Birdseye Chili

Salad dressings

2010-02-17T14:35:00.005-06:00

I felt this blog needed a bit of an upgrade with a few new features. I now have a proper About page, as well as a Recipe Index. I invite you to check them out using the links on the sidebar.

When I was indexing all the recipes, I realized how little I post about salad, even though it is my staple lunch item when I'm at work. I find it easy to compose a salad, especially when the dressings are waiting in my little bar fridge at work.

Throw together a few different types of leaves, a sliced apple and carrot, a few pecans, some feta and dried cranberries and you have a healthy and filling lunch. The ingredients vary slightly from day to day with different nuts, hard-boiled eggs, sometimes sliced cucumber, sometimes small broccoli florets. But the basic structure is always the same: leaves, veg, fruit and some kind of protein.

Here are two of my favourite salad dressings. Both last a couple of weeks in my bar fridge and enable me to stay motivated to eat healthy at work.

Maple-Balsamic Dressing

If you use the ratio method for this dressing, you can make as much or as little as you like. I usually make enough to fill two-thirds of a small glass jar. It's easy to shake and store.

- add equal parts balsamic vinegar, maple syrup and olive oil into a tightly-lidded container
- crank in some freshly-ground pepper & sprinkle in a tiny bit of salt
- shake, taste, then modify the taste by adding more vinegar, syrup or oil depending on your personal taste

Low-Fat Creamy Goat Cheese Herb Dressing

This makes a lot of dressing. You may wish to cut the recipe in half if you don't plan to eat salad every day for a week and a half.

- 1/2 - 1 cup of plain yogurt, depending on how flow-y you want the dressing
- 1/2 cup goat cheese
- 1/2 block of soft silken tofu (about 6 oz by weight)
- lemon zest from 1/2 a lemon
- a few glugs of olive oil, for body (I typically use 2 tbsp, but you can use less or more)
- 1/3 cup sundried tomatos, either packed in oil, or if dried, reconstitute in hot water first
- 1/2 cup chopped herbs: parsley, oregano & thyme all work well
- a healthy amount salt & pepper since the tofu is essentially tasteless

Process everything in a food processor. Modify the taste according to your preference. I find the goat cheese fairly acidic, so that's why I like to use the olive oil to contrast this. If you like it even more acidic, feel free to add some lemon juice. This dressing is fairly creamy. If it's too thick for you, you can add more yogurt or even some water to thin it out.

If I'm getting tired of this dressing, I drain the excess liquid by placing it in a coffee filter in a sieve over a bowl. The resulting thick "yogurt cheese" is a perfect spread for bread or crackers.

Curry

2010-02-07T14:14:00.021-06:00

When I first started eating Indian curries, back when I was a student, I knew there was something special going on. The depths and layers of flavour in one bite were pretty astounding, and very different from the type of food I had been used to. When I tried to replicate these meals at home, the results were nowhere near as complex and delicious as from my favourite restaurants. Even those sub-par greasy Indian joints could make better curries than I could at home.

Then, about two years ago, I came across this post at TheKitchn, and my technique changed. In that article, the authors describe how to build layers of flavour, starting with spices, onions, ginger/garlic, tomatoes, then finally adding meat. It is no coincidence however, that the article was posted in their "Weekend Cooking" series. It takes a long time to cook, but thankfully, much of that time is inactive.

I recently made a version of this curry for our iPad announcement party - yes, we're big geeks! I began cooking at 11am and we ate at 6:30pm. Please don't be discouraged though: active cooking time was less than 1 hour!

As a bonus, I was able to clean the house, do laundry, and prepare everything else for the meal in between attending to the curry. The only cleaning I like to do involves the kitchen, so I need to play a little game with myself for the remainder of the house. This game is akin to a parenting strategy I often hear: "Let me time you to see how fast you can put away your toys!" except for me it's "Can I dust the entire house before I have to stir the onions again?"

Since the curry takes some effort and time, I've increased the recipe to yield a whole pot! This provides our small family of two 5 generous meals. The goal is always to freeze some and eat it later, but we love it so much we just eat it for 5 days in a row!

I also changed the recipe from the original to suit our preferred spices and heat levels. I've tried it with beef, bison, lamb and chicken. All worked well, although the red meats take much longer.

Spicy Northern-Style Indian Curry

active cooking time: less than 1 hour
inactive cooking time: ranging from 2-3 hours for chicken to 6-7 hours for beef
yield: 10 generous portions

Please don't be discouraged by the amount of spices included in the recipe. In fact, if you don't have these, use others. I have experimented with other combinations, and allspice and fennel would are nice here too. Amchur powder is another one I've used sometimes. Again, the time commitment here is largely non-active. Cleaning the house, or reading a book is a good complimentary activity.

Clockwise from top: cinnamon, bay leaves, black pepper, cloves, yellow mustard seed, black mustard seed, cumin, black cardamom, green cardamom, star anise

Ingredients:
- canola oil, enough to cover the bottom of the pot, maybe 1/3 cup
- pinch of asafoetida (omit if you can't find it)
- 2 two-inch cinnamon sticks
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 tbsp black pepper
- 15 whole cloves
- 1 tsp white mustard seeds
- 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
- 1 1/2 tsp cumin
- 4 black cardamoms
- 6 green cardamoms
- 1/2 tsp fenugreek (I didn't use it this time)
- 2 star anise

- 1 tsp turmeric powder
- 4 large onions, sliced
- salt

- 5 fresh or frozen red chillies (we use about 10-15, but for guests, 5 chillies yield a medium heat level)
- 2-inch piece of ginger (I freeze mine, then it makes it easier to grate)
- 4 garlic cloves (or more if you like)
- 1 large can whole tomatoes
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1 jar tomato puree (if you don't have your own, use another can)- 1 tbsp garam masala, or more

- 5 lbs cubed beef, bison, lamb or chicken, or more, or less

- large handful of coriander and fresh chillies for garnish, if you like

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large pot on medium-high. I use an enamelled cast iron dutch oven. Sprinkle in the asafoetida, let it sizzle for a few seconds, then toss in all the whole spices. Fry the spices in the oil until you hear or see the mustard seeds and cumin start to pop, approximately 2 minutes.

2. At this point, quickly add all the onions, a generous pinch of salt, along with the turmeric. Stir to coat the onions with the oil and spices. Let the onions saute on low heat for 30-45 minutes, scraping the bottom of the pot if some bits get stuck. You can add some water if you notice the onions sticking too much. Return to the pot every 15-20 minutes to stir the onions.

3. Add the chillies, garlic and ginger, along with the tomato products. Cook for another 30-45 minutes, stirring every 15-20 minutes. Taste the curry at this point and add more salt since the tomatoes often need it to enhance their flavour. The curry will be ready when the oil separates from the sauce. You will see it floating on top of the tomatoes and it will look a little darker than the remainder of the sauce.

4. At this point, add in the garam masala and the cubed meat. For chicken, the curry will be ready in 20 minutes. For red meat, it sometimes takes another 2 hours, or even 3 hours, depending on the size of the cubes and quality of the cut. Stir the curry every 20-30 minutes. I usually start cooking the curry around lunchtime, then just let it simmer on low until the meat is done. If it's tender before dinner, I just reheat it when it's time to serve.

5. Serve over basmati rice, garnishing with cilantro and fresh chillies if you like.

elimination

2009-11-14T09:32:00.001-06:00

I haven't been feeling 100% lately, so I'm back to doing the elimination diet my naturopath gave me a few years ago. The idea is that you detox for about a month, eliminating common allergens in food, then reintroduce each eliminated item every few days to test its effect.

I'm eliminating the following:
- all gluten
- dairy
- sugar
- red meat
- all processed foods
- caffeine
- alcohol
- white rice and other processed grains

I started just a few days before Halloween. So far, so good. It's easier now than it has been in the past, which I attribute mostly to increased awareness about gluten-free diets. I have a great recipe for gluten-free sandwich bread, and also for flat bread, so I'm not missing much of that.

In terms of eating out, we've been to Las Palapas and Keo's since beginning the diet and they were both extremely accommodating. At Las Palapas I had enchiladas with a mole sauce, and at Keo's, a spicy thai curry with coconut milk. I definitely didn't feel deprived.

This kind of eating challenges my cooking and creativity. I'm enjoying that part of it. The best compliment was my husband saying that it doesn't even feel like we're on any restrictive diet. Now, he does eat dairy and bread still, but mostly for breakfast and lunch. Dinners we eat together, so he does follow the elimination diet along with me for that meal.

Here are some examples of my meals:

Breakfast
- during the week: fruits, or fruit-tofu smoothies
- weekend: eggs with polenta, oatmeal with rice milk, gf bread with honey

Lunch
- random mix of veg, fruit, nuts, leaves, flatbread & dips
- for example: apple, carrot, cucumber, spinach, pecans with bean dip

Dinner
- goat cheese/tofu/artichoke dip with chicken wings
- chicken curry with brown rice
- thai coconut soup with rice noodle
- homemade corn tortillas with turkey, cilantro and my own taco sauce
- fish with asian fried millet

I'm enjoying making all kinds of new foods but most importantly, I'm happy that I feel healthy.

Chanterelles

2009-08-23T07:50:00.001-06:00

A few weeks ago I went to the mini-farmer's market that has set up on 8th Street at Preston on Thursday mornings. I was surprised to see a vendor selling chanterelles. We chatted for a while and he told me they are from Northern Saskatchewan, picked by himself and a few friends. They looked like the mushrooms I knew from my visits to Poland - "kurki."

I remember kurki in butter as being one of my favourite things to eat at my Grandparents' home. I remember my Grandmother standing at the stove stirring the mushrooms until they glistened. I remember her serving them with barley or just simply over good bread. I remember her delegating my sister and I to make the tea. I remember sitting at the large table scarfing down the best meals made by Grandma. I miss her a lot.

Well, I thought I might call my Mom to ask about these chanterelles and if they were really kurki. I bought a bag and before supper, called to confirm. Yes, indeed, chanterelles are kurki. After a quick consultation on the best way to cook them, I started down memory lane.

Always up for a challenge, I decided to attempt to make homemade pasta, by myself, without a pasta-roller-machine-thingy. Good thing Ian and I had just received a wonderful present from my Parents for our 5th wedding anniversary:

This thing mixes, whips and kneads beautifully. I have already made meringues, a pavlova, whole-wheat bread, two batches of brioche, coffee cake and it's only been three weeks! The mixer made quick work of the pasta dough, turning it silky smooth. I absolutely love my new toy. Thank you Mom and Dad!

My first attempt at hand-rolling pasta was a disaster. I needed to call in reinforcements in the form of Ian's forearms. It's so hard to get the sheets thin enough. I used a recipe from Jamie Oliver's book, Cook with Jamie, and he recommends the thickness of the pasta sheets be somewhere between a beer coaster and a playing card. Eventually, we just settled on the beer coaster.

We didn't have the proper flour (00 type), or the proper machinery, or even, the right amount of patience, but the meal ended up just perfect!

While I was cutting the pasta into strips, Ian quickly sauteed half an onion in butter, then added the chanterelles with some salt and pepper. Then, when Ian was setting the table, I melted some more butter and placed the drained pasta into the mushroom mixture. Finally, when Ian was getting the camera ready, I mixed in even more butter through the pasta to coat and sprinkled over a tablespoon of fresh dill (Can you tell? Us Polish folks like their butter!)

Mmmm, these were just the flavours I remembered from my Grandparents' home.

It's curious how this simple meal of mushrooms and pasta brought back so many emotions for me. I feel lucky to have had the opportunity to visit my Grandparents, help them in their garden, cook with Grandma in her tiny kitchen and eat these amazing fresh foods as a teenager. I feel blessed to be able to continue my Grandma's cooking. I feel a little sad that I'll never see Grandma again. But most of all, I feel happy to have kept many beautiful and joyful memories.

cheese, please.

2009-03-30T21:46:00.001-06:00

I'm looking to try different kinds of cheeses, and my go-to place in Saskatoon is the Bulk Cheese Warehouse. Check out my conversation with the owner, Scott Bartlett, on foodtv.ca.

It was so interesting to hear him tell stories about cheese, business plans, the butcher shop and local food culture. Wow, that guy is a great storyteller. Thank you Scott!

Caffe Sola

2009-03-23T19:53:00.005-06:00

Check out my review of Caffe Sola on the Food Network Canada site.

Here is a cool pic that didn't make it onto their website. The chairs are so interesting! If anyone knows what the source is for these, please let me know.

Coming up on foodtv.ca: my profile of the BulkCheese Warehouse.

Coming up on birdseyechili: the best beef curry I know how to make...thus far.

Long time no write + how to save money

2009-01-25T10:39:00.004-06:00

Well, friends: it's been a while. Let all the usual excuses apply (she says, embarrassed)...

Now let's move on.

As those that know me just a little bit will attest, I loathe throwing away food. Maybe this comes from my thrifty upbringing, what with the second-hand clothing, price-comparing at the grocery store, and going without until I've saved enough to buy that one quality item. Now that I'm grown up, even the lowliest of fridge-dwellers get turned into something edible....I've been known to caramelize a pair of squishy onions and freeze them before going on vacation because I couldn't bear to compost them! Yes, I know. It's strange.

I'm not sure If I should even tell you the extent of this, but here goes:

I freeze end bits of dried and stale bread. That's right. I cut them into cubes and add them to a zip-top bag in the freezer. Dried baguettes, stale toast, hardened whole-wheat loves, you name it. Artisan bread just isn't as good the day after it's baked, so off to the cutting board, and into cubes it goes. Each end-piece ends up yielding about 1/2 to 1 cup. Slowly, I fill that zip-top bag. Then I use the cubed bread for croutons, stuffing, meatloaf, and breadcrumbs.

As a result of this thriftiness gene, once every two weeks, we eat a refrigerator-clean-up soup, or stew, or curry, or casserole, or fried rice, or ... (you get the idea)... This practice allows me to use up all those left-over bits of herbs, vegetables, cheeses and meals that would otherwise make it to the garbage or compost bin. Of course, each "clean-up meal" provides us with a hearty dinner and plenty of left-overs for Ian to take to work for lunch. Food is used that would otherwise be composted and therefore, money saved.

There is essentially one technique for each of these refrigerator-clean-up meals, but the ingredients change based on what needs to be "cleaned up". I have already gone the stew, curry and casserole route for dinner, so I decided it was time to tackle breakfast. And luckily, I had a bag of quality bread cubes to use.

Of course, the point of this meal is to use what you have. I image this would be yummy with left-over beans, mushrooms, basil, parsley, basically any kind of herb, roasted vegetables, corn, chilis, bits of left-over chicken or steak, fried tofu or tempeh. Use what's in your fridge! The combination below happens to be what I had in my fridge last night.

