Israeli Couscous with Vegetables

I love couscous. That said, it's one of those things that doesn't make it onto the grocery list very often. If I had to give a reason, I would probably bring up the time I knocked over the measuring cup (which was full) and spilled couscous all over the counter, and floor, and stove. Couscous is so tiny and it rolls way faster than I expected. I found pieces of couscous for a month and a half after that.

Israeli couscous is less troublesome from the perspective of a clumsy cook. It's bigger, for one, so fewer pieces fit in a cup, which means fewer pieces to chase through the kitchen. The upside to couscous? It's really amenable to anything you throw at it and goes from season to season really easily. Curry? Can do. Soup? Check. Vegetable saute? Sign me up.

I sauteed onion and mushroom with zucchini, tomatoes, red pepper, and chili flakes until everything was slightly softened, but not fully cooked. I wanted bright, fresh flavors to go with our unseasonably sunny February day.


Add the couscous and feta and it became a nice bridge dish - not really a winter dish, but not quite bright enough to be a spring dish either. It was just what we were craving. Feta, for me, is one of those odd cheeses. When I think about it, it doesn't rank very high on the list of things I like. At all. But when I eat it, I like it. I'm pleasantly surprised every. single. time. I have to say; it's kind of nice. It's like getting a tiny little gift every time I eat a meal with feta.

Israeli Couscous
Serves 3-4, depending on appetites
1 c israeli couscous
1 t butter
1 c water
1/2 red onion, chopped
1 c crimini mushrooms, chopped
1/2 t salt
1/2 t pepper
2 zucchini, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1 c collard or other greens, chopped
1 t chili flakes
1/2 c feta, crumbled

1. Add the butter to a small saucepan over medium heat and let it melt. Add the couscous and toast briefly, stirring. Add 1/4 c water and turn the heat to low, covering the couscous. After 2 minutes, add the remaining water and recover. (If it looks like it needs more water, add it. You can always drain it later.) Allow to steam for 10-15 minutes, until the couscous is only slightly firm in the middle. Remove from heat.
   
2. Over medium-high heat, warm a pan and 1 tablespoon olive oil. Add the onion and mushroom and cook until softened, about 5 minutes. Stir in the salt and pepper.
   
3. Add the collard greens, tomato, and chili flakes and cook an additional 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
   
4. Add the zucchini to the pan and cook for 5 minutes.
   
5. Serve the couscous with sauteed vegetables and feta.

Planning Ahead: Sunday Lasagna

This will be a busy-ish week for me, and those are the weeks I tend to have cheese and crackers for dinner at least once. That wouldn't be so terrible, but since I try to take last night's leftovers for lunch the next day, it leaves me in a lunchtime quandary. Making dinner on Sunday makes it easy to reheat something on what would have been a cheese and cracker night.

Lasagna is perfect for planning ahead, since it's one of the foods that almost always tastes better the next day. This recipe is a fun one, too, since it's very easily modified to what you have on hand or what you want your lasagna to become. This time around, mushrooms and spinach combine with turkey and pork to yield a hot, bubbly pan of yumminess.



Since I'm cooking this ahead, once the pan cooled down a little, I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge. If you're going any more than two or three days in advance, I recommend saran wrap AND foil and putting the pan in the freezer. Defrost it in the fridge during the day and reheat it that night. Half an hour at 350 should do it. Just remember to take the saran wrap off before you reheat it.

Mushroom and Spinach Lasagna
This will easily fill a 9x13 pan. I usually put three lasagna noodles on each layer. That would mean 9 noodles; I call for ten because that give me some leeway to drop a noodle on the floor or otherwise render a noodle unusable.

10 lasagna noodles
2 T olive oil
1/2 lb ground turkey
1/2 lb ground pork
2 1/2 cup(s) sliced crimini mushrooms
1/2 c diced onion
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup wine
1 bunch spinach, carefully cleaned
1 can(s) crushed tomatoes
1 t dried oregano
1 t dried italian seasoning
1 pinch salt
1 t ground pepper
1/2 t cinnamon
8 oz ricotta cheese
8 oz part-skim mozzarella cheese, shredded, divided

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.
   
