Archive for the 'veg' Category
Dilemma: what does one make when asked to attend a potluck picnic for two dozen or so local food bloggers, all of whom will presumably go home to their computers to document the eats of the day? Rather than debate what might be most easily transportable, crowd-pleasing, visually stunning or dinner-party impressive (baked Alaska? too melty. Crêpes Suzette? too French) I figured I’d use some of the dandy purple, pink and white thin-skinned spuds I’m starting to have more of than I can use, and the pale green and yellow beans that came in our CSA box this week. Of course I’m still hopelessly hooked on that garlic scape pesto. And I wanted everyone at said picnic to have garlic breath as distinct (emphasis on stinct) as I.
The potato salad was easy – I won’t complicate things by writing out a recipe. (Also? I’m lazy.) I boiled (I usually roast, but wanted the potatoes to suck up all that garlicky pesto) thin-skinned white and purple potatoes, tossing in a big handful of green beans (stems trimmed but not the curly ends – who would want to get rid of that?) for the last few minutes of cooking time. Drained the lot and tossed it with the last of the garlic scape pesto. (You could use any bottled pesto, but the garlickiness of this one was quite stellar here.) I made it on Saturday night (having plans Sunday morning immediately before the picnic) and put the bowl into the fridge, uncovered, to cool down. We sat on the front step and visited with neighbours. They grew in numbers and we wound up with a small party. Which meant waking up Sunday morning and realizing that my beautiful bowl of potato salad was a sort of pale grey shade. Which was a great excuse to mask it a little with mayo I made in approximately two minutes – I smell another post coming on – and the way the mayo made the oily pesto a little creamy was divine. I chopped in a few green onions, too. Eggs would have been good. I forgot.
It was a stunning potluck. (Have I expressed how enamored I am with the concept of potlucks? Love them. And who cares if you wind up with 20 potato salads? Guaranteed they’ll all be different.
In attendance on Sunday afternoon: Vincci (who organized the whole thing) from Ceci n’est Pas un Food Blog, Chelsey from The Crazy Kitchen, Pierre from Kitchenscraps, Lauren from Celiac Teen, Jennifer from Chocolate & Ginger and Wendy from Clearly the Place to Eat.
We had skewers of golden watermelon and cubes of feta wrapped in a strip of basil.
And gluten-free plum cake baked by a teenage genius (I would never have known it was gluten-free!)
And marinated chicken thighs cooked over an open fire!
Fresh peaches and berries marinated in champagne, honey and lemon zest. This was before they were topped with thick whipped cream. Peaches and berries and cream – oh my!
And there were phenomenal lemon squares that I seem to have missed because it’s quite difficult to photograph something whilst shoving it into your mouth.
It turned out to be perfect timing, as we were headed to Mike’s mom’s house for dinner afterward. She’s very sweet. But to sum up her culinary mind: she’s been cutting the fat off her pork chops and saving them in a plastic bag in the freezer for me. She knows I like to cook, and thought I might be able to do something with them. Any suggestions?
August 23 2010 | salads and veg | 21 Comments »
I still am not cooking dinner myself these days, so here’s something I made out in Tofino that I didn’t get around to telling you about. It looks simple, and it is – it’s one of those one-pan comfort foods (on account of the potatoes) I could eat over and over, especially with new potatoes and fresh peas from the market. Come to think of it, I need to try this with sweet potatoes.
I’m in Saskatoon tonight, and was in Winnipeg last night, so I haven’t been doing much cooking – in my own kitchen, anyway. (I was on BT Winnipeg this morning, and I’m doing some taping for CTV Saskatoon tomorrow.) I’m beginning to miss my kitchen. (While appreciating fully that it’s some peoples’ dream to never have to cook dinner themselves ever again. On that note, how did cooking and cleaning get lumped together? As if the Cleaning Network would ever happen. Or maybe it would. Magazines devoted to cleaning? I suppose Martha delves into the subject.)
Now that I wouldn’t miss doing. Not that I do much of it anyway. I minimized W’s birthday party menu not only because I was only going to be home for a day and a half, but because the level of disgusting our house has risen to was far more pressing. I think we’ve reached the point where it will be easier to paint than to wash the walls.
Where was I? Right – in Saskatoon. In a charming old hotel with a sign out front that says “WATCH FOR FALLING ICE!”, bathroom tiles like the ones at my Grandma’s house, wide hallways that I hope later tonight I don’t remember remind me of The Shining, and other details that make me wish I had my camera.
No, I didn’t bring my camera. I’m lugging dishes and gear and food from points A to B to C to D (I brought two loaded grocery bags filled with food/frozen meat/glass bowls and a frying pan as part of my carryon baggage today – there is no elegant way to transport all this) and I didn’t want to carry my camera too, nor feel pressured to document everything and then guilt over not getting around to uploading them.
