Fridge-buster: celery and leek phyllo pie
Posted on | February 15, 2009 | 2 Comments| Printer Friendly
Friday rolled around and the fridge was nearly bare. I thought I easily had enough veggies left to make a decent pizza, but alas, I didn’t even have enough in the fridge for a pizza! Here’s what I had on hand: two leeks, a bunch of celery and some left over feta and blue cheese and a very very old package of phyllo pastry. Yikes. I didn’t even have a can of chick peas in the pantry. No chick peas! We always have a can lurking in the back of the cupboard, but not today. I figured I could make a very random phyllo pie using the cheese and veggies and cooked rice for the “filler”.
Into the fry pan went the leeks and celery. Then I threw in some herbs: dill, oregano, basil, thyme and some salt and pepper. I mixed the veggies into the cooked rice and stirred it all together. I threw it into the baking pan, crumbled the feta and blue cheese on top and then folded the sheets of phyllo over the whole thing.
Thirty minutes later out came the fridge-buster phyllo pie - and you know what, it was really good! It didn’t taste completely random at all.
Boyfriendly rating: 4/5 “Surprisingly good for simple ingredients.”
Chicken and prune roll
Posted on | February 9, 2009 | 1 Comment| Printer Friendly
I’ve had this little recipe bookmarked for a while from Belinda Jefferey’s book, Chicken Perfection. (You can also find the full recipe here via Google Books.) It’s sort of a take on a meat pie, without any fussing with pie plates. It’s pretty basic, onions, chicken, some spices and lots of prunes all rolled up into store bought puff pastry.
Belinda’s version called for only one sheet of puff pastry, but one sheet wasn’t enough to wrap our version. I lopped a bit off a second sheet to cover the gap and used the remaining pastry to cut out some cute hearts for the top. The whole thing is brushed with milk and sprinkled with poppy seeds.
I made one substitution - Belinda’s original recipe calls for bacon, but I hate buying bacon when a recipe only calls for a couple of slices. (I know you can technically freeze extra bacon, but something just weirds me out about frozen bacon.) Instead, I substituted prosciutto.
The recipe was really delicious - even the prunes! Ask my dad. I roll up my nose whenever he offers to put them on my fruit salad when I’m home visiting. Maybe I’m old. Maybe this is what happens when you have a kid - suddenly prunes become tasty. Whatever the reason, my tastebuds give prunes the A-okay rating now.
Mmm!
Economic Stimulus Porkage
Posted on | February 8, 2009 | 3 Comments| Printer Friendly
As we were grocery shopping last week, the boy passed by a cooler full of pork shoulder and swiftly put the cart into park. He goggled at the price of these huge pieces of meat - $5?!? For real? He practically made puppy dog eyes to put one of them into our shopping cart.
Him: I saw a recipe in Gordon Ramsay’s “Three star chef” that uses this cut of meat.
Me: Oh really? Well, I guess. If Gordon used it.. ok.
(Upon return home.)
Him: Oh wait, he used lamb.
Me: Um… we have five pounds of pork.
I did some Googling to figure out what does one do with a large pork shoulder and the unanimous internet answer seemed to be - pulled pork. I decided to use Simply Recipe’s instructions for pulled pork since this girl knows food and so far I’ve had really good luck with her recipes. I decided to increase the thrift factor by making homemade buns using this recipe.
Neither of us was quite sure about boiling meat - there was something very utilitarian about the whole thing. It was like we could smell the recession cooking in our kitchen. And I have to say, the recession smelled delicious! The tangy smell teased us along for three hours while the meat cooked and another hour while the sauce reduced. By mid afternoon, our stomachs were ready for a hunger bail-out package. I piled the pork onto the homemade buns and sent it on a one-way trip to stomach-ville. End result? We loved it!
As for the economy - if ony we could fix it by throwing some of these pork buns at it.
Boyfriendly rating: 5/5. Five for thrift and five for taste!
The best chocolate chip cookies
Posted on | February 8, 2009 | No Comments| Printer Friendly
When I saw Heidi’s recent post about chocolate chip cookies, I knew I needed to make them. RIGHT AWAY. That’s the dangerous thing about a well stocked pantry - you are always ready for a baking emergency. Call 911 - it’s a chocolate emergency! I was keen to make these cookies because they’re filled with rolled oats. I love oatmeal in cookies. Full stop. I spent the time grating my bar of Poulain 64% chocolate (instead of using chocolate chips) and it was worth the effort (and the small mess). I found these cookies a little too sweet - perhaps because I used brown sugar instead of cane sugar. Next time, I’d make it with a bit less. I also added in a couple of tablespoons of wheat germ for extra “granola mom points”.
