The Cooking Chronicles: More Soups and Stews

Doesn’t the weather like this automatically call for soups and stews? Though I should admit that my attraction to such recipes might have more to do with the fact that they use only one pot (= less dishes), I do also love that when eaten with some good bread, they often represent a balanced meal in one bowl.

Red Lentil Soup with Lemon

While in a San Francisco bookstore, I picked up Molly Wizenberg’s memoir, A Homemade Life. I had heard about her well-known blog Orangette, but hadn’t really read through it. After reading a few posts – I’m sold. I love her voice, and the stories she tells through food. Of course, it’s also a great resource for new things to try. Red lentil soup with lemon was one such recipe.

I’m not sure I love it as much as Molly does – it doesn’t quite “sing” for me, but I did love the texture. The recipe calls for only half of the mixture to be purred, which provides a nice change from some of the thicker lentil soups I’ve come across. The cilantro is a fresh touch, and the cayenne gives it that needed kick.

Red lentil soup

Chicken with Celeriac

I’d been meaning to try Gail Hall’s chicken with celeriac recipe for some time, and after arming myself with celeriac from Greens, Eggs and Ham after a visit to the Alberta Avenue Farmers’ Market, I was ready.

Celeriac is something I’ve been experimenting with this year – pureed in soups, grated and pan-fried – it’s a pretty versatile vegetable. In this recipe, it is used as a replacement for a starch.

It is moderately successful, though I may have diced the celeriac a bit too fine, as it started to break down in the broth. My only other complaint about the recipe was the final addition of oil is too much – a drizzle, rather than a 1/2 cup (though it did make the perfect accompaniment to dip crusty bread in).

Chicken with celeriac

With the weather not really looking up, more soups and stews will be on the docket in the coming weeks. Stay warm!

The Cooking Chronicles: Meals for Mack

Because I am in charge of the meal planning at our house, most of what we eat is inevitably what I naturally gravitate towards – soups, stews, dishes chock full of vegetables – not exactly Mack’s cup of tea. He’s great about it though, and has a pretty open mind when it comes to food. Still, when I do come across a recipe that I think he would enjoy, I make sure to bookmark it for future reference. We recently made two such dishes.

Sausage & Beans

Mack’s Grandma used to make pork and beans when he lived with her. While Gordon Ramsay’s recipe for sausage and beans in his book Fast Food wasn’t exactly the same dish, I figured it would be worth a try.

It was super-simple – a combination of tins of mixed beans, tomatoes, and sausages, sauteed up with some garlic and herbs and simmered to a stew-like consistency (we didn’t have Toulouse sausages, but the Irvings sausages worked just fine). Served with some bread, it was a simple but hearty dish.

Sausage & Beans

Pancake & Sausage Corndogs

I’m not the biggest fan of corndogs, mostly because I don’t enjoy the dense shell that separates me from the hot dog itself. But Mack loves them, so I was particularly excited to see Julie Van Rosendaal’s recipe for pancake & sausage corndogs.

The light pancake batter contained just a hint of corn meal, and I was able to use the wagyu beef breakfast sausages I just purchased from Rainbow Covenant Ranch at the Alberta Avenue Farmers’ Market.

We made mini-versions of the corn dogs (mostly because they wouldn’t fit in our oil-filled pot), and they worked beautifully.

Into the fryer

Mini sausage corn dogs!

We served the corndogs with a bit of maple syrup (delicious!), alongside some scrambled Sunworks Farm scrambled eggs and toast from Bon Ton Bakery.

Mack is happy with his dinner

Funnily enough, I ended up enjoying the pancake and sausage dogs more than Mack did – unfortunately, he still prefers the corn dogs from Capital Ex. It’s definitely not something we could have all the time, but they made a fun weeknight dinner.

The Cooking Chronicles: Hurrah for Leftovers!

Most of the time, I’m just hoping our weeknight dinners yield enough food to provide us both with a hot lunch the next day, but sometimes, the recipes that are meant to feed a large family are wondrous for the two of us – eliminating a night’s worth of work, without sacrificing a home-cooked meal. What’s not to love?

Mark Bittman’s Paella

Mark Bittman’s recipe for paella in Food Matters is very similar to Michael Smith’s that we tried last year. But somehow, it worked out better. It could have had to do with the fact that we had superior ingredients this time around (sausages from Irvings, tomatoes from Kuhlmann’s), or because we had a more heat efficient vessel (a Le Cruset Dutch oven), but the resulting paella was so tasty! I loved how the tomatoes just fell apart, and infused their sweetness throughout the dish.

