Random Acts of Cooking

Sunflower Seed & Almond Butter

2007-12-24T22:04:00.001-06:00

Ingredients:

Sunflower Seeds
Almonds
Honey
Salt
Olive Oil

Throw seeds, nuts and other gerbil food into the blender. Start grinding while adding oil gradually. At some point, add salt and honey to taste. Continue adding oil until spreadable consistency is reached.

Place in a jar and refrigerate.

Oh, and while cleaning the food processor blade, cut yourself.

No pictures as it's tasty, but looks disgusting.

Mac n' Cheese n' Chicken too

2007-12-12T19:43:00.001-06:00

1 tablespoon cooking oil
1lb chicken breast (two seemed right)
1 small onion, chopped
Seasoning, to taste

1 package of Kraft Dinner
2 cups of vegetables (broccoli is best, but anything works)
2 cups of water
1/4 cup sour cream

Heat oil in pan, add onions, then chicken. Season chicken as you like. Paprika recommended, but salt and pepper work if you have nothing else. Cook chicken until almost done.

Stir in two cups of water and pasta. Cover and let simmer for 10 minutes or until pasta is done. Stir in vegetables. Add sour cream and cheese mix. Stir. You may need to turn down the heat and let simmer to reduce the liquid. Tastes good as leftovers for lunch the next day.

Spicy Chickpea Hash

2007-12-05T12:59:00.001-06:00

I don't really know what to call this, so Spicy Chickpea Hash it is.

You will need:

Chickpeas
Eggplant
Potato
Carrot
Harissa Sauce
Cumin
Fennel Seed
Ground Coriander
Salt
Pepper
Olive Oil
Garlic
Tamari
Milk

Start two nights before desired serving time. Soak your dried chickpeas for 24 hours. After soaking bring to a boil then place it immediately into the strange insulating thermos-type thing you have for large pots. Allow to cook over night.

Peel, cube and boil some potatoes.

Slice some eggplant.

Admire the pretty chickpeas that don't taste like they've been canned (because they haven't!)

The Harissa Sauce. Spiciness factor: 7

So, in a large pan, heat some olive oil. Add garlic, eggplant and onions. Season a bit with salt and pepper. Allow to cook for a little bit. Add potatoes and chickpeas now as they are already cooked. Stew and reduce with a little bit of milk.

Season with spices, tamari and harissa sauce. Add a bit of water and reduce.

Now eat!

(I forgot the onions)

Curry Vegetable Soup

2007-11-27T20:56:00.000-06:00

No pictures unfortunately. A spicy, hearty soup.

Ingredients:

Carrot
Onion
Potato
Kidney Beans
Frozen Peas
Coconut Milk
Milk
Chestnuts
Chili Flakes
Ground Cumin
Cayenne Pepper
Red Curry Paste
Vegetable soup bouillon
Flour
Olive Oil
Sesame Seed Oil

Heat saucepan with olive and sesame seed oils. Add diced onion and carrot. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cook for a little bit on medium-high heat then deglaze with a bit of and then some of milk. Add vegetable bouillon and spices to taste. Add frozen peas, coconut milk, red curry paste, potatoes, kidney beans chestnuts and a bit of water. Reduce, cook, simmer, whatever.

When everything is cooked you have powerful flavour! Add water and stir in a bit of flour to thicken.

Desserty Polenta

2007-11-06T21:34:00.000-06:00

I set out to make polenta today. It actually went quite well with this being my first attempt.

Ingredients:

Milk
Water
Butter
Cornmeal
Salt
Vanilla
Brown Sugar

Topping:

Raisins
Craisins
Dried Apricots
Ginger
Butter
Corn Syrup

Bring the milk just to a boil. Slowly add cornmeal while whisking constantly. Realize that you don't know how much cornmeal to liquid you need so recover by adding water. Add a little bit of butter and season with a little bit of salt. Stir occasionally over low heat for an hour.

After an hour taste the polenta and ask yourself "what do I do now? I just wanted to make polenta... I have no idea what to do with it or how one should eat it." Decide that the polenta is a little on the sweet side and therefore would make an admirable dessert. Mix in some brown sugar and vanilla.

In a sauce pan, melt some butter and add the dried fuit and ginger to it. Deglaze and reduce a few times with water. Towards the end, I added some corn syrup to thicken it. Top the polenta with the 'sauce' and garnish with sliced almonds.

Voila, but the topping needs work.

Peanut Butter Hummus

2007-10-13T19:04:00.000-06:00

Awhile ago I bought some chick peas at the grocery store. They've been sitting in my cupboard for a few months, and today I decided it was time to do something with them. What can you do with chick peas? For one thing, you can make hummus.

As far as I can tell, hummus has four main ingredients: chick peas, lemon, garlic and tahini. I didn't have any tahini so I used peanut butter instead.

To make the hummus all I really did was throw everything into the blender and blend it. I used a can of chick peas, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 gobs of peanut butter and half a lemon. If you're wondering what the red stuff is, I decided to add a spoonful of paprika at the last minute to spice it up a bit. I also had to add a little bit of water because the stuff wouldn't blend properly without it.

After blending it was a little more watery than I was hoping, which was probably a result of the water I added. Meh.

I scooped some into a bowl and ate it as a snack with some crackers and carrots. It was pretty tasty. I think next time I might want to use a bit more spice. I'm not sure how close the taste is to actual hummus because I've only had it a few times, and I don't remember what it tastes like. It made a lot more than I thought it would... I wonder how long this stuff will keep in the fridge?

Vegan Pasta

2007-10-03T20:19:00.000-06:00

The purpose of today's cooking adventure was to see what fake soy cheese was all about. Continue reading for the results...

Meet the ingredients: Pasta, Coconut Milk, White Beans, White Onions, Garlic, Shallots, Fake Soy Havarti, Shallots, Yellow Pepper, Red Pepper, Endives...

Margarine, Flour, Sun Dried Tomatoes in Oil, Capers and Olive Oil.

My first thought was to make a basic Mornay Sauce without the butter, milk or cheese. So, let's just call this a "Yanrom Sauce". I made a "roux" with margarine and flour. Then I poured in a can of scalded coconut milk.

This is the soy havarti, aka fake cheese. Since I couldn't find fake edam or parmigiano-reggiano, I settled for something with a hopefully creamy taste. I was wrong. Fake cheese is awful. Icky, ick, ick! So with nothing else to do with the entire $6 block of fake cheese, I put all of its 900 calories into the sauce hoping the other ingredients would obfuscate its flavour.

At least it melted, but it's just not gooey or stringy. Add salt, pepper and I also put in a few capers for good measure.

While the cheese is melting in the sauce, use some olive oil in another pan to fry the onion, then shallots and finally the garlic. After a Little While (tm) add the rinsed out can of white beans, sun dried tomatoes and chopped up peppers. I deglazed with water a couple times. If white wine were on hand, that would have been the preferred deglazing agent.

