lunch box: vegan casserole

contents:

vegan casserole with tofu crust
sesame brown rice (with sesame oil and seeds)

Sometimes I see a recipe that is so super-vegetarian that its almost as if someone went inside James' brain, picked out all his most hated things to eat, and figured out how to combine them into one dish. This casserole on Epicurious is just such a gem. I figured since there was no way in hell he was going to partake in this week's lunch food, I might as well go all out and try to substitute the cheese for something vegan. Up until now nutritional yeast has been like some friend of a friend you're always hearing about, but never actual meet in person. It's possible I've eaten it at restaurants and not known, but I've certainly never cooked with it before. It came highly recommended though, so I bought some to use instead of parmesan in this recipe. It's defiantly not cheese, but it is sort of cheese-like in a powdered mac and cheese packet kind of way.

Also I just have to say how much I hate when people write out recipes by weight. I get it. Vegetables are all different sizes. They are individual snowflakes. But, does this author really think I'm in my kitchen with a scale weighing a 1/2 lb of carrots? Just tell me 3-5 carrots and I'll wing it from there.

ingredients:

2 tbs olive oil
2 medium onions
1 medium sized cabbage
1 bunch of kale
4 carrots
1/2 cup water
2 tbs soy sauce (conveniently about the amount that comes in one of those Chinese food take out packages)

1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
1/2 package of firm tofu
1/2 cup nutritional yeast
1/3 cup olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp cayenne pepper
1 chopped garlic clove

It will be easier if you chop all your vegetables first, since you don't want to over-cook one veggie in the frying pan while you're chopping another. Remove core from cabbage and cut into slices. Peel and cut carrots into thin matchsticks. Remove heavy stems from kale and lightly chop leaves. Slice onions. With all the vegetables, try to keep your slices on the larger size.

In large frying pan cook onion slices in oil until clear

Add kale, cabbage and carrots. You may need to add the cabbage and kale in sections since it takes up a lot of space before it cooks down. Add water and soy sauce. Cook until carrots begin to get soft.

Transfer veggies to large casserole pan.

Preheat oven to 350

In a food processor combine your topping ingredients-- bread crumbs, tofu, nutritional yeast, oil, garlic and spices. I buy seasoned breadcrumbs, so I opted out of adding additional salt, oregano and basil here. Paprika, I couldn't turn down and also added a little cayenne pepper for extra flavor. Blend ingredients thoroughly. The resulting mixture will be very doughy in texture.

I wont lie to you, getting this sticky dough on top of the casserole is a hassle. The best system I worked out was to keep wetting my hands with water and make small pancake shapes to lay on top. Once you have a full layer of dough you can pinch together the sections to make it more even. No matter what, you'll end up with a crumbly looking crust, but I think that's the idea anyway.

Bake for 20-25 minutes or until crust browns nicely

eggplant parmesan

We are embarrassingly far into January to try and bring up holiday dishes, but I did promise Christmas food and then never followed up on it after two latke postings. That hardly seems fair. The holidays have a certain magic for making time/plans disappear, don't they? Now I know that technically this is not a "Christmas Dish", but it always makes me think of any holiday with my Mom's side of the family since it's one thing my grandmother knows for a fact I love to eat. I don't know what it is (maybe because you can't have meat on Friday but seafood is allowed?), but I don't think there's been a year when someone hasn't said in a disappointed voice, "oh you don't even eat fish?! that's sad..." while passing the clams casino to the next person. Yes its a tragedy, but I soldier on.

Traditionally of course, you are supposed to fry the eggplant first in a batter of eggs and breadcrumbs or flour, but in the past few years my Mom has started simply baking the eggplant instead of frying it to make the dish a little more healthy. This time I tried roasting in the oven first and it gave the eggplant such a nice flavor that you don't miss the batter at all.

Following my New Years resolution on sauces, I decided to make the tomato sauce from scratch this time. Well, I guess it's not exactly from scratch since I used canned tomatoes, but it's a start. Next baby step: fresh tomatoes.

