You are what you eat

Tian of butternut squash and Parmesan

I know we're all looking forward to spring, but around these parts, there's still snow on the ground, with more cold weather on the way. This is a lovely fall and winter dish that presents squash in a different form from the usual mashed or pureed baked squash.

What is a tian? you may ask. A tian is a dish of vegetables sauteed in olive oil, layered in a casserole, and baked au gratin. This particular recipe doesn't saute the squash; rather, chunks of squash are tossed with olive oil, arranged in a baking dish, and sprinkled with garlic and Parmesan. I served it recently and my guests (at least the vegetable-lovers) found it wonderfully tasty.

This recipe comes from Laurie Colwin's  (also see this) More Home Cooking, a book that would be a delight to read even if you never used a single recipe.

1 large butternut squash
flour
oil
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan
1 clove garlic, minced
pepper to taste
2 to 4 T. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Peel, seed, and cut the squash into 1-inch chunks. Coat the chunks with flour by shaking them in a bag with the flour; shake off excess flour and place them, in one layer, into an oiled shallow baking dish. Scatter the squash with the Parmesan, garlic, and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.

The oven must be very hot before you put the baking dish in; otherwise, as Colwin advises, "you will get a sodden mess." Bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until squash is tender. The squash will retain it's shape but be very tender in the center of each chunk.

Pan-roasted corn

We're still able to buy fresh corn, but the quality isn't necessarily peak. Nonetheless, fresh corn is lovely to have on hand. I put together this dish one night to go with enchiladas. It's easy and very tasty. Use a roasted poblano if you want a little more heat (info on roasting peppers here) . And use amounts of each ingredient to your liking; I used approximately the following amounts.

2 ears of corn, kernels cut from the cob
1 roasted Anaheim or poblano pepper, diced
1 or 2 Tbsp. butter
1/2 to 1 tsp. ground cumin, or to taste
salt to taste

Melt the butter in a skillet (more is better!). Add corn kernels and diced pepper; saute until the corn is cooked. Add seasonings to taste.

Simple but good!

Quick vegetarian meals, part one

This post is in response to a friend who asked for some fifteen-minute vegetarian recipes. I laughed and said, "Well, maybe 30-minute recipes ..." and she replied that even that would be helpful.

I was a vegetarian for nine or ten years, and believe me, it was no hardship (except, as my friend pointed out, in restaurants, which can be a problem in that you always end up having a pasta dish or the meatless pizza or some such). At the time I didn't object to soy-based meat substitutes, but today I'd balk at that, so I'm not going to include these in my menus or recipes.

Most vegetarians depend on legumes for much of their protein. I love beans, lentils, and split peas, and I relied on them for many of our meal plans. During my vegetarian years, I didn't have a pressure cooker, which was foolish of me. A pressure cooker makes fast work of dried beans, even if they're unsoaked.

But let's start at the beginning. (I want to state right here that my friend probably knows all this, and I'm just throwing it out there for anyone who hasn't stopped to consider these points.) I'm a believer in meal planning, and I plan meals covering one to two weeks. This simplifies grocery shopping, I never have to wonder "what's for dinner," and I don't rely on those nasty processed foods. I have all the ingredients I need to make dinner on a given night. It also ensures variety and gives me the advantage of being organized, so that I know I have to soak beans on Tuesday night for Wednesday's dinner. I'm not rigid about this stuff, but having a general plan works great for me.

So, the first thing to do is to plan your meals around your schedule. A busy day followed by an evening of work or social obligations is not the time for an elaborate dinner. Save that for weekends or whenever you have the luxury of time.

Second, I can't emphasize enough how much a pressure cooker can help. I can whip up split-pea soup in under half an hour, including chopping the veggies. In the smaller of my two pressure cookers, I make risottos whose taste cannot be differentiated from the time-consuming stove-top, constant-stirring-required version. Dried beans are cooked through very quickly compared to the hours of simmering they otherwise require, and they're far superior to canned beans (cooked dried garbanzo beans, in fact, seem like an entirely different vegetable from the canned variety). Vegetable broth is done in a matter of minutes.

The slow cooker (crock-pot) is also extremely valuable, especially for the working person. I had forgotten this handy tool until one summer when I had so much to do out in the garden that I never felt like cooking at the end of the day. Putting dinner in the slow cooker before noon meant that we were guaranteed a decent meal after the busiest (and grimiest!) of days. And it doesn't heat up the kitchen much, either. Among other conveniences, the crock-pot cooks previously soaked dried beans overnight so that they're ready for the next day's meal.

