Sunday Smells...

I have just taken a bite of a spectacular potato gratin which has left the house fragranced with a roasted potato, garlicky, oniony "sunday-ness" that I have really been missing lately.

I miss the overwhelming smell of a beautiful roast on a Sunday. Even though a whole generation of kids are now growing up with only the smell of Swiss Chalet pick-up, or delivery pizza as their sunday signals, my mom frequently made a beautiful roast chicken that was the centrepiece of a family dinner.

Vegan centrepieces for me now are harder to come by, but today I think I've really duplicated (and trumped) those heavenly aromas.

Roasted Potato Gratin

I had some beautiful (ONTARIO) russet potatoes (one was even in the shape of a heart!) and some shallots. This weekend has not gone as I planned, and I spent the majority of yesterday (all night - 12 hours) WAITING (yes, there's a story there, but it's not about food, and quite boring) with nothing but From Julia Child's Kitchen and Bill for company. As a result, I have read cover to cover some great techniques for bringing out the best in food.

I refuse to stop reading about omnivorous food, even with a vegan lifestyle, since the techniques, ideas and aromatic flavours translate just as well to veggies as to meats. I often daydream about teaching cooking classes to busy women and moms, and have decidedly concluded that the meat has to stay in while people learn to cook. If not, the transition is just too extreme - too drastic - too scary for anyone to make meaningful changes to the way they feed themselves or their families.

In any event, after all this reading about the French love of potatoes, I couldn't wait to get home!

I thinly sliced three peeled potatoes, and began to layer them with some chopped garlic and shallots, olive oil, salt and pepper. It felt like a food-y card game! Some leftover mushroom soup from last week was slowly added to the bottom to fill the casserole dish to 2/3 full. I roasted them at 350 for probably 40 minutes, but the smell made the house smell incredible after 10. It was like a gorgeous French bistro.

The potatoes are browned, savory and spectacular. This has been a good week although I have MISSED blogging my recipes out of sheer exhaustion and time constraints.

Last Sunday, I sent out to do an onion soup without the beef stock and it turned out amazing. Even though it was "easy" there were a few tricks to it, but it's worth writing down.

Carmelized Onion Soup with Whole Grain Garlic Croutons

I took two or three medium onions and added about a tablespoon of olive oil in a soup pot. I lightly cooked them until they were translucent, on a low heat. Then after about 10 minutes, I turned the heat up to medium, grabbed my favourite wooden spoon, and started stirring. Over time, the onions will turn a beautiful brown colour - and it's important to keep them moving every few minutes. Take about 15 minutes to stir (unload the dishwasher) stir (sort through that storage container drawer to make sure I have lids for each vessel) stir (clean out old fridge leftovers) and VOILA! Perfectly carmellized onions, with a thick layer of brown on the bottom of the pot.

Leftover quarter cup of red wine (white would be fine too) gets poured into the pot now, and the sizzle will lift the beautiful browned bits off the bottom of the pan. Deglazing a pan this way is magic and once you try it, you'll never skip the step or wash that pan again! I added some oyster mushrooms to the pan, and their juice, along with the wine softened them perfectly. Finally, I added some vegetable stock from a box (because I haven't made my own lately) and simmered on low heat for 15 more minutes until the rest of dinner was ready.

Harrison LOVES mushroom soup, and I thought this would blow his mind. Since it wasn't the creamy kind (that my mom will make him) he wasn't wild about it. He said "it's OK" but then pushed it aside. And I was a actually happy about it, because that left more for Bill and I!

I topped the soup with some toasted whole grain baguette croutons that I made by cubing up stale bread, and tossing them with a bit of olive oil and garlic in a warm pan until they browned.