Archive for September, 2008
I found two more perfectly ripe avocados in my mailbox this afternoon. (Thanks Andres!) So, as is always the case when the avocado window of opportunity is open, I take it.
I had tomatoes. I had some leftover (applesauce) chicken. I had iceberg lettuce. I had cilantro. I even had cheddar and feta cheese. And salsa. I wished I hadn’t used up my stash of corn tortillas in the freezer, but at least I had whole wheat flour ones. Something Mexican could come of all this.
I rinsed off and sliced up the chicken and tossed it with a squirt of lime juice, a sprinkle of cumin and chili powder. Everything else was sliced or diced and wrapped in a warmed tortilla. W wouldn’t tackle it though, so he ate the last of last night’s spaghetti and meatballs.
September 25 2008 | chicken & turkey and leftovers and one dish and sandwiches | 3 Comments »
W chopped a whack of zucchini the other day while he was being photographed “helping” me in the kitchen. (By chopped I mean whacked into big awkward chunks.) So I grated some and used it as an excuse to make zucchini brownies; the rest I chopped and cooked up with some frozen meatballs (light Italian from Superstore) to make spaghetti and meatballs. To be honest, after judging a chili cook-off at lunch I wasn’t much interested in dinner. My stomach was still processing 18 varieties of chili.
I had a fleeting trickle of inspiration to try something new when I found a baggie of cold spaghetti in the fridge; I had read in Real Simple about pressing leftover spaghetti into a hot skillet with Parmesan cheese to make a sort of crispy spaghetti cake, and so gave it a whirl. If I had been more patient it might have worked, but I tried to flip it at the first sign of golden brown and the whole shebang didn’t come with it. It turned into a tasty mess though, and I picked at it before putting it under meatballs for Mike, who likened it to something made by someone who was such a bad cook she couldn’t even make spaghetti without burning it to a crisp. (You were supposed to cook some bacon first, then cook the spaghetti in the bacon grease. It would have been like a huge pasta carbonara chip.)
I can’t honestly believe I haven’t made zucchini brownies yet this year. Can that be? If you like chocolate zucchini cake, these are denser and fudgier. And low fat, as far as brownies go (only 1/4 cup of butter per batch).
Chocolate Chip Zucchini Brownies
from One Smart Cookie – all your favourite cookies, squares, brownies and biscotti… with less fat!
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup cocoa
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter or non-hydrogenated margarine, melted
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla
1 fairly packed cup grated raw, unpeeled zucchini (1 medium)
1/3 cup chocolate chips
2 Tbsp. ground flaxseed (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt; set aside.
In a medium bowl, stir together melted butter, sugar, brown sugar, eggs and vanilla until smooth. Add the egg mixture and the zucchini to the flour mixture and stir by hand until almost combined; add chocolate chips and flaxseed and stir just until blended.
Pour into an 8” x 8” pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 30–35 minutes, until the edges are springy to the touch but the middle is still slightly soft — a slight indentation should be left when touched. Do not overbake! Cool in the pan on a wire rack or eat them warm from the pan.
Makes 12 brownies.
Per Brownie: 148 calories, 5.1 g fat (2.9 g saturated fat, 1.5 g monounsaturated fat, 0.4 g polyunsaturated fat), 24.4 g carbohydrates, 35 mg cholesterol, 2.7 g protein, 2.1 g fiber. 30% calories from fat
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September 24 2008 | cookies & squares | 18 Comments »
I do believe I have achieved one of the most visually unappealing meals possible – the fleshy colour and mushy texture of both chicken and smashed potatoes did not make this an easy photo.
I was all set to make French onion soup tonight, to justify my 25 cent purchase of two soup bowls circa 1972 at a garage sale last summer, when I got a call just after noon to see if I was available to go do traffic on the Homestretch. My first reaction: what can I put in the slow cooker that will be done in 6 hours? And can any of it come from the freezer?
I remembered something I saw on S’s blog recently – chicken cooked in applesauce - and considering my plethora of apples, mushy apples, applesauce and other apple products, it seemed fitting. Plus our nice, non-carnivorous neighbours brought over a box of frozen chicken breasts they got as a freebie-with-purchase last week at Superstore. It seemed like good three-year-old food: chicken with applesauce. I wondered if I had any rhubarb in the freezer too, thinking it would go well with the chicken and apples and would make it a little more than just chicken cooked in applesauce, and I came up with a freezerbagful of pureed rhubarb that I had stashed away for a night of rhubarb bellinis that never happened.
So I put four frozen chicken breasts in, and about a cup each of applesauce and rhubarbsauce. And a bit of cinnamon, and a pinch of red pepper flakes. I forgot about the garlic and vinegar, and the chunk of onion I meant to put in was still sitting beside the pot when I got home. It cooked on low for 6 hours.
It still worked. It was a bit odd. W thought it was weird and refused to eat any. Mike liked it. I ate it, but thought I could have made better use out of those chicken chests. Awhile later when I was putting it away I picked at W’s and liked it much more; the sauce seemed to thicken up and the chicken was incredibly moist. It might be worth making using cranberry applesauce, or at least a few cranberries added to the mix.