Now came the endives. I've never cooked with them before and they were expensive!

Chop, chop chop! Endives are grown underground so they remain white. Raw, they are somewhat bitter.

To complete the sauce, I combined both pots together.

And there it is, on top of some pasta. Tasty. You can barely taste the cheese at all! I'm not sure how to describe the flavour. It's an Asian-Italian-Hippie infusion.

Chocolate Cranberry & Almond Brownies

2007-09-16T15:18:00.001-06:00

Not having made brownies in over ten years, I decided to give it a whirl.

Meet the Ingredients

Cream butter, eggs, sugar, vanilla and elmond extract
In a double boiler, melt some chocolate. In this case, some blocks of unsweetened baker's chocolate and some semi-sweet chocolate chips.

Add chocolate to butter mixture.

I understand baking power is a leavening agent of some sort. I threw some in for good measure.

Then I added flour, almonds, dried cranberries and skor toffee chips.

Bake at 350 till a toothpick says otherwise. 45 minutes for me.

Then for some reason, I decided I wanted cold brownies, so I inverted them on a sheet and...

Put them in the freezer for an hour.

Voila. Decadent. Perhaps a bit too much sugar and the sugar's caramelized a bit too much on the bottom.The cranberry is a really nice contrast with all of the sweet. A little bit of orange would probably go well too.I used sliced almonds, so they're hard to taste in there. Almond chunks or walnuts next time.

Pear, Apricot & Almond Bread

2007-09-14T22:41:00.000-06:00

Inspired by Eileen's delicious Apricot loaf and Jamie Oliver, I bring you my latest no-recipe bread creation!

Flour, water, yeast, salt and sugar

Create your own retention pond (man-made lakes for you marketing folk)

Knead (poorly) and let rise.

Step 4: Caramelize Pears in butter

Add Amaretto and Corn Syrup. I was looking for honey, but I couldn't find any. Hence the Corn Syrup.

Add some dried apricots while you're at it. Oh, and some Apricot Jam. I wanted to add marmalade too, but I went with...

Zest du L'orange

I ended up reducing it for over an hour by continuously adding water. The pears were really resilient and refused to soften! When done, reserve and allow to cool.

After dough has doubled in size, knead some of the gooey fruit mixture into it along with sliced almonds.

It goes into a greased pan.

Alternatively, roll out some dough and create some sort of bread turn-over with the filling.

The Loaf took about 70 minutes at 350 degrees.

The "turn-over" took 50 minutes at 350.

Yum, yumm!

In retrospect, the bread is a bit dry, perhaps over-cooked. Sixty minutes next time along with some butter or olive oil in the dough to keep it moist. Maybe some almond extract in the dough as well.

Grilled Pork and Mango Salad

2007-08-14T20:46:00.000-06:00

From my new favourite cookbook, Company's Coming: Simple Suppers.

1lb Pork Tenderloin
1 tsp Chili powder
1/4 cup hickory bbq sauce

8 Cups cut or torn romaine lettuce
14 oz can of sliced mangoes, chopped
1 cup thinly sliced red pepper

Sweet and Spicy Dressing
1/2 cup Italian or ranch dressing
2 tbsp Lime or orange juice
2 tbsp liquid honey
1/2 tsp chili powder

Sprinkle all sides of pork with chili powder. Cook on grill until done, turning occasionally. Brush with bbq sauce and cook for another 4 to 5 minutes. Remove to cutting board. Cover with foil and let stand for 10 minutes. Cut into slices.

Layer next 3 ingredients on 4 large plates. Top with pork.

Dressing
Combine all ingredients in bowl. Makes about 3/4 cup. Drizzle over salads.

Okay, here's my improvisations. First of all, I was only cooking for two so I halved the pork and the lettuce. For the pork I actually used two boneless pork chops and cooked them on the George Foreman. I didn't have romaine lettuce so I used iceberg. I used one fresh mango. Use two if cooking for four. I cut up half of one red pepper.

For the dressing I used the Italian and the orange juice. Lime would have been better, but I didn't have it. I made the full recipe and kept the left overs to use on my lunch salad the next day.

The meal turned out great and was quick and easy. Would have been better with a nice white wine.

Yam Fries Dipping Sauce

2007-03-26T01:31:00.000-06:00

Made this in Victoria a little while back. No pictures I'm afraid.

In a sauce pan, sauté shallots garlic and onions in some butter. Reduce heat, add gobs of mayo. Spicify it with smoke paprika, salt, pepper, cumin, dried parsley and whatever you desire. Add secret ingredient which is pureed chipotle peppers. Add second ingredient: a massive amount of parmesan cheese.

Apply liberally to yam fries.

Have heart attack.

Sweet Potato Coconut Soup

2007-03-21T23:11:00.000-06:00

A friend sent me this recipe and I decided to try it this weekend. It seemed kind of interesting. I would have never ever thought of combining sweet potatoes and coconuts in a million years. Especially not in soup form. Anyways, here's how it went.

I started out by frying up some onions and garlic in a saucepan. This is always my favorite part of cooking because it smells sooooooo good :)

Next step was to add some chopped up sweet potatoes and some chicken broth and boil for a bit (until the potatoes turn soft).

Once the potatoes were soft, I was supposed to add some coconut milk and spices... so I did. The recipe called for curry powder, but I didn't have any, so I used chili powder instead.

I put everything into the blender for a bit to get it all into one consistent mixture. Have I mentioned that I love my blender?

The result was interesting. It wasn't quite was I was expecting. It was good, but I wasn't blown away by it. Maybe cuz I didn't follow the recipe to the letter. I think next time I might try using regular milk instead of the coconut kind. That may work better for me. We shall see!

Taco Pie

2007-03-12T20:30:00.000-06:00

I made my infamous taco pie for dinner tonight. Soo good. The ingredients are shown above. Ground beef, taco seasoning, onion, green pepper, tomato, cheese, shells, and spicy death sauce.

I started out by frying some onion and green pepper and browning the ground beef simultaneously.

Once that was done I dumped the veggies into the beef and added the taco seasoning and spicy death sauce. I suppose you could add some beans to the mix too. But, like most things beans give me gas, so I chose not to :P

I also added some chili powder and some "secret ingredient". I then simmered everything until most of the liquid was gone.

Once that was done, I layered the shells and the taco beef mixture in a casserole dish. If you use your casserole dish as much as I do you may want to wipe out the dust first. (I think this was actually the first time I used it). Then I threw some tomatoes and shredded cheese on top and baked the whole thing for about 20 min or so.

And here it is! It was pretty tasty and I ended up eating more than I should have. Soooo full now. The good news is I still have over half of it for leftovers this week. I probably won't have to cook again until the weekend. Nice.

