Tag: vegetarian

The journey to this carrot galette

Who would have thought I would do a carrot galette? Not I! Here is the journey to this carrot galette which I quite like.

Flavour

About two months ago now, I ventured into a book shop and came out with the last cookbook of Yotam Ottolenghi “Flavour”. I like how the author brings flavours together using generally nothing more than what is already in your pantry.  Ottolenghi

The first one we did was the Aubergine (eggplant) with herbs and crispy garlic. Eggplant dishes have become a frequent happening since my daughter reconciliated with it and realised she had here the opportunity for adding a lot of garlic!

From a pumpkin galette to a carrot galette

One of the recipes which appealed to me was the Butternut, orange and sage galette. Since the pastry dough makes two galettes, I started with the first one, initially thinking I would freeze the leftover pastry for later.  The recipe encloses in a crispy pastry some roasted carrots and roasted sliced pumpkin on a bed of garlic and shallots flavoured mascarpone. A sticky orange glaze brings in an additional dimension. While I liked it, my family didn’t like it as much because the glaze was a bit too strong for them and they aren’t fans of pumpkin.

Take two, the next day (I had not yet frozen the remaining pastry), by changing the content to carrots only, the glaze to less orange but a bit more lemon and less sweetness in the glaze.  I kept the garlic and shallot mix with the glaze, kept the pastry dough, roasted carrots always work. Finally, I swaped sage for thyme.  HERE is the recipe.

Light pumpkin soup

I call this pumpkin soup light because I include a zuchini in it which lightens the texture and the taste.  It makes for a warm dish, comforting but not as heavy as many pumpkin soups can be.

Note that I do not use stocks in my soups. I find the taste of the vegetables sufficient to provide a great flavour.  If you want to use stock, I would advise to choose one which only includes natural ingredients.  You will also need to decrease the salt you add in.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
  • 1/2 a butternut pumpkin
  • 1 medium size brown onion
  • 1 zucchini
  • salt and pepper
  • 1/2 cup (125 mL) of cream.
  • Bread, olive oil, cracked pepper and/or parmesan cheese to serve
 Method:
  1. Peel and slice the onion, brown the onion in the saucepan with a little olive oil for a few minutes.
  2. In the meanwhile, peel the zucchini and cut roughtly, peel and seed the pumpkin.
  3. Place both pumpkin and zucchini to the saucepan.  Add just enough water to the saucepan to cover. Also add one teaspoon of rock saltSimmer until the pumkin is soft (use a small pointed knive to test).
  4. Use a stick blender (or a mixer) to mix the soup.  Add the cream.
  5. Serve your pumpkin soup with a piece of bread and as wished a drop of olice oil,cracked pepper and/or shaved parmesan.
soupe a la citrouille
Zucchini, onion and pumpkin soup

Zabaglione mousse with its autumn pear

Zabaglione mousse with its autumn pear or as I wanted to name it Mousse sabayon a la poire d’automne.  More simply it is a beautiful poached pear in a pear mousse.

There are three ways the pear flavours and autumn tones come in: the colours are the yellow and brown of the autumn season, the pear is poached in an orange and spice syrup, the same syrup is then used in the zabaglione mousse.

For the poached pear in autumn syrup, click HERE to the recipe.

Serves 4 or 5 .  The recipe here ends up making 5 mousse servings, so either add a pear to the recipe of the poached pear if there are five or you will just fill one ramequin for an extra serve the next day.

For this recipe you need a wide whisk.

Ingredients:
  • 4 (or 5) poached pear (recipe HERE)

    poached pear
    Poached pears you will need for this recipe, you will also need its cooking syrup.
  • 300 mL of the poached pear syrup, strained through a  sieve.
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 50 g caster sugar
  • 1 portion of cognac (optional)
  • 1.5 gelatine leaf titanium strength (5 g)
  • 300 mL of cream, whipped.
  • Rosemary to serve
Method:
  1. Place 3 cm of water in a saucepan and bring to the boil, once boiling, allow to simmer.
  2. Put the gelative leave in a bowl of cold water.
  3. In a large metal bowl, place together the syrup, egg yolks, caster sugar, cognac.  Give it a good mix.
  4. Place the bowl over the simering water.    From that time you need to whisk until the mix at least doubles in volume, becomes clear and becomes very foamy. It will also thicken. This takes about five minutes.  making a zabaglione
  5. Remove from the heat. Drain the gelatine and add it to the zabaglione, mix well. Allow to cool for a few minutes while you sort out your serving dishes, then fold through the whipped cream.
  6. Distribute between five ramequins or bowls.   Place the pears in the middle of each dish. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.  Add a few leaves of rosemary before serving.

poeached pear in zabaglione mousse

Poached pears in autumn syrup

This poached pears in autumn syrup recipe aims at a not too sweet cooked pear with subtle earthy  flavours. To be eaten with a dry biscuit, or a crumble of roasted chestnuts or a cream such as creme anglaise or a sabayon. poached pear

A sabayon is more known in Australia as a zabaglione.

