Unexpected Cooking Extravaganza

It's a short work week for us students in these parts. We had a snow day on Wednesday and a day off today. I know, it doesn't seem fair does it? I spent most of the evening trying to put all of my leftover food to good use. I had brussel sprouts, cabbage, bell peppers, onions, cauliflower and sandwich bread that desperately needed to be eaten. I thought I was only going to make a cauliflower soup and try my hand once again at some homemade bread. I soon found myself cooking for hours yielding huge results!

I ended up with

Cauliflower and Carrot Cumin Soup, a new recipe that I snagged out of this great soup magazine. I received this for christmas and had almost forgotten about it until today.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Roasted Garlic


I love brussel sprouts, however they may be cooked. There aren't many other people that I know that like them or cauliflower. I swear that the cauliflower soup is delicious as is the other cauliflower soup that I often make. The other go to cauliflower soup is low maintainence and requires an onion, potato, cauliflower, chicken broth and a few basic indian spices, cumin, garam masala, tumeric, coriander and cayenne. Roasted cauliflower and brussel sprouts, however will make any respectable cauli and brussel detesting eater humbly change his or her opinion. With roasted veggies, it's nice to season them with flavorful ingredients, like spicy peppers, herbs, a sprinkle of lemon juice, a drizzle of olive oil or balsamic vinegar, or a dusting of parmesean cheese.

Tarta de Sardina y Verduras


This recipe is inspired from my days spent in Argentina. Tartas of the savory variety are quite common there. I found that they're filling, last for a couple of meals, are very tasty and can be made with almost any ingredients. However, I've never made a tarta from scratch before. Typically the average Argentina will buy the two Pascualina pastry discs in the local supermarket. I opted for trying my hand at making mine homemade. I found an Argentine recipe here http://www.ciberchef.com/recetas.php3?ID=99

It turned out to be quite successful. I love simple the ingredients are and how the measurements are easy to remember. I ended up using a little more flour than called for and it made a little too much dough. I ended up saving the extra to make a mini tarta. Tartas Argentinas are typically filled with ham and cheese, spinach or swiss chard and cheese, bell peppers and carrots with a canned fish. In our household, we typically made tartas with bell peppers, shredded carrot, onion, hard boiled eggs, and some sort of canned fish. Call me crazy, but I learned to love eating canned fish on strange food, like on pizza, in tartas, with rice, in pasta. It's especially hard to believe since I grew up on the northeastern coast of north america. I guess canned fish is what you resort to when you go from living 5 minutes from the sea all your life to living in a landlocked province for 1 year. The type of canned fish we bought was usually a mild tasting, white small fish and it was usually unprocessed.It's known as merluza or caballa in Argentina. I think merluza may be hake and caballa is mackerel. I really can't be sure. Sardines worked fine, cheap and available almost everywhere. Within the can, you'd have the fillets of fish with the bones, and skin all included. The bones won't hurt you if you mash up the fish enough before putting it in your food. They're small and weak enough that it's like biting into a crunchy bit of grain. It sounds strange and maybe even unappealing. One day, just try it. You may be surprised. I certainly was.



I also started to make a rustic french bread out of Joy of Cooking. I searched endlessly for tips on breadmaking and on blogs and ended up sticking with dependable Julia. I thought maybe she'd be a good mentor to start with before I'd get too experimental. I accidentally didn't read the right recipe all the way through and before I knew it I had begun a process to make a bread with a starter! I was really getting in way over my head! A starter, for those of you that don't know, is a yeasty concoction that is made hours, often days, before bread is made. It gives bread that porous, and crunchiness that you may associate with sourdough. My starter has to sit for 6 hours. So I'll be posting tomorrow to tell you how the bread baking goes.

I admittedly had one mishap today. I left a spatula against the pan while I was intermittently stirring some homemade croutons for a salad. Needless to say, the spatula melted right at the base of the handle and onto the pan! It's a wonder that this was the first time that this has happened. In fact, I'm shocked that this little accident hasn't happened sooner in my cooking lifetime. I had to throw the spatula out and was able to salvage the pan.

