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.
   

Polenta and Ricotta Cake

It began from the day I bumped into a picture of polenta egg breakfast recipe. It continued with the discussion where to buy organic couscous and polenta in Bangkok, followed by talk of making gluten-free dishes for Contessa's daughter whom has Celiac disease. I took this series of events as a sign to experiment and cook with the yellow cornmeal.

Polenta was originally made with chestnut meal and farro. It was, and remains still, a peasant food. Nowadays it has been given life, with the blend of cheeses and tomatoes, from the essentially bland and common food into the menus in high-end restaurant and supermarket at high price.

You need a baking dish with removable bottom. Otherwise the cake will fall apart when you try to remove it from the dish. I used springform pan. A tip I learned years ago from my very first cheesecake-only recipe book: grease the pan and chilled it until needed. A recent tip I learned from Gordon Ramsey: to be safe, grease the chilled pan again. As a result, the cake pulled away from the edges intact.

This cake surprised me. It's really simple and yet can be classy, with its golden brown color, if you just spend some time to dress it up. I think I'm going to buy a piping tip so I can decorate my future cakes with swirls of pretty cream. The smell of baked honey was god-send: Adrian was wondering when we can eat it when I pulled it out from the oven at 10.30pm last night.I served it with homemade raspberry jam and cream. They compliment the honey-sweet of the cake very well.

You can substitute dried figs with dried apricots. You want them moist and plump. If need be, soak them in hot water, drain and pat dry before adding to the batter.

Ingredients:

• About 6 moist, plump dried figs, chopped into bite-size.
  
• 1 c medium-grain polenta
  
• ½ c all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1 c fresh ricotta
  
• 1/3 c tepid water
• ¾ c natural cane sugar
• ¾ c organic honey
  
• Grated zest of 1 lemon
• 8 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted and cooled
• 1 Tablespoon butter, cut into bits and chilled
• 2 large eggs

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 190C.

Lightly grease a 9" springform pan and wrap the bottom with aluminum foil to prevent leakage. Chill in refrigerator until ready to use.

Whisk the polenta, flour, baking powder, and salt together.

Beat the ricotta and water together on low speed until very smooth. With the mixer at medium speed, add the sugar, honey, and lemon zest and beat until light. Beat in the melted butter, then add the eggs one at a time, beating until the mixture is smooth. Reduce the mixer speed to low and add the dry ingredients, mixing only until they are fully incorporated. You’ll have a sleek, smooth, pourable batter.

Pour about one third of the batter into the pan and scatter over the figs. Pour in the rest of the batter, smooth the top with a rubber spatula, if necessary, and dot the batter evenly with the chilled bits of butter.

Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until a thin knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.

The cake should be honey brown and pulling away just a little from the sides of the pan, and the butter will have left light-colored circles in the top. Transfer the cake to a rack and remove the sides of the pan after about 5 minutes. Cool to warm, or cool completely.

Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear"

I bought a Teddy Bear mold that is just insanely cute I had to use it no matter what or how. And so instead of using muffin tray (which I don't have anyway), I quartered this Cherry Lemon Ricotta Muffin into a Berry Lemon Ricotta "Bear". This recipe is a real keeper. It's moist enough with the right touch of lemon zest. I wish I had made more than just one Bear.

Ingredients:

(makes 12 muffins)

1 cup ricotta
2 large eggs
1 cup buttermilk (1 tablespoon lemon juice+1 cup milk)
1 tbsp vanilla,
1 tbsp lemon juice
4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted and cooled (I used coconut oil in 1/2 the volume of butter)
2 cups all-purpose flour (whole wheat for me)
¾ cup sugar (I used a mix of natural cane sugar and unbleached white sugar)
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 ½ cup blueberries, strawberries or cherries (I used frozen raspberries)

Preheat oven to 350 F. Line a muffin pan with paper cups or spray with oil.

In a medium bowl, whisk cheese, then add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add buttermilk, vanilla, lemon juice and butter and mix well. Set it aside.

In a large bowl, whisk together the dry ingredients and lemon zest. Add ricotta mixture to flour mixture and gently stir until just combined. Fold in the berries.

Bake for 25 minute or until golden.