Breakfast Skillet Wraps

2007-02-12T22:19:00.000-06:00

I made myself a tasty breakfast this weekend. (It was actually an afternoon thing, but it was the first meal of the day, so it still counts as breakfast.)

I started out by cutting up some sweet potato and throwing it into the frying pan.

Then I added some green pepper and onion as well as some random spices.

I also cut up and added some breakfast sausages I found in a ziploc bag in my freezer. I think they were pork, but they may have been turkey. Who knows? I threw out the box a long time ago and don't really remember. (I like to subdivide food into single person portions before I freeze it.) They did have a slight maple flavour.

And finally I threw everything into a wrap with some shredded cheese and salsa and ate it all burrito style. It was pretty tasty if I say so myself. I was contemplating adding some scrambled eggs to the mix, but I'd had a few drinks the night before, and didn't really think that would be a good idea. Maybe next time.

Beef Patties

2007-02-10T13:20:00.001-06:00

Here is another recipe. I used to do this kind of thing for lunch but now I'll only do this kind of thing for dinner. It's basicly seasoned ground beef in puff pastry.

First you need ground beef, lamb, chicken, turkey... tofu? Don't know, haven't tried tofu. Try it and let me know.

Then you need all of this:

Basicly you throw however much you want of whatever you have in the meat. I use various hot sauces, dijon mustard, ginger and garlic paste, soy sauce, worchestire sauce, brown sugar, cornstarch, salt and a little oil. Missing in this picture is baking soda and freshly ground black pepper which I forgot to include into the picture. Your aim should be to include hot, sour and sweet flavours. You can emphasize whichever taste you prefer (I prefer hot) but it's important to have all three. If you add soy sauce go easy on the salt. Cornstarch gives the meat some stiffness and baking soda makes fun fizzing noises and helps with the whole marinating process.

Once mixed it should look something like this: (sorry, think it's out of focus)

Then you saran wrap the bowl and leave it in the fridge overnight.

The next day you fry the meat. You should not need to add oil. You added a bit to the meat mix and that should carry you through. Should look something like this:

Then you use puff pastry like the one seen below.

Then you cut the pastry into squares, put the meat in the middle and fold over to form triangles. Then you bake them and get the final product as seen below.

Chindian fried noodles

2007-02-04T03:38:00.000-06:00

I've been asked if I was Chindian before - a mix between Chinese and Indian, though I think she meant Native American. Anyways, this cooking experiment is fusion food with Chinese and "real" Indian.

I got the idea from who I think was the owner of Charisma East Indian Restaurant in Winnipeg. Upon discovering that me and my family was Chinese, he said that in India, a big trend was fusion food with Chinese food. Apparently, using Chinese noodles with Indian spices is big and he was contemplating adding it to his menu.

I completely made this up as I went along. I figured that I still had the jar of Indian curry and I had instant noodles. Why not try and make some fried noodles?

Ingredients: curry and instant noodles

Put some water and oil in the pan. More water required than the fried udon b/c the instant noodles need to be reconstituted. This wasn't enough water as I had to add extra water later.

Add the instant noodles

Cook the noodles until they break apart and is no longer hard

Spoon in some curry

The finished product

It was ok. Not that flavourful. I also put in too much oil as I was afraid of the noodles sticking and I was having problems getting the curry paste mixed in. I probably should've added the curry paste earlier when there was still some water in the pan, though the noodles were crispy, which was nice. The excessive amount of oil combined with the concentrated nature of the paste, it ended up being pretty heavy. It seemed like I needed something else in there. Maybe I should've made it more like real curry by having the noodles in a soup-like base. I don't think the curry paste is supposed to be eaten without adding additional stuff. Maybe I was supposed to use other Indian spices for the fusion dish. I also may have used the wrong type of noodles. Got any ideas?

Naan bread from scratch!

2007-01-31T23:58:00.000-06:00

This was from the 14th. Again, I just didn't get around to posting this until now.

I love naan bread and since I can now make some pretty good curry, I figured I'd try making my own naan bread :)

Of course, I looked to the Internet for guidance, and I found this video of how to make naan bread. It called for 200g of flour, which was problematic as I don't have a kitchen scale. Again, looking on the Internet, I figured that 200g flour = 1.25 - 1.5 cups of flour. I used something in between. I found that the dough was really dry and I had to keep adding milk and yogurt to make it work, but maybe I just used too much flour :p.

It didn't turn out quite like naan bread, but it was quite tasty! I really like bread, especially fresh bread :). I don't think I rolled the dough thin enough. I didn't want to roll it too thin b/c the video warned me not to.

Naan bread and curry from scratch!!!

A closer look at the naan bread

Once I perfect the naan bread, I'm opening up my own Indian restaurant.

Fried udon

2007-01-31T23:28:00.000-06:00

I made this on the 10th, but kept putting off the blog post. It's not the first time I've made fried udon, but it's the first time I'm documenting my process.

Ingredients: shrimp, carrots, broccoli, mushrooms, and udon. I should've chopped up some onions too.

Put a little water and oil in the pan

Add the udon. I only ended up using 2 packages.

Cook until the udon breaks apart

Add the veggies. A spatula is easier at this point rather than chopsticks.

Add some frozen veggies for more colour if you want

The water will evaporate. You may need to add more oil. You can use a bit of sesame oil instead of regular oil. When the veggies are pretty much cooked, add the shrimp, or other meat, or nothing for vegetarian.

Seasoning: sesame seeds, dark soy sauce, white pepper, chives, sesame oil, parsley flakes, and light soy sauce. I just add a bit of everything. I don't know whether to use dark or light soy sauce, so I use both. Dark seems to give it the colour and saltiness and light gives a bit of a sweet taste. If available, use fresh green onions and parsley instead of the jarred chives and flakes I used.

Done

The final product. It was tasty!

Meat Sauce

2007-01-27T00:49:00.000-06:00

I begin with my meat sauce. Below are the vegetables I use. Onions, celery and carrots are standard, add hot chillies if you like spice.

Wash and dice vegetables. Heat oil. I try to cook as light as I can, add enough oil so that you can swirl the pot once and the floor of the pot will be covered with a uniform thin layer. Also, add salt and pepper to the vegetables. I try to go light on the salt too. This all goes on at medium to high heat.

Once the vegetables our soft. Add ground meat. You can use chicken, veal, beef, whatever... no fish. I think that would be nasty.

Keep meat and vegetables at medium to high heat. Let the meat brown in the vegetable mix. Once it's pretty well cooked through it should look something like this:

Then add canned tomatoes and tomato paste. If you use whole tomatoes like I did then while the sauce is cooking you have to press it with a potato smasher every now then.

After adding the tomato stuff you're basicly done. All that's left is the seasoning. Add as much basil, oregano, salt, pepper, parsley as you desire. You can cut up and add more hot chillies if you like. Leave the sauce on medium to low heat for atleast a half an hour. The longer the better.

