Category Archives: casseroles

May 4, 2013

Braised eggs with lamb, tahini and sumac (from the Jerusalem cookbook)

Braised eggs with lamb, tahini and sumac

King Daddy and I were marveling today as we wolfed down a plate of chicken and chorizo at our favorite Mexican restaurant how far we’ve come since we were kids. In my hometown, there was one – yes – ONE Chinese restaurant. It wasn’t even a restaurant; take-out only. There was one Italian restaurant. No Greek, no Mediterranean, no Thai and no Japanese. Indian food? I wouldn’t discover it for another 30 years. Even when we moved to Tennessee in 1993, the popular restaurant of choice was Red Lobster.

N0w, we can get a decent bowl of the delicious Vietnamese soup, Pho, not 10 minutes from the house. There’s stewed goat to be had at the Indian buffet nearby. And there’s sushi in every supermarket. Good times. We are living in very good times.

When we moved here there was no access to ethnic ingredients. Making a recipe like the fabulous braised eggs with lamb, tahini and sumac would have been impossible. Now, it’s a short hunt for the ingredients. Makes me feel like I’m wearing my grown-up pants. The recipe comes from a fabulous cookbook, Jerusalem, which introduces some of us to new flavors. If you are from the Middle East, it’s probably the equivalent of cooking from the Fannie Farmer Cookbook. But to this Tennessee girl, exploring ingredients such as sumac, tahini and harissa is thrilling.

So here’s my primer for the uninitiated about some of the more unusual ingredients and where to get them (at least in Nashville).

Ground lamb: It is usually available in supermarkets. You just have to hunt for it in the meat section. Or, if you’re lucky enough to have my beloved Publix in your hometown and they don’t have ground lamb, just ask the meat guy and he’ll grind some for you.

Sumac: This is a spice that has a tart flavor, sort of like little pellets of lemon juice. I sprinkle it on salads, use it in stews and it’s a must for this recipe. I get sumac at the International Market at the Nashville Farmer’s Market.

Harissa: Harissa is a hot red pepper paste used in North African cooking. I had to hunt for it hard at the Whole Foods, but I found a jar of it nestled near the hot sauces and salsa.

Tahini: This is more common than you think. Tahini is a paste made from sesame seeds and it’s what makes hummus taste so good. You can find jars or cans of it in the International aisle of most supermarkets.

Preserved lemon: I struck out on this one. There’s a recipe in the book, but you have to make it in advance and I needed some braised eggs with lamb, tahini and sumac immediately so I just left it out.

Don’t get me wrong. King Daddy still loves his country fried steak. But I got the ultimate complement for this dish: “I could have that again.” And you will, King Daddy. You will.

 

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Braised eggs with lamb, tahini and sumac (from the Jerusalem cookbook)
Author: 
Recipe type: Main dish
Cuisine: Middle Eastern
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 

Serves: 4
 

Ingredients
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 6 cloves of garlic, sliced thinly
  • 10 oounces ground lamb
  • 2 teaspoon sumac plus extra to finish
  • 1 teaspoon ground cumin
  • Scant ½ cup toasted unsalted pistachios
  • 7 tablespoons toasted pine nuts
  • 2 teaspoons harissa
  • 1 tablespoon finely chopped preserved lemon peel
  • 1⅓ cups cherry tomatoes
  • ½ cup chicken stock
  • 4 large free-range eggs
  • ¼ cup picked cilantro leaves
  • Salt and freshly ground black pepper
  • Yogurt Sauce
  • Scant ½ cup Greek yogurt
  • 1½ tablespoons tahini paste
  • 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
  • 1 tablespoon water (as needed)

