So up here in Canada, there's not much of a 'chicken and waffle' culture. But it's catching on. I've heard there's a local restaurant that serves a version for Sunday brunch. And I've seen it enough times on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives that I perk up at the mention.
An ex-chef friend of ours invited us for dinner in November, and tried his own version. He fried the chicken in a traditional style, and then served it atop the waffles with a dollop of cranberry sauce, creme fraiche and smothered the whole thing in a maple-chicken reduction. I vaguely remember coleslaw on the side.
The entire dish was amazing—every mouthful made me think, "MORE!" Half-way through my serving, I was thinking, "I am definitely going back for seconds." (in spite of the fact that this was the third course of a rich meal, following creamy cauliflower soup with bacon and mussels and a fantastic mushroom quiche). However, my body caught up with me. Only two bites later, the deep-fried, creamy, sweet concoction hit the bottom of my stomach with an almost audible thud, and I was instantly over-full and uncomfortable.
Isn't that always the trouble with fried chicken?
Well, in a sort of meandering way that I've started to adopt in the kitchen, thanks to an overstuffed freezer and a workload that often gets in the way of my preferred meal plan approach, I managed to make my own version of chicken and waffles today, which was relatively low in effort, healthy (aka lower in calories and high on fibre), and absolutely delicious. So the answer to "does the chicken in 'chicken and waffles' have to be fried?" is, no. Unless you're a purist.
I am often a purist, but on weekdays, I allow myself to stray far from pure.
I began considering what to do with some turkey pieces that I have in my freezer (as an aside, I ordered a gorgeous fresh farm turkey this year for the sole purpose of cutting it down so that I can use the breasts to make Turkey Mole Poblano. The benefit of getting the turkey breast is that I also got a fresh carcass with which to make stock and I froze two packages of a single leg, thigh and wing together to make other meals. Since the Mole Poblano requires a substantial time commitment, I haven't yet accomplished that, but I've really been enjoying the turkey pieces). There aren't a lot of recipes online, or anywhere, really, for turkey pieces. You're usually expected to cook the whole bird, or just the breast, or use ground turkey. But I discovered tonight that you can truly just season and roast the pieces for a couple of hours, with great success.
I've also been tired of trying to figure out side dishes. I think it's partly the winter blues, and resenting having so little good quality fresh food to work with, partly a lingering virus that has been sapping my energy, and partly burnout from the Christmas cooking season. Anyway, I thought through all the grains I have and the options of root vegetables, and couldn't really get behind any particular recipe. Until I thought about waffles.
We had just had an impressive breakfast of pumpkin pancakes (our favourite pancake recipe, with a 1/4 c. of pumpkin, 1/2 t. cinnamon, a pinch of cloves, and 1/4 t. each ginger and nutmeg), crisped prosciutto and scrambled eggs with salted herbs, and I was still swooning over the pancakes. Could waffles be a side dish? Why not? They're a traditional match for chicken, after all! We also had some mediocre chicken gravy left over from a slow cooker chicken that my hubby had prepared on the weekend while I was attending a conference. The chicken had since been turned into lunch time noodle soup, so the gravy needed using. I thought, "I bet if I added maple syrup to that gravy, it would be just the thing for chicken and waffles."
So I put the turkey on to roast, seasoned with Kosher salt, black pepper, and smoked paprika. I found a delicious sounding whole grain waffle recipe in Mark Bittman's Food Matters. The recipe was thoughtfully posted by another blogger, stirandstitch, here. I must also say that one of the reasons I hadn't yet tried the recipe is that dividing eggs and whipping up egg whites is a little too involved for me, early in the morning. At dinner time, however, it's a-ok. I also added a cup of frozen corn kernels, just to make it a bit more dinner-like.
I topped the waffles with a bit of roast turkey, drizzled the maple gravy over top (I really don't know how to tell you quantities for the maple gravy. I re-heated about 1 1/2 cups of gravy, drizzled in a couple of glugs of maple syrup, stirred, tasted, and added another glug. Probably about 1/3 of a cup, if I had to guess, but don't quote me. Just glug and taste), and served with a side of steamed green beans and a tossed salad. The kids at the table were VERY quiet, which we always judge to be a good sign. And my husband and I liked it too. And it did not hit my stomach like a lead weight, as fried chicken is wont to do. So I could have seconds!
Monday, January 21, 2013
Monday, November 26, 2012
Foodie Book Review #3: An Everlasting Meal
A close foodie friend recommended I read An Everlasting Meal. When I was stocking up on foodie books at a recent visit to Powell's Books in Portland, I picked up a copy. I don't know what to call it: a love affair with food, a lifetime reference, a life-changing read...all of those fit the bill.
Tamar Adler has cooked with Gabrielle Hamilton, Alice Waters, and several other famous American chefs, and she manages to combine thrift with a passion for cooking and eating, something I've never really experienced before, at least not in such a way that was so committed to both using every scrap of food and thoroughly enjoying it at the same time.
I get that. I absolutely LOVE turning a chicken carcass into stock, and picking off all the bits of meat to use for soup. I love reducing a fat, healthy bird to nothing but a tiny pile of bones, knowing that we have enjoyed several meals from it, and that the animal did not die in vain. I petition my dad constantly to save organs and soup bones from the animals he butchers. And I love transforming leftover rice into a pie crust for a quiche, or rice pudding for tomorrow's breakfast or dessert.
But I had never considered half of the ideas in Adler's book for stretching vegetables, beans, broth and meat into amazing and flavourful meals--like turning stems, leaves and cores of brassicas and dark leafy greens into pesto (although I did take great joy in making radish leaf pesto from my garden this year, so I wasn't that far off), or turning fresh pea shells into stock for pea soup. I will have this book on my recipe shelf from now on, and I'm pretty sure it will become studded with sticky notes, to mark my favourite ideas and recipes.