Final product:

Ok, so the last pic wasn't actually the final pic. There was some potato smasher action in the pot afterwards to get the meat sauce less tomato-chunked. If you don't add meat you can make a really good smooth tomato sauce by putting it through the blender after it's cooked but still warm. You can use diced tomatoes and save yourself some hassle. This sauce takes a while to make but you can use it for many things.

Apple Hash Browns

2007-01-20T15:42:00.000-06:00

I decided I would try and make apple hash browns for breakfast this morning. I wasn't too sure how they would turn out, but I couldn't think of any reason why they wouldn't. My logic was, you usually make hash browns from potatoes, and apples and potatoes are pretty similar when you think about it. They both have a skin, they have similar consistencies on the inside, and in french potatoes are called pommes de terre which if you translate literally means "apples of the ground". So in theory the two should be interchangeable right? Let's find out.

First I took an apple...

Chopped it up and put the pieces in a frying pan....

And then added some vegetable oil and fried the whole thing.

This is how they turned out. They looked like hash browns alright, but there was a subtle difference. When you fry potatoes, they get crispy. Apples, on the other hand, get mushy. Not sure why they behave differently. My theory is that apples turn mushy because they contain more water than potatoes, but who knows what the real reason is?
They didn't turn out quite like I thought, but they still tasted ok. It might work better using a different kind of apple. I wonder how apple fries would work?

Crème Brûlée

2007-01-15T20:13:00.000-06:00

I borrowed a bunch of cookbooks from the library for Christmas time. One of the books was by Julia Child. I had some leftover cream from making bread pudding and decided to attempt to make Julia's crème brûlée from it. I love ordering this dessert from a restaurant, but have always been too intimidated to make it. I made some minor modifications from the original recipe (omitted a few steps and didn't use orange zest). Here's what happened:

Stirred together cream and vanilla extract in a saucepan and brought to a simmer.

Beat egg yolks and sugar together.

Gradually stirred the cream mixture into the egg mixture. You're supposed to go slowly in order to avoid coming out with scrambled eggs.
Poured the combined mixture into ice cream bowls. I don't have ramekins.

Put the bowls in baking dishes that were filled with water. The water keeps the oven steamy and moist inside.

Took the bowls out of the oven when the custards were set, about half an hour. Then put the custards in the fridge to chill for about 4 hours.

Sprinkled brown sugar on top of the custards.

Time to form the crust. This can be done either with a blowtorch or underneath a broiler. My dad has a blowtorch, however I don't know where it's been and what he's used it for in the past, so I decided to go with the broiler method.

Put the bowls back in the oven and turned the broiler on. I set the rack in the middle of the oven and sat and watched the sugar turn colour. Took the bowls out after the sugar darkened in colour, a few minutes.

Rich creamy goodness!

The custard part of the crème brûlée tasted really good, however the crust wasn't exactly what I had hoped for. The crust was hard and provided a nice contrast to the creamy custard, but the sugar didn't really caramelize. It was still powdery in some spots, and um... very very brown in other spots. I may have put too much sugar on top. I think the next time I try this, I'll use less sugar for the crust. A blowtorch might also be helpful for precision browning.

A variety

2007-01-14T14:37:00.000-06:00

This one doesn't have pictures. (sorry) It should but it doesn't ... I was too busy cooking and then quite a bit of eating took place. So here are a few of my latest creations.

Rosemary herb flatbread. I took a basic dough recipe ... flour, water, yeast and some oil I think. I added some ground rosemary (using my mortar and pestle - which, as a pharmacist, is always handy) and some random herbs from the cupboard. Then it rose in a 200 degree oven for about 30 minutes. Then I stretched it out by hand onto my preheated pizza stone. I let it sit there for a while to rise a bit, then brushed it with milk for a crispy glazed top. Then I baked it until crispy and just barely browned. Some leftover pasta sauce served as a wonderful dipping sauce. A perfect alternative to the usual array of late night snacking food.

Then I had a friend over who is doing some diet where you cut all the carbs out. Why anyone would want to do this is beyond me! Alas, I said I'd make dinner for her. So I opted for a veggie beef stirfry minus the noodles/rice. I used my handy Tupperware(R) mini-chopper for all the veggies -- it really cuts down on the prep-time. After stirfrying, I added an oyster sauce-sesame oil-soy sauce-honey mixture to it all. I managed to scrape together a few morsels for lunch the next day.

Lastly, I got up early to make muffins this morning. I took my standard banana chocolate chip bread recipe and made muffins instead. Flour, baking soda and powder, salt, butter, eggs, sugar, chocolate chips and banana. I find it much easier to used previously frozen bananas and simply slice them open. Already all squished up - no mashing required. When I arrived, I discovered someone else decided to bring muffins as well. I am proud to say that, despite a plethora of muffins, my tray was completely gone! Hooray for that.

Garlic Dill Sweet Potatoes

2007-01-12T19:20:00.000-06:00

I was pretty hungry on the drive home from work. I spent pretty much the whole 45 min or so dreaming up what I could make for dinner, and this idea dawned on me. I'm sure it's been done before, but that doesn't make it any less tasty.

I started by throwing a slab of butter into a pot. Real butter, none of this margerine bullcrap. (Hydrogenated = bad).

I added some garlic salt and dill to the melting butter.

Once everything was melted and all mixed up, I added it to a dish of blurry sweet potatoes and baked the whole thing in the oven for about 40 min. (It took about twice as long as I thought it would). In hindsight, I think my slab of butter may have been a bit too big as there was a lot left in the dish after I took the potatoes out. Oh well.

Baking the sweet potatoes caused them to become slightly less blurry. They also absorbed the flavor from the garlic and dill, and became melt-in-your-mouth soft from the butter. They actually turned out a lot better than I expected. I thought I made enough for leftovers, but I ended up eating them all. Soo full right now.

Apple Sauce

2007-01-11T18:57:00.000-06:00

When I was a kid my grandmother always used to make homemade apple sauce. When I was in Toronto last week, I asked her how to make it. Turns out it's super easy.

First you take your apples. I used granny smith, because everyone knows they are the best kind of apples.

I peeled the apples, chopped them up and threw them in a pot with some water. You don't need a lot of water, if you use too much the sauce will end up being super runny. You can add some sugar too if you want (white or brown). I chose not to because I figure there's enough sugar in everything else these days.

From there all you do is bring the whole thing to a boil and stir it occasionally until the apples turn to mush.

And at the end of it all you have some apple sauce! A tasty treat! I'd make some pork chops to go with if it was only about 40 degrees warmer outside. Winter sucks for the bbq. :(

A Hard-Boiled Secret

2007-01-11T17:01:00.000-06:00

I have discovered the secret to making the perfect hard boiled egg. (Pay attention Jilly)

You start with your eggs.

