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Deborah Madison’s Potato and Chickpea Stew

06.26.2017 by J. Doe // 1 Comment

We were invited to spend Christmas with friends, and since we’d had loads of fun celebrating a very English style Christmas with them the year before, we accepted. There would be trivia games with questions we could not answer, and Christmas crackers, and silly paper crowns, and for dessert, traditional English mince pies. I would have two pies: The one I was served, and the one left behind by The Child after she ate the scoop of ice cream served alongside it, then discovered she was Too Full To Eat Another Bite.

I asked what I could contribute to the meal and was told: anything, as long as it’s either gluten-free or vegan, ideally both, but that’s not always possible, and really, anything is lovely.

I spent many hours searching my cookbooks and the internet, and arrived at a disheartening conclusion: There is very little food that is both vegan and gluten-free that I personally want to eat, much less make and serve to others. I consider bringing a platter of decoratively arranged vegetables – an actual recipe from a cookbook I bought on a layover in Iceland – but eventually settled on some simple baked apples, which turned out okay, which is about the most I can say for them.

I’ve made baked apples before, many times, with quite some success, so I pondered my failure at some length the next day. The problem, as I see it, is this: It is easy to find a good recipe when you are searching for something you want to enjoy. Oh! you think, This should be good, and you go off and make it and maybe make little adjustments to suit your taste or align with the contents of your pantry.

The process of choosing a recipe because it isn’t something is a different one. It begins with a firm statement: No. I looked at and rejected dozens of recipes because of some butter or some eggs or, god forbid, a pastry crust.  I know that some baked goods can be modified to be gluten free, but I’ve learned from the hard experience of heart-rendingly bad banana bread that the process is not simply a one-to-one substitution of gluten-free flour for plain. Rather more frustratingly, at the end of the process, an imperfect effort to be inclusive of someone else’s dietary choices will be greeted not with thanks, but with a large serving of disappointment followed by a chaser of regret.

Such was the fate of my baked apples, eaten without the enthusiasm that greets my usual dessert offerings (Oatmeal Pie, Sugar Cream Pie). To be fair, it was also the fate of this year’s mince pies, or more specifically, the subgroup of mince pies made with store-bought gluten-free crusts.

The mince pie baker and I were on the same team on the annual trivia contest, and we didn’t fare very well there, either. When we said goodbye, we vowed: Next year, we’ll do better.

With twelve months to plan, I began, but decided that rather than researching recipes that are primarily defined by what they lack, I would simply try to notice recipes that happen to be vegan or gluten-free in the usual course of looking at cookbooks for recipes that I might want to try, if the mood takes me. I theorized that, as with a Google search, phrasing a query slightly differently might produce very different results.

This is a long-winded way of explaining why I was excited to learn that vegetarian food writer Deborah Madison had published a new cookbook, In My Kitchen.  Even without an actual need for vegetarian recipes, I would have been excited, because I’ve appreciated Madison since the day I tried out her Smoky Brussels Sprouts on Toast, a dish that quickly found its way into the regular dinner rotation at my house, either with the cheese toasts when I wanted something substantial, or without them, when a diet banished carbohydrates from my menu. The cookbook from which I sourced that recipe – The New Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone – is, unfortunately, massive, in a way that doesn’t really lend itself to perusing before bed.

As luck would have it, I received a digital preview copy of In My Kitchen, which readily lends itself to reading whenever I have a few minutes and my iPad handy. The book offers a nice assortment of recipes that are all clearly marked vegan, or gluten free, or if they happen to be neither, suggest modifications that can be made to accommodate dietary restrictions. Perhaps as important – or perhaps more important – it includes quite a few recipes that sound delicious and don’t require any unusual ingredients. So one day, when I felt inspired to try something new, I chose her recipe for a vegetarian stew.

It was easy to make, and easy to modify, which I needed to do, since I didn’t have exactly the number of bell peppers called for, and apparently should have given my supply of saffron a decent burial several years ago. Although these are things that seem like they should be problems, they weren’t; it’s a forgiving recipe if you follow the broad outlines and taste as you go.

The real test of any recipe, of course, is whether it meets the approval of my toughest critic, The Child. She pronounced it a keeper, but rather more reassuringly, helped herself to seconds that evening, and took leftovers to school for her lunch the following day.

Not long after, I was delighted to discover Madison was giving an author talk and signing cookbooks at an event at the local cookbook store. I went with another vegan friend, and made a surprise discovery: Deborah Madison, foremost vegetarian cookbook writer, is not a vegetarian. She signed my cookbook and we chatted about the fact that it’s possible for steak-lovers to appreciate a good vegetable dish, too.

