Archive for March, 2008
I spelunked into the depths of my freezer today in order to pull out the bacon I knew was in there, as well as the kataifi (Greek shredded filo/phyllo pastry) I picked up at the Italian Supermarket last week to make teeny sugared birds’ nests out of for our Easter brunch and egg hunt tomorrow. I know, it’s very Martha of me, but it costs less than $5, and it’s fun.
But the real question here is: Why?? Do I continue to put so many unmarked baggies and yogurt containers in the freezer? For some reason I always believe I’m going to be able to identify it 3 months later when it has formed an icy exterior and spots of freezer burn.
During my inventory I came across: beef, bison, pork tenderloin, ground lamb, stewing beef and 2 giant packages of corn tortillas I forgot I had, on top of freezer bags of chokecherries I picked last summer and a plethora of chopped rhubarb. (Can someone please explain to me the expression “more than you could shake a stick at”? Wouldn’t it conceivably be possible to shake a stick at any quantity of something?) My plan for years has been to pick up a magnetized dry erase board on which I could list the contents of the freezer, and add to/wipe off the list as I add too/use up its contents. But you know it will end up with funny/dirty things written all over it by visitors to my kitchen, anyway.
So my mission, should I choose to actually accept it, is to chip away at the contents of my freezer. But first, there’s the small matter of leftover chicken to deal with.
Everyone knows that the best reason for roasting a chicken in the first place is to make cold roast chicken sandwiches. Surprisingly though, I rarely make them, instead opting to transform leftover chicken into fried rice, quesadillas, curries and the like. I think this is because I always want cranberry sauce on my chicken sandwiches, and usually there isn’t any on hand, unless it’s leftover turkey we’re dealing with. This morning though, I came across 2 1/4 bags of frozen cranberries, so I dumped the quarter bag into a small pot with some water and sugar and let them simmer and pop while we assembled the sandwiches. I baked a crusty loaf of no-knead bread this morning, so all the stars fell into allignment.
Seriously. What’s better than a roasted chicken sandwich?
Even though this wasn’t part of dinner, I made the nests today, so I’ll post the recipe in case you might want to make them this weekend. Kataifi is easy to find at most ethnic grocery stores: Kalamata and the Italian markets in Calgary, for sure. Otherwise you could buy phyllo and slice it thinly while it’s still rolled up. I’ve often wondered if a healthier version would work using shredded wheat. I think it would need to somehow be softened though, in order to be able to press it into the tins.
Phyllo Nests
After you make these, your kitchen counter and floor will be covered with shredded kataifi bits. Don’t worry about it; they sweep up easily.
1/2 pkg. kataifi, thawed if frozen (pre-shredded phyllo; sold frozen at Greek grocers and large supermarkets.)
3 Tbsp. butter, melted
2 Tbsp. sugar
pinch cinnamon (optional)
chocolate eggs, jelly beans or those pastel candied almonds you get wrapped in tuille at weddings
Preheat oven to 375°F. Pull the kataifi apart with your fingers or with scissors, tearing it into chunks a couple inches long. Toss it in a bowl with the butter, sugar and cinnamon.
Press into mini muffin cups, pressing the mixture loosely into the bottom and up the sides, to form a nest. Bake for about 10 minutes, until pale golden. Let cool and then fill with chocolate eggs or jelly beans.
Makes about 2 1/2 dozen nests.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
March 21 2008 | sweet stuff | 1 Comment »
My friend Nicole Schon, owner of tnik, is a tea genius. She knows everything there is to know about tea. To be honest, I didn’t realize there was so much to know until I met her.
A few points of note: did you know that in order to get all the antioxidant benefits from your green tea you need to steep it three times? That’s right: steep, drink. Steep again, drink. Steep yet again (it’s kind of weak by now); drink. This can occur over a 24 hour period; no need to guzzle it all at once. It’s good news for those who are >ahem< frugal. Like me.
Also, if you pour boiled water over your tea and then instantly pour it off, you naturally get rid of the majority of the caffeine.
