Archive for the 'veg' Category
And we didn’t even order in! I was mighty proud of myself for pulling off the daal and naan, although later on not so proud anymore, having eaten the better part of four fresh naan breads warm from the skillet. Not a good idea. My only consolation was that the rest of the meal consisted entirely of vegetables.
This whole Indian theme came about because I’ve been buying far more tomatoes than is absolutely necessary, and as a result have a few going wrinkly on top of my breadbox. Once, when we lived in Vancouver about 5 years ago, I made a potato curry from my friend Tahera Rawji’s cookbook Simply Indian, and because I didn’t have any crushed tomatoes I whizzed a couple of tomatoes in the food processor that were at the time going wrinkly on my minescule Vancouver countertop. It was one of those minor events that lodged itself firmly in my brainpan, and now whenever I see an aging tomato, I want curried potatoes.
Tomato Curried Potatoes
a variation of “Potato Curry” in Simply Indian
4-5 Yukon gold or baby new potatoes, cut into large chunks (I don’t bother to peel them - a bonus when you use thin-skinned potatoes like YG)
canola oil, for cooking
1 cup crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, or 2 tomatoes pureed in the food processor
2 tsp. paprika
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder or paste
1 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
Boil the potatoes until tender. In a large skillet, heat a drizzle of oil and add the potatoes; toss them around a bit. Add the tomatoes, paprika, curry powder, chili powder, sugar and salt and cook for 5-10 minutes, until the potatoes are well coated and the extra moisture has cooked off.
Serves 4.
Also, I had the most enormous cauliflower you ever saw left over from Ramsay Rocks, where it was supposed to go onto the veggies and dip tray in the volunteer’s tent. I hardly ever buy cauliflower. I’m not a huge fan. Or I wasn’t; I am now. My favorite way to cook any kind of veg is to roast it, so why not cauliflower? I gave it a try, and even W liked it. To roast cauliflower, separate it into florets and toss with canola or olive oil and salt; spread in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet and roast at 450°F for about half an hour, until it’s all golden and charred.
The daal was something I flipped past en route to the curried potato recipe; it had me at the first line: “in a large saucepan with plenty of water, bring to a boil and cook lentils until overdone and mushy.” Hey, I can do that. Beyond that, the recipe pointed me in the right direction and I went on my way. This is definitely a keeper. Funny that I’ve never made this before, but looking at the recipe it seems so completely obvious.
Daal Curry
1 1/2 cups dried orange lentils
canola oil, for cooking
1 large onion, chopped
2 large tomatoes, chopped
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp. curry paste or powder
1 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. chili powder
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2-1 cup half & half or evaporated milk or coconut milk (optional)
1/2 tsp. garam masala (optional)
a handful of cilantro, chopped (optional)
Put the lentils in a pot and boil for 15-20 minutes, until very well done and mushy. Drain. Meanwhile, heat a good drizzle of oil and sauté the onions until dark golden. Add the tomatoes and garlic and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the curry paste, sugar, chili powder, and salt, then the lentils and cook for another 5 minutes. Add the half & half and cook until it has the consistency you want - they can be runny, or thicken up if you cook it for a few more minutes.
Remove from heat and stir in the garam masala, then sprinkle with cilantro, if you like. Serves 4-6.
The tangy, pillowy naan is from Tahera’s book. It seemed at first to be a little over the top to make naan from scratch, but then again it isn’t any different than making pizza dough. Next time, I’ll brush the outside of the rolled dough with melted butter spiked with garlic before cooking it, and I am so using this as a base for Indian-influenced pizzas on the barbecue. Tandoori chicken, perhaps?
Naan
a variation from Simply Indian
1/2 cup warm water
2 1/2 tsp. instant yeast
1 tsp. sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, plus extra for rolling
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 cup canola oil
1 egg, beaten
5 Tbsp. powdered milk (optional - I didn’t use any)
5 Tbsp. plain yogurt
melted butter or oil, for frying
In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar and let stand for 5 minutes, until foamy. If it doesn’t foam, the yeast is inactive; toss it out!
Stir in the flour, salt, canola oil, egg and powdered milk, and stir until almost combined. Add the yogurt and work into a soft, pliable dough.
Cover with a tea towel and let rise until doubled in size; about an hour or two.
Divide the dough into 6-8 pieces and on a lightly floured surface, roll out each piece into an oval. Brush both sides with melted butter or oil. (Tahera instructs to brush one side with butter, the other with milk.)
Cook each naan in a very hot skillet until blistered and cooked, flipping as necessary.
Makes 6-8 naan.
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June 24 2008 | beans and bread and veg and vegetarian | 2 Comments »
OK, so this was really lunch. But it was late in the afternoon, close to dinner. This evening I was emceeing a fundraiser for a school for autistic kids, and it was a (fairly utilitarian) buffet dinner, not much interesting to write home about, so I opted to default back to lunch.
