Cinco de Mayo — Celebrate with Ceviche

My friend Angela (Titanic dinner party) sent me this link. Her boys (the lovely stewards of the same party) said it reminded them of a play dough toy they once had. It is pretty gross so be warned if you’re squeamish! I’m not sure what disturbs me more, the video or the comments!

Yesterday was Cinco de Mayo a wonderful holiday sadly not celebrated to any degree in Canada, in fact, it’s only been a few years that I have even heard of it, believe it or not. Being one who loves to celebrate, I thought, why not this lovely holiday? And it could and should be celebrated with celebration food, of course. Still watching my carbs, sugars, fats and such, I had to come up with a recipe that would work in this regime I am following.

Celebrate with Ceviche

Serves 1 (or multiply by the number of people you wish to serve)

A little Ceviche never hurt anyone!

Ingredients:

• 100 g Shrimp, deveined, cleaned, tails removed
• 1 tbsp mint, chiffonad finely
• 1 tbsp green onion, finely chopped
• 2-3 tbsp cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/3 cup celery, cubed
• 1/4 cup apple, cubed
• 1/4 cup cucumber, cubed
• 1/4-1/2 cup lime juice
• 1/4 cup Piri Piri Sauce (see recipe below)
• 1 tbsp red pepper coulis (or you can use honey or agave, but I am limiting my sugars)
• 1 tbsp toasted shredded coconut (unsweetened, desiccated), plus a pinch for garnish
• Arugula greens

Directions:

1. About 3-4 hours before serving, chop the shrimp up into relatively even bits (this is so that they ‘cook’ in the citric acid evenly).
2. Combine the mint, green onion, cilantro and celery together and mix well. Add about 2 tbsp of this mixture to the shrimp. Toss.
3. Combine the lime juice and Piri Piri Sauce and red pepper coulis and mix well. Pour over the shrimp mixture and coat evenly. Refrigerate for 3-4 hours or until shrimp is opaque. You may wish to stir this from time to time.
4. When the shrimp is totally cooked, add the remaining mint, green onion, cilantro and celery combo. Toss in the apple, toasted coconut and stir well.
5. Garnish with the pinch of toasted coconut and extra hot sauce. Enjoy!

Tangy, sweet, crunchy, soft; it’s everything I dreamed of.

Piri Piri Sauce

(Inspired by Kristy at Eat, Play Love Our Family Food Adventure)

• 1-2 Serrano chiles
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1/3 cup low sodium vegetable stock (I used vegetable stock as it is slightly sweeter than chicken stock, because I replaced the wine vinegar with white vinegar)
• hand full of roughly chopped parsley
• hand full of roughly chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven on high broil. Cut the chile peppers in half (don’t bother removing the seeds and stems, they come off easily after roasting). Place the chiles on a lightly sprayed (with fat free cooking spray) baking sheet and roast until blackened, Kristy says about 10 minutes (I didn’t time it).
2. Trim the stems and remove the seeds (the seeds are the really hot bits)
3. In your immersion blender container, combine the chiles, garlic, paprika, lemon juice, vinegar, vegetable stock, parsley and cilantro and purée the ingredients until smooth.
4. Store in the refrigerator, you won’t regret making an extra large batch!

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White Bean Hummus

The birds get up really early in these parts, even before the sun rises around 4:15am! Has no one told them about daylight savings???? The robins are the noisiest, but I don’t mind; it’s just so nice to have the windows open.

When I made the chick pea béchamel, I got to thinking about thickeners, and I thought if chick peas thickened the cheese sauce so well, would there be another bean that would work better? Navy beans came to mind, plus I could control the sodium (yes, I used canned chick peas! Shame on me!). I made the White Bean Paste and kept it in the fridge all week, using it in this and that (recipe for Quinoa Risotto turned out extremely well) but I had a bit left over and on Saturday I needed an appi for cocktails, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

While torturing myself on the elliptical at the club I watch TV (actually, I listen to my tunes and have the closed captioning on) and most days I can catch Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. While most of his recipes inspire me, I virtually never make them verbatim; on top of that I’m told that there is a secret club who swear one is unable to make any of the recipes in 30 minutes! The other day he was making a Mediterranean dinner with all sorts of things, but what struck me was his presentation of a store bought Baba ghanoush. I’d never seen it presented as such before and I loved it. It was casual and approachable. He simply spread it on a plate and drizzled EVOO on it. Well, I knew I just had to use this technique and soon!

