Second-Day Salad Slime

Project: Greens with Blueberries, Feta and Almonds (Canadian Living Special Issue: Market Fresh)

It’s pretty much impossible to get truly fresh greens in Northern Ontario. This isn’t meant to be surprising. It’s just a fact. It’s pretty much impossible to get truly fresh greens anywhere in Canada after a certain time of year. What is possible, is those boxes of greens. You know the ones. With their dead sadly plastered to the side of the box, fast becoming that slime you scrape off the side of the aquarium after your filter kicks it.

2 tbsp vegetable oil 1 tbsp white balsamic vinegar 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard pinch each salt and pepper 8 cups mixed baby salad greens 1/2 cup fresh blueberries 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese 1/4 cup toasted sliced almonds

So I only had to pick a few slimy bits out of the box of baby greens. And what the heck is white balsamic vinegar?!? I’ll never know how this salad was supposed to taste NOW!

1. In large bowl, whisk together oil, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Add greens; toss to coat.

2. Divide salad among plates. Sprinkle with blueberries, feta cheese and almonds.

Makes 4 servings.

Uh, YUM! The truth is that I believe this salad would be perfect WITHOUT the green stuff. It’s not that I don’t like greens. They’re delicious. But I found myself picking the greens out to eat first, then following it up with mouthful after mouthful of delicious feta, blueberry and almond drizzled in a mild vinaigrette.

Also, leftover salad was predictably gross. As in aquarium slime gross. Bollocks.

This is Soup?

Technorati Tags: Food,Soup,Noodles,Peanut Butter,Tofu

Dish: Vegetable Lo Mein (Reader’s Digest Ultimate Soup Cookbook)

I decided it was finally time to crack open the Betty Crocker Stainless Steel Skillet (say that 3 times fast) that my boyfriend gave me LAST CHRISTMAS (I am a failure), and figured an Asian dish was the best thing to try in it (since it is the only thing I own even approximating a wok). And the dish was vegetarian. How can I go wrong?

4 oz Asian egg noodles or thin egg noodles 1 tbsp peanut butter or vegetable oil 3 scallions, finely chopped, with tops sliced and reserved 2 garlic cloves, minced 1 tsp minced fresh ginger or 1/4 tsp ground ginger 2 celery stalks, sliced thin 2 medium carrots, peeled and sliced thin 1/4 lb mushrooms, sliced thin 1 cup low-sodium chicken broth or water 2 cups broccoli florets 1 tbsp cornstarch 1 tbsp low-sodium soy sauce 1 tbsp dry sherry 1 tsp Asian sesame or peanut oil 1/2 tsp sugar 1/2 lb firm tofu, cut into 3/4” cubes

Yeah, yeah. Some of you are scared of the tofu. Don’t be. It tastes like ginger and soy sauce. In this case.

1. Cook noodles according to package directions, omitting salt, and then drain and set aside.

2. In a heavy 12” skillet over medium-high heat, heat peanut oil. Add scallions, garlic and ginger and stir-fry 30 seconds. Add celery, carrots, and mushrooms and stir-fry 2 minutes. Stir in 1/2 cup chicken broth, cover, and simmer 3 minutes. Add broccoli, cover and simmer 2 minutes.

So, yeah, scallions, garlic and ginger:

Then celery, carrots and mushrooms:

Then add the broccoli and cover, which is great, if you’ve got a cover. If you don’t, do your best to make a layered, shingled tinfoil roof to protect your broccoli from drying out. It should be nice and bright green. That way you know it’s still got the healthy goodness of broccoli, which is the true reason to eat broccoli (and not my secret true reason: awesome cheese sauce vehicle).

3. In a small bowl, combine remaining chicken broth with cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, sesame oil and sugar. Add to skillet and cook, stirring constantly, over medium heat until thick, about 4 minutes. Add noodles and tofu, cover, and simmer 2 minutes or until tofu is heated through. Transfer to a bowl, toss gently and sprinkle with sliced scallion tops.

The unfortunate thing about the sauce is that it turns just about everything in the pan an unfortunate blech colour. Also, I found that in this case, despite the blech colour, I was wanting a little bit more sauce. Because this is what I got:

And damn it, I wanted soup.

:(

Fail Cake I

Project: Raspberry Lemon Cream Cake (Canadian Living Special Issue: Market Fresh)

I love to bake. I think that's clear. And I love it when people tell me how great my baking is. So you can bet that when I was invited to a party for the end of the softball season, I was doubly excited (1. for the end of softball season...because I was SOOO bad at it, and 2. for the opportunity to bake for people).

