Mondays around here at the empire known as Me, LLC are never boring, but especially not today. This Monday joint is particularly jumping with not only a new veggie recipe for Meatless Monday, but a Cherries in Winter book giveaway on MidChix.com! (I know, I spoil you; but you deserve it.)
If you haven’t logged on to MidChix.com yet, please sashay over to this very cool social networking site for ladies over 40. And if you’ve been there, you know that this is the place you can enter to win an autographed copy of the paperback edition of Cherries in Winter (woo-hoo!). This latest edition of CIW has new chapters and recipes, along with a recipe index and updated notes. If I hadn’t written it myself, I’d buy it again. My own mother bought it again! (That nut.) Anyway, all you have to do to enter to win this special Cherries/MidChix giveaway is tell me about your favorite relative’s recipe, either including the recipe, or with a little story about why you loved it. Entries can be posted here in the Comments section from today, November 8, to Saturday, November 13, 2010. Winning entries will be posted on this blog during Thanksgiving week. Go for it!
And, for those of you who’ve embraced Meatless Monday, here’s this week’s recipe, adapted from my NFC (New Favorite Cookbook), Veganomicon, by Isa Chandra Moskowitz and Terry Hope Romero of The Post Punk Kitchen. So far, every recipe I’ve tried from this cookbook (yep, title reference from The Evil Dead) has been amazing, and this one’s no exception.
Jamaican Yuca Shepherd’s Pie
I'd never cooked with yuca before. It was delish! Like a potato, yet not the same ol' potato.
What you’ll need:
1 big piece of yuca (see pic below; D’Artagnan isn’t intimidated by it, and you shouldn’t be either. Yuca is available in ethnic veggie section of your supermarket, next to coconuts and plantains), peeled and cut into tiny chunks
2 ripe plantains (they’ll look nearly black when ripe; that’s good), sliced, then quartered
1 yellow onion, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeded and diced
3 cloves garlic, chopped
1 T finely chopped ginger or 1/4 t powdered ginger
1 sweet potato, cut into small chunks
1 15-oz. can lite coconut milk (half the fat! Love that!)
1 15-oz. can kidney beans (try for low sodium)
3/4 cup lima beans (frozen ok)
1 T Jamaican curry powder (in the spice or “ethnic” section of your supermarket)
Salt
Olive oil
2 bay leaves
Thyme (2 sprigs fresh, 1/4 t dried)
What to do:
1. Place chopped yuca in a large pot, cover with water, add 2 pinches of salt, and get boiling. Set timer for 20 minutes. At the ding, put chopped sweet potatoes in a steam basket and set over boiling yuca for 10 minutes. Meanwhile, carry on with the rest of it.
2. Put 2 T olive oil in a large saucepan and saute onions, garlic, bell pepper, and ginger for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients (beans, limas, coconut milk, plantains, herbs, etc.), a pinch of salt, and 1/3 cup water and let simmer.
3. Set oven to broil on low. Check yuca; it should be fork-tender by now. If that’s a yes…
4. Drain yuca, reserving liquid, and put it back in the pot you boiled it in. Add 1 T olive oil and mash yuca to where it’s a little smooth, yet still a little chunky. Use some of the boiling liquid to help with the mashing. Freeze the rest for soup stock.
4. Put curried filling into a 9 x 13 inch baking dish, or close enough; don’t lose your mind over things like this. Scoop mashed yuca over mixture and smush around to cover. Lick fingers. Drizzle a little olive oil over top of yuca.
5. Broil for about 10 minutes, enough to get yuca golden brown. (Watch carefully; I don’t know how powerful your broiler is. Mine takes a while.)
6. Let sit for about 10 minutes before serving, if you can resist digging into it. Distract yourself with starter of sauteed kale. (Steam kale for 5 minutes while sauteing 1/2 chopped red onion in olive oil. Add kale and more olive oil as necessary to saute for 5 more minutes. Add 1 T tamari or regular soy sauce, 1 t balsamic vinegar, and salt and pepper to taste. Easy!)
Enjoy (and enter that giveaway!),
Suzan