Paella (a photo of the leftovers…I had forgotten to take a photo of the meal before that)

And all the better – we were able to milk two additional meals from the pot. Score!

Mashed Potato-Topped Mini Tourtières

A recipe for mashed potato-topped mini tourtières in the Winter 2010 issue of Inspired appealed to me because of its likeness to shepherd’s pie, and its incorporation of seasonings more in line with tourtières. The recipe made it easy to incorporate many locally-sourced products, including onions from Kuhlmann’s, potatoes from Greens, Eggs and Ham, ground pork from Irvings, and ground beef from our cow share (it keeps going and going…). I decided to omit the cream cheese (knowing that we wouldn’t be freezing the pies) to keep the fat content down also.

Though the steps themselves weren’t difficult (sautéing the meat with the vegetables and reducing down a sauce, boiling and mashing potatoes), it took about an hour to finish cooking (given the pies had to bake for 30 minutes after assembly).

Mini Tourtières

Mack said it was missing a kick (perhaps some cayenne or chili powder would have helped), and I knew I should have added carrots for the texture and the sweetness, but as a whole, I enjoyed them.

And how many pies did we end up with you ask? Seven! They were easy to reheat, and made a great lunch the next day too. Hurrah for leftovers!

The Cooking Chronicles: Marvellous Marinades

Until recently, I hadn’t experimented much with marinades. No reason for it, save perhaps that no recipes had really caught my eye. While I know marinades can help with breaking down tougher cuts of meat, the two dishes I made in the last two weeks helped demonstrate two other fantastic uses for marinades – for adding flavour and boosting moisture.

Soy Baked Fish

One of the objectives of Donna Hay’s recipes in No Time To Cook is to offer flavourful dishes that can be made in a relatively short amount of time. The soy baked fish is a great example – a meal in half an hour, with less than ten ingredients.

Ocean Odyssey was unfortunately closed that Sunday, so we used whitefish from the Sobeys down the street. The fish was marinated in soy, sesame oil, brown sugar, leeks, and garlic for five minutes on each side, then placed on top of Peas on Earth gai lan, marinade and all, and baked for about twenty minutes. Served with rice, it made a quick but tasty supper, and given the results with such minimal effort, it is something I’d definitely make again.

Soy baked fish

Balsamic Pesto Chicken

Dish Entertains is one of those cookbooks I return to again and again – for dinner parties, for desserts, for weeknight meals. The balsamic pesto chicken was a recipe that I passed over the first time, but came back to this week, knowing that I had a fresh batch of pesto in the fridge to use, made with leftover basil from Morinville Greenhouses.

The marinade is a combination of a 1/4 cup pesto, 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar, 1/4 cup olive oil and salt and pepper. 3 boneless chicken breasts are then marinated anywhere from 2 hours to overnight (I left it for about 5 hours), then baked off with the marinade in a 400F oven for 25 minutes.

The marinade helped the chicken retain its moisture, though I would have wished for more basil flavour – the balsamic was undoubtedly dominant. We served the chicken with some roasted root vegetables and leftover rice.

Balsamic Pesto Chicken

Balsamic pesto chicken (not the most visually appealing dish, but tasty!)

Thanks to Trish Magwood for another solid recipe!

The Cooking Chronicles: Welcome to Our Home!

I learned a lot from helping organize Mack and Kimmi’s housewarming two years ago. Though we had incorporated a few make-ahead dishes, I remember spending more time in the kitchen than was ideal at a party where socializing should have been the main focus. So for our first *official* housewarming for friends, I planned to build a menu based upon recipes that could be prepped in advance.

The spread

Giada de Laurentiis’ white bean dip, served with Sunbake Pita chips, was one of the first dishes that came to mind, primarily because both components could be made the night prior. That said, it’s tasty too, and is a solid alternative to hummus (we suspect that Mack is allergic to tahini).

White bean dip and pita chips

At our friend Devin’s housewarming party over the summer, we sampled Gordon Ramsay’s simple but colourful cherry tomato & feta kebabs. We decided to replicate it, but with a local twist – Doef’s cherry tomatoes, basil from Morinville Greenhouses, and Smoky Valley St. Maure goat cheese. We put these together early in the afternoon, and pulled them out of the fridge just before guests arrived.