I used my phone when I detoured my rental car to BDI this afternoon, but didn’t manage to document the part where I leaned in to lick the top off my hot fudge sundae and poured sticky fudge-melted ice cream soup all down my front, all over and INSIDE my bag, with nothing but dry napkins to clean it up with and it was 34 degrees with a humidex of 42? ON MY WAY to the airport.
Curried Potatoes with Tomatoes and Peas
a variation of “Potato Curry” in Simply Indian
4-5 Yukon gold or new potatoes, cut into large chunks (I don’t bother to peel them – a bonus when you use thin-skinned potatoes like Yukon Golds)
canola oil, for cooking
1 cup crushed tomatoes, tomato sauce, or 2 tomatoes pureed in the food processor
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced (optional)
2 tsp. paprika
1-2 tsp. curry powder or paste
1-2 tsp. chili powder
2 tsp. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt (or to taste)
1/2-1 cup frozen peas, thawed by running under warm water in a colander
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, jalapeno, paprika, curry powder, chili powder, sugar and salt and cook for 5 minutes. Add the peas and cook for another 5 minutes, until the potatoes are well coated and the extra moisture has cooked off.
Serves 4.
August 09 2010 | veg and vegetarian | 16 Comments »
Check this out – a new method for making amazing fries with less oil (!) and no need to double (par) fry. I never would have thought of this. It’s rocking my world like the no-knead bread. Except that I don’t eat fries quite as often as I eat bread. In my dreams, maybe.
Yesterday I followed a trail of bread crumbs (fry grease?) to an old Cooks Illustrated post about French fries (this is what happens when I’m supposed to be working) – it seems they burned through about 50 lbs of potatoes to come up with this method, wherein cold potato is set in cold oil in a pot and then brought to a boil together, much like you’d do when boiling potatoes (in water). The crazy part is – there’s apparently less oil in these cold-start fries than in traditional ones. I don’t understand why, but I never did that well in science. And I ditched chemistry for bio.
I’ve been dying to get in the kitchen and try something new, which has been difficult with the dwindling hamper on our dining room table. But I have potatoes! I have oil! I have salt! Giddy-up.
With fries like this, you need a good wobbly homemade mayo. And hey! I have eggs! I have oil! It’s clearly a sign.
So – you can go to see the original recipe at Cooks Illustrated, but it does seem a little wordier than I think it needs to be. (Not suggesting I know more than Cooks Illustrated, of course. But I did streamline it a little.) I didn’t measure my oil, nor my potatoes. I didn’t use bacon fat (although that does seem worth a try, don’t you think?). I cut two potatoes (unpeeled) into even sticks and put them in a pot, and covered them with canola oil. I did as I was told and covered the pot to bring it to a boil, which did indeed take about 5 minutes, but then I took the lid off (there’s condensation there – you don’t want that in your oil) and let it bubble away. It was odd, like I was boiling potatoes, only with oil. I didn’t wait to give them a stir though-I did so at about 10 minutes. Not sure what the difference is.
Anyway, in about 20 minutes they were beautiful and golden, and I took them out to drain on paper towels and showered them with salt. They had a lovely texture.
And mayo. I’ll send you over to Delicious Days – they have a wonderful tutorial.
(And our friends/neighbours brought over lilacs! How gorgeous are these?)
June 05 2010 | veg | 25 Comments »
This afternoon Mike, W and I went down to the food bank to pick up an emergency hamper to live off for the week. We’re taking part in A Week in Their Kitchen, an initiative for Hunger Awareness Day (which has in Calgary expanded to “Husky Help the Hungry Week”), living exclusively on the items in a food bank hamper to help give people a sense of what it’s like. (By the way- Husky has covered the cost of extra hampers, so we’re not actually taking food from those who need it.)
We went through the same process the other clients go through in order to get our hampers. Gave our ID. Discussed our financial situation. As I gave this info the woman at the window beside mine leaned over and offered W treats from a basket of chocolate bars and fruit snacks. It struck me hard how many kids were in the room, waiting in line with their mothers, mostly – I saw about a dozen in the hour that we were there, and it wasn’t a very busy day. 41% of the food bank clients are children under 12 – another large percentage are teenagers.
We were given the go-ahead for a weeks’ worth of food for a family of 2-3, and I proceeded to the corridor where clients pick up their bins. The volunteers were friendly and offered a powdered donut as they filled empty milk crates for me and slid them down the line to pass other volunteers who added produce, milk and eggs. One volunteer had just been a volunteer at my cooking class at the Cookbook Company yesterday. She looked a little surprised to see me.
