Autumn Eats

Lately, I have been working late, and we have been throwing together meals so quickly, and devouring them even more quickly, that I have been forgetting to take pictures and blog the recipes.  But we have been enjoying autumn's bounty, via the following easy-to-make quickies:

Roasted Squash with Rosemary 

          - Chopped zucchini and summer squash tossed with olive oil, garlic, rosemary, salt and pepper, and roasted in a 350°F oven for about a half hour (until cooked/tender).

Whole Wheat Angel Hair Pasta with Green Olive Tapenade, Broccoli, and Red Chilli Pepper Flakes 

          - Broccoli florets sauteed in olive oil, garlic, red chilli pepper flakes, and salt, tossed with hot whole wheat angel hair pasta, fresh black pepper, and green olive tapenade.

Butternut Squash Soup 

          - Peel a butternut squash, halve it width-wise, halve each half lengthwise, scoop out the seeds, toss with olive oil, roast at 400°F for ~25 mins. in a foil-lined baking tray (until it's tender), puree with vegetable stock to the consistency of your choice with the seasonings of your choice (this time I used salt, pepper, and fennel fronds; I also love ginger, or honey and garam masala). 

Warm Lentil Salad

          - Saute the chopped, lower, thicker parts of four scallions, four chopped celery stalks, and garlic in olive oil until softened. Stir in 2 cans of drained brown (French) lentils and salt and pepper. Stir until warmed through and mixed together - be careful not to let the lentils get mashed up. Remove from heat and stir in lemon juice, chopped fresh parsley, and the chopped, upper, thinner parts of the four scallions.

Wild Rice, Cranberry, Shiitake, and Sliced Snap Pea Salad

          - Toss cooked brown rice and cooked wild rice with dried cranberries, thinly sliced sauteed shiitakes, and thinly sliced blanched snap peas with salt, pepper, and a vinaigrette of apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, walnut oil, olive oil, chilli pepper, and minced shallots.

Mache and Mesclun Salad with McIntosh Apples, Candied Pecans, Shaved Manchego, Shaved Fennel, and White Balsamic Vinaigrette

          - In each plate, place a handful of mache rosettes and mesclun. Top with chopped McIntosh apples, candied pecans, and shaved fennel. Drizzle with a vinaigrette of white balsamic vinegar, honey, Dijon mustard, extra virgin olive oil, and salt. Grind black pepper over salads. Top each with a few pieces of shaved manchego.

Food Poem Fridays: Mary Oliver's THE FISH

The Fish
By Mary Oliver

The first fish

I ever caught

would not lie down

quiet in the pail

but flailed and sucked

at the burning

amazement of the air

and died

in the slow pouring off

of rainbows. Later

I opened his body and separated

the flesh from the bones

and ate him. Now the sea

is in me: I am the fish, the fish

glitters in me; we are

risen, tangled together, certain to fall

back to the sea. Out of pain,

and pain, and more pain

we feed this feverish plot, we are nourished

by the mystery.

Quotable Quote

One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well.

— Virginia Woolf, "A Room of One's Own"

Ideas for Using Liquid Whey

Finishing up this mini-series on homemade dairy products, here are some ideas for what to do with the liquid whey you reserve when making paneer (the curds or solids from milk).

Powdered whey protein is sold in many health foods and GNC-type stores. It has a long shelf-life and can be added to smoothies, baked goods, almost anything. But liquid whey should be used within a day or two (or frozen immediately for later use). It's very thin and watery, very high in protein, and extremely low in fat (and has zero saturated fat).

My favorite thing to do with whey is to make whey curry.

To make whey curry, see what vegetables you have on hand. Almost anything will do, but green beans and carrots are my favorites for whey curry.

Prep the veggies (e.g., wash, trim and diagonally slice green beans and peel, wash, and julienne or diagonally slice carrots). In a soup pot, pop a couple of tablespoons of black mustard seeds in a couple of tablespoons of hot olive oil. Add a few curry leaves and stir-fry until they're soaked through with oil. Add a tablespoon of either sambar powder or rasam powder.* Stir-fry until fragrant. Add the veggies, salt to taste, and, if you like, some julienned fresh ginger. Also optional: add a few tablespoons of either tomato paste or tamarind pulp and stir. When the vegetables are coated with the other ingredients, add the whey and stir. Salt to taste. Allow this soup to come to a boil and then simmer until the vegetables are tender or al dente, as you prefer. Garnish with chopped fresh cilantro and serve over hot rice.