Fast forward to Saturday, we had spent the day downtown doing errands, and were at Yonge/Dundas Square (our Times Square) at 3pm to watch a flash mob promoting What to do Toronto (a relatively new web site highlighting current events in Toronto. The video isn’t up yet, but there are a couple of photos in the link; I’ll post the video when it’s up). The flash mob wasn’t an actual mob…not enough people to count as one, but they did dance in a lively choreographed manner which was entertaining. Sadly, it took place across the street from the Square, which meant JT and I missed the first half, by the time we noticed it was all the way over the other side of the busy street. It was close to 5 when we got home; we were cranky, tired and thirsty (did I mention that cocktails are held at 4pm in our household, drop by anytime, we always have lots!) It was also No Car Saturday, so we ran around using our Metro (I wore my hot pink patent leather stiletto BCBGs, I told you I wear inappropriate footwear, why are you surprised?). I needed an appi for cocktails, pronto. Back to the navy bean paste sitting in the fridge…hmmmm, so I put my Jamie inspiration together with a quick recipe and we were enjoying our cocktails with a lovely appetizer in no time. Cheers!

Not sure why the photo is so hot.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup navy bean paste
• 1 tsp tahini (or peanut butter)
• 2-4 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 small clove garlic finely minced (I use my handy microplane)
• 2-4 tbsp Chipotle Olive Oil
• 1 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Put everything into a small bowl except the olive oil and mix. Since the bean paste is already processed into a smooth paste, you need not mess up your processor for this recipe, just mix well.
2. Spread on a pretty plate and drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the chopped fresh cilantro. Serve with crackers such as these: Gluten Free Almond Sesame Crackers or my Whole Wheat Flat Breads

Flashback to those hideous readers' digest recipe photos, mine is just missing the inappropriately placed gaudy shower curtain.

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Left Overs – a clever addition to the Carrot and Courgette Moroccan Salads

Happy Saturday, dear readers! This is a full weekend of chores…some more fun than others, but you shall have to wait for tomorrow to find out. Plus, tomorrow I am going to introduce you to a dear friend who has just started blogging, we’re going to make one of her first blog-recipes tomorrow! I am very excited about it.

Today is my blogging friend, Charles of Five Euro Food, birthday, so I’d like to take this moment and wish him a very happy birthday. Charles has been a loyal commenter since I have discovered the pleasure of reciprocal commenting (OK, it only took me 4+ years!). You have certainly enriched my blogging experience beyond my expectations. Happy Birthday Charles, and many many more!

If you have made any of the Moroccan Salad recipes, you will by now understand the mass quantity of salad you are left with. We have been eating Morrocan salads all week; dallop on this, mixed into that, etc, etc, etc. You can well imagine that we are now a little tired of the same thing !

This week we decided to reinvent our Quinoa Tabouleh recipe; we used RED and regular Quinoa which added colour to an already beautiful salad. And we added the left overs of the Carrot and Courgette (zucchini) Moroccan Salads. We grilled our shrimp and then I made a very simple green sauce with lemon juice, parsley, cilantro and garlic (a tip of the hat to Chimichurri Sauce). It was DELICIOUS. I loved the added flavours that the Moroccan carrot and zucchini brought in and I loved the colour of the red quinoa. If you haven’t already tried tabouleh, you MUST. And making it with quinoa just adds the extra healthiness that we need (and it’s gluten free!).

Reinventing Quinoa Tabouleh

Some other Quinoa recipes I’m sure you will love (sorry if I missed your recipe, some of you didn’t have ‘search’ built into your home page!):

• Quinoa Stuffed Squash from Cooking Healthy for me
• Taste Food has a Tabouleh recipe to check out
• Greg from Rufus’ Food and Spirits Guide has a traditional Tabouleh recipe to check out
• My friend Divya at Flavour Fiesta has a great Quinoa with Mushrooms and Broccoli recipe

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JTs Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

Jt cooks dinner most week-nights because he works from home and has a bit more time than I do. I know I am very fortunate to have this, but I miss it particularly since The Big Reno 4+ years ago! He’s a great cook, and I keep telling him to start a “guy’s cooking class” — I mean his food is really good! JT whipped up this recipe last night. It was amazing. The flavours so fresh and creamy…I’m having left-overs as I type this — oh sorry, I dazed out for a second!