A few months ago she mentioned that she sometimes kept her used tea leaves and stuffed them under the skin of a chicken before roasting it. Brilliant! I have done this with rosemary, and thyme, and butter and garlic, so why not tea? Lubricated with a little soft butter or oil, if you like. As the chicken roasts the skin becomes more transparent, so you can see the tea leaves through it, and it subtly flavors the meat underneath as well as the juices, which may or may not end up as gravy. The only varieties I have right now are Belgian chocolate, a few chais, berry berry, creme caramel and matcha (which is powdered, so wouldn’t work), so I decided to use the rough green tea another friend brought back from Hong Kong. (Speaking of matcha: one of the reasons it’s particularly great for you is that you ingest the whole leaf, rather than straining it out as you do with other green teas. This is another advantage of using steeped green tea leaves in your chicken - you end up eating the whole leaf, so it’s a great antioxidant boost.)
I steeped a pot of it while I put the chicken in its vessel, loosened the skin from the breast meat by shoving my fingers underneath, then scooped out the soggy, spent leaves and stuffed them underneath. OK, I also added a tiny bit of butter. On the outside, I patted the skin dry (to ensure a crispy crust) then slicked it with canola oil and sprinkled it with salt and pepper. Then I put it in the oven at 350 and went back to work until I could smell it roasting and the joints wiggled loosely in their sockets. W prepped some asparagus for me, deftly breaking it as he has obviously seen me do, and rubbing them all down with oil to slide onto the oven rack underneath.
As it turned out, it was serendipidous that I happened on this particular day to use my green tea leaves for stuffing chicken - odd, actually, because I have roasted many chickens since hearing the idea - because when I lifted the strainer basket from the mouth of the teapot in order to more easily scoop out the leaves, having already poured myself a mug of tea, I caught a fleeting glimpse of something three-dimensional in the teapot. AAA batteries, which had clearly been stored there earlier, and now had been steeping in my green tea. Oh the perils of having a toddler in the house.
Share on Facebook
March 20 2008 | chicken & turkey | 3 Comments »
I know, I know. What sane person makes cannelloni from scratch for dinner on a regular Wednesday night?
Someone who became frustrated with the bulky stack of fresh pasta sheets congesting her deep freeze and hastily pulled them out yesterday, thinking she’d come up with some brilliant use for them.
I’ve never actually made cannelloni. When I assisted at a pasta class with Lina several months ago, she left a whack of pasta sheets behind, which they didn’t want to store in the fridge at the Cookbook Company, so I took home. Since then, they have been taking up valuable space in the frozen food section. About a month ago I taught another class with her, at which she demonstrated how to make cannelloni. Seemed easy enough - in the class we stirred together ricotta and thawed frozen spinach, spooned it down the long edge of a pasta sheet, rolled it up, cut it and baked it with pasta sauce poured overtop. I dug around the fridge and voila! A half container of ricotta; luckily it has a lengthy shelf life. I consulted a few websites and noticed that most didn’t bother adding an egg to stabilize their cheese fillings, so I didn’t. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything green - spinach or chard - in the fridge or freezer, but I did dig out a baggie of frozen roasted red pepper (roasted red pepper freezes beautifully, and is perfect to stash in baggies for emergency pizza toppings, salads, and dips), which I chopped and added to the ricotta along with salt and pepper, amusedly imagining how totally gourmet my slap-together dinner was going to sound when I posted it. It’s funny how everything sounds fancier when you spell it out.
I also pulled out two small Italian sausages that weren’t substantial enough for much else than pasta sauce. After thawing them I mildly regretted having bothered, but they were already thawed so I quickly cooked them up and poured the tomato sauce over top.
So the rolled cannelloni, which I filled, rolled up, didn’t use anything to seal, then trimmed and cut widthwise into thirds (I trimmed because it seemed to be I didn’t want the pasta to be three-ply…) and set in a baking dish in a puddle of tomato sauce to keep them from sticking, then poured the rest of the sauce overtop. Although most cannelloni appears to be baked at that point, I saw it as an opportunity for a cheesy mozzarella top; the kind that gets the crusty corners and dark bits. So I scattered the top with cheese and baked it at 375 for about half an hour, until it was bubbly and the pasta was soft. Yum.
Share on Facebook
March 19 2008 | pasta | No Comments »
If I were to be completely honest here, I would probably have to report the handful of Hershey’s kisses I had in the pocket of my pea coat and ate during a board of trustees meeting at 6:30 as technically my dinner.
