Vegetarian Gumbo

I modeled this gumbo after one that is made every tuesday at Food Front Co-op here in Portland.

Cooked brown rice for serving

2-3 tablespoons of roux (recipe below)
2 tbsp olive oil
3-4 cups vegetable broth
1 whole medium yellow onion, roughly chopped
3 ribs celery, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped

1-1/2 cups fresh or frozen okra, sliced
1 14.5oz can diced tomatoes with their liquid
1 dried chipotle chili (or less, depending on your spice tolerance), rehydrated, drained, and
chopped
a few shakes of tabasco sauce
1-1/2 tsp gumbo filé powder (ground sassafras leaves)
1/2 tsp fresh thyme leaves

2 links Field Roast Mexican Chipotle "sausage"
1 package seitan, sliced

Make the roux: Melt 4 tbsp butter in a saucepan. When fully melted, gradually incorporate 4 tbsp flour. Stir until thick and golden, adding flour as you see fit.

In a large pot, heat olive oil. Add onion, celery, and bell pepper. Cook 5-7 minutes until soft.

Add tomatoes, okra, seitan, "sausage," thyme, filé powder, tabasco, and vegetable broth. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes.

When the chipotle chili is fully rehydrated, chopped into little pieces and add. Take out the seeds for less heat. 1 chili + tabasco gave my gumbo a very strong kick.

Serve over brown rice. Serves 7-9

homemade sun-dried tomatoes

courtesy of ms. Lauren Baker who showed me how to make these the other night.
suuuuper easy and so good.

ingredients:
beautiful tomatoes - heirloom preferably, since they are prettier and taste good. long slices.
salt = joy of my life. lots (within reason)
olive oil. some
oven.

place tomatoes on a baking stone or tray. drizzle and sprinkle respectively, a healthy amount of olive oil and salt.
roast them for about 1.5 hours at 300F. They caramelize and get chewy and a bit syrupy. they are amazing.

put on salads. with pasta. on pizzas.

Pumpkin, Fennel and Mozzarella Calzones

I made calzones for the first time last night, and they turned out very well. I followed a basic crust recipe that I found online, and it worked pretty well. I'd definitely be interested in hearing about other calzone dough ideas though, since I think there was room for improvement. The filling I made up myself.

Makes 4 calzones

Dough:

1 package yeast
1 cup lukewarm water
1/2 tsp sugar
1 tsp salt (might be good with 1.5 tsp or 2 tsp)
1 T olive oil

Put yeast in bowl w/ water, sugar and salt - let sit for 15 minutes. Add flour, and mix with hand. The dough should seem almost too dry at first. Kneed for 10 minutes, until the dough becomes elastic and flour is completely incorporated. Put olive oil in a bowl and roll the dough in it so it becomes covered in oil. Let rise for 1 hour in a warm place, until doubled in size. Divide into 4 pieces, and let rise another 15 minutes.


Filling - this can be altered depending on what you have in the house:

1 medium onion
1 cup kabocha squash (or pumpkin), peeled and sliced very thin (I used a grater).
6 cloves of garlic, chopped
1 tomato, chopped
1/2 cup sun dried tomatoes
1 small fennel bulb
dash of wine
dash of balsamic vinegar
dash of salt
dash of pepper
dash of marjoram
dash of basil
dash of sage
olive oil
grated mozzarella cheese

In a saucepan, cook onions, garlic and fennel in olive oil. Once onions start getting soft, add the thinly sliced squash. Cook for a few minutes, then add tomatoes and sun dried tomatoes. Add wine, vinegar, salt, pepper, marjoram, basil, sage. Cook until the squash is tender. Set aside.

Optional: Sautee some Italian sausage (we used fully cooked chicken sausage) in a pan, and have that ready to add to the calzones as well.

TO FILL:

Take a ball of dough and roll it out with a rolling pin into a circle. Scoop in some of the squash mixture, and a generous amount of mozzarella cheese onto one half of the circle. Add sausage (if desired). Fold the dough over, and pinch the folds together. Make sure that they are completely sealed. Set calzone onto a greased baking sheet, brush with a mixture of egg and water, and cut two slits in the dough to allow release of air.

Bake at 425 degrees for about 20 minutes, until the calzones are brown on the bottom and lightly browned on the top. Serve with marinara sauce on the side for dipping.

I think my friend might have taken pictures, so I will ask her and try to get them posted here. They were delicious :)