There's no place like home

Vacation.  Aaaaaahhhhh, how I love thee!  There's so much to be said for a recharge, and for me a big part of that is not necessarily having to cook.

We just returned from Maui with a dear friend.  We are tanned, we have replaced our bloodstream with macadamia nuts, and we are also glad to back home around the familiar things:  The comfort foods, the feline entourage, the bathtub which doesn't require extensive Ashtanga yoga to submerse oneself.

Some of you may recall my post a while back about banana bread.  Well, dear readers, the banana bread in question in said post has been achieved and it is almost as lovely as the woman who makes and sells it.  We finally braved the scary-as-all-hell road, and pulled into the village of Kahakuloa where Julia's roadside stand beckons like a lime-green lighthouse in an ocean of vehicular peril.

Five minutes in Julia's company makes you forget that your nerves have been shot for the past half an hour.  The samples of banana bread, taro chips, coconut candy, and various dried fruit are a welcome jolt to ones wavering blood-sugar levels.  She is loveliness incarnate, and her calm, friendly demeanor makes you understand what REAL "aloha spirit" is all about.

Needless to say we bought banana bread, and yes, it is AMAZING!  I still hesitate to call it the best ever, because, let's face it, the fact that you put your life on the line to get does give it a wee bit of an advantage in the polls.

That being said: if you do go, and don't bring some back for me, you'll have an entirely new peril to contend with.

Another for the "WIN!" category

First of all, there are no photos of this delightful little dish.  That’s because the meal just sort of evolved, and “happened”, and by the time it was done I suspected it might not be worthy of a photo op let alone a blog post anyways. 

I was wrong.  It was amazing.

I had started out making a basic salad for dinner, and decided some prawns might be a handsome protein accompaniment.  Well, you know how things go: you start prepping a marinade, you get inspired, you find yourself chopping aromatics, and mixing spices, then suddenly realize that although you have a billion salad toppings, you actually only have about 3 leaves of wilted baby romaine gasping away in the fridge.

Plan B, wherefore art thou?!

So here’s what ended up being on hand, and got conscripted to the understudy role of “Dinner”:

Prawn Soba

Prawns:

·      1 Tbsp finely chopped cilantro

·      1 clove garlic, mashed fine

·      1 tsp lime juice

·      1-2 Tbsp olive oil (I had a fun garlic-infused one on hand)

·      pinch salt

·      few grinds pepper

·      slight drizzle sesame oil

·      About a dozen prawns, peeled (thawed if frozen)

·      ½ red pepper, sliced thin

Noodles:

·      Soba noodles (about half a package of dry noodles)

·      ½ c chopped frozen spinach

·      ½ c chopped cilantro

Dressing:

·      3 Tbsp soy sauce

·      2 Tbsp rice vinegar

·      2 Tbsp maple syrup (or sugar, but hey, you don’t have to dissolve the maple syrup)

·      scant 1/4 tsp sesame oil

·      2 green onions, sliced thin

*Optional, but highly recommended: Japanese chili spice (Nanami Togarashi)

Mix the first 7 ingredients of the prawn marinade together before adding in the prawns and tossing to coat.  Add a bit more oil if needed.

Put water in a medium pot to boil.  While waiting for water to come to a boil, prepare the dressing.  Adjust sweet (syrup), salty (soy), sour (vinegar or lime juice) to taste, and set aside.

When water is boiling, add the soba, and cook according to package directions.   About a minute before end of recommended cooking time for the noodles, add the chopped spinach.  When noodles are tender, drain in sink, running cold water over them to stop cooking.  Drain thoroughly.  Place in a large bowl, sprinkle the cilantro and drizzle the dressing and toss to mix.

Heat a skillet or wok over med-high heat.  When water hisses in the pan, add about a tsp olive oil, and toss in the red pepper.  Stir to coat with oil, then add the prawns, scraping as much of the marinade into the skillet as you can muster. 

Cook, stirring frequently until prawns are pink, and cooked through (3-4 minutes).

Immediately pour prawn mixture over cold noodles, and toss thoroughly, adding Japanese chili powder to taste if you want a bit of kick.

