Eggs in Purgatory

I know this dish by a different name--huevos al plato, a traditional Hispanic dish in which a hash is made from tomatoes, garlic, onions, bell peppers, ham, and peas. The eggs are then cooked over the hash until the yolk is soft and runny. Serve with fresh, warm bread. The ingredients in this dish are made up the Cuban sofrito plus eggs, ham, and peas. In a Cuban household these ingredients are always on hand so my mother often made this this dish in a rush. Once you experience soaking up the eggy, tomato goodness with warm bread you'll understand why this dish never gets old.

So I've waxed on and on about a dish I'm not posting, but I've got a more exotic alternative for anyone addicted to artichoke hearts or capers. Eggs in purgatory follows a similar concept to huevos al plato as the eggs are cooked in a tomatoe based hash. I've adapted the bon-appétit recipe so the dish is cooked in one frying pan on the stove instead of being transferred to the stove.


Eggs in purgatory (adapted from bon appétit)

Ingredients:
Olive oil
1 chopped red onioin
3 minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
salt and pepper
1 8- to 10-ounce package frozen artichoke hearts
or 1 can of artichoke hearts, cut in half
minced 1 28-ounce can diced tomatoes in juice 8
(bon appetit recommends fire roasted, but I have never seen these at TJ's)
3 small red-skinned or white-skinned potatoes, peeled, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3 tablespoons drained capers
8 large eggs 1/3 cup
grated Parmesan cheese
warm French bread

Cook the potatoes in boiling water for 8 minutes. In a large saucepan, heat olive oil in a sauce pan and add the salt, garlic, red pepper flakes, and onions and sauté until browned. Add the tomatoes with liquid and bring the mixture to a boil. Add the drained potatoes, artichoke hearts, and capers and cook for 10 minutes. At this point the hash can be set aside until you are ready to eat. You must be ready to eat once the eggs are put on to cook; everyone except the cook should be at the set table, with the warm bread and drinks poured.

Turn the heat on high so that the hash is bubbling. Now carefully crack 8 eggs onto the hash with two inches between each egg. It helps to make indentation with your spoon for the yolks to sit in. The white will spread over the mixture. Cover the sauce pan and cook the eggs for 6-8 minutes. I like my eggs quite runny, so I cook them until the whites still look shiny and you can the area around the yolk is still clear. The eggs will continue cooking when you remove them from the stove. Serve immediately. Use a spatula and a spoon maneuver the eggs to a plate.

Potato Peel Broth

Today my friend Dave brought me some delicious chicken noodle soup. He made a roast chicken earlier in the week, and like a responsible cook remembered to boil the carcass to make chicken stock. It's probably more obvious to boil a carcass than it is to boil vegetable scraps, but the same idea lies behind both chicken stock and vegetable stock. Thus I introduce to you another Vegetarian Epicure recipe Potato peel broth or less appetizing, Garbage soup. This broth is a suitable base for any type of soup or sauce and doesn't have the fat that comes with chicken or beef stock.

The most difficult part of making this broth is remembering to keep your potato peels. Any time you make a potato dish, instead of peeling the potatoes with peeler use a pairing knife so you can remove strips a 1/4 inch thick. Either set them aside a few days if you plan on making another potato dish or make the broth immediately. The book notes, if you don't have all of the necessary vegetables to make the broth just boil the potato peels with salt and save it until you have the vegetables to make the broth.

Potato Peel Broth (from The Vegetarian Epicure by Anna Thomas)

Ingredients:
Potato peels from 5-7
1 large onion, quartered
2 carrots, peeled and quartered
2 celery stalks
2 cloves garlic
salt and pepper
1 1/2 quarts of water
parsley (optional)

Make sure the potato peels have been washed. Put the water and vegetables into a large pot and simmer over a low flame for 1 1/2 hours until the vegetables are very soft. Add water as it evaporates to keep the vegetables covered. Once the vegetables are tender, there are two options. For a clear broth, strain off the vegetables and set aside for further use. For a soup with a creamier texture, the broth can be pureed and then pressed through a sieve to remove the coarser bits of potato peel. I usually opt for the clear broth because I think the pureed broth is too grainy.

Celeriac Salad

On New Year's eve I was introduced to a wonderful creamy salad that is reminiscent of coleslaw but has much more flavor and no barbecue connotations. This would be celeriac or celery root salad. I had been wishing Trader Joe's would come through for me and carry this uncommon root vegetable. No luck at TJ's. However, the 2010 snowpocalypse did have a silver lining for me. On the Friday before the storm hit, Trader Joe's had a line out the door so my boyfriend decided to grocery shop at the Whole Foods in Logan's circle. As the thoughtful guy he is, when he saw celery root he brought it back for me so I could finally make this salad I had been gushing about since January when I ate it at his house. Long story short I'd like to thank my boyfriend and his mother for bringing celeriac into my life. One can never eat enough root vegetables.

Celeriac Salad

1 large celery root
1/2 cup sour cream
1/2 plain yogurt
2 tbs whole grain mustard
1/4 cup capers (more if you're a fan like me)

Cut off the top of the celery root then take off the rough skin by cutting about 1/4 of an inch into the root. This should expose the white flesh. Use the medium holes on a cheese grater to grate the root. You need to grate all of root that you take the skin off of because the flesh oxidizes easily. Mix the rest of the ingredients in a bowl. Then stir the wet ingredients into the grated celeriac.

