RogueChef
“It IS all about the TASTE”
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Meatless Monday – Smashed Roasted Reds
While in the farmer’s market this weekend, I happened upon a table of new (small) red potatoes. Once again these are memories from my youth. Usually boiled and prepped in a milk sauce, these are truly good, but I want a bit more flavor, and a lot more texture.
Suppose I dice / boil them in a veggie stock, and roast garlic, onions, perhaps a carrot or two, and then mash with a fresh cream, to form a a dish similar to roasted bubble and squeak. But just so people do not think I’ve gone totally health nut, I’ll grate Parmesan cheese over and finish with a drizzle melted butter.
A little trick I picked up on my last trip to the U.K, was to roast a medley of vegetables, and then mashed them with potatoes for a variety of textures and tastes. This will make a side dish that will compete with the main course for the dinner’s attention, they are just that good.
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Spaghetti, Butter and Herbs
It is cooler but still rather hot to cook, so where ever I can, I’m doing quick, simple, and cool. Pasta is a Mediterranean dish, and is suited for warm humid climes, (similar to NYC in late August.)
This is a very simple, very light sauce, that has massive flavor. Simply small garlic cloves sauteed in butter until they turn golden brown and infuse the butter with their sweetness, then drained fresh pasta is added to the pan and tossed to coat, as a finishing touch, a handful of mixed / minced herbs are added and the whole is tossed to mix. Add a dusting of fresh grated Parmesan, a side salad and some garlic bread, a complete meal, quick, simple, and spectacular.
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Meatless Monday – Baked Potato
Recently, I was asked, “What is the PROPER way to bake a potato?”. To my dismay, I could not lay out the specifics on how to do this. Even worse when I went to look it up here, I had not posted about this most basic of foods, prepared in the most basic of ways..
I am looking for a nice fluffy, creamy flesh, a crisp skin, with a hint of salt.
The loyal fan club can “Sit Down, and Shut up”, or I will spend the next week perfecting my vegetarian chili recipe. “Beans, lots and lots and lots of Beans, and Yes… Tofu!!“
A baked potato is the edible result of baking a potato. When well cooked, a baked potato has a fluffy interior and a crispy skin. It may be served with fillings and condiments such as butter, cheese, ham, or chicken. Potatoes can be baked in a convection oven, a microwave oven, on a barbecue grill, or on/in an open fire.
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Meatless Monday – Crisp Cucumber Salad
My local farmers market had an abundance of cucumbers today, this invoked memories of cucumber salads made from fresh cucumbers and dressed with a hint of lemon juice and garnished with fresh herbs to enhance the flavors of the cucumbers.
This crisp salad is also a good choice to take with to a summer picnic , bar-b-que or just something cool and crisp on a warm day. Prepare the salad at least two to three hours ahead to allow the flavors to properly develop, even better make it the day before you will be serving it.
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Smoked / Roasted Jalapeño’s
Often I call for jalapeño peppers to kick up the flavor or heat in a dish up a notch, but rarely do I have a recipe that uses them as the main ingredient. Using these, in this recipe, allows me to state, right up front, this dish is hot, this dish is NOT for the wimpy, this dish is rogue chef fare.
A lot of recipes call for bacon, and in my opinion, every thing tastes better with bacon, but there are folks who do not eat pork, or do not eat meat, that would savor the flavor of this dish, so I’ll use a bacon flavored, (not containing pork or meat), vegetable flake to add the taste and texture of bacon crumbles to this. Likewise I’ll use dairy to smooth the harsh edges of the jalapeño flavor and make it a nice even burn….
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Meatless Monday – Crisp Pickled Vegetables
It is summer and it’s hot, humid, miserable. I have just not cooked, and have searched for ways to have tasty COLD meals. I’ve done this to the point I’ve run out of ideas, at least until one of the denizens of the lair asked for pickled eggs. (I’ve done that post earlier)
The request stared me thinking about pickles, and how my mother and grandmother, and great-grandmother would produce great amounts of canned and pickled vegetables from their gardens. Many a winter’s meal was improved with the opening of a jar of pickled cucumbers, onions, zucchini, and the like.
Wikipedia says:
Pickling, also known as brining or corning is the process of preserving food by anaerobic fermentation in brine (a mix of salt in water) to produce lactic acid, or marinating and storing it in an acid solution, usually vinegar (acetic acid). The resulting food is a pickle. This procedure gives the food a salty or sour taste. In South Asia, edible oils can be used as the pickling medium with vinegar.
What I will do in this post is create a refrigerator pickle, very simple, (remember KISS, and not the band), very easy, VERY TASTY, but they won’t keep until winter, (I’ll do that in another post after I work out the recipe.)
I have some baby corn, baby zucchini, garlic, pearl onions and the like, plus my ever-growing selection of herbs and spices. I suspect I can make a couple of jars of very nice pickled veggies out of this.
For a rouge chef twist, I might just slip in a jalapeño or maybe some red pepper flakes…
NOTE: These will be in glass jars that I have recycled (reused), and as such the contents will be visible. I’ll need to have vegetables that are in excellent condition, with no blemishes, and will need to wash them thoroughly.
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Meatless Monday – Thai Carrot Curry Soup
I love my green grocer, I hate my green grocer, they know exactly what I am trying to do , even when I don’t.
As an example, my last trip in I was shown some very fresh carrots, I am not a huge fan of these taproots but was willing to consider possibilities, when the temperature when down, until the proprietor started talking about cold carrot soup…
From there, I was sold, several bunches of carrots, some sugar beets, onions, garlic, and other assorted pieces of vegetation.
As spoken prior:
It’s been hot, and humid, very much like South East Asia, so it is a natural to consider Thai food for this type of weather.
Now I never really sorted out the whole veggie curry thing, I can do meat curries, but it’s too hot for meat.
So off to the lab / kitchen and start the task of researching and testing various curry recipes, looking for a rich and proper mouth feel, a balanced flavor, and a the expected bite without being overly harsh….
The idea here will be to roast the veggies in the oven to caramelize some of the sugar for a deep, rich flavor, and then finish cooking in either a veggie stock or a chicken stock, as this is Monday I’ll go with the veggie stock. The roasted and simmered veggies are then puree’d and chilled.
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Hearty Lentil Soup
I’ve been entirely too lax about my eating habits, falling back to stuffing myself at breakfast, eating a large lunch, eat dinner and then snack all evening. (Mostly because it is too hot to cook , and what I’ve been eating is SOOO TASTELESS….)
The high temperature and humidity have also limited my exercise, so I am putting on weight faster than I would have ever thought.
(Way too many fruit iced teas, sorbets, and entirely too much ice cream. But at least no soft drinks.)
Time to get back to the basics of a Mediterranean diet. Less meat, processed sugar, less fat, more fiber, etc, etc.
Researching said Mediterranean / Mid Eastern diet, I came up with a tasty, low fat, meatless soup, that cooks quickly (therefor causes less heat), in a pressure cooker.
Lentil soup is a soup of lentils, served hot. Lentil soup is usually vegetarian, but can also be made with meat stock or pieces of meat. Red or green lentils may be used. Other ingredients may include vegetables such as carrots, potatoes, celery, parsley, and onion. Common added flavorings include garlic, cumin, lemon juice, olive oil, and vinegar. It is sometimes garnished with croutons or chopped herbs.
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