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.

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.

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.

Quick and Easy Minestrone

When I think back to my painfully picky childhood, this was one of the first soups that had visible vegetables in it that I really liked. Prior to this recipe, Campbell's Cream of Mushroom and Tomato soups were about as adventurous as I got.

Thankfully, I got peer pressured into eating more vegetables, and I remember this soup being one of the first that I was genuinely surprised to like.

Having said all that, this recipe is in desperate need of a tweak as it dates back to the 1992 milk calendar and originally clocks in with close to 1000 mg of sodium. That's far too much in my books.

Plus, as it was in the milk calendar, there's... well... milk in the soup. And I just don't think that's either necessary or appropriate.

Quick and Easy Minestrone

(adapted from 1992 Milk Calendar)

Ingredients

3 slices bacon, diced (optional - use 1 tbsp olive oil in place of the bacon and its fat)
1 medium onion, chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
2 cups low sodium or homemade vegetable/chicken/beef stock
1 2/3 cup fire roasted tomato pasta sauce
1 can (14 oz) kidney beans (that's about 1½ cups of beans, if you're making your own)
3 cups water
2 medium carrots, thinly sliced
1 medium zucchini, cut in half lengthwise and sliced into half moon or quarter moon shapes
½ tsp dried basil
¼ tsp dried oregano
¼ tsp dried thyme
1/2 cup small pasta (macaroni, shells, or really, whatever you have on hand)
Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. If using, cook bacon in a large saucepan until crisp and fat is rendered. Remove bacon and drain any excess fat. You want about a tablespoon left in the pan. If you're not using bacon, heat 1 tbsp olive oil in pan. Sauté onion and garlic until tender.

2. Add in next 9 ingredients (through thyme), bring to a boil and let simmer for about 10 minutes. Add in pasta, and let simmer for an additional 10 minutes, or until pasta is tender. Stir bacon back in. Check seasoning and add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with focaccia bread, fresh basil (or a dollop of pesto)!

A Japanese Inspired Soba Recipe

April is one of those months that teases. After cold winter nights and endless amounts of snow and frost, April is that month that whispers sweet nothings and tells you, soon, soon it'll all be over. She takes your hand and shows you the deep blue hyacinths and vibrant yellow crocuses, her sweet, blossom scented breath caresses your cheek.

And then, as you turn to meet her lavender eyes, she knees you in the crotch and punches you in the stomach with wild, blisteringly cold rain storms.

Heck, as I write this, sleet is bashing against our windows. Earlier this week, some of my students were wearing shorts.

This recipe is that warm blanket used on shock victims. Sink into its warmth and stay out of April's mood swings.

Soba with Beef and Onions in Shiitake Broth

(inspired by The Japanese Food Report)

Ingredients

3 cups water, divided
6 dried shiitake mushrooms
½ package (4g) dashi powder
4 tbsp soy sauce, divided
2 tbsp mirin
½ lb thinly sliced beef
1 medium onion, thinly sliced vertically
3 tbsp sake
2 tbsp sugar
4 oz dried soba noodles
shichimi spice powder to taste (Japanese 7 spice chili powder)
1 green onion, finely sliced

Directions

1. Bring 1 cup water to a boil in a small saucepan. Soak dried mushrooms in water for 30 minutes. Remove mushrooms from liquid and set aside. Stir in 1½ cups water, dashi powder, 2 tbsp soy sauce and mirin. Bring to a simmer and keep warm on back burner while you prepare the rest of the recipe.

2. Cut rehydrated shittake mushrooms into 5-6 slices each.

2. Place beef, onion, mushrooms remaining soy sauce, ½ cup water, sugar and sake in a frying pan, and bring to a simmer. Let cook until beef is cooked, onion is meltingly tender and liquid is almost completely evaporated, about 10 minutes. Remove from heat and set aside.

3. Cook soba noodles in a large pot of boiling water until al dente, between 6-8 minutes. Divide between two large bowl. Top noodles with beef mixture. Gently ladle broth over noodles. Garnish with shichimi and green onions.

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Double Smoked Bacon

About this time last year, I was walking through the aisles of our local grocery store, Fiesta Farms. Without wanting to wander off too far on a tangent, I just want to take a moment to emphasize how much I love this place. It's an independent store; it doesn't belong to a big chain. There's only one of it in the city. But, more to the point, it has the most interesting selection of foods on the planet.

I swear by their Gourmet Mediterranean Pizza Sauce. Other people must as well, because the stuff regularly sells out. If I'm there, and the sauce is there, then I'm probably buying multiples of it.

