Sometimes a book can be a life saver. Almost literally.
For a recent corporate team building event at Cooking by the Book, Suzen faced a serious challenge. The team of twenty had a number of food issues. The meal had to be vegetarian, but in addition, several of the team members had strong food allergies. The restrictions meant that a number of common ingredients could not be used for any dish that day. Yet Suzen still wanted a delicious meal for this team to prepare together in our kitchen. The whole concept here is that you cook together and then eat what you cook. So, food restrictions have to diversions and not blockades.
What would be a safe combination of ingredients for a first course, and where would Suzen find it?
The Best of Rose Elliot is a wonderful book reviewed here in May. This is simply the best vegetarian cookbook we’ve seen. In fact, it’s much more appropriate to say this is one of the best cookbooks. Period. The dishes here reflect Rose’s incredible experience in fashioning recipes that have great satisfaction: both to the palate and to the eye.
Suzen walked through The Best until she found this first course that met the needs of everyone in the team. The dish is simple to create and tantalizing on the eye and the tongue. We modified the original version which called for making individual rounds of puff pastry. Here, we just made a rectangle of the pastry, covered it with veggies, baked, divided it up with a sharp knife, and ate away.
Suzen’s clients that day were not fussy; they just had a number of food restrictions. On any day when you have some special cravings or maybe some restrictions of your own, then The Best of Rose Elliot is just fine for one-stop shopping and dining.
Carrot, Shallot and Red Pepper Tarte Tatins with Cardamom
Yield: 12 servings
Ingredients:
- 10 carrots (about 1 ½ pounds), thinly sliced
- 1 large garlic clove, crushed
- 3 cups red peppers sliced thin (about 3 large peppers)
- 1½ cups shallots sliced thin (about 3 large)
- 3½ tablespoons olive oil
- ½ tablespoons of unsalted butter
- ¾ cup water
- 1½ teaspoons granulated sugar
- 20 cardamom pods
- 12 ounces frozen ready-to-bake all-butter puff pastry
- Salt and black pepper
- 3 cups arugula, coarsely chopped
Preparation:
Put the sliced carrots into a saucepan with the garlic, olive oil, water, sugar, and some salt and black pepper.
Crush the cardamom and discard the pods. Crush the seeds a little, and then add to the saucepan. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat, cover, and cook gently for about 10 minutes, or until the carrots are tender and glossy, and the water has disappeared. If there is still water left, remove the lid from the pan and boil the liquid rapidly until it has disappeared. Cool.
Sautéed the red peppers and shallots in ½ T. of olive oil and ½ T. of butter until golden and then added them to the cooked carrot mixture.
Line an 8 ½ x 12 ½ inch jellyroll pan with nonstick parchment paper. Spread the carrots mixture evenly over the bottom and cover with the pastry, pressing it down and trimming it to fit the pan. Prick the pastry all over, and then bake in a preheated oven, at 400°F, for 15 minutes, until puffy, golden brown, and crisp.
Let the tart cool completely, and then turn it out onto a board so that the carrots are on top. Use a rolling pizza cutter and cut it into 12 squares and over the top sprinkle the coarsely chopped arugula
Source: Adapted from The Best of Rose Elliot by Rose Elliot
Photo Information Canon T2i, EFS 60 mm Macro Lens, F/4 for 1/50th second at ISO‑1250