Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho with Watermelon Cucumber Salsa

When I wrote this post in early June, it was supposed to be summer in Toronto but the temperatures had not been warm to say the least and we’ve had to turn the heat on or have had a fire in our wood burning fireplace a few more times than I would have liked in June, but being a Canadian just means we buckle down and bear it; I refused to stop wearing my open toe shoes and sandals and I’m cooking like it’s summer. But now, the high humidity has rolled in and lots of rain and thunder, so this is a perfect little refresher particularly when it’s dark and drizzly outside.

We had my best friend from University Kim and her hubby here for a brunch the other week and I wanted to make a chilled soup with lots of colour so I did what I normally do, I Googled it. Up came the New York Times 12 cold soups and I was immediately smitten! I loved the layout of this spread, the colours and the variety if soups. I settled on the Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho because the combination of ingredients really called out to me — so fresh and clean and the colour is gorgeous. Do check out the link because you too will be impressed; I know I will be inspired to make a few of these beauties over the summer months. I would suggest you make extra and freeze it, it makes a gorgeous little amuse bouche for your next dinner party, served in little shot glasses.

The original recipe can be found here, but of course I had to change it up a wee bit. Thanks to Kelly at Inspired Edibles for putting me onto Pineapple Sage, I found it at my garden centre and immediately bought a plant for my patio and I was inspired to add a few leaves to this delicious soup.

This soup is AWESOME!

Chilled Watermelon Gazpacho

Makes 500 mL give or take (100 mL each of four servings with 100 mL to freeze for another dinner party)

Soup Ingredients:

• 700 g seedless watermelon, cubed
• 200 g seedless cucumber, peeled and cubed
• 150 mL (1/2 cup) seedless, skinless tomato purée
• few leaves of lemon mint
• 1 large mint leaf
• 2 large pineapple sage leaves
• 1/3 up lime cordial (or just use lime juice if your watermelon is super sweet, ours was not)
• splash of lime juice

Salsa Ingredients:

• 150 g finely cubed seedless watermelon
• 60 g finely cubed seedless cucumber
• 50 g finely cubed celery
• 4-6 tbsp crumbled sheeps milk feta
• 1 mint leaf, fine julienne
• 2 pineapple sage leaves, fine julienne

Directions:

1. Put all the soup ingredients into a large bowl and purée with your immersion blender until you get a smooth thick soup. Strain through a fine sieve.
2. Refrigerate overnight so flavours can build.
3. Combine the finely cubed salsa ingredients and toss with the herbs of herbs.
4. Serve in chilled rimed soup bowls, garnish with a spoonful or two of the salsa.

The bright colour of the soup tells the story of the flavour

A refreshing combination of flavours

We had one gorgeous day and then it turned cold and rainy again.

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Restaurant Review: La Tasca, Washington DC

I mentioned that when we travel we never pre-determine lunch, but we find free wifi and Yelp a place close by. Sometimes we’re just lucky enough to just come across a little gem serendipitously and that’s exactly what happened with La Tasca. La Tasca is a Spanish tapas establishment directly across from Chinatown in DC. We were hungry, hot and very tired and were cautiously excited about our little find (keeping expectations low means less disappointment!). Plus they had free WIFI which meant I could upload more pics to Facebook for my family and friends back home; JT has his head buried in a map app or a sports app to keep up with the latest scores :)!
La Tasca has a couple of locations in around DC, but It doesn’t scream chain. The service was great, and the food, well…it was dang good, we dug in before I remembered to take a photo, yep, that good. The quality and presentation brought us back immediately to our trip to Barcelona, Spain last fall (only it was way hotter in DC). Talk about a lovely memory!

The décor is kind of kitschy Spainish but we sat at the front looking onto the street so it wasn’t that offensive. I suspect this place would be great for larger groups.
Tapas means small, sharing portions which is perfect for JT and I. For lunch they have three sized specials: 2 for $13, 3 for $19 or unlimited for $24, we chose 2 & 3, and it was perfect.

