Dgourmac's Blog

I felt like starting a new tradition tonight, so I decided to make a bunch of small plates for our dinner.  Partly inspired by the meal at Cava two nights ago, I was able to work almost entirely from ingredients already on hand.  The menu included:

• Roasted beets with tapenade, feta cheese, Russian mix sprouts, and pistachios
• Salt Roasted Potatoes
• Freshly-made hummus on my toasted multigrain bread
• Organic Dolmas (right from a can — doing my bit to aid economic recovery in Greece)
• Provencal-style Sauteed Eggplant with Tomato Sauce
• Grilled Maitake mushrooms

The beets were roasted a few days ago, so mixing up that salad was easy, and I served it up with the hummus for company.

Meanwhile, I cut up two organic Maitake mushrooms and cooked them with just olive oil, salt and pepper, in the gas grill on a very hot griddle.

Last month I had made the salt roasted potatoes and fell in love with the simplicity, taste and texture of the dish.  Fortunately, I saved the bed of salt for reuse, so it was easy to prepare.  Salt in pot, wash, dry and oil the potatoes, lay them on the salt, oven at 450, cook an hour.  Let them sit there until ready to eat…even an hour later, they were perfect.

Since the oven was plenty hot for awhile, it was an opportunity to roast some garlic.  I was even able to locate the little clay garlic roaster we bought years ago and do this at the same time.  Part of the rationale was for making hummus: Barbara can’t tolerate raw garlic, so roasting it made it flavorful and edible for us both.

This meal feels a little like reruns of old TV shows, but I do have my favorites, and this simple eggplant dish is one of them.  You may remember it from our Provencal dinner almost precisely a year ago.  Not complicated, just need good ingredients, good pots, and time.  Saute the eggplant, blot with paper towels when fully cooked.  Chop up best quality Italian plum tomatoes and their juice, saute with garlic, salt and pepper until nice and thick, run through a Mouli or food mill, and spoon on top of the eggplant.  I love the color and flavor intensity of the sauce.

The wine choice was easy.  In keeping with the tapas theme, I went with a bottle of Spanish wine I already had open, a 2009 Benaza Mencia.

How could I resist a wine whose grapes are (as described by the producer) “mostly Mencia with small dollops of Bastardo and Arauxa”?  It’s also a very good value.  Here is what a reviewer for the San Francisco Examiner had to say:

Benaza Monterrei Mencia, 2009 (Monterrei, Spain): Located on the Portuguese border, Monterrei is the smallest denominción de origen in Galicia. Winemaker and owner Álvero Bueno purchases fruit from local farmers and uses stainless steel for fermentation and a short aging period. Crisp is not a word commonly used for red wines, but it fits here. Floral and spicy with red fruits, this is a delightful red for the fall.

Happy Holidays!

In my adopted Sephardic tradition (as opposed to the Ashkenazic one I inherited), there are a number of vegetable dishes that begin with slowly-cooked onions and tomatoes, to which they later add rice (and on occasion, spinach and perhaps other vegetables).  I’ve always liked these Greek/Turkish stewed vegetables, so when Barbara came home with some fresh Kale yesterday, I decided to create one of these dishes for dinner.

Here is a quick outline of the dish:

• cut two large onions into medium (3/4″) dice
• add one leek, cut across into 3/4″ chunks
• add two Tbs. olive oil to a large sauteuse pan
• cook onions and leek over medium heat until tender, adding salt as they cook
• chop one zucchine and four cremini mushrooms into 3/4″ dice, adding these to the pan, and cook for a few minutes
• add one 28-oz. can of high quality Italian San Marzano tomatoes, with their juices
• wash and chop several some kale leaves, stripped from the stalks
• simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, adding 1 cup of vegetable stock along the way
• separately boil some rice (I used a healthy blend of brown, red and wild rice, but any long grain rice will do fine), and cook until almost done
• add the rice to the vegetables, along with a small can of giant Greek beans in tomato sauce (about which I have written previously).  Cook another 15-20 minutes.
• alternatively, you can add the uncooked rice directly to the stew, and then simmer it
• if you add the rice into the simmering vegetables to cook it, you may need to add more liquid

The table setting you see here was actually today’s lunch.  I reheated the stew, and added some crumbled Greek sheep’s-milk feta cheese.  Served with some pan-fried, homemade whole grain semolina bread and a glass of Jan D’Amore’s 2008 Polvanera Aglianico, the dish made me very happy, especially when surrounded by Barbara’s special handmade Hanukkah tablecloth and napkins.  Happy last night of Hanukkah tonight!

Great meals come from great ingredients.  That’s obvious, but I feel truly blessed to have the time now to find and prepare wonderful ingredients and to have them available when I want to cook.  Today was a typical late-Fall afternoon in New England: variable light snow all day, quite cold, but not too windy.  It was a perfect time to take my garbage and recycle to the transfer station in town (open only on Saturdays and Wednesdays), and to make pasta per pranzo (pasta for lunch).

