Provence in Austin, to the best of my abilities

The south of France is my favorite part of the world that I've never visited. When I lived in Paris, the money and the time off from work never seemed to work out in my favor, but there was this one Provencal restaurant that I loved in the 6th arrondissement. They served kirs made with rose liqueur instead of chambord, and the aromas and flavors of lavender, thyme, goat cheese, and olive oil made me forget the cold and rainy weather. Provencal cooking is much more Mediterranean than Northern French cooking, and relies more on fresh veggies and less on cream sauces and meats. The perfect compromise for a vegetarian Francophile.

photo by Andrew Lee Dolan

A couple of weeks ago I was strolling around Whole Foods (it was a Friday, so no market) with no idea of what I wanted to eat besides "seasonal." I came home with some heirloom tomatoes, a couple of eggplants, a bunch of basil, some goat cheese, and a loaf of French bread. What I came up with was this:

Provencal Gratin

2 heirloom tomatoes, thinly sliced
2 Chinese eggplants, thinly sliced (I prefer using these to the more common Italian eggplants. Their smaller size makes them so much more... buttery.)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup goat cheese
1 1/2 cups French bread, cut into cubes
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup sliced basil, reserve some for garnish

Preheat the oven to 375.
Layer the tomato and eggplant in concentric circles around a 9 inch round baking dish.
Drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle the garlic over the vegetables.
Cover and bake for 25 minutes.
Remove from the oven. Add about half the bread cubes and the basil, then bake for 10 min. longer, uncovered.
Remove it again, then add the rest of the bread crumbs and the goat cheese. Bake for another 1o min., or until the cheese browns.
Remove one last time. Once the gratin is cool, serve it topped with basil.

I found this to be a pretty complete meal in itself... we just enjoyed it with a bottle of dry rose!

New house, new kitchen

Hi! My name is Meadow.
Let me introduce you to my new kitchen.
It's so much bigger than the old one! More than one person can stand in it! And it has a dishwasher!
Ok. I've got too much to do, between napping, destroying blinds, and fighting with the other cat in the house. Gotta go!
***
Now that we're more or less settled in the new house, I can finally cook again (and blog again.)
Aren't these peppers gorgeous?
I like bell peppers just fine, but I never found them all that inspiring until last Saturday. At the downtown market right now, every stall has an abundance, in colors and varieties I've never seen before. I sampled one, and the taste was a revelation. It was a little spicy, very juicy, and not at all like what you typically find at the supermarket.
I also decided to try a new kind of pepper. This is a cubanelle pepper. It's a little sweeter than your typical bell pepper, and its skin is a lovely bright orange.
I'd been wanting to figure out ways to use tempeh for a while. I've been a vegetarian for the last decade or so, but I've tended to focus on fresh vegetables and ok, cheese, rather than the products some of my friends swear by, i.e. tempeh, seitan, Bragg's, TVP, etc. I'd bought a package of tempeh at the small, independent grocery store across the street from our house (love this neighborhood!), so I decided to make a tempeh curry with my fresh farmer's market peppers.

Tempeh curry with bell peppers

1 8 oz package tempeh, cubed
1/4 cup olive oil
1 medium yellow onion, diced
4–5 peppers (I used a blend of cubanelle and bell), cut into thin strips
1 14 oz can coconut milk (I used lite, and it was still pretty creamy)
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp turmeric
pinch cayenne
rice for serving
1. Heat the oil over medium heat. Brown the tempeh in oil, about 3 min. per side. Set the tempeh aside on a plate covered in paper towels. Make sure you get all sides of the tempeh browned.

2. Add the onions and peppers to the oil. Saute until softened, about 4 min.

3. Add the coconut milk and spices. Simmer covered for 5 min. covered and 5 min. uncovered, until the sauce thickens.

4. Add the tempeh back in and simmer for 5 min. more.

Just for fun: a super-70s photo of our dining room!

This is what you make when...

... you have soccer and work on the brain and all you want to do is relax.

It was a Sunday night, and I was wiped out from watching Brazil beat Cote d'Ivoire, complete with live vuvuzela! (They sound much better when there are fewer of them. The vuvuzela is definitely a case of less is more.) Lounging on the couch, I came up with an idea for a meal I've never cooked before. It was fresh, it was inventive, it was...labor intensive.

So what's a lazy cook to do?
This:It's whole wheat pasta tossed with pan-roasted cherry tomatoes from the market, eggplant, fresh mozzarella, and basil. Pan-roasted tomatoes sound fancy, but are super simple. All you do is saute some garlic in olive oil, then add the tomatoes. Stew them over a fairly low heat until they start to release their juices. Maybe one or two will burst, but you want them to remain fairly intact. Add some crushed red pepper and fresh basil towards the end of cooking, and there you have it!

Even Meadow the gourmand cat wanted some!