I have already made her recipe for White Bolognese (inspired by Amanda Hesser, but calling for homemade beef stock rather than beef bouillon mixed with water), which, it turns out, is the whole food version of my mom's classic "hamburger goop," otherwise known as ground beef fried with onions and celery and then bound together with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Using real beef stock, Italian sausage, porcini mushrooms and fresh cream makes it WAY more delicious and even more comforting, which I hadn't thought possible.
Besides some creative approaches to food in general, Adler's approach to sharing food continues to work its way into my mind. She argues it doesn't matter what you serve, as long as you serve something. It's the coming together for the meal that gets your guests excited about a dinner party, more so than the menu itself. She encourages you to offer something—anything—the moment your guests arrived: radishes with butter and salt; celery and carrot sticks with crackers and butter; warmed olives, or stale bread toasted and drizzled with oil and herbs. It got me thinking more creatively about what I have in my pantry and refrigerator that people can eat. Suddenly, the options seem much broader than they did before I read the book.
She also suggests making dishes that allow the host to relax with her/his guests, a lesson which I have yet to learn, since my approach was to redesign my kitchen so that my guests could sit and have a drink while watching me cook. She encourages involving your guests in the preparation of the meal, again, something I need to practice. This quote is echoing around in my head: "Only remember what is plainly and always true: the act of serving fulfills itself. It doesn't matter what you serve."
So my cooking resolution is to try not to be so rigid in what and to whom I serve. I'll embrace the idea of creating meals with what I have available, without running to the store for that one ingredient that will perfect a specific recipe. I'm pretty sure thinking this way will make me a more creative—and relaxed—cook.
Tamar Adler has cooked with Gabrielle Hamilton, Alice Waters, and several other famous American chefs, and she manages to combine thrift with a passion for cooking and eating, something I've never really experienced before, at least not in such a way that was so committed to both using every scrap of food and thoroughly enjoying it at the same time.
I get that. I absolutely LOVE turning a chicken carcass into stock, and picking off all the bits of meat to use for soup. I love reducing a fat, healthy bird to nothing but a tiny pile of bones, knowing that we have enjoyed several meals from it, and that the animal did not die in vain. I petition my dad constantly to save organs and soup bones from the animals he butchers. And I love transforming leftover rice into a pie crust for a quiche, or rice pudding for tomorrow's breakfast or dessert.
But I had never considered half of the ideas in Adler's book for stretching vegetables, beans, broth and meat into amazing and flavourful meals--like turning stems, leaves and cores of brassicas and dark leafy greens into pesto (although I did take great joy in making radish leaf pesto from my garden this year, so I wasn't that far off), or turning fresh pea shells into stock for pea soup. I will have this book on my recipe shelf from now on, and I'm pretty sure it will become studded with sticky notes, to mark my favourite ideas and recipes.
I have already made her recipe for White Bolognese (inspired by Amanda Hesser, but calling for homemade beef stock rather than beef bouillon mixed with water), which, it turns out, is the whole food version of my mom's classic "hamburger goop," otherwise known as ground beef fried with onions and celery and then bound together with a can of condensed cream of mushroom soup. Using real beef stock, Italian sausage, porcini mushrooms and fresh cream makes it WAY more delicious and even more comforting, which I hadn't thought possible.
Besides some creative approaches to food in general, Adler's approach to sharing food continues to work its way into my mind. She argues it doesn't matter what you serve, as long as you serve something. It's the coming together for the meal that gets your guests excited about a dinner party, more so than the menu itself. She encourages you to offer something—anything—the moment your guests arrived: radishes with butter and salt; celery and carrot sticks with crackers and butter; warmed olives, or stale bread toasted and drizzled with oil and herbs. It got me thinking more creatively about what I have in my pantry and refrigerator that people can eat. Suddenly, the options seem much broader than they did before I read the book.
She also suggests making dishes that allow the host to relax with her/his guests, a lesson which I have yet to learn, since my approach was to redesign my kitchen so that my guests could sit and have a drink while watching me cook. She encourages involving your guests in the preparation of the meal, again, something I need to practice. This quote is echoing around in my head: "Only remember what is plainly and always true: the act of serving fulfills itself. It doesn't matter what you serve."
So my cooking resolution is to try not to be so rigid in what and to whom I serve. I'll embrace the idea of creating meals with what I have available, without running to the store for that one ingredient that will perfect a specific recipe. I'm pretty sure thinking this way will make me a more creative—and relaxed—cook.
Monday, October 29, 2012
Healthy(ish) Halloween Treats
D's preschool is having a Halloween party, and parents are asked to bring something to contribute to the snack table. Last year, I brought Martha Stewart's Goblin Flatbreads. My kids liked them, but they weren't popular with the group, because no one knew what they were.
This year, I'm still going savoury, but hopefully a little more recognizable. I've opted for pumpkin-shaped cheese crackers, based on a recipe from King Arthur Whole Grain Baking Cookbook. It's their wholegrain version of homemade cheese nips, which I adapted using the flour I had (how I ended up with every kind of flour under the sun except the barley flour called for, I do not know. Well, actually, I do know—from making a few batches of the Graham cracker recipe from the same cookbook.)
These aren't the healthiest things ever—they do contain processed cheese powder, something which has not crossed my threshold, either in the form of a box of macaroni and cheese or otherwise, until today. But the cheese crackers are good enough that I will probably make them again. And I wouldn't turn up my nose at some of that cheese powder on my popcorn, either.
