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It’s cold out there! I took a walk through Johnson Park last week; I couldn’t find much other than these ducks. Then I headed over to the Native Plant Reserve to see brown remnants of last spring’s joyous perennials. You can see more if you click on each thumbnail above.
In the above photo are the ducks with the colorful reflections around them (the image in the thumbnail is a cropped version).
In other nature news, my daughter taught me that the New Jersey state bird is a goldfinch and the New Jersey state flower is a violet.
A Section of Route 18 with Graffiti in New Brunswick, New Jersey
Last week I had an opportunity to meander through the Native Plant Reserve in Highland Park. I went as far as the edge of the Raritan River, and that’s where I photographed this shot of graffiti on the New Brunswick side. It’s really the only color around at this time of year. You can see photos of the bridge over the Raritan River between New Brunswick and Highland Park on this post.
mushrooms on top of sheperd pie - bottom is turnips, middle is kasha and vegetables
It seems that a traditional shepherd’s pie is chopped meat, potatoes and vegetables piled in layers in a casserole dish. I re-found a delightful vegan version of this recipe in my Moosewood Restaurant Low-Fat Favorites. I served this vegan version to my company on Chanukah; it was well-received. However, I didn’t care much for all the potatoes in the dish. So I re-wrote the recipe using mashed turnips instead of mashed potatoes, and here is the result. You can try it on your own with either turnips or potatoes, whichever you think you may prefer. My friend Klara suggested you could also substitute sweet potatoes.
Ingredients for Potatoes/Turnips Layer (bottom layer)
4 large turnips, cooked and mashed with the garlic cloves (or 3 cups mashed potatoes)
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp. salt
Ingredients for Vegetables Layer (middle layer)
1 chopped onion
1 tsp. olive oil (or other vegetable oil or coconut oil)
1 cup cooked cauliflower (or cooked broccoli or cooked brussel sprouts, chopped into pieces)
1/2 cup grated carrots
1/2 cup diced red or green peppers (optional)
1/2 cup kasha, cooked
1 Tbsp. red wine or sherry
2 tsp. oregano or marjoram or thyme (and/or fresh parsley)
1 tsp. soy sauce
salt and pepper to taste
Ingredients for Mushrooms Layer (top layer)
8 oz. sliced mushrooms
1 Tbsp. corn starch or potato starch (original recipe said corn; I always have potato starch available from Pesach, so I used that)
1 tsp. soy sauce
1 Tbsp. cold water
1/2 cup vegetable stock (or stock from potatoes, if you used those instead of turnips)
ground black pepper to taste
Cooking and Assembling the Shepherd Pie
Bottom Layer: Cook the turnips covered in water. Add garlic cloves. Add salt toward the end. Mash the turnips at the end.
Middle Layer: While turnips are cooking, sauté the onions in the oil for about 5 minutes. Cook the kasha until tender. If vegetables (cauliflower, brussel sprouts and/or broccoli) are not yet cooked (I used leftover vegetables), steam until tender. Mix the onions with the kasha, cauliflower, carrots, and other ingredients for the middle layer.
Preheat oven to 350°. Spread the turnips in a lightly oiled baking dish. Layer the vegetables with kasha on top. Bake uncovered for about 15 minutes.
Top Layer: combine mushrooms, wine, soy sauce, herbs and stock in a saucepan and cook until mushrooms soften and release their juices, about ten minutes. Add the corn or potato starch and let it continue to cook, stirring until it thickens. Add pepper to taste.
Put mushroom layer on top of the baked bottom two layers. Garnish with scallions or parsley if desired. You can also cut the pie into pieces and put the mushroom “gravy” on top of each one, but I generally like my guests to take if they want, so it works better to have the whole dish in the middle of the table as a choice.
This shepherd pie can be a nice accompaniment to a meat or fish meal, or it can be a main dish alone if you have a guest who is vegan. Or maybe you just found out you are lactose intolerant and crave a casserole. As Ilana-Davita remarked that my last recipe on hummus might be more suitable to a summer post, here’s a tasty dish befitting a cold January evening.
shepherd pie before the mushrooms are added on top: carrots, broccoli, onions, kasha
I saw this ball rolling on the street outside the library, and I snapped the photo, not knowing I would get a moment when it lifted off the ground. Seems like a slice-of-life moment, perfect for Straight-Out-Of-the-Camera.
Hummus with Parsley, Garlic, Tahini, Lemon Juice, Sea Salt
Hummus doesn’t have to be bright green. Indeed, classical hummus is usually tan in color. But when you add a handful of fresh parsley (or basil or scallions), you will have a chickpea paste in a pleasant shade of green.
Ingredients
Note: this recipe creates a small amount – to make more, double, triple or quadruple it.
1/2 cup chickpeas
1-2 small garlic cloves, peeled
1 tsp. sea salt
pepper to taste
1 handful fresh parsley
2 wedges of lemon juice
1 Tbsp. tahini (sesame paste)
1 small piece of wakame seaweed(optional)
Soak the chickpeas for at least four hours or overnight. Cook the chickpeas, covered with water, in a crockpot until tender (a few hours in my crockpot). Optionally, you can add a stamp size piece of seaweed for extra minerals and a bit of flavor. You can also add some sea salt while the chickpeas are cooking (add salt toward the end of the cooking). When the chickpeas are ready, drain the water, reserving a bit in case you want to use it to moisten the hummus. Blend in a food processor the chickpeas, peeled garlic cloves, tahini, lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. If you want regular hummus, you are now done. Take the leaves off the stems of the parsley and add the leaves to the hummus, blending them until you have a smooth, green paste. If you would like it to be smoother or softer, add some of the chickpea water. I love a homemade hummus that has the consistency of ice cream.
One of my guests remarked that it looked like wasabi. The homemade green hummus went well with the homemade pita bread that I served at our Chanukah party last night.
