Month: November 2011

Vegan Lasagna!

Alyosha
Vegan Lasagna!

After multiple tries — some raw, some cooked — finally nailed a vegan lasagna. And vegan without the evil Sleeze/super-processed soy products — run through a production process similar to WD-40 — that account for the “cheese.”
    Started with the sauce from Eric’s Staff Lasagna in The French Laundry Cookbook. Basically two 28-ounce cans of whole tomatoes, two yellow onions minced, 4 good-sized cloves of garlic minced, and a can of tomato paste. Sweat the onions and garlic in about 1/2 a cup of olive oil until translucent, then add the paste  and cook that until it separates into the oil and turns it blaze orange. Throw in the tomatoes (crush them first) place a parchment lid (a large parchment paper disc that lets the sauce reduce) on the sauce and reduce it in the oven for about three hours at 325º. Chiffonade a small handful of basil and add it at the end. I did salt and pepper it after it was out, the book doesn’t say to do that, but depending on the type of tomatoes used, it needs it.
     Next, and I forget where I found this, but I ripped off the filling from Jill Santopietro’s recipe for vegan lasagna; it’s been altered slightly:
For the filling:

2 lbs. extra firm tofu, drained
1/3 cup finely chopped Italian parsley leaves
3 tablespoons nutritional yeast 
2 teaspoons finely grated lemon zest (from about 1 medium decent lemon)
1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice (from about 1/2 lemon)
2 teaspoons kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

     The other switch is that I folded in some (probably a cup or so) whole toasted pine nuts after combining the above in a food processor (pulse it, but keep the texture rough.) Also, the tofu was placed between two bowls with soup cans weighting down the top bowl for about an hour; the resulting water was poured off. 
     I keep jarred roasted eggplant in the pantry, and opened a jar (from the Trader Joe’s section of my local outlet supermarket.) Then cooked the noodles (1lb), and found the 9 x 13 pyrex baking dish.
     I placed a small amount of the sauce in the bottom of the pan, added the first layer of noodles, then all of the “ricotta” mixture. One more layer of noodles, then half of the remaining tomato sauce mixture. One more layer of noodles, then a layer of the jarred roasted eggplant. One more layer and the rest of the tomato mixture (don’t go overboard here, if there’s extra sauce left over that’s fine.) Then a layer whole basil leaves with olive oil, salt and pepper.  Be certain to soak the basil leaves in the oil, as they will basically fry during baking. 


Bake at 350º for 45 minutes to an hour or so depending on your oven.


Excellent — absolutely kicked ass.





Meal 4

Alyosha
Beans with clams, Salt Cod stew, and baked apples.

Again, this was a tour de force of simple cooking (minus the pre-prep of sofrito, and the picada). Don’t forget to hull your hazelnuts by roasting them for 15 minutes of so, then rubbing them together in a kitchen towel — when making the picada.

The first dish, the beans with clams, IMHO, has a recipe error when using the six person proportions. IIRC, it calls for sevenish cups of fish stock, when four was just right. Other then that the first dish was great, simple and easy to put together.

The second dish, a salt cod stew, was right on the money; the salt cod required fedexing some from a portuguese food place in Massachusetts, but it provided nearly all the seasonings. Be sure to soak it and change the water as called for.

The dessert, was my fault, I destroyed my apples — pretty much reducing them to apple sauce. The one hour called for is not as reliable as the “or until done” part. The sauce tasted great — used Remy Martin, instead of brandy.

Really good, earthy, meal.

Cooking Ferran Adriá’s The Family Meal — The Errata