Another added bonus is that you assemble everything the night before and the bread soaks up the egg and milk mixture overnight. In the morning, while you're having your first cup of coffee, just pop the entire thing into oven, and 40min later you have a delicious breakfast...to go with your second cup of coffee!

Breakfast casserole
- one large zip-top bag of old bread cubes
- couple of slices of bacon, cubed
- 2 sausages, sliced
- 1 large onion, diced
- 2 tomatoes, diced
- 1 zucchini, sliced in rounds
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 2 inch piece of goat cheese
- left-over bit of aged cheddar
- Parmesan cheese
- salt and pepper
- 10 eggs
- 4 cups milk, or more

1. Fry bacon and sausage until crispy. Add onions and saute until softened.

2. In the meantime, pour bread cubes into a large casserole dish and mix thoroughly so that all the different kinds are incorporated together.

3. Once the bacon and onion mixture is cooked, add it to the bread along with tomato, peas, crumbled goat cheese, other cheeses.

4. Saute the zucchini rounds in the left-over bacon fat (mmm, bacon fat) and add it to the bread mixture. Mix thoroughly so everything is incorporated.

5. Whisk the eggs and milk, adding salt and pepper to taste. Pour over the bread. Tilt the pan to make sure the liquid is evenly dispersed, then cover and let sit in the fridge overnight.

6. When ready to bake, set the oven to 350 degrees and stir the mixture so the top gets moistened. Top with more cheese, and bake 30-40 minutes. I didn't preheat the oven, and mine was ready in about 60 minutes. I imagine that the time varies depending on your casserole and how full it is - test it by spooning a little out of the middle and seeing if it's hot.

The texture was like a savory french toast - crispy on the top and creamy/custard-like in the middle. As a bonus, we now have breakfast for the week! I'll portion the casserole into cubes and store individual pieces in glass containers ready to microwave in the mornings.

Now go off to investigate what's lurking in the depths of your fridge and make a clean-up meal for yourself!

Chard and beet green tart

2008-07-12T10:06:00.002-06:00

Even though I don't usually cook from recipes, I am often inspired by recipes when making a new dish. As I've written before, I often check out my favourite cookbooks, blogs and chef's sites for the perfect blend of ingredients to make a dish. Then I modify these into the one recipe I will use.

Lately though, I've been just been pulling recipes straight out of my head. And they've been working! I suppose it's all the time I have now, you know, being on vacation and all :)

Earlier this week I made a Vietnamese tofu bun, complete with my own sauce, which brought me back to the days when I was a student in good old Toronto. Those were the days. Waking up late, subway to school, a little Vietnamese for lunch (toronto.com link) and a stroll through the ROM in the afternoon. I often picked up dinner ingredients from mom n' pop shops in the Bloor West Village (where I lived) and made some delicious eats for one. Evenings spent out with friends for drinks, a movie or a show. Or window-shopping. Oh, the shopping.

That bun tasted like my favourite Vietnamese joint in Toronto, so much so that I'll have to make it again and write down the quantities so I can share with you all.

In the meantime, I'd like to share a recipe for a tart I made a couple of nights ago. Ian's verdict: "Delicious! It's like getting the vegetables for free!" And his follow-up tweet: "Even better than free. Most people would pay to take veggies away." Aww, I love my husband.

I created this recipe just as it was happening, and I'm happy to say, we enjoyed it so much, I will make it again. I also used a fancier setup for the photos, which took longer, but since the tart needs to rest before cutting, the timing worked out well.

As always with my recipes, I invite you to use what you have. I made my own pastry, but if you wanted, you could use frozen pie shells as a short-cut (I did this my entire life until I recently bought a tart pan and now have the time to make my own!). I had left-over garlic butter (from garlic bread a few days before), so I used that to flavour the greens. But you could just use olive oil, or butter, or butter with a bit of chopped garlic.

You can also replace the shallots with one medium red or white onion. If you don't have the same kind of cheeses we did, just use what you have - it'll work! I promise! Finally, we used Andouille sausage from Oyama Sausage at the Granville Island Public Market in Vancouver. You could use any kind of left-over meat: Italian sausage, roasted chicken, bit of left-over ham. For a vegetarian version, replace the meat with more mushrooms, or even sauteed herbed tofu.

Since this recipe comes together in separate parts, I recommend you season each part as you cook it. In fact, I like to season each ingredient as I add it. Just a little salt and pepper for each, then taste and modify if needed. That way, the flavours will build in layers and you will get nice depth of flavour throughout the entire dish.

"Free Vegetable" Savory Tart

for the pastry (modified from The Best of Baking <-- everyone should own this!)
- 1 cup unbleached white flour
- 1/3 cup whole wheat flour
- pinch salt
- 7 tbsp butter (about 4/5 of a stick, or 100 g)
- 1-4 tbsp ice-cold water

for the filling
- left-over garlic butter
- one large bunch Swiss chard
- one large bunch beet greens
- 3 shallots, sliced thinly
- 7 button mushrooms, sliced thinly
- 1 foot-long Andouille sausage

- salt and pepper
- 3 large eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 6 tbsp softened cream cheese
- 4 slices feta, crumbled (about 1/2 cup, maybe?)
- 1/3 cup grated Parmesan, plus more for top
- 6 chives, finely chopped

1. For the pastry, mix flour and salt in a food processor (or by hand if you're not lazy like me). Add the chopped butter and pulse until it resembles bread crumbs. Add the egg and pulse. Add ice-water in 1 tbsp intervals until dough has enough "stick" to it to easily come together (I used 2 tbsp in my climate).

2. Dump it onto the counter and push it together into a disk. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 30-45 minutes. When ready to use, lightly flour a surface and roll into a circle (obviously!). Gently lay into a tart or pie pan without stretching. Press into sides. Leave the excess for folding over, or cut off excess.

3. While the pastry dough is resting, clean the greens, dry and chop them. I chopped the chard into roughly inch-long pieces, and the been greens into ribbons. But you decide how you like it. Also, slice shallots and mushrooms thinly.

4. In a medium saute pan on medium heat, melt a tsp of butter and saute chard with a bit of salt, then set aside. Then saute beet greens (add bit of salt) and set aside. More butter or oil, add shallots for 1 min, then add mushrooms, and season with salt and pepper. Saute until most of the moisture has evaporated out of the mushrooms. Add sausage and heat through for another 2-3 minutes.

5. Mix greens and mushroom mixture in a bowl and set into fridge to cool a bit. In the meantime, beat the eggs and remaining ingredients in a medium bowl, adding salt and pepper to taste.

** Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. **

6. Roll out tart and lay into pan. When tart is ready, combine the greens and egg mixtures. Place solids into tart, distributed evenly. Pour liquids over top, and jiggle the tart to distribute liquids. Grate a bit of parmesan over the top. If you have left-over pastry edges, fold them down on top of the tart.

7. Put a sheet pan or some foil under the tart pan to catch drippings. Bake for 40-50 minutes until pastry is golden brown. Let the tart rest for 10 minutes before cutting. Serve generous pieces with salad or by themselves.

This made a great dinner, but I could also see this as an awesome brunch or lunch item too! Enjoy!

Breakfast cookies

2008-07-05T09:55:00.003-06:00

When zipping out the door in the mornings at 6:30 or 7 a.m., we tend to forget about breakfast. I know it's unhealthy, but it's just the reality of a busy life.

To combat that, every few weeks for the last year I have made two loaves and a pile of muffins of some sort of breakfast-type healthy breads. We portion them off into tupperware and zip-top bags and freeze individual portions. This way, we can grab one from the freezer the night before to defrost, and voila - healthy breakfast on the go!

Some weeks the flavours are zucchini-carrot, other weeks it's banana-walnut-cranberry. I basically use what I have and strive to make this a healthy quick meal in one. I add plenty of nuts and seeds, and always use fresh veggies or fruit. There is often only 1/2 cup sugar, and 1/3 cup oil in the whole batter! (that's for two breads and a dozen muffins). The rest of the sweetness comes from honey, maple syrup, applesauce or cranberries and the breads are moist as a result of prune puree, yogurt or applesauce.

But lately I've become tired of eating these breads. Even though the flavours vary, the texture and shape remain the same and have started to bore me. So last week, I decided to modify my recipe into a seedy and dense breakfast cookie. That's right, a cookie for breakfast.

I was quite surprised at how well these turned out and will most definitely make them again. In fact, these would be perfect as road trip snacks (which we had on our recent trip to Vancouver!), as power boosts during a hike or as a mid-morning snack to hold you over if you have a late lunch. I'm also going to try spreading the batter into a square pan and cutting power-bar-like shapes as an easier and faster alternative to placing and spacing cookies.

Breakfast cookies
(an original recipe)

dry:
- 1 cup whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup kamut flour (can use spelt, whole wheat, or white)
- 4 tbsp freshly ground flax seed
- 1/2 cup wheat germ
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp baking soda

wet:
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/8 to 1/3 cup Demerara sugar (depending on your sweet tooth)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla
- 1/3 cup milk
- 1 cup old fashioned oats, soaked in 1 cup hot water for 5-10 min

mix-ins:
- 1/3 cup shredded coconut (I used sweetened, but if you have unsweetened, add more sugar)
- 1/3 cup sesame seeds
- 1/3 cup chopped pecans (or other nuts that you have)
- 2/3 cup sunflower seeds
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries

Preheat oven to 350F/175 C. Line a cookie sheet with a silicon mat or coat with butter.

1. Put on 1 cup of water to boil and place oats in a small cereal bowl. When water is boiling, pour over oats and cover with a plate. Let stand until you're ready for them, 5-10 min.

2. In a medium bowl, stir all dry ingredients together.

3. In a large bowl, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time, and incorporate with a whisk. Stir in vanilla and milk.

4. Drain any excess water from oats. Stir in dry ingredients into wet, alternating with adding oats. Be sure that you stir quickly after each addition of the hot oats so eggs don't cook.

5. Stir in the mix-ins, making any substitutions you like, but keep the entire quantity the same (just over 2 cups). Spoon onto cookie sheet, flatten, and bake for 12-15 minutes until the tops brown slightly.

I wanted substantial cookies, so I made 7 large cookies in each batch for a total of 14 cookies. If you make normal sized ones, you could probably get 20 cookies out of this batter.

Fresh summer pasta

2008-06-22T09:00:00.002-06:00

On Saturday mornings, Ian and I like to go to the Saskatoon Farmer's Market. We have supported it since we arrived in Saskatoon. Then, it was located in a street in front of City Hall, but now it has its own building and market square on the riverfront.

As the general population becomes more conscious about being 'green' and eating local, the market has become busier and busier. It makes sense: to really know what you're buying, it helps to buy from the producer. I particularly like our city's market because it has a strict 'sell your own stuff' policy:

Members must make, bake or grow whatever they are selling. It is not permitted to buy and re-sell at the market. Each individual...must be personally present to operate their stall.

At the Saskatoon Farmer's Market, I can talk to Clifford, the flour guy, about his ultra-clean grains and to Wally, the urban gardener, about his micro-greens. I'm able to ask re-planting advice for the herbs I bought from Helga and am instructed on the benefits of local honey to help curb allergies from the Bee Lady.

The first Saturday of summer (yesterday) started off with a trip to the market and a decision to make 'green' pasta. That is, pasta made with green, local, seasonal, ingredients.

It mostly worked: the kale, zucchini and lemon were from Dad's, and the salt, pepper, onion, cheese and oil were imported. But the rest were all bought from the producers at the market.

Fresh Summer Pasta

- 3 servings fresh linguine

- small bag micro-arugula

- 4 stalks green garlic, minced

- 7 stalks asparagus, chopped into inch-long pieces

- 2 sprigs thyme

- 1 zucchini, sliced

- 2 leaves kale

- half an onion, chopped roughly

- zest and juice from half a lemon

- parmesan cheese to taste

- salt and pepper to taste

- olive oil to taste

1. Boil water for the pasta. Generously salt the water. Meanwhile, prepare all the vegetables.

2. Heat as large an amount of olive oil as you like in a large pan (2-3 tbsp) on med-high heat. Saute the onion and garlic, seasoned with salt and pepper, until translucent. Add zucchini and cook long enough so it gains some colour.

3. Meanwhile, remove the kale from the stock and roughly chop into small-ish pieces. Add asparagus, kale and thyme leaves to the pan.

4. Drain pasta in a colander when ready and drizzle with olive oil. Season with salt and pepper and grated parmesan.

5. Combine pasta with sauteed vegetables, lemon juice and zest and arugula. The arugula will wilt from the residual heat of the pasta and pan. If you like, add more oil and parmesan for a creamier texture.

Serves 3 very hungry people as a main course, or 5 as a side dish.

Fiddleheads

2008-06-21T10:01:00.002-06:00

February 20. The date of my last post here.

It's been a while friends. This past semester has been difficult with two new preps, a few behaviourally-challenged students, and unfortunately, many nights of eating out or ordering in. But exam week is over now, and in one short week - SUMMER! The time of lazying around, planting herbs, experimenting with our new-to-us-but-used barbecue and mid-morning yoga classes. I can't wait. Of course, summer also comes with new blog-updating-resolutions.

Having a little more time this past week allowed me to pick up some locally-grown and handpicked fiddleheads. These are the curled fronds of a young fern plant. If you've ever seen them growing, they start off looking like a violin scroll, then unfurl into a fern plant. I tried them for the first time one year ago in New Brunswick - actually, I tasted them off a plate of one of my fellow-conference goers. Interesting texture: crisp on the outside with a soft middle.

Even though I had time to pick these up at a specialty store, apparently I didn't have time to research their proper and safe preparation. Don't worry, we were all fine, no one got sick. But as I was checking out the details for this post, I found out my method of cooking was not the most safe - oops! I've modified the recipe to include what I would do next time:

Sauteed Fiddleheads

- 1 bag fiddleheads - I had enough to serve 3 as a side dish

- 2 cloves garlic, minced

- 1 tbsp butter (or more!)

- pinch salt

- few cranks fresh ground pepper

1. Boil some water in a medium saucepan. Meanwhile, clean the fiddleheads, cutting off any black/brown parts, and washing the fronds of dirt.

2. Blanch (that means throw into the boiling water) the fiddleheads in the water for 7-10 minutes (this is the part I didn't do!) until crisp but not soggy. Shock them by placing in a bowl of ice water. Insert a sieve first for easy retrieval.

