 minutes total. Let sit in the pan with the heat off.
Stir together ½ a cup of Greek yoghurt and ½ a cup of feta cheese along with the remaining lemon zest.
Crush ¾ of the pine nuts in whatever way is easiest in your kitchen. I crush them on a cutting board with a wine bottle, not rolling pin style but screwing and crushing with the round bottom. Stir the crushed pine nuts into the greens along with a handful of currants.
On a cookie sheet, layout a full sheet of puff pastry and turn up the edges all the way around to make a crust. Pinch over about a quarter inch and use your fingertips to squish the folded over edge into the main body of the dough. Spread the feta and yoghurt along the pastry. Spread the chard mixture on top of the creamy layer. Sprinkle with more feta and the whole pine nuts. Bake at 375º for 15-20 minutes or until the puff pastry is golden. Let rest for 10 minutes or so, slice into squares, and serve hot.
burfee with rose water, cardamon and pistachios
13 Aug 2007 Leave a Comment
in cheese, recipes, sweets Tags: brownies, butter, cake fights, condensed milk, india, narnia, neelam batra, nirvana, ricotta
Most Indian deserts are made on a stove top, not baked like cakes, brownies, and pies. Not many ovens in India. But when they do have a birthday cake – story goes- there is a cake fight.
In a heavy saucepan, melt
3 tablespoons of unsalted butter.
Stir in
1 pound of ricotta cheese
and cook for 20 minutes, stirring with a slotted spoon or a whisk, banging it against the side frequently (a whisk really cages the cheese). Whisk in
just more than half of one 14-ounce can of sweetened condensed milk.
Cook for another 20 minutes, until very thick and fudgey. Add
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 teaspoons of rosewater
3 tablespoons of almond shavings
or whatever other flavoring feels like nirvana or Narnia or night-blooming jasmine scented seduction to you.
Pour into a shallow baking pan or onto a cookie tray or into a mini-muffin tin. Top with
2 teaspoons of ground cardamom
2 tablespoons crushed pistachios.
sparkly decorator sugar; i used “silver”
Or edible silver leaf, but like I said… Refrigerate until solid; great to make the night before and let sit overnight. Cut into diamonds.
These recipes are based primarily on Neelam Batra’s recipes in The Indian Vegetarian: Simple Recipes for Today’s Kitchen, Hungry Minds Inc. (1998). Neela likens burfee to brownies.
I want to make beet burfee. The improvising will soon begin, but if anyone who reads this has a recipe, please do share.
summer strudel
18 Jun 2007 Leave a Comment
in beans & lentils, cheese, pastry, peas, recipes Tags: basil, phyllo, summer
this basil – in bloom – and veggies from the farmers’ market wrapped up with cheese in phyllo dough
don’t fear the strudel – it is just like a fancy burrito.
heat your oven to 375º and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper – especially if you want to make the strudel and refrigerate it to cook later – or grease it lightly with butter.
Thaw a package of phyllo dough. You are only going to use three sheets so if you are not interested in trying some other phyllo recipes you can make this filling and use it in tortillas like a quesadilla or as a layered frittata. Anyway, onward-
prep your veggies. Scrub clean, leave the skins on, and slice thin:
1 small summer squash. Slice your squash very fine, so you have thin circles edged in green. If it is short and squat rather than long like zucchini, then cut it in half then slice. The one I took home from the farmers’ market was the size of a tennis ball, gum drop shaped, and green with white speckles.
5 new red potatoes, about the size of ping pong balls. Slice them very fine, so you have thin circles edged in red.
peel and slice:
½ of a sweet yellow onion
melt 4 tablespoons (half stick) or so of butter or olive oil in a hot skillet. Pour off all but a table spoon into a cup to use with the pastry later. In the remainder, fry the onion and potatoes until the onions are translucent and the potatoes just begin to brown – about 10 minutes over a medium high flame. Every few minutes, turn them carefully with a fork; the potatoes this thin are delicate.
in a medium sized bowl, mash together with a fork:
1 cup pre-cooked cannelloni beans, tossed with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and
¾ cup fresh soft cheese. Sounds vague, but the label on the tub from the upstate organic, humane dairy says “fresh soft cheese” so I don’t know what else to tell you. Whatever local, happy white soft cheese you can get will be delicious.
pick a handful of fresh basil leaves. I ended up with about a half cup of shredded basil – suit yourself. Pick the leaves, and layer them, staggered side by side to make a wide stack, then roll them up like a cigar. Slice along the circular end to make fine shreds. Stir into the beans and cheese, along with:
¼ cup or more fresh sweet peas.
unroll your phyllo dough on a cutting board, and lift one sheet to your paper-lined baking tray. Brush lightly with butter, layer another sheet, brush with butter, third sheet, butter. Drop several tablespoons of the cheese filling onto the stack of phyllo, making a rectangle of filling with an inch of pastry above and below and two inches to its right. Layer slices of squash over the filling then add a bit more cheese & beans. Layer the potatoes and onions over that and a little more cheese and bean. You’ll have more filling than you need. Fold the two inches of pastry to the right over the filling then fold over the top and bottom pastry margin. Using the parchment paper to help you, fold the strudel over and possible over again to seal. Brush the entire outside with melted butter. Slash diagonal cuts across the top.
store in the refrigerator until ready to use (even over night) or bake immediately for about half an hour or until the outside is golden brown.
