She Spills The Beans

Vegan Zucchini, Tomato & Onion Gratin

“Do you like zucchini?” my co-worker asked, peeking into my office.

“Of course!” I said.

She put the two globe zucchini she was carrying down on my desk.

“Are these from your mom’s garden?”

“Yes…”

“Oh, they’re still warm!”

“She just picked them.”

“Thank you!”

I had to keep working, of course, but looking at the two of them sitting there, I couldn’t help but think about what to do with them. Later in the afternoon I popped out to her desk.

“How about a zucchini and tomato gratin? How does that sound? It’s pretty standard, but I think it’d still be good.”

“That sounds great. Do you need more?”

“Oh, no. I’ll just make a small one to start. I have a red onion – maybe with some onion too?”

She nodded in agreement. I nodded back.

Since today was Wednesday, I stopped by the farmer’s market to get tomatoes. I grabbed four of an heirloom type called Black Russian and headed home to do the assembly.

Well, the two zucchini and the four tomatoes was enough to make a 9x13 pan worth, and I think I could have spread the vegetables out on a jelly roll pan and done just as well. This may not be a true gratin – no breadcrumbs, no cheese – but the idea is there. If I did this again, I might add a couple cloves of finely minced garlic to the cornmeal mixture.

Escarole Gratin

I had already washed the escarole from our first CSA box and cut it in quarters. I was searing it in olive oil, one quarter at a time, when Chimp walked into the kitchen.

“Oh man,” he whined in mock exasperation. “Not burned lettuce for dinner again!”

“Burned endive, my dear. Escarole is an endive, not a lettuce.”

At our house, escarole most often ends up paired with white beans, olive oil, and lemon juice in a brothy soup. Liquid helps mediate its slight bitterness somewhat. I was in a different sort of mood today, though, and was thinking about how I could execute a gratin mostly in line with the Eat Local Challenge.

I knew I was going to brown one of my onions from K.M.K. Farms and make that part of the topping. I had Dry Jack cheese from Vella Cheese Co. in Sonoma in the fridge, and I knew that would go in. (Three Sisters Serena, from just south of Visalia, about an hour away, would have been much more local, but the wheel on offer at WFM wasn’t in the shape I wanted it to be. As a former cheesemonger, I’m terribly, terribly picky when it comes to the condition of my cheese. That tends to happen when you have 200 cheeses in front of you every day for five years and can eat each one at its peak.)

With the cheese figured, I also had cream, which would help add richness and moisture. Breadcrumbs are the traditional gratin topping, but I wasn’t in the mood for even a small amount of wheat, and there’s certainly nothing local about it.

I pulled a bag of walnuts out of the pantry. Chopped, they would add a crunch like breadcrumbs would, and though I bought these particular walnuts before I started the Challenge, there are plenty grown around here - I even know a couple local walnut growers.

Endive gratins I’ve undertaken a couple times before. I can remember a tomato-and-cheese topped one that I made probably ten years ago now. Escarole works better, though, in my opinion; because the ribs are thinner, it cooks more quickly and evenly.

The real evaluation is this, I suppose: there was none left within an hour of it coming out of the oven.

Braised Fennel Gratin

I found this recipe online. I went looking for a fennel recipe and found this one authored by chef Brandon Chase Miller of the restaurant Stokes Adobe in Monterey. It was on the Earthbound Farms website, but here’s the restaurant website:

http://www.stokesrestaurant.com

Having been to this restaurant while on business travel during the winter – I had a fried green tomato sandwich that was out of this world, among other well-treated vegetable things – I figured his recipe would be worth a try. I was correct. It is very good, if you don’t mind the multi-step process it requires. I’ve changed one thing for ease of operations – I trimmed the v-notch out of the root after boiling to prevent any coming-apart problems.

This recipe requires you to make seasoned flour – that just means to add a liberal seasoning of salt and pepper to a small pile of flour. It’s the same thing you’d do if you were making fried chicken.

Ingredients:

4 fennel bulbs
1 T. lemon juice
salt and pepper
flour
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/4 t. nutmeg

Preheat oven to 375°

Add lemon juice to 2 quarts of water and bring to a boil. Salt generously. Cut off fennel stalks and discard. Cut fennel bulbs lengthwise through the root, leaving flat sides. Cook fennel halves until tender (about 6 minutes). Drain. Cut a v-notch out of the root, leaving enough to hold it together. Then season between the layers of the bulbs with salt and pepper. While the fennel is still hot and slightly wet, roll them in seasoned flour. Heat vegetable oil in shallow fry pan over medium to medium-high heat and fry fennel until brown on both sides. Arrange fennel in gratin dish. Pour cream over and sprinkle with nutmeg. Bake for 25 minutes covered, then uncover and bake for 10 more minutes. Serve at once.

