Light & Unexpected Spring Time!

Hey gang - its been a MONTH since my last post, so tonight I give you three light, easy, springy treats to try out. I hope you enjoy - and please check back soon for my "spring cassoulet" that's in development right now!

I got the plan for this dish from a seasonal cookbook, did some tweaking and loved the result. Fresh crisp asparagus, nutty wholesome whole wheat pasta, lemon, eggs, herbs....how can you go wrong? Best of all it was super easy and ready in about 20 minutes. My first pass looked a little funky but tasted heavenly, so check back later, I may revise this one a bit.

Lemony Asparagus with Creamy Pasta
Yield: 4 servings
Prep Time: 20-30 minutes

Ingredients:
1 lb pasta, whole wheat spaghetti works great, but its really up to you
1 bunch fresh asparagus, rinsed and bottoms trimmed, cut into 1 or 2 inch pieces
1/2 lemon, juiced and peeled, peel reserved
1 clove garlic, minced
3 scallions, rinsed and sliced on the bias
2 T. butter
3/4 c. milk
2 large eggs, whisked into the milk
1 t. tarragon, dried or 1 T. fresh, rinsed and minced.
S&P
Nutmeg, ground to taste

Method:

• Bring a pot of water to a boil, salt
• Add pasta and cook until about 2 minutes from al dente, add asparagus and cook until tender crisp. Drain.
• Meanwhile, melt butter in a large saute pan over medium heat
• Add scallions and lemon peel, saute until softened. Add garlic and cook 1 more minute.
• Add lemon juice and tarragon, cook until almost evaporated, remove from heat.
• Once pasta and asparagus are cooked and drained, return butter mixture to medium heat
• Add pasta, asparagus and egg mixture to the pan, season lightly with S&P
  
• Gently stir until egg is cooked and liquid is mostly evaporated. Do not allow to boil.
• Plate pasta and top with a small amount of freshly grated nutmeg.
  

This dish is light, creamy, satisfying and really rather good for you. Tasty adds would be sun-dried tomatoes, goat or parm cheese, ham or proscuitto, grilled shrimp or chicken, artichoke hearts or toasted pine nuts, dark greens or shredded radiccio for color and contrast.

Seitan Fajitas

Quick, easy and super tasty. This is all good stuff to have hanging out in the pantry or freezer. Sub meat for seitan or forgo the protein all together and add more veggies like peppers, squash, tomato and green beans. Tonight its 31* so I did this on the stove, but I would normally grill. I included the timing for that at the end. Grilling is best because everything is hot and ready to go at the same time.

Yield: 6-8 fajitas
Veg as written. Gluten free if you sub corn tortillas and leave out the Seitan!

Filling:
1 batch home made chili powder (see below) or 2-3 T prepared
1 small zucchini, cut into 4 inch long pieces, pencil thick (leave in planks if grilling)
1 small onion, sliced (leave in disks if grilling)
1 12 oz tub seitan (or equivalent meat / veggies)
2 chilies in adobo
2 T vegetable oil
1 lime

Assemble & Garnish:
8 8" flour tortillas, warmed
shredded cheddar
sour cream
salsa
guacamole
etc etc

Home made chili powder:
1 T smoked hot paprika
1 t cayenne
1 t chili flakes
1 t garlic powder
1 t oregano
2 t cumin
1/2 t ground cinnamon
1 t black pepper
1 t coriander
1 pinch kosher salt

METHOD:

1. Heat 1T oil in cast iron pan over medium high heat or in a regualr pan at meduim until shimmering.
2. Add onions over high until crisping on edges, but not yet soft. Remove to a bowl.
3. Return pan to heat (add oil if needed), add zucc, sprinkle with a little chili powder and cook on high until begining to brown, but not soft. Remove to a bowl.
4. Add 1 T oil to pan, return to heat. Add seitan or meat. Toss with the remainder of the chili powder. Cook, stirring frequesntly, about 3 min. Add chopped chilies and continue cooking until heated through...maybe 2 or 3 minutes.
5. Meanwhile....heat your tortillas, latering between damp papertowels and nuking for 45 seconds is a quick n easy way.
   
6. Throw everything back in the pan to heat and then divide between all your warm tortillas.
7. Spritz with lime.
   
8. Top, fold and munch.

Grill Method:

1. Preheat grill to medium, turn off 1 burner for tortilla warming.
   
2. Toss protein in chili powder (reserve a little for zuc)
   
3. Spray grate or food with oil
4. Place onions on grill, close and let cook till marked and still crisp - 4 min.
5. Turn onions add zucchini. Sprinkle with chili powder.
   
6. Spray grill, add seitan.
7. Turn zucchin
8. Spray grate over cold burner. Lay out tortillas to warm.
9. Turn seitan.
   
10. Top tortillas with chilies then layer in the rest of the goods. Spritz, top, fold, eat.
    

Turducken...sans Duck

This dish is the result of a classic case of "A and B are about to go bad and OH LOOK, I found C!" Today's A&B were a single boneless turkey breast and a lonely chicken sausage. My OH LOOK! was a fresh jar of Sierra Nevada Honey Mustard (thanks Chas!). Here's how they made their way to my Kismet Mess...

