The Saveur Middle Eastern Slideshow Experiment

This has been a very busy week, and when compounded with a very long commute, I haven't had as much time as I would have liked to try more of the Midde Eastern Food recipes from Saveur's slideshow.  Tonight I made up for lost time with a vengeance.  On deck tonight - Lamb, Artichokes, and Eggplant.

Dinner on the patio

My menu was Lamb Loin Chops with Ras el Hanout and Charmoula;  Fried Artichoke Hearts with Taratur Sauce, and my favorite - Smoked Baby Eggplant with Parsley-Mint-Chili Sauce and hard boiled egg garnish. 

Preparing three dishes and three sauces took just under an hour but the time was worth it.  First, I pulled out my pressure cooker and cooked a half dozen hard boiled eggs in a cup of water - this took about 5 minutes - 2 minutes to come up to pressure and 3 minutes to cook. While they cooked I put 4 baby eggplant on my smoker at 375 degrees, then trimmed the artichokes by cutting off the top 2 inches, and then I sliced them in half so they would cook a little faster.  When the eggs were done, I removed them and let them cool off and I added the artichokes to the pressure cooker along with another 1/2 cup of water.   After coming up to pressure, I cooked them for 8 minutes, and I made the sauce while they cooked.  The artichoke recipe (Fried Artichoke Hearts with Taratur Sauce) can be found here: 

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Fried-Artichoke-Hearts-with-Taratur-Sauce

After making the Taratur sauce, I prepared the Ras el Hanout spice mix. According to Wikipedia, 

"Ras el Hanout is a spice mix from North Africa.  The name is Arabic for "head of the shop" (similar to the English expression "top-shelf") and implies a mixture of the best spices the seller has to offer." 

For my Ras el Hanout mix, I used a recipe from Serious Eats that can be found here: 

http://www.seriouseats.com/recipes/2012/05/ras-el-hanout-north-african-spice-mix-recipe.html

Smoked Eggplant and Fried Artichoke Hearts

I didn't have lavendar or dried rose petals as called for in the recipe, so I omitted them, and I was also missing the cubeb pepper so I used Aleppo pepper instead. I (sadly) had the other 13 ingredients on hand. My husband hates my spice cabinet because it's as large as some women's shoe closets. The recipe made about 2/3 of a cup of spice mix and I used about 4 tablespoons of that to season two lamb loin chops; I set them aside to come up to room temperature while I started the Chili herb sauce for the eggplant. OMG! That sauce was unexpectedly good!  Mint, parsley, honey, lemon and chili -- this will work on a lot of things, but was especially perfect for the eggplant.  The eggplant and artichokes alone would have been plenty for a great Vegan dinner (sans the eggs).  Saveur's recipe for Charred Eggplant with Chili Sauce is locaed here:

http://www.saveur.com/article/Recipes/Charred-Eggplant-with-Chile-Sauce-Tahini

Searrng the Lamb Loin Chops

As the eggplant fimished smoking, I added the lamb to the smoker for a few minutes while I made the Moroccan Charmoula herb sauce (http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/moroccan-charmoula). Then I began heating my cast iron Le Creuset skillet, cleaned up my prep space, and unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.  All clean, Yay!  Lastly, I pulled the eggplant and lamb from the smoker and finished the lamb with a good sear in the skillet.  While it was finishing, I poured a glass of French Vouvray and sat down to this:

The Final Product

Yum Yum Yum!  These recipes are definitely keepers!

Don't Be a Follower

I have a vivid memory of an incident that occurred when I was a freshman at UC Berkeley, waiting in line to buy books at the student union. There were four sorority girls in line in front of me, complaining about how they'd been maligned by a caustic person who claimed they were all replicas of each other (we didn't call them clones back then), with their uniformity of dress, hair, and personality.  The most vocal of the girls went on and on about how they each were so unique!  Why, she was wearing a pink polo shirt with white shorts and had a brown bob,  while her sister was wearing a blue polo shirt with white shorts and a blond bob.  The other two had blue shorts on with green and peach colored polo shirts, and their brown bobs had different lengths of bangs, so if anyone thought they were "Identical" then they were blind fools!