*Sambar powder is a mixture of about 1 cup chana dal, 3/4 cup coriander seeds, 10 large dried red chillies, 1 teaspoon black pepper, 1/4 teaspoon fenugreek, and a pinch of asafoetida, which have been fried together in a teaspoon of oil on low heat and then ground into a fine powder. Rasam powder is a powdered mixture of about 1 cup coriander seeds, 1/2 cup cumin seeds, and 1/2 cup whole black peppercorns. Recipes vary locally. You can buy sambar powder and rasam powder in Indian grocery stores.

You could also make a thin tomato soup with whey: combine 1 1/2 cup strained tomato juice from fresh tomatoes with 2 whole cloves in a soup pot and bring them to a boil, then simmer 5 minutes. The add 1 1/2 cup whey, stir, and strain the mixture. Return the strained mixture to the pot and add a dash of pepper and a 1/4 teaspoon of celery salt. Reheat. Garnish with 1 tablespoon plain yogurt, 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley, and sprinkle some paprika over the yogurt garnish.

You can also use whey in baked goods: here's a Devil's Food Cake recipe featuring whey.

2 cups packed brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 1/2 cups whole wheat pastry flour

1/3 cup baking cocoa

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 cup whey

In a large mixing bowl, combine brown sugar, butter and eggs. Add vanilla; beat well. Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder, soda and salt in a separate bowl. Add alternately with whey to the egg mixture. Pour batter into two greased 9" round cake pans. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes or until cake tests done. Cool 5 minutes before removing to a wire rack. Continue to cool.

Food Poem Fridays: Mary Oliver's HONEY AT THE TABLE

I am loving reading Mary Oliver right now, so for a few weeks, we're going to be seeing a lot of her on Fridays : )

Honey At The Table
By Mary Oliver

It fills you with the soft

essence of vanished flowers, it becomes

a trickle sharp as a hair that you follow

from the honey pot over the table

and out the door and over the ground,

and all the while it thickens,

grows deeper and wilder, edged

with pine boughs and wet boulders,

pawprints of bobcat and bear, until

deep in the forest you

shuffle up some tree, you rip the bark,

you float into and swallow the dripping combs,

bits of the tree, crushed bees -- a taste

composed of everything lost, in which everything lost is found.

Making Paneer at Home

Continuing the mini-series on homemade dairy products, let's make paneer.

Paneer is made by separating milk solids, or curds, from whey (milk liquid), and then pressing out all of the watery whey from the curds. The paneer, which is basically a block of fresh cheese, can then be frozen for later use, kept in the fridge for use in a couple of days, and/or chopped into cubes and pan-fried or deep-fried if it's going to be used in a recipe that requires it to maintain that cubed shape (such as mattar paneer - peas with paneer). (If the paneer is going to be used in a recipe that requires it to be crumbly, such as paneer naan - crumbled paneer stuffed into a baked flatbread - then it can just be used fresh.)

A lot of people make paneer just when their milk is about to become spoiled anyway. The first sign of milk spoilage is curdling - the separation of the curds from the whey. It's actually much easier to make paneer from milk that's on the cusp of spoiling. A great use for your one or two day's old milk!

Paneer (essentially, fresh ricotta*)

1 gallon organic, whole milk

A few tablespoons of white vinegar or lime juice

Rinse a pot and then heat the milk in it on medium high heat. When the milk just begins to boil - when you begin to see tiny bubbles on the edges and a bit of scalding begins to happen - stir in a tablespoon of acid (either white vinegar or lime juice) and turn the heat to medium. If the milk separates, continuing stirring to promote that separating until the liquid part of the milk, the whey, looks pretty clear and all of the curds have become separated from it.

(If the milk does not separate, stir in another tablespoon of acid, and perhaps one more, until it does.)

