Pantry Clean Out Crackers

Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is having a wonderful time.

We spent the month of November in Arizona again, although it might be our last time this time. But we say that. Every. Single. Time. We see our dear American friends and get in a load of sunshine to boot! The weather was beautiful and slightly warmer than last year, we had high twenties (celsius) most of the daytime and mid-teens at night. Perfect for leaving the windows open for sleeping.

We did a lot of walking and hiking. The National Parks have beautiful trails that are reasonably priced and there are many free parks too. We fed our resident bunny and, inadvertently fed our resident Road Runner (sadly a bird crashed into our window and he died on impact and fortunately, the road runner didn’t mind and he scooped up the bird and took him home for a late Thanksgiving Dinner!) At least, we did not have to deal with it.

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Of course, we always have a party at the end to use up pantry ingredients and this time was no different, I came up with this recipe to use flour, oil, cheese, and herbs.

The oven was gas and baked rather unevenly.

A Kitcheninspirations original recipe

This recipe makes about 2 sheets approximately 25 cm x 38 cm (10 x 15 inches)

Ingredients:

• 125 g “00” flour
• 40 g cheese, finely grated
• 30 mL olive oil
• 80 mL water
• Pinch of salt
• 3-6 g dried herbs

Directions:

1. Mix all of the ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Transfer to a clean surface and knead by hand until the dough becomes smooth and everything is evenly distributed. Rest the dough for 20 minutes.
3. Preheat the oven to 350° F. Line a baking sheet with parchment.
4. Roll out the dough into a thin sheet about the size of the baking sheet. Transfer to the parchment lined baking sheet and bake for xx minutes or until lightly browned and crisp.
5. Cool and break into chip-sized fragments. Serve with your favourite dip.

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Deluxe Egg Salad

Truth be told, I re-invented some leftover devilled eggs into this deluxe egg salad. The creamy egg yolks made perfectly rich and luscious creamy egg salad. I upped the ante by adding a small, ripe avocado. Winner, winner, egg salad!

I think I’ll make egg salad this way all the time.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes enough for 2 large croissant sandwiches

Ingredients:

• 4 left over devilled egg halves (see notes on how I jazzed these up), roughly chopped

• 2 additional hard-boiled egg, roughly chopped
• 15 mL mayonnaise
• 5-10 mL lemon juice
• 2 scallions, finely chopped, plus more for garnish
• ~10 cm of cucumber, finely diced
• 1 small, ripe avocado, finely diced
• Add salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

1. Combine the devilled egg filling with the additional hard-boiled egg yolk with the mayo and lemon juice, whisk well.
2. Stir the scallions, cucumber and avocado together, mixing well. Spoon the egg yolk sauce over the eggs and fold in, completely mixing with the eggs.
3. Serve in a croissant with additional finely chopped scallions as garnish.

Delicious stuffed into a croissant.

Notes:

• When I made the devilled eggs, I whipped the yolks with mayonnaise, Dijon mustard and room temperature goats cheese and a little finely chopped scallions. Salt and pepper to taste.

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Thai Coconut Curry Soup

Way back in late October, we went over to a friend’s house for dinner, outdoors of course. We’ve all been scrambling to make the outdoors as warm and cosy as possible not feeling comfortable enough to entertain inside. My friend went all out with a brand new gazebo (which we helped erect), heaters and electric blankets (even some for sharing). It was easy to enjoy this flavourful soup in large mugs, under infrared heaters, cosying up with electric blankets while gazing at a romantic wood fire. The soup was warming and soothing on a particularly chilly evening. I hacked the recipe because we liked it so much.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 1 L soup

Ingredients:

• 500 mL cauliflower purée
• 400 mL coconut milk
• 6 fresh kaffir lime leaves
• 1 lemongrass stalk, cut into 5 cm lengths
• 1 nub of fresh galangal
• 15 mL fresh lemon juice
• 15 mL fish sauce
• 10-20 mL green curry paste
• pinch of baking soda
• leftover cooked chicken or turkey
• 150 g diced frozen vegetables
• 1 green onion, sliced into 3 cm lengths
• handful of finely chopped cilantro
• Vegetable or Chicken stock (optional)

Directions:

1. Combine all of the ingredients except the baking soda, chicken or turkey, frozen vegetables, green onion and cilantro and bring to a boil. Boil for 10-15 minutes or until the broth is flavoured with the aromatics.
2. Scoop out the aromatics (kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal) and discard. Add the baking soda and mix it in well (it will bubble up for a minute or so).
3. Add the turkey and frozen vegetables and stir to warm. Add vegetable or chicken stock if you find the soup too thick. Serve piping hot.

