Cajun squash (or haloumi) with a creme fraiche honey-mint dressing

This one was a bit of an experiment. I ran across a recipe in Phil Vickery's Seriously Good Gluten Free Cooking which was originally for fish. However, the flavor profiles looked really interesting and I decided I needed to figure out a way to "vegetarianize" this recipe.

You could probably do this with a hunk of tofu or something, but I'll be honest - I'm not a big fan of hunks of tofu. My first instinct was to try it with slices of halloumi grilling cheese, which I had seen used instead of fish before. The only problem is that halloumi is pretty fatty and I really wanted to find a way to make this recipe without being too decadent. That's when the butternut squash that was sitting in my fridge came into play.

I decided to make two versions: one with halloumi cheese and one with slices of squash that I had pre-roasted in the oven. Both versions came out nice, but to my surprise the squash was actually nicer: it was sweet and spicy and creamy and delicious. The halloumi has potential, but it came out too salty, so if you try it I would remove the salt from the rub entirely. The only disadvantage to the squash is that it takes more time because of the pre-roasting.

 And now, onwards to the recipe (oh, and if you're wondering, the rice on the side is Trader Joe's excellent chimichurri rice).

Cajun Squash with a Creme Fraiche Honey-Mint Dressing 

 

Ingredients (for 2 portions): 

- 4 rectangular slices of butternut squash, about 1 cm (1/2 inch thick), and about 10-12cm (4-5 inches) long
(or slightly smaller slices of halloumi cheese. If you use the cheese, skip the pre-roasting part).
- 2 tbsp oil, for cooking

For the dressing: 
- about 200 grams (or one small package) creme fraiche
- 2 tbsp very finely chopped fresh  mint
 - 2 tbsp white wine or cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey
- plenty of fresh cracked pepper

For the rub:
- 2 tsp dried thyme or parsley
- 2 tbsp paprika
- 1 tbsp salt (skip if you are using halloumi)
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 1 tbsp cayenne pepper or chili powder
- 1 tbsp dried onion powder
- 1 tbsp dried garlic powder
- 1 tsp fennel seeds
- 1 bay leaf

Preparation: 

1. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Place the slices of squash on a baking tin and brush or spray with olive oil. Bake for about 30 minutes, or until the slices are tender, but not falling apart (i.e., they still keep a square shape and slightly resist a fork or knife stuck into them). If you are using halloumi, skip this step.

2. Prepare the dressing: place all of the dressing ingredients into a bowl or jug about mix well with a fork.

3. Prepare the rub: put all of the ingredients into a spice grinder, coffee grinder, small food processor or mortar and pestle and grind them all together (if you have none of the above, just crush the fennel seeds and bay leaf and mix all the seasonings together). Pour the rub onto a plate.

4. Heat the oil in a pan. Dip each piece of squash (or cheese) in the spice rub so that it is lightly dusted but not thickly coated with the seasoning. Place the squash in the oil and cook for a minute or two on each side, so that the seasoning becomes a golden-brown and the squash looks "grilled".

5. Plate 2 slices of squash or cheese per person, and douse with a generous helping of the dressing. Serve with rice or other side of your choice.

Lentil and Corn Shepherd's Pie

Lately I've really been into lentils. Lentils are great because unlike other legumes they don't require long soaking in water or a long cooking time. You can just pop them in a pot with water and in about 20-30 minutes, they're ready.

In this recipe, lentils are used an alternative to ground beef, in a somewhat unconventional version of the British classic. I based my recipe roughly on this one.

Make sure you season this well, because both potatoes and lentils can be a bit bland when under-seasoned.

Lentil and Corn Shepherd's Pie

Ingredients (for 4 portions): 

- 1 cup of uncooked brown/green lentils (by this I just mean regular lentils - but not red ones)
- 2-3 large potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks (2 if you don't like a lot of mash, 3 if you do)
-1-2 tbsp olive oil
- 1 medium onion, finely diced
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced or finely diced
- 2 tbsp corn starch or flour
- 1 cup vegetable stock
- about 300 grams (10 oz) of frozen or canned corn kernels
- A few tablespoons of milk (or milk alternative)
- Two handfuls of shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
- seasoning: salt, pepper, chili powder, or whatever seasoning you prefer.