When the milk has separated, turn off the heat.

Line a sieve with muslin or cheesecloth and place it over a clean pot. Slowly pour the curds-and-whey mixture through the muslin, collecting the whey in the pot below. Gather the ends of the muslin and twist them tied to squeeze all the remaining water out of the paneer.

At this point, if what you need the paneer for is something soft, like sandesh (rolled, sweetened balls of soft paneer), then let the paneer continue to drain unassisted for several hours. If what you need the paneer for is something hard, like mattar paneer (peas and paneer), then place a heavy weight on top of the muslin to assist the drainage for several hours.

Come back in a few hours to unwrap the paneer package. Reserve the whey for use in whey curry or other recipes requiring whey. Whey can also be frozen, and is very high in protein and very low in fat.

*There isn't much of a difference between fresh ricotta and paneer in terms of the initial preparation steps. But people use fresh ricotta while it's still quite wet, i.e., without draining off all the watery whey, and they need it to taste very mild, so they make it without using any acid. Here's a fresh ricotta recipe from 101cookbooks - notice how similar it is to making home-made paneer Indian-style, until you get to the drainage step.

Homemade Ricotta Recipe from 101cookbooks.com

1 gallon good-quality whole milk

1 quart good-quality buttermilk

Combine both milks into a large nonreactive saucepan over medium high heat, preferably a thick-bottomed pan if you have one. You will need to stir occasionally, scraping the pan bottom, to avoid scorching. Once the milk is hot, stop stirring. You will start to see curds rise and come to the surface. Run a spoon or spatula along the bottom of the pan occasionally to free up any stuck curds.

While the milk is heating, select a sieve or colander with a wide surface area. This will help your curds cook more quickly. Line the colander with a large piece of cheesecloth that has been folded numerous times - until you have about 5 or six layers. Place the lined colander over a large bowl or sink.

When the mixture reaches about 175F degrees, you will see the curds and whey seperate. The curds are the clumpy white mass. Now, remove the pan from heat, and gently begin to ladle curds into the prepared sieve. Pull up on the sides of the cheesecloth to drain off any extra liquid, but resist pressing on the curds. Gather the edges of the cloth, tie or fasten them into a knot and allow them to drain for another 15 minutes minimum. Move to an airtight container and refrigerate if you aren't going to use it immediately. Try to use or eat it within a few days, it really is best that way.

Makes about 4 cups.

Making Yogurt at Home

I love requests! I just got one to do a post on how to make yogurt at home, which reminded me that someone else had previously asked about making paneer, which leads into the question of what to do with whey after you've separated the milk solids from it to make cheese (paneer).

So, one at a time, in this mini-series on homemade dairy products : ).

Yogurt

The basic concept behind yogurt is to allow certain helpful strains of bacteria* to culture and ferment milk.

• Yogurt is digestible by people who are lactose intolerant, because the bacteria that culture the milk break down the lactose in it - they "eat" some of it, and leave lactic acid as a by-product - hence that "tang" that yogurt has.


• Yogurt is incredibly nutritious and satisfying, being rich in protein, calcium, riboflavin, vitamins B6 and B12, and delivering to our gastrointestinal tracts an inoculation of "good bacteria." Our guts are all about population dynamics - imagine a war between good and bad bacteria: the more good bacteria, the less of a chance bad bacteria has.

I usually start with about a half gallon of whole, organic milk (I like Organic Valley or Ronnybrook). I take a pot, rinse it with water, pour the milk in, and scald the milk over medium heat.

[This does two things: 1) kills whatever else might be in the milk, so that later, when I "inoculate" the milk with the yogurt bacteria culture, it can spread like wildfire throughout the milk without competition; and 2) heats the milk, since ultimately I'm going to need the milk to be warmer than human body temperature for the yogurt bacteria to thrive.]

After scalding the milk, I let it cool away from the stove to a little warmer than human body temperature: 45 degrees Celsius or about 113 degrees Fahrenheit. [You can use a thermometer, or just taste test the milk, to figure out when it's ready: when it feels pleasantly warm and drinkable to you, like the temperature of a nice warm but not too hot shower, or a cup of tea that's cooled down just enough to become easily drinkable, it's ready. A hotter temperature would kill the bacteria.]

