Spicy roasted bell pepper peanut sauce

This summer, I had a few opportunities to eat at Epiphany Cafe in downtown Tuscaloosa, AL. Epiphany sources and features Alabama grown produce on their menu (they also go local with their beers, meats, and dairy too). I like sampling the small plates, as they are generous portions to share. Now, I'm not a foodie critic, and I rarely write about restaurant meals, but this place just floors me each time. For someone that cooks a lot, I'm impressed when restaurant meals are something that I would not prepare at home. I want to be impressed. A quick glance at their menu, shows a description of foods and flavors - they really work it. 

Last week, they had a special 3-course menu for restaurant week: hay-smoked scallops served with coin-thin sliced cucumbers and drizzles of soy sauce, flash-fried and crunchy fish with radishes and slivers of dainty grassy chives served over potatoes, and to finish off the meal a rich (I would think brown sugar) pound cake featuring Chilton County peaches. All this for 30 bucks - no splitting though. I ate all of it. 

Each time I've gone, I try to sample new things. They tend to change the menu frequently. One dish that has stuck with me, and that I absolutely adored was a roasted okra with a red bell pepper coulis. If you love okra, you've got to try it roasted. 

After settling in and unpacking the kitchen, one visits the farmers' markets. There was a lot of good looking late summer produce around. Pretty purple and green okra pods, hot peppers, tomatoes, dimpled and firm summer squash, flowers, basil, eggplants. I knew I had to recreate that okra dish. I didn't want to view the menu to see what flavors I had loved so much, I wanted to go off memory, and what we had around. Turning the oven on in the middle of summer here was not the best idea, but so be it when you want roasted okra.  

I made a roasted bell pepper sauce/chutney, and served it over just roasted okra, and topped it with some fresh basil. I served mine alongside some couscous, which proved a bit boring, but was a key sauce soaker-upper. This is a delicious dish. Choose young fresh okra. If the okra is too mature, the seeds will be an unpleasant crunch, and the skins can get too tough and fibrous. Young pods should be 3-4" in length or smaller. 

Spicy roasted bell pepper peanut sauce served with roasted okra and couscous

Serves: 4, or 2 hungry people; recipe inspired from Epiphany Cafe, Tuscaloosa, AL

Ingredients:

1-2 red bell peppers 

1-2 hot peppers, or jalapeños 

2 cloves garlic

2-3 tbsp olive oil

1-2 tbsp water

2-3 tbsp parsley, cut off stems

juice of half a lime

1 tbsp soy sauce

large handful roasted peanuts

Roasted okra:

1-2 lbs okra (count 1/2 pound per person)

olive oil

Couscous:

1 cup couscous

1 cup boiling water

Directions:

Turn the broiler on high, and lay out a few red bell peppers and hot peppers on a pan. Broil them until they are nicely charred. Rotating every few minutes until the skins look blistered. Once they are done, set in a heat-proof bowl and cover with a plate. You can set them in the fridge to speed up cooling down time. Boil 1 cup water for the couscous. When the water boils, add the 1 cup dry couscous, stir, and turn off the heat. You can leave the sauce pan with the couscous on the same burner. I think it helps it dry out more quickly. Now, the okra.  

In the same pan, lay out freshly washed okra. Drizzle with olive oil, toss to cover evenly, and roast in the oven at 375º F/ 190º C for about 25 minutes or until baked. Now, the sauce.

In a blender, add roughly chopped parsley, garlic cloves, olive oil, water, the juice of half a lime, 1 tbsp soy sauce, and roasted peanuts. Make sure the bottom of the blender has about 1/2 inch of liquid or more. Blend on low setting, incorporating all the ingredients. Depending on your blender, you might need to scrape the sides of the blender down to incorporate any fly aways. Now, the peppers.

Once the peppers are cool enough to handle, remove the waxy papery skins, and discard the membranes and seeds. Use plastic gloves (or 2 sandwich plastic zip locks) to prep the hot peppers. Once, I rubbed my eye after ignoring the "use rubber gloves" and it was painful enough that now I try and protect my hands from the capsaicin found in peppers. Add the peppers to the blender. Blend until incorporated. Set aside until ready to use. 

Turn out the roasted okra in a nice serving dish. Spoon some of the spicy roasted bell pepper peanut sauce on top, garnish with basil leaves, and serve alongside the couscous. Voilá, lekkere eten! Een echt super lekkere hoofdgerechten die Jeroen Meus jaloers vindt zijn. 

Tofu mushroom étouffée!

Wow. I think there is something addictive in this dish. It tastes so good. I adapted it from the FatFree Vegan Kitchen. I made the roux the traditional (full disclosure: full-fat) way. I'm not a huge fan of eliminating all fats either because I think fats can carry flavors, have a role in absorbing nutrients, contribute to satiety, and good blood sugar regulation. However, her take was quite creative, and I would try it again now that I've made it and understand the steps more clearly. 


The flour used in étouffée is toasted until it becomes a rich toasty brown. Getting the red-brown sauce is done by toasting the flour in a pan. Stir it a lot. You don’t want it to burn. It will smell kind of like chestnuts. I like the addition of soy sauce from the original recipe. Overall, I think this dish actually has a lot going on in terms of prep work, cooking time, and stand-by time. Read the directions all the way through, and then begin. 