I did not add any salt and pepper because with the celery, mustard, and capers there are already enough flavors. The hardest part of this recipe is grating the whole celery root because root is quite tough. If you're fast the prep time can be 20 minutes or less. If you're slow, then I recommend grating the celery root in shifts while you complete other kitchen tasks. The strong flavor of this salad is a good complement to a pork loin or a flank steak or any type of beef. One celery root makes a lot of salad and it's not something you eat large servings of so you can eat it all week with all meals like I have been doing...

Cottage pie

Last Wednesday, February 3rd, was our dog Sampson's 1st birthday. In a house where the dog is worshiped like a first son, it's no surprise that we threw him a birthday party fit for a prince. My menu that night was based on the raw meat cupcake with mashed potato icing I made as a treat for Sampson. If you think about it, cottage pie is just the cooked version of Sampson's cupcake. Isn't that appetizing?


Cottage pie is similar to shepherd's pie except the filling is made with ground beef instead of ground lamb. The meat is cooked together with onions and other vegetables, then mixed with a gravy and topped with mashed potatoes. A bit of expert advice from S, who is half English and has had many cottage pies, the meat layer should be about twice as thick as the potatoes. I cooked my cottage pie in a pan that was too big (a 9"x 13" pyrex). If you don't have the recommended 2 quart baking dish then just make a note to scale down on the mashed potato layer.

Cottage pie (adapted from Rachel Ray's Shepherd's Pie)
Serves 8

Ingredients

Meat mixture:
1 3/4 pounds ground beef
2 carrots peeled and diced
1 can of peas or 1.5 cups of frozen peas defrosted
1 diced onion
salt and pepper

Mashed potatoes:
2 pounds potatoes
1 cup sour cream
1 egg yolk
3 tbs butter
2 tsp salt and ground pepper

Gravy:
2 tbs butter
2 tbs flour
1 cup broth (any kind)
1 tbs Worcestershire sauce

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees or to broil (if you happen to have that option...)

Wash the potatoes and quarter them. Keep the skins on a thicker mashed potato with more texture. Boil the potatoes until tender, about 15 minutes. While the potatoes boil, heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium high heat and brown the meat for 5 minutes. Drain off any excess fat then add the onions, carrots and peas. Cook the meat and vegetables together for another five minutes. Remove the meat from heat. In a small sauce pan melt 2 tbs of butter over low heat. When the butter has completely melted slowly add the 2 tbs of flour and mix over the low heat for 1 minute until the flour is fully incorporated into the butter. Add the broth and mix constantly over medium heat while the gravy begins to thicken. Once thick add the worchestershire sauce and mix well. Add the gravy mixture to the meat mix together. Pour the meat into the baking dish.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the sour cream and egg yolk. Drain potatoes and add them to the mixing bowl. Add the butter while mashing the potatoes. Spread the mashed potatoes over the meat mixture. Sprinkle paprika on top of the potatoes and broil for 8 minutes until the potatoes are slightly browned.

Lentil patties and potato raita

I'm a big proponent of being able to cook a meal at any time with what you have in your kitchen. I think this impulse comes from living with my mother who while a great cook has a deep aversion of going to the grocery store. To be this kind of cook you have to maintain an intelligently stocked pantry. My staples include onions, garlic, carrots, celery, potatoes, and some type of bean, canned and dry. More on quick meals that include minimal grocery shopping later in the broadcast...


Dish #1 Lentil patties
Ingredients
1/2 cup lentils
1 carrot, chopped
1 onion, diced
2 cups water
1 tsp cumin
1tsp curry powder
a touch of chili powder
salt and pepper
1/2 cup unseasoned bread crumbs

Heat olive oil in a medium sauce pan and saute the onions until translucent. Then add the chopped carrot, the lentils, all the spices and 2 cups of water. Bring the mixture to a boil, then turn down the heat and let it simmer for about 20 minutes until the water is almost gone. Remove from the heat and let cool to the point where you can comfortably handle the mixture. Add the 1/2 cup of bread crumbs and mix until a dough forms. Shape the dough into patties and place on an oiled baking sheet. Bake at 350 degrees for 15-20 minutes until browned and crispy.

I should say that the redeeming quality of this recipe is that it works with so many ingredients. You can use red onions, any type of beans you might have left over, zucchini, peppers, corn, etc. Any vegetables cooked together can be essentially glued by the bread crumbs and baked or fried to make a delicious patty. My mistake was in adding too many bread crumbs which made my patties dry. Also be sure to leave some liquid in the mixture when you remove it from the heat. I used lentils because they don't have to be soaked so they're an easy and immediate ingredient. They're also cheap, cheap, cheap--always a good thing.


Dish #2
The lentil cakes should be served with some type of yogurt sauce, think tzatziki or just a mildly spiced yogurt. I decided to serve mine with a heartier yogurt based dish, potato raita.

Potato Raita (Adapted from the Vegetarian Epicure)

Ingredients:
3 potatoes
3 stalks of celery chopped
1 tbs butter
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp curry
1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
2 cups yogurt

Peel and halve the potatoes and boil until soft. Let them cool then chop them coarsely. In the same pan in which you boiled the potatoes, melt the tablespoon of butter, add the spices and stir until aromatic. Add the celery, let it cook for a minute, then add the yogurt and remove from heat. Blend the yogurt and spices. Pour the the yogurt sauce over the potatoes and mix thoroughly. Chill well before serving.

I have to admit the potato raita was the star of the dinner and the lentil patties were slightly dry and thus a bit disappointing. But that didn't stop this from being an easy and satisfying vegetarian meal.