Sweet Pea and Ricotta Tortellini Won-ton Style

It's spring here in Northern Virginia and we enjoy that our Meatless Monday dinners reflect the changing of the seasons. Later this summer we'll start using freshly picked vegetables from our garden and local farm stands more and more. One of the rites of passage each spring is the arrival of fresh peas and when we saw them in the store, Cyn decided to feature them in our dinner. That lead to her making Sweet Pea Tortellini -- Wonton Style.

But before we go there, I need to give you the background on our first course -- parsley root soup. Yes, there is background, bear with me a bit.

Six or seven years ago we had the pleasure of eating an amazing meal in Philadelphia at Studio Kitchen. At the time, Chef Shola Olunloyo was offering a private dining experience for 10 people 4 nights per week in a converted townhouse in the Powelton Village section of Philly, not far from the historic Philadelphia Zoo. The first course that evening was a parsley root soup and, after talking about it on and off since then, Cyn decided to try to recreate it. Here is her version....

Ingredients (the soup) - enough for 2 first course portions

• 2 tbsp shallots
• 2 tsp butter
• 1 bunch parsley root - about a pound or so, tops removed and root peeled and cut into rounds (you could alternately scrub the roots well and forgo the peeling -- adds more flavor)

Preparation (the soup)

• Melt butter in 2 qt saucepan and saute shallots until translucent.  (You could, as I inadvertently did, allow them to brown while you clean up the mess that was made when the cornstarch tried to commit suicide by diving from the third shelf in the pantry.)
• Add parsley root and enough water to cover.  Bring to simmer and cook until a fork inserted into root comes out easily - very tender.
• Add cooked root to VitaMix/blender/food processor/tamis-- your choice of pulverizer --- and blitz until smooth.  Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish (the soup)

Shola's garnish and presentation was pretty awe inspiring to a cook -- the underbowl had a touch of lemon oil in it and hot water was poured in to release the lemon 'air' as you enjoyed the soup.  I don't have that kind of time or patience, or dishwashing staff, so I settled on a 'home' presentation.  I also didn't want to get too lemony and pull a Pledge moment.  Shola got it just right.  I could go right to a cleaning moment.

• Melted scallions (pan on low heat, scallions, little water, some butter, cook low and slow), a lemon oil (Shola used Sicilian Lemon Oil, I used lemon zest steeped in EVOO with a little Boyajian backup), and chopped roasted and salted pistachios, the last a deviation from the pecans in the original.
• Soup first, scallions, lemon oil drizzle and then pistachios.  Truly wonderful.  Eat more parsley root.

Onto to the tortellini.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp butter, unsalted, preferably the best you can afford, je t'aime Plugra
• 1 medium shallot, finely chopped (couple tbsp)
• 1/2 c white wine
• 1 1/2 cup baby peas
• 1 to 1 1/2 cups ricotta
• 1/4 c each romano and parmigiano
• 2 tsp chopped tarragon
• couple of grates of nutmeg
• s/p to taste
• package of pre-made Wonton Wrappers
• egg wash (yolk with a couple tsps water)

Preparation

• Melt butter in small saute pan, cook shallots until translucent.  Add wine and reduce to about 2 tbsp.  Add peas and cook for 2 minutes, tops.  Peas should be bright green and just warmed through.  If you're going to cheat and use frozen peas (not that there's anything wrong with that), defrost first.  Remove from heat, dump on plate and allow to cool completely.
• While you wait, in mixing bowl combine ricotta, romano, parm, tarragon, nutmeg and s/p.  Taste it.  Adjust seasoning.  Gently mix in peas.  Taste again.  Adjust seasoning.
• Put a big pot of water on to boil.  Salt as you would for pasta.

