The Cooking Chronicles: Savoury Pies

I’ve been enjoying Karlynn’s series of spotlighting a pie a week, and was happy to see a savoury version in her most recent post. One of our favourite go-to recipes in our rotation is this chicken pot pie, but the truth is, Mack and I love most savoury concoctions. What’s not to love? With a bit of meat, some vegetables, and usually, some sort of starchy crust, a pie is the perfect comfort meal. We tried out two recipes in recent weeks with success.

Cottage Pie

Julie Van Rosendaal called this a cottage pie (instead of a shepherd’s pie) because she used ground beef instead of lamb, but whatever the name, it was easy and delicious.

It was easy to incorporate local ingredients into this recipe – we used Sunshine Organic beef, Peas on Earth carrots, Kuhlmann’s onions and potatoes, in addition to the grocery store frozen peas. We also ~~fattened up~~ smoothed out the potatoes with some butter and cream – totally unnecessary, but worth the extra calories in our mind.

Cottage pie

The recipe made a ton of leftovers to boot that reheated well – always a welcome bonus in our book!

Sausage, Cauliflower and Swiss Chard Potpie

This recipe caught my eye when I was flipping through the latest issue of Real Simple. The original recipe calls for kale, but the leafy greens were out at the grocery store, so we substituted swiss chard instead.

We cooked some Little Italy Foods Italian sausage with onions and the swiss chard, added some stock and flour, then combined it with chopped cauliflower. The mixture was poured into a dish then topped with puff pastry and baked.

Sausage, cauliflower and swiss chard potpie

The resulting dish was great – the cauliflower steamed up perfectly, and each bite contained a bit of sausage, chard, and gravy. Of course, the buttery crust didn’t hurt either!

We may be moving out of the season of savoury pies, but I think I’ll still be sneaking in a pie or two now and again, which will likely include both of these recipes.

The Cooking Chronicles: Pasta Cravings

When I crave pasta, I can think of having nothing else. I’m not sure what it is – the carb lover in me, the association of comfort – but when it hits me, there’s no question what we’re having for dinner.

This week, we tried out two new pasta recipes which were quite different from one another. But they both hit the spot, and satisfied my craving.

One-Pot Macaroni and Cheese

Alberta Milk’s recipe for a one-pot macaroni and cheese stretches the truth, because in reality, it calls for at least an additional bowl or vessel used to blend the sauce. But it didn’t matter that night because after staring me in the face for twenty days (since flipping to “March” on our fridge calendar), I was making that mac and cheese one way or another.

We used a food processor to combine the milk, old cheddar, flour, mustard and seasonings, which we added to the prepared pasta. Heated for a few minutes, the sauce thickened up nicely, and dinner was done!

One-pot macaroni and cheese

Mack even commented that this was better than KD – and it didn’t take that much more time to prepare, either!

Pasta Primavera

I was flipping through Giada De Laurentiis’ very first cookbook, Everyday Italian, the other day, and her recipe for pasta primavera grabbed me. Yesterday, anyway, it did resemble spring outside, and a bowl bursting with sweet, roasted vegetables seemed like a good way to commemorate it.

Sliced August Organics onions, Peas on Earth carrots, zucchini and bell peppers were tossed with olive oil and herbs, then roasted in a hot oven for over twenty minutes. I actually ended up leaving the vegetables in the warm oven longer while I prepared the rest of the ingredients, and it just helped matters, intensifying the flavours even more.

Roasted vegetables

I cooked up some Sunshine Organic chicken to add some protein to the dish (given it was intended to be a meal and not a side), and instead of cherry tomatoes, just used some whole Doef’s tomatoes we had on hand. Tossed together with some of the pasta liquid, plus some chicken stock that I had deglazed the cooking pan with, it was one of the best pasta dishes I have made in some time.

Pasta Primavera

The caramelized vegetables were so sweet – the onions had nearly melted away, while the zucchini, carrots and peppers were soft and tender. It was a light meal, but still quite satisfying.

