Chapter Four

Hard Times, Old Times, Good Times Vegetables

About vegetables

For the hard times cook, vegetables complete the main part of the meal and can be served with only a pasta or potato dish, giving folks complete protein. There are a kazillion recipes for vegetables, usually meant to hide them under layers of bread crumbs, canned soup mixes, or cheese. We don't like vegetables that way. Cook fresh broccoli and add a little lemon juice, and you have a perfect dish. Lima beans, peas, green beans, the same. They say that people don't like vegetables but that's because they haven't had a fresh one cooked just right. We like them crisp and tasting fresh. When we lived Down South, we really liked some of the cooking but when they start cooking the supper vegetables at ten AM, they lost us. It would have been more nutritious to throw the vegetables out and drink the water they were cooked to death in.

Most vegetables can be sliced or chopped and cooked in a little water, tossed with a bit of butter and salt and pepper, and eaten plain. From Asparagus to Zucchini, the quicker the cooking the better the taste. But there are two vegetables you won't find here, Turnips and Rutabagas. For some reason, we can eat turnips raw, but hot lumpy cooked turnips remind us of cafeteria lines and school menus and we don't cook them anymore.

But even Rutabagas and Turnips have their fans. We were told that there are two of them living in Horsenuts, Nebraska but we couldn't find them.

Besides, Carolyn wouldn't have a rutabaga in the house if it had a pedigree and wore diamonds. So you must make your peace with those vegetables yourselves. There are so many others that are delicious that you may reach a good old age before you have to think about them, though.

Pasta Primavera

This is one of those recipes that is vaguely Chinese, but can be Italian or Southwestern or whatever you want with additional seasonings and your own imagination at the grocers. It's fast, good and very versatile.

  1. In a wok, cook any cut-up vegetable you want in a little oil:
    • green peppers
    • red peppers
    • cabbage, regular or Chinese
    • leeks, cleaned and cut
    • scallions
    • celery
    • carrots
    • broccoli
    • snow peas
    • Etc., etc.
  2. Add a little grated fresh ginger, chopped garlic, and a little soy sauce for a Chinese flavor.
  3. Add some Parmesan, and a little chicken broth for an Italian flavor. Add cooked noodles or grain of any variety.
  4. Toss with the vegetables.

You can make this for one person or one hundred. It's good cold, like a salad, or mixed with leftover cooked meat it's a complete meal. I know some people who even use it as sandwich filling with sprouts.

Jason's Baked Onions

Our son,Jason, was, and is, a thrifty fellow. Here us his recipt for a baked onion.

  1. Peel an onion and scrape out a little of the middle,
  2. Put a bouillon cube in the onion, wrap in foil.
  3. Bake at 350 for about a half hour.
  4. You can sprinkle this with Parmesan, too.

Potatoes and Peppers

This is a dish that our Calabrese Grandmother taught us. She used to say: "This is Siciliano style, but it's pretty good." She also told me that you never put onions, never. But it's good that way, too.

  1. Slice two or three big potatoes into medium thicknesses.
  2. Slice two or three green peppers into slices. You can also slice a large onion into circles.
  3. Heat vegetable oil, and cook the peppers and potatoes in small batches in the hot oil. Drain on paper towels.
  4. Serve with sliced cooked sausage, or alone with a main dish. It's also good with scrambled eggs.

Ratatouille

This is one of those wonderful recipes that can be eaten hot or cold, with or without meat, as a filling for omelets and sandwiches, and is spectacular all by itself.

Ingredients:

  1. Slice an eggplant and zucchini, and yellow squash if you want (whatever you have works here) toss them with salt and let them sit on paper towels for about a half hour.
  2. Drain some peeled, seeded and crushed tomatoes, fresh or canned, in a colander.
  3. While the eggplant is draining, saute some sliced onions and garlic in a little oil, add the drained tomatoes, some capers, mushrooms, and sliced green or red peppers. Cook this mixture for about 15 minutes, set aside.
  4. In the same skillet, saute the eggplant and zucchini until tender, set aside in a bowl.
  5. If you want to fix this mixture early in the day, and serve it later, take a casserole or baking pan and put one third of the tomato-pepper mixture in the bottom, add some chopped fresh parsley and a little basil, then put half the eggplant/zucchini mixture, another third of the tomato mixture and more parsley, and then the rest of the eggplant, ending with the last of the tomato mixture. Cover and refrigerate, cook at 350 for about an hour.
  6. You can also fix and serve by combining the eggplant/zucchini mixture in the skillet, cook for about an hour covered and add the tomatoes and seasonings, cook for another fifteen minutes. Serve immediately.

You can use this hot and then serve it cold the next day, or serve the dish cold at a summer buffet. It is a rich eggplant relish, delicious alone or with any roasted or broiled meat. It can also be used as a filling for omelets, or you can put green chili in it and serve it like salsa. It is an endlessly versatile dish, useful to any cook, and it uses up the garden's variety in a tasty way.