2. Boil water in a large pot. Add a pinch of salt once the water is boiling and cook the noodles in the boiling water until not quite al dente, about 6-7 minutes. Drain; return the noodles to the pot, cover with cool water, and set aside.
   
3. Add olive oil to a large saute pan over medium-high heat. Add turkey and pork and cook, crumbling with a spatula, until browned, about 7 minutes. Remove the turkey/pork mixture from the pan and set aside.
   
4. Return the pan to medium heat. Add 1 tablespoon olive oil to the pan and stir in onions and mushrooms. Cook until tender, about 8 to 10 minutes. Add the wine the spinach to the pan, stirring occasionally. Cook until the spinach is wilted.
   
5. Add crushed tomatoes, turkey/pork mixture, oregano, italian seasoning, cinnamon, salt, and pepper. Simmer 15 minutes on medium-low heat.
   
6. To assemble the lasagna, spread 1/2 cup of the sauce in the baking dish. Arrange a layer of noodles on top. Place about 3/4 cup tomato mixture over the noodles. Continue with another layer of noodles, half the remaining tomato mixture, the remaining ricotta, and half the remaining mozzarella. Top with a third layer of noodles, the remaining tomatoes, and the last of the mozzarella.
   
7. Bake until bubbly and browned, about an hour. Let rest for 10 minutes before serving.

Cauliflower Gratin

The last time I was at the grocery store, I found a head of cauliflower the bigger than a basketball. I knew I was going to need a few recipes to use the whole thing. When I saw this recipe, I was definitely interested. After all, 'gratin' means there will be CHEESE. I was won over because the recipe is Deborah Madison's. Every recipe of hers that I've ever made has worked like a charm.

Our weather lately has returned to the wet wintery weather, but a cream-based gratin seemed too heavy. Instead, this tomato-based gratin with a touch of feta sounded perfect.

And it was.

Cauliflower Gratin with Tomatoes and Feta
This was a huge hit. The serving size says 4, but this easily served four people, two of whom each had two giant servings. I added spicy italian sausage, which I cooked in a touch of olive oil and beer, then sliced, to the sauce with the honey and capers. It rounded out the meal. We served this with a side salad. Serves 4.

From Deborah Madison, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, New York: Broadway Books, 1997.

2 to 3 tablespoons olive oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried oregano
1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon
5 fresh tomatoes, peeled, seeded, and diced or 1 15-ounce can diced tomatoes
1 teaspoon honey
1 tablespoon capers, rinsed
4 links sausage, cooked and sliced
Salt and freshly milled pepper
1 large cauliflower, about 11/2 pounds, broken into florets
Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 to 4 ounces crumbled feta
Finely chopped parsley

Preheat the broiler and lightly oil a 2-quart gratin dish.

Heat the oil in a 10-inch skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, oregano, and cinnamon and cook until the onion is wilted, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, cook for 7 minutes more, then add the honey and capers and season with salt and pepper. Slide the mixture into the dish.

Meanwhile, steam the cauliflower for 5 minutes. Set it on the sauce and season with salt and pepper. Squeeze the lemon juice over the top and add the feta. Place 5 to 6 inches under the broiler until the sauce is bubbling and the cheese is beginning to brown, about 10 minutes. Garnish with the parsley and serve. (If you are assembling the gratin ahead of time, cover and bake it at 400 °F until bubbling, about 20 minutes, then brown under the broiler.)

Quinoa and Squash

I'm crap at math, so even though it's just me this week, I'm still shopping and cooking like there's two of us here. Since my shopping week started Saturday morning, I'm knee-deep in leftovers already and it's only Monday. I had roasted squash and pork roast from the weekend, so I added bacon, quinoa and onions and called it dinner.

It doesn't look like much, but onions sauteing in bacon made the house smell amazing. When I added the squash, everything got nuttier and richer. Please excuse the dark, grainy photos - I had to use the backup camera.


It may look a little plain and monochromatic, but this was serious comfort food and can easily be amended to make use of whatever leftovers you may have lurking in your fridge.