• Now for the fun, making tortellinis from wonton wrappers.  On a clean dish towel, layout four wrappers, leaving the rest in the package (they dry out easily).  
• Brush entire wonton lightly with egg wash, making sure edges are covered well (I'm too busy to play with just the edges, it goes faster when you just brush the entire wrapper). 
• Place a teaspoon of the pea filling in the center of each.  Fold over into a triangle, pressing out air from the center out as you close it up.  Be sure edges meet well and seal tight.  An extra pinch won't hurt here.
• Place a little dab of egg wash on the two 'wings' of your triangle, one on the top side, the other on the opposite bottom side.
• On the long side of your triangle, push it in a little. Then take your wings and press them together.  We realized this would be difficult to describe, no Pulitzer in the family,  So we made a little video of this which you can find here:

• Once the first four are done, transfer to a clean dish towel on a sheet tray and continue until all filling is gone or you've reached your fussy work limit.  (You'll note I served a soup first so the number of tortellini I had to painstakingly fold was limited.  Although it does go fast once you've got the hang of it.)  
• Keep completed tortellini covered with another dish towel until you're ready to cook.  (You could freeze them at this point as well)  Couple of minutes in boiling water does the trick -- be sure to stir these as they do have a tendency to stick.

Preparation (the sauce)

You could go for a straight dip in the butter pool, a beurre blanc would be lovely, or pump up the pea and use a puree of that as a sauce.  Carrot puree would be divine as well and the parsley root soup would be an ab-fab sauce.  I wanted to boost the tarragon flavor so I created a Pernod Cream Sauce.

• One medium shallot, finely minced and sauteed in a tbsp or so of butter (are you getting the shallot love yet?). 
•  Add 1/4 cup Pernod and reduce by half. 
• Add 1 cup vegetable stock or water, reduce by half again.  
• Over low heat, whisk in 1/4 to 1/3 cup heavy cream and a fat tbsp of chopped chives.  
• Season to taste.  Easy peasy!

Plating

On a warm plate, place a small amount of sauce.  Typically I would finish the tortellini in the sauce, allowing the pasta to soak up a little more flavor.  These are delicate and must go right to the plate.  Top with a little more of the sauce, a quick saute of snow peas cut on the bias, a sprinkle of parm or romano, and a little chive or green onion is a nice touch.  Chive blossoms top this dish.  Bon appetit ya'll!

What do you do when your spinach bolts?

A while back Cynthia posted this about our cold frame. Well, the weather is changing here in Northern Virginia and the cold weather greens are very near the end of their cycle. In fact, the Red Cardinal spinach was on its way to bolting and we needed to do something with it before it sent all its energy to seed production. The spindly red stalks still had plenty of tender green leaves on them -- we just needed to come up with the a good way to use them.  (Many thanks to the mighty Margaret Roach of the uber garden blog A Way to Garden for suggesting Red Cardinal spinach.  It's easy to grow, beautiful, and doesn't turn bitter when bolting.)   

So, where does a creative cook go for Meatless Monday inspiration, when the cook actually has a little time to ponder such on a Monday? In Cyn's case it is often to one of her favorite cookbooks devoted to vegetables, the aptly titled Vegetables, by Charlie Trotter. What she found was a recipe that included, polenta, greens, and portobello mushrooms as the main components. It also contained pomegranate seeds and a pomegranate vinaigrette made from the fruit's juice. Since pomegranates are not in season here, it got Cynthia thinking about how she might modify the recipe both to our tastes and to use what was seasonably available to us. In the end, the recipe she created was certainly inspired by Chef Trotter but is, in fact, her own.

Ingredients (the polenta) 

• 2 cups water
• 12 oz can of 2% evaporated milk
• 1 bay leaf
• 2 tso Better than Bouillion No Chicken base (can sub water)
• 1 cup polenta
• 1/2 cup whole kernel corn, frozen works better than canned
• handful (to your taste) of cheese, grated (we used sharp cheddar)
• chopped chives to taste (optional)

Preparation (the polenta)

• Add water, evaporated milk and bay leaf to a sauce pan and bring to a boil
• Whisk in polenta, cook for 10 minutes stirring regularly
• Add corn, cook until polenta is done (taste it!)
• Add cheese and chives
• Turn out mixture onto a plastic wrap lined 1/4 sheet pan and shake to level, smooth with spatula if necessary
• Cover with plastic wrap and chill for at least one hour  
• When fully chilled, cut circles from the polenta sheet
• Fry on each side in a light coat of butter until golden brown, med high heat

Ingredients (the vinaigrette)

• 1/2 cup POM Wonderful juice
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• ~1/4 c Extra virgin olive oil
• salt
• pepper

Preparation (the vinaigrette)

