Archive for the 'pasta' Category
After three nights and four days of events, I got home from Banff mid-afternoon and didn’t much feel like cooking dinner. But it occurred to me that W hasn’t had anything green for a long time, and I didn’t feel like take-out or cereal, either. So I sucked it up and made a quick batch of spinach spaghetti sauce while the pasta boiled.
You do this by sautéing a bunch of spinach (or half a bag of the prewashed stuff) in a little canola oil, until it wilts; pour your tomato sauce overtop (or go the other way; heat up the sauce and stir in the spinach until it wilts), pour it into the food processor and whiz until it’s smooth. Voilá - spinach that is undetectable to a two year old.
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April 27 2008 | freezable and one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I was at a meeting until about 5:30 today, trying to pull together the final details of a fundraiser I’m emceeing next Thursday night at the Hotel Arts. (An 8 course dinner, plus wine and oysters, prepared by some of Calgary’s best chefs, for the low low price of $150.) We’re trying to raise money for Nicole Pageau, an Edmonton woman in her 60s who when she saw the plight of the widows and orphans of the Rwandan genocide on TV and thought how awful, I wish there was something I could do, just picked up and moved to Rwanda. With $5000 in her bank account she moved from Alberta to Rwanda and when she got there, just sort of wandered around asking people if they knew where she could find the widows, and when she did, she built a village.
(That was me shamelessly trying to push tickets on anyone interested in joining me for dinner next Thursday night?)
At last years’ fundraiser she brought a few of the Rwandan volunteers with her, and one of them said something to me I won’t ever forget. He was telling me how so many people ask him why he does what he does - devote his life to the widows and orphans - and his answer is, “I’m only human.” He doesn’t understand why we North Americans use that phrase to justify our weaknesses, or wrongdoings, or to excuse bad behavior. He thinks the meaning of the phrase should be the opposite; that it should be considered “only human” to be good and honest and charitable. So he’s sticking with his explanation, hoping the new meaning will catch on.
So I got home at 5:42 without a plan, and it was dinnertime like right now. When I poked through the fridge I discover a jar of peanut sauce I had forgotten I made last week, so I put on a pot of spaghettini - thinner-than-usual spaghetti that I like to make because it cooks faster (because it’s thinner) and allows a greater sauce-to-pasta ratio (because it’s thinner).
The great thing about peanut noodles is that you can add anything to them. I had carrots, which I peeled and then kept on peeling off strips of - all the better to twirl around my fork with the noodles - and a chunk of yellow pepper, and some cilantro leftover from last night’s Indian Hamburger Helper. Peas would have been good, or asparagus, or broccoli (a handful of that bagged broccoli-slaw works great), green beans, sprouts, cucumber, mango… and any sort of leftover meat; roast chicken, pork, or tofu, or even frozen shrimp, dumped straight from the freezer bag into the boiling water with the noodles to either quickly cook or thaw. (Same thing with the peas; just dump them in the water with the noodles for the last couple minutes of cooking time.) I pulled out a bit of frozen shredded roast chicken and did the same - tossed it in the water with the noodles to thaw as they finished cooking. Then drained it all, put some in a little bowl with tomato sauce for W, then ran the rest under cool water and tossed it with the peanut sauce and veggies I had torn and chopped. Dinner was ready by 5:58.
Peanut Sauce
Peanut sauce is a wonderful thing. Double the recipe (leftovers keep well) if you want extra to pour over cold noodles or dip satays, lettuce wraps, rice paper rolls, grilled chicken or shrimp. Use more or less broth to make the sauce as thick or thin as you like. If you like coconut flavor in your peanut sauce but not the saturated fat it contains, add a teaspoon of coconut extract.
2-4 Tbsp. chicken or veggie broth or coconut milk
4 Tbsp. peanut butter (preferrably the just peanuts kind, but any will work
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar or lime juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
1 tsp. grated fresh ginger
1 tsp. sesame oil (optional)
1/4 – 1/2 tsp. curry paste (optional)
Combine all the ingredients in a blender or jar and whiz or shake until smooth. Refrigerate until you’re ready to serve it. Makes about a cup.