So here are my cute little pumpkins, which turned out to be quite soft due to the oat flour I used in place of the barley flour. But they have a nice flakiness to them, kind of like a tender, cheesy pie crust. I don't think the kids will complain. Next time, though, I will have the barley flour on hand to make them 'right'. They're easy enough to make, using a food processor, that I may consider replacing the ubiquitous Goldfish (or the organic version: Cheddar Bunnies) with the occasional batch of these.
After the fact, I wondered about a cracker recipe that used real cheese, which of course would have been easy to find if I'd just Googled it. Guilty Kitchen posted one last year. Maybe THAT's the one I should try, instead of the one that uses barley flour and cheese powder. Ah well, there are many more years of cheese crackers in my future, so I'm sure I can try both and get back to you on which one I prefer.
Cheese Crackers (adapted from King Arthur Flour)
1/3 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/3 c. whole barley flour (I used oat flour instead)
1/2 c. bread flour
1 T. dry milk
1 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
1/4 t. salt
1/8 t. paprika
1/2 c. Cheddar cheese powder
6 T. butter, chilled
1/4 c. buttermilk
1/4 t. salt mixed with 1 T. cheese powder for topping (I didn't use this. The crackers were salty enough already)
Mix together dry ingredients in the bowl of a food processor. Add butter and blend until the mixture is a fine meal. Add the buttermilk and mix until the dough comes together. Turn the dough onto a floured board and knead lightly for a minute or two, incorporating extra flour if the dough is sticky. Pat the dough into two flat rounds, wrap in plastic and chill for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 325 F (I used 300 F on convection).
Remove the dough from the fridge and roll it as thin as possible. Cut it into pumpkin shapes using a cutter, collecting scraps and rerolling as necessary. Make faces on your pumpkins using a knife.
Bake for 10-12 minutes, until the edges begin to brown. Enjoy!
Thursday, October 25, 2012
The Joys of Roasted Tomatoes
First and foremost I must apologize for my lengthy absence. September and most of October have been a mad rush of working out of town every week and juggling events and travel on almost every weekend. In September my husband turned 40 and I hosted the party (and was so busy I had to hire Caffe Sola to cater...although I did bake the cake(s)), we took a road trip to Calgary, I went on a girls' getaway to Portland, OR, we spent a weekend at Elk Ridge Resort in northern Saskatchewan while my husband was at a conference, and I also worked a weekend evening at the Premier wine festival. D started preschool three days a week, and I started playing volleyball on two teams in a Sunday league.
In October, it has been slightly more quiet, except for my dad's 60th birthday party, which my parents hosted and combined with their 40th wedding anniversary celebration. This involved 200 guests, and the roasting of a whole pig and 3 barons of beef. I was again in charge of the cake; I made a three-tier puffed wheat cake, with Rice Krispie 'frosting'. My dad doesn't like real cake, but he loves puffed wheat cake, and this is the third celebratory puffed wheat cake I've made. The other two were wedding cakes. Thanks to my girlfriend who forwarded this photo of her puffed wheat wedding cake after I mentioned I didn't have one.
I travelled slightly less often, but my days were filled with the frantic efforts to harvest the last of my garden. I got all the basil processed and gave the rest away, and froze and dried herbs late into the night in late September. And then the frosts came, and whatever didn't get done was beyond saving. The garden is (mostly) put to bed, and probably as much as it is going to be, considering there is now snow on the ground. I had intended to dig some Jerusalem artichokes, but haven't got to them yet. They may have to wait until spring.
All that I have left of the summer bounty are the bags of root vegetables harvested from our garden, my mom's garden, or purchased from the Farmer's market, as well as a big box of spaghetti squash. And then there are the tomatoes. My tomato plants didn't yield much this year, but I did get a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes. My neighbours have been keeping me in big beautiful Beefsteaks and Golden Boys, and my mom passed on a bag of Romas.
What does one make with so many tomatoes and so little time? My new favourite recipe is roasted tomatoes. All kinds, with the large ones cut into chunks, and the small ones tossed in whole, a handful of whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper, some fresh or dried herbs and a generous glug of olive oil. Roast them in a dish of some sort (they look prettiest in some sort of pottery or stoneware), and roast them at 325F for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. I froze the results, which can be used as is as an excellent pasta sauce, used as a base for anything requiring tomato sauce (my husband cooked quinoa in some of the sauce, and it was wonderful), or pureed and turned into soup.
It was also the easiest option for the days when the tomatoes needed attention and I had no time to give it. Simply chop, toss, throw in the oven, and ignore while doing other things. Perfect!
I was also committed to making roasted salsas, which are my absolute favourites. In fact, I don't make simmered salsas at all. There are a few steps to a roasted salsa, and it requires a few cookie sheets and a blender, as well as some wrestling with chiles (I always forget to put on gloves and suffer an evening or two of burning fingers as the chile oil permeates my skin), but the final results are so superior that I never begrudge the effort.
Here are two of my favourite recipes, both from Rick Bayless's Salsas that Cook:
Roasted Poblano-Tomato Salsa
Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with Roasted Tomatoes and Tomatillos
When a good friend of mine tasted the chipotle-cascabel salsa, he told me I should quit my job and just start cooking. I didn't think I should quit my job just because I could follow a recipe, but I do agree that this is about the best tasting (albeit quite spicy) salsa I have ever tasted. It is tangy, smoky, spicy and savoury all at once. It is also too hot for my kids to eat, or at least I thought so. D is up for the challenge, and if we warn him it's spicy, he keeps a glass of milk close by to cool the burn (I'm glad he's trying it. Gives me hope that one day, they'll like hot stuff as much as we do!). Even the roasted poblano salsa, while mild by almost anyone's standards, is a bit on the hot side for my kids.
Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't made them in a couple of years, besides the issue of renovating my kitchen last year, and having a brand new baby the year before that. But now, I'm back, and I am delighted to have three kinds of salsa in my freezer, ready for the winter.
While I was at the salsa making, I may have lost my mind a little bit because when the recipe called for tomato puree, I decided to make my own. It came out tasting quite a bit like ketchup, and the little bit that I had left over also went into the freezer.
While I'm a huge fan of the roasting technique, and will finish up this post with my new favourite pasta sauce recipe, I did make a bit of simmered tomato sauce, mostly because I had leeks, and my favourite basic sauce for freezing calls for them. I now have some regular red tomato sauce and a couple of containers of pure yellow tomato sauce ready for pulling out of the freezer whenever we need it over the winter. It is a fairly simple recipe, and I've been referencing it in The Occasional Vegetarian for over 10 years.
3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded (to peel, heat a pot of water to a boil. Drop whole tomatoes into the boiling water and leave for a minute or two. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, let cool til they can be handled, and slip off the skins. To seed, cut in half and gouge out the seed pockets. Or watch this tutorial to learn how. I don't always seed the tomatoes, because it feels wasteful. This year I did, though, because I had so many tomatoes. It does make a thicker sauce if you let them go. You could always dry them for seed!) or you can use 4 c. canned tomatoes, but I usually make a different recipe if I'm using canned.
2 T. olive oil
1 1/4 c. chopped leek (I have also used onion if I don't have leeks)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. pepper
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the leek and garlic. Saute gently for about three minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the desired consistency is reached. Use this as a pasta sauce, add whatever herbs you like, or use it in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. I freeze it in containers and add the necessary herbs to turn it into pasta sauce, pizza sauce, a soup ingredient, or whatever. I delight in not having to buy tomato sauce all winter.
But back to tonight's dinner, which was another experiment in roasting. And I have to say, I am IN LOVE. I only had time to do the standard roasted tomatoes, and I decided to just do that and pasta. I wondered, though, if I could add other ingredients to it, like anchovies and capers, and do a roasted Puttanesca sauce? It turns out I can, and the results were extremely satisfying.
The simmered version of the sauce is easy, too, and it is up to each individual whether they prefer the stovetop method or the oven roasted method. For me, I loved being able to stick it in the oven and walk away. I was also efficient with my oven use, since I baked a plum torte for dessert at the same time. The final result was a perfectly balanced umami sauce that blended beautifully with some rustic "Ferretto Calabro" artisan pasta. My kids asked for seconds and thirds of the meal, and we enjoyed it just as much. It's a keeper!
Roasted Puttanesca Sauce
2 lbs. mixed tomatoes (I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes left whole and large red and yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped)
1 head garlic, cloves broken up, unpeeled
4 salt packed anchovies, soaked, filleted and chopped
2-3 T. salt packed capers, rinsed
1/2 c. or a medium handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and torn in half
Generous pour of olive oil over all (about 1/2 c., or about a 1/2 inch deep in the roasting pan)
Several grinds of fresh pepper
In a roasting pan that will hold the ingredients to about 2 inches deep (a well-packed single layer), toss tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, capers and olives. Pour olive oil over, sprinkle with pepper and toss again. Place in a 325F oven for two hours, stirring when you remember.
Cook your favourite pasta to al dente. Drain and put pasta back in the cooking pot with the sauce. Toss with the sauce until the noodles soak up the sauce and it thickens slightly. Enjoy!
In October, it has been slightly more quiet, except for my dad's 60th birthday party, which my parents hosted and combined with their 40th wedding anniversary celebration. This involved 200 guests, and the roasting of a whole pig and 3 barons of beef. I was again in charge of the cake; I made a three-tier puffed wheat cake, with Rice Krispie 'frosting'. My dad doesn't like real cake, but he loves puffed wheat cake, and this is the third celebratory puffed wheat cake I've made. The other two were wedding cakes. Thanks to my girlfriend who forwarded this photo of her puffed wheat wedding cake after I mentioned I didn't have one.
I travelled slightly less often, but my days were filled with the frantic efforts to harvest the last of my garden. I got all the basil processed and gave the rest away, and froze and dried herbs late into the night in late September. And then the frosts came, and whatever didn't get done was beyond saving. The garden is (mostly) put to bed, and probably as much as it is going to be, considering there is now snow on the ground. I had intended to dig some Jerusalem artichokes, but haven't got to them yet. They may have to wait until spring.
All that I have left of the summer bounty are the bags of root vegetables harvested from our garden, my mom's garden, or purchased from the Farmer's market, as well as a big box of spaghetti squash. And then there are the tomatoes. My tomato plants didn't yield much this year, but I did get a bumper crop of cherry tomatoes. My neighbours have been keeping me in big beautiful Beefsteaks and Golden Boys, and my mom passed on a bag of Romas.
What does one make with so many tomatoes and so little time? My new favourite recipe is roasted tomatoes. All kinds, with the large ones cut into chunks, and the small ones tossed in whole, a handful of whole garlic cloves, salt and pepper, some fresh or dried herbs and a generous glug of olive oil. Roast them in a dish of some sort (they look prettiest in some sort of pottery or stoneware), and roast them at 325F for a couple of hours, stirring occasionally. I froze the results, which can be used as is as an excellent pasta sauce, used as a base for anything requiring tomato sauce (my husband cooked quinoa in some of the sauce, and it was wonderful), or pureed and turned into soup.
It was also the easiest option for the days when the tomatoes needed attention and I had no time to give it. Simply chop, toss, throw in the oven, and ignore while doing other things. Perfect!
