Sunday, December 23, 2007

Roasted Rutabaga, White Baby Carrot, and Seitan with Wilted Greens in Walnut Oil and Organic Italian Hand-Rolled Rosemary Crackers

We came home after having seen an excellent performance of Louisa May Alcott's Little Women by the Young People's Performing Company - great acting! We stopped to shop and I bought, among other items, some rutabaga and a new product (for me), Mulini Reali certified organic hand-rolled rosemary crackers, imported from Southern Italy.

I purchased and served raw some rutabaga this past April, but otherwise have no experience cooking with this turnip-like root vegetable. I tossed together about a cup and a half of 1/2" cubes with maybe a dozen halved baby white carrots, a container of seitan that I had cut into 1/2" cubes, a few tablespoons of fresh rosemary needles from my garden, a little salt, and a dash of dried dill, along with a small-medium red Italian cipollini onion that I had cubed into 1/8" pieces and 3 finely diced garlic cloves, in a little bit of Floribbean Foods' Key Lime Savory Oil. I roasted this (single layer on a plate) at 375°F for about 40 minutes.

I also put a little bit of walnut oil in a pan and wilted some braising greens by cooking them for just 2 or 3 minutes over medium heat (walnut oil is not meant to be heated for long and gets bitter; it's best cold in salads), and served the greens with a little salt. I served the rosemary crackers as well as heirloom tomato.

Dinner was good! The roasted vegetables had a nice slight lemon taste, and the greens were pleasantly a bit bitter. The crackers were good with subtle flavor. The only unfortunate thing about the meal was that we had hoped to have a friend over, but she ended up under the weather.

I don't often drink alcohol, but today bought some Bell's Brewery cherry stout (a vegan beer; some alcohol is not strictly speaking vegetarian as it can, for example be clarified with fish products) and enjoyed it with dinner - the cherry flavor was very nice. I also heated a tasty "Pie Oh My!" dark cherry pie for dessert.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home