Notes:

• Frozen vegetables, like this, are a staple in my freezer, they are perfect for quick soups!
• I keep kaffir lime leaves in the freezer, they are so flavourful.
• I prefer to keep the soup on the thicker side, particularly if you’re eating it outdoors, it tends to stay warm longer.

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Mac ‘n Cheese Waffle Bites

Occasionally, I click on a Facebook sponsored post, these waffle bites were one of them. But the photo was not for a recipe, it was just a photo and when I googled the bites the results were quite disturbing (like a train wreck of Mac ‘n Cheese, a total mess), nothing like the image that was sponsored on Facebook! So I put on my thinking cap and came up with this recipe. I basically mixed a serving of waffle batter with 1 serving of macaroni and cheese and sprinkled both top and bottom with more shredded cheese. These are bites so I did not fill the waffle pan, I wanted them small. You need to cook these slightly longer than a normal waffle because you want the cheese to crisp up, it’s the only way they will come away from the pan without leaving a cheesy mess.

Delicious Cheesy Morsels

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes 4 small waffles, cut into fourths, about 16 crackers

Ingredients:

• 1 leftover serving* of your favourite Mac ‘n Cheese (any packaged or homemade will do).
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup AP flour
• 1/2 tsp baking powder
• pinch of salt
• 1 cup of shredded good quality old cheddar (or any good melting cheese)
• 2 tbsp olive oil

Directions:

1. Make sure your leftover Mac ‘n Cheese is at room temperature (not cold out of the fridge)
2. Combine egg and milk and beat well.
3. Sift flour, baking powder and salt into egg mixture and beat until well combined and thick.
4. Pour over leftover Mac ‘n Cheese and mix well.
5. Preheat your waffle iron. Brush both sides generously with olive oil. Add a couple of tablespoons of shredded cheddar to the base, spoon in about 1/2 cup of the Mac ‘n Cheese waffle batter onto the centre and add a couple more tablespoons of the shredded cheddar on top and close the pan.
6. Waffles need to cook a little longer than normal so that cheese crisps up.
7. Waffles are cooked when the top of the waffle pan easily peels away from the waffle, although you may need a little nudge to release if cheese is sticking to the iron.
8. Cut into quarters with a pizza cutter.

If you like crispy cheese, you will LOVE these.

Notes:

• *A leftover serving is basically a 1/2 cup of uncooked noodles and cheese sauce.
• To make more, simply multiply the waffle ingredients by the number of servings of Mac ‘n Cheese (for example, KD has 4 servings per box, so ingredients would be 4 eggs, 2 cups milk, 2 cups flour, 2 tsp baking powder etc…).
• I, intentionally did not make these bites the full-size of the waffle pan, I wanted them irregular and smallish.
• Waffle bites are crispy and not creamy, they are like a giant Mac ‘n Cheese chip.
• Add chopped green onions for extra flavour.
• Serve with salsa, a bruschetta topping or greek yogurt or sour cream for dipping.

A view of the lake.

I didn’t cook the first one long enough and it literally split in half. Perfectly edible but not pretty!

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Compost Broth

Warning, night photos with very bad lighting!

