Italian Style Green Bean Casserole

I come up with some of my recipes when I get sort of gifted with a lot of something. I had a bunch of green beans so one of the best ways of using LOTS of green beans is to put them in a casserole. I’m not a fan of the traditional American Green Bean casserole. I haven’t tasted one that I liked so far. I thought maybe if the green beans taste like a pizza or cheese lasagna they might be delicious. Anyway a baked lasagna is very heavy.  I lightened up this casserole a bunch by using the minimal amounts of cheese as filler and by using extra soft tofu instead of some ricotta cheese. It might still seem that there is tins of cheese in this casserole but when you divide it into 16 portions it really isn’t so much. There are a lot of steps to make this casserole but it’s not as hard as it seems. It’s just like making a lasagna……but maybe easier because I only used one pot to cook up one thing after another and then I used the dirty pot as a mixing bowl. Almost everything get mixed together so why should you scrub the food out? This looks like a heavy brick but actually it isn’t so heavy. It’s  maybe 1/2 green beans, some pasta and a lot less cheese than I put in a cheese lasagna that was thinned down slightly with tofu.

Ingredients for about 16 servings

1 lb 10 oz. green beans – cleaned and string removed – cut on diagonal in small like bite size pieces

2 Tablespoons vegetable base (to boil with green beans)

8 oz dry curly pasta (I used tri-vegetable spumoni shaped)

I Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil (to coat pasta)

4 oz sharp provolone -shredded with 1/4 cup in a reserved bowl on the side – for topping

4.5 oz parmesan – shredded with 1/4 cup in the same cheese reserved bowl on the side – for topping

1 lb fresh mozzarella – shredded with 1/4 cup in the reserved cheese bowl on the side for topping

1/2 large sweet onion – chopped

2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

3 hot/sweet jarred cherry peppers – chopped fine- you can find hot/sweet cherry peppers at Trader Joes and Sprouts. This particular pepper taste AMAZING with many Italian foods and other foods.

2 teaspoons course sea salt

1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper

3 garlic cloves shredded

13.5 oz extra soft tofu

3 large eggs

1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper

1/8 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg

1/8 teaspoon ground black pepper

1/4 teaspoon dried oregano

1 cup panko bread crumbs

pinch granulated garlic

pinch ground black pepper

pinch oregano

pinch basil

1 cup water (about if looks dry it will come out dryer)

non stick spray

3 cups a very good marinara sauce plus extra for serving

Directions

Set oven to 350 degrees F and spray a half buffet pan or very large casserole dish with non stick spray. Also spray a sheet of aluminum foil. (The wet sprayed part covers the food) Put to the side.

Put a pot on to boil and add the vegetable base. Add green beans and let them boil about 4 minutes. Remove with a slotted spoon or spider. Put green beans in an ice bath and set to the side. A few minutes later when cool put the green beans in a colander to drain.

To the boiling water add the pasta and cook two minutes less than suggested. Squirt the pasta with about a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil and mix pasta so they don’t stick together. Set pasta to the side.

Put a pot on to medium high heat with two tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil seems hot add the onions and cherry peppers.Add two teaspoons of sea salt and 1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper. Wait till it looks almost cooked to add the grated garlic. Mix well. Take off the heat when cooked and the onions are clear. You can add this mixture to the green beans when they are well drained. Keep that mixture to the side.

Either in a blender or your pot with a blending wand…Blend the tofu with the eggs. All your cheeses (NOT THE RESERVED 1/4 cups of each) get hand mixed into the tofu egg mixture with 1/8th teaspoon of white pepper, nutmeg, black pepper and 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano.

In a small bowl add the panko, reserved cheeses, a pinch of granulated garlic, fresh ground black pepper, oregano, and basil and mix. set on side. (but not for long)

Get out your marinara sauce. One cup gets added to the pasta. and mixed in. One cup gets added to the green beans and mixed in. (you need a remaining cup to top with and extra for serving later).

At this pot your counter should look like this.

Add the pasta bowl to the green beans and mix. Add the tofu/cheese egg mixture to the big bowl with pasta. I thought the mixture looked too dry so I added one liquid cup of water. Once mixed pour mixture in sprayed large pan.

Cover with cup of marinara.

Cover with reserved cheese/panko mixture.

Pan gets covered tightly with aluminum foil that has been sprayed well with non stick spray. (the sprayed side goes against the food so it doesn’t stick to the foil).

See it’s filled with lots of green beans

Just cheesy enough

This pan goes in a 350 degree F oven for one and one half hours. (90 minutes).

Italian Style Green Bean Casserole

Serve with extra sauce and some grated cheese.

It you enjoy lasagnas or pizza kind of flavored foods you will enjoy!