However. I did make something for late lunch, which is why I found myself at said meeting at 6:30 having not eaten anything for a few hours. Mid-afternoon was pizza, made my very favorite way: by spreading a container of roasted peppers, zucchini, eggplant and garlic, glossy with olive oil and with a bit of spicy bite, which I picked up for $5 from the Italian Supermarket (on the corner of 20th Avenue and Edmonton Trail NE), over a stretched-out foundation of No-Knead bread dough, scattering with part-skim mozarella and a grating of Parmesan, and baking at 400F for about 20 minutes. You don’t even need to bother with tomato sauce; those containers of roasted veg are like instant, made from scratch pizza. If you don’t want to bother making pizza dough, they sell frozen blobs of that too for 75 cents. 75 cents! What’s 75 cents anymore? Not even chocolate bars.
(I realize pizza has become a theme here. If it’s any consolation, I’m starting to tire of it. Unfortunately, it will probably only be a few days before I want some again.)
Share on Facebook
March 19 2008 | cheese and vegetarian | 1 Comment »
“It’s like a small salad, only bigger… with lots of stuff in it.”
- Elaine Bennes
Today was a bit sad and stressful, and at 7pm we realized we had no dinner and no time to make the chicken, white bean and pesto stew I thawed a package of chicken thighs for. No matter. We tore open the tub of organic spring greens ($5 for a giant plastic tub at the Superstore - and like foam stuffing, it seems to expand as you pull it out) and started tossing things in: the last of the deli ham, grape tomatoes, a few shriveling mushrooms, toasted pecans, and the last third of a jar of spiced pickled beets I bought at the market.
The best part was, I used the sweet, spiced brine as a base for a salad dressing, with balsamic vinegar, a squirt of grainy mustard, some canola oil and a drizzle of flax oil (1 tsp. has more omega 3s than a 3 oz. filet of salmon!) - shaking it all up in one of my IKEA oil & vinegar bottles.
After dinner I made hot crossed buns for CBC tomorrow morning - this time I revamped them a bit from the traditional version using those candied fruit bits by adding orange (in the form of grated zest and candied peel) and chocolate chunks. When they come out of the oven, I’ll cross them with chocolate - place a small handful of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in a ziplock baggie, seal and put in a bowl of warm water until it melts. Snip a small piece off the corner and squeeze the chocolate out onto the buns.
Hot Crossed Buns
1 pkg. (or 2 1/4 tsp.) active dry yeast
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water, milk or a combination of both
4- 4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
1 tsp. ground ginger
pinch allspice
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, melted
1 large egg
1 cup golden raisins, currants or a combination
1/3 cup mixed peel (extremely optional)
Paste for crosses:
3 Tbsp. flour
2 Tbsp. water
Glaze:
2 Tbsp. sugar
1 Tbsp. water
Place the yeast, a bit of the sugar and the milk in a bowl and let it sit for 5 minutes to make sure the yeast is active.Sift the flour with the spices and salt, and add almost all of it to the yeast mixture along with the butter, remaining sugar, egg and dried fruit. Mix until you have a sticky dough.
Take the dough out and place it on a floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding more flour as you need to if it gets sticky, until the dough is smooth and elastic. Knead for another minute for good measure and an upper-body workout.
Place back in the bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for an hour, or until it’s doubled in size. If you want to bake them fresh in the morning, put the bowl in the fridge overnight to slow the rising.
Divide the dough into 12 balls and place in a 9”x13” baking dish or on a cookie sheet – space them close together if you want them to rise and touch and be soft, pull-apart buns, or space them further away if you want them to have a baked crust all the way around. Cover with a towel or loosely with plastic wrap and put them in a warm place for another half hour to an hour. Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Mix the flour and water for the crosses, put the mixture in a zip-lock bag and snip a tiny piece off the corner. Pipe a cross onto the top of each bun and bake them for 25-30 minutes, until golden and well risen. If you want to glaze them, combine the sugar and water in a small saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves (alternatively you can do this in the microwave). Brush this hot syrup generously over the tops of the buns while they’re still warm.
