A "Quick" Vegetable gratin

Vegetable gratins are full of pitfalls. The vegetables cook unevenly, there is too much liquid so they end up sloppy, toppings are uneven..

So to overcome these we need to think about cooking in "layers" or stages. This recipe details the stages and techniques.

Ingredients

1 Medium Italian eggplant (aubergine), peeled in stripes and cut into 1/2" thick rounds

1/4 Cup extra virgin olive oil (divided use)

1 Tbs Aleppo pepper

2 Medium yellow onions coarsely diced

1 Red bell pepper cut into 1/2" pieces

1 1/12 lbs cherry tomatoes

1 Russet potato (coarsely grated - lke for hashbrowns)

4 Oz Melty hard chese (Cheddar/Gruyere) grated

Salt/Pepper to taste

Finely chopped chives for garnish/decoration

Method

Preheat the oven to 425F (Fan). Rack in the middle

Microwave the eggplant slices until they are soft and much of the water has been driven off. Meanwhile lighly oil a gratin dish.

Seperately saute the onions and red pepper using a little oil, Aleppo pepper, and salt ad pepper. The onions should become translucent, but not browned.

Place the eggplant slices in a single layer in the bottom of the gratin dish. 

Rinse the grated potatoes to remove the surface starch. Microwave the grated potatoes to mostly cook and dry off as much water as possible. 

Meanwhile, cover the eggplant with the sauteed onions/peppers. Sprinkle the tomatoes over the onions. Place the gratin dish into the oven, uncovered, for about 20 minutes. This will cause the tomatoes to wrinkle and soften.

MIx the grated potatoes with the grated cheese. Salt the gratin and then cover with the grated potato/cheese.

Return to the oven and cook until the internal temperature of the gratin reaches 200F.

Switch the oven to broil, and brown the potato/cheese topping until it is nice and crunchy. Sprinkle the gratin with the chopped chives.

Serve with a crisp dry wine and a side salad

Tomato "Tarte Tatin"

 This dish is taken (and only very modeslty adapted from America's Test Kitchen's recipe). It is the first recipe in the linked video here. I used more tomatoes than the recipe called for. And at my local store, the Romas were bigger than Elle used in the video. Also, I used the convection feature of my oven, so the first time the tomatoes were a little overcooked. But I have not made it half a dozen times, and I think it is a keeper.

The whole skillet (handle and all) will go into the oven, so make sure you use an oven safe one. Even though the dish has tomatoes, my carbon steel skillet is sufficiently seasoned that the mixture can go in to it. 

Ingredients

A bit more than 1/3 cup of sherry vinegar

2 T white sugar

1/2 t kosher salt

1/2 t finely, freshly ground black pepper

8 sprigs of thyme, minced very finely. I have also used dried Greek Oregano.

1T butter

2 medium shallots, minced very finely

2 1/2 lbs Roma or plum tomatoes. As Elle says, do not attempt to use beefsteak or other large round varieties

Store bought puff pastry (I use Dufour), rolled/shaped to a 10" round and chilled

Method

With shelf on a middle rackm start the oven to preheat at 400F (conventional, 375F fan assisted). I keep a pizza stone permanently in the oven.

Place the sherry, sugar, salt, pepper into a 10" oven proof skillet. Heat over medium heat to dissolve the sugar and salt. Reduce a bit (Elle says, about the same consistency as maple syrup).

Meanwhile, prep the tomatoes. Core them, cut them in half lenghtwise and remove and discard the jelly and seeds. You should have just the flesh and skin.

Once the sherry has thickened sufficiently, add the butter and allow to dissolve. Then the shallots and thyme. Allow to cook for a few minutes until the shallots have softened a bit.

Put the prepared tomatoes into the pan, and toss to coat. Arrange the tomatoes skin side down in the pan. You want it to be quite crowdwed in there.

Bake the tomatoes in the preheated oven for 45 minutes - 1 hour. At least check at 45 minutes. The tops will have shrivelled and darkened and there should be no liquid. Do be careful when opening the dooor of the oven as there is a lot of steam.

Take the skillet out of the oven. Drape the pastry round over the tomatoes. Dock the pastry with a fork (I didn't do this one time and it way over puffed!)

Place the skillet back in the oven for 15 minutes. Rotate the pan as much as possible - and bake for 15 more.

