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!

Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake with Pesto

Once the choice pieces of a roast are used up in salads or sandwiches, what's left often doesn't amount to much. The casserole has long been the go-to for the budget cook who has limited key ingredients and needs to stretch them as far as possible.

Heck, it's the go to for many who aren't budget cooks because they're easy and comforting. Really, it's a win-win situation for all parties concerned.

What I struggle with when I look for casserole recipes is the number that call for processed ingredients. I'll be honest, we don't keep cans of soup in our cupboards. So, I'm often left not having those ingredients that are deemed staples.

Thankfully, I remembered this recipe from Cooking Light from about a decade ago that had a homemade cheese sauce base! With the exception of the pesto I threw in, there's no processed ingredients here!

Chicken and Broccoli Pasta Bake with Pesto

(inspired by an old recipe from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

1 head broccoli florets, cut into bite size pieces
3 cups (give or take) cubed roasted chicken
4 cups cooked pasta (about 8 oz uncooked)
½ yellow or red pepper, chopped
¼ cup fresh basil, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot, minced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
¼ cup flour
2 cups milk
1 cup shredded Parmesan cheese
¼ cup pesto, plus additional for serving
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Spray an 8"x8" casserole dish with cooking spray.

2. Steam broccoli florets briefly (4 minutes or so), or until vibrant green. Toss with chicken, pasta, pepper and basil.

3. Heat olive oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Sauté shallots and garlic for 3-4 minutes, or until softened. Sprinkle flour over top and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Grab a whisk, and begin to pour the milk in slooooowly, whisking constantly. Doing this will prevent lumps. Once all milk is incorporated, cook, stirring constantly, until mixture is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove pan from heat and stir in cheese and pesto. Let melt and then pour mixture over pasta-broccoli-chicken mixture. Toss to coat and place in casserole dish.

4. Bake, uncovered, for about 20 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with an additional dollop of pesto.

Easy Roast Chicken

By god, do I love a Sunday roast. There's just so much you can do with the leftovers during the week! Sunday is becoming, more and more, the day when we cook meat. We use up the remainder during the week for salads, sandwiches, other recipes, but ultimately, if we're going to eat meat during the week, it's because we did something with it on Sunday.

I guess that's indicative of our shift towards a more plant-grain based diet.

But, there's something about Sundays that call for a roast. Perhaps it's the free time, perhaps it's because that's always what my mother did. Whatever the reason, I'm happy to carry on doing things this way!

Roast Chicken with Garlic, Lemon and Smoked Paprika

(adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

1  roasting chicken
2  teaspoons unsalted butter, softened
1/2  teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
1 teaspoon ground coriander
2  teaspoons extra-virgin olive oil
3/4  teaspoon kosher salt
1/4  teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2  garlic cloves, minced
1  shallot, peeled and halved
½  lemon, quartered

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º. Rinse chicken under tap, then pat dry with paper towel. Carefully loosen the skin around the breast and legs by pushing fingers between skin and meat. You'll find it generally separates pretty easily.

2. In a small bowl, combine butter with next 7 ingredients (through garlic), blending to form a paste. Rub on both chicken meat under skin and on top of the skin itself. Try to get as much of the garlic under the skin as possible, so it doesn't burn.

3. Truss chicken. Place on a rack in a roasting pan (or do as I do and use a rack on a cast iron skillet) breast side up, and stuff cavity with shallot and lemon pieces. Cook at 350º for 45-60 minutes, or until temperature at thickest part of the thigh reads 158-160º (or so). Raise the heat to 450º and cook for an additional 15 minutes, or until temperature of thigh reads 165º. Remove from pan and let stand 10 minutes before carving so that juices can redistribute.

You can drain off the fat from the pan and make gravy using the pan drippings. The flavours here make an especially delicious one. Any leftovers of the gravy could be used to make a totally excellent poutine.

Maple Sponge Pudding

When 100 Mile Locavore posted about her maple syrup haul, I suddenly got a huge hankering for some sweet Canada-in-Spring flavour. Truthfully, maple doesn't make it much past the pancake stage in our kitchen, except with occasional forays out as a sugar replacement (see Chocolate Cherry Cookies).

But maple syrup has just such an interesting flavour. I'm totally inspired by the father of a friend who makes his own in spring - it really had the most unique, smokey flavour that commercial maple syrup lacks.

It's all about that small batch character, you know?

Two years ago, I took a group of ESL students to a local conversation area that taps its trees in spring, and bought some Toronto maple syrup. I admit to wondering how much city pollution affected this particular batch, because it was nothing to write home about.

While I might be dreaming of acres of land replete with sugar maples, the reality is that I'm probably never going to make my own syrup.

I'm okay with that, really.

I'm a fundamentally lazy person.

For now, I'll settle for my jug o'syrup that sitting in the back of my fridge. There's a lot less syrup in there right now after I whipped up this recipe in about 10 minutes time.

