Meat-free Monday: Veg platter

This is really just an excuse to show off my new plates. We really wanted something not-white (partly because of over-exposing food pics) and I've been looking for the right thing. These are Mikasa, really cheap on ebay. And very pretty!

I wasn't planning a meat-free meal this evening, but as I walked home the weather was so nice that it seemed like a shame not to light the grill, and my mental inventory of the fridge contained barbecuable veg but not meat. Lovely.

The aubergine I scored, drizzled in the cracks with olive oil and seasoned with salt & pepper, the asparagus I just washed and cut off the woody ends. I made a little tomato salad, with garlic and sherry vinegar, and toasted a few pine nuts. I also mixed a spoonful of fat free Greek yoghurt with some minced garlic and the rind of a preserved lemon.

When the aubergine and asparagus were cooked, a put a splodge of the yoghurt on each plate, put the aubergine on that with the asparagus alongside, and added the tomato salad, some crumbled feta and the toasted pine nuts. Very pretty, very tasty. I really like my new plates!  

New Year's Indulgence: white truffle

That's what 10g white truffles looks like

After our experiment last year with summer truffles, we were pretty keen to have a go with the much-more-expensive delicacy. As Christmas/New Year provides a good opportunity to be extravagant, we decided to forego our traditional New Year's Eve fondue and eat truffles instead.

A 10g chunk of white gold was duly delivered on the 30th and tucked into a sealed jar of arborio rice over night.

I made a simple white risotto, using some of the poultry broth from our Christmas goose, white wine and a couple of baby leeks. As the final enrichment I beat in some beautiful taleggio cheese. Then I grated a generous pile of truffle shavings over each portion. The aroma was utterly gorgeous. A very delicious and indulgent way to say good bye to the old year.

Of course, grated like that, a little piece of truffle goes a very long way, so there was a bit left over for lunch the following day. We welcomed the new year with a pizza, covered with more taleggio, buffalo mozzarella and finely sliced garlic, and when it was a beautiful bubbly golden brown, the rest of the truffle was grated on top.  

Meat-free Monday: Greek-ish cheese & sweet potato pie

Ready to bake

 This is a hybrid of two other dishes - Lisa the Cookwitch's aubergine & halloumi bake and Jess's sweet potato crusted quiche.

I used Lisa's filling recipe almost as written, although I found a lone and tired spring onion in the veg drawer, so I chopped that up and added it, and I didn't use as much cheddar because I eye-balled it and thought I had enough filling. And I used 3 large-ish sweet potatoes for the crust.

The very interesting thing about the filling, I thought, was that the grated halloumi sort of re-formed after melting and recaptured the squeaky quality that is so appealing. And it tasted lovely - the sweetness of the crust worked beautifully against the little bursts of sultana and the salty cheese.

Meat Free Monday: eggs baked with cream and asparagus

This simple but rich and gorgeous dish is just a take on oeufs en cocotte, born out of the need to use up a bit of double cream and the existence of British autumn asparagus.

The asparagus spears were very skinny, so I washed them, cut them into 1" pieces and microwaved them with a small nut of butter and the water still clinging to them for a minute. Then I broke on two eggs and the cream - a bit more cream than I'd thought was left, actually, about 1/4 cup. Then I baked it until the eggs looked set. By which time, of course, they were a bit overdone. But delicious.

Meat-free Monday - eggs, peas and feta

I saw a picture on pinterest, of a dish similar to this, but the link didn't work and my google-fu let me down. So I made up my own version. It has several of your so-called five-a-day and is utterly delicious and satisfying.

Spread a bag of washed baby spinach leaves on a wide, microwave safe plate and zap for a minute, just to wilt it a little.

Top with a finely sliced spring onion, 80g each of shelled edamame, sugar snaps and peas, cooked until just tender and drained thoroughly. Sprinkle with 50g cubed feta (or, in this case, reduced-fat Greek-style "salad cheese"), boiled eggs and 1tbs balsamic vinegar. Season with freshly ground black pepper.

it's one for Deb's Souper (soup salad and sammie) Sunday.