Our meal:

Tortilla Torera: this is Spain’s traditional potato and onion omelet and here it’s served cold. It was lovely, as good if not better than some we enjoyed in Spain.

Brocheta de Gambas y Vieiras: these were Skewers of shrimp and bacon-wrapped scallops drizzled with a wonderful lemon emulsion, served sizzling hot with just enough garlic to get your mouth watering.

Garbanzos con Espinacas: this was an incredibly delicious Andalusian-style chickpea and spinach stew, i just wish we had bread to sop it up with (yes, I wrote that).

Empanadas de Carne, not the traditional empanada that i’m accustomed to, these were two good-sized stuffed pastry shells filled with ground beef and cheese. I’m not used to cheese in my empanadas but OMG was this good! It was also deep fried which I generally don’t prefer but it was soooo worth it. I almost wish we had ordered two more!

Our last dish was another cold tapas Tabla de Jamón y Queso, this was a very simple plate with Serrano ham and Manchego cheese served on artisanal bread brushed with the traditional Catalana tomato spread. This was the weakest of the dishes, but only because the others were so AMAZING!

The presentation was beautiful on all the dishes and I’m really sorry I didn’t take photos of all the plates. My only complaint was that they brought everything at once and the table wasn’t quite large enough for all the plates.

And that concludes our visit to DC, thanks again to Jed and Liz for their generous hospitality and advise.

Overall rating of La Tasca, DC (in my opinion): Decor 1.5/5, service 3/5, food 4/5, Value 3.5/5, Noise: 4.5/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

La Tasca

722 7th Street NW

Washington, DC 20001

202–347-9190

dc@latascausa.com

 

Hours of Operation

Sunday-Thursday 11–10

Friday-Saturday 11–11

Bar Open Late Weekends

 

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Restaurant Review: Café du Parc, Washington DC

When we travel we never like to book lunches because we never really know where we are going to be when hunger strikes; so we leave it to the last minute and find a Starbucks sit with an espresso and peruse Yelp for some recommendations in relation to our location! I love that Starbucks has free WIFI! Yelp is an excellent review site where I find most of the reviewers are more foodie than not and their restaurant reviews are excellent! Sometimes we use open table, but it’s only good for establishments who subscribe so it often doesn’t work out.

We landed on Café du Parc in Washington’s elite Intercontinental Willard Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue. The restaurant describes itself as a traditional French bistro where the food ‘fuses witha modern atmosphere to provide a truly authentic bistro experience” (from Café du Parc’s website) — well, I’m not sure about food fusing with atmosphere, but the experience was pleasant enough. Have I ever mentioned this thing that I find SO INCREDIBLY annoying? It’s when the wait-staff remove plates before everyone is finished at the table. JT eats faster than I do and I am often left eating on my own with the table cleared. Not this time but I had to tell them to leave the plates alone until I am done! What school of etiquette did these people go to? They’ll loose points on service for that one.

The décor is blues, creams and yellows and the dining room was light and airy; it made me happy to be there! They also had a very lovely patio but the heat was overwhelming so we chose to eat inside; bad choice since all the windows and doors were wide open and the A/C didn’t seem to be on, but we soon acclimated and all was well.

With the exception of the faux pas of the attempt to remove JTs dishes before I was finished, the service was efficient, friendly and quick — we were in and out in less than an hour, but we had places to go and people to see, so we were fine with that.

Cafe du Parc’s Salade Niçoise

I ordered the Salad Nisçoise which was rare tuna served on a bed of mesclun salad, with pitted black olives (I prefer the pits in, the pitted always makes me think they are canned), green beans, tomatoes, a hard boiled egg, cucumber speers, julienned celery, delightful pickled white anchovies (a very nice change) with a very light balsamic vinaigrette which was not over dressed. The salad was fresh, flavourful and quite filling, but for the $21 for lunch, I would have expected a bit more tuna on the plate.

