Archive for the 'leftovers' Category
In Lethbridge, in the dark to honour Earth Hour.
It was fantastic. I was in Lethbridge to cook and eat with the wonderful folks who were the highest bidders on a private dinner/cooking class with me that was auctioned off for the CBC Petro-Canada Food Bank Drive at Christmas. I asked what they would like to make and they were interested in learning to make fresh mozzarella - something I hadn’t done before. The process was simple but we tiptoed through it, skeptical that it was actually going to turn into cheese in the end, and it did! Although we were shocked at how little 2 L of milk produced; one handful-sized ball, which we managed to squeeze enough slices out of to make this salad layered with tomatoes and fresh basil:
Here’s how you do it:
Dissolve 1 tsp. citric acid into 2 L of cold milk (we used homo), briskly stirring it with a whisk in a largish pot. Set it over medium-low heat and warm until it reaches 100F, or just slightly warmer than body temperature. Remove from heat.
Crush 1/8 of a rennet tablet and dissolve into 2 Tbsp. cool water. Add this in a thin stream, whisking constantly, to the warmed milk. Stir for about a minute, then stop. Let it sit for 10 minutes.
Using a slotted spoon, scoop out the curds into a small microwave-safe bowl, pressing out as much of the whey as you can.
Microwave for 1 minute (this will coax out a little more whey; just pour it off) and then plop it out onto a clean countertop and start to fold and stretch it. It will be almost too hot to handle, but will cool to warm quickly. Pull and stretch it until it’s smooth, then shape into a ball and put in a bowl of cold water until firm.
Pavlova
Whether you choose one big Pavlova or individual Pavlovas, they are simpler than you’d think to make, yet elaborate enough to make an impressive dessert, if that’s the reaction you’re going for.
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. cornstarch
6 large egg whites
1 tsp. white vinegar
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup whipping cream
Fresh raspberries, blueberries, blackberries, and/or sliced strawberries, peaches, plums, apricots, kiwi or whatever fruit you like
Additional sugar for tossing with fruit (optional)
Preheat oven to 250° F and line a large baking sheet with foil or parchment. Set aside about a tablespoon of the sugar, and stir the cornstarch into the rest.
In a large bowl, beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until soft peaks form. Gradually add the sugar mixture, beating until the mixture holds stiff, glossy peaks. Beat in vinegar and vanilla.
To make one large Pavlova, spoon the meringue onto the baking sheet and spread out with the bottom of a spoon to form a 9”-10” circle with a slight indent in the middle and raised edges, like a nest. To make individual Pavlovas, spoon 8-10 mounds of meringue about an inch apart on the baking sheet. Bake for 1 to 1 1/4 hours, until crisp but still soft inside. If the meringues aren’t crisp, turn the oven off and leave them inside for another hour.
Transfer Pavlova(s) to a rack and cool completely. Beat the cream with the remaining tablespoon of sugar until soft peaks form. Mound into the middle of the cooled Pavlova(s) and top with fruit.
Serves 8-10.
Crème brulée has an unshakable reputation as the penultimate fancy dessert, one you can guage the quality of a restaurant based on, and one uncommonly made at home. But truly, it is one of the simplest desserts you can make. All you do is whisk together egg yolks, sugar and cream, pour it into cups, and bake it. At Williams-Sonoma they have 1 L tetra packs of crème brulée for something like $22, and I’m constantly gobsmacked every time I go in there and see people buying them by the basketload. That’s the easy part! If there’s any trick to it, it’s baking the custards in a water bath and bruléeing the surface, but even that part is easy - you don’t need to have a torch (although it is fun), all you need to do is scatter the surface with sugar and run it under the broiler for a minute or two. Because they are chilled before this part, this is the ideal make-ahead dessert if you’re making a special dinner.
Crème Brulée
6 large egg yolks
6 Tbsp. sugar
1 1/2 cups heavy (whipping) cream or 18% coffee cream
1/2 tsp. good-quality vanilla (I used Madagascar vanilla bean paste, in which you can see the teeny seeds from the vanilla pod)
sugar, for sprinkling on top
In a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks and sugar. Whisk in the cream and vanilla.
Divide among 6 small ramekins, and put them into a roasting pan or 9″x13″ pan; pour water in so that the water comes about halfway up the sides of the ramekins. This will sort of insulate them so that they cook gently and evenly.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the custards are set but still just slightly jiggly in the middle (you’ll get a feel for this!). Take them out, let them cool and then refrigerate for a few hours or overnight, until nice and cold.
Sprinkle an even layer of sugar over each dish and caramelize with a torch or transfer to a cookie sheet and place under the broiler in the oven for about 2 minutes, just until the sugar is caramelized and golden. Turn the sheet around if you need to to help them caremelize evenly. Refrigerate again, or just let them sit on the countertop while you eat dinner or make coffee, just until the sugar is set and crackly.
