Sundried Tomato Pesto Aioli

2 Tbsp real mayonnaise
2 Tbsp light sour cream or Greek Yogurt
2 tsp. sundried tomato pesto
1 rounded Tbsp India relish
1 clove garlic, pressed
1 tsp dried dill weed
dash salt
dash cayenne pepper

Whisk together all ingredients.

Tofu Scaloppini Over Edamame Succotash Pilaf

1 brick extra firm tofu, drained

marinade:
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dried, crushed rosemary
2 garlic cloves, minced (or 1 tsp garlic powder)
1 tsp onion powder
½ tsp salt
lots of freshly ground pepper
¼ cup olive oil

Edamame Succotash Pilaf:
1 cup rice
1 Tbsp red organic quinoa
1¾ cup water
1 10-oz. pkg frozen edamame succotash (I like Trader Joe’s), defrosted

Slice the tofu into four thin scaloppini. Lay on a clean kitchen towel and cover with another towel. Put a cutting board over the tofu and weigh down with a can or two of canned food. This will drain the tofu well to absorb the marinade best.

Mix the marinade ingredients together and pour into a 13x9 dish. Let the tofu marinate for as long as you can – a full 24 hours in the ‘fridge would be great, but at least half an hour.Meanwhile, in a medium pot, toast the rice and quinoa in a bit of canola oil for about 2-3 minutes until you smell a nutty fragrance. Add the water and a pinch of salt, bring to a boil, stir, reduce to a simmer, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Gently sprinkle the succotash on top of the rice and recover pot. Let the succotash steam over the rice, off the heat until ready to use.

After marinating, dredge the tofu slices in the breadcrumbs. If they have dried out after sitting, turn them several times or spray them with a bit of oil – they need to have a sheen to hold the breadcrumbs. Heat about ¼ inch canola or peanut oil in a skillet until shimmering. Brown two tofu slices at a time on each side, just until crispy. Set first slices on a paper towel while cooking second batch.

Fluff the pilaf and serve on plates. Top with a slice of tofu. Serve with a sundried tomato pesto aioli or a remoulade sauce.

Rice with Lamb, Eggplant and Pimenton

1 cup short grain brown rice
1 lb ground lamb
1 sweet potato, diced ¼-inch
1 yellow pepper, diced
1 onion, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 Tbsp pimenton smoked hot paprika

Toast rice in 1 tablespoon canola oil in a small pot, stirring constantly for about 2-3 minutes, until you smell a nutty fragrance. Add water, cover and simmer for 20 minutes as you prepare the remainder of the dish.

In a non-stick skillet, sauté the sweet potato in a bit of olive oil, until browned and just softened, about 10 minutes. Set aside. In the same skillet, sauté the pepper and onion until softened and beginning to brown, about 6-8 minutes. Set aside with potato. In the same skillet, sauté the eggplant until browned. Remove to the bowl. Finally, in same skillet, sauté the lamb, crumbing as you go, until well browned. Remove any accumulated fat. Add the garlic, cumin and pimenton, and cook another 2-3 minutes until the garlic and cumin are fragrant.

When the rice is cooked, return the vegetables to the lamb, fluff the rice and fold gently into the lamb mixture. Transfer to a serving dish and top with minced cilantro.

Super Bowl Nacho Casserole

Making this classic Super Bowl type dish made me a bit queasy, having just finished reading Barbra Kingsolver's Animal Vegetable Miracle - a MUST READ. But I found beautiful VT grass-fed ground beef at a local co-op when visiting family in VT - so I went for it.
2 lb ground beef
1 can black beans, drained
1 can pinto beans, drained
1 can diced tomatoes
2 onions, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 carrot, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 Tbsp pimenton (smoked paprika)
1 Tbsp chili powder
corn tortilla chips
1 lb grated cheddar or Monterrey Jack

Preheat oven to 375F. In a large skillet, brown the beef well, removing any accumulating water as you go to a bowl. Add the cumin, chili powder and pimenton and cook another minute. Remove beef to a bowl. In same skillet, sauté the onion, pepper and carrot in a bit of canola oil, until the veggies are softened and beginning to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 2-3 minutes until fragrant. Return the beef, any liquid removed during sautéing and the tomatoes to the skillet and heat through. Salt and pepper to taste.