JT ordered the Croque Monsieur which was a very generous sandwich of French ham & Gruyère cheese sandwich, served with a mixed green salad and hand cut fries ($18) considering how expensive the ingredients in this dish are, I felt the $18 price tag was a reasonable amount.

And that concludes our visit to DC, thanks again to Jed and Liz for their generous hospitality and advise.

Croque Monsieur

Overall rating of Café du Parc, DC (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 2.5/5, food 4/5, Value 3/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Cafe du Parc

1401 Pennsylvania Avenue NW

Washington, DC 20004

(202) 942 7000

Monday – Friday

Breakfast : 6:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m. (a la carte ends at 9:45; 9:45-10:30 buffet only)

Lunch : 11:30 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Cocktails and Light Fare : 2:30pm – 5:00 p.m.

Dinner : 5:30 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Saturday – Sunday

Breakfast : 7:00 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. (a la carte ends at 10:30; 10:30-11:00 buffet only)

Lunch : 12:00 p.m. – 2:30 p.m.

Cocktails and Light Fare : 3:00 p.m. – 5:30 p.m.

Dinner : 6:00 p.m. – 10:00 p.m.

Terrace (weather permitting)

Breakfast is served at our courtyard only.

Service starts at 11:30 Mon – Fri and 12:00 noon Sat-Sun until 10:00 p.m.; weather permitting.

 

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Restaurant Review: Bistro Bis, Washington DC

Tomorrow is JT’s birthday, please join me in wishing him a Happy Birthday!

Our second night in DC we chose Bistro Bis, a contemporary French bistro, located in one of DC’s other Kimpton hotels called the Hotel George. The tour bus mentioned that this hotel is famous amongst celebrities visiting DC (the likes of Justin Bieber: gag). It’s high ceilings and lack of soft surfaces makes this establishment a little noisier than I like, but we were able to get a lovely table that was tucked away in a corner allowing me to talk without yelling at the top of my lungs. Our Russian waitress was lovely and attentive and even though her section was rather full, we never felt ignored.

The first dish we ordered was the Escargot Forestière, burgundy snails on toasted brioche with garlic confit, beech mushrooms, artichokes and bordelaise ($13) did not get off to a good start; the escargot were incredibly sandy and it turned us off immediately. There is nothing grosser than improperly cleansed escargot — they slither around in the garden eating anything and everything in their path, they MUST be thoroughly cleansed. We sent it back to the kitchen and they immediately rectified the situation by offering to replace the order with any thing we wanted, so we order the Oysters Gratin Florentine. The dish was an oyster ragout with smoked ham, spinach, fennel, tarragon glaçage and grilled baguette ($12.50) and it was lovely. The portion size was enough to share, I couldn’t imagine eating this rich dish on my own.

A deliciously rich sauce

My main course was the Steak Tartare, of course! Steak Tartare Atilla is a traditionally flavoured tartare with finely chopped raw sirloin with capers, onions, cornichons, spicy aïoli and garlic potato chips ($13) — for the price it was a very generous portion and they sold it as an appetizer size. The little salad was delicious with the tartare and I could have used a bit more of it.

Night lighting is not great for restaurant photos.

JT ordered the Côte de Porc Roti which was pan roasted berkshire pork chop with barley risotto, spring vegetables and morello cherry gastrique ($27) and even though it was expensive, it was an extremely generous size of meat. It was perfectly cooked and very tender, and the cherry gastrique was an innovated and delicious pairing. I believe JT would order this dish again.

A very generous portion of meat.

We generally don’t order dessert, but we felt like lingering as the meal finished a little faster than we had hoped so we ordered cappuccino’s and I must say, they were the hottest cap’s I’ve ever had. As part of the apology for the sandy escargot, the chef sent out a lovely tasting plate of dessert, very tiny portions, but enough to finish the meal.

After we had finished our meal the manager came over to apologize and we chatted with him for a while. They really redeemed themselves by the service so I would recommend this place, but sadly not the escargot.

