Pork, Pumpkin & Tomato Laksa

Holy moly - it's been ages since my last recipe post! November has always been my least favourite month for many reasons: Remembrance Day rehearsals (actually, I don't mind that, it's just that they take up a ton of time), report cards, and that weird in-between stretch of blahness that stretches from Thanksgiving (Canadian) through Christmas. There's just nothing to celebrate about November. The leaves have fallen, the sky is dark in the morning when you leave for work AND when you get home, and there's no snow to lighten the whole place up.

Which is what makes warming, vibrant recipes like this one so important. It's easy to subsist on soothing comforting food throughout November - wrapped in a blanket of polenta, smothered with tomato sauce. But, it's important, in my oh-so-humble opinion to mix together the comfort with something zingy and exciting.

Laksa (that's a spicy, coconut based curry soup) is where it's at.

This was one of those meals that started off one way and then ended up very differently. I'd intended to make pork burgers. And then I'd changed that to pork lettuce wraps. But I really, really wanted some noodles (there are rice noodles buried under that soup) and so this recipe ended up being the winner.

It's a variation of a Nigel Slater recipe I've been thinking about making for a couple of years now, but never got around to. Thanks to a pie pumpkin I've had sitting in the corner of my kitchen (bought with grand intentions that have long been forgotten), it was finally possible!


Pork, Pumpkin and Tomato Laksa

(adapted from Nigel Slater's Kitchen Diaries)


Ingredients

½ lb peeled and seeded pumpkin (squash would be equally at home here)
1 lb lean ground pork
4 cloves garlic
3 hot peppers, seeded if you want a milder laksa
1" thumb of ginger, grated
1 bunch cilantro, both leaves and stems washed
5 lime leaves
zest of one lemon
1 tbsp canola oil (approx)
4 tomatoes, cored and cut into hunks (I got 16 from each tomato)
1 14oz can light coconut milk
2 cups chicken stock
juice of half a lemon
2 tbsp fish sauce
4 oz (125 grams) rice vermicelli
small palmful mint leaves, chopped
¼ cup cashews, coarsely chopped

Directions

1. Over a pot of boiling water, steam pumpkin for about 12 minutes, or until flesh is almost tender. Set aside

2. While the pumpkin is steaming, place garlic, ginger and peppers into a food processor and pulse until finely chopped, scraping down sides as necessary. Add in half of the cilantro, both leaves and stems, lime leaves and lemon zest. Pulse again, adding a little canola oil to bring mixture together into a paste. Set aside.

3. In a large wok over high heat, cook pork until almost browned, stir in spice paste and stir fry for 1 minute. Add in tomatoes, pumpkin, coconut milk and chicken stock and cook for 7 minutes, or until tomatoes begin to fall apart.

4. While laksa is in the last few minutes of cooking, cook rice vermicelli according to package directions.

5. Add lemon juice and fish sauce to laksa and let cook 2-3 minutes further.

6. To serve, divide rice noodles between bowls. Ladle laksa broth over noodles and top with extra cilantro leaves, mint leaves and chopped cashews. Eat with chopsticks and a spoon!

You know what else depresses me about November? The disappearance of natural light. Bah humbug.

Miso Ramen with Poached Egg and Spinach

Unlike many students who were forced - out of poverty - to subsist on a diet of dehydrated ramen noodles throughout their university years, I was lucky enough to live at home and, you know, eat healthily. That's not to say that I didn't have the occasional msg and sodium laden convenience product. My brother and I would regularly split a package when we watched WWE Raw that we would stir fry with veggies instead of turning it into soup.

Yes, I said WWE. I love Shakespeare, Jane Austen and the WWE. I also play video games. It weirds my students out to no end, but I like to say that my interests don't fit into nice, neat boxes.

The first time I went out and ate ramen noodles outside of my house was in my husband's town in Japan. There was a great shop in Toki-shi along Route 19 that served the most gloriously gigantic bowls of noodles. The first time we ate there, it was a painfully chilly, rainy Sunday night in November. The rain was pounding umbrellas with icy fury and we were both exhausted. We'd come back from Nagoya and with a long line at our regular Sunday night sushi joint, we decided to brave the vicious weather and try somewhere new.

Let me tell you, ramen is the perfect antidote to combat the bone chilling rain of an autumn storm. When your monster sized bowl arrives, you're immediately bathed in steam from the broth. On first bite, the noodles are so hot you almost burn your tongue, but you slurp them down anyway. And then, as you begin spooning the salty broth into your mouth, a warmth uncurls itself in your belly and begins to radiate throughout your limbs.

Frankenstein's monster could have been brought to life with ramen. If he had been, he probably would have been in a much better mood.

That first night, I had miso-butter ramen with corn, an egg, and bamboo shoots. And though I tried many other different varieties in my time there, I always returned to the comfort of miso ramen to warm myself.

I don't make ramen much for myself these days - only a handful of times for those chilly days in autumn and winter. The dehydrated stuff just doesn't do it for me. Luckily, there's a company in the GTA (Marufumi Foods) that makes fantastic fresh ramen and freezes it. Their stock base is a miso based paste, not a powder. If you can get hold of fresh or frozen ramen, you're working in a whole new ballpark of awesome.