So, I decided to make this cake.

The blurb in the magazine suggests that this:

"...tender sponge cake holds layers of fresh raspberries in a creamy lemon filling..."

What could be better than that?

3 cups raspberries
1 tbsp icing sugar
6 eggs
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
1 tsp vanilla
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
pinch salt
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 pkg unflavoured gelatin
3 eggs
2 egg yolks
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tbsp grated lemon rind
2/3 cup lemon juice
1 1/3 cups whipping cream

Line the bottom of a 9" springform pan with parchment paper; grease side. Set aside.


Set eggs in bowl of warm water for 5 minutes.

I'm not entirely sure why I took a picture of that part...except to show you some local eggs perhaps? Iono.

In electric stand mixer on medium-high speed, beat eggs until foamy. Gradually beat in sugar for a bot 10 minutes or until pale yellow and batter falls in ribbons when beaters are lifted. Transfer to large wide bowl; fold in lemon rind and vanilla.
I think putting some vanilla in a shot glass was my lame attempt at being Bakerella or something. As though my phone's camera is as good as hers, and as though my freezer top is as clean as her...fancy food-picture-taking studio. ANYWAY, after all that's done, you have something that looks like this:
Sift together flour, baking powder and salt; sift one-third over egg mixture and fold in. Repeat twice. Transfer one-quarter to another bowl; fold in butter. Fold back into remaining batter. Pour into prepared pan.You know, since I showed you the local eggs, I thought the local flour deserved some spotlight.

Bake in centre of 325F oven for 50 to 60 minutes or until cake springs back when lightly touched in centre and side pulls away from pan. Let cool in pan on rack for 10 minutes. Remove side of pan; let cool on rack.

This is not what happened. What happened was that about 10 minutes into baking, my smoke alarm started screaming at me because the top of my cake was beginning to char. Opening the oven caused my not-at-all baked cake to fall, resulting in a flat and not-at-all picture worthy sponge cake. Probably because of my stupid apartment-sized stove in my stupid apartment-sized apartment. Frown.

In small bowl, sprinkle gelatin over 3 tbsp water; set aside.

In heatproof bowl, whisk together eggs, egg yolks, sugar, lemon rind and lemon juice. Place over simmering water; cook, stirring frequently, for about 20 minutes or until translucent andthick enough to softly mound on spoon.You know, just incase you weren't sure what they looked like...these are lemons. If life gives these to you, you should make lemonade. Ba dum bum.Despite my bad jokes, the lemon sauce turned out just delicious.

Strain into large bowl. Stir in gelatin mixture until melted. Place plastic wrap directly on surface; refrigerate, stirring every 10 minutes, for about 1 hour or until cook and mixture can mound on spoon.

In bowl, beat cream; fold one-third into lemon mixture. Fold in remaining cream. Fold in 2 1/3 cups of the raspberries; set aside.
Line bottom and side of same pan with waxed or parchment paper. Cut cake horizontally into thirds. Place to layer, cut side up, in pan. Spread with half of the lemon cream. Top with middle layer, remaining lemon cream and remaining cake layer, cut side down. Cover and refrigerate until set, about 4 hours.

Remove side of pan. Sprinkle top with icing sugar. Arrange remaining raspberries around top edge.

Easy peasy, right? Well...if your cake doesn't rise in the oven properly, getting it into 3 layers is sometimes difficult. And sometimes the end result of the cake is as follows:

Shit.

Can't take that to the party. Tears ensued. Bad words were heard down the street. Light bulb moment followed.

I whipped up the leftover whipping cream (I always buy to much; I like to think it's because I'm prepared for times like these, but deep down I know it's because I'm a poor economic planner and giant food-waster), spread it over the offending bald spot on top of my cake, and voilà!Behold my masterpiece! Pay no attention to the non-masterpiece-y side of the cake.

Fin.

Night-Time Bread

Buttermilk Rolls (Kate Aitken's Canadian Cook Book)

Never, ever, ever make bread when you've had a long day. Trust me. I was looking for a side dish to a soup I was making and this baby was next in line. I love buttermilk baking, so I was excited about this one. Until, that is, THIS was the first ingredient.



Weird, no?