Remove from the oven and allow to cool while still in the pan. (Elle says 8 minutes, mine varied from 10 - 20 minutes).

Turn out onto a cutting board or servimg plate. Serve hot or at room temperature.

Leftover Chuck

In this previous post, I described cooking a piece of beef chuck sous vide. We of course ended up with more than we could eat at a single sitting. So what to do next? I could consigne it to freezer bags, freeze it so that it could be dumped three years later, or better still could find creative uses for it.

It became a voyage of discovery with a really good outcome. The other key idea is that if you have hot potatoes, you can dress withem with a flavorfull vinaigrette style dressing, the potatoes absorb the dressing and become really flavorfull. So why not do it with carrots too?

Ingredients

6 Small Yukon Gold potatoes - of roughly even size

6 small (width of your ring finger) unpeeled, but washed carrrots, cut into 1/2" thick rounds 

3 scallions, white and light green parts only, sliced finely

2T Pickled jalapeno peppers

1 Roasted red pepper, sliced into small strips

3T Pine nuts, toasted

8 Grape tomatoes

4 Radishes, quartered

1 Hot pepper ( we used a fish pepper from the garden)

1/4 cup vinaigrette (we made some using a candied tomato, roasted pepper, olive oil base)

1/2 head of butter lettuce, chopped

8 oz cooked beef chuck, sliced very thinly

Method

Microwave the carrots and potatoes on high until they are soft. The carrots took 90 seconds, the potatoes 3 minutes. As soon as they come out of the  microwave, place in a bowl with the vinaigrette. Add the scallions , hot pepper, pickled jalapenos and leave to set.

Meanwhile, warm the meat gently in a saute pan over low heat. You are not cooking it, just making sure that it has a good texture.

Plate the dish by putting lettuce around the inside edge of each bowl, leaving a small well. Into the well  put the potato/carrot mixture into the well. Srinkle some of the toasted pine nuts over the potatoes. Arrange the sliced peppers, radishes and tomatoes over the top. 

Arrange the thinly sliced beef in spokes on top. Drizzle with a little high quality olive oil and sherry vinegar.

Serve with a robust red wine.

Tomatoes, mushrooms, charred romaine - oh my!

On a trip around our local "Central Market" grocery store the other day, we had a snack of mushrooms/tomatoes/parmesan, etc. It was delicious. Having just seen this post from Dan Souza  I was intrigued with an approach to cooking mushrooms. So merging the two ideas, I came up with this. Well, not quite. Normally I would serve this on grilled bread - as a bruschetta, but for last night I wanted something lighter, so I served it almost as a dressing for a charred Romaine lettuce heart. It came out really well, I am glad to say.

Ingredients

2T high quality olive oil (divided use)

1 1/2 lbs mixed cherry tomatoes, halved

8 oz mixed mushrooms (I used white buttons, and creminis), thinly sliced

3 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced thinly

3 oz grated parmesan

Some hot pepper flavor (I used vodka infused with cayenne), but pepper flakes would work

1 bunch parsley, chopped fine

4T sherry vinegar (divided use)

4t high quality olive oil for plate decoration

salt/pepper to taste

3 hearts of Romaine, cut into 3 inch lengths, using only the trimmed root, halved lengthwise

1T Olive oil 

Coarse sea salt for crunch

Method

Make the topping first:

In a skillet heat 1 T of the olive oil. When shimmering, add the halved tomatoes and let cook for a few minutes - until soft and the juices have run out. Add the mushrooms and garlic and cook until fragrant. The liquid stops the garlic from burning, but you do want to give it time to cook through and remove the bitterness. Add in the parmesan, stirring to stop it clumping. Then the hot pepper and allow to cook down some more. Finally add the parsley and 1 T of the sherry vinegar. Turn off heat and allow to come to room temp. Check the seasoning and add salt/pepper if needed.

Now for the lettuce:

Heat a lightly oiled griddle (ridged side up if you have that option) until it is just smoking. While the griddle is heating, oil the Romaine halves on the flat sides, season lightly with salt and pepper. When the griddle is hot, sear the romaine hearts, ut side down until well charred and (if using a ridged griddle) with definite markings.