We were out doing some running around most of the day, and starving. The plan was to pick up a couple of slices of pizza at Wicked Wedge, but when traffic got far too difficult to fight, I told Mike to head home and I’d stir up something great I’d just read about.
I was romanced by the idea of this chickpea salad by Molly at Orangette. Molly calls this a salad, (and who am I to argue with Molly?) and I suppose technically it is what with the oil and lemon, but my idea of a salad usually includes a few more base ingredients. I can’t really go so far as to call it a recipe; it’s more like seasoning a can of chickpeas. She once said something along the lines of “one of life’s greatest skills is the ability to doctor up a can of beans”, and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve adapted this a bit, partly because it’s easier around these parts to find a 19 oz can of beans, and partly because I like it with pepper.
It wasn’t as earth-shattering as I hoped, but Mike called it “deeelish“, and I found myself thinking about the leftovers in the fridge. It’s one of those last-second formulas that can round out a meal or create a perfect picnic or lunch at work instantly.
Alongside, some sautéed spinach with garlic. I picked up a bag of local Hotchkiss spinach the other day, thinking about that poached egg on toast with sautéed spinach that was so good so many months ago. The combination was good when you got a bit of garlicky spinach on your fork and anchored it by spearing a few chickpeas.
Chickpeas with Lemon and Parmesan
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can of chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil or cold-pressed canola oil
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (about half a lemon)
salt & pepper
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
Stir everything together; serve right away or put in the fridge to chill. Can be kept overnight; makes a great portable lunch.
Serves 2-4.
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May 31 2008 | beans and salads and veg and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I know, this hardly sounds like an ideal late-May dinner. October, maybe? But it has been raining for a week and the temperature has hardly crept past 10 degrees. We’ve had to turn the furnace back on, and as I write this I’m wrapped up in a flannel blanket like someone from a Neo Citran commercial.
I picked up a 2 pack of chickens at the grocery store yesterday, and, as always, it’s exactly as much work to roast two than it is to roast one. So why not set myself up for a weeks’ worth of leftovers? Leftover roast chicken is the most versatile kind; I’m already envisioning a nice big chicken Caesar salad tomorrow, maybe some quesadillas the next day, and when almost all the meat has been stripped off - soup. Or perhaps, since my Dad is out of town, I’ll bring the spare over to my mum to ensure she doesn’t subsist on Pizza Hut for the next 4 days.
Generally when I roast a chicken I don’t bother with any prep beyond rubbing it with a bit of oil and sprinkling it with salt and pepper, but since I now have a healthy crop of fresh thyme in my garden, I thought I’d put forth a little extra effort. So I crushed about 6 cloves of garlic into a few tablespoons of olive oil, and grated in the zest of a lemon, too. I went out in the rain and plucked out about half of my crop of thyme, careful not to completely obliterate my supply. I came inside, washed it and lost it.
Seriously. I completely lost my thyme somewhere in my kitchen, and never found it again. I wonder where my brain told me to put it. So… chicken with lemon and garlic it is. It would have been fab in the mushroom risotto, too. Not to mention the beets and carrots…
Roast Chicken with Lemon and Garlic
The only difference between roasting and frying chickens is size; fryers are a little smaller.
1 or 2 chickens, roasters or fryers
a couple tablespoons olive or canola oil
4-6 garlic cloves, crushed
1 lemon
a few sprigs of fresh thyme, chopped, or 1 tsp. dried (optional)
salt and pepper
Preheat oven to 450°F. In a small bowl, mix the oil, garlic, grated zest of the lemon and the thyme. Pat the chicken dry, put it (or them) into any sort of dish or roasting pan, and rub all over with the oil mixture. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cut the lemon in half and put inside the chicken, or put half inside each.
Roast for 20 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375°F and cook for about another hour, or until the juices run clear and the joints wiggle in their sockets.
The risotto, of course, is because I haven’t been able to shake the memory of Mike’s barley risotto from River Café. (I wish I had the nerve to email Scott and ask for the recipe, but I don’t, even though he’s one of the nicest chefs I know.) It was simple to make, actually, exactly the same as making regular risotto with rice, but a little slower as the barley doesn’t absorb the liquid quite as quickly. This risotto would be great with a bit of blue cheese crumbled in at the end, so that it barely melts.