Next, let's consider the meal itself. Your meal should include protein, so if you're having, say, spaghetti with marinara sauce, it's a good idea not only to sprinkle your pasta with parmesan, but also to have a side salad that incorporates feta and chickpeas, or whatever cheese and bean varieties you like. To simplify putting a balanced meal together, it's helpful to have the following on hand:

• Washed salad greens. Either buy pre-washed salad greens, or wash the greens, spin them dry in a salad spinner, lay them on paper towels, roll them up in the toweling, and put them in a plastic bag. Don't add juicy veggies like tomatoes and cucumbers until you put the actual salad together, as they will cause wilting and sogginess.
• Cooked dried beans, or canned beans. These can be added to salads and pasta (and pasta salads!) and soups and casseroles ... you get the idea. Having a bean salad in the fridge is even better; use two or three kinds of beans for variety, throw in some scallions, tomato, bell pepper, sliced black olives, celery, or whatever, and toss with a vinaigrette, and you've got lunch or a dish to round out a dinner. Add cooked pasta for a great main dish salad.
• Hummus, if you like it. Spread it on a pita, topped with some fresh veggies and/or sprouts and some good yogurt, and you've got an instant lunch.
• Cheeses that you like. These can be shredded into salads, rice, pita sandwiches, quesadillas (I'll get to that), refried beans, vegetarian chili, etc. to complete the protein in a meal.
• Hard-cooked eggs. These add protein to a tossed salad, fit well in many pasta salads, and are good to eat out of hand or as deviled eggs. I love egg salad, which can be used to stuff a tomato as well as serving as a sandwich filling.
• Tofu, if you like it. I don't, but I wish I did. It can be used in all manner of dishes, including salads, soups, stir-fries, breakfast eggs or shakes, etc.
• Better Than Bouillon, vegetarian or mushroom type. This is somewhat expensive, but even a little really strengthens the taste of soups and stews. You can also make a good mushroom gravy using fresh mushrooms and the Bouillon.

Of course, I never had all these things on hand at all times, but having some of them, at least, does make things easier when time is at a premium.

Other things to consider:

• When you cook dried beans, cook more than you'll need, and freeze the rest in some of the cooking liquid for another recipe down the line. Toss cooked beans into salads, rice dishes, pasta, soup, etc. for a protein boost.

• Cook more rice than you need for a recipe, and plan to use it as fried rice in the next day or two (more on this to come).

• Freeze leftover soup, or dishes like lasagna or eggplant parmesan, in amounts suitable for lunch or for another dinner. The freezer is your friend!

• Make veggie stock when you have time and freeze it in amounts you're likely to use for your favorite recipes.

• Think about how to use one recipe two ways. For example, leftover vegetarian chili is great as a burrito filling (just simmer the excess liquid away) or even an omelet filling.

Neither of the above lists exhausts the possibilities, of course, but it should give you some ideas about planning, using ingredients efficiently, and so on.

Next up, I'll post some ideas and recipes for quick meals.

My new favorite way to cook asparagus

My former favorite recipe, which I still love, can be found here. But recently I've been using a recipe from Cook's Illustrated for pan-roasted asparagus.

Don't use pencil-thin stalks of asparagus for this dish; thicker stalks work better.

Pan Roasted Asparagus

1 T. olive oil
1 T. butter
2 lbs. thick asparagus spears, woody ends snapped off
Salt and freshly ground pepper
balsamic vinegar (optional)

Heat oil and butter in a 12-inch skillet over medium-high heat. When the butter has melted, add half of the asparagus to the pan with tips pointed in one direction; add the other half of the stalks with tips pointing in the opposite direction. Use tongs to distribute the spears evenly (they won't quite fit into one layer, but that's fine). Cover and cook until asparagus is bright green and still crisp, about 5 minutes.

Uncover the skillet and set heat to high. Season asparagus with salt and pepper. Cook until spears are tender and well browned along one side, using tongs to occasionally move spears from center to outside of pan so all the spears are browned, 5 to 7 minutes. Transfer asparagus to serving dish, adjust seasonings, and if you like, sprinkle with good quality balsamic vinegar.

First spring harvests: lovage and asparagus

How lovely it is to see green in the garden after a long, snowy winter.

Along with chives, lovage is the first herb to really show off in April. Lovage is somewhat like celery--you can see that the leaves even resemble celery leaves--but there is a darker, earthier undertone that's hard to characterize. Lovage can be harvested all spring and summer, and it dries beautifully, retaining most of its taste (unlike some herbs). It can grow to be 4-5 feet tall, and gets bushy and big around after it's been growing for a few years. You can divide it and give some away to friends and neighbors, too.

You can find a lovage-and-potato-soup recipe here. I'll be drying some lovage tomorrow.

But the real spotlight at this time of year is occupied by asparagus. Ah, how we wait each year for the first stalks, the first harvested-just-before-dinner delectable spears. This year's harvest was earlier than any previous year; we cut the first stalks on April 23. Below you can see two days' harvest from our small patch--about 4 pounds of asparagus.