Instead of adding the eggs to an already boiling pot, start with room temperature water.

Bring the pot the boil. Once it boils, remove the pot from heat, but leave the eggs in the water until it cools back down to around room temperature

And enjoy your eggs! Look at that, not even a hint a grey around those yolks. Perfect! Oh yeah!

Baileys + ? = yum

2007-01-01T19:21:00.000-06:00

Went to Rob's place to hang out with him and Vince. It was a snowy evening so I felt like drinking something cozy--Baileys! Caramel Baileys to be precise. You can drink Baileys with coffee or hot chocolate, you can drink Bailey's straight on ice. You can drink it in a house with a mouse, on a train with a dame... As I sat there in Rob's big comfy leather chair with my Bailey's on ice I thought to myself, "hmm, this is good. This makes me think of a Paralyzer--Kahlua, vodka, milk, and Coke. What if you mixed Baileys with Coke? No need for milk cuz Baileys is already creamy." This is what happens when you mix Baileys and Coke.

Begin by pouring some random amount of Baileys over ice.

Next, add some random amount of Coke (we're not supposed to measure for this blog, right?)

Hmmm....

Yeah, the results are not pretty. It reminded me of a demonstration of how yeast works. It tasted okay (I would have added milk but I didn't see any in Rob's fridge and I didn't want to continue experimenting by adding eggnog as a substitute). The lesson learned here was, you cannot always improve upon something that tastes good already on its own.

Food Songs

2006-12-31T03:21:00.000-06:00

Food songs, or songs that have food in them. Please expand!

Banana Pancakes - Jack Johnson
The Beer Song - They Might Be Giants
Do the Funky Chicken - Rufus Thomas
Eat It - Weird Al
Green Onions - Booker T. & The MGs
Lemon Tree - Peter, Paul & Mary
Let's Call the Whole Thing Off - Louis Armstrong
No Sugar Tonight - The Guess Who
Saturday Night Fish Fry - Louis Jordan
That's Amore - Frank Sinatra

Sweet Potato Pancakes

2006-12-30T20:23:00.000-06:00

I was a little bored today, so I decided to cook. I decided to attempt to make some sweet potato pancakes. For fun, I did this completely by the seat of my pants, no recipe was involved whatsoever. I only had a theory, which I hoped would result in something edible.

First step: I baked a sweet potato in the oven for a bit to soften it up, then I mashed it up on the breadboard with some flour.

For step two I added some brown sugar and an egg. (In retrospect, I may have used too much brown sugar.. ah well live and learn :P).

Next I mixed it all together into a big ball of dough. I had to add a bit more flour halfway through because it got all super sticky. This was actually the funnest part because afterwards I had all this orange sweet potato goo all over my hands. It was just like playdough, only tastier.

After I had the dough ready, I flattened it out (which was tricky because I don't have one of those dough rolling contraptions), cut it into pieces, and fried them up in some vegetable oil.

And voila! The finished product. Pretty simple "recipe" I guess. They didn't turn out quite like I had envisioned, but considering I was making it up as I went it's a miracle they were edible at all.

The Laws of Random Cooking

2006-12-25T03:12:00.000-06:00

The laws that govern the Land of Random Cooking:

Cooking is in a constant state of Quantum Flux. Attempts to create food identical to the last meal or by following a recipe will result in the destruction of the Multiverse.
No measuring. Measuring is teh lame.
Use Butter. Margarine is really a four letter crossword puzzle hint. I can't believe it's not butter? Oh, but I *can* believe it.
"A little bit of everything" is a valid ingredient.
Mysterious cans of food from your local neighbourhood ethnic grocery store with no English or French labels should be the centre piece of your next meal.
Setting food on fire is fun.
If you think you can dip it in batter and deep fry it, why haven't you already?
Everything should be cookable on the BBQ. Including pancakes. Think about it.
Ask yourself if this will taste good after you've made it and are offering it to your friends.
Beer is an integral part of the cooking process.
Beer is an integral part of the eating process.
Respect Garlic, Shallots and Onions.
Wine is a valid main course (and appetizer, and dessert).
Real poutine is made with cheese curds.

(feel free to Wikify this team)

Bread Stuffed with Stuff

2006-12-23T12:37:00.000-06:00

There is only one picture of "Bread Stuffed with Stuff" unfortunately. Begin with standard bread recipe:

Poof Yeast in warm water
Add sugar, salt, pepper, melted butter, olive oil and garlic
Slowly add in a mixture of 1/2 flour and 1/2 semolina until it all comes together
Knead with a minimal amount of effort
Coat with olive oil, cover with a damp cloth and allow to rise for an hour

While rising prepare stuff for stuffing:

In butter, sauté/cook/whatever purple onions, garlic, shallots, oyster mushrooms, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice and as much freakin' basil as possible.
In another bowl add some chopped tomatoes. But good tomatoes; none of that hot-house blight.
Combine everything together and reserve.
Preheat oven to 450 and place the baking stone in it.

Fusion:

Now that the dough has risen, place it on the hot baking stone and push and poke it into a large disc much larger than the stone..
Fill the centre with filling.
Add Cheese! Preferably good mozzarella or Feta
Fold dough back on top as shown in picture.
Brush olive oil on top of thing.
Place stone and bread thing back into oven.
Bake until golden brown and crispy.

Eat:

Do

Open mouth
Place food in mouth
Close mouth
Chew
Swallow

Loop

Super secret mango pudding

2006-12-11T05:22:00.000-06:00

Second pan of mango pudding (first one was pretty much finished at the potluck)

Tina hosted a potluck and I was obliged to bring my signature dish. No, it's not made from powder. That is insulting! No, I didn't get the recipe off the internet. No, it's not an old family recipe passed down through the generations. I made the recipe myself! No, you can't have the recipe. I'll give you a hint though:

Secret ingredient

It was quite well received, despite the mango pudding not in its most amazing form, as the coconut milk I used had congealed and left a white film on the top, but it tasted fine. Most of the pan I brought was finished, which is good b/c I wouldn't know what to do with all the leftovers, considering that I had a whole second pan. I've realized that I can pick up girls, or at least greatly impress them, with this dish, and I could open a mango pudding store next to my Indian restaurant.

I should open an Indian restaurant

2006-12-08T02:36:00.000-06:00

Today's dinner menu was inspired by Sarah's curry.

It was the first time I tried making curry and it was AMAZING!!! I swear that the flavour was exactly like chicken jalfrezi from a real Indian restaurant, except without the obscene amount of oil and more veggies.