Mushroom Barley Risotto
Use any kind of mushrooms you like in this risotto. I found some dried ones and soaked them; if you do this, you can use the soaking liquid along with the stock, but make sure you strain it to get rid of any grit.
canola or olive oil, for cooking
2 Tbsp. butter (optional - you could use only oil)
1 onion, finely chopped
1 cup pearl or pot barley
5 cups stock (I used a 1L tetra pack of stock plus about a cup of water that the dried mushrooms had soaked in)
2 cups (or as many or as little as you like) chopped mushrooms - button, brown, Portobello, or 1 cup dried mushrooms, rehydrated in boiling water
1 garlic clove, crushed
In a medium pot, heat a drizzle of oil with a tablespoon of butter over medium heat and sauté the onion for a few minutes, until it’s soft and translucent. Add the barley and cook for another minute, then pour in about a cup of stock or other liquid.
Cook, stirring often, until most of the liquid has been absorbed. Add another cup and cook in the same way, adding stock and stirring until all the stock is absorbed. It should take almost an hour.
Meanwhile, heat another drizzle of oil and the remaining tablespoon of butter in a large skillet and sauté the mushrooms until they release their moisture and start to turn golden. Stir into the risotto and season with salt and pepper.
Serves 4-6.
But. Truly? My favorite part of this meal by far was the roasted beets and carrots, cooked again in a balsamic-honey glaze that virtually candied them. I ate almost the whole batch, then mopped up the rest of the sauce from the pan with a chunk of bread, fantasizing about how next time I’ll double the sauce ingredients and pour the whole mess over a bed of salad greens, maybe with some crumbled goat cheese and toasted pecans. After the gym.
Beets take longer to roast than carrots; I wrapped them in foil and stuck them in alongside the chicken for the first hour, then pulled them out and cooled them outside and slid a pan of chunked carrots tossed in oil into the oven beside the chicken. When they were starting to turn golden and the beets were cool enough to handle, I peeled them and sliced them into a skillet with 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of honey and 1 tablespoon of oil - in retrospect there was enough oil in the pan with the carrots. The carrots went in too and I turned up the heat until the mixture bubbled and thickened, covering the veg with a sticky glaze. It was fantastic.
Honey-Balsamic Glazed Roasted Beets & Carrots
You don’t need measurements here - but I’ve listed the proportions that I used; you can adjust each accordingly. The veg could be roasted in advance, then reheated in the balsamic and honey on the stovetop just before serving.
3 largish beets, tops trimmed
4 largish carrots, peeled and cut into 1″ chunks
olive or canola oil, for cooking
3 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
2 Tbsp. honey or maple syrup
Wrap the beets in foil and roast them in the oven (at 350F - 400F, or whatever temperature the oven happens to be on) for 45 minutes to an hour, until tender. Set them aside until cool enough to handle.
Peel and chop the carrots and toss with a drizzle of oil in a baking pan. Roast for about half an hour, turning once or twice, until soft and starting to turn golden. Place the balsamic vinegar and honey in a large skillet, then add the carrots to the skillet along with any oil that has accumulated in the bottom of the pan, and when the beets are cool enough to handle, peel them with your fingers and slice into wedges into the pan.
Set it over medium-high heat and cook until the mixture bubbles and the liquid thickens, coating the carrots with a sticky glaze. Serve immediately, or cool and serve over a salad.
Serves 4 (or 2 if I’m there).
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May 24 2008 | chicken & turkey and grains and veg | 2 Comments »
I worked today, cooking for Customer Appreciation Day at Willow Park. (On these days I get to rifle through their massive kitchens and challenge myself to creatively use up whatever has piled up in their fridges and freezers. They have an entire fridge devoted to cheese. Today they had more Spolumbos sausages than I ever care to see in one place again.)
I got home around 5, and we decided to have an impromptu barbecue on the back porch to celebrate the fact that a) the trees are finally starting to grow leaves, and b) it’s actually warm enough (33 this afternoon!) to have an impromptu barbecue on the back porch. So a bunch of assorted friends congregated in our back yard; K & N brought cross sections of corn on the cob, wrapped in bacon (inspired by the menu at Palomino). J & P brought teeny sweet peppers, tossed in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, and chunks of pineapple threaded onto skewers to grill for dessert. Everything got thrown on the grill, but unfortunately I got distracted taking photos of all the boys hanging out the kitchen window and our bacon-wrapped corn caught fire. After extracting the cobs, we actually had to douse the lingering flames with baking soda.
To make bacon-wrapped corn, all you need to do is cut the corn into chunks about the same width as your strips of bacon, then wrap a strip of bacon around each piece, securing it with a toothpick. (Soak them in water first if you don’t want them to burn.) Grill, turning as you need to, until the corn is sort of shrink-wrapped by the cooked bacon.
The peppers, similarly, were slicked with oil (and a bit of balsamic) and tossed whole onto the grill until they were slightly charred and soft, then returned into their bowl with its oily, vinegary residue.
I didn’t have much time to think about what to make (Spolumbos sausage would have been easy), nor did I feel much like cooking anymore, so called my trusty pork satay into service - besides being quick, they are easy for larger numbers of people to eat while sitting on folding chairs on the deck. Plus, I haven’t met a little boy yet who didn’t love meat on a stick.
