Shitake Tamales, with Mole Mofu and Lime Dressed Salad

Yet another mushroom dish!  Clearly I'm obsessed.  Vegetarian tamales are pretty hard to come by in restaurants, and the frozen ones from Target have a frightening amount of fat in them.  In my opinion, if they are that fattening, they should taste better than they do.  So homemade tamales it was!

To round out the meal, I came across some mole dressed Mofu.  I've been trying to avoid eating tofu lately because of the concerns surrounding soy, but since Mofu is local and organic, I make the occasional exception.

Finally, a simple cabbage, kale and avocado salad with lime vinagrette.

Pasta with Shitakes and Smoked Tomato Sauce

I still adore the basic preparation of Shitake pasta I posted back in May, but I wanted to try something a little different.  However, I had no plan, so I just started digging around the kitchen, hoping for inspiration to hit.

 Last summer was so hot that only the cherry tomatoes made it to maturity.  Fortunately though, this particular plant was a workhorse, producing twice as many tomatoes as we could eat.  I absolutely love my stovetop smoker, and tomatoes are my favorite thing to smoke in it, so every time there were excess tomatoes, into the smoker they went.  And every time there were excess smoked tomatoes, into the freezer they went!  Even though I recently moved everything from the old freezer to the new, I had forgotten I still had a container of smoked tomatoes. 


While waiting for the tomatoes to thaw, cook your favorite noodles, roast some garlic, and saute the shitakes until they start to get a little dry.  Once the tomatoes are thawed, puree them with the garlic, a fair amount of salt, and a little olive oil.  Heat the sauce in a saucepan, then plate the noodles, mushrooms, and sauce.  Or maybe the mushrooms on top, I haven't decided which is better.  I served this with some broccolini that I baked with a little oil and garlic for 20 mins at 350. 

Quartet of Bruschetta

While in Montalcino last month, we had a very unexpectedly enjoyable lunch at a little wine store that you wouldn't even expect served food.  We had riboletta, bruschetta and a cheese plate, and it was one of the best meals we had in Italy.  So that's what inspired this little plate. 

 

Two are recreations and two are my own inventions.  Clockwise they are: 1) mushrooms sauteed in olive oil and seasoned with thyme and sea salt 2) white beans and garlic seasoned with rosemary 3) chopped green olives, tomatoes and gorgonzola 4) artichokes with parmesan and little bit of mayonaise.  

Stuffed Tomato and Delicata Squash

Simple to make Sunday dinner. I wanted to make "Baked eggs in Tomatoes" but the husband is weird about eggs, so I swapped out the egg for a rice and mushroom mixture. I chose those because that's what I had in the fridge. You could stuff it with anything though. The delicata squash only appears for a few weeks every fall, so every year I mess with the recipe a little more. Serve these separately or together with a salad (frisee and arugala shown here.)

For the tomato:
Sautee mixed mushrooms with diced onion and garlic, mix with a little parmesan and cooked brown rice and set aside.
Cut off top and hollow out the tomato of all liquid and seeds. Then sprinkle the inside with salt.
Stuff tomato tightly with rice and mushrooms and place on oiled baking sheet.

For the squash:
Halfway mash some white beans with some finely chopped spinach and ricotta cheese. You could mix in an egg, but it's not essential.
Halve the squash and scrape out seeds. Pack in the bean mixture and top with panko breadcrumbs. Place on baking sheet.

Bake either or both at 400 degrees until tops are brown.

Mini Savoury Pots

Lentil Pie
While teaching in Co. Cavan at this years Scoil Eigse, I had the pleasure to inhabit and dine at the Cavan Crystal hotel for 8 days. The default vegetarian entree was a puy lentil pie. It was delicious and I had it three nights in a row before I asked if the chef might mix it up a bit for me. The only thing I changed was using sweet potatoes instead of normal ones. Either way it's yummy.

Ingredients:
1 sweet potato peeled, boiled and mashed with some yogurt and herbs
1/2 cup puy lentils fully cooked
1/2 yellow onion sauteed until brown

Mix lentils and onions and pack tightly into bottom half of a ramekin. Top with mashed potato and bake until lightly browned on top.


Oyster Mushrooms Rockafeller
I ripped the idea for this recipe off from the Vegetarian Times. But their recipes aren't always authentic enough for me, so I looked up a recipe for Oysters Rockafeller, and switched in the oyster mushrooms for the oysters. I like when nature provides the perfect substitute for a non-veg item. Sort of like the lentils are for ground beef.

Mashed Frites with Seitan and Mushrooms and Backyard greens

This one was inspired by one of the courses we had at an "underground dinner" a few weeks ago. Now while I found that whole experience culinarily underwhelming, I did particularly enjoy this dish, especially since it was family style and I was able to sneak lots of extra morels onto my plate. This is about as "home cookin" as vegetarian food can get.

Ingredients:

3 large potatoes, boiled skins on

1 cup plain greek yogurt

1 T butter

1 handful parsley

salt and pepper

---------------------

1 cup seitan

4 cups shitake mushrooms (or morel if you are lucky)

garlic

shallots

white wine

butter

a pinch or two of flour (optional)

----------------------

1 large bunch of your favorite greens

splash of apple cider vinegar

1 t honey

Eggplant Rollups

1 large eggplant, 1/2 bag baby spinach finely chopped, 3 large button mushrooms diced, 1/2 onion minced, 2 cloves garlic minced, 1 cup mozzerella shreds, 1 cup breadcrumbs, olive oil, salt............

Slice one eggplant lengthwise as thinly as possible.  Salt eggplant and set on paper towels to drain.  In a pan, sautee spinach, mushrooms, garlic, onion until soft.  Transfer vegetables to a bowl and mix with cheese and breadcrumbs.  Rinse eggplant and pat dry.  Place 2 tablespoons in the center of each eggplant strip and fold over on itself.  Place rolls folded side down on a lightly oiled pan and bake for 15 min at 425.  Turn rolls over and continue baking for an additional 15 mins.  Sprinkle with fresh parsley and serve!  Makes around 6 rolls.