Onions, broccoli, carrots, mushrooms, potatoes, chicken, curry paste, coconut milk, and naan-like bread

Cooked the onions in some oil in a pan

Threw in the chicken and scooped several teaspoons of curry paste in

Cooked for a few min. and then added the coconut milk and veggies

Simmered for a while, using a lid to help cook the vegetables

Wrapped the bread in aluminum foil and warmed it up in the oven

Made a fruit smoothie

Ate to the brink of food coma

SO GOOD

The only thing I'd change next time is to cook the potatoes separately for a bit b/c they took a while to cook despite being in small chunks and caused me to cooked the whole thing for longer than I needed, but it wasn't over cooked. I used "boiling" potatoes. I'm so confused at all the different potatoes - frying, boiling, baking, batteries, satellites...

Sweet Potato Burritos

2006-11-26T00:37:00.000-06:00

Last time I went grocery shopping I bought some sweet potatoes, and today I decided I needed to cook them. I was looking around on google for some ideas and I found this recipe. I would like to thank whoever the genius was that came up with this idea. I had to modify it slightly based on lack of ingredients and portion size and what I felt like doing. It turned out to be one of the tastiest dinners EVER!

First step was to pre-bake the sweet potatoes and mash them up. My trusty red toaster oven came in handy :)

Next I fried up some onions and garlic. Man did that smell good. I threw in a hot pepper too just for fun.

Once the potatoes were done I mashed them up and threw them in the pan. Also some beans and some chicken.

I added some water and spices and stuff and mixed everything together. It looked kinda gross at this point, but I had faith all would turn out well.

To be consistent with the other meals I've posted about, I added some "secret ingredient" to the mix.

Then I loaded up some shells and threw them in the oven for a bit..

And voila!! The finished product. They were UNREAL! As I said before, whoever came up with that recipe was a genius. As usual, I made way too much for just me so I have leftovers for at least a meal, maybe two. I know what I'm having for breakfast tomorrow ;)

Omelette

2006-11-19T14:39:00.000-06:00

I tried to make an omelette this morning. Things didn't quite go according to plan.

Steak and potatoes

2006-11-06T04:35:00.000-06:00

Dinner

Made myself a rather tasty dinner tonight :). Red wine marinated steak (as suggested from this site telling me that everything I know about grilling is wrong) and fries made from scratch!

I marinated the steak in Robert Mondavi red wine (it was on sale at the LCBO) and the Keg steak spice. It was the first time I marinated meat. It was definitely more tender, though it had a bit too much wine taste. Maybe I just marinated it too much (overnight). Next time I'll try something else, maybe a little sweeter as it was a little bitter this time from the wine. I actually felt my face getting a little red from the wine :s. I guess I did a good job of sealing the juices in :).

For the fries, I cut up two potatoes, mixed in some chopped onions, oil, steak spice, olive oil, parsley flakes, red chili flakes, cajan spice, and probably some other random spices. Then, I laid it out on parchment paper, which is non-sticky, but absorbs and keeps too much moisture, and put it in the oven for like 30-40 min. I should probably use aluminum foil to make the fries crispier, but I get annoyed when it sticks, esp. with little bits of the foil sticks to the fries.

Addicted to the blender

2006-10-26T04:50:00.000-06:00

For the past 2 weeks, I have been completely addicted to my blender. I have used it every day. Many times, 2 or 3 times a day. I have gone through over 7 litres of orange juice and 5 kg of fruit. I love making fruit smoothies. It's a slurpee made from fruit. 100% pure fruit, healthy, and amazingly delicious! I don't have to go to Bubble Tease, No Name Cafe, or Jamba Juice anymore!!!

Here's how I make mine. It takes less than 5 min. and they're amazing!

The set-up.
Blender, banana, frozen fruit, ice, orange juice,
and my oversized mug (~750 mL)

Step 1: Banana
It adds a nice flavour and it's healthy!

Step 2: Frozen fruit
Frozen fruit gives the smoothie a nice icy texture. A variety of frozen fruit are usually available in grocery stores. Use whatever you want. Experiment. Use fresh fruit if you don't have frozen fruit.

Step 3: Ice
Makes it a bit more icy. This step is optional. I've been doing this recently to reduce the amount of frozen fruit needed as I'm running low.

Step 4: Juice
I use orange juice. You can substitute for apple, pineapple, mango, cranberry, or whatever your heart desires. I use enough to mostly cover the ingredients. The juice is needed to make it drink-like and also so that it can blend properly.

Step 5: Pulse
There are a lot of solids in the mixture. The pulse (P on the dial) spins the blades quickly for a short period of time to pulverize the solids and then allow them to settle back down onto the blade so that the blades don't run dry. I pulse for maybe a half dozen times until most of the big chunks have been broken down.

Step 6: Blend
I blend for about 10-15 seconds on the highest setting. The mixture should be sloshing around quite freely. If it gets stuck and the blades seem to be spinning without blending anything and the contents aren't moving around well, it's b/c there's an air bubble and you need more liquid.

The (blurry) result
I make the perfect amount every time :)

Yummy!
It disappears very fast.

When I ran out frozen fruit, I used fresh fruit. When I ran out of fresh fruit, I started making Kool-Aid slushees (Ice Blue Kool-Aid + ice). Fortunately when the Kool-Aid ran out, I had gotten more frozen fruit and orange juice :)

On Elsa's suggestion, I tried making a red bean drink with the blender. Ordinarily, you have to boil the red beans for like 2-3 hours (maybe more) until they become soft, so it's not something you can just do on a whim (like if you want red bean at midnight).

The idea here is to grind up the red beans so they cook faster. I blended the beans with a bit of water and it was kinda weird. Beans were just flying everywhere inside the jar. Then I boiled it in a pot for maybe 10-15 min. and added sugar. Added ice to cool it down (not supposed to put boiling water in the blender, at least my instruction manual said so) and re-blended to make an icy (I prefer red bean cold).

About to blend

It was kinda frothy after blending and not so icy as most of the ice melted

It was decent, not amazing. I prefer red beans in their whole form as opposed to their blended form. Plus, I think I over cooked the red beans a bit, so it was kinda mushy. My next experiment is to make a pot of red bean and blending just the liquid + ice and then adding the beans to the mix. I'll let you know how it turns out.

Best Idea EVER

2006-10-16T22:35:00.000-06:00

Many years ago there was some guy. That guy had a vision. He took two of the world's great foods, tacos and salad, and combined them to make one of the most tastiest meals ever.. the taco salad. My friends, tonight I had a similar vision. I took two more of the world's great foods, spaghetti and sandwiches, and combined them. I have to admit I didn't expect much, but the result was surprisingly tasty. And so, I would like to present to you.. THE SPAGHETTI SANDWICH!!! (da da daaaaaaaaa)

Beersteak Fajitas!

2006-09-25T13:43:00.000-06:00

Hey folks. I made myself some fajitas the other night for dinner. They were tasty! I was all pro about it too, marinading the steak beforehand, slicing up some onions and red pepper, grating some cheese. Don't be surprised if you see me on iron chef pretty soon. Anyways, I documented the procedure with photos for your viewing pleasure.

