Waldorf Salad with Bulgar

The flavours in this salad will excite each and every one of your taste buds! There is really a lot going on from the sweet apples and nutty bulgar to the tart lemon juice and peppery parsley.

I served this along side an egg salad sandwich. Made for a great lunch!

Serves 2-3

Ingredients:
1 cup bulgar
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped
1 medium-sized apple, cored and diced (leave the skin on)
1/4 cup raisins
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup strawberries, sliced
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
1 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice

Method:
1. Prepare the bulgar first. Place the grains plus 1 cup of boiling water into a heat-proof bowl. Cover and let the bulgar sit for 20-30 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed. Set aside to cool.

2. Once cooled, transfer the bulgar to a mixing bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Toss everything well and serve.

Reference:
Based on Wheat Berry Waldorf Salad from The Whole Foods Market Cookbook.

My changes:
I used bulgar (cracked wheat) in place of wheat berries.
I added the strawberries and used a mixture of cranberries and raisins in place of just raisins.
I subbed white wine vinegar for apple cider vinegar and used sparkling cider in place of apple juice (slightly out of desperation ;)

Lattice crust = success!

So it took two tries but my lattice crust turned out quite lovely for a first, um ok second, attempt! :)


Story first and then the procedure..
Thinking everything was ready, I rolled out top crust #1 for my pie. I got the lattice pieces cut and on the pie and ran through to show the hubby. Well, I get back to the kitchen, turn around to stick the thing in the oven and see a mixing bowl with, guess what? A little flour, some cinnamon, nutmeg, sugar, and all-spice. Yes, blondie here had forgotten to mix the apples with the seasoning. Wow... I get distracted far too easily!

So, had to rip off my almost-perfect lattice topping and make a whole new batch of pie dough and then re-cut the whole thing. Ugh... it's really funny now but I was so pissed when I first discovered this! lol
Oh well - trial run, right? :) I actually think the second one turned out just a teeny bit better so I really can't complain.

I used my normal apple pie recipe. Here are the directions for making the fancy schmancy crust.
Arm yourself with the following:
*Plenty of flour
*A clean clear acrylic ruler
*A pastry cutter/ravioli cutter
*A clean countertop or cutting board (well-floured)
*A rolling pin (well-floured!)

Method:
1. After the pastry has chilled in the fridge for 20 or so minutes, give the cutting board and rolling pin a good dust with some flour. Roll out the pie dough as you would for a regular pie crust.

2. Place the ruler on top of the crust (I started in the center and worked out to the sides) and then run the pastry cutter along the ruler in one motion.

3. Move the ruler over about half an inch and repeat the pastry cutter motion. You will end up with a thin strip of pastry with fancy crinkle-cut edges.

4. Repeat until you have 10-12 pastry strips.

5. Carefully pick up the pastry strips and place them one at a time on top of the pie filling. Again, start in the center by making a cross shape with two strips. Work out towards the sides of the pie alternating under and over with the strips (now I'm wishing I'd taken step-by-step photos... if I make an apple pie at Christmas I'll do that for you!)
i.e.: You'll have the cross at first. Let's say the vertical piece is lying on top of the horizontal piece that made the cross. For the next piece (a vertical piece), you will want to make it go under the horizontal piece of crust (so, don't press down any pieces until you are completely happy with the results/everything is in place). The piece after that will need to go over the horizontal piece. And so on and so on... I hope this makes sense it's rather hard to explain!
Once all the pieces are in place, press the edges into the bottom pie crust which should reach the top of the pie plate. Brush with a little milk and bake.

Oh, and don't forget to mix the apples with the seasonings before tossing them in the bottom crust ;)

Vegan Stuffing/Dressing

My parents requested the stuffing/dressing I made for Thanksgiving again for Christmas. Since we're English we serve turkey at Christmas as well and they were looking for a yummy dressing to go with it. Well, after I said I could make it, my mom asked for a vegan version that my sister and brother-in-law could have. After a bit of tweaking and an "are these ingredients OK" email to my sister, here's what I came up with for them!
This is basically the same as the Sausage and Fruit Stuffing except I used tofu for the egg and made sure the bread recipes were vegan. I halved the bread, onion, and celery amounts from the original recipe but kept the fruits, nuts, and mushrooms the same since I was not using sausage. If you'd like, you could use 1/4 pound of vegan breakfast sausage (it will specify on the packaging that it is vegan) in this recipe. Just brown the sausage before mixing in with the bread, fruit, and veggies.

This was really very yummy! Perfect alongside a Tofurkey (also very yummy!)

This will make about 4 servings ~ the leftovers of this and the regular version are wonderful!

Ingredients:
1/2 yellow onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
1 cup vegan cornbread, cubed (make the cornbread the day before so it has some time to dry out a little)
1 cup day-old whole-wheat bread, cubed (I made my own to make sure it did not contain any milk/milk sugars. Be careful here - most grocery store breads have milk).
1/6 cup vegetarian vegetable broth
1/8 cup soft/silken tofu, pureed (I just smushed mine up with a fork) - this is a great egg substitute (1/4 cup silken tofu = 1 egg)
1/4 cup dried cranberries
1/4 cup walnuts, chopped
1/2 Red Delicious apple, peeled, cored, and diced
3 white mushrooms, chopped
1/4 tsp. sage
1/8 tsp. thyme
1/8 tsp. rosemary
1/8 tsp. marjoram
1/2 tsp. applesauce
1 tsp. salt
Olive oil

Method:
Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
1. Place a small amount of olive oil in a skillet and heat over medium heat. Add the onion and celery and cook until slightly browned.