Instructions
  1. Heat the olive oil over medium-high heat in a medium, heavy-bottomed frying pan for which you have a tight fitting lid. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 6 minutes to soften and color a bit. Raise the heat to high, add the lamb, and brown well, 5 to 6 minutes. Season with sumac, cumin, ¾ teaspoon salt, and some black pepper and cook for another minute. Turn off the heat, stir in the nuts, harissa, and preserved lemon and set aside.
  2. While the onion is cooking, heat a separate small caste-iron pan over high heat. Once piping hot, add the cherry tomatoes and char for about 4-6 minutes, tossing them in the pan occasionally, until slightly blackened on the outside. Set aside.
  3. Prepare the yogurt sauce by whisking together all the ingredients with a pinch of salt. In needs to be thick and rich but you may need to add a slash of water if it is stiff.
  4. Add the chicken stock to the meat and bring to a boil. Make 4 small wells in the mix and break an egg into each well. Cover the pan and cook the eggs over low heat for 3 minutes.
  5. Remove from the heat and dot with dollops of the yogurt sauce, sprinkle with sumac, and finish with cilantro.

 

 

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April 6, 2013

Bacon mushroom breakfast casserole

Bacon Mushroom Breakfast Casserole

So, here we are on Day 2 of the Mayhew/Harbin/Mayhew Reunion and so far we have not starved. We have gone through one Shepherd’s Pie; one crockpot of corned beef and cabbage with buttered potatoes, rice and rolls; a precious plenty of onion dip and ham dip, shortbread cookies from Scotland (thank you, Tammy!); assorted breakfast muffins; cinnamon rolls, three flavors of cheese in a can (yes!) with Ritz crackers; Kit-Kats; crunchy Cheetos and miniature Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups.

However, I will proudly say that I think the most delicious offering yet is Noah’s breakfast casserole. Noah joined the rotation of cooks and/or snack providers this year. It is momentous. The last time Noah ascended to a major adult group was when Granddaddy, Mark and I invited him outside to the patio for our annual consumption of oysters on the half shell at Bunny’s Thanksgiving celebration. We did not issue the invitation lightly. Rituals are, well, rituals and the wrong participants can totally screw the whole thing up.

Noah thought for quite awhile about his debut dish at the reunion. I can unequivocally report that the bacon mushroom breakfast casserole was utterly delicious. He has been invited into the close circle of cooks and snack makers. Welcome, Noah.

Bacon Mushroom Breakfast Casserole (Recipe by Noah Mayhew)

1 pound of bacon

1 large onion

1 8-ounce package fresh sliced mushrooms

16 ounces fresh spinach

4 cups of bread, cubed

1 cup shredded pepperjack cheese

1 cup shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

8 eggs

1 ½ cups whole milk

½ cup sour cream

Fry the bacon until crisp. Reserve about 2 tablespoons of the bacon grease and sauté the mushrooms  and onions over medium heat until the mushrooms release all their juice and begin to brown. Add the spinach and continue to cook until the spinach is wilted.

Grease a 9-by-13 inch baking dish with butter.  Layer the bread cubes in the dish. Top with the cheeses and mushroom/spinach mixture. Whisk the eggs, milk and sour cream together. Pour over the bread mixture and top with crumbled bacon.

Cover with foil and refrigerate overnight. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes covered. Uncover the dish and bake for another 30 minutes.

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April 4, 2013

Shepherd’s Pie

Shepherd's Pie

So today, as soon as King Daddy wakes up, we are off to the Great Smoky Mountains for our semi-annual Mayhew-Harbin-Mayhew family reunion. Of course, I have been up since 5:30 a.m. because it is my belief that when you go on vacation, you should leave the minute you get out of bed. Sadly, King Daddy does not subscribe to that belief.

We have grown this year at an alarming rate. The original group is the Tennessee Mayhews (Mark, Catherine and Noah), the Tennessee Harbin (Granbunny) and the North Carolina Mayhews (Josh, Tammy and Sydney). However, word of the hilarity that ensues when we get together has spread and this year the North Carolina Silversteins (my sister, Louise, and her children, Max and Ana), the Tennessee Shular (Bunny’s daughter-in-law, Rebecca) and the Georgia Utley (Jordan, Noah’s boyfriend) are joining us.