My list of favourites could go on and on (frozen parathas, liberté yogurt in a million flavours, gorgeous organic swiss chard, Rowe farms pork, beef and chicken), but what I really want to talk to you about is a little find I discovered last year in the deli section:

Brandt's Double Smoked Side Bacon.

I wish I'd taken a picture of it, but I was too engrossed in the intense, smoky smell while I was cooking and got carried away in a haze.

That seems to be what happens to most people when they open up a package of the stuff, because I can't find a picture of it anywhere on the internet. Not even off Brandt's website. Brandt is a Mississauga (just outside of Toronto) butcher that does their business in the traditional German style.

I have long loved their liverwurst as it tastes nothing like liver and lots like herbs and spices.

So, when I brought this bacon home last year, I had no idea what to do with it. It was a block, dark and firm with judicious amounts of fat, just slightly larger than the size of my palm. Luckily I found a recipe for Habitant Split Pea Soup that called for both salt pork and a ham hock and decided the hunk of bacon had enough manpower to stand in for the other two pieces of pork.

It was magical.

Weeks later, tragedy struck. Fiesta Farms stopped carrying the bacon. We were heading into March, the weather was strangely balmy and people just had no interest in buying such a dark, wintry ingredient.

I was heartbroken. Since then, I've looked for the bacon every time I've been at the store, with no success.

Until this week. There was one piece.

The soup was coming back to the table.

I picked up some organic yellow split peas from my local bulk store and  fired up the stove. Two hours later, the most deliciously flavoured soup appeared on our table.

Nothing beats a bowl of soup, especially a bowl of legumes and pork, on a icy January night.

Split Pea Soup with Double Smoked Bacon

(adapted from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2010)

Ingredients

1½ tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
one hunk double smoked bacon (I think I had about 250g)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups onion, carrot, and celery to pan; sauté for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in peas; sauté for 1 minute. Add broth and the next 4 ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender, skimming surface occasionally, as necessary.

2. Remove bacon and bay leaves. Set aside the bacon and discard the bay leaves

3. Dice bacon. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to pan; cover and cook 5 minutes. Drain off fat, and return to heat, cooking an additional 5 minutes or until crisp and browned, stirring frequently.

4. Return bacon to soup, and if you're feeling particularly decadent, pour in any remaining bacon drippings along with it. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Savour every mouthful.

Curried Carrot Tangerine Soup

I awoke this past Saturday morning to a flurry of snowfall. There's something so magical about going to bed with the world looking one way and then waking up with it covered with a thick blanket of ivory. While brewing the coffee, I stood in the kitchen, looking out over the backyards and alley behind the houses on our street. The snowfall had deadened the sound of the traffic and I could only hear the peeping of the birds on the feeder next door.

I love freshly fallen snow. As a child, I would get very upset whenever anyone would walk across the front lawn of our house. I hated to see that perfection - and it was perfect to me - destroyed.

By the time I'd finished my coffee and reached for my camera, people were already out shovelling away.

 

Though the stillness had been broken, a day like this called for something equally simple and soothing.

Curried Carrot Orange Soup

Adapted from Rose Reisman's Art of Living Well

Ingredients

2 tsp vegetable oil
1 small onion, chopped (about 1 cup)
1 large clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp grated ginger
1 tsp mild curry powder
5 medium carrots, peeled and chopped
1 small sweet potato, peeled and chopped (about 1 cup)
3½ cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 tsp tangerine zest
½ cup tangerine juice
¼ cup cream or milk (optional) OR a dollop of mascarpone cheese in each bowl
2 tbsp finely chopped green onions, parsley or cilantro (optional)

Directions

1. Heat oil in medium pot over medium low heat. Add onion and sauté until beginning to turn translucent, 3-4 minutes. Add ginger and garlic and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Stir in curry powder, sautéing for an additional minute.

2. Add carrots, sweet potato and stock. Raise the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Once boiling, reduce heat, cover and simmer until carrots and sweet potato are tender, about 20 minutes.

3. Purée soup in batches in a blender or in the pot with an immersion blender (which, if you read the Disaster post earlier this week, you've heard all about) until smooth.

4. Stir in zest, juice and cream (if using). Serve in bowls and garnish with mascarpone and additional garnishes.

Serves 4

This soup freezes really well (especially if you don't add the milk in), so freeze leftovers in individual containers to bring for lunch throughout the week.

A Quick, Loaded-with-Vitamins, Miso Soup

It's amazing how quickly one can move from feeling perfectly healthy to feeling like death. That transition period, when you're just beginning to get sick, always feels like a crucial moment when you can control whether you're actually going to go through the illness or if you're going to be able to avoid it.

