Russian Vegetable Pie

Another classic dish from The Vegetarian Epicure.

Our chickens are laying a lot of eggs lately so I have been thinking about my favorite egg recipes.  This one is perfect for the fall.  It uses cabbages, mushrooms, cream cheese, and hard-cooked eggs layered in a pie crust.  It's a bit more time consuming to make than some recipes, (pie crust, cook and peel those eggs), but the flavor is great and so hearty.  Just right for a cold evening in November.

Russian Vegetable Pie

Pastry:
1 1/4 C flour
1 t sugar
1 t salt
4 oz softened cream cheese
3 T butter
(makes a top and a bottom crust)

Filling:
1 small head cabbage (3 C shredded)
1/2 lb mushrooms
1 onion
3 T butter
4 oz softened cream cheese
4 - 5 hard cooked eggs
dill
(to taste: basil, marjoram, tarragon, S & P)

Make a pastry by sifting together the dry ingredients, cutting the butter, and working it together with the cream cheese.  Roll our 2/3 of the pastry and line a 9-inch pie dish.  Roll out the remaining pastry and make a circle large enough to cover the dish.  Put it away to chill.

Shred a small head of cabbage coarsely.  Wash the mushrooms and slice them.  Peel and chop the onion.

In a large skillet, melt about 2 T butter.  Add the onion and cabbage, and saute for several minutes, stirring constantly.  Add at least 1/8 t. each of marjoram, tarragon, and basil (all crushed), and some salt and fresh-ground pepper.  Stirring often, allow the mixture to cook until the cabbage is wilted and the onions soft.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

Add another
T of butter to the pan and saute the mushrooms lightly for about 5 or 6 minutes, stirring constantly.

Spread the softened cream cheese in the bottom of the pie shell.  Slice the eggs and arrange the slices in a layer over the cheese.  Sprinkle them with a little chopped dill, then cover them with the cabbage.  Make a final layer of the sauteed mushrooms and cover with the circle of pastry.

Press the pastry together tightly at the edges, and flute them.  With a sharp knife, cut a few short slashes through the top crust.

Bake in a 400-degree oven for 15 minutes, then turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and continue baking for another 20 to 25 minutes, or until the crust is light brown.

Serves 4 - 6.


This is straight from the Vegetarian Epicure.  This is a great cook book by Anna Thomas, who kindly gave me permission to share it with you.  (In the process of writing this I learned that the proper procedure is to ask the author for permission, and in this case, Ms. Thomas asked that the recipe be written exactly as it is written in her cookbook.)  It is a wonderful book that has helped me for years.

German Apple Pancake or Big Dutch Babies

I first learned this one from The Vegetarian Epicure, made with apples.  Later a friend served a similar dish using warm raspberries as a filling/sauce and told me the proportions she uses.  So easy and so good!

German Apple Pancake (or Big Dutch Babies)

This is an easy and special brunch or a "pancakes" for supper meal or a fun dessert.  Basically, you make a popover or pudding batter using these proportions:
1 egg: 1/4 C milk: 1/4 C flour (works fine with gluten free flours)
Use about 1 -1 1/2 eggs per person.

Start your oven to 450.
Melt butter in a big cast iron or pyrex pan.  (I always use my cast iron fry pan so can't vouch for glass but that's what the recipe says.  With pyrex, it might be sensible to melt the butter in the oven, not the stovetop.)
Mix the batter.
Pour batter in pan and bake about 20 minutes.
While it is baking, cook and sweeten whatever fruit you you would like, apples, raspberries, peaches, etc.
When the giant pancake is done, slide it onto a big platter, fill with warm fruit, fold in half and dust with powdered sugar.  Really yummy!

Jamaican Stuffed Pumpkin

Yesterday while looking for this recipe I had the idea of posting some of our family favorite recipes here so they would be easy to find and share.  So perhaps I'll be posting some recipes in the future that do not use vegetables or eggs or chickens!

I got this recipe years ago from a friend.  Recently I was looking and looking for it, kind of a fall activity with all the pumpkins and squash around for cooking.  I couldn't find it but then did, so here it is for safe keeping and yummy cooking.  A good special supper dish.

Jamaican Stuffed Pumpkin
With a sharp knife, cut a 5 in. circle in the top of your pumpkin.  Scoop out the seeds and scrape clean.
Place in a kettle and cover w/salted water, cover, bring to boil, and simmer until nearly tender.  (30 min.)
Remove, drain, dry and sprinkle inside with salt.

Heat 2 T oil in pan.
Add 2 # ground beef, 6 oz smoked ham, 2 1/2 C onions, 1 chopped pepper.
Cook until the meat is brown and crumbly.
Remove from heat.
Mix together 2 1/2 tsp salt, 2 T olive oil, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp vinegar, 1 tsp pepper, dash red pepper, 2 cloves garlic.  Add to meat.
Add 3/4 C raisins, 1/3 C chopped green olives, 2 tsp minced capers, and 8 oz tomato sauce.
Mix.  Cover and cook over low heat.
Cool.
Add 3 eggs and 2 Tsp ginger
Stuff pumpkin with meat mixture.  Cover.
Bake for 1 hour at 350 in a shallow, greased pan.
Cool 10 - 15 minutes before serving.
8 -10 servings.

Naturally, you can adapt this as you like.

Peeling Hard Boiled Eggs made from FRESH Eggs

I am determined to figure out if it is possible to peel and egg that is made from a freshly-laid egg.  So far I have done some research and now need to set up my experiments to test out the various ideas I have found.  There are lots and lots of ideas on the web about this subject.  I've linked to a few of them.

Here are the possible methods I have found:

Shell:
1 - Poke a hole in the shell before cooking
2 - Crack the shell after cooking but before cooling in cold water

Egg/Water temperature:

1 - Let eggs sit in cold water before you start so the eggs and the water are the same temperature
2 - Bring water to the boil and gently add the cold eggs straight from the frig
3 - Cover eggs with cold water.  Bring rapidly to a boil and then either A - gently simmer or B - boil moderately or C - let sit in hot water for 10 - 14 minutes.
4 - Shock the eggs by plunging cooked eggs into A - very cold or B - ICED water
5 - Re-boil eggs after cooling
6 - Peel shortly after cooling.  Do not refrigerate unpeeled eggs for long or they become hard to peel.

Adding things to the water:

1 - Vinegar
2 - Salt
3 - Baking soda

Cooking methods:

1 - See above
2 - Bake the eggs.
3 - Steam the eggs.

Clearly this is a goal of many an egg eating cook.  I like to make deviled eggs for pot lucks since they are such a hit and because I usually have plenty of eggs on hand.

Of everything I have read so far, I like steaming the eggs as a method.  According to Fresh Eggs Daily, this is a fool-proof and easy way to make hard boiled eggs that are easy to peel using honest-to-goodness fresh eggs.  I'll think I'll be trying that one first.

I'll let you know what I find out...

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