Cauliflower Head!

For the past few weeks, we've been getting a produce box from New Roots Organics, which comes every other week, filled with greens, fruits and vegetables. As a result, I've been trying to use more of our new found produce in our meals. Happy kale, tons of arugula, delicious apples... but then we get something like.... cauliflower. Cauliflower. It's white, without nutrients, without flavor... what's the point? Under normal circumstances, I would never buy cauliflower... order cauliflower... I might use it as an insult. You cauliflower head! But now, it's here, waiting in my kitchen. Looking all white, and broccoli-like. It needs to be something - mashed? In a soup? Roasted? In a gratin?

So - I made some Asian-inspired (Asia, you inspire you me!) tofu for dinner, and decided to roast the cauliflower with some spicy spices. I enjoyed it, but if you don't like spicy things, you might just want to stick to the salt and pepper.

Spicy Roasted Cauliflower
1 head of cauliflower, broken into florets
2 tablespoons of olive oil
2 tsp. crushed red pepper
1 tsp. ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 400º. Toss the ingredients together, and spread onto a baking sheet. Roast for about 25-30 minutes or until soft.

So long, winter?

I've put away the scarves, stowed the down comforter and bought my spring and summer herbs for planting. The sun is shining, the grass is being mowed, I'm wearing flip flops. However, the tease that is Seattle spring will be plunging back into sloppy cold this next week, but for now we have a little taste of what summer is like - remember it?

In honor of Seattle's finickiness, I will write about one more late winter dish - something warm and filling that will maybe remind you of the summer flavors to come. Also, I've been meaning to write up this recipe for about a month now, and I never got around to it.

Squash and Kale Lasagna

Under normal conditions, I'm no fan of normal lasagna - something about the combination of ground beef and ricotta doesn't do it for me. However, vegetarian and vegan lasagnas have a special place in my heart. I remember the first time I had pumpkin lasagna - what, you mean lasagna doesn't need ground beef and tons of cheese? My heavens!

Don't worry, this one has tons of cheese. I made this after seeing a recipe in a magazine in a waiting room and because some of my non-meat-eating friends were coming over for dinner. Fortunately for me, and for them, I ended up prepping this the night before and baking it the day of - it was a time-consuming pain in the arse, but quite tasty, which is why its here and not on But I Suck At Cooking. Though, I certainly did try.

Adapted from Sunset Magazine

Ingredients
4 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium red onion, peeled and sliced
3 peeled garlic cloves (1 minced, 2 left whole)
2 cans (14 oz. each) crushed tomatoes
1 teaspoon dried oregano
Salt and Pepper
6 cups (about 2 lbs.) butternut or acorn squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-in. cubes
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
1 pound dinosaur kale, torn from stem
9 lasagna noodles
1 container (15 oz.) part-skim-milk ricotta cheese
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
2 cups shredded mozzarella cheese, divided

1. Assemble ingredients in front of you. Lasagna noodles. Check. Dinosaur kale. check. Tomatoes. Check. Peeled, seeded butternut squash. Crap - mine's not peeled - why did I pay extra for squash that's only seeded. That's what I get for going for convenience. Whatever.

2. Ignore recipe and stick squash in 450º oven without peeling it or cutting into cubes. Hopefully, it'll scoop out after being roasted, because peeling butternut squash is a pain.

3. Make sauce - saute onions and garlic, and then add tomatoes and spices. Simmer forever until it's "thick."

4. Boil water and put kale leaves in for about 5 minutes. Forget about them and overboil. Forget to salt the water. Drain kale, chop, and then add some salt.

5. Boil more water. Add lasagna noodles. Remember to salt the water this time. Realize pot isn't big enough for lasagna noodles. Poke noodles until they relinquish their stiffness and fall into the menacingly hot water. Laugh evilly. Burn self with water accidently. Ow.

6. Remember butternut squash! Look in oven - parts are starting to singe. Realize that said squash is not squashy yet. Poke with form, splash some oil on it. Stare at it for another 20 minutes whiel sauce continues to simmer and you drain the defeated lasagna noodles.

