Yet another stellar offering from Deborah Madison's Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone, the Artichoke, Shallot, and Potato Ragout (hereafter referred to as ASPG or simply the ragout) I made last night was a big hit. Straightforward and easy, although slightly tedious to prepare unless you particularly enjoy scrubbing potatoes and chopping vegetables. I don't, so I had to force myself to do it, but I'm so glad I did! Not only did we get a wonderful dinner out of it, but I used the leftovers creatively this morning for a yummy savory bread pudding.

Here's my mise en place:
I used frozen artichoke hearts rather than the baby artichokes the recipe called for; my local supermarket isn't so great about stocking "exotic" items. The first step (after all the boring chopping, which is never included in estimates of how long the dish will take to prepare, grr) was to warm the butter with the slivered garlic and aromatics. Yes, I cheated and used a pre-made bouquet garni that came in a jar from Williams Sonoma, via my Christmas stocking from my mother-in-law.Once I started adding the chopped vegetables (frozen artichokes which I'd perhaps over-thawed in the microwave, quartered fingerling potatoes, carrots, rutabaga, and peeled shallots) it became abundantly clear that I had drastically overestimated the capacity of my Le Creuset braiser and needed to swap it out for the deeper dutch oven. I made the switch, losing only a few pieces of fingerling and an artichoke or two, and let it go for a few minutes. The vegetables were supposed to get some nice color, but they were so packed in there they were steaming more than sizzling. Eventually I gave up and moved on to the next step, tossing with flour for thickener, adding the liquid and simmering until everything was good and tender.
The recipe calls for white wine; I like to use dry vermouth for its bright, herbal flavor. Thank you, Julia Child! And thanks to Cook's Illustrated for taste testing commercial brands of canned vegetable stock. Swanson's got the highest marks for flavor, so that's what's in my pantry.

The end result was simple and delicious. A surprisingly flavorful broth with large (a little too large, for my taste--next time I'd dice more conservatively) chunks of meltingly soft root vegetables. The whole shallots, especially, were like candy, sweet and addictive. The chopped parsley and rosemary sprinkled over the top added more than just a bit of pretty greenery; the clean sharpness of the fresh herbs contrasted nicely with the earthy vegetables. I served it with sourdough bread to soak up the juices. Stinger had two bowls!
And then this morning, I tossed some of the drained leftovers with cubed whole grain bread and a couple of eggs beaten with milk. Baked it in a buttered pan at 350 for half an hour, and voila! Savory breakfast bread pudding. Yum!And there's still some ASPG leftover. Deborah says the recipe makes four servings! I'm not sure what sort of bottomless pit Deb is cooking for, but Stinger and I will be enjoying this ragout, in various incarnations, for days.

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 9:45 AM 3 comments  

Labels: Artichoke, breakfast, Deborah Madison, dinner, Potato, Ragout, Shallot, Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone

I have always loved breakfast. When people tell me they don't really eat it, I'm baffled. How can they pass up the chance at fare like pecan waffles, blueberry pancakes, Greek yogurt with honey and walnuts? Not to mention the savory stuff--oh, sweet fancy Moses, how I miss New York bagels with lox and cream cheese! Even something as simple as cream of wheat with brown sugar or steel-cut Irish oatmeal with golden raisins and bananas can be wonderful. I could never pick a favorite breakfast food, but there's one advantage eggs have over every other choice--Stinger makes them.

Stinger is the undisputed King of the Egg at our house. And he worked hard to earn that title. He doesn't just scramble the eggs--he delicately whisks them with butter, salt, and pepper over very low heat until they form soft, silky curds. You need a spoon to eat them. He spent hours watching and rewatching Julia Child's show on omelettes, perfecting his technique. Now, we have perfect French omelettes, beautiful, thin envelopes of barely cooked egg around fillings like sauteed spinach and mushrooms with scallions or diced ham and gruyere. Even fried eggs, that specialty of short-order cooks everywhere, gets the royal treatment in our kitchen. Stinger consulted Fernand Point and now his process for preparing eggs sunnyside up involves gently cooking the egg on one side until the white is just opaque, then pouring hot melted butter over the top to set it. And I'm here to tell you, old Fernand knew what he was talking about--the results are like no diner egg you've ever had. We like to serve them on buttered toast; in the pic above, it's this fabulous seed bread a friend of ours baked. Yum!

So what's your favorite breakfast dish, and who in your family is the master of it?

Posted by Louisa Edwards at 9:18 AM 5 comments  

Labels: breakfast, eggs, Fernand Point, Julia Child