Potato, Celeriac, & Spinach Gratin

This follows much the same principle as the mac & cheese I put up back in October. The sauce is really almost entirely the same – you just do it with potatoes instead of pasta. Here is an opportunity to get to know celeriac, if you are not familiar with it, in an easy-to-handle format. I really like celeriac, but it is strong – a whole dish of it alone is usually too much for the uninitiated.

Preheat the oven to 375.

2 c. milk (I use skim or lowfat and it works fine either way)
1/4 yellow onion, peeled, stuck with two cloves and a bay leaf
2.5 lbs baking potatoes, peeled and sliced about a 1/4 in. thick
1 celeriac peeled (cut the ends flat, then set it on your cutting board and cut the skin off using a knife. If you try to use a vegetable peeler on it, you’ll just end up with a mess & a high level of frustration) and halved top to bottom, then cut in 1/4 in. slices

Place the milk, onion, potatoes, and celeriac in a deep saucepan and bring to a gentle simmer. Simmer for 10 minutes, then remove from heat. Remove the potatoes with a slotted spoon and place in an 8x8 or slightly larger casserole dish. Season with salt and pepper. Remove the onion from the milk and reserve, but discard the attached seasonings. Chop the onion into long, thin slivers and set aside.

While the milk is simmering, prepare a roux using:
4 T. butter
4 T. flour
and cook over low heat for 5 minutes, stirring constantly. Set aside and allow to cool.

Combine the warm milk and the cool roux in the large saucepan and place over low heat. Cook together until the milk thickens – do not allow to boil! Additionally, remember that the cheese will bind the sauce further, so don’t over-thicken it.

In the meantime grate:
A total of about 9 oz. of sharp & mild cheeses (Last night I used about 2 oz. of Tillamook cheddar, about 5 oz. of cave-aged Gruyere, and about 2 oz. of Dry Jack. My favorite cheddar to use is Grafton 2 Year, but I always use at least two cheeses, often three. Leftover bits of any other kind of cheese are a fine addition.)

Additionally, cook:
10 oz. frozen cut leaf spinach
in the microwave for five minutes – no need to add water. Remove and place in a sieve; press out as much moisture as possible, (a potato masher works great for this) then chop into fine pieces & season with salt and pepper.

When the sauce has thickened, add the grated cheese and stir occasionally until incorporated. Again, do not allow to boil. Taste for seasoning and add:
the slivered onions
salt and pepper if needed
2 T. Moutarde de Meaux or Dijon mustard, depending on how much you like mustard
1 tsp. paprika
a few chili flakes or cayenne pepper (I do about 1/2 t. cayenne)
the cooked, drained spinach
and stir until combined. Pour over the potatoes in the casserole and mix in gently. Bake for 35-40 minutes or until the top is slightly browned and the dish is bubbling. Makes 4 large servings.

Chard & Potato Casserole

Sometimes I make things that are not successful. My mother always used to say, “If we don’t like it, we never have to make it again.” I liked this well enough, but it wasn’t good enough to merit the amount of *effort* it took. The recipe fits on one page in the cookbook it came from, but it took me two hours to assemble this and then another hour for it to bake, after which the potatoes in it weren’t done (I had *thought* the casserole looked kind of dry, which is why the potatoes didn’t cook), so I added a little water, covered it, and put it back in for another half hour. More water at the beginning might have produced a better result at the end. By the point I got it out of the oven it would have to have been pretty wonderful for me to not mind all the work I had done on it. And it wasn’t that wonderful. So I wouldn’t suggest making this. Just pointing out that even good cooks have failures.

extra virgin olive oil
2 lbs. Swiss chard (I used 1 lb. chard, 1 lb. kale, and the beet greens from one bunch of beets)
4 large scallions, including greens, chopped
2 large onions, peeled, halved, and sliced thin
3 garlic cloves, minced
salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 large potatoes, peeled and cut into 1/4 in. rounds
2 t. dried oregano
1 c. chopped fresh parsley
1 1/2 c. chopped, peeled, drained plum tomatoes

1. Heat 2 T. olive oil in a large heavy skillet and wilt the chard, in batches, until it is reduced in volume by about half. Remove and drain in a colander. When all the chard is wilted, add 2 more T. olive oil to the skillet and sauté the scallions, onions, and garlic over medium-low heat until soft and translucent. Remove and toss with the greens in a large bowl. Season with salt and pepper.

