Passionate about vegetables

In 1997, I entered and, much to my own astonishment, won (in the Food Professionals category) the Newman’s Own recipe contest, with this simplified version of chilaquiles. The prize: a free trip to New York, a stay at the Waldorf, and lunch at the Rainbow Room with Paul Newman, Joanne Woodward, the other winners and their guests, and scads of media folks, plus $10,000 to give to my favorite charities.

There is every reason to buy the Newman’s Own stuff. The products are good, some quite good, and the intent is even better: 100 percent of the after-tax profits are donated to charity.

Here is the award-winner, simple and very pleasing, proof that “shameless exploitation in pursuit of the common good” as the Newman’s folks say, can be very tasty indeed.

Tear or cut the tortillas into quarters. Place the tortilla pieces on a jelly-roll pan. Let stand, uncovered, for at least 1 hour or overnight. Lightly coat a 9-by-13-inch glass or enamel-clad baking dish with cooking spray. Spread 1/2 cup of the Newman’s Own Salsa over the bottom and scatter one-third of the tortilla pieces over the salsa.

Place 1 cup of the remaining salsa in a food processor with the neufchâtel, eggs, and cornstarch. Buzz until well combined, pausing from time to time to scrape down the sides. Set aside. In a separate bowl, combine the zucchini (or beans) with the fresh corn. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Spoon half of the egg mixture over the tortillas in the dish (it will not cover them completely). Scatter the vegetables over the filling, spreading them out with the back of a spoon. Drizzle another 1/2 cup salsa over the top. Make another layer using one-third of the tortillas. Cover with remaining cheese mixture, and top with remaining tortillas, then pour the remaining salsa over the top. Cover tightly with aluminum foil and bake for 40 minutes.

Uncover; sprinkle with the shredded cheese. Raise the oven temperature to 375F and bake until the cheese is melted and browned, 10 to 12 minutes. Let stand for 10 minutes, then slice and serve.

A fall multifruit cornucopia, this simple biscuit-topped cobbler is homey and welcoming. Golden Delicious apples melt down in a very satisfying way, but Macouns, if you can get them, have more personality.

Preheat the oven to 400F. If not using nonstick, spray an 8 1/2-by-11 1/2-inch baking dish with cooking spray.

Combine the apples and cranberries in a mixing bowl. Stir in the honey and Rapidura. Toss in the 1/4 cup flour. Add the concentrate and stir to blend well. Transfer the mixture to the prepared baking dish and place the dish in the oven while you prepare the topping.

To make the topping, sift the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, and salt into a medium bowl. Cut the chilled butter into small pieces and scatter over the flour mixture. Drizzle in the oil and, using two knives or a pastry cutter, quickly cut the fats into the dry ingredients. Add the buttermilk and vanilla. Stir just until blended. Remove the baking dish from the oven. Drop the dough by rounded tablespoonfuls onto the hot fruit. Return to the oven and bake until the topping is golden and the fruit juices have thickened, 20 to 25 minutes. Serve warm.

Indulgence is not just for the dairy- and egg-eaters of the world. This easier-to-make pie is vegan. Most cookbooks using tofu have some variation of a chocolate tofu dessert; this is mine, and it is very, very good. Using melted chocolate as well as cocoa, plus the richness of cashew butter, makes the difference. If the only chocolate pies you know are old-fashioned chocolate custard or super-rich French silk, it might take your palate a taste or two to adjust.

Vegans will want to use dairy-free natural chocolates.

Preheat the oven to 425F. If not using a nonstick pan, spray an 8- to 9-inch pie pan with cooking spray, or oil it.

Combine the graham cracker and cereal crumbs, flour, brown sugar, and salt. Add the melted butter and 2 tablespoons of the water. Add the remaining water only if needed to make a consistency that can be pressed into the pan. Using your fingers, press the mixture into the prepared pan to cover the bottom and sides evenly. Bake for 10 minutes. Remove from the oven and set aside to cool.

Melt the chocolates in the top half of a double boiler over hot water.

Place the Rapidura in a food processor along with the tofu and cashew butter. Buzz until smooth, stopping to scrape down the sides of the bowl. Add the melted chocolates, cocoa, and vanilla. Process until very smooth.

Pour the chocolate mixture into the cooled pie crust. Place in the refrigerator and chill for at least 4 hours. Serve, chilled, with the Tofu-Cashew Crème and fresh raspberries, if desired.