A little while ago, I made Sophia's mother's famous and fabulously good homemade caesar dressing. I used lemon juice from the bottle, and anchovy paste from the tube, and omitted bacon. Sophia has used anchovies in the past from the can but she claims that there's not much of a difference between the paste and the using the actual fish. Her mother also traditionally makes her own croutons sauteed with bacon fat. I was inspired to do the same and found the opportunity to use my about to go moldy bread without the bacon fat. Though I have done this in the past and it was delicious. I added a little garlic and onion and sauteed, well accidentally burned to a crisp. This was at lunch. It made me hesitant to take on all the rest of the recipes of the day.

Clearly I've been out of the kitchen for too long. Whenever that happens, I somehow wind up cooking a series of different recipes that takes up hours of my day.

Cauliflower and Carrot Cumin Soup
The recipe is simple enough and requires few ingredients, which I love.

1 chopped onion
3 cups cauliflower florets (I chopped mine to make for easy blending)
1 1/4 cup coarsely shredded carrots (I always shred my carrots with a cheese grater)
2 cloves minced garlic (another job for the good ol' fashioned cheese grater)
1 tsp cumin
3.5 cups or 28 ounces of chicken broth
*I also added a dash of adobo chili pepper just for fun

1) Heat garlic and onion in a large pot for 5 minutes
2) Add cumin,cauliflower and carrots
3) Add broth. I would have preferred vegetable broth
4) Bring to a boil.
5) Cover and simmer for 20 minutes on low heat.
The recipe called to measure out the vegetables, about 1/4 at a time, to blend separately. Then it suggested gradually adding the blended portion back to the liquid and mixing with light cream. I opted for a dairy free soup as I am lactose intolerant and blended the soup directly. A little sprinkle of peppercorns and it's ready to eat. You may add garnish as you so desire.

Roasted Brussel Sprouts with Roasted Garlic
1) Mark an x on the end of each brussel sprout near the stem
This allows it to be cooked all the way through.
2) Mix brussel sprouts in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil, salt and pepper and whatever else suits your fancy
3) Choose how much garlic you would like to roast and peel away as much outside skin while still having enough to protect the clove.
4) Wrap brussel sprouts and garlic in tin foil. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
5) Pop in the oven for about 35 to 50 minutes depending on how crispy you like your roasted veggies.

Tarta de Sardina y Verduras

Masa/Dough
~1+ cup of flour
1 cup of butter, softened
1 egg
1/4 cup of water
a tsp of salt

*egg, milk, butter, each respectively, is optional if you'd like to dust the top of the tarta with a wash before baking.

1) Add flour to a bowl and make a hollow in the middle
2) Add butter, egg, water and salt to the hollow
3) Mix with a spoon until the texture is sticky and the strands start to stick to the sides of the bowl. Add flour accordingly if the mixture resembles a liquid.
4) Form a ball with the dough, do not work the dough too much as it will harden it
5) Cover and let it rest in the fridge for about an hour.
6) Take the dough out of the fridge and let it warm up to make it easier to work with.
7)Cut the dough in half and create two equal sized balls.
8)On a floured flat surface. Roll out each ball into discs about 1 cm thick
9)If one disc is larger than the other, reserve this one for the top layer of the tarta. Place the smaller disc on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour.
10)Add relleno about .5 inch thick all along the disc.
11) Cover with the larger disc creating the top of the tarta.
12) Along the edge of the tarta, where the two edges of the discs meet, pinch and twist the excess dough to create the crust. This is called the repulgue.
13) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and cook for about 30 minutes until the tarta is golden brown.

