[CH] Vegetarian Delights
Rob Solarion (roberto@1starnet.com)
Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:58:48 -0600
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Greetings, ChileHeads & Others!
As some of you know, my sister is the chief
catering director for the swank Moody Gardens
Hotel in the seaport of Galveston, Texas. She's
had that position for a number of years. Back
around 2000, she oversaw a cooking-show
demonstration and multi-course banquet which was
presented by about 7 of Texas' leading chefs,
including Dean Fearing of The Mansion in Dallas
and fifth-generation native-Texan Stephan Pyles,
whom the New York Times called "an absolute
genius in the kitchen".
Stephan Pyles is currently a "concept chef" for
Dragonfly, a 4-star jetset poolside restaurant
and bar at the Crescent Court's Hotel ZaZa in
Dallas. Jetset action and posturing are hot and
heavy around the pool on sultry weekend nights.
Hence, the name Dragonfly? Often the bar is
"three deep" with see-and-be-seen jetsetters.
Dinner entrees at Dragofly start at $41. For
more information, you can google all the words
Dallas, ZaZa, Dragonfly, Pyles. I am most
impressed with Stephan Pyles. His latest
cookbook is titled SOUTHWEST VEGETARIAN. From
1983-93 he owned the nouvelle cuisine pioneer
Dallas restaurant Routh Street Cafe. His name
often appears in the food sections of the Dallas
News. And he is one of the administrators of the
Dallas Food Pantry, a project which helps to feed
the needy.
At this demonstration-banquet, Stephan Pyles
(whom my sister said is an extremely pleasant and
friendly man, from Midland, she thought) and the
other chefs passed out copies of some of their
recipes to those in attendance. My sister
brought me one of Stephan Pyles' recipes. It had
languished in a pile of papers until I ran across
it last month. Since I had always wanted to cook
this, and since I knew that my sister was coming
for a visit last weekend, I decided to make it
for both of us. And it was absolutely delicious!
It would be difficult to serve this in a
restaurant, but with Stephan Pyles ... who knows
what is possible?! Under ordinary circumstances,
I sure don't expect to make this complicated and
time-consuming soup again, but I am glad that I
did it at least once -- and I meticulously
followed the recipe, as best I could.
Also, I made an Egyptian cheese appetizer and a
French salad for my sister. They turned out very
well, and they are those sorts of dishes that are
never quite consistent from time to time.
However, this Egyptian cheese spread version was
exceptionally delicious. I have made it several
times in the past; once I took it to a party in
Dallas, and people raved about it. My sister
insisted that I send the recipe /exactly/ as I
did it. So these two are also appended below.
Dragonfly is a Mediterranean-style restaurant
with "influences" from Morocco and Asia. That is
probably why the following soup recipe screams
out, "Now that's Italian!" I'd never tasted
ancho peppers (that I recall) before making this
ancho puree. It has an unusual smoky flavor with
only a hint of heat; but my sister, who is not
quite so "jaded" or "experienced" with heat as I
am (but she can still take it pretty hot), said
that she could definitely taste the heat of the
anchos in the soup.
Both the soup stock and ancho puree recipes which
follow make about twice as much as you need for
the soup recipe itself. It would be easy to half
the former two or double the final soup, as
needed. See below for additional comments.
Here are the recipes exactly as I made them for my sister's visit.
CHARRED TOMATO & EGGPLANT SOUP, WITH ANCHOS & GARLIC (Stephan Pyles)
* Soup
Ingredients:
8 Roma tomatoes (about 1 pound), cut in half
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil (I prefer Bertolli Classico myself. RS)
1/2 cup chopped onion, plus 1 cup diced onion
10 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
1 eggplant, quartered lengthwise and sliced (unpeeled, RS)
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 rib of celery, with some leaves, diced (See below. RS)
1/2 cup red wine (I used St. Genevieve Texas Red, a merlot variety. RS)
3 cups vegetable stock (Recipe follows. RS)
3 tablespoons ancho chile puree (Recipe follows. RS)
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves (I used 1 T. dried basil. RS)
1 tablespoon chopped fresh oregano leaves (I used 1/2 T. dried oregano. RS)
salt to taste (I added 1 teaspoon, and I also
freshly ground about a half-teaspoon of black
pepper at the very end. RS)
6 tablespoons unflavored yogurt (You are supposed
to put a tablespoon on top of each bowl of soup,
but I omitted this part. Also, Pyles'
recommended eggplant was the Japanese eggplant or
aubergine, but I had to settle for an ordinary
eggplant. RS)
Procedure:
Place a cast-iron skillet over high heat and heat
for 5 minutes. Place the tomatoes, cut-side
down, in the skillet and blacken completely,
about 10 minutes, turning occasionally. (Turn
regularly! RS) Set aside. (To cool down. Then,
making sure that nothing is burnt and stuck to
the skillet, push the charred tomatoes to the
sides of the skillet. Then ... RS) Carefully
add 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to the skillet
and sauté the chopped onion and garlic for 3 to 4
minutes, until the onion becomes translucent.
Set aside.
In a large saucepan set over medium-high heat,
add the remaining 4 tablespoons of olive oil and
add the eggplant. Sauté for 10 minutes, or until
the eggplant has caramelized fully. (Stir often.
RS) Add the diced onion, carrot, and celery and
cook for 2 minutes longer. Deglaze the skillet
with the red wine and reduce to a syrupy glaze,
about 4 or 5 minutes. (The red wine evaporates
quickly, so it might be a bit less than 4
minutes. RS)
Add the stock, the reserved tomato-onion-garlic
mixture, and the ancho puree. Bring to a boil
and then reduce the heat to a simmer. Add the
basil and oregano and continue to simmer for 2
minutes longer. (I simmered it for about 10
minutes longer. Then I let it cool down, and ...
