Archive for February, 2011
I had the urge tonight to make a proper dinner, rather than serve everyone whatever I had been testing that day. And it occurs to me that there have been a great many non-dinners here. Isn’t that what it was supposed to be all about?
There was a small pot of leftover rice in the fridge, so I thought I’d make fried rice. Which triggered a memory of a recipe for garlic fried rice, which I decided to seek out, most likely at a moment I was struggling with writers’ block or some such. (I’m easily distracted to food sites, and like to tell myself it’s all in the name of research, even when I should really be working on something else and reading up on recipes I want to try isn’t really that pressing.)
The recipe, for Asian-style chili with garlic fried rice, was at Kitchen Play, and – behold and lo! – it was a contest! With a deadline of today! A clear sign if ever I saw one.
I thought at first the combo of ground sirloin and sliced steak was odd, and could probably be streamlined, and then I started second guessing the ingredient list, my brain automatically offering up my usual substitutions, until I decided to get over myself and just do what I was told. (More or less.) I’m glad I did. I love the combination of ground sirloin and strips of steak – together they have a great texture. And it means I can use more Canadian beef! (Alberta, even!)
Mike said: “write this one down”. And so here I go:
Asian-style Chili with Garlic Fried Rice
canola oil, for cooking
1 onion, chopped
4-5 garlic cloves, sliced or chopped
1/2 lb. sirloin steak, cut into thin strips
1/2 cup beef broth
1/2 lb. ground sirloin
1 tsp. salt, or to taste
1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
1/2 tsp. ground chipotle chili pepper or chipotle hot sauce (I used a few glugs)
1/2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 red bell pepper, chopped
1 cup tomato sauce
1/4-1/2 can coconut milk, plus extra for serving
1 tsp. sriracha sauce
2-4 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro (optional)
lime wedges, for serving
Garlic Fried Rice:
canola oil, for cooking
6 garlic cloves, finely chopped
4 cups cooked long-grain rice
salt, to taste
In a large, heavy skillet, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and sauté the onion for 2 minutes, until starting to soften. Add garlic and cook for 5 minutes, then add the beef strips. Sauté until the redness of the meat is almost gone, about 4 minutes. Add the beef broth, cover and boil for 10 minutes, letting the steam out and mixing once halfway through.
Add the ground sirloin and spices, and mix thoroughly. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, or until the meat is cooked through and the sauce thickened.
Stir in the tomato sauce, coconut milk and sriracha, reduce heat and simmer until thickened. Stir in the cilantro and serve over garlic fried rice, topped with a drizzle of coconut milk. Serves 4.
For Garlic Fried Rice: heat a generous glug of oil in a heavy skillet (cast iron works great) set over medium-high heat. Cook garlic for a minute or so until the edges get a faint shade of gold. Add rice and a couple of pinches of salt. Stir for about 5 minutes, until it begins to faintly brown and toast. Best eaten warm.
February 28 2011 | beef and one dish | 11 Comments »
I’m not going all hardcore California health club wheatgrass shooters on you, but I’ve just discovered that I can deliver large handfuls of leafy greens – in the form of fresh parsley – into the boys (and myself), completely undetected. And I wanted to share the happy news.
In fact, they did bust me stuffing about half a bunch of curly parsley – stems and all – into their smoothie, and said little more than “oh wow! check it out!” I didn’t really intend to be sneaky about it – I don’t hide all their veggies – but I’d likely turn my nose up a bit if I caught someone stuffing a bunch of leaves into my smoothie. And you know how easily 5 and 8 year old boys can be grossed out. After that, there’s no turning back.
Of course fresh parsley, being dark and green and from the ground, is incredibly good for you. Among it’s other virtues it’s one of the foods highest in iron, which it turns out is good for gout and restless leg syndrome (known on Seinfeld as jimmy legs). Mike is the lucky host of both.
Do you think there are any other food blogs with open discussions about lice infestations and gout? And now jimmy legs? But wait, it’s relevant.
So the other day, in an attempt to ward off gout/jimmy legs, I jammed an enormous handful of curly parsley into the blender, poured in some orange juice and a few spoonfuls of plain yogurt, not to full-on smoothify it, but to make it a bit creamy and more palatable. I was just trying to get a largish quantity of parsley into Mike without him having to choke it down.
I handed him a glass. He said, “this tastes like something you’d drink in California.”