Food, of course, is our primary concern because we are, after all, in a remote area of the wilderness where the nearest grocery store is, oh, three miles away. So we must pack in all our provisions for three days so that every speck of counter space in our luxury cabin is covered with grocery bags. After all, we might starve.

Of course, I completely over-thought my main offering, which is supper tonight. I am not used to cooking for people who are highly concerned about where their next meal is coming from. So I made an enormous pan of Shepherd’s Pie because it is easy and because the ingredients will not break the bank.

By the way, here is a tip for you when cooking casseroles for a crowd. Never volunteer the ingredients. Invariably, someone will object to one or more of them on the basis that “they don’t like” fill-in-the-blank. For example, if someone says they don’t like onions I will look them straight in the eye and say there’s aren’t any onions in this casserole even though that is a bald faced lie.

Shepherd’s Pie (Serves 12)

2 pounds ground chuck

1 pound ground lamb

½ cup taco seasoning

1 medium onion

8 ounces fresh mushrooms, coarsely chopped

1 16-ounce bag frozen mixed vegetables

1 15.25 can white corn, drained

2 cans Campbell’s golden mushroom soup, undiluted

2 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste

Brown the chuck and lamb in a large sauté pan over medium high heat, draining excess grease. Add the taco seasoning, mix and place in a large bowl.

Sauté the onion in the same pan, adding a little vegetable oil if necessary, until it is translucent. Add the mushrooms and continue cooking until the mushrooms give up all their liquid. Add to the meat mixture along with the remaining ingredients.

Spoon the meat mixture into a 13 ¼ inch by 9 5/8 inch disposable pan (I bought the Hefty All-Purpose Pan with Cover). Top with mashed potatoes. Bake at 350 degrees for about 30 minutes or until the pie is thoroughly hot.

Mashed potatoes

7-8 medium to large red potatoes

1 stick butter

Whole milk

½ cup sour cream

Salt and pepper to taste

Chop the potatoes into chunks, leaving the skins on, and cook in boiling water until tender. Drain and add the butter. When the butter has melted, mash the potatoes with a potato masher until smooth. Begin adding the milk, and continue mashing until potatoes are the consistency you like. Mix in the sour cream with a spoon and salt and pepper to taste.

 

 

 

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March 28, 2013

Kale, mushroom and cheese bread pudding

Kale, mushroom and cheese bread pudding

Four more meals. Four more vegetarian meals. And I will have made it 40 days as a part-time vegetarian. Why this was so hard, I do not know. But temptation has been everywhere for me.

Yesterday I almost fell off the meatless bandwagon. Noah is home on Spring Break and was craving lox and cream cheese on a bagel. Me, too. I bought the ingredients and watched him make the sandwich. I actually leaned down to smell that wonderful aroma of smoked salmon. And then I had a glass of wine.

But I have to say I was not tempted by meat last night when I made this bread pudding. It is super simple and super delicious. I had to laugh at King Daddy, though. He had a heaping plate of it with three slices of toasted bread on the side. Bread with your bread pudding?

Usually, I give up hamburgers for Lent. I love hamburgers, Love, love, love them. But it’s not as hard because I’m not giving up a whole huge category of food. But just four more meals and I know what I’m having tomorrow night. I’ve tried to keep it relatively healthy on the vegetarian front but I’m going to indulge in a precious plenty of the blue box, the holy grail of processed food – Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. I do not follow the package instructions. I make it even more unhealthy. After boiling the macaroni I add in way more butter than the instructions call for and then the cheese powder. After I mix it up I add just enough milk to create a thick, cheesy sauce. I’ll snap a photo of it for you. But I won’t share.