The ingredients for the marinade: Beer, spicy death sauce, and a tiny bit of oil.

I had a minor crisis when trying to open the beer can... the tab broke off!! Not good at all. It was almost a major tragedy, but fortunately I was able to macguyver my way in.

This is what the marinade looked like. Kinda brown and gross looking, but whatever. I wasn't worried.

I dumped the steaks in the marinade and left them to soak in the fridge for several hours.

Several hours later I grilled the steaks on the BBQ. Hooray for BBQ's!

I fried up some onions and red peppers and I put a bit of the leftover marinade in for good measure. Let me tell you, if you've never fried up onions in beer and hot sauce before, it smells AMAZING! Combined with the smell of steak wafting in from the balcony I was like whoa man.... whoa.

And then my camera battery died, so unfortunately I don't have a picture of the finished product. I assure you though that it was quite tasty looking. I think I've discovered that I like cooking, especially with beer! ;)

Beer & Cheese Soup

2006-09-13T20:15:00.000-06:00

Today I came home from work and for some reason I had a desire to make some beer & cheese soup. I've only actually had it once or twice before, but I always remember it being tasty. I also enjoy the fact that it has beer in it. After a quick recipe search in google, I discovered that I already had most of the ingredients! Hooray! I used a variation of this recipe. Some ingredients I didn't have, so I substituted others. Also, I'm not a big fan of measuring, so I kind of eyeballed some stuff.

The first thing to do was to saute some onions and celery. I'm not 100% sure on what saute means. I think it means to fry up whatever it is you are sauteing in oil or margerine or whatever, so that's what I did.

I didn't have any celery, so I used half of a hot pepper that I had in the fridge.

The next step was to add some flour and garlic salt and some other spices to the mix. Garlic salt I could understand, but I was kinda doubtful about the flour. I've never heard of flour going into a soup before, and it seemed like I was supposed to add a lot, but I thought what the hey, I'll try it. What else am I going to use my flour for anyways?

This is what things looked like after I added the flour and garlic salt. My doubts at this time were increasing. If anything I thought I was going to have a messy pot to clean up afterwards.

Next was to add some chicken stock and the cheese. The recipe called for 8 oz of cheese. I wasn't too sure how much this was, so I just grated half a brick. You can never have too much cheese, that's what I say.

It was starting to look like soup, but it there were still some pretty big clumps of stuff in the bottom. It was kinda like melty cheese-flour porridge with yellow chicken liquid on top.

The final ingredient: a can of beer.

This is what it looked like after adding the beer. It got all foamy and wierd looking. At this point I was like "oh crap.. I've wasted a beer" Things eventually settled down though and after a few minutes of boiling the foam and the melty cheese flour clumps went away and it actually looked like soup.

The finished product. It was actually not bad. The first few spoonfuls were pretty tasty, but after awhile I realized it was a bit heavy on something. I'm thinking either garlic salt or flour or both. It was pretty filling too, I was stuffed after the one bowl. I have some leftover, and I'm hoping it will taste even better in a day or two. I think that's how it usually works with soup type things. If not then I'll just add more beer when I reheat it. Can't go wrong there ;)

Shake Shake Shake

2006-06-28T18:15:00.000-06:00

I unpacked my blender last weekend. In honor of this momentous occasion, I decided to attempt to make the ultimate milkshake. I haven't made a lot of milkshakes, and I've only really used a blender a handful of times, so I wasn't too confident in my shake making abilities. It turned out alright though. Here is a visual record of the event:

The first ingredient: Milk, a vital component of any milkshake.

The second incredient: Ice Cream, Chocolate Ice Cream

The third ingredient: Oreo cookies. (I would have used more, but there were only 3 left)

The secret ingredient: It's a secret ;)

View from the top: Pre-blending

View from the top: Post-blending

The milkshake turned out alright. It was pretty tasty, however it was a bit too liquidy. I think next time less milk and more ice cream. I'll let you know how it goes.

Chicken Noodle Soup... from scratch!

2006-04-05T04:10:00.000-06:00

I love chicken noodle soup, but not the shit from a can. I mean like the stuff you get in a restaurant. I figured, how hard could it be to make it from scratch? Plus, it should be pretty healthy. Well, the answer is: pretty easy and pretty healthy. My first shot was about 2 weeks ago and I made it again last weekend.

Basically I just throw in 3 chicken breasts, onions, carrots, celery, and a couple black peppercorns into say 4L of water. Cook for like 2+ hours. Cut/rip up the chicken in the pot itself so as to not lose any precious juice. Throw in the noodles and simmer until done.

I cheated the first time and threw in a bouillon cube, though I'm not sure if cheating is the right word b/c I'm not convinced that it made it taste better, just gave it a little more colouring.

The second time, I added in more of the Italian herbs (from a shaker thingy), olive oil (mentioned in most recipes, but I just didn't have it the first time), and potatoes (inspired by my favourite Korean dish). The potatoes were definitely a nice touch. I love that the soup is so hardy. It's totally a meal in itself. More chewing than sipping and I almost needed a fork.

My next goal is to make my own noodles, then it'll be completely from scratch!

Eggs, it's what's not for lunch

2006-03-27T11:38:00.000-06:00

I decided on Sunday that I wanted to boil some eggs for making egg salad, adding to a chicken Caesar salad, etc. I put six eggs into a pot of boiling water and waited. I asked my mom how long I should wait and she said four minutes (if this sounds horribly off please forgive her, as I have, as she was deliriously ill and registering a .10% cough syrup level in her system). After four minutes I took one egg out and conducted the highly scientific egg doneness test of spinning it on the counter. RPMs seemed high enough so I called the eggs done.

I left them to cool until 10:30 pm that night when I retrieved one for making my sandwich. I cracked the egg on the counter while thinking of how much I really enjoy peeling the egg shell off of the cooked egg. This one was coming off rather messy though in chips, rather than the large pieces I am accustomed to. The egg itself felt weird and rubbery. While attempting to peel off one particularly difficult shard I broke the egg open and discovered that the yolk was runny. I figured that all the eggs were probably in the same state.

It was getting late, I wanted to go to bed, and I had french running through my head as a result of some cramming for my speaking test today. I did not want to boil another pot of water to attempt to re-cook the remaining five eggs. I did however really want an egg salad sandwich for lunch and quite frankly didn't have anything else to take. So I took the pot, filled it with water, put the eggs back in, and popped them in the microwave.

Now I know eggs and microwaves don't really go together well. If you're doing eggs in the mikey you usually need a special dish, a certain method. I figured that because the eggs would be floating in the bath of hot water that they would not be at risk for exploding and blowing the door off. Well I was right about that part at least.

