Edamame Salad

I made this a couple of months ago after seeing something like it at the Loblaws food court. They listed the ingredients and I did my best to remember them when I got home. I have no idea what the Loblaw's one taste like, but this version is really tasty. It's simple to make and super healthy.

2 cups of shelled edamame beans- cooked

juice of 1/2 lemon or lime

tbsp miso

tbsp of oil

tbsp of minced ginger

1/3 cup of chopped cilantro

tsp honey

Boil the edamame for 4 minutes, and then rinse them in cold water several times to cool them off and put them in your salad bowl. Put your lemon juice, miso and oil in a small bowl and mix them up until you have a smooth vinegrette, you'll have to press the miso down with the back of a spoon. Pour the vinegrette over the beans and mix in the rest of the ingredients. Serve cold.

Rutabaga and Celeriac Mash

This past summer we decided to get a veggie basket from a local farmer. A common complaint with these baskets is that you get overloaded with root vegetables. This wasn't such a problem but I am definitely finding I have a surplus of veggies that I wouldn't usually buy. I like this because I'm finding I am creating new foods with the vegetables and I'm rarely running to the store at 5 pm to get one of the staple ingredients from our more usual recipes. I actually do buy celeriac now and then because I make a potato and celeriac mash, which is amazing and will be posted shortly (must give credit to Greg here). Rutabaga is definitely not my favourite vegetable but the celeriac actually kind of hides that faint taste of disgustingness from the rutabagas.

1 rutabaga, peeled and cubed

1 celeriac bulb, peeled and cubed

3-5 tbsp olive oil

1/8 tsp smoke paprika

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp pepper

1 clove of garlic

juice of half an orange

Boil rutabaga and celeriac together until they are tender enough for mashing. Just before mashing, add your olive oil to a small pan. Heat the oil on the stove on medium high heat and mash your potatoes while waiting (you can prepare this ahead of time but it's better if it's hot). When the oil is hot to the point that small bubbles are starting to appear, add your smoked paprika, salt, peepper and garlic and take it off the heat. When your garlic is slighlty cooked in the oil, add it to your mashed vegetables and stir. Squeeze in some orange juice and your done.

Chai Petits de creme

Really good!

http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes/chai_chocolate_pots_de_creme.html

Multigrain Bread

We were out of bread and I'd been thinking I would like to try making homemade bread and I had the time, so I gave it a try. I managed to produce a beautiful looking loaf and was pretty happy about that but in the end I found it to be a bit tasteless. It was kind of like biting into moist, fluffy cardboard. I thought I would put it in my blog either for my own archives or perhaps someone might want to try it out and add some flavour. I probably didn't add enough salt, I didn't really measure, just twisted the grinder a few times. But it could also use a little more crunchiness- maybe some corn flour, millet, more sunflower seeds?

The recipe can be found at:

http://www.canadianliving.com/food/multigrain_bread.php

Prawn White Curry (Sri Lanka)

Whoa! This was so good! The flavours are still having a party in my mouth as I write this! It's really easy to make too. You can prepare the sauce ahead and then add the shrimp 4 minutes before serving. This is a recipe from the book Mangoes and Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid. It's a beautiful travel cookbook detailing the culture, scenery and food of Bangladesh, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. I've "borrowed" this from Bill Badger. I'm starting to notice that I have a bad habit of taking over other people's cookbooks. The one ingredient that you may not easily find is curry leaves- I have seen them fresh at Rocky Montana's but I think I bought them frozen at the spice store in Jean-Talon Market. If you really want to make this recipe and you can't find them, I'll give you some of mine (I'm thinking of Julie and Darlene here)!

1 pound of medium shrimps, fresh or frozen

6-10 curry leaves

1 tbsp minced garlic or garlic mashed to a paste

1 tsp of salt

1/4 tsp of ground fenugreek

1 cup of coconut milk

1 cup of water

2 green cayenne chiles, finely chopped

1/3 cup of minced shallots

1 tsp minced ginger

1/4 tsp turmeric

1 large tomato, cut into 1/2-inch dice

1 to 2 tsp fresh lime juice

Rinse, peel, devein shrimp and put it aside.

Put all the ingredients except the shrimp and the lime juice into a medium heavy pot. Bring to a boil and then lower the heat to medium-low and simmer for 15 minutes or until the sauce is a little reduced and thickened.

Add the shrimp and cook until 3 to 4 minutes. Stir in the lime and remove from the heat.

Serve immediately.

Cold Rice Pilaf

I made this at the beginning of the summer with a lebanese grilled chicken and it complimented the spicy meat really well. As much as I like potato salad, I think this is a lighter, healthier and more refreshing summer side dish. I sometimes just use leftover brown rice and other times I cook up a rice blend (Lundberg). It's important that the rice not be warm when you mix the ingredients, the heat will alter the taste and texture of all the vegetables. If I have a lot of the pilaf left over, I like to throw in a can of salmon or tuna and have it for lunch the next day.

3 cups of cooked brown rice or rice blend (tastes better if you cooked the rice in stock)

1 1/2 cups of your choice of finely diced crunchy vegetables (fennel, celery, red pepper, mild radish)

1/3 cup of red onion shallots or scallions

1/3 cup of sliced almonds (pecans are good too)

1/3 cup of dried cranberry

1/3 cup of your choice of finely diced fresh fruit (cherries, peach, apple)

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

juice of one orange

2-3 tbsp of olive oil

2-3 tbsp of seasoned rice vinegar (if you don't have any, use regular vinegar and add a few tsp of honey)

3 tbsp of mint

Directions: Blend all ingredients.

Another Favourite!

Fish with Tomato-Ginger Sauce

(Picture coming!)

I made this last night for the hundredth time when my father was over for dinner. He ate the fish and scraped off all the sauce which I've decided means it must be really exotic tasting. He described it as "a little too tasty". Well, I promise you, that while it may not be a hit with the over 70 crowd, you will definitely like it (even sophisticated 70 year olds will appreciate it).

The recipe comes from the Breakaway Japanese Kitchen (must give credit to Gijsbert here, from whom I stole the cookbook and rather than ask for it back he bought himself a new one and I let me keep the old one). The recipe is actually a Hamachi Tataki recipe (seared yellowtail) but I always put it onto of broiled salmon or sea trout.

Here it is:

Serves 2

1 medium tomato

1 tbsp of soya sauce

1 tbsp of butter

2 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp shallots, chopped (substitute scallions)

1 tbsp fresh ginger (I usually put in double that amount)

sea salt

fresh ground black pepper

Peel your tomato, either with a peeler or by placing the tomato in a boiling until the skin starts loosening and then peeling the skin off under cold water. Put the peeled tomato in a blender and add the soya sauce and blend. In a small pan, heat he butter and olive oil and then add the shallots and ginger and saute for 5 minutes. The shallots and ginger should get a little browned in the pan. Put your shallots and ginger into the blender with your tomato mixture and blend for just a few seconds. Simmer on very low heat for about 5 minutes. I like the reduce the sauce until there is almost no juice left- so that it's in between a sauce and a paste.

Spoon the sauce onto freshly broiled fish and enjoy!