Roasted Red Pepper and Black Olive Quiche in a Loaf

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I have been long obsessed with French savory “cakes.” Recipes for them pop up in the most unexpected places. I was looking up cake recipes for the Jewish High Holidays in Marcy Goldman’s A Treasury of Jewish Holiday Baking and spotted this recipe.

Chocolate Praline Dobos Torte

 

The August 2009 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Angela of A Spoonful of Sugar and Lorraine of Not Quite Nigella. They chose the spectacular Dobos Torte based on a recipe from Rick Rodgers’ cookbook Kaffeehaus:  Exquisite
Desserts from the Classic Caffés of Vienna, Budapest, and Prague.

Lorraine and Angela invited DBers to be creative with the shape and frosting. Originally, I thought I would frost the cake with a ganache beurre flavored with praline paste. Then I thought, no, I should make the traditional frosting, which uses eggs.

Vegetarian Shepherd’s Pie

I was going to make these black bean burgers for dinner.  But, when I e-mailed my husband, he said he wanted vegetarian shepherd’s pie. We has some a couple of days ago at a friend’s house and he loved it.

Actually, not to digress, but what my husband actually asked for was “Hirtentorte für Abendessen.” Long story, but anyway, I was confused for a while. “Was ist Hirtentorte?” Not as confused as my husband who translated “burger der schwarzen bohne” as “the castle of the black bean.” “Whaa??”

Vegetable Frittata with Salsa

I was paging through the cookbook Cuisine of California, by Diane Rossen Worthington and I came across this vegetable frittata recipe. I suggested it for dinner, but my husband was leery of trying something new.

“I just want comfort food,” he objected. “Comfort food,” I have found, is my husband’s favorite euphmism for “food I don’t have to pretend to like.”

“I think you will like it,”  I said.

“Mmph,” my husband replied. “I just want a plain omelet with cheese and zucchini.”

“OK. Fine”

Pumpkin Bisque with Curry and Pear

After a very trying culinary experience yesterday (a recipe that took 2 days to make and my husband didn’t even like it!), I made a recipe that has it all: easy, exotic, sophisticated, delicious, easily made with pantry ingredients, and, oh, did I mention super easy?

Pumpkin Bisque with Curry and Pear comes from Hip Kosher by Ronnie Fein.

Vegetarian Mexican, Again

“Another home run,” my husband said. “Straight to the blog!”

Okay. So he liked what I made for dinner. The problem is that I’m not sure what to call what I made. I was going to  use vegetarian “ground beef” to make a veggie version of the Pasta alla Malboro Man from Pioneer Woman, and then I was going to make veggie sloppy Joes. In the end, I kind of made something in between  and served it with brown rice, guacamole, salsa, and tortilla chips. It was good, whatever it should be called.

Tasty Lentil Tacos: “Taste of Home” Run

I made a modified version of Tasty Lentil Tacos (The Taste of Home Cookbook) (recipe also on Taste of Home website). My husband really, really loved this dinner. I know this because I heard him muttering under his breath, as he contemplated taking another serving, “I don’t want this meal to ever end.”

I took some extra effort with the taco shells, frying them myself from fresh corn tortillas. But, I took some shortcuts with the filling. Even so, it was off the charts good.

Vegetarian Osso Bucco

I was intrigued by a recipe in the Vegetarian Times for Vegetarian Osso Buco. It won the 2008  readers recipe contest.

I changed it around a lot, though. I don’t think it should even be called Vegetarian Osso Buco. Maybe Veggie Chicken Stew. Whatever it should be called, it was a huge hit.

Veggie Chicken Stew
olive oil
1 cup onion, chopped
1 cup carrot, chopped
2 zucchini, cubed
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 small can tomato sauce
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 tsp. Italian seasoning
1/2 – 1 tsp. lemon pepper seasoning
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 package Morningstar Farms veggie chicken strips

Saute the onion and garlic until translucent. Add the carrot and zucchini and saute until tender. Ad the rest of the ingredients and simmer 15 minutes.

Whole Wheat Couscous Salad and Zucchini Salad

I tried whole wheat couscous, using my favorite salad recipe. The recipe is very flexible. Basically, you dress the couscous with a lemon juice and olive oil dressing that is livened up with some curry powder. The dried fruit add-ins give the couscous a jewel-studded appearance. Simple, colorful, and delicious.

My favorite couscous salad (adapted from Sharing Our Best and The Kosher Palette)

1 cup whole wheat couscous
1 1/4 cup water
1/4 tsp salt
1 red bell pepper, chopped (optional)
2 1/2 ounces currants, raisins, dried cranberries, or golden raisins, or a combination (about 1/2 cup)
1/2 bunch scallions, sliced thinly
1/4 cup chick peas (or more, as desired)
2 Tbl. toasted pine nuts or slivered or sliced almonds (optional)

Dressing
2 Tbl. lemon juice
4 Tbl. olive oil
1 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. allspice (optional)
1/4 tsp. pepper
1/4 tsp. salt, or to taste

Heat water to boiling in a saucepan. Add salt and couscous. Cover pot and cook ten minutes (I turn off heat after 5 minutes).

Combine dressing ingredients in a small bowl.

Fluff couscous and add dressing, dried fruit, scallions, and chickpeas and pine nuts.

This was a huge hit served with thinly sliced raw zucchini, dressed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, pepper, and fresh mint leaves. The recipe is from Simply Recipes, but I left out the cheese. The fresh mint worked well against the couscous salad flavors.

Seitan Tikki Masala

Chicken Tikki Masala is apparently a much beloved menu item in Indian restaurants, especially in Great Britain where it is believed to have been invented sometime in the second half of the 20th century. For this dish, Chicken is marinated with spices and yogurt, baked in a tandoor oven, and then served in a creamy tomato sauce. I think garlic naan is common go-with.

Allrecipes and recipezaar have a recipe from the Chicago Tribune that is massively popular. Vivacious Vegan has a seitan spin on this that I used along with a recipe from Cook’s Illustrated.

This was a huge hit. I served this over rice and the Big Guy had three servings. Between the two of us we really did lick our plates clean. There was not a bit left. The Little Guy just had the rice.

I better record what I did before I forget.

Seitan Tikki Masala

Saute 1 chopped onion in enough olive oil to generously cover pan.
When onion is translucent, add 1 seeded and minced Serrano pepper.
Add 2 minced cloves garlic (actually I had no garlic, but it would be nice to add next time).
Add 1-2 tsp. minced ginger (I used a take-out container of pickled ginger leftover from sushi).
When the onion starts to turn golden, add a bit of salt, pepper,
1/2 tsp. cumin, 1/4 tsp. coriander, 1 tsp. smoked paprika, and 1 1/2 tsp. garam masala.
Add 8 ounces well drained seitan, cut in 1″ pieces, and saute until starting to brown.
Mix in 2 tbl. to 1/4 cup ketchup or tomato paste and cook for another couple of minutes.
Add 14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes, and cook down juices.
Add 1/2 cup soy milk or cream (or coconut milk?)and cook down more.
I also added string beans, about 2 cups, and cooked them until tender.