Like many of the components of our cooking, the initial activities took place a day or two earlier (unknowingly, of course, since I had not planned the meal then — I was just gathering good ingredients for later use).  Such was the case when I went to Whole Foods on Wednesday, since the market was close to a business meeting that day.  I bought a nice bunch of lacinato kale (cavolo nero, when I cook Italian) and some heirloom dried beans.

Browsing around the internet that night, I came across an interesting recipe in the New York Times for Bean Confit, and I put in on my list to make for Thursday.  Over the years I had given this confit treatment — poaching food in a bath of hot olive oil — for duck legs, tuna, carrots and other vegetables, but I never tried it with beans.  Using one of my favorite copper pots from Dehillerin purchased 2o years ago in Paris, I prepared the beans Thursday and put them in the refrigerator.   I did mash some of the beans and put them on a piece of my country bread toast with olive paste (tapenade) and enjoyed with a glass of 2007 Morgon as a snack that night.

Friday night we went to dinner at a friend’s house, so the next chance to cook was Saturday lunch.  After determining that Barbara had no interest in lunch today, so I could make whatever I wanted, I grabbed some of my favorite ingredients and went to work.

• organic taglietelle pasta from Italy
• plump Kalamata olives with the pits still in them
• Artibel Calabrian hot peppers
• the cooked beans
• garlic
• cavolo nero (stripping the leaves from the stems)

Making the dish was straightforward:

• boil the pasta in well-salted water
• do the same with the cavolo nero
• pit the olives (safety tip: count the unpitted olives before you start; smash or press the olives with a weight or a knife; remove the pit and separate the flesh; then count the pits when you are done to make sure you got them all.  Saves dental bills.)
• chop the garlic and one or two hot peppers
• remove a cup of the cooked beans with some of their olives oil and put in a saute pan
• cook over medium high heat, then add chopped garlic and cavolo nero
• cook until the cavolo nero absorbs the olive oil
• add olives and chopped pepper to the pan and stir to mix in
• drain the pasta, reserving about a cup of pasta water
• add the pasta and some of the water to the saute pan to coat with the sauce
• add olive oil, salt and pepper to taste
• serve in a pasta bowl

Take a little leftover salad (I had one from the natural food market, made of seaweed and kelp noodles) and add some cubed cooked beets.

Mangia bene!  Serve with Sicilian Frappato, which was perched nicely on the kitchen windowsill, overlooking the new snow.

I am by no means an aficionado of Indian cooking, although I have had some valuable lessons from Preetha, Priyambada and some of my other Indian students.  I teach them business, and they teach me Indian food — not a bad trade.

Nonetheless, I do venture forth into this world when ingredients inspire me, and tonight was one of those occasions.  We had one eggplant, some uncooked cauliflower, a portion of a package of mushrooms on hand, and I obtained some beets and their greens at the market today.  I had already searched the internet yesterday and found three recipes with some of those ingredients — plus red lentils, which I was anxious to include — so here is my meal.

• saute a chopped onion and minced garlic in olive oil in a large sauteuse
• add salt, 2 tsp. Garam Masala (from World Spice) and 1 tsp. ground Turmeric
• cook onions and garlic until lightly browned

In the meantime I had preheated the oven to 400° F. and roasted eggplant pieces (cut into 1″ dice and tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper) on a roasting tray until moderately browned.  In separate roasting dishes I cooked the cauliflower (broken into small florets) and some cremini mushrooms (cut into 6 wedges each), also tossed with olive oil and salt.  When each of these were cooked, I removed them from the roasting pan and placed in a stainless bowl.

In a separate pot, I boiled the beet greens with a bit of salt, and removed them to a plate when tender.  I’m not sure why, but I had a hankering for red lentils, which I somehow associate with cauliflower and tomatoes, so I cooked those in boiling water at a simmer  for about 20 minutes until tender.  At the same time (trying to use as many pots as possible — one of my trademarks) I started 2 cups of water to a boil, then added a cup of a sprouted rice blend from Whole Foods — red and brown rice plus wild rice.  I cooked this slowly for 25 minutes (covered), then turned off the heat when the water was absorbed for another 15 minutes so it would steam until soft.

Now it was time for the final assembly.  The flavors of all the vegetables need about 10-15 minutes to merge together in the stew.  The onions and garlic were browned.  I added the reserved eggplant, cauliflower and mushroom pieces, stirring them together.  Next came the lentils with their broth, a can of Italian tomatoes which I chopped coarsely, and the chopped beet greens.  Another cup of liquid from the reserved tomato juice gave me a lovely broth, and I simmered it all together (covered) for 10 minutes.

Adjusted salt and pepper, chopped up some fresh cilantro, then placed the stew in a pasta bowl atop the rice, added the cilantro and a few squeezes of a fresh lime, and served it with a Sicilian red wine —  a 2008 Bonavita Faro, another of Jan D’Amore’s modest treasures.  Don’t you always choose Nerello Mascalese with Indian stews that contain tomatoes and lentils?  Very nice, also molto salubrious.

