Sweet Potato Gratin

Let’s put this one in the category of “foods that look like upchuck”.  But seriously, don’t you ever eat something that looks AWFUL but is kind of one of the best meals you’ve ever had?  Well this is like that.

This comes from that Moosewood cookbook I dusted off a few days ago.  I’m a fan of the sweet potato (but NOT in the form of candied yams… YUCK) and pretty much everything else in the dish.

The first thing you have to do is make the liquid which is coconut milk, lime juice, garlic and assorted seasonings.  The rest is pretty much assembling.

A layer of the liquid topped off with sweet potato, cooked rice, black beans and spinach.  Repeat one more time and that’s it.

And here comes the problem… the cornmeal topping.  The recipe says to mix cornmeal with oil, cayenne pepper and cumin.  And that’s what I did.  It was the WORST part of the whole thing.

You bake the casserole for about an hour until the sweet potatoes are cooked and that’s it.  I really just didn’t understand the topping.  It never really browned, didn’t clump together… nothing!  It kind of felt like I took the thing out of the oven and dumped cornmeal on it.  Not delicious.

Next time NO cornmeal crust.  What could be kind of cool would be to top it with cornbread mix so it’s kind of like a chicken pot pie with the biscuit topping… only that it’s a sweet potato gratin with a cornbread topping.  But it’s totally unnecessary.  Also I would probably mix some corn into the layers.  I think that would go with the sort of southwestern vibe.  Interestingly enough the recipe is called Caribbean  Sweet Potato Gratin but I’m not sure what island inspired this at all… to me it reads more southwest.

This is definitely going to be in my regular lunch rotation.

Roasted Rosemary Stuffed Snapper

 One of the best parts of keeping a food blog is seeing a running tally of what I eat.  While I tend to refer to myself as a carnivore it seems that I’m not so much.  Apparently I eat a lot of shrimp and fish.  Yay for being healthy.

With that said I wanted to do something with whole fish this past weekend.  So I headed down to Kensington market and bought two snappers.

 

The recipe is courtesy of Giada de Laurentiis’s first cookbook.  It’s super simple.  I’m not sure how Italiano it is but I don’t really care.

 

You basically squeeze lemon juice into the cavity of the fish and sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Then you stuff the fish with lemon wedges, chopped fennel and onion, garlic and fresh rosemary.  Sprinkle the outside of the fish with salt and pepper and that’s it.

 

Pop that baby in an oven and you’re done.

 

I took pictures of the whole fish to post, but really, there is nothing attractive about a whole fish at all.  I don’t know about you but it’s the eyes that freak me out.  YUCK.

 

The fish took about 30-40 minutes to cook (each fish was about 1.5lbs) but stuck to the pan a bit even though I greased the baking sheet with olive oil.  Overall the fish was really good and I’d definitely make it again.  One thing though I’d probably try to find a bigger fish and cook just one.  Stuffing the smaller fish wasn’t that easy because the stuffing kept on falling out.

 

I served the fish with orzo (with a bit of salt, pepper and olive oil) and steamed broccoli.

Fettuccine Alfredo with Salmon and Zucchini

This is the epitome of  quick and easy lazy day meals.  Not the healthiest thing ever but can easily be jazzed up so you don’t get too sick of it.

I was originally going to go out for dinner last night but didn’t feel like dealing with the cold and the possibility of wet (I’m lazy like that) so decided to whip up a meal.

Fettuccine Alfredo is one of those recipes that doesn’t really vary too much.  For the sauce you just melt some butter, add cream (I used half and half with some 2% milk to lighten things up… recipes typically call for whipping cream), salt, pepper and parmesan (freshly grated please!).  The sauce takes literally 2 minutes to make.  I usually start it while I’m draining the pasta.

If I’m doing a variation (like I did yesterday) I prep the veggies and/protein while the pasta is cooking.  The salmon is really simple.  I just season with salt and pepper (sea salt and freshly ground) and maybe a touch of garlic powder.  Then I pan fry it and break it into chunks.  For the zucchini I sauteed it in olive oil and garlic.  At the end I reserved the garlic to throw in with the sauce to give the entire dish a subtle garlic flavour.

Once the pasta was cooked and the sauce was all done I tossed the pasta into the pan with the sauce and then threw in the salmon and zucchini.  I like cheese so I threw in another dose of cheese to get things all melty and gooey and season with some more freshly  ground pepper.

To spice things up I do a mix and match of any of the following mix-ins: sauteed shrimp, spinach, mushrooms, peas, bacon, ham and even broccoli.

If I have a lot of time on my hands I’ll even MAKE the pasta from scratch.  Maybe in the next few weeks….

