I had a Vegetarian Autumn Dinner Party for 8 people at the end of September and these are two dishes that came out really well. Figured I would pass them along to the foodies and/or vegetarians.
SPICED PUMPKIN SOUP This is a pretty simple to make and tastes incredible. It’s better if you make it and let it sit for a few hours covered and then reheat it.
Preparation:
Melt butter in heavy large pot over medium-high heat. Add carrot and next 6 ingredients and sauté until vegetables are soft, about 10 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Transfer mixture to processor and blend until smooth. Return mixture to pot. Add broth and all remaining ingredients except cilantro. Boil soup over medium-high heat 15 minutes to blend flavors. Cool slightly. Working in batches, puree soup in blender until smooth. Return soup to pot. Season to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cool slightly, then cover and refrigerate.)
Bring soup to simmer. Divide among 8 bowls. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve.
BUTTERNUT SQUAH LASAGNA WITH FRESH ROSEMARY AND GARLIC This is a pretty work intensive meal but it’s truly worth it. Start to finish it takes about 3 hours. It goes a lot faster if you have help with the peeling and cutting of the squash.
Preheat oven to 450°F. and oil 2 large shallow baking pans.
In a large baking pan toss squash with olive oil until coated well. Season with salt and pepper. Roast squash in oven 10 minutes. Stir squash and roast 10 to 15 minutes more, or until tender and beginning to turn golden.
While squash is roasting, in a saucepan bring milk to a simmer with rosemary. Heat milk mixture over low heat 10 minutes.
In a large heavy saucepan cook garlic in butter over moderately low heat, stirring, until softened. Stir in flour and cook roux, stirring, 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat and whisk in milk mixture in a stream until smooth (when I first starting making bechemal sauce and had trouble with it clumping, if it began to clump I would throw it in the blender). Return pan to heat, add nutmeg, and simmer sauce, whisking constantly, about 10 minutes, or until thick. Sauce may be made 3 days ahead and chilled, its surface covered with plastic wrap.
Reduce temperature to 375°F. and butter a baking dish, 13 by 9 inches.
Pour 1 cup sauce into baking dish (sauce will not cover bottom completely) and cover with 3 lasagna sheets, making sure they do not touch each other. Spread half of remaining sauce over pasta and sprinkle with 1/2 cup Parmesan. Make 2 more layers in the same manner, then top with the rest of the parmesan cheese over it.
**(OPTIONAL) In a bowl with an electric mixer beat cream with salt until it holds soft peaks and spread evenly over with butternut squash, making sure pasta is completely covered.**
Sprinkle remaining 1/2 cup Parmesan over cream. Cover dish tightly with foil, tenting slightly to prevent foil from touching top layer, and bake in middle of oven 30 minutes. Remove foil and bake lasagna 10 minutes more, or until top is bubbling and golden. Let lasagna stand 5 minutes.
(You can also cut out some of the butternut squash and add Portabello mushrooms seasoned with salt, pepper, and a little bit of butter)
kara [email] said at 2:33 PM 10-10-2007: sweet.. I have some homegrown cilantro and rosemary to use up before they die.
I made some oatmeal cookies the other day that turned out delicious. Oatmeal cookies in general are pretty hard to fuck up, but the addition of walnuts made them really awesome. I'd love more oatmeal recipes, especially "healthy" ones. I'll confess that I made these because my gentleman friend, despite his healthy eating and athletic activities, has a potential cholesterol problem. So we started dumping oatmeal in everything.
Oatmeal Walnut Cookies
2 sticks margarine or butter, softened
1 cup dark brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 eggs worth of egg substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
2 teaspoons cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 cups uncooked oatmeal
1 cup walnuts
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Beat butter and sugars until creamy. Add eggs and vanilla; beat well. Add flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt; mix well. Stir in oats and walnuts. Drop by rounded spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown. I made about 2 dozen but they were big.
marcia [email] said at 2:46 PM 10-10-2007: I just started my own little herb garden in the apartment a month ago: basil, cilantro, sage, rosemary, spicy oregano, and thyme. The cilantro fell over and died though. Not sure the problem there.
Also, do you have lavender? One of the shops here has lemon lavender (it's heavenly) but i have no idea what dishes are good with lavender. I've had it in fancy pants martinis but that's it.
Are your herbs inside and outside? You mentioned "before they die..."
kara [email] said at 2:56 PM 10-10-2007: theyre outdoors. some are in pots but so far I've had bad luck with things inside. I will keep trying all winter long but there are no guarantees. I have basil in the yard and in pots.. the ones in pots look great but seem happier when left outside. The rosemary's in the ground.
I had a two kinds of lavender in pots earlier in the summer but they died quickly.
I see it all over the yards of Baltimore though, so I'm guessing its a hardy perinneal (sp?) outdoors.
I've always wanted to try lavender creme brulee. I mostly see it in dessert recipes but there is at least one cookbook dedicated to it
marcia [email] said at 4:44 PM 10-10-2007: Whoa. I'm intrigued...lavender is a complete mystery to me as an herb...
Concerning other herbs: my best indoor herbs are the sage, rosemary, and thyme. They grow like crazy (the thyme especially) but also need to be watered twice a day. My basil plant is struggling slightly. The chives and oregano are doing fine but grow very slowly. Winter will be the big test. They seem to be doing well as long as I leave the windows open and only have the air conditioning on for short periods of time.
myriam [email] said at 11:25 PM 10-10-2007: lavendar honey is amazing. that doesn't really actually use lavendar though.
if you're ever in the south of france, my uncle is involved with a lavendar museum there that will astound you with the many lovely uses of lavendar. it is i think most notable for what it des to your brain and body though, than for your food
Oona Goosepimple said at 11:30 PM 10-10-2007: I've made a number of things with lavender -- lavender jelly, lavender pound cake, lavender butter cookies/shortbread. I always wanted to try the creme brulee too. It also is good on chicken and fish too, anything you might use rosemary with, they are in the same family. It's really intriguing to cook with lavender but note: a little goes a long way and take that seriously. You really need very very little otherwise it goes from interesting to perfumy and weird tasting. Lavender has so many varieties, some are hardy and work in this climate but some don't.
marcia [email] said at 6:57 PM 10-11-2007: I've had hot white chocolate at a chocolate shop in NYC that had lavender in it. It was absolutely delicious.
woody [email] said at 10:14 AM 10-11-2007: Lavender is hardy enough to survive an Alberta winter. It flourishes in my front yard, dry climate, direct sun, weekly watering. My favorite thing to make with it is lavender ice cream.
marcia [email] said at 10:32 PM 10-10-2007: Oops, I meant NINE no boil lasagna noodles, not 6, but I guess anyone who has made lasagna before knows this.
marcia [email] said at 6:50 PM 10-11-2007: Oh, and (cough) ignore the chicken broth in the pumpkin soup recipe--my eyes automatically see "vegetable broth" whenever I see "chicken broth" so I completely missed that in the original recipe.
kara [email] said at 9:31 AM 10-18-2007: Made the lasagna last night, despite some slight modifications (we didn't have a round pan, for starters), it was awesome!
marcyatwork said at 1:17 PM 10-21-2007: Oh, that's great to hear! I'm assuming you halved the recipe? Or quartered it? I'm making it again for my Halloween dinner party this week. Hopefully I'll have more recipes to share after this dinner party.
