When I made this from The Big Book of Casseroles, I figured it would just be an okay workday lunch and we could use up some salmon we had in the freezer. That is why I didn’t take many pictures of it. But…but…it was good!

The original recipe called for ahi tuna which, personally, didn’t sound that good, but with salmon it was really tasty! I also swapped the papaya in the original for mango.

Oh and jwa liked the casserole too which is always high praise for cheap fish project dishes! Now, I probably wouldn’t use fresh salmon for this but for defrosted frozen salmon it’s perfect — hence the cheap fish (about $7/pound at Trader Joe’s) tag.

FYI, this makes more sauce than you need for the casserole. You can either pass the unused sauce with the cooked casserole or save the extra sauce for a stir-fry or something.

Salmon, Mango and Rice Casserole
2 salmon fillets (about 1 pound total)
2 mangoes, sliced
2 cups cooked brown or white rice
2 cups orange mango juice
1 tbsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 tsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp Asian chili-garlic hot sauce
2 1/2 tbsp corn starch
1/2 cup Panko bread crumbs
Non-stick canola oil cooking spray

Make the sauce first by putting the orange mango juice through the cornstarch in a sauce pan over medium heat. Whisk until thickened, about 5 minutes. Keep warm.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Spread rice on the bottom of a baking dish (9 X 13 or 9 X 9) coated with canola oil spray. Arrange salmon over the rice and cover with the mango slices. Pour about half the sauce over the mango slices. Top with the panko breadcrumbs. Spray the top with a little canola oil spray.

Bake, uncovered, until the top is golden and the fish is done, 15 - 20 minutes. Let sit about 5 minutes, then cut and serve. Or pack up to bring for lunch the next day.

Oh and on the wedding front…there’s puppets!

Well, finger puppets anyway…

Now this is one of the ultimate comfort foods, ever. I actually tried to make a chicken pot pie before — maybe 5 years ago — and it was a complete disaster. Flavorless, too much work and just kind of meh. It’s taken me 5 years to want to attempt another one. Wow, am I glad I did! This chicken pot pie is anything but meh…it is awesome!

It’s also a great project for a Saturday or Sunday, it seems like there are a lot of steps, but it goes very quickly. Plus, you can use up lots of vegetables, pretty much add any combination that you have. I subbed frozen lima beans for the peas and added about 4 stalks of cut up (about 1 inch pieces) of asparagus right before I added the flour.

Oh, diced butternut squash would probably be wonderful in this, or maybe even some sweet potato chunks! This is based on a recipe in Gourmet magazine, but that was for a turkey pot pie with a cheddar-biscuit crust, so, really this is much different!

Chicken Pot Pie with a Feta Herb Biscuit Crust
For filling:
1 lb chicken breasts, cut into bit-sized pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 large carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 tsp chopped thyme
1/2 tsp chopped rosemary
3 tbsp unsalted butter
1/2 pound mushrooms, trimmed and quartered
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup frozen baby peas, thawed
1/2 cup dry white wine
1 1/2 cups chicken broth
1 cup fat-free milk
3 tbsp Parmesan cheese

For biscuit crust:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1/2 cup feta cheese crumbles
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
6 tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 1/4 cups well-shaken buttermilk
1/4 cup mixed chopped herbs (chives, rosemary, thyme, and sage are good, and although it is not an herb, so are green onions)

Add olive oil to large pot and brown chicken over medium-high heat for about 4-5 minutes until golden. Remove and set aside, leaving any extra oil in pan.

In that pan, add the 3 tablespoons of butter and cook the onion, garlic, carrots, rosemary and thyme with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper, over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until vegetables are almost tender, 10 to 12 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, uncovered, stirring, until tender, 5 to 7 minutes.

Sprinkle with flour and cook, stirring constantly, 2 minutes. Stir in wine, broth and milk, scraping up any brown bits, and bring to a boil, stirring, then simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Stir in chicken pieces, peas, Parmesan and salt and pepper to taste. Reheat over low heat just before topping with biscuit crust.

