Double-Post Monday

Besides being Meatless Monday, it's Double-Post Monday. Today's offerings include Simply Sour Cream Chicken Enchiladas and Meat Loaf with Sweet and Sour Sauce. Enjoy!

VEGAN THAI CURRY VEGETABLES

This comes from Elaine Louie in The New York Times cooking e-newsletter. The recipe begins, “Drew Spangler Faulkner, a cooking teacher at L’Academie de Cuisine in Bethesda, Md., makes a Thai green curry that is a kind of comfort food. The sauce, made creamy with coconut milk, and gently spicy with the curry paste, is flavorful yet soothing. The vegetables, which are simply dropped into the sauce, and gently simmered for about 12 minutes, turn out tender, not soggy. It is startlingly simple. She makes her own green curry paste, but the recipe calls for any one of three store bought pastes. Although some green curry pastes contain fish or shrimp paste, she has found three brands which do not: Thai Taste, Maesri and Thai Kitchen.”

Yield: 4 servings; Time:1 hour

This was featured in “The Temporary Vegetarian: Vegan Thai Curry Vegetables” and can be viewed online here.

Ingredients

One 13 1/2-ounce can coconut milk (do not shake can)

1/2 cup vegetable stock

4 teaspoons soy sauce

4 teaspoons palm sugar or brown sugar

6 tablespoons Thai green curry paste, like Thai Taste, Maesri, and Thai Kitchen, none of which have shrimp or fish paste

1/2 cup diced (1/2 inch) onion

2/3 cup diced (1/2 inch) red bell pepper

2/3 cup diced (1/2 inch) zucchini or other summer squash

2/3 cup diced (1/2 inch) peeled sweet potato

2/3 cup sliced bamboo shoots, rinsed and drained

1 cup green beans, trimmed and cut into 1 1/2 inch lengths

2/3 cup diced (1/2 inch) Asian eggplant

1 lime

8 large basil leaves, cut into thin chiffonade

Preparation

Open the can of coconut milk without shaking it. Spoon 6 tablespoons of the coconut cream from the top of the can into a medium saucepan. Pour remaining contents of can into a medium bowl, and mix well. In a medium bowl, combine vegetable stock, soy sauce, and palm or brown sugar. Stir until the sugar is dissolved.

Place saucepan of coconut cream over medium-high heat until it begins to bubble. Add curry paste and reduce heat to medium-low. Stir constantly until very fragrant, about 3 minutes; adjust heat as needed to prevent burning. Add onion, red pepper, zucchini, sweet potato, bamboo shoots, green beans, and eggplant. Stir until vegetables are hot, 2-3 minutes. Stir in coconut milk, bring the mixture to a boil, and reduce heat to low. Simmer, uncovered, until the vegetables are tender, about 10 minutes.

Add the soy sauce mixture and a generous squeeze of fresh lime juice to taste; you may use the juice of an entire lime. Stir and mix well. Add up to 1/4 cup water if the curry seems too thick.

To serve, place the curry in a warm serving bowl and garnish with the basil chiffonade. If desired, serve over jasmine rice.

MEAT LOAF WITH SWEET & SOUR SAUCE

This comes from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list.

1-1/2 lbs. ground round

small onion, chopped

1 egg

bread crumbs

4 oz. tomato sauce

salt/pepper to taste

Combine all above ingredients and mix well.

Sweet/Sour Sauce

4 oz. tomato sauce

couple oz. water

2 T. mustard

2 T. vinegar

2 T. Worchestershire sauce

3 T. brown sugar

Mix all ingredients for sauce. Pour about half of sauce over meatloaf. Bake meet loaf at 350 for 1 15 min. Pour more sauce over meatloaf about half way thru cooking time.

Leftover meatloaf makes delicious sandwiches.

The ingredients for the sauce aren't exact. I've been making this recipe for so long I just kinda estimate the quantity. My family LOVES this meatloaf recipe and will not eat meatloaf anywhere, but home. Hope you enjoy it!!!

