You know, Your Elf LOVES writin’ this little blog, mostly because we hope y’all enjoy it and benefit a bit from it. Howsomever, we also enjoy bein’ real and this blog is so full of the realities of cookin’, it’s kinda scary. We do not claim to have all the answers to a plant-based way of eating nor do we make believe everything we prepare is done perfectly. Well, this week’s elf-fort will most certainly assure that we present our kitchen antics, warts and all. We have two dishes to share with you this week, so we’ll just jump right in.
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You all know we’ve promised to prepare a dish from a Dean Ornish recipe and that we’ve been challenged actually FINDIN’ a Dean Ornish cookbook (which we finally did). In fact, we ordered not ONE but TWO Ornish ‘cookbooks’ that turned out to be not such good resources and were returned to Amazon. So to make sure we didn’t fail this week, we went back to his original BOOK with an incredibly long title: Dr. Dean Ornish’s Program for Reversing Heart Disease published in 1990 and found a recipe we thought would be fun to make and eat. The recipe was Enchiladas and Tomatillo Sauce. Now, we’ve never cooked with Tomatillos before though we’ve wanted to…so what better opportunity. For the uninitiated, tomatillos are those little round green things in the grocery store that look like they are covered in green crepe paper. So, after we got all our ingredients (FOR SURE!), we commenced with the recipe. This recipe calls for a tomatillo sauce, so we got our ‘mise en place’ to prepare that first and have it ready.
From left to right chopped tomatoes, minced garlic, chopped onions, The Gentle Chef’s Plant-based Golden Chicken Bouillon (we always use that instead of vegetable broth), chopped cilantro, a pound and a quarter of tomatillos with the paper skin removed (aren’t they pretty?), and rice vinegar. The tomatillos are boiled in water for about 5 minutes, drained, pureed, and set aside.
After braising the onions in water,
the remaining ingredients are added and cooked down. The pureed tomatillos are added and VIOLA, tomatillo sauce. We can tell you one thing for CERTAIN…this may be the first time we’ve ever cooked with tomatillos but it won’t be the last. OK, onward and enchilada-ward…following the tomatillo sauce, we got our remaining ‘mise en place’, again left to right.
Of course, THE BOOK!, a passel of mushrooms, chopped zucchini and red bell pepper, Merlot, ground cumin, oregano, and Ancho chile paste (soaked a dried Ancho chile til soft and pureed with a wee bit of soaking water). We braised the onions in the Merlot along with garlic and spices until the mixture was tender
then added the mushrooms (these were shiitakes from Mr. Chen’s Grocery),
followed by the coarsely chopped red bell pepper
and finally the zucchini. We wanted the pepper and zucchini to retain some crispness, so the cooking order was important.
Now, we got so caught up in the next ‘mess’, we completely forgot to take a picture of the final vegetable cook-down for the enchilada filling but here’s a later photo. You can see how yummy this looks after we’d added the chile paste and additional seasonings.
OK folks, here’s where we went off the rails. The recipe calls for fat free soft corn tortillas. Four stores later, our elf-forts proved futile until FINALLY, we found ONE pack of soft corn tortillas (1g of fat). They were 6” rather than 10” but we were desperate, so snatched them up. We also had purchased whole wheat tortillas (10”) but the fat grams were too high, so we thought we’d use them for ourowns-elf’s. We got two glass pans ready and commenced to fill our enchiladas after steaming them for added pliability. We filled the first one and began to wrap them when the tortilla just BROKE APART. Profanity escaped our lips, especially when it occurred on the second one. THEN we notice that, emblazoned across the front of the tortilla package were the words (and you can most likely guess) “GLUTEN FREE”. Oh hell. Well, we filled five as best we could
and readied for the oven. You can SEE how crumbly and fragile these are. We were SO upset but covered with foil anyway, determined to follow it through. The second set of tortillas were very easy to fill and tuck into a pan. No problem!! In the meantime, we decided to cook some Boca crumbles to add to the filling and were delightfully reminded that these are fat-free!!
The enchiladas baked for about 20 minutes to heat through and through. The final Ornish Enchilada looked like this, with tomatillo sauce! The total fat per two enchiladas, according to the nutritional values listed in the book, was 3.7 grams. And remember that's with the low or fat-free 10" corn tortillas and not these dreadful gluten free ones!