There are many ways with poached pears. None can be wrong, pears are so versatile! If you are after stronger flavours you can use white wine or red wine as a basis to your syrup.  Here the syrup is based on orange juice.

Ingredients:

For poached pear in autumn syrup, think what may be available easily. It is peak citrus season, the beginning of colder days where fresh ginger is a must have stapple against the eventual cold, rosemary is abundant (that can be said all year round really for rosemary) and summer fruits season with stronger flavours are over.

  • 4 beurre bosc pears, firm
  • juice of 6 oranges
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 1 string of rosemary
  • 140 g of white sugar
  • about 3 cm³ of fresh ginger cut in thing slices
  • 250 mL of water (1 cup)
  • 1 cinamon roll
  • 2 pinches of grated nutmeg
Method:
  1. Assemble all the ingredients in a saucepan and slowly heat up.
  2. In the meanwhile, peel the pears without cutting them. With the pointy end of the knife you are using  remove the core coring through the bottom of the pear. At the same time, ensure the bottom is flat so the pear can stand vertical, if not, trim slightly.
  3. Place the pears in the syrup (you may have to put the pears on their sides), bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool down in the saucepan.
  4. When ready to serve, remove the pear and place them on a plate to allow them to drain. Pass the syrup through a sieve and retain separately.

Tip: the syrup can keep more than a week in the fridge if you dont use it readily.  Use the syrup in a drink such as spiced hot wine, or a flavoured tea, or to make a semolina cake or as a basis for zabaglione.

poached pear

Italian Pine Mushrooms and greens poelee

This italian pine mushrooms and greens peolee is quick and simple.  It combines great flavours and texture. A pity the mushrooms season is short.  A poelee is a French word that is probably not used much in the world of cooking downunder. It is a sauteed dish.  The word sauteed being another french cooking world.  In brief, this dish is made in a frypan and is designed to be done reasonably quickly and bring together a range of flavours.

Italian mushrooms can be found around Sydney between late February and late March. The season may vary with the weather. Pine forests in the area of the Blue Mountains and Southern Highlands are renowed for it.  I was inited years ago to go on a foraging expedition, it was a great discooery, finally a mushroom foraging that did not see me frustrated because I could not see them. Those are bright, orange, big and normally quite plentyful.  See that recent press article if you want to know more. You an find the mushroom at your local fruit&vegetable store sometimes during the season. I found it twice at Harris Farm this season.

Here I did it with what was available in the fridge and served them with a grilled pork chop.  Combinations are plenty.

Serves 4

Ingredients:
  • 4 large pine mushrooms
  • 1 head of broccoli
  • 2 cups of peas (I used frozen ones)
  • 3 garlic cloves
  • 5 chestnuts
  • 20 g of butter
Method:
  1. Cut a incision through the chestnuts shell and place them in a low baking dish in the oven (220 deg) or under the grill until the shell is quite dark and a pointy knife inserted in the cut makes its way easily though the chestnut (about 15 minutes).  Once cooked, remove from the oven/grill and peel.
  2. Steam the head of brocoli until the heads are just tender.  Remove from the steamer, cut the heads off and set aside.  Slice the stem in half to allow it to cook through and return the pieces of stem to the steamer. Cook until tender.
  3.  For the mushroom, wash gently under fresh water. Cut the bottom of the mushroom foot if a bit old. then slice lengthway about 7 mm thick.
  4. Mel the butter in the frypan, add crushed garlic and mushrooms, season with salt and blak pepper. Allow to cook at mid-heat. Do not stir too frequently. Cover with a lid.  When the mushrooms are half tender, add the peas and cook for another couple minutes, then add the brocoli, reduce the heat to low. Check for seasonning. You shouldn’t have much liquid at the bottom of the fry-pan, if you do, remove the lid and let evaporate.  Before serving add the chestnut broken into pieces.