After some time in the microwave I removed the eggs, dumped out the water and poured cold water over top. Feeling rather impatient (and that is a characteristic I will fully own up to) I decided to crack one open. Crack. Peel. BOOM!

Like the bomb diffuser who had mistakenly cut the wrong wire, I apparently removed the wrong area of shell at the wrong time, which literally resulted in me having egg on my face. And on the window. And the cupboards. Possibly the neighbour's mailbox.

I blinked a few times and thanked my lucky stars that I did not lose an eye. I think my first thoughts were "shit these are new contacts, I better not have egg embedded in them".

I examined what was left of the egg, it looked salvageable. Dumped it into a bowl. And then I decided to try another egg. This one didn't explode but it oozed a brown liquid from the centre. The yolk was burnt and it smelled horrendously. It looked like a Fear Factor challenge. I tried another egg, same thing. I cracked them all open and then tossed them. I gagged my way through making a veggie sandwich. I could not get that smell and the image of the brown ooze out of my head. I may never be able to look at another egg without feeling a wave of nausea.

So needless to say, I don't think I can move out of my mother's nest until I learn how to boil an egg without it blowing up in my face.

Next time I do something profoundly intelligent I think I'll post about that. I must redeem myself.

Originally published March 27-06 on ajillstory

Finally made good congee!

2006-02-06T23:37:00.000-06:00

"tea fish and peanut congee" (literal translation)

Finally got the texture and consistency right for my congee! Got some tips off the Internet to use about 10 parts water for 1 part rice and just to cook it for a long time on low heat. I didn't have that much time, so I only simmered it for an hour and a half. Quite tasty :)

Pizza Roll

2004-08-24T16:57:00.000-06:00

I made my standard focaccia recipe today, except I included a pair of large eggs into the dough. I kneaded it quite well hoping to increase its elasticity for my next task: stretching the dough really thin.

While the dough was rising, I took the opportunity to sauté some purple onion, garlic and shallots in some butter. I added bit bit of lemon juice, parsley, basil and salt to the mix as well.

After the dough rose, I divvied it up and ran it through the newly-purchased pasta flattening attachment for the Kitchen Aid Mixer. When the dough was satisfactorily thin and sectioned into long rectangular sheets, I applied a layer of tomato sauce, the onion mixture and some mozzarella cheese. I then rolled the dough like one would for a jelly roll and placed it on a greased cookie sheet. I brushed a layer of olive oil on top of the created and baked it in a preheated oven for 15 or so minutes set at 350 convection bake.

Yummy.

Mayo With Fries

2004-05-22T16:59:00.000-06:00

So, for dinner last night I peeled and cut up a bunch of potatoes which I threw in the oven to make some fries. After realizing we were practically out of ketchup, I thought of Pulp Fiction and decided to make a Mayo Sauce for my fries.

At very low heat, 'roast' two cloves of finely chopped garlic and 1/2 of a finely chopped onion. Stir occasionally until dry and sticky. Add salt, pepper, cayenne pepper, and a little bit of sugar. Add mayo, then stir and continue cooking on low heat. When mayo is sufficiently hot, add some grated cheese.

One could add sour cream if they wanted to make something like a chip, or vegetable dip, I think.

Meat with Carrot

2004-03-27T17:01:00.000-06:00

An interesting dinner creation tonight.

Fry some onions until half cooked, then reserve.

De-bone, cut and marinate some poultry. Coat the poultry in bread crumbs, then brown in a saucepan.

In a food processor, puree:

carrot
tomato
small onion
cloves of garlic
egg
Lemon Juice
Apple juice
Sugar
A bit of Tahina (tahini)
Some seasoned salt and cayenne pepper.
Some parsley, oregano and thyme.

Add puree to meat and top with milk. Add Onions, then reduce.

The puree makes a surprisingly interesting stew base, and the milk adds a nice richness. I think this would be nice with some Couscous and root vegetables (I would suggest carrots and leeks) stewed in. A nice Dijon or vegetable garden mustard would add a flavourful bite to it. Add some fresh parsley or green onions as garnish, and you'll have yourself a meal. A fresh apple or pear would probably add to the puree really nicely too.

Enjoy!

Curry, Hummus and Pasta

2004-02-14T17:04:00.000-06:00

Boil a package of Pasta. Drain, rinse and allow to cool. In another bowl, combine frozen spinach, a package of Knorr vegetable soup mix, a package of feta, a tub of ricotta, roasted red peppers (from a jar), sun dried tomatoes (from a jar), chopped up marinated artichoke hearts, chopped up garlic and chopped up fresh mushrooms. Mix everything into the pasta. Top with diced tomatoes and shredded mozzarella. Cover and bake in the oven until vegetables are cooked to satisfaction.

I might try this again using some tomato paste, more sun dried tomatoes and more marinated artichoke hearts.

To make hummus, Take a can of chick peas, and blend it in a food processor. At some point, start with a table spoon of lemon juice, a clove of garlic and a tablespoon of tahini. Add more of each to taste. I made roasted red pepper hummus by adding half a jar of roasted red peppers.

For the curry, take some stewing beef and marinate over night with: garlic, ginger, a bit 'o sugar, light soy sauce, some Montreal steak spice, cayenne pepper, parsley, oregano, salt and pepper. The next day, flour and brown. In a large sauce pan, combine curry paste, two cans of coconut milk and one stalk of lemon grass. Add browned beef, chopped up carrots, celery and potatoes. Simmer/stew for two hours. Add mushrooms, more carrots, celery and green onions. Stew/simmer/reduce until desired consistency (thick).

And you're done.

Salmon with Sauce

2003-11-09T17:06:00.000-06:00

At some point, my hours spent watching the Iron Chef had to pay off. It was about 10 minutes after I'd shoved the salmon into the oven that I realized I needed to make a tasty sauce for the fish. I wasn't too sure what to do, but I eventually settled on a fruity, honey glaze to offset the lemon and onion I was baking the salmon with.

I started by heating up some butter and a little bit of oil. When the grease was hot enough, I threw in some garlic, ginger and orange rind. Had I shallots, I would have used those too. I let everything fry for a few moments until it started to brown, then I took it off the heat and removed most of the fried up bits leaving only the slightly burnt, flavoured oil.

Once that was done, I put the oil back on the stove and threw in a chopped up apple. I added some brown sugar and a fair bit of honey at this point. I let the apples stew for a few minutes, I wanted to make sure that they were cooked. By this time, much of the water in the apples had thinned out the liquid in the pot. I threw in a bunch of raisins, and an orange. I also had some boiled, left over carrots, so I chopped those up and threw them in too. That was about as fancy as I wanted to make this concoction, so I just let it simmer until the liquid thickened up again.

Voila! A sweet, fruity, slightly burnt and bitter tasting saucy fish glaze.