Why do I bring this up now?  Because April 6th was Nowrux - the Persian New Year - and all the food blogs had posts for the perfect Middle Eastern feast.  But did I follow the crowd and make hummus and baba ganoush on April 6th? No! I bucked the trend.  I am the kind of person who bucks the trend. And also the kind of person who lets her foodie email newsletters get out of control and doesn't realize there was even such a thing as Persian New Year.  

This past weekend I was catching up on that email and came across a slide show from Saveur magazine titled the Best Middle Eastern Recipes, containing, in their words, 45 Essential Middle Eastern Recipes:  http://www.saveur.com/best-middle-eastern-recipes

Everything in this slide show looked delicious, and there were a lot of paleo-friendly and vegetarian offerings which work well given all the diet restrictions going on in my household.  I decided I am going to try to make every recipe in the slideshow this month.

Broiling rose petals to dry them out for the recipe

Tonight I started out with the Persian Kuku Sabzi, which I am told translates to roughly Herb Fritatta. I had all the ingredients on hand except dried rose petals - and those are easy enough to make by taking the most fragrant rose from your organic garden and toasting it under the broiler for a few minutes until it releases a beautiful fragrance throughout your kitchen. The addition of ground walnuts, an assortment of chopped fresh herbs, and the lack of cheese give this fritatta a unique and delicious flavor.  It was quick and simple to make, low cal, and healthy.  Eggs. They're what's for dinner - definitely!

Herbs minced and ready to go

The recipe can be found here:  http://www.saveur.com/perrsian-kuku-sabzi-eggs-rose-recipe  However, as I was researching about Persian New Year, I came across another version of Kuku Sabzi from the New York Times which looks even better because it contains an even larger assortment of herbs and spices: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1018062-fresh-herb-kuku    I am going to try to make this version in another week or so and I'll let you know how it turns out.

The finished fritatta - garnished with rose petals, chopped parsley and nasturtiums

I also made some sumac flatbread (m'sakhan) found in the recipe for Roast Chicken with Sumac Flatbead (http://www.saveur.com/article/recipes/roast-chicken-with-sumac-flatbread)  and was inspired by the slideshow's Tahini - Beet dip recipe (http://www.saveur.com/tahini-beet-dip-recipe) although I modified it slightly to use up some spicy Peruvian beet salad I'd made over the weekend, and because I didn't have all the ingredients called for in the recipe. Both the bread and the dip were a hit with the hubby and some friends who dropped by.

The whole meal - we ate the flatbread faster than I could photograph it! 

For the beet salad, I had previosly roasted, peeled and diced six medium beets.  I tossed them with a small handful of finely chopped parsley, two tablespoons of Vegennaise, and 1/2 teaspoon each of salt, pepper, and ghost pepper sauce (I use Diabo Sauce from Fat Rice restaurant in Chicago; while you could use sriracha or tabasco style sauce, the ghost pepper adds a different and better kind of flavor, and if you don't use too much, the heat can be the perfect foil for the bland sweetness of the beets).  I put about 1 cup of this salad into the blender.  The Saveur recipe calls for tahini but I didn't have any on hand, so I added 1/3 cup of toasted black and white sesame seeds, and the rest of the ingredients called for in the recipe, except the ice:  3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice, 3 medium cloves of garlic, a drizzle of olive oil to get a creamy texture, and a little more salt and pepper. I blended this all on high speed until the sesame seeds were pulverized, then served it with the flatbread.

