Roasted Vegtable Lasagne

This is for Nicola who has spent days moving into her new apartment, starting anew. she asked for the recipe, so I am attempting to write it down.

When I first started making lasagne, about 4 years ago, this is what I started with. Some things may be missing as it is coming from my head and a lttle piece of paper I took notes on while searching the web years ago.

One key to this dish is to pick at least 5 vegetables to use. For this dish I used

• 2 Japanese Eggplants (or one large eggplant/aubergine)
• 3 medium/small zucchini
• One medium sized onion
• Celeriac (the root of celery, or you could use celery)
• Peppers- I used one red bell pepper, one green and one red Turkish
  pepper which are long and about 5 cm wide at the top.  
• Mushrooms- about 1 cup=250 ml, chopped
• A mixture of grated cheeses- salty feta’ish goat, plus a plain cheese all mixed, about 400 ml.
• Spinach pesto
• Béchamel sauce 

 Preheat oven to 180 C

Clean and take some of the skin off of the eggplant/aubergine and zucchini (squash works too). Slice them long ways about 1 cm thick. Place on a baking sheet which has been generously greased with olive oil. Sprinkle salt on top. Bake for about 20 minutes, turn over, salt and bake another 20. They should be lightly browned and soft.

Chop onion, celeriac and peppers. Put about 1 tablespoon olive oil in frying pan, medium heat and cook vegetables until soft, add mushrooms if using. Put in bowl.

Chop up roasted vegetables. Add to bowl of pan cooked vegetables.

Make béchamel sauce and add spinach pesto to the béchamel sauce.

Assemble lasagne- béchamel sauce, noodles, béchamel sauce, ½ of vegetable mixture, cheese, noodles, béchamel sauce, rest of vegetable mixture, cheese, noodles, béchamel sauce cheese. Cover with foil.

 When you are ready to bake it: oven 180 Celsius. Cover with foil, cook 20 minutes then take off foil and cook another 20 minutes. Should be bubbling when you remove it from the oven. Let set about 10 – 15 minutes before cutting. Enjoy!

Enchilad-Taco Burritos

It has been a not so nice day/week/(last couple of weeks). I do stress during report writing, the students stress as they realize- no more they can do, and parents start to stress (a little late) too. Today got a call to take Kelani’s friend home with us as there is rioting near their house- no problem. Had a parent conference scheduled for 11:30- but they did not show up- time much wasted waiting- I do have mock exams to write. Get home and the maid had not come to clean! And we have two middle-schoolers coming to stay with us tomorrow, arghhh; I do not have time to clean the bathrooms, dust and do the floors, I have dinner to make.

I took the chicken breasts (2) I had set out for our dinner tonight and cut them up into little pieces. Then I remembered my dad telling me the best marinade for tender chicken was white wine and cornstarch, or tequila and cornstarch. I had already opened a beer, so I marinated the chicken in beer with cornstarch.

I fried up the chicken in a little oil, added packet of taco mix (ground cumin, chili powder, and garlic salt) a can of corn, some homemade tomato sauce, and leftover vegetables sitting in the fridge.

Enchilada sauce:

2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons chili powder
½ teaspoon ground cumin
2 cups chicken broth (or whatever broth you have in the freezer)
1 tablespoon oil

Mix flour, cumin and chili powder together. Put the oil in the skillet, heat it up, add the garlic stirring for about 30 seconds. Add the flour mixture and stir waiting for it to turn dark. Slowly add the broth, whisking all the time and whisk until it thickens. Turn off the heat.

Assemble:

Put some chicken mixture in a tortilla, add a little grated cheese and roll it up into a burrito. Place these into a 9x13 pan. After all have been rolled, pour the enchilada sauce over the burritos. Add some cheese to the top and place in a 350 F or 180 C oven for 20 minutes, until bubbling.

Now, if I got everything right, the kids will go for seconds, making your day a little nicer and the house smell good even though the maid blew you off.