You can serve the poelee with an omelette, a pork chop or a white fish filet.

peas brocoli pine mushrooms
Poelee of italian pine mushrooms, peas and brocolis, here served with grilled pork chops

 

Ricotta Gnocchi

Ready, steady, go! Dinner on the table in less than half an hour with those ricotta gnocchis.  All you will need is ricotta, a bit of flour and some parmesan or similar cheese.  The method is super easy and you can also get help from others, children included. The recipe is fun.  In this recipe, I serve them with roasted vegetables.  The recipe is inspired from one found on Delicious.

This quantity serves easily 4 people (you could extend it to five).

Ingredients:

For the roasted vegetables:

Tip: here you need to adapt to what you have in your fridge, so don’t hesitate to swap around. 

  • 1 or 2 capsicums
  • 1 onion (red or brown)
  • 2 tomatoes cut in quarters or one punnet of cherry tomatoes
  • 1/3 aubergine (eggplant) cut in cubes
  • 2 tablespoons of olive oil
  • 6 garlic cloves unwrapped

For the gnocchi:

  • 500 g of firm ricotta
  • 50 g of grated parmesan (or similar)
  • 80 g of plain flour

To serve (optional) baby bocconcini (or small pieces of mozzarella cheese), a little olive oil, fresh basil or fresh thyme.

Method:

  1.  Preheat the oven to 250°C.  Peel onions, capsicums, remove seeds, cut in 1 cm thick wedges, and place on the roasting tray. Add garlic, tomatoes, and other prepared vegetables.  Add the olive oil. Toss. Crack salt on top.  Roast for 10 minutes or until just cooked (then remove from the oven and set aside – keep the oven gnocchi ingredientson).
  2. In a large bowl, combine the ricotta, flour and parmesan. Make a ball. If the ball breaks add a few spoons of water until consistent, if it is too sticky, add a little flour. Divide the ball into four.
  3. Working on a lightly floured kitchen bench, roll each in a long 1-1.5 cm thick log (Tip: a bit like when you made clay pots at high school from rolled clay if you ever did that). Cut each roll every two centimetres.  cutting ricotta gnocchi
  4. Boil water in a large saucepan. When the water is boiling add half of the ricotta gnocchi. They will fall at the bottom.  With a slotted spoon, remove them from the water as soon as they come up floating to the top and place them over the vegetables.
  5. When all the gnocchis are cooked and placed on the vegetable. gnochis prepsAdd the fresh thyme, bocconcini/mozzarella, a filet of olive soil and place back in the oven until slightly golden.  Remove the ricotta gnocchi from the oven. If using fresh basil rather than thyme, add the basil leaves. Serve.

 

Oeufs Cocotte (eggs on bed of leek fondue)

Oeuf cocottes, what a classic! But you kow what, it is part of these classic dish you forget for quite some times, even possibly some years and then somehow you think of them and they are so good! No nostalgia here, just simple ingredients put together. Beautiful. Healthy. Vegetarian and full of protein. Gluten free. What else? Ah! Easy to make!

oeufs cocotte ready for baking

Ingredients:
  • You will need one leek for 2 persons for the size of the ramequin dish
    ramequins you can use
    Left one for a main, right one for an entree

    on the photo.  Don’t worry if you cook too much leek, you can always use them in another serie of oeuf cocotte or in a quiche, in a vegetable tarte or served with a nice fish fillet.

  • About 15 g of butter for 2 person, up to 40 g if doing for 6 people.
  • 1 egg per peron (freerange)
  • 2 tablespoons of cream /person
  • salt, pepper, pinch of nutmeg or of cumin
  • Optional: 1 baby boccocini per person or a little grated parmesan
  • Sourdough bread to serve
Method:
  1. Remove any external leaf of the leek if old and brown. You may not have to remove any, up to 2  leaves maximum. Trim the top end bit if not from your garden.leek preparation
  2. On a chopping board, using a large knive to cut 2 cm pieces using the whole leek.  The darker part of the leek will need cleaning, it is not necessary for the lower hite part. Once the pieces are cut, place in water then in a salad spinner and drain of its water.
  3. In a heavy bottom fry-pan, melt the butter and add the leek. Cover and allow to cook slowly until melted and cooked. Add salt and pepper.  if it sticks or tends to burn, bring the heat further down and add 1/4 cup of water maximum just to rehydrate the whole mix.
  4. Fill each ramequin 2/3 full with leek. Add 2 tablespoon of cream to each, the pinch of nutmeg or ground cumin if using. Gently break the egg over the leek and add the cheese.
  5. Bake in the oven on 180°C for 5 minutes or until the egg white is just cooked (it will be all white and no longer transparent). The yolk should then still be runny. Remove from the oven and serve with fresh or toasted sourdough bread.

oeufs cocotte ready for baking

Poached deep seabream with carrots

This poached deep seabream with carrots dish is simply easy and delicious. The key: very few ingredients! The fish cooks very quick (a couple minutes) so best to do it last.