Whether that's true or not, I have no idea. What I do know is that, upon waking up with sore lungs and a cough, I needed something warming and easy to make that would, at the very least, make me believe that I was getting tons of vitamins and minerals.

Miso soup, loaded with wakame, seemed like the best option.

Because I was feeling lazy, I didn't bother with making my own dashi broth; I just reached for a package of the powdered stuff.

If you're going to get powdered dashi, be sure to get the stuff that's MSG free. You don't need that gunking up your system.

I'm not going to bother with a full on recipe here, because one of the great things about miso soup is that you can make it as minimalist as you like. I will say though, that I used 3 cups of water to a ½ package of the dashi powder.

Here's what I opted to put in:

Clockwise from bottom left: wakame (seaweed, one green onion, a dollop of miso, dried shiitake mushroom, 3 sliced, fresh mushrooms

Because I had opted to go with powder, I wanted to bump up the flavour of the broth. That's where the dried shiitake came in. I threw it into the broth to simmer for 10 minutes while I was boiling the water for the wakame. This both infused the broth with a mushroomy undertone and softened the mushroom up so I could slice and add it to the soup at the end.

Wakame is usually sold dried and looks a lot like big tea leaves. You must reconstitute it. DO NOT eat it dry. I remember hearing a story about a woman who once ate dried wakame and her stomach exploded because it swelled up in side her.

True story.

Okay, maybe not, but the stuff does expand like crazy. So, to avoid death by seaweed, pour boiling water over it, and let it sit for 3-4 minutes. It'll quadruple in bulk.

See?

Before reconstitution

And then (mind the steam)...

After reconstitution

Once the shiitake are tender, remove and slice. Return it to the pot along with all the other ingredients except the miso.

Ready to add

Remove a little of the dashi to a separate bowl and whisk in the miso until smooth. Add to pot and stir. Serve immediately.

We ate our with a couple of rice balls (salmon wakame and green onion wakame) and an umeboshi (pickled plum).

Here's hoping that's enough to fight off illness!

Nutty Oat Bread with Maple and a Bonus Soup Recipe

This is my second batch of the bread, and, barring some potentially over-toasted nuts, I think the tweaks I made this time round were big improvements to the loaf. Of course, this second one I was making for my family, not for a party, which meant that (of course) it turned out much better.

I should probably do this in reverse: test recipes on family, perfect for company.

As much as I thoroughly enjoy getting my hands dirty and taking out my frustration on dough, the fact that I'm still in Ottawa and have access to a bread machine (and am currently sporting an awesome blister from my failed croquembouche attempt) means I don't have to knead away. And I choose to take the easy way out.

Nutty Oat Bread with Maple

(Loosely adapted from Canada's Best Bread Machine Baking Recipes)

Ingredients

1 1/3 cups milk (1 cup milk, 1/3 cup water for traditional/non bread machine recipe)
1¼ tsp salt
3 tbsp maple syrup (the real stuff please, none of that Aunt Jemima nonsense)
2 tbsp butter (if you have walnut oil, which I didn't, you might want to use it instead)
1 cup whole wheat flour
2 cups all purpose flour (or bread flour)
½ cup quick cooking (not instant) oats, large or medium flake
¼ cup finely chopped nuts (I recommend either walnut or pecan)
1½ tsp bread machine yeast (if you're not going the bread machine route, I'd just use 2¼ tsp regular yeast)

Directions Bread Machine

1. (Totally optional, but highly recommended) Preheat the oven to 350º. Place oats and nuts on a baking tray and bake, stirring frequently for 10-15 minutes or until brown. Hello flavour country!

2. Measure ingredients into baking pan in the order recommended by the manufacturer. Insert baking pan into oven chamber. Select Dough Cycle. Let the machine do its thing.

3. Remove dough to a lightly floured surface. Let rest for 10-15 minutes.

4. Form the dough into a loaf shape (we're talking free form here). Place on a lightly greased baking sheet and let rise 30-45 minutes or until doubled in volume. Add a few decorative slashes to the top here, if you're so inclined.

5. (Totally optional step #2) Gently brush the top with water or milk and sprinkle with a few extra oats. 

5. Bake at 375º for 35-45 minutes or until loaf sounds hollow when tapped on the bottom. If you have an electric thermometer, you can test with it to see if the loaf is done. Once it reaches 190º, you're golden.

6. Let cool on rack before digging in!

Directions By Hand

Repeat as above, but substitute the following for step two!

2a) In a large bowl stir together1/3 cup warm water (about 100-110º) and ½ tbsp maple syrup. Once dissolved, sprinkle yeast over the top of the surface, and set aside for 5-10 minutes, until yeast blooms (gets all foamy).