2. In a large bowl, toss together the onion, celery, cornbread, whole-wheat bread, vegetable broth, and tofu. Mix in the herbs, applesauce, salt, mushrooms, cranberries, walnuts, and apple.

3. Place the mixture in an oven-safe dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Apple Pie #2

I made this apple pie as an alternative to the double-crust apple pie since my husband prefers Dutch apple. This wasn't a true Dutch apple pie, I just used the crumbly topping from the fruit cobblers I make as the topping of this pie and a regular pastry crust as the base. Here's the recipe. This was almost as yummy as the two-crust pie ;)

Bottom pastry crust
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut up
1/8 cup vegetable shortening
3/4 tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt
1/6 cup to 1/4 cup ice water

Method:
1. Place all ingredients (except water) in a large bowl. Crumble together with your fingers until you have some pea-sized pieces of dough along with coarse crumbs. Add 1/3 cup water; knead just until dough begins to form, adding additional water 1 tsp. at a time if necessary.

2. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 20-30 minutes.

3. Heat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly flour a work surface and roll one piece of dough into a 13-inch round (I can never made perfect circles..!) Gently line a 9-inch pie pan with the dough. Trim dough along the edge of the pan. Press a doubled 12-inch piece of aluminium foil inside the unbaked pie shell and cover the foil with pie weights. Bake, leaving the foil and weights in place until the dough looks dry and is light in color, about 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil and weights and transfer the pie crust to a wire rack to cool.

Filling:
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. unbleached all-purpose flour
3 large Granny Smith apples
3 large McIntosh apples
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar (I wonder if light brown sugar would taste good as a substitute...?)
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Cut the quarters into bite-sized pieces and toss apple pieces with the lemon juice and zest. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup of the sugar, the flour, spices, and salt. Toss the dry ingredients with the apples. Turn the fruit mixture, including juices, into the pie shell and mound the fruit slightly in the center.

2. Top with crumbly cobbler topping - see recipe below.

Crumbly Topping
Ingredients:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1 egg, beaten
6 tbsp. melted butter

Method:
1. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together; add the egg. Toss until crumbly then sprinkle over the apple pie filling. Drizzle with melted butter.

2. Bake at 375 degrees for 30-35 minutes or until bubbly and browned. ***It's a good idea to place your pie plate on a baking sheet so the filling does not make a mess in your oven!***

Reference:
The filling recipe is the Classic Apple Pie recipe from Baking Illustrated. The bottom pastry crust is "Perfect Pie Pastry" from Cooking Pleasures Magazine (October/November 2007). Unfortunately, I have forgotten where I got the cobbler topping recipe from - I've had it for years!

Apple Pie #1

I made two apple pies for Thanksgiving dessert this year - this one with a pastry bottom and top and one with a pastry bottom and cobbler-style top. Here is the pastry one. It was very tasty :) Apple pie is best if you leave it until the next day to eat it (and it makes great leftovers!) I served this with home-made vanilla ice-cream as a Thanksgiving dessert.

Pastry
Ingredients:
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsalted butter, chilled, cut up
1/4 cup vegetable shortening
1 1/2 tbsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup to 1/2 cup ice water

Method:
1. Place all ingredients (except water) in a large bowl. Crumble together with your fingers until you have some pea-sized pieces of dough along with coarse crumbs. Add 1/3 cup water; knead just until dough begins to form, adding additional water 1 tsp. at a time if necessary.

2. Divide dough in half; shape each half into a flat round. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 20-30 minutes.

3. Lightly flour a work surface and roll one piece of dough into a 13-inch round (I can never made perfect circles..!) Gently line a 9-inch pie pan with the dough. Trim dough along the edge of the pan. Leave the second piece of dough in the fridge while you prepare the filling.

Filling
Ingredients:
2 tbsp. all-purpose flour
3 large Granny Smith apples
3 large McIntosh apples
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
1 tsp. grated lemon zest
3/4 cup plus 1 tbsp. granulated sugar (I wonder if light brown sugar would taste good as a substitute...?)
1/8 tsp. ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/8 tsp. ground allspice
1/4 tsp. salt

Method:
Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
1. Peel, core, and quarter the apples. Cut the quarters into bite-sized pieces and toss apple pieces with the lemon juice and zest. In a medium bowl, mix 3/4 cup of the sugar, the flour, spices, and salt. Toss the dry ingredients with the apples. Turn the fruit mixture, including juices, into the pie shell and mound the fruit slightly in the center.

2. Roll out the second piece of dough to a 12-inch circle; place it over the filling. Trim the edges of the top and bottom dough layers to 1/2 inch beyond the pan lip. Flute the edge or press with the tines of a fork to seal. Cut 4 slits in the dough top. Brush the pastry with a little milk and sprinkle with the remaining 1 tbsp. sugar.

3. Place the pie plate on a baking sheet and bake until the top crust is golden, about 25 minutes. Rotate the pie from front to back and continue baking until the juices bubble and the crust is a deep golden brown.

4. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.

References:
The filling recipe is the "Classic Apple Pie" recipe from Baking Illustrated. The pastry recipe is "Perfect Pie Pastry" from the October/November 2007 issue of Cooking Pleasures magazine.