Cooking with Charmaine Solomon's Complete Vegetarian Cookbook

[Okanagancook]

Rather than posting this in Camping, Princess Style, I thought I would start a new thread so any future cooking will be altogether.

 

I have had Charmaine's veggie book since 1990 (I usually date when I bought a book).

These are the recipes I have made with a notation of good/excellent.  Sheesh, I gotta look through this book a bit more, there are some lovely looking recipes.  FYI, I have found that when she says "spicy" I find it turns out not all that spicy for me.

The Ratatouille on page 98 is very good.

The Fresh Pea Soup on page 66 is excellent.

The Lentil Soup on page 254 is also excellent.

The Bean Curd with Hot Sauce on page 320 is a good dish.

The Braised Broccoli, Chinese Style on page 292 is excellent.

The Bean Sprout Salad on page 163 is nice.

[Smithy]

What a great idea!  For those who don't know about the above-referenced post, here's a summary of my first foray into this book.  Her Dieter's Eggplant Salad, Italian Style gives a new (to me) treatment of eggplant: cube it and boil the cubes, then drain thoroughly when they're soft. She says to boil it in water with a little lemon and salt, and twice now I've forgotten. I think the lemon would prevent the eggplant from browning. The result, even without the lemon and salt, is a silky, soft (but not mushy) and almost sweet bunch of eggplant chunks.

 

 

Mix the drained eggplant chunks with other ingredients: chopped tomato, celery, onion if desired, garlic, parsley, chives, capers, salt and pepper, mixed with red wine vinegar.  Oil is optional, but if you leave it out you have a filling meal with a trivial calorie count.

 

 

Put the whole thing over salad greens.  Here's my first result:

 

 

I don't have the book in front of me at the moment.  When I can get to it, I'll edit this post to add a page number.

 

[Okanagancook]

Looked it up.  Page 175.

i have posted the Modernist Cuisine way of cooking eggplant before.  I wonder how using the microwave would work.

i usually slice the eggplant at about 1/2 inch. Put between paper towels and nuke for 2 to 3 full power.  They can then be sprayed or brushed with oil and fried or grilled.  Maybe dicing them first for this recipe would work for an easier method.

[Smithy]

I knew I'd seen a microwave method somewhere, but couldn't remember where.  Thanks for that; I'll have to compare methods when I have regular microwave access again.  Thanks also for posting the page number.

[Okanagancook]

Went to Eatyourbooks to see what was been made with ratings.  Here is what I found

 

5 star rated

 

p82 pasta

p52 fettuccini with creamy red pepper sauce

p447 no roll dough

p83 spinach pasta

p350 eggplant pickle 

p91 leek and broccoli flan

 

4 star rated

p78 asparagus soup

 

 

[Smithy]

Thanks for those notes.  The book is so big it's hard to know where to start, especially among all the pickle recipes.  I'm glad to see some recommendations.

[Okanagancook]

I see that I also have made:

 

Szechwan soup and rated excellent.

cucumber yogurt soup on page 69 was 'meh, bland"

green and gold soup on page 67 was very thick and needed another cup of liquid

braised cabbage, Chinese style p283 made and rated good

braised broccoli, Chinese style made and rated excellent

stir fried veggies p315 was "bland, nothing special"

okra curry p317 I made this on BBQ in a veggie basket...excellent

 

 

[Okanagancook]

Made the Cherry Clafouti on page 200 last night for dessert.  I hardly ever made dessert but this looked so easy.  I made the batter ahead of time and let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours.  Used fresh frozen cherries from last year's crop.  My Bird's Eye Custard for the top failed (that's another story) so we just had it plain.  We liked it because it wasn't too sweet.  Ours cooled off a bit too much.  It would have been nicer perhaps five minutes after it was out of the oven.  Took 50 minutes to cook. 

[Okanagancook]

I made Fettucine in Creamy capsicum (pepper) sauce on page 52.

A very easy recipe to make except one needs some cream to finish the sauce.

Mine turned out a little on the spicy side maybe because of the red chilies I used (from my garden and dried)...I did follow the recipe.

Sweet and subtle flavours with the red peppers and tomatoes melding well.  I used frozen garden tomatoes.  The recipe called for canned.

I would make this again and it will freeze well without the addition of the finishing cream.