The smashed potatoes were leftover from our Thanksgiving shoot (smashed potatoes are so much less pressure than mashed – just use thin skinned ones and you don’t even have to peel them), and the beets I had tucked in the oven to roast while I had it on for something else and had to be used; I cut chunks into a hot pan and drizzled them with balsamic vinegar and honey in a lazy attempt to recreate the balsamic carrots and beets I had thought at the time I’d be living on for the rest of summer. Winter too.
Buttermilk Smashed Potatoes with Caramelized Onions
about 5 Yukon Gold potatoes, quartered or cut into 6
1 sweet onion, thinly sliced (or 2 shallots)
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1/2 cup(ish) buttermilk
salt and pepper
Cover potatoes with salted cold water in a saucepan, bring to a boil and simmer until tender, about 20 minutes.
While potatoes are simmering, heat the oil and butter in a skillet and cook the onion over medium heat, stirring often, for about 10 minutes or until deep golden.
Drain potatoes, return to pot and coarsely mash with a potato masher, adding the buttermilk, salt and pepper. Stir in the onions and serve right away.
Serves 4.
(I do believe I have reached the double digits. Gulp.)
September 23 2008 | chicken & turkey and slow cooker and veg | 8 Comments »
I was feeling rather uninspired today, but felt I owed it to the avocado to make an effort. Then I remembered that a photographer from the Herald was coming at dinnertime to shoot photos of W helping me make dinner, and wow, it’s fortunate that we had a nice soft avocado for him to stand on his stool and cut, but now I kind of had to make something of it. More than avocado and goat cheese on toast, anyway.
So I went to epicurious and punched in “avocado”. Then “avocado shrimp”, because I still have to make good on my promise to chip away at the freezer. And came up with this, which looked promising. As always, I tweaked it a bit, and since I couldn’t trust myself to not overcook shrimp under a broiler and my barbecue is still out of gas, I gave them a quick saute in the ever-present cast iron skillet you must be getting tired of seeing. It was pretty good; perhaps too exotic after our benign food weekend. I’m not sure, I think I expected it to be tastier than it was, and I’m not still not convinced that it wasn’t. Like it isn’t you, it’s me. Maybe I’ll take it for another spin in a few months.
Chili-Lime Shrimp with Avocado
1 lb. raw shrimp, peeled with the tails left on
1 Tbsp. packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp.soy sauce
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil, plus extra for cooking
1 Tbsp. lime juice
1 garlic clove, crushed
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. dried hot red pepper flakes
1 ripe avocado
chopped fresh cilantro
steamed brown or basmati rice, to serve with (optional)
Put the shrimp in a ziploc bag or bowl; add the brown sugar, soy sauce, oil, lime juice, garlic, chili powder and red pepper flakes. Stir or squish about to blend everything. Let marinate for about an hour.
Meanwhile, cook the rice and dice the avocdo, tossing with a little lime juice to keep it from turning brown.
Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat and add a drizzle of canola oil. Cook the shrimp quickly, in batches if you need to to avoid crowding the pan, just until they are cooked through. Add to the avocado and top with as much snipped cilantro as you like.
Serve right away over rice. Serves 2-4.
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September 22 2008 | one dish and seafood and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
As a kid, I hated avocados. Thankfully, I got over it. I like mustard now too, but I still can’t stand black licorice. I don’t even like it when other people eat it. You know how some people can pick up cigarette breath from a mile away? That’s me with black licorice breath.
As far as dinner goes this probably doesn’t look like much, but the image above is larger than it appears. Literally – these mamas are huge. I’ve been waiting all summer long for Andrés to bring in his massive, buttery yellow Semil avocados, and they finally flew in last week. He emailed me from his blackberry as soon as he got word that they were flying over Thunder Bay – how’s that for service? And when I got the specimens in my hands, two of them at well over a pound each, easily twice the size of an average avocado, he instructed me to wrap them in newspaper and sit them in a sunny spot to encourage them to ripen.
Today was a good day for them to come into their own; early this afternoon as I was out shopping for new dog chews Mike called and asked me to pick up lunch, so I stopped for a vat of wor wonton soup from King’s. (For $9.65 you can fill a salad bowl with noodles, broth, pork, veg and wontons. I suspect M was hoping for a burger, but after two days of eating not much more than grapes and toast, that would have been too far a leap.) So by dinner, a few slices of buttery avocado laid out on peppered goat cheese and grainy toast was just the thing. (Did that sound too Martha?)
So that takes care of #1; any ideas for #2? My neighbour suggested avocado milkshakes: ripe avocado whizzed with milk, ice and a bit of sugar like she used to get at her favourite Vietnamese restaurant. Sounds fantastic, but I’m not sure I could bring myself to puree something so gorgeous!
September 21 2008 | sandwiches and vegetarian | 14 Comments »
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