The Cooking Chronicles: Homemade Hamburger Helper

One afternoon, Mack remarked that he was craving Hamburger Helper. It wasn’t something he had a lot growing up, but then again, a desire for beefy, cheesy pasta is probably not that out of the ordinary!

We had some ground beef (remnants of our cowshare) in the fridge, so hit the internet in search of recipes. We came upon a goldmine put together by a blogger whose children love all incarnations of Hamburger Helper. Since that day, we’ve tried two of her recipes.

Homemade Chili Cheese Hamburger Helper

Given how easy this was to pull together, I had to wonder why people would turn to the boxed version at all. With basic pantry ingredients and a few spices, we had a satisfying lunch ready in half an hour (and yes, it did hit the spot for Mack!). It’s amazing what corn starch can do as a thickener.

Homemade chili cheese hamburger helper

Homemade Beef Stroganoff Hamburger Helper

Of the two, this was my favourite. Two full cups of mushrooms melted away during the cooking time, and the egg noodles worked well enveloped in the creamy sauce. And by using non-fat milk, it resulted in a dish that didn’t taste all that heavy.

Homemade beef stroganoff hamburger helper

As the blogger mentions, these aren’t “inventive gourmet meals.” But for picky eaters (or to satisfy random cravings), they are great to turn to in a pinch!

Culinary Highlights: 2011 Edition

I had so much fun in 2011! Mack and I continued to experiment in the kitchen (not a chore, especially in the summer with the City Market right outside our door).

Tomato pasta, at the top of the list of our favourite home cooked meals this year

Roman egg drop soup: nothing to look at, but now a go-to comfort for me

Of course, this didn’t mean we didn’t explore restaurants. For whatever reason, we ate a lot of poutine this year. Both while dining out:

Traditional poutine from La Poutine

Breakfast poutine from Calgary’s Wake Bistro

And dining in:

Asparagus bacon breakfast poutine

Oh yes: poutine sandwiches

We were also really happy to welcome the Queen of Tarts to our street. It’s incredible to be able to buy fresh, artisan bread just down the block (in addition to all of their sweet treats!).

Queen of Tarts

The city also hosted some great food events, including the Red Shoe Crawl in Old Strathcona.

Our “completed” passport from the Crawl

I was fortunate this year to have participated as a judge in Century Hospitality Group’s inaugural Top Chef tournament, and was also asked to speak about my food blogging at a Travel Media Association of Canada retreat. It was also a great honour to have been named one of the year’s “Top 40 Foodies Under 40” in Western Living magazine.

CHG Top Chef winner Ben Weir hard at work in the kitchen

Although I didn’t travel as much this year (Toronto being my furthest 2011 destination), more important was who I was with as opposed to where I was.

Amanda enjoys a cocktail from the sky-high Canoe in Toronto

Perhaps my favourite meal of the year was had at the pop-up restaurant at The Drake Hotel in Toronto – so kitschy! (and sadly, I have yet to write about it)

Fried chicken from The Drake

Last but not least – had a blast helping to plan both Eat Alberta and What the Truck?! – our food community is small but mighty, and I really enjoyed getting to know and working with the producers, chefs and entrepreneurs that keep our city well-fed.

Love this shot of participants in Kathryn Joel’s pasta making class at Eat Alberta

Filistix served up some mighty fine biscuits and gravy at the first What the Truck?!

Mack and Sharon

Enjoying some Eva Sweet bacon waffles at What the Truck?! 2 (photo by Brittney Le Blanc)

Thanks for reading and for all of your support in 2011!

The Cooking Chronicles: Christmas Cookery

I actually haven’t been cooking much these past two weeks – for lunches I’ve been subsisting mostly on pots of my two favourite soups, while dinners have been had out of the house. That said, in the last week, I did have to make a dish to contribute to a potluck at work, and did some Christmas baking as well.

Asian Slaw

My team was once again responsible for treating the rest of the staff at the office to lunch to celebrate the holiday season. With turkey, bread and root vegetables taken care of by my colleagues, I knew I wanted to contribute some sort of salad that could be served cold (so I could avoid the reheating rush).

Paging through cookbooks desperate for inspiration, I came across Trish Magwood’s recipe for Asian slaw in Dish, the colourful, eye-catching cover shot. I had always wanted an opportunity to give it a try, and this seemed like the perfect time to do so (a similar recipe can be found here).

I’m not sure why I haven’t yet learned my lesson about starting new recipes early for good measure, but I really didn’t think it would take me as long to prep the vegetables as it did (surprisingly, it was cleaning the bean sprouts that took the most time).