Smoked Pumpkin Soup for the Arrival of Fall

Today was the first day in the San Francisco Bay Area that really felt like fall.  The air had a slight bite to it, the sky was overcast and halfway through the day a light rain began falling.  Yellow and orange leaves were showing off their splendor, and porches everywhere sported large pumpkins, hay bales, and cornstalks in preparation for Halloween.  It wasn't difficult to find inspiration for tonight's dinner - Smoked Pumpkin Soup with garnishes of Spiced Curry Oil, Pumpkin Seed Butter and Cilantro Mojo Sauce.

The differentiating factor in this soup was the smoked pumpkin.  Smoke always adds a great layer of complex flavor, but on this day it also added emotion by evoking cozy memories of sitting by a warm wood fire with a great glass of wine.

After brushing the pumpkin wedges with Spiced Curry Oil, I wrapped half in foil and let the other piecess sit directly on the grill of my Traeger smoker. I wanted to test the difference between the two cooking methods, because I feared that the unwrapped wedges would dry out too much.  Wrapping loosely in foil would still allow smoke to permeate but would also trap some steam to keep the squash moist.

After the pumpkin smoked for 45 minutes, I taste tested each batch.  I preferred the unwrapped flesh because it had a more caramelized, sweet flavor but I appreciated the fact that the steamed pieces were much easier to scrape from the skin. Nonetheless, when I make the soup again I think I'll forego the foil wrap.




I served this soup with a delicious home made garlic naan, the recipe for which I found here:
Step by step recipe for naan bread.  I was not sure which wine to serve with this soup.  The creamy pumpkin flavors suggested sauvignon blanc or chardonnay, while the spiciness of the curry made me think that maybe a fruity pinot noir or even a dry reisling might work.  I ended up opening three bottles and trying them all with the dish - a Siduri Santa Rita Hills Pinot Noir, a Brooke Reisling from the Willamette Valley, and one of my perennial favorites - St. Supery Virtu which is a Sauvignon Blanc - Semillon Bordeaux style blend.  The blend was the clear winner, having a perfect balance of acidity and fruit without competing with the subtle smoke and curry flavors of the soup.  

Smoked Pumpkin Soup

Ingredients

1 sugar pie pumpkin, about 3 lbs
2 Tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 large shallot, thinly sliced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups chicken or vegetable broth, unsalted & preferably home made
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh mild curry powder

Spiced Curry Oil (recipe follows)
Pumpkin seed butter (recipe follows)
Cilantro Mojo Sauce (see note below)

Serve with fresh garlic naan - either homemade (I used this recipe ) or purchased.

1.  Prepare the Spiced Curry Oil  Makes 1 cup;  5 minutes prep time, 2 hours wait time
Ingredients:
1 cup grapeseed or other mild flavored oil, heated slightly in the microwave (~25 seconds)
2 Tbsp mild curry powder
3/4 tsp salt

Mix all ingredients together and let flavors blend for at least 1 hour.  The oil will keep for several weeks covered in the refrigerator and can therefore be made ahead.

2. Smoke the pumpkin  Makes 2 cups of puree.  10 minutes prep time.  45 minutes cook time.
Cut the pumpkin in half from stem to base and remove the seeds (save for roasting later).  Cut each half into three wedges and brush each wedge with a coating of Spiced Curry Oil.  I have a Traeger smoker so I set it to 350 degrees, used Applewood pellets, and smoked for 45 minutes.  The goal is to roast the pumpkin so that it's soft enough to scoop out of the skin when finished.

3. Prepare the Pumpkin Seed Butter Makes 1 cup nut butter.  10 minutes prep time.
Ingredients:
1 cup hulled pumpkin seeds, toasted in a skillet until they start to brown and pop
1/4 cup Spiced Curry Oil

After the seeds are toasted, add them with the oil to a high speed blender and puree to the consistency of peanut butter.  Scrape out of the blender and reserve until plating.