I was also committed to making roasted salsas, which are my absolute favourites. In fact, I don't make simmered salsas at all. There are a few steps to a roasted salsa, and it requires a few cookie sheets and a blender, as well as some wrestling with chiles (I always forget to put on gloves and suffer an evening or two of burning fingers as the chile oil permeates my skin), but the final results are so superior that I never begrudge the effort.
Here are two of my favourite recipes, both from Rick Bayless's Salsas that Cook:
Roasted Poblano-Tomato Salsa
Chipotle-Cascabel Salsa with Roasted Tomatoes and Tomatillos
When a good friend of mine tasted the chipotle-cascabel salsa, he told me I should quit my job and just start cooking. I didn't think I should quit my job just because I could follow a recipe, but I do agree that this is about the best tasting (albeit quite spicy) salsa I have ever tasted. It is tangy, smoky, spicy and savoury all at once. It is also too hot for my kids to eat, or at least I thought so. D is up for the challenge, and if we warn him it's spicy, he keeps a glass of milk close by to cool the burn (I'm glad he's trying it. Gives me hope that one day, they'll like hot stuff as much as we do!). Even the roasted poblano salsa, while mild by almost anyone's standards, is a bit on the hot side for my kids.
Which is probably one of the reasons I haven't made them in a couple of years, besides the issue of renovating my kitchen last year, and having a brand new baby the year before that. But now, I'm back, and I am delighted to have three kinds of salsa in my freezer, ready for the winter.
While I was at the salsa making, I may have lost my mind a little bit because when the recipe called for tomato puree, I decided to make my own. It came out tasting quite a bit like ketchup, and the little bit that I had left over also went into the freezer.
While I'm a huge fan of the roasting technique, and will finish up this post with my new favourite pasta sauce recipe, I did make a bit of simmered tomato sauce, mostly because I had leeks, and my favourite basic sauce for freezing calls for them. I now have some regular red tomato sauce and a couple of containers of pure yellow tomato sauce ready for pulling out of the freezer whenever we need it over the winter. It is a fairly simple recipe, and I've been referencing it in The Occasional Vegetarian for over 10 years.
3 lbs. fresh tomatoes, peeled and seeded (to peel, heat a pot of water to a boil. Drop whole tomatoes into the boiling water and leave for a minute or two. Scoop out with a slotted spoon, let cool til they can be handled, and slip off the skins. To seed, cut in half and gouge out the seed pockets. Or watch this tutorial to learn how. I don't always seed the tomatoes, because it feels wasteful. This year I did, though, because I had so many tomatoes. It does make a thicker sauce if you let them go. You could always dry them for seed!) or you can use 4 c. canned tomatoes, but I usually make a different recipe if I'm using canned.
2 T. olive oil
1 1/4 c. chopped leek (I have also used onion if I don't have leeks)
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t. salt
1 t. sugar
1/2 t. pepper
Heat olive oil in a large frying pan and add the leek and garlic. Saute gently for about three minutes, until soft. Add the tomatoes, salt and sugar, and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 30 minutes, or until the desired consistency is reached. Use this as a pasta sauce, add whatever herbs you like, or use it in any recipe that calls for tomato sauce. I freeze it in containers and add the necessary herbs to turn it into pasta sauce, pizza sauce, a soup ingredient, or whatever. I delight in not having to buy tomato sauce all winter.
But back to tonight's dinner, which was another experiment in roasting. And I have to say, I am IN LOVE. I only had time to do the standard roasted tomatoes, and I decided to just do that and pasta. I wondered, though, if I could add other ingredients to it, like anchovies and capers, and do a roasted Puttanesca sauce? It turns out I can, and the results were extremely satisfying.
The simmered version of the sauce is easy, too, and it is up to each individual whether they prefer the stovetop method or the oven roasted method. For me, I loved being able to stick it in the oven and walk away. I was also efficient with my oven use, since I baked a plum torte for dessert at the same time. The final result was a perfectly balanced umami sauce that blended beautifully with some rustic "Ferretto Calabro" artisan pasta. My kids asked for seconds and thirds of the meal, and we enjoyed it just as much. It's a keeper!
Roasted Puttanesca Sauce
2 lbs. mixed tomatoes (I used red and yellow cherry tomatoes left whole and large red and yellow tomatoes, coarsely chopped)
1 head garlic, cloves broken up, unpeeled
4 salt packed anchovies, soaked, filleted and chopped
2-3 T. salt packed capers, rinsed
1/2 c. or a medium handful of Kalamata olives, pitted and torn in half
Generous pour of olive oil over all (about 1/2 c., or about a 1/2 inch deep in the roasting pan)
Several grinds of fresh pepper
In a roasting pan that will hold the ingredients to about 2 inches deep (a well-packed single layer), toss tomatoes, garlic, anchovies, capers and olives. Pour olive oil over, sprinkle with pepper and toss again. Place in a 325F oven for two hours, stirring when you remember.
Cook your favourite pasta to al dente. Drain and put pasta back in the cooking pot with the sauce. Toss with the sauce until the noodles soak up the sauce and it thickens slightly. Enjoy!
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Preserving for Busies
'Tis the season for preserving. Does that cause you anxiety? Many people equate preserving with pickles, jams and jellies, all requiring sterile environments, candy thermometers, and complex chemical interactions. That's part of preserving, and I don't shy away from making pickles and jams. The thought of doing them doesn't cause me anxiety, but it does make me do a quick calculation of my available time. If that time isn't substantial (because it does take at least an hour to prep the jars, fruit/vegetables, line up the equipment, check that I have all the ingredients, and so on), I'll opt for something easier.