Preparation: 

1. Put the lentils and enough water to cover them plus a bit extra in a small pot. Season with salt and cook on medium-low heat, until the lentils are tender but not mushy (they can still have a bit of a bite to them). In the meantime also put the potatoes in a large pot, cover with plenty of water, season with salt, and cook until the potatoes are soft enough to mash. The potatoes will probably need to cook about until you finish the rest of the recipe. The lentils will take a little less.

2. When the lentils are ready, drain them if there is any excess water (if not, just leave them be). In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil and then cook the onion and garlic until they are softened, about 2 minutes. Add the cornstarch and stir to coat the onions. Add the broth, the lentils and the corn. Season well so that the mixture is to your taste. Spoon the mixture into an oven-safe glass or ceramic pan, medium sized (9X14 inches is good, but any other decent size will work). Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C.

3. Drain the potatoes and return them to the pot or place them in a bowl. Using a wooden spoon, a fork or a handheld blender, mash the potatoes into a mash with slightly chunky consistency. Stir in the milk until the mash is slightly looser and creamier. You can also stir in the cheese if you are using it.

4. Spoon large spoonfuls of the mashed potatoes directly on top of the lentil mixture and spread it around so that the lentils are covered. However, leave a few small holes to allow steam to escape during baking. Place the pie in the oven for about 45 minutes. If you want the potatoes to be a bit crispier and golden-brown, you can put the pie under a broiler for another minute or two at the end.



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Triple chocolate, coffee and coconut cookies

Major snow storms tend to evoke in me an uncontrollable desire for making cookies.
Usually I just make plain chocolate chip, but with two snow storms hitting us in two weeks, I decided to try something different.

I started out with a recipe for chocolate chocolate chip cookies from Luscious Chocolate Desserts, but  a shortage of certain ingredients and a foot of unploughed snow outside gave me the opportunity to be inventive.
The result was a cookie dough made with dark and milk chocolate (you can use just dark if you prefer), with a hint of coffee for richness, dotted with white chocolate chips and coconut flakes. They were quite luscious indeed.

Note: because they have so little flour, you can easily replace the flour with an all purpose GF flour (I used King Arthur's GF flour). They will still come out delicious.

Triple chocolate, coffee and coconut cookies

Ingredients (for about 15 large cookies, or more smaller ones): 

- 3.5 oz (about 100 grams) dark chocolate, chopped (or dark chocolate chips) [you can also use 7 oz of dark chocolate and leave out the milk).

- 3.5 oz (about 100 grams) milk chocolate, chopped (or milk chocolate chips)

- 3 tablespoons (about 45 grams) butter 

- 1 tsp instant coffee or espresso powder

- 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 

- 2 large eggs

- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract

- 1/3 cup all purpose flour (GF also works) 

- 1/4 tsp baking powder

- pinch of salt 

- 1 cup shredded coconut (Sweetened or unsweetened, your choice) 

- 3 ounces white chocolate chips (or chopped white chocolate) 

Preparation: 

1. preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper or butter them well. 

2. Melt the dark and milk chocolate with the butter and coffee. You can either do this the old fashioned way, by placing them in a heat proof bowl over a  pot with an inch or two of simmering water, or you can use a microwave: put them all in a microwave safe bowl and run for 1 minute. Then stir well. If the chocolate isn't melted, put the container back into the microwave for 30 seconds, then stir again. Continue heating the chocolate in 30 second increments, stirring after each heating cycle, until the chocolate is fully melted. 

3. Using an electric mixer on medium speed, beat together the sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth.. Add the chocolate mixture and either whisk it in by hand or using the mixer. Sift the flour, baking powder and salt over the mixture and continue whisking until blended. Using a spoon, make sure that the flour is fully incorporated in the mixture. Then stir in (using a spoon, not a mixer!) the white chocolate chips and the coconut. Make sure the add-ins are evenly distributed throughout the batter. 