Per tablespoon: 26 calories, 1 g total fat (0.2 g saturated fat, 0.5 g monounsaturated fat, 0.4 g polyunsaturated fat), 0.7 g protein, 3.9 g carbohydrate, 0 mg cholesterol, 0 g fiber. 35% calories from fat
On the downside, W was far too quiet as we were eating our noodles. He came downstairs with a funny rash all over him - a pinky red rash that was greasy and smudged easily.
I asked him if he drew all over himself with lipstick. He nodded, this over-exaggerated nod he does, and added, “and wall!”
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April 15 2008 | one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 10 Comments »
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It occurred to me as I reached the late 90s that I should do something to commemorate my 100th post. 100! It’s astounding how much one can accomplish when one forces oneself to do a little bit every night.
I quickly emailed my family, inviting them all to dinner to celebrate. This is how I “entertain”: invite now, think and clean up later. It’s the old “throw your hat over the fence” analogy: if you throw your hat over the fence, you have to climb over and get it. People always ask how we have time to have parties or people over for brunch or dinner - if you wait until there’s a gap in your schedule, you’ll never have time. Just invite people over, and you’ll find it. Plus if we never had people coming over we’d never be forced to clean the house properly.
But. There were 8 adults coming to dinner, and 5 kids aged 2, 3, 5 and 9. All were arriving at times their schedule would permit. Mike thought I was going to make something ultra-fancy, but when I invite family or friends over for dinner I do it for the company, not to be all gourmet about it. (Although, admittedly, people are often used as guinea pigs around here.)
Solution: ham. (Question: why do they call it baked ham, but roast beef or turkey, when it’s the same process?) Ham is already cooked, so all you’re doing is glazing and reheating it. It’s impossible to screw up. It isn’t going to be ruined if people are late. Everyone can carve off as much as they like, and it’s just as fine at room temperature than fresh from the oven. Kids love it. Plus it makes the best leftovers. I’ve had my eye on this spinach-potato-ham hash with poached egg on top on the cover of last month’s Canadian Living.
Unfortunately, my plan was not as obstacle-free as I intended, but I did learn something from the experience. I sent Mike to the grocery store and he came back with a smoked pork shoulder (also known as a picnic ham, I imagine because its smaller size makes it more portable for those types who would lug an entire ham along on a picnic), something I hadn’t cooked before. It had a thick layer of fat and skin on top, and was tightly wrapped in mesh. Although it was cured, so presumably the same as any other smoked ham and not a raw pork shoulder that would require lengthy cooking, it had these vague instructions on the package: cook and eat.
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So was it cooked? Uncooked? It was smoked, so that should have answered my question, but this is the sort of thing you want to be sure of when you have 14 people over for dinner. I Googled it, and every site I found seemed to think the thing needed to be braised, but it wasn’t raw. Apparently there are partially cooked smoked shoulders and fully cooked smoked shoulders, but there was no indication which this was. Ultimately I decided to take the advice of one site and cover it with cold water in a large pot, bring it to a boil and dump the water out to draw some of the sodium out, then fill it halfway full again and braise it for an hour (braising is a long slow cooking method with some moisture involved), then pulled it out, scored the skin and popped it in the oven like I would any other ham. The biggest problem seemed to lie with this slab of fat and skin on top - presumably what would turn into those cracklings everyone makes such a fuss about - but with it in the way, where does the glaze go? So I scored it and threw it in the oven, then when it started to turn crackly I cut it off, put it in its own pan to finish cooking, and painted on a glaze made with equal parts brown sugar, grainy mustard and balsamic vinegar. (No one ate the cracklings. They were a little too Hannibal Lecter for me.)