Miso Ramen with Poached Egg and Spinach

(serves 1)

Ingredients

1 package ramen with seasoning mix (preferably miso)
1 tbsp white vinegar
1 egg
1 handful baby spinach leaves
shichimi, or chili-garlic paste to taste


Directions

1. Cook ramen according to package directions. Meanwhile, bring a pot with 1" water in it to a boil. Add vinegar and reduce heat to a gentle simmer. Crack egg into a small dish and slide into simmering water. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until your desired doneness.

2. Add spinach leaves to ramen and broth. Cook for 30 seconds, just until wilted. Ladle into a large bowl. Remove egg from poaching water with a slotted spoon and place on top of noodles. Sprinkle with shichimi to taste.

Mario Batali's Polpettine di Tacchino

Oh, Mario Batali. Having just cooked from one of your cookbooks for the first time, I can understand why you weigh what you weigh. Your recipes are outstanding.

And seriously, 2 lbs of meat to serve 4 people? Holy moly man, that serves way more in our household.

I don't know what possessed me to pick up Batali's cookbook Molto Italiano from the library a couple of days ago. Italian food just doesn't excite me. I would choose just about any other kind of restaurant before I would choose an Italian one. But, I'm beginning to think there are two reasons for that:

1) I haven't had a lot of great Italian food. President's Choice Lasagnes clearly don't give an accurate representation of the possibility for deliciousness.

2) Pasta makes me go "meh".

But, one of my friends was raving about his Batali iPad app, and so I picked up the book to see what the fuss was all about.

The best meatballs ever. That's what this cookbook is about. It's going on my Christmas list for this recipe alone.

I won't lie, I made a ton of adjustments to his recipe (2 tablespoons of salt?!? No one needs that much salt in a dish), mostly to the sauce. Given Gwyneth Paltrow's friendship with Batali, I figured he wouldn't mind if I replaced his tomato sauce recipe with hers (it was much simpler and I was out of carrots). Use your own recipe, use Paltrow's (found here) or use some store bought stuff. Just make sure it's low sodium, because these meatballs pack a punch.

And don't be turned off by the long ingredient list. Everything comes together relatively quickly!


Polpettine di Tacchino

(aka Turkey Meatballs)

from Mario Batali's Molto Italiano

serves 6-8

Ingredients

meatballs

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 lb lean ground pork
1½ cups panko
½ cup milk
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried rosemary, chopped
1 tbsp hot pepper flakes
1 tbsp kosher salt
2 tbsp freshly ground black pepper

sauce

3 tbsp olive oil
1 large sweet onion, cut in half vertically and thinly sliced horizontally to form half moons
6 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1 tbsp hot pepper flakes
½ cup water
½ cup red wine or dry sherry
1 tsp dried rosemary
2 cups tomato sauce
2 tbsp parsley

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 475º.In a large bowl, mix together all meatball ingredients. Use a light hand to do so. Form into 24-30 golf ball sized balls. Place on a large, sturdy, rimmed baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes or until golden. Remove from oven and set aside. Reduce oven temperature to 350º.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive oil in a large dutch oven. Add onion and garlic and sauté until golden brown, about 5-10 minutes. Stir in red pepper flakes, then water, wine and rosemary. Scrape up any brown bits on the bottom of the pan, and let liquid reduce to approximately half. Stir in tomato sauce and let mixture simmer for 10 minutes.

3. Add meatballs to sauce, tossing well to coat and bake in oven for 45-55 minutes, or until sauce is thick (and really, almost gone).

Serve in shallow bowls with a sprinkle of parsley.

Cooking Light's Spinach & Chickpea Soup

All the credit for this recipe has to go to my husband, who whipped this up the other day while I was running late from work (workshop on IEP writing, if you must know). It's a really beautiful, easy dinner that I think will go into rotation as my comfort food on dreary, rainy days.

The lemon juice and zest keep the soup light and fresh, while the spinach adds colour and the pasta brings substance.

Plus, you've got to love anything that's ready in about 20 minutes!

Cooking Light's Spinach & Chickpea Soup

(source) serves 4


Ingredients

2 tsp canola oil
2 green onions, sliced
1 tsp dried oregano
4 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 cups water
1 tbsp lemon zest
1 15oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
3/4 cup pasta of your choice
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
5 oz baby spinach
½ tsp ground black pepper
shaved Parmesan


Directions

1. Heat canola oil in a large saucepan. Sauté onions and oregano for two minutes. Add in stock and water and bring to a boil. Add in zest, chickpeas and pasta, cover and continue boiling for 10 minutes. Test pasta for doneness. Stir in lemon juice, spinach and black pepper. Serve with Parmesan shaved on top.

Sausage Minestrone Bake

Autumn rain showers leave me feeling slightly melancholic - but in the best possible way, if that makes any sense. There's something so lovely about watching the rain hit the windowpanes, while you're wrapped up in a cozy cardigan.