While the milk is cooling down, I preheat the oven to its lowest temperature (170 degrees Fahrenheit).

When the milk is that perfect, warm temperature, you stir in either live yogurt starter culture, following the directions for that (nowadays, freeze-dried starter cultures are sold in grocery stores like Whole Foods; Yogourmet is one brand), or a small amount of previously made yogurt (I like Erivan, and I add about half a cup's worth to a half gallon of milk; once you've started making your own yogurt, just save the last half cup to get the next batch started).

You have to then keep the mixture at that nice, perfect, warm temperature for 6-12 hours. I make yogurt at night, and leave it overnight, covered, in the warm, 170-degree Fahrenheit oven. (After it's reached 170 degrees and I've put the yogurt in, I actually turn the oven off when I go to bed, and the yogurt stays warm enough just being in that insulated place.) Other people keep it in a good thermos overnight.

In the morning, voila, you have home-made yogurt, just in time for your smoothie or yogurt-and-granola!

*Some yogurt-making strains of bacteria include Streptococcus salivarius subsp. thermophilus, Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus, L. acidophilus, L. casei, and Bifidobacteria.

Food Poem Fridays: Bernadette Mayer's HOMAGE TO H & THE SPEEDWAY DINER

Homage to H & the Speedway Diner
by Bernadette Mayer

It’s alot like a cave full of pictures
& black & white checked flags
you may overdose on caffeine
it’s the closest restaurant to our house
maybe five miles, it’s very cheap
you can go there when you have almost no money
they let you use the telephone
i can get steak tartare there for $2.25
but i’ve never called it that
just raw hamburger with an egg yolk,
pickle relish & garlic powder plus
the celtic salt I bring along
the owner, h (after whom the h-burger is named)
is loquacious, surprising, has a santa claus belly & wears suspenders
there’s ashtrays everywhere & a great old pinball machine
it’s like east nassau but it’s in west lebanon I think
you can always talk about the weather & hunting
the clientele is open-minded as are the waitress & waiter
who kneels when he takes your order
during hunting season it opens at 4:30 a.m.
it’s for sale but that’s not quite serious
h’s wife thinks he spends too much time there (which he does)
so she started calling him by their dog’s name, peaches
h is a big fan of northern exposure, oh & i
forgot to mention the biscuits & sausage gravy
which are genuine, greyish & great. recently
h got a smoker & this year we’ll go to the new year’s
eve party & eat stuffed shrimp and/or lobster


Source: Scarlet Tanager by Bernadette Mayer (New Directions Publishing Corporation, 2005).

Soy: Benefits and Drawbacks

I got a request this week to do a post on the Pros and Cons of eating soy. (Yay for requests!!!)

Here’s the short story: traditional ways of preparing soy, such as miso, tempeh, and soy sauce, which slow-ferment the mature soybean, are generally good. But the modern, Western, over-consumption of soy (which is generally processed by crushing instead of fermenting) may have harmful effects, largely due to the estrogenic effects of soy isoflavones and the harmful omega-6 fatty acids in soybean oil.

Sadly, most of us living in Western cities can’t even easily access traditionally fermented soy products – the soy sauce most people buy here has likely been quick-processed instead of slow-fermented.

My non-expert recommendation: drink whole, organic cow’s milk if you’re Northern European and evolved to digest it; buy your soy sauce, natto, miso, and tempeh from raw foods and health foods stores that vet their brands for whole and traditional production methods (“nama shoyu” is usually the name for a traditional, raw, fermented soy sauce that was not sped along by heat); and if you’re lactose intolerant, get your calcium from yogurt, greens (like spinach, collards, broccoli, kale, and chard), sesame seeds or tahini, seaweeds like kelp, almonds, papaya, flax seeds, and nut milks, like almond, hazelnut, or cashew milk, or fortified rice milk.

Here’s the long story:

The nutritional profile of the soybean is healthful.