While it roasted (or baked?) I poked 3 big sweet potatoes/yams (depending on how your grocer has decided to label them) with a fork and slid them onto the oven rack around it. I adore sweet potatoes, and often wonder why they aren’t often used for more than oven fries. To mash them, you don’t need to peel and boil them like you might with regular potatoes. Just bake them, which contains any nutrients and gives them even more flavor - like cooking meat on the bone makes it more flavorful, so does cooking potatoes in their skins - they will darken and caramelize a bit just below the surface. When they are soft, pull them out, pull off their skins (this is easy, as the flesh tends to withdraw a bit from its skin, creating an air pocket that makes it simple to pull off wit your fingers) and mash with a bit of butter and a spoonful of orange juice concentrate - I scoop it straight from the freezer; it will melt into the hot potatoes. A bit of salt and pepper, and a drizzle of milk if they are too dry, and they are done. If you like, a drizzle of maple syrup is delicious too. Sweet potatoes tend to not be as starchy as white potatoes, so they are actually moister and easier to mash.
The mac & cheese was actually whole wheat rotini & cheese, since I knew that’s primarily what the kids would end up eating. (Brown rice pasta has an even better mouthfeel, but I didn’t have any.) Don’t hate me for saying so, but I don’t use a recipe when I make mac & cheese. I boil as much pasta as I want to make (just as you would if you were making spagetti for the family) and while it cooks, make a roux out of roughly equal parts butter and flour. A roux is just butter and flour, whacked into a hot pan and melted, smoothing out all the lumps. Pour some milk in (2 cups or so per 3 Tbsp. of butter-flour - you’ll get a feel for it) and bring it to a gentle boil. You won’t be able to tell how thick it’s going to get until it starts to bubble - once it bubbles for a full minute it will have reached its full thickening potential, and you’l get rid of any starchy, floury taste. Stir in a few handfuls of grated cheese, and it will melt into the sauce. I discovered a block of Swiss in my fridge that wasn’t going anywhere, and it melted beautifully. Drain the pasta and stir it into the cheese sauce, or vice versa. You could serve it at this point, or scatter it with crumbs (or more cheese) and bake it until it’s bubbly.
Macaroni & Cheese
Mac and cheese that doesn’t come out of a box is something everyone should be able to make. It doesn’t require much more time or effort than KD, and is the ultimate in comfort food. Experiment by adding different cheeses – intensely flavored ones such as Gruyère or blue cheese are best. It’s a great way to get rid of leftover cheese bits you might have lurking in the fridge.
1/2 lb. (250 g) dry macaroni, whole wheat rotini, small shells or other pasta
Salt
3 Tbsp. butter
3 Tbsp. flour
2 1/2 cups milk
2-3 cups grated old cheddar cheese, or any combination of cheeses you have in the fridge
Bread Crumb Topping (optional):
2 slices sandwich bread (preferrably 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 (175°C).
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. 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 4-6.
The free 4 pound box of strawberries that came with $150 worth of groceries at Superstore earlier in the week made up my mind about dessert: strawberry shortcakes. Easy, not fancy, kids love it. And what else am I going to do with 4 pounds of strawberries before my rhubarb has begun to sprout?
Strawberry shortcakes are generally made with biscuits sweetened with a little more sugar; since I’ve already posted my whole wheat and olive oil biscuit recipe, I thought I’d use one that I made when I did food styling for Trish Magwood a few months ago; these are apparently her hottest sellers back at Dish in Toronto. (As usual, I changed the recipe a bit.) If you want a more nutritious shortcake, use the whole wheat biscuit recipe and add a couple tablespoons of sugar to the dry ingredients.
Strawberry Shortcakes
3 cups all-purpose flour (or half all-purpose, half whole wheat)
1/3 cup sugar
2 ½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
¾ cup butter, cut into pieces
1 cup buttermilk
coarse sugar for sprinkling (optional)
2 lb strawberries, hulled, sliced and tossed with a little extra sugar if you like (this will coax some of the juice out of the strawberries, which makes everything nicer)
1 cup whipping cream, whipped with a drop of vanilla and a spoonful of sugar
Preheat oven to 425°F.
In a bowl, stir together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Add butter pieces, using fingertips or pastry blender, work butter into dry ingredients until mixture resembles course cornmeal. Leave a few larger pieces to create flakiness. (I do all this in the food processor, then dump it into a bowl to stir in the buttermilk.)
Add buttermilk and mix with a spatula until ingredients are moistened (do not over mix).