I like serving with a side salad which again is rather simple and does have very few ingredients, here lettuce mostly and one tomato or two.

The whole is ready in half an hour.

Deep seabream can be found at your local fishmongers or at Sydney Fish Market. Check out the sea bream ID sheet (Sydney Fish Market).

 

Ingredients:

For 4 people

  • 1 fillet per person of seabream (they are generally quite small, if you have some larger one, decrease the number)
  • one bunch of dutch carrots (about 12 of them)
  • 3 carrots
  • 15 g of butter
  • 1 tsp of fennel seeds
  • Parsley to garnish
  • Side salad (lettuce and tomatoes with balsamic vinaigrette)
Method:
  1. Peel the dutch carrots. For this use a vegetable peeler and try to keep the peel as thin as possible or you won’t have much left of your carrots. Cut the leaves about half a centimetre above the collar and cut the end bit of the root if it has not yet come off while peeling.
  2. Peel the “normal” carrots and slice about half a centimetre thick.
  3. In a large thick bottom fry-pan, place 15 g of butter, allow to melt, add the carrots, a sprinkle of salt and a ladle of water. Cover and leave to cook on gentle heat (half heat). From time to time, shake the fry-pan.  The carrots  should not stick , nor burn.  It will take about 10-15 minutes to cook.  If you like them still a little crunchy, it will be closer to 10 minutes than 15 minutes.  You can heck for doneness with the point of a knife, it should not meet much resistance going through a piece of carrot.
  4. For the fish, use another frypan, place in it two centimetre of water, a fillet of olive oil, a teaspoon of rock salt and the fennel seeds. Bring to the boil. Then place the fish and reduce the heat to a simmer. The fish will cook in 2-3 minutes (it will be white and no longer translucent).
  5. PLace the fish and the carrots in a serving dish. Garnish with parsley and serve warm.

Mustard tomato tart

This mustard tomato tart is in essence, a shortcrust pastry, some mustard and cut tomatoes.  Depending on what you may have at hand in the kitchen or the garden, you can obtain a variety of results.  On its own, the mustard tomato tart is quite a light meal. So, a side-salad is required.

If you are in a hurry, feel free to use ready-made pastry, puff pastry works well with it too.  Otherwise, make a shortcrust pastry, let it rest for half an hour at least, and you are good to go.

For the mustard, I use the plain Dijon mustard.

This recipe is for the mustard tomato tart I made recently, you can change the ingredients placed on top of the tomatoes to accommodate what you have available (capers, asparagus, anchovies, olives, blue cheese, prosciutto, etc).  Remember to keep it light!

Ingredients:
  • 1 shortcrust pastry or puff pastry, either bought or homemade.  Making shortcrust pastry is easy, see HERE on my blog.
  • 2 to 3 tomatoes
  • 1.5 tablespoon of dijon mustard (more or less)
  • Cheese (Grana Padano or similar)
  • Enoki mushrooms (1/4 pack)
  • olive oil
  • Fresh garden herbs (thyme and rosemary)
Method:
  1. Heat oven to 170°C
  2. Roll the pastry to the dimension of your tart tin
  3. Spread the mustard on the base
  4. Place sliced tomatoes over the mustard
  5. Add the shredded cheese, enoki mushrooms, thyme and rosemarymustard tomato tart
  6. Bake until cooked.

mustard tomato tart

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

mustard tomato tart

 

Turnip Soup

I published this soup in a post, for ease of navigation, I am giving it its own page.

turnip sup

Background

I bought turnips. What? Yes, turnips!  For the French followers who may hesitate on the translation, I am speaking of “navets”).  I have ever been a fan.  What is the story here?  Not being a fan, I never buy turnip, except extremely rarely while preparing a large dish of couscous (the whole dish from northern Africa, not just the semolina part).  The rarity is that I don’t do couscous very often, good merguez are hard to find and when I do a couscous, I don’t necessarily add turnips.  Makes me feel like making a couscous soon.  🙂   I had always had that repulsion to turnip and wanted to give it a second chance.  So I decided on a soup.  I looked into the fridge, perfect I had some carrots and some fennel.