One of the pasta dishes I can’t wait to make is seasonal in nature (and depends on access to fresh, ripe tomatoes), but summer’s just around the corner – I can’t wait! Are there any pasta dishes you crave?

The Cooking Chronicles: Cooking with Bulgur

Amy Pennington, in Urban Pantry, describes bulgur as the “gateway drug for whole grains” due to its ease of preparation and wide availability. I have to admit that bulgur wasn’t really on my radar until recently, after I bookmarked a few recipes that featured bulgur in the ingredients list. I picked up a bag from the bulk section of Save-On, and have been working my way through the recipes with varied success.

Quickly Stewed Tomatoes and Sausage with Bulgur

Mark Bittman rarely lets me down, but he did with this recipe. Part of it had to do with my expectations – I was anticipating a less soupy consistency, hoping that the bulgur would plump up and absorb most of the liquid.

Stewed tomatoes and sausage with bulgur

That wasn’t the case, and the result was a stew containing bulgur that didn’t really add anything to the dish.

Meat-and-Grain Loaf

Bittman made up for the disappointment with the next recipe we tried, one for a meat-and-grain loaf (I considered it a major victory when Mack asked for a meatloaf that was lighter on the meat).

We had a pound of Nature’s Green Acres ground beef, and mixed it with some reheated chopped, frozen spinach, diced onion, garlic, egg, cooked bulgur and seasonings. I knew my proportions were off, as I had added way too much spinach and bulgur, but I thought it would work out in the end.

Meat-and-grain loaf, with cabbage and lemon salad

The loaf came out fine, but because of its size, required over an hour and a half to cook in the oven. It was undoubtedly the healthiest meatloaf we had ever made, and with the grains and vegetables in each bite, could have been a meal all on its own. I also liked the use of bulgur in this way, adding some additional nutrients in place of breadcrumbs.

Bulgur & Citrus Salad

I’ve mentioned in the past that I do my best to prepare vegetarian dishes for potlucks at work (because many of my coworkers have meat-related dietary restrictions), so I was eager to try a recipe for bulgur & citrus salad in Urban Pantry for this purpose.

Bulgur was without a doubt the star ingredient, livened with the inclusion of pine nuts, parsley, mint, dried currants, orange zest, orange juice, red wine vinegar and some olive oil. I found, however, that to get the “sweet-citrusy pop” that Pennington described, I had to double the amount of zest and juice. It resulted in a fragrant salad, but perhaps not the most ideal consistency, as the bulgur was almost mushy.

Citrus & bulgur salad

After sitting overnight in the fridge, the sweetness intensified, but it didn’t help the bulgur. More herbs, added to freshen up the salad at the last moment would have been a good idea, too.

I haven’t given up on bulgur yet – what are your favourite uses for the grain?

The Cooking Chronicles: More with Legumes

As I have mentioned in the past, I’ve been trying to incorporate more legumes in our diet. The biggest difference this year is that I am actively trying to lessen my reliance on canned beans. Although we will likely still keep a few on hand (they’re great in a pinch), dried beans are cheaper, I can then control what goes into them, and they are free from the BPA that is present in the lining of cans.

I think I only cooked dried legumes twice all last year, but so far in 2012, I’ve already made three batches. With some planning, I’ve found it not to be a burden at all – I soak them before leaving for work, cook them that evening, and then have them ready to go for the following day. I’ve been freezing the leftovers in small bags, so they’re handy for future meals. We’ll see how long I am able to continue this, but in the meantime, I am still determined to try new recipes that feature legumes.

Mexican Fried Rice

Our go-to fried rice involves eggs and barbecue pork, but the Mexican version in Julie van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan’s Spilling the Beans with chorizo, black beans, tomatoes and cheddar seemed like it was worth a try.