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle.

Sift together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and pepper into a medium bowl. Add cheeses and herbs and toss to coat.

Blend in butter with a pastry blender or your fingertips until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir just until a dough forms.

Drop biscuit dough onto filling in 8 large mounds, leaving spaces between biscuits. If you have extra biscuit dough, drop them down on a cookie sheet and bake alongside the pie, for about 15 minutes.

Bake until biscuits are puffed and golden brown and filling is bubbling, 35 to 40 minutes.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

Oh! So good. And besides a wonderful dinner, we will be having tasty lunches this week for sure.

Here’s a holiday side dish that we had on Christmas. It has all the things that make a holiday meal great — fatty, delicious, forbidden pork products, heavy cream and cheese. But, you know, it’ll still work after the holidays. It’s just a bit harder to justify…maybe if you only have a small taste. Yeah.

Parsnip and Hazlenut Gratin with Pancetta
Adapted from a recipe in Bon Appétit
2 oz pancetta, chopped
2 pounds parsnips, peeled, trimmed, thinly sliced lengthwise
1/2 cup hazelnuts, chopped, toasted, divided
2 cups whipping cream
1 tsp dried, rubbed sage
1 cup low-salt chicken broth
1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/4 cup parmesan cheese + 2 more tbsp
2 tbsp minced fresh sage

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Sauté the pancetta in a heavy, medium skillet over medium-high heat until golden brown, about 6 minutes. Using slotted spoon, transfer to large bowl.

Stir in parsnips and 1/4 cup hazelnuts into the bowl with the pancetta. Then, arrange mixture in even layer in 2-quart baking dish. In a small pot, combine the cream, broth, salt, dried sage and pepper and bring to a simmer over medium heat. Stir in the 1/4 cup of parmesan and then pour over parsnip mixture in the baking dish. Sprinkle with the remaining parmesan cheese and a few grinds more of black pepper.

Bake gratin 30 minutes. Press down on parsnips with spatula to moisten evenly. Continue baking until parsnips are tender and liquid bubbles thickly, about 35 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes. Sprinkle with remaining hazelnuts and sage.

This was seriously good. You must make it. That is all.

***

Public Service Announcement — Because I am Looking Out for You

On a completely, unrelated note, I bought a frozen Lean Cuisine the other day thinking I could bring it for lunch one day when I was desperate and had nothing else. I try to bring leftovers for lunch but occasionally, we have none or I am too lazy to get everything together.

But, today, I got home from running some errands and I was starving. Reluctantly, I grabbed the frozen ravioli bistro fare :: snort:: out of the freezer and popped it on the microwave. Okay, hmmm, I have to admit it, I was pleasantly surprised — it was actually edible.

Lots of good, non-soggy vegetables and the ravioli were well-flavored and I could even taste the walnuts in the sauce. Sure, homemade ravioli will always be better, and yes, most frozen meals generally kind of suck as a rule, but, if you need a cache of lean cuisine for an emergency…well, get this kind. It actually tastes good. Especially since Fred Meyer and other places seem to put the low fat frozen stuff on sale after the holidays. Oh, I have been burned by that deal before (damn you crappy chicken in gross basil sauce that I brought to work for lunch about two years ago*) but, Lean Cuisine butternut squash ravioli, you are okay in my book.

* I hold a grudge.

First off, goodbye Summer theme…hello again Autumn theme! I’ve missed you!

Now, this recipe is from my friend Vanessa. We met at DePaul freshman year of college and then both transferred to other places. We managed to stay in touch for a few years after school, then kind of went on with our lives for a few years after that and just recently got back in touch. Hooray!

She even gave me this awesome recipe for tuna and white beans as a great week night, comforting, quick dinner. It really is…and it fits right in with my (and jwa’s reluctant) goal to eat more economical fish. Frozen tuna is about $6.99/pound at Trader Joe’s. That’s vs. about $20/pound fresh. So, while I will always love the fresh, seared, rare ahi more than anything, it’s good to have a few tricks with frozen tuna. Add this to the list because it’s great!

