Archive for May, 2011
I saw a pot of black bean soup awhile ago on Smitten Kitchen, and its inky blackness called to me. Every time I see dry black beans now, which is a lot, I think of this soup – simply made in the Crock Pot, the dry beans tossed right in with lots of water. No soaking needed.
It’s a simple recipe – vegan, even – cheap and easy and good for you. It needs plenty of salt, and the chipotle chiles add smokiness and a bit of heat. You could really use this as a blank black bean soup canvas and do what you like with it. A ham hock or some stock would certainly boost flavour.
I posted the recipe over at the Family Kitchen.
May 23 2011 | beans and Family Kitchen and freezable and soup | 3 Comments »
Awhile ago I was auctioned off at a live auction – at a fundraiser for Neighbourlink Calgary – and so today I made dinner for 10 for the highest bidders. On the menu: potato, lentil and spinach samosas with fruit chutney, Gouda gougères, curried mango chicken in wonton cups. roasted tomato and red pepper soup, caramelized onion and cambozola flatbread, chicken tagine with spring vegetables and couscous, spinach salad with purple onion, oranges and pumpkin seeds, and roasted asparagus. For dessert, ginger crème brûlée with caramelized pears and brown sugar-vanilla shortbread.
Just got home. Am v. tired.
Luckily Sue was here this afternoon to be my artichoke wingman as this was my very first attempt at this particular tagine, which was made with skinless, boneless chicken thighs, onion, lemon, fennel and artichokes, trimmed and quartered and choked and bathed in lemon water as they waited to go into the pot. It was all very simple (once we navigated our way around the artichokes, which I’ve worked with before but not enough), yet slightly beyond my normal realm. I’m happy to have been forced into simmering loads of onions and garlic with lemon zest, ground coriander, paprika and handfuls of fresh parsley, dill and mint – a combo that would never occur to me. It worked out very well, simmered in a pot then transferred (as it cooked down) to a wide braiser, and fed 10 enormously, with plenty of leftovers. The recipe came from the April, 2003 issue of Bon Appétit. Ah, 2003.
I’ll share the ginger crème brûlée recipe soon – that was in fact my own dinner, at around 10pm – it elicited more yummy noises than the any other part of the meal. (Essentially I simmered slices of fresh ginger in cream, then strained it before going about making crème brûlée the usual way.)
Bed.
May 21 2011 | leftovers | 9 Comments »
I’m back to my McGyvering ways, this time orchestrating a meal around two leeks that I did not want to compost. I tend to get stuck at potato soup when I come across a leek, but this time the sight of them triggered the memory or a recipe I had set aside. I found it. I had Gouda! I had bacon! I started to make it, cooking the bacon, then the sliced leeks, until crispy, thinking it was essentially a frittata, wondering why it was called a pancake and why I had set it aside, anyway. Then I noticed the flour in the batter – ah yes, a pancake. A light, eggy pancake, something similar to those puffed apple pancakes, only savoury. Exactly the sort of thing I’d file away in my mental card catalog.
Bacon, Leek and Gouda Pancake
6-8 slices bacon, chopped
2 large leeks (white and light green parts only), halved and thinly sliced
3 large eggs
3/4 cup milk
1/2 cup all purpose flour
a spoonful of grainy mustard (1 tsp – 1 Tbsp)
1/2 tsp. sugar
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup shredded Gouda
Preheat oven to 450°F. In a large ovenproof (cast iron works great!) skillet, cook the bacon until crisp. Set aside, pouring off all but a couple spoonfuls of the drippings. Cook the leeks in the pan for 5-8 minutes, until soft and turning golden.
Meanwhile, whiz together the eggs, milk, flour, mustard, sugar, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor until smooth.
Scatter bacon over leeks in the skillet and pour the batter overtop; sprinkle with cheese. Bake for 10-15 minutes, until slightly puffed and golden. Cut into wedges and serve warm. Serves 6.
May 19 2011 | breakfast and eggs and one dish | 17 Comments »
Oh how I wish I was the type to fall in love with working out. I do it, but I do not love it. I never regret it though – and generally regret not. Funny how easily I forget that part.
I went to a step class tonight with one of the Eyeopener’s Live Right Now workout groups. It was on the other end of the city, and didn’t start until 7:30. I SO BADLY didn’t want to go. I was tired and headachey. My eyeball hurt. I procrastinated until the minute I should have been walking out the door, then couldn’t find my shoes. (They were buried under a pile of reusable grocery bags.) I grabbed my wallet, trying to pretend that it didn’t occur to me that I’d be alone and Peter’s Drive-In is on the way home. I went. I did it. I kept up. Did I feel great afterwards? Only from stopping all that stepping. Am I glad I went? Hell yeah. I didn’t get a hot fudge sundae with whipped cream hold the cherry at the drive thru on the way home. Triumph.
I haven’t been making dinner lately. We were away for a big chunk of last week, on the Rocky Mountaineer from Calgary to Vancouver (I do have more to tell!), then in Banff for the Rocky Mountain Food & Wine Festival. Then dinner club Sunday night, and Sue arrived first thing Monday morning for an intensive two days of editing the first round draft of Spilling the Beans (yes, that’s the official title now), which is slated to be released this fall.
Monday night we went for pizza (I had been on traffic duty on the Homestretch right up until 6), Tuesday night we celebrated with a bottle of Italian bubbly (a brand new one called Secco), tossed some veggies on the grill, cooked leftover chickpeas (from a soaking experiment) in a skillet with garlic, cook a couple eggs in the garlicky oil, and opened a black peppercorn Gouda from Sylvan Star.