Nonetheless, these were absolutely amazing. Chewy. Soft. Sweet! Chocolatey. What more could you ask for? More cookies.
Her recipe was meant to make 12 dozen “mini cookies” but I made regular size cookies and rolled out 24. Perfect.
Boyfriendly rating: 5/5
Quinoa with Moroccan Winter Squash and Carrot Stew
Posted on | February 7, 2009 | 3 Comments| Printer Friendly
This week’s “Thursday night challenge” was what to make for lunch on Friday. With a random assortment of veggies in the fridge (carrots, two butternut squash, celery) I wasn’t sure what to do. And getting to the grocery store just wasn’t an option. Enter Google. Tap tap tap. Boom. Epicurious recipe for quinoa and squash stew. Yes. I had tons of quinoa in the cupboard, the tinned tomatoes and 95% of the required ingredients… close enough. Once “the kid” went to bed on Thursday night, I prepped all the veggies: chopped the onions, garlic, butternut squash and measured out the quinoa. Everything was ready to go for Friday morning.
With everything chopped, the cooking time was minimal (about 20 minutes each). And the result was pretty good. It probably would have been four forks worthy if I had the fresh mint and cilantro for garnish. For my tastes, I think it could have used a bit more sweetness - maybe some raisins would have been nice. The quinoa was super and the tumeric made it look a little more Kasbah and a little less “granola mom”.
I think you could be generous and make extra quinoa - I found I had MUCH more stew than quinoa.
Boyfriendly rating: 3/5 (Using the fresh herbs probably would have helped.)
Country white dinner rolls
Posted on | February 7, 2009 | No Comments| Printer Friendly
Sometimes dinner just tastes better with fresh rolls. And the nice thing about making them is that it takes no time. Well, as long as you’re handy with a bread machine. This recipe for “country white” dinner rolls had a lot of positive reviews, so I gave it a try. And they were tasty. The best rolls ever ever ever? Maybe not. In fact, they reminded me a lot of the rolls you get with your lobster dinner back on PEI. (Which isn’t a bad thing.) I guess what I’m trying to say is that they taste sort of homey. Nutritional void of white flour aside - it’s a keeper recipe for standard white rolls.
Gingery chai spice cookies
Posted on | February 1, 2009 | 1 Comment| Printer Friendly
I had a real hankering for cookies last night and had an earl grey cookie bookmarked in my “to try” binder. Except, I had no earl grey tea in the cupboard. I did have some loose ginger tea on hand - this gave me the idea to do a chai-ish cookie. I blitzed up the tea leaves in the coffee grinder (I knew that thing would come in handy sooner or later… ok, two years later). This is a super cookie recipe - the cookies get nice and crispy and brown on the edges and are deliciously chewy in the middle. I think it would be interesting to try using different teas in the mix - earl grey, english breakfast, jasmine etc.
The husband thought they had an interesting flavour… so he said after devouring three of them. They have a nice grown up taste - perfect for taking along to a mom meet-up or movie night at home licking batter from the bowl in your jammies.
Boyfriendly rating: 5/5 “Really really good. Delicious and subtle flavour.”
Ingredients:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/8 tsp ground cloves
- 1/4 tsp ground cardamon
- 1/4 tsp ground ginger
- 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp cinnamon
- 1 Tablespoon tea leaves (I used ginger tea)
- 1/2 cup sugar + extra for rolling the cookies
- 1 egg
- 1 stick butter
- 1 tsp vanilla
Mix the dry ingredients together. I used a coffee bean grinder to grind the tea leaves into a powder. In a separate bowl, cream together the butter and sugar. Then add the egg and vanilla and beat again to incorporate. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the butter mixture.
Preheat the oven to 375F.
Use a small scoop to scoop balls of dough. Roll the balls in a small bowl of sugar to coat. Place on non-stick cookie sheet about 2 inches apart. (I use a Silpat. Good grief I love our Silpat.) Press the cookies flat using a greased spoon, measuring cup, glass etc. (whatever you have handy).
Bake for 10 minutes at 375F (or until the edges are golden).