RS) Transfer the mixture to a blender in batches
(3 for me, RS) and puree until smooth, about 3
minutes per batch. Season with salt (and black
pepper, RS). Ladle the soup into serving bowls
and garnish each serving with 1 tablespoon of
yogurt (if desired, RS). The soup can be made 1
day ahead and reheated or served chilled. (It
preserves very well, and I suggest that it be
eaten at room temperature. RS)
* Vegetable Stock
Ingredients:
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 head of celery, chopped (Reserve one rib with leaves for the soup, above. RS)
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
3 onions, chopped
2 heads of garlic, crushed (about 25 cloves, peeled or unpeeled, RS)
1/2 teaspoon black peppercorns
2 dried bay leaves
4 tablespoons chopped fresh thyme leaves (I used 2 T. dried. RS)
3 quarts of water
Procedure:
In a large stockpot, heat the oil until lightly
smoking. Add the celery, carrots, and onions and
sauté for 5 minutes. Add the garlic,
peppercorns, bay leaves, thyme, and 3 quarts of
water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat and
simmer, uncovered, for 45 minutes. Strain,
pressing very hard with the back of a large spoon
to extract all of the liquid. Discard the
vegetables and refrigerate the stock until needed.
* Ancho Chile Puree
Wash and thoroughly dry the chiles. (Pyles
didn't specify how many, so I bought 10 dried
anchos from the grocery store. You could get by
with only 5-6. RS) Cut off the stems and slit
open the chiles with a knife to remove the seeds.
Heat the oven to 450 degrees F. Place the chiles
in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for
1 minute. (I roasted them for about a minute and
a half. You wouldn't want to do it any longer
than 2 minutes. RS) Alternatively, dry-roast
the chiles over high heat in a dry skillet until
they puff up, about 30 seconds to 2 minutes,
depending on the heat of the skillet.
Transfer the roasted chiles to a bowl, cover with
warm waer, and keep the chiles submerged with a
plate or other heavy object for 30 minutes to
rehydrate. Strain the chiles, reserving the
liquid, and place them in a blender. Puree the
chiles, adding just enough of the soaking liquid
(about 1/2 cup, RS) to make pureeing possibe; you
should have a thick paste (about like tomato
paste, RS). The puree can be passed through a
medium- or fine-mesh strainter at this point, or
strained with the sauce or final product. (I
didn't do this. The puree was smooth enough, as
far as I was concerned, not to need straining.
The final product is not strained. RS)
As I noted earlier, this is about twice as much
stock or ancho puree as you will need for the
soup. I saved some of both for my sister to
taste in their pure state. Then I mixed about
1/2 cup of the remaining ancho puree with about
1/3 cup of the leftover soup stock. (Then I
discarded the rest of the stock, but you could
freeze it and save it for later, if you like.)
Then I added to the ancho puree/stock 1-2 T. of
olive oil, the juice of 1 lime, 1 teaspoon of
Ethiopian "mitmita" seasoning and some freshly
ground black pepper. This was a nice concoction,
but it was much better later when I mixed it in
equal amounts with Sriracha. Now that is nice
and hot! You can experiment for yourselves with
these leftover ancho puree and vegetable stock.
EGYPTIAN CHEESE SPREAD (Claudia Rodin)
Ingredients:
14 ounces (400 grams) of Valbreso French
sheep-milk feta cheese, crumbled finely
1 cup of yogurt cheese (Drain plain yogurt
through a cheesecloth for a couple of hours.)
2 Tbsp. olive oil
juice of 1 large lemon
4 large cloves of garlic, pressed or very finely
minced (I pressed them this time.)
4 Tbsp. minced fresh parsley (preferably Italian flat-leaf)
2 Tbsp. dried dill weed (Use fresh if you have it.)
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
Procedure:
In a medium-sized bowl, stir all of the
ingredients together. Mix and mash well with a
fork. Cover and let stand at room temperature
for an hour or so to develop the flavors. Stir
well again. Then either consume soon, or cover
and store in the refrigerator until you need it.
Before serving, drizzle a little bit of extra
olive oil on top if you like. Serve with pita
bread or sugarfree crackers, like Garlic-Roasted
Triscuits (my favorite). This cheese spread
keeps easily for several days in the
refrigerator. It is quite delicious! When
Claudia Rodin made it on television for her
Mediterranean cooking show, I don't know what
type of feta cheese she used; but I prefer the
Valbreso brand.
FRENCH TOMATO & ONION SALAD (Jacques Pepin)
4 Roma tomatoes, coarsely diced
1 medium white onion, coarsely diced
about 1/2 cup of olive oil
about 1/3 cup of red wine vinegar
salt and black pepper to taste
herbs (whatever you like)
Toss the tomato and onion together in a
medium-sized bowl. For my sister's visit, for
the simple vinegar and oil dressing, I used a
half-teaspoon each of dried basil, thyme and
oregano, plus a bit of dried tarragon, some
garlic salt, freshly ground black pepper, and
that McCormick grinder-type Pizza Seasoning. Mix
all that together in a small jar and shake it up
a few times before you pour it on the salad,
which was excellent. If you like, you can
sprinkle each serving with some freshly grated
Parmigiano cheese.
Buon Appetito! Et Bon Weekend! Roberto
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Rob Solàrion
Northeast Texas
http://www.apollonius.net/
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