A cup of tea close at hand is mandatory on afternoons like this.

Of course, more often than not, autumn rain showers tend to hit while I'm walking home wearing super absorbent fabric shoes. This has happened to me twice in the past week.

Adding insult to injury, the rain stopped within minutes of my arriving home... so there was no need for cardigan. Or tea. Or to stare out the window.

And I had very wet feet.

In the end, it was the wet feet that made me long for comfort food. Inspired by two recipes from Martha Stewart Magazine, I put together a Sausage Minestrone Pot Pie.

 

Sausage Minestrone Pot Pie

Ingredients

2 tbsp olive oil, divided

½ lb turkey sausage, casings removed and meat broken up

1 medium onion, diced

2 cloves garlic, minced

½ tsp dried oregano

½ tsp dried basil

½ tsp dried rosemary

1 sweet potato, peeled and chopped into ½" cubes

3 carrots, peeled and sliced

1 28 oz can whole tomatoes, undrained

1 15 oz can navy beans, rinsed and drained

2 cups chicken stock

1 bunch swiss chard, rinsed, chopped

2 potatoes, scrubbed

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375º.

2. In a dutch oven, heat 1 tbsp olive oil over medium heat. Add sausage meat and onion to pan and sauté until meat is browned and cooked through. Stir in garlic and herbs and cook for a further minute. Stir in potatoes, carrots, tomatoes with their juices, beans and stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 10 minutes, or until thick.

3. Meanwhile, slice potatoes into 1/8" slices, using a mandoline. Set aside.

4. Add swiss chard to pot and cook until just tender, an additional 3-5 minutes. Pour mixture into a 9" x 13" baking pan. Layer potatoes on top of minestrone mixture, brushing with remaining olive oil as you layer. Sprinkle with salt and pepper.

5. Bake for 45-55 minutes, or until potatoes are golden and crisp and mixture is bubbly and thick.

White Pizza topped with Spinach Salad and Prosciutto

Things that keep me up at night:

1. Lesson planning for math class
2. University students who are living in apartments - on their own for the first time - drunkenly singing songs from the Lion King
3. The realization that we eat pizza in some form multiple times a week.

Okay, maybe the last one doesn't keep me awake at night, but I was struck by that realization of just how much pizza we eat each week. It's not usually a cheese and meat laden extravaganza - in fact, I think variations of the vegan Thrive Diet pizza are probably the kinds that we eat most frequently.

But, there is something about having pizza that makes the weekend feel like the weekend. And, if you make an extra large batch of dough one day and store the remainder of the dough in the freezer, it feels like you've barely put any work into a homemade pizza dinner.

And personally, I like that feeling.

I tried something I haven't done before with pizza the other night - forgo the sauce and the cooked toppings.

Instead, the base was baked with a brush of truffle oil and a mixture of mozzarella and blue cheeses. Once pulled from the oven, I topped it with a dressed spinach salad with prosciutto.

So, it's more salad than pizza... right?


White Pizza with Spinach and Prosciutto

(serves 4)

Ingredients

pizza dough (I used the half I'd set aside from this recipe)
1 tbsp truffle oil (you could use any flavoured oil in its place - garlic oil would be particularly delicious)
1 cup shredded part-skim mozzarella cheese
½ cup crumbled blue cheese
4 cups baby spinach greens
2 oz thick cut prosciutto, chopped
1 tbsp sherry vinegar
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place pizza stone in a cold oven. Turn oven on to its highest setting (500º-550º) and preheat stone for an hour. Half an hour into the preheating process, turn pizza dough out onto a floured surface (a pizza peel would be perfect here. Otherwise, use a piece of parchment paper. This will allow you to transfer the dough to the hot stone with minimal fuss. Please note that using the paper will prevent the same kind of crisp browning you would usually get) and shape into the size you want it to be. Cover with a tea towel and let rest for 20-30 minutes.

2. Brush dough with truffle oil and sprinkle cheese over surface. Bake in oven for 12 - 17 minutes, or until cheese is bubbly and golden. Remove from oven.

3. While crust is baking, whisk together olive oil, vinegar, mustard and salt and pepper. I like to throw dressing ingredients into a small mason jar and shake them up. I find it emulsifies much better that way. Place spinach and prosciutto into a bowl and toss with dressing. Place spinach salad on top of pizza and serve immediately.

The spinach closest to the crust will start to wilt slightly in the heat. Can you say yum?

Spiced Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Okay, I might have been exaggerating slightly when I said that chocolate cures all illness. There's definitely a place in my cold-fighting repertoire for vitamin C rich food.

And soup. And the combination of vitamin C therewith.

Can you tell that I haven't quite been healed yet? Can you hear my sniffling through the computer screen?

This makes a ton, so you'll have lots on hand in the freezer for emergency cold-fighting power (you know, should you be out of your first line of defence). If you want to keep things vegan, omit the yogurt and use olive or canola oil in place of the butter.