I didn’t change much from the original, but I did add orange and olives. That’s what so great about this recipe — you can really alter it to fit what you have on hand or flavors that you are in the mood to eat.

Baked Tuna & White Beans from Vanessa
1 medium to large onion, roughly chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
4-5 medium garlic cloves - crushed and roughly chopped
2 cans Cannelloni beans, drained and rinsed
1 lb tuna (defrosted frozen is really good for this — albacore or ahi)
salt and pepper
Olive oil
2 sprigs fresh thyme
Optional: 1 orange, zested and juiced
1/4 cup green olives

Saute onion along with the carrots in olive oil until the onions are translucent. Add garlic and cook (but don’t brown).

Next, throw in drained beans just to get them fusing with onion/garlic/olive oil. Add the orange zest and juice. Salt & pepper to taste.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. In a casserole dish, add half of the bean mixture to bottom. Sprinkle the beans with half the thyme leaves. Cut tuna into 4-6 chunks so it cooks faster and put on top of beans.

Dump other half of bean mixture over top of tuna. Drizzle with little more olive oil and the feta cheese.

Bake (uncovered) for about 20 minutes or until tuna is cooked/flaky. Before serving, use a spoon to stir everything up so that tuna flakes and is distributed (in small flakes) through beans. Serve with more fresh thyme and green olives.

You could also use fresh basil and Parmesan in place of the thyme and feta. Vanessa first described with with the parm and basil, which I would have done, except the garden thyme was much closer to the kitchen door and it was raining. So there. Also, if you use basil, just add that at the end, after it comes out of the oven.

Here the meal is with some tasty crostini slathered with arugula pesto. How did I make that? Well, a few very big (overflowing, really) handfuls of arugula leaves, about 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts, 1/4 cup parmesan cheese, 2 garlic cloves salt and pepper. Add to a food processor and combine. Stream olive oil in until it’s smooth and looks like pesto. Get a big bowl of pasta, some crostini or a spoon. All done.

Okay, now off for a bike ride with jwa!

Ah, the roll of polenta. So full of fun and possibilities. Slice it up and make a lasagna. Have it on the side of some pasta. Leave it in the cabinet and make polenta yourself. All of these options will work just fine. But what about using it in Mexican food? Oh hell, why not?

Like a lot of the recipes I’ve made lately, this one is based on something I saw recently from Bon Apetit (the Too Busy to Cook section). I’m not really too busy to cook of course, just easily intrigued by recipes that call for packaged polenta tubes in an unexpected genre. I saw this one and went, “huh…”. Polenta as a stand in for a tamale, you say? Moosh it all up and make it a tasty Mexican casserole topping, you say? Okay, I say. I’ll give it a try.

The result was actually pretty good. I would definitely make it again. I mean, sure, you could make your own corn meal topping (for a realmale), but if you had a packaged polenta tube on hand, this would be as good a thing to do with it as anything else. And sure, one could argue that the use of packaged polenta is a step in the direction of Sandra Lee, but I would counter that, if used responsibly, nu-uh, it’s really not. So there.

Chicken Fauxmale Pie
1 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
3/4-ish lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch pieces, salted and peppered lightly to season
1 tbsp chile powder
1 tbsp cumin
1 clove garlic, minced
1 white onion, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 jalapeno, deseeded and diced finely (use as much as you want, I think I used about 3/4 of a jalapeno)
1/4 cup salsa of your choice
1/4 cup chicken broth
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
2 tomatoes, diced
2 big handfuls of fresh baby spinach leaves
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tube prepared polenta
1 1/2 cups sharp cheddar cheese, diced or shredded
1/4 cup cojita cheese, crumbled

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Sauté the onion, bell pepper, jalapeno and garlic in the oil over medium-high heat for a few minutes or until soft and starting to color. Add the cumin, chili powder and the chicken. Continue cooking until the chicken has browned and is mostly done. Add the broth and spinach and stir until the spinach is wilted. Taste and salt as needed.

