For dinner tonight, I did what I've thought of doing a number of times, but kept not following through on: I made a lasagna with a peanut sauce, inspired by Thai dishes I've eaten. It didn't work out quite the same as other lasagnas I've done, as I usually depend on the liquid in the sauce to cook the noodles while the lasagna bakes, but the amount of the sauce and the nature of it meant that there wasn't enough; however, pouring a little water in the sauce that collected around the edge and putting some foil over it part way through baking seemed to solve the problem just fine.
I don't have measurements for much of anything I put in, as I wasn't working from a recipe, and was making it up as I went along.
Sauce:
- the white part of a bunch of green onions, sliced
- a couple inches of the stems from a bunch of cilantro, chopped (cilantro leaves should work ok, too, but Mark had used some, and I wanted to save some for something else)
Saute the green onions and cilantro stems in a little bit of peanut oil in a small pan. Add:
- soy sauce
- a splash of rice vinegar
- dried basil and lemongrass, depending on preferences
Add enough of the liquid to cover the bottom of the pan, but not quite enough to cover the onions and cilantro. Simmer for a couple minutes. Add:
- natural peanut butter
I added the last of the peanut butter we had. I think it was more than a half cup, but less than a cup. Stir the peanut and soy sauce mixture as the peanut butter melts. Add skim milk to thin out the peanut-soy-seasoning taste and make a nice pourable sauce. I probably would have used some coconut milk if we had it, diluted with skim milk.
Cheese:
I mixed about 2/3 of a large container of cottage cheese with two eggs, and sprinkled in some dried lemongrass and dried galangal. Ginger probably would have worked just fine.
Veggies:
I used shredded carrot, about 2/3 of a bag of "broccoli slaw", and a bag of pea pods (sliced to make more bite-sized pieces). I'd probably go a little easier on the broccoli slaw if I were to do it again; the final result was tasty, but I think the veggie to cheese and sauce ratio was a little high.
I was trying to decide what kind of cheese to put on top still when I put it in the oven, so there wasn't any. After it baked for a while, I poured some of the sauce that collected around the side of the lasagna over the top; it had started to thicken, so it stayed there a bit better than at first. As I mentioned, I needed to add some water around the sides to help the noodles cook; next time I make a sauce like that I'll remember that might be necessary.
I thought it turned out ok. Mark seemed to like it, as he not only said he did, but he also ate more pieces of it than he usually does for the dinner when I first serve a lasagna. So, definitely a repeat.
Updated:
I'd forgotten that I'd done a similar lasagna before, but Monica remembered me sharing about it elsewhere. I did, and here's a summary of the differences:
Sauce:
This lasagna's sauce was a peanut sauce with a little cilantro. The other one was a cilantro sauce with a little peanut; it also had more rice vinegar, and coconut milk and crushed red pepper.
Cheese:
The cheese layers for this one were made from cottage cheese and egg. The other one used ricotta. Both had lemongrass and galangal.
Veggies:
The veggies for this one were broccoli, carrots, and pea pods. The other one had a bag of frozen three pepper and onion blend.
Top:
This one had no cheese on top. The other had a gouda we needed to find a use for.
Now that I remember making that other one, I remember it being good. It was definitely different from this one, even though it was similar thoughts that brought both about. I'm amused that the lemongrass and galangal in the cheese layer seems to be a constant for me.
Showing posts with label lasagna. Show all posts
Showing posts with label lasagna. Show all posts
2010/03/14
Another food post
I made another lasagna a few weeks after the last one I posted about. For that one, I went a little more "normal" with it -- a tomato sauce with ricotta and mozzarella (or maybe an "Italian" blend of cheese) on top. Veggies were peppers and onions. Still vegetarian. (It's been years since I've cooked meat. Eat it on occasion still, but haven't cooked any in quite a while.)
Being me, I couldn't just have everything be straight from the container. For the sauce, I used our usual tomato-sauce base -- we never use it straight from the jar as-is -- for a vodka sauce. When I've previously made a vodka sauce, it's been a "cream" sauce ("cream" is in quote b/c I use fat-free dairy instead), but this time I didn't add any dairy to the sauce. (We never drink vodka -- preferring drinks made with rum, and not really drinking much of those to begin with -- but we have gone through one bottle and most of a second since I first made a vodka cream sauce.)
It was apparently a hit. Mark said it was probably the best lasagna I've made to date.
I started preparing parts for tonight's "lasagna" (which is going to be an enchilada torte) before Mark got up, so he woke up to food smells coming from the kitchen. It's good that he thinks they're good ones.
I'm turning that same tomato-sauce base into a mole, and I've seasoned some TVP based on a chorizo recipe. Instead of cheese layers, I'm going to have some refried beans. Veggies will again be peppers and onions.
We'll see how it turns out.
Being me, I couldn't just have everything be straight from the container. For the sauce, I used our usual tomato-sauce base -- we never use it straight from the jar as-is -- for a vodka sauce. When I've previously made a vodka sauce, it's been a "cream" sauce ("cream" is in quote b/c I use fat-free dairy instead), but this time I didn't add any dairy to the sauce. (We never drink vodka -- preferring drinks made with rum, and not really drinking much of those to begin with -- but we have gone through one bottle and most of a second since I first made a vodka cream sauce.)
It was apparently a hit. Mark said it was probably the best lasagna I've made to date.
I started preparing parts for tonight's "lasagna" (which is going to be an enchilada torte) before Mark got up, so he woke up to food smells coming from the kitchen. It's good that he thinks they're good ones.
I'm turning that same tomato-sauce base into a mole, and I've seasoned some TVP based on a chorizo recipe. Instead of cheese layers, I'm going to have some refried beans. Veggies will again be peppers and onions.
We'll see how it turns out.
2009/12/22
Lasagna the second
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.
"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.
2009/12/05
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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