Roasted Pumpkin and Arugula Salad

We bought a beautiful Hokkaido pumpkin this past weekend. Just the thought of it was distracting me at work on Tuesday -- the air has finally turned cold, and all I could think about were warm, fall-y pumpkin dishes. What to make??? Since we also had half a bunch of arugula left over, my daydreams turned into a plan for a warm roasted pumpkin, arugula, and feta salad, to eat with rice. Not only did it make a wonderful dinner, but some of the best lunches ever the past couple of days! Hokkaido pumpkin is sweeter, more strongly flavored, and less stringy than some other winter squashes, but really any winter squash would work well.

Roasted Pumpkin and Arugula Salad

1 5-lb Hokkaido pumpkin, cut into 1 inch chunks (this is the hard part... best to delegate)
2-3 cups torn-up arugula
1/2 cup crumbled feta
1/3 cup olive oil
2 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce
2 tbsp diced fresh ginger
2 tsp honey
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp black pepper

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Mix the oil, soy sauce, ginger, honey, chili powder, and pepper. In a large bowl, toss the pumpkin with this mixture until well coated. Spread the pumpkin on a rimmed baking sheet or two and roast about 20 minutes, until tender and slightly browned on the bottom.

Toss the pumpkin with the torn-up arugula and feta. Serve immediately with rice.

Serves 4 as a main dish, 8 as a side dish.

Vegetable Rice Patties with Tomatoes and Basil

Leftover rice + leftover vegetables + cheese + enough egg to hold it together = warm, toasty, vegetable-y patties! I used the vegetables and herbs we had on hand, but it could easily be changed to use up almost any vegetable

*My associate claims these should be called "Third Day Patties," because they have been "resurrected" from the depths of the fridge...

Vegetable Rice Patties with Tomatoes and Basil

2 cups cooked brown rice
2 eggs, beaten
2 small zucchini, or 1 large, grated and squeezed dry in a towel
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup parsley, loosely packed, chopped (or another herb if that is what you have)
grated zest of 1 lemon (optional)
salt & pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

topping: 2 tomatoes, diced
small handful basil, chopped

Mix rice, zucchini, cheese, parsley, and lemon zest in a bowl. Beat the eggs and add; mix until everything is very well coated.

Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-low heat. Scoop out about a half-cup of the mixture and form into a shallow patty in the pan. Repeat with about four or however many will fit in your pan without crowding. Cook until the bottom begins to brown, about 5-7 minutes. Carefully flip with a large spatula and cook until the other side begins to brown.

Meanwhile, mix the diced tomatoes and basil together.

When the patties are browned, serve, topped with tomatoes and basil.

Makes 7-8 patties, enough for two or three people.

More Eggplant Dip

Yes, it's another eggplant dip. This one is flavored with yogurt and allspice; it is mellow and a little bit tangy.

Eggplant-Yogurt Dip

6 oz. plain nonfat Greek yogurt
2 large pinches allspice
1 large pinch cocoa powder
1 tbsp olive oil
salt, pepper
1 small (or 1/2) clove garlic
This much eggplant:



Preheat the oven to 450 degrees. Cut the eggplants into small chunks; toss with the oil, sprinkle with salt and pepper, and roast about 20-25 minutes, until very soft and fairly brown. Let cool. If you dislike eggplant skins, remove them at this time (but they are pretty, and in my mind, delicious).
In a food processor, combine eggplant, yogurt, garlic, allspice, and cocoa. Whirl once or twice. Pick out any large chunks of garlic you see. Continue to blend until mostly smooth.
Serve with pita, chips, or vegetables, or as a spread on toast.

Pasta with Creamy Broccoli Sauce

Now I'd like to introduce a guest cooker to this blog, my associate Ben. He'll be making appearances now and then, sharing his tasty recipes. Take it away, Ben.

Thanks, Alison. It's great to be here on alisoncooks.blogspot.com. I'm a big fan of the show. Nice desk you've got there, very authoritative-looking. My, this chair is so comfy!

Anyway, a short foreword is required before I can tell you about the mystical inspirations and geopolitical context that conspired to create "my" Creamy Broccoli Sauce. It's a confession of sorts, and my agent is going to kill me for saying this on the air. But in the name of all that is noble and true and delicious, I feel I must unveil the source of my culinary extravagance. Truth be told, my success in the kitchen is due to a 6-letter G word: (genies, gamete, and ghetto are all good guesses, but sadly incorrect) Google. It's true. When I want to cook something, my first step is always to google it and compare a few different recipes. (In this case I googled "broccoli recipes" because we had broccoli in the fridge.) It's helpful to google "[the food you want] recipes" because otherwise you have to wade through all sorts of broccoli fan pages, broccoli youtube videos, and "CHEAP BROCCOLI ORDER NOW!!!" before you get to the recipes. The next step is you pick a recipe you like most of the ones you've found, and follow that one generally, though you can include bits from others, or adjust it depending on what ingredients you have available. In biblical scholarship, this is called redaction. I should also note that I don't measure stuff very much, especially spices. I mostly just dump some in (sometimes more than I intend) and taste. Sometimes I don't even taste, or know what I'm going for really. But it usually works out in the end, due either to my extensive experience and accomplishment as an eater, or to some absurd streak of luck which will abruptly end and leave me with very large gambling debts.