This is another one of those dishes which hit that “happy place” in my brain.  Perhaps there’s some sort of mood-elevating alchemy in the sweet/sour/salty/spicy premise which finds its way into so many Asian cuisines.  I seem to go back to the four “S”s by accident, often, willingly, and happily.  I’m not gonna overthink it.  It’s cheaper than therapy.

Done with Winter? Hell yeah!

Spring Niçoise Salad

Well, since spring has “officially” arrived, I’m gonna pretend that the worst of winter is behind us, and delve headfirst towards more “Springy” things.  Namely this salad featured on finecooking.com

I’m not going to lie and say this is the kind of salad you just slap together.  You pre-cook artichokes, beets, and potatoes separate from each other, boil up some eggs, sear some tuna, and finally lay it out on a bed of greens.  The recipe indicates arugula, but I went with a spring mix, as I like the “bite” in this salad to be from the vinaigrette.  That being said, I did get a bunch of watercress, and added a handful of the leaves to my greens.  Peppery!  Fresh!  Fun!

I also tweaked the vinaigrette a bit (completely, really).  I used the leftover juices from roasting the beets, as well as the herbed oil from the roasted potatoes.  Of course, in using the beet juices it does make your salad resemble a massacre a la ‘Nightmare on Elm Street’, but it is more than a bit refreshing to see a clash of colours on the plate before me.

Yes, it would’ve been just as easy to just set my sights on cooking a full meal rather than putting all my time, energy and efforts into salad toppings, but honestly, I think the lengthening days deserve a bit of an homage.  Time to start retiring the squashes, soups, and carb-heavy meals, and move boldly towards summer.  Is that a patio with a gin and tonic calling me…?

Go, Rama, Go!

I’m gonna blame the weather. 

For reasons I can’t understand, let alone articulate, getting this post together has been a helluva challenge.  I’ve been exposed to every little facet of my diminished attention span. 

It’s gotten ridiculous. 

It seems the window of time I can commit to the simplest task these days has gotten so small that if it could drive, it would buy a red sports car, with a bass-heavy stereo to compensate for its shortcomings.

Yes.  My attention span has erectile dysfunction.

So, as I said, I’m blaming the weather.  As such it’s appropriate that this is the dish I wanted to share.  When we were living in Montreal a few years back we had gone out for Thai food one evening.  It was about -15 degrees Celsius, a cold wind ripping snow from the banks along rue St. Denis, and throwing it mockingly in our faces as we trudged towards the restaurant.  We almost turned back at a certain point, as we knew we still had a hefty walk ahead of us.  But we persevered for some reason (I had probably refused to cook), and eventually found ourselves at the restaurant.

Once inside, we had an incredible meal.  I don’t even recall exactly what we had (other than a spicy, crispy, green bean dish) but I do recall the feeling of utter bliss that washed over us afterwards.  There’s something about the spiciness of Thai food which wiggles its way into that happy place in the brain and nests there, rather than sitting on your tongue in a searing cayenne hangover.

As a result, by the time we were leaving the weather seemed not to matter.  Glassy-eyed, and with a perma-smile on our faces, we floated back along the icy streets towards home, not noticing the cold, the wind, or the fact that there were still at least four months of this kind of weather still to get through.

This dish is something of my own little talisman against the winter, and more so against the umpteen depressive disorders winter can inspire.

Swimming Rama

Sauce

• 1/3 cup peanut butter
• 4-5 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 1 Tbsp sesame oil
• 3-4 Tbsp soy sauce (preferably Tamari)
• 1-2 stalks lemongrass, peeled and chopped fine.  Only use soft white part
• 1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger (or about 1 tsp ginger powder)
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced or grated
• ½ tsp chili paste
• 2 Tbsp brown sugar or 3 Tbsp honey
• 1 400 ml can coconut milk
• 2-3 Tbsp lime juice (preferably kaffir/magrut lime)

• ½ cup peas (frozen is fine.  Defrost in cool water, and drain)
• 6-8 cups chopped spinach
• 2 chicken breasts, cut into chunks or strips
• 2-3 Tbsp oil (vegetable or peanut)

Garnish

• 1 small tomato, seeded and chopped
• ¼ cup chopped cilantro (or Thai basil)

• Cooked Rice to serve

Combine peanut butter, vinegar, sesame oil, soy, spices and sugar in a small saucepan, and stir gently over med-low heat until mixture is evenly blended.  Add coconut milk and stir.