Asian slaw

A rainbow combination of julienned carrots, sliced red cabbage, bell peppers and green onions, slivered baby bok choy and chopped cilantro and peanuts (I omitted the mango), with a spicy-tangy vinaigrette of chili sauce, fish sauce, sugar and vegetable oil, it was a vibrant, crunchy counterpoint to some of the other foods on the table. I particularly like that it is a salad that can be prepared nearly year-round primarily with locally-sourced vegetables. It’s definitely a dish that I will make again!

Cake Pops

For some reason, when thinking about what I wanted to make for my work colleagues this year, I latched on to the idea of cake pops. These dainty cake bites served on sticks have been popular enough to appear in the pastry case at Starbucks, and the queen of cake pops herself, Bakerella, released her first cookbook this year.

For something so popular, however, it was difficult to locate a start-to-finish cake pop recipe. Although the guidelines are straightforward (crumble a cake, mix in some icing to bind the crumbs, roll into balls, chill, secure on a stick, dip in chocolate and decorate), I was hoping to be able to follow something more concrete the first time around (especially with regards to how many pops I would end up with). However, at least I was able to determine, between Bakerella’s video and the FAQ on Vernoica’s Cornucopia, what not to do.

On the web, it seemed most people used cake mix and prepared icing for their cake pops, but I decided to make both from scratch. I made Ina Garten’s pound cake for the base, and a quarter of Magnolia’s recipe for frosting. I used one loaf for the cake pops, saving the other one to gift on its own. This recipe made 20 medium-sized cake pops.

Pound cake

The upside of using pound cake as the base is that it wasn’t very sweet to begin with, so the addition of icing as a binder wouldn’t make it too sweet. That said, because the cake was comprised of a drier crumb, we probably needed to incorporate more icing than other cake recipes to ensure the balls would form easily. Mack was a great help in forming the cake balls – he had to be firmer with them to make sure they could hold together. After fifteen minutes in the freezer, we pierced each ball with a lollipop stick.

Cake balls

We melted the chocolate wafers using a double boiler. We probably could have been less stingy with the amount, as we didn’t quite have enough depth in the bowl to make dipping an easy task (we had to do more swirling than recommended to fully coat the balls). Immediately after dipping, we dressed the balls with festive sprinkles and stuck it in a piece of styrofoam placed in the fridge to harden.

Dipping

In the fridge

The next day, I wrapped them up individually with some cellophane and ribbon – given it was our first experiment with cake pops, I was really happy with the results! They were pretty sweet, though this mostly had to do with the chocolate coating and sprinkles, rather than the cake itself.

Cake pops

It’s really neat to see what’s possible with cake pops (just take a look here). Though it’s not likely I’ll tackle any of the more complicated designs, I’d definitely consider making them again for a special occasion again in the future. Thanks again to Mack for all of his help with this project!

The Cooking Chronicles: More with Donna Hay

I hadn’t touched Donna Hay’s No Time to Cook for some time, but when I needed some inspiration for a few quick meals, I knew I would be able to find a dish or two that would pique my interest.

Polenta with Mushrooms and Goat’s Cheese

I clearly haven’t mastered the ratio of water to corn meal yet, as I learned from making a recipe for polenta with mushrooms and goat’s cheese. Instead of the desired creamy consistency, I hadn’t included enough water, so the polenta turned out almost solid in nature.

Thankfully, topped with some sautéed portobello mushrooms in balsamic vinegar and Smoky Valley St. Maure goat cheese, my poorly-made polenta was made somewhat more bearable.

Polenta with mushrooms and goat’s cheese

Still, both Mack and I were left wanting something else – either an additional textural element, or another protein of some kind.

Fennel-crusted Pork

We had better luck with the fennel-crusted pork. We used an Irvings Farm Fresh tenderloin (Mack thinks the word is much more amusing than it should be), sprinkled with fennel, rosemary, salt and pepper and seared until cooked through.

To accompany the pork was some shredded Kuhlmann’s cabbage and green apple cooked with butter, white wine vinegar and brown sugar.

Fennel-crusted pork with cabbage and apple

We really enjoyed the dish – the pork remained perfectly moist and the fennel, as expected, complimented the flavours well. The cabbage was also surprisingly tasty from such quick preparation, and is definitely something we’ll make again, even apart from the pork. On any other day, I would have also added a starch of some kind – potatoes or a side of rice – but that night, I knew we would be heading out to the carb-laden Christmas fete at the Queen of Tarts, so the meat and vegetables were enough.