We made our own seitan for the first time a couple of weeks ago, with a recipe for spicy Italian vegetarian sausages, and they came out quite good.  However, in my years as an omnivore, I made real Italian pork sausages (luganega), duck sausages, lamb sausages, lobster sausages and fish sausages — you get the idea.  With my memory of those tastes and textures still accessible, it’s probably not surprising that we still prefer vegan foods for themselves, and try to avoid dishes which resemble vegan substitutes for meat and dairy.  Nonetheless, I do keep experimenting, and last night I tried out Isa Chandra Moskowitz’s Seitan Roast Stuffed with Shiitakes and Leeks.  Here is the report.

Leeks and shiitakes are among my favorite plant foods, so this seemed to be an attractive option.  I followed her recipe pretty much as written, with a few exceptions — no pinto beans on the shelf (substituted cannelini), and reduced amounts of soy sauce and fennel (to suit Barbara).  The exciting part is when I mix the vital wheat gluten with the liquids and suddenly have a mass of seitan to play with in my stainless bowl.

Anyway, we rolled up the leek-shiitake-breadcrumb-herb stuffing mixture inside the seitan, wrapped it all in sheets of aluminum foil, and baked it at 350° F for 90 minutes.  While it was cooling, I oven-roasted small red potatoes on a bed of coarse salt (an amazing recipe, simple and absolutely delicious), sauteed separately carrots, peas and green beans, and then made my own vegan gravy to pour over the roast.

The gravy turned out to be interesting.  Started by sautéing chopped onion and garlic in about 3 Tbs. of olive oil.  Next, I added almost 1/4 cup of flour and 3 Tbs. nutritional yeast.  This seized up in the pan so I had to add 2 Tbs. more of oil, then cooked slowly until the flour was golden.  At that point I added hot homemade vegetable stock, whisking it in to get the consistency saucy enough.  I was surprised that it tasted good and remained stable, so it could be spooned over the seitan slices on the plate.  The only other addition was to add some reheated braised cabbage to my plate (Barbara and Johnny passed on that delectable from Molly Stevens’ All About Braising book.)

If you have ever made or eaten a veal roast, I can tell you that this is NOT the same.  But, it IS a tasty dish, and it will certainly evoke some of the same gustatory sensations.  The only change we would make next time is to roast it for only 60-70 minutes.  This version came out almost too firm at 90 minutes.  In fact, Isa initially made hers in 60, but she increased the time in response to readers’ comments, and I was leery too, of undercooking it.

It will probably not surprise you that I selected a red wine to accompany this meal.  It was a 2009 Valpolicella Superiore, Latium Morini, titled Campo Prognai.  It was fine, but almost too rich and full-bodied for the dish.  A slightly lighter one — I imagine not a Superiore — would be better next time.

Sometimes I start cooking, with no clear idea what I am going to make for a meal.  Last night was a good example.  We ended up with a fine supper, and in retrospect, I now see the formula with which I was working at the subconscious level.

The Formula:

1. rummage through the refrigerator and pantry for ingredients you want to or need to use (i.e. they will go bad if left there another day); concentrate on vegetables and condimenti.
2. identify some grains you will use as a foundation for the dish, and to provide some additional protein
3. transform ingredients individually or collectively into components for the dish
4. cook the grains, put on plates or bowls, and assemble the final dish
5. pick your wine and enjoy the meal

So here is last night’s example.

• boil a small bunch of lacinato kale (cavolo nero), then chop
• boil a small bunch of spinach until tender; puree with a little olive oil, salt and pepper, and about 1/2 cup of soft tofu (makes a beautiful bright green sauce)
• dice an onion and one medium zucchini, saute until tender
• trim and quarter 8 baby artichokes, which are sauteed with the zucchini and onion
• mix the cavolo nero with the other vegetables and keep warm in the pan
• cut a long Japanese eggplant in half lengthwise, then crosswise into chunks; saute eggplant in olive oil until nearly tender
• finish the eggplant with chopped garlic and a few tablespoons each of Chinese black vinegar, and Italian balsamic vinegar — these will provide a dominant but subtle sweet/sour theme through the completed dish
• roast a small spaghetti squash in a 375-degree oven until soft; then pull out the strands of the squash
• puree a few canned Italian tomatoes with their juices; simmer in a pan with olive oil, salt and pepper, until thick and smooth
• make the polenta; I use a medium coarse Italian cornmeal, with 1 cup of polenta to 3 cups of boiling water (plus a little salt and olive oil), simmering until thick
• pour the polenta on the plate, top with the vegetables in layers, spoon the spinach and tomato purees across the top like stripes in the Italian flag
• pour a glass of 2011 Dirupi Rosso di Valtellina (Nebbiolo grapes), and enjoy!