3. Melt butter in saute pan on medium heat and cook garlic for 1 min or until fragrant but not burnt. Meanwhile, pat dry the fiddleheads with paper towel or clean dish towel. Add the dry fiddleheads, salt and pepper to the butter and saute until heated through, about 2-3 minutes.

I served these with trout and mashed potatoes adorned with chives from my garden. Yum!

Easy lunch

2008-02-20T06:03:00.001-06:00

Yesterday Ella and I made a quick and light salad for lunch. I'm almost embarrassed to call this a recipe - it was that easy.

Smoked Salmon Salad

Arrange smoked salmon on a large plate and grate some lemon zest over the top. Dot on some goat cheese, sprinkle with baby arugula and top with a generous amount of capers. Drizzle on fresh lemon juice* and eat!

*If you like, you can also drizzle with good quality olive oil, but we found the salmon already quite oily so omitted this step.

Stupid internal clock

2008-02-19T12:23:00.004-06:00

I am now on our annual February Break. To clarify, that doesn't mean I don't work, just that I work from home and get to wear pajamas. Last Saturday was my first Saturday off. Guess what time I got up on that first Saturday morning off? You won't believe me, but I swear it's true: 5:30 a.m.

Stupid internal clock.

I was fully awake and ready to take on the day. I guess when I wake up that early every day (sometimes I sleep in till 6 a.m...), I am just physically unable to sleep in. Finally today, a full four days into the break, I slept until 8 a.m. Whoa, I'm outta control now!

So what do I do when I wake up at 5:30 in the morning on my first Saturday off work? Why, make Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Buns of course! The original recipe comes from Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois. I found it via Jaden, who inspired me by her gorgeous photographs and quick wit. The book has already been put on hold for me from our local library, so all you Saskatoonians who read this blog will have to wait at least another three weeks :)

The basic idea is this: you make a huge batch of Master No-Kneed Dough and keep in your fridge for two weeks or so. Anytime you wish to have Artisan Bread (or Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Buns), you just rip off a chunk of dough, preheat your oven, do 5-10 minutes of prep, and you're 30 min away from eating delicious, essentially no-work, bread.

Sticky Cinnamon Pecan Buns
From Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day

I changed a few things from the original found here.

Dough - instead of using 7 cups white flour, I used 6 cups white, 1 cup spelt (next time I'll add more spelt)

Topping - instead of brown sugar, I used organic Demerara sugar (next time, I'll use less butter)

Filling - instead of white sugar, I used some local honey and more Demerara

Method - I used two chunks of the Master Dough which essentially doubled the recipe. I didn't double the amount of topping or filling though. When it came time to roll, I rolled the dough pretty thin because I wanted small buns. (next time, I'll try to roll bigger buns)

We had them for breakfast and they were delicious. And look - here's Adam's Food Negation Theory coming into effect: 4 sticky buns followed by a quarter of a honeydew. STICKY BUNS NEGATED.

Happy '08 + Kulfi

2008-01-26T07:20:00.000-06:00

I figured I better get a post in before the end of January so that I can still say Happy New Year to you all without feeling too embarassed:

Happy 2008 to all my readers! May your year be filled with delicious food experiences, stimulating conversations and exciting adventures - do something crazy and unexpected this year!

Now after the uncomfortable-ness of those first few lines (sorry I've been away!), I bring you the kulfi recipe that I promised a few months ago.

Kulfi is an Indian frozen dessert that isn't quite like ice cream. Ice cream is typically churned to inject air and produce a creamy texture. Kulfi is made with flavoured boiled milk that reduces and thickens naturally. The milk is cooled and frozen, resulting in quite a dense texture.

I don't have time or patience for that. Sitting there for hours waiting for the milk to boil and reduce, all the while watching that it doesn't scorch the bottom of the pan? Come on. There's no way. And once you burn the milk, you'll never overcome that burnt taste. That batch is going to have to be dumped. Not to mention that your kitchen will smell like burnt milk for hours. Gross.

It's much easier to use my method adapted from here. Here's the secret ingredient. Can you guess what it is without scrolling down? :)

Yup, cubed white bread.

This adds in some of that denseness without having to stand over the stove boiling the milk for hours.

My adaptations grew in a large part from my desire to have kulfi whenever I wanted. So, I've multiplied the original recipe by approximately 2.5.

As such, we have now re-christened the frozen orange juice drawer in our freezer as the kulfi drawer.

"Where's the frozen spinach?" husband asks.

"In the kulfi drawer," I reply.

Here's the final product. Hey, it's hard to take photos of frozen things!

Kulfi
adapted from Mercedes at Desert Candy

3 cups whole milk (use the rest of the carton to make your own paneer or ricotta cheese!)
2 cans evaporated milk, 370mL each
2 cans sweetened condensed milk, 300mL each
8 slices white bread, crusts removed (use the rest to make stuffing!)
3 tsp cardamom seeds, slightly crushed
10-20 cardamom pods (I love cardamom, so I add lots!)
3 inch-long cinnamon sticks
pinch saffron strands (optional)
pinch salt
4 tbsp finely ground pistachios, plus more chopped pistachios for serving

1. If you have saffron, sprinkle it into 1 cup of the whole milk and let it sit while you ready the other ingredients.

2. Combine rest of milks, cardamom seeds, salt, 4 tbsp pistachios in a large pot. Use an herb ball or tea ball to hold the cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks. If you don't have such a contraption, just add these in loose but make sure you've written down how many pods and sticks you have to fish out before blending.

3. Add in saffron-infused milk. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 10 to 15 minutes, stirring and being careful to not burn the milk.

4. Fish out the herb ball or loose cardamom pods and cinnamon sticks. Cube white bread and add it in. Let sit for 5 minutes while the bread gets heavy with the milk mixture. It should look lumpy like this.

5. Time for the power tools. Transfer to a blender, and blend, baby, blend! Note: with my quantities, I do this in two batches.

6. Ladle carefully into any molds you can find in your house. We use espresso cups, various ramekin sizes, small tea cups, and shot glasses. I figure that using a variety of sizes allows me to choose the amount of decadence I want. Although, inevitably, the larger containers go first, then we're left with the measly shot glasses. The photo below shows the quantity that this recipe makes, plus another 7 kulfi "popsicles" that I'd already put into the freezer.

7. Let cool, then transfer to a freezer drawer (or set on a tray), covered with plastic wrap. The smaller containers will be ready in 4 hours and the larger ones will be ready the next day.

8. When ready to eat, either sprinkle with chopped pistachios and eat out of the mold, or loosen the kulfi with a hot water bath and invert onto a plate, then garnish.

Note: kulfi will be very hard right out of the freezer. I usually set it out to soften for 10-15 minutes before serving. That way, my spoons don't get all bent up!

C'mon, take a bite!

It's smooth...

2007-12-16T08:43:00.000-06:00

1 block soft organic tofu (from Dad's) +
2 frozen mango halves +
5-6 frozen strawberries +
1/2 frozen banana +
1/2 cup your favourite yogurt (if you're not vegan) +
1 cup or more fancy juice, like pomegranate or açaí =

a rich, creamy and (surprisingly) filling breakfast.* Yum!

* You have to blend everything first, then you get the smooth goodness :)

A-roasting we will go

2007-12-08T14:14:00.000-06:00

Obtain an acorn squash or two from your local farmer's market or organic produce store and cut it in half. Take a moment to be amazed by the squash.

Scoop out the seeds with a spoon. Sprinkle with red onion, chopped garlic, fresh thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Drizzle with olive oil.

Place in a roasting pan and roast at 400F about 1 hour until almost cooked through.

In the meantime, scour your fridge for any left-over vegetables, nuts, dried fruit, grains and herbs. Chop everything into fairly small pieces.

Next, brown some ground pork, ground beef, spicy sausage, or even rehydrated textured vegetable protein in a fry-pan.

Remove meat once cooked through and sauté vegetables in the same pan until tender.

Add in browned meat, grains, dried fruit, nuts and herbs. Mix thoroughly.

Stuff into roasted squash and bake until squash is very tender, another 20-30 minutes.

Enjoy with a nice glass of white wine.

Best Indian Food Ever!

2007-11-30T17:14:00.000-06:00

Check out my profile of the Taj Mahal on the food network site!

...and stay tuned for my interpretation of kulfi this weekend - mmm, cardamom, saffron and pistachios. You don't even need an ice cream machine for my version!!

More on foodtv!

2007-09-17T22:24:00.000-06:00

Here's my second entry for Food Network Canada.

And, don't worry, I haven't forgotten about all my peeps (ok, Ula, my dear sister, don't laugh at me for saying "peeps") who posted a comment on the first entry. I said I would randomly pick one of you and send a little gift and I intend to do just that :)

Just please bear with me as this week is hectic - meet the parents night, three classes writing tests, two sets of labs to mark, two sets of journals to mark, a new unit to start, a musical to help organize and a presentation to get ready for. Oh yes - I also teach four math and science classes each day! Whew! (I think it's time for sleep now...)

I promise I'll put your names in a hat this week and get one of my trustworthy students to choose someone... then I'm off to the post office!

Fatty fish

2007-09-16T09:05:00.000-06:00

Since we're protesting against cable television (read: too cheap to pay for cable), we rely on podcasts, youtube, the library, and 'other' sources for our mindless entertainment. Recently, we found episodes of "Hell's Kitchen" on youtube, and we've been catching up on all three seasons. Each season begins with Gordon Ramsey ordering the contestants to make their signature dish. Of course, after tasting each dish, Ramsey proceeds to spit it out, swear profusely and call the contestant very rude names.

This got me thinking (not the spitting and swearing - the signature dish!). If I had to pick one dish that I might label as my signature dish, what would it be? Hmm...

There are dishes that I always seem to bring to potlucks - ribs, grain salads, pork tenderloins, strawberry-white-chocolate mouse cake - but those are just crowd-pleasers. I wouldn't exactly call them my signature dish.

Then it dawned on me. I make a pretty awesome fatty fish (except when doing a zillion things at once and not paying attention it becomes less than awesome). But for now, I'm going to call this my signature dish - I love it's simplicity and clean flavours. Besides it can be made in less than 30 minutes.

Please don't use frozen (or frozen and thawed) fish for this. Buy good quality salmon from a fish monger or farmer's market. If you have access to it, try to find wild-caught Alaskan salmon. For other fish choices, check out Seafood Watch to learn about which varieties of fish won't kill our oceans. Note that if you do decide to buy responsibly, you're going to have to shell out $28/lb or so. Just buy smaller portions and eat less meat the rest of the week to make up the cost :)

Asian-inspired Salmon (or trout or tuna or other fatty fish)

boneless fillets of fatty fish
soy sauce
maple syrup
grated fresh ginger
lots of fresh ground pepper, coarsely ground
a little salt

1. Find a shallow vessel that will hold all your fillets. I usually use a pie plate for 2-4 portions or a glass baking dish for up to 12 portions. Pour enough soy sauce to cover the bottom of the vessel by 0.5 cm and add some maple syrup. For a pie plate, I add about 2 tbsp, but adjust according to your own tastes.

2. Grate in a 2 cm-long knob of ginger (or more if you like) and sprinkle with pepper to taste.

3. Mix it all together with a fork and TASTE. Depending on your brand of soy sauce, you may need to add some salt or more maple syrup. Adjust the seasonings.

4. Place your fillets into the vessel and let them marinate in the goodness for as long as you can wait, flipping them over every once in a while. Sometimes I think ahead and do this part as soon as I get home from work so they marinate for 1 hr or so, but sometimes I just let them sit for 10 min if we're in a hurry to eat.

5. Preheat your oven to 425 F. Oil a metal baking tray and place the fillets gently on the tray, with at least 2 cm between them.

6. Bake until done. Yeah, that's right. It's now up to you to watch the fillets. When I'm making 2-4 fillets, I usually check them after 6 minutes, then I watch diligently. When I'm making 6 fillets, I check them after 10 minutes, then I watch diligently. Sometimes I take them out and poke them with a butter knife to see if they're about to start flaking.

DO NOT OVERCOOK. Know that after you take them out, they will keep on baking with the residual heat left in the fish and on the baking tray.

7. Serve with Garlic Scallion Noodles (inspired by Jaden) and steamed baby bok choy like in the photo above, or choose your own favourite sides.

First entry on foodtv!

2007-09-08T10:19:00.000-06:00

Just wanted to invite you to check out my first entry on the Food Network Canada blog. Please write some comments there so I don't feel lonely!

Hey! I have an idea! If you add a comment (and I'm able to find your contact info), I'll enter you into a draw for something really special. So, get commenting and you might find a surprise in your mailbox sometime next week :) [ps. I love you guys!]

Tanakaya

2007-09-02T10:00:00.000-06:00

Each time we travel home, we try to schedule in as many visits with family and friends as possible. Of course, this means that some people get left out (like my friend Jen in Toronto, who we only get to see every couple years). Driving between London and Ottawa, with an occasional stop in Toronto or Kingston to have a meal with a friend is pretty tiring when you're (supposedly) on vacation. I hate trying to schedule in friends like they are business appointments.

Having said all that, when we do get to visit with a handful of friends, the visits are always a great time to catch up and laugh. Of course, they most often center around food.

When Mel and Mark invited us out to Tanakaya, a small Japanese place in the Covent Garden Market in London, we agreed immediately. We ordered an assortment of dishes - gyoza, bbq eel sushi, edamame, veg tempura, a bento box each and some matcha ice cream to finish it off.

I was impressed with the sushi and many items in the bento box (especially the pickled beet and the dressing on the salad), but my salmon was a bit dry. For my tastes, it was slathered with too much sauce and I couldn't taste the flavour of the fish.

I know, I know - in a sushi place, if I wanted to taste the flavour of fish, I should have gotten something raw. But still, you would think that out of all the places I've had sub-par seafood, a sushi joint should not be one of them. Next time we're in town, I'd like to visit again, try something raw and get back to you - hopefully it was just an off night for salmon because the rest of the meal was delicious. Thanks to Mel and Mark for suggesting Tanakaya and for the wonderful company.

King of Cheesecake

2007-09-02T08:03:00.000-06:00

Before we left on vacation (like, a month ago!), Wendy and Mike invited us over for the last supper. Ah, the idea is, you can spend the week getting rid of all the food in your fridge and not have to worry about what you're going to eat the day before your trip because you have wonderful friends who will provide an awesome meal. Got that?

Which leads me to my next point - Mike is the King of Cheesecake. Since we first met them, I think we have tasted about seven different cheesecakes made by the King, one of which is described here (where you can see that Mike is also the King of Pizza).