I told you - when I stumble upon something that works, I make it over and over again. I did switch back to the maple-rosemary version though.
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Maple-Rosemary Pork Satay
2 pork tenderloins
Marinade:
1/4 cup maple syrup
3 Tbsp. lemon juice
3 Tbsp. soy sauce
2 Tbsp. grainy Dijon mustard (or any mustard you like)
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh rosemary
Cut the pork tenderloin in half widthwise, then into even strips lengthwise. Put them into a ziplock bag along with the marinade ingredients; knead the bag a bit to blend everything, then stash in the fridge for up to 24 hours or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
When ready to grill, soak bamboo skewers for at least 10 minutes, then thread the pork onto the skewers and grill for a couple minutes per side (depending on the thickness of the pork), just until done. Serve hot, warm or cold, preferably with peanut sauce.
Makes lots. (We fed 8 adults and 5 kids.)
For dessert, the pineapple was simply grilled until it was soft and grill-marked, then drizzled with honey.
And finally, a raspberry crumble cake, made with a handful of the frozen raspberries I keep in the freezer for smoothies. This eat-straight-from-the-pan cake is one of my favorite go–to recipes, and perfect for summer because you get the benefit of cake and fruit crumble all in one. It’s not too sweet, easy to eat with your fingers, and can be made with any kind of fruit you have around, even if it’s getting wrinkly. In the summer, use berries, peaches or plums, and add some grated lemon zest to the batter. At Christmas, try it with pears and cranberries with grated orange zest in the batter.
Apple, Plum or Berry Crumble Cake
Sometimes I throw a handful of sliced almonds into the crumble mixture, or sprinkle them overtop before the cake goes into the oven. For a raspberry-almond cake, you could also use almond extract in place of the vanilla in the cake batter; this would go well with raspberries.
Crumble:
1/2 cup whole wheat or all-purpose flour
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
1-2 Tbsp. ground flax seed (optional)
a shake of cinnamon (optional)
2-3 Tbsp. butter
Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 cup butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
1 large egg
1/2 cup low fat sour cream or plain yogurt
Fruit:
a large apple (peeled and sliced), or 3 plums, pitted and thickly sliced, or a large peach or nectarine, pitted and sliced, or a cup or so of fresh or frozen (unthawed) berries
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray an 8″ square or round pan with nonstick spray.
To make the crumble, stir together the flour, brown sugar, flax seed, cinnamon and butter and blend it with a fork or your fingers until the mixture is well-combined and crumbly. Set aside.
To make the cake, combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in a small bowl. In a medium bowl, beat the butter and sugar with an electric mixer until it’s light and fluffy. Beat in the egg. Add half the flour mixture and stir by hand just until it’s combined. Stir in the sour cream, then the remaining flour mixture, stirring until it’s just blended.
Spread the batter into the prepared pan. Spread the apples, plums, peaches or berries on top and sprinkle with the crumble mixture. Bake for about 30 minutes, until the cake is golden and springy to the touch. (Springiness may be difficult to test with the fruit in the way – you could also test it by sticking a toothpick or bamboo skewer into the cake. If it comes out with moist, not gooey, crumbs sticking to it, it’s done.)
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May 17 2008 | appetizers and cake and pork and snacks and sweet stuff and veg | 5 Comments »
I took so many photos today. Of the roasted chick peas and chard, of the lemon potatoes, of the smoked lamb on and off the smoker, and drizzled with a dark blend of Worcestershire, vinegar and molasses on our ciabatta buns. All in the idyllic setting of our friends’ airy backyard veranda. The photos were stellar, on account of the fabulous food and setting of course, but when I got home and downloaded them, they disappeared from my computer and camera. It’s likely that I did something in my sleepy stupor, but damn. It.
So yes, we went for dinner at Mike & Natasha’s, so that we could finally try out the smoker we kept hearing so much about. They smoked a leg of lamb, and let me tell you, it was fantastic.
When I heard lamb was in the smoker, I figured roasted lemon potatoes were in order - something I’ve been meaning to try, but never got around to. I searched epicurious for one (sometimes I’m too daunted by the sheer number of cookbooks on my shelves) and came up with a recipe for Roasted Potatoes with Garlic, Lemon and Oregano, excerpted from Aglaia Kremezi’s book The Foods of the Greek Islands. Definitely a keeper, although I may increase the amount of lemon juice next time.