Spiced Sweet Potato & Carrot Soup

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter, divided
1 medium onion, chopped
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
¼ tsp ground nutmeg
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and chopped
3 cups chopped, peeled carrots
3½ cups vegetable or chicken broth
3 cups water
1/3 cup plain yogurt, plus more for serving (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
2 tbsp parsley, minced

For added flavour, add one of the following: 1 tbsp orange zest and ½ cup orange juice (remove ½ cup water), ½ tsp curry powder, 1 tbsp freshly grated ginger

Directions

1. Heat 1 tbsp butter in a large dutch oven. Add onions and sauté until translucent and soft, about 4 minutes. Push onions to side of pan. Add remaining 1 tbsp butter to the center of the pan and let milk solids brown. Once browned, stir in cinnamon and nutmeg and stir just until fragrant.

2. Stir in potatoes and carrots, tossing to get butter over all the vegetables. Then pour in broth and water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until vegetables are tender, about 35 minutes. Purée in batches in a blender or with an immersion blender. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste. Stir in yogurt, if using, and serve in deep bowls with an additional dollop and a sprinkling of parsley.

Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea & Wheat Berry Toss

There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done. It feels like the instant my head hits the pillow, I'm already asleep. And when I wake up in the morning, I'm bleary eyedly stumbling towards my coffee.

So I'm all about getting as much shut-eye as possible. And that's where easy lunches come into play.
I refuse to give up sleep to prepare food, so I always put my lunch together the night before. Leftovers play a big part in what I eat for lunch, so I'm always looking for meals that are brown bag approved. To me, that means if I have to use cutlery to eat it, I'm only required to use a spoon OR a fork. And, preferably, it can be eaten at room temperature without causing too much of a mess.

If you've been reading the blog for a while, you know that I have a deep and abiding love affair with legumes - and the mixture of legumes and grains always strike me as a perfect combination of ingredients for a packed lunch.

This recipe was adapted from the fabulous blog No Recipes. I tarted mine up with more ingredients and reduced the oil but, I must say the dressing is just killer! I hesitate to say it, but it was even better day two.

Roasted Cauliflower, Chickpea and Wheat Berry Toss

(lightly adapted from No Recipes)

Ingredients

2 cups uncooked wheat berries
1 head of cauliflower, stalks discarded and florets cut into bite sized pieces
1 tbsp olive oil
2 red peppers, roasted, peeled, seeded and diced
1 15 oz can chickpeas
1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
3 tbsp parsley, chopped

dressing

3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp truffle oil (if you have it, if not, use some more olive oil)
2 tablespoons sherry vinegar
1 tablespoon honey
2 tsp sesame oil
1 teaspoon dijon mustard
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook wheat berries according to manufacturer's directions. When finished cooking, place in a large bowl.

2. Preheat oven to 400º. Toss cauliflower florets with olive oil and place on a large baking tray. Bake for 20-30 minutes, or until lightly browned, stirring once or twice. Add to wheat berries. Stir in peppers, chickpeas, capers and parsley.

3. In a separate bowl, whisk together all ingredients. Pour over wheat berry mixture and toss to coat.

Clean Eating's Eggplant & Sausage Pasta - Less Clean for Your Porky Goodness

Big, gloriously coloured eggplant have arrived in our local market. I'm always a bit leery of Italian eggplant (as opposed to the Japanese eggplant I usually buy). Too often, I seem to end up with a vegetable that has a thick, bitter skin. I'm not usually a huge fan.

But, when the vegetable is fresh from the farm, I can't pass up the opportunity to try out a new recipe. I got this one from Clean Eating magazine.

I cannot rave about this dish enough. It has all sorts of delicious balances - sweet (raisins), salty (sausage), savoury (tomatoes and eggplant) and sour (vinegar).

Eggplant and Sausage Pasta

(adapted slightly from Clean Eating Magazine)

Ingredients

1½ tbsp olive oil, divided
1 large eggplant, cut into ½" cubes
freshly ground black pepper
8 oz pasta (I used Kamut & Spelt pasta)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large, fresh sausage (I used a herb and garlic pork sausage), casing removed and meat crumbled
½ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1½ cups chopped tomatoes
¼ cup raisins
1 tbsp capers, rinsed and drained
2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
¼ cup chopped parsley
kosher salt, to taste
½ cup low fat ricotta cheese


Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400º. Spread ½ tbsp olive oil on a large baking sheet. Toss eggplant with ½ tbsp olive oil and spread over baking sheet in a single layer. Sprinkle with pepper. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden brown and tender. Remove from heat and set aside.

2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil, and cook pasta according to manufacturer's directions. Drain and set aside.

3. Heat remaining ½ tbsp oil in a dutch oven. Sauté onion and sausage until onion is browned and sausage in cooked through. Stir in oregano, red pepper flakes and garlic. Sauté for an additional minute. Add in tomatoes, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer. Stir in eggplant, raisins, capers and simmer until sauce is thickened, about 5-7 minutes. Remove from heat and stir in vinegar and 3 tbsp parsley. Add pasta into pot, tossing to coat.

