Etoufee with a Rainforest Twist

Etoufee is a classic Cajun and creole dish. “Etoufee” translates roughly to “smothered.”

Traditionally, etoufees are made with shrimp or crawfish but faced, one day, with an abundance of chanterelle mushrooms and some unexpected vegetarians at my table, I thought I’d try a vegetarian version, replacing the shellfish entirely with cleaned and sliced chanterelles. Despite the regional wrongness -- a classic Southern US favorite made with mushrooms most often found in the rainforest -- the dish was a big success.

Another replacement: classically, where I’ve indicated olive oil, the Cajun and creole versions would use butter. I like the foresty flavor the olive oil adds, plus that simple swap makes this dish not only vegetarian, but completely vegan. However the dish works equally well -- and is perhaps even a little richer -- when made with butter.

Mushroom Etoufee

Ingredients:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil or butter or a combination of both
1/4 all purpose or unbleached flour
1/4 cup finely chopped onion
1/4 cup finely chopped celery
1/4 cup finely chopped bell pepper
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup diced tomatoes, fresh or canned
1 teaspoon paprika
1 teaspoon black Ppepper
1/2 teaspoon cayenne
1 teasp dried thyme
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon oregano
2 cups vegetable or mushroom stock
1 tablespoon hot sauce
4 cups fresh sliced chanterelles or 2 cups dried mushrooms

If using dried mushrooms, start by adding boiling water to mushrooms to cover. Cover with lid and set aside for at least one hour.

Meanwhile, heat 1/4 cup olive oil in a heavy bottom pot over medium heat. Add flour and whisk until the roux turns a dark golden color, between 15 and 20 minutes. Add onion, celery and bell pepper and continue to whisk until the vegetables start to soften. Add garlic, paprika, black pepper, cayenne, thyme, basil and oregon and continue to whisk for a further two minutes. Still whisking, add the tomatoes and stir. When the liquid has all been absorbed, add the stock, a little at a time, until it as all incorporated. Finally add the mushrooms, reduce heat, cover with a tight-fitting lid and simmer 20 minutes.

You should now have a thick, rich-looking stew. If it seems too thick, add a bit more liquid: stock, if you still have some, or even a bit of water, a 1/4 cup at a time. If it’s too thin, leave the lid off, raise the heat slightly and stir while the sauce thickens.

Serve over long-grained white rice.

Serves 6

Caesar Salad

There is something splendidly decadent about a well-made Caesar salad. By a lot of people's reckoning, it shouldn’t be a salad at all. It’s rich and dense, full-flavored, full bodied and all the things a salad mostly shouldn’t be.

As a result, the classic caesar tends to go in and out of fashion -- like mini skirts and wedged soles -- because as much as we tell ourselves we loathe it, there’s a part of us that just can’t get enough.

Don’t kid yourself, either: it may be a salad and it may be green, but if you’re looking for a light dinner, you’d best keep looking. On the other hand, with a caesar salad at its base, it’s possible to make a fast and even somewhat elegant supper by whipping it together quickly and plopping some protein on top while you’re plating. A chicken breast or grilled salmon filet are classic, but here’s a fun twist: try throwing a handful of peeled shrimp in while you’re toasting the croutons.

This is a creamy variation of caesar, my own favorite. It’s also a fast approach. Many recipes call for raw egg as you make the dressing, but I’ve encountered so many people who are unnerved at working with raw eggs. In any case, using the mayonnaise is a shortcut that provides a more than acceptable result.

Caesar Salad

For the croutons:

4 slices white bread or two dinner rolls, cubed
4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
paprika, garlic powder, pepper, cumin or a popular spice blend: two teaspoons in total

Heat oil in small skillet over medium heat. Add spice and toast briefly before adding bread. Saute until bread absorbs oil and browns. Set aside.

For the dressing:

4 large cloves garlic
1 tablespoon Djon mustard
1.5 tablespoon white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 teaspoon anchovy paste (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 light salad oil
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

Combine garlic, mustard, vinegar, mayonnaise, anchovy paste and salt and pepper in the bowl of a food processor. While the processor is running, drizzle the oil into the bowl in a steady stream. Correct the seasoning.

