Upside down Onion Tart

Remember those popovers that filled the kitchen with smoke? I spent a good part of Sunday - scrubbing and cleaning up the mess and my shoulder is still sore from all that scrubbing. One would think things had settled down by now right?  

Last night I decided to try the Upside down Onion Tart from The Global Vegetarian but when I started heating the oven (after the entire tart was assembled and ready for baking there was some residue from cleaning the oven that I missed wiping up so - smoke, windows, and “baking” on the grill ensued. While I wouldn’t recommend this method, it worked pretty well. 

Ingredients:

1 sheet puff pastry - thawed

1 medium red onion cut into thin circles

1 large yellow onion cut into thin circles

2 shallots cut into thin circles

2 scallions cut into thin circles

3T chili garlic olive oil

1T Balsamic vinegar

1/2 tsp salt 

1 tsp sugar

1/4 tsp pepper

1T fresh thyme leaves

1/2 cup goat cheese or mozzarella

Instructions:

Slice all of the onions into thin circles. 

Place the puff pastry sheet on parchment paper and gently roll it until it is a little thinner. Place parchment paper over the puff pastry and using a pen/pencil trace the outer edges of the sheet. 

Place the sheet on a baking tray, ensuring the pen/pencil side is face down. Leave a 1/2 inch around the edges, and brush 2 T of the chili garlic oil on the parchment paper. Drizzle and brush the Balsamic vinegar - they won’t mix - that's ok. 

Arrange the sliced onions on top of the oil/vinegar. Use the shallots to fill in spaces between the large onions and the scallions to fill small areas. Drizzle/shake the remaining oil/vinegar from the silicone brush over the onions. 

Combine salt, sugar, and pepper together, and then sprinkle it over the onions. Sprinkle thyme leaves evenly over the onions and add the cheese. 

Place the rolled-out puff pastry over the cheese. Press down along all of the edges. Use a fork to crimp the edges if you want. Press down gently over the puff pastry to ensure everything has stuck to it well. Brush the remaining tablespoon of oil over the puff pastry. 

Bake at 400 for 13 - 17 minutes until the pu pastry is baked through and the onions are caramelized. Cool for 3 - 4 minutes and carefully flip the tray over. Slice and serve. 

Today, I once again wiped down the oven and I did a test heating (with the fan on course) to make sure things are back to normal - they are. Thanks for stopping by!

Goat Cheese and Pesto Popovers

We’re finally in the holiday spirit. We’ve been battling dust from the new window installation but as of Friday all of the windows are now installed. They still need to paint and stain the inside trim but that shouldn’t be as disruptive and I’ve been told it will only take a day. 

The tree is up, and most of the gifts are purchased, which means the wrapping can begin. I’ve been on a “we need to empty things out of the freezer” kick lately so tonight I made a stew from leftover lamb (I know it’s not vegetarian but every once in a while - moderation my friends), potatoes, carrots, the last of the garden turnips and onions. 

Normally I’d grab a loaf of crusty french bread from the store, but I have a lot of pesto and goat cheese in the fridge so I thought why not try something different. I’ll start by saying I’ve made popovers many times, so when the recipe called for a constant temperature for the entire baking time, I was skeptical but decided what the heck. So I mixed, poured, added pesto and cheese, and popped in the oven. 

About 30 minutes into the 50-minute bake time, smoke came out of the oven from the oils dripping out of the pan and onto the bottom of the oven. I quickly turned on the fan and opened the windows (yes those new windows work very well) after about 10 minutes the smoke detectors finally shut up and the kitchen was clear. Note to self; put a pan on the rack below those messy popovers. 

While delicious, I’d decrease the amount of goat cheese and pesto added to each popover to keep the oils down and reduce the dripping - but they were so good. 

Ingredients:

1 cup whole milk
¼ cup butter, melted
3 large eggs
1 cup flour
¼ teaspoon salt
½ cup soft goat cheese
¼ cup pesto

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 375F and generously butter each cup of a popover pan.

In a large mixing bowl with a pouring spout, whisk eggs until frothy. Whisk in melted butter and milk, add flour and salt, and whisk until just mixed – the batter should be lumpy. Divide batter between cups.

Mix goat cheese and pesto together then drop by tablespoons on top of the batter in each cup. Place in oven for 50 minutes.

At 50 minutes, quickly open the oven door and make a small slit in the top of each popover to allow some steam to escape.

Bake another 5 minutes. Remove from oven and serve.

Thanks for stopping by!

Shakshuka with Eggplant and Goat Cheese

It’s December - where did the year go? Today I pulled out the Christmas decorations (I may have too many trees); the mantel is ready, and tomorrow I’ll add lights to and finish the outside decorations. For those of you who follow my blog, the windows have still not arrived so I’m just going to decorate and be done with it. 