Meat-Free Monday: Smoky chilli macaroni cheese

The Sri Lankan family who run our local corner shop have recently expanded their range and started stocking a selection of fresh vegetables. It's a great idea - it's lovely to have somewhere to turn when you run out of garlic at 9pm. This dish was partly inspired by their slightly idiosyncratic selection.

The first day I noticed that they had fresh veg, my eye was caught by a punnet of something labelled "hot peppers". Now, they didn't have a variety on them but they appeared to be of the habanero, scotch bonnet type. I bought them and approached with caution. Which turned out to be a very good idea - we've been using about 1/4 of a chilli per dish and they have been plenty hot enough. In fact, my eyes burned after rubbing them 2 days after deseeding one of these chillis. I hope it goes without saying that I had washed my hands several times in that period.

A couple of days later I went back into the shop and saw polystyrene trays of long sweet peppers, the sort that are good for stuffing, only these were curled into little scrolls. For some reason this reminded me of the incredibly hot mixed chilli quesadilla I had at Wahaca a couple of years ago. I knew I wanted to eat chillis and cheese together.

In the end, I brought the long sweet peppers and the ridiculously hot peppers together in a macaroni cheese, with smoked cheese and homemade chipotle paste tying them all together. Because macaroni cheese sucks up so much seasoning, I braved using a whole hot chilli, which turned out to be the perfect level of spice for us. 

Smoked chilli macaroni cheese (serves 4-6)

500g macaroni
75g butter
75g flour
900ml milk
250g smoked cheddar, grated
1tsp minced chipotle in adobo
2 sweet red peppers, roasted, peeled and skinned
1 very hot chilli, finely sliced (more or less, depending on your chilli tolerance)
1tbs dried breadcrumbs
2tbs grated parmesan cheese
1/2tsp sweet pimenton (or sweet paprika)

Preheat oven to 160C

Boil the macaroni, leaving it slightly underdone, and drain and set aside. In the same saucepan, melt the butter, add the flour and cook to a smooth roux. Gradually add the milk, stirring constantly, until it forms a smooth, thin sauce. Cook for a few minutes to get rid of the raw flour taste. Add the chipotle in adobo and then the cheese. Stir until the cheese melts. Taste for seasoning - it shouldn't need any extra salt, but I don't know your palate.

Add the drained macaroni (which will probably have set into a bit of a cake while it waited for the sauce, but will loosen up quickly when it meets the sauce), the sweet and hot chilli and stir well. Spread into a large baking dish. Sprinkle evenly with the breadcrumbs and then the parmesan, then a little paprika or sweet pimenton.

Bake for 35-45 minutes until bubbly around the edges and crunchy on top. Serve with a green salad or some fruit.

Meat Free Monday - Cheese & cider pumpkin fondue

This seasonal symphony of melted cheese and booze is this recipe from the Metro. But I decided that it was a good way to use up the scooped-out pumpkin flesh from my Halloween cat pumpkin. After all, those pumpkins are grown for size, regular shape and large seed cavity, not for delectable flesh, so the culinary uses need to involve lots of other strong flavours. This combination of cheese, cider, porcini mushrooms and calvados certainly fit the bill.

I finely chopped my leftover pumpkin and roasted it until tender, then divided it between two deep oven-proof dishes. Then I topped it with the fondue mixture. It's worth seeking out a really dry cider for this, because the pumpkin doesn't really need too much extra sweetness. I used real garlic, not granules, and a very strong Somerset cheddar. And, because I am incapable of making anything vegetable-and-cheesy without it, I added a grating of nutmeg on top.

We ate it with slices of crusty chickpea cob dunked in it and glasses of red wine. Warming right to our toes.

Yes, I watched the Great British Bake-off masterclass, why do you ask?

I'm going to link this up to Heather and Joanne's 12 Weeks Of Winter Squash event, where the mighty squash is being properly celebrated.