Kale, Mushroom and Cheese Bread Pudding

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 bunch kale

½ teaspoon crushed red pepper

Salt and freshly ground pepper

8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms

1 small yellow onion, thinly sliced

3 large eggs

1 ½ cups whole milk

8 thin slices ciabatta bread

4 ounces shredded sharp Cheddar

Slice the kale into thin ribbons. In a large skillet, heat the olive oil on medium high heat. Add the kale, crushed red pepper, and salt and pepper to taste. Saute until the kale begins to turn brown. Remove and reserve.

Add the mushrooms and onions and continue cooking until the mushrooms are browned and have given off all their liquid. Combine with the kale.

Beat the eggs and whisk in the milk. Grease a 9-by-9 inch baking dish with olive oil. Lay down four slices of the bread, cutting if need be to form a single layer. Top the bread with half the kale mixture and half the cheese. Repeat one more layer. Pour the egg mixture in the pan and let it sit for about 15 minutes so the bread is thoroughly soaked.

Cover with foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 30 minutes. Uncover and bake for an additional 20-25 minutes.

 

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March 22, 2013

Indian vegetable curry

Indian vegetable curryI feel sorry for the People of Vegan Land. It is a dry and dusty place.

My friend, LauraAnn Larson, messaged me the other day after I posted a recipe for Fried Eggs and Vegetable Hash on Facebook and said this: “Man, I wished we lived with you! I bet you’d come up with amazing vegan dishes! We have not.”

The Larsons became vegans for Lent, which lasts for 40 days. Vegans, for those who don’t know, not only give up meat but also dairy. That leaves you with a pitiful selection of rice, beans, tofu and vegetables.  Since there’s no cheese, eggs or milk, basically it takes the fat out of your food. And what is fat? C’mon, you all know this. Fat is flavor.

It occurred to me that in my quest for my own Lenten part-time vegetarian diet, I had inadvertently created a Vegan vegetable curry. It is not dry and dusty. It’s friggin’ delicious. So, LauraAnn, I know Lent is almost over, but here you go.

Indian vegetable curry

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

½ large yellow onion, finely diced

2 large cloves garlic, minced

One 1-inch piece of fresh ginger, peeled and minced

½ teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cumin

½ teaspoon ground turmeric

¼ teaspoon cayenne pepper

½ teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon tomato paste

2 cups vegetable broth

1 13.5-ounce can coconut milk

Salt and freshly ground pepper

2 cups cauliflower florets (get these from the salad bar at the grocery store, if you can)

1 large sweet potato, peeled and cut into ½-inch cubes

1 cup diced carrots

1 15.5-ounce can diced tomatoes, drained

1 15.5-ounce can chickpeas, drained

Juice from ½ fresh lime

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until it begins to brown. Add the garlic and ginger and cook for 30 seconds. Add the spices and cook for 30 seconds to toast them. Add the tomato paste and blend well. Continue to cook for about a minute.

Add the broth, coconut milk and season with salt and pepper to taste.  Add the cauliflower, sweet potatoes and carrots. Reduce the heat to medium low and simmer until the vegetables are tender, about 25 minutes.

Stir in the tomatoes, chickpeas and lime juice. Season to taste with salt.

To thicken the curry, combine 1 tablespoon of cornstarch with 2 tablespoons of cold water in a small bowl. Mix until combined and add to the curry.

Serve over brown rice because you’re just so 1970s.

 

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March 3, 2013

Bunny’s broccoli rice casserole

Funeral at Farragut Presbyterian

It is 9:30 at night and Bunny, my mother-in-law who lives in Knoxville, is guiding her buggy down the aisles of the Kroger while talking to me on the phone. She is stocking up on funeral food that she will lovingly prepare as one of the ladies from Farragut Presbyterian Church after services for Ashley Roback, a wife and mother who died of breast cancer at age 30. Bunny is not thinking that her marathon trip to the grocery store is anything special.

“It doesn’t matter what religion you are,” says Bunny as she heads towards the freezer section for some Cool Whip. “It’s what you do.”

So, of course, I asked Bunny to take a picture of the food so I could check out the Presbyterian version of what we Episcopalians think we have cornered the market on – the well-prepared funeral food table. I will be getting to the broccoli rice casserole shortly.

