Mom's Rice and Spinach Ring

I love this recipe (from Magimix Cookery). They say, "This is the most attractive vegetable dish and one that is very easy to make. Serve it with curries, roast meat or fish."

Ingredients:
12 oz (350g) long grain or Basmati rice
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 lb (450g) fresh spinach (or 8 oz - 225g - frozen spinach)
1 small bunch parsley (or dried)
1 large onion
1 green chilli pepper (or 1/4 tsp dried chilli pepper flakes)
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp oil
1/2 tsp ground cumin (I prefer cumin seeds, more fragrant when you've fried them)
1/2 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp garam masala (not too much)
2 oz/50g butter

Method:
* Cover rice with enough cold water to come 3/4 in. (2 cm) over the top of the rice, add 1/2 tsp salt, stir well, bring slowly to the boil, cover and simmer gently for 20 minutes. Stir well, to beat air into the grains, return the cover and simmer gently for 10 minutes by which time the rice should be tender and fluffy and all the water should have been absorbed. (I just boil the rice in lots of water for 10 mins, no measuring involved, drain and rinse with boiling water. Always perfect rice)
* Remove any tough stalks from the parsley. (I never bother; in fact, I use a ton of dried parsley. Seems to work!)
* Peel and roughly chop the onion and garlic.
* Remove the seeds from the chilli pepper. (flaked red pepper easier)
* Cook the spinach until just tender and drain well.

* With Magimix double-bladed knife: process the parsley until finely chopped and remove. (if you've used fresh parsley)

* Process the onion, garlic and chilli until finely chopped.

* Heat the oil in a frying pan, add the onion, garlic, cumin seed and chilli (flakes) and cook over a medium heat until the onion is soft and transparent.

* Add the (cumin), coriander and garam masala and cook, stirring, over a medium heat for four minutes. (why four minutes?)
* Process the spinach (a bit), add the butter and process for long enough to melt the butter (a second or two), unless you've used finely chopped spinach to start with in which case, just drain it!
* Add the onion and garlic mixture, the spinach and parsley to the rice and season with salt and pepper.

* Press the rice into an oiled ring mold, cover tightly with foil and bake in a moderate oven (350º F/170ºC/gas 4) for 45 minutes.

* Turn out onto a serving dish (as if you need to be told!?)

"Note: the center of the ring can be filled with a savory mixture of leftovers" or, much nicer, chicken/quorn tikka massala!

Roasted Butternut with Blue Cheese and Shiitake Mushrooms

I have refrained from posting this sooner because I thought I'd serve it when you came to visit. But Jon liked it so much, I shall share it. We've had it twice already since I found it in the Vegetarian magazine Karen gave me.

Ingredients:

1 lg butternut squash; 1 (!) clove garlic; 160g orzo pasta [or rice, in my case]; 1 banana shallot [?] or a few normal ones; 10 fresh sage leaves [or ground]; 60g shiitake mushrooms sliced; 125 crumbled [! have you ever been able to crumble?] vegetarian blue cheese; 30g roughly chopped walnuts; olive oil; three [!] knobs of butter.

Method:

Preheat oven to 190ºC/375ºF/gas 5. Clean the outside of the squash and remove seeds and fibres.

Brush the halves with olive oil/butter and crush the garlic into the two hollows. Season with salt and pepper. [Amazingly, 1 clove is actually sufficient.]

Bake in a pre-heated oven for an hour [or a microwave for about 2x5 mins.

Meanwhile, cook orzo/rice as directed.

Sauté sage, mushrooms and shallots with a knob of butter [or olive oil]. Then add orzo/rice.

Scoop flesh from butternuts leaving a good 1cm of flesh. Mix the scooped-out flesh with the pasta plus most of the blue cheese and walnuts.

Divide between the two halves and sprinkle with remaining blue cheese and walnuts.

Bake in oven for 15 mins until cheese is melted and squash is slightly golden.