Meat Free Monday: Burmese Egg Curry

We've been watching the new Rick Stein series on the BBC - Rick Stein's India. To be honest, it hasn't grabbed me in the same way that some of his previous series have. Despite several conversations where he asks people about the word "curry", and being firmly told that he isn't using it appropriately, he insists on referring to all Indian dishes he tries as curries. Irritating. He's also really quite patronising, repeatedly saying how happy and smiley all the poor people are and reciting bits of colonial literature that may be meaningful to him but aren't particularly pleasant to modern ears... Plus, and this is a gripe I have with a lot of food TV at the moment, the editors have no grasp of continuity. He'll use his spice grinder in the first segment and then 10 minutes later do a segment where he introduces the spice grinder and explains the importance of it.

However, the food he is cooking and eating still looks really appetising and is sending me off on another curry cooking binge. Or it would, if it wasn't too hot to do anything but barbecue.

In the first episode he showed an egg curry in a coconut sauce. Much to my surprise, Paul thought it looked delicious and asked why I had never made him an egg curry. The answer to that is that I never thought he'd like it, so egg curries, sambal eggs and that sort of thing have been solo treats when he's been working away.

Having his go-ahead gave me the opportunity to make Meemalee's Burmese egg curry - a very simple, extremely delicious tomato and tamarind curry. I left the sauce quite lumpy, out of laziness and Paul's preference for chunks, and served it with a little rice and a lot of salad. Definitely worth repeating.

Meat Free Monday: oeufs dur mayonnaise

My mother will tell you that when I was a very small foodycat I was addicted to the egg mayonnaise at Cranks in Guildford. I think I have a clear memory of how it tasted, and brown pottery plates, but seeing as it was thirty-five plus years ago I think it is safe to say that my memories may be inaccurate. At least in part because I remember the mayonnaise tasting very much like Heinz salad cream, and I don't honestly see how that is possible if it was home made.

Elizabeth David writes in French Provincial Cooking "It may seem superfluous to give a recipe for so basic a dish as egg mayonnaise, but sometimes, in the search for originality, the most obvious dishes are forgotten. No one ever need be ashamed to offer their guests a well-made dish of egg mayonnaise, for it is always appreciated". I don't know if it was the search for originality or the lingering fear of cholesterol - the dietary bogeyman of my teenage years - but I certainly haven't made, eaten or even thought about egg mayonnaise in a very long time. But old-fashioned French-style brasseries are having a bit of a moment in London and places like Brasserie Zedel are putting it back on the menu.

One day last week it seemed like a very good idea. I had a nice chunk of olive sourdough bread that was really calling out for something gentle and soothing to eat with it. Home made mayonnaise is the easiest thing in the world but I had some good-quality bought mayo so I didn't bother. I also couldn't quite bring myself to present it in the Mrs David-approved fashion, smearing mayonnaise thickly across the plate and topping it with halved eggs and parsley sprinkles. I put my eggs on a bed of lettuce, dolloped a little mayonnaise on top and revelled in nostalgia.

Soft Roti

Hot water dough, resting

I've been really happy with the yeasted flatbreads I have been making recently. My naan and pita are fluffy, flexible and delicious. They have pretty much displaced rice in our meals.

Paul has been particularly happy with my naan, because not only does he enjoy eating them, he's been getting all sorts of kudos at work with his Indian colleagues for having a wife who makes her own naan. Sweet that there is that sort of rivalry but just a little bit stuck in the 50s, no?

Still-warm dough brushed with a little melted butter and rolled into a sausage.

But for a recent curry meal I didn't want to make naan again. Partly because I was out of strong white flour so I wanted a bread made with softer plain flour. Partly also I wanted a challenge. I have made roti in the past and haven't been entirely satisfied with them. They've been a bit heavy, a bit leathery, not the light, puffy flakes I think they should be.

Roti waiting to be cooked.

I rootled around on the internet and found this recipe for Amma's soft roti, which I thought looked like just the thing. Now, this family is South African Indian, so these may not be "authentic" Indian roti as some things do get slightly changed with time and displacement. The samosas that Paul gets nostalgic about from a Cape Town childhood are not very much like Indian samosas at all.