For the salad:

1 large or 3 small heads romaine or cos lettuce
caesar salad dressing
croutons
shaved parmesan cheese

Prepare the lettuce. In a large salad bowl, combine lettuce with as much of the dressing as seems appropriate (dress to taste, is what I mean to say here) and the croutons. Top with shaved parmesan cheese and serve immediately.

Serves 4-6.

Ravenswick Apple Chutney

In the early autumn it’s difficult to keep up with the sudden supply of apples in my area. The apples are naturally organic, deeply flavorful and, once a year, mind-blowingly abundant.

Inspired by this embarrassment of riches, I came up with this terrific chutney. The flavors are also inspired by those luxurious and faintly exotic mango chutneys. I’ve always wanted to make mango chutney but, faced with a box of mangoes, I can never bring myself to do anything with them other than eat them fresh. But I don’t live in a place where mangoes are abundant: here it’s apples so… apple chutney.

Use this gorgeous chutney alongside a grilled chicken breast or to add a posh touch to a cheese sandwich. Jarlsberg, a touch of green on a nice rustic bread with a slathering of this chutney and you’ll have created a sandwich that is also a memorable meal.

Ravenswick Apple Chutney

Ingredients:

Two pounds apples
Two cups apple cider vinegar
Two cups sugar
Two tablespoons fresh chopped garlic
Four tablespoons peeled and chopped fresh ginger
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 cup raisins
juice of one lemon

Peel, core and coarsely chop the apples. In a large bowl add the raisins then toss with the lemon. Set aside.

In a food processor combine garlic, ginger, salt and red pepper flakes. Process until finely chopped.

Bring vinegar and sugar to a boil in a large non-reactive saucepan. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring, for 10 minutes. Add apple and garlic mixtures. Continue simmering for 30-40 minutes, until apples are tender and the chutney has thickened.

Place in sterilized jars and process or cool it in a couple of serving bowls.

Stored properly, this chutney will keep for several weeks without processing.

Makes about 4 eight ounce jars.

Cookbooks: Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi

It’s possible that the reason Yotam Ottolenghi’s Plenty (Chronicle Books) was such a huge and instant hit when it was published in the UK last year is because, in many ways, it is the sort of book that can define an age. Chef and food writer, Israeli-born Yotam Ottolenghi, seems absolutely of his moment.

More than a decade ago Donna Hay introduced food so minimalist it seemed almost to prepare itself. By comparison, Ottolenghi seems the anti-Hay. It’s not that his food is complicated, exactly, as much as it is involved. Many recipes include multiple processes and long lists of ingredients. The food is healthful, flavorful and beautiful, but even just reading the book, you don’t get the idea that any of this will make itself.

That said, don’t think you need to be an expert level chef in order to take a run at Plenty. It would be helpful to know your way around a kitchen and to not be intimidated by semi-exotic ingredients. And if you are a vegetarian, so much the better because Plenty is a vegetarian cookbook, even if the chef himself is not.

The book comes partly from “The New Vegetarian” column Ottolenghi has been writing for the Guardian since 2006. Ottolenghi says the newspaper asked him because his London restaurant, Ottolenghi, had “become famous for what we did with vegetables and grains, for the freshness and originality of our salads, and it only made sense to ask me to share this with vegetarian readers.”

The 120 recipes in Plenty are organized by ingredients: Roots, Funny Onions, Mushrooms, Brassicas and so on. This makes for a surprisingly coherent cookbook. And it seems especially sensible in a book based on vegetable matter.

In the growing season, I find myself regularly faced with a surplus of wonderful things from my friends who garden and who know I enjoy the challenge of doing something interesting with the things they produce. Boxes of organic chard, zucchinis, beans and other things too lovely to consider wasting. At those times, Ottolenghi’s organization will make the most sense. With an armload of leeks and Ottolenghi’s book, I might make Leek Fritters, or Fried Leeks or I might even be inspired to toss some into a stunning Caramelized Garlic Tart.

Eggplant gets a complete examination and tomatoes have probably never had it so good, especially in Ottolenghi’s Tomato Party, a stunning salad designed to “make use of as many as possible of the infinite types of tomatoes that are available now.” Some are cooked a little, some a lot and some are raw and all are tossed with fregola and couscous. It’s actually quite a simple dish but mind-blowingly good.