4. Serve with a dollop of ricotta cheese and a sprinkle of parsley.

Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

This is resoundingly one of my go-to August dishes. It's safe to say that it's my mother's too, because she called me asking for the recipe just as I was whipping this up.

It's best with fresh corn on the cob, so make it up while the corn is fresh!

It serves 4 as a side dish, but my husband and I have been known to just chow down on it alone for dinner.

Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

(lightly adapted from Fine Cooking)

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter, divided
½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
1 medium zucchini, finely diced
2 heaping cups fresh corn kernels, cut from about 4 ears
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp ground corianger
½ tsp ground cumin
juice of ¼ lemon
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a dutch oven or very large skillet, melt ½ tbsp butter with ½ tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in onion and ½ tsp salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent. Remove heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 3 minutes, until onion is beginning to brown. Add in zucchini, and continue cooking until zucchini begins to shrink and lose some of its moisture, about 3 minutes more.

2. Add in remaining ½ tbsp butter, corn kernels, garlic and remaining ½ tsp of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until corn becomes bright, tender and caramelizes slightly, about 5 minutes. Add in coriander and cumin and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Remove pan from heat. Stir in lemon juice and 1 tbsp mint. Let sit for 2 minutes, then add in black pepper and additional salt to taste. Serve with additional mint sprinkled on top.

Minted Quinoa and Cannellini Bean Salad with Watermelon, Peas & Feta

This recipe was inspired by a Cooking Light recipe that called for farro, watermelon and peas. I was intrigued by the combination, but wanted to make the salad a more substantial meal and balance it out with more salty and tangy flavours.

Quinoa and Cannellini Bean Salad with Watermelon, Peas & Feta

(inspired by Cooking Light)

serves 6

Ingredients

1 cup quinoa
1½ cups water
1 cup freshly shelled peas
1½ cups diced seedless watermelon
1 can cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
½ cup minced parsley
¼ cup shredded mint
1/3 cup crumbled feta
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. Rinse quinoa in a fine mesh strainer, rubbing grains between fingers to remove any residue. Place in a large pot with the water, bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 15 minutes. Stir in the peas in the last two minutes of cooking time, and replace lid. If peas are not bright green and tender after two minutes, let cook for a minute longer. Remove from heat, drain any excess water off and rinse under cold water.

2. Place quinoa mixture in a large bowl. Toss with watermelon, cannellini beans, parsley, mint and feta.

3. Whisk together dressing ingredients (lemon juice through pepper) in a separate bowl. Pour over quinoa, toss again and serve.

An Inauthentic Flammekueche

Lately, I've been really trying hard to steer clear of cheese. As much as I love it, it just doesn't seem to love me. And when cheese goes... well... I've tried to love pizza without the cheese, but I just haven't been successful.

Enter the Alsatian dish: Flammekueche.

Flammekueche (or Flammekuchen in German) roughly translates into baked in fire... which means you're required to get that oven piping hot. It's a thin crust, topped with fromage blanc (or, in my inauthentic case, full fat sour cream), onions and cooked bacon.

I like mine with a beer crust.

Beer. Bacon. Shallots. It's a winner based on those ingredients alone.

Flammekueche

(adapted from bonjourlafrance.com)

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2¼ cups all purpose flour, divided
¼ cup warm water (100º-110ºF)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ cup dark beer
6 tbsp milk

1 cup sour cream
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 pinches ground nutmeg (crucial to the dish)
3 slices bacon, chopped into ¼"-½" wide strips
4 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together ¼ cup flour with water, sugar and yeast. Set aside for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Stir in remaining flour, 1 tsp kosher salt, beer and milk. Turn ingredients onto a lightly floured surface and knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball. Place in a greased bowl, turning dough all over to coat. Cover with a tea towel and set aside in a draft free location, and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rise again for 1 more hour.

2. Meanwhile, with a rack in the middle, preheat oven to 475º and line your largest square baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. In a bowl, stir together sour cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside

4. Heat a skillet over medium heat and fry bacon until crispy. Remove bacon and drain off all but ½ tbsp fat. Fry shallots in fat until golden and brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

5. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until  as thin as you can manage to transfer. Transfer to baking sheet, cover with tea towel and let rest for 5 - 10 minutes.

6. Spread sour cream mixture over surface of dough, leaving a ½" border on all sides. Sprinkle with shallots and bacon. Fold up sides of dough.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until bottom is golden. Let cool on rack for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Best enjoyed with beer, in my opinion.

Italian Chicken en Papillote (a non-recipe post)

One of the great things about having my mornings in class is I'm forced to get up at the same time as I do when I teach. Now, I know some of you are putting your hands up to say, what the heck? There's method in my madness, I promise.

When I have time off, I stay up late. And then I sleep in. And my sleep cycle gets pushed further and further out of whack.

I don't like it when my sleep schedule gets pushed out of whack.

Believe it or not, I like productive mornings. It's so nice to get everything out of the way right at the beginning!

Plus, it means I don't have to feel guilty for my daily afternoon naps.