I surfed on, seeking inspiration for something side-dishy to bring that went with lamb. I’ve been trying to revive a bunch of chard I bought last weekend in a glass of water on the countertop, but it is not responding well to treatment anymore, so I searched for something using chard and came across a recipe for roasted garbanzo beans and garlic with swiss chard, and thought I’d give it a go. Another success. As always, I changed it drastically, and if you follow the original recipe I don’t recommend doing it all in advance, as it offers as an option. The chick peas were wonderfully crunchy and soft when they were fresh from the oven, but hours later were a little pasty. Also, the recipe calls for far more olive oil than I think is necessary. You end up draining it all off anyway - and there’s no need for the beans to boil in oil. (The original called for 1 1/4 cups with the chick peas - I used about 1/3 cup.)
And fresh mint mojitos to wash it all down.
Roasted Chick Peas with Garlic and Chard
Chick peas:
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can chick peas (also known as garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1 head of garlic, separated into cloves and peeled
2 shallots or 3 green onions, roughly chopped
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup olive or canola oil
Chard:
2 Tbsp. olive or canola oil
1 large bunch Swiss chard, center stems removed and leaves coarsely torn
6 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 cup vegetable, chicken or beef broth
Preheat oven to 400°F. In a baking dish or cast iron skillet, combine the chick peas, garlic, shallots or green onions, bay leaves and oil. Roast for about 45 minutes, shaking the pan once or twice, until everything is golden.
If you used a cast iron skillet, pour the chick pea mixture into a bowl and set the skillet on the stove top. (Otherwise, pull out a skillet.) Drizzle with oil and when it’s hot but not smoking, saute the chard and garlic for about 5 minutes, until it’s wilted. Pour the stock overtop, cover and cook for another 10 minutes, until the chard is tender. Remove the lid and drain any excess liquid away.
Add the chick pea mixture to the pan, season the whole thing with salt and pepper, toss around (add a little extra oil if you need to) until heated through, and serve.
Roasted Potatoes with Garlic, Lemon and Oregano
3 lbs. Yukon gold or baking potatoes, peeled and cut into 1 1/2 inch pieces
1/2 cup olive or canola oil
4 garlic cloves, crushed or thinly sliced
1 1/2 tsp. dried oregano, crumbled
1 tsp. salt
Freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup beef or chicken stock
1/3 cup lemon juice
chopped fresh oregano (optional)
Preheat oven to 400°F. Spread the potatoes in a single layer in a 9″ x 13″ baking dish and pour the oil over them. Add the garlic, dried oregano, salt and pepper to taste and toss well to coat with the oil.
Bake the potatoes for 15 minutes. Add the stock, toss and bake for 10 minutes more. Add the lemon juice, toss and bake for 10 to 15 minutes more, or until the potatoes are golden and cooked through. If you like, sprinkle with fresh oregano.
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May 17 2008 | beans and veg | No Comments »
My mother and sister-in-law came for dinner tonight. (Or more accurately this afternoon… they arrived at 3:55, presumably on time for the blue plate special?)
For Mike’s family, the absolute fanciest dinner you can have (with the exception of turkey at Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas) is steak. (Or cornish hens circa 1982.) So when I was at my sister’s for Mother’s Day brunch this morning, I ran across the street to Sobey’s, one of few grocery chains that sells fresh bison in their meat case, and picked up some steaks.
I know I’ve talked about bison before, but just a reminder: because it’s so lean (containing half the fat of beef, and even less fat than skinless turkey or chicken, or even halibut) cuts like steak need to be given about a third less cooking time than a similar cut of beef. Because it looks and tastes like beef, people tend to treat it the same way in the kitchen, often drying it out. If you’re a beginner, try using ground bison first - it’s foolproof in chilis, meatballs, pasta sauces, etc.
When I did some foodstyling for Trish Magwood a few months ago, while she was in town promoting the 100th birthday of Melitta coffee, she taught me a quick spice rub that included actual coffee grounds. I’ve revised it a little.
Mike: “I can’t imagine ever having steak without this rub on it now!”
Coffee Rubbed Steak
steaks of your choice
Rub:
2 Tbsp. dark Mexican chili powder (or any good quality chili powder)
1 Tbsp. cocoa
1 Tbsp. finely ground coffee or espresso
1 tsp. coarse salt
1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
Make sure your steak is at room temperature. Combine all the rub ingredients and rub it all over both sides of the steak(s); let them sit for about 10 minutes.
Heat your grill, a cast iron skillet or grill pan over medium-high heat until it’s hot but not smoking. (If you don’t have cast iron, use a regular skillet and drizzle with canola oil.) Put the steak onto the grill or into the pan and cook for 4-5 minutes per side (2-3 minutes for bison steaks) for medium-rare. Let them rest, tented with foil so that they don’t cool down, for 10 minutes before slicing.
The smashed potatoes were simply my easiest option. My in-laws are very much the type to construct dinner out of 1) meat. 2) potato. 3) vegetable, preferably boiled. Mashed potatoes I love, but they are more tedious and require peeling, something I’d prefer not to do. Baked potatoes seemed far too steakhouse; I pondered going the twice-baked route with chives from the garden, but Yukon golds tend to have flimsy skins for that sort of thing. They are ideal, however, for a rough mash. To shake things up a bit, try throwing a small sweet potato into the mix as well; the mashing is so quick that they aren’t completely incorporated into each other, which keeps things interesting.