2b) In a saucepan, stir together milk, butter, salt and remaining maple syrup and heat just until butter melts. Pour into yeast mixture. (Be sure that the milk mixture isn't too hot! Don't forget that yeast is a living thing and can be killed by high heat at this stage.) Stir together.

2c) Using a wooden spoon, stir in whole wheat flour, oats and 1½ cups white flour. Turn onto floured board and knead for 10 minutes, adding additional white flour, 1-2 tbsp at a time as needed. Form into a ball.

2d) Place dough in a greased bowl, rolling dough to coat with grease on all sides. Cover with tea towel and set aside in a draft free location to rise for about an hour, or until doubled in bulk.

2e) Proceed to step 3.

Bonus Recipe: Root Vegetable Soup

Ingredients

1 tbsp olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 parsnip, chopped
1 sweet potato, roughly cubed
2 potatoes, roughly cubed
4 cups broth (I used leftover turkey stock)
juice of ½ lemon (or orange)
salt and pepper
3 leaves sage finely minced (optional)
1 green onion, minced (optional)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil over medium heat. Add onion, carrots and celery, stirring until beginning to soften.

2. Add parsnip, potatoes and broth. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 20-25 minutes, or until tender.

3. Working in batches, puree soup in a blender until creamy (for a slightly coarser texture, use a hand blender)

4. Add lemon juice, salt and pepper to taste. For a sweeter soup, you might want to try orange juice instead of lemon.

5. Ladle into bowls and garnish with chopped sage and green onion. Serve with the Nutty Oat Bread!

Healthy and Not

Yesterday Phil and I got the chance to have lunch and dinner with different sets of old friends. Lunch was my favourite kind: soup and bread (homemade pecan oat, recipe coming tomorrow).

Nona's Soup with a parsley and green onion pistou (plus the bread!)

Dinner, on the other hand, was flecked with these glorious babies... oozing their slick paprika laced fat:

Mmm. Chorizo sausage for paella.

There is nothing better, in my opinion, than great food with great company. And red wine and paella on a Tuesday night? Glorious. Thanks to everyone for having us over/hanging out with us!

Beef and Barley Soup

For the past 2 years, practically every Tuesday night I have eaten alone. Phil usually has a class that night, and so I am left to my own devices.

Confession: when cooking for myself, my own devices usually involves the jar of peanut butter and bread.  Or crackers eaten directly from the box.

Or if I'm really feeling like I want to cook, then scrambled eggs.

I do not like cooking for myself - not because I don't like cooking, but because I hate cleaning up after.

Last night, as I walked home through the downtown core, the windchill brought the temperature down into the negative double digits. I knew peanut butter was just not going to work for me.

So, I braved the thought of creating a mountain of dishes and decided to make soup. Of course, I didn't have all the ingredients I needed for either my beef barley recipe (I only had ground beef) nor my dutch meatball soup (no leeks or egg noodles). In the end, I created a hybrid. And, if I do say so myself, I think it turned out pretty well.

Using dried mushrooms and their soaking liquid infuses an earthy flavour to the soup.

Ingredients

1 lb lean ground beef
½ large onion, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 carrot, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 tsp thyme
½ tsp sage
½ package dried porcini mushrooms
7 cups water
1 beef boullion stock cube
½ cup pot barley, rinsed and drained
2 bay leaves
2 tsp tamari soy sauce
3 tbsp dry sherry
¼ cup chopped fresh parsley
½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper

Directions

1. In a large pot covered with cooking spray, sauté beef until just brown over medium heat. Remove from pot with slotted spoon and leave in a bowl while you prepare the vegetables.

2. Meanwhile, cover dried mushrooms with 4 cups of boiling water. Let sit, while you prep the remaining ingredients.

3. Sauté onion, celery, carrot and garlic with thyme and sage until soft, about 5 minutes.

4. Remove mushrooms from liquid (be sure to save this) and coarsely chop.

5. Return beef and its juices that have accumulated in the bowl to the pot. Add chopped mushrooms, their soaking liquid and the remaining 3 cups of water along with the bouillon cube and the barley and bay leaves. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce heat. Let simmer for 30-40 minutes until barley is tender.

6. Just before serving, add sherry, tamari, parsley. Taste and then add salt and pepper accordingly.

Serve with a grilled cheese sandwich, and you're set for that brisk winter night!

The perfect Friday night dinner

Everyone has favourite thank-God-I-have-2-days-off meal. Most times, we tend towards pizza, but yesterday we were feeling to lazy even for that.