Plenty is just as good as everyone has been saying it is. This is vegetarian food as you always dreamed you’d find it. But do prepare to roll up your sleeves.

Spring is Sprung: Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti

Stinging nettles offer the first peeks of green after winter’s grey-brown. They offer a promise, but not without bite. This year, a nasty cold raged through our house days after I saw the first spiny shoots. I hastened to make a healing broth, adding finely chopped baby nettle leaves to the tonic right before serving. They are so full of everything you need to recover from winter, that cold didn’t stand a chance once I’d hit it with a mittfull of nettle leaves.

By now, in my neck of the woods, the nettles are beginning to grow tall and strong. I pluck only the very tender tips of the plant, and only in the brightest part of spring. When first picked, they smell exactly as they look: bright green and filled with promise.

The problem in our house is that, even though we know stinging nettles are super good for us, no one here likes them very much. It’s something about the fine fuzz on the leaves. Even though even light cooking takes the sting out, the fuzz is unpleasant to certain palates; mine among them. I do a very finely chopped creamed nettle-type of dish that I don’t mind very much. It’s inspired by the Austrian preparation of spinach that my mother used to do: very finely chopped nettles are added to a roux (in this case, equal amounts of butter or olive oil and flour) with water as needed and seasoning to taste. This creates a bright green paste that is slightly evil-looking, but surprisingly delicious.

These Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti are about as far opposite of that evil green gruel as can be imagined. If you like biscotti, you’ll love these: and never mind if you like nettle or not. Even though I use quite a bit, you can’t taste anything beyond a slight and pleasant earthiness.

Nettle Chocolate Chip Biscotti

3.5 cups unbleached flour
2.5 cups sugar
½ teaspoon baking soda
1.5 teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon salt
3 eggs
1 cup chopped, boiled nettles, with liquid squeezed out
1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 300F.

Combine flour, sugar, baking soda, baking powder and salt in food processor. Blend dry ingredients. While processor is running add eggs, then nettles. Blend until ingredients are roughly blended. (Some of the flour mixture will appear bright green, some will be pale but moist from the eggs.) Turn out into a large bowl. Add chocolate chips and mix until roughly blended and holds together when packed. If the mixture does not hang together, beat another egg and add it to the mixture a very small amount at a time until the a dough forms when handled.

Turn the dough onto a floured surface and form a large ball. Separate into two even pieces and form a log from each, about 1-inch high and three or four across. Pack each log portion very tightly, to remove excess air or cracks. Transfer to a heavy parchment-lined baking sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until the logs are dry and firm. Remove to a wire cooling rack and allow to stand for up to half an hour, until logs are cool enough to handle. Using your best bread knife, cut the logs into 1-inch pieces and transfer to a baking sheet. Reduce heat to 265F and bake for 10-15 minutes, turning the biscotti halfway through baking.

Remember: the longer the second bake, the sturdier, harder and drier the cookie will be, so adjust this to your own taste.

A Wedding Meal Without Compromise

In one of those odd turns of fate that life hands us, during a full calendar of wedding catering in the summer of 2010, we at Foodisima prepared not a single wedding meal that included meat other than -- in certain cases -- some wild and sustainably caught salmon.

We did some beautiful weddings, too. They were mostly gorgeous affairs that included white dresses, rented tuxes, perfectly turned-out bridesmaids, elegant cakes and weeping mothers of the bride. In short, from the outside looking in, they were mostly somewhat traditional, beautiful weddings. And the food we prepared for these weddings was beautiful and, in some ways, traditional, as well. That is, looking at the food what you would see is elegant, well-prepared and served wedding fare.

Foodisima Catering & Chef Services have always prided ourselves on local food that is, as much as possible, handmade. We make our own stocks and sauces, our own breads. Our polenta begins with cornmeal and when we serve scones or sorbets (and a lot of other things!) they are made by hand.

Over the years, our own awareness of local, organic food has grown to the point where we are very sensitive of carbon footprints, not only for ourselves but for our clients: we recycle, of course (doesn’t everyone?), but we also expend a lot of effort thinking about how we can not only reduce our own waste, but that of our clients, as well. It turns out that if you think like that long enough and hard enough, it trickles down into everything you do. Which, one way or another, led to the summer of 2010: all those weddings. No meat.