To make the Orange Chocolate Chunk version: ease up on the cinnamon a bit and omit the allspice; add the grated zest of an orange along with the melted butter and egg; add 1/2 cup chopped candied orange peel and 1 cup chocolate chips or chunks to the dough instead of the raisins and citron. Omit the paste for the crosses and instead bake them, cool them and cross them with chocolate - place a small handful of chopped chocolate or chocolate chips in a ziplock baggie, seal and put in a bowl of warm water until it melts. Snip a small piece off the corner and squeeze the chocolate out onto the buns.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
March 17 2008 | bread | 4 Comments »
Since Friday night, I have cooked pretty much nonstop: Hazelnut & Apricot Scones; Chocolate, Hazelnut and Espresso Shortbread; so many variations of miniature quiche I lost count (hundreds of them); Roasted Carrot Hummus; Sun-Dried Tomato and Olive Spread; Crostini; Pork Tenderloin with Orange and Pomegranate Molasses; Potstickers; Chicken Satay; Stuffed Rolled Turkey Filet; Roast Turkey, made into sandwiches with Maple-Orange Sweet Potatoes; Roasted Beet, Purple Potato and Carrot Skewers; Espresso Chocolate Chunk Brownies; and Coconut Milk & Ice Wine Chocolate Truffles, not to mention the menu from last night.
Today, being Sunday, the sound of racing on TV triggered a Pavlovian response in me - an urge to putter around the kitchen and bake scones or something. But I resisted; instead we went to the Bowlerama.
I swore last night I wouldn’t cook dinner tonight, and I didn’t. We ordered pizza. I’d like to say I’m sick of food; sadly, I don’t ever seem to tire of it, unless I’m pregnant. (I’m not.)
But here’s something: I went for coffee at Cafe Rosso last week with a few friends, one of whom picked up a vegan bar made with quinoa. I was shocked to learn that my friend A*, who is vegetarian, had never heard of the stuff. (Although come to think of it, it is entirely possible she may just not have recognized the proper pronounciation - KEEN-wah - and just thought it was something new to her. The teeny uncooked specks in the bar were hardly recognizable.) Nevertheless I dropped off a bag on her mailbox today, and was going to email her cooking instructions, but decided to do it here instead. Not only because I think everyone who is getting more than a little tired of rice should know how to make quinoa, but just because I know she reads this blog.
Here are my top 11 reasons you should try quinoa:
1 ) it contains a balanced set of essential amino acids, making it an excellent source (about 20%) of complete protein. (In fact, the WHO claims that quinoa contains a better protein balance than any grain, being at least equal to milk in terms of protein quality)
2 ) it’s a good source of dietary fiber
3 ) it’s gluten free, and considered easily digestible
4 ) it makes you feel nutritionally in the know when you pronounce it properly in conversation
5 ) it’s high in B vitamins, potassium, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, folic acid, vitamin E, iron and zinc
6 ) rice is so last millenium
7 ) its mild, nutty flavor lends itself well to soups, hot grain breakfast cereals, or really anything you’d use rice or couscous for. I bet it would make great rice pudding (except that you’d have to call it quinoa pudding)
8 ) it may be germinated in its raw form - germination activates natural enzymes and boosts vitamin content. Quinoa apparently has a short germination period: only 2-4 hours resting in between paper towel soaked in water is enough to make it sprout; this softens the grains, making them suitable to be added to salads etc.
9 ) it has a light, fluffy texture; isn’t hard or heavy like many other whole grains
10 ) it’s cheap, and you can buy it in bulk
11 ) like rice, you can freeze it in freezer bags once it has cooked and cooled, then thaw it for quick salads or side dishes, to throw into soup, etc.
The biggest thing to remember when cooking quinoa is to rinse it very well first - it usually has an invisible coating that tends to be bitter. Otherwise, you can just cook it like pasta, in a pot of boiling salted water for 15 minutes, or like rice: 2 parts water to 1 part quinoa, boil, turn down to low, cover and cook for 15 minutes. Easy.
* Names have been withheld to protect the reputation of innocent vegetarians.
Share on Facebook
March 16 2008 | grains | 5 Comments »
This is what my day looked like:
Go to bed at 1am (I have to count this detail, because it technically was part of my day)
7am: get up, make hazelnut-apricot scones and chocolate-espresso-hazelnut shortbread for event at Willow Park. (Sidenote: they called yesterday to ask if I could help cook for customer appreciation day.)
9am: arrive at Willow Park and start cooking like a madwoman. Cooking at customer appreciation day is actually really fun, if your idea of fun is going through the fridges (they have one designated only for cheese), freezer and cupboards and coming up with things to make, like Gordon Elliott’s Door-Knock Dinners. (I do consider this a blast.) Except on a much larger level - they had over 1000 people over to eat. One of the best creations was roasted carrot hummus - Friday night we roasted a bunch of beautiful carrots, beets, purple potatoes and Yukon golds for the organic wine festival, and ended up with a sheet of leftover roasted carrots. They were cut in half lengthwise, drizzled with olive oil, salt and pepper and roasted until they were soft with golden bits. I threw a few of them into the blender with the usual chick peas, garlic, tahini, lemon and olive oil to make hummus, and added a big pinch of toasted cumin. It was a beautiful color, and a total hit.
