roasted vegetable

Still not quite there on the Pollo alla Griglia…

~ Gary Bechard ~ 2 Comments

Well, well, well I am still trying to finish my chicken over greens recipe (not surprising, however) but the good news is I came up with a new recipe that turned out really well and you will never miss the meat. I have always had a fascination with doing meatless or low meat recipes and it comes from when I was in Italy with the Army. When we were in the countryside and eating on the economy I noticed that the Italian cooks used meat as almost a side dish and highlighted the fresh vegetable ingredients. I am attempting to do the same with some of my dishes.

Ain’t No Chicken in Here

(Eggplant cutlets )

Gary Bechard – The Well Fed Cyclist

Ingredients – 

3 – Eggplant, medium size

2 1/2 cups – Plain Panko breadcrumbs

3 cups – All purpose white flour (or, if you want to get earthy with it whole wheat)

1 cup – grated parmesan cheese

4 tbsp – Dried Italian seasoning  (or 1 tbsp each of oregano, parsley, thyme, rosemary)

3 tsp – Sea Salt, coarse ground, (or to taste)

2 tsp – Black pepper, coarse ground (or to taste)

20’ish ounces – Spaghetti sauce (1 small jar)

7 to 8 slices – Mozzarella cheese (I sliced a ball of mozzarella into 1/4 in slices for my dish so they were smaller than the pre-sliced at the grocery store)

Small jar of whole Roasted Red Bell Peppers

4 – Large eggs

Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Construction Instruction – 

Cutlet Breading – In a one gallon plastic bag, place the breadcrumbs, flour, parmesan, Italian seasoning, salt and pepper

Eggplant Preparation – Peel the eggplants and slice into 1/2 to 3/4 inch slices and place on a plate. You should end up with 6 to 8 slices when you are done. Next, beat the eggs and place them in a bowl or baking dish that you can use to dip the slices in and next to that dish another dish with the breadcrumb mixture. You should have a kind of assembly line thing going on.(Hint: I usually will bread three of the slices before firing up the skillet so that I can do them at the same time.) On the opposite side of the skillet I set up the baking dish (9 X 13) I will use to bake them in.

        Eggplant slices > Egg wash > Breadcrumbs > Skillet > Baking Dish

Cooking – In the large skillet cover the bottom with a light coating of olive oil and bring the pan up to heat making sure that the temperature is not too high because olive oil has a low smoke point. Pan grill the eggplant cutlets until the breading is golden brown.

Assembly – Next place the cutlets in a single layer on a 9 X 13 baking dish where a thin layer of spaghetti sauce is on the bottom. On top each of the cutlets place the remaining spaghetti sauce  and then a single layer of the roasted red bell pepper. For the last step layer the mozzarella slices on each of the cutlets. Then cover the baking dish with foil and bake at 350 degrees for 35 to 40 minutes, depending on the thickness of the cutlets.

Uses – I used this as a main dish as a replacement for the meat and served this with roasted asparagus and wild rice. 

Enjoy!

the Well Fed Cyclist – Gary Bechard

We ALL want alternatives…(sometimes)

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Once upon a time in a lovely oceanside village, there lived a magical gnome who liked to play with his squash, even though his mother told him that squash should never be played with because nobody should play with their food. No, not really and all kidding aside, there really is no magical gnome and playing with squash, or any food for that matter, can be fun and rewarding.

Over the past few weeks I have been playing around with the noble spaghetti squash and have been trying to find ways to prepare it that are different from what the name suggests. Everyone in the world has done a version that ends up like a spaghetti casserole with ooey gooey mozzarella cheese and a jar of spaghetti sauce mixed in, baked and browned. Yes, I have done the squash in the traditional way and yes it turned out well but it was a “been there done that” kind of thing. In addition, I did an Asian version where I prepared the squash took out the “noodles” and did a quick pan fry adding them to a stir fry of chicken, zucchini, carrots, yellow squash, assorted peppers to act as noodles. I may post the Asian version at another time but I am most excited about my Spanish version.

This recipe is not complicated but you will need some time to allow the flavors of the Spanish Sofrito sauce to come together (about 30 minutes) but you can start the sauce when you put the spaghetti squash in the oven to bake so that will shorten the overall time you spend cooking. So without further delay, here is the recipe.

La Calabaza Gnomo (Gnome Squash)

Ingredients –

Spaghetti Squash – Medium
1/2 Medium Sweet Onion – diced fine
1/2 Poblano Pepper – diced fine
1/2 Green Pepper – diced fine
1/3 cup Carrots – peeled, diced fine
3 cloves Garlic – minced
3 ounces uncured Pancetta – diced
28 ounce can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
15 ounce can tomato sauce, plain, no salt
1/4(‘ish) teaspoon sweet paprika
3 Bay leaves
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Salt – to taste (a few grinds from a salt mill)
Pepper – to taste (a few grinds from a pepper mill)
Lemon Juice – A squirt or half a lemon juiced

Construction Instruction –
Squash – First take the squash wash the outside and cut off the ends, just the stem and flower parts, making sure that you retain parts of each end. Cut the squash in half the long way. Note: you will notice that the squash is kind of shaped like a football or rugby ball so it will be easy to figure out the long way. Turn the halves over and scoop out the seeds. Next, rub the inside of the squash with Extra Virgin Olive Oil and salt and pepper to taste. Take out a cookie sheet, line with parchment paper and place the squash flat side down. Make sure you poke some holes through the skin on the outside of the squash to release some steam and pressure during the cooking process. Place the squash in an oven that has been preheated to 425 degrees and bake for 40 minutes. After the squash is done, take it out of the oven and set aside for it to cool before taking out the spaghetti squash strands. When cool enough to handle, take a fork and scrape strands of squash and place in a bowl for later.

