Mushroom Pot Pie

Last week on Top Chef Masters, my favorite, Carla 'Hootie-Hoo' Hall won with a chicken pot pie she made for Jimmy Fallon's birthday.  It looked so good, filled with Carla love, and the judges enjoyed it so much, I knew I had to make a veggie version for Sunday night.

In this recipe, the components are cooked separately and then assembled on individual plates rather than baked together as a pie.  It's complicated, but friends, it is so worth it.  You have complete control over all of the ingredients, so the veggies are perfectly cooked, the gravy is savory goodness itself, and the crust, is flaky and golden. 

Unlike many Top Chefs, Carla does a really detailed job writing her recipes up!  One day, I am going to make the pea salt everyone loved so much! Also stay-tuned, there will probably be an easier all-in-one dish version coming soon!  Meanwhile, for beautiful, delicious, individual 'pot' pies...

Mushroom Pot Pie

Adapted from Carla Hall's Chicken Pot Pie recipe

Makes 6 servings

Takes 2 hours

6 inch square piece of kombu*
2 dried shitake mushrooms
2 onions, diced
3 carrots, chopped
3 celery stalks, chopped
2 sprigs thyme
8 parsley stems
1 bay leaf
1 pound cremini mushrooms
1 shallot, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
5 oz. peas (frozen or fresh)

For Crust:
1/3 cup water
1 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon sugar
2 cups flour
1/2 pound vegan shortening
 
For the gravy: 
1 stick (1/4 cup) vegan shortening
1/2 cup flour
leaves from 8 parsley stems

In a quart of water, soak kombu and dried mushrooms for at least 3 hours and up to overnight.

Roughly chop the soaked mushrooms.

In a large pot, saute half the onions, carrots, celery, thyme, all of the parsley stems, the soaked mushrooms, and the bay leaf.  Once the onions have become translucent, add the kombu liquid (including the kombu), and an additional quart of water.  Just before it comes to a boil, remove the kelp pieces.  Once it comes to a boil, reduce to a simmer, and let simmer for at least an hour on a back burner while you take care of everything else.
 

Mix the water, salt and sugar and refrigerate.  Cut the shortening into the flour until it is like course meal.  Pour in the water and form into a dough ball, adding more flour, if necessary, to make a solid ball that doesn't stick to your hands.  Divide into 6 balls, and refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

In a large skillet, on medium high heat, saute the shallots, garlic and mushrooms until they are all coated with oil and evenly distributed throughout the pan.  Then, leave them alone so that they begin to brown.  Stir once every 2 or 4 minutes until the mushrooms release their juices, Saute for an additional 2 to 3 minutes.  Transfer mushrooms to a bowl.

In the same skillet, adding more oil if necessary, saute the remaining onions and celery.  When they've become translucent, add the remaining carrots and thyme, and saute a little longer, don't let the vegetables brown.  Add a few ladles of the simmering broth, and simmer the vegetables until they are tender, about 10 minutes.  Just before they are done, add the frozen peas, cooking for just a few minutes.  Transfer the vegetables to the mushrooms.

Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.

Roll out the dough on a floured board into 6 6-inch circles.  Lay them out onto greased parchment paper molded around a ball of aluminum foil or parchment paper.  Top with a little dough ball to give the appearance of a domed cover for the goodness underneath.  Lay the scraps of dough on another baking sheet.  Glaze the crusts with milk, soy milk or just water.  Bake for 15 to 20 minutes, changing their position in the oven half-way through.

While the crusts are baking, in large skillet, heat remaining shortening until melted, then add 1/2 cup of flour, stirring until the flour no longer smells like flour, but kind of toasty.  Strain the stock and add to the flour and shortening, whisking continuously until there are no lumps and it thickens up.  Add the vegetables and stir.  Keep warm until your crusts are ready.

To serve, divide the crust scraps between 6 plates, pour the veggies and gravy over and top with the crust.  Yum!

We went traditional London-style and ate our pies with mash!

Best Sunday night TV dinner ever!

