Shepherd’s Pie
With a sudden cold (for Hilton Head) spell I yearned for a warming substantial main dish for dinner. BBC Good Food (http://www.bbcgoodfood.com) to the rescue with a recipe for a vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie!
Cooking some lentils to use in this pie is simple: simmer them in plenty of water with a bay leaf till done to your taste–may take from 20-40 minutes. Whatever you don’t use in this recipe can be frozen, so I cook more than I will need. I like the firm texture of French green lentils but ordinary green lentils can be used.
Veggie Shepherd’s Pie with Sweet Potato Mash
Heat 1 tablespoon olive oil in a frying pan; add 1 large onion, halved and sliced and fry until golden.
Add 2 large carrots, peeled and sliced along with about 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme, chopped. If fresh isn’t available use 2 teaspoons dried.
Pour in 3/4 cup red wine (a drinkable one), about 2/3 cup water and a 15-oz can of chopped tomatoes. (I added a scant teaspoon of Better Than Bouillon Vegetable Base.) Simmer for 10 minutes.
Add 1 1/2 cup cooked green lentils (preferable French Lentilles Verte du Puy) and simmer another 10 minutes or till the carrots still have a bit of bite.
Meanwhile, peel and cut into chunks 2 pounds of sweet potatoes (about 2 large ones). Boil them till tender, drain, and mash with 2 tablespoons butter. Season to taste.
Pile the lentil mixture into a casserole or large gratin dish, spoon the mash on top and spread it evenly over the lentils. Sprinkle with about 3 ounces grated cheese. (The recipe called for aged cheddar but I used a smoked cheddar which was very tasty. ) Sprinkle a little more thyme over the top.
At this point the pie can be covered and chilled for 2 days, or frozen for up to a month.
Preheat oven to 375 degrees. If cooking straight away, cook for 20 minutes, or for 40 minutes from chilled, until golden and hot all the way through.
Serve with broccoli.
Serves 6-8 (even though the original recipe says serves 4!)
Good-Bye Gourmet
What a surprise and shock to read that Gourmet will cease publication with the November issue. Although I haven’t subscribed regularly for some years it was the first food magazine that I got a subscription for after I was married, when we lived in the apartment on Overlook and Kenilworth. A college student selling magazine subscriptions had come to the door…
When we moved south (or maybe it was when we moved to Brahenahl Place) I got rid of some of my accumulated issues, but I still have the earliest ones. My first issue is December 1964: it has a recipe for Dutch Babies–how could I have missed that, though then I probably didn’t know what a delicious puffy pancake it was. Many recipes I wouldn’t cook now and probably wouldn’t have cooked then either (Hare Pate’, Snipe in Orange Sauce, Venison, Woodcock; Shrimp Scampi calling for two pounds of butter). But I’m going to read Cider Ferment and Cheeses in a Blue Vein, as well as Coconut Caribbean by Shirley Sarvis. The writing was always so charming, elegant, erudite.
Manca’s Famous Dutch Babies
Break 3 eggs into the bowl of a mixer set at low speed. When the eggs are well blended gradually add 1/2 cup sifted flour and 1/2 teaspoon salt and continue blending the mixture. Add 1/2 cup milk and blend thoroughly. Spread the bottom and sides of a cold No. 8 iron skillet with 3 tablespoons butter or margarine. Pour in the batter and put the skillet in a very hot oven (450 F.) Bake the Dutch baby until the crust is brown. The sides and sometimes the center will puff up unevenly. This is the normal appearance of the finished product. Cut the pancake into 2 sections and pour over them melted butter or margarine to taste. Sprinkle each piece with a few drops of lemon juice, a liberal quantity of maple syrup, and, finally, confectioners’ sugar, for decorative purposes. Serve with nicely browned bacon and good coffee.
That’s the recipe as it appears in Gourmet, December 1964. I wouldn’t use margarine nor would I serve it with bacon. The recipe I’ve used for years, from The Plain Dealer, is similar but calls for just two eggs. It calls for melting the butter in the pan before adding the batter, and I’ve always sprinkled a little dark brown sugar over the butter; and served it with confectioner’s sugar but never maple syrup.
The September FAB 5
1. Vegetables in Thai Red Curry
2. Spinach-Zucchini Soup
3. Tofu Rancheros
4. Parisian-style Sweet Crepes (circonflex on the first e)
5. Grape and Almond Harvest Cake
I’ll try to make all of these this month but not necessarily in order.
Mise en place
Laotian Eggplant with Tomatoes, Onion, and Mint
Serves 6
1 T canola oil
1 lb eggplant, trimmed and diced (3 cups)
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced (1 1/2 cups)
4 medium tomatoes, chopped (2 cups) (I used Roma)
3 T dark brown sugar
2 T low-sodium soy sauce (I used Tamari)
2 tsp lime juice
1 1/2 tsp chile-garlic sauce, such as Huy Fong
3 cups bean sprouts
1 8-0z can sliced bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained (I used about half the can)
1/2 cup chopped fresh mint
Heat oil in a large skillet over high heat. Add eggplant and onion; stir-fry 10 minutes.
Stir-fry eggplant and onions
Stir in tomatoes, brown sugar, soy sauce, lime juice, and chile-garlic sauce. Cook 3 minutes more. Add bean sprouts and bamboo shoots; stir-fry 2 minutes. Garnish with mint.
