Tag Archives: Vegetables

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Potato Soup (Madhur Jaffrey)

1 T veget oil
1/8 in pebble asafetida or 1 pinch
1/4 tsp whole cumin
2 medium potatos, peeled and quartered
2 T tomato paste
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1 1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

Heat oil in 3 qt pot over medium flame, and put in asafetida and cumin, and stir once.  When seeds begin to sizzle, add potatos, tomato paste, turmeric, salt, and cayenne.  Stir and fry about 2 minutes.  Add 4 c water and bring to a boil.  Cover and simmer gently for 45 minutes.  Turn off heat, mash potatoes.  Serve.

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Vegetable Pakouris (Madhur Jaffrey)

1 small head cauliflower, or 4 medium sized onions or 1/2 to 3/4 pound peppers or 3 medium sized potatos or spinach or some combination thereof…

Batter:
1 c chickpea flour
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground turmeric
1/4 tsp ground cumin (best fresh ground)
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/8 tsp black pepper (also best fresh ground)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper

2 1/2 to 3 inches oil in the bottom of your chosen pan.

Put chickpea flour in a bowl.  Gradually mix in about 3/4 c water, until you have a thickish batter.  Add other ingredients and mix well.
Florette cauliflower, 1/16 in ring the onions, spear the peppers, or 1/16 in round the potatoes and put in a bowl of cold water.
Heat oil over low flame until hot but not smoking.  Take a few vegets bits at a time, wipe dry, and dip in batter.  Drop in oil.  Fry slowly, 7 to 10 minutes a side.  (Until cooked through and golden brown.)  Remove with slotted object and drain on paper towels.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

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Baked Macaroni and Cheese (McCall’s)

Had this for dinner last night.  Quite tasty, even in its present format, however, I would suggest upping the cheese in the sauce by 1/4-1/2 c cheese.  It could definitely have been cheesier.  I also doubt I actually used the stated amount of salt and pepper, as I sort of eyeballed fresh ground for our tastes.  (Less salt, probably a little more pepper.)  Also seemed it would go well with some garlic added somewhere in the process, which we will probably do next time.

1 pkg (8 oz) macaroni

1/4 c butter

1/4 c flour

1 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

2 c milk

2 c (8 oz) grated Cheddar Cheese

1 large tomato, thickly sliced

Preheat oven to 375.  Cook macaroni as package directs, drain.

While that is cooking, melt butter in medium saucepan.  Stir in flour, salt, and pepper, until smooth.  (Make a roux, essentially.)  Gradually stir in milk.  (Very gradually, especially at the beginning.  Once it starts to become liquid again, you can go a bit faster.)  Bring to boiling, stirring constantly, and then simmer 1 minute.  Remove from heat.

Stir in 1 1/2 c cheese and the macaroni.  Pour into a 1 1/2 quart, shallow casserole (works quite well in a not shallow one, too).  Arrange tomato slices over the top.  Sprinkle remaining cheese over the top.

Bake 15 minutes or until the cheese is golden brown (or until cheese is beautiful and melty and the sauce is boiling around the noodles.)

(4-6 servings)

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Spinach Frittata (McCall’s)

3 T oil

1/2 c thinly sliced onion

10 eggs

1 c finely chopped raw spinach (1/2 lb)

1/3 c grated Parmesan cheese

1 T chopped parsley

1 small clove garlic, crushed (I think I used a couple, my household really loves garlic.)

1 tsp salt

1/4 tsp pepper

PReheat oven to 350.  Heat oil in 10 inch heavy skillet (if using cast iron, make sure it is well-seasoned, or reseason it before starting.)  Add onion, saute until onion is tender and golden brown.  In large bowl, combine remaining ingredients.  With wire whisk or fork, beat until well blended.  Turn into skillet, with onion.  Cook over low heat, lifting from bottom with spatula as eggs set.  (It says three minutes, I guesstimated when it looked right-ish.)  Bake, uncovered, 10 minutes, or until top is set.  This can take quite a bit.  With spatula, loosen from bottom and around edges.  Cut into wedges and serve.

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Mustard Greens and Other Vegets

garlic
onions
yellow squash
zucchini
mustard greens
olive oil
opt:  chicken broth
salt, pepper

Saute the onions and garlic in a bit of olive oil. Once they start to become either translucent or to carmelize (depending on what sort of flavour you prefer), add butter and chopped up squash/zucchini.  Spice to taste (this is also where you add the broth if you want to.)  While those are sauteing, tear up the mustard greens into appropriate bits.  Once the squash and zucchini are cooked but not soggy, toss in the greens, stir near constantly until the greens are cooked to your preference.  Just barely wilted works here.
Simple, wonderfully tasty, and most of it was from our garden.