Cornmeal Chipotle Crusted Fish with Grits

 

I’ll admit, the picture is kind of plain and ugly but the food was oh so delicious!

The fish is courtesy of the Moosewood cookbook that I mentioned yesterday.  It was beyond super easy to make.  I spent the day in Buffalo (yay for cross border shopping and low american dollars!) and didn’t get home until about 9:20pm.  It was one of those situations where I knew I should eat something but it was really too late to eat.  After looking around I realized I had no snacks so I decided to make the fish.

You basically throw some chipotle in adobo, garlic, lime juice, oil, salt and pepper into a food processor and blend until smooth.  You actually don’t need the food processor… you can chop everything fairly fine and be done with the whole mess.  I didn’t feel like getting my fingers dirty (chipotles get EVERYWHERE) so I went the tech route.  You pour the mixture into a shallow bowl and then dip your fish fillets in the mixture.  I used sole but you could definitely use cod, halibut etc.  Just use your fave white fish.  Then you dip in cornmeal and voila!  Stick those babies in a preheated oven (approx 375F) and be done with the whole thing for 15-20mins.

For some ODD reason I had been craving grits for the past few weeks.  My craving was intensified by the fact that you can’t get grits in Toronto.  OK not entirely true but you can’t walk into any supermarket and find them.  Finding grits in Toronto requires some research.  Luckily I went to Buffalo and found grits at Wegmans.  Sadly Wegmans didn’t have ANY variety so I ended up getting Quaker instant grits… but better than nothing.

Let me take a moment and declare my love for the Wegmans in Niagara Falls on Military Rd.  BEST.PLACE.EVER!  Seriously. Aisle after aisle after aisle of shiny packaged goods.  Granted I don’t even like packaged goods but it was awe inspiring to see like 30 kinds of pasta sauce.  Or 25 types of mac n cheese. MIND BLOWING.

Anyway… decided to make my new acquired grits as a side dish.  I didn’t do anything fancy with the grits.  Just cooked them with salt and finished them with a pat of butter (yum) and some freshly ground black pepper.

A yummy and quick meal (about 20 mins from start to finish).  Only problem, where’s the vegetable?  Veggies SO weren’t happening at 930 at night.  But c’est la vie.

So far my Moosewood attempts have been great.  I have a few more things on my roster this week.  Totally can’t wait!

Mediterranean Orzo Salad

 

A couple of months ago my sister purged her cookbook collection and I inherited the victims.  One that I picked up was “Moosewood Restaurants New Classics”.  I never really skimmed it and just put onto my bookcase.  The other day I was looking for easy to transport foods and decided to pull it out.

BEST.DECISION.EVER.

There were so many recipes that I marked that I want to try in the next couple of days.

Anyhoo I ended up settling on this Mediterranean Orzo Salad.  I love a busy salad that’s easy to eat.  Always have.  And this was one of those recipes that was super easy to come together.

You cube some eggplant (I added zuchini for fun too!) and mince some garlic and roast them with a bit of salt until they’re cooked.  While that’s happening cook some Orzo.  And for the record, i LOVE orzo!  I think it goes with soooo many things.  If you want a starch that isn’t rice or potatoes… orzo!  and you can dress it up and make it delicious.

The rest of the work is pretty much just chopping.  You have to chop tomatoes, olives, and parsley.  As well as toast pine nuts and throw in some capers.  Delicious!

I was worried that the salad would be dry since there’s no dressing or herbs (besides the parsley).  But no, it stays totally moist and kind of feels like there’s a dressing.  It could also benefit from an extra splash of olive oil if you feel inclined.  A sprinkling of oregano could work too. But really, it’s good on its own too.

The recipe says to top it with some feta or parmesan.  I had parmesan so thats what I used.  It was fine but I think feta would have been even better!

Overall a definite yum.  Can’t wait to try the other recipes I have marked.

Caramel Spiced Pear Jam

At the beginning of summer I became obsessed with the idea of summer fruits and preserving the “summer’s bounty”. Around the same time I went out to buy jam and all the jam was either all sugar OR was way too expensive. So I came up with the idea of going to the farmer’s markets and buying fresh fruit and then making jam and canning it for the winter.

Since then I’ve become a lean mean jam making machine. I spent a few days going around the city getting all the necessary tools for jam making, read up on canning and then finally hit up the market at St Lawrence Market for great produce.

It’s been a learning process to say the least. my first batch was triple berry jam (strawberry, blueberry and raspberry). I didn’t use pectin (I don’t like the artificialness of it) and didn’t have a thermometer so the jam didn’t set properly. I now have about three jars of berry liquid. It’s still kind of spreadable but is great in crepes and would be a good stir-in for yogurt and oatmeal.

