Herby red wine beans!

1/2 cup dried romano beans

1/2 cup black eyed peas

Soak beans overnight. In fresh salted (1 tsp sea salt) water, bring beans to boil, turn down and simmer until beans are tender (about an hour... but keep checking. The aim is to cook til tender but try not to let the beans burst their skins.... They are done when you blow on a bean the skin bursts)

In a large pot/skillet, heat up around 1 tbs olive oil, add 1 tsp dried marjoram and 1 tsp dried thyme, saute until fragrance is released then add 1 onion finely chopped and 2 cloves of garlic minced.

Dice:

2 carrots

1 turnip

6 new red potatoes or 1 large potato

2 portabello mushrooms or1 cups sliced cremini/white mushrooms

Add above vegetables to onions, cover skillet and continue to gently saute vegetables over a low heat to let mushrooms release juices and the root vegetables to start cooking in steam. Add 1/8 cup of dried porcini bits.

Add 1/2 cup of red wine to above and continue to cook gently.

Add the cooked beans.

When root vegetables are cooked, you're done!

Add freshly chopped parsley, black pepper and salt to taste.

Serve as is or with mashed potatoes or rice.

Saturday, June 26, 2010: Vegan Risotto Pie

Vegan Risotto Pie Inspired by Mela in Yorkville, Toronto

In olive oil:
Saute finely diced onion/shallots with minced garlic and add dried basil

Add sliced mushrooms and keep stirring until the mushrooms have released their juices.

Add around 1/2 cup of uncooked rice (I used brown short grain organic rice even though traditional risotto insists upon Arborio rice which apparently goes creamier--I suspect it has higher starch content) and coat with the oil in the pan.

Slowly add an equal amount of Vermouth (I think you can also use white wine) a little at a time, letting each addition be absorbed before adding more.

THEN I completely go off the charts and I just DUMP IN 1 cup ( basically one part rice, two parts liquid, here in case you want to scale up or down) of water/vegetable stock. This is a radical departure from traditional risotto cooking which requires you to stand and stir in little amounts of liquid, allowing each addition to be completely absorbed before adding more. I don't know what havoc will ensue if you tried just dumping in all the liquid in one go with Arborio rice, but I tried with short grain brown rice and it was FINE. Unless you need time by yourself and find stirring in liquid and watching rice slowly expand to be relaxing and beneficial, I say to heck with it! Throw in the liquid, let it reach bubbling, then turn down the heat to minimum, cover and let the rice aLONE.

Let's move on. While the rice cooks, peel and slice rutabaga/celery root/potato (choose just one or a combo of the roots), toss lightly with olive oil, place on a pie plate and roast in a 350 degree Fahrenheit oven for 20 minutes.

When the root vegetables are done, pile torn kale on top of them and then either diced tomato/tomato sauce on top.

When rice is done, stir in soy cream cheese, black pepper and salt. Mix well and then put this on top of the root vegetable/kale/tomato layers. You might want to add a second layer of tomato substance on top of the rice. Put everything back into the oven for another 20-30 minutes.