It's all about having guilt free naps.

Yesterday, after a drama class filled with some interpretive dance on war/peace to Zoe Keating, I walked to the library for my annual summer library reading binge. I wasn't carrying any bags on me, so I only picked up a few books, one of which was the French Women Don't Get Fat cookbook.

This recipe (if you can call it that) isn't from the book, but was inspired by her several recipes using the en papillote technique. For those of you not familiar with en papillote, it means you take meat or fish and place it, along with other flavourful ingredients, in parchment paper packages which are then baked in the oven. This steams the meat inside, but also infuses it with whatever ingredients you've thrown in along with it.

I opted for chicken with lemons, parsley (although, if you have fresh rosemary, all the better), olives, sundried tomatoes and capers.

The brilliance of this recipe, is that there really isn't one. Use what you've got on hand; just keep it to no more than 2 tbsp of toppings, plus something beneath the chicken to infuse from below. Sautéed shallots or spinach would make a great base. A few cloves of garlic in there with some lemon and lots of black pepper? Delish!

And the bonus? No added oils!

The packages are made by creating a circle out of parchment and layering all the ingredients on one half of the circle.

You then fold the other side of the paper over to create a half moon shape. Fold the sides up along the edge of the circle so it looks like this:

Bake in the oven on a baking tray at 400º for about 30 minutes.

If you're into theatrics, give everyone at the table a pair of scissors and allow them to cut a cross into the top of the package and then tear it open. The big reveal is half the fun.

Do be careful of the steam though. There's a lot of it trapped in there!

Grilled Hanger Steak with My Favourite Marinade

One of the many, many things that I both love and hate about my local (independent) grocery store is its selection of food. Sometimes, you'll be overwhelmed with options, and sometimes, you'll go in for a flank steak and be met with skirt and hanger steaks and nothing else.

This was the first time I've seen a hanger steak carried in our store, and I couldn't believe how inexpensive it was. If my reading of Bon Appetit is anything to go by, hanger steak has become really popular with chefs over the last few years for its depth of flavour. Its texture makes it a great steak to grill up for fajitas too.

I opted to marinate the steak before grilling it using my all time favourite marinade: a Pam Collacott recipe from way back in the day. This is both my mother's and my favourite recipe. Best of all, if you let the meat marinate overnight, you're practically guaranteed tenderness, regardless of the cut.

Pam Collacott's Budget Steak for a Bunch

(adapted from Canadian Living)

Ingredients

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp canola oil
1½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp minced onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
¼ tsp dried thyme

1 lb steak (your choice of cut)

Directions

1. Whisk all ingredients except steak together in the bowl/bag you plan on marinating the meat in. Place meat into marinade, turning to coat. Let marinade in fridge for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.

2. Grill steak for 6 minutes, turning once for rare, about 8-9 minutes for medium and 12 for well done. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into thin slices.

In case you haven't seen hanger steak before, here's what the whole marinated and grilled looks like:

Deliciousness!

Turkey Burgers with Ricotta and Sage

Too often, I think, we relegate flavours to a certain season. Turkey and sage, for example are classic combination for both Thanksgiving and Christmas. But, to keep those flavours together just during the cooler months seems like such a shame.

Fresh sage and parsley add depth to turkey burgers, while ricotta both lightens and moistens it. I've been making this recipe since last summer when I spotted it in a Martha Stewart magazine.

I won't lie. I haven't changed a darned thing except scaled the recipe down to make 4 burgers instead of 8.

Martha Stewart's Vermont Burgers

(from Martha Stewart )

Ingredients

1 lb ground turkey
¼ cup ricotta cheese
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
1 tsp minced fresh sage
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
kosher salt and freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Mix all ingredients together in a large bowl. Divide into four patties and place, on individual parchment squares, in the fridge for at least an hour. This will help the burgers firm up.

2. Heat a grill (or grill pan) on medium heat. Brush turkey burgers on one side with oil. Pick up parchment and place burgers gently on grill. Peel off parchment paper. Brush next side with oil. Grill on each side for about 5 minutes, or until a thermometer registers 165º.

Serve with all your regular toppings or whip up a batch of Martha's Extra Special Sauce.

A Smoky Chopped Salad for a Hot Day

Last week, the temperature in Toronto hit a brutal 40º C with the humidex.

Let me be clear on one thing: I am not one of those Canadians who sits around dreaming of the scorching summer sun. I like the heat; I hate the humidity.

Perhaps it's the fact that we have no outdoor space in our apartment (which means all cooking gets done inside), perhaps it's the lack of central air to cool ourselves off at night, perhaps it's the memory of the smell of the summer when the garbage collectors went on strike. Whatever the reason, I really, really dislike Toronto when the heat and humidity hits.

This is one of those recipes designed to embrace the flavour of the heat and humidity, but to avoid heating too much up in the kitchen.

The whole thing comes together really quickly, and you can keep any extra salad dressing in the fridge for 3 days.