My next foray was peach jam which turned out great even without pectin. They key is bringing the jam to the right temperature. Next up I made ginger plus jam which was a surprise hit. I’ve never even HAD plum jam before.

Now that we’re into fall and the fruit selection isn’t great I decided to make some pear jam. Here I consulted my idol in jam making, Christine Ferber. I seriously want to be her. She’s this french lady who is known as the godmother of jam. Seriously. Isn’t that the best title ever? She has a shop in the french countryside where she makes jam all day long. Apparently the entire town smells like jam. One day I will make my pilgrimage there. Anyhoo… she has this great jam cookbook called “Mes Confitures” (it’s in english) with dozens of recipes for jam with what feels like every fruit. For pears alone she had at least eight recipes. The caramel spiced pear jam sounded delicious so that’s what I went for…

I won’t go through the whole process but you use pears that are seasoned with cardamom, cinnamon and anise seed, and then combined with sugar. You also have to make a simple caramel syrup to which you add freshly squeezed orange juice. Everything gets stirred together and made delicious.

Pears have very little natural pectin so i HAD to use pectin. I bought this all-natural pectin from Whole Foods called Pomona. It didn’t work out so well for me! Mainly because I didn’t follow the directions… details details. By the time I realized that I was on a totally different wavelength than the directions it was too late. Lets just say I spent quite a bit of time scooping out pectin globules from my jam. It turned out delicious anyway… even if the pears were too hard.

So far it has been good on bread. Will likely also stir it into some oatmeal. If I ate yogurt (I’ve pretty much stopped eating dairy… except for ice cream… it makes me congested) I’d stir it into some yogurt.

It’s super yummy and tastes like xmas!  There are fewer things as rewarding (and delicious) as eating a slice of homemade bread spread with homemade jam…

Wok Seared Sesame Shrimp

The first time I made this was one of the most stressful cooking experiences ever. The recipe comes from the Tribeca Grill cookbook. By definition the recipes aren’t simple and have a lot of steps and ingredients. I think I came home at 8 or 9 and decided to start cooking without reading the recipe through. Unfortunately the sauce alone requires two rounds of reducing and ends up having to cook for something like 40mins. Plus factor in rice cooking time and we havent even talked about making the shrimp.

Needless to say that night I had a VERY later dinner. Delicious and worth it but LATE.

I’ve learned from my mistakes luckily and know to plan ahead. The recipe isn’t complicated it just takes some patience and willingness to read through the recipe.

You basically have to make a teriyaki sauce from scratch. It involves sugar, water, pineapple juice, chicken stock etc. The good thing is that the recipe makes about double or triple what you need for the shrimp so you can put it in a container and keep it in the back of your fridge for using later and cutting down prep time by a TON.

I learned a great trick from the recipe. If you coat the shrimp in cornstarch and then pan fry you get this great crust on the outside of the shrimp AND they stay moist and delicious. It’s a great tip for making stirfrys in general.

Once your shrimp are done you sautee garlic and ginger together in sesame oil and then add minced hot pepper. Add the shrimp, sauce, green onions and sesame seeds and you’re done.

I made this on the fly today so I switched some things around. I didn’t use sesame seeds. I could have gone down to the health food store and bought some but i figured the pain of going out and buying them was not worth the marginal joy that the seeds would bring. So vetoed that plan. I also added steamed broccoli. I like vegetables… often more than I enjoy protein, so I often bulk up a meal with vegetables even if they’re not called for.

I served this over jasmine rice. normally i would do brown but we didn’t have any sadly. It would be great with even more vegetables and no rice too. I wish I had leftovers!

The Tribeca Grill cookbook is OK. This is the only recipe that I’ve made out of it. The recipes tend to be a bit too complicated… not in terms of process but usually in ingredients. They’re all great ingredients but on an average day I don’t feel like pulling out all the stops. It’s probably a good book for special occasion meals.

Lahey’s No-Knead Bread

For the record, this isn’t the first time I’ve made this bread but now that it’s no longer too hot to turn on the oven I can go back to my bread making.

I started baking bread because I was really concerned with all the STUFF in packaged bread. I mean does bread REALLY need High Fructose Corn Syrup in it? Somehow I think not. When you bake bread at home you definitely don’t add HFCS. I had never baked a loaf of bread in my life before I came across the recipe. Bread making to me always seemed like SUCH a chore. Plus I HATE kneading. I’m not good at it. It takes a long time. And it generally SUCKS.

This recipe has revolutionized the world of baking.