Pu the grilled romaine, flat, charred side up onto a small plate. Top lightly with the tomato miture. Drizzle oil and vinegar over the topping and onto the plate. Grind some black pepper onto the topping and the plate. Finish with coarse sea salt.

We served this with the excellent, "On the White Keys" - the 2011 from Arietta 

12 minutes 5 ingredients one pot

Well it's not exactly 5 ingredients because one of the ingredients is tapenade (which itself has 5 ingredients - but who doesn't have tapenade on hand?!).

I needed a dish that would cook quickly and easily for a dinner event at home. I wanted something that paired with a very nice Condrieu (the L'Enfer that we bought at Veritas in Dallas).

Condrieu is a Northern Rhone wine made entirely from Viognier. It pairs nicely with fish, but has enough body to stand up to bold flavors too. The recipe is adapted from a Jamie Oliver recipe that uses firm white fish. We used scallops instead - sourced from the always excellent TJ's Fish Market in Dallas.

Ingredients (US measures)

1 1/2 cups jasmine rice, rinsed in several changes of water until the water runs clear

2 1/4 cups water (I don't count this is an ingredient!)

6 T black olive tapenade (divided use)

4 large scallops, each cut into 6 individual pieces

2 dozen cherry tomatoes, halved

20 basil leaves, chiffonade (divided use)

Salt/pepper to taste (I don't count these either!). Be careful with the salt - depends on how salty the tapenade is.

Method

Put the rice and water into a large skillet (I used carbon steel) that has a lid. Cover, bring to the boil and cook gently, over low heat for 4 minutes. Stir in 1/2 the tapenade. Add the tomatoes, cover again and cook gently for a further 4 minutes. Add the scallops and 1/2 of the basil, stir, cover and cook for a further 3 minutes. Off heat ad the rest of the tapenade, stir gently, top with the remaining basil and serve.

Yeah, it is actually more than 12 minutes end to end. You do have to cut the tomatoes, chiffonade the basil and cut the scallops. But it really isn't much work - and it comes out well too.

Squash Salad

In the summer here in Texas there is an abundance of squash - zucchini, yellow squash, crook-neck, 8-ball and a host of others. Our trip to the farmers' market on Saturday yielded some nice, firm zucchini - about 6" long each. Zucchini can be annoying to cook - all that water has to be driven off before they will brown - and then all of a sudden they are black. If you don't drive the water off, they are all limp and mushy - almost able to be sucked through a straw. Am I making them sound appetizing yet? I thought not.

Then I saw this thing advertised. It is a spiralizer. Once you get past the "gluten free" hype and stop trying to pretend that strands of zucchini are pasta, the idea is quite handy. The tool is unnecessary - at least for this dish. A good old-fashioned vegetable peeler is all you need. But the spiralizer did spark some thinking.

The secret to this dish is your choice of olive oil. It would be revolting with a neutral tasting oil. We used a California Koroneiki oil, an oil with lots of peppery notes and a silky, buttery mouth feel.

Ingredients (2 Servings)

4 medium sized zucchini

16 cherry tomatoes, halved

1 T capers, rinsed and drained

A few sprigs lemon thyme, leaves only chopped finely

A few glugs of high quality, peppery extra virgin olive oil. Probably 1/4 cup

Juice of 1/2 lemon

Kosher salt to taste

Coarsely ground black pepper to taste

1 avocado diced into 1/4" pieces

Crunchy sea salt for finishing

Method

Peel the zucchini, and then slice into ribbons length wise using the vegetable peeler. Discard the core where the seeds are.

Add the tomatoes, capers, lemon thyme, olive oil and lemon juice to the zucchini slices in a bowl and toss to coat. Add the seasoning salt and pepper to taste, and toss again.

Place 1/2 the avocado onto each plate. Mound the squash salad over the avocado. Sprinkle  some coarse salt on the surfaceof the salad. Frind some pepper onto the plate to make it look interesting, serve immediately

Vegetable casserole (again)

With my new dietary requirements, vegetables playe a much larger part than even before. So we have taken to making a lot of vegetarian dishes. This one is a very pretty casserole with sweet potatoes, leeks, mushrooms, cauliflower, and tomatoes. The trouble with these kinds of casseroles is that the vegetation all cooks at different rates and releases liquids unpredictably. Soggy, tasteless liquid in the bottom of a casserole full of improperly cooked piece parts. Yuk. So this was our attempt to fix that. It got the, "we can serve this to people" accolade, so it must have worked! The saucy flavoring was made from a bechamel - a bit thicker than normal, but plenty tasty. And of course there was cheese - after all cauliflower and cheese are a great combo.