YIELD: 2-4 servings
Non-veg

1 turkey breast half, boneless about 1.5 lbs
1 sausage, I used an applewood smoked w/ Chardonnay variety
2 T bread crumbs, unseasoned is preferred
1/4 red onion, small dice (pencil eraser size)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t sage, dry
1/3 c. white wine, dry Chard or vermouth
2 T honey mustard, prepared or whisk together equal parts dijon and honey
salt, pepper, olive oil
toof picks or kitchen string

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 425*, cover roasting pan with foil and let heat IN oven.
2. Rinse turkey under cold water and pat dry. Lay flat on a board and pound with mallet (strike and slide mallet away from you) to even out thickness to about 1/2 inch thick...careful not to tear it. Lightly S&P both sides of the bird. Leave to rest skin side (or formerly skin side) down.
   
3. Heat about a teaspoon of oil in a small pan and add red onion.
   
4. Crumble chicken sausage (or regular sausage or spinach) into pan...not easy, but its worth the effort to crumble it as much as you can. Cook until onions start to get translucent, stirring often.
   
5. Add garlic & sage, cook for 1-3 minutes, stirring to not burn the garlic. Add bread crumbs and toast. Add a bit of the wine to bring everything together - seeking a 'stuffing' texture. If you use all the wine, so what?...pour yourself some more and try to save some for the mustard sauce later.
6. Spoon the stuffing down the center of the turkey, long ways. Pinch the edges together and thread closed with toofpicks or tie with string.
7. Lightly spray or brush the bundle with olive oil and move over towards your oven. You'll want to pull that hot pan out fast and get the bird "seam-side-down" on the hot pan quickly.
8. Do that.
9. Pop the whole thing in the middle upper part of the oven and roast about 25 minutes. Its done when you poke and the juice runs clear or an instant read thermometer gets to about 130*...you'll be reading the temp of the stuffing so that should be good.
10. When done, move bird to a clean plate and tent with foil about 5-10 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, heat the mustard with about 2 T of the wine to make a nice sauce. Taste and adjust seasons as necessary.
    
12. Carve roll into rounds and serve draped in mustard sauce. Nice with any greens and or parmy tater concoction.

This would also be great with the collard greens recipe to follow...too bad I didn't think of that earlier.

Squash, Lentils & Greens - A Stratakopita of Sorts

Its a lot of putzing around, but pretty easy. Its great as an entree or a side to anything wonderfully roasty.

Yield: 6 entrees, 12 sides
Veg as written, easily "vegan'd"

1 cup dried green lentils, picked over and rinsed
1 large yellow onion, small dice
10 cloves garlic, 4 bonked, 6 minced
2 black cardamom pods, seeds only (or 3 green cardamom, or 1 t ground cardamom)
1 t sage
1 bay leaf
3 cups water or stock
3 cups butternut squash, large dice (about the size of dice)
1.5 inches of fresh ginger root, peeled and minced or 1.5 teaspoons of dried ginger
1 big bunch of dark stinky greens, washed, dried and chopped
8-10 big white mushrooms (or any kind you prefer), small dice or slice is good
1 t rosemary
4-6 oz feta or goat cheese (some sort of wonderful smokey pork product would be great here if you're into that)
1 package of phyllo dough, thawed (or use lasagna noodles, puff pastry, even planks of eggplant)
4 T butter melted (or olive oil if you prefer vegan...er and leave out the cheese)
salt, pepper, olive oil

METHOD:

1. Preheat oven to 450 or so.
2. Cook onions in butter or oil over medium heat until soft (5-8 min), add minced garlic and continue cooking for 1 minute or until fragrant. Reserve half of the mixture in a small bowl.
3. Add a bit more fat to the pan, toss in the lentils, cardamom and sage and stir to coat, cook about 3 minutes and then add bay leaf and stock or water to cover by about an inch. Bring to a boil, cover and simmer until lentils are just tender. These guys will go in the oven too, so don't over do them. Should take about 30 min. You want them to be pretty dry at the end so they don't sog out your phyllo.
4. Toss squash, ginger, bonked garlic cloves and s/p in olive oil to lightly coat. Spread in one layer on a sheet pan or in a pyrex and roast until just tender. Squash will continue too cook once out of the oven, then return to the oven, so you don't want it to be soft. About 10 minutes should do it. Stir once or twice during cooking. Remove from oven when done and set aside. Reduce oven to 350*.
5. Heat a little fat in a large saute pan, add the reserved onion mixture and get it going again. Add mushrooms and cook until soft, about 8 min. Add the rosemary and then the greens a couple of handfuls at a time, along with a bit of water and then cover the pan to wilt. Repeat until all greens are wilted and mixed with the mushrooms and stuff. S/P to taste.
6. Assemble your strata or lasagnakopita or whatever it is. Brush the bottom of a 9x12 baking pan with melted butter. Lay 1 piece of phyllo in the bottom of the pan. (Cover the rest of the phyllo with a damp cloth) Brush lightly with butter and place another sheet of phyllo. Repeat until you've got 6 layers of phyllo.
7. Check the seasoning and then spoon in the lentils - there should be very little liquid at this point. Spread them into an even layer and top with 4-6 more sheets of phyllo and butter. Spoon in the suqash, spread into an even layer...remove the garlic cloves unless you're into that. Layer with 4-6 more sheets of phyllo and butter. Evenly distribute your greens and mushrooms in a nice layer, dot in the cheese and top with 4-6 or more sheets of phyllo and butter. Pop it in the oven and bake about 15 min until it looks nice.
   

Let stand a minute or 2 and serve.

Or...if this is too much foffing about, cook the lentils and greens as above, half an acorn squash and roast at 450* cut side down on an oiled sheet until tender (20-30 min). Sprinkle with ginger, fill with lentils and serve along side the greens.