Ingredients

ingredients soupe au navet

The above (half of the fennel shown) serve 3 people.

Method

  1. Peel you vegetables
  2. Place them in a large saucepan or cooking pot
  3. Add a little rock salt (the quantity will depend on the volume of soup), for the quantity pictured above 1/2 teaspoon is enough.
  4. Cover with water and cook until the vegetables are soft.
  5. For the turnip soup, if you don’t want the bitterness of the turnip you need to drain the cooking water or part of it unfortunately.  If you like the bitterness, keep as such. Blend the soup.  Add to it a couple cheese triangles (you can substitute for cream or cheddar cheese). You can also omit the dairy ingredients.
  6. Eat warm and fresh with toasted buttered bread. Add fresh herbs finely chopped if desired.

 

soup of the day!

And the soup of the day is: the turnip soup!

Yes, from chocolate mousses (last week) to soups, what a change!  We can’t eat chocolate all the time as we all know.

What do you think of this little menu: a soup, a small pasta dish and a chocolate mousse. Sounds like a balanced menu to me!  Anyway, winter here marks an increase in the amount of soups I prepare.  Soups are mega healthy and easy, so no excuse, get the big pot out!

The turnip soup

turnip soup

I bought turnips. What? Yes, turnips!  For the French followers who may hesitate on the translation, I am speaking of “navets”).  I have ever been a fan.  What is the story here?  Not being a fan, I never buy turnip, except extremely rarely while preparing a large dish of couscous (the whole dish from northern Africa, not just the semolina part).  The rarity is that I don’t do couscous very often, good merguez are hard to find and when I do a couscous, I don’t necessarily add turnips.  Makes me feel like making a couscous soon.  🙂   I had always had that repulsion to turnip and wanted to give it a second chance.  So I decided on a soup.  I looked into the fridge, perfect I had some carrots and some fennel.

ingredients soupe au navet

The above (half of the fennel shown) serve 3 people.

  1. Peel you vegetables
  2. Place them in a large saucepan or cooking pot
  3. Add a little rock salt (the quantity will depend on the volume of soup), for the quantity pictured above 1/2 teaspoon is enough.
  4. Cover with water and cook until the vegetables are soft.
  5. For the turnip soup, if you don’t want the bitterness of the turnip you need to drain the cooking water or part of it unfortunately.  If you like the bitterness, keep as such. Blend the soup.  Add to it a couple cheese triangles (you can substitute for cream or cheddar cheese).
  6. Eat warm and fresh with toasted buttered bread.

The 3 ADVICES FOR SOUPS

ADVICE 1: if you don’t want to eat the same soup for the whole week, make small batches!

It is very easy getting carried away by adding a lot of vegetables or adding a few items of each sort, but here I should advise against it:

  1. You may have a wonderful soup but if you wanted to have a dominating taste, this will not be the case.
  2. Trust me, after two meals your taste buds will ask for other flavours.

ADVICE 2: Add a little rock salt while cooking to avoid packing on salt when you eat it.

Include some salt to your cooking pot.  The photo below is from a different mixed vegetables soup (kale, carrots, potatoes, celeriac branches). Why?

  1. You will have less rush for excess salt when you eat it.
  2. Some vegetables, such as carrots, cook better with a pinch of salt (apparently salting the water raises its boiling point, making it boil hotter, so that your carrots cook faster).

soupe saler

ADVICE 3: Tips on ingredients

In the choice of vegetables, you can go for a unique vegetables or a mix. When doing a single vegetable soup:

  • you want a vegetable which has a little bit of character.
  • You may also often choose to boost the flavours with a roasting process (it brings out the sugars in the vegetable by caramelising them) or some garlic or added cheese.

The mix vegetable soup is either a choice or a practicality:

  • The mix vegetable soup uses all those veges left in the fridge which need eating!
  • When combining vegetables, I would always ensure to have a less watery vegetable, this gives body to the soup, typically I would use a couple potatoes.
  • That soup is pretty easy to prepare.

