Roasted Pumpkin Lasagna with Butter Beans

Piping hot and bubbly out from the oven, it looks "alive".

This recipe uses two ingredients that I don't normally cook with: 1. carrot - I'm ok with carrot, I just don't give much thought about cooking or eating them; 2. celery - I'm better with celery now than when I was a kid. There's this other issue with celery: they come in big packages - I don't want to be thinking what to cook with celery for 7 consecutive meals. So it's not hard to see this is a combination that I'd usually avoid. It's probably the frozen cooked butter beans that called me to this recipe, which ironically plays no part in the original recipe.

I kind of messed up the part with the roasted pumpkin and cooked butter beans. The original instruction is "Clear a spot in the bottom of the pan and add the chopped roasted butternut squash and about 1/4 of the beans with their liquid. Mash the two together with a potato masher or the back of a spoon, and then add the rest of the beans to the pot." I didn't de-froze the beans fast enough (I forgot we now have a microwave). I also think butter beans are not as easily mashed as canned cannelini beans. Therefore, after some considerable futile attempts, the butter beans remained mostly "unharmed" and intact in my recipe.

The lasagna noodle recipes that I found online seem pretty strict forward. I'm not a pasta person or I wouldn't mind investing in one of those pasta maker and make my own noodles.

I'm glad I didn't reduce the recipe and made what's enough for 6 persons. Adrian did have a little comment "look like we'll be having lasagna for a few more dinners." When I said we could give it away, he looked surprised "give it away? WHY?" Yes, the lasagna is G.O.O.D.

For the filling:

• 1/2 a large pumpkin, roasted with olive oil, salt and black pepper. Mashed.
  
• 2 carrots, peeled and diced
• 1 onion, diced
• 2 stalks celery, diced
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• small bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked and chopped
• small bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked and chopped
• 2 big handful of cooked butter beans
  
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
  
• salt and pepper

1. Saute onions with salt. Add celery and carrots. Stir to coat. Cover and let cook over medium heat for 10 minutes.
   
2. Stir in thyme and oregano. Stir to coat. Cover and let cook for another 5 minutes.
   
3. Stir in garlic and fry till fragrant.
4. Add cooked butter beans and mashed roasted pumpkin.
   
5. Deglaze with white vinegar. Add some water to thin it out if necessary. Season with salt and pepper.
   

For the béchamel:

• 5 Tbsp butter
• 1/4 cup flour
• 3 cups milk, heated
  
• 2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg

1. Melt butter over medium heat. Whisk in flour. Continue to whisk until the mixture turns golden brown (about 6 - 7 minutes).
2. Add heated milk, one cup at a time, stirring constantly until the mixture is smooth.
   
3. Bring it to boil and cook for another 30 seconds. Season with salt and nutmeg.

To assemble:

• filling
• bechamel sauce (set aside 1 cup for topping)
  
• 4 oz. of mozzarella cheese
• 3 oz. of ricotta cheese
• Lasagna noodles
  

1. Preheat oven to 180C. Grease a 10cm x 20cm Pyrex baking dish with butter. Mix together mozzarella and ricotta. Set aside 1/4 cup.
2. Layer from the bottom in this order: bechamel, lasagna sheet, filling, and cheese. Repeat as many times as necessary. End with 1 cup of bechamel sauce and sprinkle the top with 1/4 cup of cheese.
3. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes, until golden brown and bubbly. Cool before serving.
   

Grape, Celery and Blue Cheese Salad with Toasted Walnuts

What is it with celery that I always need to use up the extra? Looking back, there have been more than once occasions where a recipe calls for little or not enough to use up the big bunch that they sell at the store. This is just another one of them.

This recipe uses grapes as its main ingredient and celery as a companion for a twist on the classic Waldorf. Fennel, endive or arugula also pair nicely with the grapes if you happen to have any of those on hand. Any of these will make a tasty substitute for the celery. For color and flavor variety, I used different green and red seedless grapes. Do not fool by this seemingly unassuming salad - wait till the blue cheese kicks in. "You redefine fruit salad"; "Extraordinary" YUM~

Ingredients:

For the dressing:

• 1 medium red onion, chopped
• 2 Tablespoon lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoon apple cider vinegar
• 7 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
  
• sea salt and black pepper to taste

Whisk ingredients together and keep in refrigerator until ready to use. This recipe makes enough for 4 - 6 servings. You can keep the extra dressing in refrigerator for future use.