They offered extra buns, if I wanted some, and one volunteer asked if I would like one head of iceberg lettuce or two. (One.) The second last guy on the line held up two handfuls of plantains and asked if I knew what to do with them. I told him I’d figure it out. He asked if I had access to the internet (at which I internally laughed and was simultaneously embarrassed for my addiction to same) and suggested I Google “plantain recipes”. Which I did. I panicked a little when I got home, unloaded the bags and bins and discovered there was no fruit (besides a dozen ripe plantains) – not even canned or frozen – and the vegetables were limited to 4 bags of coleslaw, a bag of potatoes, 5 packages of mushrooms and a small bag of green beans and two yellow zucchini that were banging on death’s door.
I have to say I’m astounded at the quantity of food we were given. It filled the back of the car. There’s no way I could have transported it on the bus. A young woman in her twenties who was behind me in line walked out with a cartful, and hers was a hamper for one. We got two bags of Cheerios, an enormous tub of peanut butter, rotini, spaghetti, plenty of bread and buns, a pound of solid margarine (no can do…), two cake mixes and a shortbread mix,
two cans of tuna and two of brown beans, a dozen eggs, a 6-pack of lactose free meal replacement drinks, a big jug of V-8 and a tetra pack of apple juice, two sleeves of saltines, four cans of soup, canned tomato sauce and whole tomatoes, two packages of hot dogs (no hot dog buns, though! just burger buns), a few cans of club soda and two 2L cartons of milk.
I feel a little like the kitchen McGyver tonight. Which I quite get into, but recognize it’s a huge obstacle for most people making do with very little in their kitchen cupboards, and possibly very little in the way of cooking skills.
Of course, what you get depends largely on what has been donated. It’s never exactly the same. We got the hugest box of Oreos I’ve ever seen, plus another sleeve of them, half a dozen donuts and three 4-packs of bubblegum and cotton candy flavoured Jell-O pudding, in shades of pale blue and pink. (W: “What is THAT?” M: “Not food.”)
We got three produce bags packed with miscellaneous granola bars, cereal bars and packets fruit snacks and chocolate Easter eggs. One volunteer pointed them out, kindly telling me we were getting Gushers so that W wouldn’t feel different at school.
Which I can sadly relate to, having been the kid with the big ol’ woody carrot for recess snack when the other kids had fruit roll-ups. But what does it say about our society that you need to have Gushers in your lunch to be cool? To be normal?
But the sentiment was sweet.
I remember my Mom picking up boxes of Pot of Gold chocolates to put in the Food Bank donation bin at Christmastime, because wouldn’t it be nice if people got a treat in their hampers along with all that rice and beans. And I still remember that when I make donations to the bin – should I be practical? or give something sweet? There seemed to be no shortage in the sweets department – not that there’s anything wrong with that. If I were having a hard time of it and needed to rely on the food bank to get me through a week (or month), I’d be happy to find a bag of cookies in there. I’m sure plenty of food bank clients have bigger fish to fry.
Tonight, I thought I’d cook the perishables first – since the beans and zucchini were so close to self-combusting I turned them into a simple stew with two potatoes and a large can of tomatoes. It reminded me how good plain, unadorned food can be – our rules of engagement allow cooking oil and three spices, so I added a pinch of Italian seasoning (from my friend’s garden), salt and pepper. Had I been doing this on my own I might have added asparagus, garlic and onion, maybe white beans, and possibly a sausage to start. I certainly would have grated some Parmesan cheese overtop. But we enjoyed it nevertheless, and felt good after eating it. It was simple, comforting and nourishing. It fed us well (W opted for eggs on toast, and I did let him finish the last of the watermelon we started yesterday – it seemed ironic to not eat something and have it go to waste in order to spread the word about the food bank?) I sauteed the second zucchini with a package of mushrooms and added a can of tomato sauce – that will go in the fridge for dinner another day.
Zucchini, Green Bean and Potato Stew
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 onion, chopped (optional)
1 yellow or green zucchini, chopped
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed (optional)
1-2 cups fresh green beans, stem ends trimmed
2 potatoes, russet, Yukon gold or red, chopped (don’t bother peeling them)
1 28 oz. (796 mL) can whole tomatoes, undrained
pinch Italian seasoning
salt and pepper
In a medium pot, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and cook the onion (if you’re using it), zucchini and garlic for about 5 minutes, until soft. Add the green beans, potatoes, tomatoes (with their juices) and Italian seasoning; bring to a simmer, cover and cook for about half an hour, or until the potatoes are tender. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
So yes, it’s “Husky Help the Hungry Week” – anyone can drop off food donations at any Husky and Mohawk location, Calgary Police Services or Husky Energy Head Office throughout the week.