Next, add the black beans, about 1/4 cup of the cilantro and the diced tomato. It should be a nice, chunky, casserole-filling consistency. Spread it into a 9-inch square baking pan (the size you would use for brownies).

Unwrap the polenta and add to a big bowl. Slice into a few big pieces and then crumble.

I found that using a potato masher was a very quick way to crumble it all up. Add the 1/4 cup salsa and the cojita cheese. Mix that all up together — this will be the fauxmale topping.

Cover the chicken mixture with the cheddar cheese, then spread the fauxmale mixture on top of that.

Here, you could spray the top of the casserole with a little olive oil to encourage browning. That’s what I did and I was pretty pleased with the results.

Bake the casserole, uncovered, until heated through, golden on top and chicken-salsa mixture starts to bubble up, about 35 - 40 minutes.

Serve with sour cream for garnish and the rest of the cilantro.

***
Off to Ashland Sunday for a quick overnight, a play, dinner at the Winchester Inn and a look at the Peerless Hotel for a Wedding08 contender.

Just when I start to think about changing the blog theme to something more Springy, it gets all cold again. The kind of weather where you want to make a creamy sauce and bake something in it. Something like potatoes. The kind of weather where there’s a pork tenderloin involved in the whole thing as well.

I started with an idea — mmmmm…lavender and goat cheese — and ended up with a whole meal.

Lavender-Goat Cheese Potatoes
This made two 1-cup ramekins. In fact I had a little extra sauce left over. I’m sure I will be able to figure something out. My point is though, if you want to double this, add another potato, then double the whole recipe, and it should serve around 6).

3 small yellow potatoes, scrubbed and sliced thinly, peeled or unpeeled, your choice (figure about 1.5 potatoes per person for a generous serving)
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups fat free, 2% or full fat milk (I used fat-free and it was very creamy)
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 tbsp dried culinary lavender
2 oz goat cheese
dash of nutmeg
salt & pepper
1/4 cup + 2 tsp grated Parmesan cheese
Some non-stick spray or some butter
Garnish: A sprig or two of fresh lavender

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add the milk and lavender to a small pot and bring to a simmer (don’t boil). Let the lavender steep for a few minutes.

Melt the butter in a larger pan over medium-high heat and add the garlic. Saute for two minutes and then add the flour. Let that cook for a couple of minutes more and then strain the hot milk into the roux. Whisk until smooth. It should bubble and thicken. Reduce the heat and add the goat cheese, whisking until melted.

Then add the nutmeg, 1/4 cup of Parmesan and a little salt and pepper. Taste and adjust any seasonings. Spray individual ramekins with non-stick spray (or coat with a little butter) and ladle a little of the sauce in the bottom.

Layer a few potato slices around the bottom and cover with sauce. repeat until you reach the top. Ladle a generous amount of sauce on top and cover each with a teaspoon of Parmesan and some black pepper. Give a quick spray with canola or olive oil or dot with butter.

Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until the potatoes are nice and tender and the tops are golden. Garnish with fresh lavender if available (our plants are still sleeeping for the Winter…).

Now, what to serve with the potatoes? I know — how about some Parmesan-sage crusted pork tenderloin? Well, okay then.

Parmesan-Sage Crusted Pork Tenderloin
Will feed about 3 — double it for 6.
1 pork tenderloin
3/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1 tbsp good quality dried, rubbed sage
salt
pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Blend the cheese, sage and a few grinds black pepper in a shallow dish. Before dredging, sprinkle the pork with a little salt on all sides. Then, lay the tenderloin over the cheese and push down. Turn over and repeat. You can also kind of pat the cheese and sage into the pork. When you are doe it should look something like this.