Serves 6.
The drive home was longer than I anticipated, having blithely missed some turn at Fort McLeod and not realized it until I reached Pincher Creek. After turning around, driving back to F.M. and then finding highway #2 North, a snowstorm hit that lasted the entire drive back (almost 2 hours) to Calgary - it was one of those storms that makes you feel like you’re driving through an asteroid field, making it impossible to tell how fast you’re going or how far away that rig is in front of you.
But totally worth it.
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March 30 2008 | cheese and dessert and lamb and leftovers and sweet stuff | 1 Comment »
I was chatting to some other moms yesterday while our kids scrambled for chocolate eggs; on the subject of finicky eaters it became quickly apparent that some of you may be under the misconception that what ever I make for dinner, Willem will happily eat.
Ha. Let me relieve you of that crazy notion right now.
- He will not eat a potato in any form, unless it is a French fry. He will, however, eat falafel, and adores anything containing pesto.
- Anything else that’s green is out. Unless it’s spinach, wilted onto a pizza or whizzed into tomato sauce.
- He refuses to drink juice or even accept a Freezie. Which is not really a problem, just weird.
- Nor, going against all that is sacred to most two year olds, will he eat yogurt, or applesauce, or really anything resembling baby food. He will, however, drink a smoothie.
- He adores ketchup, so I mix it half and half with tomato paste to cut back on the sugar. He never notices. (You do have to refrigerate it though, and it doesn’t last as long.)
- He won’t eat an orange (even a Mandarin) or a carrot, unless it’s to imitate Bugs Bunny (in which case he only bites off the tip anyway) or cooked into Chicken, White Bean & Pesto Stew, which is loaded with veg and was always our saviour on days when we ate Big Salads and other things he won’t touch for dinner. However, in recent weeks it seems to be going the way of Lentil Soup - something he used to adore and now gags at.
We do, however, generally insist that he at least try a bite of things. Kids love repetition in their food as much as in their Disney movies, so it’s easy to fall into the “my kid will only eat chicken fingers and hot dogs” trap. If we let him, W would live on meat, buns, peanut butter spoons and eggs and toast, unless an all-candy and ketchup diet was an option. (What’s a peanut butter spoon? It’s a small spoon, dipped in peanut butter to then be licked off like a puppy. Hey, it has protein and good fats.)
Green Eggs and Ham has actually been quite effective in convincing him to try stuff. He spent the afternoon trying to persuade our chef neighbor to taste an avocado.
Tonight we went for dinner at Mike’s mum’s house, and she made Cornish hens (teeny tiny turkeys: one each, with Stove Top and seasoning salt) and W tore the legs and wings off all of them, and that’s all he would eat. Any onlooker might have thought we were poisoning him with the two bites of peas we managed to convince him to eat by overenthusiastically quoting Green Eggs and Ham: “you will like it, you will see - you will like it in a tree!”, and so when we got home we pulled out the tomato sauced whole wheat rotini we keep in waiting for such occasions, and his beloved (poached) eggs on toast, which has become the standard fare he asks for anytime he’s hungry.
Feel better?
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March 23 2008 | leftovers | 2 Comments »
One of my favorite things to eat in the world are gooey quesadillas. They are also, conveniently, a snap to make, can be done in under 5 minutes, and are the best use of virtually any kind of leftovers; poultry, beef, pork, shrimp, beans, veggies. Roast chicken, of course, is ideal. Since I always have a can of black beans in the cupboard, a few scattered on top always work. I had a few depressed mushrooms in the bottom of the fridge, so those got sauteed and added as well. Any sort of cheese ends you have rattling around make the glue to stick it all together.
My friend Nicole popped by last night to sit at my kitchen table for a quick visit, and told me about the outstanding quesadillas she had eaten at the Post Hotel: three-ply, she called them. I didn’t have the gumption to go for a three-tiered quesadilla, but I love the concept, and even more the comparison to toilet paper.
If you can make a grilled cheese sandwich, you can make a quesadilla. Buy whole wheat flour tortillas; might as well, they taste better and are better for you than plain white ones. While we’re on the subject, I should mention the common misconception that “wraps” are somehow healthier than bread… this began sometime during the Atkins dynasty, at which time “low carb” products made with flatbread were abundant. Now, a flat bread is just an unleavened bread; you would achieve the same result by taking a slice of regular sandwich bread and rolling it with a rolling pin. So tortillas aren’t magically low-calorie: imagine if they had a leavening agent like yeast added, they would be enormous slices of puffy bread.
If you’re brave enough to flip a full size quesadilla, throw a whole tortilla into a dry skillet and scatter with cheese and anything else you have around: beef, pork, shrimp, roasted veg, goat cheese, sun dried tomatoes, sauteed spinach or mushrooms, really anything you can think of. Top with a little more cheese (to keep the lid closed) and top with another tortilla. If you’re wary of flipping something that size (really, it’s easy if you just invert it onto a plate and then slide it back in), spread out your fillings on half the tortilla and fold it over like a taco; they are much easier to handle that way.