Overall rating of Bistro Bis, DC (in my opinion): Decor 3/5, service 4/5, food 4/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 2/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Bistro Bis, Washington, DC

15 E Street NW
Washington DC 20001

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Restaurant Review: Proof, Washington DC

Our first dinner in DC was at Proof, one of the recommendations Jed and Liz (of the infamous Sports-glutton blog) made and it truly DID NOT DISAPPOINT! Proof is a moderately price American restaurant with an eclectic menu (their words). It’s contemporary design with rustic elements (brick walls, wooden tables and antique dressers) make for a very warm and inviting eating establishment — the bathrooms are wild! We chose to eat inside because of the high temperatures outside, but their patios looked amazing! I also wanted to mention that the dinner had a lovely pace to it, not too fast and not too slow, all in all it was almost two hours for the three courses which was perfect.

Both our server and somelier were friendly and attentive enough without being over-bearing — we never once had to fill our own wine glass. We decided to share the starters and chose the Bresaola, which was from Uruguay, cured, juniper scented beef tenderloin ($8US), I thought it was quite tasty although the juniper was very subtle and for $8US I felt we got a good serving size for the price. We also shared the Duck Liver Mousse (aka Fois Gras) with Pickled Red Onions & Baby Greens ($11US) and it was over the top, the duck liver mousse was so creamy, yet felt rather light in the mouth. Our server even brought us a nice selection of house made crackers and breads because as you can see, there are only three crostini’s with the dish. We were off to a great start.

Our starters that we shared.

My main course (appetizer portion) was the Ahi Tuna Tartare with Crispy Nori Tempura with hass avocado, wasabi soy emulsion ($15) and I must tell you it is by far the BEST tuna Tartare I’ve ever had and I’ve had quite a few. The flavours just hit me perfectly with just the right amount of wasabi (no tears). The crispy Nori was a beautiful contrast in texture to the creamy avocado and the soft tuna. If you can believe it, my mouth is watering as I type this. I could have had two portions it was THAT good.

The BEST tuna tartar I’ve EVER had

JT chose the gnocchi which came in two sizes, a small appetizer portion and a large main portion — this is the smaller size and as you can see, it was plenty (the bowl was about 24cm or 9.4 inches in diametre. The dish was Sautéed Potato Gnocchi with Hen of the Woods Mushrooms spring peas, baby chard in a sweet farm butter with basil and Parmesan sauce ($15/$27). JT was kind enough to allow me to taste this beautiful dish (sorry, it was already dark when I took the photo) and it was fantastic, but don’t let the sauce fool you, even though it’s not a cream-based sauce there is A LOT of butter in this dish! Both of our courses were lip smackingly good and I immediately wished we had this restaurant in Toronto as it became a fast favourite!

JT chose the gnocchi

Thank you kindly for the reco’s Jed and Liz, you really hit this one bang on. It’ll be on my list whenever we return to DC.

If you find yourself in DC, do yourself a favour and try this place, it won’t disappoint.

Overall rating of Proof DC (in my opinion): Decor 4/5, service 4/5, food 4.5/5, Value 4/5, Noise: 4/5 (1 being very noisy, and 5 being very quiet).

Disclaimer: We purchased our meals for full price and my opinions just that, my opinions.

Proof DC

775 G Street, NW Washington, DC 20001

proof@proofdc.com

202.737.7663

 

Lunch

Tuesday – Friday 11:30 – 2:00

 

Dinner

Monday – Thursday 5:30 – 10:00

Friday – Saturday 5:30 – 11:00

Sunday 5:00 – 9:30

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Washington DC — Go Big or Go Home!

We usually travel to New York City around our anniversary to celebrate (read shop) and to have incredible food, but this year we decided to cross off another bucket list destination and go to Washington DC instead. I’ve always wanted to see the wonderful monuments, the Smithsonian Museums, Capital Hill and The White House and we did all that and more! We were lucky with the weather because it wasn’t raining but it was unbelievably hot and humid — we were told it was more like summer weather. But we donned our sunscreen, hats, comfy shoes (yes, you read that right) and left our hotel at 9am to return hot, tired (and did I say hot?) around 5pm just in time for wine and cheese in the lobby.