Heat a wok or skillet over med-high heat.  Drizzle in oil, and add chicken.  Fry until no pink remains showing on the outside, stirring and flipping as required.

When chicken is almost done (don’t worry too much if it’s still pink inside), bring the coconut milk mix to a boil.  When bubbling, add the chicken (draining fat, if necessary), reduce the heat to a simmer, and cook gently for 8-10 minutes.

Place the wok back on the heat.  Put about half a cup of water in, and add the spinach.  Stir spinach until evenly wilted.

Taste sauce, and add lime juice to taste, and peas.

Arrange rice on individual plates, or a large platter, with a well in the center.  Place spinach on the rice, then pour the chicken and sauce over spinach. 

Sprinkle with tomato and cilantro, and serve immediately.

A song in my heart, and soup on the stove

Happy February, y’all!

Over on the Facebook page there was a bit of banter going on about music.  I was making this particular soup, while listening to a Cure album, and it was just one of those moments where you are so immersed in what you’re doing, and the sounds around you, that there was that sense of time being suspended.  I sang along loudly (and poorly), shook my thang (again, poorly), and chopped, stirred, sautéed and boiled my way through a cooking experience without even noticing that I’d forgotten to feed the cats.  Finally when the album was done, and decibel levels returned to normal I was able to take notice of the allegedly starved felines yelling at me.  Ah well.

Music is food for the soul.  Food is… soul… for the… music…?  Damn, thought I had something there.

Serendipitously, I wanted to pay a proper homage to a project a dear friend, Natalie Burdeny, has been at the helm of.  The Vancouver Concert Opera Society (VanCOCO), although new on the scene, promises to be bringing a (dare I say it) plethora (I said it) of operatic innovation to Vancouverites in a highly accessible way.

With past productions of Bizet’s “Carmen”, and an award winning run of “Trouble in Tahiti” in the 2011 Fringe Festival, the launch into 2012’s season with Verdi’s “Rigoletto” is sure to be another foothold up the ladder of the local music scene.  Dizzying heights to follow…

So, how does one pay said homage?

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you:

Rigoletto Ribollita!

A few more words before I dive into this soup recipe.  As mentioned above, music should be food for the soul, and this particular recipe is fully reflective of several facets which are applicable to VanCOCO’s journey.

For starters, the term ribollita means “reboiled”, and is used to refer to the peasant soup this originated from.  Often the peasants would collect the leftover food from wealthy landowners, and add their own ingredients, flare, re-cook it up and serve it as a whole new creation, accessible to the common people.  You don’t need me to go into point form notes to show how this applies to VanCOCO, do you?  I thought not.

Also, there’s one particular ingredient which I can already sense people’s resistance to.  Bread.  Yeah, yeah.  “In soup?!  Soggy bread?!” I assure you, it’s used as a thickener, and once cooked down it lends a surprising soft, luscious, velvety texture which definitely makes this stand out from being just another vegetable stew.  

In like fashion, people will say “Opera?!  Me?!”  Again, trust me.  VanCOCO’s smart productions drop the pretense one might associate with conventional operatic productions.  Whether you’re an aficionado of the sonic nuances of coloratura, or your musical knowledge only goes as far as “Damn, that girl can SING!”, there is a place for you.  And that place is in the audience.  At Rigoletto.  Go!

And lastly, and it hardly bears pointing out, but I’m going to do so anyways:  Rigoletto Ribollita?!  How fun is THAT to say?

1 c bacon or pancetta, diced

1 c fennel, diced

1 c carrot, diced

1 c celery, diced

3-5 cloves garlic, chopped fine

4-5 cups kale, chopped

½-1 cup basil leaves, chopped

2 bay leaves
1 796ml (28oz) can plum tomatoes, drained (reserve liquid), and chopped

1 398ml (14oz) can cannellini beans

3-4 cups chicken or veggie stock

2 cups bread cubes.  Sourdough, or a hearty artisan loaf recommended.  Cut the crusts off, cube it up, et voila!