Cherry tomato & goat cheese kebabs

My favourite appetizer that night was Donna Hay’s Thai wonton cups. We took a few shortcuts with this one, including using a store-bought rotisserie chicken, but it made our lives much easier. While oiled won-ton cups pressed into mini-muffin tins were baking in the oven, I cooked down 4 tablespoons each of fish sauce and water, 2 tablespoons of lime juice and 100g brown sugar, then combined it with 2 cups of shredded chicken and a bunch of cilantro leaves. The result was fabulous, though as Mack indicated more than once, it’s a dish meant for lovers of fish sauce – I couldn’t get enough of the sweet and fragrant tang adopted by the chicken. We topped a few of them with sliced red chillies – definitely not for the faint of heart, but made for an eye-catching garnish. Though they were best served warm, they were enjoyable at room temperature as well.

Thai wonton cups

I’d been looking for a reason to make Trish Magwood’s cremini mushrooms stuffed with chevre and leeks for some time, especially knowing I could source everything locally – cremini mushrooms from MoNa (ordered through the Good Food Box), chevre from Smoky Valley, and leeks from the farmers’ market. I assembled them that afternoon, but didn’t bake them until just before guests arrived. These were definitely tastier warm, but Mack loved them regardless – the creamy chevre made them the perfect little one-bite treat.

Cremini mushrooms stuffed with chevre and leeks

Also from Magwood’s Dish, I made her parsnip, celery root, and apple soup, knowing that I wanted something to serve hot, kept warm using the slow cooker. It was also fantastic to have a soup made with all seasonal ingredients – parsnips from the Green & Gold Farm, celeriac from Greens, Eggs and Ham, and apple-pears from the OSFM. All the peeling and chopping required made this the most time-consuming dish, but it was worth it. I had made the vegetable stock the night prior, which made it somewhat easier, and after the vegetables were tender, pureed the soup and transferred the batch to our slow cooker. The texture was a bit unusual, grainy from the apple pears, but for the most part, it was light but warming.

Parsnip, celery root and apple-pear soup

To accompany the food, we had local beer and wine: Mack’s favourite Alley Kat brew, Charlie Flint’s – and wine from Barr Estate Winery. Most of our friends hadn’t heard of Barr, and they particularly enjoyed The Other Red, made from raspberries.

We also decided to have more casual snack food, in the form of unusual chip flavours – PC brand hot dog-flavoured potato chips and Doritos Late Night Cheeseburger flavoured chips. The label-less bowls ended up serving as a blind flavour tasting station of sorts – though our friends picked up on the hints of mustard, relish and hamburger seasoning, no one could identify the flavours outright. On a larger scale, it’d make a fun game (of note, PC recently released a pizza flavour too!).

Thanks again to everyone who helped us celebrate!

The Cooking Chronicles: Cold Weather Comfort

It’s a little comical to me that every time I seem to get to posting about cold weather comfort foods, it actually ends up being unseasonably warm outside. Not that I’m complaining or anything – I’d welcome a continuation of such mild weather well into December! Anyway – should the temperatures start to drop again, I’ll likely be drawn again to dishes similar to the two below.

Potato and Leek Soup

A recipe for Molly Katzen’s potato and leek soup was a recent recommendation from Marilyn, and easily incorporated mostly local produce – leeks from Kuhlmann’s, potatoes from Greens, Eggs and Ham, carrots from Sundog Organic, and, well, celery from Superstore.

Pureed soups look so much nicer in the pre-blender stage

I loved the consistency of the soup, achieved from the addition of milk instead of cream, and the ratio of the liquid to puree in this recipe. Sometimes I crave the stick-to-your-ribs kind of soup, but not on that night.

Potato and leek soup

Chic Macaroni and Cheese

Though our favourite macaroni and cheese recipe is courtesy of Diners, Drive-Ins and Dives, I was curious about a recipe for chic macaroni and cheese that was printed in the Journal a few weeks ago – not only did it call for eggs, but evaporated milk instead of cream. The only modification I made was doubling the amount of pasta – it seemed a little absurd to use just 1.5 cups of macaroni to 6 cups of cheese.

Chic macaroni and cheese (I’ve got to get a new brand of panko – it never seems to brown for me)

The addition of eggs meant the macaroni and cheese resembled a casserole. It was cheesy, but not in the creamy, saucy way that I prefer (I realize it may also have had something to do with my cheese-to-pasta shift). It was all right, but next time the mac and cheese craving hits, you better believe I’ll be “Triple D”-ing it up again!

The Cooking Chronicles: Inspired Failure

Liane mentioned recently that Inspired magazine by Sobeys is useful in getting out of a cooking rut. I’d have to agree. Unlike some store-produced publications, it doesn’t lean heavily on the use of processed products, and the colour photos are engaging and inviting. Best of all, it’s free!

We recently tried two recipes out of their Fall 2010 issue – but to varying levels of success, unfortunately.

Chicken Stew with Oat Dumplings

First, a recipe for a chicken stew with oat dumplings caught my eye.