For the salad:

• seedless grapes, halved or quartered
• ribs of celery, sliced
  
• walnuts, toasted and chopped
• blue cheese, crumbled

Toss all the ingredients together in a salad bowl. Pour dressing over to serve.

Roasted Stuffed Pumpkin

I never knew Thanksgiving is a American thing. I always thought it's one of those "Christmas", "Boxing Day" or "Halloween" things. So I did a little bit of googling and found out Thanksgiving falls on 26th November. So why did I make this now and not later? I guess I just wanted to try something different and Thanksgiving is just an excuses.

With apples, cranberries and nuts as ingredients, this dish has a festive taste to it. I know Adrian was very pleased with his "Malaysian Chinese wife making Thanksgiving dinner for her American husband in Thailand". It also answers his needs for Thanksgiving meal; it used to be "should I eat the turkey? Is it ok to eat just the stuffing?"

There's a lot of room to play with the ingredients. You can substitute cooked barley with lentils, toasted bread, long grain rice or seitan; raisin always works in place of cranberries; any types of nuts you have in hand; apple cider vinegar or dry white wine instead of lemon juice. Use a whole pumpkin if you are serving a small group of people. Cut a large circle around the stem and remove the seeds and stringy matter from the inside.

Ingredients:
(serves 2)
For the Stuffing:
1/2 medium onion, chopped
1/3 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup mushroom, sliced
1/4 cup cooked barley
1/4 big apple, diced
Handful of walnuts and hazelnuts, chopped
Handful of dried cranberries
1 egg, lightly beaten
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 tablespoon fresh oregano and sage, chopped
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
pinch of ground cumin
pinch of salt and pepper
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice

1. In a sauce pan, saute onion with pinch of salt until fragrant. Add celery and cook for 2 - 3 minutes. Add mushroom and cook for another 1 minute. Toss in cooked barley to coat evenly. Remove from heat and pour sauteed vegetable into a large mixing bowl.
   
2. Stir in apple, nuts, cranberries and beaten egg. Let the mixture sit for a moment.
3. Melt a tablespoon of butter over medium heat until it bubbles. Stir in garlic and cook for one minute. Stir garlic butter over vegetable mixture.
4. Add herbs and spices, finish with lemon juice and blend thoroughly.

For the Pumpkin:

• 1/2 medium pumpkin, seeds removed.

1. Press stuffing into the shell until the pumpkin is completely stuffed.
2. Using a sharp knife, cut several small, slit-like pockets at different levels in the exterior wall of the pumpkin. Dab a pat of butter into each of these crevices.
3. Place the stuffed pumpkin in an oiled baking dish and cook, in a preheated 180C oven, for about 1 1/2 hour. (Cooking time may vary, depending on the thickness of the pumpkin's wall.) Pumpkin is ready when fork inserted comes in and out easily through the shell.
   
4. As the pumpkin bakes, the butter will trickle down from one side-slit to another, finally winding up in the pan. Collect the dripping and dressing.
   

For The Gravy:

• cooked dressing and dripping from the pumpkin
• 2 tablespoons butter
  
• 4 tbsp flour
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 teaspoon soy sauce

1. Heat the oil over medium heat in a small frying pan. Add the pumpkin drippings and stuffing, being careful to break up the dressing as it simmers. Then slowly add the flour, stirring constantly. When the flour starts to brown, gradually pour in the water a little at a time, still stirring continuously. Add soy sauce. As soon as the gravy thickens, remove it from the burner. This should make 1 cup of sumptuous sauce for spooning over roast pumpkin slices.

Veggie Smoothies

It began with the extra hydroponic butterhead lettuce: it came with roots and I was happily keeping it alive in a jar of water next to the sink. Few days passed and still no sign of cooking at home. I got nervous and started surfing for inspiration. Not much. Then the conversation with Fredrik about juicer came to mind. Hmm.... so I typed "lettuce smoothie". And what do you know? GREEN SMOOTHIE, anyone?

With Lettuces

Banana, blueberry, golgi berry, yogurt, lettuces and cinnamon powder.