It wasn’t awful. I drank some, just to get the shot of nutrients (I like getting vitamins from my food, if at all possible), and it tasted fresh and green and slightly sweet. I think I liked it. The second time ’round I added some to the boys’ smoothie, which I generally make with a banana, plain yogurt, any miscellaneous squishy fruit that needs using up, and a good shake of frozen berries – the strawberry-blueberry-blackberry blend. Its purpleness masked any green bits, and it didn’t taste any different, and so parsley now sits in a glass of water in the fridge and is a key player in the production of all smoothies. Drinkable salad.
February 27 2011 | beverages | 24 Comments »
OK, I feel like a bit of a tool telling you that my now-daily walnut granola with plain yogurt and stewed apples is reminiscent of apple crisp with ice cream, but it totally is. I think you know me well enough by now that I’m not the health-crazed sort who happily replaces cream with yogurt and tofu and finds carrot and celery sticks a perfectly acceptable snack. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that – I envy anyone who digs munching on carrot and celery sticks and keeps them prepped in the fridge for snacking emergencies. I just can’t get into it.)
I’ve always been a fan of granola with yogurt. It’s usually my breakfast, and often my lunch. Sometimes snacks. In summer I top it with fresh berries or thickly sliced peaches or apricots or pluots, but in winter it sits half naked. Sure, I could do frozen berries, but it’s not the same.
And so I took a new look at apples, which I’ve been enjoying lately – although we think of them as a fall fruit, February is officially apple month because it used to be that’s all that was left in cold storage by February. It still applies – we’re now used to buying strawberries and mangoes all months of the year, but the BC apples you see in the store are from last fall’s harvest, and still surprisingly crisp and flavourful. Stewed apples are like halfway between apple pie innards and applesauce; they break down, yet hold their shape. It’s like homemade applesauce you can chew. To make them, slice apples in chunks (I like using a few different varieties – above is a Spartan, a Fuji and an Ambrosia) into a small pot. Shake over some cinnamon and add a splash of apple cider or water, just to get them going and keep them from burning. You don’t need to add sugar. Cook them until they start to break down and get soft, then put them in a jar in the fridge to dip your spoon into or lob over plain yogurt and granola. It seems to particularly like walnuts. I find stewed apples easier to eat first thing in the morning, when I don’t have the gumption yet to chomp through something big and crunchy.
We always have apples in the house – apple slices are W’s bedtime snack with stories, and although he’s never had a must-have blankie or teddy bear, if we’re ever out of apples it’s a tragedy of five year old proportions. There is no replacement. And yet although I’m almost constantly slicing apples for him, I never think to do the same for myself. And so I’ve started to slice one up for myself to eat at my desk when it comes close to mealtime, thinking that the 60 or so calories and 2 grams of fibre will take the edge off and keep me from devouring too much dinner. (Again, a glass of water apparently fills some people up? I wish.)
Yes, I’m starting to reevaluate my eating habits and take a serious stab at losing some weight. It’s time. Which, ironically, is why I haven’t been spending too much time here – I keep taking a run at the topic and going off on tangents, or not getting through it, or falling asleep or abandoning my post in order to meet a deadline. So I’ll tell you all about it soon, and how I’m going to go about it when I spend all my days writing about, talking about, cooking and photographing food. I’ll use this week as an example: Tuesday I was tasting at the ATCO test kitchen, Wednesday I went to a food event at Rouge, Thursday I went to Winefest and Friday I judged the Lawson Lundell Celebrity Hors d’Oeuvres Competition (which meant tasting every hors d’oeuvre – 10 restaurants serving 2-3 each). This week I’m going to Red Deer and Edmonton and next weekend I’ll be at the Pajama Party at the Jasper Park Lodge. Not complaining – I consider myself incredibly lucky to be able to have a career in the food world – it just presents a unique obstacle when I can’t just lay out set menus for the week, put my head down and try to get on with it and not think about food so much. More on all that later.
Off to dinner club! Tonight’s theme: Extreme Mexican. My contribution: homemade churros.
February 26 2011 | breakfast | 28 Comments »
Oh yes I did! Because the first two ingredients of the real stuff are sugar and modified palm oil. Not exactly the wholesome blend of hazelnuts and skim milk it professes to be. It’s easier to make than you might think. I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
February 24 2011 | leftovers | 10 Comments »
With their crackly sugared tops, these petite scones are by far the easiest you’ll ever make from scratch – there is no blending in of butter, no patting and cutting of dough; all you do is stir together the flour, baking powder and cream and drop it in spoonfuls onto your baking sheet. The cream makes them sound rich, but they’re actually lighter than those made with butter. (And then often cream, too.) You can mix the batter up in less time than it takes to preheat the oven, and have itty bitty scones warm and ready to serve with jam (or clotted cream!) in under 15 minutes.
I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
February 23 2011 | leftovers | 5 Comments »
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