I should not have used such a large Dutch oven to start with, as I ended up adding more broth to make up for the fact that the oat dumplings weren’t fully immersed in liquid. It turned out that was a good choice anyway, since the dumplings absorbed so much of the stock as they cooked.

The dumplings themselves (a combination of flour, oats, baking powder, thyme and salt) were flavourless, however, chewy and tasting like partially-cooked dough. I’m not sure if my substitution of regular Highwood Crossing rolled oats instead of quick-cooking oats was the cause of the poor outcome or not (or the fact that I made them too large), but my preference for next time would be a simple chicken stew without the dumplings.

Chicken stew with dumplings (the dumplings look almost like cauliflower florets in the picture)

I served the stew with savoury cheddar cornmeal muffins from Muffin Mania – I’d definitely make them again. They were a nice alternative to the usual bread accompaniment.

Cheddar cornmeal muffins (I omitted the additional cheese on top)

Acorn Squash with Harvest Rice Stuffing

I had picked up a beautiful acorn squash from Kuhlmann’s on the last day of the City Market, as well as a bag of wild rice from MoNa, intending on combining the two using an Inspired recipe for acorn squash with harvest rice stuffing.

Our first error was to have used (again) too shallow of a pan to cook the rice – the rice started to stick before it had a chance to fully cook. More than anything though, we probably should have prepared the rice following the package directions instead of a straight substitution, then adding the aromatics after. I will say that the cranberries were a lovely addition, offering an unexpected burst of sweetness.

The squash, on the other hand, roasted up perfectly in the oven, fork tender and ready to be devoured. What we found, however, is that we much prefer this type of squash in purees, soups or as ravioli filling – the slightly stringy texture was a bit off-putting to us. We finished our halves, but it was a chore.

Acorn squash with rice stuffing

Not all is lost though – there are still a few more recipes I’d like to try from the issue, including one for blueberry & brown butter squares.

The Cooking Chronicles: Something Fishy

While fresh fish is great, because we tend to do most of our grocery shopping on the weekend, flash-frozen fish is the better alternative for us because we can keep it in the freezer until we are ready to use it. In our case with the vacuum-sealed packages from Ocean Odyssey, the fish is already filleted, making it easy to thaw the night before and incorporate it into a weeknight supper. And though it was super-convenient to have Pat and her stall at the City Market over the summer, it’s just as easy to stop by her shop (10027 167 Street, 780-930-1901) year-round to stock up for a few weeks.

We used Ocean Odyssey filets for the following two recipes – they’re one-pot or one-pan deals!

Garlic & Tomato Fish Stew

Donna Hay’s No Time to Cook recipe for a garlic and tomato fish stew was fast and easy, and made for a tasty weeknight supper. We used sole filets, which meant flakier, smaller pieces of fish were in the cards instead of large chunks. I also liked the inclusion of potato.We served the dish with some toasted ciabatta buns from Sobeys, to be dipped into the broth of white wine, stock and tomato juice.

Fish stew

It’s something we will definitely make again!

Pan-cooked Grated Celeriac and Crunchy Fish

We were definitely in a rush the night of the final mayoral forum, but handily, Mark Bittman’s recipe for pan-cooked grated vegetables and crunchy fish did not take long. While Mack took care of grating the Greens, Eggs and Ham celeriac, I sautéed some onions and garlic with curry powder, then added the root vegetable to be cooked until browned. Then in the same pan, we seared up some cod filets that had been dredged in a mixture of corn meal and flour.

Crunchy cod over pan-cooked grated celeriac

This wasn’t my favourite way to eat celeriac (I much prefer the pureed soup), as the cooking time didn’t really allow the celery root to soften much at all – grated potato would have fared better. The fish, on the other hand, was delicious – crispy on the outside and flaky on the inside, it was a healthier alternative to the deep-fried filets it reminded me of.

The Cooking Chronicles: Soup’s On

When we got back from San Francisco, the shock of a fifteen degree temperature drop immediately drove me to revisit the soup sections of my cookbooks. Comfort was definitely in order, and what better radiates comfort than a hot bowl of soup?

Italian White Bean, Bacon and Tortellini Soup

Giada De Laurentiis’ recipe for an Italian white bean, pancetta and tortellini soup immediately caught my eye, but then again, it’s hard to go wrong with pork belly and cheese-filled pasta. I ended up substituting Irvings Farm Fresh bacon for the pancetta, and boy, was it a good decision – the bacon imbued the broth with a smoky flavour that was irresistible. The tortellini (from local company Pasta Time, available at the Italian Bakery) was also a nice inclusion, especially because we don’t indulge in the cheese-filled pasta often. And though we didn’t have any carrots, the Swiss chard from Sundog Organics provided a needed vegetable punch.