4. Prepare the Cilantro Mojo Sauce Makes 1 cup;  5 minutes prep time
This recipe is from Mommy's Home Cooking blog.  I chose it because it had the flavor profile I was looking for - cilantro & garlic with some vinegary acidity  - but also because I liked the addition of the orange juice that I thought would go well with the pumpkin soup.  You can find the recipe by following this link:    Cilantro Mojo Sauce

5.  Prepare the soup Makes 4 cups.  30 minutes prep time
Heat the oil in a heavy bottomed saucepan.  Add the sliced shallots and minced garlic and saute on low heat until softened.  While these are cooking, use a spoon to scrape the pumpkin flesh from the skin.  Add to the onion-garlic mixture and break up into small chunks, stirring to combine.  Add in 2 cups of broth and stir well. Heat until the broth is warmed.  Transfer to a high speed blender and puree.  Return to the saucepan and stir in curry powder and salt to taste (about 1 tsp if using unsalted broth; less or none if using salted broth). Reduce heat to low and continue to simmer for 5 -10 minutes until flavors are fully blended.

6. Plate the soup
Use the sauces to provide layers of both visual and flavorful complexity.  I made a ring on the rim of the bowl with the vibrant green cilantro sauce,  After ladeling a cup of  soup into the center of the bowl, I drizzled a spoonful of Spiced Curry Oil in a circle over the top of the soup.  Then I placed a tablespoonful of pumpkin seed butter in the center of the soup and added some fresh cilantro leaves for garnish.

Month End Musings and Minestrone

29 days ago I began a month long commitment to make and post a vegetable recipe each day. Some days were easier than others, and there were some notable successes and failures along the way. Now we've arrived at the final day, February 29, Leap Day, and I have been saving this special recipe to share with you.  I could call it a grand finale, but minestrone soup is not pompous; it's peasant and earthy and sit-on- the-couch-by-the-fire-with-a-book.   I have loved this recipe since the first time I made it, because it showcases the flavors and textures of each vegetable as they bathe in a rich and slightly spicy broth.  It's vegan and gluten free and low glycemic and high in fiber and low in fat and full of lots of different vitamins and minerals, but you don't notice any of that because most of all, it's just plain good. Soothing and comforting, it's perfect for a sick day, but also equally delicious for a romantic evening with the man of your dreams (and a good glass of red wine!).

Almost too colorful to eat!

The ingredients are not showstoppers - celery, carrots, onions, garlic, fennel, zucchini, swiss chard, tomatoes, and cannellini beans.  But somehow, in combination with each other and cooked to perfection, they orchestrate a symphony of flavor that commands you to soak up every drop of broth from the bowl with a baguette slice and leaves you feeling satiated and lacking for nothing.

Adding zucchini at the last minute preserves their crisp texture

To make a pot of vegetables really stand out and achieve greatness, you have to develop and maintain the flavor of each ingredient. First of all, I pay attention to how each vegetable is cut.

Don't worry if the chard browns - it adds flavor and texture

Don't be tempted to simply dice them all up and mix them together, like some kind of factory produced Campbell's soup.  Select the size and cut based upon the vegetable, so that when the soup is done, its flavor and texture will continue to shine through.  Fennel is cut in large julienne strips, guaranteeing that each bite will burst with a hint of anise.  Celery is cut at a thick angle for visual interest and  to prevent it from becoming overly soft.  Carrots are sliced on a long bias, while garlic and onions are cut more finely to allow their flavors to disperse.  The zucchini is sliced in rounds but not added to the broth right away. Instead, it is separately sauteed in a very hot cast iron skillet along with the rainbow chard stems until slightly crispy, and then added into the soup at the very end to maintain that texture and caramelization.

More layering of flavors and textures occurs with the swiss chard, which is separately wilted in a skillet and then placed at the bottom of each individual serving bowl, before the soup is ladled atop. A final burst of savory goodness results from stirring fresh pesto into the broth just before serving, and then topping each bowl with shaved parmesan (for the non-Vegan crowd). One last thing - it's very important to use good quality canned beans, or better yet, cook your own from dried beans like an heirloom borlotti.