Who would have thought? No sign of green at all =)

It's not that different than our usual morning stable: banana with mixed berries yogurt smoothie. I just threw in another handful of lettuces. I was going to keep in mum but Adrian walked in and I could see the expression on his face. "It's ok. I know what I'm doing" said the cook. You got to give this man a lot of credit for the faith he has on me.

How did it turn out? Well, the tartness of the berries overpowered whatever green taste the lettuces may have. Would I do it again? Only when there's leftover lettuces again.

With Chinese Celery

Same ingredients as Lettuce Smoothie plus raspberry and Homemade Almond Milk in instead of Homemade Yogurt.

Pretty~

This was the result of a big mistake. I was looking for parsley and somehow mistook Chinese celery as the Italian flat-leaved parsley. Although I had a couple celery recipes (cream of celery soup, butternut/ apple soup)that I liked and enjoyed, I don't go around and search for celery recipe as I would with broccoli or eggplant. You know what I mean?

The damage is done and I just got to fix it, don't I? It would be a whole lot easier if I had a juicer. Since I don't just have to make it into smoothie. I found recipes for banana and celery soup, and cantaloupe, celery and blueberry salad. Well, I guess it's I can just throw in to the morning mixed berries smoothis as I did with lettuces.... how convenient.

Cream of Celery Soup that makes me a convert

One thing about me is I like variety, especially food. In order to satisfy my own desire, I take the extra miles to cooking different things everytime. Remember the huge bunches of celery that I was ranting about? No doubt there's plenty of them left after the Butternut Squash Apple Soup. So what are you to do with those awful lot of celery? I decided to turn them all into soup. God forbidden, never in my life have I ever consider having celery soup. Until now.
I have to say I was absolutely surprised by how good the soup was. I stumbled upon the recipe while flipping through pages of outdated LA Times. One of the articles mentioned the hidden wonders of celery, and was nothing more than a pot of sauteed onion, chicken broth (of which I substituted with miso), cubed potato and a whole mess of diced celery. It doesn't sound like much, does it?

Cream of Celery Soup

When I strained the puree I was left with a pot of watery liquid and a strainer full of mush. What a waste, I thought. So I dumped the mush back to mix with the water liquid again - I always prefer thick soup anyway. I made the soup two days before and freeze it before adding cream. When I needed something little, I took it out and reheat, swirling a spoonful of cream in as it boiled. I added a swirl of cream to pretty-fie the soup. I found no need for salt and pepper - it was nicely seasoned from the miso broth already. If there's a celery dish that would change my taste, this is it. The result was a very light and delicately-flavored soup.

Ingredients:
(serve 4)
3 Tablespoons butter
1 medium onions, diced
1 potato , peeled and cut into 1/2 inch dice
10 stalks celery, trimmed and cut into 1/2 inch slices
5 cups chicken broth (miso worked fine)
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
2 Tablespoon heavy cream (optional)
Celery leaves for garnish, chiffoned

1. Melt butter in a soup pot. Add onions and cook until translucent.
   
2. Add potatoes, celery and chicken (miso) broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to let it simmer until the potatoes and celery are very tender (about 20 minutes)
3. Puree in a food processor or blender. Pass the soup through a medium sieve, pressing the solids with the back of a wooden spoon (I skipped the straining). Refrigerate or freeze if you are not serving it yet.
4. When ready for serving, defroze and reheat. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper (no need in my case).
5. Swirl in the cream if desired. Garnished with celery leaves.

Although I did enjoy the soup but it's till too much for two persons. No fret! I'm putting it in a Corn Casserole instead of using canned cream of celery soup. It got to be better with homemade, right?

Butternut Squash/ Pumpkin Apple Soup

Dishes made with fruits always fascinate me. Even salad. Must be the Asian Chinese gene in me. I've been wanting to make some vege+fruit soups ever since I saw the carrot orange soup on the menu of some sandwich place at Central World. And I came across a Butternut Squash Apple Soup on one of my favorite food sites. It took me a couple of week to finally gave the recipe a try. Not that it's hard. But it calls for CELERY.