You don’t need a recipe for this; just like traditional mashed potatoes, add low fat sour cream, buttermilk, oil and Parmesan until you have the consistency you like. Leftovers are sturdy enough to be easily shaped into small patties (with or without the addition of a drained can of salmon or leftover flaked fish) and fried until crisp. (Stay tuned for Day 133.)
Smashed Potatoes
If you ever happen to have a head of roasted garlic on hand, squeeze it into the potato mixture. Or to infuse your potatoes with garlic, toss a few cloves into the water as they boil.
Yukon gold potatoes (I used 5, and have leftovers)
grated Parmesan cheese (a handful)
low fat sour cream and/or olive or canola oil and/or buttermilk
salt and pepper
Cut the unpeeled potatoes into 4-6 pieces and boil in plenty of water until very tender. Drain and return to the pot. Add the Parmesan cheese, sour cream, oil and buttermilk (or any combination of them) along with some salt and pepper, and roughly mash with a potato masher or fork.
The Ichiban salad is a throwback to the 80s, when my Mom made it a lot. It’s made with ramen noodles (but sorry, I can’t bring myself to call it ramen noodle salad) - the kind that come in the little packets of instant soup, not deep fried chow mein noodles. I haven’t had it for probably two decades, but thought of it as I wondered how to use up the last of the head of cabbage I’ve been chipping away at for the past two weeks. I’m glad I rediscovered this; to be honest it was my favorite part of the meal, and I finished it off straight from the bowl. (Hey, the noodles are just going to get soggy by tomorrow anyway.)
Ichiban Salad
This salad is great with shredded leftover roast chicken.
1 pkg. Ichiban or other ramen noodles
1/4 cup sliced or slivered almonds, and/or sesame seeds
2 cups thinly sliced cabbage
1/4 small purple onion, thinly sliced (optional)
1 carrot, grated
Dressing:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup oil - I use about 1 Tbsp. sesame oil and 3 Tbsp. canola oil
the packet from the noodles
Crumble the ichiban noodles onto a baking sheet, sprinkle with the almonds and/or sesame seeds and toast in the oven or under the broiler until golden and fragrant.
Toss the salad ingredients in a bowl. Shake all the dressing ingredients up in a jar. Toss them together.
Because I completely burned my first batch of noodles and sesame seeds, I had to open a second package, which meant an extra seasoning packet, and you know how much I hate throwing stuff away, so I mixed up a second batch of dressing to keep in a jar in the fridge. It will go very well with any sort of Asian noodle salad.
The pavlovas I made so that I could bring half to brunch this morning and use the rest at dinner. They seem fancy, but are one of the easiest things you can make. All you do is beat egg whites with sugar until you have a stiff mixture you can spoon onto a cookie sheet and scoop a divet into the middle of; they can be any size you want. Then bake them at 250F for a little over an hour, until they are dry on the outside but still chewy and marshmallowy on the inside. As a bonus, they will take care of dessert anytime you need to feed someone who has an intolerance to wheat or lactose or fat. And you can top them with cream, custard, ice cream, and any kind of juicy fruit that’s in season.
This recipe will make about 40 small (two or three bite) pavlovas, which could not be more perfect for a summer party. One passionfruit will pretty much do the lot of them. I adore passionfruit with pavlova - the sweetness, crunch and cream offsets the intense flavor, juiciness and incredible tang of the passionfruit.
(This is what to look for. I got mine from More than Mangos, at the Canyon Meadows Community Hall every Friday from 2-8pm.)
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May 11 2008 | bison and salads and veg | 3 Comments »
Kind of a weird dinner tonight, despite my (meagre) efforts to make something relatively nice for Mike’s homecoming. It ended up an hour long battle over W not wanting to eat anything but the meat.
For some reason there was a 2-pack of farmer’s sausage in the freezer, so I took it out to thaw. I wasn’t really that familiar with farmers’ sausage, a smoky, garlicky pork sausage that needed cooking (unlike something along the lines of kielbasa). The package exclaimed “perfect for the BBQ!” so I threw one on the grill.
Mike is Ukranian. You wouldn’t know it except for the fact that his dad was #12 out of 14 kids born on a farm in Cudworth, Saskatchewan and hates cabbage rolls because he lived on them growing up. I didn’t even get the benefit of marrying into a family that makes killer peroghies using a secret family recipe. He was not forced into shumka lessons as a kid, either. My point is, sausage and cabbage are pretty Ukranian, so I intended to make something of that ilk, but then discovered that the red cabbage in my fridge was going south faster than the green cabbage, and thought I had better use it while the opportunity was there.