1 medium potato
1/2 cup shortening
1 cake compressed yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
2 tbsp white sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup buttermilk
1 egg, well beaten
3 1/2 - 4 cups sifted all purpose flour

Peel the potato; cook until tender. Press through the ricer; there should be 1/2 cup.

I failed to do most of this. I didn't peel the potato...screw that...too much work and too much wasted fibre. I also don't own a ricer (hint, hint, Christmas-gift buyers). And there was WAY more than half a cup.

While the potato is still warm, add the shortening; stir till it is melted.


Dissolve the yeast cake in the lukewarm water; beat into the potato mixture. Add the sugar and salt to the buttermilk; heat to lukewarm; add to the potato mixture. Add the well-beaten egg; add the flour cup by cup, stirring and beating until the mixture cannot be stirred any longer. Turn on a floured board; knead gently till smooth. Place the sponge in an oiled bowl.


Apparently, the sponge is your pre-baked, pre-risen dough. Check out my oiled bowl. Screw that extra work too.

Cover and let rise in a warm place till light (about 1 1/2 hours).

I didn't do this part either. Because I fell asleep. And let my dough rise overnight. I wish I'd been awake enough in the morning to take a picture of the result. Interestingly, the tea towel I'd used to cover the bowl acted as barrier enough and rather than spill hilariously all over my kitchen, the dough rose just to the tea towel and stopped there. Phew?

Knead down lightly; shape into rolls. Place them on an oiled cookie sheet; again let rise till light, about 1 hour.

I skipped the rising bit, feeling as though my dough had had ample rising time. Plus if I did, I would TOTALLY have been late for work. So there.

Bake in a hot oven (400F for 20 minutes); while still warm, brush with melted butter. Yield: 24 rolls.


In the end, they had a bit of a beery taste, and I'm not still not entirely sure what purpose the potato served in the whole affair. But they were a decent breakfast, and three with butter or jam were pretty filling.

Flatulence, Ho!

Dish #1: Eight-Bean Soup (Reader's Digest Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
Dish #2: Warm Chorizo and Spinach Salad (The Cook's Encyclopedia of Four Ingredient Cooking)
Dish #3: Rhubarb Stewed with Apple and Strawberries (The New Lighthearted Cookbook)

I love beans. Beans, lentils, pulses - they are my friends. They make something more of any soup, chili, salad...you name it. So I was really excited to try this eight-bean soup from my soup cookbook. Before:
1/2 cup great Northern beans
1/2 cup dry kidney beans
1/ cup dry navy beans
1/2 cup dry lima beans
1/2 cup dry butter beans
1/2 cup dry split green or yellow peas
1/2 cup dry pinto beans
1/2 cup dry lentils
1 hambone
2 chicken bouillon cubes
1 can tomatoes, undrained, quartered
1 can tomato paste
1 large onion, chopped
3 celery stalks, choped
4 carrots, sliced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup dried chives
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp parsley flakes
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

1. In a 4-quart saucepan over medium-high heat, bring beans and 5 cups water to boil. Cook 2 minutes, then remove frmo heat and let stand, covered, 1 hour.
2. Meanwhile, in an 8-quart soup pot voer medium-high heat, bring hambone and cups water to boil. Reduce heat and simmer 1 hour.
3. Drain beans and add to stock. Add bouillon, tomatoes, tomato paste, onion, celery, carrots, chives, bay leaves, parsley, thyme, mustard, and cayenne. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer 2 hours or until beans are tender. Remove hambone and bay leaves; add more water if desired.

So, you're going to desire to add more water. Once again I neglected to read that essential part. Because if you don't, you're going to have something that looks like this:


Complete with charred bits that burned to the bottom of the pot. Blech. Also, now I have several different variety of dried beans. Because those are everyday use items. Me <- Genius.

I didn't feel this was enough vegetable for the evening, so I made the warm chorizo & spinach salad side dish to go with it.

8 oz baby spinach leaves
6 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
5 oz chorio sausage, very thinly sliced
2 tbsp sherry vinegar

1. Discard any tough stalks from the spinach. Pour theo il into a large skillet and add thes ausage. Cook gently for 3 minutes until the sausage slices start to shrivel slightly and color.
2. Add the spinach leaves and remove the skillet from the heat. Toss the spinach in the warm oil until it just starts to wilt. Add the sherry vinegar and a little seasoning. Toss the ingredients briefly, then serve immediately, while still warm.