2. Add 2-3 more T. olive oil to the skillet and sauté the potatoes until translucent and lightly golden. Remove.

3. Lightly oil a 10 or 12 in round by 3 in. deep baking pan, preferably earthenware. Preheat oven to 375. Spread a third of the potatoes on the bottom in one layer. Sprinkle with salt, pepper, oregano, and parsley and spoon 1/2 c. of the tomatoes over them. Spread half the Swiss chard mixture on top. Repeat with remaining ingredients, finishing with a layer of potatoes and tomatoes. Press the mixture down a little with a large spoon. Bake, uncovered, for 1 to 1 1/2 hours, until the potatoes are golden and very tender and until most of the liquid from the greens has been absorbed. Remove, cool for 30 minutes or more, and serve.

Cathy's Carrot-Onion Casserole

Like crack, this casserole. My aunt Cathy makes this, obviously, but unfortunately, I don't know anything about the history of the recipe off the top of my head. The Stewarts descend on a dish of this every holiday and just destroy it. Like my mom's pies, Joe's ziti, and my massive pile of mashed potatoes, a holiday imperative. Now *you* can make it at home.

Serves 8

4 c. sliced raw onions
2 c. slivered carrots
Cook separately in boiling salted water and drain well.

Buttered white bread crumbs (Cathy makes them crouton-sized)

White sauce

1/4 lb butter
5 T flour
2 c. milk
salt and pepper

Melt butter and blend in flour. Add milk slowly then add salt and pepper to taste. You don't need to cook the sauce until it thickens & loses its floury taste - that will happen in the oven.

Put half onions and carrots in casserole and cover with half of bread crumbs; add remaining onions, carrots and white sauce. Cover all with buttered bread crumbs. Bake in oven at 350 for about 45 minutes.

Onion Gratin

Oh well. This wasn’t a terrific success. It was okay, but not anywhere as tasty as I expected based on the ingredients & other things like this I’ve had. It also came out a bit soupy when it came out of the oven. I’m going to put this up anyway, but as soon as I get a chance to get the recipe for my Aunt Cathy’s carrot-onion casserole, I’ll put that up & you can make that instead.

Preheat the oven to 375.

6 large onions, peeled and left whole
2 bay leaves
7 shallots, minced
butter for the dish & crumbs
salt, pepper, nutmeg
5-6 T. heavy cream
2 slices bread, crumbed (a mini food processor is helpful here)

Boil the onions in salted water with the bay leaves for 20 minutes. Remove gently and let cool. Slice horizontally in about ¼ in. slices – the easiest way to accomplish this is to set the onion on its base and cut it horizontally with a serrated knife, turning the onion slightly as you do in order to slice it all the way through and keep it in one piece. Butter a good-sized gratin dish (mine’s about 10 x 10) and place one layer of onion slices in the base of the dish. Season them with salt, pepper, and nutmeg & spread about 1/3 of the shallots over them. Repeat the layers until the onions and shallots are used up, seasoning as you go. Pour the cream over. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes.

Toss the breadcrumbs with a little salt and pepper and about a T. of melted butter. After 40 minutes, sprinkle the crumbs over the top of the gratin and place the casserole back in the oven for another 20 minutes. Serve hot.

Pumpkin Gratin in Creamy Tomato & Red Pepper Sauce

Also known as Gratin au Courge.

I’ve been in Monterey most of the weekend, so I haven’t been doing much cooking, but I did eat in two great restaurants, Bouchée and Stokes Adobe. I had a fried green tomato sandwich with Gruyere at Stokes that was flabbergasting. Besides all the amazing dishes and wines, I also had a piece of Valdeon (a Spanish blue cheese) from the cheese cart at Bouchée that caused me to have to hold on to the table to avoid falling over on the floor. I love Valdeon. If you like blue cheese, go find some Valdeon and then SIT DOWN before you eat it. Trust me.

http://www.postcardsforyou.com/boucheedining.html
http://www.stokesrestaurant.com/index.html