Puffing up like a good thing.

So, this bread was completely delicious and successful but if your Indian grandmother didn't do it the way her Indian grandmother did... please be understanding! I don't have an Indian grandmother's experience to call on.

I think my rolling technique still needs a little work, as some of my roti weren't proper rounds, and I also need to work on getting the temperature right to ensure an even cook.  But the hot water technique and rolling the dough into a sausage definitely made a roti that I was proud to serve.

Glistening with a little extra butter

Meat free Monday: baked eggs and chickpeas

Just a quick little meat-free dish today - spicy tomato sauce-bathed chickpeas, topped with goats cheese, with a surprise baked egg in the middle. Substantial and really delicious.

Baked eggs and chickpeas (serves 2)

1tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1tsp chilli paste (Gran Luchito, chipotle in adobo, harissa, sambal oelek - whatever you like)
1 can crushed tomatoes
1tsp tomato puree
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 eggs
Goats cheese or feta

Saute the garlic in the olive oil and add the tomatoes, chilli paste and tomato puree and cook for a few minutes until the sauce is quite thick. Taste for seasoning.

Divide between two oven-proof dishes and make a well in the centre of each. Crack in an egg and top with some cheese. Bake at 180C until the egg white is cooked (because of Paul's preference for well-done eggs I cooked this for about 20 minutes - but it doesn't need that long).

Meat Free Monday: Truffled twice baked potato

Bake a potato, cut off a little lid, scoop out the flesh and mash with a knob of butter and a spoonful of truffle paste. Pack back into the skin, make a hollow with the back of a spoon and crack in an egg. Put the lid back on and bake until the egg is cooked.

Meat-Free Monday: ravioli minestrone

In case you hadn't noticed, last weekend I met Nigella Lawson. And as a bonus, I got a copy of her new Nigella-style Italian cookbook Nigellissima.

As I mentioned, I didn't particularly like the accompanying TV series, but now I have had a chance to peruse the book properly, there is a lot that I am tempted to cook. This soup was the first cab off the rank. It's a green minestrone (i.e no tomatoes) with the pasta element supplied by a pack of spinach and ricotta ravioli. It's also given some extra body by pureeing a portion of the vegetables with a handful of parmesan and a pile of basil leaves.

I did make a few changes to the recipe - I didn't have any fine beans but I did have runner beans, and I didn't want too much leftover so I left out the potato, courgettes and cannelini beans. Omitting those starchy bits meant that it probably isn't as thick and rich as intended, but it was a very nice, hearty supper. The basil puree mixture really lifted the flavours. A good start for a new cookbook.

Meat Free Monday: Cauliflower macaroni cheese

Macaroni cheese is good - but often feels a bit too heavy, a bit too rich. Cauliflower cheese is good - but doesn't seem like a meal on its own. It seems odd that it has taken me this long to realise that you can combine them.

I was inspired by Mary's delicious-looking dish of Baked Shells with Cauliflower and Cheese, which in turn was inspired by a Moosewood recipe. I didn't follow the recipe at all, possibly an error of judgement, I just cooked the pasta, added the cauliflower florets for the last couple of minutes and the shredded leaves of the cauliflower for the last 30 seconds, then drained them and covered them in cheese sauce.

That's right - the cauliflower leaves. Last year some friends of ours grew cauliflowers and discovered that when very fresh the leaves are tasty. The cauliflower I had was enclosed in lovely fresh leaves, so I just discarded the outermost ones and shredded the inner ones.

There should have been a higher ratio of cauliflower to macaroni

I used the Heston Blumenthal cheese sauce method, using vegetable stock instead of chicken stock, but for the first time the sauce didn't really come together for me - leaving melted cheesy lumps in a thin cheesy broth. I think it may have been because I used some grated cheddar and mozzarella mixture as part of the cheese component; I suspect it was the mozzarella that didn't play along with the sauce.