4pm: run home, unload the car, reload the car, change.
4:45pm: rush out the door, stop at Bite to pick up a fig log imported from Italy (I should make these things - they are a blend of figs and nuts and aniseseed, shaped into a log and wrapped in plastic and then dried leaves - and sells for $25).
5:30pm: and arrived to do a private hands-on cooking class/demo Tuscan-themed dinner for the 50th birthday of a wonderful lady and her husband and friends.
6:30: guests arrive, have peach bellinis and some antipasti I picked up at the Italian Supermarket, the aforementioned fig log, and nubbly bite-sized chunks of Parmesan-Reggiano cheese, drizzled with honey and white truffle oil and sprinkled with fresh pepper. This is one of the easiest appetizers you can do - it takes about 2 minutes. Bob Blumer taught it to me.
7pm: we start cooking.
Menu
Antipasti
Parmigiano-Reggiano drizzled with White Truffle Oil & Honey
Balsamic Mushroom Crostini (one of my favorites)
Prawns wrapped in Prosciutto (at Willow Park yesterday the guys from Escoba came and did the same thing with capicola ham) and served with pesto
Spinach & Ricotta Gnocchi with browned butter
Grilled Lamb Chops with olive oil, lemon, garlic and oregano
Forest Mushroom Risotto
Courgettes & Carrots a Scapece
Dolce:
Mascarpone Panna Cotta (an experiment, and a definite winner)
Chocolate, Hazelnut & Espresso Shortbread
The host did some fantastic wine pairings with each course.
12:30ish: Leave
1am: arrive home and crawl into bed.
So here I am, finally, in bed with my laptop. And here are some recipes from tonight’s feast:
*Warning: these desserts are not low fat - quite the opposite, in fact. However, if I were to choose some high fat desserts that were well worth the fat and calories, these would be two of them.
Mascarpone Panna Cotta
I like serving Panna Cotta in individual ramekins or martini glasses - this way there’s no pressure to unmold them cleanly, and they are easy to serve. Individual bowls are great for parties too - they are easy to eat while standing.
1 package plain gelatin (or 1 Tbsp. if you buy it in bulk)
1 L half & half or 18% coffee cream
1/2 cup mascarpone
1/4 cup honey
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract, Madagascar vanilla bean paste, or a vanilla bean
Fresh raspberries, for on top (optional)
Pour about a cup of the cream into a medium pot and sprinkle the gelatin over the surface. Let it sit for about 5 minutes to let the gelatin soften.
Set the pot over medium heat and stir, without letting the cream boil, until the gelatin is completely dissolved. This should take 2-3 minutes. (If you are using a whole vanilla bean, cut it in half lengthwise using the tip of a sharp knife and scrape the seeds out and add it to the cream, along with the scraped pod.)
Add the rest of the cream, the mascarpone in spoonfuls, the honey and sugar and cook for another 5 minutes, until the mascarpone is melted and the sugar is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in the vanilla.
If you used a vanilla bean, remove the pod. Pour the mixture into individual wine glasses, small dishes or ramekins. (If you want to unmold them onto a plate to serve them, spray the ramekins with nonstick spray first.) Put them in the fridge for at least 2 hours, until set.
Serve in the bowls or unmolded onto a small plate and topped with fresh or puréed berries. Serves about 8.
Chocolate Hazelnut Espresso Shortbread
If your hazelnuts are whole, coarsely chop them in the food processor first, then transfer them to a bowl and blend the rest, adding them back in at the end.
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup cocoa
3 Tbsp. cornstarch
1 Tbsp. instant espresso or coffee (or finely ground espresso beans)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup butter, cold and cut into chunks
1 tsp. vanilla
3/4 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned, and coarsely chopped
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional, to drizzle)
Preheat oven to 350°F. In the bowl of a food processor, combine flour, brown sugar, cocoa, cornstarch, espresso and salt. Add butter and vanilla and pulse until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add nuts; blend until finely chopped. Transfer dough to floured work surface. Knead just until dough comes together.