*Kombu is used to make dashi, Japanese stock for soup.  The seaweed adds umami, but doesn't really have a flavor.  You can find it in Asian grocery stores and also in many health food stores. Before soaking, rinse it in water to remove the white residue.

cardamom pear loaf

Hello readers,

Perhaps like me, you've survived the great snowpocalypse that attacked much of North America (yes North America, dear States-side readers. When you see weather systems disappearing beyond the borders of the US on TV, they come here to Canada).  I can't bear the idea of leaving the house, the slushy streets, icy sidewalks, and the mountains of snow to be conquered on every street corner! All I want is cup upon cup of tea, and a little cake to go with it!

Inspired by a recent recipe on Gourmet Live, I devised a (vegan) cardamom pear loaf.  The original recipe is for a molasses cake, and I was intrigued by the method, which required adding boiling water and then freezing the dough to supposedly evenly bake the bread.  It produced a delicious cake, so moist and fluffy, and with only one egg! that I thought it a fine recipe for vegan tweaking.

This bread is so good - it makes two loaves, one for now, one for later, and fills the house with the yummiest scent of cardamom and vanilla baking.

Vegan Cardamom Pear Loaf

Makes 2 loaves

Takes 1 hour (plus freezing time)

1 cup honey

1/2 cup dark brown sugar, packed

3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons canola oil

2 inches of the black innards of a vanilla pod (or 2 teaspoons of pure vanilla extract)

1/2 tsp ground cardamom (5-6 pods)

2 cups flour

1 cup semolina*

2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

3 pears sliced up into little bits

1/2 cup pistachios, toasted and coarsely chopped

1.5 cups boiling water

Toast the pistachios in a toaster oven or the big oven on 250 for 8–10 minutes.  Careful they don't burn!  When they've cooled, coarsely chop them.  If baking bread right away, preheat oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit.

Grease and flour 2 loaf pans.

In a large bowl, dissolve the sugar in the honey (you may want to melt the honey in the microwave or on the stove).  When dissolved, add oil, vanilla and cardamom, and stir vigorously until it's well-combined.  Add the flour, semolina, baking soda and salt, and stir until the dough resembles course, sandy meal.  Mix in the pears and crushed pistachios.

Add the boiling water and stir, the dough will be runny like pancake batter.

At this point you have two options, to freeze the dough or to not the freeze the dough.  I find that there is no difference between freezing and not freezing the dough in the finished bread.

The loaf on the left was baked yesterday with immediately mixed batter, and the loaf on the right was baked today, from batter that was frozen overnight.  It has a slightly larger crumb, but other than the differences from my pouring a bit more batter into the pan, tastes the same and has (basically) the same texture.

Oh well.  Since this recipe makes enough for 2 loaves, you get a later loaf for when you've eaten all of the first one!

Bake at 350 for 40-50 minutes (a bit more if you have a frozen loaf) until a fork comes out cleanly.  Let cool in the pan, and then turn out and enjoy!

*Semolina is also known as rava or cream of wheat.  It gives the bread an extra little crunch.  If you don't want to use it, you can use another 1.5 cups of flour (3.5 cups flour total).

TGiPho!

Readers, I don't know why I haven't made Pho before. I love the fragrant soup, the drama of adding toppings to your bowls, fixing the spiciness with green chilies and siracha sauce. It's hard to find vegetarian pho, at many Vietnamese restaurants, their vegetarian option is a version of Tom Yum, spicy and sour and delicious, but I end up jealous of my meat-eating friends and their bowls that smell of cinnamon and ginger and star anise.

In the Bay Area you can find several vegetarian vietnamese restaurants, and my favorite is Tofoo Com Chay in San Jose.   I think the owners of these restaurants are followers of Supreme Master Ching Hai and her message of veganism and climate responsibility.  Supreme Master fliers are on hand in the restaurant--I particularly like the messages from the animals.

This recipe makes enough broth for 8 servings of pho.  Or you could do what I did, have some that night, and save the broth in the freezer for 6 more bowls of pho! 