Ingredients - Vegetables

4T vegetable oil

2 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed - 1/2" cubes

3 leeks (white and light green, rinsed and shopped fine)

6 large carrots, scrubbed and sliced into 1/2" pieces

1 head of cauliflower

12 cherry tomatoes

1oz unsalted butter

8 oz mushrooms, roughly chopped and microwaved to extract liquid

1 Recipe cheese sauce (below)

6 T breadcrumbs

salt/pepper - to taste

Method - Vegetables

Pre-heat the milk/onion/cove misxture as described in the cheese sauce.

Pre-heat oven to 350F. Oil a large casserole dish, stir in the sweet potatoes and carrots. Place in the casserole dish in the oven. After about 10 minutes add the leeks and toss together to coat. Leave to cook/dry in the oven for about 35 minutes. 

After 35 minutes, slice the cauliflower (florets only), and toss lightly in oil. Nest the tomatoes in among the vegetables, turn up the oven temperature to 425, sprinkle salt/pepper onto the vegetables. Replace the casserole into the oven. Chop the mushrooms roughly, and put in a microwave safe bow with the butter. Microwave on high for 4-5 minutes. Spoon out the mushrooms (leaving any liquid behind) into the casserole and return to the oven. Start making the cheese sauce (based on a bechamel sauce). As soon as the cheese sauce is made, pour over the vegetables, spread out the sauce, top with breadcrumbs and return to the hot oven for 25-30 minutes.

Remove from the oven when the breadcrumbs are brown and crunchy. Allow to stand for 15 minutes before serving - perhaps with crusty bread....

Ingredients - Cheese Sauce

1 Medium onion, peeled and left whole
24 cloves
1 US Quart whole milk
2oz unsalted butter
3oz All purpose flour
1/4 t freshly grated nutmeg
12 oz grated cheddar cheese

Method - Cheese sauce
Put milk, onion in a saucepan and heat slowly until bubbles form on the surface. Turn heat off, cover and leave to steep for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes, melt the butter over medium heat, and when foaming has stopped, add the flour and cook, stirring vigorously for 3 minutes to cook out the floury taste and make a blonde roux. Do not let the butter flour mixture brown.
Strain the hot milk mixture into the roux while whisking constantly to ensure no lumps. Discard the onion from the strainer. Add the nutmeg.
Bring the roux/milk mixture slowly to the boil allowing it to thicken. Boil gently for about 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Off heat, add the grated cheese and stir in thoroughly.

Clams with Linguine

We were on vacation in England. Renting an apartment which meant that I didn't have all of my usual cooking toys, the ovens were calibrated in C, the knives were not as sharp as mine... But on a whim we had the landlord to dinner one evening. What to make???
We came up with this wonderful treatment for clams and linguine that was simple to make and very tasty. It even got the "we can serve this to people" accolade from madame.

Ingredients (Serves 4)

24 Small round tomatoes (bigger than cherry tomatoes, but not beefsteak size)
1 Fennel bulb (cut into 1/4" slices and then halved)
4 Small shallots (peeled and halved)
1 garlic clove sliced thinly
3T vegetable oil
3 lbs littleneck clams (purged in cold water for about 30 minutes)
1 bunch parsley chopped fine
A few drops hot sauce
Salt/pepper to taste
3/4 lb Linguine (preferably fresh)
Salt for the linguine cooking water

Method

Preheat oven to 400 with a rack in the center. Toss the tomatoes, fennel, shallot in the oil to coat and place in a sheet pan in the oven. After about 20 minutes, add the oiled garlic to the pan too.
Place a large pot of salted water on to boil ready for the linguine.
You need to time the linguine and clam cooking a bit carefully at this stage. The clams take about 4 minutes to open up, so arrange the timing so that the linguine will be just al dente when the clams are cooked. If fresh pasta is used, put the clams in first. If dried pasta, put the pasta in first and then do the clams with 4 minutes of pasta cooking time to go.
Put the clams into the vegetable pan in the oven, replace the pan and cook for 4 minutes (or so) until all the clams have opened up.
Drain the pasta, Place in a large warmed bowl, pour the clams and vegetables over the top, sprinkle with 2/3rds of the parsley and toss to combine. Check seasonings.  Sprinkle the rest of the parsley on top as a garnish.
Serve with a crisp white whine (Sauvignon Blanc family works well).
 