Many years ago, a woman from Florida started commenting regularly on my blog. Of course, I began reciprocating on her blog (which was the point, I guess) and I discovered that the more blogs I commented on, the more comments my blog would garner. That can get old really fast. I nick-named the task ‘comment whoring’. These days, I only comment on a select few blogs, many of them I have actually met the author in person and have a non-blog relationship. It’s not that I don’t like lots of comments (it makes me feel very popular, unlike real life), but I’d rather have a few of real value than a bunch of “yum!”. I’d love to hear what you think. I like to leave value comments too, you may have noticed that they can be a bit wordy! 😉

That woman from Florida was a Military wife and she knew how to make a dollar stretch. One of her posts was about a vegetable stock made entirely from vegetable trimmings. At first, I thought it was strange (OK, and a bit gross) but a really good friend recently mentioned she does the same thing, so I decided to give it a try. I am proud to say that I am now totally a convert. The stocks are always richly flavoured and a beautiful colour due to the onion skins. Onion skin broth is supposed to be a natural blood pressure remedy, although I have no idea how much you need to have for it to work! I keep a ziplock bag in my freezer and not one Veggy trim goes in the bin, it all goes into the freezer bag and once I have filled the bag, I take out my broth pot and fill it with water and simmer with all the trimmings for 3 hours, give or take. At the end, I turn the gas off and allow it to cool off. I strain the liquid 2-3 times, having the final strain through a metal, fine coffee filter (not the paper kind, they bung up too quickly). The straining allows you to capture any bits of dirt and gunge that may have gotten in the stock. The stock is delicious on its own or used in recipes. No two broths are alike. I encourage you to give this a go, there are no rules other than washing your trimmings well or just buy organic (although, I’d still wash well). And as usual, I don’t salt until I use it because everything requires different seasonings.

 

This pot was comprised of some leftover shoot veggies and lettuces.

 

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Chicken á la King Soup

During my childhood, we ate mostly Canadian-ized Hungarian food. And by Canadian-ized, I mean that Mom used yogurt instead of tejföl (sour cream), oil instead of lard etc. Every weekend we would have a roast of beef or pork (but mainly beef) and in the summer, Dad would BBQ steak and thick juicy bacon (szalonna). On weekdays Mom had her repertoire of chicken and fish dishes and I do recall the odd (when Dad wasn’t home for dinner) meatloaf, with the obligatory hard-boiled egg inside and various Hungarian stews like Lecsó and tok fózelék (a similar dish to creamed spinach but it’s on the sour side).

Around the timeI turned 14, I became interested in cooking recipes that I chose myself and my dear Mom encouraged me. One of my favourite resources very early on was the Milk Calendar, put out in full colour print for free by the Dairy Farmers of Canada. Every December, I eagerly awaited the Milk Calendar tucked away in the weekend edition of the Toronto Star. One of the first dishes I ever made on my own was Chicken á la King with leftover chicken (back in the day when a roast chicken fed a family of four AND had enough leftovers for another meal!)

I have to admit, I am unsure if the following inspiration came from the Milk Calendar (I’m leaning toward this) or my beloved Five Roses Cookbook (recipe page 233). What I can tell you with most certainty is that as I was making this soup, I instantly recognized the aroma and flavour of our beloved childhood Chicken á la King. The ingredients are quite unexpected and it’s pretty healthy to boot. If you love the flavours of a creamy Chicken á la King, you will LOVE this recipe.

When did you first begin cooking on your own and did you have a favourite recipe book that you used until it fell apart?

Chicken á la King Soup

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Makes  3 or 4 servings 700-800 mL (3 1/2-4 cups),

Ingredients:

• 180 g red lentils, rinsed and picked through
• water to cover
• 2 tsp vegetable oil, divided
• 1/4 cooking onion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 celery stalk, cubed
• 1 carrot, cubed
• 2 radishes, cubed
• 2 tbsp frozen peas (optional garnish)
• 1 tsp apple cider vinegar
• 100 g chicken breast, skinless and boneless, cut into smallish strips
• chicken stock
• sea salt and pepper, to taste

Directions:

1. In a medium, heavy bottomed pot, add 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and sauté the celery, carrot, and radish until soft. Add the chicken and cook through. Set aside in another bowl.
2. In the same saucepan, add the remainding 1 teaspoon vegetable oil and sauté the onion until translucent. Add the garlic and stir until fragrant. Add the lentils, stir and cover with water. Cook until lentils are very soft. Remove from heat and blitz with an immersion blender until very smooth, adding chicken stock until desired thickness is achieved (I left mine relative thick so it’s more stew-like). Add the apple cider vinegar and blitz until well blended. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
3. Return the puréed lentils to the heat and slowly reheat, add the cooked vegetables and chicken and stir well. Serve pipping hot.

