Pie Star

This is one of the few vegetarian recipes that My Beloved brought to our marriage. He's a pretty dedicated carnivore. However, he showed me how to make this veggie pie using two frozen pie shells, one for the top and one for the bottom, and I've been making it that way ever since.

In this case, however, I made it using my new best discovery, Star Dough. You can see from the photo how tender and flaky it was and I can report that the flavor was sufficiently buttery even for me who adores all things butter. An enormous improvement over the frozen pie shells, I promise you.

Star Dough comes rolled up in packages of two - all you do is thaw, spread and bake. It's a concept I can get behind; I do make good pie dough, but not nearly this easily. I'm sold.

Anyway, I filled it as I always do with whatever veggies I have on hand, slid it into a hot oven (475 degrees) and 20 minutes later, we had dinner. What with chopping the veggies and sautéing them, the whole thing took perhaps 35 minutes. Even on a work night, Star Dough makes this easy.

Veggie Pie

There is no real recipe for this - I use whatever I have on hand, but here's what I did last night, just to give you a starting place:

1 large onion, chopped

6-8 fresh mushrooms, cut in chunks

3 cloves garlic, sliced into slivers

1/3 head of cauliflower, separated into bite-size florets

1 small head broccoli, separated into bite-size florets

4 fingerling potatoes, cut diagonally into 1/4" slices

1 Tablespoon butter

1 Tablespoon olive oil

2 teaspoons dill weed (it wasn't enough)

1 package Star Dough, thawed

Unroll the thawed Star Dough package, snip off the sealed ends of the plastic wrap, unroll and remove one side of the plastic. Fit the dough into a deep dish pie plate, uncovered side down, then carefully remove the second plastic. Keep the pie plate and the second dough circle refrigerated until ready to add the filling.

Sauté the mushrooms in the oil/butter combo until browned, then add the onion and garlic and cook until soft and a little browned (but don't burn the garlic). Add the other veggies and sauté (you might want to add a tad more butter/oil at this point) until the broccoli has turned bright green and the spuds have softened a little. Add the seasonings (I'd use my favorite Herbes de Provence next time - the dill was too mild) and toss all together.

Bring out the bottom of the pie from the fridge and dump the veggie mixture into it. Unroll the second pastry circle, remove one side of the plastic wrap and fit it to the top of the pie, crimping the edges after removing the second plastic.

Slide it into a 475 degree oven for about 15 minutes, or until the pastry is golden brown - I let this one go a little too long. Cut generous wedges and serve. Voilà! You're now a pie star.

Supportive Supper

I had been dreaming of making vegetable lasagna for a couple of weeks when a young friend's emergency trip to the hospital gave me the perfect motivation - her family is vegetarian and needed some hot dish love.

I got the basic recipe from a student at Stanford when I worked there years and years ago. We compiled a fun little cookbook called The Mirrielees House Pocket Gourmet from recipes the students' mothers had given them. I did all the typing (no computers back then!), design, layout, art work, mimeographing and assembling of the book, so it is precious to me. My copy, however, is all spattered with years of cooking juices, especially the page with the recipe for veggie lasagna.

I can't say that I make this from scratch - I use packaged noodles, frozen chopped spinach, store-bought cheeses and canned tomatoes. To those, I add all kinds of veggies, depending on what looks good in the store, and lots of herbs. This lasagna is not as heavy as traditional meat lasagna - you can have a second helping without regretting it later. It's a bit of a chore to make but worth the effort once you are sitting down to a steaming plate.

The recipe in the book is pretty sketchy so I will flesh it out a little here but it's one of those where you can really add whatever you like in the way of veggies and herbs and it will still be delicious.