Thanks to Donna Hay for rarely letting me down!

The Cooking Chronicles: Blog Inspiration

Cookbooks and magazines still remain a core of my recipe repertoire, but blogs are a significant source of inspiration for me. In some ways, it is less of a chore to bookmark a recipe on a blog for a rainy day than to deliberately seek one out in print. The two following dishes I made recently were gleaned from the online world of cooking – but there are many more to come!

Spiced Paneer with Spinach, Tomatoes and Potatoes

Although mutter paneer is one of my favourite dishes at Indian restaurants, I’ve never tried cooking with paneer at home. When I saw Michelle’s easy recipe for spiced paneer with spinach, tomatoes and potatoes, there seemed like no better way to start.

I had thought paneer would be available at Superstore, but that wasn’t the case (we ended up picking up a package at Spice Centre, our go-to Indian grocer). The package and white block reminded me very much of tofu, but of course, it is much more dense and firm in texture.

As promised, the recipe was very fast to pull together (we used Doef’s tomatoes and Greens, Eggs and Ham potatoes). I loved the wilted spinach, and the spice combination – great flavour, with just the right amount of heat for us. Next time, I’d likely include onions, and because I love tomatoes, I would double what the recipe calls for. Overall though, it’s a keeper!

Spiced paneer with spinach, tomatoes and potatoes (photo much less alluring than Michelle’s)

Thai Red Curry with Halibut

Trish Magwood’s Thai chicken curry is a rotating staple in our kitchen, but for whatever reason, we haven’t really used any other protein with that sauce and vegetable combination. Cream and Sugar’s recipe for Thai red curry with halibut was a good reminder that we should change it up.

We had some wild Alberta shallots from the Italian Centre, a bell pepper from Doef’s, and halibut from Ocean Odyssey, though we also threw in some green beans we had in the freezer. Similar to the dish above, this cooked up quickly, and had the by-product of scenting the condo with fragrant coconut milk.

We didn’t have fresh basil and cilantro on hand, unfortunate because I know it would have brightened up the dish considerably. Still, the curry was tasty – the halibut held up very well, and the vegetables cooked down to tender perfection.

Thai red curry with halibut (another photo that doesn’t even remotely compare to the original blog shot)

Which cooking blogs inspire you?

The Cooking Chronicles: Italian-Inspired Comforts

I’m certain that with the simplifications made to recipes these days to help the beleaguered home cook, some of the authenticity could be lost. But for the most part, I don’t mind – so long as the dish still tastes good. Two recipes I tried recently were a good illustration of this truth, at both ends of the spectrum.

Ricotta Gnudi in Parmesan Broth

I’ve posted about many Giada de Laurentiis recipes before, and I will continue to do so. Part of that reason is because I have two of her cookbooks, but the other has to do with the fact that her recipes are accessible and straightforward. Her ricotta gnudi in parmesan broth is an example of this, especially because they worked out so much better than a very similar spinach and ricotta dumplings I made a few months back.

While the chicken stock simmered with parmesan, a bit of parmesan rind and pepper, I formed the gnudi. I probably ended up making them a little larger than she had originally intended, but they held together and cooked up nicely.

Forming the gnudi

I was worried that they wouldn’t end up at all light and moist, but they turned out pretty tasty, even if they weren’t picture perfect. Served with the spicy, concentrated broth, it was comforting and something I would make again – for us, or for company.

Ricotta gnudi in parmesan broth

Bolognese with Bacon & Stout

Mack and I had just been talking about bolognese when I flipped open the fall issue of Flavours magazine to a recipe for bolognese with bacon & stout. It seemed like fate.

Besides Guinness, which we don’t normally have on hand, the rest of the ingredients for the sauce were basic – ground beef from Nature’s Green Acres, bacon from Irvings, rosemary and onions from Kuhlmann’s and parsnips, celery and crushed tomatoes. It wasn’t the smartest recipe for a weeknight (between prep and cooking time, the sauce took over an hour and a half), but it would have been worth it if we enjoyed the final product.

Bolognese with bacon & stout

Mack disagrees with me on this, but the parsnips were off-putting, so sweet and almost candy-like in the sauce. Carrots would have worked so much better. The stout also didn’t give the sauce the depth that we thought it might; there is a good reason why tradition calls for red wine.

I don’t mind trying new recipes – but of course, I always hope for an outcome similar to the one we achieved with the ricotta gnudi. Better luck next time!