We stayed at the Kimpton Madera in Dupont Circle, a very good location which is close to Georgetown and the subway. We’ve stayed in several Kimpton hotels over the years and have always had exceptional experiences and this property was no different. My friend Karen from Back Road Journal made a great suggestion to join the Kimpton’s Loyalty Program and we did, and it has worked out very well for us, thank you Karen. Because we are InTouch members we received a voucher to raid the mini-bar (or one free cocktail in the bar — guess which one we did?), free WIFI in our room and a lovely room upgrade to one of their superior King rooms! Aron at the front desk and Fernando at the front door were incredibly helpful and friendly. Aron found out that we were celebrating our anniversary so he comped us breakfast every day, how nice is that? I consider breakfast an easy meal to really control calories while traveling, so the free continental breakfast with whole grain toast and fruit was perfect for us.

We ate at wonderful restaurants (reviews to come) and had some fantastic times with new friends — JT and I were very fortunate to meet up with fellow blogger Jed Gray and his beautiful wife Liz of the infamous Sports-Glutton blog. I started following Jed a couple of years ago and haven’t looked back. When I emailed Jed that we were thinking of coming down to DC, he and Liz very generously spent an incredible amount of time writing up recommendations for areas to stay in and provided some excellent restaurant recommendations and they were spot on. We met for dinner on our last night and as you can imagine we got on as if we were long-time friends. The lively non-stop conversation was richly dotted with good bouts of laughter. Thank you so much Jed and Liz it was such a pleasure to meet you both and JT and I sincerely hope that we will be able to repay your hospitality in Toronto very soon.

DC, what can I say? Go big or go home would sum it up. The city itself is only about 176 square kilometres or 68 square miles, so it’s not enormous, but because DC has so much to see and do, you really should plan on 4-5 days, sadly we were only there just under three days so it was a bit rushed but that just means we will need to go back sometime soon. We arrived on Thursday around 11:30 and took a stroll through Georgetown which was a 20 minute walk from our hotel. It was very hot and humid. We decided to have lunch at a Peruvian restaurant which worked out very well and then we walked around some more. Our hotel serves up wine and cheese from 5-6pm every day and we like to go because it gives us an opportunity to chat with the other guests. There weren’t other guests having the wine and cheese but we were able to chat with Aron at the front desk and he made some lovely recommendations about DC.

There is a lot to see and do in DC, so it’s best to have a game plan; figure out what is most important to you and then plan your stay according to that. We wanted to see a few of the Smithsonians (which by the way are totally FREE!): The Air and Space Museum, the Smithsonian Castle, the National Gallery. And we wanted to spend some time walking around the monuments near the Tidal Basin. We did the Hop on Hop off bus tour, but we made the mistake of hopping on and off, so we ended up wasting A LOT of time waiting to hop back on. The bus we got on later in the afternoon was so incredibly slow it was painful. We should have cut our losses but we persevered, and therefore missed seeing a few of the things we wanted to see — so there will be a next time. Due to an earthquake in 2011, the Washington Monument was damaged and therefore closed for repairs and will not open until 2015…so that’s a great excuse to return.