Gather dough into a disk on a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray. Pat into a circle that is about 1″ thick; brush with a little extra buttermilk or milk (you can even use your fingers with this) and if you have some, sprinkle with coarse sugar. Cut into 8 triangles. Bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden.
Split the biscuits and load up with strawberries and whipped cream.
Serves 8.
As it turned out we were celebrating more than Day 100; my brother in law Rory just finished writing his medical exams, Emily made the 1st tier soccer team, my Mom survived their AGM yesterday, my parents bought a house just blocks from us, Willem got up in the middle of the night to pee in the toilet. (And a couple other things I’m not allowed to post for thousands to see, sorry.) And it was Wednesday, and we were all together for dinner.
So much to celebrate.
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April 09 2008 | dessert and pasta and pork and sweet stuff | 8 Comments »
Dinner at C’s house tonight, to celebrate her birthday.
C is a picky eater. She doesn’t like anything weird (like marmalade), or anything containing raisins, or sausage, or any food hiding in another food that shouldn’t be there. (Example: I gave her a zucchini brownie once, and she loved it until I told her halfway through there was grated zucchini in it. She thought it was such a mean thing to do.) She just, in her late 30s, started eating eggs and banana bread, and discovered she adores them.
But the things she loves, she loves passionately - like this orzo salad my Mom and I created on the fly one day with what we could scrounge up out of the pantry and fridge. Sometimes we make it with rice, sometimes with orzo, and it’s a toss-up as to which is better. This is how you make it: cook as much orzo or basmati rice as you want to make - the rice or pasta will take up about half the volume of the finished salad. Rinse it under cool water and drain well. Add a chunk of purple onion, finely chopped; some crumbled feta; about half a bag of baby spinach, torn or sliced; the grated zest and juice of a lemon or two, then drizzle with some rice vinegar, olive or canola oil, salt and pepper. We’ve never measured any of it, just adjusted each to suit our taste. This stuff is great to keep in the fridge to dip into for a few days, and bring to work for lunch.
But I had no idea what kind of cake to make, except that it could not be zucchini with raisins.
I settled on a deconstructed Black Forest cake, so that if there were any offending ingredients, she didn’t have to eat them. When I first pondered a sunken chocolate cake, my motivation was primarily ease of decoration: the great thing about sunken cakes is that you don’t need to frost them, only dollop a big billowy mound of whipped cream in the middle, and it always looks beautiful. It occurred to me that I could sneak some cherries in between the cake and cream, creating a sort of newfangled Black Forest cake without all the layering and decorating muss. Too overwhelmed by the sheer number of cookbooks on my shelves, I poked around Epicurious for a recipe and instantly came across these sunken chocolate-orange cupcakes. It was a birthday miracle: I had forgotten I was out of flour and, by sheer coincidence, down to only 4 eggs.
Still, they were revamped a bit: I took out the orange (potential for weirdness, plus I don’t much like raspberry or orange interrupting my chocolate) and added a bit of espresso, and used my toasted whole unblanched almonds - why use blanched when you can grind them up with their skins?
I have to say: these turned out to be one of my tastiest experiments ever. The edges are light and crispy, the insides soft, dense and fudgy. They are nubbly with nuts, and will make anyone who can’t eat gluten very, very happy. And I can’t think of a more easily transportable cake; brought still in their tins, they aren’t going to slide or sink on you. I stopped at the grocery store on the way over and picked up a can of cherry pie filling (I confess to loving the gelatinous canned stuff; a hangover from my childhood obsession with the Hostess Fruit Pies advertised in the back of Archie comics and unavailable in Canada, no doubt) and, because there was no cream in a carton, a can of whipping cream too.
