Last Sunday I followed up on that plan to do a lasagna (or enchilada torte, as it's the same thing really, just with corn tortillas instead of lasagna noodles) a month with the pumpkin lasagna I was thinking of.
"meat" layer -- dry black beans, soaked and cooked with a little seasoning
veggie layers -- the white part of a bunch of green onions, one large white onion, and a few cloves of garlic, all chopped and sauteed; a red bell pepper, an orange one, and a green one, all chopped and mixed together in a bowl
cheese layer -- a container of fat-free cottage cheese with the green part of the green onions chopped and mixed-in
sauce -- a pumpkin sauce with some freshly chopped sage, a little rosemary, baking spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, mace), rum, pumpkin, fat-free evaporated milk, and a little walnut oil
Only two of the three layers of lasagna had the onion blend, and only two had black beans (because I forgot about them until I'd already done the second layer other than that. I sprinkled some shredded "sharp" cheddar ("sharp" is in quotes, as the yellow shredded stuff is never what I consider sharp, being spoiled by the 4-yr Black Diamond on occasion) over the top, and baked as usual.
It turned out well, especially considering it was an experiment. The cheddar was a good choice, but I think I might add some (or some other sharp or sharp-ish cheese) to the middle layers if/when I do this sort of thing again. The main part of the lasagna was pleasant enough, but was a little soft in its flavors. Anyway, it was liked, and judged a success.
2009/12/22
2009/12/05
It's been a while since I've posted here. It does make me feel a bit better that similar can be said for the people I know personally whose blogs I follow; I wouldn't follow any of them if it required actually going to their blogs to see if they'd updated, since they do as rarely as I have.
Anyway, I've decided to post here a little more regularly. I probably won't often, especially with Facebook for short updates and so on, but even once a month will be more than I have been.
I decided recently that I want to make a lasagna (or lasagna-style dish, like an enchilada torte, which is a lasagna with corn tortillas instead of lasagna noodles -- down to the same baking directions) at least once a month -- probably every four weeks or so. I wanted to do something like this before, but tried to do so more frequently than that, and it didn't last long. So this time I'm trying to be more realistic.
The inspiration for this is in part that Mark bakes bread pretty much every weekend (and bagels almost every Sunday, and cookies for when either of us has to take cookies to our lab meeting groups, or just because it's been a while since we've had cookies at home). I wanted something that I just throw together that seems all special and fancy, too. I also thought it would be nice to be able to throw together a lasagna on a whim, based on what we have or what sounds good.
Two weeks ago, I started this once a month thing with an enchilada torte with a tomatillo-cilantro sauce. I made the sauce from some fresh tomatillos, a bunch of fresh cilantro, a can of green chiles, and the white part of a bunch of green onions. The green part was mixed into a small container of cottage cheese for the middle layer. I sauteed a bag of frozen pepper and onion blend, and mixed in a box of neufchatel (inspired by a chicken enchilada recipe I've made before, though this torte was vegetarian). I did two layers of the pepper and onion blend, and one of the cottage cheese blend between layers of corn tortillas and the sauce, and sprinkled a Mexican blend of shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 for somewhere in the neighborhood of half an hour, and yum.
I still have two weeks to figure out what the next one will be. Maybe it'll be a fall harvest lasagna with a pumpkin sauce. It's been a few weeks since we did something like that (not the lasagna, but the pumpkin). I don't know how many cans of pumpkin we've been through in the past few years, and we still have yet to make a pumpkin pie.
Anyway, I've decided to post here a little more regularly. I probably won't often, especially with Facebook for short updates and so on, but even once a month will be more than I have been.
I decided recently that I want to make a lasagna (or lasagna-style dish, like an enchilada torte, which is a lasagna with corn tortillas instead of lasagna noodles -- down to the same baking directions) at least once a month -- probably every four weeks or so. I wanted to do something like this before, but tried to do so more frequently than that, and it didn't last long. So this time I'm trying to be more realistic.
The inspiration for this is in part that Mark bakes bread pretty much every weekend (and bagels almost every Sunday, and cookies for when either of us has to take cookies to our lab meeting groups, or just because it's been a while since we've had cookies at home). I wanted something that I just throw together that seems all special and fancy, too. I also thought it would be nice to be able to throw together a lasagna on a whim, based on what we have or what sounds good.
Two weeks ago, I started this once a month thing with an enchilada torte with a tomatillo-cilantro sauce. I made the sauce from some fresh tomatillos, a bunch of fresh cilantro, a can of green chiles, and the white part of a bunch of green onions. The green part was mixed into a small container of cottage cheese for the middle layer. I sauteed a bag of frozen pepper and onion blend, and mixed in a box of neufchatel (inspired by a chicken enchilada recipe I've made before, though this torte was vegetarian). I did two layers of the pepper and onion blend, and one of the cottage cheese blend between layers of corn tortillas and the sauce, and sprinkled a Mexican blend of shredded cheese on top. Bake at 350 for somewhere in the neighborhood of half an hour, and yum.
I still have two weeks to figure out what the next one will be. Maybe it'll be a fall harvest lasagna with a pumpkin sauce. It's been a few weeks since we did something like that (not the lasagna, but the pumpkin). I don't know how many cans of pumpkin we've been through in the past few years, and we still have yet to make a pumpkin pie.
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