Relleno/Filling
2 chopped hardboiled eggs
1 diced onion
1 large coarsely shredded carrot
2 diced bell peppers
1 can of sardines or any other canned fish of your liking

*Extra seasonings may include: cheese, basil, parsley, hot peppers,

1) Add onion to a pan on medium heat with olive oil
2) Add carrot and bell peppers once onion is translucent
3) Stir and add condiments, herbs to your liking
4) Once cooked through, take off heat and mix in hardboiled eggs and the canned fish.

Tottlin' taters!

Over the last couple of days I've had an inexplicable craving for potato chips, spicy ones. Maybe it's because I saw someone eat a bag the other day or simply because I'm craving some sort of salty starch as comfort food. The weather has been gross all week here in Halifax aside from one nice sunny day with no precipitation. It was -8 and it felt like spring, I tell ya. It felt balmy, in fact. I sweat as I walked outside. It was amazing. Today everything is rainy/snowy/slushy wet and icky. It's warm enough but it doesn't take away from the fact that you feel like a soggy wet mess by the end of the day.

As I dreamt of potato chips, my mind wandered to hash browns and then tater tots. I wasn't about to buy the frozen kind, seeing as I knew I had two perfectly wonderful potatoes at home. So I decided to experiment... I looked up the basics for tater tots, first I was thinking of frying them, but I thought that was a little too similar to latkes. Some recipes call for boiling your potatoes first and then shredding them while others insist on shredding the potatoes raw. I opted for boiling my potatoes. I then shredded then with a regular ol' cheese grater, skins on. I don't mind the tough skins and I like to think that it's leaves some sort of nutritious part of the vegetable. (Yes, nutritious, even though I will be frying these suckers later).
The recipe that I used, can be found here: http://www.grouprecipes.com/50365/tater-tots.html

It called for 8 potatoes and 4 tablespoons of flour. I only had 2 potatoes, I eyeballed and added 3 tablespoons of flour. I seasoned as called for with salt and pepper and added cayenne to spice things up. I also decided on a whim to add some onion, and I did what I've never done before. I grated an onion so it created onion pulp and mixed it in with the potato shreds in a bowl. I then opened my cupboard to find the perfect experimental ingredient. Chipotle cheese herb powder. I know, I know, cheese powder?? This is a little less repulsive, I must say, because I bought it from a stand at the farmer's market in the fall. The couple puts the stuff together homemade by themselves. You usually add it to mayo and sour cream to make a sauce. I've put it on burgers before, trust me, it's delicious. So I threw in a generous dusting of the cheese powder and began to form my little tater balls.




Alas, no vegetable oil in the house, so I panfried the taters in olive oil,browning two sides. Then I placed them on a baking sheet with aluminum foil for about 15 minutes in the oven on 350 degrees.

Being home made, I like to think that this is healthier than the store bought stuff and it's kind of nice to know one can make their own tater tots to their own liking. This could get fun.. I can think of the possibilities... bacon tater tots, sausage tater tots, bell pepper tater tots, ginger garlic tater tots, herb tater tots...

And this is a great little snack for kids too, and if you finagle it right, you can make sure they get some little veggie in there as well. They might even like to make the little tater balls! Lookin out for all the parents and kiddos out there, 'cause I'm going to be having yet another niece or nephew (that will make 4).

And for me, that's a culinary success! To make a somewhat improvisational meal that can have so many other variations according to your own taste!

Tarts?

It's winter time and we're without heat at our Quinn Street Attic. What's best for warming yourself up on a cold winter's night and will fill you up for most of the day as well is a good ol' helping of a hearty pie. I had some leftover crust from the last one so I again took all the ingredients laying around my kitchen and made a meal. It includes peas, carrots, onions, cabbage and brussel sprouts. I sauteed the onions and made a simple cream sauce with milk, butter, cornstarch and some parmesean cheese. The brussel sprouts were blanched, and the cabbage, peas and carrots were boiled and chopped to create this filling pie that will probably last me all week long. You may add spices to the sauce to your own liking. I added a bit of mustard powder, nutmeg, sage, thyme, basil and caraway seeds and a small dash of hot curry powder. I think it's a good practical way to keep yourself fed and warm through the week while on a budget or if you simply don't have the heart for going out in the cold for groceries. I hear the wind chill is gonna pick up Monday morning tomorrow. And all the boiling and cooking in the oven tonight made the apartment warm up a little!