Divide dough in half and press each into an 8″ or 9” round cake pan, or tart pan with removable bottom. If you like, press around the edge with the tines of a fork. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until set. Cool on a wire rack, then cut each shortbread round into 12 wedges.
If you want to drizzle your shortbread with chocolate, put the chocolate chips into a zip-lock baggie and seal. Place in a bowl of very warm water and let sit until melted. Knead the bag a bit to make sure there are no chunks left. When smooth, snip a tiny corner off and drizzle chocolate over cookies. Let stand until chocolate sets.
Makes about 2 dozen wedges.
Print Post
Share on Facebook
March 16 2008 | appetizers | 4 Comments »
Today I was asked to come cook at an organic wine festival at Willow Park, so the boys were left to their own devices. Luckily, last night I found myself with a chopped zucchini (more action for yesterday’s TV camera) that needed to be used before it withered. I let W practice his chopping with it - zucchini are perfect for this, being nice and soft, but not rolly like a mushroom. Yes, I realize I posted a photo of my 2 year old using a knife, and not even a plastic one. He knows the difference, and won’t be duped by plastic. He wants to use the big chef’s knife, so this isn’t a bad compromise. I’m right there beside him, watching his little fingers (isn’t it cute the way he holds the zucchini slice in place with his index finger?) so that they don’t make it into the sauce. Plus, he’s actually eating raw zucchini, taking an interest in preparing dinner, and learning knife skills. So I think the benefits outweigh any potential danger, don’t you?
All we did was saute up the zucchini, a red pepper that was also starting to go wrinkly, and a handful of mushrooms in a drizzle of canola oil with a few smashed cloves of garlic. (This was all being done in the 10 minutes that the salmon took to cook.) I poured over a can of tomato sauce, it simmered while we ate and when it cooled, I put it in a yogurt container in the fridge in case of emergency. The great thing about chunky pasta sauces is that they balance chunky pastas well, which are much less messy for W to eat. Also, I think chunky pastas (like rotini, penne, etc.) are better in tweed (whole wheat) than spaghetti. (Brown rice pasta is a good alternative if you want to maintain that smooth mouthfeel.)
P.S. Steve, I’m so sorry! I just saw your comment that the cocoa was mysteriously missing from the ingredient list in my low fat brownie recipe. Sorry about that. Back at day 39 I hadn’t yet figured out how to cut and paste recipes into my blog post without having to go through and hand edit out all the tags… it must have accidentally been deleted.
Mea culpa.
Share on Facebook
March 14 2008 | one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I have decided to clean out my freezer. First to go was a filet of salmon, which I pulled out this morning to thaw. Then when a CTV news reporter and camera came to talk to me about the CBE’s Nutrition Policy, they wanted some quick footage of me in the kitchen preparing something healthy. So there I was, looking all angelic with my slab of salmon, bowl of greens, grape tomatoes, barley and zucchini. Good thing they didn’t show up on rib night.
Which explains why my filet was cut into three pieces - that was a little action for the camera. Normally I would have just cooked it in one piece. Either way.
Now, pesto is something that I wouldn’t have normally had a bottle of in the fridge even a year ago. But since discovering the Pesto, White Bean & Chicken Stew, and that Willem loves it, I now have a jar in the fridge most of the time. It’s easy to find, on grocery store shelves alongside the pasta sauce. I buy the Classico pesto stuff; nothing fancy. Tonight when I pondered what to do with the salmon, I made it easy on myself and slathered a spoonful of pesto on top of each filet. W appears to like salmon already (although like other 2 year olds he enjoys doing a food preference about-face once in awhile) but I figured spreading it with pesto would be akin to spreading a dog’s medicine with peanut butter. It worked.
The best thing about fresh salmon is that it takes 10 minutes to cook: at 425F, 10 minutes per inch of thickness, which usually means about 10 minutes. It’s that easy. You might see ‘Roasted Pesto Salmon’ on a menu or in a cookbook and think it sounds mighty complicated, but it’s absolutely not. It doesn’t even require a recipe. This is all you need to know: 1) put salmon filet(s) skin-side down on a cookie sheet; 2) slather with pesto (sun dried tomato pesto would be good, too); 3) roast at 425F for about 10 minutes per inch. A lot of recipes instruct you to cook salmon until it flakes easily with a fork - at that point, it’s overdone. It should flake easily along the thinner edge, but still be moist and meaty in the middle. Yum.