 

Since it was just for the two of us, I used the sauce anyway. And the finished product didn't seem to suffer for it at all! That method of making cheese sauce leaves you with a much lighter dish, and with the cauliflower florets and leaves, it actually felt like a complete meal. I am quite keen to try the original Moosewood recipe too, although I probably won't bother seeking out those jumbo shells for it.

Meat Free Monday - Panfried gnocchi with pesto

Cream cheese gnocchi

I've had a few days off work recently. Originally Paul & I planned to go away for a long weekend, but then he couldn't get the time off work and I decided to take the leave anyway. It was lovely: very relaxing and restorative (even if I did come down with a cold and get very few of my planned projects achieved).

It also meant that I watched some TV that I wouldn't normally watch. Like Lorraine's Fast Fresh & Easy Food. The thing is, I don't really care about recipes being fast, fresh and easy. If I need to make something fast, I probably won't follow a recipe, I'll just draw on my repertoire of things I can cook in a hurry. Almost everything I eat is fresh, so that just isn't isn't a big selling point for me. And easy? Well... I am actually a pretty fair cook, so there are a lot of techniques that I consider easy. So it hasn't been a series I have sought out at all, but it was a good way to spend the odd half hour of leisure time.

One recipe that caught my eye before I found her mannerisms too irritating to watch any more was this panfried mascarpone gnocchi, with pesto. I was impressed by the idea that it was quicker than potato gnocchi, and anything as a vehicle for pesto is OK by me.

It... was not an unqualified success. For one thing it really is not a lot quicker than potato gnocchi. Maybe if you do use 2 frying pans it might be, but for me with one pan it was not. It was also very stodgy. I don't know if that is because I took a cheaper route and used cream cheese instead of mascarpone, but I don't think that would make too much difference (the amount of flour it took was the same, so it wasn't drier or anything). When I've made gnudi before - which is probably a closer analogue than potato gnocchi - they've been very light and delicate but these were quite heavy.

Now, normally when I make pesto I add some of the pasta cooking water to the sauce to loosen it and help it coat the pasta, but when you fry the gnocchi you don't have that nice starchy water. So the pesto sat in clumps in the bowl. What with one thing and another the dish didn't live up to the promise it showed on TV! However, it wasn't a total loss. Because it was so heavy, we had loads left over. I layered them in a pyrex dish with some slices of aubergine, covered them in a thick tomato sauce and blanketed them with grated cheese, then baked them. This form was much, much more successful! The gnocchi were much lighter and fluffier after they absorbed some of the tomato sauce. If I make these again, I am going to try boiling them and serving them in a sauce rather than doing them according to the recipe again.

Looks better than it tastes

Meat Free Monday - Lasagne Verdi

A fortnight or so ago, I was perusing iplayer, 4oD etc trying to find some good food TV to watch with my dinner. I came across an amazing thing - a current foody show that I had heard absolutely nothing about. While it was called Simply Italian, it was actually just pasta, as cooked by a pretty Welsh girl from an Italian family.

Not that there is anything wrong with just pasta. It's just not really representative of the breadth of Italian cooking, is it?

I particularly liked the way, over 4 episodes, Michela Chiappa built up from the most simple noodles that she rolled by hand, to much more elaborate filled pastas with more complicated techniques.

While I've made pasta quite a few times, I've never tried to make a spinach pasta. I thought the recipe for lasagne verdi with sage and walnut pesto looked absolutely gorgeous - plus our garden produces much more sage than we know what to do with.

I found making the pasta very straightforward. I was worried that the spinach would make it much stickier, but actually it was a really obedient paste.

First pass through the pasta machine

I had some really lovely, unpasteurised buffalo mozzarella (discounted - it'd be a seriously expensive dish otherwise!), which I tore up and scattered between the layers, rather than grating an older mozzarella. The only other change I made was to add 2 cloves of garlic to the pesto, instead of just a half. What use is half a clove of garlic?