Tofu mushroom étouffée
Adapted from the Fatfree Vegan Kitchen's Vegan Sausage and Mushroom Etouffee
Yield: 4-6 servings


Ingredients:
1 cup long-grain rice, prepared according to package directions
2-3 tbsp peanut oil
1 package extra-firm tofu (300 g)
2 ribs celery, chopped, about roughly 
1 medium carrot, chopped into coins
1 small onion, chopped medium dice
1 small bell pepper, cut into 1" chunks
1 cup sliced buttom mushrooms, or about 8-10 sliced, wipe clean then slice
3 cloves garlic, sliced
1/2 cup parsley, divided


Roux
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
2 tbsp peanut oil
2 cups (16 oz) vegetable broth
1 tsp soy sauce
1 tsp red chili powder (or paprika if you want it less spicy)
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1/2 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt (optional)


Cook rice according to package directions. 


If you use a high-qualify pressed tofu (like one from an Asian grocer) you won't really have to press much water out of it. Slice up the tofu into squares, or cubes, really however you want to serve it. Lay it out on a plate and lightly sprinkle with salt. After a few minutes dab the tofu squares with a cloth to pick up the water. Flip and repeat.


Heat up a cast iron pan over medium heat. Pour in 3 tbsp of peanut oil and heat up. When ready add the tofu to the pan, laying out in a single layer and being careful not to overcrowd the pan. Cook on each side until golden-brown, about 14-20 minutes. Remove the tofu, replacing it with the other uncooked ones until all of them have been cooked.


To the same cast iron pan add in the onions and cook until just beginning to get golden brown. There should be enough oil leftover that you won't need to add any new oil. Add in celery, followed by carrots, and bell peppers. Continue to cook about 5 minutes. Add in mushrooms and stir everything carefully so the uncooked mushrooms get distributed evenly.


While you are waiting for the mushrooms to cook down, add 3 tbsp of flour to a new wide skillet or a medium saucepan. Just use a pan that you can make sure and see that the flour is changing. Cook it over medium heat. It won't turn when you're staring at it, but the second you forget about it for longer than 2 minutes, that's when it goes from white to burned. Pay attention and stir it with a whisk once a minute. Give the pan a few good shakes like you're on a cooking show. It will go from white, to golden, to still golden, to still golden, to tan, to brown and toasted. Once done remove the pan from the heat, and if you want remove the flour to a bowl until ready to use.


Stir the veggies too and now add the garlic and parsley. See what I mean about a lot of stuff going on? It's ok though because you got your rice cooking, you got the veggies done, you got the tofu on the side and ready to go.


Now get your broth ready. Once it's ready stir in about a tsp or small dash soy sauce or Bragg's. In the same pan that you used for the flour, add 2 tbsp of peanut oil and heat up over medium-high heat. Once hot add in toasted flour and whisk until it becomes like a nice chunky paste almost like miso. Gradually pour the broth mixture over whisking the mixture the whole time. It should look like a lovely brownish red sauce. Stir it continuously for 10 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Add the spices and remaining parsley. Continue stirring.


Once it reaches desired thickness, it should be thick without being too thick like a gravy, but thicker than a sauce. It should easily coat, or smother, the veggies. In whatever pan is bigger, pour the sauce in the veggies, or the veggies in the sauce. Remember to add the tofu to the veggies, I like keeping them separate because the tofu stays chewy much longer. Stir together and heat through.


Serve over rice. I like to add the rice into custard cups and turn them out onto a plate for a nice presentation. This dish is really delicious. I love popping open a beer and cranking up the music because it's much harder to leave any of this unattended. Maybe it'll end up as one of your favorites?


Beer pairing: a lemony saison, such as Saison Dupont, or a citrusy light hopped IPA. 

Baked potatoes with lemon, feta, and herbs

Before the holiday break, the hubs and I were invited over for a Christmas party. We ate baked trout that was steamed in foil packets. The seasonings were simple: bay leaves, lemon slices, delicate garlic slices, and olive oil. It was divine. I try not to be judgmental with my vegetarian ways but hot damn that fish was unlike anything that could ever be recreated in the plant kingdom. So sometimes I cheat, but my vegetarian self always wins. I had to recreate those flavors. My idle time is not spent being bored. I got to work.

I use new potatoes, garlic, shallots, lots of fresh chopped parsley, lemon, capers, red kidney beans, generous pours of olive oil and capers. I carefully arrange everything in small cute foil pouches, and then away they go into the oven coming back steaming an hour later. 

Oh heaven. This is vegetarian comfort food. Just in time for Valentine's Day too. I'll cook you this meal if you can come up with a prettier name than what I named it =-). Yes. They are not really cute, the foil gives them a rather industrial appearance, but trust me these are delicious.


Unwrapped baked potatoes








I really wanted to make these last two images an animated gif. I resisted.

Baked potatoes with lemon, feta, and herbs

Serves: 4

Ingredients:

1 packet of aluminum foil, or enough for 4 10" by 10" squares

4-6 small-medium new potatoes, peeled and sliced into 1/2" rounds

scant 1 cup fresh chopped parsley, can sub chopped dill
1/3 cup chopped shallots

2 cloves garlic, chopped fine

1 lemon sliced (enough for 1-2 slices in each pouch)

4 bay leaves

1-2 tsp capers (do not rinse them)

1/2 cup feta cheese 

1-2 cups cooked kidney beans (canned beans are fine)

olive oil

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 350 º F; arrange everything on a plate, and then lay out foil squares (10" by 10"). 

2. The order in which the ingredients go don't really matter, although it's probably easiest to start with the potatoes. Pour a bit of olive oil onto the middle of the foil. Place a bay leaf on top and then place about 6 slices of potatoes on top. Top with parsley, shallots, capers, garlic and lemon slices. Arrange feta cheese and beans on top. Pour a generous glug of olive oil over the top, crack some fresh black pepper on top, and then fold into pouches like folding an envelope.

Repeat with the ingredients to make 4 pouches. Arrange on a baking sheet and bake in the oven for an hour or less. Serve with some warm crusty bread to soak up the juices.