Winter Chopped Salad (a holiday recipe)

Continuing on with our holiday (Thanksgiving) recipes, I want to share with you a fancy and delicious salad. There are many variations of this on the web, this is mine. The original recipe, I believe, comes from Epicurious. The salad features red cabbage and pomegranates, both very cheap this time of year.

WINTER CHOPPED SALAD

Serves 8

INGREDIENTS

4 c. chopped romaine lettuce

3 c. sliced red cabbage

1 Fuji apple, cored & diced

1 pear, cored & diced

1/2 c. pomegranate arils

3/4 cup almonds, toasted and coarsley chopped

1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (optional)

DRESSING

1/4 cup red wine vinegar

1 1/2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot (or onion)

1/2 tablespoon honey

1/4 cup hazelnut oil or extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper, to taste

INSTRUCTIONS

Dressing:

Whisk vinegar, shallot (or onion), and honey in small bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in oil. Season dressing to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Salad:

Combine lettuce and next 5 ingredients in very large bowl; toss to blend. Add dressing and toss to coat.  Divide salad among plates. Sprinkle with feta cheese, if desired, and serve.

Image Source
William Morris pomegranate wallpaper

German Red Cabbage

I scored at the supermarket yesterday: a large red cabbage for 99 cents! Woo hoo!!!

I have been wanting to make sweet and sour cabbage for a while.  I ate it lots when I lived in Brooklyn, as my upstairs neighbours always made it for our holiday potlucks -- Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas.

German Red Cabbage

10 Servings
Adapted from Taste of Home

Photo by Jen R

INGREDIENTS

• 1 medium onion, sliced
• 1 unpeeled apple, sliced
• 1 medium red cabbage, shredded
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper

INSTRUCTIONS

• Coat the inside of a large Dutch oven with a little oil or cooking spray. 
• Saute onion and apple until tender. Add all remaining ingredients. 
• Cover and cook until tender, about 1 hour. 
• Serve hot or cold. 

Delicious the next day as leftovers!  Makes loads, so if you are a singleton, like me, you can freeze in individual portions.

Rutabaga Fries, or how much do you love your rutabagas???

I love my rutabagas very much.

Rutabaga with onions and garlic
Image by downtownpearl

On Wednesday I had a burger for dinner, and thought I'd try something a little different than french fries. I had read about rutabaga fries, and since I had half a rutabaga leftover from earlier in the week, I thought let's give this a go.

I admit, I didn't re-read the recipe before I made the fries, so they took a while to cook. Apparently you should steam them first, dry them thoroughly, toss in oil (and herbs or spices as desired) and bake.  Instead I just cut into french fries, tossed in olive oil, salt and pepper, and hot pepper flakes, and cooked at 400F for about 40 minutes, tossing from time to time.  They were delicious: crispy, buttery, with a little heat from the pepper.  What a nice change from french fries.

Here's the original recipe:

Rosemary Rutabaga "Fries" -- from Stephen Cooks!

6 servings, about 4 ounces each

Ingredients

• 1 rutabaga, about a pound and a half
• 1 teaspoon olive oil
• 4 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• Salt, to taste

Preheat oven to 400º.

1. Peel the rutabaga and cut it in 1/2" x 1'2" spears. 

2. Steam about 12 minutes in a steamer basket until just tender. 

3. Dry the spears with paper towels and then toss with the olive oil, the garlic and the rosemary.

4. Lay the rutabaga spears out in a single layer (ideally with none of the spears touching each other) on a jelly roll pan and bake in the preheated oven about 25  minutes, turning once.  

5. Place them under the broiler for a few minutes, watching closely, to finish browning them. Salt to taste and serve immediately.

Other flavouring suggestions:

1. "Indian." Omit garlic and rosemary. After cooking scatter on some garam masala (recipe below).

2. "Chinese." Omit garlic and rosemary.  Before baking, toss the rutabaga spears in a mixture of hoisin sauce, sesame oil, grated ginger and five-spice powder.