Quinoa with Squash
The beauty of it all is that since I was using leftovers, this came together in about 15 minutes.
1/2 c chopped onions
2 strips bacon, chopped
1 t salt
1 t pepper
3/4 c quinoa
1 1/2 c water
1 c pork, chopped
3/4 c roasted squash
1 small tomato, roughly chopped
1/2 avocado, chopped (optional)

1. Bring the water to a boil, then add the quinoa. Reduce the heat to medium-low and cook the quinoa for 15 minutes.
   
2. Put the chopped bacon into a saute pan and render until crisp. Drain all but 1 teaspoon of the fat. Add the onions and saute until translucent. Add the squash and allow it to get brown and slightly caramelized in places, 3-5 minutes.
   
3. Add the pork and tomato and stir. Cook 5 minutes, until heated through.
   
4. Serve with chopped avocado on top.

Squash and Mushroom Risotto

Seattle has been overcast for a few days now, and I was in the mood for some comfort food. Risotto is already happy comfort food, but if you add squash? So much more comforting and filling. This one's a keeper.



I've only recently started using crushed sage, and I think I like it quite a bit. It's not that it's less sage-y-ness than fresh sage, but I think the flavor is a bit more subtle. And it's delicious with squash.

Squash and Mushroom Risotto

1 1/2 c roasted squash
2 c arborio rice
1 1/2 c mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, minced
3/4 c white wine
1 1/2 c onion, diced
2 t sage, crushed
1 t salt
1 t pepper
1 qt chicken or vegetable stock
olive oil

1. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add 1 T olive oil. Once the oil is warm, add the onions and mushrooms and stir. Cook 5-8 minutes, until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and stir, cooking 1 minute.


2. Stir in the rice and lower the heat to medium-low. Allow the rice to soften, stirring periodically (about 3-4 minutes).


3. Add the white wine and stir to deglaze, making sure to scrape the bottom of the pot. When the rice looks mostly dry, stir in 1/2 c stock. Stir once and lower the heat to low (2 on a 1-10 dial). Stir in the roasted squash. Once your spoon will leave a trail in the rice, add 1/2 c stock. Be patient and let the rice absorb the stock slowly. Continue adding the stock 1/2 cup at a time until absorbed.


4. Serve with freshly grated Parmesan.

Cauliflower Soup?

Cauliflower. Soup.

Not two words I typically think to put into the same recipe. I got an immersion blender for Christmas and have spent the last two weeks trying to find as many recipes as possible with the word "puree" in them. Today's find was a recipe from the self-published and completely amazing S.O.U.P.S cookbook written by the Hopvine's Michael Congdon.

I honestly can't say enough good things about this cookbook. I'd heard about it for a while, and stumbled on it in a now-defunct used bookstore. Every recipe I've tried has been phenomenal. As though the soups weren't good enough, his cookie philosophy is that there should be just enough dough to hold the chocolate chips and hazelnuts together. That right there? That's logic I can get behind.

The Curried Cauliflower Soup was no exception to the awesome. It's a pureed curry cauliflower base that's mixed with cauliflower florets, blistered jalapenos, and potatoes and then served with cilantro and diced tomato. This soup was so. very. good.

There was one rather large-ish 'however.' The soup? It took 2 hours to get it all together. I don't know how much of that time could be cut off by streamlining the process, but that's a long time. (Confession: I only read halfway through the recipe. If I had read the entire thing, I probably could have worked out that it was time consuming.)

Was it worth it? Absolutely.
Would I make it again? Maybe. But not for a while.

Curried Cauliflower Soup
(adapted from S.O.U.P.S) The original recipe called for five jalapenos, and after a misadventure with some habaneros last week, I'm a little pepper-shy.

2 T garlic, chopped
1 inch ginger, peeled and chopped
1 onion, diced
1 head cauliflower
2 T curry powder
2 jalapenos, seeded and chopped
4 potatoes, diced
1 can coconut milk
1 quart stock
cilantro
tomato

1. Saute the garlic, ginger, and onion in vegetable oil until golden. Add the curry powder, cauliflower stems and leaves and saute 5 minutes. Add 2 cups stock and simmer 20-30 minutes, until the cauliflower is softened. Puree and set aside.
2. Sautee the jalapenos in vegetable oil until just blistered. Add the potatoes and cook 10ish minutes. Add the cauliflower florets and cover, cooking 5-10 minutes. Add the coconut milk, the puree you made in step one, and enough stock so the consistency is to your liking.

Serve with cilantro and diced tomato.