Greek Lentil & Eggplant Lasagna

I'm a big fan of turning already-awesome foods into healthier, meat-free foods. I find it's a wonderful (and welcomed) challenge to create something awesome (like Greek lasagna) and then turn it around and reinvent it. I've done it a few times (one day I'll get around to posting my beef based French Onion Soup and my vegetarian French Onion soup...) but today I'd like to share my latest creation. Lasagna.

Lasagna, at least in my mind, is one of those "difficult" foods to make that often used for large groups, family meals, gifts*, etc. But it's not so much that it's difficult as it is time consuming to make (hence the quotation marks) - it also freezes well, which is probably also why it's always available in the freezer section of the grocery store. Typically lasagna is made with a meat sauce that tends to be on the sweet side, and with a slight fennel seed taste. It's then layered in pasta and ricotta cheese then baked. Yawn.

At some point in time, I must have seen a magazine article that had a recipe for Greek asagna. I probably followed it and promptly changed it. Today, this is what I use recipe:

Ground lamb (can use cow)

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

large jar whole tomatoes, squished in hand

olive oil

oregano

cinnamon

salt

pepper

- Cook this into a sauce. This is the meat sauce.

butter

flour

milk

parmesan cheese

2 eggs

- Make this as a sauce (typical roux, add cheese) then temper the eggs

In a casserole dish, layer no-boil pasta, meat sauce, parmesan cheese sauce, white cheese, crumbled feta, chopped olives, and repeat until no more room in pan. The goal is to end with feta on top for pretty presentation. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes.

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Now that I'm trying to eat vegetarian, I decided to mix it up and do this:

cooked lentils

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

large jar whole tomatoes, squished in hand

red wine

olive oil

oregano

cinnamon

salt

pepper

- sauce

butter

flour

milk

parmesan cheese

2 eggs

- other sauce, temper your damn eggs

In a casserole dish, layer sliced and skinned EGGPLANT, lentil sauce, parmesan cheese sauce, skip the cheese, but still use your crumbled feta, and repeat until no more room in pan. Bake at 350 for 30-45 minutes. I forgot the olives on this go around so it's probably optional. I actually preferred the lentil version over the lamb version- although both are great!

*I am reminded of We Bought a Zoo. Although I've gifted food several times, I don't think I've ever gifted lasagna... I should though!

Chicken Tikka Masala & Coconut Kale

This week I attempted one of my favorite genres: Indian. I found myself at my parents house and my brother got dubbed with cooking dinner. My wonderful brother is still in the learning phase of cooking and so I quickly (and eagerly, I might add) stepped up to plate to help him cook something a) amazing b) new c) something I wanted to eat. (I might have had my own ambition here…) and so I pulled one of my favorite cookbooks, America's Test Kitchen, and found their Chicken Tikka Masala recipe. Normally, I'm entirely about the freeform cooking, but for the sake of coaching my brother and being genuinely curious about their recipe, I followed it exactly.

It was amazing. And it was even better the next day, much to my glee! Of course, that alone wasn't enough for me- I needed a veg! For my parents, I had to steam some plain zucchini (they are not spice-crazed like myself) but for me, I decided to recall a recipe I had once found on the internet (wilted spinach with mustard seed, cumin seed, and toasted coconut) and made this variant:

sauteed chopped kale

ground cumin

ground mustard

red chili flakes

olive oil (or butter)

sliced almonds

toasted coconut flakes

This blend is so good… I actually want to try and make this into a whole proper salad add further ingredients. I definitely want to try more combinations with spices that are outside of my comfort zone… mainly anything not italian, mexican, or thai. Indian spices are a good place to start due to their complexity.

And for a bonus round: about Wednesday or so, I was hit on my a semi-celebrity chef. It was sort of a crash and burn awkward, so I'll spare all the details. In short, I'm not going out with him. Mainly because his food sucks. I've eaten at his restaurant several times and I've been sorely let down each time. So after that, I had no choice but to go home and cook something that I knew was better than his version. I present to you…

The "My Turkey Burger Is Better Than Your Turkey Burger!"

Turkey patty - cook in olive oil until done, sprinkle with parmesan cheese at end

Rosemary/parmesan roll- heat in pan with olive oil until crusty brown awesome

Pesto sauce - use as light spread for roll

Wilted spinach, drizzled in truffle oil

Avocado

So there, Mr. Chef.

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Chicken Tikka Masala recipe: http://www.copykatchat.com/tried-true/49392.htm

EDIT: Orignal spinach dish recipe here! http://www.101cookbooks.com/archives/spiced-coconut-spinach-recipe.html

Pumpkinapalooza!!

I love pumpkin. I love savory pumpkin, I love sweet pumpkin, I love pumpkin in Thai, Japanese, Mexican, Italian, etc food. I can pretty much use it in anything. That being said… I think I'm getting sick of the stuff. You see, at Halloween I bought a large jack-o-lantern pumpkin (along with sugar pumpkins that were immediately used up) with the intention of carving it into a Wheatley core from the game Portal 2. (Wheatley is also the name of my cat) Well, October passed… But November is still a pumpkin month! I can carve a turkey! …November passed. A could carve a christmas tree into the pumpkin! …Well, now its January and it was time to remove the pumpkin from my counter. But I couldn't just throw it away. It's a delicious pumpkin! So I cut it open and much to my surprise (okay, childlike delight) the insides were still good and exactly the texture of spaghetti squash. If you've never had a spaghetti squash before, please buy one now. Steam or bake it, just cook it, put some butter on it and maybe some cinnamon and enjoy the fuck out of a severely underrated vegetable. So yes, I had spaghetti pumpkin. Approximately ten pounds of pumpkin, to be exact.

Since the new year I have made the following:

- Singapore noodle style pumpkin

- Sage and brown butter pumpkin with mushrooms and parmesan

- Kimchee pumpkin with walnuts and carrots

- Pumpkin quiche with spinach and leek

- Indian spiced soybeans with pumpkin

And I still have a gallon sized ziplock bag filled with pumpkin in my fridge. I could make a soup, but prior to the holidays I went on a giant soup binge and now I'm rather souped out….

I could make muffins and send them to work. (Ooh… I might do that, actually…)

Anyway, I have a lot of pumpkin right now, which might just make me not want any more of the stuff until the next October rolls around…

So riddle me this, Batman: what are your favorite pumpkin recipes?