Salt & pepper

Parmesan cheese, grated

Extra virgin olive oil

Saute bacon a few minutes over med-high heat, then add onion, reducing heat slightly.  Stir occasionally to cook bacon evenly, even allowing a bit of crispness to develop.

Add celery, carrots, fennel and garlic.  Season with salt & pepper, and cook about 7 minutes until veggies lose their sharp crispness.

Next, add the tomatoes, kale, bay leaves, and reserved tomato liquid.  Adjust heat to a strong simmer.  Allow to cook 7-10 minutes until kale has collapsed substantially.

Pour in the stock and add the cannellini beans (including liquid).

Reduce heat, and allow to simmer for 20-25 minutes.

Remove bay leaves (if you can find them.  If not, just issue a warning to anyone who’ll be dining with you), add bread cubes and cook over low heat for at least 10 minutes, stirring occasionally (gently).

Adjust salt & pepper, ladle into bowls, and serve garnished with fresh grated parmesan cheese, and a drizzle of extra virgin olive oil.

This is one of those classic Italian items which is twice as good the second day.

So there you have it!  Food for the belly, and food for the soul.  Check out the VanCOCO page, and share the love around!

Burgers, Buns, (writers) Block, and a crush on Jamie Oliver

You know those moments when something has been staring you in the face the whole time and you failed to see it?  I’m not sure if I love those moments, or hate them with every fiber of my being.  On the one hand there’s the “eureka!” moment.  On the other hand, there’s a much more sustained “Yeah, DUH!” moment.

The reason I mention these moments of stupidity is that I’ve been agonizing over what to write about next.  So I’ve been sitting here, scrolling through a backlog of photos of random concoctions, half-written posts, and beating my head against the tabletop trying to think what is most suitable, while I wait for my burgers to finish roasting. 

You see where this is going, yeah?

BURGERS!

As per usual I have a backstory.  I love Jamie Oliver.  Is it the accent?  In part.  Is it his enthusiasm?  In part.  Is it the tousled, devil-may-care semi-spiky-floppiness of his hair?  A little bit of that too, yeah. 

It’s so many things.

It’s the way he gets down and dirty with the food he cooks.  Hands smashing ingredients freshly ripped from the soil together, punctuated by random exclamations (“Howzat!” being a personal favourite), and a genuine love for his creations.  He is a completely obsessive purist, and where Nigella Lawson is a food eroticist, Jamie takes his food out for a few dates, behaves like a gentleman, falls completely in love by the second date, and calls it back the next day to see how it feels.

This particular recipe rapidly became high in rotation for several reason.  First and foremost: it’s really good!  Second: it’s very time-liberating.  Smoosh stuff together, chuck em in the oven, and 25 minutes later they’re done.  No running back and forth between the barbeque, or peeking in on a frying pan, cutting through layers of carbon to discover a raw mess inside.  Nope, none of that.  They come out amazing every time!  That 25 minutes leave you free to tidy up, bathe a cat, do your nails, watch a PVRed half hour program (minus commercials, of course), or write a belated blog post.  *ahem*

As is my usual practice, I’ve tweaked the original recipe somewhat.  Feel free to do the same.  Particularly with the spices and seasonings.  I often find I only need one egg, whereas the original recipe calls for two.  Use your judgment.  If the beef mixture just isn’t holding together, add a second egg.  If it looks like it’s floating in a sea of egg, add more breadcrumbs.

Oven-roasted Hamburgers

·      2 ¼ lbs ground beef

·      ½ large red onion, chopped fine

·      1-2 cloves garlic, minced (optional)

·      1-2 large eggs

·      1-2 handfuls breadcrumbs (or Panko, if you buy the Costco-sized bucket loads like I do)

·      generous pinch cumin seeds

·      generous pinch coriander seeds

·      heaped spoonful Dijon mustard

·      few drops Worcestershire

·      salt and pepper (I HIGHLY recommend trying different peppercorns: Pink, Szechuan, Tellicherry.  Each one can completely change the scope of flavour.  Feel free to use regular pepper, too… Philistine)

Preheat oven to 450°

Grind dry spices in mortar and pestle.