Alrighty then. What do I see? Fruit. Episcopalians are not big on fruit unless there’s a cream cheese dip in the middle of the platter. But it’s healthy so I’ll give the Presbyterians a pass. Deviled eggs. Now you’re talking. A funeral reception is not complete without deviled eggs. Sister Schubert yeast rolls. Always well appreciated. Thousands of Southern women abruptly stopped making homemade yeast rolls as soon as Sister Schubert rolled out her frozen ones. I believe I am spying a sweet potato casserole with browned marshmallows on top. Good call. Nothing more comforting than a sweet potato casserole.

And next? Could it be? It appears to be the coveted broccoli rice casserole. If I’m wrong, don’t correct me. Broccoli rice casserole may be the single best side dish ever because – drum roll! – it’s made with an entire jar of Cheez Whiz.

Bunny started making broccoli rice casserole for her yearly Thanksgiving extravaganza. It was not uncommon for 40-50 people to show up at Bunny’s just to fight their way to the buffet table for this one dish. Every year, I would carefully monitor the broccoli rice casserole pan as guest after guest took a scoopful. When it was about three quarters gone, I would swoop in and fib that there was another one coming right out of the oven. Shameful, I know. But there was no other way to ensure that I would get the leftovers (Bunny, do not judge me). And, of course, I am lying. But I wanted to. The saddest sight in the world is the broccoli rice casserole pan empty with just a few shreds of rice clinging to the sides. Which I would eat with my fingers.

In the midst of tragedy, with a family still foggy with grief, somehow broccoli rice casserole and the other food lovingly prepared by good Christian women brings comfort. It is the familiar in a world suddenly strange and cold. I did not know Ashley, but my heart aches for her husband, children, parents and other family members. And I am fairly certain she looked down from the greatest potluck ever created and said, “Good job. But the broccoli rice casserole here is better.”

Broccoli Rice Casserole

1 10-ounce package frozen chopped broccoli, thawed

½ cup chopped onion

½ cup butter

1 1/3  cups cooked rice

1 8-ounce jar processed cheese spread, such as Cheez Whiz

1 can cream of mushroom soup, undiluted

Combine broccoli and onion. Cook according to package directions. Drain and add remaining ingredients. Stir well.

Pour into a greased 9-by-13 casserole dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

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February 20, 2013

Brown rice, nut and cheese loaf

Brown rice, nut and cheese loaf 010

So how’s this vegetarian thing working out for you during Lent, you might ask? More importantly, how’s it working out for The Carnivore, King Daddy?

I just have one word to say: Seconds.

I have given up meat three days a week for Lent. I got kind of a slow start, as far as inspiration goes. Which is why I did not post the “recipe” for Brussels sprouts with brown rice or the one for thin spaghetti with butter and Parmesan cheese. That’s what I had the first two days. King Daddy was all set the first week because I made him beef short ribs and chili. But this week, I’ve gotten my sea legs and King Daddy was so shamed by my selfless acts of carnivore kindness that he offered this: “Uh, I’ll try your vegetarian food.” A ringing endorsement and I took it!

Rattling around in my head (a dry and dusty place, at times) was a recipe I’d made, oh, 30 years ago for Nut and Cheese Loaf, created by Deborah Madison of Greens Restaurant, a vegetarian joint that’s still going strong in San Francisco after 34 years. By the way, sadly many vegetarian restaurants bite the dust in Nashville because it is incomprehensible to us that a meal would not include bacon, country ham or fried chicken. We feel as though someone’s trying to pull a fast one on us. We have Meat n’ Threes. That’s meat and three sides. Nobody ever just orders the sides unless they’re coming down with the flu.

