Recipe: Beefless Stew

I didn't even adapt this one much, since Connoisseurus Veg did such an excellent job... but here, have the link and my notes.

Vegan Beef Stew

Now, for all I call it "Beefless Stew", mine actually has more beef in it than the original, vegan recipe.  I'm not vegetarian or vegan myself, and when I discovered that beef broth (and chicken broth, for that matter) contains very little protein, I decided I might as well make use of what flavor it can provide.

So for starters, I use a quart of beef stock instead of veggie broth.  It means I can bypass the Marmite which is recommended for its savory quality; a good beef broth has that.  I also skip the liquid smoke, but mostly because I'm especially sensitive to it; a little can overpower a dish for me.

The other ingredient I substitute is the flour -- I keep fine Asian rice flour on hand, but if I didn't, I'd use a little tapioca starch.  It just gives the stew some body.

The herb quantities in the recipe are, not to put too fine a point on it, wrong.  Two tablespoons of fresh rosemary, at least here in California, are enough to season a week's worth of dinners.  I use two sprigs, maybe a half-tablespoon.  I use the same amount of dried thyme.  I might use the same amount of even fresh thyme, but then again, I like thyme.  Don't use multiple tablespoons unless you're using dried herbs from the 90s.

(An additional note: I don't drink wine, particularly red, so I can report with certainty that cheap wine is okay.  I buy Trader Joe's Two-Buck Chuck cabernet for recipes like this, stick it in the cupboard between uses, and I haven't ruined a dish yet.  Wine drinkers shudder, but this is cooking wine.)

As for technique...  well, I'm not known for my patience sometimes.  When I'm already spending the better part of an hour chopping and measuring ingredients -- the mushrooms alone require some time to take them apart and slice them into chunks -- I don't want to throw it all into a pot and wait another two hours for the potatoes to get done.  (I know, it says 40 minutes.  If you've ever had potatoes sulk and stay crunchy long past when you expected them to get soft, you understand my frustration.)

I chop the potatoes into 1 inch chunks first, throw them in a bowl of water, and cook them in a microwave for 6 to 8 minutes.  I stop when they're just soft enough to get a fork tine through, before they really start to break up, then I set the bowl aside.  If you don't have a microwave, boiling the diced potatoes doesn't take more than about 15 minutes.

In the meantime (I'm all about multitasking) I chop the carrots and celery, and then I work on the onions, slicing them thin.  When I finish those, I set them to fry over low heat in the stewpot on the stove.  I want them to be starting to caramelize by the time I add the mushrooms; it's true that I abhor raw onions, but it's also true that nothing gives a stew real depth of flavor like caramelized onion, whether you're using beef broth or not.

When the potatoes are done, the carrots get cooked for a couple of minutes, just because I don't like really crunchy carrots in soup, and I want to eat ASAP most of the time.  You could toss them into the potatoes for the last 5 minutes, if you're doing those in a pot.

Meanwhile, I'm back to the cutting board with the mushrooms.  I don't hold out for cremini or portobello to go on sale; white button mushrooms work too.  I take the stems out and slice those into rounds, because I like the different texture, then dice the caps to about 3/4".  I err on larger rather than smaller, so that I get those nice meaty chunks at the end.

I smash a couple of garlic cloves, and it's time to start adding things to the pot.  Mushrooms first, until they sweat.  Then garlic, celery, carrots (if separate), and flour, mix it all about for a minute, quench with broth, then add the drained potatoes (don't forget the starchy sludge at the bottom!), herbs, wine, tomato paste (I leave that out half the time), and salt and pepper.  Whew.

I let all that come to a simmer and meld for five or ten minutes.  The flavors do permeate the potatoes just fine, I find, without extensive cooking.  By the time I've tidied the mess, rustled up a bowl and utensils, and settled on what I want to drink, it's ready to be dished up.

This is a hearty stew which is marvelous for cold evenings, and one pot of it can feed my hearty appetite for two nights plus a lunch -- about five large soup bowls.  It's why I don't mind so much when it takes so much cutting-board prep.  And it tastes amazing.

Recipe: Penne pasta with cauliflower and lemon

This was adapted from a recipe by Philip Krajeck in the Wall Street Journal, but I've streamlined it heavily and rebalanced it to my liking.  I'm not especially fond of cauliflower, but it's quite nice in this dish.

This can, of course, be made with any type of penne pasta you choose.  I've used both pure brown rice pasta, and a rice/corn blend, and they both turned out just fine.  Pay attention to the listed cooking time, and be ready to test for how done it is.