Despite the fact that this recipe boasts ONLY FOUR ingredients, I was unable to find half of them in my local grocery store. I substituted hot genoa salami for chorizo, and though at any other point in time the grocery store has bazillions of BRANDS of baby spinach, I had to take home a box of baby arugula instead. Just as well, I like it better anyway. That being said, the green to red ratio in this picture does not reflect the vegetable content promised me in the original recipe book's picture. Hrmm.

Rounding out the evening was a fruit-based dessert, which always makes me feel virtuous and good (and slightly unsatisfied). Before:
1 orange
1 lb fresh or frozen rhubarb
1 large apple
1 cup water
1/4 cup (approx.) granulated sugar
2 cups fresh strawberries, halved
1/2 cup low-fat plain yogur
2 tbsp packed brown sugar

Grate rind and squeeze juice from orange. Cut rhubarb into 1" lengths. Peel, core and thinly slice apple.

In a saucepan, combine orange rind and juice, rhubarb, apple, water, and sugar; cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 10 minutes or until fruit is tender, stirring occasionally. Remove from heat and stir in strawberries. Add more sugar to taste. Serve warm or at room temperature. Top each serving with a spoonful of yogurt and sprinkle with brown sugar.



You might notice that it doesn't actually contain any rhubarb. Yup. My grocery store strikes again. I decided to substitute mango for a variety of reasons. 1. It seemed to be the only thing there. 2. I love it and my boyfriend hates it and he wasn't going to be around to eat it. 3. Mango & strawberry. It's a delicious smoothie in the making. It's pretty good, although I suspect a little mushier than the intended rhubarb version.

This was a steamy night in my kitchen. Not only was I cooking for myself, but I also made a batch of brownies and a loaf of bread. The bread was an interesting recipe; full of dried prunes and bran. I refer to it as poop bread. Eating the bread and the bean soup concurrently has been interesting. And, unsurprisingly, pretty solitary.

I Hate My Slow Cooker

Dish #1: Italian Chicken and Pasta (Better Homes and Gardens Slow Cooker Favorites Made Healthy)

I have a tiny slow-cooker. It was given to me as a well-meaning Christmas gift and I was pleased to receive it at the time. But it really only holds 2-3 servings of anything. Most of the time, I really want my slow-cooker to make things easy TONIGHT and FOR MANY NIGHTS TO COME. Ultimately: it's pretty dinky.

So, I forgot to get groceries to fill the cooker up in the morning, meaning it didn't even make things easy TONIGHT since I had to race around the grocery store, dump everything in the cooker and hope for the best AT LUNCH, leaving me 0.2 milliseconds to eat my actual lunch that day. Blargh. Before:

1 9-oz package frozen Italian-style green beans
1 cup fresh mushrooms, quartered
1 small onion, cut into 1/4" thick pieces
12 oz skinless, boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1" pieces
1 14 1/2-oz can Italian-style stewed tomatoes, undrained
1 6-oz can Italian-style tomato paste
1 tsp dried Italian seasoning, crushed
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 oz dried fettuccine, cooked and drained
3 tbsp finely shredded or grated Parmesan cheese

1. In a 3 1/2 to 4-quart slow cooker combine green beans, mushrooms, and onion. Place chicken on vegetables.
2. In a small bowl combine undrained toamtoes, tomato paste, Italian seasoning, and garlic. Pour over chicken.
3. Cover and cook on low-heat setting for 5 to 6 hours or on high-heat setting for 2 1/2 to 3 hours. Serve over fettuccine. Sprinkle with Parmesan cheese.

So, turns out small-town Northern Ontario doesn't have a. Italian-style green beans or "Italian-style tomato paste." And I've only just now realized that I used 12 chicken thighs instead of 12 ounces of chicken thighs. Sigh. Finally, I used pureed tomato instead of stewed tomato because I'd already opened a can. It turned out fine that way.


Today's important lesson learned: my blackberry camera makes grated parm look like slime vomit. Yes. It's a thing.

Friends Don't Give Friends Chickpea Bruschetta

Dish #1: Chickpeas and Balsamic Vinegar Bruschetta (provenance unknown)

So, I have a few friends that I haven't had the chance to visit with in quite some time. After many repetitions of things like, "Hey...we should get together..." and "Uh...has my boyfriend left his jacket in your closet for the WHOLE SUMMER?" we finally decided on a date and time.

Because my friend has a small monkey (read: child), I thought I would be a good guest and bring a delicious appetizer. It so happened that I had a recipe for what looked like a delightful pre-dinner snack: Chickpeas and Balsamic Vinegar Bruschetta.