But I digress. So I fiddled with the original recipe a bit because basically what we’re talking about here is a meatloaf without the meat and who follows an exact recipe for meatloaf?  The original recipe calls for walnuts and cashews, but I had walnuts and hazelnuts. The hazelnuts worked fine and I can successfully report that you can buy hazelnuts while on a trip to visit your great friend Mary Ann, bring them home, freeze them for almost two years and they’ll still be just fine.

So back to King Daddy. He eyed the loaf warily when it came out of the oven. I cut him a big old fat slab of it and threw a sauteed chicken breast on the plate as a peace and love offering. He cleaned his plate and asked for seconds.

Brown rice, cheese and loaf  (Inspired by Deborah Madison, The Green’s Cookbook)

1-1/2 cups walnuts

1/2 cup hazelnuts

2 cups cooked brown rice (frozen rice you can cook in the microwave is the way to go here)

2 tablespoons butter

1 medium yellow onion, chopped fine

1/2 cup mushrooms, chopped fine

1/2 ounce dried chanterelle mushrooms, soaked in hot water for 20 minutes, then drained and chopped

1 tablespoons dried parsley

1/2 teaspoon dried thyme

1/2 teaspoon dried sage

2 large cloves of garlic, minced

4 large eggs, beaten

9-12 ounces of grated cheese, any kinds that go together (I used Swiss and gruyere)

1 cup cottage cheese

Salt and pepper to taste

 

Preheat oven to 375° F.  Butter a loaf pan and line the bottom of the pan with waxed or parchment paper, then butter it again.

Toast walnuts and cashews on a baking sheet until lightly browned, about 7 minutes. Let cool. Chop in a food processor until fine.

Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat. Add the onion and cook until translucent. Add the mushrooms, dried mushroom, garlic and herbs. Saute until the mushrooms are  browned and any liquid has evaporated.  Let cool.  Stir in the cooked rice, nuts, eggs, cheese, and the cottage cheese. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan. Bake for 55-60 minutes until the top is golden brown and firm to the touch.  Let the loaf cool in pan 10 minutes, then invert it onto a serving plate, peeling off the waxed paper and turning the top back up.

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February 7, 2013

Casseroles and good Christian women

Like every church, I am sure, St. Paul’s Episcopal has a list of people in need of casseroles. It’s not called that. It’s the list of people who’ve just had babies, major surgery or are facing some other challenge requiring outside intervention at suppertime. For the Women of St. Paul’s, it’s like hitting a gong next to our heads when these calls for assistance go out.  We will practically break down your door to bring you a casserole. All we need to hear is that you’ve suffered a sprained thumb and we are on it.

St. Paul’s uses an internet meal planner called Meal Baby to coordinate our offerings to those in need. In the olden days, it was entirely possible for someone who’d just had knee replacement surgery to receive five or six identical casseroles. I mean, really, you can only be so grateful for five pans of Chicken Divan. But with Meal Baby, you log on to find the list of parishioners needing meals and sign up for a date, listing what you will bring. And the genius of this  is the calendar also lists everyone else and what they’re bringing.

This, of course, has its downside. You are thinking chili and cornbread, and then you click on the date just before you and find out the offering is Steak Diane and Scalloped Potatoes.  Ouch.

For my money, casseroles are always the way to go. Why? You know this one. They reheat beautifully! So, today, I dropped off a pan of Poppy Seed Chicken to a parishioner in need. It’s a Southern thing. Someone way back when decided to think up an actual use for poppy seeds. Now, you can barely find your table at the tea room without getting Poppy Seed Chicken plopped at your place. It usually comes with frozen congealed salad with a dollop of mayonnaise on top but I’m not good at congealed salads.

I’ve posted this before, but you may have forgotten. So here you go.

Poppy Seed Chicken

1 supermarket rotisserie chicken

2 tablespoons butter

8 ounces sliced fresh mushrooms

2 cans cream of chicken soup

16 ounces sour cream

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

1 sleeve Ritz crackers

1/3 cup butter melted

Remove the chicken from the bones and shred it. Melt the butter in a sauté pan and cook the mushrooms until they have released all their juice and they are well browned. Reserve. In a large bowl, mix the chicken soup, sour cream, and poppy seeds. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add the mushrooms and the chicken.