Soy is high in protein, lecithin and vitamin E, and has little saturated fat and no cholesterol. It can be digested by people who are lactose intolerant, making calcium-fortified soymilk a good substitute for cow’s milk, and by people who are allergic to the protein in cow’s milk (casein). Studies reported in the New England Journal of Medicine and the American Heart Association found a positive correlation between soy intake and significant decreases in serum cholesterol, LDL (bad cholesterol), and triglyceride concentrations, most likely because soy products are high in polyunsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and low in saturated fat, and subjects in the study were using soy foods to replace animal protein high in saturated fat and cholesterol. (1995 New England Journal of Medicine vol. 333: 5; January 2006 American Heart Association review in the journal Circulation.)

But the phytoestrogens in unfermented soy have estrogenic effects on humans, and it’s generally not a good thing to introduce exogenous hormones into the body. Phytoestrogens are plant estrogens; the isoflavones in soybeans are estrogenic.

A 2008 study of 99 men who attended a fertility clinic with their partners between 2000 and 2006 concluded that men who consume an average of half a portion of soy products per day are more likely to have a lower concentration of sperm, particularly if they are overweight or obese (body fat produces estrogen). Professor Richard Sharpe, head of the Medical Research Council's human reproductive sciences unit at Edinburgh University, recently completed studies on the effects of soy milk on young male monkeys, which showed that it interferes with testosterone levels. The UK food standards agency, because of concerns over the development of infants, recommends avoiding introducing soy formula or soy products until an infant is over 12 months of age (unless absolutely necessary – e.g., the mother can’t breastfeed and the child can’t tolerate cow’s or goat’s milk).

I myself have sensitivity to the estrogen in soy products and was advised in 2002 to cut them out of my diet by a dermatologist and family friend who noticed that I was getting a skin rash that he was seeing frequently in 20-something women who, out of health consciousness, consumed a lot of soy products. (I still use nama shoyu in small quantities and will occasionally have some broiled, miso-marinated fish; I haven't seen the skin rash recur since I cut all other soy products out of my diet.)

So why have Asian populations, which have consumed soy-rich diets for 5,000+ years, not shown any signs of reduced fertility or other health problems?

It all goes back to Michael Pollan, who touts traditional food cultures and lambasts Western food industrialization: the way Asian cuisines traditionally used the soybean is nothing like the way we in the West have encountered it since World War II.

Soy, like corn, has become a darling of the food industry, and is used in almost every processed food product in myriad ways never before tried by traditional food cultures. Soy is in 60% of all processed food, as soy flour, hydrolyzed vegetable protein, soy protein isolate, protein concentrate, textured vegetable protein, soybean oil, or soy lecithin.

Traditional Asian soy products did not include soymilk (which was made as a precursor to making tofu, but not for drinking) or edamame, and what was consumed had usually been naturally fermented anywhere from several months to more than a year. Traditional fermentation, using natural whole ingredients and slow aging, reduces isoflavone levels. Sadly, modern industrially processed soy products, such as soy sauce and miso, short-cut the natural fermentation process by crushing raw beans; extracting the oil; toasting and grinding the meal; cleaning, bleaching, degumming, and deodorizing it; then fermenting at high temperatures for three to six months. It seems also that modern American strains of soy have significantly higher levels of isoflavones than Japanese or Chinese ones because of breeding for pest-resistance.

As to soy and health risk, according to the Mayo Clinic:

1. The jury is out on the all of the following:
- whether dietary soy or soy isoflavone supplements increase or decrease the risk of breast, uterine, or prostate cancer;
- whether dietary soy or soy isoflavone supplements are beneficial, harmful, or neutral in cancer patients; and
- whether soy isoflavones reduce post-menopausal “hot flashes” in women.

2. It has been suggested that soy supplements might allow tuberculosis patients to take higher doses of antimicrobial drugs safely.

3. Soy does not appear to cause long-term toxicity.

4. Studies on animals suggest that eating raw soybeans or soy flour/protein powder made from raw, unroasted, or unfermented beans may cause damage to the pancreas.

5. Patients with hormone-sensitive cancers, such as breast, ovarian, or uterine cancer, and other hormone-sensitive conditions, such as endometriosis, are discouraged from eating soy because of its estrogen-like effects.

