baking teensy: edition 3

Taiwanese winter has hit. It is cold. Well, it’s cold when compared with Taiwanese summer. Which is killer hot.

I decided that, since I officially dusted off the scarves just the other day, it was cold enough for a casserole. A lovely, steaming, goodness-filled vegetable concoction designed to instil a feeling of warmth and security in its indulger.

So, here it is.

Enjoy.

Vegetable Casserole
for two or three people

what you need:

This casserole has no need for a fancy smancy title. As you don your oven mitts and slide it out of the oven, place it on the bench and lift the lid, you will see it speaks for itself.

1 big carrot, diced

1 medium onion, diced (I used half of a really big one)

A handful of fresh green beans, chopped

2 potatoes, chopped roughly

A handful of mushrooms, halved or quartered

Fresh or dried herbs to taste, as always fresh is better (I used dried oregano, parsley, rosemary and basil)

1 cup vegetable, mushroom or chicken stock

3 tablespoons plain flour

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

A dash or three of red wine

Olive oil

how to do it:

Prepare all the vegetables as above and put aside. Preheat the oven to 220 degrees C. As you know, I have a tiny Taitung toaster oven so that’s what mine cooked at. Yours might be different. Experiment.

Heat a little olive oil or butter in a big saucepan and put in all the vegetables. Stir them around over the heat for 5 minutes or so then add the flour. Cook this for around 1 minute and then take off the heat.

Tip the vegetables into a medium sized ceramic casserole dish and pour over the stock and the wine. Add the herbs and salt and pepper. Turn it all with your trusty wooden spoon to get everything all mixed together.

Put into the oven and cook for 1 hour and 30 minutes. Or there abouts. Don’t forget to check and turn it once or twice.

teensy tid bits:

You can use any vegetables you like for this recipe. I think pumpkin and sweet potato would be really good. Oh, and celery is always nice. Chop up a couple of fresh tomatoes and add those.

Add a can of red kidney beans, broad beans or any other kind of legume to make it a little more hearty. I’ve noticed that some Welcome supermarkets sell canned kidney beans or try the Mitsukoshi supermarkets for other types of canned beans.

If you want to make a meat or seafood version just brown the meat or seafood of your choice in the same way I described for the vegetables. Remove from the saucepan and then brown the vegetables. Then put it all in the casserole dish together and pour over the liquids.

Experiment with different red and white wines. The better the quality of the wine, the better the flavour of your casserole.

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Tags: baking, cooking, eating, food, recipes, vegetable casserole