Noodle-riffic!

Sauce – While the squash is doing its thing in the oven, in a large sauce pot, drizzle a small amount of Extra Virgin Olive Oil in the bottom and bring up to temperature. Reminder: Olive oil has a low smoke point so make sure to use a lower heat (just below medium) so as to not burn the oil. Take the diced pancetta and place in the bottom and keep it moving so you can render all that fatty goodness from the pancetta. Once the pancetta is done, add the garlic, onions and peppers and sautee them until the onions are translucent and the peppers a bit soft (normally around 2 to 4 minutes). Next, add the carrots and keep them moving as well until just a bit tender (another 2 to 4 minutes). Once everything seems like it is coming together add in the fire roasted tomatoes and the can of tomato sauce. Mix everything together so all the ingredients are evenly distributed, add the paprika, bay leaves and lemon juice, give it a good stir so that all the good things come together. Kind of think of it as a party where everyone needs to mingle and get to know each other. Reduce the heat to low and simmer for 25 to 30 minutes making sure that you continue to stir. This evens out the temperature of the mixture in the pot and prevents scorching the bottom of the sauce.

This is what the mixture looks like before you add the tomato sauces

Combination – Take the noodles that were set aside add them to a large skillet, remove the bay leaves from the sauce, then add enough sauce to cover the noodles and fold everything together so that all the noodles are coated with sauce. I warm everything up for around 5 to ten minutes over medium low heat. Then…Serve! I did a side of arugula salad with cherry tomatoes and a very light vinaigrette dressing.

If you have leftovers, you can do what I did which was put them in a small baking dish sprinkled shredded sharp cheddar and colby jack cheese to bake for a nice little casserole side. (you can do this by preheating the oven to 300 degrees and bake until bubbly around the sides and the cheese has melted)

Enjoy!
The Well Fed Cyclist
Gary Bechard

Getting something to come out of the closet…

~ Gary Bechard ~ Leave a comment

Did you ever look at things in your pantry and wonder, “what in the world was I thinking when I bought that?” I know that I have and that is what happened before this recipe was created. You see, there was a time when I was thoroughly enamored of the “South Beach Diet”. I decided to do that diet after gaining about 10 pounds eating from recipes that came out of Paula Dean’s cookbooks (she has gotten better, however, because I think her sons are making her). There I was kitchen cruising one Saturday looking for something different to have with grilled fare and ran across a box of couscous tucked way in the back behind some random cat treats. Thinking that cat treats really would not go with grilled anything, I decided on the couscous. I remembered couscous from my South Beach phase and also remembered that it was something the South Beach diet was in love with because of its being whole grain and such. The box was leftover because we rapidly found out that eating the South Beach way costs an extra couple hundred dollars a week, if you are doing it correctly and that is all I have to say about that.

Couscous on its own is pretty nondescript and has a sort of nutty taste to it. It is very easy to prepare and most of the times will only take about five minutes. I figured a good way to dress it up would be to add some roasted or grilled vegetables to it. I like this recipe warm or cold so the decision would be up to you depending on what you are having. If you are having burgers and such, cold is most likely the way to go. You can even prepare it a day ahead so the flavors REALLY get to know each other (a veritable vegetable orgy, if you will). I like it warm when I am serving chicken or roasted pork. I hope you enjoy this recipe.

Revved up Roasted Vegetable Couscous
(makes 4 to 5 servings)

1 – Red bell pepper
1 – Green bell pepper
2 – Sweet onion slices (kid of on the hefty side)
5 – Large Portobello mushroom slices
15 to 20 – Asparagus stalks
Kosher salt – to taste
Coarse ground black pepper – to taste
Rosemary – to taste
Basil – to taste
Garlic powder – to taste
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 – Box of couscous (normally the box will have a bit more than a cup of stuff in it and a serving is ¼ cup dry)

There are a couple of ways you can go here with the vegetables. I normally do them inside on a cookie sheet but if you are feeling froggy and want to do them outside on the grill that is okay too.

Oven instructions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees (you can do 400 but sometimes the vegetables roast too fast) and take out two regular sized cookie sheets. Slice the peppers (I normally cut mine into 8 pieces to do the roasting) and place on a cookie sheet (or baking pan) with the onions and Portobello mushrooms. For the other cookie sheet, prepare the asparagus spears by taking one spear and gently bending it while holding the ends until it breaks. Where it breaks is the length you will cut the remaining spears to. Doing this gets rid of the hardened and bitter ends. (Think the curmudgeonly old man parts of the asparagus.) Place the spears in a single level on the cookie sheet. Over each set of vegetables drizzle (don’t drown) with olive oil and toss to make sure they are all coated (you going to sort of tan them), season with your desired amount of herbal goodness and place in the oven until done. If you are like my daughter, you will want to know what “done” looks like. So to that end, the peppers will soften and blacken around the edges, the mushrooms will become soft shrink and darken, the onions will become translucent and soft and the asparagus spears will shrink, become softer and blacken at the ends. After the vegetables are done, set aside to cool.

Grill instructions:
I have a perforated stainless steel cooking sheet that I use for vegetables on the grill. The difference between the oven and the grill is that I brush them with olive oil and season as I am grilling them but they will look the same when they are done. The grill I normally try for between 350 and 400 degrees and do all the vegetables at the same time and take them off as they get done.

Next, prepare the couscous per the package instructions and while that is happening medium chop the vegetables. When the couscous is done add vegetables and mix until all vegetables are evenly distributed.

If you want this can be served warm (you will most likely need to heat the vegetables up after chopping them while the couscous is cooking) or you can cool everything in the refrigerator for about a half hour and serve tossed with a couple splashes of white balsamic vinegar (or your favorite Italian oil and vinegar dressing).

Enjoy!