Cut into wedges and serve straight from the cutting board with some good chunky salsa. My current favorite is the extra-chunky mild from the Superstore - Mike usually adds a few chugs of Tabasco.
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February 21 2008 | appetizers and leftovers and one dish and snacks | 5 Comments »
Remember that day we bundled pork, ginger, garlic and green onions into little wonton (or gyoza) wrapper packages and froze them? Today, I can hardly think of anything I’d rather eat, simmered in a steaming bowl of chicken broth (actually turkey, leftover from Christmas, but who can tell?), spiked with soy sauce and the teensiest squirt of red garlic-chili paste to help lift this fog.
This is like the hot soup version of that party mix you can buy that is made up of bits of cheezies and pretzels and taco chips, that I imagine are the sweepings from the snack food factory floor. You can sweep out your fridge and freezer right into the pot, throwing in mushrooms, frozen shrimp, broccoli, bok choy, pea pods, green onions, carrots, baby corn (you can buy packages of these frozen, which I did thinking W would think they were fab - he did not), bits of leftover roast chicken or pork, noodles (cook or soak them first, then divide among bowls and ladle the soup overtop so that the broth doesn’t get starchy) or any or all or none of the above. The wontons themselves only take 3-4 minutes to cook thrown straight from the freezer straight into the simmering broth; then allow the veggies only a minute or two, so that they blanch and brighten but retain their crispness. This is real fast food.
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February 06 2008 | leftovers and soup | 2 Comments »
I had a nap this afternoon. We all did. It was absolutely delicious - in my sleepy stupor I remember likening it to falling backward into a big, soft, voluptuous coconut cream pie. It was that yummy. Apparently I dream a lot like Homer Simpson.
But then when we woke up, it was 6:22, Mike had to leave in an hour, and we were all starving.
Solution: combine what was left of that brown and wild rice salad with the chopped remains of the slow-cooker chicken and a few halved grape tomatoes. Voila! Dinner.
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February 01 2008 | chicken & turkey and grains and leftovers and salads | 1 Comment »
Dinner tonight will be cooked not by me, but by the good folks at Saint Germain in the Hotel Arts - I’m meeting Erin Rosar (aka Wine Girl) and Tamara and Daina from Mom Magazine in 2 hours, and I fear my standard Old Navy jeans and Roots sweater I obtained second hand for $7 isn’t going to cut it. Looks like I’ll be pulling out the old Spanx tonight.
But I did make lunch - does that count? I bought a bunch of cilantro last week, and even though it was only 38 cents, I hate when produce goes slimy and ends up in the compost bin. I chose this recipe because a) it contains cilantro, b) I still have some leftover shredded turkey, although this would also make great use of a roasted deli chicken, and c) I love the title. Also on my good-title list: Happy Winter Fudge Cake, from Laurie Colwin’s book of food-related short essays: More Home Cooking.
Bang Bang Turkey
Very adapted (except the name) from Feast by Nigella Lawson
Measurements are approximate – it is a salad, after all.
Chopped iceberg or Romaine lettuce
Fresh cilantro and/or mint
Cucumber, sliced into ribbons using a vegetable peeler
Grated carrot (if you like, marinate it for an hour or up to a few days in a mixture of 2 parts rice vinegar to 1 part sugar – I use 2 Tbsp. vinegar and 1 Tbsp. sugar for 1 large carrot – drain it before you add it to the salad)
Thinly sliced purple onion or green onion
Chopped leftover roasted turkey or chicken
Bang Bang Sauce:
3 Tbsp. peanut butter (preferrably the just peanuts kind)
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. water
1 Tbsp. hoisin sauce
1 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey
1 Tbsp. soy sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
1/2 tsp. chili paste (the red stuff in the squeeze bottle) or sambal oelek
In a nice big, shallow bowl, make a bed of chopped lettuce and sprinkle the cilantro and/or mint overtop. Add a layer of cucumber, carrot, onion and chicken or turkey, and drizzle with Bang Bang Sauce, which you have made by shaking up all the ingredients in a jar. Eat.
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January 10 2008 | chicken & turkey and leftovers and salads | 1 Comment »
I just got home from the library, where I loaded up on do-it-yourself blogging books. I’m determined to figure out all the technical stuff and design me a fun blog. Keep checking back, to see if/when/how I actually pull it off.
Mike’s going to play a show tonight and we had a late lunch at Spolumbo’s (Mama’s meatloaf sandwiches), so dinner was some greens (those bags and bins of washed mixed greens are the best convenience food invention ever) and the rest of last nights’ pizza. Round 2 is always better, since usually there are only a few pieces left, making it impossible not to stop at just the right amount.
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January 06 2008 | leftovers | No Comments »
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