This comes from a book called The Vegetarian Bistro, the only even vaguely French vegetarian cookbook I’ve ever been able to find. Truly French restaurants are one of the few places vegetarians still suffer. Basque restaurants, something I’ve only seen here in California, are the other. In French restaurants it’s the fats and broths that’ll get you. In Basque restaurants, the only choice you make is what kind of animal you want your hunk of meat to come off of. So this little book, which comes from author Spieler’s visits to bistros throughout France, is a great help if you want to do something elegant and recognizably a cuisine but non-Eastern or Italian. The dishes are creative, though in many cases, loaded with fattening ingredients. This is no exception. I made this tonight – it was good when finished, but would have been really wonderful and I think even take-along-to-the-neighbors-good with a more substantially flavored squash. I bought a pie pumpkin, which in terms of flavor, is an infinitely better choice than a carving pumpkin, to make this with, but now that I’ve made it, I’ll counsel you, my reader(s? Anyone out there?) to make this with butternut squash instead. The pumpkin just didn’t taste like much, and it’s a real bear to cut up. I am always afraid I’m going to take off a hand when I’m trying to cut up a raw hard squash like that. Butternut is easier because it is less curved top to bottom and more even on the surface than a pumpkin. You can make butternut even easier by cutting a flat surface to rest it on. I’ll tell you one thing, I feel for the Afghans when I cut up a pumpkin. Their land, their society – even their food is difficult. So, the recipe…

1.5 lbs. pumpkin (butternut squash), seeded, peeled, and diced
1 leek, cleaned and diced
1 T butter
1 T vegetable oil
1 red bell pepper, seeded, deribbed, and diced
4 small tomatoes, diced (plum tomatoes will work best)
1/2 c. dry white wine
1/2 c. heavy cream (see?)
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 T. tomato paste (I just bought the Amore brand that comes in a tube for the first time – not that much more in price and it doesn’t have the annoying habit of molding in the back of your fridge that causes the can stuff to always go to waste)
Several large pinches of herbes de Provence
Salt and pepper to taste (more than you think – squash needs it not to be bland)
3 T. grated Gruyere, Dry Jack, Comte, or Beaufort cheese
2 T. fresh bread crumbs (tear half a piece of bread up with a fork)
1-2 t. olive oil

Preheat the oven to 350. In a large, heavy sauté pan over medium-high heat, sauté the pumpkin and leek in the butter and oil until lightly golden. Add the red pepper and tomatoes, and continue to cook until the tomatoes are saucy, about 15 minutes. Add the wine and cook until it is reduced by about half, then stir in the cream, half of the garlic, the tomato paste, herbes de Provence, salt, and pepper. Pour the pumpkin mixture into a 11x7 baking dish. Mix the remaining garlic with the cheese, bread crumbs, and oil, then sprinkle over the pumpkin in the casserole. Bake for 20-25 minutes. Serve hot.

Tortilla Casserole

I am crazy about this recipe. The combination of beans and corn tortillas is my favorite thing in the world to eat. Tacos were my favorite food growing up. My mom made them with actual fried corn tortillas, not with taco shells, and at the point that I could be trusted to handle such things, I was in charge of frying the tortillas for dinner. To see the stiff, cold, pale tortilla go into the hot oil and emerge in only a few seconds, brightened, puffed, and suddenly undulating dangerously from my tongs was instant gratification cooking. After dinner, I would happily sneak leftover tortillas all by themselves. Fried tortillas remain a favorite. They’re one of my major comfort foods, & are central to the enchilada recipe below and this casserole recipe, as well as the tacos we make at home. When I was in Mexico this summer, I had a boxed lunch of tortillas & beans on one excursion because I knew that the scheduled lunch was barbeque. As everyone else was eating barbeque, coleslaw, and lasagna, the guide walked by me and said, “Look, she’s Mexican!”

My mom made a taco casserole when I was a kid. It was based on ground beef seasoned with cumin and some tomato paste, I think, & used cheese and black olives. After I became a vegetarian, I started making a version with refried beans, which makes a great fast dinner. Once you’ve fried the tortillas, the assembly is easy and after that all you have to do is pop it in the oven while you make a salad. It’s also a very flexible recipe – if you have leftover chili, you can use chili instead of all beans. The cheese can be omitted for vegans. If you happen to have fresh or frozen corn, some of that can go in here. Chopped green or black olives are welcome if you’re not married to an olive-hater. Leftover rice, jarred roasted peppers, the little bit left in those two jars of salsa – all welcome here. I’ll give a basic recipe but expect that you’ll zig and zag with it as you prefer. It adapts well to more or less liquid, but works best if the mix is a little soupy when it goes in the oven.