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We met Jed and Liz at 5:30 on Saturday night in Georgetown, a short cab ride from our hotel and their apartment. Jed suggested we meet at the Four Seasons bar called Bourbon Steak (well you just know the night is off to a great start!). In true gluttonous form Jed selected this classy establishment because of the variety of unusual cocktails served; we all know JT and I do cocktails, and Jed’s Thirsty Thursdays lead me to believe that they do too! The next course was dinner, we had a short walk (yes, I was wearing inappropriate shoes which made walking on the cobblestone in combination with the extreme heat very difficult!) to a very nice Mexican Restaurant called Bandolero. We started with more drinks and some very tasty treats. I loved this place because it was tapas style so we each got to enjoy every flavour and not have to commit to one dish. Conversation with either Jed or Liz was easy and JT and I flipped back and forth with the two. Our first course was La Muestra, which was guacamole, masa crisps, chicarrones, and three salsas, very flavourful salsas and the guacamole was delicious! Then, each of us selected one item to share; it was very tasty and four items seemed to hit the spot with all of us. In chatting with Liz I wondered if there were any cool jazz bars in DC and she lit up knowing just the one so our next stop was Blues Alley but we were only able to get tickets for the 10pm show, so without hesitation we went to a J-Paul’s saloon for, you guessed it, more drinks and conversation until it was time for the show. We heard the exceptional John Pizzarelli (who concidentally sometimes plays with Diana Krall – a fellow Canadian!)
Sadly we cut the night short as we were flying home the next day — we usually stay up much later, really we do! We really enjoyed our time with Jed and Liz (you guys really made our little DC vacation!)

I encourage you to visit Washington DC, it’s really much more than I expected and I was expecting a lot!

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Cajun Grilled Shrimp with Grilled Pineapple and Mango Salsa on Grilled Jalopeño Cornbread

I totally agree. And by ‘right’ I’m sure Ms. Midler is referring to pointy stiletto’s wouldn’t you say? (Charlie, Kristy, Liz and Lorraine?)

Speaking of shoes, my dear friend Monica was recently at Fallsview Casino and spotted this store that specializes in life-sized chocolate shoes. It’s like I’ve died and gone to heaven!

Chocolate Shoes…could life get any better?

And coincidentally, we had Rae and Monica over for dinner and I always like to make something special when we have company so when I saw the recipe on Bam’s kitchen, I knew I HAD to try it. Bam made the entire recipe gluten free, sugar free, dairy free and egg free, but I didn’t have those restrictions so I improvised.

The flavours are subtle cajun and although you can add as much heat as you wish, I used fresh jalopeño chilies with the veins and seeds cut out to reduce the heat. The grilled pineapple adds a wonderful sweetness and the grilled jalopeño cornbread is a lovely base for the dish adding subtle smokiness from the grilling. I used an old favourite recipe for the cornbread, Fred’s Not Here Jalopeño Cornbread it packs a lot of flavour and the recipe can be halved easily — I didn’t do that because I wanted the extra. Also, for the night of the dinner party, I served 10cm (4 in) round cakes, but the muffin size is a much better proportion (hence my presentation in this post). Thank you Bam for the inspiration.

Serves 4

The fresh flavours worked very well together.

Fred’s Not Here Jalopeño Cornbread

Makes 12 regular muffin-sized cornbreads or four 10cm cakes plus 6 regular muffin-sized cornbreads

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 medium ground corn meal
• 1 1/4 all purpose flour (I’m going to try using quinoa flour next time)
• 1/2 cup granulated sugar
• 1 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cups milk
• 1/4 cup vegetable oil
• 1/2 red and 1/2 green finely diced jalopeños (if you like things spicy, add cayenne to your taste).
• 1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
• 1 1/2 cups shredded sharp cheddar cheese

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 400°F. Spray non-stick cooking spray generously into each muffin cavity.
2. Sift cornmeal, flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl.
3. Blend eggs, milk and oil in another bowl.
4. Stir wet ingredients into dry.
5. Fold in the shredded cheese, jalopeño and onion.
6. Spoon to fill muffin cavity and bake for 25 minutes or until firm and golden.

