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Sunday, October 31, 2010

Countdown to the end of the year (and this project)

Hi there foodie fans!

As most of you know, the goal of this project was to cook my way all the way through Deborah Madison's wonderful cookbook, Vegetarian Suppers, in one year's time. I began this project on January 1st and I'm still hoping to finish by December 31st.

This has been a year of change and challenge. We bought a house in the spring, we celebrated two big birthdays in the summer (my daughter turned 25 and my husband turned 60), my mother passed away, and then last week my sister-in-law passed away. I have been away from home for a variety of reasons. I have found cooking to be a great comfort and inspiration to me this year, but I haven't found it as easy to do the blogging.

Here's where I stand -
42 recipes from the cookbook cooked AND blogged about
30 recipes from the cookbook cooked, awaiting blogging
43 recipes to go, plus some sauces

Ok. That's daunting. There are only 9 weeks left in the year. That's almost 5 recipes a week, starting tomorrow! The good news is that several of them go together. I was waiting for eggplant to be in season, and then I kind of missed it in September and October. I'll have to get cracking on those. I missed a few other ingredients like heirloom tomatoes and cherry tomatoes (both of which were in my garden but got ripe while I was away. Bummer.) Amazingly, I've done very few of the recipes from the "Supper Sandwiches" section, and they are pretty quick and easy. Maybe I'll make some for lunch.

Many recipes I have cooked more than once, such as Cabbage & Leek Gratin with Mustard Cream, Black Beans with Yellow Rice, Wine Braised Lentils, Grilled Halloumi Cheese, and Labor Day Spaghetti. Several more I would like to come back to. I have also made all kinds of things that aren't in this cookbook, some of which I blogged about. It has been a delicious year so far. I hope that as I catch up on my blogging and concentrate on lots of new recipes over the next few weeks, you will get inspired to try new things in your kitchen.

Buon appetito.

Baked Butternut Squash Risotto


It has been a wild couple of months for me. I spent most of the month of September in Arizona with my sister-in-law and her partner. Although I have been cooking a lot, I haven't been blogging so now it is time to catch up. There were several summer dishes I made while I was in Arizona and at home in California, and I will add them in as I have time. For now, I have switched to fall type suppers.

Tonight I made a recipe from the Martha Stewart Everyday Food magazine. It was a gorgeous fall risotto featuring butternut squash. It was fairly fast and easy, though I did get inspired to make my own vegetable stock earlier in the day. It was the best stock I have ever made, and fairly difficult to replicate, but I will tell you how I did it. I cut up an onion, about 8 stalks of celery, half a bag of baby carrots, 2 cloves of garlic, and 3 mushrooms. I sauteed them in some olive oil over high heat. I then added the trimmings (peels, ends, and seeds) from the butternut squash I was going to use for dinner. I added in some dried basil that was sitting in a basket near the stove, some seasoned pepper (Montreal Steak seasoning I think it was called) and let that brown a bit. I then dumped in about 3 quarts of water, and brought that to a boil. Since I didn't have any tomato paste, I was trying to think of what might make the stock taste a little richer. I looked in the refrigerator and decided to add in the leftover mushroom gravy from a couple nights ago. I added about 2 teaspoons of butter, just for good measure. I then let it simmer for about an hour. I tasted and added salt and pepper, and WOW. It was the best veggie stock I've ever made.

The RISOTTO:
I couldn't decide what kind of pan to use for the risotto, since I knew it was going to go on the stove top and then into the oven. The recipe called for a medium dutch oven, which I didn't have. I decided on a very large dutch oven which would be way too big. I'm glad I did because it turned out to be a fairly large dish and then I wasn't trying to cram everything in.

Since I had already peeled my butternut squash for the stock, I cut that into cubes and set it aside. I also washed 1 bunch of spinach and set that aside to add in later. The recipe called for kale, but I couldn't find kale in southern Arizona, so I settled on spinach as a replacement. The spinach worked fine, but I think kale would have a nice texture in this dish.

Also, before you begin cooking, preheat the oven to 400ยบ. The stovetop cooking only takes about 15 minutes.

To make the risotto, I diced a small onion fairly fine, (you could also use a couple of shallots), and started sauteing that over high heat while I mined 2 garlic cloves. I added them along with a tablespoon of fresh thyme, and then cut up the butternut squash and set it aside. When the onions were soft and the garlic and thyme very fragrant, I added in 1 1/2 cups arborio rice. I let that cook about 3 minutes (until translucent) and then put in 1/2 cup white wine. I let that absorb into the rice (about 2 minutes). I then seasoned with salt and pepper, and added 4 cups veggie stock and the butternut squash. I brought that to a boil and then stirred in the washed spinach.

Then I put everything in the oven for 20 minutes. All the rice was tender and the liquid had been absorbed. The dish had these beautiful fall colors and flavors. It needed a little more salt and some parmesan cheese, but was a very rewarding, comforting, simple dish for a weeknight. And now I have LOTS more stock to get into some other dishes. I think I'll freeze some of it.

This dish was much easier than regular risotto and just as tasty. It would be good for a potluck because it would reheat fairly easily. The flavors in this are very mellow rather than big and bold. It doesn't have a real creamy sauce like some risotto, but you could stir in some freshly grated parmesan and a little hot water (or broth) at the end to make a creamy sauce for it.

Things I'd do differently next time:
I'd try using kale instead of spinach.

Approximate cost to prepare:
1 bunch spinach - $1.50
1 butternut squash (2-3 lbs) - $1.75
1 1/2 c. arborio rice - $.50
1/2 c. white wine - .50
4 cups stock - $3.25 (less if you make your own)
1 small onion - $.25
2 cloves garlic - $.15
1 T. fresh thyme (1 t. dried), olive oil, salt & pepper, a little parmesan for grating - negligible
TOTAL - $7.95 for 6- 8 servings. (Three of us ate it for supper, some having seconds, and we didn't even eat half of it.)

We had a fabulous little impromptu salad of finely shredded napa cabbage and finely diced red pepper dressed with raspberry vinaigrette. Yum.