I think next time, I'll just serve the above as a risotto type of dish!

It tastes very nice either way. ;-)

Broccoli-Edamame Soup

This recipe comes from Vegetarian Times. Through March 31, a 1-year (9 issue) subscription is only $7; well worth it; they always have delicious recipes with beautiful inspiring photos. I took this one:

Broccoli-Edamame Soup with Jumbo Goat Cheese Croutons
serves 8

VT says: "This creamy soup gets its extra richness and bright color from edamame".

I say: it was really surprisingly creamy! I didn't make the jumbo crouton and only used a teeny bit of nutmeg (I'm not a big fan but Jim likes it). Next time, I have to remember to peel the stems of the broccoli as they were very fibrous and I had to sieve the soup. That made it even smoother (and fancier).

2 tsp olive oil
2 cups chopped onion (about 4 small)
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
6 cups low-sodium vegetable broth (or 2 veggie broth cubes & 6 cups water)
3 cups frozen shelled edamame (= one 12 oz bag from Trader Joe's)
1 lb broccoli - stems & florets chopped (= one bunch from TJ's; peel stems first!)
2 cloves garlic, minced
8 ½-inch-thick slices from skinny whole grain baguette
4 oz. aged goat cheese, shaved (or soy cheese if you want to keep it vegan)

Heat oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onion and nutmeg, season with salt & pepper, if desired. Sauté 10 minutes. Stir in ½ cup broth, scraping bottom of pot to lift off any brown bits. Add remaining broth, edamame, broccoli, garlic. Bring mixture to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, partially covered, 20 minutes.

Meanwhile preheat oven to 350F. Arrange baguette slices on baking sheet, bake 6 minutes until crunchy on both sides. Remove from oven, arrange cheese over toasts. Return to oven and bake 6 minutes more, or until cheese has softened.

(When broccoli stems are soft:) Working in batches, transfer soup to blender and blend until creamy and smooth. Return soup to pot and warm over low heat. Ladle soup into 8 shallow soup bowls; float 1 cheese crouton in center of each bowl.

PER SERVING (1¼ CUP SOUP AND 1 CROUTON): 195 cal, 12g protein, 9g total fat (4g sat fat) 19g carb, 15mg chol, 174mg sodium, 5g fiber, 5g sugars

Salmon Coulibiac with lime pickle sauce

I thought I'd lost this recipe but found I'd very cleverly put a card of it in my recipe file. Now I'm posting it here so I don't lose it again...

Ingredients filling:
8-12 oz/225-330 gr poached salmon,
2 fat cloves garlic, crushed
2in/5 cm piece lemon grass = sereh
thumb-length piece root ginger [probably 1 Tbl ground]
2 Tbs stir-fry oil [I only ever use virgin olive oil for everything - simplifies matters]
1 x 300 gr Sainsbury's Chinese egg-fried rice*
1 Tbl soya sauce
2 dessert spoons chopped coriander
ground nut/vegetable oil [see above]
6 sheets filo pastry
sea salt and fresh milled pepper

Preheat oven to 230°C [strange number]!/450°F/Gas mk 8

Season salmon with S&P, chop into cubes; stir fry garlic, lemon grass, root ginger; add rice and soya sce.
Toss. Remove from heat, season, add coriander and salmon;

Lubricate [lubricate??] filo and line tin with alternate pieces.
Pile in the salmon/rice mixture; fold sheets over the top and bake in the oven for 12-15 min until the top is brown and crispy.

Meanwhile prepare sauce:

1 tub 200 ml crême fraiche [I always use fromage frais], coriander, 4 tsp Sharwood's lime pickle, lime juice, salt and pepper.
Lime pickle is very strong so add a little at a time to your liking. We love it!


*Ingredients Sains' Egg Fried Rice: rice, egg, peas, spring onions, sesame seed oil, ginger: cook rice, mix in spices and throw in a beaten egg or two to set in the warm rice)
Bon appétit!