Further reading:

Giampietro PG, Bruno G, Furcolo G, et al. Soy protein formulas in children: no hormonal effects in long-term feeding. J Pediatr Endocrinol Metab 2004;17(2):191-196.

Hunter, B.T.  The downside of soybean consumption.

Izumi T, Saito M, Obata A, et al. Oral intake of soy isoflavone aglycone improves the aged skin of adult women. J Nutr Sci Vitaminol (Tokyo) 2007 Feb;53(1):57-62.

Koo WW, Hammami M, Margeson DP, et al. Reduced bone mineralization in infants fed palm olein-containing formula: a randomized, double-blinded, prospective trial. Pediatrics 2003;111(5 Pt 1):1017-1023.

Recipe: South Indian-style Red Cabbage

One of my favorite ways to prepare either cruciferous vegetables (like cabbage or brussels sprouts) or tough greens (like collards) is to stir-fry them with mustard seeds, curry leaves, turmeric, ginger, red chillies, salt, and lemon juice. Even people who swear they don't like brussels sprouts have told me they've enjoyed them prepared this way!

Last night we had a mix of red cabbage and collards prepared this way as an accompaniment to vegetable tikki sandwiches layered with avocado, peppadews, chutney, alfalfa and daikon sprouts, and spicy pickled okra on multigrain nut bread.

South Indian-style Red Cabbage (serves 4 as a side dish)

4 Cups shredded red cabbage*

2 Tbsp olive oil

2 Tbsp mustard seeds

Curry leaves from 1 stalk (about 6-10)

1" piece ginger, peeled and minced

4-6 whole dried red chillies

salt to taste

1 Tbsp turmeric

Juice of 1 lemon

Great optional stir-ins: 1/4 Cup toasted shredded coconut, 1/4 Cup roasted Spanish peanuts

Heat oil in wok on medium-high heat until it swirls around the wok very thinly and easily (should take less than 45 seconds). Add mustard seeds; they will pop, so if you have a mesh lid/grate, cover the wok with that, or partially cover it with a lid. Add the curry leaves, ginger, and dried red chillies when the popping subsides. Stir fry until ginger is fragrant and curry leaves are coated with oil, but don't allow the ginger to brown.

Add the cabbage and turmeric in batches, stir-frying and adding appropriate amounts of salt with each batch, until all the cabbage is added and all of the ingredients are thoroughly mixed. Assuming the cabbage is exuding a lot of its own water, turn down the heat to medium-low and cover, letting the cabbage steam-cook, uncovering every few minutes to stir. (If the cabbage is dry, you might need to add a little water before covering for the cabbage to steam.) Cook, stirring occasionally, until the cabbage is al dente or soft, as you prefer (about 10 minutes).

Turn off the heat and stir in the lemon juice (optional: also stir in toasted coconut and/or peanuts).

*You could substitute quartered and partly cooked (by steaming in the microwave, for instance) brussels sprouts, or shredded green cabbage, collards, mustard greens, or kale, for example.

Food Poem Fridays: Paulann Petersen's APPETITE

Appetite
by Paulann Petersen

Pale gold and crumbling with crust
mottled dark, almost bronze,
pieces of honeycomb lie on a plate.
Flecked with the pale paper
of hive, their hexagonal cells
leak into the deepening pool
of amber. On your lips,
against palate, tooth and tongue,
the viscous sugar squeezes
from its chambers, sears sweetness
into your throat until you chew
pulp and wax from a blue city
of bees. Between your teeth
is the blown flower and the flower's
seed. Passport pages stamped
and turning. Death's officious hum.
Both the candle and its anther
of flame. Your own yellow hunger.
Never say you can't take
this world into your mouth.

Source: Poetry (July 2001).

Recipe: The Ratatouille from "Ratatouille"

This is Thomas Keller's recipe, created for the movie, for the version of ratatouille that Remy serves the critic Anton Ego in the movie. It's based on a Turkish version of the dish.