This year, with a minimum of time and effort, and the help of my deep freeze, I have put away raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, sour cherries, green beans, radish leaf pesto, basil pesto, and pureed basil that can replace fresh basil in the dead of winter. I will also be freezing grated zucchini, tomatoes, either whole or as salsa, and many more herbs from my kitchen garden.
Most of these items were simply washed, frozen individually on cookie trays (so they aren't solid lumps, and we can remove as much or as little as we need) and dumped into freezer bags. I do all my berries like this, and have also frozen peaches and apples (tossed in lemon juice) this way. The zucchini is simply grated and packed into freezer containers, to be pulled out whenever I have a craving for morning glory muffins or chocolate zucchini cake. I have literally tossed tomatoes in a bag and stuck them in a freezer, when I simply don't have time to deal with them. They are ready and waiting to be turned into tomato sauce or replace canned tomatoes in any recipe, whenever you need them.
I make big batches of roasted tomato salsa, so instead of chopping and boiling everything together, I place whole vegetables under the broiler until they're blackened, and then puree them and pack them in freezer containers.
Our pesto, also frozen, lasts right till the next basil season, bringing a taste of summer and one of our favourite quick meal fixes and kid favourites: simple pasta with pesto. Throw in some veggies and leftover chicken for a delicious one dish meal.
I have more basil than I can make into pesto, so the remainder gets pureed with a pinch of salt and just enough olive oil to make it a paste. I fill ice cube trays with the blend, freeze it, and then toss it into any winter dish (soups and stews especially) that calls for fresh basil.
Other herbs, I just wash and freeze whole. They can be chopped and added to anything and are the next best thing to fresh. I'm also experimenting with herbes salees this year, a Quebec tradition. I already have a jar of them in my fridge, but haven't started using it yet, since my fresh herbs are still available.
In all of this preserving, I only heated up my blancher once, and that was for a surplus of green beans. They cooked in the hot water no more than two minutes before I pulled them out, cooled them in ice water, and froze them individually on trays, again, so they can be tossed in a large freezer bag and pulled out as needed.
I did make a couple of batches of crabapple jelly this year, as well as a batch of cucumber relish, because I was gifted with some overripe cucumbers. I love the snap of hot jars sealing in delicious garden goodness that can be enjoyed any time of year.
I've also got three kinds of fruit liqueur on the go: raspberry, crabapple and sour cherry. These are one of the easiest ways to preserve the summer flavours of fruit, as long as you tipple now and then. Simply mix 2 parts berries or cherries with 1 part brandy or vodka and 1 part sugar, mash together to dissolve the sugar, and let sit for three weeks. Strain and pour into sterilized bottles (this takes a bit of organization, both to have the bottles, and to have them washed and boiled in water for ten minutes to sterilize. I haven't yet gotten around to bottling my liqueurs, even though they have all been sitting longer than three weeks, but the good news is, the process is extremely forgiving, and no matter when I get to the bottling, the results will be delicious, and will last at least a year).
If I had more time, I would be doing more preserving, but I can barely keep up with regular meals and garden tasks in among raising kids and trying to make a living, let alone spending a couple of hours at a time devoted to washing, prepping, cooking, and canning various fruits and veggies. It's a sad reality. I have even had to give away some of my garden produce because I don't have time to blanch it or grate and freeze it. But paying it forward is always rewarding in the end, so if this is where I'm at right now, then at least nothing is going to waste and others get to enjoy it. So however I can make the fresh food last in the simplest manner possible—that's what I've been doing this year.
Hopefully you'll find a way to save a bit of this season's bounty for colder times of year. With a minimum of planning, your deep freeze will help you sock away fresh herbs, veggies, fruit for smoothies and pancakes (or just for plain eating—frozen blueberries are a favourite any time of year in my household). All you need is a box of freezer bags and some freezer containers to get you started.
This year, with a minimum of time and effort, and the help of my deep freeze, I have put away raspberries, strawberries, blueberries, sour cherries, green beans, radish leaf pesto, basil pesto, and pureed basil that can replace fresh basil in the dead of winter. I will also be freezing grated zucchini, tomatoes, either whole or as salsa, and many more herbs from my kitchen garden.
Most of these items were simply washed, frozen individually on cookie trays (so they aren't solid lumps, and we can remove as much or as little as we need) and dumped into freezer bags. I do all my berries like this, and have also frozen peaches and apples (tossed in lemon juice) this way. The zucchini is simply grated and packed into freezer containers, to be pulled out whenever I have a craving for morning glory muffins or chocolate zucchini cake. I have literally tossed tomatoes in a bag and stuck them in a freezer, when I simply don't have time to deal with them. They are ready and waiting to be turned into tomato sauce or replace canned tomatoes in any recipe, whenever you need them.
I make big batches of roasted tomato salsa, so instead of chopping and boiling everything together, I place whole vegetables under the broiler until they're blackened, and then puree them and pack them in freezer containers.
Our pesto, also frozen, lasts right till the next basil season, bringing a taste of summer and one of our favourite quick meal fixes and kid favourites: simple pasta with pesto. Throw in some veggies and leftover chicken for a delicious one dish meal.
I have more basil than I can make into pesto, so the remainder gets pureed with a pinch of salt and just enough olive oil to make it a paste. I fill ice cube trays with the blend, freeze it, and then toss it into any winter dish (soups and stews especially) that calls for fresh basil.
Other herbs, I just wash and freeze whole. They can be chopped and added to anything and are the next best thing to fresh. I'm also experimenting with herbes salees this year, a Quebec tradition. I already have a jar of them in my fridge, but haven't started using it yet, since my fresh herbs are still available.
In all of this preserving, I only heated up my blancher once, and that was for a surplus of green beans. They cooked in the hot water no more than two minutes before I pulled them out, cooled them in ice water, and froze them individually on trays, again, so they can be tossed in a large freezer bag and pulled out as needed.
