Roasted Curry Cauliflower

Kids, your mom is going back work so things are going to be different around here.  My parents said something like this to me and my brothers when I was 12 year old.  And, with Vegan Son #1 ready to hit twelve in December, we just said it to our kids.  Vegan Mom has gone back to school to pursue her MEd and PhD in Education.  Needless to say, things have changed in our household.  With time at a premium we need to be more efficient in our meal planning.  We need to start thinking about making some meals ahead and freezing them, and creating quick but nutritious dinners.  So many people have commented on this blog about where I find the time to cook.  Well, now I know what they were talking about.  We have 4 kids in 3 different schools, plus gymnastics and swimming lessons.  When my mom went back to work she would leave simple instructions for us kids on how to make dinner.  This is when I first started to cook.  I am hoping to do something similar with Vegan Son #1 and pass down a love of food to the next generation.

This recipe is pretty easy and makes the house smell great.  Spice how you prefer--a pre-made curry powder even.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 cauliflower, cut into large pieces
- 1 sweet onion, thickly sliced
- olive oil
- 1/2 tsp turmeric
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 1/2 tsp coriander
- 1/2 tsp chili powder
- 1/2 tsp garam masala
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- salt and pepper to taste
- juice of 1/2 lemon

METHOD
1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Put cauliflower and onion slices in large bowl.  Drizzle with some olive oil (1-2 tsp) and toss to coat.  Mix spices together in a small bowl and sprinkle over cauliflower.  Toss to coat.  Season with salt and pepper.  Spread out on the baking sheet.
3. Loosely cover the baking sheet with a piece of aluminum foil.  Bake for 15 mins.  Remove foil and bake for another 10-15 mins, or until cauliflower is tender and browned.
4. Drizzle lemon juice over the cauliflower and serve. 

Lattice Top (and other Ways to Make a Funky Pie)

Last pie post (for now!).  I had a great deal of fun exploring the world of pastry, and I mean to do it again when the crisp autumn weather demands that I bake something savoury in a crust.  As I mentioned in my last post, fruit pies follow a pretty standard formula.  And, once you have your crust down, you are off to the races.  With the basics perfected you can work on making your pies as pretty as possible.  That's what this post is all about.

LATTICE TOP
A lattice top is a great idea for juicy pies like peach and cherry, and it will impress all your friends.
1. Roll out the dough for the top crust into a square, large enough to cut into at least 16 strips of about 1/2" width (for a 9" pie).  Cut into strips with a knife or a pastry cutter.
2. Lay 8 strips across the pie, leaving some space in between.  Fold back every other strip halfway (i.e. strips 2,4,6,8).  Lay one of your remaining eight strips across the middle of the pie, perpendicular to the first eight strips.  Return the folded back strip to their original position.
3. Now, fold back the strips you didn't fold back the first time (i.e. strips 1,3,5,7) back and lay a new strip down to the right of the one you laid in step 2.  Fold back the strips.
4. Repeat, laying strips all the way to the right, and then to the left of the strip in step 2 until the pie is covered.
5.  Trim the strips with some overhang and fold under the bottom crust as per usual, or trim flush and press into the bottom crust to seal.

Alternately, cut circles of dough and make them into a top crust, brushing a little water on the bottoms of any pieces that overlap so that they seal with the dough beneath them.

Dough scraps can easily be rolled into leaves (brush bottoms with water to seal). A brushing of soy milk and some coarse sugar make a nice topping for a cherry pie.

Lemony Blueberry Pie (and how to bake a frozen pie)

Another pie?  Yes!  Pie and pastry seem daunting, but with a little practice (tasty, tasty, practice!) they are rather easy.  Here are 2 few things I have learned along the way:

1. Keep everything really cold.  I like the method of freezing the shortening for 30 mins or so and then grating it into the flour.  I usually then stick the whole bowl of  flour/shortening into the freezer for 15 mins or so before adding the cold water and bringing the dough together.

2. Filling fruit pies is basically the same.  4-5 cups of fruit to 3-4 tbsp of some thickening agent (cornstarch, tapioca), ¾ cup sugar, lemon juice, and spice (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger).  Juicier fruit like peaches and strawberries do well with a 50/50 cornstarch/tapioca mix.

Lemons and blueberries are a perfect match, and this pie is bursting with the flavours of both.  You can use unthawed frozen blueberries if you don’t have fresh, making this a perfect pie to make year-round.

INGREDIENTS

- 1 recipe pie dough, as per this recipe

- 4 cups blueberries

- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

- ¾ cup sugar

- 3 tbsp cornstarch

- finely grated zest of 1/2 lemon

- pinch of salt

- ¼ tsp cinnamon

METHOD

1. Make and roll out pie dough as per this recipe.

2. Gently toss blueberries with the lemon juice.

3. Whisk sugar and cornstarch together, then mix in lemon zest, salt, and cinnamon.  Gently toss with blueberries and fill pie shell.

4. Add top crust, cut steam vent, and refrigerate for 30 mins, or until pie has firmed up.

5. Preheat oven to 375 degrees then bake in the lower 1/3 of the oven for about an hour, or until the filling is bubbling all over and the crust is golden.  Add about 15 mins for frozen berries. 

HOW TO BAKE A FROZEN PIE

If you want to make a pie and save it for later, I think they taste best if they are put in the freezer, unbaked in a freezer bag, and then baked up later.  Here’s how to do it:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees with rack on the bottom shelf.  Wrap the edge of the pie crust in a strip of aluminum foil.  Bake for 15 mins, then reduce heat to 375 degrees.  From here it will take another 45 to 60 minutes to finish the pie.  Juicier pies (like peach) will take the longest.  Remove the foil for the final 15 mins of baking to brown everything up nicely.  

Summer Berry Pie

My backyard has been berry central this summer.  While the blueberries had a tough time, the raspberry canes yielded their usual bumper crop and the wild blackberry canes I transplanted from the cottage four years ago have finally established themselves and are producing at a phenomenal rate.  It seemed only right to make a pie.

INGREDIENTS
- 1 recipe pie dough
- 6 cups mixed summer berries (I did equal parts raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries)
- 3/4 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup cornstarch
- 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon (optional)
- pinch nutmeg (optional)

METHOD
1. Make the pie dough as per the recipe in the link above.
2. Whisk together sugar and cornstarch.  Gently mix with the berries in a large bowl.  Place in pie shell and attach top shell, as per the linked recipe above.  Cut some steam holes. Refrigerate for 30 mins, or until firm.
3.  While pie is chilling, heat oven to 375 degrees with a rack in the lower third of the oven.  Bake for about an hour, or until filling up bubbling.  Let completely cool before serving.

When Things go Horribly Awry (but are still tasty)

Behold sweet failure.  I have been interested in all things pastry these days and this was an attempt to make an Italian almond tart.  The original recipe called for eggs, and I thought 2 tbsp of cornstarch and 2 tbsp of vegan cream cheese would do the trick to firm up the filling.  Boy was I wrong.  The tart shell was perfect and everything was going just great.  Then the baking.  Instead of firming up in the oven the filling liquified and boiled over.  Luckily, I had ignored Vegan Mom's advice to put a baking sheet under the tart (just in case).  As smoke billowed out of the oven I knew I had hours of scrubbing ahead of me.  The funny thing is we ate the tart anyway.  My niece and nephews and kids all thought it was great.  And, despite it looking like an almond bomb had gone off, I thought it tasted great too.  Back to the drawing board . . . .