Other ideas for your rutabaga, elsewhere on the web:

• Roasted Rutabaga with Sage and Dates
• Ginger Rutabaga Muffins
• Winter Slaw
• Apple Rutabaga Soup (I would use far less butter and substitute soy milk for the cream... but you can decide for yourself!!)
• Smoked Paprika and Rutabaga Bisque (ditto)

Tell me, how do you cook your rutabagas??

Lentil Eggplant Chile Mole

Ahhhhh.... Mondays.

Mondays are hard for me. I'm a natural night owl, so I stay up very late on weekends. It's not unusual for me to up be up until 3, 4 or even 5 a.m. I sleep until noon, and then get up and on with the day.

But I can't do this on weekdays, as I have to be at school for 9 a.m.  And I have a long commute, a very long commute.  So when Monday rolls around I have to switch from being a night owl to... what's the opposite of a night owl... a day owl??!!?

I commute 4 hours daily.

2 hours there, and 2 hours home again.

I live in Toronto, but go to school in Oakville. It is not so far if you drive, but I take public transit. Which means taking the subway to Union Station, the GO train to Oakville, and then Oakville transit to campus.  And the GO train, going against commuter traffic, only goes once an hour.

I get up at 5:30 a.m., leave the house at 6 a.m., and get to school at 8 a.m.  I'm usually home by about 4:30 or 5:00 p.m., except for Tuesday's when I have afternoon classes and am not home until 7:30 p.m.  Mondays to Thursdays I am totally knackered from all that learning, commuting, and homework.

Which is why I am thrilled to open the fridge and find dinner waiting for me!

Tonight it was Lentil Eggplant Chile Mole, which I prepared yesterday and reheated tonight as I got into my PJ's.  I found the recipe when I googled lentils and eggplant, as I had both sitting around and thought they might go nicely together. I also make a lovely lentil eggplant curry, but I was in the mood for something new.

I made some modifications to the original recipe by making it a little spicier than originally called for. If you don't like spicy food, you can leave out the hot cherry pepper, the chipotle sauce, and the red pepper flakes, and use a mild chili powder. As it is, this is nice and fiery!!


Lentil Eggplant Chile Mole
Adapted from a recipe by Isa Chandra Moskowitz

2 medium or one large eggplant, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

1 T olive oil

1 medium onion, diced medium

1 hot cherry pepper (remove seeds and membrane, then cut into small dice)

1 red pepper, diced medium

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chili powder

3 teaspoons ground cumin

3 teaspoons ground coriander

2 teaspoons dried oregano

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon hot chili flakes

2 teaspoons chipotle sauce (**I get this in tiny cans at No Frills,
if it's not available you can leave it out)

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder

1 cup lentils, red or green, washed

4 cups vegetable stock

1 15 oz can diced tomatoes

2 teaspoons sugar

Preheat a 4-quart soup pot over medium high heat. Saute onions and bell pepper in oil until translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add garlic and finely diced hot cherry pepper, and saute for another minute, using a splash of water or stock if it's sticking. Be careful with the hot cherry pepper. Although most of the heat is in the seeds, you will get some natural oils on your skin. After  handling the pepper do not put your hands near your eyes. Wait until you have washed your hands thoroughly. Mix in chili powder, chili flakes, cumin, coriander, oregano, salt and cinnamon. Add 1/2 cup of the vegetable broth and the cocoa powder; cook for about 1 more minute, while stirring, to dissolve the cocoa.

Add lentils, vegetable broth, diced tomatoes and eggplant. Cover pot and bring to a boil, keeping a close eye. Once it's boiling, lower heat to a simmer and cook for about 40 minutes, until lentils are tender and eggplant is soft. Mix in sugar. Taste for salt and seasoning.

I found this quite bitter the first day, with a slightly unpleasant cocoa taste. I've never added cocoa powder to chile before, and wondered if this was how it was supposed to taste. And I was worried, because I can't afford to throw out food, and I wondered how I might save this dish. But after a day in the fridge, when all the flavours had the chance to blend together,  I can vouch that it is absolutely DELICIOUS!!! I will definitely be making this again!!!

What did you have for dinner tonight?