I've heard a few times that the difference between proper Italian lasagne and what we usually get is the thickness of the layers - this lasagne was 5 very thin layers, quite different from the 3 thicker layers I'd normally do.

Ready for baking

It... was absolutely delicious. I think the lemon zest and juice is absolutely crucial. Without it, I think it would have been quite stodgy and hard work, but as it was the flavours were light and zingy. I thought there was a subtle flavour of spinach in the pasta itself, which was very nice. Plus the sheets of pasta were so much thinner than commercial ones, I honestly don't think I will go back to bought pasta, even "fresh" for lasagne.

Luscious and bubbling, but unexpectedly fresh-tasting

Meat Free Monday - stuffed courgette flowers & peppers

One of the best things in life, in my opinion, is having a group of like-minded women to spend time with. About 8 years ago, I spent quite a lot of time knocking about Sydney with a bunch of excellent women that my now-husband affectionately referred to as the "Alco-tarts". We were all quite grown-up girls with fairly progressive social views who weren't particularly interested in clubbing but did like a bit of booze with some tasty snacks whilst we spent hours (and hours and hours) chatting and setting the world to rights.

Because of the varying dietary requirements of the Alco-tarts, we'd generally focus on some sort of vegetarian platter. There was one particularly good one, which featured little squishy-centred risotto cakes and deep-fried courgette flowers stuffed with cheese. I loved the courgette flowers! They were delicate and not at all greasy but abundantly filled with melted cheese.

When I saw that the people who supply my veg box were selling courgette flowers, I knew I had to try to replicate the ones I enjoyed all that time ago. The veg is delivered on a Monday, and because the flowers are so delicate I knew I'd have to cook them Monday night.

I scuttled into the kitchen as soon as I got home from work, and opened the veg box...

And discovered that the pretty little punnet contained just 4 courgette flowers. Totally scuttling my idea of eating just courgette flowers for dinner. Fortunately I'd also ordered some little peppers so I figured I'd stuff some of them to bulk out the meal. And discovered that there were only 4 of them as well.

I made a filling of 100g ricotta (leftover from another recipe), some garlic, some grated parmesan and a big bunch of chopped fresh basil, thyme and parsley.

Now, the theory with courgette flowers, as I understand it, is that you have to carefully unfurl the petals, take out the stamen and then stuff them. Well either I have ridiculously clumsy fingers (quite possible) or these flowers weren't in their absolute first freshness, but no matter how I tried the tips of the petals just sort of pureed in my fingers. I had to tear down them to get them open at all.

I stuffed them, folding the tears back up around the filling, and stuffed the little peppers. Then I dipped them in a light cornflour batter and shallow fried them for about 2 minutes a side, until they were all light and crisp, and drained them well on kitchen paper.

I served them on some chickpeas (canned), heated through in some home-made tomato sauce.

They were, actually, delicious. The flowers do taste delicately of courgette, and the filling was lovely, and the contrast of crisp outsides with melty, creamy middles was gorgeous. But given the fiddling, irritation and expense (did I mention that the punnet of 4 flowers cost £2.99?) they are definitely going to be something I leave to the professionals.

Meat-free Monday - Glazed beetroot and carrots

Urchin was fascinated by the mess of preparing beetroot

 Another veg box, another pile of carrots and beetroot. I roasted them separately (the beetroot whole, wrapped in foil, the carrots peeled and cut into chunks and rolled with a little olive oil) until tender, which takes much, much longer than you think it should. When the beetroot was tender, I peeled it and cut it into chunks and combined it with the carrots, and tossed it with a mixture of 2tbs maple syrup, 1tbs balsamic and 1/2 tsp chipotle paste.

Makes a good side dish, or a meal in itself with some cheese on toast. Or just some feta crumbled on top would be nice.

Amazing colour

Meat Free Monday: Chilli paneer lunch plate

Paul isn't quite as keen on meat free meals as I am. He's happy to eat them, but if asked what he wants for dinner he's seldom likely to actually nominate a vegetarian dish. When I batch-cook for our lunches, I don't ask what he wants!