If you don’t mind an extra step, you could also coat the pork in Dijon mustard before dredging. I was just too lazy to do that. Heat an oven proof skillet and add the oil. Sear pork on all sides. Then, pop in the oven for 15 minutes or so, until the pork registers about 150-155 degrees. Remove from oven and let sit 5-10 minutes before serving.

If you wanted a sauce to go with your pork, when you put the pork in the oven, add about a cup of chicken broth to another small pot, along with about a tablespoon of dried lavender, a teaspoon of Dijon mustard, a splash of wine, and a teaspoon of Herbes de Provence. Put it over medium-high heat. This way, it can reduce on the stovetop while the pork cooks in the oven. Bring to a boil and then simmer for about 15-20 minutes, reducing by about half.

If there isn’t a lot of Parmesan fall-off in you pork skillet(after you remove it from the oven, of course), strain the reduced sauce into the pork pan and continue to reduce for another minute or so. Taste and add salt/pepper as needed. Finish by melting about a half tablespoon of butter into the sauce.

Serve everything with the vegetable of your choice. I chose roasted carrots. Excellent. jwa thought so too. Now go ahead and finish the wine you opened for the sauce with dinner and call it a tasty, not-quite-Spring-yet night.

Hooray for crusty cheese!

Super Foods count here is three. Not too bad. This turned into a very successful experiment. jwa was a bit skeptical, as he is with all things that involve pumpkin. Although, once I told him I was using butternut squash as a substitute, he relaxed. He has some kind of weird pumpkin phobia that strikes in the Fall and doesn’t leave until Spring.

I changed this a bit from the original — I added olive oil, the sausage and the roux. I also used chicken broth in this version (mahahahaha, Vegetarian Times!) rendering it meat-laced and definitely un-vegetarian. You can use vegetable broth if you’d like.

Feta-Pumpkin (Squash) Casserole
Based on a recipe in The Vegetarian Times
1 tbsp olive oil (plus a little extra for the pan, if desired)
1/4 cup dry sherry
1/4 cup vegetable broth or chicken broth
1 small white onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium tomato, diced
1 small zucchini, sliced
1 medium butternut squash (or small sugar pumpkin), peeled and cubed
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 whole egg plus 1 egg white, lightly beaten
2 vegetarian sausages (I used apple-sage veggie sausage but hey, you could omit the sausage or use chicken, turkey, pork or lamb sausage)
1/2 cup low-fat buttermilk
1/2 cup nonfat plain yogurt
3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp rubbed sage (or 1 tsp fresh sage, shopped)
2 tbsp toasted bread crumbs
3 tbsp Parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a 2-quart baking dish (or use non-stick spray). In a saute pan, heat the tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add onion and saute, stirring until onion is soft, about 2 minutes. Add the garlic, zucchini and sausage. Continue to cook until it all gets a little color and starts to look tasty.

Next, comes the pumpkin or squash and the tomato. Add it all in and stir a bit. Let saute for about 5 -6 more minutes. Then, add the butter and let it melt. Sprinkle in the flour and combine. Cook it for just a minute to get rid of raw flour taste.

Add the sherry and broth. Stir and let it all thicken up. Set the pan aside and cool off just a bit so you don’t scramble the eggs. You can also temper the eggs with just a little bit of the sauce in the pan — I think I did that in addition to letting it cool for about 5 minutes. In a medium bowl, whisk together egg and egg whites, buttermilk and yogurt.

Add feta and spices to the sauteed vegetables and then the yogurt/buttermilk combination. Season with salt and pepper. Mix well. Spoon into a loaf pan or square casserole dish. Sprinkle with the Parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake 25 minutes or until bubbly. Serve hot.

When you spoon it out it may look a little messy. Ehh. That’s just the way it goes. It’s a casserole — a dairy-based casserole — it’s not going to photograph well or look magazine-perfect. It’s kinda going to gloop out onto your plate. But, it’s great tasting, so who cares if it’s not super pretty? Not me.