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Khatte Aloo (sour potatoes) (Madhur Jaffrey)

Experiment #2 with the Indian Cookbook.  These are stated as being a “street-side snack,” but I used them as a side for a mustard/turmeric chicken that I’d jury-rigged from an idea that came when making the chow-chow the other day, and with the saute of vegets that I’ve already posted.

Roasted cumin makes a lovely smell as you grind it.

The chicken didn’t work out the way I’d wanted it too, should have gone for a longer marinade and more vinegar, but it was still really tasty.  These were lovely.

7 medium sized potatoes, boiled ahead of time, set aside for at least two hours to cool
1 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
2-3 T lemon juice (or to taste)
2 tsp ground roasted cumin (shake seeds around in pan until they change colour, 3-5 minutes, and then grind up with method of your preference.  I prefer mortar & pestle + Kitchen Troll)
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1/4 – 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
2 T chopped Chinese parsley (didn’t have it, so didn’t use it.)

Peel the cooled potatoes, and dice them into 1/2 in cubes.  (Or sort of combine cutting them up into bites and letting them fall apart into bites, which is more what the process seemed to be to me.)
Place in large bowl.
Add remaining ingredients.  Mix well.  Taste test.  Serve as you like.  (Apparently on a plate with toothpicks is typical.)

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Texas Corncakes (Care2)

1/2 c flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1 t sugar
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cayenne
1 c cream corn
2 green onions, finely chopped
1 egg, beaten
1/4 c oil
1/2 c milk

Combine dry.  Combine wet, except for the milk.  (This includes the onions and 2 T of the oil.)  Add to the dry.  Stir in the milk.
Heat 2 T of oil in skillet.  Use 3 T of batter per cake.  Cook 3-5 minutes or until bubbles stick.  Flip, and cook another 2-5 minutes.

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“Welsh” Pizza (KHR)

3 Leeks
1 8 oz package mushrooms (portabella are choice)
1/2 c butter
worcestershire to taste
1 lb sausage
3 cloves garlic, chopped
english mustard, salt, pepper, thyme, rosemary, paprika to taste

Saute/Cook appropriately everything but the meats.  Couple spoons of that + 1/4 c pureed tomatos in a blender becomes the sauce.  The meats can either be presauteed in what is left from making the “sauce” or they can be cooked on the pizza crust.  Throw some cheese on top of the sauce, add other toppings, if you like, place the meat…

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Stuffed Mushrooms (KHR)

2 lbs mushrooms
6 T butter
8 oz cream cheese
1/2 c crumbled Bleu Cheese
2 T ch onion

Remove mushroom stems.  Chop up enough to make 1/2 c.  Cook/Saute stems in butter for a bit.  Combine cheeses, add stems and onions.  Brown backs and tops of caps a little in the butter.  Put cheese mixture into caps. (Generally a good idea to make to this point and then take them to wherever they will be eaten before broiling.)  Broil until golden brown.
I never really follow the ratios here, especially the cream cheese to other cheese one.  Works more as “mix crumbled other cheese into cream cheese until you think it looks right.”  I also always have more goo than mushrooms to put the goo in, but it makes really tasty sandwiches, so I’ve never minded.  Particularly good using portabella, but you want to saute both sides of those fairly thoroughly before cheesing and broiling them.  Also works well with feta replacing the bleu.

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Roasted Potatos (Betsy Codier)

2 lb potato – skin on, cut up into bite sized pieces
2 cloves of garlic (give or take your taste for it) – skin on
1/4 c parsley
1 1/2 tsp grated orange rind
1 tsp thyme
salt and pepper to taste

Put oil in roasting pan.  heat 5-10 minutes at 450.  Add garlic, heat another 5-10 minutes.  Add potatos, make sure get fairly covered with the garlic oil.  Bake for 50 minutes, stirring every 10, adding salt and pepper as seems apt.  Peel and crush garlic, mix with spices, stir into potats.  The parsley I generally cut back on a bit in the mixture, sometimes other spices used, etc…  Even just the potats roasted this way with just the salt and pepper and garlic is pretty spiffy.