Penne Pasta with Cauliflower and Lemon
serves 6

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, cut into 1/2-inch pieces *
12 ounces penne (or rigatoni)
2 Tbsp olive oil (plus some for drizzle)
3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
4 anchovy fillets **
pinch of chile flakes (optional)
1/4 cup water
2-3 Tbsp cornstarch or arrowroot
1 Tbsp butter
3 Tbsp chopped parsley
zest of 1/2 lemon (about 1 1/2 tsp)
juice of 1/2 lemon (about 2 Tbsp)
1/2 tsp salt, approx.
1/2 tsp sugar
pepper to taste
grated parmesan cheese to taste

Preheat the oven to 475 degrees F (245 C).  Spread the chopped cauliflower on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil, sprinkle with a little salt if desired, and roast on the lower rack of the oven until it starts to brown, 15-20 minutes.

Heat a large pot of water to a boil, and add the pasta.  Set the timer to a couple of minutes short of al dente; if you would normally cook it for 14 minutes, set it for 12.  You want the pasta to be a little underdone.

Drain the cooked pasta, and leave it in the colander or a bowl; toss with a little olive oil.

In the empty pasta pot, add the 2 Tbsp olive oil, garlic, chile flakes if using, and anchovies.  Cook over low to medium heat, breaking up the anchovy fillets, until the garlic is soft and begins to brown.  By this time the cauliflower should be done roasting; throw that into the pot and stir to combine.  Add the 1/4 cup water (you can use reserved pasta water if you like) and sprinkle on the cornstarch, stirring to coat.

Add the pasta in, stirring it gently with a cooking spoon or paddle to keep from breaking up the penne.  You want the thin sauce to coat it.  Continue to simmer over low to medium heat for 5-6 minutes, until the water runs out; test the pasta, and if it isn't quite done cooking, add a little more water.  The cornstarch should have allowed the anchovy/garlic mixture to stick to the penne -- if it isn't, sprinkle on a little more starch with the water and stir it in well.

When the pasta is properly al dente, turn off the heat.  Add the butter, parsley, lemon juice and zest, salt, sugar, pepper, and a sprinkle of parmesan.  Fold them in carefully until mixed, being careful not to break the pasta too much.  Taste test; the anchovies, parsley, and parmesan should meld together, and the salt, sugar, and lemon juice should balance, none of them dominating.  Serve warm.

This reheats well, so I save some for lunch or another dinner.

Notes
* The original recipe called for one head of cauliflower, but in California the heads are close to two pounds apiece, so I use half.  3/4 to 1 pound, trimmed, is probably about right.

** Anchovies, as maligned as they are, add a subtle undercurrent to this dish which shouldn't be underestimated.  They also add a tiny amount of protein for all their flavor (ditto the parmesan).  If you can't tolerate anchovy at all, try substituting with a dash of oyster sauce, or dark soy sauce, or a couple of teaspoons of capers, or even a dab of yeast extract such as Vegemite, but try the anchovies first if at all possible.  Trust me.

Leftover anchovies can be stored, completely covered with olive oil, in a jar for a couple of months in the fridge.  You may find a few other uses for them if you have them on hand. :)


Nutrition information will vary slightly depending on your pasta brand and type.

Things are fine, now where's the food?

It's been a while!  What have I been up to?

My health has been better, partly due to the diet, so I've been trying to sweep back the tide of entropy for two houses 500 miles apart.  But in between cleaning, weed control, and fixing doors, I've been cooking a lot of stuff.

It turns out that I can tolerate a small amount of protein in my diet if I keep up with my arginine supplements, so I'm up to about 60 grams per day.  I feel better about my long-term prospects at this level, which is similar to what people with kidney disease try to adhere to, and it has allowed me to loosen a few of my dietary restrictions.  I can, for example, have a little cheese now and then, or a single egg. :)

I'm always hunting for good recipes, though.  And boy howdy, I've found some.

I'm hoping to post the following over the next day or two:
Penne pasta with cauliflower and lemon
Beefless stew (link, with my notes)
Eggplant-potato moussaka
Mushroom ragout (link, with my notes)
Garlic eggplant
Skillet rice
Potato gnocchi (link, with my notes)
Dumplings and gravy with kale or collards

Cream of potato soup

Most of these are low-pro to start with, and some can be tweaked to be even lower.  Yet they are all incredibly tasty, satisfying, and relatively painless to cook in a standard kitchen.

I have some others up my sleeve, like pad thai and fajitas, where all it takes is omitting the meat.  I'll try to post something on those, too.

Zebras, let's get cooking!