(Gluten Free) Sunken Black Forest Cakes
1 cup almonds (whole, sliced, slivered or blanched)
8 oz. dark or semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
1/2 cup butter (next time I’ll try using less, but this was no time to experiment)
1 cup sugar, divided
4 large eggs
1 tsp. instant espresso or coffee powder, dissolved in 1 tsp. water (optional)
1 can cherry pie filling, or canned, drained Bing cherries, or pitted fresh cherries
whipped cream or vanilla ice cream
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Place almonds in a food processor and pulse until they are coarsely ground. Line 12 muffin cups with paper liners. In a small bowl, microwave the chocolate and butter on high for 30 seconds; stir, then put it back in for about 30 seconds longer. Stir until it’s melted and smooth. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
Separate the eggs, putting the whites in a clean glass or stainless steel bowl, and the yolks in another large bowl. Add the sugar and espresso to the yolks and whisk to combine them. Stir in the ground almonds and chocolate.
With an electric mixer, beat the egg whites until soft peaks form; add the remaining 1/4 cup sugar and beat until they are stiff and glossy, and stiff peaks form. Fold the egg whites into chocolate mixture in 3 additions. Divide the batter among the muffin cups (about 1/3 cup batter in each) and bake until edges are firm and tops are cracked all over, about 20-25 minutes. Set on a wire rack to cool (they will sink quite a bit as they cool).
Serve each topped with a spoonful of cherries and whipped cream or ice cream. If you like, shave a few chocolate curls over each using a vegetable peeler. Serves 12.
C made spaghetti, curried squash soup from Best of Bridge (which was supposed to be served over bits of brie, set into the bowl with the hot soup ladled overtop - how great an idea is that?) and apple pies, which were fantastic. She promised me the recipe, but as a full-time doc and mom of 2 toddlers, we’ll see…
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April 06 2008 | dessert and pasta and salads | 2 Comments »
I’m just finishing up an article on the subject of picnic food for the summer issue of a Toronto kids’ magazine, and in it one of my menu suggestions is a heartier version of pasta salad - one made with stuffed tortellini instead of the usual rotini or penne or whatever. The recipe says cheese tortellini, but when I ran over to Safeway to buy some so I could take a photo, they had smoked chicken tortellini (just the Safeway brand - I’d pull out the package to refer to, but when I went to boil them I turned on a burner, changed my mind and used another burner, turned the first one off and then mindlessly set the plastic package down on top of it) so I bought that instead (it looks identical to the cheese version, so you won’t be able to tell in the photo anyway), and a package of feta. Boiled the tortellini, ran it under cold water and drained it, then tossed it in a bowl with a drained can of red kidney beans, a few chopped sun-dried tomatoes, a handful of crumbled feta and a couple spoonfuls of pesto (on account of it being W’s magic elixer; also flavorful and works instead of vinaigrette, and won’t spoil as easily as mayo-dressed pasta salads in the hot sun). I left half in the fridge to marinate, and packed the other half to bring on our impromptu road trip to Banff. It was perfect to pick at in the car, and when we got to the hotel we found it has a little fridge! So W picked at it in the bath, lining the tortellini up along the edge of the tub, I picked at it at the little hotel-room desk, and I just noticed it’s past dinnertime (the boys are at the pool) and we don’t really have a plan. Chances are, the tortellini (it’s still not finished) and assorted car snacks will suffice.
I did take photos. But it seems I can’t upload them on my laptop… you’ll have to wait!
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March 25 2008 | beans and one dish and pasta and salads | 1 Comment »
I know, I know. What sane person makes cannelloni from scratch for dinner on a regular Wednesday night?
Someone who became frustrated with the bulky stack of fresh pasta sheets congesting her deep freeze and hastily pulled them out yesterday, thinking she’d come up with some brilliant use for them.
I’ve never actually made cannelloni. When I assisted at a pasta class with Lina several months ago, she left a whack of pasta sheets behind, which they didn’t want to store in the fridge at the Cookbook Company, so I took home. Since then, they have been taking up valuable space in the frozen food section. About a month ago I taught another class with her, at which she demonstrated how to make cannelloni. Seemed easy enough - in the class we stirred together ricotta and thawed frozen spinach, spooned it down the long edge of a pasta sheet, rolled it up, cut it and baked it with pasta sauce poured overtop. I dug around the fridge and voila! A half container of ricotta; luckily it has a lengthy shelf life. I consulted a few websites and noticed that most didn’t bother adding an egg to stabilize their cheese fillings, so I didn’t. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything green - spinach or chard - in the fridge or freezer, but I did dig out a baggie of frozen roasted red pepper (roasted red pepper freezes beautifully, and is perfect to stash in baggies for emergency pizza toppings, salads, and dips), which I chopped and added to the ricotta along with salt and pepper, amusedly imagining how totally gourmet my slap-together dinner was going to sound when I posted it. It’s funny how everything sounds fancier when you spell it out.