I did make a couple of batches of crabapple jelly this year, as well as a batch of cucumber relish, because I was gifted with some overripe cucumbers. I love the snap of hot jars sealing in delicious garden goodness that can be enjoyed any time of year.
I've also got three kinds of fruit liqueur on the go: raspberry, crabapple and sour cherry. These are one of the easiest ways to preserve the summer flavours of fruit, as long as you tipple now and then. Simply mix 2 parts berries or cherries with 1 part brandy or vodka and 1 part sugar, mash together to dissolve the sugar, and let sit for three weeks. Strain and pour into sterilized bottles (this takes a bit of organization, both to have the bottles, and to have them washed and boiled in water for ten minutes to sterilize. I haven't yet gotten around to bottling my liqueurs, even though they have all been sitting longer than three weeks, but the good news is, the process is extremely forgiving, and no matter when I get to the bottling, the results will be delicious, and will last at least a year).
If I had more time, I would be doing more preserving, but I can barely keep up with regular meals and garden tasks in among raising kids and trying to make a living, let alone spending a couple of hours at a time devoted to washing, prepping, cooking, and canning various fruits and veggies. It's a sad reality. I have even had to give away some of my garden produce because I don't have time to blanch it or grate and freeze it. But paying it forward is always rewarding in the end, so if this is where I'm at right now, then at least nothing is going to waste and others get to enjoy it. So however I can make the fresh food last in the simplest manner possible—that's what I've been doing this year.
Hopefully you'll find a way to save a bit of this season's bounty for colder times of year. With a minimum of planning, your deep freeze will help you sock away fresh herbs, veggies, fruit for smoothies and pancakes (or just for plain eating—frozen blueberries are a favourite any time of year in my household). All you need is a box of freezer bags and some freezer containers to get you started.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
A Gift of Food
My brother and his wife were recently blessed with their first baby. I think I have mentioned before that in situations where people are in need, I feel the best thing I can do for them is bring food. So, here I go.
We're going to visit them tomorrow, and while they said it is okay for us to stay with them, I insisted that I would bring food and cook meals while we're there, so they're not trying to 'entertain' while also trying to deal with the challenges of a new baby. It's enough that they are willing to tolerate my rambunctious boys while coping with baby.
I spent today doing some make-ahead ingredients to take along, as well as making a second attempt at crabapple jelly. The first attempt turned out to be crabapple syrup. I'm happy to say the second try is setting up nicely. I also made a big pot of Indonesian sweet potato and cabbage soup from Moosewood's Simple Suppers. I have delivered this to other families during major life events and it has always garnered rave reviews. It's also super healthy, vegan, and easy to throw together.
Then came a brief interlude involving an appointment with our financial planners, dinner at Thien Vietnamese Restaurant (I believe I will sing the praises of Vietnamese cabbage salads very soon), and a brief shopping trip to try to find some clothes that a)fit; b)do not have stains or holes; c)are appropriate for work in an office, since I will be starting a new contract on Monday. My hubbie and kids went to River Landing to play while I shopped. I met up with them only to discover G with a bloody nose and D with a big bruise on his knee from slipping on the wet concrete. I actually worked on the water play area when it was being designed, and it's hard not to feel responsible for slick concrete...even though all I was truly responsible for was the research and writing...
But I digress. I came home, put kids to bed, and promptly started making the ingredients for other meals:
• pizza dough, enough to make grilled pizza tomorrow night, and leave some in the freezer for them to use as needed
• pancake mix (I mixed together all the dry ingredients for my famous buckwheat pancakes, and will also bring along homemade elk breakfast sausage, enough that we can leave some behind for them to cook later). We'll be serving it all topped with crabapple syrup!
• black olive tapenade to fill a Pan Bagnat, a filled sandwich that traditionally includes tuna, black olives, and vegetables. I'm going to see what everyone is in the mood for, what is in the garden, and what I can find at the farmers' market, and go from there. Definitely goat cheese and tapenade, for starters...
Hopefully we'll all eat well while we're there, it will be one less thing for my brother and sister-in-law to worry about, and we can leave them with the makings of some great future meals...
We're going to visit them tomorrow, and while they said it is okay for us to stay with them, I insisted that I would bring food and cook meals while we're there, so they're not trying to 'entertain' while also trying to deal with the challenges of a new baby. It's enough that they are willing to tolerate my rambunctious boys while coping with baby.
I spent today doing some make-ahead ingredients to take along, as well as making a second attempt at crabapple jelly. The first attempt turned out to be crabapple syrup. I'm happy to say the second try is setting up nicely. I also made a big pot of Indonesian sweet potato and cabbage soup from Moosewood's Simple Suppers. I have delivered this to other families during major life events and it has always garnered rave reviews. It's also super healthy, vegan, and easy to throw together.
Then came a brief interlude involving an appointment with our financial planners, dinner at Thien Vietnamese Restaurant (I believe I will sing the praises of Vietnamese cabbage salads very soon), and a brief shopping trip to try to find some clothes that a)fit; b)do not have stains or holes; c)are appropriate for work in an office, since I will be starting a new contract on Monday. My hubbie and kids went to River Landing to play while I shopped. I met up with them only to discover G with a bloody nose and D with a big bruise on his knee from slipping on the wet concrete. I actually worked on the water play area when it was being designed, and it's hard not to feel responsible for slick concrete...even though all I was truly responsible for was the research and writing...
But I digress. I came home, put kids to bed, and promptly started making the ingredients for other meals:
• pizza dough, enough to make grilled pizza tomorrow night, and leave some in the freezer for them to use as needed
• pancake mix (I mixed together all the dry ingredients for my famous buckwheat pancakes, and will also bring along homemade elk breakfast sausage, enough that we can leave some behind for them to cook later). We'll be serving it all topped with crabapple syrup!
