Pasta with Fresh Tomato Sauce, Cannellini Beans and Collard Greens

I was in need of some comfort food by last evening, so this meal fit the bill nicely. We had brown rice fettuccine served with a fresh tomato sauce that Pedro prepared. I made the Whipped Cannellini Beans and the Garlicky Collard Greens. By the way, it is so fun buying collard greens in Florida. They grow very well here, and at the farmer's market I can buy them in humongous bunches, the size (and practically the weight) of a toddler. Anyway, here are the ingredients in the tomato sauce:

Simple Fresh Tomato Sauce

5 or 6 cloves of roasted garlic, minced
4 or 5 ripe and flavorful tomatoes, chopped
Top quality extra virgin olive oil
8 to 10 fresh basil leaves, chopped
salt and pepper
freshly grated Parmesan for garnish

It's a very simple sauce, but it will be only as outstanding as the quality and freshness of the ingredients. You can very simply mix the ingredients together and then pour it over hot, drained pasta. The hot pasta will heat the sauce. Or you could also simmer the sauce in a saucepan to develop the flavors before combining it with the pasta. Top with freshly grated Parmesan.

Vanilla-Apple Syrup

I have been experimenting with reductions a bit lately as a way of getting intense flavors. So, this recipe caught my eye on page 78 of the May issue of Vegetarian Times. The recipe is Fruit Salad with Vanilla-Apple Syrup. The syrup is good on fruit, plain yogurt, in iced tea to sweeten it, on pancakes as I show above, or really it is up to your imagination.

Vanilla-Apple Syrup
2 cups apple juice
2 2-inch strips lemon zest or orange zest (I used 4 strips of orange)
1/4 vanilla bean (I used 1/2 of a bean)

Place apple juice and zest in small pot. Slice vanilla bean in half and scrape seeds into juice. Add bean to pot as well. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Depending on your pot and your stove you can leave it simmering at medium high, or reduce the heat to medium low. Simmer for about 30 minutes or until it becomes syrup-like and has reduced to 1/3 cup. Remove the zest and bean pod before the syrup gets too thick. Cool to room temperature. Use as a topping on your chosen dish.

Note: I have a new camera I'm testing out. Seeing if I like it. Don't know how to use all of the features yet. It's nice to at least have one that works! Also of note, if you want to see the images larger, just click on them.

Wet Burritos

I grew up eating wet burritos in Michigan thinking that they were true Mexican food. But, of course they aren't! Pedro had his first American-style burritos and his first wet burritos in Michigan too. In Florida restaurants, I don't often find burritos served the way I used to eat them in Michigan. So, I make my own. We both like them a lot. They are very versatile. Basically a wet burrito is a flour tortilla wrapped around your chosen filling, then lined up in a baking pan, covered with a tomato-based mildly spicy sauce, sprinkled with cheese (often cheddar or a mix including cheddar) and then baked in the oven.

I made a vegetarian bean filling by sauteeing the following ingredients: 3 green onions, 1 zucchini, and 2 chopped tomatoes with cumin. Then I stirred in a can of refried pinto beans,1 steamed & cubed sweet potato, fresh lime juice, and cilantro. There is enough filling leftover to make many more wet burritos. When I assembled the burritos, I used whole wheat flour tortillas and folded them around steamed fresh spinach and my bean mixture.

Here is a recipe my family has traditionally used for

Wet Burrito Sauce:

• 1 16oz can tomatoes, chopped
• 1 12 oz can tomato paste
• 1 cup of water
• 2 tablespoons chili powder
• 1/2 teaspoon Worcestershire Sauce or soy sauce

I didn't have a whole can of tomato paste, or a small can of tomatoes in my pantry. Plus I had some leftover chipolte chile in adobo sauce that I wanted to use before it got bad, so I made this variation: one 28oz can roasted tomatoes, 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste, 2 cloves of garlic and my leftover chipolte chile in adobo sauce. It was spicier than normal, but we loved it. It could have been improved by putting it in the blender or food processor, but I didn't feel like getting extra dishes dirty.