The last supper cheesecake was a very light raspberry and had a texture that was unlike most cheesecakes - very smooth and not at all grainy. In the photo below you can see a little indent that an errant raspberry made. That's right, the cheesecake was so light that the weight of a single raspberry marred the surface. Absolutely delicious in flavour but what did it for me personally, were the fantastic texture and lightness.

Roasted garden vegetables and grilled skewers rounded out the last supper. Mucho thanks to Wendy and Mike for making travel easier.

Need a drink

2007-08-31T19:17:00.000-06:00

After my first week back to work (which is why we are low on the blog posts yet again), I definitely needed a drink. So I made one (see ingredients below). Any guesses?

If you guessed "strawberry-mango-orange margarita", you win! Edit: Doug and Ula informed me that margaritas have lime and tequilla - oops! Maybe this is a daiquiri ?

Strawberry-Mango-Orange ~~Margarita~~ Daiquiri

two halves of frozen mango
two handfuls of frozen strawberries
two shots of orange juice
two shots of rum (um, I may have used more...)
two teaspoons of Demerara sugar (optional)

Mix everything together in a powerful blender until smooth. Wet the rims of the glasses with orange jucie and dip into the sugar. Pour carefully so as to not disturb the sugar. Cheers!

Vacation is over

2007-08-22T16:46:00.000-06:00

Living 3000km away from family sucks. But, as a bonus, when I do get to visit - like for the last two weeks which is why there are no blog posts - I get food-spoiled. That's right, my family, Ian's family and even random families food-spoil me. In addition to obtaining wicked tans, we also increased our waist sizes considerably. Oh well. That's what family visits are for, right? (um, don't answer that)

We traveled with two absolutely adorable girls and helped deliver them to visit with their Grandparents. As a thank you, their Grandma spoiled us with a basket of treats, cute napkin holders, some sparkly wine and a cookbook. The baklava, peanut butter cookies and homemade "turtles" quickly disappeared - in fact, we had devoured half the treats before I remembered to take a photo! Yum, yum. Thank you for the thank you treats, Grandma!

Family dinners with my Mom and Dad consisted of childhood favourites: mainly meat-n-potatoes with fresh veg on the side. Here are the only two pics I remembered to take.

Roasted pork, mashed potatoes and green beans. My Mom is the Queen of falling-apart roast pork.

Meatloaf, roasted potatoes and tomato salad.

Ian's family spoiled us with treats - chocolate, ice cream, junk food, Dairy Queen dilly bars, late-night bruschetta made by my brother-in-law (who is also known for the best-ever-in-life-roast-beef-made-at-home that I'm still trying to copy but am too cheap to buy a good cut).

I'm thankful that I was food-spoiled, but also a little sad that my waist has expanded. I've been going on mad bike rides and doing power yoga almost every day to make up for it. It's slowly working :) Of course, I didn't even consider limiting my food intake, because, well, that would be stupid.

I'm not a gardener (and raspberry bread with lemon curd)

2007-08-03T12:06:00.001-06:00

I ~~grow~~ watch the following grow in my backyard: weeds, some cooking herbs, four strawberry plants and a bunch of raspberries. Yup, I'm lazy. Luckily, we have just the right amount of raspberry bushes - not enough to have to do any work, but plenty so we get a bowl-ful of plump berries every few days.

Earlier this week I had a craving for easy raspberry bread. So I began to search out and/or formulate a recipe. Usually I begin with skimming through my personal recipe collection (organized by my beautiful friend Taryn, and added to by my "aunt" Donna) to see if I can find any similar recipes.

Next, I move onto checking the handful of cookbooks I own. I'm pretty selective in the cookbooks I buy, although, I usually borrow 3 (or 7) from the library each week (yeah, other people read Harry Potter, I read cookbooks. Um, I read Harry Potter too). Nothing found in the cookbooks.

Next comes the web search, starting with searching through my favourite blogs, then favourite chef sites, then foodtv.ca, then foodtv.com (they have different licensing agreements, and thus, different recipes).

Finally, after I have found my favourite few recipes, I modify and/or consolidate them into the one I will try. After tasting the result for the first time, I write down my impressions and any changes I would make the next time. And so the process repeats.

Healthy Raspberry Bread

2 cups spelt flour (or use whole wheat)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/2 cup sugar
1 large egg
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp prune puree + 1 tbsp oil (or 3 tbsp oil, but I try to lower the fat content)
1/2 cup yogurt + 1/2 cup milk (or use 1 cup half and half, or use 3/4 cup yogurt + 1/4 cup milk)
2 cups raspberries

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Oil a regular loaf tin (or muffin tins).

2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder and salt.

3. In a large bowl, stir sugar, egg, vanilla and prune+oil until combined. Stir in half of the flour mixture and all the yogurt+milk. Stir in the rest of the flour until just combined (add 1-2 tbsp more yogurt if dough is on the dry side - this depends on the flour you use)

4. Gently stir in the berries and spread into pan, evening out the top.

5. Bake for approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour or until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the middle.

6. Let cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack covered with a tea towel (to prevent ridges) and cool completely before slicing. Serve alone, or with a thin spread of butter or lemon curd.

Lemon Curd
(modified from Alton Brown's recipe)

1 lemon and 1/2 lime, zested and juiced (or, only use lemon - you should have 1/3 cup of juice from the citrus)
5 egg yolks
1 cup sugar (next time, I'll use 3/4 cup only)
1 stick butter (1/4 of a 454 g block), cut into 1-2 cm thick slices

1. Prepare a bowl that will fit over a pot of boiling water. Simmer 1 inch of water in such a pot (you've just made yourself a double boiler).

2. In the bowl (not yet placed over the water), whisk together the citrus juice and zest, sugar and egg yolks until thoroughly combined.

3. Place the bowl over the simmering water (the bottom of the bowl should not touch the water) and continue whisking for 7 or 8 minutes non-stop. If you stop, you run the risk of scrambling the eggs, although the double-boiling method helps to prevent this. You will know when you are done when the mixture turns a light yellow colour and coats the back of a spoon (nappe).

4. Take the bowl off the heat and whisk in one slice of butter at a time. Whisk until each slice is fully incorporated, then add the next slice. Continue this pattern until all or most (I left two knobs - see pic) of the butter is added, putting the bowl back over the hot water for a few minutes if the butter is taking too long to melt into the mixture.

5. Transfer to a clean bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the surface of the curd (to prevent a skin from forming). Refrigerate for up to 2 or even 3 weeks (this is surprisingly stable stuff!).

We spread it on the raspberry bread and had it for breakfast. Drool...

Surprise Dinner

2007-08-02T12:33:00.000-06:00

I wanted to do something nice for our friends Wendy and Mike. They are such loving and selfless people who always inspire us to be better (and all we do is mooch from their garden!)

Besides engaging in stimulating conversation, sharing their pizza-making secrets and competing in games of SET, they are also the type of people who readily give away fresh produce from their garden, allow the use of their car for furniture-moving, and always send us home with stunning home-baked goods (Wendy says: "Friends don't let friends get fat. Now take the cheesecake home already!)

I decided to cook them an anniversary dinner. Not just any kind of dinner, mind you, but an eight-course tasting menu with the theme of "Around the World". And, to give them some time for themselves (wink, wink), I picked up their two lovely daughters at 9am on the day in question and prepared the celebration with the girls. It was a blast.

The girls and I spent two weeks plotting in secret - the girls provided menu and decor ideas, as well as an entertainment schedule. Last Friday, they spent the day choosing the appropriate plates, making construction-paper flags and decorations, and mostly importantly, cooking - making dips, operating the appliances, stirring, mixing and tasting the progress of the meals (I got: "Eww, I don't like that" and "Mmm, that tastes like lemonade" and "What's an amuse bouche?"). It was so much fun!

Our dining table was carefully transported to the living room and the kitchen was cordoned off with an old drape, to which we taped two signs, made by each of the girls: "Eploiees Only" and "Inplogeis Only." The girls worked as waitresses and entertainers: in between serving the dishes, they played the piano and sang (in multiple languages!). Unbelievably cute.

Unfortunately, since I was busy cooking, plating and managing two kids under 10yrs old, I forgot to take photos of many of the dishes :( Here's the menu though with a few of the pics I did take:

Italy. Amuse Bouche - Baby Insalata Caprese

Spain. Gazpacho in a Cucumber Bowl (photos are from the making of...)

Mexico. Roasted Corn and Black Bean Salad with Tortilla and Chipotle Cream (the most stylized dish of the night)
China. Steamed Pork Dumplings (or Veg Dumplings for Mike) - I had made these before

Morocco. Minty Couscous with Lemon Salmon (or Grilled Portobello for Mike)

Malaysia. Spicy Clear Broth Soup with Glass Noodles and Tofu

France. Selection of Pastries Purchased from a local Bakery (with chocolate sauce and ice cream)

Arctic. Sugar Granita with a Snowflake Cookie

Blog Changes

2007-08-01T14:25:00.001-06:00

I'm making changes around here so if you pick up my blog in an RSS reader, you may get a hundred entries coming your way. Sorry about that!

Malaysian Red Chili Chicken

2007-08-01T13:32:00.000-06:00

One of my favourite food inspiration websites is Tastespotting. Users submit photos of food or food-related items along with a link to the original site - a blog, news article, kitchen store, winery, you get the idea. Editors monitor and post drool-worthy items. Every day I check out the pretty pictures and the interesting food combos. Sometimes, the stars align, and I happen upon a recipe or idea that I can make instantly with what I have on hand.

Last week, the food Gods sent me Meena's recipe for Malaysian Red Chili Chicken. I made a few alternations according to what I had in the fridge and made it for dinner that very night! I wasn't even going to do a photo shoot because we were so hungry and it smelled so good, but Ian convinced me to snap a couple of pictures. Unfortunately, I didn't set up the shot properly and the only one that turned out has weird shadows. Here it is anyway:

Eating this curry brought me straight back to our unbelievably wicked adventure in SE Asia. Ah, the power of food...

Here's the recipe for the chicken, as posted by Meena, with a few of my alterations:

Malaysian Red Chili Chicken

2 large chicken breasts, diced into 1-inch cubes (I only used 1 small chicken breast since we're cutting down on meat - as a result, I had more sauce!)
1 small onion (I used red onion)
1 medium sized tomato (I used three canned tomatos with a little of the juice)
2 lemongrass stalks, only using the white parts (I used 3 stalks)
1 tsp ginger-garlic paste (I used 1 clove of garlic and a 1-inch piece of ginger, both finely minced)
2 tbsp Sambal Oelek (the version I used contained shrimp paste)
1/2 tsp tumeric powder
2 tbsp light cooking oil (I used less)
(I added a finely chopped birds eye chili too, but it will be plenty spicy without)

1. Marinate chicken in salt and turmeric, and set aside for 20-25 minutes.

2. Blend onion, tomato and lemon grass to a smooth fine paste, adding a little water if necessary.

3. Saute the marinated chicken in hot oil till lightly browned, and set aside. In the same pan, fry ginger-garlic paste, Sambal Oelek and onion-tomato-lemon grass paste, stirring continuously till it starts to give out oil from the sides.

4. Add in chicken, salt and water if necessary, and stir fry till chicken in cooked through and the flavours absorbed.

Thank you Meena! I'll definately be making this again - it tasted like the curries we had in Malaysia and Singapore. Looky here: I scrounged up a pic of a dinner we had in Kuala Lumpur in Dec 2005. Yes, those are banana leaves that we are using in lieu of plates. And yes, I was planning those trips around food too, I just wasn't blogging about it back then :)

Chipotle Egg Salad

2007-07-31T11:50:00.000-06:00

I made another version of no-kneed bread a few weeks ago and posted the details in the comments on the original post.

And what better way to enjoy the freshness of dense, seedy bread than with a creamy egg salad (hmm, maybe with good-quality butter, but that's another story). While the bread was still warm, I boiled some eggs, creamed the yolks with mayo, salt, black pepper and pureed chipotle and mixed in the chopped whites. My Dad always makes egg salad this way (well, without the chipotle), smoothing the yolks first - I think it makes for a creamier salad.

What a great breakfast - thick slices of fresh bread with spicy eggs.

Must adhere to chronological postings

2007-07-30T13:58:00.000-06:00

I have a problem. I've made lots of great food lately but am behind in sharing with you, my lovely audience. I feel as though I have to post catch-up meals before I allow myself to describe the recent meals. Weird, huh? That just how I'm wired I guess, and anything out of chronological order will mess with my mind.

So, here's some szarlotka (traditionally, Polish apple pastry) I made a while ago. The pastry didn't turn out as well as when my talented Mom makes it, but it satisfied our sweet and butter craving. I won't share the recipe, because I think it's more about technique than ingredients and I still need tutoring on that from Mom.

Szarlotka is a cake (or is it pie, or squares...can you tell I'm not the baker in the family?) made with a flaky, buttery crust and filled with fruit. When I was growing up, my Mom or Grandma would often make it with apples or strawberries. I decided on strawberry rhubarb since we had recently - ah, about 1 month ago - picked the berries ourselves (that's me, btw).

The rhubarb was fresh from a friend's garden (we are lucky to have such friends - ones that do all the work and let us reep the benefits...what can we say: we're lazy moochers!).

I melted down the fruit a little by cooking and cooling equal parts of strawberry and rhubarb with a little sugar. I also strained out excess juice and made popsicles! Unfortunately the filling (and popsicles) turned out quite tart.

Although, in my mind, that wasn't such a bad thing, considering the crust contained a whole block (not stick) of butter. That's right, 454 grams. So the buttery crust more than made up for the lack of sugar in the filling and the two matched well. As per my family's tradition, I added some sweetness by dusting with icing sugar.

Smacznego! (uh, that's what we say in Polish, in lieu of "Bon Appétit")

Easiest bread in the world

2007-07-19T18:37:00.000-06:00

I'm a little ashamed to say that, being new to to the food-blog-o-sphere, I've only recently found out about no-kneed bread. No-kneed bread??! That's right. Now you can have all the benefits of fresh homemade bread without straining your precious forearms! This is my kind of recipe.

Posted by the charming Mark Bittman of the New York Times (Nov, 2006), this is a recipe modified from Jim Lahey of Sullivan Street Bakery. One copy of the original recipe (at least original to my knowledge) with more elaborate instructions can be found here or you can google 'no-kneed bread' and come up with a thousand hits.

No-kneed bread
(including my adaptations of Mark's adapations of Jim's recipe)

3 cups bread flour (I used 1 cup each of spelt, whole wheat and white)
1/4 tsp instant yeast
1 tsp kosher salt (I used 1 tbsp and it was way too much!)
1 1/2 cups lukewarm water

1. Mix flour, yeast and salt together in a large-ish bowl.

2. Add water and stir with fork or knife until mixed (takes about 1 min) and looks like sticky, lumpy goop.

3. Cover with plastic wrap and set in a warm corner of your kitchen to rise for 18 hours (I cut this short and let it rest only for 15 hrs).