The South rises again in these delectable stir-fried greens, a far piece from the slow, slow, slow-cooked greens with a chunk of salt pork that are part and parcel of much Southern cuisine, but that never much appealed to me even when I did eat meat. Here, the great flavor, color, and nutritional value of the greens stay intact, a bit of hot pepper is added, and the garlic is caramelized. It’s important to wash your greens well, remove any tough ribs, stack the leaves, and cut across the grain into delicate, 1-4-inch-wide strips.

Steam the greens in a steamer basket placed over boiling water until just wilted, about 30 seconds, jamming them in to fit. Drain the greens well. (If desired, drink any liquid remaining in the steamer pot; incredibly tonic, and rich in iron, especially important for vegetarians.) Blot dry.

Heat the oil in a nonstick skillet over the lowest heat you can get without the flame blowing out. Add the garlic and red pepper and slowly cook, stirring frequently, until the garlic is an even pale golden color. This will take about 8 minutes. Do not let the garlic brown. Using a slotted spoon, remove the garlic and chile pieces. Set them aside, leaving the oil in the pan.

Turn the heat under the skillet to medium. When the oil is hot, add the greens and stir like heck, lowering the heat slightly. Cover for 1 minute to steam just slightly. Uncover and raise the heat a bit. Stir-fry until all the greens are limp, and starting to go from bright to dark green, 5 to 6 minutes. (They will continue to reduce greatly in volume.) Remove from the heat and season with salt and black pepper. Stir in the garlic and chile. Serve at once, with lemon wedges or vinegar passed at table, if desired.

An inn favorite, slightly revised from the version that appeared in Soup & Bread, this soup is lush, sensual, velvety, and easily made. What more could you ask of a potage? How about this: no cream and very little added fat. Besides being swooningly delicious, the bisque also has a wholesome wallop of the intensely orange beta-carotene-rich squashes, and it can be prepared ahead and frozen.

The pumpkin can be replaced in whole or part by butternut squash or any other sweet hard squash or by sweet potatoes or yams, or a combination of all these.

Heat the oil or butter in a nonstick soup pot, or one that has been sprayed with cooking spray, over medium heat. (Omit the cooking spray if using the larger amount of oil or butter.) Add the onion, and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes.

Add the stock and heat through. Add the pumpkin, whisking in. Heat again. Add the tomatoes and maple syrup and heat through. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Serve hot, garnished with parsley.

If you make one hors d’oeuvre out of this cookbook, let it be this one. Six years of making and serving these nearly every night in the restaurant did not dim my enthusiasm for them. One co-chef, Sam “Catfish” Routh, and I used to jive around the kitchen barking like seals when there were a few extra, begging each other for more (I hope the sound did not reach the dining room), while another, Fred Maese, proudly served enormous platters of them, platter after platter, straight from the oven at his fiftieth birthday party.

So straightforward that they are the height of sophistication, these are pure simplicity to make: four ingredients, five if you count the garnish. Using less oil yields mushrooms that are drier, chewier, a little crisp around the edges; the larger amount yields more succulent, moister mushrooms. Both are good beyond good. You’ll be making this a bunch, so try it both ways.

Preheat the oven to 400F.

Spray a jelly roll pan or a baking sheet with sides with cooking spray, or use a non-stick pan.

Toss the mushrooms with the oil, garlic, and salt. Place the shiitakes in a single layer on the prepared pan, caps up or down, it makes no difference. Just make sure that they have room to breathe.

Bake, uncovered, for 10 to 12 minutes. Remove the pan from the oven and shake a few times. Some of the mushrooms should be starting to get a little golden on the lighter, underneath-side of the caps. You will probably need to put them back in for a little longer — say, 3 to 5 minutes, maybe more if your oven wasn’t really hot when you put them in. You want at least a third of the mushrooms starting to turn a nice golden color on the gill side and getting a little crunchy. If you have used the lesser amount of oil, this will happen more quickly.

Serve, warm or at room temperature, garnished, if you wish, with an herb sprig on each one.

Make a double recipe of the shiitakes. Serve half and hide the other half away until they are cool, then refrigerate. A night or two or three later, whip them out and slice them. Try a Shiitake Mushroom Sandwich, much like the one we periodically indulge in at the New Moon Spa, in Eureka’s castlelike, landmark Crescent Hotel. It features a big helping of the sautéed (hence moister) version of these mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, wedges of sliced smoked tofu, sprouts, sometimes avocado, sometimes cheese, sometimes a kind of Russian dressing-y spread.