The Cooking Chronicles: Well-Rounded Meals

I’ve mentioned in the past my penchant for one-pot meals, but over the summer, we tried to deviate from our usual formula with suppers made up of several different components.

Roast Chicken, Green Beans with Bacon and Mushroom Pilaf

I don’t know why the idea of roasting a chicken seemed so intimidating to me. Granted, it’s not something my Mum did often when I was growing up, but that’s no excuse. Over the summer, Mack and I bit the bullet: we bought a whole chicken from Dreamin’ Green Farm and just did it.

Whole chicken from Dreamin’ Green (home of the happy chicken!)

We rubbed the chicken with a mixture of butter, sage from a coworker’s garden, and lemon. We didn’t truss the chicken (something we’d definitely try next time), but it still turned out fine, and was really not a big deal at all! Like most roasts, it ended up being quite a passive recipe, something thrown into the oven to be forgotten about. The skin crisped up nicely (thank you, butter!), and the meat was deliciously juicy. We had enough leftovers for days – shredded meat we seamlessly incorporated into salads and soups. It is something we will definitely make again.

Crispy chicken!

For the sides I made a salad consisting of Sundog Organic green beans, Irvings bacon and a honey vinaigrette – Marilyn had made this side for dinner when we visited a few months ago, and the recipe stayed with me. The mushroom pilaf was easy to throw together, combining leftover rice with MoNa mushrooms and some chicken stock.

Roast chicken with green beans and mushroom pilaf

Of course, it tasted even better eaten outside.

Patio nights

Beef Tenderloin, Curried Couscous Salad and Grilled Corn

We had picked up some beef tenderloin steaks from Nature’s Green Acres. They were smaller in size than what one would normally think of for a “steak dinner”, but for us, it was perfect – the last time we had steaks (also from Nature’s Green Acres), we could barely finish the meat, let alone any accompanying sides!

While Mack readied the barbecue, I put together a curried couscous salad, featuring roasted Riverbend Gardens cauliflower, cucumber from Doef’s, dried cranberries and a dressing made from Bles-Wold yogurt. It was actually surprisingly tasty, with just enough heat balanced nicely with fresh vegetables, the sweetness of the fruit and a variety of textures. I replicated this dish for a potluck at work in the fall (made with vegetable stock so the vegetarians could enjoy it as well) and it was a hit!

Beef tenderloin, curried couscous salad and grilled corn

We also roasted corn (also from Riverbend Gardens) for the first time. Bobby Flay’s instructions (minus the flavourings) seemed simple enough, but possibly due to an inconsistent barbecue temperature, the corn didn’t cook through. We’ll have to try roasting corn again next year when it returns to the market.

Grilled corn

Although these well-rounded meals were a nice change, I will admit it is not something I am likely to do often; we’re not cut out for the “extra” dishes and effort on a nightly basis!

Culinary Q & A with Phil Wilson (aka Baconhound)

Occupation: Professional Gasfitter/ semi-professional man of leisure.

What did you eat today?

A couple slices of toast w/ peanut butter for breakfast (and a couple Doritos… don’t judge me). Cauliflower soup with a whole wheat roll for lunch (uh, and a couple Doritos… don’t judge me). Caramelized chicken w/ soya sauce and honey, steamed carrots, roasted beets, and roasted smashed potatoes cakes (and a few chocolate covered marshmallows… ah, go ahead and judge all you want).

What do you never eat?

Wallpaper paste. Gave it up when I was 4 years old. Tastes remarkably like Poi. Which I would never eat. Oh, and liver. Can’t even stand the smell of that stuff.

What is your personal specialty?

Not sure I have what you would call a specialty, but I make a mean braised beef, killer mashed potatoes with sweet potatoes and cream cheese, and a kick-ass homemade Bailey’s.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you will always find:

My nose. I just can’t stay out of there. It’s where I keep my beer, and cheese. (which are always in my refrigerator also)

What is your weekday meal standby?

I’ve always got a couple balls of pizza dough in my freezer courtesy of my buddy Battista at Battista’s Calzone Company. Some cheese, maybe a few pine nuts, pesto, a bit of sausage if I’ve got it and pizza’s on the table in 20 minutes.

What is your favourite kitchen item?

I have 2 that I love. The first is a really good set of tongs. Sturdy and solid, they are like an old friend that never lets you down. The second? A great vegetable peeler. It makes a tedious chore much easier.

World ends tomorrow. Describe your last meal.