It's a very simple broth that can be adapted in your bowls.  Top it as you like, with more or less chilies and vegetables and herbs.  We can't find many of the garnishes provided in California pho shops like Thai Basil or culantro, so we just use cilantro and mint.  The first night I made the pho, we had tofu, the second we used my victory seitan. We found some pea sprouts at the local grocery, and that was really good.  Anything goes!

An added bonus: our house smelled amazing while the broth was simmering!

Vegetarian Pho

Makes 8 servings

Takes 1 (busy) hour

For Broth

2 medium onions

1 4-inch piece of ginger

1 cinnamon stick

5-6 stars of anise

6 cloves

For Bowls

Steamed cabbage

Noodles

Bean sprouts

Pea sprouts

Sliced shallots

Sliced green onions

Tofu

Seitan

Cilantro

Mint

Green Chilis

Lime

In the broiler or on the stove, char the onions and garlic until the skins are mostly blackened.  Let cool.

In a large pot, on medium heat, toast the cinnamon, star anise and cloves until they are very toasty and fragrant (do not burn!).  Add 10 cups of water, and bring to a boil on medium high heat.

Meanwhile, your ginger and onions should be cool.  Peel the onions and ginger, and then rinse them under water to remove all the charred bits.  Chop coarsely and add to the pot.  When the pot comes to a boil, turn the heat down to simmer, cover and simmer gently for 30 minutes.

While that is happening you can prep your ingredients for the bowls.  For the noodles, place the dry noodles in a large heat-proof bowl and cover with bowling water.  Cover the bowl and let steep for 20 minutes.  This should be enough to cook the noodles, but gently simmer them for 5 to 10 minutes more if they are not cooked.

I like to cut my tofu into blocks and saute them on medium heat until golden on all sides.  I then cut them into little rectangles.

Thinly slice shallots and green onions, green chilies.  You can't see it in any of the pictures, but I gently steamed some cabbage for our pho as well.

By this time your broth should be ready.  Uncover the pot and take in the amazing smell.  Drain, very carefully, it's a big pot of hot liquid! Return the broth to very low heat and add 1 Tablespoon of salt.  Keep it warm, assemble your bowls.

Check the saltiness of the broth and add as much more salt as you like.  You can later add soy sauce or hoisin sauce to the individual bowls.  Pour into the bowls and enjoy! 

Thanks ladies!

Seitan is mine

Friends!  I did it, I made seitan, and it was delicious!  You may remember the Thanksgiving wheat meat disaster, in which I produced an inedible, squeaky, bland loaf.  I was dispirited, but I persevered, thanks especially to my good friend and seitan cheerleader, Abby.  She had sent me a recipe a while back, and she is such an advocate for thoughtful, impromptu cooking, that I just gave it a go with what I had.  The resulting seitan, was very tasty, with mushroom stock flavor and an aromatic whiff of clove.  I was apprehensive about the texture, but it was perfect, soft but with a good heft and density.  Even Paddy liked it!

After making it, I sauteed it to crisp it up, and put it into homemade veggie pho.

You can see it poking out from under the cilantro and mint.  So good!  The following day, I sauteed some sliced seitan with leftover brussels sprouts and rice.  Delicious!  I used it the day after that on pizza.  I sliced the seitan into strips and sauteed them with fennel seeds and a pinch of smoked paprika to make 'pepperoni'.  Yum.

Have fun experimenting with different flavors and uses for the seitan.  I know I will!

Seitan

Adapted from Abby Glogower's Recipe

Makes 2 generous servings (or enough for 1 person for 3 meals)

Takes 1 hour

1 mushroom bullion cube (I used Harvest Sun--if you have any stock, use that)

2 cups of water

1 onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced

dash of ground cloves

dash of pepper

1/2 cup Vital Wheat Gluten

a pinch of paprika and a pinch of pepper

1/8 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup water

In a shallow, wide pot (large saute pan works), bring the bullion, water, onion, garlic, pepper and clove to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine vital wheat gluten with the spices.  Add in the soy sauce and water, and combine with your hands until a dough forms.  It will be very wet, and a bit elastic, and will glom together.  Pull off eight evenly sized bits (you can divide dough in half, and each half into half, etc, to make sure the pieces are evenly sized), and flatten into patties.  Add to the simmering broth, spreading them out in the pan to give them room to grow, and simmer for 45 minutes, or until most of the liquid is absorbed.  Turn the pieces over every 5–10 minutes to make sure both sides cook evenly.