• Combine POM juice and vinegar in a sauce pan and reduce on high heat to 1/3 original volume
• Whisk in about 1/4 c olive oil a little at a time to emulsify, salt and pepper to taste

Ingredients (the greens)

• 4 good handfuls of spinach leaves (you can certainly use other greens if you like), Chef Trotter uses mizuna and tatsoi
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp butter
• salt

Preparation (the greens)

• Add water to a saute pan and bring to a boil
• Add butter and spinach
• Reduce heat to medium high
• Stir constantly for 1-2 minutes (this will depend on how wilted you like the greens)
• Salt to taste

Ingredients (the portobellos)

• 2 large portobello mushrooms, gills removed and washed clean
• 1 ttbsp butter
• salt
• pepper
• 1/4 cup-ish port wine (sub any tasty wine or omit this step)

Preparation (the portobellos)

• Cut potobellos into 1/4 - 1/3 inch strips
• Season with salt and pepper
• Butter grill pan and heat with medium high heat
• Grill about 1 minute on each side
• Deglaze pan with port wine

Ingredients (something a little extra)

• 3 shallots quarterd
• salt/pepper
• EVOO

Preparation (the shallots)

• Toss ingredients together in shallow roasting pan
• Roast at 350 degrees until wilted, tender and slightly golden, about 15 minutes

Assembly (the final dish)

• Plate greens first
• Layer on polenta cakes
• Top with portobellos 
• Drizzle vinaigrette around greens
• Add shallots as garnish (Cyn also hit the dish with chive and thyme blossoms)
• Serve hot

Just as a frame of reference, here is the picture from Charlie Trotter's cookbook.  Clearly we were much hungrier!

Going Persian for Meatless Monday

Recently I've been trying to infuse our Meatless Mondays with ethnic dishes from all over the world. Last week we made falafel, a typical Middle Eastern dish based on chickpeas. This week we decided to go Persian, thanks to a suggestion from my Twitter friend, Leila J. @PersianLiving. Leila is of Iranian decent, living in the UK and writes a wonderful food blog called, of all things, Persian Living!

When I asked her to recommend a Meatless Monday dish that was truly Persian, she immediately told me to make adasi. The main ingredients are lentils and potatoes and her wonderful recipe can be found here. We were inspired by her recipe, but ended up going in a slightly different direction. Leila's recipe called for green lentils which tend require a longer cooking time and break down less. Since we had red lentils in the house we decided to use them, knowing they would break down during cooking more and create more of a stew like consistency.

Here's how it came together.

Ingredients

• 1.5 cups of red lentils (soaked for 4-8 hours)
• 1 large onion, chopped
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp black pepper
• 2 tbsp cooking oil
• 1/2 tsp turmeric
• 1 tsp fenugreek seed (best to be ground from seeds as needed for freshness)
• 2 small potatoes, peeled, washed and cubed to 1/2 inch or smaller
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 3 tbsp tomato paste
• 2 tbsp sherry vinegar (can substitute lemon juice)

Preparation

•  In a large pot, heat cooking oil to medium heat and saute onion and two cloves crush garlic until golden brown.
• Add pepper, turmeric, fenugreek, 1 tbsp Better than Bullion No Chicken and a big pinch of crushed red pepper and 4 cups of  hot water.
• Bring to a boil
• Add lentils, lower heat and simmer covered 15-20 minutes until the lentils are tender and starting to fall apart.

•  Add potatoes, tomato paste and remaining garlic (crushed). Continue simmering for another 15-20 minutes until potatoes are tender, stirring regularly to prevent potatoes from sticking to the bottom of the pot.

• The dish should be fairly thick when finished. If it becomes overly thick you can add up to 1/4 cup more water.
• Add vinegar and cook for 5 minutes more. 
• Remove from heat and serve.

We served ours with a simple salad of cucumber, yellow pepper, purple cabbage, radish, onion and tomato dressed with olive oil and sherry vinegar, salt, pepper and parsley.

This delicious and simple meal has sparked an interest in knowing more about Persian foods. I'll be spending more time reading the Persian Living Blog. Thanks Leila!