Spray a large 9x13 casserole with oil and cover the bottom with a layer of chips. Cover chips with half the meat mixture and half the cheese. Cover the cheese layer with another layer of chips, meat and cheese. Bake for 20-30 minutes until bubbly. Top with spoonfuls of salsa.

Roasted Pasta Primavera Alfredo

½ butternut squash (about 2 cups), cut into matchsticks
3 small carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 leek, cleaned and cut into matchsticks
1 large shallot sliced thinly
4-6 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 large handful small whole green beans, trimmed
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 tsp dried rosemary
salt and pepper to taste

Sauce:
2 Tbsp butter
2 Tbsp olive oil
¼ cup flour
2½ cup milk
½ cup dry white wine
2 tsp Maille Provencal mustard
½ tsp salt
¼ tsp dried dill weed
fresh ground pepper
6 strokes nutmeg on a microplane (about 1/8 tsp)

1 lb whole grain linguini, cut in half
1 can Cannellini beans, rinsed & drained

Preheat oven to 375F. Toss together first 9 ingredients in a bowl and turn out onto one or two jelly roll pans. Don’t crowd the veggies, so that they brown well. Roast in oven for 15-20 minutes, turning once.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil for the pasta. Cook pasta until al-dente, then drain. Prepare sauce in a medium saucepan by frying the flour in the oil and butter for 2-3 minutes, until bubbly and nutty smelling. Whisk in the remaining sauce ingredients and heat until sauce bubbles and thickens. Add the beans, stir, cover and remove from heat.

When veggies, sauce and pasta are cooked, toss the pasta in a large bowl with the sauce. Top with the roasted veggies.

Tofu Veggie Hoisin Stir Fry

1 pkg extra firm tofu
1 red pepper, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 jalapeno pepper, diced
3 cups broccoli, cut into bite-sized pieces
1 cup snow peas
3 cloves garlic, minced
½-inch fresh ginger, minced

Sauce:
2 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 Tbsp soy sauce
¼ cup pale dry sherry
½ tsp chili paste with garlic

1 Tbsp cornstarch
2 Tbsp cold water

While cutting the veggies, drain the tofu and wrap in a clean tea towel. Weigh down with a large can of tomatoes to extract as much moisture as possible. Meanwhile whisk together the sauce ingredients.

Stir fry the tofu in about 2 Tbsp canola oil, shaking often, until starting to brown. Remove to a bowl with a paper towel. Salt to taste. Next in the wok, stir-fry the peppers for about 2 minutes with a bit of canola oil. Add the broccoli and continue stir frying until the broccoli begins to glisten, heat through and soften a bit – about 3 minutes. Add snow peas and stir fry another 2 minutes. Remove veggies to a bowl.

Add a small amount of canola oil to the wok and add the garlic and ginger and cook, stirring constantly for about a minute. Add sauce and heat to bubbling on high heat. In a very small bowl, whisk together the corn starch and water. With brisk stirring, drizzle in a bit of the cornstarch mixture – only enough to just thicken the sauce. Return all the veggies and tofu to the wok and reheat everything through. Serve topped with sesame seeds on steamed short grain brown rice, for example.