Mine looked like this after step 3:

4. Dump out onto a floured surface and fold over a few times, shaping into a rough ball. Let rest for two hours under a floured tea towel (next time, I'll just let it rest in an oiled bowl since it stuck to the towel).

Mine looked like this while resting:

5. Preheat oven along with covered cast iron pot to 450F. Note, I don't have such a pot, so I used a pizza stone. Next time, I'll use either a covered casserole dish or just a regular uncovered loaf pan.

6. Bake for 30 min if uncovered. If covered, take off lid after 30 min and baked for another 15 min until crust is golden and bread sounds hollow when knocked.

Here's my final result. Crust has good crunch without being too hard and the inside has texture somewhere between whole wheat and rye. So far we've had it with salad for lunch, as an oil/vinegar dipper and with butter and jam. Absolutely excellent.

I'll be making this bread every week from now on. I'll experiment with different baking vessels, flours, proportions of salt and additions of wheat bran, oat, flax, herbs, etc... I'll keep you appraised of my findings.

If you happen to make this bread, please post your version, any modifications you made and your impressions. We can experiment together instead of reading the thousands of blog posts and comments already made about this recipe...

Yellow chickpea curry

2007-07-18T21:19:00.000-06:00

A few days ago I left some dried beans to soak overnight. The next day I rinsed the beans and boiled them (in separate pots) until al dente. From a teeny amount of dried beans, I was granted a full platter of pinto, kidney, black beans and chickpeas.

Some of these went into salads for lunches, some into refried spicy beans served with mango and beef quesadillas, and some others were made into falafel. The rest were frozen in old yogurt containers labeled: "3-bean medley".

The chickpeas, however, were carefully separated out from the other legumes and were made into a quick "pantry and freezer" curry (definition: curry made solely with pantry and freezer ingredients).

Quick yellow chickpea curry
(measurements are approximate)

1 white onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp curry paste (I used a spicy madras)
2 cups chickpeas that were soaked, then boiled (or use 1 can, drained)
2 cubes of frozen spinach
handful frozen peas
1 mango*, cubed
handful cilantro, roughly chopped

1. cook onion and garlic until soft (if you want, add sliced chili at this stage)

2. add curry paste until it becomes fragrant (add a little water if it's sticking to the pot)

3. mix in chickpeas, add enough water to just barely cover, and boil gently until almost cooked

4. stir in spinach, peas, mango and cilantro and cook until heated through

5. serve with basmati rice and naan

*I added mango to curry for the first time today. I make mango chutney all the time, but never thought of adding this fruit to hot curries - I'll definitely do it more often now! The mango adds great sweetness and balances the spiciness well.

Firecracker shrimp

2007-07-15T21:30:00.000-06:00

For tonight's dinner I made firecracker shrimp and a simple noodle dish with snow peas from the Farmer's Market. Noodles were fairly ordinary - fish sauce, brown sugar, sesame oil, garlic, ginger, scallions, snow peas and carrots. It was the little firecrackers that sparkled...ah, yeah, couldn't resist.

The shrimp was made using a modification of Jaden's recipe (thanks Jaden!!). I didn't have the egg roll wrappers she recommends and only had small shrimp (I cheap out when buying shrimp) so my firecrackers were petite but quite cute actually!

It's easy - just follow along with Jaden's detailed tutorial on technique. Here's my brief summary:

1. marinade the shrimp in whatever you want - I used ginger, garlic, chili, soy, sesame oil

2. pat dry then place onto triangular-shaped wrappers - depending on size, you may have to make small cuts into the U-shaped section to straighten them out a little

3. wrap tightly, using a little water for "glue"

4. deep fry - I used a small straight-sided pot with about 1cm of oil until the colour was right

I kept extra wrappers and already-made shrimp roll-ups under a damp, clean, dish-towel to prevent drying out. After frying, I placed into a warm oven on a pie plate lined with paper towel until the rest were done. I served them with a spicy chili sauce (chili paste, Hoisin sauce, brown sugar, soy, sesame).

Ah, yeah. Ian and I ate all 24 of these little firecrackers. Well, the shrimp were tiny and I only used six wrappers, each cut into four triangles. There really wasn't that much there...

Crêpes for brunch

2007-07-14T09:13:00.000-06:00

I like serving crêpes for brunch. It's an easy recipe and process, but one that usually impresses. This particular time I used kamut flour, but two months ago, I used spelt.

For the batter start by beating two eggs with a pinch of salt in a large bowl. Add approximately 2 cups flour and 2 cups milk, until the batter is the consistency of condensed milk - runny, but not too runny. Then, to a medium-hot pan, add a sliver of butter, and a small ladle-full of batter. Working quickly, twirl the pan to shape the batter into a rough circle. See the air bubbles? Time to flip the crêpe!

For easy entertaining, I presented the crêpes with sweetened ricotta cheese (ricotta with sifted icing sugar and vanilla), fruit and chocolate sauce. Each guest assembled their own.

I like to fold my crêpes, but you could roll them like a "French burrito" and eat them with your hands. Easy and tasty and relatively healthy.

The unlikely stars

2007-07-09T20:04:00.000-06:00

When I was a child visiting my grandparents in Poland, I would be put to the task of shelling peas. I ~~didn't enjoy~~ despised this task. It seemed that no matter how many buckets of peas I shelled, my efforts ended with only a small bowlful. But recently at our Farmer's Market,I picked up a bagful. Standing there in front of the compost, shelling these babies, I was brought back to that time in my life.

Except that this time, it was different.

I enjoyed this experience - the crisp snapping of the pod, the prying open of the perfect seam to reveal these exquisite green jewels all in a row. So perfect.

I still only ended up with a small colander full, but it was worth it. Wait until you see the colour of these jewels when cooked. The pea was the undisputed star of this dinner.

Introducing the supporting actor: green garlic.

I bought this garlic from Wally's Urban Market Garden. Their "garden" is actually comprised of many residential plots throughout the city. They grow shoots, baby greens and herbs, among other things. From their website: " [we] practice an eco-friendly form of agriculture, one that puts less pressure on rural habitats, and fosters self-reliance in an urban setting". I'm loving this concept.

For our meat n' potatoes dinner, we decided on steak with garlic herbed potatoes (dill and parsley from our good friends' Wendy and Mike's garden) and simple peas.

Usually, the steak would be the star of such a meal, but for me, it was all about the earthy garlic and the sweet green peas!

Chain Eating

2007-07-07T09:21:00.001-06:00

We have a chain out west here called Earls (be careful if you open the website, sound is loud and can be turned off in the bottom left corner). It's sort of like a Kelsey's or Moxies with what you would expect to be average, but not terribly interesting food.

When we were in Jasper, one of the nights we decided to forgo the fancy food and eat at Earls. We shared pretty typical appetizers - edamame and calamari (healthy and then...not so much). Our dinner entrées were what surprised me a bit - jeera chicken curry, a green thai curry (with zucchini and pineapple!) and a chicken ciabatta with brie, roasted apples and fig jam. Somewhat unexpected combos at a casual chain like Earls.

The lighting was sub-par, so the other shots didn't really turn out :(

Fiddle River Seafood in Jasper

2007-07-05T20:27:00.000-06:00

You wouldn't think of seafood as being the optimal choice when in the mountains, but Fiddle River is known for their seafood. After Ula, Ian and I were seated, a chalkboard easel containing about a dozen daily specials was placed by our table. We ordered drinks and set out to read the menu. Ok, who am I kidding? I set out to read the menu while Ula and Ian set out to choose something to eat.

I absorbed some of the 'chalkboard' specials - a beef dish, lobster, crab, trio of local fish. Even though much of the menu was dedicated to seafood, about the same amount was non-fishy - interesting bison, turkey, even elk dishes as well as lamb and beef. Plenty of choices for all. Didn't really look too close to see if their was much for my vegetarian friends... ah, sorry.

Our chosen meal follows, along with my interpretation of each dish. We shared the two appetizers.

Beggar's Purse. Maple syrup and sage roasted turkey purses with quinoa and tomato tarragon mint jus. Quinoa was very creamy, almost like a risotto. Jus was quite strange to our tastes but I think that's a result of my under-use of tarragon. Note to self - make something with tarragon (any suggestions?). I couldn't really taste the maple or sage and in fact, was quite surprised when looking back at my notes that this was an intended flavour. The 'spaghetti' beet garnish was a great touch, al dente and quite sweet.

Pan Fried Crab Cakes. Pan roasted sherry turmeric flavoured crab cakes with chipotle mayonnaise and lemon caper virgin olive oil. My favourite dish of the evening. Crab cakes weren't overpowered by the 'crabby' flavour and matched well with the turmeric. Chipotle mayo was smoky without too much spice and the huge briny capers cut through the creaminess of the crab and mayo. I have to say, I was much impressed with the turmeric, chipotle and caper combo - an unexpected match, but it worked!

Panko Fish and Chips. Trio of fishy choices served with rémoulade and marinated salad. This was my dish, chosen off the 'chalkboard' menu. I wish I had taken a pic from a different angle to catch the shape of the three small fillets. Oh well. Also, I asked to switch out the chips for rice, and I think they switched out the salad too. The three fish were cod, halibut and pickerel. Crust was a little too tough for my tastes, and the cod was too dry. Regular readers of this blog will already know that overcooked seafood makes me angry. I appreciated the bed of rice and petite lentils - it made me feel like I was eating something healthy next to the fried fish. Grilled veg was also surprising, with choices like grilled tomato and corn. Rémoulade was a fresh alternative to traditional tartar sauce.

Bison - New York Cut. Alberta bison char-broiled and topped with chimichurri. Ian's dish. From the piece I tasted, it was quite tender (nice and bloody!) and the parsley sauce paired well. Mashed potatoes weren't terribly inspired, although good home cookin'.

Oven Roasted Lamb Loin. Sprinkled with herbed bread crumbs and grainy mustard. Ula's dish. Also melt-in-your-mouth tender at medium-rare. The sprinkling of bread crumbs unsettled me a little since I wanted a more pure taste to the lamb, but Ula didn't say anything about it, so I don't think it bothered her. I wonder if they make the mustard themselves.

Overall, I'm glad we went. We were thinking of skipping it because I had recently blown that money in New Brunswick on the crappy seafood, but since this place was highly recommended, we figured we should try it out. After all, we saved on breakfast and lunches by packing picnics. Ah, yeah. That's how I'm going to justify it.

Don't be fooled by the informal dining room. The taste combinations and food presentation at Fiddle River Seafood are definitely worth making a reservation for.

Fresh salad

2007-07-02T09:24:00.001-06:00

When Ula was here, we tried a variety of salads for lunch - here's one of them with a side of sweet carrots.

This one consisted of chive blossoms, carrot, peach, cabbage, pine nuts, romaine, radish, goat cheese and a simple vinaigrette. When tossed, the cheese melted a little and made the dressing somewhat creamy which resulted in the juxtaposition of crisp fresh veggies and a smooth yet light coating. I topped my plate with loads of black pepper because I'm a spice fiend.

10 days + muffin recipe

2007-06-29T07:57:00.001-06:00

Wow! It's been 10 days since I last posted. I've been a bad girl and kept you all in suspense. I'm sure you're all aching to know what I've been cooking and eating. Well, let me tell ya.

Ian and I are thrilled that my sister is visiting us at the moment and we started off our visit with a trip to Jasper National Park for some hiking. Ah, yeah. Lots of hiking, much of it in the up direction. Gorgeous views that photos cannot reproduce. We tried though, and you can see our attempts on our photo webpage (if you don't have the address and password already, just email me and I'll let you in on the secret). Now onto the food.

Before we left, we decided to limit the moola we spent on this trip by packing picnics for two meals a day. Here's our fridge before the trip. Notice that we went on a tupperware frenzy!

Ula and I made our best-ever muffins in life which we paired with bagels and fruit for each breakfast. Lunches consisted of veggie, meat and cheese wraps - portable and very yummy when eaten on the summit of a mountain!
Carrot (and other stuff) Muffins
(recipe discovered through substituting missing ingredients!)

1 cup spelt flour
1/4 cup whole-wheat flour
1/3 cup brown sugar
3 tbsp wheat germ
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
pinch salt
2 cup grated carrots
2 large eggs
1/4 clean-tasting oil (canola, etc.)
1 tbsp vanilla extract
1 cup vanilla yogurt (or plain, or other flavour you like)
other stuff: raisins, cranberries, sliced almonds

1. preheat oven to 350F and line or oil twelve muffin cups

2. whisk flours with brownsugar, wheat germ, spices, baking powder and soda and salt in a large bowl

3. add in grated carrot and mix so carrot is coated with dry ingredients

4. in other bowl, combine the wet ingredients

5. pour wet into dry, add rainsins, cranberries, almonds, or whatever else you want, and mix quickly until wet and dry stuffs are just incorporated

6. divide batter into muffin cups (we ended up using only 10 cups) and bake until golden and a toothpick inserted inside comes out clean (we baked for about 30 min)

7. cool a bit on a rack and then EAT!!

Pesto penne

2007-06-19T20:46:00.000-06:00

More vegetarian for dinner tonight. Start by putting on some pasta.

Meanwhile, add fresh basil and oregano leaves, pine nuts, minced garlic and s&p to a mortar and pestle. Mash to a rough pulp. Mix in good quality olive oil and a light snowfall of parmeasan.

Toss with caramalized onion and penne and voila - a delicious dinner in 15 minutes!

TVP tacos

2007-06-17T18:06:00.000-06:00

We've been eating quite a bit of meat lately, so I figured it was time for a vegetarian dinner. We quickly put together some TVP (textured vegetable protein) tacos. The whole meal was ready in less than 15 minutes and was even surprisingly tasty!

Toppings: TVP with mushroom & onion, mozzarella, fresh tomato, salsa, lettuce & cilantro.

Pizza

2007-06-16T07:44:00.000-06:00

Inspired by Mike's pizza here and here, I decided to ~~surrender~~ invest the 1.5 hours and give it a try. There were lots of problems: dough wasn't wet enough, didn't rise enough, not enough chilies and garlic, not enough sauce, and on and on. Hopefully my next attempt will be better.

However, an unforeseen benefit of the 'not rising' was the resulting thin and crisp pizza. Toppings: pepperoni, garlic, tomato, basil, green chili, goat cheese.

