Mixed Vegetable au Gratin

One way to change up your nightly vegetable serving is to bake it up with a little cheese and milk.  Au gratin style vegetables will add some calories to your veggies, but this recipe compromises a little richness by substituting in skim milk

 

Ingredients:

- Mixed vegetables - I used one medium-sized head of cauliflower, 8 carrots, 4 small potatoes.

- 2T unsalted butter

- 2T flour

- 3/4c grated gruyere cheese

- 1/2c grated parmesan

- 2c milk

- 1/4c breadcrumbs

- Pepper

- Grated nutmeg

Cut your vegetables into bite-sized pieces.  Arrange in an oven-safe baking dish.  Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.

Make a roux by melting the butter in a saucepan over medium heat and then adding flour, constantly stirring for about 2 minutes, until the flour starts to cook a little.  Add milk a little at a time while stirring.  Bring to a light boil and then stir in 1/2c gruyere cheese, paremesan, nutmeg, and pepper to taste.  Pour cheese mixture over vegetables.  If it doesn't completely cover the vegetables, that's fine.  It should come up about half-way.

Sprinkle a little of the remaining gruyere over the top, then the breadcrumbs, and top with a little more gruyere.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until top is browned and vegetables are cooked.

This dish has a lot of flavor, and so it is a good accompaniment for chicken or other dish that won't compete with it too much.

Bon appetite! 

The Best Rice I Have Ever Made

I used to be really good at making rice.  It seemed so easy - just bring rice and water to a boil and then simmer.  It always turned out fluffy and tender.  Then I lost my touch.  I don't know how it happened, but every pot of rice I tried to make either burned, or turned out sticky or dry.  I finally caved and bought a rice cooker.  The rice cooker works okay, but not great.  At least it produces consistent results. 

But then, last night, I made rice according to Julia Child's rissoto recipe.  It was perfect.  Now I know you're thinking "Rissoto?!  No way am I standing over a pot and doling out ladle-fulls of boiling stock for twenty minutes while constantly stirring."  This rissoto recipe does not require such active care.  You start it on the stove-top and then move it to the oven.  It does not take on the sticky, almost creamy texture of typical rissoto.  It is more like the most perfect rice you've ever had.

Ingredients:
- 1 1/2c long-grained white rice
- 3c stock, hot
- 1c wine
- 1/2c finely chopped yellow onion
- 4T butter
- Salt and pepper

Melt butter in an enameled cast iron "french oven" over medium heat.  Add chopped onion.  (Julia Child's recipe calls for only 1/4c onion, but I think a little more is nice, depending on what you're going to use it for.  I made mine for chicken curry, so a little more onion was appropriate.  I also added 1/2t tumeric.)  Let this cook for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, but do not let it brown. 

When the onion is soft and translucent, add the rice and stir to incorporate.  Allow the rice to cook for about 2 minutes, but, again, do not let it brown.  The rice should take on a milky sort of color when it has absorbed some of the butter and onion flavor.  At this point, you can add spices or seasonings if you want, depending on what you are serving your rice with.

Add the chicken stock and wine.  Your chicken stock should be hot, so that the rice comes to a boil very quickly.  Cover and move to an oven pre-heated at 375 degrees.  Peak at the rice after about 3-4 minutes.  It should be simmering.  Reduce your oven temperature to 350 degrees and let cook for a total of 18 minutes in the oven.  Check on your rice once to make sure that it is on track to cook in about 18 minutes.  After 18 minutes, tilt the pot up on its corner and move the rice along the edge of the pot away so that you can see down to the bottom - make sure all of the liquid is absorbed. 

Carefully fluff the rice with a large buffet fork without breaking the grains.  Now you can return your pot of rice to the turned-off oven to keep warm until you are ready to serve.  Your rice should be tender, fluffy, and soft with a little bit of "bite" in the center, and have lovely buttery flavor. 

Bon appetite!

Mashed Potatoes with Creamed Spinach

When I was home from work last week nursing my wounds, I caught part of a Rachel Ray 30-Minute Meals episode and decided that I would try to make these mashed potatoes when my gums started to heal.  So I made them a few days ago.  They were wonderful!  The recipe below is about half of Rachel Ray's recipe (with a few tweaks)... I couldn't justify eating 3 pounds of potatoes alone!

Ingredients:
- 2lbs red potatoes, peeled and chopped into large chunks
- Canola oil
- 1/2 yellow onion, finely chopped
- 3 strips of bacon, cut into small pieces
- 1c cream
- 1 box frozen spinach, defrosted and wrung of excess water
-  Salt & pepper as needed

Boil the potatoes until soft.  Meanwhile, add a little canola oil to a pot and cook bacon over medium heat until crispy.  Add the onions and allow to sweat until transclucent and sweet.  Add the spinach.

When the potatoes are done, add to the onion/spinach/bacon mixture and mash.  Add cream until you reach the desired consistency.  I made mine pretty smooth because I wasn't up for any chunky foods yet.  You could leave yours chunkier or even leave some of the skins on the potatoes. 

Season to taste and serve hot.