The original recipe is from Food Network US’s Tyler Florence, and is very good in its own right, but we made it a bit healthier, of course! I love this dish with either left over BBQ’d Chicken or Salmon. Both are extremely delicious! The photo is a little blurry, I took it with my lowly iPhone 3Gs, but you can see all the flavours (I tried to sharpen it up in Photoshop, it’s a wee bit better). This dish is very good either hot or cold.

JTs Mediterranean Chicken Pasta

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• Non-stick cooking spray
• 1/2 cup sun-dried tomatoes, julienne
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 1/4 cup Carnation Fat Free Evaporated Milk
• 1 cup artichoke hearts in water, drained and quartered
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted and sliced into halves
• 6 ounces goats milk feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• Salt and pepper, to taste
• Pasta (we like fussili with this dish) enough for 4 (we like to use Catelli Smart, which is high fibre but NOT whole wheat pasta)
• 400 g left over BBQ’d chicken or Salmon, cut into small chunks

Directions:

1. Boil water for pasta in a pasta pot, fitted with a strainer. Spray your skillet with non-stick spray. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic to skillet and sauté for 2 minutes.
2. In the meantime, add the fresh pasta to boiling water, cook until al dente, about 5 minutes.
3. Now add the artichoke hearts, and olives to the skillet. Saute 1 minute then stir in the Carnation Fat Free Evaporated Milk. When this has heated through, add the chicken or the salmon.
4. Strain the pasta and transfer to a large pasta bowl. Add the chicken mixture to the pasta and toss. Season with oregano, fresh basil, salt and pepper, and then add the crumbled feta just before serving. We like the feta just a little melty, not too melted.

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No Kneed Pizza and Asian Slaw

Last Friday JT made a batch of no kneed pizza dough which we didn’t use (changed our minds for dinner), so to slow the yeast process, I suggested we cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator until we are good and ready to use. Well, that was last night, and JT made an incredible pizza. The base was his onion confit (sigh, that used to be my onion confit!), then there was a generous amount of crumbled goats cheese, slivered Hungarian Salami (PC already sliced has fantastic flavour), some fresh mushrooms and topped off after it was finished baking, some tasty arugula and spinach. Wow, it was incredible. The crust was crunchy, the flavours exploded in your mouth – the onion confit, the Hungarian Salami, the earthy mushrooms, the tangy goats cheese…YUM, YUM and YUM!
We had some red cabbage and some other fresh veg, so I made an ad hoc Lee Slaw to use stuff up. Very tasty!

Photos taken with the iPhone!

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Freezer Scraps – Philly Steak Benny

It’s Sunday and we’re in for our meals today, since yesterday we had breakfast at our local greasy spoon Sunset Grill (we shared the French Connection which consists of two poached eggs, 2 breakfast sausages, 2 slices bacon and two slices of thick cut French Toast – and JT orders an extra side of rye toast) and a fine dinner at Le Select (we shared an antipasto plate, I had the bison steak tartar and JT had a flat iron steak, all wonderful!. They have an $18 corkage fee, so bringing your own bottle saves a bit!).

I had remembered that I had frozen a small baggy of leftover braised beef and onions so I defrosted them, and warmed them up. JT made whole wheat English muffins and I poached a couple of eggs, made a Cheddar Bechamel Sauce and tossed together an Arugula and Tomato Salad (drizzled with Blueberry Baco Balsamic from Treadwells and a peppery Greek Olive Oil). It was delicious!

I took a very casual shot with my iPhone after JT finished one of his Bennys. The caramelized onions and the smooth cheddar sauce really pulled it together. You can do this with left over pulled pork too (the BBQ sauce and cheese would be an amazing combo!).

Philly Steak Benny

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