You've gotta love last minute desserts.

This recipe comes via Adventures in Dinner, who was kind enough to give me her grandmother's scone recipe the other week. I tweaked it the tiniest bit, but it turned out totally beautifully.

Most importantly, filled with maple goodness. Unsweetened whipped cream is an absolutely necessary accompaniment here.

Maple Sponge Pudding

(from Adventures in Dinner)

Ingredients

4 tbsp unsalted butter, divided
½ cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup flour
1½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
½ cup milk
1½ cups maple syrup (use grade B or lower for a darker, more intense maple flavour)
3/4 cup water

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. Beat together 2 tbsp butter with brown sugar and egg. Mix in vanilla extract, then stir in flour, baking powder and salt. Pour batter into the base of a 8"x8" pan, or a very deep pie dish. Place dish on a foil lined baking tray (you do not want to end up cleaning burned maple syrup off the bottom of your oven).

3. Bring maple syrup, remaining 2 tbsp butter and water to a boil in a small saucepan. Pour over batter mixture and place into the oven. Let bake for 40-45 minutes, or until edges have caramelized and centre is set.

Serve with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream. Your best bet is to accompany it with something not too sweet.  A lovely buttermilk sorbet would not go amiss here.

Rhubarb Red Wine Sprtizer

Ahhh, I love those first flavours of spring! As we transition into warmer temperatures, I find myself using the old Le Crueset less and less, and craving bright, vibrant flavours more and more.

One of the ingredients that excites me the most is rhubarb. I love its tart, tangy flavour. I only had about a cups worth of stalks though, so I decided to put it to use in a drink.

That's not wrong of me to do on a Monday morning, is it?

I imagine serving this drink to friends on a patio while we enjoy the daffodils. I use the word imagine because we have no outdoor space of our own. What I would do for a bit of earth!

It's still delicious served inside your kitchen while you dance around to Randy Bachman's Vinyl Tap.

Rhubarb Red Wine Spritzers

Ingredients

1 cup cut rhubarb stalks
2 heaping tbsp white sugar
juice of ½ lemon
½ tsp vanilla extract
1½ cups fruity red wine
1 cup club soda

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine rhubarb stalks, sugar and lemon juice. Bring to a boil and let simmer until rhubarb is tender and falls apart. Add vanilla extract and puree.

2. In a non-reactive bowl, mix together rhubarb puree and red wine. Let sit on counter for 1-2 hours to let flavours meld together.

3. Halfway fill two glasses with ice cubes, divide wine-rhubarb mixture between the glasses and top with club soda as needed.

Serves two happy people.

Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

It's got all the ingredients of a healthy recipe!

Dark chocolate? Good for you in moderation (the whole recipe contains 2 oz)

Dried cherries? Fibre and antioxidants!

Oatmeal? Good for lowering the blood pressure.

Maple syrup? Lots of great nutrients.

The fact that it's a cookie? Well, that's just pure awesome. Truthfully, I was sold at the words chocolate and cherry.

Cherry Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

(adapted from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

2/3 cup all purpose flour (you can replace this with whole wheat, if you prefer)
1½ cups rolled oats (not instant)
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
6 tbsp unsalted butter
½ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup maple syrup
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 large egg, lightly beaten
1 cup dried cherries, chopped
2 oz 70% dark chocolate (the better the quality, the less you need!), chopped into chunks

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350º.

2. In a large bowl, mix together flour, oats, baking soda and salt. Set aside.

3. Melt butter in a small saucepan set over medium heat. Once melted, remove from heat and add brown sugar and maple syrup. Stir until sugar is dissolved. Stir in vanilla extract.

4. Pour butter mixture over oat mixture. Using an electric mixture, beat until just combined. Add egg, beating again to combine. Stir in cherries and chocolate, mixing thoroughly.

5. Drop by teaspoonfuls onto a silpat or parchment lined baking sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 11 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool on baking sheet for 3 minutes (until just about set) before transferring to a cooling rack.

Makes about 3 dozen!

I think it would be really tasty to replace the dried cherries with dried pineapple or mango or papaya and use white chocolate in place of the dark. Heck, a few chopped macadamia nuts wouldn't go amiss either!

Upcoming

Do you make menus for the week? Or do you just play it by ear?

I tend to alternate back and forth, but this week, it's all about the list.

What are your plans for the week?

___insert hyperventalation here___

Holy cow, what a week! I spent all day today negotiating student conflict and drama (not the subject I teach but the kind that involves teenage angst), trying to track down some vandals (success!) and surviving post district review (I'll hold my tongue here).

Let's just say there were a few nights of take-out.

I'm very much looking forward to reacquainting myself with my kitchen. Take-out (especially the sushi) tends to mean no leftovers for lunch, and, I've gotta say, the soggy graham cracker, grapes and cheese (which dried out because I didn't wrap it properly) totally didn't cut it today.