Place remaining ingredients in a large bowl, sprinkle spices over, and mix well.  Adding breadcrumbs as required.

Mold into patties, more ball-shaped than pancake.  A flattened ball, if you will.

Place on roasting pan with drip tray for excess fat, and pop into the oven for 25 minutes.  If you want cheeseburgers, place slices or shredded cheese on patties at about the 20 minute mark.

As you can see from the photo at the top, I didn’t have buns on hand, so I used thick slices of homemade bread.  I just thought I’d make that clear in case you thought that I thought that that’s what buns were.

I also have this strange inability to be able to make burgers without this clip getting stuck in my head.

Oh, French Toast! Save me from mine rut!

Happy New Year to all!  Yeah, it’s almost half a month late, but I have another Word document sitting on my desktop which is a letter which is almost 9 months overdue.  Yes, Dear Readers, you got my attention first.

First of all, I apologise for my silence as of late.  I took full advantage of being pandered to over the Christmas and New Years holidays, and as such wasn’t required to do all that much cooking of my own.  A slippery slope.

Plus, with it being my first New Years of having this blog I decided to do a little bit of introspection and revisit a few of the recipes, as well as reevaluating my opinions of them.  I have to say, first impressions truly are the ones to run with.

For example: I’ve remade the BBQ pork buns.  Although delicious, they are definitely tiddly to make, and bloody hell (!!!) that dough can be a bitch to work with!

I also remade the sausage and grape recipe from a couple weeks back to take to the New Years Eve party hosted by our friends.  Yep.  It’s definitely a great party food.  Forget trying to pair it with something and make a meal out of it.  Amidst toothpicks, cheeses and slices of baguette is where those suckers belong.

We did host our annual New Years brunch, but we do it pot luck style, so other than providing a swine herd worth of bacon (which I assigned the hubby to cook), and having “thaw and bake” croissants from a local bakery, I was free to swan around, be social, and ingest coffee to the point of a small series of anxiety attacks.

Beyond the above, it would seem that I’ve rung in the New Year in a less than celebratory fashion: I’m in a damned rut!

I’ve treated myself to a couple new cookbooks, who now rest on my bedside table, waiting for me to splay their spines wide and bask in their gourmet glory.

Yeah, ummm…that hasn’t happened yet.

Somewhere between Christmas and New Years, I did end up making one new thing which perked my little tastebud’s interest.  Savory French toast.  I’d like to be able to claim that it was out of a sense of innovation that this recipe was born, but I’d be lying.  The truth of the matter being that I think I was in such a sugar overload one evening (2 boxes of Ferrero Rochers and a large Toblerone) that the thought of syrup-laden French toast just seemed like a swan-dive into illness.  Also, having depleted resources in the kitchen, but being a huge proponent of breakfast for dinner, this seemed like a good opportunity to branch out.

 Savory French Toast

4 thick slices French bread

2 large eggs

1 ½ Tbsp milk or cream

2 Tbsp finely chopped fresh parsley

1/8 cup grated parmesan (optional)

Salt and pepper

Butter

Sliced tomato

Dijon mustard

Beat the eggs with the milk or cream until just blended. 

Add parsley, salt and pepper, and beat again until distributed evenly throughout

Stir in parmesan cheese (if using).

Place a skillet over medium-high heat.  When water droplets hiss and evaporate, add butter to the pan and melt.

Dip slices of French bread in egg mixture (both sides), and fry in skillet until golden brown.  Flip and brown the other side.

Spread with Dijon mustard, and top with slices of tomato, adjusting salt and pepper to taste.

Serve with other breakfasty things, or salad.

I realize giving instructions for frying French toast may be offensive and condescending to some, but I’ve received some lovely feedback from culinary “newbies” (Hey newbies!) that they’re literally starting from scratch in their kitchen experimentation.  Let’s face it; if you can make a great brunch for friends, then you’ll be hailed as a genius.  Get one or two things in the repertoire, and your reputation will be secured despite other limitations.

As my dear Dad always says “if you can’t dazzle ‘em with brilliance, baffle ‘em with bullshit”

…and thus this blog was born.