Before:

In a medium bowl, combine one 15-oz can chickpeas (drained, rinsed, and roughly chopped), 1/2 cup fresh flat-leaf parsley leaves (roughly chopped), 1 clove garlic (finely chopped), 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 3/4 tsp salt, and 1/4 tsp pepper. Spread on toasted baguette rounds.

Now, I didn't have time to toast baguette rounds myself, so I bought 'em. And it's hard to chop chickpeas manually...so I did it in a food processor. And the result was, I thought, pretty tasty.


Ok...it was a littly salty, and a little parsley heavy. And I believe I made enough to feed the standing army of a small country. So, wanting to save room for what was arguably "the main event," we each politely had two or three slices of bruschetta and that was that. I ended up throwing most of it out, truth be told. Might be good for a party, though. If do a "Chickpeas, yea or nay?" poll ahead of time.

Inaugural Post - Celebrating with Food from my Home

Dish #1: Classic Bouillabaisse (from: The Ultimate Soup Cookbook)
Dish #2: Buttermilk Biscuits (from: The Ultimate Soup Cookbook)

So...the tagline should say it all. I'm celebrating the start of this zen-project by making something French-inspired with a bunch of ingredients from my homeland: the East Coast. Buying the fish & seafood today reminded me of home as the fishmonger at my local, highly landlocked grocery store complimented me on my choices. "They're all yours, love," he said with a lilting accent I couldn't quite place because it was all but drowned out by the noise from the freezers.

Before:
8 oz. fresh or thawed sole
8 oz. fresh or thawed frozen sea scallops
1 frozen small rock lobster tail
1 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
3 1/2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1 3/4 cups chopped tomatoes
1 cup dry white wine or low-sodium chicken broth
2 tbsp minced fresh parsley
2 bay leaves
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp fennel seed
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp saffron threads (optional)
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 can minced clams

I had to use canned lobster instead of frozen lobster tail because, as you might guess, they don't have frozen lobster tail just hanging around here. I also forewent the optional saffron...which I find doesn't really taste like anything anyway (I know, I'm a troglodite), and (hee, hee, hee, oops!) forgot to buy the fresh parsley. This is funny because just last week I accidentally bought fresh parsley without meaning to. C'est la vie.

1. Rinse fish, scallops and lobster and pat dry. Cut fish into 2" pieces, halve large scallops, halve lobster tail lengthwise, then cut crosswise into 6 portions.

2. In a large saucepan, heat oil over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and sauté 5 minutes or until onion is tender. Stir in broth, tomatoes, wine, parsley, bay leaves, thyme, fennel seed, salt, saffron, if desired, and cayenne. Bring to boil, reduce heat, and simmer, covered, 30 minutes.

3. Line a large sieve with 2 layers of cheesecloh and set in a large saucepan. Strain vegetable mixture, discarding vegetables and seasonings.

4. Bring liquid to boil, add fish, scallops, lobster and clams. Return to boil, reduce heat and simmer uncovered, stirring, 4 minutes or until fish flakes easily and scallops and lobster are opaque.

After:
So, I kind of skipped step #3 because I happen not to mind the texture of cooked onion and chomping on the occasional surprise piece of fennel. Note the whole lobster claw. Totally worth the $22 a can for the lobster. The combination of cayenne, fennel and tomato really makes this very simple soup taste super-rich and delicious. The mountains of shellfish doesn't hurt either.


Before:

2 cups all-purpose flour
3 tsp baking powder
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 sp salt
1/4 cup butter, cut up
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
1 cup buttermilk

1. Preheat oven to 450F. In a large bowl, combine flour, baking powder, sugar, baking soda, and salt. Using a pastry blender or 2 knives, cut in butter and shortening until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add buttermilk and stir lightly with a fork just until a soft dough forms.

2. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently 6 to 8 times.

3. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls 1 inch apart on ungreased baking sheets and bake until golden, 12 to 15 minutes. Serve hot.

After:
Three things about this recipe. 1. It tastes really buttery, but it's nearly impossible to get a "coarse meal" texture with this recipe's butter to flour ratio. The fact that I used olive oil instead of vegetable shortening probably contributed to this problem (woops!) 2. Whoever thought I might be able to knead this dough is imagining things. It was WAY too sticky. 3. Grease the pan. Even though it says not to. Unless you have non-stick oven-ware. In which case fill your boots.

Until next time.