With it the leftover grainy salad from last night; I have this thing about serving salmon with grainy salads. Not sure where that comes from. I guess it’s just that while I’m at it, I may as well be doubly virtuous.
Share on Facebook
March 13 2008 | fish and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
Despite my abhorrence for any connection between guilt and food, I couldn’t help but look at dinner tonight as penance for last night’s rib free-for-all. Mike looked glumly at it and asked, “what’s this to go with?” Nothing, that’s it. But it was delicious, really, and even Willem gobbled it down once I added a bit of shredded roasted chicken from the freezer to somewhat disguise the chick peas. I actually think I enjoyed it as much as the ribs. Mike thought that was pushing it a bit, but agreed to feeling much better afterward.
It started out as something I saw in a recent issue of Cooking Light magazine (one of my favorites, and they don’t even pay me to say that) and quickly took on a life of its own. Now it doesn’t much resemble the original, except that they both have the aforementioned grains and chick peas.
I have to say, it’s a pet peeve of mine when recipes call for 3/4 cup of chick peas instead of a can, or 1 cup of chopped onion instead of 1 chopped onion; those who follow recipes to the letter might wonder what to do if their chopped onion amounts to 1 1/4 cups, or if it comes up short might shave a chunk off a second onion to make up the difference. Some of these quantities just don’t need to be as precise.
I really do love cooking with barley. The very best thing about barley, brown rice, wild rice and lentils is that they all take the exact same amount of time to cook. So that means you can throw any combination in a pot of boiling water, and they will be done in 40-45 minutes. Drain, and you have a great side dish, addition to soup or base for a grainy salad. The original recipe called for almonds and green onions; I had toasted chopped pecans left over from a late-night attempt at a sundae, and no green onions. There were grape tomatoes though, so those went in. I added curry paste to the dressing as well, and boosted the quantity.
Brown & Wild Rice and Barley Salad with Chick Peas
1/3 cup brown rice
1/3 cup wild rice
1/3 cup barley (pearl or pot)
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chick peas, rinsed and drained
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/2 pint grape tomatoes, halved
a few green onions, chopped (optional)
1 bunch curly or Italian parsley, chopped (optional)
small handful chopped toasted pecans or almonds
Dressing:
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 Tbsp. canola oil
1 Tbsp. flax oil (or more canola, or olive oil)
2 tsp. mustard
1 tsp. curry paste or powder
In a large pot of boiling water, cook the brown rice, wild rice and barley for 40-45 minutes, until tender. Drain well and run under cool water to stop the grains from cooking. Transfer to a bowl and add the chick peas and raisins.
Whisk together all the dressing ingredients (adjusting them if you like to suit your taste) and pour over top. Chill in the fridge until the mixture is completely cool, or for up to a day.
Add the tomatoes, green onions, parsley and pecans (or save them to sprinkle on top) and serve. Serves 4-8, depending on whether you’re eating it as a main course or side dish. (It would go really well beside a filet of salmon.)
Later in the evening, the ice cream I ran to the corner store to buy last night wouldn’t stop calling to me, so I had to eat it just to shut it up. I hardly ever buy ice cream because it speaks my language, but I did yesterday because I had leftover honey-chocolate ganache (I made another batch of cupcakes for CBC) that I didn’t want to go to waste. Besides, my brain rationalized, I already ate half a rack of ribs and a buttered baked potato; I might as well go for the hot fudge chaser.
For last night’s honey-chocolate ganache and toasted pecan sundae I warmed the ganache, adding a bit of half and half to thin it just enough to make a fudgy, truffley sauce. Tonight there was still a bit left, and I had the bright idea to resurrect it with a spoonful of peanut butter. I set the small saucepan over the heat, stirred in a spoonful (all-natural would have been healthier, but wouldn’t have had as smooth a mouthfeel, so I went with the creamy light stuff) and drizzled it warm over vanilla bean Breyer’s light.
(So much for penance.)
Print Post
Share on Facebook
March 12 2008 | beans and grains and one dish and salads and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
« Prev - Next »
I spelunked into the depths of my freezer today in order to pull out the bacon I knew was in there, as well as the kataifi (Greek shredded filo/phyllo pastry) I picked up at the Italian Supermarket last week to make teeny sugared birds’ nests out of for our Easter brunch and egg hunt tomorrow. I know, it’s very Martha of me, but it costs less than $5, and it’s fun.