Making Falafel for Meatless Monday

One of the advantages of Meatless Mondays that I've written about previously is the ongoing pressure/desire to stray out of our comfort zone and into less than familiar home cooking territory. This week, I suggested we try making falafel, the ubiquitous Middle Eastern street food that is now commonly found in most major US metropolitan areas. Why not? After all, we love chickpeas -- and they're deep fried -- what a deal!

Wading into the internet for a workable home recipe, we ended up in a familiar place. Seems that lately all roads lead to Mark Bittman, our "go to" New York Times food guy. Here is his recipe for falafel.

Ingredients

• 1 3/4 cups of dried chickpeas
• 2 cloves of garlic, lightly crushed
• 1 small onion, quartered
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tbsp ground cumin
• scant tsp of cayenne (or to taste)
• i cup chopped parsley (or cilantro)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp black pepper
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• Neutral oil (grapeseed or corn for frying)

Preparation

• Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water by 4 to 4 inches. Soak overnight. Expect the beans to triple in volume.
• Drain beans and reserve the soaking water. Transfer to a food processor. (Note: we are fortunate to have a VitaMix blender. To get the proper consistency, a strong blender is needed). Add the remaining ingredients except the oil. Pulse until minced but not pureed. Add small amounts (no more than a tablespoon at a time) of the soaking water if needed to allow your blender to work. Adding too much water will make blending easier but will insure that your falafel falls apart during cooking. Taste, adding salt, pepper, cayenne or lemon juice to taste.
• Add oil to a deep sauce pan. Set heat to medium high and heat to 350 F (if you have thermometer, use it).
• Scoop heaping tablespoons of the batter and shape into balls or small patties. Fry in batches, without crowding, until golden brown, turning as needed. Total cooking time will be less than 5 minutes. Serve hot or at room temp.

Traditionally, falafel is served in a kind of sandwich made with pita bread, a salad made from cucumber, green pepper and tomato all diced and lightly dressed with oil and lemon (we used white balsamic in place of the lemon juice). It is typically finished with a tahini sauce. The sandwiches can either be in the pita pocket or in an open face style, eaten with a knife and fork. Either way, they are delicious, and have a heartiness that makes you forget there is no meat involved. If you've had falafel on the street and liked it, try making it at home. If you haven't had it before, I highly recommend you try it!

Tacos for two, Meatless Monday style

If you read this, you know that this past weekend was a kind of a meat-a-polooza. Heavy (but delicious) German food that featured schweinhaxen (braised ham hock) on top of a spicy sausage dressing. That was my main course on Saturday night. I have to be honest and admit the leftovers were pretty tasty on Sunday too. Good thing Meatless Monday arrived just in time.

A couple of weeks ago I wrote a post about tacos and making the tortillas at home. You can see that post here. What you can't see there is the funny little email I got from one of my coworkers who had read the post. She, who will remain nameless, is from California you see, said something along the lines of "nice tacos, but let me know when Cynthia masters corn tortillas and I might be interested". OK, it was probably worded a little nicer than that, but who can remember such things?

My wife, never one to back down from a challenge, immediately ran out and picked up some masa (Maseca brand) and was just waiting for the right time to use it. Meatless Monday seemed to be the perfect opportunity. On top of that, it gave Cyn a chance to make something from her very favorite chef, Rick Bayless. Not only is he her favorite chef, but he is the owner/operator of what I think she would tell you without hesitation, is her favorite restaurant, Topolobampo in Chicago. And this from a woman who knows food and has been to a lot of really good restaurants.

So, she set about to create her version of Chef Bayless's Tacos of Creamy Chard, Potatoes and Poblanos. The original recipe is designed for 16-18 soft tacos, but since there are but two of us, she cut the recipe in half. She also modified a few places based on our particular tastes. Here is Cynthia's version, adapted from the original Bayless recipe.

Ingredients

• 2 medium large fresh poblano peppers (about 6 oz)
• 2 tsp vegetable or olive oil
• 1/2 medium white onion sliced 1/4" thick
• 2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
• big pinch oregano, Mexican preferred
• smaller pinch dried thyme
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 tbsp to 1/4 cup good dry sherry, or beer, or wine
• 1 large red skin potatoes cut into 1/2" cubes
• 1 nice bunch of swiss chard sliced into 1/2 inch ribbons, removing the thick center veins (save them!)