Back in November Mark Bittman at the New York Times wrote this article about “No-knead Bread”. He learned about this technique from Jim Lahey at Sullivan Street Bakery in NYC. It’s not a brand new idea… people have been doing it for years but it’s new to your average NY Times reader.

It’s literally the easiest thing to do in the world. You combine flour, water, salt and yeast. Mix it to combine the ingredients and let it rise for 12-18hours. After the first rise take it out of the bowl and fold it over itself and let it rest for 15mins. Then fold it again and cover in some wheat germ or cornmeal if you’d like and let it rise for 2-3 hours. Preheat your oven to 450 during the second rise and put your Le Creuset in the oven to heat up (or whatever cast iron dutch oven you have). After the 2nd rise put the dough in the pot. Cover it. Cook covered for 30 mins and uncovered for 15-30mins. AND THAT’S IT.

You’re pretty much letting time do the work which is great. Here’s a link to the article . I also recommend watching the video.

The recipe uses white flour but I’ve substituted whole wheat flour with varying degrees of success. My best loaf is 2/3 whole wheat and 1/3 white flour. The bread in the picture was made with 2/3 whole wheat HARD flour and 1/3 whole wheat SOFT flour. It’s yummy BUT really dense and didn’t rise as much. When you use mostly white flour you get amazing bubbles throughout the dough and it’s light and delicious. It’s like those $7 loaves you buy at Balthazar Bakery… if you’re into that thing. The crust is crusty and delicious.

I won’t lie, this bread has changed my life. If you google it you will find tons of entries about it in the blogosphere.

You can also do variations. I made it onces with mostly white flour, some whole wheat and then folded in a variety of mixed olives and rosemary… YUM! I think it would be great with cranberries and pecans. Or cinnamon and raisins (if you like raisins… i hate them). Sky is the limit really. My last loaf rose beautifully and I used it to make a grilled cheese sandwich. It was kind of amazing, I won’t lie.

If you have questions feel free to comment… I’ve made this bread probably a dozen times and have a fairly good grasp on troubleshooting it. It’s easy but you just have to find your groove with it.

Magnolia Cupcakes

I’ve been wanting to really bake something recently. I automatically always want to bake a coconut cake but this time decided to do something different. My sister is visiting this weekend and she LOVES cupcakes from Magnolia Bakery (I enjoy a Magnolia cupcake but they’re NOT my fave… in NYC I prefer Billy’s or Buttercup and in the WORLD I like this place in Montreal whose name escapes me right now). So Magnolia cupcakes it was!

The recipe for the cupcakes is EVERYWHERE on the internet thanks to the Magnolia cookbook. Here’s a link to the recipe from the Food Network site.

There isn’t really much to say about cupcakes now that I think about it.  I think I ate about a pound of frosting while making them.  What can I say, I love butter!  Frosting them was NOT fun.. I think I needed better tools or something.  And I don’t think the consistency of my frosting was totally right.  It could have been a tad firmer.

Haven’t tasted the actual cupcakes yet but they smelled AMAZING while they were baking… and clearly I know the frosting is delicious.

Curried Pumpkin Seeds

 

I tell you, this whole new work schedule is kicking my butt and not giving me enough hours to do fun things like cook, workout and um, watch TV.

 

With that said yesterday morning I looked in my fridge and realized that I had about 2 cups of pumpkin seeds leftover from my pumpkin butter extravaganza. I wasn’t really feeling like making Pumpkin Brittle again (while delicious… I just wanted something that I could set and forget!) so I decided to go the roasted pumpkin seed route.

I had a vision of doing something a bit more special than just regular salted seeds so I did some googling for inspiration. I saw a recipe on 101cookbooks for curried pumpkin seeds that seemed easy enough.  The basic premise was to coat the seeds in egg whites and season with curry powder and salt.  Fine enough but I was feeling too lazy to go the egg route and wanted a bit more depth in flavour.

I ended up rinsing the seeds in water to get any leftover pumpkin goo off.  Threw them on a baking sheet and sprinkled with curry powder, coriander, cumin, cayenne pepper and sea salt.  The oven was already pre-heated to 375F so I put the pan in and roasted for just under 15mins (turning them halfway through).

Warning, your apartment or house will smell strongly of curry while this is happening. I didn’t even use that much curry… probably a teaspoon or two.  But the seeds have been a yummy and flavourful snack.  AND the bonus is that pumpkin seeds have a ton of iron… who knew!

This weekend my sister is coming for a visit which means i’ll probably do some baking and maybe some canning too… what can I say, I’m feeling ambitious.  We may also try the new Fish & Chip place on Broadview so expect a write-up on that as well.