Healthy Chicken á la King Soup

 

Traditional Chicken á la King

 

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A Vegetarian French Onion Soup

Recently we had some good friends for Brunch and my friend Angela told me how she makes the most delicious vegetable stock from vegetable trimmings. Of course, this isn’t the first time I’d heard of this frugal stock but to be honest, I was skeptical on how good it would be — stock from trimmings? That’s bunny food! I’ve been using roast chicken carcass for soups for a few years now but I’ve never jumped into the compost bin head first to make this vegetable stock before. Angela and her husband were quite convincing on how good this stock is, so I decided to give it a try.

My first attempt was a simple stock using vidalia onion skins, garlic skins, eggplant ends, zucchini ends, celery leaves, cilantro stems and green onion ends. I made sure to wash the skins very well and tossed them into a large stock pot with enough water to cover. I tossed in a tiny bit of salt and boiled, then I reduced to a simmer for about 4 hours. WOW! I can’t tell you how good this was! For a lunch, I simply sautéed more zucchini, eggplant, onions, garlic and celery and ladled the “Compost Stock” over it and drizzled it with parmesan cheese, boy was it GOOD!

When I saw how dark and rich the onion skins made the stock, I thought: why not make a French Onion Soup from it (we’ve made French Onion Soup here and here and here before)? And that is the way this recipe came about. It’s so easy and inexpensive that I urge you to try it. You can make it vegan by omitting the cheese or just use vegan cheese (not sure how good that could be!). And if you’re looking to save a few calories, omit the croutons and the cheese.

JT tried it and could not believe it was made with onion skins and caramelized onions, no stock at all — verdict, he loved it. For this version, we saved around $4 because I usually use an organic beef stock or sometimes I even roast some beef bones which would have saved us $6.00)!

Would you like a bowl?

A Kitchen Inspirations Original Recipe.

Makes 1.5 L (6.25 cups) of soup

Ingredients:

• 3 large organic Vidalia onions, including skins
• 1/4 cup white balsamic vinegar
• 4 L (roughly 4 quarts) water
• 2 tbsp EVOO
• 3 bay leaves
• 1 tsp salt
• 100 g (3.5 oz) Gruyère cheese, grated (omit if vegan or vegetarian)
• croutons, enough to fill 2 French Onion Soup bowls

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 250°F (121° F).
2. Wash outer skin of the onions well. Peel onions, add skins with the bay leaves and salt to a large stock pot with 4L (4 quarts) water in it. Stir and bring to a boil then turn down and simmer for 2-3 hours.
3. Slice onions very thinly on a mandoline (any larger bits that can’t be sliced, just add to the onion skin stock pot).
4. Heat olive oil to a large Dutch oven and once hot (but not smoking) add onions; sweat onions until translucent and just beginning to caramelize (about 20 minutes). Add the white balsamic vinegar and stir well. Cover with a piece of parchment (as illustrated below) and bake for 2-3 hours at 250° F (121° C) or until golden and fully caramelized.
5. When stock is a rich, dark colour strain through a fine sieve to remove skins and bits and finally through a very fine sieve to remove any fine particles (I use a reusable coffee filter). Combine stock with caramelized onions and heat through. Taste for seasonings and add salt and pepper as required.
6. Plate in French onion soup bowls with croutons and mounds of Gruyère cheese, broil so it’s all melty and bubbly and serve hot!
7. For a vegetarian or vegan version, omit the cheese or use vegan cheese.

Parchment cover for the onions

Based on 4 servings per batch without the Gruyère and croutons

Based on 4 serving per batch, without the Gruyère and crouton

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Paella Bake

Cottage season is almost over and we’re heading right into the holidays: Canadian Thanksgiving, Halloween, American Thanksgiving and then Christmas! My how time flies. This “recipe” has become a “go to” recipe for brunches and lunches at the cottage where refrigerator space is at a premium and standard grocery items are difficult to find (to say the least). It’s the perfect recipe to reinvent ‘leftovers.” For the last couple of years, whenever I make a one pot rice dish like Paella, Jumbalaya, Risotto or even a pasta dish like JT’s Mediterranean Pasta, I ALWAYs make 2 extra servings. The trick is to set aside the two extra servings so that you’re not even tempted to finish off every last bite and lick the plate clean ;-p! The two extra servings combined with eggs and a little flavouring bake up into the most delicious dish, you will be tempted to make the recipe just to rebake it for brunch the following day! And the best part is that it freezes very well, so even if there is only two dining on leftovers, freeze the rest cut into single portions in a ziplock bag, ready for a quick lunch or a fancy brunch.