My Favorite Minestrone
makes 2 dinner size or 4 regular servings

3 tbsp olive oil
3 stalks celery, cleaned and sliced diagonally
2 large carrots, washed and cut in thick bias cuts
1/2  large fennel bulb, sliced into 1/4 inch wedges
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 medium white or yellow onion, diced

4 cups homemade or good quality store bought vegetable broth
1 14 1/2 oz can (or half of a 28 oz can) whole San Marzano tomatoes and juice
2 tbsp extra condensed tomato paste

3 cups fresh rainbow chard leaves, stems removed and reserved
Stems from the chard, sliced in 2 inch pieces
1 medium zucchini, sliced in rounds
1 tbsp olive oil

1 14 1/2 can cannellini beans

1/2 tsp red chili flakes

2 heaping tbsp fresh pesto
Shaved parmesan, for garnish

Push the carrots to the bottom so they get a nice sear

Heat a large, heavy stockpot or dutch oven over high heat. When hot, add 3 tbsp oil and stir until the oil shimmers. Toss in the chopped vegetables and stir fry until crisp-tender and slightly softened, about 5 - 8 minutes. Do not overcook - they will still cook further as you simmer them in the broth.   Add the broth, tomatoes and tomato paste and stir to combine.  Bring just to a boil then reduce the heat to medium low.  Break up the tomatoes slightly with your spatula or spoon and stir together to combine all the flavors. If you are using homemade beans, add them now. If using canned beans, add later as instructed.

While the soup is simmering, heat a cast iron or heavy bottomed skillet to very hot, and add a tablespoon of oil.  When the oil is heated, reduce the heat to medium high and add the chard, cooking until it's wilted but still retains some of its spring. It may brown on the edges--this is OK.  Remove from the heat and keep warm.  Return the heat to high and if needed, add a little more oil to moisten the pan.  Add the chard stems and saute for 2-3 minutes until the stems begin to soften.  Add the zucchini and spread out into layer so the rounds have good contact with the pan surface.  Sear until a brown crust is evident on the pieces, then turn them over and repeat on the other side.

I love how the colors of the soup match the bowl!

Stir the beans and chili flakes into the broth, then add the pesto and stir well to incorporate and blend. Add in the zucchini and chard stems and simmer for 2-3 more minutes. In the meantime, divide the chard between two large bowls.  Ladle the soup over the chard and garnish with shaved parmesan. Serve with baguettes, or if you want to get fancy, you can make garlic bread which is also fabulous with this.

And the Oscar for best makeover goes to ...... CAULIFLOWER SOUP!

Sometimes the remakes are better than the original. That's definitely the case with this soup.  I tried making it last Friday but production stopped when it basically caught on fire on the stove.  So, Cauliflower Soup - Deuxover was born.

Cauliflower is one of those vegetables that can become a canvas for whatever you'd like it to be.  In the old days, it was purchased frozen, usually in a bland mix with broccoli and carrots, and then boiled to a soggy death and served alongside some kind of horror like potted ham.   Today, Cauliflower has taken on a completely new life as an A-list vegetable.  Everyone wants cauliflower at their dinner parties these days.  A quick search on Pinterest shows this star's versatility as pizza crust, mashed faux-tatoes, fried "rice", cauliflower tater tots, cauliflower tortillas, buffalo cauliflower wings -- you name it and cauliflower has played it.  But these roles don't do it justice.  Life as a celebrity is hard.  Unfair even.  With all these varied roles, cauliflower has lost itself.

I'd like to take a step back and suggest that cauliflower should be respected for what it is, as it is. That's why I love this recipe. It plays up on the best features of this vegetable - using its mild taste and creamy texture to present a rich and comforting dish for cold winter night.  It can be basic or elegant, depending on how you dress and finish it.  In my version, I went for simple sophistication with a healthful twist.  I used earth balance spread instead of butter and substituted some of my homemade stock for the cream.  I also skipped the double pass through the chinois and just relied upon the puree power of my high speed blender.  But for the cup of wine, I used one of my best bottles of sauvignon blanc-semillon blend and drizzled the finished soup with truffle oil - sort of the Harry Winston jewel to complement the understated framework of the soup.   The result was sheer perfection.