Certainly not very appealing! The wheat tortilla enchilada serving looked like this (with a sprinkling of grated Daiya vegan cheese)...much better.
Now, there is no doubt in our little Elfin mind that, had we been able to find the soft corn tortillas the recipe called for, it would have been wonderful!! And, with the Boca crumbles being fat free, adding a small amount to the filling would certainly be acceptable. So, the lesson is to NOT substitute gluten free tortillas and to be sure to find the right ones!! The dish is really good, even though Big Solid was less than enthusiastic about it. He prefers a crispier offering, such as hard tacos. Another option, rather than the enchiladas, would be a wrap (again, using the correct tortilla) like this one we had for lunch yesterday
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The second recipe we tried this week was the Moroccan Tagine
from the new Power Plates Cookbook by Gena Hamshaw. Not only is this cookbook chock full of really great recipes, it is GORGEOUS! We will no doubt be using this quite often!
A Tagine really gets its name from the earthenware pot in which this delicious stew is cooked. Pretty cute! Want one!
Once again, we had the ingredients on hand (even the 'dreaded' eggplant), we LOVE Moroccan cuisine, AND we even had Preserved Lemons (a staple in Moroccan cooking) from Lauren Rhoades’ Sweet and Sauer.
So, while this looks to be a bit labor intensive, once we got everything chopped, diced, sliced, and drained...it went quickly. We got our ‘mise en place’; minced garlic, red wine vinegar, fire-roasted diced tomatoes, ground coriander, ground cumin, chickpeas, allspice, red pepper flakes, EVOO, tempeh, zucchini, red onion, and the ‘dreaded’ eggplant.
We sautéed the onion in a teaspoon of EVOO until tender and added our garlic and freshly grated ginger (which we forgot to add to our overall ingredient picture).Then we added the cubed zucchini and tomatoes followed by the drained and rinsed chickpeas,
the spices (cinnamon, allspice, coriander, cumin, red pepper flakes, and some salt) which we stirred a bit to let the flavors soak in.
Next came the raisins and chicken bouillon (our plant-based recipe from The Gentle Chef). This was brought to a boil, heat reduced, covered and allowed to simmer for about 20 minutes. Then, as we say in the South, ‘we got to thinkin’, when do we add the ‘dreaded’ eggplant that we’d cubed, salted and rinsed BECAUSE the next instructions told us to uncover after 20 minutes and stir until the eggplant was very tender. Well, we went back and re-read the instructions about three times and NOWHERE is there mention of adding the ‘dreaded’ eggplant. So, we decided to go to the source herowns-elf and ask. Sure enough, not only did Ms. Hamshaw respond quickly, she also concluded that there was indeed a typo that will be corrected AND the 'dreaded' eggplant is added with the zucchini!
When the tagine was nice and thick, we added our tempeh that we’d cubed and browned earlier and the red wine vinegar and we were ready to plate and eat. The aromas of Moroccan cooking are spectacular and had our little elfin mouth just-a waterin’. We also had peeled a Preserved Lemon, putting the pulp in the VitaMix with the bouillon to add a kick to the liquids, and slivered the peel to use as a flavorful garnish. If you look closely at the picture above, you can see the slivered lemon peel in the left corner. We also pan-grilled a home-made Bratwurst (The Gentle Chef’s wonderful sausage analogs) just in case Big Solid discovered that there was the ‘dreaded’ eggplant in the recipe and balked. The Tagine was served over farro
and we dove in.
Listen up—this was so good we could hardly stand it! AND, though the recipe did not call for Preserved Lemons we were darn glad to have had them on hand!! They added just the right tartness that brought out the wonderful flavors. We are big fans of tempeh, so this was just a great dish. And, if Big Solid had issues with the 'dreaded' eggplant, he sure didn’t say anything.
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We continue to enjoy our Air Fryer…A LOT! If you are considering one, here’s a link to a review that you might find helpful.
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And we leave you with a bit of a teaser…the coming week will see Your Elf on a new adventure!! We hope to fill you in a bit more next Sunday!! So, 'til then remember to LOOK for the GOOD, be an EXAMPLE of the GOOD, and ACT for the GOOD as HARD as you can, in as MANY WAYS as you can, EVERY DAY that you can. Your Elf.
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