Fakes Soupa, Eggplant "Confit", Butternut Casserole

Fakes Soupa
No, not "fake" soup!   It's pronounced "fa-kehs" and it's a Greek lentil soup.  Sally's been on a kick lately of wanting more fiber in our diet, and lentils are really high on the list.  A serving of this soup is about 1/5 of your RDA for fiber.  Besides, we like the taste of lentils. 

Makes 4-5 servings:

4-1/2 cups water or vegetable broth
8 oz. Lentils
1 lb Tomatoes, diced/chopped  
1 stem Celery, chopped
1 medium Carrot, diced
2 Bay Leaves
2-4 cloves Garlic, minced
1 Onion, diced
1 Tbsp Cavender'stm Greek Seasoning
1/8 cup EVOO
Vinegar or lemon juice to taste as a top dressing (optional)

In a splash of EVOO, cook the tomatoes, celery, onion and carrot with the herbs and spices, until starting to soften.  Add the water and when it boils reduce heat to simmer and add remaining EVOO and the lentils.  Remove the bay leaves and adjust the seasoning.  Simmer 30-45 minutes until the lentils are just softening.

Drizzle each bowl with vinegar or lemon juice to taste, and serve with crusty bread.

Eggplant "Confit"
My culinary friend and cookbook author Faye Levy posted a question this week about favorite eggplant recipes.   Here's a dish I first presented 'way back in 2016.  Seems like a lifetime ago.  It's not really confit because it's not smothered in oil the way duck confit is.  Plus, we're not making it as a way to preserve things.  But it's a low,  slow cook in a bit of EVOO plus the juices of the veg.  Serve with rice, or quinoa, or a mix of the two like I did.

2 large Japanese Eggplant sliced into 1/2" rounds
1 stick Celery chopped
1/2 medium Onion, chopped
4 clove Garlic, chopped
1/2 cup chopped packed fresh Spinach
1/2 cup chopped packed fresh Basil
24 Cherry Tomatoes, halved
1 tsp Cavender's Greek Seasoningtm
1/8 cup EVOO

Saute the onion, garlic and celery in about half of the EVOO, while you slice the eggplant.  Toss in the eggplant and spice, and drizzle with the rest of the oil, cover, and cook for about 30 minutes at 220-225F.  Add half of the tomatoes and leafy greens and continue slow cooking (covered) for another 20 minutes or so while you cook the rice.  

In the last few minutes add the remaining tomatoes and heat through.  Plate and serve.

Cavender's
Well, it's not quite "Greek Week" here in my kilted kitchen, but "two out of three ain't bad" as the sadly deceased Meatloaf sang!

Anyway... for those of you who don't know it, here's Cavender's Greek Seasoning.  There's also a salt-free version for those who watch their sodium intake.   Put some of this in a pound of ground pork as you fry it up for a pretty decent imitation gyro meat.  Add it to soups, stews, dishes like those above.  Even put it on your popcorn!    

What's in it, you ask?   Label says:  salt, black pepper, garlic, oregano, flavor base (whatever that is), onion powder, and five other spices.  Gotta love secret herbs and spices!


Butternut Casserole 
This is my riff on a FOK recipe for a Sweet Potato Casserole.  Features a mushroom dressing anda savory vegan cream sauce.  Makes four servings in  a 9x9 casserole dish.

                                              
Butternut
1 medium Squash

Peel and seed.  Cut into 1/2" rounds. Par cook in the microwave or steamer until fork tender,

Sauce
1/4 cup raw Cashews
3/4 cup "plant milk" -- I used plain Almond Milk/Creamer
1/2 cup Nutritional Yeast
1/8 cup  Oat Flour -- grind your own from dry oatmeal
1/8 cup Lemon Juice -  fresh squeezed is always best
pinch of Salt &  Black Pepper

Soak the cashews in boiling water for 15 minutes.  Drain, reserving 1/4 cup water.  Take the reserved water and everything else for a spin in your food processor until you get a nice smooth sauce.

Dressing
1/2 Red Onion, diced
8 oz Mushrooms,  diced
2-3 cloves Garlic, minced
2 tsp dried Thyme
2 tsp dried Rosemary
1 Tbsp Vinegar -- red wine, malt or balsamic
1/2 cup Breadcrumbs -- I used Panko
1/4 cup dried Cranberries

Saute the onion, mushrooms and garlic in a splash of oil.  Add the spices and vinegar and cook for another 5 minutes.  Remove from heat and toss with the breadcrumbs and cranberries.

Assembly
Lay down a splash of sauce in your 9x9 baking dish.  Add a layer of squash. 

 Top with about half the dressing, then more sauce.  Repeat.  Save some sauce to drizzle on the plated casserole.

Pre-heat oven to 400F and bake the casserole 25-30 minutes.