For this week, I've made a selection of Indian(ish) vegetarian dishes. No meat, but very satisfying and well-balanced flavours.

The Hairy Bikers' Sweet and sour potatoes (which I have had bookmarked to make for ages), some spinach and chickpeas, and a big pile of delicious chilli paneer. I've made the chilli paneer before, with home-made paneer, but the texture of the commercial stuff is much better for this dish. Which very conveniently gets me out of making it from scratch.

For the spinach and chickpeas, I sauteed some mustard seeds in a little oil until they began to pop, then added a sliced onion and shredded spinach leaves. When the leaves melted I added a couple of chopped cloves of garlic, a spoonful of turmeric and a drained, rinsed can of chickpeas. When the chickpeas were well-coated with the spices, I added a little salt and some garam masala. Very simple.

The only thing this whole lunch plate needs to make it suitable for vegans is substituting some firm tofu for the paneer.

I'll put a little tomato kachumber on the side of mine - I suspect that dealing with a separate tub of salad in his lunchbox is more than Paul can face.

Sweet & sour potatoes, chickpeas with spinach and chilli paneer.

Meat Free Monday: spinach and artichoke mac & cheese

Well what do you know? This is my 650th post on Foodycat! I suppose, had I given it any thought when I first started out, I would have realised that the amount I think and talk about food would have me racking up the post-count. At the same time, I do find it hard to believe that I have spent that much time on this little project. At least half an hour on writing each post (many more) not to mention the actual menu planning, shopping, cooking, photographing, selecting images and resizing them... it's a wonder I find time to do anything else.

I didn't plan this as a milestone-post. It was only when I hit preview that I noticed that I'd hit 650, so I didn't do anything special for it. Come back in August when I am celebrating my 5th blogoversary. There will be cake.

At the end of May, entries closed for the latest round of Cook the Books Club; dishes inspired by The United States of Arugula, by David Kamp (the name is much longer than that but I can't be bothered copying and pasting). Unfortunately, my copy of the book only arrived a couple of days beforehand, and I didn't have time to read it, but I am enjoying it so much I wanted to make something anyway!

I'm finding United States of Arugula generally fascinating (SO much sex. And Julia Childs had a filthy mouth; I'm not sure if I dare adopt one of her expressions...) but the chunk about the 60s and 70s particularly spoke to me. Kamp acknowledges the importance of Frances Moore Lappé's book Diet for a Small Planet, which I remember on our bookshelf when I was growing up. Even in 1971 she was very clearly making the case that world hunger was about politics and that a shift towards a vegetarian diet was more sustainable for humanity and the planet. I clearly remember some of her statistics on the amount of grain it takes to produce 1lb of beef (something like 16:1) - grain that is useful food for people but actually a fairly inefficient way to produce beef. Bill Niman's explanation of why grass-fed beef is better (tastier, fewer additives, better for the animal) than grain-fed made so much sense and just reinforced my existing beliefs about the meat that I choose to eat. I'd also had no idea about the background to the Celestial Seasonings tea company, although I've certainly drunk enough of it over the years. 

So what with one thing and another, I wanted to make something calling to the, well, hippier side of myself. I wanted it to be vegetarian but very, very American.

One of my fellow book-clubbers, the amazing Claudia from Honey from Rock (she grows her own cacao, people), made this creamy green penne as her submission. Which reminded me that I have had Arlene's spinach and artichoke macaroni cheese bookmarked for almost a year. 

Spinach and artichoke dip is one of that extraordinary family of American foods, the hot dip. While I just cannot get my head around the idea of creamy warm salmon, corned beef or crab dip (you can stop retching, I've finished) spinach and artichoke dip is delicious, and I thought the flavours would work extremely well as a macaroni cheese. I'm sure many American recipes for the dip include such processed horrors as Velveeta and cheez whiz, but Arlene is a class act, using fontina, parmesan and dry white wine in hers. It certainly makes a very sophisticated macaroni cheese!

Vegetarian is the same as healthy, right?