My Belgian grandma used to make braised red cabbage with apples, so that’s what I did. I have never been able to make it as good as my friend Sue, who is one of the best cooks I know, if not the best, and I know a lot of chefs. She sent me her recipe, but not until after I made mine (I got too frivolous with the vinegar, and it ended up too sour.)
The Braised Red Cabbage & Apples I Made
1 Tbsp. butter
1 Tbsp. canola oil
1 small head of red cabbage, quartered, cored and very thinly sliced
1 apple, grated or thinly sliced (don’t peel it)
1/2 tsp. salt
1/3 cup apple juice, hard cider or red wine (or the dregs of the pear cider you forgot to finish last night and left on the counter to go flat)
2-3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar
In a large skillet or medium pot, heat the butter and oil over medium heat. Add the cabbage, apples and salt and cook, tossing occasionally, until the cabbage begins to wilt. Add the apple juice or wine and cook for about 10 minutes, until the cabbage is wilted and the moisture has cooked off. Add the vinegar and cook for another 5 minutes, until cooked down and bright fuschia. Season with salt and pepper.
Serves 8.
Sue’s Braised Red Cabbage
(adapted from Sheila Lukins’ All Around the World Cookbook)
1 large red cabbage (approx 1 1/2 kilos), tough outer leaves discarded, then quartered and cored
2 tablespoons butter
1 cup dried cherries
1/4 cup red wine
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup apple juice
1/4 cup honey
1 cinnamon stick
salt and coarsely ground pepper to taste
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cut the cabbage into thin slices and set aside.
3. Melt the butter in a large (5 litre/quart or so) heavy saucepan with lid or dutch oven over medium heat. Add the cherries and cook for about 2 minutes or so.
4. Add the rest of the ingredients and cook over low heat until warmed throughout, then add the lid and pop it in the oven for about an hour or so, stirring a couple of times. The cabbage will be cooked through, and the liquid thickened a bit. Taste and add a little more honey and/or vinegar as you like to suit your taste (or apple juice if it needs a bit more liquid).
Note from Sue: I usually make this a day or two ahead of Thanksgiving and Christmas, as it tastes even better after keeping in the fridge awhile. Many a time I make lots at Thanksgiving and freeze the rest for Christmas. The liquid keeps it all happy in the freezer for ages.
And because sausage and cabbage doesn’t quite make a meal, I rounded it out with a roasted sweet potato (done in the Easy Bake oven, so as to not heat up the whole house), split and dabbed with butter and drizzled with a bit of maple syrup. The long, thin ones are easiest for roasting. Or baking - same thing - why is it roast turkey but baked ham?
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May 05 2008 | veg | 1 Comment »
For the past week, W has been begging for “chepah” (translation: ketchup) almost constantly. No, nothing to dip into ketchup, just a bowl straight-up, please. When you consider that ketchup contains more sugar than ice cream does, it’s no wonder why.
Awhile ago we went for lunch at the home of two little girls, and when her mom wasn’t looking, the 4 year old flipped open the lid of the Heinz ketchup squeeze bottle and took a swig. Willem just stared, in total awe. I’m pretty sure he fell in love for the first time at that moment.
So this afternoon I made some yam fries to justify providing him with his beloved chepah. Conveniently, someone just asked for a recipe for sweet potato fries. Does this mean I’m now taking requests?
In case you’re wondering, yams and sweet potatoes are very similar - the only difference is that yams have a darker flesh, and sweet potatoes have a more flesh-colored flesh. They are very often mislabelled in grocery stores though, so you may end up with one instead of the other. Yams are usually bigger around, and sweet potatoes narrower.
So now for the recipe. You don’t really need a recipe per se to make yam fries, just a few tips.
1) slice your yam, without peeling it, into fry shapes or into quarters and then slices - this is easier to do if you want them to be consistent.
2) drizzle some canola oil on a rimmed cookie sheet and put it in the oven. Turn the oven on to 400-450F - either will work, or anything in between.
3) when the oven is hot, take the pan out and spread out the yams on it, tossing them about carefully to get them more or less coated in oil. The combination of hot pan, hot oil will keep them from sticking, just like it does on the stovetop. Make sure that they aren’t too crowded, or they will steam instead of browning properly.
4) bake them for 20 minutes or so (really depending on the thickness of the fries and how hot your oven is), tossing them around and flipping them once or twice, until golden. Sprinkle with coarse salt.
5) serve with plenty of chepah.
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March 09 2008 | snacks and veg and vegetarian | 3 Comments »
I’ll never understand why battered frozen fish pieces are considered a convenience food. How convenient are they, when they take 25 minutes in the oven vs. 10 for a fresh fillet of salmon? This is real fast food.