Chicken & Chickpea Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

Ingredients

Dressing

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 smashed clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp ancho chili powder

Salad

2 romaine hearts, washed, dried and chopped
2 cup mixed sprouts (pea, sunflower, radish, etc)
½ lb grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs
½ 19 oz can chickpeas, rinsed
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled
½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved
½ avocado, chopped
5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced

optional: pickled jalapenos or green beans (I love Toorshi Hot and Savoury Green Beans)

Directions

1. Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Set aside and let sit for an hour so the garlic can infuse the dressing.

2. Toss together salad ingredients. Discard garlic clove and dress the salad. Serve on chilled plates.

That was dead easy, wasn't it?

Gwyneth Paltrow's Vietnamese Prawn Sandwiches

I'm back from the cottage, covered with mosquito bites and carrying a couple extra pounds.

For the sake of my sanity, I'm going to choose to believe that some of that is muscle from the first kayak of the season.

More likely, some of it came from this:

For the record, I have no idea why the carrot is so neon. I forgot my camera at school, and used my mum's, which was an exercise in annoyance. It wouldn't let me adjust both the white balance AND shoot on macro.

So, just rest assured that the carrot was normal carrot coloured.

Vietnamese Shrimp Sandwiches

(from Gwyneth Paltrow's My Father's Daughter)


Ingredients

1 lb large shrimp, shelled and deveined
2 tbsp soy sauce
1½ tbsp canola oil
½ tbsp toasted sesame seeds, ground
1 tsp peeled and finely chopped ginger
1 large carrot, peeled and coarsely grated
½ tsp coarse salt
½ tsp granulated sugar
¼ cup unseasoned rice vinegar
½ cup mayonnaise (or do as Gwyneth does and use Vegenaise)
Sriracha to taste
juice of one lime
1 baguette
½ English cucumber, peeled, and cut into matchsticks
handful fresh cilantro
handful fresh basil


Directions

1. Put the shrimp in a small bowl and toss with soy sauce, oil, sesame seeds and ginger. Cover and set aside in the fridge to marinate for an hour. Meanwhile, soak 8 bamboo skewers in water.

2. To make pickles, combine carrots through vinegar in another bowl, cover and set aside for an hour. In a third bowl, combine mayonnaise and sriracha and lime juice. Cover and set aside (for an hour!).

3. Fire up the bbq. While it's heating, thread shrimp onto skewers. They'll be easier to manage if you use two skewers per set rather than one.

Grill for about 2 minutes a side, or until pink and no longer translucent. Cut into bite sized chunks.

Assemble sandwich as you see fit, layering carrots, cucumber, herbs, sriracha mayonnaise and shrimp.

Try not to eat the whole baguette.

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli with Sesame Tossed Soba

The other night, my husband and I ate dinner at Fresh, a tasty vegetarian restaurant here in Toronto. The one at Spadina and Bloor is always packed, but turnover is fairly quick, and most of us in the waiting area weren't kept longer than 10 minutes. Truthfully, the last time I was there was more than two years ago, when I was in teacher's college.

My favourite things there? The fantastic smoothies (I'm such a sucker for smoothies), and the noodle bowls. I had the Green Goddess last night which consisted of a mountain of steamed bok choi, kale and broccoli on top of tahini dressed soba with barbecued tempeh. It's gorgeous.

Plus, last time, we're pretty sure we ate dinner beside Trish Stratus, of WWE wrestling fame (and a yoga studio).

So for dinner tonight, I decided to riff off of the Fresh dish.

invisible: soba noodles beneath the toppings

Roasted Shrimp and Broccoli with Sesame Toasted Soba


Ingredients

1 lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 large head broccoli, cut into florets
1 red pepper, thinly sliced
3 tbsp unseasoned rice vinegar
2 tbsp tamari or soy sauce
1½ tsp sriracha
1 tsp sesame oil
1" piece ginger, peeled and minced
zest of one lemon
6 oz soba noodles
your favourite sesame dressing*
pickled ginger to top


* this is my favourite sesame dressing: Kewpie Deep Roasted Sesame

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425º. In a large pot of boiling water, cook broccoli for 1 minute, or until bright green. Drain and set aside in a large bowl.

2. In a large bowl, mix together dressing ingredients (vinegar through zest). Add two tablespoons sauce to broccoli, stir in shrimp and toss to coat. Dump mixture on a baking sheet coated with cooking spray. Bake for 8 minutes, or until shrimp are cooked and broccoli is slightly browned. Place cooked shrimp and broccoli into the dressing mixture and toss with red pepper.

3. While broccoli and shrimp are cooking, bring another pot of water to boil and cook the soba noodles for 6-8 minutes, or until cooked. Drain and rinse under cold water. Toss with sesame dressing and place soba in bowls. Top with broccoli, shrimp and pepper. Garnish with pickled ginger.

Caramelized Onion Galette with Sour Cream Pastry

There are a lot of things that I'm terrible at in the kitchen and pastry is resoundingly one of them. Pies are the bane of my existence.

In my defence, there are lots of things I'm good at too. Like dirtying too many pots.