4. Drop the batter in large dollops on the baking tins. You want to leave quite a bit of space between each cookie, as they will expand. If you want to make large cookies (which is what this recipe produces), you want about a scant 1/4 cup of batter per cookie, and you want about 8 cookies on one tin and 6-7 on the other. 

5. Place one of the baking tins in the oven at a time and bake for ten minutes or so, until the cookies have a dull finish and look more or less firm. Remove from the oven and allow to cool and harden before eating. 

Update: TVP bolognese

Earlier in this blog I posted a recipe for vegetarian bolognese sauce.
In that post I mentioned that I would experiment with making the sauce with TVP  (a soy based meat replacement) and report back.

I made the sauce yesterday using Bob Red Mill's TVP, which is both vegan and gluten free. I placed 1 cup of dry TVP into a bowl, then added 1 cup of boiling water. Because TVP can be a little bland, I seasoned it with 2 tsp of vegetarian organic bullion powder (but you can choose other seasoning). I then left it to soak for about 10 minutes.

When making the sauce, I fried a bit of onion and garlic in oil and then added the TVP and a few dashes of Tamari sauce (soy sauce will work as well), and then prepared the rest of the recipe as I posted it.

I found the TVP had a satisfying texture and although it needed a bit of help with the seasoning, was also quite tasty. So if you're looking for another meat alternative in this sauce, TVP may well do the trick.

Butternut Squash and Spinach Risotto

I had leftover squash from last week's pasta recipe, so I started looking around for a recipe for butternut squash risotto that wouldn't be too predictable. I finally combined several online recipes, using this one from Epicurious  as my base, to come up with this version.

In the past when making risotto it always came out lovely, but always took much more liquid and much more time to cook than what was listed in the recipe. This time I made the recipe in a wide, flat pan (see the picture) instead of my usual medium pot and this appears to have solved the problem.

Butternut Squash and Spinach Risotto 

Ingredients (for 2 large portions, or 3-4 smaller ones): 
- about 1/2 pound (250 grams) peeled butternut squash, cut into small chunks.
- A few teaspoons of olive oil, or olive oil spray
- 4 cups of vegetable broth
- 1 small onion, finely diced
- 1 tbsp (15 grams) butter
- 3/4 cup risotto rice (arborio)
- 1 clove of garlic, minced
- handful of parsley, finely chopped
- several large handfuls of spinach leaves or baby spinach
- 1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (optional) 
- For seasoning - salt, pepper, cumin.

Preparation: 

1. Heat oven to 400 F/200 C. Place the diced squash pieces in a baking tin, and toss in olive oil, salt and pepper (I used an oil sprayer to spray a thin coat of oil on the pieces). Roast the squash in the oven for about 30-40 minutes, or until the pieces are tender, but not falling apart.

2. When the squash is just about ready, bring the broth to a light simmer in a medium pot.  In a wide pan such as the one in the picture, melt the butter over medium heat, and add the onion, cooking until it softens. Add the garlic, parsley and rice and cook, stirring, for 3 minutes.

3. Ladle in about 1/2 cup of broth and cook at a simmer, stirring frequently, until the broth has been thoroughly absorbed into the rice. Continue doing this until the rice is tender but still with a little bite to it and the mixture is creamy looking.

4. Stir in the squash and cheese and season with salt, pepper and cumin to taste. Pile the spinach on the risotto and continue cooking while stirring until the spinach completely wilts into the dish.

Enjoy!

Chocolate-filled Meringue Kisses

These cocoa-meringue kisses are filled with a luscious chocolate ganache filling and make for a wonderful treat.

If you are new to baking this recipe might appear daunting because of the use of pastry bags and piping. However, I suggest you give it a try anyway. Although these kisses look lovely when they are perfectly piped from a bag, they taste just as delicious if they come out a little funny-looking. If you don't want to mess with pastry bags, you can even just dollop them with a spoon. Once they are baked, they look quite nice even when they didn't start out perfectly shaped.

I first got this recipe at a chocolate workshop hosted by 4chef.

Chocolate-filled Meringue Kisses

Ingredients: 

- 100 grams of egg whites (for me this added up to about 4 egg whites) 

- 100 grams of superfine sugar (if you can't get superfine sugar, simply run regular white sugar through a food processor to make it finer). 