Some of those spears became pickled asparagus.

For some asparagus recipes, go here.

In a time of waiting--waiting for the seeds to germinate, waiting for the last day of frost, waiting to plant all the luscious vegetables that will see us through winter--how grateful we are for these foods fresh from our garden.

It doesn't get any better than this.

Not-your-ordinary cauliflower cheese soup

Last weekend we went to a farm stand with the goal of buying broccoli so I could freeze some, since our once-thriving broccoli had been completely devoured by a groundhog and the second planting didn't germinate for some reason. I wasn't planning to buy cauliflower, but the size of the heads completely changed my mind: they must have been almost 12 inches across! I had to buy some, and I immediately thought of cauliflower cheese soup.

I gave part of one head to my mother-in-law, who was visiting that weekend, and still used only half of the remainder for this soup. (Guess I'll be freezing some cauliflower, too.) The recipe is something I came up with in my quest to do something a little different with this classic veggie-and-cheese combination.

I used a roasted poblano that I had in the freezer, but you could use an Anaheim for a milder flavor, or go with jalapeno for something zestier. The roasted pepper didn't make the soup spicy-hot, but it did add flavor and zing. If you need to roast a pepper, instructions can be found here.

It's the bacon and the roasted pepper that make this a little bit special, so if you're afraid of them, you might want to find another recipe! (For a completely different, non-cheese, lower-calorie soup, try this curried cauliflower soup.)

Cauliflower cheese soup

1 medium head of cauliflower, broken into florets
3 slices bacon, diced
1 large onion, chopped
2 medium cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken stock
1 1/2 cups milk
8 oz. cheddar cheese, shredded
roasted poblano, diced
salt and pepper to taste
pinch cayenne or dash of Tabasco (opt.)

In a soup pot, fry the diced bacon until crisp; remove with a slotted spoon. Saute the onion and garlic in the bacon fat. Add the cauliflower and the chicken stock. If there doesn't seem to be enough liquid, add water or a little more stock (the liquid should almost cover the cauliflower). Partially cover the pot and cook the cauliflower until very tender. Puree the cooked cauliflower and stock; I used an immersion blender. If it seems very thick, add a little water or chicken stock, but remember, you'll be adding milk so you want it somewhat thick. If it's too thin, allow it to simmer, uncovered, until it reaches the desired thickness. Add the milk to your liking, using less or more as desired. Now stir in the cheese and keep stirring until it melts. Allow the soup to cook on low heat, very gently, for a few minutes. Add the cooked bacon and the diced pepper, salt and pepper, and the cayenne or Tabasco if you're using it. Heat until the pepper and bacon are thoroughly warmed and serve.

Roasting peppers

The harvest is the gift that keeps on giving, and we find ourselves with too much of everything. Especially hot peppers.

I've already frozen lots of peppers, and I've made a gallon of brined (fermented) Hungarian yellow wax pepper chunks. Our jalapenos didn't do well this year (we had a long dry spell, and any gardener can tell you that watering is not equal to a good rain), but the Hungarian peppers and the Anaheims were prolific.

I still haven't figured out what to do with the yellow peppers (compost pile??), but roasting is the way to go with the Anaheims. They're the peppers used in dishes like chiles rellenos, and roasted Anaheims can also be diced into sauces, soups, rice, and other dishes. Their heat is quite mild (unlike the Hungarian peppers, which this year vie with the jalapenos for heat!).

We've found that the easiest, best way to roast a quantity of peppers is to use the grill. The fire needs to be quite hot.

Yesterday we roasted over three dozen peppers very quickly this way. You need to turn the peppers so they're charred all over. To freeze them, leave the skins on; when thawed, the peppers will peel easily for use in your recipe. To use right away, place the peppers immediately into a covered bowl or sturdy plastic bag and allow them to steam. When they're cool, slip the skins off.

We had a few poblanos (these are the peppers that when dried are known as ancho peppers), so we did those, too. They're a darker green, shaped something like a heart, and they're hotter than Anaheims, but they too make good chiles rellenos and add zest and flavor to other dishes. Bell peppers can also be roasted this way for use in many recipes.

If you don't want to fire up the grill, you can roast peppers by putting them under the broiler. They have to be watched carefully and turned. I line a baking sheet with aluminum foil to make clean-up easier. 

What's for dinner?

"What's for dinner?" will be an occasional feature here on the blog that will, I hope, give you some ideas for recipes or whole meals. I'm sure the recipes (and meals) will range from simple to, well, less simple (I'm not too big on elaborate). I'd also like them to be seasonally appropriate, but I know me, and that won't always be true.