Super Foods: Yogurt, Pumpkin (Squash), tomato

Next Friday will be a Sugar High Friday…on a Friday! Hooray!

I am going to betray my Midwest roots here by offering a casserole for today’s post. A chicken-fajita casserole but a casserole none the less. Do I call it a hotdish? Hell no. I only went to college in Minnesota — I’m not from there.

jwa wanted tacos. I wanted to put something in the oven. This was a compromise. Kind of tacoey but baked, warm and gooey and good. Perfect for the chillier weather we are having now.

Chicken Fajita Casserole
(This could easily be vegetarian — just omit the chicken)
8 or so corn tortillas, however many you will need to make two layers in
a lasagna-sized baking dish
1 can of refried beans (black beans or kidney
beans would work too), warmed up so that they are easier to spread
1 yellow bell pepper, cut into strips
6 cremini mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp vegetable or canola oil
1 red bell pepper, cut into strips
1 jalapeno, seeded and diced
2 medium zucchinis, chopped
1 medium white onion, cut into rings and then halved
3/4 - 1 lb skinless, boneless chicken breasts
2 tbsp chile powder
1 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp Mexican oregano
2 cups grated cheddar cheese
1 can diced tomatoes
a few dashes of Tabasco
1/4 cup light cream cheese
Garnish: fresh cilantro and sour cream

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees.

Add the chile powder, cumin, salt and oregano in a shallow bowl. Trim any extra fat from the chicken and dredge the breasts in the spices. I add a sprinkle of kosher salt to the top too. Cook in a pan over medium heat, in the oil, until done. Remove from the pan and let cool. When it is cool enough to handle, slice into pieces.

Add the vegetables (onions, bell peppers, mushrooms, zucchinis and jalapeno) to the pan you just cooked the chicken in and saute until soft and the veggies start to brown, 7-9 minutes. Remove from the pan and set aside.

Into the same pan, add the canned tomatoes and the cream cheese. Let the cream cheese melt and thicken up the sauce. Hit it with a bit of the Tabasco. Set aside (this is a theme).

New pan time
Blister your tortillas in another, smaller pan over high heat. Halve a few of them to line your baking dish easier.

Spread the beans over the bottom layer of tortillas and then add then layer your chicken on top of the beans. Add about 1/4 of the grated cheese and then the vegetables.

Cover with the second layer of tortillas and then pour your tomato/cream cheese sauce over the tortillas. Top with the remaining cheese and bake for about 30 minutes.

Let sit about 5 minutes before cutting. Serve with chopped cilantro and sour cream. Yeah, it’ll be a little messy coming out of the dish, it still tastes good though!

***

We are off to Ashland for a long weekend of restaurants, Shakespeare and walking around the town. Should be very fun! I really like Ashland — especially our traditional first night dinner at the Winchester Inn. Little mini beef Wellingtons, here we come!

Recently, our neighbor asked if we wanted some of their zucchini — their garden was being over-run, apparently. Of course, I replied, for I am quite fond of zucchini. Besides, the mystery squash plant in our garden that I *thought* was a zucchini is actually, well, still a mystery squash.

So, I found myself with two very large (about 3/4 of a pound each) squash. I remember trying a zucchini casserole once, from The Big Book of Casseroles, which utilized grated zucchini, sour cream and Parmesan cheese. I remember that being the very first time jwa ate zucchini without complaint. I looked again at the two very big zucchinis on the counter — I would definitely need help eating them.

Yep, this was a job for The Big Book of Casseroles, all right.

Grated Zucchini Casserole
2 big zucchinis, yellow or green, totaling about 1 1/2 - 1 3/4 pounds
1/2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup sour cream (light or full fat — not fat free)
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp salt
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
sprinkle of red pepper flakes

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Grate your zucchinis. I usually do this over 3-4 paper towels, that way I can bundle it right up, take it over to the sink and squeeze out the excess water. Place the grated zucchini in your baking dish. Add the garlic and pepper. Toss to mix and bake for 15 minutes. Dot the top with little pieces of your butter.