7. Squish together ricott cheese, 1 cup of shredded mozzerella, the nutmeg and some salt.

8. Decide itse times to do something about the squash. Remove from oven. Its hot - try to remove from peel anyways. Burn self. Many times. Some parts are squishy. Some are rock hard, all are stringy. Make huge mess. Realize that even if you got all the squash out, there wouldn't be enough for the recipe. Remember leftover acorn squash from that weekend's dinner! Saved. Remove that from fridge and mash with the pitiful butternut squash. Acorn squash > Butternut squash.

9. finally, everything can be put together. Start spooning sauce onto bottom of 9x13 pan = there not going to be enough to fit. Grab smaller 7x11 pan. Sauce, noodles, squash, kale, ricotta mixture... wait... there's too much to fit!

10. Through fancy maneuvering and someone else's help, flip half-assembled lasagna into 10x14 pan. Way too big. Whatever.

11. Continue assembling. Whatever order, as long as there's lot of cheese on top.

12. Realize that this all took about 2 hours and hope that it doesn't suck.

13. Bake at 350º till its done. However long that takes.

Result: It doesn't suck! It's very tasty, in fact. You should probably follow the original directions, and not mine, but I would recommend the acorn squash over butternut.

Also, you may have noticed that the site has a somewhat fancy new look - still in tweak mode. Though, I'm guessing most of you read this in Google Reader anyway... oh well.

Indian Spinach with Paneer

Indian food. It's tasty. At least the American version I get - I imagine the real thing is good too. To keep me from going to the little Indian food district we've got goin' on here in Seattle all the time, I make this dish from time to time. I've made it with some homemade naan and spicy chicken (show off), but I'd be pretty happy just eating this plain from the tupperware. As I may have done.

This recipe is adapted from one in Fine Cooking - it was originally for 6 servings (this is roughly 3 servings) and also called for chick peas instead of paneer, but it was a strange texture. If you don't have garam masala, throw in a bit of cumin, a bit of clove, and whatever else you feel like. Also, there were a bunch of words and warnings in the recipe, and I didn't think they were that important. And sometimes, I forget to thaw my spinach in time, so it ends up being a big block of frozen spinach in my pan. That takes a while, so if you're like me, maybe you should thaw it first in the microwave?

Indian Spinach with Yogurt and Paneer
1 Tbs. olive oil
1/2 yellow onion, or 1 shallot, chopped to medium dice
1-2 cloves garlic, chopped (about 2 tsp.)
1 1/2 tsp. minced ginger
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
10 oz box of frozen spinach, thawed
1/4 tsp. salt
black pepper
scant 1/2 plain yogurt
paneer, diced into 1 in. pieces

Heat the oil over medium-high heat, add the onion or shallot and saute until soft and lightly browned. Add the garlic, ginger, garam masala and coriander and cook very briefly, stirring quickly for 15-30 seconds.

Add the spinach to the pan and stir until well-mixed and heated through, about 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and add salt and pepper to taste.

Transfer the spinach to a food processor and add the yogurt and then puree. Return the mixture to the pan and warm the mixture back up. Add the paneer pieces and cook for another minute or so.

Mayonnaise

I'm not sure when mayonnaise got such a bad rap. I blame Hellman's and Duke's and fake mayonnaise king's, Miracle Whip. I used to hate mayonnaise on my hamburgers, on my sandwiches, whenever I saw it in those gross packets. Wait, I still do. Because it's usually the wrong mayonnaise! Wrong! But real mayonnaise... oh my. Supah tasty. And very easy if you make it in a food processor or with a mixer. Don't do it by hand. Don't. Do. It. And if the idea of mayonnaise grosses you out? Call it aioli and let's call it good. [Brian would like to note that he doesn't have the love affair with homemade mayonnaise that I do]

Homemade Mayonnaise

1 egg
2 tbsp. lemon juice
Dash of cayenne pepper
Dash of ground mustard
Salt or pepper to taste
3/4 c. - 1 c. olive oil or canola oil
Other additions

In a food processor, combine the egg, lemon juice, salt and pepper and any additions. Slowly (slowly!) add 1/2 cup of the oil through the feedtube or into the bowl with the mixture. The mixture should begin to thicken - add up to 1/2 cup more of the oil through the feedtube.

Possible additions to the mayonnaise: 1 tablespoon or more of chopped herbs (cilantro, dill, rosemary, parsley, etc) or a few cloves of garlic. Enjoy on french fries, hamburgers, your sandwich... with a spoon.