I also pulled out two small Italian sausages that weren’t substantial enough for much else than pasta sauce. After thawing them I mildly regretted having bothered, but they were already thawed so I quickly cooked them up and poured the tomato sauce over top.
So the rolled cannelloni, which I filled, rolled up, didn’t use anything to seal, then trimmed and cut widthwise into thirds (I trimmed because it seemed to be I didn’t want the pasta to be three-ply…) and set in a baking dish in a puddle of tomato sauce to keep them from sticking, then poured the rest of the sauce overtop. Although most cannelloni appears to be baked at that point, I saw it as an opportunity for a cheesy mozzarella top; the kind that gets the crusty corners and dark bits. So I scattered the top with cheese and baked it at 375 for about half an hour, until it was bubbly and the pasta was soft. Yum.
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March 19 2008 | pasta | No Comments »
Today I was asked to come cook at an organic wine festival at Willow Park, so the boys were left to their own devices. Luckily, last night I found myself with a chopped zucchini (more action for yesterday’s TV camera) that needed to be used before it withered. I let W practice his chopping with it - zucchini are perfect for this, being nice and soft, but not rolly like a mushroom. Yes, I realize I posted a photo of my 2 year old using a knife, and not even a plastic one. He knows the difference, and won’t be duped by plastic. He wants to use the big chef’s knife, so this isn’t a bad compromise. I’m right there beside him, watching his little fingers (isn’t it cute the way he holds the zucchini slice in place with his index finger?) so that they don’t make it into the sauce. Plus, he’s actually eating raw zucchini, taking an interest in preparing dinner, and learning knife skills. So I think the benefits outweigh any potential danger, don’t you?
All we did was saute up the zucchini, a red pepper that was also starting to go wrinkly, and a handful of mushrooms in a drizzle of canola oil with a few smashed cloves of garlic. (This was all being done in the 10 minutes that the salmon took to cook.) I poured over a can of tomato sauce, it simmered while we ate and when it cooled, I put it in a yogurt container in the fridge in case of emergency. The great thing about chunky pasta sauces is that they balance chunky pastas well, which are much less messy for W to eat. Also, I think chunky pastas (like rotini, penne, etc.) are better in tweed (whole wheat) than spaghetti. (Brown rice pasta is a good alternative if you want to maintain that smooth mouthfeel.)
P.S. Steve, I’m so sorry! I just saw your comment that the cocoa was mysteriously missing from the ingredient list in my low fat brownie recipe. Sorry about that. Back at day 39 I hadn’t yet figured out how to cut and paste recipes into my blog post without having to go through and hand edit out all the tags… it must have accidentally been deleted.
Mea culpa.
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March 14 2008 | one dish and pasta and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I suppose at least my current crazy schedule is making this project more interesting. Or more dull?
Today I taught a homemade pasta class at the Cookbook Company with Lina deGaeta, master pasta-maker and the wife of the owner of the Italian Supermarket on the corner of Edmonton Trail and 20th Ave NE. (Who makes, by the way, the best pizza in Calgary - Saturday afternoons only they fire up the wood-burning oven and you can order pizza any way you like it, with real Italian ingredients and chewy, bulbous crusts.)
Tonight though, my call time to the set of It’s Just Food is 10:30pm, and we’re going to shoot all night. So I had a bit of a nap, and then, technically, it was dinnertime. Because I was assembling a sort of “lasagna” made out of fresh ravioli as a beauty shot for the show, I assembled another small one for Mike and W. (I got the idea from a cookbook put out by Real Simple magazine.)
I ate a wedge of frozen chocolate zucchini cake. That counts as dinner, right? After all, it does contain a vegetable, and was made with canola oil - a healthy fat.
