Thai Green Coconut Pumpkin Curry & Asian Pear Chutney

I borrowed a copy of the Millenium Cookbook and found a great recipe for Pumpkin Curry with Asian Pear Chutney. I've borrowed this cookbook in the past and the recipes always look so complicated. But, this recipe look approachable and I had some buttercup squash all chopped up and ready to go in the fridge. The great thing about this recipe is the green curry paste made from scratch (and the vita-mix ground up the paste like a champ). It is so yummy! Here is a pic of the final dish:



The pumpkin is cooked and blended up into the sauce along with coconut milk. For the vegetables, I used more pumpkin, potato, carrots, green beans, and cauliflower. I par-boiled the vegetables because the recipe called for them to only cook for about 7 minutes and there just ain't no way a potato cube is cooking in 7 minutes at high altitude. In any case, I would recommend parboiling the vegetables for a few minutes (potatoes and carrots longer than the rest) to give them a head start. I served this over some brown basmati rice.

Psst. Here is the recipe (pages 134-135).

Lucky me, I have about some green curry paste leftover in the fridge for another meal!

Cruciferous Tiella

I saw a post a while back by "What the hell does a Vegan eat?" for a Vegan Tiella. It was so beautiful that I had to try it. I wasn't particularly interested in the filling that they posted as I am not a fan of olives, capers, or mushrooms so I made my own filling up out of what I had in the fridge. I used kale, broccoli, and cauliflower. Psuedo recipe for filling follows. A Tiella is like a pizza shaped into a pot pie. It's really yummy and you have to try it!





I've recently found that the brand of yeast I use really affects the flavor of dough and I've become addicted to Rapunzel Rize. I get it at Whole Foods.

The dough recipe copied from What the Hell... my corrections are in italics (and was originally from a book called Lydia's Italy):

Tiella
2 tsp yeast
1/4 cup water
1.5 cups AP flour
1.5 cups Semolina
1 tsp kosher salt
1.5 tsp sugar
5 Tbsp olive oil, divided
3/4 cup water

The dough is 2 tsp. yeast dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water and left to sit for a few minutes. In a food processor, add 1 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour and 1 1/2 cups of semolina flour along with 1 tsp. of kosher salt and 1 1/2 tsp. of sugar. Run the machine to blend.

Stir in 3 tbs. of olive oil to the yeast along with 3/4 cup water , run the food processor and drizzle the mixture in, processing until dough comes together. You can add additional flour if the dough seems a little loose, or water if it seems stiff.

Remove the dough and knead by hand into a smooth round, place it in an oiled bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and let sit for an hour until doubled. Punch down, shape it again, let rise a second time and stick it in the fridge (sealed airtight) if you want wait until later to use it.

While waiting for the second rise, make the filling.

Punch it down again when ready to use. Let it relax if you've taken it out of the fridge. Brush the bottom and sides of the baking dish with olive oil. Cut off 2/3 of the dough for the base, roll it into a 14" round and transfer to the baking dish and trim to fit.

Add your filling and slightly compress.

Roll the smaller piece of dough into a 12" round and place on top, pinch to seal, trim the excess. Pierce about 12 holes on the top and brush the top completely with olive oil and then bake at 375F for 45 minutes. Remove from the oven, and let the tiella cool on a rack for about 15-30 min. You can invert the tiella and remove it to serve, or leave it in for serving. Serve slightly warm or at room temp.

Filling recipe
1 sm onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 bunch kale, cleaned, stems removed, sliced
1 bunch broccoli, cut into small flowerets
1 head cauliflower, cut into small flowerets
1/2 cup instant cheese sauce mix
1 cup water
1/2-3/4 14oz can diced tomatoes, drained
olive oil
salt
pepper
water

Preheat oven to 425. Place broccoli on one cookie sheet and cauliflower on another sheet (they cook for different lengths of time). Toss them with olive oil, salt, and pepper. Place in the oven and roast until browned and cooked. Stir every 10 minutes or so. The broccoli will take 15-20 min, and the cauliflower will take 20-30 minutes. Remove from oven and set aside.

Meanwhile, heat 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add onions and cook till softened and brown. Add garlic and cook for another 30 seconds, until fragrant. Add kale and a couple of tablespoons of water. Cover and cook/steam for 5-10 minutes until tender. Set aside.

In a small pot, mix 1/2 cup cheesy sauce mix with 1 cup water, bring to a boil, stirring constantly with a wisk. Remove from heat when thickened.

Mix roasted broccoli, cauliflower, cheesy sauce, and diced tomatoes into the kale mixture.

Set aside till ready to fill Tiella.

What's left in the pantry soup

Mike and I went for a hike today down in Salt Lake (still too much snow up here for hiking). We hit Liberty Heights Fresh on the way home and I picked up this cute little head of yellow cauliflower. I wish I'd thought to take a picture of it. I didn't feel like going to to store today so I started rummaging around to see what odds and ends were in the kitchen. I found onions, 4 red potatoes, 3 carrots, and some broccoli that I'd already cut up along with 3 cups of no-chicken stock. Sounds like soup to me. We had this soup for dinner along with some rolls that I made last week, that were in the freezer, and we had the last of this weeks salad. Here is a pic of the soup:



I don't really have a recipe, but I'll tell you what I did. It is so easy.

I cooked some diced onions in olive oil till they started to brown and then added a couple cloves of minced garlic. After the garlic cooked for about a minute I added the stock.

I then threw in 4 peeled and diced red potatoes, 3 chopped carrots, about 3/4 tsp dried thyme, about 1/4 tsp dried basil, about 1/4 tsp dried tarragon, and some salt and pepper.

I cooked that till tender and then threw in about a cup and a half of broccoli florets and a small head of cauliflower (chopped up of course) and added some more water. I cooked that for about 10-15 min till tender.

Then I used my immersion blender to blend it up well. I added 2 Tbsp nutritional yeast (probably would have added more if I'd had more), salt and pepper to taste.

Then, it seemed like it was missing something so I threw in about 2 Tbsp earth balance on a whim, along with a dash of shoyu.