• 1/3 to 1/2 cup of cream, sour cream or creme fraiche
• about 1/2 tsp salt
• (the original recipe also calls for queso fresco to be added, we eliminated it, choosing to use a little more creme fraiche instead)
• 8-10 freshly made soft corn tortillas

Preparation

• Following the directions on the package, mix the masa with the appropriate amount of water until a slightly sticky dough forms. Allow the dough to set, covered with plastic wrap or a slightly damp towel, for about 30 minutes.

Cynthia added the following touch which was not a part of the original recipe: 

• Slice the chard stems into 1/4 inch pieces. In a small saucepan, combine 1 cup of water, 1/2 cup of rice wine vinegar, 6 tbsp of sugar and 2 and a quarter tsp of kosher salt (pickling ratio thanks to David Chang). Bring to a boil, add sliced chard and cook for about 30 seconds. Remove from heat and set aside for later.

• In a large saute pan, at least a 10 incher, over medium high heat add a tsp or so of oil and fry the potato cubes until crispy and brown on all sides, seasoning the potatoes when they first hit the pan. We used a nice salt blend from Penzeys called Smoky 4S Special Seasoned Salt. (Note, this is where we diverge from the original recipe quite a bit which calls for cooking the potatoes in a broth. We wanted the crunchy texture).

• Roast the poblanos over an open flame or in a broiler turning them until until the skin is blistered and charred. Remove from the flame and cover in a bowl for about 5 minutes. Pull out the stem and seed pod, then rinse briefly to remove skin and seeds. Slice into 1/4 inch strips.

• In a large skillet, add the oil and the onion. Cook until nicely brown but still a little crunchy. Add the chard in batches and cook down until fully soft, adding the 1/4 c water and the sherry. Add the garlic add spices, stir for about 1 minute then add the sliced poblanos. Add the cream and still until well mixed. Lower the heat to a low simmer and continue to stir occasionally. 

• Form the dough into small balls about the size of a walnut (this is approximate and will take some trial and error) and press into flat rounds using a handy dandy tortilla press that you can probably pick up at any Latino supermarket for about $10. 

• Cook in a DRY hot pan for about 30-45 seconds on the first side and 30 seconds on the other side (again, this will take some practice). Remove and cover with a slightly damp towel to keep warm.

• Note from the cook: it's okay to use store bought tortillas. Unless you're slightly warped like me, you should not attempt making your own tortillas. It has taken two recipe attempts to get a yummy tortilla hot off the pan - it's not for the faint of heart. If you still want to try something special but don't want to commit to the bag o'limed corn (the masa) and a press, buy fresh corn tortillas and fry them yourself for tostadas (flat) or tacos (use two pairs of tongs to hold the shape you want while frying - it helps to be double jointed and an ex-gymnast).

Assemble components in a tortilla to your taste. Fold up edges, and there is your taco!

A Meatless Monday Meal Without Planning

Another Meatless Monday has come and gone and the best laid plans of Al and Cyn....well, you know the rest. Over the weekend, like we usually do, we talked about a couple of possible dishes. First, there was going to be a lentil and pasta dish that sounded very yummy. It was from a recipe I found on Lidia Bastianich's website. For those of you who may not know who Lidia is, you need to check her out here. If you ever have the opportunity to go to one of her restaurants, do. One of the five best meals I've ever had was at her flagship restaurant in NYC, Felidia.

At some point, I think it was Sunday afternoon, the plan had morphed into a vegetable lasagna that Cynthia has been dying to make. By the time we went to bed that night, we hadn't reached consensus and I gave Cyn the green light to surprise me. Fast forward to Monday and that's when everything changed.

It was a beautiful 65 degree day in Northern Virginia and while I was at work, Cyn couldn't resist getting out into the garden. Spring, it seems, has sprung, or at least had on Monday. You see, we garden a lot, flowers, vegetables, herbs and, did I mention we are building a koi pond starting next week? We are, but more about that in a future post. Needless to sat there is a lot of winter clean up to do before the real spring gets here. So, when I got stuck at work a little later than usual, and Cyn lost track of time and worked in the garden all day and the next thing we knew it was 6:00 PM and neither one of us had considered what was for dinner. Time to scramble.