You can make this recipe vegan by making sure you use vegan phyllo, subbing olive oil for the butter, omitting the cheese entirely, and mashing the beans more thoroughly. Try adding tofutti sour supreme or tahini to make it creamier. Other veganizing ideas – please leave ‘em in the comments.
broccoli rabe quiche
24 Mar 2007 Leave a Comment
- butter
- all purpose flour
- cornmeal
- ice water
The filling:
Crust
be not afraid! Remember – the freezer will help you make yummy, foolproof pastry. Cut up 6 tablespoons of butter then stash the butter bits in the freezer for a few minutes.
combine the cold fat with 3/4 cup all purpose flour sifted together with 3/4 cup cornmeal (there will be some grit but just dump that in, you aren’t trying to get rid of it, just fluff the dry stuff). If you have a food processor, you can whir this all together until it is crumbly, like soft gravel (about four bursts should do it). If not, then you can use a pastry cutter, two forks, two knives, or your hands (which is what I do and prefer).
work the dough with your fingers, freeze it for a few more moments, then use a wooden spoon to stir in just enough water so the dough holds together. See also the directions for the pastry pockets given before.
pat out your pie dough into a flat circle and roll it to form a crust. Lay it into a 9- or 10- inch pie pan (or a cast iron skillet).
Pie
heat your oven to 375.
clean about ½ a bunch of broccoli rabe, enough to fill a large skillet heaping full. Green, leafy things tend to cook down more than you would expect, but you only need enough rabe to make a layer in the pie. Heat a heavy skillet on the stove top, and add a tablespoon or two of butter. Sauté the rabe until bright green and nearly tender – maybe 8 minutes. While the greens are cooking, grate a whole lemon so the zest falls into the pan then squeeze each lemon half, adding the juice to the greens. I do a sort of squeeze and flick number, squeezing the lemon half a little then shaking the about-to-escape seeds into the sink.
grate about ½ a cup worth of pecorino cheese, and spread it over the bottom of the pie. While you are prepping, crush a handful of pine nuts, maybe with a bit of sea salt.
whisk together 4 eggs, 1 cup of ricotta cheese, and 3 tablespoons of flour. Spread the broccoli rabe over the cheese, pour the egg mixture over the rabe layer, then top with the crushed pine nuts and a generous sprinkling of paprika.
bake for 35 to 45 minutes, or until solid in the center. Serve hot, warm, or at room temperature.
simple stuffed mini squash
12 Mar 2007 Leave a Comment
in cheese, mushrooms, recipes, squash
- 3 baby acorn squash – you can use any squash, but we had these absurdly cute mini-acorn (acorn-like acorn) squash at the coop
-
mushrooms – any and all sorts would be good
- fresh sage
- pine nuts – if you’ve got ‘em; try subbing pecan/walnut bits, maybe sunflower seeds
- millet
- olive oil
- sea salt
- pecorino cheese
heat a heavy skillet over a medium-high flame (for medium high on a gas stove – turn it up all the way then back a quarter turn; that’s about right). Toast (slightly browned; nutty smelling) 1 cup of millet. Dump into a sauce pan or pot with a lid, and add 1 ¾ cups of water. Bring to a boil, cover, and simmer for about 15 minutes. When the millet absorbs all the water, take it off the heat and fluff with a fork.
toast ½ cup of pine nuts too, and put them aside.
halve the squash and scrape out the seeds and pulp. Pour a little olive oil into the hollow of each of the squash, sprinkle a little sea salt and let them hang out soaking while the oven heats to 350. Turn them over onto a cookie sheet, slide them about to oil the sheet, and bake for 20 minutes to half an hour, until soft.
chop two generous handfuls of mushrooms (about a cup and a half chopped or more; more is tasty). I picked out the smallest crimini mushrooms I can find and just slice them thin, stem and all. If you select larger mushrooms, just pop of the stems, tossing them if they’re really woody or mincing them for the stuffing if they’re nice. In the skillet over medium heat, add about a tablespoon of olive oil. Sauté the mushrooms until soft.
shred a handful of fresh sage. Toss it with the cooked mushrooms along with a bit of sea salt. Shred enough pecorino to scatter on top of final assembly (three inches of a wedge ought to do it).
when the millet is fluffy, stir the mushrooms and pine nuts into the millet. Stuff your squash halves. Top with some cheese. Slide the whole shebang into the oven for quarter of an hour or until the cheese is melted.
Fancy Stuffed Squash
(from the Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen, 1977, 1999, 2000)
same process, but for the stuffing:
1 cup raw brown rice cooked with 1 ¾ cups water
1 tablespoon butter
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ cups minced onion
1 to 2 tbs honey or brown sugar
2 medium cloves of garlic, minced
2 medium sized tart apples, diced
3 large navel oranges, sectioned
½ teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon allspice or cloves
1 cup chopped almonds
Melt the butter in a skillet. Add the onion and sauté for about 5 minutes, or until translucent.
Add garlic, apples, oranges, and spices, and sauté over medium heat about 5 more minutes. The oranges may fall apart, but that’s ok.
Add the sauté to the rice and mix well. Season to taste with salt and honey or brown sugar.
Fill the pre-baked squash halves, and top with chopped nuts.
And dear, dear Mollie recommends serving with Orange-Ginger Sauce on page 90. Oh, yes:
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 cup of orange juice
2 to 3 medium cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger
¼ cup of soy sauce
salt, pepper, and cayenne, to taste
Other Additions
½ tablespoon grated orange rind
1 to 2 tablespoons honey or dry sherry
1 scallion/green onion, finely minced
Place cornstarch in a small bowl (if you are using this for stir-fried vegetables) or in a small saucepan (if you’re using this for anything else).
Add orange juice, and whisk until the cornstarch dissolves. Stir in all remaining ingredients (including optional additions).
If you are using this sauce for stir-fried vegetables, stir from the bottom and add to the wok or skillet about midway through the cooking (see detailed instructions on the previous 2 pages). If you are using this for anything else, place the saucepan over medium heat, and gradually bring to a boil, whisking constantly. Lower heat to a simmer and cook, whisking frequently, until thick and glossy (3 to 5 minutes). Serve hot or warm.