On some mornings the lake is so very still.

Bits of the seafood, chicken and chorizo dot the delicious egg bake.

A KitchenInspirations Original Recipe

Serves 8

Ingredients:

• 4 cups leftover Paella (this or this) or Mediterranean Pasta (this or this) or even Risotto.
• 6 eggs
• 1 tbsp La Bomba

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 350° F (177° C). Prepare a square baking pan with perpendicular sides (some square cake pans have angled sides). Line with parchment so that it extends up two of the sides. Spray lightly with nonstick spray.
2. Combine eggs and La Bomba and whisk well. Fold gently into the leftover paella being careful not to squish the rice into a mushy mess.
3. Pour into the prepared pan and jiggle around making sure that the proteins are distributed evenly. Bake for 45-50 minutes or until cake tester comes out clean.
4. Cool slightly and cut into 8 portions with a very sharp knife. Serve with lemon slices and a light salad.

Would you care for a slice?

Our Paellas are always full of flavour.

Red sky at night, sailors’ delight!

Cocktails inside the screen-in porch, so peaceful.

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When you have left-over risotto, you make Arancini di Riso (Rice Balls)

I was testing a rice cooker recently and one of the recipes was Risotto on a specific setting on the machine. To say it was challenging is an understatement but after 6 tests and tweaks we finally came up with a recipe I was rather happy with. And the neighbours were also happy, one can only eat so much risotto! The last test was the best and JT and I had it for supper but it made so much that I had enough left over to make Arancini di Riso, Italian Rice Balls and boy were they delicious!

Everyone has a favourite risotto recipe so I won’t reinvent the wheel, you just need to have some risotto made and cooled (I spread it out onto a parchment lined baking sheet and covered it with plastic wrap in the fridge overnight). The risotto should be able to be formed into a ball, so if your risotto is a little dry, you may want to add a bit of liquid to allow it to stick together in a spherical shape.

Baking at 400° F gives you the crispy crust that you expect from deep frying, except you didn’t!

Arancini di Riso (Rice Balls)

My mushroom risotto recipe yielded 8 cups (give or take 2 L) but we ate about 3 cups in for dinner, so I estimate that the remainder 5 cups (1.25 L) made 22-24 balls

Ingredients:

• 5 cups risotto
• 1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
• 1/2 cup AP unbleached flour
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella (or 22-24 1 cm or 1/2 inch cubes)
• Fresh basil and Parmesan for garnish

Directions:

1. Spread risotto onto a parchment-lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate until entirely cooled (overnight).
2. Add bread crumbs to a shallow bowl and the flour to another shallow bowl. Lightly beat the eggs with a splash of water and pour into a third shallow bowl.
3. Make golf-ball sized balls of the cooled risotto and squeeze a good pinch (or one cube) of cheese into the centre — cover the cheese entirely with the risotto otherwise it will leak out. Continue until you have used up all the risotto.
4. Coat each ball in flour, then roll into the eggs and repeat the flour and egg mixture (this will make the balls as crispy as if they had been deep-fried). After the final roll in the egg wash, roll each ball in the bread crumbs to coat well . Set onto a parchment lined baking sheet and freeze for future use.
5. To bake from frozen pre-heat the oven to 400° F. Spray Arancini and the baking sheet with olive oil. Bake for 30 minutes or until golden and warmed through; turn often so it bakes evenly.
6. Serve with a chunky salsa or tomato sauce.

The cheese melts on the inside and becomes deliciously gooey!

We had our dear friends Paul and T up from the US this past weekend (hence the tardiness of this post), here are a few pics!

We might have had a few of these!

Paddleboating on a very warm day.

Our lake apparently has good fishing.

Figgy finally made us a couple of figs.