Easy. My mom’s Christmas Dinner. Partly because it would mean she was still with us to enjoy it, and partly because turkey, roast potatoes, sausage stuffing, and gravy are awesome. Hmm, might actually need to have a duo of gravy because my wife Robyn’s mom made a pretty heart stopping gravy too.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Over the last few months I’d say Drift food truck for sure. They’ve got it all in one tidy, teal package for the summer. Great food, great people, and you can enjoy it all outside. Although The Next Act Pub has beer…. Hmmm.

Where’s the best place to eat in Edmonton?

I’m tempted to say somewhere at the airport, because that would mean I was on my way somewhere for a holiday, but we all know airport food is terrible. So I’m going to say it depends what I’m in the mood for. For fine dining I love the Red Ox Inn. For a delicious, quick dinner and a lively atmosphere I’d say Tres Carnales. But I also love Battistas, Niche, Famoso, Matahari… how could I pick just one?

If you weren’t limited by geography, where and what would you eat?

I have dreams about attending Memphis in May, the annual National BBQ competition in Tennessee. So much BBQ! And good BBQ is something we really don’t have here.

Keep up with Phil at his blog, or on Twitter.

The Cooking Chronicles: One Bowl Suppers

I know it’s a bad habit, but as the weather has gotten cooler, our supper hour has migrated away from the dining table and onto the couch. I’d like to blame it on the return of the fall television season and hockey, but it’s just so easy to wind down the evening with dinner and a show.

As such, I think one bowl suppers, like soups and stews, are always go-to “couch potato” accompaniments. We made a couple of new one bowl recipes last week.

Turkey and Cranberry Ravioli

I’d been wanting to make Giada’s turkey and cranberry ravioli for some time. In the recipe header, she describes it as a dish she would make for her husband and herself when they are “craving the flavours of Thanksgiving” but are not wanting to cook a whole turkey. We wanted to see if it lived up to that kind of holiday billing!

It was a straightforward recipe – I made cranberry sauce for the filling, combining it with Greens, Eggs and Ham ground turkey, Romano cheese, bread crumbs, parsley, eggs and salt and pepper. Then, while Mack put together the ravioli (using won ton wrappers), I made the very holiday-worthy gravy (between the butter and heavy cream, it’s definitely not for everyday consumption).

The ravioli only needed three minutes or so in the boiling water to cook, and drizzled with gravy and a bit of the leftover cranberry sauce, it really did taste like Thanksgiving in a bowl. The cranberry sauce in the ravioli filling was a bit lost in the mix, so the sweetness from the garnish really helped cut through the richness. We also would use fresh pasta sheets next time instead of won ton wrappers – they turned out to be a bit gummy from absorbing the cooking liquid.

Turkey and cranberry ravioli

As a whole though, I would make this dish again. At the very least, it’s an interesting take on a filled pasta!

Creamy Coconut Carrot Soup

Mack isn’t the biggest soup fan, but even he didn’t mind this one. For me, I liked that it was a recipe that used pantry staples in a different way – it’s always great to have those dishes on the backburner in the event the fridge is bare save for those basic items.

I had clipped a recipe for a creamy coconut carrot soup from See Magazine, which was printed to accompany an article on vegan diets. Packed with vegetables and fruit – carrots, sweet potato, onions, apples – it made up for the turkey ravioli the night before, but with the addition of red lentils and coconut milk, added a different dimension to it.

The balance of our soup ended up mostly being sweet potato, but that was fine – the earthiness and creaminess the pureed potato brought was very pleasant. The slight sweetness from the green apple was also appreciated.

Creamy coconut carrot soup

Eaten with a bit of bread I picked up at the Queen of Tarts, it made for a nice supper, and a decent lunch the next day as well.

Do you have a favourite TV dinner, too?

The Cooking Chronicles: Beautiful Simplicity

Do you ever come across a recipe that astonishes you? That makes you wonder why you hadn’t ever tried it before? The kind that only involves a handful of ingredients, but tastes like something even greater than the sum of its parts? This tomato pasta was one of those dishes for me.

This recipe celebrates the best of summer – sun ripe tomatoes, fragrant basil – and enhances it with a silky touch of butter. We had picked up some gorgeous tomatoes and garlic from Sundog Organic Farm at the market, and plucked leaves from my still-flourishing basil plant. Diced tomatoes were sprinkled with salt, their juices combined with sauteed garlic and butter to form the sauce. Tossed with spaghetti, basil and parmesan, it was a pasta dish where seconds were a given.

This was simplicity at its best.

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