Grilled Pineapple and Mango Salsa

Makes about 1 1/2 cups of salsa

Ingredients:

• 3 thick slices of pineapple
• 1 good size Mango
• 1 scallion, finely chopped
• 1/2 red and 1/2 green finely diced jalopeños
• zest of one lime
• juice of one lime
• 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Directions:

1. Dry off the pineapple and grill the pineapple until you get some good grill marks (takes about 10-15 minutes per side). Set aside to cool
2. Dice the mango into 1 cm or 1/4 inch dice. Add the finely chopped red and green jalopeños, scallion, lime zest and lime juice. When the pineapple has cooled, dice it in a similar size to the pineapple, mix into the mango.
3. Add the chopped cilantro just prior to serving. Serve cold.

Cajun Grilled Shrimp

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup lime juice
• 3 tbsp EVOO
• 2 tbsp honey
• pinch of salt
• dash of cumin
• dash of corriandre
• 1 clove garlic, finely chopped
• pinch of cayenne
• 16 large shrimps

Directions:

1. Clean shrimp and remove the shell, leaving the tail intact.
2. Mix all the ingredients together and pour over the shrimp, marinate for about 1-4 hours (marinating too long will cause the acid of the lime juice to ‘cook’ the shrimp).
3. Heat the grill to smoking hot! Grill the shrimp until no longer opaque. Keep warm.

Assembly:

1. Cut the crown off the cornbread muffins so that both top and bottom are flat. Brush both sides lightly with softened butter.
2. Grill corn bread muffins on both sides so good grill marks are achieved and it heats the cornbread through. Place one cornbread round on the centre of each plate. Add the chopped cilantro to the salsa and pile it on top of the cornbread, don’t worry if some fall to the side, it actually looks better that way.
3. Mound the shrimp on top of the salsa and garnish with a little coriander leaf.

Notes:

• Cornbread may be made in advance and stored in an airtight container.
• Freeze left over cornbread for another occasion.
• The salsa is fantastic on burgers, so save some for another time.
• The cornbread tops can be saved in the freezer for another recipe, like stuffing!

This one had too much coriander garnish and not enough salsa on the plate

Actual Photo from the dinner party; bad lighting and perhaps a glass or two of wine made it blurry. That’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.

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Curried Cauliflower “fried rice”

We’ve been off on a little vaycay to the U.S. capital city, Washington, DC and I’ll post the photos and stories soon — but I also have a little surprise!
My friend Lorraine from Not Quite Nigella posted a wonderful alternative to fried rice and for obvious reasons I was ALL OVER IT. Of course, this blog wouldn’t be the same if I didn’t change it up a bit — not that Lorraine’s version her Cauliflower Fried Rice wasn’t perfect, I just didn’t have all of her ingredients handy and I wanted it now! So I made it Curried Cauliflower “Fried” rice and boy did it hit the spot; it was even delicious the next day when I took it to work with some grilled shrimp on top. Very tasty indeed.

Resist over cooking because you really do want a tiny little crunch.

Serves 4 generous portions

Ingredients:

• 1 medium head cauliflower
• 1/4 cup sultana raisins
• 2 green onions finely chopped
• 4 tbsp low fat coconut milk
• 1 tsp curry powder
• 2 tbsp unsweetened grated coconut
• 1 tsp lime juice
• 1 tsp honey
• a few sprays of non-stick EVOO

Directions:

1. In three rounds, place the washed and dried cauliflower into a food processor and pulse roughly until you get a coarse grind, like rice.
2. Heat a cast iron skillet add the EVOO and the ground cauliflower and “fry” until lightly browned. You are trying to achieve a nice golden crust on it, scraping is essential. Try not to add liquid as that will boil the cauliflower and you don’t want it too soft — you still want a touch of a bite to it. If your pan isn’t large enough, you may need to “fry” in batches so the excess doesn’t ‘steam’ the caulflower.
3. Add the curry powder and heat until fragrant mixing it into the “fried” cauliflower rice.
4. Remove from heat and add the coconut milk, lime juice and honey (it’s easier if you mix the three in a small container and add at once). Give it a good stir into the cauliflower.
5. Add the raisins and green onions and mix well.
6. Garnish with unsweetened grated coconut, serve warm.

The curry flavours really went well with the sweet cauliflower.

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