The black beans definitely fortified the dish, but even with the chorizo, it wasn’t quite interesting enough. I think it would have made a difference if I had a cast iron pan that was large enough to accommodate all of the rice (charring it would have added a lot of flavour). As well, the rice would have also benefited from other spices – cumin was the dominant (and only) fragrance.

Mexican fried rice

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

The fruit in the ingredients list drew me to this Moroccan chickpea stew – with both apples and dried apricots, I wasn’t sure if the final product would end up much too sweet.

Thankfully, the answer was no. In addition, the apricots cooked down to the point where they more closely resembled the other softened vegetables, and with the chickpeas, it made for a light but satisfying supper.

Moroccan chickpea stew

Dumpling and Chickpea Stew

Our last attempt at dumplings failed miserably, but I did want to try another recipe at some point. Given the previous dumplings lacked flavour, Daphne Oz’s inclusion of cornmeal in the batter of her recipe piqued my interest. She also chose to highlight this recipe as a dish she would include in her “last supper”, so it had to be good, right?

We learned from our previous experience that the size of the dumplings matter, so we made sure to form smaller ones in the simmering soup. The cornmeal did add some interesting texture, and as a whole, I think they were a success – moist and light as they were – and most importantly, they cooked all the way through! The dumplings also helped thicken the broth somewhat, which, paired with the chickpeas, made it a heartier dish.

Dumpling and chickpea stew

I’m just not sure it would be last supper material, at least not for me.

The Cooking Chronicles: “Urban Pantry”

Another cookbook I received as a Christmas gift this year was Urban Pantry: Tips and Recipes for a Thrifty, Sustainable & Seasonal Kitchen. Mack said the book had mostly positive reviews online, and after my initial read, I can see why.

Author Amy Pennigton provides her ideas on what should make up one’s pantry essentials, taking into consideration the limited space apartment dwellers face, and the needs of a home cook to be able to whip up fast, tasty suppers, or entertain at a moment’s notice. Recipes highlight her pantry staples, including several grain-based salads that are economical but inspired.

I think I will also eventually find her chapter on small-batch canning helpful, when I decide to travel down that path. Her recipes for pickles and fruit in particular seem creative and straightforward, perfect for an amateur like me.

In the last few weeks, I’ve tried two of Urban Pantry’s recipes, and enjoyed them both, which bodes well for the rest of the book!

Baked Eggs with Swiss Chard

A recipe for baked eggs with kale was a one-skillet dish if there ever was one! We substituted swiss chard for the kale, which cut down our cooking time a bit, but other than that, we stayed true to her recipe – sauteed onions and greens with garlic and red pepper flakes, eggs cracked into pockets made inside the greens, baked, then topped with crumbled bacon (from Irvings, of course!).

Baked eggs with swiss chard

I left the skillet in the oven a touch too long, so lost the yolky goodness that would have elevated the dish that much more. But still, served alongside some fresh ficelle loaves from Dauphine (my go-to bread as of late), it was almost like having breakfast for dinner!

Onion-Thyme Tart

The book came in handy when I was looking to spice up a beef stew I would be serving my family for dinner (with only a day’s notice, I was fortunate that I had several packages of First Natures Farms stew meat in the freezer, and given we would be out most of the day, the slow cooker was a lifesaver!).

I had never thought to make a gremolata before, but really, there wasn’t anything to it – citrus zest, parsley and garlic. It added a nice fresh finish to the stewed meat.

Beef stew with orange-parsley gremolata

But to accompany the stew, for a “pre-dinner nibble”, as Amy calls it, the onion-thyme tart was great. All it took was some caramelized onions, fresh thyme and thawed puff pastry. It was the first time I’d ever taken the time to really cook down the onions (about forty minutes), and by the end, I realized I should have started with larger onions! There was nearly not enough to spread around the tart.

Onion-thyme tart

Cut into squares, it was a buttery, slightly sweet way to start dinner, and is something I will make again!