Remove from the oven and add the salt, sour cream, red pepper flakes and 2 tablespoons of the cheese. Mix. Sprinkle the remaining Parmesan on the top and return to the oven for about 10-15 minutes.

You’ll have a little extra liquid after it’s done, just use a slotted spoon for serving. The flavor of this casserole is really very good. It’s also a very good recipe to get someone to try zucchini or to convince those that say they don’t like zucchini that it is really quite tasty.

Oh, look, it’s more bubbling, baked things! Isn’t that what Winter is for? Why yes, yes it is. I really love moussaka. This, too, I would get at Greek Islands. I don’t know, there’s just something about lamb, red wine and cinnamon…

While I was a vegetarian, the one meat I think I thought back fondly about the most was probably lamb. Not that I ate it that often, because I didn’t, but because it was so interesting tasting. Nowadays, I probably have lamb a few times a year and moussaka is a great way to do that.

For these — instead of making a big lasagne-sized casserole — I made individual moussakas in oven-safe bowls. So cute!

If you had one cup or a bit bigger ramekins, you could easily make four moussakas with this recipe. If you had bigger soup bowls and were starving, you could make two big moussakas (and possibly have leftovers).

Eggplant Component:
2 small eggplants
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1 tbsp olive oil

Lamb Component:
1 tsp olive oil
3 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 onion, chopped
1 pound ground lamb
1/4 cup red wine
3 tbsp tomato paste
1 tomato, chopped
2 tbsp water
2 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Sprinkle of cinnamon

Béchamel Sauce:
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp flour
1 cup milk
Pinch nutmeg
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
3 tbsp grated parmesan + 1 more tbsp (or so)

Incidentals:
1 more tomato, sliced
1/4 cup crumbled feta
1/2 tsp dried oregano

For the Eggplant:
Wash eggplant and cut off both ends. Peel the purple skin off (I used a knife, but a potato peeler might work too) and slice it across into about 1/2 inch thick circles. Salt both sides of eggplant pieces and let stand for 30 minutes in a colander. Rinse and pat dry. Heat the oil in a large sauté pan, and fry the eggplant on both sides, until golden brown. Drain well on paper towels.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

For the Meat Filling:
Heat the teaspoon of oil in a large skillet. Add the onions and garlic and cook until onions are tender, 3 to 4 minutes. Add the lamb and cook until brown, about 6 more minutes. Drain out excess grease, then add the wine to the lamb mixture and cook for for about 5 minutes. Add in tomato paste, tomato, water, parsley, salt, pepper, and cinnamon. Simmer for 30 minutes more, then remove from heat and cool.

For the Béchamel:
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter. Blend in the flour, and gradually stir in the milk. Cook, stirring, until thick and smooth. Add in the nutmeg, salt and pepper. Cool. Add 2-3 tablespoons of parmesan and blend well.

For the Assembly:
Here, I used individual, oven-safe bowls. As mentioned earlier, you can certainly also do this in a casserole dish. Start off by layering tomato slices in the bottom of each bowl.

Then, place some eggplant circles, followed by lamb mixture. Repeat eggplant and lamb mixture layers until both are used up. Top with the Béchamel and sprinkle with the extra one tablespoon of parmesan, then a little feta cheese (just a few crumbles on top to make it look pretty). Complete the masterpieces with a sprinkle of dried oregano on top of each.

Place in the oven and bake for 30-40 minutes, until bubbly and golden on top. Remove to a rack and let cool for 10 minutes.

For the Eating:
Serve with a salad of spinach leaves, kalamata olives, tomato and feta. Oh, and red wine. There must be red wine.

Then, open the box of Baklava you might have gotten for a holiday present. How convenient! Mmm!

Tomorrow: Spirited Cooking.

***

On a different, non-lamb casserole note, congratulations to Christy & Dave. Yay!