This entry will cover a lot of territory, so here's a quick overview:
1. Sweet potato gratin.
2. Tomato soup.
3. Vegetable bouillon and vegetarian gravy.
Ready, go!
Earlier today I Tweeted/Facebooked about the awesome sweet potato gratin I made last night. A ton of people requested the recipe, and I'm more than happy to share it. Alas, I can't take credit for this one; it's another tremendously successful selection from Vegetarian Suppers From Deborah Madison's Kitchen.
I don't know about you all, but the changing weather has had me craving warm, hearty comfort food. I went cruising through Ms. Madison's cookbook yesterday and landed on the following recipe. We served it as an entree with a side of kale, but it would be fantastic as a side dish, especially if you're getting sick of the ubiquitous sweet potato casserole that always shows up at Thanksgiving.
Sweet Potato Gratin with Onions and Sage
2 teaspoons oil, plus a little for the dish
1 large onion, chopped into 1/2-inch dice
2 tablespoons chopped sage or 2 teaspoons dried
3 medium sweet potatoes (about 1 1/2 pounds), thinly sliced
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
a large handful of parsley leaves, chopped with 1 plump garlic clove
3/4 cup grated Gruyere or smoked mozzarella cheese (Kroger actually had smoked Gruyere, so I used that!)
freshly grated Parmesan cheese
1 cup cream or half-and-half, warmed (I never told you this was healthy!)
1. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Lightly oil a 2-quart gratin dish and put a moderately large pot of water on to boil.
2. Put 2 teaspoons oil in a skillet over medium heat and add the onion and sage. Cook, giving them an occasional stir, until soft and golden, about 12 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, peel the sweet potatoes, then slice them as thinly as you can manage. Salt the water, then drop them in. Allow the water to return to a boil, which may take a few minutes. Boil for a minute or until the potatoes are partly tender when pierced with a knife, then drain. Toss them with the onions, chopped parsley, and garlic.
4. Scoop a third of the potatoes into the prepared dish and even them out. Season with salt and pepper, add half the Gruyere, and grate over a little Parmesan. Repeat, making two more layers and covering the last with a dusting of the Parmesan. Pour the warm cream over all, cover with foil, and bake in the center of the oven for 25 minutes. Remove the foil and continue baking until the potatoes are utterly soft and the gratin has browned, another 25 minutes or so. Let the gratin stand a few minutes before serving.
A few things I will do differently next time:
1. Add walnuts. Neil and I agree they would be great in this.
2. Drain the potatoes better and/or let it cook a little longer. It was a little watery on the bottom.
3. Add more cheese (maybe). It's perfectly good as it is, but if you want to make it really obnoxiously fattening and delicious, more cheese would be the way to go.
So today, after a heaping bowl of leftover gratin for lunch, I got to thinking about what I wanted to make for dinner. I couldn't stop thinking about that delicious smoked Gruyere. I started thinking grilled cheese and tomato soup. I spent some time looking for a tomato soup recipe that did not require a food processor or immersion blender, neither of which I own (yet - hello, wedding registry!). I found this recipe for Hot and Healing Tomato Soup. I was a little concerned that it would be weird in a New Agey, earnestly healthy kind of way, what with its six cloves of garlic and handful of celery leaves. But it was actually really good, quite chunky and thick. Neil suggested that it would be good over pasta as well. To go with it, I sliced some of the Moroccan olive bread that Kroger makes (which is way better than it has any right to be), sprinkled shredded Gruyere on top, and stuck them in a hot oven until the cheese was melty and golden. I've taken to calling this deconstructed grilled cheese, because I occasionally enjoy being a pretentious asshole. (You're welcome to call it cheese bread.)
If you looked at the soup recipe, you may have noticed that it involves a roux, to which vegetable broth is added. Let me first say that today, instead of buying a package of vegetable broth, using half a cup, and putting the rest in the fridge to sit until it went bad, I wised up and bought some bouillon cubes. Specifically, Edward & Sons Garden Veggie. I mixed up half of one with some hot water to make broth for the soup and it smelled really good, better than vegetable broth usually does. Once I mixed it into the roux it smelled fantastic, so I gave it a taste. Sacrebleu! It was like a delicious gravy! I cannot wait to make some mashed potatoes to put this on!
Erin's Vegetarian Gravy
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 cup to 1 cup vegetable broth, depending on how thick you like it
Melt butter in a saucepan over low heat. Slowly add flour, stirring constantly. Continue to stir until mixture turns golden. Slowly stir in vegetable broth until gravy reaches the desired consistency. (Note: I can't vouch for the tastiness of this if you don't use Edward & Sons bouillon. Like I said, it's better than any vegetable broth I've ever used. I found it at Kroger in the organic/natural section, with the soups.)
So, that's been my two days of culinary excitement. Now that I sit down and think about it, there are multiple things that I meant to write about on Blog Tartare, like my visits to Dragon King's Daughter, Zen Tea House, and a much-improved Zeppelin Cafe (whose website is so abjectly bad and lacking in content that I won't even bother to link to it). Expect restaurant reviews soon!
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