Italian white bean, bacon and tortellini soup

It was a simple but tasty soup that I will definitely make again, especially on cold winter nights.

Golden Pepper and Tomato Soup

For something a little less protein-rich, I turned to Deborah Madison’s golden pepper and yellow tomato soup. I ended up substituting another main ingredient in this soup – instead of using yellow tomatoes, I used one absolutely massive Grightmyre’s Pride tomato that weighed over two pounds (James of Sundog Organic said the heirloom variety is quite dense). Coupled with bell peppers from Doef’s and saffron and herbs for flavouring, the outcome should have been better than it was. We thought the broth was lacking something, though the bacon broth, still lingering on our minds (and palates), probably made it impossible for this soup to follow.

Golden pepper and yellow tomato soup

Celeriac Soup

I had been eying Donna Hay’s celeriac soup in No Time To Cook for some time, patiently waiting for celery root to appear at the City Market. It finally did recently, and I picked some up from Greens, Eggs and Ham. In addition to the celery root, the recipe also calls for onion, potatoes, stock and a touch of cream, pureed together.

Celeriac soup, all packed for lunch

I know I shouldn’t be surprised that celeriac tastes exactly like celery, but I was. It brightened the potentially heavy soup with a lovely freshness that made for the perfect lunch.

Though I’m happy with the beautiful fall weather we’ve been having lately, the bright side of a drop in temperature will be returning again to the comforting arms of soup.

The Cooking Chronicles: Hit and Miss

The restaurant reviews have been few and far between lately, and for good reason. With the farmers’ market right outside our door, grocery shopping has been a snap, and has encouraged me to do more cooking than I’ve ever done before. Though many of our meals involve tried-and-true dishes, I’ve also worked hard to ensure a new recipe works its way in now and then. Some of these are adopted into our regular rotation, and others…are not.

Cauliflower Roast on Moroccan Chickpea Stew

The first vegetarian dish that, thankfully, turned out to have a happy ending was a Moroccan stew with chickpeas, from We Eat Together.

This recipe allowed us to finally make use of the gorgeous Le Cruset that Mack’s Mom had given us. A set of the Dutch ovens had been in their storage unit for some time, and after Mack and Thom were able to dig out the box, she said she would be happiest if the pots could find a good home.

It was an easy recipe to put together, especially because I had cooked the chickpeas the night prior. Into a pot of sautéed onions went some potatoes, prunes, stewed tomatoes, honey, water and the chickpeas, and on top, an entire head of seared cauliflower from Kuhlmann’s (instead of just half). The florets steamed up nicely in the oven, and added an additional texture into the stew.

Moroccan chickpea stew

My favourite part of this recipe was definitely the fragrant spices – a cinnamon stick and toasted cumin seeds perfumed the kitchen wonderfully, and made it difficult not to peek under the lid as it baked. I was also amazed that the water took on so much flavour – I usually add stock, but here, it really wasn’t necessary.

Hot and Sour Curried Eggplant with Tofu and Pineapple

Mack and I couldn’t wait for the Food Canada Network’s delayed broadcasting of the seventh season of Top Chef (particularly as it took place in Washington, D.C.!), so we were downloading it, staying afloat with our American counterparts as it aired on Bravo.

Though I’ve never before been inspired to cook an on-screen dish before, Kenny’s hot and sour eggplant did it for me. And given that I’ve never cooked with eggplant before, I thought this was a good opportunity to kill two birds with one stone.

My first mistake was opting to use a fan-modified recipe instead of Kenny’s recipe. Although I liked the ingredients that went into the latter, I was swayed by the inclusion of tofu that could round the side dish out into a main entrée.

My second mistake was not knowing how to cook eggplant properly, all the more sad given they were whimsically beautiful eggplant from Sundog Organics. I thought some stewing would probably be in order, given the usual texture of eggplant in dishes. This recipe didn’t allow for any extended stewing time, so I increased the cooking time, but it wasn’t enough – the eggplant was still gummy, and paired with the extra firm tofu that had a similar biting resistance, the dish as a whole wasn’t very pleasant to eat (I probably should have peeled the eggplant, as directed in the recipe, but the fairy eggplant were so tiny to begin with I couldn’t do it). The pineapple was a pleasant addition, but other than that, this dish was a complete miss.

Hot and sour curried eggplant

I’ll be deferring to Kenny’s recipe in the future for my next attempt at cooking eggplant.

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