Let me know what you use it for!

Pepper Stew with Corn Dumplings

As promised, Pepper Stew with Corn Dumplings. This recipe is based on a version my good friend Balázs made when he visited me in Berkeley a few years ago. He and his brother were on an American tour, and they called home to their mother in Budapest to make sure they were making the lecsó properly. It's a famous dish, and the Pixar film Ratatouille was called L'ecsó in Hungarian--the homey pepper stew substituting for the eggplant one that touches the grouchy critic's heart and inspires him to proclaim, "Anyone can cook!"

Balázs and Korecs took such care, peeling their peppers, and slowly cooking the tomatoes and onions. It was the height of summer, and everything was so fresh and delicious. This is a quicker version, vegetarian, which is not very authentic, and using canned tomatoes, but delicious all the same. We usually eat this over brown rice, and sometimes with a dollop of yogurt. The other night I had the brilliant idea to make dumplings for the stew, it was genius, I have to say.

Pepper Stew with Corn Dumplings
Makes 4 servings
Takes 1 hour

1 medium onion, diced
1 clove garlic, sliced
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
3–6 peppers, Hungarian peppers ideally, but red peppers otherwise (not green--they go to mush!  Also, if you are using Hungarian peppers, be sure to remove the stems and seeds, they can be hot)

1 500 ml (16 oz or so) canned tomatoes

1/2 cup flour
1/2 cup corn meal
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 Tablespoons vegan margarine (or olive oil, or butter!)
1/2 cup ice cold water

In a pot, saute the onions and garlic on medium heat.  When they've softened, add the paprikas and saute until fragrant.  Add the peppers, and continue to saute until they've softened as well.  Add the canned tomatoes, salt, some black pepper, and turn down the heat to a simmer.

Combine flour, corn meal, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.  Mix in the margarine with your fingertips until the dough resemble course meal.  Add the water and combine to form a dough.  It will be heavy.  Divide into seven balls.  Drop them carefully into the stew.  Cover and simmer very gently for 20 minutes.  Check on the dumplings--they are done when you put a knife in them and they are cooked through.

The dumplings are like little pieces of cornbread that have already been dunked and soaked up all the juices!

Holiday Update (with recipe for apple cake!)

Happy New Year!  I think there's going to be a lot of good cooking this year, but first, some reflections on holiday baking.

My childhood friend Jessica's grandmother makes the absolute best Christmas Cookies in the whole-wide world, and following her recipe, I went a little crazy churning out dozens of Christmas trees, reindeer and little bells.  I used all the tricks, using only really cold dough, rolling out with powdered sugar, refrigerating again before going into the oven.  They came out beautifully!  They were so good with just a really simple milk and sugar glaze.

Perfect for a little snacking while opening presents, watching Harry Potter in pajamas, you know, the usual holiday activities.

I also went upscale with a champagne cocktail made with the elderberry cordial I made this summer.  So delicious (and classy!) with light, airy gougères!

Gougères are savory puffs, usually made with a hard cheese added to the dough.  I made them twice according to Dorie Greenspan's directions.  I followed the recipe exactly, except without the cheese.  On the second attempt, I forgot to turn down the oven, and baked them at 425 degrees for 24 minutes (turning the baking sheets half way through).  They turned out airier and crisper than the first attempt.

There was so much eating and cooking with friends and family!  I'll post just one more dish and include the recipe.  I made a vegan apple cake modeled on a delicious Italian apple tart that we had recently.  I looked into several recipes, but ultimately threw together my own.  It was so good!  And made the lactose-intolerant quite happy while the rest of us enjoyed a ridiculously indulgent trifle (or both!).