- 100 grams confectioners sugar

- 15 grams of high quality unsweetened cocoa powder 

- 125 ml heavy cream

- 125 grams of semi-sweet chocolate 

Preparation: 

1. Bring the heavy cream just to a boil in a saucepan, and pour over the chocolate. Stir to melt the chocolate until you have a uniform mixture, then chill in the refrigerator until the mixture is quite solid. 

2. Using an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until they begin to foam, then slowly add the superfine sugar. Keep beating until you get a very stiff foam that has a slight silvery sheen to it. 

3. Sift the cocoa powder and confectioners sugar onto the foam and very gently fold into the foam until you get a uniform, lightly cocoa-colored mixture. 

4. Heat an oven to very low heat (100 C/200 F) . If you use a pastry bag, transfer the mixture to a pastry bag. Line a baking tin with parchment paper and pipe circles of foam onto the tin. These will serve as the bottoms of the kisses. If you don't want to use a pastry bag, just dollop a bit of foam onto the tin and flatten it to make a sort of circle.  

5. Top each "bottom" with a small dollop of the chocolate ganache filling. Then pipe or dollop a meringue "cover" above each bottom so that the chocolate is completely covered, and the "kisses" look more or less like what you see in the picture. 

6. Bake the kisses in the oven for about 2-2.5 hours, until they easily come apart from the baking parchment. Do not open the oven during the first hour of baking. 

7. The kisses are wonderful when served warm, with the chocolate slightly melted inside, but they are also delicious a few days later, so you can keep them in an airtight container. 

Pasta with butternut squash and apples

This recipe is all mine. I had some butternut squash and felt like pasta but decided to try putting together something a little more exciting than the usual squash and sage. I was reminded of the barefoot contessa's wonderful butternut squash and apple soup and decided that if it works in soup it may well also work in pasta.

So here is the result - a slightly sweet, delicious and somewhat different pasta sauce.

Pasta with Butternut Squash and Apples

Ingredients (for 2 generous portions): 

- 1 lbs (500 grams) peeled butternut squash (you can start with a 1.5 pound squash, or buy already peeled squash). 

- 2 medium granny smith apples

- 5-6 leaves of fresh sage, chopped 

- 1 tbsp butter

- 1-2 tbsp pure maple syrup

- seasoning: salt, pepper, chili powder

- freshly grated Parmesan

- 1/2 pound (250 grams) dried pasta

Preparation: 

1. Dice the squash and the apple into small cubes. Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. Put a large pot of water on the boil for the pasta. 

2. In a large oven-safe skillet melt the butter on medium heat. Add the squash, apples and sage and season well with salt and pepper. When the Squash and apples begin to cook and "sweat", add the maple syrup and stir. 

3. Place the skillet in the oven and bake until the squash is tender but not falling apart, about 10 minutes. 

4. Take the skillet out of the oven (careful! the handle will likely be hot!) and put back on medium-low heat. Cook the pasta according to instructions until it is al-dente. Meanwhile, check the seasoning on the sauce. Add a little bit of chili powder and if the sauce is too sweet also add a bit more salt and pepper. If the sauce feels a little too dry for your taste, add a little bit of vegetable stock or some of the pasta cooking water.

5. Add the drained pasta to the skillet and toss (tongs are helpful for this) until the squash and apples are evenly distributed throughout the pasta. Top with plenty of grated Parmesan.

Paneer Tikka Masala

Paneer is an Indian hard cheese which is cooked or fried and used to make a variety of vegetarian dishes (at this point you may have realized that we made Indian food this week).

In the US you can buy ready made paneer at Whole Foods and other specialty stores. However, if you can't get your hands on paneer, you can also use extra firm tofu, or make the simple version of homemade paneer that I will post at the bottom of this recipe.

The original recipe is from Indian Home Cooking, which is a good cookbook because it offers versions of Indian food that can be easily made in the American kitchen. However, the original is for chicken tikka masala. I modified it to work with paneer.