There are a few foods that I disliked and grew to okay with because of their nutritious values such as olive and bitter gourd. Celery is one that I'm yet to overcome. It just tastes so much like bitter water. In order to convince myself for the Butternut Squash Apple Soup recipe, I researched on my Food Encyclopedia. I got to admit it's pretty cool. It is high in Vitamin C content and has been used in Chinese medicine to lower blood pressure (my grandmom would have approved). Among others, the coumarins in celery not only fight against free radicals but also targets and eliminates potentially harmful cells such as cancer cells. In addition, the acetylenics compound has been shown to stop growth of tumourous cells. Sounds good to me.
By the way, can anyone tell me why do they always sell garnishes such as chives, coriander, spring onions in bulk? Although they are cheap but how can I possibly finish all of them before they wilt? The celery I bought today came in one huge stalk (as pictured). All I need for this recipe is a rib or two. It's putting my creativity to test.
Did you know celery is supposed to go well with peanut butter? How bizarre. I should ask my Origami Yogini friend to try - she has no idea what to do with peanut butter. Japanese never cease to fascinate me....
.
Butternut Squash/ Pumpkin Apple Soup

I didn't use butternut squash. I used the extra golden pumpkin I bought for the Roasted Pumpkin with Arugula Salad. Besides, I have made many pumpkin soups and it's time to make a difference. This soup is very easy to prepare. The addition of tart green apple is meant to balance the sweetness of the butternut squash. It works just as good for pumpkin. You want the 3 portion of butternut squash to 1 portion of green apple. Make sure you taste and season before serving or it can be rather bland.

Ingredients:
(serve 4)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
1 butternut squash, peeled, seed removed, cubed
1 tart green apple, peeled, core removed, chopped
3 Cups of vegetable broth (miso for me)
pinch of cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper

• Sautee onion with celery and carrot. Add in butternut squash, apple and broth. Let simmer until the butternut squash is soft. Transfer to a blender and puree till smooth. Taste and adjust with cinnamon, nutmeg, salt and pepper.
  

Real Mayonnaise, are you with me?

People either roll their eyes or shake their head with an involuntary "sigh" when I mention "mayonnaise". I wonder why? If you think about it, mayonnaise is merely a thick condiment made primarily from vegetable oil and egg yolk. Of course they are not healthy if taken in excess, but then, what is? According to a research published by The New England of Medicine, women who ate the most Vitamin E-rich foods showed the lowest risk for heart diseases. And if you spend a minute or two reading the food label, most mayonnaise are made of heart-healthy oil. Mine is made of soybean oil. You may also find some mayonnaise made with omega-3 fatty acids, which have been shown to reduce sudden death from heart attacks. Don't even think about using reduced fat or low fat mayonnaise. For one, if you are concerned with the calorie content, simply remove or reduce refined sugar and white flour in your diet. Besides, both reduced-fat and fat-free mayonnaise can break down when heated and leave an unpleasant texture. We don't want that to happen here, do we?

Smothered Cabbage Wedges

I replaced white cabbage with the extra red cabbage left from the other night. Red cabbage has a sweeter flavor than the plain white cabbage. It is also a good source of iron, vitamin C and calcium, as well as being packed with other vitamins and minerals. In general the nutrients are best enjoyed either raw or lightly cooked. However, things just got to be scarified sometimes - I'm going for the savory of baked mayonnaise cheese here....
Also, I chose to use the Thai-style sweet chili sauce because that was the only organic chili sauce I could find that doesn't cost a bomb. Most importantly, I can pronounce all the ingredients on its label.

Ingredients:
(2 serving)
1/2 medium cabbage, wedged and de-cored
1 tablespoon butter
1/4 Cup green pepper, chopped
1 tablespoon onion, chopped
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup milk
1/4 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded
1 tablespoon chili sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cook cabbage wedges in salted boiling water for 10 minutes. Drain and place in a baking dish.
2. Sautee onion and green pepper until tender. Fold in flour and stir for 1 minute. Gradually pour in milk. Keep stirring until it thickens and becomes bubbly.
3. Adjust with salt and pepper. Pour the milk mixture over cabbage wedges. Bake at 180C for 20 minutes.
   
4. In a bowl, combine mayonnaise, cheese and chili sauce. Spoon the mayonnaise dressing over the cabbage and bake 5 more minutes or until the cheese melt.

I'm pairing this dish with a Pumpkin Apple Soup.