                                   

Asparagus Pesto, Nasubi, Cabbage Rolls Two Ways, "Fried" cauliflowerRice with Pineapple, Collard Pickle Update

 Simple Asparagus Pesto
This is the perfect thing to make with those "too tough to eat" stem-ends from the asparagus you buy.  Don't throw the stems away, stow them in a zip top bag in the freezer until you have enough to make this fabulous sauce!

1 lb Asparagus stems -- from about 2 bundles
2+ cloves garlic
1/4 cup Toasted Pine Nuts
+/- 1/2 cup EVOO
1/2 cup Parmesan (the cheap canned stuff is perfect here)
1+  Tbsp Lemon Juice, to taste
a pinch of salt

Microwave the stems (with a splash of water) for 3-5 minutes until tender.  Cool.  Put everything but the EVOO in the food processor and start pulsing.  Gradually add the EVOO until you get a consistancy you like.  Store in a screw-top jar in the fridge for up to a month.

I like to use this as a base for asparagus and other savory tarts rather alfredo sauce, blue cheese dressing, or a tomato based sauce.   Also a good base for Avocado Toast, simply  tossed with hot pasta or as a cracker dip.

Glazed Nasubi (Japanese Eggplant)
Tis the season when we get those wonderful, long slender Japanese eggplant from the Farmer's Market.  They tend to be sweeter and less seedy than the large pear-shaped aubergines.  This simple dish Japanese dish is one of my favorites for these tasty veg.

Nasubi, sliced into ½" thick rounds
12-18 Cherry Tomatoes, halved (or diced tomatoes)
2 Tbsp Soy Sauce
2 Tbsp Mirin, Sake, or White Wine
2 Tbsp Brown Sugar
1 Tbsp minced Fresh or Crystallized Ginger
Udon or Soba Noodles, or Rice, cooked

In a small pan bring the liquids, sugar and ginger to a simmer and stir until the sugar is dissolved. Reserve.

In a skillet over medium high heat, cook the eggplant rounds in a splash of vegetable oil for 3-5 minutes until just starting to soften. Add the tomatoes and toss to combine. Cook for a minute or two longer. Add the glazing sauce and toss to coat.

Serve alongside udon or soba noodles, or rice.  I used fettuchini sized rice noodles.

Cabbage Rolls
Got a nice head of cabbage the other day as a Farm Freebie from the SW Florida Produce Co-op, and needed something to do with it.  I don't make cabbage rolls often because they're a pain.  But I found a simple way to get the soft cabbage leaves which made things a lot easier.  

Filling:  I had a lot of crumbles left from making black bean rissoles, so I made a pot of rice and combined the two with herbs, spices and and egg for binding.  

Sauce:  I got a large box of yellow cherry tomatoes at the Farmers Market (Sally prefers them for their low-acid).  Pureed the tomatoes, along with some onion and a bit of celery.  And spices, of course, including caraway seed.  Then I cooked the puree down to thicken it up.  If tyhat's too much work, just buy a jar of chunky pasta sauce; but this will taste much better!

Cabbage:  Here's the trick.  Cut the core out of the bottom of the cabbage.  Set it, core side down in a larg-ish bowl and pour in 1/2" of water (or broth).  Cover and microwave on high for about 10 minutes.  Turn the head over and microwave another 10 minutes.  Cool enough that you don't burn yourself, and start pulling the leaves off

Fill and roll the leaves and place seam side down in a baking dish.  When the dish is full, top with the tomato sauce and bake at 350F for one hour.   

 

Three rolls makes a good serving with some sort of side dish.  I had made a fresh loaf of Foccacia -- as a loaf in a pan, not a round.  And, I used half AP and half Whole Wheat flour!  Turned out fabulous!! 

De-constructed Cabbage Rolls

So I had a lot of filling and cabbage leftover (it happens), and no sauce..  Spooned the filling into a baking dish, topped with sliced tomatoes, and baked it for about 30 minutes @ 400F.  Tasty with a splash of BBQ sauce or Lizanotm.

Fried cauliflowerRice with Pineapple
Yes, riced cauliflower is still a "thing".  Still tasty too, with the right preparation.  Like this take on "fried" rice.  Use whatever veggies you like; here's what I had.  The "trick" is adding diced pineapple and it's really good!

10-12 oz bag Riced Cauliflower (or make your own)
1/4 cup water or Japanese broth
1+ cup diced Bell Pepper
1+ cup diced Carrot
1+ cup diced Green Beans
1+ cup diced Onion
1/4 cup Soy Sauce

1+ cups diced Pineapple
3-4 cloves chopped Garlic

Bring the water or broth to a boil in your skillet.  Add the garlic and onion and simmer for a few minutes until things start to soften.  Add the other diced veg and continue cooking.  Now add the riced cauliflower and cook for only a minute or two.  Lastly,  add the pineapple.  Cook only long enough to heat it through, and serve.

Collard Pickle Update

Two weeks in the fridge and I just had to taste,  Wow!  Garlicky and tart, crunchy and juicy.  Everything I want in a pickle!   Try 'em, you'll like 'em.