Now, to the question do you need a litre of stock to make a soup, the answer is NO (exception of the onion soup).  This is particularly true for the mix vegetable soup, you are basically creating  a stock! For the single vegetable soups like cauliflower and pumpkin, if you want to use a good stock, by all means use it. Just watch out for added salts and flavours.

Soups’ Ideas!!! Yes, please!

The soups below are blended except if advised otherwise. Single vegetables soups that we make at home are:

  • the zucchini soup: boiled zucchini in very little water, pinch of salt, processed with a soft cheese such as “Vache Qui Rit” (cheese triangle) or works well with cheddar too.
  • The cauliflower soup: cauliflower steamed or partly roasted, partly steamed if time allows, with head of roasted garlic (keep only the cloves), thickened cream.
  • Pumpkin soup: with a little cumin or nutmeg. Served with chilli. Sometimes cooked with carrots. Also try the Thai pumpkin soup, love that one!
  • The onion soup (not blended), the preparation requires a good broth if possible, a bit more work to prepare than the other soups but really worth it.
  • The chestnut soup. See the recipe HERE.

Mix veges:

  • the leek soup, “soupe au poireau” made of one leek (white AND green bits), 3 large potatoes, 2 carrots.
  • The minestrone.  This is great when you have plenty vegetables. Cut them in small sizes. Plan to add small size pasta at the end. This soup is not blended.

IMG_9263-001

Brussel Sprouts Lasagna

A Brussel sprouts lasagna would not have been necessarily my first idea for using Brussel sprouts.  I like to steam them and slowly let them reduce very slowly in a frypan with bacon. Anyway, I was browsing the web for a way to use my ricotta and found a recipe with ricotta, Brussels sprouts and mushrooms.  I had all that handy.  It is delicious, you turn!

The recipe is from Jessica Merchant on her blog “how sweet it is”. The recipe is adopted here in metrics plus a few changes.

The steps are easy, cut and reduce Brussels sprouts, cut and reduce mushrooms, make a cheese sauce, assemble the lasagna, got it?

Serves 6

Ingredients:
  • About 1/2 kg of Brussel sprouts
  • Lasagna sheets (use the “instant cook” ones)
  • 3 cups of white cup mushroom thinly sliced
  • 2 garlic gloves crushed
  • 1.5 cups of ricotta
  • Pecorino cheese grated
  • olive oil, pepper, salt
  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

For the cheese sauce (béchamel sauce):

  • 20 g of butter
  • 2 tablespoon flour (white, plain)
  • 25 cl (250 ml) of milk
  • Salt and pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
Method:
  1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
  2. Slice the Brussels sprouts thinly, remove the stems.
  3. In a thick base fry-an, eat up a couple teaspoon of oil. Add the Brussels sprout and season with salt and pepper.  Mix.  Cook until the sprouts soften and become bright in colour, stirring occasionally, for about 5 minutes.
lasagne champ chx Brux (2)
Layer of the lasagna: bright Brussels sprouts and mushrooms
  1. Stir in the balsamic vinegar and cook for another minute. Remove the sprouts from the pan and set them aside in a bowl.
  2. In the same frypan, heat 1-2 tablespoon of olive oil, add the crushed garlic, then the mushrooms. Cook until soft and juicy, stirring from time to time.  It should take 5-10 minutes. Season lightly (salt & pepper).
  3. For the béchamel, melt the butter in a saucepan.  You must use a whisk here.  Once the butter is melted, add the flour all at once, mix and cook until it becomes slightly golden (a roux).  Add the milk slowly and mix with the roux to form a paste at first, then a more liquid sauce. Ensure the fire is on medium (no higher).  Keep stirring.  The béchamel will start to thicken. Add salt and pepper.   When thick, remove from the heat and set aside.
  4. To assemble the lasagna, add about 1/4 cup of the sauce to the bottom of the dish. Add a layer or lasagna sheets, then top with 1/3 of the Brussels sprouts and 1/3 of the mushrooms. Sprinkle on 1/3 cup of cheese and using your fingers, sprinkle on 1/2 cup of the ricotta. Drizzle 1/3 of the sauce on top. Repeat that layer two more times. Finish off the lasagna will any of the remaining cheese, the pecorino and the remaining sauce, evenly drizzled on top.
lasagne champ chx Brux (3)
My lasagna was generous in ricotta, top layer
  1. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, or until the top is golden and bubbly. Let sit for about 10-20 minutes before slicing.

Serve with a side salad.

lasagne champ chx Brux (1)
Just out of the oven