Pot Pie

A few weeks ago I was looking in my Dean and Deluca cookbook for some variations on my standard Stuffed Peppers recipe. On the same page was a recipe for Chicken Pot Pie. I made it a few weeks ago with some frozen chicken breast that I bought at Costco months ago, which Guy hated, and the pot pie was a success. However, it did have loads of chicken in it, which was a bit of a drag for me. So I decided to experiment.

At the Temescal Farmer's Market, there is a woman who sells pot pies - $7 for a small individual pie, $17 for a larger one. Um, are you CRAZY? There is also Hodo Soy, who sells the absolute best tofu I've ever tasted. So I bought some of their tofu skin and just now made a Tofu Pot Pie.

For those of you who shrivel at the sheer mention of tofu, the pot pie also contains organic carrots, onions, garlic, celery and chard, as well as green beans from our garden! So there!

Eggplant Parmigiana

While back east we got to experience a lot of my mother's Italian cooking. I have always been a big fan of the eggplant, but, well, you know - eggplant parm is kind of a pain in the ass. And can be really greasy. And messy to make.

However, my mom, in her quest to be more healthy without completely sacrificing all that makes things "parmigiana" delicious, filled me in on some of her secrets and we made eggplant parm this past weekend. Here are the ingredients (and all amounts are definitely in excess, since you can freeze the gravy, put the mozzeralla on a pizza, and sprinkly the grating cheese on some pasta).

• 4-5 globe eggplants, peeled and sliced thin, but not paper thin
• bowl of breadcrumbs (if plain, add salt, pepper, dried basil, and a little grating cheese to taste)
• bowl of beaten eggs w/ 1/2 c. or so of olive oil whisked into it (you will need to keep replenishing this, depending on the number of slices of eggplant you have)
• at least 2 cookie sheets
• additional oil to grease cookie sheets
• grated mozzarella
• grating cheese (parm, romano, etc)
• gravy (aka "sauce") - recipe suggestion follows
• baking pan at least 3" deep for the final combo

"FRYING" THE EGGPLANT

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Grease the cookie sheets with a paper towel coated with olive oil.

Take each eggplant slice, dip in the egg/oil mixture, then dip in the breadcrumbs to well-coat both sides, then place on the cookie sheet. Do this until you've filled a cookie sheet. Bake the first side about 7-10 minutes, and somewhat less for the flipped side. You want the slices cooked all the way through but not too mushy. As the slices come out of the oven, stack them on some paper towels and continue until all of the slices are cooked.

ASSEMBLING THE PARMAGIANA

Once your eggplant is "fried," you're ready to assemble. Cover your baking/casserole pan with a layer of gravy, add a layer of non-overlapping eggplant slices, then sprinkle some mozzarella and grating cheese. Repeat until the eggplant is about 1/2" fron the top of the pan. For all but the first layer of gravy, be sparing - you don't want a soupy parmigiana. be sure the last layer of cheese gets some extra!

When you are ready to bake the parmagiana, tightly cover the baking dish with foil, reduce the oven to 350 degrees, and bake for about 45 minutes. Viola! If you are feeling adventurous, you can make double the amount and freeze one dish before it's baked for later consumption.

THE GRAVY

I must admit, I grew up calling the thick, cooked-all-day tomato saucy substance "gravy." When I got to college, I realized that most other people called it sauce, so I referred to it as sauce most of the time, but always gravy at home. Now I'm tired of it and am just calling it gravy because that's what it is.

What you will need to make non-meaty gravy:

• one onion, diced
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, diced
• 2 cans of tomato paste
• 2 28 oz cans of italian plum tomatoes (crushed or you can blend them yourself)
• olive oil, salt, pepper, basil, parsley

Heat up a few tablespoons of oil in a deep, heavy soup pot. When it's hot, put in the diced onion. Cook for 5-7 minutes until onion is starting to caramelize and is soft - then add the garlic. Cook for a few minutes, being careful not to burn the garlic. Then add the two cans of paste and mix thoroughly. After a few minutes, add the two cans of tomatoes, and spash a little water around the cans to grab all the juice and add that as well. Add salt, pepper to taste. If you're using dried basil and parsley, you can add that now. Otherwise, add fresh herbs 15 minutes before you serve it.

Lower the heat as low as you can (or even better, get a diffuser and cook the gravy on that) and let this cook for a few hours - two or three on super low.

In the above photo, I added 1/2 diced pepper for some kick - sauted it w/ the onion.

Pastafazool!

My mother couldn't believe I didn't post Pastafazool as the first recipe. I explained that we hadn't MADE it since I started this and I didn't have any pictures. I was still in trouble.

But here we go:

2 cans cannelini beans
1 28oz can plum tomatoes, blended
2 onions
8 cloves of garlic
dried basil
dried oregano
salt
pepper
1 lb. spaghetti, snapped into 2 inch lengths

Take out two pots, one large enough to hold the tomatoes, the other large enough to hold the beans + 2-3 cans of water as well. For example:
Dice the onions and mince the garlic. Pour a few tbs. of oil in each pot and heat. Sauté an onion in each pot. After the onions soften, add half the garlic to each pot. Before the garlic burns, add the 2 cans of beans + 2-3 cups of water to one pot and the can of blended tomatoes to the other pot. Add spices to taste (in general, tbs. basil, hint of oregano, and S&P to taste). Let this cook for a few minutes, then take about a half cup of the bean broth and add it to the tomatoes, then take a few big spoonfuls of the tomato sauce and add it to the bean broth.




Let this cook together for at least 30 minutes. At that point, boil a big pot of water, and when it's boiling salt the water and add the spaghetti. Once your spaghetti is cooked, drain it, put in a big serving bowl, and dump the bean mixture over it. Mix it all up, ladle into bowls, add a dollop of sauce. Hmmmm, comfort food.

Welcome to PASTAFAZOOL!

I suppose to inaugurate my new food-oriented venture, I should tell y'all how to make some Pastafazool, no? Guy feels the name is "too Italian," but really, can anything be too Italian? I think not.

But I haven't MADE any pastafazool in a while, so I have no pics. What I have made is chili. Tonight, in fact. It's the perfect two-parents-working meal. Last night I put 2 cups of beans in a pot, covered them with plenty of water, boiled it, then turned off the heat. I left the beans overnight, and this morning I changed the water and left the beans on the counter for the day. When we got home, I changed the water again and then set the beans to boil/simmer on the stove.

After we got Berch to bed (an hour after we set the beans to simmer), I chopped and sautéd 2 large onions, and about 7-10 minutes later added 5 cloves of chopped garlic. To that I threw in 4 tsp powdered cumin, 3 tsp paprika, 2 tsp Mexican oregano, 3 tsp chipotle powder, a splash of salt, some red pepper flakes . After a few minutes a blended 28 oz can of tomatoeswas added. After 15 minutes, we added the beans and some of the water to the onion/tomato window and left it to simmer while I went through tax papers and cleaned up the kitchen a bit. It looks a little like this:














When you're ready to eat, add a splash of vinegar. As I type this, Guy is browning chopped meat for his chili, while I will have "fake" chopped meat in mine. Can you tell which is which?