 


Deborah Madison's Potato and Chickpea Stew
 
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Author: adapted from Deborah Madison, In My Kitchen
Ingredients
  • 1 lb fingerling or other small potatoes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • 1 large red pepper, diced
  • 1 large yellow pepper, diced
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp (2 cloves) minced garlic
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp hot paprika
  • 3 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
  • ½ cup dry sherry
  • 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomates, juices included
  • 1 (14.5 ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzos), drained and rinsed
  • 1 to 2 cups water (or vegetable broth)
  • 1 bunch spinach, rinsed, stems removed
Instructions
  1. Scrub potatoes and cut into pieces (halves or quarters depending on how big they are).
  2. Heat a Dutch oven or other large, deep pot, over medium-high heat, and when the pan is warm, add the olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the onion, red and yellow peppers, and potatoes. Lower the heat to medium and cook for about 20 minutes with the lid on the pan, stirring the vegetables every so often.
  3. When the potatoes are tender but still firm, season with 1 tsp of salt and some pepper, and add the garlic. After a few minutes, remove the lid, and add both paprikas, the parsley, and the sherry. Simmer until the liquids in the pan have reduced and are somewhat syrupy.
  4. Add the tomatoes and chickpeas, and enough water to just cover. Put the lid back on the pan and simmer until the potatoes are completely cooked through, another 10-20 minutes.
  5. While the stew is simmering, heat a saute pan. When the pan is hot, add a dash of olive oil and then the spinach leaves. Cook until the leaves are completely wilted, then transfer them to a colander and use a fork to press out all the excess liquid.
  6. When the potatoes are completely cooked through, stir the cooked spinach into the pot, and serve.
Notes
You can substitute vegetable broth for the water, if you prefer.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // chickpeas, potato, vegan, vegetarian

Jamie Oliver’s Eggplant Parmesan

08.26.2015 by J. Doe // 2 Comments

This is the way the summer begins: with a whimper.

This is the way the summer ends: with a bang.

The Child’s summer days were divided into two parts: Mornings were spent at driving classes, learning the rules of the road so that next spring, when she turns 16, she will be ready to hit the road in the car she hopes to have. Afternoons were spent at the local pool, teaching youngsters to swim.  Summer settled in to a nice rhythm, one that didn’t require much of me.

It lasted a few blissful days.

The Child calls from a phone number I don’t recognize: her phone – and her bus pass – has been stolen out of her locker at the pool.

I drive over to pick her up, and then to the phone store, where I learn a few things. First, once reported as stolen, phones cannot be re-activated, and are effectively useless. Second, you can buy a stolen phone on craigslist for cash; it will seem to work right up to the time it is reported as stolen.

From a theoretical standpoint, I have gained an interesting insight into a portion of the economy whose existence I was previously unaware of.

From a practical standpoint, the other information I obtain is far more useful: Although I declined insurance coverage when purchasing The Child’s phone, it is, in fact, insured. It is probably the only time I’ve  been happy – grateful, even – that my clearly stated preferences were ignored. So, after several more visits to the phone store and various websites, a new phone arrives for The Child. A new bus pass arrives a few days later, to significantly less fanfare.

Teenagers don’t get excited about buses; they get excited about cars.

Summer resumes its rhythm. The Child begins actual driving lessons, the kind where she gets behind the actual wheel of an actual car and drives on actual roads in actual traffic. She does this with a professional instructor, apparently quite well, and though she’s supposed to practice outside of class, with her parents, she looks for alternate teachers among our neighbors and friends, as do I. She locates a willing parent of a friend, but then that doesn’t work out, and so one warm evening, we head over to the empty parking lot of the nearby community college, and I hand her the key to my car.

She drives gingerly up the center lane, and stops at the sign.

She makes a left turn into the second parking lot, and remembers to signal.

She attempts to park neatly between the white lines, and puts imaginary dents in the cars that aren’t parked there. She circles around the lot, tries again, and fails.

I did this really well in my lesson, she says. There were actual cars there and I pulled up between them.

This is a bigger car. You have to make a wider turn to line it up.

She tries again, drives across the lines again, pulling the car slowly to the concrete stopping block. With a bang and a scraping of metal, the car hurtles abruptly forward, stopping just as suddenly, then quietly whirrs and waits. The Child is crying and hyperventilating, and jumps out of the car, still in Drive, but motionless. I shift it into Park and pull the brake, then get out and walk to the now-vacant driver’s seat to turn off the motor, but the car isn’t going anywhere. It is neatly propped up on the concrete block, which is what stopped it from going down the hill, into the fence and a mass of overgrown blackberry bushes.