Ravioli Lasagna
This is as fast and easy as it gets. The ravioli is already filled, so you don’t need to layer your noodles with filling. Also great when cooking for one – you can make individual sized lasagnas, which isn’t possible when using pasta sheets or lasagna noodles.
If you like, use any kind of cooked veg as well as or in place of the spinach – a container of roasted tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and eggplant from the Italian market works especially well.
1 large jar good-quality tomato sauce
2 16-18 oz. bags fresh or frozen large ravioli - any kind
1 pkg. frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1 cup grated part-skim mozzarella (or as much as you like)
½ cup grated Parmesan
Preheat oven to 350°F.
Spray a 9”x13” baking dish with nonstick spray, and spread about a third of the tomato sauce over the bottom. Lay half the ravioli in a single layer overtop. Sprinkle with the spinach and half the cheese, another third of the sauce and then the remaining ravioli, sauce and cheese. Cover with foil and bake for 20 minutes, then uncover and bake another 10 minutes, until golden and bubbly.
Serves 6.
(Low Fat) Chocolate Zucchini Cake
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup cocoa
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
1 tsp. salt
1 ¼ cups buttermilk
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 large eggs
1/4 cup canola oil
2 tsp. vanilla
1 cup strong coffee
1 zucchini, unpeeled & grated
1/2 cup chocolate chips (optional)
Preheat oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, combine flour, sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add buttermilk, brown sugar, eggs, oil and vanilla and beat for 1-2 minutes, until well blended and smooth. Stir in coffee and zucchini. The batter will be fairly thin.
Pour into a bundt pan that has been sprayed with non-stick spray. Bake for 45-50 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch.
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March 02 2008 | cake and dessert and freezable and one dish and pasta | 8 Comments »
Just got home. Taped the Lunchbox Meals and Salads episodes today. Mike and W ate noodles for dinner. Am feeling like a negligent Mum.
Above are two of the very best camera guys that exist - I truly can’t imagine working with better or funnier people. We have a blast, especially after the 12th hour, when we all start to get a little punchy. They were still hard at work when I left tonight. Here they are getting first crack at the Mac & Cheese with Caramelized Onions & Bacon, which went over quite well as you can imagine.
Picked through the whole day; not sure what exactly was being consumed at dinnertime. The set is totally devoid of outside light and sound - it’s like a deprivation chamber, where you can’t tell what time of day it is unless you look at the numbers on the microwave, or run across the parking lot to Starbucks. Here are a couple of the recipes I picked at most (the Mac & Cheese is Ned’s recipe - I haven’t gone through and made it more clear yet, so just wing it. It will all work out.):
Mac ‘N’ Cheese with Caramelized Onions and Bacon
This is a very hearty flavourful Mac ‘N’ Cheese Recipe, and so much better than the stuff out of the box. It is simple to do on the day you want to eat it but also great to make the night before and bake the next night or even portion it into small containers to re heat at work for lunch. It would also work cold for a picnic.
1 box dry Macaroni or penne pasta, whole wheat or regular, or really any pasta you have around your house
1 onion, white or red, thinly sliced
4-5 cloves garlic
6 strips of bacon, sliced
Mustard (Dijon works well)
Half & half cream
Cream cheese, half and half cream, pre grated mixed cheeses, like the Kraft Italian mix
To begin, in a medium sized pot cook your sliced onions in a small amount of canola oil. You need to cook them for probably 12 -15 minutes so the good deep brown in color (also called caramelized) Do not blacken the onions. After they are brown, take the onions out of the pot and add you strips of bacon, cook until they are crisp, pour off the fat, add your garlic and cook for another 2-3 minutes. Then, add back your browned onions, your half and half cream and your cream cheese. Allow the mixture to melt all together. Check for salt and pepper. At this point you can add some mustard, Dijon works very well for its sharpness. It cut through some of the richness of all the cheese and bacon etc. Then add about half or you’re mixed cheeses, your warm cooked pasta and stir thoroughly. At this point you can toss the whole mixture into a baking dish and bake in a 400 oven until golden brown and serve with a simple green salad and you have a great dinner or late lunch dish.