I’m finalizing holiday gifts (still waiting for one gift list), and thinking there might be some baking this weekend. My eye surgeries are complete and all is well - there will be cataract surgery most likely in the next 2 years - it sucks to get old. Big news - Dan needs cataract surgery and he has a consultation in early February to get the process rolling!

I had lunch with my friend Ellen at The Lynhall this week, I tried the shakshuka, which was delicious. My only complaint was that the eggplant was hard to find. When I told Dan about it he was so jealous - he loves eggplant. So I promised him I would make a batch. 

I’ve never made or had shakshuka before - I love the depth of the roasted eggplant and the smokiness of the paprika, it’s all good. They served it with chickpea fries, which were also delicious and are now on my “need to figure out how they did that” list. 

As it turns out shakshuka is not hard to make; a little roasting, chopping, and sautéing are done.

Ingredients:

1 large eggplant

4 tablespoons good olive oil

2 teaspoons sea salt, divided

1 yellow onion, diced

1 red bell pepper, diced

4 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon curry powder

¼ teaspoon dried oregano

pinch ground black pepper

28 oz crushed tomatoes

Some goat cheese 

4-5 eggs

Instructions:

Preheat oven to 400°F. Pierce the eggplant's skin in several places. Roast it on a lined baking sheet until soft, 35 to 45 minutes. Once the eggplant is done, remove it from the oven and let it cool. Then, slice the eggplant open and scoop out the flesh. Discard the. skins and set aside the flesh.

Heat the olive oil in a large, deep skillet or straight-sided sauté pan over high heat until shimmering. Add the onion, red pepper, and one teaspoon of sea salt. Cook until the vegetables have softened and are beginning to char in spots, 6-7 minutes.

Add the garlic, stirring constantly until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Then add the remaining spices, constantly stirring for another 30 seconds.

Immediately add the eggplant flesh, stirring until it is broken down and fully incorporated into the vegetables and spices, 2-3 minutes.

Last, add the tomatoes, and the remaining salt, and stir to combine. When the tomato sauce bubbles, reduce the heat to low and allow it to simmer for 10-15 minutes.

Once most of the liquid is cooked off, use a spoon to create four to 5 small wells in the sauce. Crack the eggs into each well. Cover the pan, and cook for 4 - 5 minutes, until the eggs are done to your liking.

Serve with warm bread for dipping.

Thanks for stopping by!

Kicking off the Season with Curry

The 2023 Holiday season has officially begun. The turkey was carved, holiday wish lists exchanged (mostly), and Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping is complete! 

We celebrated Thanksgiving with Dan’s family again this year - 20 people, 1 house, lots of food. I did try a small piece of turkey - it was very good but not going to make my own anytime soon. We had roasted veggies, stuffing (2 kinds), mashed potatoes, squash, green beans, and of course pie; pumpkin, pecan, and apple. Good thing we took that 3-mile walk in the morning before the celebration. 

We put up the tree over the weekend and finally got around to decorating it last night. We compromised on a smaller tree this year - I would like an artificial tree and Dan likes a big real tree - so we have a small real tree. In theory, we are getting new windows - of the 10, eight have been installed but we are still waiting for the 2 largest windows from the factory so we’ll see. 

I’m working my way through the freezer and all of the goodies we harvested; okra, green beans, and tomatoes. Between the freezer and pantry well, let’s say we won’t go hungry. I was cleaning out the fridge and found a bag of carrots I had forgotten I had and I needed to make a quick dinner. I grabbed a can of chickpeas, an onion, some spices, and a couple handfuls of spinach and threw together a carrot & chickpea curry that was tasty if I do say so myself. 

Ingredients:

2 tbsp olive oil

1 yellow onion

3 large garlic cloves (or 6 small garlic cloves)

1 1/2 inch piece of fresh ginger (about 3 tsp grated fresh ginger)

2 tsp coriander

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp smoked paprika

3/4 cup coconut milk

1/2 cup water

2 tbsp chopped cilantro

4 carrots

1 can chickpeas

2 handfuls of spinach

salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

1. Peel the onion, ginger, and garlic and chop them up as finely as possible.
2. Add oil to a large frying pan and set on the stove on medium heat.
3. Add finely chopped onion and let saute for about 5 minutes.
4. Peel and slice the carrots. Chop 2 Tbsp of cilantro and set both aside.  
5. When the onion has been sautéing for 5 minutes, add in the ginger and garlic and stir well. Let the onion, garlic, and ginger saute for another 5 minutes.
6. Add the carrots and chickpeas and stir well. Also, add in the coriander, turmeric, smoked paprika, coconut milk, water, and cilantro and stir to combine. Cover the pan, reduce the heat, and simmer for 8 minutes - the carrots should be tender at this point.
7. Add spinach and stir until wilted. 
8. Remove pan from heat and season with salt and pepper. Garnish with more cilantro and enjoy.