Paneer Tikka Masala 

Ingredients (for 3-4 portions): 

For the marinade: 

- 2 garlic cloves

- a 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped

- 1/2 small onion, coarsely chopped 

- 1/4 tsp chili powder 

- 1/4 tsp garam masala

- 2 tbsp plain yogurt

- 4-5 stems of cilantro, finely chopped (optional) 

For the recipe:

 - 1 package paneer (about 250 grams), cubed (or tofu)

- 1/2 large red onion, cut into large chunks

- 2 garlic cloves

- a 1 inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and cut into large chunks

- a few tablespoons of canola oil or ghee (Indian purified butter) 

- a small (1 inch) piece of a cinnamon stick

-  1/2 tsp salt or to taste

- 1/2 tbsp ground coriander

- 1/2 tsp ground cumin

- 1/4 tsp turmeric

- 1/4 tsp chili powder

- 1 large can of crushed tomatoes 

- 1/4 cup heavy cream 

Preparation: 

1. Place all of the marinade ingredients in a food processor and puree. Toss the paneer cubes in the marinade and set aside. (The original recipe calls for marinading the meat for a long time, but with paneer or tofu it can just sit for a bit to get flavor).Preheat oven to 350 F/180 C. 

2. Puree the onion, garlic and ginger in a food processor and set aside. 

3. Combine the oil (or ghee) and the cinnamon stick in a large saucepan over medium high heat. Cook, stirring, until the cinnamon stick begins to unfurl (1-2 minutes). Add the onion puree and salt and cook, stirring, until the onion turns a light golden brown. If the onion begins to stick and burn instead of browning, add a teaspoon or two of water to the pan and keep stirring. 

4. Add the coriander, cumin, turmeric and chili powder and cook, stirring, 1 minute. Add the crushed tomatoes, give the sauce a stir, and simmer for about 10 minutes. Add the cream, stir well, bring to a simmer and remove sauce from heat. 

5. Spread the marinated paneer or tofu cubes on a lightly greased baking tin and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. The bottom side of the paneer should be golden. 

6. Add the baked paneer into the sauce, stir well, and warm over medium heat for a few minutes, until heated through. Serve with rice and/or Indian bread. 

To make simple homemade paneer: 

 - 1 pound (about 500 grams) whole-milk ricotta cheese

1.  Preheat oven to 450 F/ 230 C. Spread the ricotta evenly in a bread pan and bake until the cheese is lightly browned on top and firm, but not dry, about 40 minutes. Let cool (it will firm as it cools).

 

Besan Chilla (Spiced Indian chickpea bread)

Besan chilla (or besan ka chilla) is a lovely Indian flatbread laced with onions, chili pepper and cilantro.
It is a wonderful accompaniment to any Indian meal and is very easy to make.

Because the only flour used is chickpea (garbanzo) flour, this bread is also a great gluten free alternative to naan, chapati or roti in an Indian meal.

This is a slightly simplified version of this recipe.

Besan Chilla 

I

Ingredients (for about 8 large pieces of bread): 

- 2 cups of chickpea (garbanzo) flour

-  1 large onion, very finely chopped 

- 1 green chili, very finely chopped 

- 1 bunch of cilantro leaves, very finely chopped 

- 1 tsp black pepper 

- 1/2 tsp red chili powder

- 1 tsp garam masala 

- 1 tsp ground coriander seeds 

-  salt, to taste

- 1- 1.5 cups of water 

- oil for cooking 

 Preparation: 

1. Place all of the ingredients except for the water and the oil into a bowl and stir well. 

2. Start adding a little water and mixing, adding more water until to you have a batter of the appropriate consistency. The batter should be quite thin, like crepe batter (thinner than pancake batter). 

3. Oil a large pan or griddle and heat. When it is heated, pour a ladle of batter and spread it around to make a fairly thin crepe. When it starts to look golden-brown and crunchy on the sides (this will happen quite quickly), oil the top of the "crepe" a little and flip it over. Cook for another minute or so until it also looks quite golden on the other side. Continue doing this with the rest of the batter. 

Small tip: I recommend tasting a little bit of your first besan chilla, to make sure that the seasoning is correct. I felt I had to add more salt after the first one. 

Enjoy!