Chilaquiles

This is one of the first dishes that my mother-in-law (mi suegra) taught me how to make. It is a versatile dish, one that can use various salsas, cheeses or protein sources. For example, sometimes they have scrambled eggs in them or a green salsa, or will have cream, etc. There is a recipe in the April 2007 Vegetarian Times on page 35 that looks delicious, but I haven't tried it yet. Their method of making it is quite different from the method I normally use. Here is the method used for the pictured dish:

Pedro and I made this together. While I was making some chiltomate (also known as salsa de jitomate), Pedro lightly fried strips of freshly made corn tortillas in about 2 tablespoons of oil. (We are so happy that there is now a tortilleria where we live and we can get freshly made tortillas). He fried them until they were starting to get crunchy, but still were pliable. Then he added the Quorn and chiltomate and sauted until the Quorn was defrosted and the flavors were absorbed. Then he topped the dish with shredded cheese. Lacto-ovo vegetarian.

Sikil Pak

Sikil Pak is a Yucatecan salsa or dip made with roasted pepitas (pumpkin seeds). It is a a dish that the Mayans have been eating for a very long time. You can find pepitas in Mexican grocery markets or natural food stores. I was craving it yesterday, and it was a great way to make use of my ripe tomatoes. Recipe below:

Sikil Pak

• 3 tomatoes, roasted
• 1 cup of pepitas, roasted
• 1/2 a large white onion, roasted
• 1 roasted habanero chile, seeded
• a handful of fresh cilantro leaves
• salt to taste

1. I roasted my tomatoes, onion and habanero chile on one comal (griddle). On the other, I roasted the pepitas. I stirred/turned to allow everything to toast or brown on all sides.

2.After everything is roasted, I put the all of the pepitas pictured in a food processor and processed well until the seeds were ground into a paste.

3. Then I added to the food processor the three roasted tomatoes, the half of the onion, one of the habaneros (seeded) and a nice handful of fresh cilantro. Pulsed in the food processor until well blended. Salted to taste.

The rest of the ingredients seen were used to make salsa de jitomate. Vegan.

Mu Shu Wraps with Baked Teriyaki Tofu

Here's another dish from the April 2007 Vegetarian Times, on page 86. I made this as a counterpoint to yesterday's dish, as that one lacked vegetables. This dish has cabbage, carrots, mushrooms, scallions, and baked teriyaki tofu. There is a scrambled egg on top. Since I didn't want to buy bottled hoisin sauce to serve with this, I made some using this recipe from Recipe Source as a guide. I used whole wheat tortillas as the wraps. It was great. Ovo vegetarian.

Stuffed Portobello with Roasted Vegetables

Here is a meal I improvised. In the oven, I roasted purple potatoes, carrots, onion, garlic, and a poblano pepper with olive oil and fresh rosemary. While they were roasting, I pan fried some soy crumbles with garlic and some of my Jitomate Salsa to give it flavor. Then I stuffed the portobello mushrooms with the soy crumbles and topped them with more of my jitomate salsa. I added the stuffed mushrooms to my pan of roasting vegetables and let everything continue roasting until done. Then I melted cheese on top of the mushrooms. It was a delicious meal. The salsa gave a pleasant spiciness to the soy crumbles. Lacto-vegetarian (vegan if omit the cheese).

Asian Fusion Tacos

Here is a vegetarian version I adapted of Rick Bayless' Pato Doradito Para Taquear, Estilo MP. It is a dish he presents as Asian Fusion on series four of his PBS show Mexico One Plate At A Time. My vegetarian version is the dish the Pedro requested for his latest birthday dinner.

This is how I make it. I make and simmer the soy sauce mixture as directed. While it is simmering, I wash and cut the vegetables. When the sauce is ready, I heat up some oil in a wok or other pan and add my assorted vegetables. I normally use shredded carrots, onion, green beans, mushrooms, red bell pepper or other pepper, and whatever other vegetable I have on hand. After sauteing to my satisfaction, I will add a bag of Quorn and the soy sauce mixture and let the dish simmer on low until the Quorn is heated and has absorbed the flavors and the vegetables cooked to my liking. However, if you prefer your veggies crispy, toss them with a bit of the soy sauce mixture and remove them before you add the rest of the sauce and the Quorn.