We spend the rest of the evening sitting on the curb, swatting mosquitos and waiting for the tow truck, which arrives two hours later, hooks the car incorrectly to the winch, and does additional damage to the rear of the car.

At least you still have your bus pass, I point out.

I’m a good driver at driving school, she says. You just have a bad car.

Summers should not be spent like this. Summers should be spent tending the garden, picking blackberries, going to the pool with friends, or riding nowhere in particular on a bike, alone. There should be sand and ice cream and picnics on red-checkered blankets. Summer may mean different things to you, and that’s fine. I’m willing to wager that calls to insurance companies and calls  from angry tow truck drivers aren’t on your list, either.

Still, I did manage to pick some blackberries this summer, and summer isn’t quite over: there may yet be enough berries to make jam. I also managed to pay just enough attention to my garden that it  gave me a gift: some basil, some tomatoes, and one almighty big eggplant.

I fear eggplant in much the way that I fear The Child’s driving. The only time I ever ate it as a child was when my mother made eggplant parmesan, which was fortunately not very often. I could not choke it down: the eggplant was bitter, with a slimy texture, then encased in breading and baked under sauce. My mother served it with great pride, when we had guests, but as I got older she stopped having dinner guests and eggplant was something that simply vanished from my existence.

When choosing plants for my garden this year, I ran across an eggplant, flowering nicely, and thought: How could anything so pretty produce anything like my awful memory? The answer is, it can’t, if you take proper care of it and cook it well.

I chose Jamie Oliver’s Eggplant Parmesan Recipe because it seemed to right some of the wrongs of more traditional recipes: the eggplant is roasted in the oven, rather than breaded and fried, then baked in a simple sauce with lots of fresh tomatoes and basil.

It was incomparable for dinner. It was superb for lunch the next day. It would make a wonderful sandwich.

I used more parmesan cheese than called for in the recipe, because I simply grated a layer of parm onto each layer of sauce and didn’t bother to measure. I also came up a bit short on sauce because I neglected to cover the pan while cooking it, so it cooked down a bit more than it should have.

Never mind if you make mistakes; it’s a very forgiving recipe – a last taste of summer, or an early taste of fall. Whichever you prefer.

 

Eggplant Parmesan

Jamie Oliver's Eggplant Parmesan
 
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Author: adapted from Jamie Oliver via The New York Times
Ingredients
  • 3 medium-large eggplants, cut crosswise into ½-inch slices
  • Olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely chopped
  • 1 large clove garlic, minced
  • 1 ½ tsp dried oregano
  • 1 28-ounce can finely diced tomatoes, or an equivalent amount of fresh tomatoes, cored, peeled and diced
  • 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
  • ½ cup packed fresh basil leaves
  • Salt and pepper
  • ½ cup freshly grated parmesan cheese, or as needed
  • ⅓ cup bread crumbs
Instructions
  1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush both sides of eggplant slices with olive oil, and place in a single layer on baking sheets. Bake until undersides are golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes, then turn and bake until other sides are lightly browned. Set aside.
  2. Reduce oven temperature to 375 degrees.
  3. While eggplant is baking, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, and cook until soft. Add garlic and oregano and cook another 30 seconds. Add tomatoes and their juices, breaking up large pieces with the back of a spoon. Cover, reduce heat to low, and simmer 15 to 20 minutes. Add vinegar, basil and salt and pepper to taste.
  4. Into a 9-by-9-inch baking dish, spoon a small amount of tomato sauce, then add a thin scattering of parmesan cheese, then a single layer of eggplant. Repeat until all ingredients are used, ending with a little sauce and a sprinkling of parmesan. Sprinkle bread crumbs on top and drizzle with a bit of olive oil or additional cheese, as desired.
  5. Bake until eggplant mixture is bubbly and center is hot, 30 to 45 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to rest for 5 minutes before serving.
  6. Leftovers can be reheated.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // eggplant, vegetarian

Deborah Madison’s Brussels Sprouts and Smoky Onions on Cheese Toast

03.27.2015 by J. Doe // 2 Comments

I’ve been playing around on Tinder lately. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a dating app that distills online dating to its essence: Look at a picture of a potential match, swipe the picture left for no, right for yes. If they swiped right for your picture too, you can communicate with each other. It’s entertaining, in a way: it requires very little effort – less effort than Candy Crush, which is the other app I use when I have time to kill.

I’m having better luck advancing levels on Candy Crush than I am in advancing my love life.