The original recipe came from Jason Burton of StellaCulinary.com.  You can find the video here: https://stellaculinary.com/cooking-videos/sauces-soups/sns-011-cauliflower-soup-base

My adapted version follows.

Cauliflower Soup Deuxover

1 stick (1/2 cup) butter or margarine
2 tbsp canola oil

1 medium yellow onion, peeled and julienned
2 large cloves garlic, minced
1 large leek, white part only, cleaned and sliced
1 large shallot, peeled and julienned

2 cups chicken stock
1 cup good quality, full bodied white wine
Salt

1 head of cauliflower, stem and core removed, thinly sliced
2 additional cups chicken stock
1 tsp xanthum gum
1/2 tsp white pepper
1/2 tsp of salt or to taste

Truffle oil, slivered lemon peel and chiffonade of basil for garnish

In a heavy saucepan or dutch oven, heat the oil and butter and add the onions, garlic, leek, and shallot. Sprinkle with a light rain of salt, then saute until starting to soften.  Add the white wine and cook for 2 minutes then add the stock, stir, and cover.  Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour.  In the meantime, thinly slice the cauliflower.  After an hour has passed, add the cauliflower and the additional 2 cups of stock to the pot. Return to high heat until starting to boil then reduce to low again, cover, and simmer for another hour to allow the flavors to fully develop.

Pour the soup into a high speed blender taking care not to overfill (the hot soup will expand as it blends).  Puree for about 2 minutes, then add up to 1 tsp Xanthum gum to thicken and emulsify the soup.  Test seasoning and add the white pepper and additional salt as needed. Blend again to mix the seasonings, then serve with a drizzle of truffle oil and a sprinkle of slivered lemon peel and basil chiffonade for garnish. Or get creative. Crispy bits of pancetta, thinly sliced, sauteed brussels sprouts, or any number of other garnshes would both look pretty and taste great.

Asparagus - Harbinger of Spring

Vendors at my local farmer's market have been posting signs that asparagus was coming soon - one of the true signs that Spring is nearly upon us.  This Saturday, I found one vendor with some early bundles for sale. I am getting a little tired of winter squashes, kales, and cruciferous vegetables so fresh, seasonal asparagus was a huge treat this week.

Did you know that asparagus plants actually produce a fruit -- a red berry -- that is poisonous to humans?  Another odd fact (according to Wikipedia) is that a recipe for asparagus exists in the oldest surviving book of recipes from the 3rd century.  I don't know what preparation that recipe suggested, but most likely it was a simple, timeless steam or saute. The book may have even warned about over cooking, which is not hard to do with this vegetable. Just 30 seconds too long in the steamer and the stems will go from crisp and bright to grey and flacid.

Yes, that's truffle butter!

One great way to prevent this travesty is to cook the spears using the sous vide method.  I opted for a quick and simple preparation - peeled asparagus spears, some truffle butter, and a pinch of salt. I vacuum sealed them and then cooked them for 10 minutes at 85 degrees centigrade.  Another benefit of using sous vide is that you typically don't need as much sauce or butter as you would if the asparagus were cooked in a traditional method. I only used about 1 tablespoon of butter for the whole bunch of spears.  During cooking, the butter melts and spreads out evenly over all the spears.

When I cook the asparagus sous vide, I usually peel the stems.  It helps them to cook a little faster and makes every bite extra sweet.  I hate to waste the peels which are full of vitamins, so I  freeze them and use them in cream-based soups (like cream of celery or cream of broccoli, for example).   I was planning to take these to work for lunch the  next day, so to stop the cooking process, as soon as time was up I plunged them into an ice bath to quick chill them.  A quick warm up in the office microwave and I will have a very elegant side to accompany a fruit and cheese plate and baguette lunch.