Pour chicken mixture into a 9-by-13 dish. Crush the crackers and mix with the melted butter. Sprinkle over the top of the chicken. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

 

 

 

 

 

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January 18, 2013

Baked spaghetti

I have been cogitating over what to say about casseroles and, after a half a glass of red wine, I have come to this: Casseroles are a lot of damn work. And the recipients of the end product never appreciate this fact.

Casseroles are great on the back end. They yield multiple leftovers which, generally speaking, are better the next day. On the front end, though, they are time consuming and labor intensive. I don’t want to turn you off to baked spaghetti because it is truly yummy and the ONLY time I ever combine spaghetti or sauce with Cheddar cheese.

But here’s how the prep goes:

1. Haul out your biggest pot to make the sauce, chop up the veg, brown the ground chuck, add the rest of the ingredients, cook for about 30 minutes while watching the Ellen DeGeneres show and drinking a glass of wine. That’s about an hour total.

2. Haul out your widest pan to cook the pasta. If you don’t know Harold McGee’s revolutionary way to cook pasta, read it here. That’s maybe 15 minutes.

3. Assemble the casserole. And here’s the irritating part: CLEAN UP ALL THE POTS, SPOONS, KNIVES, CUTTING BOARDS AND OTHER EQUIPMENT YOU’VE USED. Am I yelling? Apparently, I am. Sadly, at this point, the Ellen show has ended and I must resort to watching four-year-old episodes of Paula Deen while washing, drying and putting away all the dirty stuff. It’s kind of hard watching Paula plow through a cake with two sticks of butter, hamburgers served on Krispy Kreme doughnuts and fried ice cream now that we all know she has diabetes. But I digress.

4. Serve casserole and try to bite your tongue when the kitchen help only has one pan to wash. It’s not their fault. They don’t even know that the rash from your dishpan hands started two hours ago.

That said, this is a great casserole for cold weather. By the way, it has come to my attention that I never offer up how many servings a recipe makes. I don’t want to make value judgments. You decide. That’s not on me.

Baked spaghetti

8 ounces thin spaghetti

1 egg, beaten

2 ½ tablespoons butter

I recipe spaghetti sauce (recipe follows)

2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese

Cook pasta in heavily salted water in a large pan over medium high heat until the pasta is al dente. The water does not need to be boiling when you add the pasta. Just make sure you swirl it around with tongs to keep the strands separate as the water heats up.

Drain the pasta and combine it with the egg and butter in a bowl.

In a 2-quart casserole dish, layer the bottom with some of the sauce. Add half the spaghetti and a third of the cheese.  Add another layer of the sauce, the rest of the spaghetti and another third of the cheese. Top with one more layer of sauce and the rest of the cheese.

Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until the cheese on top is beginning to brown.

Spaghetti sauce:

2 pounds ground chuck

2 teaspoons salt

½ cup finely diced carrot

½ cup finely diced onion

2 large cloves garlic, chopped

1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes

1 cup dry red wine

1 ½ tablespoons dried oregano

1 teaspoon smoked paprika

Salt and pepper to taste.

Brown the chuck in a large Dutch oven over medium high heat, adding the 2 teaspoons salt. About halfway through browning, add the carrot and onion. Continue cooking until the vegetables are soft and translucent, the grease has disappeared and the meat is liberally browned. Add the garlic and cook for about a minute.

Add the crushed tomatoes, red wine, oregano and paprika. Lower heat to medium low and simmer for 30 minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings with salt and pepper.

Note: You will have some spaghetti sauce left over. It freezes beautiful for you to pull out on a busy weeknight.

 

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January 12, 2013

Marcella Hazan’s eggplant risotto

If you want to demystify any complicated sounding dish,  call it a casserole and everyone will just settle down.