This had an intriguing flavor, sweet-salty, and variety of textures. It was good the next day for lunch too. I’ll make it again.
FAB 5 July/August: #4 Smoky Baby Portobello Sliders
This recipe is a real keeper! As I said in my first blog, I made these earlier in the month before I started blogging.
I reduced the sugar from 1/4 cup to 2 T because I wanted to serve these as a main dish rather than a dessert. They were still slightly sweet…
Drain grated zucchini
Cooking on first side
After turning
FAB 5 July/August: #5 Blackberry, Jicama, and Apple Salad
The salad was fresh and crunchy and came together quickly. You could make the dressing ahead and hold it in the refrigerator.
Blackberry, Jicama, and Apple Salad
Serves 3-4
Dressing
- 2 T nonfat yogurt
- 4 t lime juice
- 4 t olive oil
- 2 t Sweet Moscatel vinegar (recipe called for rasberry champagne vinegar)
- 2 t agave nectar (or honey)
- 1/2 t poppy seeds
Whisk dressing ingredients together in a bowl. Set aside or refrigerate.
Salad
- 2 cups arugula
- 1 cup blackberries
- 1/2 jicama, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks (1 cup)
- 1/2 Granny Smith apple, cut into thin matchsticks (1 cup)
Combine salad ingredients in a separate bowl. Toss with yogurt dressing, and serve.
Poppy-Yogut Dressing
Verdict: Would I make it again? Two eaters thought it was a little tart–was it the jicama (I don’t think so) or the Granny Smith apple (could be). It tasted good to me, but not special. A suggestion came from M. that adding something creamy, such as soft goat cheese would be a welcome addition.
Serving the salad
Paneer and Yellow Indian Woman Beans
Well I have some successes and some failutes. The paneer worked out fine–even though I tried coagulating it with whey which I had saved in the freezer from a previous batch. It didn’t seem to be working, so I threw in half a quart of buttermilk that was left in the refrigerator, and then it separated into curds and whey as it should. (I will go back to using yogurt in the recipe, as below.)
Curds and Whey
I’ve used two Indian cookbooks as my recipe source: Laxmi’s Vegetarian Kitchen by Laxmi Hiremath and The Indian Vegetarian by Neelam Batra.
Paneer–Fresh Homemade Cheese
1/2 gallon 2% milk, preferable organic
2 cups plain yogurt (I use Stonyfield Lowfat) *you could use 1 quart buttermilk instead according to Batra but Hiremath’s proportions would call for just 2 cups buttermilk??
fine cheesecloth (muslin) to fit colander or sieve
Rinse a large saucepan with cold water (this helps prevent the milk from burning). Bring the milk to a boil in the saucepan. Add the yogurt (or buttermilk) and stir over high heat, until the milk curdles and separates into curds and whey. (The whey will be a pale, translucent green liquid.) Remove from the heat and let stand for 10 minutes.
Line a colander with muslin or 4 layers cheesecloth and place in the sink. (If you want to save the whey place the colander in a bowl.) Pour in the curds and let the whey drain. Gather the four corners of the muslin and tie them to the faucet to hang and drain for about 5 minutes
Remove from the faucet and gently twist the muslin to extract as much whey as possible. You will then want to weight the cheese, still in its muslin, between two flat surfaces. I put my cheese in a small coeur a la creme mold and set something heavy on top. Press it for about 10 minutes and then let it cool. Cut it into whatever shapes/sizes you desire.
Yield: about 12 ounces
Use fresh paneer within 4 days.
It may be frozen and will keep for 3 to 4 months. If you freeze it on a baking sheet in a single layer you can transfer it to plastic freezer bags and will be able to remove individual pieces as needed.
Less successful was my attempt to make Ricotta. The method is similar to Paneer but I think I took it off the heat too soon before it had coagulated enough (I was following a recipe that used a temperature endpoint) and I ended up with only about a cup of ricotta (from a gallon of milk) instead of 4 cups. Ah well…
The beans, heirlooms from Rancho Gordo (www.ranchogordo.com) were creamy and delicious as promised, especially served with Ugli tomatoes and roasted corn. See the recipe at www.cookforgood.com.
My first day of blogging
The theme of my blog will be to focus on healthy vegetarian cooking.
I’ve subscribed to Vegetarian Times for years and every month when it arrives I salivate over many of the recipes but end up making very few. I’ve now set myself the task of cooking each month the FAB 5–the recipes that the VT editors think are terrific.
The FAB 5 from the July/August 2009 issue are:
1. Laotian Eggplant with Tomatoes, Onion, and Mint
2. Essence of Tomato Soup
3. Sweet Zucchini-Ricotta Pancakes with Raisins and Walnuts
4. Smoky Baby Portobello Sliders
5. Blackberry, Jicama, and Apple Salad
The Portabello Sliders sounded so enticing that I did make them last week and they were flavorful and “meaty” and even though they were slightly fussy (I had to prepare Classic BBQ Rub first, then cook onions till golden for a topping before grilling the mushrooms and warming the rolls) I would definitely make them again. And indeed I shall have to because I didn’t take a photo of them.
Veg RD 