Thankfully, I'd hit up one of my favourite shops on Thursday: Nancy's Cheese. It was here that I was introduced to the joys of sheep cheese. It's so much better (read: less gamey) than goat.

Best of all, Nancy always gives samples of whatever it is you're looking to buy! And I'm definitely a girl who loves her samples.

So, Thursday, I spent the better part of 40$ on 4 wedges of cheese.

I regret nothing.

Friday Night Dinner

Sweet, delicious Friday:

• a bottle of Malivore Gamay
• one sliced Honeycrisp Apple
• pumpkin pecan bread from Whole Foods
• Beemster XO cheese - cow's milk aged gouda with butterscotch notes
• Moliterno - sheep's milk cheese with truffle
• Zamorano - unpasteurized sheep's milk cheese
• Brie - unpasteurized cow's milk
• tarragon orange olives

Life is good.

As a bonus, here's Thursday night's dinner recipe. It's amazing and was also served with delicious cheeses.

Roasted Butternut Squash & Shallot Soup

From Cooking Light

Yield: 6 servings (serving size: 2/3 cup soup and 1 teaspoon chives)

Ingredients

• 4  cups  (1-inch) cubed peeled butternut squash (about 1 1/2 pounds)
• 1  tablespoon  olive oil
• 1/4  teaspoon  salt
• 4  large shallots, peeled and halved
• 1  (1/2-inch) piece peeled fresh ginger, thinly sliced
• 2 1/2  cups  fat-free, less-sodium chicken broth
• 2  tablespoons  (1-inch) slices fresh chives
• Cracked black pepper (optional)

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 375°.

2. Combine first 5 ingredients in a roasting pan or jelly-roll pan; toss well. Bake at 375° for 50 minutes or until tender, stirring occasionally. Cool 10 minutes.

3. Place half of squash mixture and half of broth in a blender. Remove center piece of blender lid (to allow steam to escape); secure blender lid on blender. Place a clean towel over opening in blender lid (to avoid splatters). Blend until smooth. Pour into a large saucepan. Repeat procedure with remaining squash mixture and broth. Cook over medium heat 5 minutes or until thoroughly heated. Top with chives and pepper, if desired.

Nutritional Information

Calories: 112 (20% from fat)

Fat: 2.5g (sat 0.4g,mono 1.7g,poly 0.3g)

Protein: 3.3g

Carbohydrate: 22.4g

Fiber: 3.6g

Cholesterol: 0.0mg

Iron: 1.6mg

Sodium: 266mg

Calcium: 84mg

Cold, dreary Sundays

Yesterday hit a high of  a mere 17 degrees. I was cold!

The only cure (at least for me) is something cooked in my Le Creuset pot. That, and wearing socks. I just put some on for the first time in 3 months. I'd forgotten how comfortable they are.

Back to the pot. It's where comfort food lives.

My baby

We don't have a ton of food in the apartment right now, but I knew I wanted to use three things: the leftover hunk of spicy Portuguese sausage from last night's pizza fest, the gorgeous rainbow chard I couldn't resist buying on Friday, and some of the lentils I had in the pantry.

Look at all that gorgeous paprika veining.

Sausage

Chard

Lentils

Really, it had to be soup, didn't it?

On week nights I wouldn't bother with accompaniments for the soup, but it's a Sunday (a long weekend Sunday at that) and I felt like dinner deserved something extra, so I whipped up some Potato-Goat Cheese Biscuits (tragically without green onion).

Not terrible looking from the top...

Either my baking powder is old, or I did these TOTALLY wrong. They rose a tiny bit, but not much. And I think I should have used the smoked Gouda (lactose free for the lactard in everyone) instead of the Casablanca goat cheese (a gorgeous snow white not-too-goaty cheese). A more intense flavour would have been good.

But from the side... well... hockey puckish.

So that was the biscuits. On to the soup!

One of the things about cleaning out your crisper for food is, you (inevitably) are missing a key ingredient.

Onion - half of one in a baggy
Carrots - gigantic bag from Costco
garlic - 2 sad cloves
stock - bouillon cubes
Portuguese sausage - slick with paprika laced fat!
Swiss chard - ½ bunch left
Lentils - both green and French (mm! Two textures!)
Celery - ...

Celery?

Damn, no celery. We'll just replace that with... erm... mushrooms! Yes, that'll totally replicate the flavours.

Okay, it won't. But, it'll still work.

Throw it all in a pot.

Don't forget the secret ingredient:

You gotta throw in sherry.

And voila! Sunday dinner.

Mmm. Soupy.

Good bye cold!