Dinner with Julie

Day 313: Veggie Samosas, Leek & Potato Soup, Whole Wheat Mac & Cheese (with pureed veg)

Dinner tonight in A’s basement in front of the hockey game. (A different A from the Didsbury A of last night.) It was a toss-together of whatever we had in our fridges – I needed to get rid of the last of the milk and cheese, and she made a pot of chunky leek and potato soup and cooked up some frozen veggie samosas from Costco that reminded me how much I love samosas, even veggie samosas from Costco. Have I posted a recipe for them? Not the Costco ones – from-scratch samosas using frozen hash browns and peas? They are actually dead easy to make, albeit a little time-consuming. But so worth it, especially if you have some chutney around. It would be fun to have a samosa bee, where a group of like-minded eaters made big batches of them assembly-line style. Or I could always go to Costco.

A made the soup with a big ‘ol leek in her fridge, some potatoes, peeled and chopped, and stock, tarragon, and a handful of fresh spinach stirred in at the end. She left it all chunky and it was wonderful eaten out of wide fish-adorned soup bowls with crusty bread from the market.

Considering the fact that a gaggle (or clutch? herd? swarm? did you know it’s actually called a gulp of cormorants and an implausibility of gnus?) of young boys would be in attendance, I turned the milk and cheese into a batch of mac & cheese, using whole wheat rotini and a simple cheese sauce (cook equal parts butter and flour to a thick paste, whisk in milk until bubbly and thick, stir in grated cheese) into which I stirred a couple jars of baby food sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes have a sweet and relatively benign flavour, as do cauliflower (which you can’t get in baby food form) and squash, and so you can stir some into mac & cheese and no one will see or taste the difference. I keep a few jars on the shelf for cheese sauce occasions – you could even add a jar to a package of KD and it would just come out looking cheesier. Not that kids shouldn’t eat their vegetables in their natural state, but hey – every bit helps.

(Those Canton beans, by the way, are available at the following retailers:
The beans are available at the following outlets across Canada: Metro, Sobeys, Wal-Mart, Loblaws, Boucheries, London Drugs (!!), Thrifty’s, Overwaitea/Save on Foods.)

Whole Wheat Mac & Cheese with Veg

These measurements are flexible – I admit to never measuring when I make mac & cheese – you just get a feel for it. The only thing that really needs to work out is the white sauce – add milk to the roux (butter and flour) and when it bubbles it’s as thick as it’s going to get; if it’s too thin, add a bit more flour and bring back to a bubble. If it’s too thick, add extra milk. The kind of cheese you add and the amount is really up to you. If you want to forego the crumb topping, you could always sprinkle the top with a little grated cheese and bake it until it’s bubbly around the edges and golden on top.

1/2 lb. whole wheat rotini, small shells or other pasta
Salt
3-4 Tbsp. butter or non-hydrogenated margarine
3-4 Tbsp. flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2 cups grated old cheddar cheese, or any combination of cheeses you have in the fridge
1/2-1 cup pureed cooked cauliflower, sweet potatoes or squash or 2 jars pureed baby food

Bread Crumb Topping (optional):
1-2 slices bread (preferably whole wheat), torn into pieces
2 Tbsp. canola or olive oil or melted butter
1/4 cup grated Parmesan

In a large pot of boiling salted water, cook the pasta until it’s tender but not mushy. Drain well in a colander and set aside.

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

In the empty pot (no need to wash it out), melt the butter over medium heat. Add the flour and stir well with a whisk, cooking for a minute or so until the mixture starts to turn golden. Stir in the milk and bring the sauce to a boil, whisking constantly. The sauce must reach a full boil in order for the flour to reach its full thickening potential. Reduce the heat and simmer for a few minutes, until the mixture is nice and thick.

Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in the cheese until it melts. Stir in the vegetable puree, if you’re using it. Add salt to taste, then stir in the drained pasta. If you want a bread crumb topping, pulse the bread, butter and Parmesan in a food processor until the bread turns to crumbs and the mixture is well blended. Pour the macaroni and cheese into an appropriately sized baking dish and top with the bread crumbs or additional cheese. (It can be made up to 24 hours ahead and refrigerated in the baking dish; sprinkle with the crumb mixture or cheese right before you bake it.) Bake for 15-20 minutes, until the topping is golden and it’s bubbly around the edges.
Serves 6, more if there are kids.

November 08 2008 | pasta and soup and vegetarian | 9 Comments »

Day 312: Soup, Meat Fondue and Saskatoon Berry Crumble

I had a fitful sleep last night – I dreamed I had to cook dinner using slugs, and couldn’t decide whether to serve them raw on greens, which would risk of having them crawl off the plate, or cook them. A quick sauté in a hot pan I imagined would be the best method, being small meaty bits, or perhaps using one of those escargot bowls with all the little divots in it – because snails are essentially slugs too, right?

What do you think it means?

The day was one of medical emergencies – we’re all OK, but I spent the morning shuttling to various doctors and the afternoon bringing bags of ice to Mike’s knee and attempting to put a warm compress on W’s eye and administer expensive drops – 3 mL for $24, of which I managed to get approximately zero into his eye while he ejected about a quarter of a bottle – or about $6 worth – into Mike’s eye. That between two meetings that took the bulk of the afternoon and running out the door at ten to five to pick up A – for a community dinner at The Blooming Fields, a greenhouse in Didsbury.

It’s an interesting concept – the owners put on a set menu every Friday and Saturday night featuring ingredients they have either grown themselves or acquired from local farmers, and people from the community come and sit around two big communal tables. It’s like eating dinner at your friendly aunt and uncle’s house. On the menu – fennel soup, a salad, meat fondue with beef, chicken and meatballs you simmer yourself in broth (with various sauces, tomatoes and mushrooms) and Saskatoon berry crumble with chocolate chunk ice cream for dessert. When I got home I discovered (besides a house that looked like someone had picked it up and shook it) Mike had ordered pizza, having not been able to stand at the stove and heat up another package of those Canton beans I so conveniently left on the counter. For lunch I did try the Indian chick peas, heated up with a handful of frozen spinach straight from the bag and a spoonful of peanut butter stirred in. It took all of about three minutes to warm through and was fantastic.

Which makes a perfect segue way into Free Stuff Fridays. Some of you will like this one. Some of you won’t. Today’s Free Stuff is BEANS. Come on, they’re so good for you. You’ll have lunches and dinners taken care of for weeks. Think of the camping possibilities!

I emailed the PR company who does Canton beans and told them how impressed I was with this (Canadian!) product, and told them about you guys and FSF, and asked if they might donate a case of beans, one that includes all five varieties. They were all over it. So next Tuesday, I’ll email the winners coordinates to them and they will ship out the beans.

And you will love them – even the Limas.

November 08 2008 | eating out | 70 Comments »