New Year, New Beginnings, Eggplant "Taquitos", Egg Substitute, Healthy B-Split

Collard Greens Hack!
Not yer Mamaws collards!   Collard greens with blackeyed peas is a traditional southern New Years dish.  But the sulphurous smell of cooking collards puts a lot of people off.  

To prevent stinking up the whole house, collards have to be cooked differently from the way Mamaw (or Paula Deen) stewed them for hours!   I got a huge bundle of Co-Op Collards to make collards and blackeyed peas for New Years, and here's what I did.

Trim the leaves away from the massive central stems. Roll and slic ethe leaves into 1" strips for quicker cooking. Chop the stems into 1-2" pieces and reserve for pickled collard stems (see below).

Put a huge wad of chopped collards in a large microwave-safe bowl, add 1/4 cup of water and toss. Microwave on high for 4-5 minutes until the leaves are about half wilted. Repeat if you need more greens.

Now make up your 'pot likker' -- broth, ham hocks, chopped tomato, diced onion, herbs and spices, and bring to a boil.  I used liquid smoke rather than having smoked pork in the likker.

Add the par-cooked collards, put the lid on the pot, reduce the heat to low, and simmer the greens in the liquid for about 15 minutes to finish wilting them and letting them absorb the likker flavors. Remove the lid part way through cooking if you want to reduce the pot likker a bit.

Plate and serve with blackeyed peas and cornbread for a real Southern supper.

No more sulphur smell!!! The collards are done but not mushy!

Pickled Collard Stems
...or almost anything, really -- green beans, broccoli stem slices, etc.

Chop your soon-to-be-pickles into bite sized pieces, wash them and drain. Pack them into a screw-top jar, all the way to the top and beyond so they have to be pushed down to tighten the lid.

Vinegar. White, balsamic, wine, apple cider, malt, whatever you've got. I like a blend of all of them... Pour in your vinegar(s) to completely cover the veg in th jar.

Pour the vinegar out (through a strainer, directly into a pot on the stovetop.

While you bring the vinegar(s) to a boil, add your spices and herbs to the jar of veg - about 1 Tbsp of herbs/spices per cup of veg.

What spices & herbs?  The shy's the limit!  Whole peppercorns, seeds like fenugreek, mustard, dill, cumin, coriander, celery, star anise, cardamom, etc. Ground dried herbs like red pepper flakes, chopped garlic, dried onion, bay leaf, cumin, rosemary, and more. Can't decide? Just use a pre-packaged "pickling spice".

When the vinegar comes to a boil, pour it over the jarred veg and spices, all the way to the top, and tighten the lid down. Let the jar set out until the contents come to room temperature, before storing in the fridge.

Wait at least 2 weeks before trying your new pickles. They'll last in the fridge for up to six months.

Eggplant Taquitos 
My Italian food photographer friend Luciano Furia, of Naples, Italy, posted a photo of a family eggplant-spagetti dish he called involtini di spaghettini in melanzane. Basically sort of spaghetti-eggplant tacos, with fork rolls of cooked, sauced spagetti as the filling, and baked or friend rounds of eggplant as the taco shell. This inspired me to create these cheese-filled eggplant taquito rolls on a bed of spaghetti.
Cook up a batch of spaghetti big enough to lay down a bed in a 9x13 baking dish, and make a nice hearty vegetable filled "gravy" to coat them with (or use a chunky commercial pasta sauce. 

Reserve leftover sauce for topping.

Slice a 2-3 large eggplants lengthwise, about 1/4" thin.  Spritz them with EVOO and broil just a few minutes to soften them so they can be easily rolled up.  You'll want 16-20 good slices. 

Open a package of mozzarella string cheese sticks and slice them in half lengthwise, for the filling.

Roll an eggplant slice around a half cheese stick and place it seam-side-down on the bed of spaghetti.  Repeat until all the cheese sticks and eggplant slices are used.   

Spoon any remaining sauce around the taquitos.   Top with shredded mozzarella or a good Mexican melting cheese.  Bake at 400F for about 30 minutes. 

Plate and serve.

Apple Sauce/Egg Swap!
So there I was, everything laid out and triaging my ingredients to make our regular Friday fried cod supper, when I realized I did not have an egg to dredge the fish in before breading.  I knew that the cornmeal would not stick properly to the fish by itself, or make a decent crust.  What to do??

Luckily the Internet was just a couple clicks away; and after a brief search I discovered that -- in this situation and others -- you can substitute apple sauce for the egg!! 

Why in the world I had apple sauce but no eggs, I haven't a clue!   But dang if it didn't work.

I patted the filets dry, then brushed them with apple sauce before dredging in the cornmeal.  Trust me, you aren't going to 'dredge' fish filets in a pool of apple sauce!   Here's the result.  The taste was not "apple-y" but there was just a touch of sweetness.

Healthy Banana Split
This has become one of Sally's favorite fruit desserts.  A banana, a big dollop of Siggi'stm Skyr yogurt, a drizzle of local honey and a sprinkle of shaved almonds.