Fortunately, we tend to keep a pretty well stocked refrigerator and Cyn is particularly adept at improvising. Remember the French green lentils from the Sheperds Pie post a week ago? Well, we had some left over in the fridge and they became the base of our first course. Add some yellow and orange bell peppers, a few beautiful sweet peppadews, cucumber, onion, barrel aged feta cheese and calamata olives. Thin slice some eggplant and zucchini on a mandolin, and cook them very briefly on both sides (use a grill pan with ridges to make it pretty if you have one). Combine, drizzle with your favorite dressing (we mixed our homemade balsamic vinaigrette with a Greek dressing  from a restaurant called Lefteris in Mount Kisco, NY that had been given to us by a good fried (thanks Judy!). The finished salad was rich, very flavorful and could easily have been a main course.

As they say on the late night commercials, but wait, there's more....

Not knowing how filling the salad would be, we planned to have a second course of a angel hair pasta with the garlic roasted tomato sauce we had canned last summer. It's a very basic marinara sauce that we love to keep on hand as much as we can. Honestly, there is nothing quite as satisfying as a summery fresh tasting tomato sauce eaten in the winter made from the tomatoes you grew yourself.




Can't get that taste from those cardboard tomato imposters you find at the supermarket in February. Like I said, I'm not sure we needed the pasta course, but it sure was tasty.

A Vegetarian Sheperds Pie Even A Cattleman Can Love

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Most weeks I let Cynthia pick what we have for Meatless Monday dinner. I'm never disappointed, This week however, over the weekend I asked her to make a lentil Sheperds Pie. I had been bouncing around the internet and had seen a couple of different vegetarian recipes. We both love traditional Sheperds Pie, so it seemed a good idea to try a vegetarian version.

As she typically does, Cynthia decided to use the recipe as the only slightest of suggestions. What we ended up with was a lentil and mushroom Sheperds Pie that was richly satisfying and gave both a mouth feel and taste that was distinctively "meaty" but was completely vegetarian.

Here's what she came up with.

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup French green lentils
1 small onion

4 cloves

1 garlic clove

8 oz package of baby portobello mushrooms, diced
2 tsp grape seed oil
1 small shallot

1/2 tsp thyme

 1/4 cup Maderia
1 oz sweet butter

2 carrots, 1/4 inch diced

1 leek, white part in 1/2 inch dice, green part fine chopped

1 small turnip, 1/2 inch dice

1 stalk celery, 1/4 inch dice

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp flour

1 tsp gravy master

1/2 cup mushroom stock, made from Better than Bullion

1/2 cup frozen peas

1/2 cup frozen corn

 4-5 medium Yukon Gold potatoes

Preparation (Lentils)

• Cook lentils in water with the garlic, thyme and the small onion studded with 4 cloves Bring to boil, reduce heat and simmer until tender, 30-45 minutes. Set aside.

Preparation (Vegetables)

• Fry mushrooms in a very hot pan with a small pat of butter and grape seed oil (for vegan, all grape seed oil)
• Add finely chopped shallot and then de-glaze pan with Madeira (Marsala, Port, Cognac, and even water will work if you prefer no alcohol)
• Add carrots, leeks, turnips and celery
• Add butter (for vegan, not dairy substitute), flour, Gravy Master and mushroom stock
• Salt and pepper to taste. Cook to a firmness you prefer
• Add frozen peas just long enough to defrost. (in season, fresh peas would be nice)
• Transfer to a mixing bowl and combine with lentils

  
Preparation (Potatoes)

• Simmer quartered potatoes in milk (we use milk to add a creaminess to our mashed potatoes, for vegan, use water). You can mix in turnip, parsnip, celeriac, apples, rutabaga, sauteed cabbage or onion or both, fresh herb pesto to make the potatoes as fancy as you want....you get the idea)

• When cooked mash the potatoes and fold the frozen corn into the mash.

Preparation (the final dish)

• Butter (or vegan substitute) a 10# casserole dish (it should be at least 2" deep)
  
• Add vegetable and lentil mix.