Frittata Primavera

8-10 eggs
1/4 cup milk or half-and-half
1 tsp dried dill weed
1 cup shredded cheese
1 shallot, diced

Any leftover veggies you have, such as in this case:
1 cup cooked asparagus spears, cut into 1-inch lengths
6 brined baby artichokes, quartered
2 small cooked potatoes, diced
3 small tomatoes, sliced

Preheat oven to 375F. Whisk together the eggs, milk, dill and cheese together with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste. In a large oven-going non-stick skillet, saute the shallots (with a bit of bacon if you like) until softened. Remove the shallots (and bacon) to a bowl and heat a bit of olive oil in the skillet until just about smoking. Add the eggs, and let set about a minute. Carefully pull in the eggs from each quadrant (noon, 3, 6 and 9 o'clock) to pull in folds of egg towards the center. Let the eggs set again. Continue this pulling-towards-center until you have several level of folds. Then add the veggies, evenly distributed, ending with the tomatoes.

Transfer skillet to oven and bake for about 15 minutes, until eggs are well set. Carefully transfer to a platter for serving.

For another frittata idea see this link.

Cooking with Julia, Ginette, Monique... and Glenn

I know how to cook Coq Au Vin (chicken with wine) because my mother, Monique, taught me by demonstration many, many times in my youth. This was Monique's signature dish, so I needn't reference Julia for instruction. But Monique would often refer to the classic French cookbook of her youth - "Je Sais Cuisiner" by Ginette Mathiot, and I still have her original French version in my cookbook collection.

My French is not good enough to navigate culinary jargon and idioms very well, so I don't refer to Je Sais Cuisiner much at all - until now, that is. It just came out in English and my father-in-law (an old friend of Monique's, by the way) just gave it to me - thanks Pops! I now see that Monique basically prepared Ginette's dish.

So when Glenn, Pam and Claudie came over for the weekend, Glenn and I cross-referenced Julia, Ginette and what Monique had taught me, and we made a great Coq Au Vin dinner. Glenn made his famous Mashed Potatoes with Celery Root and we modified the classic French chicken dish with fresh shitake mushrooms - the only ones Glenn will eat. That was an excellent, tasty modification. And of course fresh oysters a la Glenn (basically naked with lemon...) were fantastic hors d'oeuvres.

Coq Au Vin1/4 lb bacon, diced
2 roasting chickens, cut in pieces
2 leek, cleaned and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
3-4 sprigs fresh thyme
3 cups red wine
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 lb. fresh mushrooms (we used Shitake)
25-30 pearl onions

3 Tbsp flour
2 Tbsp softened butter
1/4 cup Cognac

Cook bacon in a large Dutch Oven pot, until just crispy. Remove to a large bowl and remove all but 1 tablespoon of fat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil and crank heat to high. Brown the chicken pieces in batches of 6-8 pieces at a time, removing to the bowl with the bacon as progressing.

Add the leek to the Dutch Oven (add more oil if necessary) and sweat down until softening. Add the garlic and thyme and cook until garlic is fragrant, about 2-3 minutes. Return the bacon and chicken to the pot and add the wine and tomato paste. Salt and pepper to taste. Bring to a boil and reduce heat to a simmer. Simmer for about 20 minutes.

Meanwhile in separate pans, saute the onions and the mushrooms until just softened, each in a bit of olive oil. After the chicken has cooked 20 minutes, add the mushrooms and onions to the chicken for another 10-15 minutes. Then remove the chicken mixture to a large serving bowl or platter. Add Cognac and carefully flambe.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour and the softened butter and whisk into the sauce in the Dutch Oven. Raise the heat and cook, stirring until thickened. Pour sauce over the chicken in the serving bowl and garnish with parsley.


Glenn's Mashed Potatoes with Celery Root
under construction

Butternut Apple Lentil Bolognese

2 carrots, grated
1 large onion, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
4 cloves garlic
2 cups butternut squash
1 tsp herbes de Provence
1/4 tsp crushed red pepper
1 apple, peeled and diced
1 can crushed tomatoes
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
1 cup red lentils

Sauté the first five ingredients in a bit of olive oil, until the vegetables soften and begin to caramelize – about 10-15 minutes. Add the remaining ingredients, and simmer for about 30-40 minutes, or until the lentils are softened and the sauce is thickened. Adjust consistency with water as needed.
see Look to the Lentil