My immersion circulator takes a while to heat the water bath to the high heat needed to cook these, so I opted to bring the water to a boil in a large kettle on the stove, then removed it from the stove, and added cool water as necessary until the proper temperature was achieved. I attached my Anova sous vide to the side of the pot and cooked from there.  


Spring Asparagus

1 bunch asparagus, stems lightly peeled
2 Tbsp truffle butter
a pinch of salt

Wash and peel the asparagus then vacuum seal or place in a ziplock bag with the truffle butter and salt.  If using a ziplock bag, remove the air using the water submersion technique. Heat the water bath to 85 degrees centigrade then place the sealed bag in the water and cook for 10 minutes.  If you won't be eating these right away, plunge into an ice bath to stop the cooking and store in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

If At First You Don't Succeed, Proceed To Plan B

Little did these peppers know the horror that was to come

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing goes right?  I had so much hope for today - the weather was beautiful, I was up early, and my to-do list was not too long and was full of interesting tasks.   I arrived at the Pleasanton farmer's market just as it was opening and had a chance to stroll leisurely through the stands talking to the vendors and getting first pick of everything.  I am on day 26 of the Veggie Challenge - to make and post about a vegetable dish every day in February. With only 4 days left, I wanted to choose some things that were a little different, and that would be fun for me to cook.  I decided on the following four dishes:  Puree of Romanesco Cauliflower Soup with Spiced Citrus Oil and Cornbread Croutons; Roasted Red Pepper Coulis and Cabbage Rolls stuffed with Wild Mushroom Risotto,  Sous Vide Asparagus with Truffle Butter and Shaved Parmesan, and the grand finale, my favorite recipe for Classic Minestrone Soup.

Soup ingredients were ready and everything was going so well!!!

After purchasing the ingredients I decided to prep as much of the items as possible today, since the rest of the weekend and Monday were going to be very hectic with work, taxes, and other uninteresting but time consuming obligations.  I made and dried the croutons, started the red peppers roasting on my smoker, and prepped all the ingredients for the Romanesco Cauliflower soup and got that started on the stove.  Then, I figured - why stop there?  I cleaned out my refrigerator and freezer and found two bags of turkey parts (wings, necks, etc.) and an overflowing bag of stock trimmings (carrot pieces, onion skins, leek tops, celery leaves, and all the other things I throw into my "save for stock" bag).

I put the turkey pieces and some veggies into a roasting pan to cook and caramelize, and got the other ingredients from the stock bag going in a kettle of water on the stove.  I could potentially use this stock for the minestrone soup, if my sometimes Vegan husband didn't object.

And then it happened.  I went outside to get my ipad from my car, so I could take photos of my certain-to-be masterpieces, and I saw my neighbor outside; my neighbor who had recently returned home from multiple bypass surgery; my neighbor who was looking so good as he did his daily exercise of walking down the street. I had to go congratulate him and wish him well. I had to bring him a gift - yes, that was it!  A gift!  I ran back to the kitchen and whipped up a batch of oil free roasted red bell pepper hummus with smoked paprika, and ran it down to his house. "How are you feeling? How is the recovery coming along?  Etc etc etc.  Those who know me well, know not to get me started talking.  30 minutes later, when we started discussing the red bell pepper hummus, I suddenly remembered - I had red bell peppers smoking on high on my smoker!  I needed to go RIGHT NOW and rescue them.  But I was too late. I smelled the burning smoke as I crossed into the driveway and ran through the front door.  And then horror hit me. It wasn't the odor from the peppers I was smelling. The soup was burning, sending billows of acrid white smoke puffing out the closed lid of my cast iron Le Cruset dutch oven.  I quickly turned off the stove, grabbed some pot holders and carried the pot miniature Vesuvius outside, where, unfortunately, smoke was also billowing out of the smoker. Inside lay 5 Pompei-like crisp, black shells of The Things Formerly Known As Peppers.  Oops.  Major Fail.