Between prep for the eggplant and making sauce I wouldn't recommend cooking this on a work night unless you're willing to eat late. The good news is despite being time consuming, it's very simple. Just make sure you're not hungry and trying to pull it together at 6pm, not that I did that...

ingredients:

1 large can (28 oz) tomatoes in sauce
3 garlic cloves chopped
one small onion finely chopped
3 tb olive oil
rosemary, salt, pepper, and sugar to taste

2 medium eggplant
grated mozzarella cheese
fresh basil

Peel and slice eggplant into coins about 1/2 inch thick. Lightly salt on both sides and layer in between paper towel on a plate.

Weight down eggplant slices with heavy cans, pots, etc. Allow eggplant to drain like this for one hour. If you're thinking "why the hell am I doing this?" the answer is: water from the eggplant is not only bitter, but will make your dish soggy. Also you can feel justified in hanging on to that jar of cranberry sauce from two years ago by putting it to good use.

In a medium sized pot fry onions and garlic in olive oil until clear

Stir in can of tomatoes and season with spices. Don't be afraid of the sugar-- its great for sauce.

Reduce heat and simmer uncovered for at least 40 minutes. Stir occasionally to keep from burning and smash up any large chunks of tomato with your spoon as they soften.

preheat oven to 450

Lightly brush eggplant slices on both sides with olive oil. Bake in oven for 10 minutes on each side.

Sprinkle a little olive oil in the bottom of a large baking pan. Spread thin layer of tomato sauce on the bottom, add a layer of eggplant, and then shredded mozzarella. Continue layering like this until you've used up the last of your eggplant.

Bake for another 20-25 minutes or until cheese is melted and bubbling. Serve with fresh basil.

Also to keep with the vintage photo theme-- here is a lovely one of my Mom.

lunch box: pasta frittata

contents:

pasta frittata with peas
cannellini and spinach salad
olives

I can never make the right amount of salad or pasta. I know there are tricks (like a handful of spaghetti for each person), but every time I start portioning things out I either under or over estimate how many people are eating and how hungry we are. So I was really excited when I saw this pasta frittata recipe in my new Bittman cookbook, because it gave me somewhere to use the extra spaghetti that would otherwise just be staring at me pathetically from the strainer. He recommends using long pasta, but I think you could probably use any kind and it wouldn't kill the dish. Obviously this is an excuse to dump in whatever veggies you happen to have in the fridge. Tomatoes are definitely needed in future versions.

ingredients:

2 tb butter
5 eggs
1 cup green peas
leftover long pasta (I think I had somewhere between 1/4 and 1/2 of a box)
3/4 cup parmesan cheese
salt, pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees

If you have the right sized frying pan this couldn't get simpler. Cook eggs (whisked first) and pasta in butter over medium heat. Stir in peas, cheese, and spices making sure pasta is evenly distributed in the pan.

Continue cooking until bottom sets, then place whole pan in the oven until top has cooked through.

Now the problem is...I own two frying pans, one too big and one too small for this to work. I ended up letting the eggs cook for awhile in the larger frying pan and then transferring the mixture to a casserole dish. So if you also suffer from lack of a 'mama bear' sized frying pan, any baking dish should work out fine. You'll just need to cook it a little longer in the oven.

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For the bean salad I sauteed a few handfuls of fresh spinach in 3 cloves of garlic and olive oil. Let spinach cool, then toss with 1 can of cannellini beans, 1/2 of a small red onion (chopped finely), and a little pepper.

a few updates

I'm back, after what seemed like a never ending string of holidays. I guess if you start a food blog you're pretty much guaranteed to be gifted some cookbooks, and sure enough I was given two great ones for Christmas-- Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian and Tea and Crumpets which is full of such beautiful looking treats that I keep leafing through it like a picture book. So, you can expect some projects to turn up from those books soon I'm sure.

Also I have a few New Years cooking resolutions that hopefully (maybe?) I will follow through on...

1. Learn to make more sauces from scratch, both simple ones that I would normally buy in a jar and some more complex

2. Expand my spices outside the usual cast of characters

3. Continue ongoing baking quest. Try to make more savory baked goods, not just cookies (as awesome as they are)

4. Make an effort to cook more vegan food. This means you cheese. I'm not saying let's end it, but we need some space. It's not you, its me (well... and you too a bit)

How about you, any cooking plans for the new decade? Actual food and recipes are on the way soon I promise.