College Vegetarian Cooking_ Feed Yourself and Your Friends - Megan Carle [48]
Cut the thick red stem out of the red chard leaves and rinse the leaves well. Place the still-wet chard leaves in the skillet and cook over medium heat for 5 to 6 minutes, or until completely wilted. Remove from the heat, cool completely, cover with plastic wrap, and refrigerate until ready to use.
One hour and 15 minutes before mealtime, preheat the oven to 350°F. Leave the aluminum foil on the onion shells and bake for 1 hour, or until the quinoa is warmed through.
Five minutes before mealtime, remove the plastic wrap from the chard and cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes, or until hot.
Place some of the chard in the center of each plate and, using a spatula to keep in the quinoa, carefully top with a quinoa-filled onion shell. Serve immediately.
Food for Thought:
Quinoa is a seed, not really a grain, though it’s cooked and used like whole grains. It’s very high in protein, and unlike wheat or rice, it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it an unusually complete vegetarian source of protein. It’s also a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Plus, it’s gluten free and easy to digest. It has a nice mild, nutty flavor, too. What more could you want?
Cheese Fondue
This is the best cheese fondue I’ve ever had—Megan got the recipe when she was in France. You can use most kinds of hard white French or Swiss cheese, but be sure not to use store-bought grated cheese. Those cheeses are tossed in cornstarch so the pieces don’t stick together. If you use them in cheese fondue, the cornstarch forms a hard lump in the pan. Note that this recipe uses a cup of wine—it’s very French to cook with wine—which is one of the things that makes this fondue classic. –J
Serves 2
1 (1-pound) French baguette
2 apples
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 clove garlic
1 cup white wine
6 ounces grated Emmentaler cheese
6 ounces grated Gruyère cheese
6 ounces grated Comté cheese
One hour before mealtime, cut the bread into 1-inch cubes, place in a serving bowl, and cover tightly with plastic wrap. Cut each of the apples into 8 wedges, remove the cores, and cut each wedge in half crosswise. Place the apples in a bowl and sprinkle with the lemon juice. Add enough cold water to cover the apples and refrigerate until ready to use. (Holding the apples in water with lemon juice keeps them from browning.)
Fifteen minutes before mealtime, peel the garlic, cut it in half, and rub the cut sides over the bottom of a saucepan. Pour the wine into the pan and bring to a boil over medium heat. Add the cheeses and cook, stirring frequently, for 10 to 12 minutes, or until the cheese is melted. (The wine will not be completely incorporated into the cheese. Some of it will stay on top of the cheese.) Pour the fondue into a serving bowl.
Drain the apples and serve immediately with the bread and hot fondue. Spear a piece of bread or apple on a fork, dip it into the fondue, and eat.
Food Trivia:
They say necessity is the mother of invention, and that holds true here in a very tasty way. In the 1700s cheese was central to the diet of most Swiss villagers, because it could be made in the summer to last through the winter months. The Swiss found that heating stale cheese over a fire improved the taste and made it much easier to eat, and that hard bread would soften when dipped into the melted cheese. They soon learned that mixing in wine and other seasonings made it even better, transforming old cheese and bread into a flavorful meal.
Mushroom Ravioli in Browned Butter
Mushroom Ravioli in Browned Butter
Here we came up with a new way to do ravioli with wonton wrappers. It’s quick and simple but looks impressive and tastes like what you’d get in a five-star restaurant. The ravioli are sautéed in butter and sprinkled with