I just realised that it is Valentines weekend and I completely forgot to do my traditional anti, Valentines post. Oh well, maybe I’ll pretend it was an intentional snub and go back to making anchovy soup and potted beef heart next year. Anti-Valentines Day!
Have you ever had a vegetarian dish that was based on a traditional meat dish only to find that the flavor lacked any resemblance to the original dish? I have, too many times, so I decided to tackle the problem through a few tried and true techniques that I call “the meat treatment”. No, I am not suggesting the addition of eat to a vegetarian diet, but treating the vegetable as if it was meat a more complex, flavorful dish.
The dish I have chosen to revamp is one of my favorites, the very hearty and delicious Czech style goulash. The most popular Czech style is very different from the Hungarian style goulash which is much more widely known here in America. Instead of a stew-like dish it is something more akin to a braised steak and I adore it. As a matter of fact, I adore the Czech Republic and Czech food period, but that is a subject best explored another time*.
Continue reading Portobello Goulash: Converting a Classic Dish
Sorry for the late post everyone. Phil has had the last week off and we have been trying to fit as much fun in as possible. See you Friday, when I will have a much longer post for you.
I’m not going to lie to you, this recipe isn’t pretty. Phil came to me the other day with a request, he wanted French Onion Soup Dip. No, he didn’t mean he wanted me to rip open an envelope and stir the contents into a container of sour cream, he wanted the delicious savory flavor of deeply browned onions combined with sharp gruyere, robust beef with brandied undertones combined for spreading on a nicely toasted slice of baguette. So, I made it for him.
I was astonished at how similar to French Onion Soup this really is. While it is delicious, it does play with your mind a bit. It takes a little time to do, but is completely worth it.
Continue reading French Onion Soup … Dip
I am not a vegetarian, I am an omnivore and I frequently cook meals without meat. I feel deeply that any cook or chef worth their salt should be able to whip up a fabulous meal no matter what the restrictions of diet or allergy. But I am frustrated. I have several vegetarian cookbooks in my library and even had a subscription to a certain vegetarian magazine for a few years and it is that magazine that has set me off. I stopped the subscription when we left New York and with two moves under our belt in the last year and a half, I have just never gotten back to it. So at the end of December, I was poking around Copperfields when I decided to pick up a copy of vegetarian magazine X. Then it happened. I went home and curled up in our big comfy Morris Chair and began to peruse the pages until I came upon a recipe for a tamale pie.
I don’t normally bring my rants to this space, (I am actually a bit of a ranter, just start me on the topic of George Lucas and the later Star Wars films and stand back), but this time I have had enough. I love tamales, I love pie, I even like tamale pie but if I see one more recipe for tamale pie I am going to stage some sort of public protest. All of my vegetarian cookbooks except for one and 40% of the back issues I have of a certain magazine X contain recipes for tamale pie and it is officially boring.
Continue reading Semolina Gnocchi with Spinach, Vegetarian Style