The problem with something that requires so little effort, of course, is that most people put very little effort in. In my zip code, fully half of my prospective matches – no, I didn’t count – have no text on their profiles at all.

Half of the available men in my area have absolutely nothing to say for themselves.

Of the half that do have something to say, often it goes a little like this: I like hanging out with the guys, working out, and watching sports. This is usually followed by some sort of statement of tribal allegiance (Go Hawks and/or Dawgs and/or Cougs!). I wonder where it is a woman fits into this equation, but I already know the answer.

Someone’s got to make the nachos.

The photographs in their profiles are usually taken at games, where they sport team logo gear, or at bars or parties, where they hold frosty mugs aloft, but either way they are surrounded by people and it is frequently difficult to determine which one I should be looking at. Some of them just cut to the chase, and use a team logo as their profile pic.

Guys, if you actually were Seahawks, you wouldn’t be on Tinder.

Some of them post pictures of their rides – usually motorcycles or muscle cars – and the photos may or may not have a person in them.

Guys, if I needed a new vehicle, I’d go to a car dealer.

Fatigue has set in, but I swipe onward: Genghis Khan without his horde, left. A kilt-wearing crossbow-toter with no face, left. Teddy Ruxpin at a urinal holding a beer, I give up.

I don’t enjoy spending my time this way, so even when a guy appears – not offering any information and wanting to get together ASAP – I smell hookup, and worse, I just can’t muster up any enthusiasm in spite of his GQ-worthy profile picture. I spend my free time going to brunch or the movies with friends, or at home, watching The Sopranos (who feel like friends, so many times have I re-watched the series), or maybe catching up on Game of Thrones (who I hope aren’t friends, though maybe that’s better than having them as enemies? hard to say). I take long walks with The Red Dog and Miss Liberty, a rescue dog I am fostering.

All in all, I find the time passes pleasantly this way. I make dinner for two, or often, just myself and when it’s the latter, I make what I want, exactly how I want it. This is how I ended up discovering Deborah Madison’s lovely recipe for Brussels sprouts – I had some of everything it called for, and nobody to tell me they don’t like Brussels sprouts, so I made it one evening as Tony Soprano had someone whacked in the background. Nobody was killed making this recipe, though I did burn a finger getting the toasts out of the oven.

It’s wonderfully simple, and takes pan-roasted Brussels sprouts off the side of the plate – where they don’t belong – and puts them center stage. If you’re not already pan-roasting your Brussels sprouts, you’re really missing out – the sprouts lose all the bitterness and become sweet and flavorful as they caramelize. I usually just toss them in the pan with some olive oil and salt, or maybe truffle oil if I’m feeling extravagant. But Deborah Madison takes it up a notch, adding onions and smoked paprika, which elevate the whole dish to heights I had not thought possible.

I redid this recipe a tiny bit: In Madison’s original, the Brussels sprouts are boiled briefly, then added to the onions. But I saw no reason for the extra step, since pan-roasting Brussels sprouts is the way to get the best flavor out of them, and if the onions caramelize a bit along the way, so much the better. So using this method, I’ve made the dish several times, each time better than the last.

The original recipe also calls for sharp cheddar cheese, which would be fine. I use Beecher’s cheese, which is local to Seattle, delicious, and can be purchased in large quantities at my neighborhood Costco. Another blogger adapted this recipe somewhat and used gruyere, which would also be lovely. It’s your dinner: Use whatever cheese you please.

I found the original recipe on Food & Wine; I am not sure which of Madison’s cookbooks it is from. I’ve already checked one of her books out of the library, so hopefully I’ll know soon.

Brussels Sprouts and Smoky Onions on Cheddar Toasts

Deborah Madison's Brussels Sprouts and Smoky Onions on Cheese Toast
 
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Author: Sprung At Last
Ingredients
  • 1 lb brussels sprouts, thinly sliced
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 large onion, finely diced
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 tsp smoked paprika
  • 4 slices of bread, toasted
  • 4 ounces extra-sharp cheddar cheese, thinly sliced
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 350°.
  2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper and cook over moderate heat, stirring occasionally, until just softened, about 5 minutes. Add the paprika, cover and continue cooking another minute.
  3. Add the brussels sprouts to the skillet and cook, stirring only to prevent scorching, until tender throughout and browned in spots, about 10-15 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  4. Arrange the toasts on a baking sheet and top with the cheddar. Bake for 2 minutes, until the cheese is melted; mound the brussels sprouts and onions on top and serve.
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Categories // The Joy of Cooking Tags // brussels sprouts, cheese, vegetarian

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