I  love Marcella Hazan. I think of her as the Paula Deen of Italy. Her recipes are always scrumptious and fairly easy to make. King Daddy actually stumbled on this recipe from  a cookbook I have of hers and started making it about 10 years ago (not one recipe that takes 10 years, of course). Mark doesn’t cook often, but he loves making this dish. And I happily exit the kitchen, with a glass of wine,  and let him have at it.

I will digress slightly here. Does anyone else drink wine in Solo cups? It might be the Florida cracker in me, but I do. Box wine (Corbett Canyon) in a Solo cup. There’s nothing refined about that, but it sort of lets you loosely define what a “glass” is. The doctors now say you should enjoy a glass of wine a day. And I do! Maybe that’s why this casserole tastes so dang good.

Marcella Hazan’s eggplant risotto (risotto al forno)

2 – 2 1/2 pounds eggplants

Salt

Vegetable oil for frying

4 tablespoons finely chopped onions

1 32-ounce can of plum tomatoes, drained and chopped

2 tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil

4 cups chicken, beef, or vegetable stock, or a mix of half water and half stock

1 1/2 cups Italian Arborio rice

2/3 cup dry white wine

Freshly ground black pepper

1/3 cup freshly grated pecorino romano cheese

2/3 cup freshly grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese

1/2 pound fresh mozzarella, diced into 1/2-inch cubes

 

Cut off the eggplants stems, peel them and cut lengthwise into 3/8-inch-thick slices.

Stand the slices along the sides of a deep colander, sprinkle with salt, and place the colander over a bowl or basin.  Allow the eggplant to drain for at least 30 minutes until most of the liquid runs off.

Pour 1/4-inch vegetable oil in a frying pan set over medium-high heat.  Pat the eggplant slices dry with a paper towel and when the oil is hot, slip the slices into the pan.  Cook the eggplant in batches until slices are a light golden brown.

Transfer browned slices to a platter lined with paper towels to drain.

Into a heavy bottomed pan, put the chopped onion, the butter, and 2 tablespoons of the oil. Turn the heat to medium high.  Saute the onion until it is a pale gold.  Add the chopped tomatoes along with their juices and turn the heat to low.  Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring from time to time.  Add the parsley and basil.  Stir 2 or 3 times, then transfer two-thirds to a bowl.  Leave one third in the risotto pot.

Bring the broth or broth-water to a simmer in a saucepan or in the microwave.

Put the rice in the risotto pot with the tomatoes and turn up the heat to medium high.  Stir the rice for a few seconds to coat with tomatoes, then put in the wine.  Cook, uncovered, stirring from time to time, until the wine has evaporated.

Then add a ladleful of broth.  Stir steadily until all of the liquid of the broth has evaporated.  Proceed in this manner, adding broth when necessary (if you run out of broth, add water) and stirring constantly to keep the rice from sticking to the pot, until the risotto is done.  Risotto should be tender but firm, or al dente.  Altogether, this should take about 30 minutes.  Add several grindings of freshly ground pepper.  Add salt only if you have used water in place of some of the broth, and only a little.  Remember, the cheese added to the recipe when assembling will add saltiness to the dish.

Let the risotto cool in the pan or on a large platter and preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Butter a 13-by-9 baking dish.  Spread half of the risotto on the bottom of the baking dish.  Cover the rice with a layer of eggplant slices, about one-third of the eggplant.  Pour half of the reserved tomato sauce on top of the eggplant.  Top this with half of the mozzarella cubes and one third of the grated cheeses.

Top the cheese with the remaining rice, one more third of the eggplant, the remaining sauce, the rest of the mozzarella, then another one-third of the grated cheeses.  Top this with the remaining eggplant and sprinkle the top with the remaining grated cheese blend.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the upper third of the oven, until the cheese melts and forms a light, golden crust.

Serve directly from the baking dish after allowing the casserole to settle for about 5 minutes.

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Tagged as casseroles, cheese, eggplant, marcella hazan, risotto