Fall Salad on North Texas Now

Madame's students asked if I would do a guest segment on the North Texas Now television show that they produce. It seemed like a good idea at the time. But it was scheduled for October 26 - a bitterly cold and blustery day to be out in the Botanic Garden in Fort Worth. The segment was only going to long enough for one dish and a crafty technique. I chose to make a fall salad with a warm onion/kiwi/clementine dressing. It had yellow tomatoes so it looked proper for the season, and some baked pita chips to give it some crunch.
Halving small tomatoes is a pain to do, but luckily there is a trick to i. Here's a link to the blog page that illustrates the "trick" (albeit with olives, but the principle applies). Wow your friends and family with your knife skills as you zip through masses of small tomatoes in a matter of seconds.

Ingredients (serves 8 as a side salad)

1/4 cup olive oil (doesn't need to be extra virgin)
1 medium red onion, peeled and chopped - not diced small, you want some size and shape
2 kiwi fruit peeled and each sliced into 8 or 9 slices
3 clementines, peeled and segmented (use canned mandarins without their juice if you prefer)
24 yellow cherry tomatoes halved (by the technique referenced above to save time)
1 lemon - zest and juice
Some roughly torn lettuce leaves (or baby spinach as a substitute if you wish)
A handful of baked pita chips broken into small bite sized pieces
Salt and pepper to taste.

Method

In a large skillet (preferably non-stick) heat the oil gently over medium heat. When shimmering, add the onion and stir. Cook slowly (sweat) the onion for about 8 minutes to soften it, but do not allow to brown. When the onion is softened, add the sliced kiwis, the segmented clementines and the lemon zest. Heat through, stirring gently so as not to break up the fruits. When warmed through turn off the heat, add the lemon juice and stir to combine. This essentially makes the dressing from the pan contents + the lemon juice.
Meanwhile place the lettuce, pita chips and tomatoes in one large or several individual bowls. Add the dressing (solids and liquids) over the top of the greens, tomatoes and pita chips. Season to taste.
Serve while still warm.
 

A kind of panzanella

It was a warm evening in September, here in TX. While the tomatoes are over, I was able to find some nice cherry toms and yellow small tomatoes at the store. Madame likes to use our home grown basil and bread in salads, so here is a variant on panzanella. It uses the bread in 2 ways - one mixed in to soak up all the juices and the other as a large crostini for display and crunch. The beer served with this is the excellent DuPont Saison.

There's a handy tip for slicing tomatoes and olives here http://seabirdskitchen.blogspot.com/2012/09/halving-olives-and-baby-tomatoes.html

Ingredients

10oz mixed small (cherry sized) tomatoes, sliced in half
6 oz pitted mixed greek olives
2T rinsed and drained capers
2 cloves garlic, sliced finely
Juice of 1 orange
1 cup whole basil leaves (divided use)
4 large slices of bread, grilled (or toasted)
High quality olive oil (drizzling)
Large crystals of sea salt
Freshly ground pepper
a couple of ounces of Pecorino Romano, shaved from a larger piece using a vegetable peeler.

Method

Halve the tomatoes and olives. Place in a gallon zip lock bag. Add the capers, garlic and all but 12 leaves of the basil chiffonaded. Add the orange juice Refrigerate for a couple of hours to let the flavors blend.

When ready to serve, grill the bread slices (or toast then if you prefer). Cut 2 of the slices into croutons, halve each of the other 2. Mix the croutons into the olive/tomato mixture and allow to stand for a few minutes - to soak up the juice.

Place the halved toast on the plate, and pile the olive/tomato mixture over most of the toast, leaving some of the toast uncovered so that it remailns crunchy and acts as a handle.

Drizzle the olive oil over the salad, decorate with the remaining basil leaves and a few grinds of pepper. Sprinkle large sea salt crystals for crunch. Arrange the sliced Pecorino Romano on top and serve.

Note

There were only 2 of us eating this as a main course. There was about 1/3rd of the olive/tomato mixture left over for a lunch time salad today.