  

Apple Cake

Makes 10 servings

Takes 2 hours

3 medium apples
1 lemon, juiced
1 stick vegan shortening (or nut oil)

2/3 cup flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
1/4 cup grand marnier (I think bourbon would also be pretty good, or juice works too)
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup coarsely crushed walnuts

Preheat oven to 350 degrees fahrenheit.

Peel, core and slice the apples, toss with lemon juice.

Melt 6 tablespoons of shortening in a large pyrex measuring cup.  Use the remaining two tablespooons to butter a 9 inch cake pan or springform pan.  What's left of that, put into a skillet to fry the apples.

On medium heat, saute the apples until they are golden and cooked, about ten minutes.  Set aside.

Combine flour, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.

To the melted shortening, add alcohol, honey, and vanilla.  Stir until honey is melted and everything is well combined.

Pour the wet and the walnuts into the dry and mix until combined.  Pour into the greased pan.  Arrange the apples in a pretty pattern on top.

Bake for 1 to 1.5 hours.  Cake will be done when cake tester comes out mostly clean.  It will be dense and a little chewy!

This cake tasted even better the next day and was great with a cup of tea.  I hope you enjoy it this winter.

Stay tuned!  Vegetarian Pho, homemade pasta, pepper stew with dumplings, orange bitters, ginger cake and more to come!

Happy New Year!

Green Beans Paruppu usili

This recipe is especially for my friend Adrianne.  This past summer, I had the great pleasure of swapping banana flower recipes with her and another friend.  In South India it is common to eat banana flowers sauteed with paruppu usili, steamed lentil cakes, broken up into small pieces.  She will have to give us the recipe for her banana flowers in coconut milk from the Philippines (and also for mango salad, please!), but here is a recipe for paruppu usili, which she specially requested.

In the kitchens of my family, paruppu usili is added to vegetables when the main soupy dish of the day doesn't have lentils in it.  We usually eat Rasam or Sambhar, which are made with lentils, but when we have Mor Kuzhambu or Milagu Rasam or Vatha Kuzhambu, none of which have lentils in them, we put the lentils into the vegetables!  Vegetarian meal planning!

When the professor brought home some pretty green beans from the grocery store the other night, I knew it was finally time to write up the recipe for Adrianne.  Sorry it took me so long!

Green Beans Paruppu usili

Makes 6 servings

Takes 45 minutes

1 cup toor dal

3 dried red chilis

1/2 tsp. salt

1 tsp. mustard seeds

1 dash asofetida

fresh or dried curry leaves, if available

1 pound green beans, ends cut off, and chopped into tiny slices

1/4 tsp. turmeric

Soak the toor dal for 1 hour.  Drain but reserve the water.  In a blender or food processor, grind the lentils, chilis and salt to a chunky paste, adding water as necessary.

Make little patties from the lentil paste and steam in a steamer set over boiling water.  I don't have one, so I used a strainer, making sure the water was below the basket.  

Steam for 15 minutes, or until the paruppu usili is firm and not sticky when you touch it.  Set it aside to cool, and when you can handle it, break it up into smaller pieces.

Heat vegetable or canola oil in a saute pan on medium high heat.  When it's hot, add the broken up paruppu usili, sauteing until the pieces are further broken up and nicely browned.  Set the parruppusili aside, and return the saute pan to the heat.

Add more oil, and when it's hot, add the mustard seeds.  When they begin to splutter, add the asofetida and the curry leaves.  Stir around quickly, for just a few seconds, and then add the green beans, turmeric, and salt to taste.  Saute until well combined, add about 1/4 cup of water, put a lid on it, and let cook for about 10 minutes.  Check on it, because if you've cut the beans small, they will cook very quickly.  When they are just about done, add the paruppu usili back to the pan, and stir it all around, cooking a few minutes more.

We ate the Green Beans Paruppu usili with carrot salad and some Milagu Rasam.  So good!  My favorite combination is green beans and lemon rasam, the meal I would always ask for my first night home from college.