The Cooking Chronicles: The Magical Fruit

After reading Mark Bittman’s Food Matters, I was inspired to try and incorporate more legumes into our diet (his goal was for every family in America to have a bag of cooked beans in their freezer). Cheap and healthy, it would also help add some variety into our meals. Although we did try many more recipes that featured beans and lentils, I typically fell back to using canned legumes. In 2012, a resolution of sorts is for me to plan ahead, and make it a habit to cook up dried beans in batches so that I can just pull out what I need from the freezer.

Although we’re only halfway through January, I’m off to a good start! One batch of brown lentils led to two different recipes, plus some to store away. We’ll see how the rest of the year plays out!

Lentil & Mushroom Bourguignon

Spilling the Beans, a cookbook from prolific blogger Julie van Rosendaal and Sue Duncan, provides a great introduction to how someone can seamlessly incorporate legumes into every day meals. I’ve already bookmarked quite a few recipes to try – the first was their lentil & mushroom bourguignon, which was, according to the sidebar, a recipe that their “carnivorous husbands” loved.

Though it’s not much to look at (especially because I didn’t have pearl onions on hand to liven it up – we just sauteed two onions at the start instead), the mushrooms melted down into the sauce, while the lentils still had a bite to them. Served over egg noodles, we enjoyed the dish as an enlightened alternative to the usual tomato-based pasta accompaniment. And yes, Mack can testify to the fact that he didn’t miss the meat at all!

Lentil & mushroom bourguignon

Lentil Cookies

The next night, I used a cup of the brown lentils in Bal Arneson’s recipe for lentil cookies, which I had wanted to try for some time. The even measurements make it quick to pull together (the only change I made was substituting dried cranberries for the slivered almonds, because of Mack’s allergy).

Sure, there is quite a bit of butter and sugar in the cookies, but between the lentils, pumpkin seeds, rolled oats, cranberries and whole wheat flour, these were easily the healthiest cookies I have ever made. They were nutty and crispy, loaded with different textures and with the chocolate chips, really satisfying.

Lentil cookies

I brought part of the batch to a work meeting the next morning, and several of my coworkers asked for the recipe right away, particularly after I told them that they featured lentils as an ingredient. If you’re looking for a healthier snack, or breakfast for the road, these cookies would be perfect.

The Cooking Chronicles: The Gift of Inspiration

I love receiving cookbooks as gifts; they’re usually thoughtfully chosen by the person with some knowledge of the gaps in my collection. One of the cookbooks I was given this past Christmas was The Ultimate Appetizers Book, by Better Homes and Gardens. Mack’s Mom thought as people who like to entertain (but don’t do it often enough!) it would be a handy guide to have on hand.

It’s been great to page through so far, with a coloured photo that accompanies every recipe. Moreover, the book is chock full of serving and plating ideas, visually appealing but more practical and less stylized than Donna Hay’s tips.

Soon after we returned to Edmonton, I tried out two of the soup recipes so that we would have lots of leftovers for work lunches and convenient suppers.

Chicken-Wild Rice Soup

The chicken-wild rice soup appealed to me primarily because we’ve had a bag of wild rice from MoNa Food sitting in our pantry for some time, having only been touched once. And although I am not a fan of wild rice on its own, I thought incorporating it in a soup would be easier to take, and also mean I’d have less of a chance of undercooking it! (This is a similar recipe, but simplifies the thickening step.)

Chicken-wild rice soup

This wasn’t a low-fat soup, with the incorporation of what was essentially a gravy (with heavy cream!) to thicken it towards the end. But chock full of vegetables and a variety of textures, Mack and I ended up really liking this soup (even the wild rice!).

Italian Sausage Soup

The use of orzo was the attraction of the Italian sausage soup, cooked with and not separate from the dish. Besides that, the ingredients were similar to many other tomato-based soups that we’ve made in the past.

Italian sausage soup

Mack particularly liked the orzo, and noticed that the soup really deepened after a few days in the fridge.

We’re happy that both of the recipes we tried from the book turned out really well, and will be trying out more in the next few months.

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!

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!

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