Last night's dinner, however, was very much in keeping with the season. We had warm asparagus-parmesan salad, lovage and potato soup, and freshly baked bread (part whole wheat flour, part unbromated, unbleached white flour). I had felt the need for simplicity, lightness, and a non-meat menu. We hadn't been eating as healthily as we should, so an antidote was badly needed.

Both asparagus and lovage are part of the exuberance of spring, and asparagus is now at its peak (at least in our garden). There is nothing quite like eating asparagus you have just cut. It cooks quickly and stays bright green, and the flavor is incomparable.

You can find the lovage and potato soup recipe here. The asparagus salad recipe is below. It serves four to six people.

Note: When I cut the asparagus into pieces, I set the tips aside and add them to the boiling water after the stem pieces have been cooking for two to three minutes. They take only about a minute or so longer. Take care with cooking the asparagus, testing it sooner than you think it will be done; if very fresh and placed into rapidly boiling water, the stems will be crisp-tender in just three minutes total, including the final minute during which the tips cook.

Warm asparagus-parmesan salad

2 lbs. fresh asparagus, trimmed and cut into 1-inch pieces
2 tsp. fresh lemon juice, or more to taste
3 T. extra-virgin olive oil
freshly ground black pepper
4 oz. parmesan cheese--do not grate!
4 to 6 cups mixed spring greens (depending on number of diners)

Get a large pot of salted water boiling.

Whisk together lemon juice, oil, and pepper. Taste and add more lemon juice or pepper if necessary. Set aside.

With a vegetable peeler, shave thin slices of parmesan and set them aside.

Add asparagus pieces to a large pot of boiling, salted water (see my note above). Cook until barely crisp-tender, 3-5 minutes. Rinse briefly under cold water--briefly enough that the asparagus pieces are still warm--and drain. Give the dressing a quick whisk and toss it with the asparagus.

On each serving plate, make a bed of greens, mound asparagus on top, and top each serving with the parmesan shavings. Serve immediately.

It sure isn't Campbell's: cream of mushroom soup

I forgot that I'd purchased mushrooms and so bought more, and now I have to use them up. What better way than in a luscious soup?

This is not the recipe that's in the cookbook I wrote for my family and friends--it's one I've been using for the past couple of years. So if any friends are reading this, let me just say that this recipe is far, far superior.

It's based on one in Deborah Madison's encyclopedic Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, or as I call it, the Orange Bible (and actually only the spine and her name on the cover are in orange; go figure).

The soup is pureed, and in my experience, a stick blender won't do the job (maybe I don't have the right one). Fresh herbs enliven the appearance of the soup.

If you don't have mushroom stock--another great way to use up mushrooms--then substitute Better Than Bouillon mushroom base.

1 pound white mushrooms, cleaned
3 T. butter, divided
1 cup chopped leek, preferably, or onion
2 garlic cloves, chopped
4 thyme sprigs, leaves stripped from stems, or 1/4 tsp. dried
1/4 cup water
sprinkle of salt

1 T. flour
1 quart mushroom stock, or 1 quart water and 1 T. Better Than Bouillon mushroom base
1/2 to 1 cup cream
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
chopped parsley, chives, or tarragon

Set aside a few mushroooms for garnish and coarsely chop the rest. Melt 2 T. of the butter in a soup pot and add leek, garlic, thyme, sprinkle or two of salt, and the 1/4 c. water. Cover and stew over medium heat for 5 minutes, then raise the heat, add the chopped mushrooms, and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in the flour, add the stock, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer, partially covered, for 20 minutes. Puree the soup, return it to the pot, and stir in the cream. Add salt and pepper to taste. Keep warm over low heat.

Slice the reserved mushrooms. Melt the remaining butter in a skillet, add mushrooms, and saute over high heat, stirring constantly, until they begin to brown, about 4 or 5 minutes. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary. Garnish soup with the mushrooms and herbs, and serve.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

How good is this? My son, who eats few vegetables (alas) and rarely helps finish off leftovers, couldn't stop eating this until every last bit was gone a day or two later. It's very simple to make, so simple you won't believe how good it is.

I used mild curry powder, but if you like things hot, try substituting some hot curry powder for part of what's called for.

1 head cauliflower, leaves removed, washed and cut into small florets
2 large onions, chopped
1 large knob fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated
3 cloves garlic, chopped
3 T. butter
1 T. mild curry powder (more or less, to taste)
6 to 8 cups vegetable stock
2 cups milk
salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a soup pot. Add onion, garlic, and ginger. Cook until the onion is transparent (don't brown). Add curry powder and stir to combine. Add cauliflower florets and a pinch of salt. Stir to coat florets with curry powder. Add just enough stock to cover the cauliflower. Cook on medium-low heat for about 30 minutes or until cauliflower is very tender. Add milk. Puree with a blender stick or in a blender or food processor. Add salt and pepper to taste, and serve.