Tonight we wound up going for pizza again (a different occasion), and I stuck to one and a half thin-crusted slices and some marinated bean salad. As I saw on twitter about ten minutes ago, Life isn’t about waiting for the storm to pass, it’s about learning to dance in the rain. Which can be applied to so much, don’t you think? Or loosely be translated to: Life isn’t about giving up pizza, it’s about learning how to enjoy less of it, with a side of beans. Or some such. And remembering that I really do like beans, especially when I have an appetite. The bean salad we ordered was similar to the one I grew up with – sweet and tangy – we generally add celery seed, fresh green and yellow beans, chopped red peppers and purple onion. A marinated bean salad is a good thing to keep in the fridge for lunches or snacks, and a great thing to bring to a party when you want to contribute something delicious and colourful that won’t wilt or go soggy and actually improves as it sits in the fridge.
It might be a good thing to bring to a potluck, too. How does Saturday, May 28 sound? I’d love it to coincide with the apple tree blooming pink in my back yard, which lasts about a week per year.
Bean Salad
2-3 cups green and yellow beans, trimmed (just the stem ends)
1 19 oz (540 mL) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 19 oz (540 mL) can black-eyed peas or chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 red, yellow or orange bell pepper, seeded and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
half a small red onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup red wine vinegar or white vinegar
1/4 cup sugar or honey
1/4 cup canola oil
1/2 tsp. celery seed
salt and pepper
Combine all the beans and veg in a large bowl. In a small saucepan, combine the vinegar, sugar, oil, celery seed and salt and pepper to taste. Set it over medium heat and bring the mixture to a simmer. Cook for a few minutes, until the sugar dissolves completely. Set the vinaigrette aside to cool for a few minutes before pouring it over the salad. Toss gently to coat all the beans with dressing.
Cover and refrigerate overnight to allow the beans to marinate. Makes lots.
May 18 2011 | beans and salads | 31 Comments »
I need to keep this short, but knew if I didn’t report on tonight’s dinner it would get lost in the bowels of my computer, amid uploaded photos that quickly became outdated. We were in Banff all weekend (almost straight from Vancouver, with enough of a layover to do some laundry and repack) and got home at around 5, just in time to make it to our dinner club. The theme this time? Stadium anthem rock. I’m still not sure what that is – although it seemed to make sense once we heard the songs each person chose. Our instructions were to choose a song, then an appetizer that tied into that song somehow. Dinner music was thus taken care of. It was in the basement, in the rec room. (Not ours.)
The backyard looked, satisfyingly, like this:
I hate to do this in point form, but that’s what I’ve got tonight. A weak battery in my laptop meant I didn’t get as much done on the train last week as I should have, and Monday morning is technically here in ten minutes. Here’s what everyone came up with:
Rump roast sliders for Fat Bottomed Girls (Queen)
Blood orange and ginger scallops for Sunday Bloody Sunday (U2)
Chicken wings for Free Bird (Lynyrd Skynyrd)
Super natural salad for Carry On My Wayward Son (Kansas)
Fresh focaccia with crab and shrimp dip for I Want You to Want Me (Cheap Trick)
Fusilli salad for Frampton (the hair – see the similarity above?)
Boston cream pie for More Than a Feeling (Boston)
Chocolate dipped brie for Sweet Emotion (Aerosmith)
Yes, I said chocolate dipped brie. Which came from here – don’t they look just like their pictures? Completely adorable. Great idea. I should confess that we found them slightly underwhelming – not bad, but not as stupendous as they sound like they should be. Perhaps it was the brie? Just thought I should warn before you rush out and drop a bundle on ingredients to make it. Not that you shouldn’t. We all liked it, but I’m not sure anyone fell head over heels in love with it. There was a lot of hm-ing – more so than mmmm-ing. Worth another try, I think.
I made blueberry lemon bars – great to make ahead and freeze (they cut more cleanly when they’re frozen, anyway). My song? Lemon, by U2. Why? Because we saw it in a big stadium howevermany years ago, when they wheeled in the ginormous lemon, which opened up to allow the band to make their entrance from. Now that’s stadium rock.
Blueberry, Lemon & Coconut Squares
These are perfect to make ahead and stash in the freezer; slicing them frozen will ensure a clean cut.
Base:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup sugar
1 scant cup all-purpose or whole wheat flour
pinch salt
Topping:
1 cup sugar
2 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp. baking powder
pinch salt
2 large eggs
1/4 cup lemon juice
1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen blueberries
1/2 cup shredded coconut, sweetened or unsweetened
icing sugar for sprinkling (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a medium bowl, stir together the butter and sugar until creamy. Add flour and salt and stir until well combined and crumbly.
Press into the bottom of an 8” x 8” pan that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 8-10 minutes, until just barely golden around the edges.
In the same bowl (no need to wash it), stir together the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt. Add the eggs and lemon juice and stir until well blended and smooth.
Sprinkle the berries and coconut evenly over the base, and pour the lemon filling over top. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until golden and set. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack before cutting or freezing. If you like, sprinkle with icing sugar before serving. Makes 16 squares.
Per square: 130 calories, 3.3 g fat (1.9 g saturated fat, 1 g monounsaturated fat, 0.2 g polyunsaturated fat), 24 g carbohydrates, 21 mg cholesterol, 1.6 g protein, 0.7 g fiber. 23% calories from fat
May 15 2011 | cookies & squares | 16 Comments »
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