Mirrielees House Vegetable Lasagna

Sauce:
1 15 oz can tomato sauce (I sometimes add a can of chopped tomatoes, too)
15-20 small fresh mushrooms, sliced
1 large chopped onion
2-3 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
1 green (or colorful) pepper
any other vegetables (I typically use carrots, zucchini, pattypan or summer squash, cauliflower)
1 cup dry red wine
a big pinch of herbs de provence, and/or basil, oregano, thyme - whatever herbs you like
salt, pepper

Filling:
16 oz ricotta cheese
8 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
1 package frozen chopped spinach, thawed

Noodles:
1 package lasagna noodles (8 oz package to make a small pan of lasagna)

Topping:
Grated mozzarella cheese for the top

Cut up the veggies in a coarse chop. Brown the mushrooms in olive oil in the bottom of a large pot. Once the mushrooms are browned, add the onion and garlic and soften them, then add the rest of the sauce ingredients and simmer for 45 minutes or an hour, uncovered.

While the sauce is bubbling away, mix the ricotta and Parmesan cheeses with the thawed spinach. You can squeeze out the spinach if it's very watery - otherwise, I just mix it in. Set aside.

Bring a large pot of water to boil, add a little salt and the lasagna noodles and cook until they are pale but still firm. They will cook more in the sauce so you don't want to overcook them now. Drain in a colander and rinse under cold water to make them easier to handle and to keep them from sticking together.

When the sauce is ready, cover in a thin layer of sauce the bottom of your lasagna pan to keep the first layer of noodles from sticking to the pan. How big a pan you need depends on how much sauce you have made. Sometimes, I can fit it all into an 8" square pan - other times, I really need a larger one. I'd err on the side of one too large, rather than too small.

Lay in a layer of noodles, then filling, then sauce. Repeat until you have used up all your ingredients, ending with a layer of sauce. Sprinkle the top with grated mozzarella and cover the pan with foil, crimping the edges to seal. Can be made ahead to this point and refrigerated.

Bake in a 350 degree oven for about an hour (30 minutes if you didn't refrigerate), uncovering for the last 15 minutes to allow the cheese on top to brown lightly. Remove from oven and let stand for about 15 minutes to firm it up and to cool it a bit - otherwise, it's too hot to eat.

*****

I have it on good authority that even small children enjoy this lasagna, despite the spinach; my friend's young son had two big helpings. She is doing well, by the way, sailed through the surgery in fine style and was texting messages to Facebook within an hour of waking up. Happy ending for us, too, as we kept our own pan of lasagna to enjoy at home.

End-of-Vacation Veggies

One of the things that's hard to find when on vacation and eating mostly in restaurants is good, fresh veggies. American restaurants tend to huge cuts of meat and spuds but generally speaking are light on the veggies. One of the joys of returning home is veggie-rich meals.

Investigating the contents of the crisper after ten days away, I discovered four different veggies that really needed eating. Some of the sugar snap pea pods were past their prime but the peas inside were still plump and sweet. The onion needed an extra layer of peeling, but then was fine. The greenie beanies were a tad past prime but the carrots were still firm and fresh. I managed to harvest enough good ones and cut them all into bite-size pieces for a quick stir-fry in reserved bacon fat. Nothing too fancy but comforting, kinda like being home again after vacation.

Crunchy Cauliflower

Cauliflower is one of my favorite vegetables but it hasn't been high on My Beloved's list. Oh, he'll eat it and even admits it's pretty good but I don't usually get the kind of rave reviews that I crave from him when I serve cauliflower.

I'm always on the lookout for a new way to prepare cauliflower, hoping against hope that one day I will find the magic ingredient that will turn cauliflower into a Beloved-thriller. This time, I recalled that I had read about roasting cauliflower on Orangette. I had even tried it once, but in florets that were less successful, so I consulted Molly's recipe again and this time got it right! It's dead simple and yet really tasty.

All you do is toss 1/4" thick slices of cauliflower in some olive oil and salt to completely coat with oil, then bake on a flat pan at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes, turning the cauliflower pieces once in the middle of the baking time. It comes out caramelized, almost crispy in places and deeply colored, yet soft in the center. My Beloved remarked upon its goodness, a cauliflower home run - or at least third base.