GJELINA’S ROASTED YAMS

This is from Sam Sifton in The New York Times cooking e-newsletter. Sam wrote, “These roasted yams are adapted from a recipe that Travis Lett, the chef and an owner of Gjelina in Venice, Calif., published in a 2015 cookbook devoted to the restaurant’s food. They are a marvelous accompaniment to a roast chicken, but they are maybe even better as a platter to accompany a salad of hearty greens, cheese and nuts. What makes them memorable is a technique Lett calls for during the cooking: tossing the tubers in honey before roasting them, which intensifies their caramelizing. The crisp, near-burned sweetness works beautifully against the heat of the pepper and the acidic creaminess of the yogurt you dab onto the dish at the end. It is a simple dish, but it results in fantastic eating.”

Yield: Serves 3 - 6; Time: 1 hour.

This was featured in “A New California Cuisine”, and can be viewed online here.

Ingredients

3 large yams

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon Espelette pepper, or crushed red-pepper flakes

3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup Greek-style yogurt

4 tablespoons fresh lime juice, approximately 2 limes

2 scallions, both green and white parts, trimmed and thinly sliced, for garnish

Preparation

Heat oven to 425. Cut the yams lengthwise into 4 wedges per yam. Put them in a large bowl, and toss them with the honey, 1/2 tablespoon of the Espelette pepper or crushed red-pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of the olive oil. Let it sit for 10 minutes or so, tossing once or twice to coat, as the oven heats.

Transfer the yams to a foil-lined, rimmed baking sheet, season with salt and pepper and then bake until they are deeply caramelized around the edges and soft when pierced with a fork at their thickest part, approximately 30 to 35 minutes.

As the yams roast, combine the yogurt, lime juice and remaining tablespoon of olive oil in a small bowl, and whisk to combine, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Set aside.

When the yams are done, transfer them to a serving platter, drizzle the yogurt over them and garnish with the remaining Espelette pepper or red-pepper flakes, the scallions and some flaky sea salt if you have any.

CHICKEN DINNER IN A CROCKPOT

This is from the infamous long-since-forgotten emailing list.

Ingredients

4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

2 tsp. dried basil

1/8 tsp. salt and pepper

1 cup diced bell pepper

1 (16oz) can white beans, drained and rinsed

1 (14oz) can tomatoes, undrained

Directions

Place the chicken in a crock-pot: sprinkle with basil and salt and pepper.

Add bell pepper, beans and tomatoes. Cover with the lid; cook on low setting for 8 hours.

Serving size is 1 chicken breast with 1 cup of tomato bean mixture.

SIMPLY SOUR CREAM CHICKEN ENCHILADAS

This comes from Genius Kitchen. Ready in: 45 minutes; serves: 8.

To view this yumminess online, click here.

Ingredients

1 lb chicken breast, diced

1 medium onion, minced

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

8 (8 inch) flour tortillas, softened

1 1⁄2 cups grated monterey jack cheese or 1 1⁄2 cups Mexican blend cheese, divided

1⁄4 cup butter

1⁄4 cup flour

1 (15 ounce) can chicken broth

1 cup sour cream

1 (4 ounce) can chopped green chilies or 2 fresh chili peppers, minced

Directions

In a frying pan, cook chicken and onion together in oil over medium-high heat until chicken is just done.

Divide cooked chicken evenly between 8 tortillas; add 1 1/2 tablespoons cheese to each tortilla.

Roll enchiladas and place seam-side down in a 9x13" baking dish that has been lightly sprayed with no-stick cooking spray.

Melt butter in a medium saucepan; stir in flour to make a roux, stir and cook until bubbly, and gradually whisk in chicken broth then bring to boiling, stirring frequently.

Remove from heat; stir in sour cream and green chilies.

Pour sauce evenly over enchiladas.

Top with remaining 3/4 cup cheese (a baking dish may be double-wrapped and frozen at this point) and bake at 400° F for 20 minutes until cheese is melted and sauce near edges of baking dish is bubbly.

TACO CHILI

This was posted on the Vegetarian Times website on January 6, 2001. Makes 8 servings.

Ingredients

2 cups soy crumbles

1/2 cup canned soybeans

15-oz. can corn, drained

2 (28-oz.) cans diced tomatoes

30-oz. can chili beans

1 medium onion, diced

1 medium green bell pepper, diced

2 pkgs. taco seasoning

1 1/2 tsp. chili powder

Preparation

In large saucepan, combine all ingredients. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat and simmer, stirring occasionally, 30 to 45 minutes.

Serve with low-fat shredded cheese and tortilla chips.