May 31 2010 | veg and vegetarian | 30 Comments »
I have news! (No, I’m not knocked up. I was, again. But I’m not, again. It’s been a bit of a crazy spring.) Remember Sue? She and I are writing a book! A for-real, gonna-be-published-and-put-in-bookstores cookbook. When I went out to stay for the weekend during the olympics we came up with it, and pitched it, and the publisher jumped on it, and within a few weeks we had an actual contract and a deadline. !!!!
It’s occurring to me now that that was two months ago. HOW DID THAT HAPPEN? Does anyone else’s life feel like the Polar Express? With the stoned guy in the hoodie at the helm, asking if we want to go faster and ignoring our screams to PLEASE STOP. OR AT LEAST SLOW DOWN. Because I just might throw up. Which isn’t going to be pleasant for either of us.
So yeah, Sue and I are writing a cookbook together. Something I’ve wanted to do for a very long time. (A project like this with her, that is.)
And it’s due in June. JUNE. That’s a good half a year from now, right? At least 6 months. No? Six weeks?? Perhaps if I enlist a hundred monkeys on a hundred typewriters, smoking a hundred cigarettes…
But for real – I cannot WAIT to share some of these recipes with you. We’ve been baking with beans – I made wonderful (if I do say so) yeasted cinnamon buns using pureed beans in the dough, making them higher in fiber than if they had been made with whole wheat flour, with the light, chewy texture of white dough. I’m not going to spill all the beans – ha – pun totally not intended – because that would leave nothing new for the book, which is scheduled to be released next spring. Spring 2011. Doesn’t that sound like the year you finally get your own jet pack?
But we do need a title. Beans and grains is just not sexy, no matter how you say it. The combo brings to mind gastrointestinal issues.
But they are so good for you. Their parts can stand on their own, but the sum is fantastic. The idea came about as we chatted about how I really want/need to eat more beans and grains, and want to seek out more meal options so that ideas come as readily and naturally as they would when faced with some chicken parts or a pork tenderloin. Or John Cusack.
Did I tell you I’m following him on Twitter? I’m pretty sure he’s not following me. Which is a shame. But Michael Ruhlman is! Ruhlman! Following me! The day I learned this I developed a severe case of Twitter performance anxiety.
So to digress, we need some title ideas for the book. Badly. I’ve never had such a total mind block – usually something comes to mind, and it’s a matter of weeding through the cheese and cliches and finding something that works. This time – nada. But you’re a smart and creative lot, so I thought I’d toss it out there for you to chew on.
Also – chew on this. I made this lentil and sweet potato curry on our last night in Tofino and actually toted it all the way back to Calgary in my cooler bag and reheated it today. It’s easy. It’s good for you. Lentils, sweet potatoes and spinach, all in one bowl?
Red Lentil & Sweet Potato Curry with Spinach
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 onion, chopped
1 fresh jalapeño, seeded and finely chopped
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp. curry paste or powder
1 tsp. cumin
1 tsp. turmeric
1/2 tsp. salt
1 medium dark-fleshed sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes
1/2 cup dry red lentils
1 14 oz. (398 mL) can coconut milk
1 cup water
a big handful of baby spinach leaves
In a large, heavy skillet, heat a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat. Saute the onion for about 5 minutes, then add the jalapeño, ginger, garlic, curry paste, cumin, turmeric and salt. Cook for a few more minutes.
Stir in the sweet potato, lentils, coconut milk and water; bring to a simmer, then cover, turn the heat down to medium-low and cook for about 20 minutes, until the potatoes are tender.
Uncover and tear in the spinach; stir, return the lid and cook for another minute or two, just until the spinach wilts. Serve immediately, over rice. Serves 4-6.
So for Free Stuff Friday, leave a comment with a title suggestion, if you have one, and I’ll draw for a brand spanking new Crock Pot! I picked one up because I know how much you like them. This is a 5 qt. round – a great size, and won’t take up too much real estate in your kitchen. (I’ll still do a random draw – next Tuesday – in case we can’t settle on a winning title right off the bat.)
April 16 2010 | beans and veg and vegetarian | 90 Comments »
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We had skewers of golden watermelon and cubes of feta wrapped in a strip of basil.
And gluten-free plum cake baked by a teenage genius (I would never have known it was gluten-free!)
And marinated chicken thighs cooked over an open fire!
Fresh peaches and berries marinated in champagne, honey and lemon zest. This was before they were topped with thick whipped cream. Peaches and berries and cream – oh my!