Hot Chocolate for Breakfast? I think so!

This lovely tradition isn't something that I've devilishly come up with on my own. While I was living in Argentina, I found that having hot chocolate as part of a light meal, it's totally acceptable and even considered a benefit to your health. Sure, I've heard that a small portion of dark chocolate of the purest quality in moderation has benefits for your heart but thick, rich, milky sweet hot chocolate for breakfast? Perhaps it's more preferred by those who want to avoid the caffeinated beverages like tea and coffee. In Argentina, there's this delightful hour that people dedicate to merienda, or a tea time. Argentines from the interior, or the provinces outside of Buenos Aires, generally spend it within their own homes with their family. Typically these treats are usually what people also eat for breakfast. It's all about the sweet breakfast there. Savory breakfasts of eggs and toast is very strange for most people there. They serve tea or coffee and even hot chocolate with a delicious array of sweets:

bizcochitos


medialunas



facturas con crema



pasta frola



dulce de cayote..this is a sugary substance that is made from the fruit of this type of green melon. It's baked in the oven and then the fibrous fruit inside is soaked in water then cooked with sugar.





and of course, the one and only dulce de leche.




Sometimes we'd even have this for breakfast.


Which reminded me of frosting covered animal crackers.

It was even acceptable to go out for churros and chocolate for merienda as a treat.


I loved this tradition. Who wouldn't? When I was living in Tucuman, the smallest province in Argentina, it was typical to have merienda after waking up from the siesta. Imagine this, you go home, you eat a huge lunch during midday and then you take a nap for a couple of hours and wake up to have this delicious dessert like tea. Needless to say, it was like a foodie lovers dream.

In Canada and in the U.S. I remember as a kid that having a glass of milk with every meal was the way that parents would get us to have a healthy dose of calcium. Not in Argentina, milk is rarely drank plain. Typically kids drink it after it's been boiled over the stove or with chocolate. Even at a comedor, a soup kitchen/ center for kids where I spent my free time teaching English, part of the provisional government bundle of minimal food goods given to kids included chocolate. Since I've given up coffee for a while as a New Year's Resolution and am craving something warm, creamy and comforting I think that this Saturday morning I'll get in a healthy dose of calcium with a rich yummy mug of hot chocolate.

Shepard's Pie/Beef Pot Pie/Beef Tart?

You can call this whatever you want and you can make it however you want. That's what makes it easy to make when you've got little to work with and it's hearty enough to keep you full for half the week... at least it was for me anyhow. I made the crust from a Deluxe double crust recipe out of the Joy of Cooking. The original recipe for crust seemed to use a lot more shortening. The deluxe recipe used a lot more butter (2 sticks!) Maybe this is standard for crust making but either way I was kind of frightened by using a lot of shortening or butter. It made the dough very sticky, hard to roll out with a rolling pin. I gave up the traditional effort of rolling out the dough a surface and placing it within the pie plate and basically threw the dough directly into the pie plate and molded from there. It surprisingly worked.



I burnt the crust a bit because I was worried that it was too soft to be cooked through. It wasn't until I burnt the crust that I realized that the crust was supposed to be soft, crumbly and easy to fall apart. After it cooled, however, it tended to stay together a lot better. When I reheated the pie, the whole thing kind of fell apart but it was somewhat tasty anyhow. I could taste a lot of butter in the crust still. Perhaps next time I will try to find an alternative pie crust recipe that won't seem so frightening.

