Eggplant-Pepper Pasta Sauce

This past week at the public market, I bought some cute little eggplants (they're only 3 or 4 inches long).  We found this one to be a bit humorous...

Photo courtesy of Jeremy. :) 

 I wanted to use a bunch of veggies tonight as I knew some of my bell peppers and my tomatoes were not going to last too much longer.  So I decided to make a pasta sauce out of them.  I roasted all of the veggies together in the oven and then blended them until they were smooth.  Delicious! And vegan!  We're true omnivores, but we appreciate a meal filled with vegetables. :)

This sauce was really simple to make and tasted amazing.  It was spicy thanks to the habanero and cherry pepper I put in it -- I mean, really spicy.  Cut back or use jalapenos or some other pepper if you don't like spicy food.

I cooked up some whole wheat rotini and added half the sauce.  I have the other half in the freezer, ready for another meal some time in the future. :)

This pasta ended up looking a lot like mac and cheese.  This was probably in part because of the very light color of the eggplant I had.  I love shopping at the public market.  I find so many varieties of veggies that I've never had before.  A great way to experiment with new veggies.  Farm fresh eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, onions, and garlic - Yum!

Recipe:
6 small eggplants, chopped (about 2 1/2 c. chopped eggplant)
2 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 red onion, quartered
7 roma tomatoes, chopped
5 garlic cloves, peeled
1 habanero pepper (optional)*
1 cherry bomb pepper (optional)*
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 tbs. olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Place veggies on a baking sheet and sprinkle on the salt and pepper.  Drizzle on the olive oil and mix to combine.  Roast for thirty minutes, stirring every 10-15 minutes, until softened and slightly browned.
2. Place veggies in a blender or food processor and puree until smooth (or as smooth as you want it).  Mix with cooked pasta and enjoy!

(Cook whatever pasta you'd like once the veggies have been in the oven for about 25 minutes.  I didn't start the pasta until after the veggies came out of the oven because I wasn't in a hurry.

* Note: these peppers added a nice spicy flavor (and it was spicy... even we were drinking a lot of water...).  You can certainly leave them out, add less, or change up what peppers you use.  Since Jeremy and I bought a selection of hot peppers at the public market, I've been using a couple of whatever I have on hand.

Wine-braised Short Ribs with Oven-baked Polenta and Green Beans

I've never cooked short ribs before.  I've eaten them plenty of times (I'm not usually the one who orders them... but I steal a bite whenever Jeremy gets them.).  Jeremy loves short ribs. So since the weather has gotten a little bit cooler, I decided to make some short ribs.  Clearly, this meal was allll for Jeremy... yeah... I'm going with that.  :)

This morning at the public market, we stopped by one of the meat counters and picked up some short ribs (along with our weekly vegetable haul... the bargains on fresh homegrown veggies are unbelievable).  The public market has to be one of my favorite things about Rochester... and we're really enjoying living here!

After reading a number of recipes, I did my usual and didn't follow any of them.  :)  I used the basic techniques and the timing of the recipes but made the flavors my own.  And the result -- delicious, amazing, beyond tasty.  The sauce had a nice sweetness from the veggies and wine (but not overly sweet) and had a very rich texture.  I used a lot of crushed red pepper flake in this meal so it was spicy.  You can cut back on that if you don't want spicy short ribs.  (As a note, the short ribs give off a lot of fat during the cooking.  You can try to skim that off.  If you cool the ribs it will congeal and can be removed.  We just scooped around it tonight, I'll remove it tomorrow.)

Don't be scared by the length of time this takes -- most of the cooking is done in the oven and so you're not really doing anything.  Perfect for a weekend meal.

I cooked the polenta after I took the short ribs out of the oven.  (I can't wait until I (eventually) have a kitchen with more than 1 oven...)  When the polenta had been in the oven for fifteen minutes I brought some water to a boil and cooked the green beans.  After draining, I dressed them with a little margarine.  Delicious!

I haven't said much about the polenta... I've made it before and it's very tasty.  It's amazing when you have dishes with a sauce or gravy for it to soak up.  And it's fairly healthy.  :)

I don't think I can adequately represent how absolutely amazing this meal was... Jeremy just asked if this can be our "Saturday meal."  While I will not make this every Saturday, this will not be the last time.