The Forking Truth

Red Wine Poached Pickled Beets

I had about 2 1/2 pounds of beets and a half opened bottle of red wine. So I thought of Red Wine Poached Pickled Beets. The wine gives the beets a better flavor than just being pickled and I didn’t use the best wine either. I just threw my pan of beets in the oven with all the liquid but if you prefer you can do the beets on the stove top. The beets came out with subtle complex flavors this way. Far better than a standard beet pickling. They didn’t really come out winey just more complex with subtle flavors. I presented the beets with toasted pistachios and a cream cheese rose that I piped. I’m thinking that if I did this again maybe toasted spiced walnuts and basil flavored cream cheese would be a really good choice too. OH and don’t use yellow beets….they react with aluminum.

Ingredients for about 10 servings

2 1/2 lbs beets – scrubbed

1 3/4 cup white vinegar

1 3/4 cup red wine

2 cups sugar

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

Directions

Set the oven to 350 degrees F.

Put the beets in a large pan. Cut the beets in half or quarters if needed….

Add all the ingredients and cover the pan tightly with foil. After two hours remove the pan from the oven.

When the beets are cool enough to handle the skins should slip off.

Put the beets in some sort of storage dish and add back the beet liquid. If you desire some onions you can add very thinly sliced onions too. Chill over night and serve.

With extra beet liquid you can make winey pickled eggs too…They really only a need a day but I left mine in for a week before I used them in a salmon salad lavash wrap with saffron pickles.

Salmon Salad with winey pickled eggs and saffron pickles

Red Wine Poached Beets

This was very easy and these beets are better than plain pickled beets. They have a little more going on with them….

The Forking Truth

Asian Style Cabbage with Saffron and Chestnuts

I was reading about a Michelin Stared Chinese Restaurant Chain called Da Dong. One of the dishes on the menu is Braised Cabbage in Saffron with Chestnuts. I’ve never tasted the dish but I did get inspired to make my version of it so here it is. It’s much more delicate than what I normally do. It’s not spicy or very strongly seasoned. Saffron is the star and the cabbage is absolutely perfect. I made the cabbage like I do for slaw and let the salt and sugar cook the slaw for me. Then I made the sauce and poured it over the slaw and it really is delicious. BTW leftover re-heat just as well so there are no worries. I had no idea that saffron and roasted chestnuts are so great with cabbage. The earthy chestnut also goes surprisingly well with these flavors and the sweetness…..I would not have thought of these flavors together. I do note that I didn’t actually roast chestnuts and I used prepackaged roasted chestnuts. The window for fresh chestnuts is maybe one week a year here so if you want to prepare this dish you must use packaged roasted chestnuts.

Ingredients for about 6-8  servings

2 lbs cabbage – thinly shredded

1 carrot – fine shredded

1/4 large sweet onion – fine shredded

1 Tablespoon kosher salt

1/2 cup sugar

1 1/2 oz sliced ginger

3 red dried chili peppers – crushed

2 star anise

3 garlic cloves – smashed well

2 Tablespoons soy sauce

3 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar

1 Tablespoon sesame oil

1/3 teaspoon saffron

2 cups vegetable stock

2 Tablespoons corn starch

2 Tablespoons sweet butter

5 oz roasted chestnuts

1/4 cup scallions – chopped

Directions

In a large bowl add the cabbage, carrot, onion, salt and sugar. Mix well and let set it off to the side. Take your time….it needs maybe 45 minutes to cook itself. Make the sauce next.

In a pan add the ginger, dried chilies, star anise, garlic, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, saffron, vegetable stock, 2 tablespoons corn starch (mixed into cold vegetable stock) and butter.

Heat it up to medium high. Let it bubble a few minutes  and reduce to simmer……let it reduce to half and then remove all the big pieces of stuff in it. (garlic, ginger, star anise, chili pods) Heat it up briefly with the chestnuts. Pour over cabbage mixture and mix and serve.

Asian Style Cabbage with Saffron and Chestnuts

What an interesting and different way to prepare cabbage! I don’t know if my inspiration from the Michelin Stared Da Dong Restaurant is even close but this what what I came up with.

The Forking Truth

Making a delicious juicy boneless chicken breast couldn’t be easier when you Sous Vide it. All you do is to set your Sous Vide with water to 146 degrees F. Bring the chicken out of the refrigerator to warm up for about thirty minutes. Then pound the breast out some and try to make them a similar width.

Apply fresh ground Sea Salt and quality Fresh Ground Black Pepper to both sides.

I always have some frozen garlic confit in my freezer. You can make it by either slicing a fresh garlic head in half and a heavy drizzle of extra virgin olive oil. In the oven covered at 350 degrees F for about an hour. Or you can do a large amount like I did below and prepare it the same way. Freeze it in smaller portions.

I add about 2 teaspoons of FROZEN garlic confit to each bag and then vacuum seal.

I make sure that I get the bags under the water.

The lid goes back on.

It’s recommend to keep the chicken in the water between one to four hours. I find it usually is best around three hours.

If you are not using the chicken right away you should put the chicken pouches in a water bath so you can cool them down and then refrigerate.

The chicken is done now but you might or might not want to take it one step further.

You might want to sear the breast.

Get a fry pan on high heat with about two or three tablespoons of vegetable oil. When the pan is hot sear the breast for about one minute on each side.

You now have the most delicious, moist flavorful, and crusted chicken!

The Forking Truth