Then I remembered about the turkey parts. Were  they burnt to a crisp too? Thank God, No! But they were a little darker than I would have preferred, meaning my stock would turn out darker, but I could live with that -- assuming I could forgive myself for vaporizing the red peppers.

So now the problem became, what to make for today's vegetable?  After much soul searching (Do I really deserve to call myself a cook?  Is it dishonorable to the peppers to move on so quickly?), I checked out the refrigerator and found the rest of the unused burnpile-roasted acorn and kabocha squash, sitting there, begging to be used.  Time for Plan B.  I recently dined at Rich Table in San Francisco and had a really flavorful squash puree with burrata and crisp bread.  I decided to try to make a version of that, building on a recipe for harissa-flavored carrot puree I'd recently seen in Yotam Ottalenghi's Plenty More cookbook. 

Roasted squash mousse with squash seed butter, greek yogurt and croutons

I opened the very, very soft squashes and removed the seeds and pith, then scraped the flesh out into a pot.  It measured about 2 cups and was very thick and a little dry, so I added some vegetable broth and simmered it for a while, then pureed it in the blender with the seasonings and spices called for in the recipe.  A quick taste revealed that it was a little fibrous, so I decided to run it through a chinois, which was difficult because of the fibers.  At the end of much pushing and scraping, I had barely two-thirds of a cup of puree remaining, but it was light, creamy, and slightly sweet with subtly exotic flavors of harissa and lemon zest.

While the puree was simmering, I cleaned and hulled the seeds and roasted them until they were crunchy.  Then I ground them in a spice blender with a bit of squash seed oil to make a very intriguing squash seed butter redolent of peanut butter.  I salvaged the croutons from the Cauliflower soup debacle and ended up with a very nice bowl of Roasted Squash Mousse which Bob and I enjoyed with a well-deserved glass of Grenache.

Roasted Squash Mousse with Squash Seed Butter, Greek Yogurt, and Cornbread Croutons
Serves 2

For the Mousse:
1 small acorn squash
1 small kabocha squash
up to 1 cup of vegetable broth
2 cloves garlic
Zest of 1 lemon and 1 orange
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp harissa powder or harissa paste

For the Squash Seed Butter:
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (salted or unsalted)
2 Tbsp Delicata Squash Seed Oil (or substitute walnut or hazelnut oil if necessary)
If using unsalted seeds, add a pinch of kosher salt

Garnishes: 
Croutons - preferably home made (I used leftover cornbread from this post: http://sobremesastyle.blogspot.com/2016/02/mushroom-and-kale-heirloom-cornbread.html
1/2 cup Greek Yogurt, nonfat, lowfat, or regular
2 mint sprigs (optional)

Roast the squashes in a 375 degree oven for 1 hour or until fork tender.  Remove and let cool (can be made several days ahead).  Slice open, remove the seeds, then scrape the flesh into a saucepan.  Add up to 1 cup of vegetable broth as needed to thin the squash to the consistency of the greek yogurt. Simmer 10-15 minutes to remove excess moisture and concentrate the flavors.  Add the squash, garlic, lemon and orange zest, lemon juice, salt, and harissa to a high speed blender or food processor and process until very smooth.  Pass through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any tough fibers then return to the saucepan and put in a warm location until needed.

You can make your own squash seeds by hulling and roasting the seeds, or you can use store-bought seeds for convenience.  Using a food processor or spice grinder, add the seeds, squash seed oil and salt (if the seeds were unsalted) and pulse until creamy.

To serve, spread half of the seed butter around the edge of  two bowls.  Spoon in the mousee and spread with a spoon.  Top with a dollop of Greek Yogurt, the croutons and sprig of mint.