One way I serve them is to just make simple tacos of the vegetable/quorn mixture and Tomatillo Salsa on fresh corn tortillas. Another way, is to make tacos using fresh corn tortillas, refried black beans, the vegetable/Quorn mixutre and Tomatillo Salsa with cubes of avocado. Note: I do not prepare the tomatillo salsa in the manner that Bayless describes in this recipe, because I find uncooked tomatillos to be very harsh. If you follow his recipe, I recommend you boil or roast the tomatillos before putting them in the blender. Ovo vegetarian.

Huevos Motuleños

Huevos Motuleños is a dish served for breakfast in the Yucatan. It is so delicious.

Assemble as follows: corn tostada, refried black beans, a fried egg, salsa de jitomate, peas, and queso fresco. Yucatecans who eat meat will also add chopped ham to the top. Lacto-ovo vegetarian.

Yucatecan Salsas

I love to make salsas using roasted ingredients. And it happens to be the way that many salsas are made in the Yucatan, where Pedro grew up. On the left I am using comales (cast iron griddles) to roast tomatillos, jalapenos, tomatoes, onions, garlic and habanero as the basis for two different salsas. You can't see all of the ingredients in the picture.

Then I made a Tomatillo Salsa (the green salsa) by blending the roasted tomatillos, garlic, jalapeno (seeded), onion and salt to taste. Vegan.

The other sauce is Salsa de Jitomate also known as Chiltomate. It has the roasted tomatoes, garlic, habanero (seeded) and onion, plus fresh cilantro and salt to taste. I blend them in the blender. Then the Jitomate Salsa is then fried on the stove in a bit of vegetable oil until the flavors become even more developed. Vegan.

Usually I just make salsas without a recipe, adding whatever I have on hand. But, as far as cookbooks go, I recommend the salsa recipes in Rick Bayless' cookbooks.

Waffles with Strawberry Sauce

I celebrate Florida's early spring strawberries. One thing I make with them is strawberry sauce. I just puree most of them in my food processor and then chop the rest. Then I simmer them on the stove w/a thickener, a bit of lemon juice, and then I sweeten to taste. I used cornstarch to thicken today and a bit of turbinado sugar. Vegan.

Here is the recipe I use as a guide, I actually tweak it quite a bit, but it's a good starting point:

• 2 cups berries, one cup of them sliced
• 1 Tablespoon cornstarch (I usually use less, start w/a teaspoon or two, because i don't add water)
• sugar to taste (the recipe calls for 1/2 cup sugar but that's always been way too much for me- and I'll sometimes use a non-sugar sweetener)
• 1/2 cup water (optional in my opinion)
• 1 Tablespoon lemon juice

1. Wash berries and blend one cup in blender. Slice the other cup.
2. Put the berries in a small saucepan. Sweeten to taste. Dissolve the cornstarch in couple of tablespoons of water. Stir into the berries.
3. Heat the berry mixture over moderate heat, stirring constantly, to bring to a boil. Boil one minute. Remove from heat. Add lemon juice.

Pedro made the Whole Grain Waffles using a recipe listed on allrecipes. He altered it by using soy milk, adding a bit of cinnamon and chopped walnuts. As you can see, our waffle iron makes heart shaped waffles. We topped the waffle with a very generous serving of strawberry sauce. Ovo vegetarian, with my substitutions.

Esquites, Beans and Guacamole

This meal is refried black beans, guacamole and my own version of esquites. The beans have lime added to them for extra zing. The guacamole has avocado, roma tomato, cilantro, lime, salt and blanched red onion. These esquites have fresh corn, roasted poblano, roasted tomatoes, purple potatoes, red onion, roasted garlic, cilantro, lime, salt and olive oil. My esquites always have corn, lime and chile, but the other ingredients I add to them will depend on what I have on hand. Served with a side of broken tostadas. Vegan.