I really can't compare it to the pizza I always make as mine is made with a whole-wheat or spelt crust with no yeast. And usually, we load up on the toppings. The sparsity of the toppings on this version was really nice and allowed the flavour of the crust to be a main attraction. I wonder if this version can be made with different flours...I'll have to give it a try.

Cod in banana leaves

2007-06-15T07:47:00.000-06:00

After such bad seafood luck in New Brunswick, I was inspired to make some good seafood at home. I bought some fresh cod from Charlie's Seafood Market, wrapped it in banana leaves with chili and ginger, steamed it in the oven, and served it with rice and edamame. Delicious and healthy - what do you know? It is possible!

Steamed Spicy Cod in Banana Leaves
(dish inspired by Jamie Oliver; recipe is my own)

2 fresh cod fillets
4 banana leaves, or parchment paper, or foil
2 chilies, finely sliced (I used 1 birdseye and 1 green)
2 tbsp unsweetened coconut flakes
1 inch piece of ginger, grated
small handful cilantro
1/2 lemon or lime
salt
extra virgin olive oil

1. preheat oven to 425 F; I suppose you could also make this in a steamer

2. lay out the banana leaves (or parchment or foil) onto a baking tray so that there are bits hanging over the edge

3. sprinkle the chilis, coconut, ginger onto the middle of the leaves and lay out the cilantro (including stems)

4. place the cod on top of all this (upside down), sprinkle it with salt, drizzle with lemon or lime juice and olive oil

5. fold the leaves (or parchment or foil) over the fish, making as tight a seal as possible

6. place a heavy oven-proof object on top (I used a cast-iron pan) and bake for 20 minutes

7. serve upside right, removing the steamed cilantro stems and sprinkling with extra chili (if you like) and fresh cilantro

Saint John

2007-06-15T06:59:00.000-06:00

I stayed one day extra after the conference, rented a car, and drove to Saint John, New Brunswick (not to be confused by St. John's, Newfoundland). Had a great time following some historic walking tours, taking pics of old houses, and browsing through the farmer's market. I was too scared to try dulse (dried seaweed), supposedly popular in the Maritimes.

For lunch, I had a three-berry yogurt smoothie and a pecan tart, and people-watched at the market. Dessert in lieu of lunch is starting to become a pattern with me. I especially like my photo of the tart.
For dinner, I was really hoping to turn my food luck around, so I opted for Billy's Seafood Company - a place which is both a fish market and a restaurant. Big mistake. Bacon-wrapped scallops tasted like rubber dipped in ketchup and the grilled halibut was extremely dry, almost like they cooked it from frozen. The only good part was the wine - a Lindeman's Pinot Grigio.

The Blue Door

2007-06-14T20:33:00.000-06:00

Having heard some good reviews of this place from the Chowhound forums, I was excited that the final conference dinner was scheduled for The Blue Door.

Martinis. I had ones called the 'Oasis' and the 'Raspberry Fondue'. Both were delicious - the former was cranberry-lime flavoured, and the latter was raspberry-chocolate.

Wine. The house red was a Cabernet Sauvignon from the Robertson winery in South Africa. I won't pretend I'm a wine critic and so I'll just say I enjoyed it.

Roasted carrot and ginger soup. More of a purée than a soup. Ginger flavour was quite prominent which I enjoyed. Carrot soup is not my favourite and I was fooled by the menu in thinking this was just an appetizer of roasted ginger carrots. Had I know, I would have chosen a salad.

Sake-marinated salmon with green curry sauce, couscous and vegetables. The curry was dotted around the bed of couscous and was meant to be used as a dipping sauce. It was well-spiced and tasty, although couscous and curry was a strange pairing. Salmon was too dry again. I really had bad food luck on this trip. Perhaps I should have gone for chicken or beef, but silly me, I was hoping for excellent seafood on the east coast - what was I thinking?

Flourless chocolate cake with a kahlua anglais. A small wedge of decadent cake garnished with a kumquat. Delicious. Good quality bitter chocolate wasn't overpowered by excess sugar.

Isaac's Way

2007-06-14T20:08:00.001-06:00

Another one of our dinners out on the town was at another pub: Isaac's Way (Fredericton has an unusual number of pubs). Seeing as how my first impression of seafood on the east coast wasn't that great, I decided to go with another pub classic - chicken curry.

It was just ordinary tasting; curry was likely made with store-bought paste and spiced with Tabasco sauce. Chicken was tender, rice had a good texture and the chutney was interesting. One of my fellow diners had fiddleheads as his side dish - these were delicious and made me jealous of his meal.

Cora's

2007-06-14T19:56:00.000-06:00

I love Cora's. My first experience with this breakfast place was in Newmarket, ON when I was a beginning teacher. Cora's serves gorgeous food, plenty of fresh fruit, and great coffee. We spent Friday morning sitting out on their patio, relaxing and enjoying the sunshine. I wish Cora's would open in Saskatoon.

Compost

2007-06-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

Check out the options for trash that we saw at a Tim Horton's in Fredericton! Awesome!

Lunar Rogue

2007-06-14T18:20:00.000-06:00

With only a few exceptions, New Brunswick food was disappointing.

I arrived in Fredericton early and explored the city a bit with Erin. Dinner was at a pub called Lunar Rogue. I chose one of their "health-check approved" options - salmon with brown rice and vegetables. The salmon was overcooked; rice was dry; vegetables were plain. Why don't restaurants make healthy food that tastes good?

Fredericton

2007-06-11T15:16:00.000-06:00

I've been in New Brunswick now since Thursday and I have to say, the people are super friendly and very welcoming. However, the conference food is...well...not so nice. More details when I'm back in Saskatoon on Wednesday.

Pork burgers and roasted eggplant

2007-06-05T07:30:00.000-06:00

Leftover in our fridge was some organic ground pork (from the dim sum) and Chinese eggplant that I had forgotten about for a week. Since I'm traveling on Thursday (again!), I knew I had to use it all up before I left as Ian would sooner eat cereal for dinner than cook eggplant. In fact, when asked if he would like me to prepare a handful of frozen meals, he proclaimed that he's happy with grilled cheese for dinner. Hey - I'm happy with grilled cheese too, as long as it's on a rosemary focaccia with fresh mozzarella, basil and tomato; ahhh, yes - I guess that's called a panini. Upon second thought, maybe my standards are too high.

Back to the pork and eggplant. I decided to make Asian-inspired pork burgers and roasted spicy eggplant. This was one of the better meals I've made lately. Ian declared the burgers the best he's ever eaten; even better than the bison burgers. In my opinion, they were delicious because they were different. So, I thought I would try to articulate the recipe I used since it got such high praise from my dear husband. Just know that these amounts are approximate since I hardly ever use measuring spoons or cups. And don't be scared to alter the ingredients.

Roasted Spicy Eggplant

3 oblong eggplants, cut into 2 inch long wedges (although I imagine you could use 1 regular eggplant)
1/2 white onion, sliced
1 tsp salt (eggplant loves salt)
1 tbsp chili flakes (or to your taste)
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp canola oil
2 tbsp sesame oil

1. preheat oven to 400 F
2. mix everything in a large bowl
3. dump it onto an ungreased baking tray and bake until cooked, 20-30 min, stirring every 10 min

Asian-Inspired Pork Burgers

enough ground pork for four burgers (sorry, don't know how to quantify that), organic, if possible
1/2 white onion, thinly sliced and sautéed, then cooled
6-8 chives, finely sliced (or 3 scallions, minced)
1/2 tsp salt
3 tbsp fish sauce (this is what gives that authentic flavour)
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
squirt of hot sauce, to taste (I added approx 1 tbsp)

1. mix all ingredients well, adding bread crumbs if mixture is too moist
2. form into four burger patties and let rest for 20min minimum, or 1 day maximum
3. preheat electric grill or bbq if you're lucky enough to have one (we don't)
4. grill; on the electric one, I grilled for 7 min; on a bbq, I would imagine 15 min should be enough, but don't take my word for it - CHECK!
5. I served them with a thin spread of mayo, pile of cilantro leaves and sliced tomato; I wouldn't add any typical burger toppings as the burger itself was very moist and flavourful

Disclaimer: If anyone gets sick from following my recipes, it's not my fault. Be aware that in using these recipes, you do so at your own risk. If you become violently ill as a result of my recommendations, please don't sue me.

Well, do you feel confident enough to try this now?! :)

Dim sum dinner

2007-06-03T18:48:00.000-06:00

For today's dinner I made four dim sum dishes.

Steamed sesame brocolli.

Baked pork and cabbage spring rolls. Deep fried would have been better, but we opted for the healthier option.

Sautéed marinated tofu.

Steamed pork dumplings. Our favourite of the evening.

Tea sandwiches I made for yesterday's afternoon shower

2007-06-03T18:39:00.001-06:00

Goat cheese with paper-thin radish and cucumber on whole wheat.
Sliced egg with mayonaise and paprika on white bread.
Smoked turkey with dijon and tomato on multigrain.a
Herbed cheese with smoked salmon, capers and lemon juice on baguette.

Last days in Vancouver

2007-06-03T17:58:00.000-06:00

On Mon May 28, we ate quick and light meals. Lunch was in Chinatown where we picked up a variety of dim sum and baked goods. I would classify these as average. It was difficult and a bit frustrating to make vegetarian choices - even the dishes we were told were vegetarian often had Chinese sausage and/or pork in them. Mike had to settle for dessert items. We bought a bag-full of dishes for under $10, so that part was good. Here's a couple:

Dinner was on our way to The Police concert. We stopped at Cafe Crepe and got three quick crepes. This was also just an average meal, but it was fast, light and cheap which is what we were looking for.

After the awesome concert, we drove back home. That's right, we left Vancouver at midnight and arrived in Saskatoon at 7:30pm the following day, driving almost non-stop. The return trip didn't include any interesting food. To keep the drivers awake, we planned most of the stops around coffee and donuts, with the exception of a brief stop for lunch at Subway. Fast and easy trip food.

It was a fun trip and great introduction to Vancouver. We'll definitely be going back.

Vij's

2007-06-03T14:24:00.000-06:00

Joined by Tennille, Mike, Ian and I arrived just before 5pm and waited in line until the opening at 5:30. Note: Vij's doesn't take reservations. We spent our time examining the menu and were served lovely chai tea and pakoras. Photos were taken of every dish and my impressions follow.

Chai. Served medium hot, not too milky, balanced flavours and not too much cardamom. Sometimes I think that chai spiced predominately by cardamom is a cop out. Just like the garam masala you buy at grocery stores made primarily with cumin is a cop out.

Lemon-ginger drink. Ginger and lemon juice mixed with soda water. Homemade ginger-ale. Wicked.

Jackfruit in black cardamom and cumin masala. We shared this appetizer. The jackfruit reminded us of artichokes and the black cardamom had an awesome smoky flavour.

Garam masala sautéed portobello mushrooms in porcini cream curry. I love mushrooms so this dish didn't disappoint. There was quite a bit of sauce and if Tennille and Mike hadn't been there, I would have lapped it all up using our never-ending naan supply.

Naan and rice. I really appreciate that Vij's doesn't charge for rice and naan. We probably consumed about 4-5 plates of naan and one bowl of rice. The naan was quite thin and buttered a little too much for my tastes. However, it was served hot and was essential for lapping up the delicious sauces that accompanied each dish.

Saag paneer with zucchini fritters in masala. This was Mike's dish. If I remember correctly, he enjoyed the spinach and would like to try it served as a dip. The fritters were proclaimed a little dry, but once slathered in the masala, greatly improved.

Spice-crusted tilapia with black chickpeas and yam curry. Tennille's dish. From the little bit that I tried, I thought the crust was a little too tough, although the fish was very tender. I didn't really get a chance to focus on the curry.

Demerara sugar and tamarind marinated been tenderloin with black cumin curry and khoa paranta. Ian's dish. Tender beef, slightly tough paranta, delicious curry.

Wine marinated lamb popsicles in fenugreek cream curry on spinach potatoes. My dish; also one of the signature dishes. I am still dreaming of this dish, and thankfully, have found the recipe directly out of the Vij's cookbook. The lamb was melt-in-my-mouth perfect, potatoes had a good texture and the fenugreek curry was to die for (except that it wasn't served piping hot which would have been even better). This summer I'll get ahold of some lamb and try this at home.

All three of us had dessert. Mike had kheer (rice pudding), Ian had gulab jamun (dough balls) and Tennille and I had kulfi (ice-cream, sort of). All three desserts were topped with cardamom seeds and silver leaf.

Kulfi. One serving would have been enough for Tennille and myself to share as we were quite full after the meal. Delicious pistachio and cardamom flavour.

Kheer.

Gulab Jamun. Soft texture, not too greasy. Syrup was very sweet. Often we get these with a milk sauce, so the syrup was a pleasant change.

We had been waiting a long time to eat here and were not disappointed. Other than a few minor details (temperature of some sauces, toughness of paranta), the food and service was excellent and met our high expectations. I will definitely eat here again.

Sun May 27 in Vancouver

2007-06-03T07:14:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday we started our day by, once again, going to the Public Market on Granville Island. Well, before we made it there, I stopped at Fisherman's Wharf to eat at a tiny fish stand called Go Fish. I bought one piece of salmon with chips for $7! It came with a creamy tartar sauce and an Asian slaw made of red cabbage, peanuts and a sesame dressing. Without a doubt, this was the best fish and chips I've ever had. The fish was perfectly cooked, tasted really fresh - no fishy smell at this fish stand - and was not over-battered. The slaw was interesting, the fries were crispy on the outside, soft on the inside and the tartar sauce was creamy, not grainy. My mouth is watering just looking at the picture. Now every fish and chips I get will have to measure up to this one at Go Fish.

When we made it to the market, Mike had a tomato & basil focaccia and fresh cherries and Ian had a slice of pizza and some apple cheesecake. I was still thinking/drooling over the fish and chips and mucho-grateful to the guys that they postponed their lunch so I could indulge.

Dinner was at Vij's and that definitely deserves it's own post.

Eating on a budget: Sat May 26

2007-05-31T19:40:00.000-06:00

This day we had two meals: breakfast-n-lunch at the Granville Island Public Market and dinner at Legendary Noodle.
After spending an hour ogling the food at the market (like the stacked strawberries), we decided on a demi-loaf of multigrain from Terra Bread, Raclette cheese and buffalo prosciutto from Oyama Sausage Co, and a few organic tomatos. We sat outside and made open-faced sandwiches while watching pigeons putting on a show for the kids. After lunch, I went back into the market to get a drink and came out with a deliciously creamy macadamia tart. It sounds strange, but it was the nuts that were creamy.