Sadly they were not as sweet as I had hoped. I’m sure I just need to fertilize.

 

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Cubanos

Recently we watched Chef on video. It was a bit long, but the happy ending made it totally worth it and we resulted with The Cuban sandwich for dinner, which is always a win/win for me! We had most of the fixin’s from the Parrillada Mixta we created for the progressive dinner and some ordinary staples like, French stick, dill pickles, cheese and onion confit. It made for a very tasty meal.

My baguette turned out rather thin but it still had that delicious chewy texture that French baguette should have.

Cubano (adapted from Chef, the movie)

Makes 4 small sandwiches (about 8-10 cm or 3-4″ long)

Ingredients:

• 4 smallish portions of baguette
• 4 tbsp yellow mustard
• 4 tbsp onion confit
• thinly sliced leftover steak, to cover one side of bread
• thinly sliced Argentine Chorizo, to cover one half of bread
• 8 thinly sliced pieces of cheese (we used sharp cheddar)
• 4-6 thinly sliced dill pickles (depending on the size of the pickle)
• Butter

Directions:

1. Preheat your double sided grill (like a panini) until smoking hot.
2. Slice each baguette in half and reserve the top half.
3. On the bottom half, spread 1 tbsp of onion confit on each slice.
4. Layer the thinly sliced meat, then sausage, then dill pickles and lastly the cheese.
5. On the top half, smear 1 tbsp yellow mustard on each slice.
6. Top the sandwich.
7. Grill the sandwich so that it’s heated all the way through and the cheese has melted. Eat immediately.

Perfectly grilled so that meat is hot, the cheese is melted and the bread is delicious.

Notes:

• For the baguette, I used this recipe. It was very labour and time intensive but the result of the texture was perfect!
• For the onion confit, I used this tried and true recipe.
• The meat is generally slow cooked with a variety of spices and the onion confit is not a usual component of a Cubano, so that’s why I called it ‘adapted’
• Even though the sandwiches were small, they were very filling and I would say one would have done us just fine. Yes, we’re pigs.

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MLB Series Guest Post — Canadian Whiskey BBQ Sauce Pulled Pork Benny and Homerun-fries

We’ve been up north for a few days finishing off the mini reno; it sure doesn’t get easier as one gets older! A quick synopsis: wood panelling painted white, ceilings and gaping holes were caulked. Laminate floors installed and waiting for one more box (how did that happen? We are 6 pieces short, damn it! We both did the math, TWICE!) Baseboards have been cut but not fully installed (need to finish the floors under the couch first). New kitchen shelving installed with task lighting. New porch blinds installed with bottom hooks! Garbage packaged and stored for handy man removal. A few more décor items and we’re done! Just in time for closing ;)!
With all that standing up, sitting down it feels like I’ve completed a marathon, but not really, I’m just a spectator of sports. And we all know what a crazy sports fiend I am, I just can’t get enough of it ;-). In fact, I have every single tuner in the house tuned into different sports channels or talk radio channels just to keep on top of it; then there are the push notifications every time a player does something worthy — like fart, for instance! OK, I may be BS’ing a little but I do get a little drawn in particularly when the sport is baseball and we’re talkin’ about our beloved Jays! Blue Jays that is!

My good friend Jed from Sports Glutton asked me to do a guest post as part of his MLB Series (except that I kept calling it the MBL whenever I talked about it, drove poor JT nuts!) and I couldn’t resist. Thank you Jed, I’m not only honoured to do this guest post, but I am flattered beyond belief and I hope to have done your lovely gluttonous blog worthy with this post.

Our beloved Jays are due for a world series win; no — really, I’m serious. I’m told (and god knows I’m no authority) that this year the Jays have the most expensive players and one would think that with that kind of ‘quality’ we would get some wins…except it’s taking a bit of time — you see, those poor Jays had a bit of a rough start, but we’re back on track and as of writing this post, we’ve worked ourselves back within striking distance of first place in the division! Woohoo!
Even with the Jays resurgence the Jays should be hungry for more, I am 100% sure they would want a highly gluttonous meal like Canadian Whiskey BBQ Sauce Pulled Pork Benny and Homerun-fries, don’t you? I developed this recipe for Jed and there are a few things I would have done differently if it was for kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com, but because Jed was a little concerned; that I would make it too healthy, I really stepped it up a notch, within reason, of course! Thanks again Jed, I am truly honoured.
Please head on over to Jed’s blog to check it out, you will be surprised and delighted with what you see.