But anyway, this Creamy Broccoli Sauce is inspired by a recipe I encountered on southernfood.about.com. I don't have any idea what, if anything, is Southern about this, except for maybe the call for both butter and heavy cream (in the original; I redacted it.) But anyway, this is a fun thing to do if you've got broccoli lying around and lots
of time to experiment with food. Also, it's tasty and healthy and exciting. Here goes:

Pasta with Creamy Broccoli Sauce

12 ounces pasta
florets from 2 stalks of broccoli
5 medium fresh basil leaves (original; I used dried basil and it was still yummy)
1/2 tablespoon butter
3 heaping tablespoons plain yogurt
1/2 cup grated Parmesan cheese
pepper to taste (perhaps 1 teaspoon--should be fairly peppery)


Cook pasta until tender; drain.
Boil broccoli in salted water 4-7 minutes.
In food processor with steel blade, combine 8-10 broccoli florets,basil, butter and yogurt. Pulse to purée. Add Parmesan cheese and pulse to blend.
Mix broccoli mixture and remaining boiled broccoli into drained pasta; stir.
Cook, stirring, over medium-low heat. Serve when heated through and well combined. (I forgot to do the whole second heating thing and it still worked out great, just a little colder.)

Serves 4.

Baba Ganoush

...and we're back. All moved into a new apartment in a new(ish) city; all settled into a new job. I even found a mini-food processor for $2 at a garage sale!

And I'm still really, really into eggplant. I saw these little red eggplants and, naturally, HAD to have them.

And, naturally, had to make dip out of them.


However, turns out they're more bitter any other eggplants I've cooked with; I'd stick with the long slender Japanese ones, or small globe eggplants, instead. In fact, I made baba ganoush yesterday with a mix of Japanese and small globes--it was far superior.

Baba Ganoush (Eggplant Dip)

Five or six small eggplants (enough that, when cut in pieces, they cover a baking sheet).
3-4 tsp tahini
1 clove garlic, smashed
1/2 tsp pimenton de la Vera (optional)
salt to taste
1 tbsp olive oil

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

Cut the eggplant into 1-inch to 2-inch chunks. Toss in the oil in a bowl, just to coat. Arrange cut side down on a baking sheet and bake until beginning to brown, 20-30 minutes.
When they have cooled slightly, combine eggplant, tahini, garlic, salt, and pimenton (if you want an extra smokey kick) in a food processor. (I like the texture, flavor, and color of the peels, but if you don't, you could peel the eggplant now. ) Process until smooth with some chunks. Serve with pita or chips.

The New Love of My Life: Grilled Eggplant & Arugula Salad

Well. I'm in love. This is perhaps the best salad I have ever made or eaten. I want to go buy more eggplants and arugula RIGHT NOW, but it will have to wait till I've eaten my other produce. Arugula can be fairly peppery, but don't be tempted to mix it with another green here because it does an amazing job of balancing out the sweet, melt-in-your-mouth eggplant. Please, please make this.

Grilled Eggplant and Arugula Salad

2 medium Asian eggplants (the long thin kind), cut into 1/2 inch thick rounds (could substitute regular globe eggplants, cut into small chunks, but it's nice to have some skin on each piece for the texture)
1/2 large bunch arugula, maybe 1 1/2 cups
1 small wedge lemon
1-2 tbsp + 1/2 tsp olive oil
salt
pepper

Preheat your George Forman grill. Toss the eggplant slices with 1-2 tbsp olive oil in a bowl, until just lightly coated. Arrange the eggplant slices on the grill; it will probably take two batches. Close the grill tightly. Grill about 12 minutes, until there are charred grill marks and the eggplant is very, very soft.
Meanwhile, tear the arugula into small pieces and arrange in your bowl.
When the eggplant is done, arrange it on top of the arugula. Squeeze the lemon wedge over. Sprinkle with 1/2 tsp olive oil. Add salt & pepper to taste.

Serves 1

Blackberry Cupcakes

Some might call these muffins, but to me, they are cupcakes. They are now, perhaps, my favorite cake ever. The basic cake recipe uses Clotilde Dusoulier of Chocolate & Zucchini's recipe for Yogurt Cake as a base, but is adapted to best fit blackberries. You could also use other summer fruits--diced peaches or nectarines, or raspberries, maybe. The blackberries remain mostly whole and fairly tart, which is a nice contrast to the sweet cake. The top gets light brown and crispy, and is the most delicious part.

Blackberry Cupcakes

about 56-60 blackberries, thawed at least partway if frozen
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 cup plain nonfat yogurt, NOT vanilla (it will mess with the texture because it has more sugar in it)
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
zest of 1 lemon
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
pinch of salt
3 heaping teaspoons cornmeal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a large bowl, mix the yogurt, sugar, and lemon zest. Add one egg, beat well; add the other egg and beat well again. Add the oil; beat. Add the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and cornmeal; mix just until combined. Do not overmix.

Spoon the batter into your muffin tin, about 2/3 or 3/4 of the way up. Place four blackberries on top of each; they will sink in as they bake. Bake about 35 minutes, until the top and edges are light brown.

You can eat these as-is, or you can top with whipped cream, creme fraiche, sour cream, or yogurt.

Makes 14 cupcakes.