Day 252 - Mole Skillet Pie with Greens

Mole Skillet Pie with Greens

It's Mole Week! I'm knocking out all the Chile-Chocolate Mole recipes in a row!

This is a fun and easy stick-to-your-ribs meal. I never make stuff like this! And I can't believe Helen, who's usually such a health-conscious eater, picked this from a list of much good-ier things I offered her. I think there may be something irresistible about the name and the concept, i.e. cornbread cooked in a skillet over mole smothered greens and beans.

I went with pinto beans, because they seemed the most... um... mole-y. And I used my 8 inch cast iron skillet. Now, I should mention, that 8 inch skillet looks like it's not going to be able to accommodate this whole concoction, but the truth is, it's the perfect size, so don't be scared.

Yet again, we have an undersalting issue here - you should definitely salt the veggies to taste before you put the cornbread on top. The cornbread itself is a little light on flavor, so you definitely want to have the extra sauce on the side for serving - it needs it!

The ratio of bread to veggies here is a little slanted to the bread side, so this may be better positioned as a side dish, i.e. more like a flavored bread than an entree pie. It's yummy and it comes in a fun package, but the star here, again, is really the sauce.

SFO: 10
As long as you aren't expecting any meat, you should be very satisfied.

Day 232 - Rustic White Bean and Mushrooms Crumb-Topped Casserole

Rustic White Bean and Mushrooms Crumb-Topped Casserole

Did you ever watch something ordinary become something extraordinary right before your eyes? Yesterday, these beans were Cinderella picking the lentils out of the ashes, and today they're Cinderella at the ball. And it's pretty much the same dish!

Really, all I did was put those same beans back in a casserole dish and cover them with "buttered" and herbed bread crumbs. But oh my god! What a difference some crumbs make!

This dish was downstairs at Downton Abbey, and now it's decidedly upstairs! And Lady Edith wants seconds!

SFO: 10
Even bean-phobic types might go for this.

Day 98 - Spinach-Noodle Kugel

Spinach-Noodle Kugel

This is how unobservant a Jew I am. I didn't even think to make this kugel recipe until my friend Daniel asked me if there were any Passover-related recipes in Veganomicon. Didn't even occur to me to look! Well, he asked just in time for me to run out and get a box of matzoh so I could make this on the second night of Passover. Right after I got home from that movie screening. (FYI, I performed in a concert on the first night of Passover - I warned you I'm unobservant!)

Before

I've never used rombi pasta before. It's so cute. It's like mini lasagna noodles, torn in random pieces. It'd be sweet to make a mini lasagna with them. But for now, it's all about kugel.

I didn't grow up with savory kugel. Well, maybe there were a few potato kugels, but the noodle kugels were always sweet, with cottage cheese and raisins. Mmmm. Still, I was very interested to see how this would taste....

Survey says: meh.

I think it's all that matzoh. Matzoh is amazingly unflavorful. It's OK as a vehicle for butter, but so is tire rubber. And the tofu just doesn't do what eggs would have done to bind this casserole. This whole dish seems to have a blank space where flavor is supposed to be. 

Some extra salt helped, but....

After

Wait, stop everything!!

Typo alert! I'm rereading the recipe as I'm writing this, and I've just discovered I've made a giant mistake. As have I&T. There's onion in this recipe! But it's hidden/invisible! First of all, it's incorrectly indented in the list of ingredients, so it's really easy to miss. And it's nowhere to be seen in the instructions. I'm sure if I&T meant there to be onion in this, they would tell us to sauté it, but there's no mention of sauteeing, or of onions at all, in the recipe. But now this makes perfect sense - onions would certainly leave a blank space where flavor was meant to be. 

Argh! Typos!!!

SFO: 5
(in this version without onions, it's not really safe for anyone...)

Day 61 - Caramelized Onion-Butternut Roast with Chestnuts

Caramelized Onion-Butternut Roast with Chestnuts

When I was in Costco last week, I came upon the big bag of roasted chestnuts, and remembering how much I hate to roast and peel chestnuts, I grabbed it! So even though I&T think this dish is best made with fresh ones, I succumbed to convenience. Incidentally, the question came up of what exactly a chestnut is. It's a fruit/nut, but unlike most fruit/nuts that are high in fat+protein and low in carbs, this one is inversely high in carbs and low in fat+protein.

I've never been a chestnut fan, which makes the task of peeling them even more annoying. But I will say that when chestnuts are used in the "right" application, I can definitely enjoy them. And that is the case here!

Even though in the vegan world, this would be considered a main course, in the omnivore world, this really feels like a Thanksgiving side dish. The word "Roast" in the name of this dish evokes a big cut of meat, but there is no hunk at the heart of this dish. It's a classic casserole of roasted veggies (and chestnuts and beans).

As in an earlier recipe that involved caramelizing onions, I needed much more time than I&T suggested, and ultimately I also had to crank up the heat to get more browning. After the onions are caramelized, everything gets tossed together in the casserole dish and then cooked, covered, to soften, then uncovered and topped with crumbs to brown. As with the onions, I needed extra time to brown. Maybe my oven is not a good browning oven....

This is a great sweet/salty mix. I added the exact amounts of salt called for in the recipe, and I have to say, even for salt-crazed me, this danced on the edge of overly salted. Luckily there's the sweetness of the squash, chestnuts, and onions to balance it out. And the beans lend a nice heartiness (and protein).

Tracy's back, all memories of the beanball debacle hopefully erased from her brain, and she likes this dish! And if Tracy likes it, it automatically translates to a 10 rating in the SFO department!

SFO: 10