• black olive tapenade to fill a Pan Bagnat, a filled sandwich that traditionally includes tuna, black olives, and vegetables. I'm going to see what everyone is in the mood for, what is in the garden, and what I can find at the farmers' market, and go from there. Definitely goat cheese and tapenade, for starters...
Hopefully we'll all eat well while we're there, it will be one less thing for my brother and sister-in-law to worry about, and we can leave them with the makings of some great future meals...
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Kids' Birthday Party—No Hot Dogs or Hamburgers
We've been eating a lot of hotdogs and hamburgers this summer. It goes with summer, right? I enjoy it, in small doses, but the doses have been getting a little heavy handed this year.
Enter planning for my kids' birthday party (they were born six days apart, two years apart, so this year I decided to host one party for both of them while they're still at an age where they don't care). I didn't want to do the obvious and serve hot dogs or hamburgers. In fact, I didn't even feel the need to fire up the grill. We would eat outside, but I'd opt for fun finger foods that would fit the realities and informality of a toddlers' birthday. No one can get the kids to sit down and eat, so why not just set out stuff they can grab when they're so inclined?
So the menu went something like this:
Fruit plates (watermelon, peaches and grapes)
Vegetables and fresh herb dip (I will soon write some more about my love affair with herbs)
Tortilla cheese rolls (mix 1/2 c. each sour cream, shredded cheddar and cream cheese, add your choice of flavours (I used red bell pepper, an green olive and caper mix and black olives), mix well and spread onto tortillas. Roll up the tortillas, refrigerate overnight, then slice into 1" slices and serve)
Edamame
Parmesan puffs with marinara for dipping (these were supposed to be like little gougeres, but they didn't puff properly. I won't pass on the recipe until I figure out what went wrong...but they still tasted good)
Devilled eggs with radish leaf pesto
Perogies
Sweet and sour meatballs in a apricot/hoisin glaze (just make your favourite meatball recipe, bake off the meatballs, and stir together 1/2 c. apricot preserves and 1/4 c. each hoisin sauce and rice vinegar. Throw in some sweet red pepper and the meatballs, stir, heat and serve.)
And the piece de resistance: an Iron Man Cake and Incredible Hulk Cupcakes, frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, a la Martha Stewart (my hubbie, upon eating his third piece of cake, announced, "I never have to eat any other kind of icing again, ever." Buttercream is the way to go.
I tried to go the natural food colouring route, but gave up on the red and blue. They just didn't do what I needed them to do. Even the Nutty Club stuff will only turn icing pink, rather than red. D laughed when he saw the cake, "Iron Man is pink!" I explained that it's hard to get a true red using the food colouring I have, and he added, "It's okay, Mom. The yellow is perfect."
I may have to give in and go for some of the gel paste food colouring next year. I figure, heck, my kids eat healthy 99% of the time. Is it really so terrible if we ingest food colouring once a year if it means the cake looks AWESOME?
We spent Sunday recovering from the party, and sorting through toys to make room for the new ones. Next cooking project: bringing food gifts to my brother and sister-in-law and their new baby.
Enter planning for my kids' birthday party (they were born six days apart, two years apart, so this year I decided to host one party for both of them while they're still at an age where they don't care). I didn't want to do the obvious and serve hot dogs or hamburgers. In fact, I didn't even feel the need to fire up the grill. We would eat outside, but I'd opt for fun finger foods that would fit the realities and informality of a toddlers' birthday. No one can get the kids to sit down and eat, so why not just set out stuff they can grab when they're so inclined?
So the menu went something like this:
Fruit plates (watermelon, peaches and grapes)
Vegetables and fresh herb dip (I will soon write some more about my love affair with herbs)
Tortilla cheese rolls (mix 1/2 c. each sour cream, shredded cheddar and cream cheese, add your choice of flavours (I used red bell pepper, an green olive and caper mix and black olives), mix well and spread onto tortillas. Roll up the tortillas, refrigerate overnight, then slice into 1" slices and serve)
Edamame
Parmesan puffs with marinara for dipping (these were supposed to be like little gougeres, but they didn't puff properly. I won't pass on the recipe until I figure out what went wrong...but they still tasted good)
Devilled eggs with radish leaf pesto
Perogies
Sweet and sour meatballs in a apricot/hoisin glaze (just make your favourite meatball recipe, bake off the meatballs, and stir together 1/2 c. apricot preserves and 1/4 c. each hoisin sauce and rice vinegar. Throw in some sweet red pepper and the meatballs, stir, heat and serve.)
And the piece de resistance: an Iron Man Cake and Incredible Hulk Cupcakes, frosted with Swiss meringue buttercream frosting, a la Martha Stewart (my hubbie, upon eating his third piece of cake, announced, "I never have to eat any other kind of icing again, ever." Buttercream is the way to go.
I tried to go the natural food colouring route, but gave up on the red and blue. They just didn't do what I needed them to do. Even the Nutty Club stuff will only turn icing pink, rather than red. D laughed when he saw the cake, "Iron Man is pink!" I explained that it's hard to get a true red using the food colouring I have, and he added, "It's okay, Mom. The yellow is perfect."
I may have to give in and go for some of the gel paste food colouring next year. I figure, heck, my kids eat healthy 99% of the time. Is it really so terrible if we ingest food colouring once a year if it means the cake looks AWESOME?
We spent Sunday recovering from the party, and sorting through toys to make room for the new ones. Next cooking project: bringing food gifts to my brother and sister-in-law and their new baby.
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