We caught dinner on our way back to the hotel after a stroll through Stanley Park. We popped into a noodle house and were surprised by the show the chefs were putting on - fresh noodles made by alternately twisting and separating the dough into strands. Umm...that description sucks, but thankfully, Mike shot a video and uploaded it here. I took some shots of our appetizers and mains:

Sesame-marinaded tofu. Extremely smooth texture and not too oily taste.
Pea shoots. Very fresh.
Noodles with pork and black bean sauce. Tasty, although a bit too much oil for me.

Noodles with spicy peanut sauce. Too much sauce in a dish where the noodles could have been the feature.
Noodles with chili, garlic and olive oil. I'll let Mike describe his dish in the comments.
P.S. I know I'm not posting other details (like, for instance, what we DID in Vancouver), but you can read some of that here: Mike's detailed and very funny blog.

Road-trip picnics: Friday May 25

2007-05-31T19:17:00.000-06:00

We drove from Saskatoon to Vancouver in one day. That's right, we left at 6am and arrived at 2:30am. To help speed along the trip, Mike and I shared the picnic preparation. That way we didn't have to stop and look for places to purchase sub-par fast food. Mike made French bread (delicious!) and "fiery red pesto" from the pizza bible [I have to say, I'm jealous of Mike's baking skills]. I contributed smoked gouda, creamy brie and juicy watermelon. It was nice to sit outside and munch after quite a long time in the car.

For dinner that day, I had made a quinoa and bean salad which kept really well. The quinoa was crunchy and the beans still had some 'tooth' to them. I'm especially proud of this picture as it shows the minute detail of the quinoa next to the beans and pine nuts.

The Police

2007-05-24T15:27:00.001-06:00

We're leaving tomorrow for Vancouver. Mon night is the reason we're going - the Police concert! And Sunday night will also be eventful as we are planning to eat at Vij's. Once again, I've planned the bulk of this trip around food (don't laugh at me!), so I'll be back with pictures and reviews. Wish us good food luck!

Pizza

2007-05-23T22:19:00.000-06:00

On Mon night we were at Wendy and Mike's place for dinner. Mike made pizza. It was delicious. We topped it with sliced jalapeño, fresh mozzarella, tomato, sliced garlic and basil from their garden. And, underneath it all, a little tomato sauce and parmesan. Simple and rustic. It reminded me strongly of the pizzas we ate in Trieste, Italy a few years ago.

Pizza before baking:
Pizza after baking:
When I make pizza, I always cop out and make a fast non-yeast crust. I try to be healthy and make it with spelt flour, and add bran flakes, flax seeds, soy milk. It's crunchy and crisp, but I think it's time I learned how to make a proper Italian dough. To that effect, I ~~stole~~ borrowed Mike's pizza bible and will attempt something from it next week.

As sides, we had a fresh-tasting dip with tomato and basil, olives, and my own addition of watermelon/feta skewers with balsamic vinegar.

Mike also made a cheesecake with an interesting oatmeal crust and caramel topping. It was served warm which is how I prefer to eat my cheesecake.

Mid-afternoon snack

2007-05-21T15:58:00.000-06:00

Mango and cream-filled puff pastry squares. Dessert in lieu of lunch - always a good idea.

Sat night dessert & drums

2007-05-20T10:35:00.001-06:00

True story. I swear.

Last night I think to myself: 'We should go to McNally and get some dessert'. Twenty seconds later, Ian says: "Hey - do you want to go to McNally and get some dessert?" Three minutes later, we get a call from Mike, who says: "Hey - we're at McNally and there are some cool drummers here. Wanna come join us and get some dessert?"

So we went. I always get the fudge triple chocolate cake with chocolate icing and chocolate syrup (not real name), so I decided to be different and get carrot cake. Ian had chocolate and peanut butter cake. Both were yummy but I regretted not getting chocolate.

Veggie burgers

2007-05-17T20:45:00.000-06:00

About a month ago we were served wicked veggie burgers on interesting flat breads with an assortment of toppings at Wendy and Mike's place. Being the copy-cats that we are, we bought the same brand and I cooked some up for dinner tonight.

We didn't have fancy bread, so I just served it up on whole-grain toast with asiago cheese, tomatoes, sauteed mushrooms, and some spicy dijon. On the side we had grilled organic carrots and asparagus. I've never grilled carrots before but I'll definitely do it again. They were super-sweet and not mushy. I hate overcooked vegetables.

2nd Ave Grill on Monday

2007-05-17T20:19:00.000-06:00

Hmmm...we were hoping for good food, but sadly, had to settle for ordinary. We started with the calamari which was the best dish of the evening. The accompanying sauce was very spicy - just the way we like it, and the batter was light. Calamari itself wasn't too overcooked and rubbery, although a little less cooking would have been preferable.

Then came salads - caesar for Ian, greens for me with fibrous raspberries. The bunny that lives in our front lawn eats better salads.

I'm not even going to post the pics of our entrees, they were so ordinary and we were disappointed in how we had spent our money that evening. I had baked chicken stuffed with asparagus, served with rice and lukewarm veg, topped with a too-rich white wine sauce. Ian had a sirloin with ordinary roast potatoes and the same lukewarm veg. His meal was too dry and mine was too rich. Gross.

Only things that saved the meal were our charming server and the calamari sauce.

Bison

2007-05-13T18:21:00.001-06:00

Dinner tonight was bison burgers with leftover slaw from yesterday. The burgers were made with organic bison from Dad's and sandwiched in a bun with grilled red onion, old cheddar, tomatos and chipotle mayo. I grilled them (on an indoor electric grill) for about 7 minutes and they turned out mouth-watering-ly (?) tender. We couldn't identify if the tenderness was due to

a) short grilling time
b) nature of bison meat
c) nature of organic meat
d) all of the above

Saturday dinner for friends

2007-05-12T20:31:00.000-06:00

Wendy, Mike and their two daughters were over for dinner tonight. Half of their family is vegetarian, so dinner was a series of vegetarian salads. The original plan was to spread out blankets in the backyard and have a picnic, but it had rained in the afternoon and the ground was wet. Besides, the mosquitoes were out in full force.

Here's the menu and my reflections.

Daikon salad with ruby grapefruit and orange segments with a hint of maple. Yeah, the maple was more like a 'sniff' then a hint. The citrus juice overpowered the small amount of syrup I added. I also didn't want to overmix this because it had taken me a while to segment the citrus and I didn't want to break it up. Maybe the maple wasn't mixed in enough.

Orzo and broccoli salad with goat's milk feta. I put out a couple of homemade dressings - sundried tomato, oil and vinegar - and each person could help themselves. As one of the kids pointed out, I probably should have dressed the salad ahead of time as the flavour of the orzo would have benefited. The motivation for me was that the salad will keep longer if undressed.

Napa slaw with 8 vegetables and chipotle sauce. Yummy. I don't usually make slaw but for some reason was inspired tonight. The chipotle dressing was spicy - we would have liked spicier but I erred on the conservative side for guests. It turns out that for these friends, the spicier the better :)

Grilled asparagus polenta with parmesan. Good salty flavour without being grainy which is a problem with some polentas. The asparagus didn't have a strong enough presence for me in this dish. Next time I'll try a different vegetable.

Wendy and Mike brought over dessert: strawberry shortcakes with cream. Mmmmm...these were delicious. The shortcakes had the perfect texture, with the right balance of softness and crispness. Wendy informed me the strawberries were marinated in lemon juice, and the cream was a sort-of custard made with eggs and more lemon. Note to self: strawberry and lemon is an unexpected yet delicious pairing.

SF Dinners: Mijita

2007-05-11T18:18:00.000-06:00

Mijita is a restaurant/cafe opened by Traci Des Jardins who also has super high-end restaurants in the bay area. The goal was to serve authentic down-to-earth simple food inspired by the teachings of her Mexican grandmother. Let me tell you...this place delivered! We shared a series of small plates:
-taco de pescado "Baja": battered and fried mahi-mahi in tortillas with cabbage and avocado-cilantro cream
-taco de carne asada: grilled marinated beef, smoky red salsa, cilantro and onions in tortila
-quesadilla mijita: fresh masa turn-over with mixture of Mexican cheeses, epazote and roasted chiles
-a dinner special: crispy chicken tacos with avocado

It was delicious, and to our tastes, authentic. Sorry about the pics below - I only remembered to take them after we had started gobbling down the food :)

Changing Tags

2007-05-11T17:15:00.000-06:00

I don't like the tags I'm using. I can't find anything this way. I'm changing it. So there.

But those of you who subscribe via rss may get multiple copies of these entries. I don't know how that works. Well anyway, please bear with me.

SanFran Dinners: Greens

2007-05-11T16:11:00.000-06:00

For the last little while we've been eating fairly ordinary food, lots of composed summer dinners, nothing worth blogging about. So I thought I'd get my act together and start to post about some of the dinners we had in SF.

The first place worth writing about was Greens, a vegetarian restaurant located on a pier overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Our meals were well-presented (but not over-styled) and tasted absolutely delicious. The serving staff was gracious and willing to talk about the "Greens" philosophy without sounding pretentious.

Ian and I shared an appetizer: Mexican Mezcla, for which the description read as follows: Rancho Gordo heirloom beans with chilies, citrus and cumin; guacamole with warm tortilla chips; fire roasted salsa; quesadilla with grilled onions, poblano chilies, cheddar and cilantro; ruby grapefruit, jicama and orange salad.

I forgot to take a picture before we started eating - sorry! Especially delicious were the heirloom beans which still had some bite. They weren't mushy and over-cooked as beans can often be. Other items in the Mezcla were interesting, although the salsa was a little ordinary for me. From the description - fire-roasted - I would have liked more depth in the flavour; it tasted (if I could be so forward as to say), a little bland to me.

Upon the recommendation of our server, Ian had the Mesquite Grilled Brochettes and I chose the Stuffed Portobello. The descriptions for the entrees read as follows:

Brochettes of mushrooms, peppers, German butterball potatoes, red onions, garnet yams, fennel, cherry tomatoes and marinated tofu with charmoula. Served with cherry pistachio pearl couscous.

Stuffed Portobello with king trumpet and crimini mushrooms, leeks, asiago and breadcrumbs. Served with mushroom port sauce, green garlic mashed potatoes and grilled artichokes with pepper flakes. [sorry about the fuzzy photo]

Portabello was generously stuffed, artichokes were perfectly cooked but the potatoes were a bit too creamy for me. The port sauce was the pièce de résistance. Upon further investigation of their menu (I was offered to take a copy home), I wish I would have tried something else. I was happy with the meal, but maybe I should have chosen something that wasn't such a typically vegetarian option as stuffed portabello.

Ian's brochettes were awesome. I don't know what they did to that tofu before grilling the skewers, but I'd peel their potatoes for free for a month to find out. [As an aside, recently I defrosted some tofu to use in a curry. It had the same texture as the one in these brochettes - maybe there's something to that freezing/defrosting procedure?] Ian especially enjoyed the pearl couscous and instructed us to find and make it as soon as we returned home. I have yet to do anything about this request :)

All in all, we were super-impressed with the meal and service. We've come to the conclusion that a fine dining vegetarian restaurant is needed in Saskatoon. As a happy bonus, I have a copy of their menu to use as inspiration for summer cooking.

Some Ordinary Dinners

2007-05-07T20:08:00.000-06:00

I haven't been keeping up with our meals last week - I think I was just overloaded with food ideas (and too much food) from San Francisco. I did take pictures of some ordinary dinners we had last week and am now ready to update. One dish was a red Thai curry with rice and the other was a whole wheat pasta with chicken sausage. I was especially happy with the pasta. I suppose I was inspired by the simplicity of SF food and just combined sauteed onion, garlic, mushroom, al dente beans and pasta and sliced chicken sausage. A little parmesan and herbs finished it off. Super simple and super yummy.

Whole wheat pasta:

Thai curry:

Brunch Crepes

2007-05-07T17:46:00.000-06:00

Friends came over for brunch on Sunday morning. I made two kinds of crepes - savory made with spelt flour and sweet made with soy milk. I made several different fillings: grilled asparagus and mushrooms, fluffy eggs, grilled sausages, herbed cream cheese, cheese platter, smoked salmon. Here's the table set for the savory:

For the sweet crepes I just set up a platter of fruit (kiwi, mango, strawberry, pear) and some sweetened cream. I forgot to take a picture.

Falafel

2007-05-03T14:20:00.000-06:00

For dinner last night I tried to recreate the falafel pita I had in San Francisco. Here's the result:

It was pretty a pretty close match. I suspect they had added something to their tahini to make it less sesame-tasting. Next time I'll add lemon juice and garlic maybe. I added more herbs than the street vendor did and the tomatoes/cucumber I used were organic and tasted fresher than I remember. I didn't feel like making tzatziki, so I just used plain yogurt - we had bought a new brand from Dad's Organic and it was delicious!

San Francisco Lunches

2007-05-01T11:07:00.000-06:00

During our trip we tried to sample a variety of cuisines, from street food to gourmet, from vegetarian to carnivorous, from China to California. Yeah, I organized the sights/tours/activities around the location of the various eateries. I'm not embarassed to admit that :) Here are the highlights:

Panini at L'Osteria del Forno

Lunch at a small Italian cafe. I had a panini with fresh mozarella, tomato, basil and lettuce; Ian had pancetta instead of mozarella. The rosemary foccacia was just lightly toasted, the sharper basil and creamy cheese paired superbly well.

Pasta at Wolfgang Puck Express Marketplace

Chicken bolognese in the basement of Macys. Fresh pasta cooked al dente, topped with basil and parmeasan. There was too much sauce - I like pasta that doesn't have to be slathered in sauce. If the pasta is fresh, it should be the focus. I would have liked less sauce, more herbs and better bread. BTW, I didn't buy anything at Macys - they were having a "sale", but the prices were still ridiculous :)

Quintessential San Franciscan Meal at Boudin Bakery

Clam chowder in a sourdough bread bowl. Chowder was good but the clams were overcooked. I HATE OVERCOOKED SEAFOOD! Sourdough was fresh, but I would have liked the bread to have been warmed up. It was a day with cold wind, and eating outside by the water would have been more enjoyable if the bread was warm.

Street Food

Fallafel in a pita. Messy but tasty and, as a bonus, vegetarian! I think I had the equivalent of four servings of vegetables in this one sandwich - they packed it really full! The tahini tasted fresh and so did the tzatziki. I ate this outdoors at the United Nations Plaza, surrounded by columns listing the dates when various countries entered the UN.

Caribbean Tapas at Cha Cha Cha

We didn't try the various tapas; instead, we opted for their lunch specials: BBQ pork with roasted potatoes (Ian) and blackened salmon with salad (me). Good lunch, but when the tables around us were getting small plates, we were jealous and wished we had tried some of those.

