Guiness Three Bean Chili

A healthy, hearty meal in itself--perfect when winter just keeps hanging on!  How about serving this up St. Patrick's Day?  It goes great with traditional toppings like sour cream (or greek yogurt) and sliced scallions or leeks.  Use this recipe as a guideline but it can easily accommodate almost any veggie variations you want to add.  I included acorn squash in this because I had it here and need to use it. 
Really want a meat based chili--add some browned meat or use veggie/soy crumbles.  Serve over pasta for chili-mac...

Tuscan Maki

 Inspired by sushi and a story I read about Giro, sushi master in NYC.  I had nothing on hand to try to do any sort of sushi or maki in the true sense.  But I started to think about what I did have that visually might have familiarity with a maki roll.
I was wondering what I had on hand to roll anything with, I had roasted seaweed but small squares, more or less these are sold as a snack and wouldn't do at all for how I needed to use them.
I abandoned the thought of a traditional route and decided I could use pasta to roll up my maki.  I chose to use some swiss chard I had already blanched and in the freezer, you could use spinach easily.  I incorporated the pureed swiss chard into the dough to give the green color of seaweed.
Then I set about coming up with a filling that could be used to replace the sticky rice.  I had half a block of tempeh in the refrigerator and decided to use it.  Crumbling it and cooking it in liquid and allowing that to sit made it sticky enough to use here.
For o top of the tempeh and inside the roll I used some roasted peppers cut very thin and some eggplant I pan fried to get a bit crunchy, giving a texture difference I think was necessary.
In the end I did top it with a bit of a very simple red sauce--just sauteed onion with garlic in some olive oil, seasoned with salt and added tomato puree I had canned the summer before.
I sprinkled some black coarse salt and some merlot salt on top of the "maki" slices to mimic fish roe.

So this may be more steps than you want, but the idea is a fun starting point.  Buy pasta sheets, use a quick cooking rice, roasted peppers and assorted items from the salad bar at any good grocery store.  Making it simple so you can get on with it!

Sweet and Spicy Roasted Plantains

I first was introduced to plantains by a friend from Mexico, they were a crispy fried bite of sweetness and saltiness.  Her family made them pan fried-- not once but fried twice.  I can recall they would slice them and fry them on each side and place each batch on a paper towel lined platter.  On the second time of frying they would smash them a bit with a spatula and then remove them and place on a paper towel again and this time sprinkle them generously with salt.  It was a divine treat and something unlike anything else I had tasted.  Yes, potato-ey but also sweet and the double frying made them crisp and really smooth inside (I guess from the smashing!)
I have also had sweet roasted plantains, all caramel-like from slow roasting and adding maple syrup.  These are a good dessert, delicious but too sweet for eating with a meal.  I would try these with toasted coconut on ice cream or greek yogurt. Oh and if there's extra liquid in the roasting pan--drizzle that over the top and add chopped roasted pecans.
But enough of all that, I'm presenting a simpler, and more health conscious, approach that would make a great starch side dish.  Keep in mind plantains in general are still high in sugar so they will get a nice golden color. 
Also, being as they are starchy and sweet I think pairing them with something like roasted broccoli works well.  I think these would be great with a stuffed poblano--a tofu mixture similar to what I had in the tofu stuffed peppers on this blog would work.  Or use just a grain like rice or quinoa and mix some grated queso fresco into that and fill the roasted poblano peppers and just bake to melt the cheese.
As for other alternatives--baked tofu, roasted chicken breast, tilapia or rainbow trout, or serve the plantain over a vegetable and seitan stir fry.

Eggplant Napolean

The description may look involved, it's actually not.
Sauce comes together quickly, or you can use canned.
While eggplant raosts you can make the filling.
Bakes just to heat through and brown on top

I would also think of this as individual eggplant lasagnas. The filling becomes a tofu "ricotta".
Roasted eggplant round layered with a tofu and grain filling.  The filling is moist like a ricotta but without the saturated fat.  I used quinoa and freekeh but you could use either, both, or add amaranth. 
I used 4" metal round molds to assemble these.  Just give them a quick spray with olive oil spray and start layering.  The eggplant should be roasted long enough so it's tender inside but not mushy.
I like finishing these of under the broiler--I like the dark crispy bits as the tomato sauce caramelizes and the sprinkling of cheese becomes golden.  I served these with glazed carrots and also broccoli that was blanched and then sauteed with garlic and dried hot peppers. 

Cod En Brodo

Perfect weeknight recipe--quick, satisfying yet light and warming in the winter months. 

I recently picked up more cod than I could use.  So I placed some pieces in the freezer.  I wanted to use the cod in such a way to overcome the fact that it had been frozen.  Cod can be dry as it is, so I figured introducing more liquid would be ideal.  I decided to poach it in liquid (in this case a small amount of white wine and then homemade vegetable broth).
This is very simple and you can use any fish you like.  I've used salmon, halibut, grouper.  You can even use something like tilapia, but it may break up in the broth--taste will be the same but presentation will vary.

By the way, this same broth makes a great soup on it's own, just serve with a salad and crusty bread to soak up all those flavors!   Wouldn't radicchio be great with this?

Broiled Artichokes

Yum, Yum!  Forget those jarred and canned artichoke hearts.  If you haven't been using whole fresh artichokes here is a nice introductory to preparing them.  These are boiled and then broiled (or grilled if weather allows).

Sometimes I blanch the artichokes after prepping them and stuff them with a mix of quinoa stuffing or bread crumbs and bake them until the stuffing gets golden.  It lends good variety to artichoke dishes and can be served as an entree but it does take a bit longer.

The easiest is boiling until tender and peeling the leaves off and dipping in sauce, lots of people do that and use an aioli for dipping.  That's fine but rather bland if you make artichokes often.

Mussels Rockefeller

I've had stuffed mussels in a french restaurant in Washington DC (but not when I was at a french restaurant in France--so maybe not so genuine?)  Anyway, I remember really liking them and when I was coming up with appetizer ideas I decided to do a take on oysters rockefeller.
I like this preparation a lot.  I made a more refined version that I brought to my sisters house but I did not like them as much.  For those I put the ingredients (minus the mussel) into a food processor.  The result was a finer stuffing that easily packed the shell of the mussel but the flavor wasn't as good.  I like what roughly chopping the herbs, greens and dried bread does to the texture of these.
Decide for yourself what kind of preparation suits you, if you put all the ingredients in a processor then the stuffing will have a more green appearance overall.  Chopping the greens distributes them differently and the bread crumbs and dried bread stand out more.
Also, I used more of the herbs de provence blend when I brought these to my sisters.  I would say stick with the amount I have below--using more was a bit overpowering.  Unless you use only chives and parsley or tarragon which have a less pronounced flavor.
This recipe makes 12 and is easily doubled, tripled, etc...