Galette style pastry is far more up my alley. Its free form shape is forgiving to those with clumsy, rough hands such as myself. I've made many of these throughout the years, and always chalk the cracks and leaks up to the fact that it's supposed to be rustic.

That's what I tell people anyway. They seem to believe me.

Although, perhaps they won't now that I've confessed my secret.

... I probably should have thought this through.

I will admit, I love this galette. The sour cream makes the pastry fairly strong. The trade-off, of course, is less flakiness, but I'm just happy to have a dough I can work with. Plus, it's a tangy so it plays off the onions really well.

The directions look long, but this doesn't take a lot of effort to pull together, I promise.

Caramelized Onion Galette with Sour Cream Pastry

Ingredients

Dough

1 2/3 cup pastry flour (or all purpose if you don't mind a sturdier [read tougher] crust - it still tastes great)
½ tsp salt
3 tbsp chilled, cubed, unsalted butter
½ cup sour cream
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1-3 tbsp ice water

Filling

1 tbsp olive oil
1½ lbs peeled and sliced sweet onion
2 tsp dried thyme
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
¼ cup crumbled feta cheese (I use Ewenity sheep's feta)
¼-½ cup shredded P'tit Basque sheep's cheese (or use a good melting cheese like gouda or fontina)
1 egg, lightly beaten.

Directions

For Dough

1. Combine flour and salt in food processor and pulse to combine. Pulse in butter until mixture is coarse. In a separate bowl, stir together sour cream and lemon juice. Add to food processor and pulse again, until mixture is just incorporated. Add ice water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Pulse until mixture is moist and crumbly, but don't go so far as to let it form a ball.

2. Dump mixture onto a piece of plastic wrap and pat gently into a 5" circle. Wrap tightly and refrigerate until ready for use, at least 20 minutes. (Now is the ideal time to start the filling.)

3. Slightly overlap two sheets of plastic wrap. Place dough circle on top and cover with two more sheets of overlapped plastic wrap. Roll the dough, still covered with plastic wrap, into a 12" circle. Place on baking sheet and put in the freezer for 5 minutes, or until plastic can easily be removed. Remove top sheet of wrap and place dough, wrap side up on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Remove remaining plastic wrap.

For Filling

1. Preheat oven to 425º.

2. In a large frying pan, heat oil over low heat. Add onions, thyme, salt and pepper and cook gently, stirring occasionally, over low heat for 20-30 minutes, or until caramelized. Remove from heat.

3. Sprinkle feta cheese over centre of pastry, leaving a 2 inch border around the outside. Top with onion mixture. Sprinkle P'tit Basque over top. Fold edges of pastry up to partially enclose the filling, pleating as you go. Brush pastry with egg. Bake in oven for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown.

I highly recommend serving this with a tart salad, something with arugula and either a lemon vinaigrette or something with sherry vinegar.

I mixed 1 tbsp hazelnut oil, 1 tbsp canola oil, 1 tbsp sherry vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon mustard with a pinch each of sugar and kosher salt for an easy vinaigrette. With mixed bitter greens, toasted hazelnuts and more sheep's feta, the salad was the perfect accompaniment to the sweet galette.

East Coast Donairs with Creamy Garlic Sauce

I think we have this recipe cut out from a St. John (NB) newspaper back from the 1980s. Actually, I'm positive about this.

If you haven't had a donair before, now is the time! Much like the much beloved 3 am party nosh that is the shawarma, the donair holds a similar place in the hearts and stomachs of Maritimers.

Seasoned meat.

Assorted toppings (tomatoes, raw onions, shredded lettuce, minced parsley and some tahini for me).

A tangy sweet and sour sauce laced with subtle garlic (definitely different than the garlic sauce I get on my shawarmas). It soaks the pita and will dribble down your arm if you add a little more milk than the proportions listed below call for.

Remember, you're not in it for the elegance. You're in it for the in-your-face awesome flavour.

It's what you're craving after one too many beers, or after a long week. Best of all, they're dead easy to make.

Turkey Donairs

(serves 8)

Ingredients

3 lb ground turkey
½ cup bread crumbs
1½ tsp each garlic powder, onion powder, paprika and cayenne
1 tsp each freshly ground pepper, salt and oregano
½ tsp celery salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Mix together all ingredients until it forms a sticky (or gluey consistency). You may do this by hand if you don't mind getting messy, or in a food processor if you're picky about these things.

3. Shape into an oblong log and place on a broiler pan (or cast iron frying pan) and bake for about 1¼. Drain off any fat as it cooks.

If you're making this ahead of time, chill and then slice. It's so much neater if you do it this way! Just reheat the meat before serving with pita, lettuce, tomatoes, sliced onion and Creamy Donair Sauce.

Creamy Garlic Donair Sauce

Ingredients

1/3 cup sugar
1/3 cup evaporated milk (for real luxury, use whipping cream)
½ tsp garlic powder
2 tbsp white vinegar

Directions

1. Whisk together sugar, milk and garlic powder. Gradually whisk in vinegar until mixture is thickened.

Tangy and delicious!