Remy's Ratatouille - Courtesy of Thomas Keller

For the piperade (bottom layer):

1/2 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 yellow bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed

1/2 orange bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon minced garlic

1/2 cup finely diced yellow onion

3 tomatoes, peeled, seeded and finely diced, juices reserved

1 sprig fresh thyme

1 sprig flat-leaf parsley

a bay leaf

Kosher salt

For the vegetables:

1 medium zucchini, sliced into 1/16"-thick rounds

1 Japanese eggplant, sliced into 1/16"-thick rounds

1 summer squash, sliced into 1/16"-thick rounds

4 Roma tomatoes, sliced into 1/16"-thick rounds

1/2 teaspoon minced garlic

2 teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/8 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon extra-virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar

Assorted fresh herbs (such as thyme flowers, chervil, thyme)

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Special equipment: Oven-proof skillet

To make the piperade, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a baking sheet with foil. Place pepper halves on the baking sheet, cut side down. Roast until the skins loosen, about 15 minutes. Remove the peppers from the oven and let rest until cool enough to handle. (I like to "sweat" peppers in a bag while they're cooling - I find this makes it much easier to remove the skins.) Reduce the oven temperature to 275 degrees. Peel the peppers and discard the skins. Finely chop the peppers, then set aside. In medium skillet over low heat, combine oil, garlic and onion and saute until very soft but not browned, about 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes, their juices, thyme, parsley and bay leaf. Bring to a simmer over low heat and cook until very soft and little liquid remains, about 10 minutes. Do not brown. Add the peppers and simmer to soften them. Discard the herbs, then season to taste with salt. Reserve a tablespoon of the mixture, then spread the remainder over the bottom of an 8-inch oven-proof skillet.

To prepare the vegetables, you will arrange the sliced zucchini, eggplant, squash and tomatoes over the piperade in the skillet. Begin by arranging 8 alternating slices of vegetables down the center, overlapping them so that 1/4 inch of each slice is exposed. This will be the center of the spiral. Around the center strip, overlap the vegetables in a close spiral that lets slices mound slightly toward center. All vegetables may not be needed. Set aside. In a small bowl, mix the garlic, oil and thyme, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Sprinkle this over vegetables.

Cover the skillet with foil and crimp edges to seal well. Bake until the vegetables are tender when tested with a paring knife, about 2 hours. Uncover and bake for another 30 minutes. (Lightly cover with foil if it starts to brown.) If there is excess liquid in pan, place it over medium heat on stove until reduced. (At this point it may be cooled, covered and refrigerated for up to 2 days. Serve cold or reheat in 350 F oven until warm.)

To make the vinaigrette, in a small bowl whisk together the reserved piperade, oil, vinegar, herbs, and salt and pepper to taste. To serve, heat the broiler and place skillet under it until lightly browned. Slice in quarters and lift very carefully onto plate with an offset spatula. Turn spatula 90 degrees as you set the food down, gently fanning the food into fan shape. Drizzle the vinaigrette around plate.

Servings: 4

A Tea-themed Thanksgiving

Two things I love: Tea and Thanksgiving.

Earlier this year (yes, I begin thinking about Thanksgiving, um, probably in July), I sent my extended family my idea for a tea-themed Thanksgiving menu. It's been rejected in favor of the dishes we make every year - and just once a year, so I understand - so I'm sharing my idea here for what a tea-themed Thanksgiving menu could look like!

Hors d'oeuvres

~

Iced cranberry tea

Baby root vegetables with Lapsang Souchong aioli

Darjeeling tea-smoked salmon on crackers

Mushroom cappuccino (served in doll-sized tea cups)

First course

~

Sencha

Persimmon and mesclun salad with slivered almonds and tea vinaigrette

Herbed yam and sweet onion tea sandwiches

Turkey tea sandwiches

Ochazuke with wild rice and pumpkin dumplings

Second course

~

Earl Grey with lemon and honey

Grilled tea-brined turkey with tea-and-lemon gravy

Vegetarian stuffing and cranberry chutney

Dessert

~

Masala chai

Cranberry and pumpkin pie spice tea cake

Applesauce spice tea cake

English Breakfast ice cream