The Dijon Béchamel was just the perfect gluttonous addition.

Makes enough for 10-12 Bennies if you want to use it all on that, but the pulled pork is wonderful as leftovers in sandwiches, pizza and wraps.

Ingredients for the Pork and the Rub:

• 1lb or ~500 g Pork Tenderloin
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp chili powder
• 1/4 tsp smoked paprika
• 1 tsp granulated garlic (not garlic powder)
• 1 tsp brown sugar

Directions:

1. Preheat the slow cooker on high.
2. Combine the spices and mix well, set aside.
3. In a very hot skillet, heat about 1 tbsp canola oil and sear the pork well. Set the pan aside — DO NOT WASH.
4. Carefully rub the spice mix on all sides of the pork and set into the slow cooker.

Searing the tenderloin; it’s so loud, I can’t hear the talk radio!

The beast has been seared, you can tell because the talk radio is fully audible.

Ingredients for the Canadian Whiskey BBQ Sauce:

• 1/2 cup of Canadian Whiskey
• Scant 1/4 cup of soy sauce
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup strong black coffee (I used espresso)
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1/4 cup chopped onion

Directions for the BBQ Sauce:

1. Combine all of the ingredients in the same pan you seared the pork in and bring to a boil, scraping off any of the bits left behind by searing the pork.
2. Pour the sauce over the pork in the slow cooker, cover and set the heat to Low and the timer to 4-5 hours.
3. Turn pork in the BBQ sauce occasionally.
4. The pork is done when you can take two forks and start pulling it apart.

Giving the BBQ sauce a good boil

The pork and the sauce are all cozy and ready for their 4-5 hour rest in the slow cooker

Ingredients for the Homerun-fries:

• 1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 1 inch (2.5cm) cubes.
• 1 green onion, chopped
• 1 tbsp canola oil

Directions for the Homerun-fries:

1. Boil or roast the sweet potato cubes until very soft.
2. Heat canola oil in a pan, pan-fry the sweet potato cubes, smashing them with a fork. You want a slight crispy texture on the exterior of the smashed cubes.
3. Stir in the chopped green onion.
4. Serve warm.

Ingredients for the Dijon Béchamel:

• 1 tbsp unsalted butter
• 1 tbsp white flour
• 2-3 tbsp Dijon Mustard
• 1/2- 3/4 cup of milk
• salt to taste

Directions for the Dijon Béchamel:

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan on medium heat. Stir in the flour and cook but don’t brown it.
2. Slowly stir in the milk, whisking to incorporate the flour butter mixture so it’s not lumpy. Keep whisking until you reach your desired thickness (it will thicken more as you cook it).
3. Add the Dijon and blend well.
4. Keep warm.

Assembly and serving for one:

• 1-2 perfectly poached eggs.
• 1-2 Whole wheat English Muffins per person, torn in half and toasted.
• 2-4 tbsp braised red cabbage
• 1/4 cup sweet potato
• Dijon Béchamel

The pork after it has been pulled

Notes:

• I seared the pork in my favourite cast iron pan and therefore could not use it for the BBQ sauce as the acidity of the sauce strips off the seasoning from the pan. Had I done it in my enamel cast iron pan, I would not have had an issue.
• We added the braised purple cabbage for more gluttony with the benefit of texture, colour and flavour, feel free to omit.
• To perfectly poach an egg, heat 10cm or 3.5 inches of water to a gentle boil. Add 1 tbsp vinegar (this helps to set the egg white so it doesn’t get all stringy) salt. Break eggs into individual cups or small bowls. Gently turn the egg into the hot water allowing the water to flow into the small cup or bowl, once the egg is setting, gently turn it fully out and giving it a summer-salt. Repeat with all eggs and set the timer for 2 minutes. The water should be gently boiling not roughly bubbling. When the timer goes off, remove each egg onto a paper towel to dry. Serve immediately.

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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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