Luckily, we still have a lot left.  We probably ate only a third of the meat.  I will probably not be allowed to touch the pan again though... Jeremy gets a little protective of his short ribs.  :)

Recipe:
3 lbs. beef short ribs (whatever cut is fine)
1 medium carrot, finely diced
2 celery stalks, finely diced
2 medium red onions, finely diced
4 cloves garlic (about 2 tbs.), minced
1 tsp. crushed red pepper flakes
1 1/2 tsp. dried thyme leaves
2 tbs. tomato paste
2 c. red wine (I had a bottle of Yellowtail Shiraz so I used that)
1 tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 c. chicken stock (low sodium)
salt and pepper
2 tbs. vegetable oil

1. Season short ribs liberally with salt and pepper (I sprinkled probably 2 tsp. salt and 1 tsp. pepper over them in total.  Use what looks good to you.)
2. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
3. Heat a large oven-proof dutch oven over medium high heat.  Add oil.  When hot, add short ribs, in batches if necessary to avoid crowding the pan, until browned on all sides (this took about 10-12 minutes total for me).  Remove short ribs and drain oil, reserving about 2 tbs. in the pan.
4. Add carrot, celery, onion, and garlic to the pan.  Reduce heat to medium and saute, stirring frequently, until tender, 8-10 minutes.  Add tomato paste, red pepper flake, and thyme.  Cook for 2-3 minutes more, stirring frequently.
5. Add the wine, vinegar, and stock to the pan and bring to a boil.  Boil for 4-5 minutes until reduced slightly.
6. Return the short ribs and any accumulated juices to the pot.  (You want the ribs to be mostly, but not completely submerged.  Add water or stock if necessary so the ribs are mostly covered (I didn't need any extra but it will depend on the number of ribs you have and the shape of your pot.)).
7. Cover the pot and place in the oven.  Braise for 4 hours.  Turn the ribs over halfway through cooking.  (Check every couple hours to see if more liquid is needed to keep the ribs mostly submerged. I didn't add any.)
8.  Remove from oven, turn the ribs around in the sauce (mine broke apart... nice and tender).  Serve over polenta.

Polenta:
3/4 c. cornmeal
3 c. water
1/4 c. milk (I use skim)
2 tbs. margarine
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. pepper

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  In an oven-safe casserole dish (preferably with a lid), whisk together the cornmeal, water, salt, and pepper.  Cover the dish.
2. Bake for 30 minutes, stirring once halfway through.
3. Remove polenta from the oven and add milk and margarine.  Whisk until the margarine is melted and incorporated and the polenta is creamy.  Serve.

Lentil Veggie Soup

When the cat's away the mouse will play... with lentils. (Apparently I'm a mouse...) Jeremy is away doing research in Albany, leaving me by myself in Rochester.  I've never cooked lentils before but when I went grocery shopping this weekend, I decided to buy some and try.  And the result was a delicious (and vegan!) soup.

I used a lot of veggies to add bulk and depth of flavor to this soup.  I know I'm weird but I adore vegetables.  And this soup was a great way to use a lot of them.  I'm really pleased with how this soup turned out since I just sort of threw things at a pot if I felt like using it... really my preferred method of cooking. :)

I added a bit of hot sauce to my bowl right after I took the picture.  Stirred it in just to add a little bit of a vinegar/spicy flavor.  Delicious.  (You could add a little squeeze of lemon juice or a dash of vinegar if you don't want the spice... or it was delicious as is too.)

This was a thick soup... almost stew like.  Definitely had great flavor -- tasted like it had been cooking a really long time but was finished in under an hour.  This would have been great with some nice crusty bread to go along with it.  But since I don't have any bread made right now, I'm just having a big bowl of soup for dinner.

This was also a really inexpensive meal.  Any type of bean is cheap, lentils are no exception.  So using just a few spices and veggies I turned my pound of lentils into a large amount of yummy food.  And I have a huge pot of soup leftover.  :)

Recipe:
2 medium onions, diced finely
3 large carrots, diced
3 stalks celery, diced
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 c. baby spinach, chopped (You could substitute 1/2 c. frozen chopped spinach)
1 15 oz. can, diced tomatoes (no salt added)
3 tbs. tomato paste
1 lb. lentils (rinsed and picked over for stones, etc.)
8 c. water
1/2 c. red wine (I had a malbec open, so I used that)
1 tsp. ground coriander
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp. smoked paprika
1/4 tsp. tumeric
2 dried bay leaves
3 tbs. olive oil

1. Heat a large pot over medium high heat.  Add olive oil.  When hot, add the onions, celery, and carrots.  Saute until the onions are translucent and the celery and carrots begin to soften (5-7 minutes).  Add garlic and saute for 1-2 minutes until fragrant.
2. Add tomato paste and stir to mix it throughout the veggies.  Add diced tomatoes (with the juice from the can) and bay leaves.  Stir to combine.
3. Add lentils, water, and wine.  Bring to a boil.  Reduce heat and add coriander, cumin, smoked paprika, and tumeric.  Simmer for approximately 40 minutes until the lentils are tender.
4. Add spinach, stirring until the spinach wilts.
5. Remove bay leaves.  Add salt and pepper to taste.  Ladle into bowls and enjoy.