Stuffed peppers à la Martha
Posted on | January 30, 2009 | 1 Comment| Printer Friendly
This month’s issue of Martha Stewart Living had a recipe for Greek style stuffed peppers. It seemed easy enough and looked pretty in the photo. And pretty healthy too. I know I’ve slipped a bit in the healthy cooking area so I thought this would be a good way to get back on track. Stuffed with couscous (a new mom’s favourite grain.. or is it a pasta?) these peppers couldn’t be easier to put together. While the recipe doesn’t say whether or not to cook the couscous in advance, I chose to cook mine. It only takes five minutes. I also cooked my couscous in some chicken stock for extra Martha points.
Of course, it’s the feta that makes this recipe. (Insert Rachel Ray clapping at the mention of cheese.) I’ve been buying my feta at the Herb & Spice - they have a nice Canadian one that doesn’t taste quite as salty as the usual feta I’d find at the grocery store.
I also cooked ours in the oven and not the slow-cooker and it definitely did not take the full hour that Martha suggests… unless you like pepper mush.
While the peppers would make a light snack, I was left hungry after I made them for supper. No one likes a hungry mom.
Boyfriendly rating: 4/5.
Custard cookies
Posted on | January 29, 2009 | 4 Comments| Printer Friendly
I was flipping through Nigella’s Feast cookbook during some mom downtime and saw her recipe for custard cookies. I’m not a huge custard person, but we keep a can of custard powder in our pantry because the husband likes custard with pie. I think it’s weird. Why put pudding on pie when you can put ice cream on pie? At any rate, we have a large can of this stuff and only one person eating it. I thought this recipe could be a good way to use some (read: get read of it).
While my cookies didn’t bake up as golden or as smooth as Nigella’s version, they did taste good. Not too sweet and oh.so.flakey.melt-in-your-mouthy (due to the shortening I’m guessing). I’d definitely make these again with some changes. First, this recipe makes WAY too much icing. Yes, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing. (Maybe I wasn’t as generous a cookie-icer as Nigella.) Secondly, I’d roll my dough out even flatter - they do puff up more than I expected.
Boyfriendly rating: 4/5 The husband and I both agreed it tasted like a cookie you’d buy in the store… but way fresher and meltier.
- 175g flour
- 3 Tablespoons custard powder
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 50g unsalted butter
- 50g vegetable shortening
- 3 Tablespoons sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoon milk
Icing (modified)
- 1/2 Tablespoon custard powder
- 50g icing sugar
- 25g butter
- 1/2 teaspoon boiling water (more or less … to make it a smooth paste)
Mix the flour, custard powder and baking powder. Add the butter and shortening and mix until crumbly. Add the sugar, egg and milk. Process until smooth.
Form the dough into a ball, roll it into a flat disc and cover with cling wrap. Pop in the fridge to chill for 20 minutes.
Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface. Cut out shapes in pairs.
Preheat oven to 350F.
For the custard icing, mix the custard powder, icing sugar and butter together in a small bowl. Gradually add boiling water until smooth.
Let cookies cool before icing.
Amaranth bread
Posted on | January 27, 2009 | No Comments| Printer Friendly
I am living life vicariously this winter through by experimenting with different flours. I know, can you feel the excitement? The ongoing bus strike (and our “car free-ness”) means that some days going grocery shopping is the only entertain we can muster outside the house. I wasn’t feeling very hopeful about this bread recipe since I had the “Great Spelt Disaster of 2009” (see also: yuck) the previous day. I was worried that my newly stocked pantry of foo-foo flours was probably just a big waste of money.
Luckily, this bread didn’t just have satisfactory results - it was outstanding! It has quickly found itself a place in the “keeper” binder of recipes. I think this bread recipe was successful due to the moderate amount of amaranth flour (unlike the spelt bread which I tried to make with all spelt flour). This bread is light and fluffy with a little hint of sweetness. Don’t be alarmed by the vanilla addition to the dough, it totally works without making the bread taste cake-y.
Boyfriendly rating: 4/5 “Because nothing can beat the New Brunswick Brown Bread recipe.”
Bread machine recipe for a 1 1/2 lb. loaf (adapted from this recipe)
- 1 cup plus 2 Tablespoons milk
- 1 egg
- 1 Tablespoons sunflower oil
- 3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup amaranth flour
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
- 3/4 teaspoon salt
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
I set my bread machine for a 1 1/2 pound loaf on the “light crust” setting. Enjoy!
Handy Downloads
Vanilla Watch
Vanilla bean added to vodka on December 27, 2008. Extra vanilla pod added January 9.