Dim Sum at Yank Sing

For our last lunch we went to what is often called the "best dim sum in SF". Well, if it's the best, it's also the most expensive! It was organized in the traditional way where servers would try to entice you with carts or trays full of appetizing plates and baskets. Once a selection was made, they would stamp a code on a card which would be tallied up for your bill at the end of the meal. Ahh, yeah. We got caught with a huge bill. But the food was delicious (I have to keep reminding Ian of that!). The dishes were:
- crab cakes
- chicken/mushroom buns
- spring rolls
- cod wrapped in something
- steamed shrimp dumplings
- duck
- steamed dumplings with a small soup inside them (this was very cool and delicate)

Others

Other lunches included interesting pizzas, sandwich take-out, and Chinese at the airport. I forgot to take pics of those. Stay tuned for dinners...

San Francisco Breakfasts & Snacks

2007-05-01T10:33:00.000-06:00

We're back from San Francisco. It was an amazing trip - the city is so green-conscious, the food was delicious, the sights and views spectacular. We came back with sunburnt noses and sore calves from the brutal hills and rare sunny weather in the bay. After eating out for 9 glorious days, I have lots to report. Originally my plan was to post something every couple of days, but $10 internet costs at the hotel prevented that, so I'm going to try to organize this by meal type instead of date. Here are some of the memorable breakfasts/snacks we ate.

Breakfast on the pier

Superb breakfast of fresh sourdough bagette (Acme Bread), creamy cheese (Cowgirl Creamery), and strawberries. Many (I might even say 'most') restaurants, markets, shops, and farms are dedicated to supporting local, sustainable organic foods and farms. These strawberries tasted like they were from my Grandparent's garden, the bread from their oven and the cheese from an actual cow! (can you believe it??!) We had breakfast for a couple of days as a result of this trip to the market and pier.

Brownie from Miette

Awesome nut brownie from a local French bakery. Yes, not the most healthy of breakfasts, but I settled on quality over quantity. This brownie had the perfect balance between chocolaty denseness and cake-like fluffy-ness. So luxurious!

Snack

While waiting for a dinner reservation we had at 8pm, we picked up a couple of almond tea biscuits to eat on the pier with some good tea (for me) and coffee (for Ian). I'm sure that biscuit contained 80% of its weight in butter, but it was so small and we had walked so much we didn't feel guilty. Again, this French bakery knows what it's doing.

Others

The rest of the breakfasts and snacks consisted of cold dinner leftovers, Starbucks muffins (couldn't always travel to an actual bakery), and/or were combined with an earlier lunch. Stay tuned for the lunch posts...

Mediocre Food

2007-04-20T21:49:00.000-06:00

Lunch today consisted of airport food. We had some Bratwurst and European sausages at a place called Pacific Grill. I was sorely disappointed with the meal. By the time we decided to eat, it was too late to look for a better place. But with a name like Pacific Grill, we thought we were in for yummy seafood. This was not the case.

Dinner was at a place in Oakland (we were too tired after our trip to travel to San Fran) called Pacific Coast Brewing Company. They brew their own beers and Ian tried their "Killer Whale" - a dark stout. He said it was sweet and licorice-like and he liked it. I had sparkling water with fresh lime. For dinner Ian had a swiss burger with onions on rye with fries and I had shrimp jambalaya (their special). The burger was good, but the fries were gross - definately of the frozen variety. The jambalaya itself was ok (good chicken and spicy sausage), but the shrimp was overcooked. I hate overcooked seafood.

Now that we got the gross food out of the way, hopefully we'll have good "food luck" for the remainder of our trip. I did take pics but am now too tired to include them. I'll go back and do it later. Edit: I added pics but they're nothing special.

Carrot/Parsnip Soup

2007-04-19T20:21:00.000-06:00

I made soup tonight as planned :)

Carrot/parsnip/potato soup with roasted garlic, served with roasted garlic crostini. The soup was a little too sweet for me, but that's just the nature of the carrots and parsnips, I guess. I froze two batches of it, so when it comes time for leftovers, I'll add some lemon to neutralize the sweetness a bit.

The "black box" that I was faced with on Sunday afternoon has now dwindled down to a bag of carrot sticks and cucumber slices and two cheese/egg/tomato sandwiches for our trip tomorrow (I guess I should admit that I ended up giving away three leftover potatoes to a neighbour). I look forward to updating the blog from San Francisco and coming back with inspiration for new flavours.

Caffe Sola

2007-04-19T14:01:00.000-06:00

I had lunch today with a friend at Caffe Sola, which consisted of chamomile tea, a spicy black bean soup and a leek and spinach phyllo. The tea was delicious and served using a funky teapot, but I like my tea hot. After the suggested steeping time (7min), for which a timer was provided, the tea was just medium warm. Oh well.

The soup had an interesting flavour but wasn't spicy enough. It was advertised as spicy, so they could have been more bold with it. Also, it had coriander seed floating in it. I would have preferred their spice grinder to be at a finer setting - I don't like getting large-ish bits of spices in something like a soup. Maybe as an addition to bread or a topping for crackers, but not in soup. Herbs - yes; spices - finely ground.

My favourite part of the meal was the phyllo layered with leeks, spinach, mushrooms and cheese. The dish had a pleasant salty taste and the ingredients worked together - the filling didn't overpower the dough which was nice and flaky.

They change their menu daily so I'll definitely go back.

Hurried Curry

2007-04-19T08:03:00.000-06:00

Yesterday dinner was a chickpea and eggplant curry. I used a pre-made paste (Patak's madras) and it turned out pretty well. To make it tastier, I added some black mustard seeds, cumin and garlic and didn't just rely on the paste. I find the pastes really acidic - like they add vinegar to contrast the spice, but I find it overdone. When I'm making my own curries, I do often add lemon juice for contrast but somehow it's not so overwhelming. Oh well, it was a quick dinner last night so the paste did the job.

The potatos would have taken too long to cook in the curry, so I didn't end up using them. Today I'll make the carrot/parsnip soup like captainorange suggested and I'll add potatos to that to make it more a vegetable soup. Likely I'll have some left-overs so I'm going to make carrot cookies and freeze the raw dough like ella suggested. Yeah, all this while I'm also cleaning up the yard, doing laundry, packing, going for a last-min lunch with a friend and submitting the taxes. It's going to be a long day...

Black Box Cooking

2007-04-16T23:13:00.000-06:00

I usually cook via the "black box" cooking method. This is what I mean: I look in the fridge and make something up using the ingredients I have.

Sometimes when I'm at the grocery store I buy specific ingredients to make a particular dish (like when I had a hankering for potstickers, I had to buy the wrappers). Usually though, I just buy what's in season, which also happens the cheapest items! Then, using my well-stocked pantry and freezer I make something up.

We are travelling later this week, so it was time to take this black box thing to the extreme. We had lots left in our fridge and, being of a frugal nature, I can't let anything go to waste. On Sunday, I took out all the fresh veg and leftovers, put them on the counter and proceeded to plan. Here's what I had:

Carrots, parsnips, mushrooms, green onion, eggplant, rice, rosemary, horseradish, zucchini, cucumber, leeks, celery, cilantro and napa cabbage. Also, I had loads of onions and potatos, some eggs, cheese, left-over wonton wrappers, tofu and tomatos.

Here's what I've made so far: lentil, potato and ham stew, more vegetarian potstickers, two leek pies, and wonton crisps when I ran out of filling for the potstickers. Most of this can be frozen.

I'm still going to make an eggplant and potato curry, and then I have to think of something else for all the remaining leftovers. I'm pretty upset that our oven is broken since I wanted to make carrot cake and carrot/parsnip muffins for freezing - this would have used up a lot of food. I'll have to think of something else now. Any ideas?

Tonight we ate some of the lentil stew with garlic bread.

Plain Jane

2007-04-15T22:06:00.000-06:00

We had a plain Jane dinner today with a leek pie and chicken smokie that we got from Dad's. Our oven broke in the middle of baking the pie, so I had to use the broiler to finish it off - that's why it's a little burned on top. A fresh salad would have been nice with this dinner, but I didn't want to buy any extra groceries. We're travelling at the end of the week and we're trying to eat up all our food before we go so it doesn't go bad.

Ian also went out and bought a cake. Yummy chocolate :)

Babysitting

2007-04-14T10:05:00.000-06:00

The last two days and nights we've been babysitting for a friend. Breakfasts have consisted of cereal and fruit, lunches of salad and grilled cheese, and dinners were:

1st night: pasta with spinach, brocolli and cheese
2nd night: roasted potato and carrot, steamed peas and chicken fingers

Sorry, no pictures since I didn't have my camera.

Asparagus

2007-04-11T19:16:00.000-06:00

Yesterday we ate out at...wait for it...Costco! Yes, that's right. COSTCO. We got our tires switched from the super-duper winter tires to our severely balding "all-season" ones. The wait was an estimated 2.5 hours, so we figured we could either scam lots and lots of teeny samples or actually dole out the $5 to get some greasy food. Even though option 1 would have been fun, we opted for option 2. We got Costco pizza (on the recommendation of Kevin Rose in one of the Diggnation podcasts) and split a calzone. Yummy greasy food.

So after Easter barszcz, Chinese stir-fry and greasy Costco food, I figured it was time for some vegetarian for tonight. I made an asparagus tart and some grilled zucchini and mushroom skewers. The tart turned out nice and crisp.

Laziness

2007-04-09T10:29:00.000-06:00

Yesterday for dinner we were too lazy to cook anything so Ian picked up some takeaway. We hadn't tried Auntie Jane's yet, so it was a shot in the dark. The spring rolls were excellent as was the fish sauce they came with. The Szechuan beef was also pretty good, but I would have liked even more spice. The chicken dish was just medium, but at least we got lots of vegetables. We didn't order rice (I quickly steamed up a cup at home), but they included an order anyways which we thought was considerate. Yes, I know what you're thinking - traditional Polish sour bread soup for breakfast and Chinese takeaway for dinner...what can I say, sometimes I feel like making an effort and sometimes I just feel like eating junk food in front of the tv!

Easter Barszcz

2007-04-08T11:36:00.000-06:00

There's a fairly involved Easter tradition that my Polish family follows. This year was the second year that I undertook this process by myself since, living 3000km away, I can no longer visit my Parents every Easter. It begins about 1.5 weeks before Easter Sunday with the soaking of rye bread in water. This stimulates the growth of the yeast in the bread and a fermentation process occurs. It looks and smells gross, but just wait until the final product - it's all worth it!

The next step occurs on Holy Saturday. We prepare a basket of food that is blessed in the church. Depending on the region of Poland where you live and your specific family traditions, different items go in the basket. Our family includes the following: eggs, rye bread, kielbasa, beef, salt, farmer's cheese, and horseradish root.

Also on Good Friday or Holy Saturday, a beef broth is made that is eventually turned into the pièce de résistance.

Finally, both the soaking bread liquid and the beef broth are strained carefully and combined to make a clear sour soup called barszcz. This is served on Easter Sunday for breakfast. Individual bowls contain all the goodies from the Easter basket, topped off with grated spicy horseradish and the hot barszcz is poured over. Mmm, is it ever yummy!

Since I don't have many people to cook for, I just made the one Easter dessert - a Polish cheesecake. It's made with farmer's cheese which is sort of like a pressed cottage cheese. To finish it off, I slathered on the chocolate and served it with raspberry syrup. Happy Easter!

Dried-out Salmon

2007-04-06T20:23:00.000-06:00

Tonight I made a Moroccan-inspired dinner with couscous, herb-crusted baked salmon and grilled zucchini. It was okay. The salmon was on the dry side and if there's one thing I hate, it's overcooked seafood. My favourite part was the couscous.

Granola

2007-04-05T08:54:00.000-06:00

On the weekend, I finally got around to making my granola cereal again. Today I had it for breakfast with some vanilla yogurt and kiwi. The cereal has all the good stuff: oats, wheat bran, flax, nuts, dried fruit and some honey.

My Try at Japanese

2007-04-04T19:13:00.000-06:00

I made a sort-of Japanese meal for dinner tonight. It began with a miso soup with shrimp, tofu and spinach. I started off by making a Japanese broth called dashi using kelp and shrimp shells. I strained it, then added the miso paste and other ingredients. Oh yes, I fried the tofu ahead of time to give it some nice texture before I added it to the broth.

Next came the sushi. I made four different rolls and we have plenty of leftovers. We sampled the ones on the plate below. For the fillings I used various combinations of the following ingredients: cucumber, fried tofu, green onion, imitation crab, egg omelet, sesame seeds. Today I experimented with the size and shape of the rolls and with the ratios of rice to nori to filling.

Next up were shrimp and cabbage gyoza with a spicy dipping sauce. I put a little water and oil into a fry pan. The water boiled first and steamed the dumplings, then once it evaporated, the oil went to work and fried the bottom up nice and crispy.

Finally, I served soba noodles with vegetables. I was going to sprinkle on some kelp, but I couldn't find the kind I wanted at my neighbourhood Asian store. Next time I'll try the store downtown.

It was a pretty good meal and we have leftovers of everything but the gyoza, so dinner tomorrow night should be easy. I'll probably add some more vegetables to the soup and noodles to freshen them up a little.

Healthy Lunch

2007-04-03T12:45:00.000-06:00

Today I made a homemade lunch for Ian and myself. A grilled sandwich with lean turkey, baby spinach and regular grocery-store cheddar on rye bread. I served it with some fresh veggies and a dill pickle. I miss the Polish dill pickles my Mom and Grandma used to make - the Polish brands in the grocery stores do not measure up. Maybe this summer I'll buy a bag of cukes at the market and make a few jars on my own.

The sandwich was good, although I used absolutely no fat while grilling it on the Hamilton-Beach grill. It would have been better had I lightly buttered the outside of the bread. I guess you pay a small price in taste for going the healthy route.

The drink in the background is what we lovingly refer to at our house as "fuzzy water with syrup." It's essentially a club soda with raspberry syrup and a slice of lemon. We drink this in lieu of pop. It's still yummy and you don't get that awful sick feeling from the high concentrations of acid and sugar found in pop.

Welcome

2007-04-01T07:26:00.000-06:00

I love eating and cooking and restaurant-going, so I thought I might as well start to chronicle some of my thoughts. The plan is to post every interesting (or not, as the case may be) meal I eat, be it at home or elsewhere. I'm hoping to use this blog as a way to track my changing tastes in food and my kitchen experiments.

If you have any ideas for restaurants or recipes I might try out, please let me know. For now, enjoy the beginnings of this blog, however amateurish they may be.