Creole Mushroom and Pepper Stew

From Fields of Greens, Annie Somerville, Bantam Books, 1993.

I have great faith in the dishes from the Greens Restaurant in San Francisco after having an exceptional meal there. So I always look forward to what turns up when I make something from this recipe book.

I began by roasting some tomatoes, four in all, in the oven at a 130°C temperature for two hours. They were cut in half and placed cut side down on some baking paper on an oven tray. While the instruction called for the seeds to be extracted from them I prefered to keep them whole.

The mushrooms, about 130 g, were quartered and cooked with a sprinkling of salt at a high heat until golden. Then a little wine was added with some chopped garlic. When the wine had almost evaporated the mushrooms were taken off the heat and put aside in a bowl.

Now a red onion was cut into pieces and sautéed in the pan with a sprinkling of salt. After they had softened, a red capsicum (pepper) and a green capsicum, deseeded and cut into triangles, were added to the pan. Also a fennel, quartered and sliced, went in the pan. A bay leaf was added and a jalapeño chilli finely chopped went in. These were all sautéed until they had softened somewhat. Next a zucchini, halved and cut into slices, was added for a few minutes. Now the tomatoes and the mushrooms went into the pan and were sautéed for about 20 minutes.

The recipe called for the lid to be left off but I was concerned that the dish would be very dry so cooked them covered so that the juices would not all evaporate.

All in all this was like a variation on ratatouille. The chillies added a nice bit of heat to the overall flavour that had a slight, rather pleasant bitterness about it from the capsicums. I am glad I left the lid on for the juices that resulted mixed well with the rice that I had with the dish.

Taste: ✔✔✔

Ease of cooking: ✔✔✔✔