Baked and Roasted: Warm Inspirations for a Cool Season

My niece and I made this pie about a month ago. When baking with a six-year-old, decorations may be required:

Apple pie with butterfly and heart-shaped cutouts. Recipe for pie and crust in Joy of Cooking, 1994 (?) ed.

Since I usually cleanse around this time of year (early spring and fall are good times to clean it out), I don't really eat stuff with butter or refined sugar. But, I can substitute coconut oil for the butter and real maple syrup for the sugar and bake myself a pretty awesome apple crisp:

Delicious apple crisp made with no butter and no refined sugar!

My favorite way to eat vegetables is to roast them with a drizzle of olive oil and a little seasoning. This is a nice way to make some hearty veg for both the cleansers and non-cleanser crew. I put beets (skins intact), quartered onions (stem intact), and halved thin-skinned potatoes in a single layer in a roasting pan. I wedge in a few peeled whole garlic cloves. I added olive oil, salt on the vegetables I wasn't going to eat (which is the potatoes -- not on the cleanse), pepper, fresh chopped fennel fronds and dried rosemary. The vegetables emerge from the oven looking like jewels:

Can you see the juices bubbling?

Props to the Closet

Last night, I made this great dish(Roasted Butternut Squash with Caramelized Onions, Gorgonzola and Crispy Fried Sage) from Kevin at Closet Cooking. Go make it. So good.

Tricia's Vegetable Tart . . . with Fiddleheads, mais oui

I have never gone wrong with this tart. I have made it many different ways: with swiss chard and mushrooms, with kale and asparagus, with shallots or onions carmellized in balsamic vinegar, with a whole wheat crust -- it's such a versatile, forgiving winner. Even my dad loved it. I packed up two slices for my parents as they were getting ready to go to Wells, ME for the weekend, and my dad "sampled" a corner of a piece and then proceeded to eat the rest of it.

Here's the recipe for the tart I served yesterday.

Vegetable Tart with Fiddleheads

 1 ¾ c. flour

¾ tsp. salt

1/2 c. extra-virgin olive oil

1/3 c. cold water

2 tbs. olive oil

1 med. leek, sliced, white and light green parts only

2 cloves garlic, minced

¾ - 1 lb. spinach, chopped

½ -3/4 c. fiddleheads

salt and pepper to taste

3 large eggs, lightly beaten

1/3 c. cottage cheese

1 c. grated Parmesan cheese

 

Preheat the oven to 425.

Make the crust. Whisk the flour and salt with a fork. Stir in oil and water. Dough will come together in a ball but will be too sticky to roll – press into pie plate. Puncture a few times with fork and bake for about 10-15 minutes.

 Make the vegetables: Heat the oil. Sweat the leeks for about 5 minutes. Add the spinach and fiddleheads, s&p to taste. Sautee until spinach is wilted but still bright.

 

Make the custard and finish: Mix the eggs with the cheeses. Pour in the vegetables. Pour into the pre-baked pie crust.

Bake at 375 for 25-35 minutes. Let cool to room temperature before serving. Serves 6-8.

Cream of Cauliflower and Fiddlehead Soup

Fiddleheads make an unusual appearance in a standard cream of cauliflower soup. Just make sure you don't overcook the fiddleheads. Reserve some of the smaller fiddleheads before you puree the soup. 

I made this soup at my parents' house yesterday. Mom's been moving away from cooking, sadly, so I didn't have access to a blender -- I had to puree the soup in a Magic Bullet!  It only took about a thousand batches (grumble, grumble). It was a little rustic -- really important to clean the fiddleheads and puree them well if you want a super-smooth texture. I think I might even press through a sieve or cheesecloth next time.