Tante Ellen's Apple Strüdel

This recipe is so easy it's not true. I think the mistique around Apfelstrüdel comes from the pastry which is so difficult. We circumvent the problem using filo pastry!

We have come across two kinds of filo pastry: the right one, rectangular and a second one, squares. When you're in the middle of baking you don't run out to find other pastry; you use the stuff you have but overlap the ends and stick them together with melted butter.

Also, I have made this recipe using [frozen] Summer Fruits/Fruits of the Forest and left out the other ingredients, apart from sugar, of course. Dead easy. Here it is:

2 thinly sliced Bramley [cooking] apples [not kilos, as I did first, nor cups, but TWO - you will find this sufficient!]

1/4 C raisins 1/4 currants - or 1/2 cup raisins which I use

1/3 C white sugar/Splenda [generous]

1 [generous] tsp cinnamon

2/3 chopped walnuts/flaked almonds [I always use the latter - always have them in the house]

1 C melted butter

Flour your board. Lay 12 sheets of filo pastry on top of each other, spreading melted butter with a pastry brush between layers. If you have the square pieces, lay these end to end and use them up as if they were rectangular.

Lay apples and almonds in the length.

Tuck in the ends, roll up tightly.

Brush the top with the remaining butter, sprinkle sugar on top.

Bake for 30 mins at 400F/200C/gas mark 5 until golden.

Sprinkle icing sugar over before serving.

Gorgonzola mushrooms

We made this for our 25th wedding anniversary party - it is so easy and people love it.

In fact, it's so easy, there's not much to change on it.... read on.

Gino D'Acampo's combination of strong, blue cheese with sweet honey is a very sexy one and these mushrooms are great as a starter or light supper.

Serves: 2

Cooking time: short

INGREDIENTS:

• 8 large button mushrooms

• 50g runny honey

• 200g Gorgonzola cheese (at room temperature)

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 garlic clove, cut in half

• Salt and pepper

• Rocket to serve

METHOD:

• Preheat oven to 180C/350F/Gas Mark 4.

• Carefully remove the stalk from each mushroom and discard to create a cavity ready to be stuffed.

• Rub a little honey on the inside of the mushrooms with the tip of your finger then stuff each one with 1–2 tsp of Gorgonzola.

• Place the mushrooms on a baking tray, season and drizzle with the oil along with some more honey.

• Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes. Arrange the stuffed mushrooms on a large serving plate with a rocket salad.

Seared salmon with Cashew and Lemon Pesto

The official recipe (from the Tradfford Metro Newspaper) which officially "serves 2" is as follows:

for Pesto: 150 gr cashew nuts; 1 whole clove of garlic [or more - preferably more!]; 100 g Parmesan; 2 Tbls olive oil; juice of half a lemon [i.e. 1 Tbl from a bottle];

for Salmon: 1 Tbl olive oil; 2 x 200 gr salmon fillets, skinned and boned [duh! that's what a fillet is!].

Put cashews and garlic on a tray and roast in a hot oven (180ºC) for 6 minutes until lightly coloured*. Leave to cool. [smells lovely]

In a food processor, blend nuts, garlic, parmesan and lemon juice [recipe forgets to add the lemon juice at this point], slowly adding olive oil to form a paste.

In hot olive oil, sear both sides of the salmon fillet.

When ready to serve, place the pesto on top and grill under a hot grill ['broiler"] for about two minutes, until cheese has melted. Serve on a bed of beef tomatoes, roasted baby tomatoes and mixed leaves, adding an extra squeeze of lemon, if desired.

What the recipe fails to mention is the fact that 150gr cashews and half a wedge of parmesan cheese is enough for six people! Just bear this in mind.

It is very nice! A nice dry white wine on the side and... voilà!

Bon appétit!

p.s.. Julie: if you do this with pine nuts, you don't have to stand over them and watch them burn! They don't need to colour - just warm up to release the aroma/taste.