Peanut Noodles with Chicken and Veggies
Peanut noodles are best eaten cold, which makes leftovers perfect to keep in the fridge and take to work for lunch. You can add all sorts of fresh veggies to this dish – peppers, zucchini, bok choy, bean sprouts, broccoli, asparagus, and pea pods are all good choices.
1/2 lb. (250 g) steamed Chinese noodles or spaghetti
1/4 cup (60 mL) chicken or vegetable broth
3 Tbsp. (45 mL) peanut butter
3 Tbsp. (45 mL) soy sauce
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) brown sugar or honey
2 Tbsp. (30 mL) rice vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1-2 tsp. (5-10 mL) grated fresh ginger
1/2 tsp. (2.5 mL) curry paste (optional)
2 cups (500 mL) chopped cooked chicken, pork or shrimp, or diced tofu
1 carrot, peeled and grated
1 red bell pepper, cut into slices
1-2 green onions, chopped
1/2 cup (125 mL) chopped peanuts (optional)
Fresh cilantro for sprinkling (optional)
Cook the noodles according to the package directions. Rinse with cold water in a colander and drain well. Set aside.
In a small bowl, whisk together the chicken broth, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, vinegar, garlic, ginger, and curry paste (if using) until smooth. Or instead of whisking it, shake it all up in a jar.
In a large bowl, toss the noodles, chicken, carrot, pepper, green onions, and peanut sauce. Serve in bowls sprinkled with chopped peanuts and/or cilantro. Serves 4-6.
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February 26 2008 | cheese and chicken & turkey and one dish and pasta and salads | 1 Comment »
I realized today I was starving for more vegetables. In the bleak of Calgary midwinter, that means root veg, which is fine with me. (Actually, just because the farmers’ market isn’t overflowing with produce doesn’t mean that greens, tomatoes, asparagus and the like aren’t always available year-round. But for some reason, in February I appreciate winter vegetables more.)
Hands-down my favorite way to cook vegetables of any kind is to roast them. Roasting condenses them, imparts a smoky flavor, caramelizes natural sugars, and creates crispy bits. The small amount of oil you use is the kind we should all be eating more of, and you don’t need to butter them afterwards. I don’t know why anyone bothers with steaming, unless it’s frozen peas.
This is something I came up with years ago as a way to consolidate the contents of my fridge and pantry; I have never used a recipe. This is how you make it:
Chop any number of vegetables into coarse chunks; who cares if they are of varying size, and you get some softer pieces and some blackened bits. My favorite combos include yams and/or squash, beets, red peppers, zucchini, and an entire head of garlic, separated into cloves. Drizzle a rimmed baking sheet with canola or olive oil and toss the vegetables on it. If you are using zucchini or asparagus, give the denser vegetables a head start, and add them to the pan halfway through. Same for the garlic, if you don’t like yours too dark. Don’t crowd the pan too much, or they’ll steam rather than browning properly. If you have a blackened pan, use it; darker sheets hold on to heat better and do a better job of browning things (which is why they aren’t so good for baking cookies). Roast at 450, tossing when you think of it, until they are done to your liking.
Making couscous (which is really teeny pasta bits) is as easy as making instant oatmeal: pour 1 1/4 cups boiling water over 1 cup of couscous (regular or whole wheat) in a bowl; cover with a plate and let sit for 5-10 minutes. What could possibly be easier? And that’s not even the instant stuff. Adjust the ratio according to how much you need to make.
Fluff the steamed couscous with a fork and scrape the roasted veg into it. Crumble in as much feta as you like, and toss while everything is still warm. This would probably be fantastic with a handful of shrimp, quickly sauteed in a little oil or butter and garlic.
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February 13 2008 | one dish and pasta and veg and vegetarian | No Comments »
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After three nights and four days of events, I got home from Banff mid-afternoon and didn’t much feel like cooking dinner. But it occurred to me that W hasn’t had anything green for a long time, and I didn’t feel like take-out or cereal, either. So I sucked it up and made a quick batch of spinach spaghetti sauce while the pasta boiled.
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