• Spoon, pipe or add anyway you like (be creative!) the potato and corn on top of the vegetables (we would also consider polenta in place of the potatoes)

• Bake in a 375 degree F oven until the potatoes began to brown and the vegetables are bubbling. Remove from oven and serve steaming hot. Enjoy!

A quick and easy Meatless Monday meal...

Sometimes you're in a hurry, or you get home late from work and haven't planned dinner. The fridge looks pretty sparse or you just don't feel like peeling, washing, shopping, sauteing or any of the other cooking chores that need to be done.

Well, that happens to us sometimes and when it's Meatless Monday, we have a fallback plan. Grilled cheese! Everyone likes grilled cheese, right? We do too, but not that white bread slathered with butter and filled up with Kraft singles that our Moms (bless them) made for us.

We like to keep a pretty wide variety of cheeses in the house at all times. In fact, here's a picture of what is on hand today. I pulled them all out of the refrigerator to take this shot.

Another "must have" for us in some sort of frozen rolls, you know, just in case. We find that the Alexia brand Ciabatta rolls with rosemary and extra virgin olive oil toast up beautifully. In fact, we're not big users of prepared foods but everything we've tried from Alexia has been great.

The key to making a good grilled cheese for us to is to get a mix of flavors yet still retain that gooey, running, cheesy melt that we love. A few weeks ago, we found ourselves home late with no dinner plans. Perfect night for grilled cheese. Since the rolls are frozen, they need to be defrosted in the oven. Simply follow the package directions. The next step, and this is important, is to cut off a very thin slice from the rounded top of each roll, or simply use them inside out. This allows the sandwich to sit flat on the griddle or in the frying pan when cooking. Next, get creative. Pick and mix cheeses that you like. The only requirement is that one of them should be a good "melting" cheese. On this particular night we picked  fresh mozzarella, munster, and 2 y.o. sharp Vermont cheddar.

Cut pieces to size to fit the rolls, lightly butter or oil both sides of each roll, assemble and place in a pan on medium to medium high heat.  I'm pretty sure you don't need any further instructions on how to cook a grilled cheese.

If you want to make it even a little more special, add a nice thick slice of tomato, preferably fresh from the garden in season, or thinly sliced pear. Either way the result is a perfectly, soul satisfying little piece of comfort food that, when paired with a fresh salad or a hot bowl of tomato soup, makes a no fuss Meatless Monday dinner. Enjoy!

Meatless Monday in Amsterdam

When I realized that I was going to be in Amsterdam on a Monday, I immediately started to wonder what the challenges of staying meatless might be. For those of you that travel, I'm sure you know that meals can often be scripted, restaurants can be chosen for you and food options can sometimes be limited. Now don't get me wrong, Amsterdam is a completely cosmopolitan city with a very broad and exciting food scene. I just didn't know in advance where I would be eating my three Monday meals.

Breakfast was easy. I ate at the hotel buffet and able to stick with fresh fruit, cereal and yogurt. OK, I admit there might have been some aged Gouda cheese that migrated onto my plate. I'm in Amsterdam after all. Have to eat the Gouda while over here.

Lunch was during a scheduled meeting, brought in by the meeting organizer. I had called ahead to one of my European colleagues and mentioned I was not eating meat on Monday's and after explaining that no, I wasn't a vegetarian, he told me that he would see what the caterer could do. But that was more that a month ago, so the day of the meeting I was entirely pleased to see a beautiful dish of pasta with steamed vegetables brought in for me - just me. The sandwiches and other food looked good too, but I did get a few looks that might have bordered on jealousy from some of the other meeting attendees. Thanks for taking care of me Mike!

On to dinner. I was fortunate to be invited to join a group at a wonderful restaurant called De Kersentuin. The name translates to The Cherry Orchard and the restaurant is located in the Bilderberg Hotel. Turned out I was in for a real treat.

Soon after being seated our group was treated to an amuse-bouche plate with three offerings. The first was a tall shot glass of pumpkin soup with a Parmesean cheese foam. Second was a perfectly savory mushroom panna cotta topped with chopped pine nuts. The third little bit was a satiny smooth parsnip puree with a small piece of crispy potato. All three were delicious and I promise you this picture, and the ones to follow, do not do the food justice.

To my pleasant surprise there were appetizers, soups and main courses available that were meatless - and not just available, but,as it turned out, wonderfully prepared and presented.