Serve the curry with rice, naan, or other bread; we had a spicy potato bolani that was a perfect compliment. 

Thanks for stopping by!

Japanese Simmered Lotus Root

Have you ever wandered through an Asian market and tried to figure out what all those things were -yep me too. For starters, I don’t speak Chinese, Japanese, or any other Asian language, which means I can’t really read the labels in the store either - sigh.

Some things are obvious - noodles (sometimes they even have an English word on the package), chips, bread, and for the most part mushrooms - that is of course provided you know the difference between a cremini and king oyster. 

We have a favorite Chinese restaurant not too far from our house. They make the BEST garlic eggplant and veggie potstickers. We tried a new dish; seafood and tofu hot pot a few months ago. The spices were perfect, the tofu and seafood fresh and the dish contained lotus root, which I don’t recall ever having before but I really liked it. 

Fast forward to a trip to the Asian grocery store and in the prepared foods, they had - you guessed it - lotus root. It was peeled, sliced, and vacuum-packed. I thought what the heck let’s try it. So, I brought it home put it in the fridge, and promptly forgot about it until last night.

Since I’ve never tried it before I had no idea what to do with it so I consulted my friend Pinterest and turns out there are many ways to prepare it. I wanted something easy so I settled on the recipe below. It’s a simple method with just a few ingredients and the end result was delicious - I’d definitely try it again. 

Thanks to Janet at The Taste Space for the recipe!

Ingredients:

2-2.5 cups lotus root, peeled and thinly sliced

1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tbsp mirin

2 tbsp soy sauce or tamari

1 tsp toasted sesame seeds

dash of chili flakes, optional (shichimi togarashi is recommended)

Instructions:

1. Soak the lotus slices in cold water for 10 minutes and drain.

2. In a large saucepan over high heat, warm both oils. Once hot, add the lotus root slices and cook until they become soft. Stir in the mirin, soy sauce/tamari and reduce heat to low. Simmer until the marinade has almost disappeared. Remove from heat, sprinkle with sesame seeds and shichimi togarashi before serving.

Thanks for stopping by!

That’s a Wrap

In the next few days, I will finish putting the garden to bed and plant next year’s garlic. We had a great year, and the freezer is full of produce to get us through the winter. 

Dan and I took our annual trip to the North Shore, but the colors weren’t as brilliant as in prior years - weather and climate change will do that. There was shopping, hiking, good food, and relaxing in front of a roaring fire - it was a nice getaway. 

We also headed to Canada to see Kakabeka Falls and Thunder Bay. The falls were beautiful. We took a short trip in the Marina area in Thunder Bay and then headed back to our cabin in Lutsen. 

I got my covid and flu shot on Thursday and wow it knocked me out. I was not feeling my perky self at all on Friday - but by Saturday morning I was back to normal (well normal for me). I’ve been volunteering with the Master Gardeners - ushering in the new group of interns and I’m impressed. Lots of young diverse gardening enthusiasts - I think it will be a great year. 

If you’ve been reading my blog you know we have a surfeit of okra. I finally gave in and pulled the plants I couldn’t take it anymore. So now the question is what do we do with all that frozen okra in the freezer. I’ve been hanging out on Pinterest lately and found several options; the latest, Vegan Sausage and Okra Stew - it was quite good if I say so myself.

Ingredients:

1 lb. mild Italian sausage

½ lb. raw okra thinly sliced, you could also use frozen okra

2 - Yukon gold potatoes chopped into small bite-sized

1 onion chopped

3 cloves garlic minced

¼ pureed cauliflower

1 cup frozen corn

4 cups veggie broth

1 teaspoon salt

½ teaspoon pepper

Instructions:

Brown the sausage over medium heat in a heavy-bottom pan. You want it to be well-browned and broken up into little pieces.

While the sausage is cooking, chop the okra, onions, and potatoes and mince the garlic.

Add the okra, potatoes & onions to the pan. Sauté for about 4 minutes and add the garlic and pureed cauliflower. Mix well, and season with salt and pepper.

Increase the heat to high, add the veggie broth, and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and cook for approximately 20 - 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add in the frozen corn once the potatoes are cooked through. 

The stew will thicken as it cooks. When the potatoes are fork tender, the stew is complete. 

A few photos from our North Shore trip are below!