In the middle of what I think I will look back on as a watershed summer, Chelsea Clinton got married. And it happened that while I was busy preparing stocks and sauces and dressings for what would be a mostly vegan wedding, I was hearing about how Clinton -- who is vegan -- would be serving some vegan cuisine at her wedding, but also organically raised beef. The thought of this very prominent vegan serving meat at her wedding sort of appalled me. After all, this would be her day. Well, her and her (presumably also vegan) groom. If you can not, on that very special day, ask that your friends and family respect your choices, when can you? The rationale I heard (though admittedly not from Clinton herself) was that people have traditionally offered vegetarian options at carnivorecentric weddings, so why should vegan weddings not offer meat for attending carnivores? And my answer to that is... well, it’s different.

It isn’t that we at Foodisima don’t like meat or have a problem with it. In fact, aside from the watershed wedding thing, we prepared meat for a lot of other types of functions last summer. We don’t mind doing it and we do it very well. Also, if you want meat at your wedding -- if that’s part of your personal design brief for your special day, or even if it’s just that you always dreamed of filet mignon at your wedding, or chicken kiev, that’s just what you should have. But if what you really want is a different kind of wedding, well... nothing need stand in your way.

See, here’s the thing: for many people, their wedding will be the largest party they ever host. And it’s meaningful, this party. It represents a new beginning, in a way. And the birth of a new aspect in a special relationship. A whole new day. A party like that -- an important party, heavy in symbolism and sharing -- should stand for something. Especially if the wedding couples have made choices of conviction in their lives.

And here’s the other thing: even while I was hearing about Clinton’s compromise at her own wedding, I knew from experience that it was a compromise not worth making. And why? Because by that point I had helped create a special and meaningful day for several vegetarian couples and had watched while guest after guest not only ate happily of the vegetarian and vegan food on offer, they raved about it: this including grumpy looking uncles and obviously meat-eating dads. That’s because we’ve discovered that really good vegetarian and vegan celebration food is not about what isn’t there. It’s truly about celebrating what is.

Somewhere during that watershed summer -- somewhere between Chelsea and eight or ten happy brides -- I came to a place of conviction about what a wedding meal should look like. Truly, it can take many forms: it can be a stand-up affair, with luscious tidbits handed round by cater-waiters. It can be five courses beautifully served while the wedding party sips and toasts. Or it can be a bountiful buffet. But whatever it consists of, it should reflect the convictions of the wedding couple, whatever they happen to be.

This is your special day. The most special day ever. It need not be a day for compromise: it’s the day that will take you forward into the next phase of your life. Having that day -- and that beautiful party -- perfectly reflect your beliefs is not too much to ask.

Cookbooks: Veganize This! by Jenn Shagrin

In a very general sort of way, I dislike books like Veganize This! (DaCapo) because, rather than celebrating all that can be really wonderful and freeing about the vegan lifestyle, it serves to make what is an alternative way of eating seem like a freakish aberration to be gotten around. The subtitle tells that story: “From Surf and Turf to Ice Cream Pie: 200 Animal-Free Recipes for People Who Love to Eat.” And, fair enough: there are people for whom vegan choices are entirely social or moral and who miss what they no longer have.

My own approach to vegan and vegetarian cooking tends to be one of celebration for what is rather than intense focus on what isn’t. And there are lots of cookbook authors who agree with that approach: increasingly, their beautiful books become more and more available.

Actress, comedienne and vegan chef Jenn Shagrin has a different approach and her book seems to celebrate food in disguise as other food. Vegan Veal Chops with Sunchoke Caponata. Tofu Scallops. Even Vegan Twinkies. Shagrin uses a small arsenal to fake her way to delicious results: her recipes tend to be heavy on seitan -- a wheat gluten-based meat substitute -- as well as several commercial ingredients.

Now all of that said, Veganize This! is clear, well laid out and the recipes are easy to follow. If you’re the kind of vegetarian who misses your meaty treats but is no longer comfortable eating meat products, Veganize This! is for you.