I adore asparagus, and my favorite way to cook it is to roast it until the tips turn dark and crunchy. It occurred to me that both could be done at once; the asparagus started (on a rimmed cookie sheet, drizzled with oil and sprinkled with salt and pepper) and then pushed aside to make room for the salmon during the last 10 minutes of cooking time. But we had lots of both, so after 20 minutes in the oven, we slid the salmon on its own sheet onto the rack above. Easy peasy. I threw some brown and wild rice in a pot to boil for 45 minutes (I always cook both together since they have the same cooking time, and in lots of water, like pasta, to make things easy) to be sure W would actually eat something on the table, but he scarfed down his third of the salmon filet before starting in on ours. The asparagus, however, was a no go. More for us.
Roasted Balsamic Glazed Salmon and Asparagus:
Preheat the oven to 450F.
Snap the tips off your asparagus wherever they naturally break. I used two small bunches. Drizzle a cookie sheet with canola or olive oil and spread the asparagus out on it, tossing it around to coat with oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and pop in the oven.
Place your salmon fillet skin side down on a foil-lined sheet (or if it’s small, wait to put it on the sheet with the asparagus). In a small dish, stir together 2 Tbsp. brown sugar or honey, 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar, 1 Tbsp. grainy mustard and 1 tsp. sesame oil. Spread over the salmon.
After about 20 minutes (depending on how thick your asparagus is and how well done you want them) push them aside and add the salmon to the pan, or slide the sheet with the salmon on it onto the oven rack above (or below) it. Cook for 10 minutes per inch, until it flakes around the edges.
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February 18 2008 | fish and veg | 1 Comment »
Confession: this was lunch, not dinner. Does it count that it was the most memorable meal of the day, and in fact one of my favorite meals of all time? Because we went to Mike’s mom’s for dinner, and my thinking is if you don’t have anything nice to say, maybe stick to the lunch story.
Sue went back to Vernon at about noon, so before she left we poached some eggs from the market - todays’ eggs came from one of the colonies, but when the lamb farmers are around we get our eggs from them - so big they have to be staggered in their carton and it’s impossible to close the lid, most of them with a double yolk, each the size and color of a plump dried apricot. I had just baked a crusty loaf of no-knead bread, which we toasted and buttered thick slices of and slid the softly poached eggs on top. (Note: I do not add vinegar to the cooking water when I poach eggs. I don’t like my eggs tasting vinegary, and the ragged whites don’t bother me one bit. Did you know you can pre-poach your eggs, and keep them in a dish of their cooking water in the fridge? Reheat them by slipping into a pan of simmering water for a few seconds. Which isn’t to say poached eggs are so high-maintenance they require advance preparation, but it’s good to know if you’re ever cooking for large numbers, or want to do a few at a time to stash in the fridge for a small child.)
There is really no better combination than a good quality egg, good bread and butter, sprinkled with crisp, flaky salt. We shopped at The Cookbook Company yesterday, and because when I teach classes part of my payment comes in the form of store credit, we decided to go and be frivolous, picking up things like $12 smoked Maldon salt and fig-caramel sauce. You wouldn’t think that your choice of salt would make one iota of difference here, but the crunchy flakes were wonderful.
I am a fan of crunchy pan-fries, but when I eat a large pile of them for breakfast, inevitably as an accompaniment to some bread product, I feel like I swallowed a sack of potatoes afterward. The very best company to a poached egg on toast, in my humble opinion, is a fresh bunch of spinach, lightly sautéed in a little butter and olive oil, with a clove of garlic. Heaven.
Add a small knob of butter and a drizzle of olive or canola oil to your skillet, get it hot and as everything is melting, slice a clove of garlic in. Swirl the pan around until the foam subsides and everything starts to turn a pale golden color. At this point, if you want just the flavor of garlic to delicately adorn your spinach (or kale, or chard), you can pull out the slices of garlic; because it hasn’t been crushed, they will be easy to fish out and won’t burn. Otherwise, just rinse your spinach and tear it roughly into the pan; the water left clinging to the leaves is enough to help it wilt, which will take all of about a minute. No vegetable side dish could be faster or easier. Sautéed spinach would also make a fantastic omelet or panini filling, along with some grated cheese.
All told, this meal came out to around $2 for all three of us. Not bad.
I’d like to mention here that all of these photos are authentic, of our actual plates of food as we are eating them, or before beginning; Mike is getting used to not being allowed to start eating until after I’ve had sufficient time with his dinner and my camera. (The exception: last week’s party, for which I forgot my camera in the chaos, and so instead used photos I already had of the same food.) The photo up top I stopped to take mid-bite, and then when Sue got up to answer her phone, I pulled out my camera and took a picture of her plate, without rearranging anything:
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February 17 2008 | eggs and veg and vegetarian | No Comments »
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