The filling was simple. I suggest using whatever leftover ingredients you have. I had a pound of ground beef, onions, carrots, peas and cabbage. I omitted the cabbage and sauteed the beef, onions, carrots and peas with some garlic and added some cornstarch with luke warm water bit by bit to thicken the juices. I seasoned the beef with paprika, a little garam masala, a bit of coriander, turmeric, a wee bit of cinnamon and nutmeg and some cayenne. The beef pot pie recipe called for curry powder. I found it here: http://almostbourdain.blogspot.com/2009/10/curried-beef-pot-pie.html

I didn't add salt or bouillon because I had used salted butter instead of unsalted butter in the crust recipe and I didn't want the dish to be too salty and rich. Over time, the juices tended to be absorbed by the vegetables. Next time I would cook the beef for less time before introducing it to the oven and I would also develop a thicker gravy. On top of the filling I threw in a little bit of leftover mashed potatoes with a generous sprinkling of parmesean cheese. Sure, this meal wasn't the most healthy of meals, but it's been just the thing to keep me warm on the bitter cold Halifax winter nights while our little apartment doesn't have heat.

Almond Biscotti!

This should have raisins in it, but I decided that that was unnecessary. The recipe's from the Williams-Sonoma Simple Classics Cookbook, with a couple of adaptations of my own, the most important being the afore-mentioned lack of raisins.

You will need:

1 cup almonds
2 cups flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp aniseeds, lightly crushed

1/4 cup butter
1/2 granulated sugar
1/4 brown sugar, firmly packed

2 eggs

2 tsp almond extract
zest from one small orange (about 1 tbsp)

1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp water, for a quick glaze.

Preheat the oven to 325 degrees, and spread the almonds on a baking sheet. Bake for about ten minutes, until the almonds are well-toasted. Unfortunately, I can't tell any difference between the almonds before and after, so... ten minutes. Yes. Let cool and chop coarsely. I didn't.



Combine the flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and aniseeds.

Using an electric mixer, mix the butter and both sugars for about five minutes, until "light." Make sure you don't use butter straight out of the fridge. It's annoying.

Add the eggs one at a time.

Beat in the almond extract and orange zest.

Gradually beat in the flour mixture until combined. When I did this it didn't look like dough at all; it was way too pebbly. But once you get your hands in there it all comes together again. Hands, you say? When does that happen? NOW!

Add the almonds and knead them in with your hands. Transfer the dough to a floured surface, and knead a little bit more. Divide the dough in half and form into two logs, like so (my eye-balled halves were NOT equal, but it didn't really matter). Place on a greased and floured surface, brush with the egg mixture, and pop them in oven until they're lightly browned, 20-25 minutes.
Let cool for five minutes. THEN! The fun part! Using a serrated knife (it's easier with the almonds), cut the logs on a diagonal cross into 1-inch slices. Maybe a little bit more diagonal than I've done here. Place the slices upright on the baking sheet and stick back in the oven for 15 minutes.
Turn off the oven and open the oven door about two inches, and let cool IN THE OVEN for 30 minutes.

Now you're supposed to let them cool until they're dry and crisp, but I've never been able to do that. And they DO dunk perfectly.

The Hot Toddy

Since I'm feeling a little under the weather, along with pretty much everyone I know, I thought I'd do away with cooking and drink hot toddies all day. And show you how to do it! It's very simple, which is good when you're sick, but I still managed to mess it up. You will need things you find around any good household, such as

Tea!
Honey!
Brandy!
Lemon!

And that's about it.
So all one need do is fill his teacup 3/4 full, and add a tablespoon of honey.


Then add two of these guys (that's an ounce of brandy right there), and float a lemon slice on top. Bonus points for using the best possible mug.

My mistakes: turns out I've only got green tea, which if you've seen my Halifax cupboard is pretty shocking. BUT! I found two rogue bags of lemon scented Earl Grey, so I just used those and left out the lemon slice.

My other mistake was to use cognac instead of brandy, only to realize afterwards that I misread the label and had actually used calvados instead. The results aren't bad though, it's just a little apple-y.

And you know, I DO feel a little bit better.