Preheat the oven to 375.

Heat 2 T. oil in a small skillet. Fry 12 corn tortillas over medium-high heat until softened, (less than a minute) draining them against the side of the skillet and placing them on layers of folded paper toweling when done. Forceps-style tongs or a pancake-turner style spatula are your best aids here.

Grate 6 oz. sharp cheese and set aside.

Cook 2.5 c. pinto or black beans (measured when dry and prepared like Standard Pinto Beans, below) or open two cans of vegetarian refried beans or three cans of regular black or pinto beans. Drain any plain canned beans you use. Add 2/3 c. salsa to the completed beans and salt and pepper and hot sauce if they need it after that. If you are using canned beans, add 1/2 c. chopped cilantro if you’ve got it. Put any other additions (olives, peppers, corn, etc.) in here.

Pick the right casserole for the job. Deep and shallow both work – just pick one that will hold the volume. Start with the beans, spreading 1/4 of them in the bottom of the casserole, adding the cheese and topping with three tortillas. Tear one tortilla in half if it makes them fit better. Repeat with additional layers. Tear the tortillas for the last layer into strips and place them on top of the final layer. Bake for 25 minutes, until heated through & tortillas on top are slightly crispy. Let cool for 5 minutes before serving.

Potato & Zucchini Enchiladas with Red Chili Sauce

I made this for dinner tonight. It is a reliable classic that I’ve been making for years - the recipe comes from The Best 125 Meatless Mexican Dishes. Unfortunately, I’ve never bothered to try any of the other 124 recipes, because I started with this one and it’s such a hit every time I make it. This recipe has gone to several Christmas Eve dinners in Indiana and at least a couple dinner parties. I have not done too much to this except up the amount of cheese called for; the original recipe was rather stingy with it. And I’m going to ask you to fry the tortillas, which the original doesn’t. It adds some fat, of course, but then the tortillas don’t all break into shreds the instant you try to fill them.

Place in a large bowl, cover with water & weight down with a plate:
10 dried New Mexico chiles
Microwave for 10 minutes & then set aside to cool.

Prepare:
4 medium potatoes, peeled & diced
1 jalapeno chile, minced
5 cloves garlic, minced (divided)
1 T. oil
2 medium zucchini, diced
1 medium onion, chopped

Peel & dice the potatoes and boil in heavily salted water until tender. Heat the oil over medium-high heat. When it is hot but not smoking, toss in the cumin seeds. Cook until they change color, then add the onions and sauté for a few minutes. Add the zucchini and cook, stirring frequently, for about 10 minutes. Add 2 cloves of the minced garlic, the jalapeno, & the potatoes. Cover and cook 5 minutes longer. Season with salt & pepper and set aside.

Grate:
6 oz. sharp cheese (you choose; I like Grafton 2-year cheddar)

Remove the chilies from the water. Cut the tops & stems out (kitchen scissors are much easier than a knife) and pull the seeds and membranes out. Drain the chiles and place them in a blender with:
2 1/2 c. vegetable stock (I like The Organic Gourmet's - comes in a little jar & looks like Vegemite)
the reserved 3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tsp. salt
and puree *thoroughly*. A few minutes at least. Believe me, it’s important – you’re putting it through a sieve in a minute. Preheat the oven to 350. Heat a T. of oil in a small skillet and fry:
12 corn tortillas
one at a time, setting them aside on paper toweling when they are warmed through and softened.
In a saucepan, heat:
2 T. oil
and when hot, add:
3 T. flour
and stir constantly until lightly browned, about 2 minutes. Strain the chile puree into the pan, forcing it through a sieve with a spoon or spatula, and add:
2 t. apple cider vinegar
2 t. oregano (pref. Mexican)
1 bay leaf
Cook, stirring frequently, about 10 minutes over medium heat, until somewhat thickened. Remove the bay leaf. Spread 1/2 c. of the sauce over the bottom of a 9x13 in. glass or ceramic baking dish. Place a dinner plate on your work surface. Working with 1 tortilla at a time, briefly immerse it in the sauce to coat it lightly, then place it on the plate and put a portion of the cheese and then the filling down the center of it. Roll the tortilla up loosely and place it seam-side down in the baking dish. When all the tortillas have been rolled and filled, pour all of the remaining sauce over them. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the top and bake 15-20 minutes at 350 to heat through. Allow to stand 5 minutes before serving.