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!

flourless honey cake

This is a gluten-free cake that anyone will love love. It is fairly easy to make, and you really can't go too wrong with this one. The first time I made it, it didn't rise very much but it still tasted amazing, it wasn't as beautiful but I would even go so far as saying it tasted even better since it was really moist. Again this is from one of my favourite food sites (and magazine) Eating Well.

Here's the link:

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

Easter Lamb

Mom made this for Easter dinner. It was really delicious and not too heavy, as some lamb recipes can be. It's a boneless leg of lamb, that is rolled with fresh herbs and a little bit of feta. I thought that a feta and lamb recipe would be really fatty, but the leg of lamb does not have as much fat as other cuts and there is only a bit of feta, it just adds a nice flavour. It went very well with the Indian potatoes and spinach. Sorry for the horrible picture above, the quality of this blog is really going down!

The recipe can be found at:

http://food.chatelaine.com/Recipes/View/Fresh_herb_and_feta_stuffed_leg_of_lamb

Some Recipes From Julie

Julie is one of my favourite cooks, and soup is her specialty. I'm sure this soup is amazing!

Sweet and Spicy Potato and Nut Soup

1 diced onion3
crushed garlic cloves
olive oil
1/4 inch piece of ginger grated
4 fat carrots, peeled and diced
1 or 2 sweet potatoes peeled and diced
1/2 litre or so of stock (veg, chicken or anything really)
2 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons peanut butter (or fresh ground peanuts if you are being fancy)
Juice of a lime
Teaspoon Spiracha sauce or any hot sauce
Salt and ground black pepper to taste

Fry onion in a little oil, add garlic and ginger and fry for a few minutes. Add carrot, potatoes and stock, bring to boil and simmer 25 minutes. Add all other ingredients and blend. Serve with chopped cilantro and a few nuts sprinkled on top. Also good served chilled in Summer!



Spicy Cantaloupe Salad a' la Moosewood(Great with fish dishes)

1 ripe cantaloupe peeled and cut in small chunks
3 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon paprika
2 teaspoons ground coriander
1 teaspoon (to taste) cayenne
salt and pepper
russet lettuce or endives


Prepare cantaloupe and wash and cut lettuce, not shredded but smallish. In a jug mix all other ingredients, place lettuce or endives on plate or in individual bowls. Arrange cantaloupe on top and then drizzle over the dressing. Top with a nice crumbly goat's cheese for decadence.

Thai Mango Salad

A good Thai restaurant is hard to find in my opinion. And now that I'm living in NDG, I am very Thai food deprived. I'm not a fan of the Thai place on Monkland, though some plates are good, they don't have great selection and their salads are very mediocre. So, time for some DIY... This salad is very tedious and messy and takes a while to make but I will say, it is so worth it! I used palm sugar, because I had some, but I'm sure it's fine with regular sugar too. I would suggest tasting the dressing first, you may want to add a little more sugar depending on the sweetness of your mangos.

The recipe can be found at:

http://www.recipezaar.com/Thai-Mango-Salad-204483

Bitter-Sweet Salad

This one's for you Dana since you seem to think I have some salad recipes!

I don't usually do much planning in terms of salad, I usually just throw stuff together and drizzle some balsamic vinegar and olive oil on top. But I am very much in love with endive and radicchio (maybe it's the liver cleansing properties) and I think they deserve some special attention. This salad has it all, it's sweet, sour, bitter, slightly salty and the crunchy texture of all the ingredients makes this salad extremely satisfying.

Bitter-Sweet Salad

Salad:

15 radicchio leaves
1 endive
1/2 apple sliced(peeled or not peeeled- you decide)
1/3 cup of walnuts (broken up a bit)
garnish with finely chopped scallions

(though I haven't tried it yet, I'm sure some crumbled blue cheese or small cubes of old cheddar would be good in this salad)


Vinaigrette:

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp rice vinegar
1 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1/4 tsp mustard powder
pinch of salt

(I can't be so sure of the exact proportions of vinegar and olive oil, so taste the dressing before you put it on the salad, it may need a little more vinegar)

Tuesday Night

Last night we had one of my creations. I made this recipe once before but this time I improved it. Though I used the internet for some inspiration- this recipe is mine. The chicken turns out great but I still think the pistachio coating needs another spice- let me know if you find the missing ingredient!

Pistachio-Encrusted Chicken Breasts with Goat-Cheese Stuffing

The coating:

1/2 c unsalted pistachios

pinch of coriander powder

1/2 tsp of cinnamon

1/2 tsp of cumin

salt and pepper

4-5 chicken breasts

The stuffing:

goat cheese

dried cranberries (some cut up fig would be good too)

honey

mint

Preheat oven to 375 F

Grind the pistachios in a coffee grinder- do not grind too long, you want some bigger crunchy bits in there and you don't want it to turn into a paste. Put the ground pistachio on a large plate and add the spices. Mix and set aside.

Fold a piece of saran wrap in half, place your chicken inside and grab a hammer or a mallet and pound away. Make sure to think of someone when you're doing it. Make sure you the chicken is thin enough that you can roll it up, the maximum thickness is probably about 3/4 of an inch thick, stop pounding if the chicken starts breaking apart. Get a baking pan ready (you may want to put aluminum foil underneath). Cover your chicken with the crust and lay it out on the pan. Take a bit of goat cheese and put it in the center, place about 10 cranberries on top of the goat cheese on each piece of chicken, top with some fresh or dried mint and draw a line of honey across your filling. Roll up and fold in the ends of the chicken, you may want to hold them together with broken up skewers but you don't have to.

2 on the left are the chicken before folding

1 on the right after folding

Bake in the oven for 20-25 and then broil them until they are nice and brown on top- this doesn't take long so keep an eye on them!

Enjoy! And let me know if you've improve the spice mixture!

My Favourite Recipes

Miso-Glazed Scallops

We often keep scallops in the freezer, we can pull them out an hour before and make a great meal. This is an excellent recipe as it is easy and you end up with a very sophisticated dinner. I have never tried it with the soba noodles, instead I always serve the scallops on a bed of brown rice. Several reviewers complain that there wasn't enough sauce and I think this is because the sauce just slides off the noodles, whereas the rice absorbs the sauce and it turns out perfect.

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



Bombay-Style Curried Salmon

Bill made this a few months ago and I really liked it. I made it again when Gijsbert and Julie came for dinner a couple of weeks ago. Everyone devoured the meal and Julie has since made it twice and passed the recipe on to others. Again, this is a really easy recipe if you have lots of asian ingredients in your cupboard. Tamarind paste can be found at most Asian and middle-eastern food stores.

A word of warning: First off, I made this without adding the chili powder and it was spicy enough for me with just the fresh green chilis. Secondly, the recipe has a little mistake in it, it doesn't mention that you combine the chili and garlic paste with the other paste, at least that's what I assume you're meant to do.


http://myfeasts.blogspot.com/2008/12/bombay-style-salmon-curry-and-gourmet.html


More to come

Sunday Night

Not able to eat tonight as I have a very unappetizing medical exam tomorrow. Bill is making Chipotle-Cinnamon Pork Chops for himself and Callum. Though I don't really get excited by pork, I have to admit they look very tasty. Bill has just brought the the pork chops to the table and they smell incredible. His review is... great, nice balance of flavours, apparantly I would like them as there is no lingering pork taste. The recipe can be found at:

http://thecrepesofwrath.wordpress.com/2008/12/15/cinnamon-chipotle-porkchops/