Sunday, January 31, 2010

Tamale Pie

Now this is another recipe with unlimited options and possibilities. I have never had tamale pie, vegan, vegetarian or otherwise, but for some reason I just had to have some! My base recipe was from here. I also wanted to incorporate some tempeh, so here is my final result:

For the filling:
1 package tempeh, grated
1 Tbsp soy sauce
1 cup of vegetable stock
1/2 onion, chopped finely
1 red bell pepper, minced up so the bean won't see it or she won't eat it
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 cup frozen corn, rinsed in a colander to get that yucky freezery taste off
handful of chopped cilantro
5 fresh from the CSA tomatoes, seeded and chopped. Sub a big ole can of tomatoes if you gotta.
1 tsp cumin
1 Tbsp chili powder (mine isn't too spicy)
some salt
1 cup of shredded jack cheese

For the topping:
1 1/2 cups corn meal
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2 cups buttermilk
2 Tbsp canola oil
1 egg, beaten

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Marinate the tempeh in the broth and soy sauce while you chop up everything else.

In a 12 inch cast iron skillet, saute the onion for about 10 minutes over medium low heat, or until just getting brown. Add in the bell pepper and garlic and cook until soft. Add the tempeh (drained if it looks too soggy) and cook 10 minutes until brown. Dump in the rest of the ingredients through the salt. Sprinkle the cheese over the top in a nice even layer.

Mix up the cornmeal, soda and salt in a bowl. In another bowl mix together the egg, oil and buttermilk. Stir into the cornmeal mixture until smooth, then pour over the filling in the cast iron pan. Bake for 30-40 minutes until the cornbread top is browned and a knife comes out clean.

Makes for killer leftovers, and the little bean thought this was a great "pie", even if it wasn't sweet :) Oh, and it isn't too attractive so no picture for this one.

Monday, January 4, 2010

Going back in time...

I started this post about a month ago. Guess I'll finish it...
We started our CSA share pickup 2 weeks ago and that makes for the ingredients for lots of easy quick veggie/salad dishes. Not really "cooking". However, we got two pints of grape tomatoes last Tuesday and I was afraid we'd get more tomorrow (we did)...so here's what I found: Pasta with Kalamata Olives and Roasted Cherry Tomato from Epicurious. So super quick and Delicious. My only changes were to omit the capers, use 1/4 cup feta, and toast the pine nuts. Not bad for me, usually I tweak things a lot more. This was really really tasty. Unfortunately I discovered a horrifying result from eating certain pine nuts...for a week afterwards everytime I ate ANYTHING I had a terrible bitter taste in my mouth. Somewhat common, as I found from a quick google search. No one else in the family had the same reaction, but now I am pretty gunshy from pine nuts. These were Trader Joe's brand, guess I'll try another type if I ever get brave again.

The roasted tomatoes with plenty 'o garlic

Last night (this is back in early January) my dear husband made a Spicy Peanut Dressing from the lowfat Moosewood cookbook that was really tasty. It is a basic recipe and made in the blender so it is super easy. I made it again a week or so ago, & I made a few changes because I had a specific flavor I wanted. So here we go:
1/2 tomato, seeded and chopped
3 T creamy, salted peanut butter
1 tsp agave nectar
3 T lime juice
1 T soy sauce
1 minced garlic clove
handful chopped cilantro
splash of rice wine vinegar
The salad was composed of red leaf lettuce and scallions.
This was one of my first veggie cookbooks and I am having fun going back to this. However, I still get put off by the number of fish recipes. Ah, the vegetarian fish tree, where I pick all of my fish to eat ;)