Following the generous amuse-bouche, I felt I didn't need an appetizer, so i moved right to the soup. My choice was a cream of parsnip with roasted walnuts and a "cloud" of rorippa (I admit I had to look this one up). I didn't lick the bowl(mostly because my boss was sitting directly across from me) but I wanted to. It was that good.

The meatless main choice on the menu that evening was a porcini risotto. It was beautifully plated with a fried egg, grilled bolets, beetroot, smoked celeriac, marinated spring onion and a cream of caramelized onion with a frothy sauce of Parmasean cheese. Quite the mouthful both figuratively and literally!

Those of you that follow along know I'm not big on desserts. But when someone says "cheese course", I'm all in. And then someone said cheese course. The chef picked out four beautiful locally made cheeses for us to sample. Unfortunately, at this point I was a bit overwhelmed and didn't pay close enough attention to the presentation to get the names. I did manage to snap this picture.

Lastly, my companions on both sides of me were kind enough to let me take pictures of their main courses. They were both worth noting and I'll share them here.

The roasted leg of venison was served with turnip with cinnamon, cream of quince, fondant potato and a Jamaican pepper sauce.

The Thai curry of giant prawns were served with stir fried bokchoi, finely shredded spring onion, coriander and pandan rice.

Thanks for sharing Johanne and Jay.

All I can add is that you are in Amsterdam and want a memorable meal, check out De Kersentuin.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch......

(a special guest post by Cynthia)

....the chickens have been busy and we have eggs for dinner! Okay, we don’t have a ranch and unfortunately no chickens either, but when my anti-egg husband is overseas gorging himself on Heineken and rijsttafel (Indonesian rice table), a girl has to take advantage!

Chef Dan Barber of Blue Hills Stone Barns fame, was the inspiration for my main course. Slowly cooked eggs that have a little bit of milk added were the base for the dish. Butter coated the pan, fleur de sel and freshly ground Tellicherry peppercorns were added while stirring. Boring you say? “I have eggs at least once a week for breakfast and so what?” Was the heat just high enough to melt the butter? Did you stand and stir for 10 minutes for your two eggs? You’ve not really tasted an egg until you’ve taken the time to slow cook in a saute pan or better yet, get a double boiler going and go there. Think of a lumpy hollandaise, but without all the extra butter and lemon. So the eggs go on a plate and are immediately topped with freshly shelled pistachios. Salted, unsalted, your choice. Trust me on this, pistachios and eggs are magic.

From there it gets better - a lemon honey thyme vinaigrette goes over mixed herbs and greens and then the eggs are topped with the greens. When it was first served to me, I admit, I was dubious. But Dan Barber is a genius - the warm creamy richness of the egg is a beautiful foil to the crunch and crispness of the greens. The pistachio goodness lingers on your palette and you want another bite.

If, like me, you’re also a gardener, this dish forces you out and into the garden to see what might be added. This is the sort of thing that boosts your gardening ego. I found some fennel fronds, salad burnet (a great herb you should grow with serious cucumber notes), viola blooms, Bright Lights baby chard, turnip greens and mixed lettuces. Zima tomatoes and super sweet cherry tomatoes garnished.

For dessert, I decided to punish my Wagamama eating, Heineken swilling-without-me husband. My favorite Aunt sent us a crate o’pears from Harry and David. (If you haven’t yet indulged, these are some of the peariest pears I’ve ever enjoyed. And juicy? You’ll need to eat it standing upright, bent over 30 degrees at the waist - kind of like a cheesesteak at Pat’s in Philadelphia. Or you could use a plate and knife, but where’s the challenge in that?)

So, the pears. We had three left. A little past their prime, but still serviceable. Cut into pieces and thrown in a casserole at 300 degrees, it wasn’t long until they were soft enough to send through a foodmill. Adding a little light brown sugar, a piece of recycled vanilla bean pod, a slice of ginger and a splash of port ensured fabulous flavor. Back in the oven, stir every half hour or so for about 2 hours and voila! Pear butter. Amazing silky smooth sweet spicy luscious essence of pear.

And then I pulled an Emeril. Slice of nutty whole grain baguette, stilton cheese, local walnuts. BAM!