What's On My Plate

A Market Fresh Dinner

Main Course, Side Dishes, Vegetarian 1 Response »

Aug 312010

Consider this an ode to the end of summer. The nights are getting cooler. The sun is setting a bit earlier. Summer is on it’s way out. Soon the market will be filled with nothing but root vegetables. Le sigh.

With all that in mind I decided to head over to the North York Civic Centre Farmers Market and pick up a few things for dinner. I didn’t intend to have a fully market meal but everything at the market looked so great that my meal ended up coming together as I was browsing.

I picked up some Halloumi cheese from Monforte Dairy. I had Halloumi for the first time in NYC years ago and loved it. It’s a cheese with a higher melting point so you can pan fry it and grill it without it liquefying immediately on you. I put it in a hot skillet and fried it for about 2 minutes on each side. The results are a nice crispy exterior with a softened interior. So good!

I also bought a container of “everything” tomatoes which consists of about 5 or 6 varieties of mini tomatoes. My favourite are the orange ones because they are so sweet but they are all so good. I picked some basil from my herb box and tossed the tomatoes with basil, olive oil, salt and pepper.

To round out my meal I boiled some corn which I ate without anything. Yes, I’m a corn purist. If corn is good it doesn’t need butter, salt etc. In fact, I pretty much never put anything on my corn unless I’m doing it cuban style. I also quickly sauteed the green beans in a bit of olive oil. I don’t normally buy green beans at the market but I think I should do it all the time. The green beans from the market taste completely different from the stuff that you buy at the supermarket. These are crisp, sweet and really fresh tasting. My new fave.

I have been visiting the farmers’ markets a lot this summer and have gotten used to buying my produce there and sampling the bounty that Ontario has to offer. I will be so sad when the weather really cools down and I won’t be able to indulge in all my favourite Ontario produce. Sure root vegetables are good too but you can’t really beat tomatoes, corn and berries.

I will definitely be whipping up a few more market meals before the summer ends.

Daring Bakers: Petit Fours (kind of)

Baked Goods, Daring Cooks/Bakers, Treats 3 Responses »

Aug 272010

The August 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Elissa of 17 and Baking. For the first time, The Daring Bakers partnered with Sugar High Fridays for a co-event and Elissa was the gracious hostess of both. Using the theme of beurre noisette, or browned butter, Elissa chose to challenge Daring Bakers to make a pound cake to be used in either a Baked Alaska or in Ice Cream Petit Fours. The sources for Elissa’s challenge were Gourmet magazine and David Lebovitz’s “The Perfect Scoop”.

This month’s Daring Bakers’ challenge was to make a pound cake AND ice cream for use in either a Baked Alaska or Petit Fours. The Baked Alaska was a little retro for my taste (and frankly, my freezer couldn’t handle it) so I started leaning towards the petit fours. Something was preventing me from getting fully on board with the idea of petit fours, I think it’s the fact that they are just so… petit!

As I started thinking about the challenge I thought why not make large petit fours more akin to an ice cream sandwich. I mean, who doesn’t love an ice cream sandwich? And so the plan was born. It also occurred to me that my peaches were going to go bad so I thought why not incorporate them into the mix? Rather than making a peach ice cream I decided to make peaches foster (peaches in a rum butter sauce) and use some of the chopped up peaches in the sandwich. Um, how divine does that sound?

The pound cake was easy to make and turned out fabulously. It has this really great toasted butter taste throughout and I love the colour of the cake (it has tiny brown flecks). It was also really moist which I attribute to the fact that you measure the flour AFTER it has been sifted. I’ve never been a big pound cake fan but I wold definitely make the cake again.

I ended up not making the ice cream. I make ice cream all the time so it’s not really a skill that I felt the need to explore. AND I recently won a great ice cream prize pack from President’s Choice via eat. live. travel. write. so it felt silly to MAKE ice cream when I had ice cream at my disposal. So I picked up a tub of vanilla and used that.

Things began to fall apart during assembly. It was easy enough to make the chocolate glaze but I couldn’t really get a system down for glazing the sandwiches without the ice cream oozing out. It was beyond frustrating. I do have to give myself props though for spreading some of the liquid from the peaches foster on the slices of pound cake.

My little experiment turned out well. I was nervous that the peaches and chocolate wouldn’t go together, but they did! I think the rum helped. The pound cake remains nice and moist even in the freezer so I think these things have longevity.

Here are a few of the recipe links…
Brown butter pound cake

Peaches “Foster”

Mandy's Granola

Breakfast/Brunch, Miscellaneous, Treats, Vegan, Vegetarian 3 Responses »

Aug 242010

It’s not surprise that I love granola. I’ve blogged about it a bunch of times (just type in granola in the search field at the top). Granola is one of those things that I can never find just right in the packaged version. As someone with a serious aversion to raisins I’m forever disappointed that the makers of granola continue to put those vile little nuggets in their product. Le sigh. Luckily, granola is easy enough to make and is significantly cheaper than the packaged stuff AND you get to fill it with whatever goodies your heart desires.

Recently I’ve been making this granola recipe from my friend Bonita and love it. The other day I was on my friend Amanda’s site and saw this post about granola. What caught my eye was that the recipe included steelcut oats. I was a bit apprehensive at first, I just didn’t get how those hard, crunch little oats would develop into the perfect granola but I decided to forge ahead.

A quick stop to the local Bulk Barn and I was armed with the necessary ingredients for granola. This time around I figured I’d go with apricots, cranberries, almonds and walnuts. There is nothing particularly different or fancy when it comes to the preparation of the granola. For sweeteners you use maple syrup and agave nectar. The oil in this case is coconut although I used vegetable oil because I was out of coconut oil.

The results were nothing short of AMAZING. The granola has a subtle sweetness with a nice depth of flavour. I didn’t stir it as often as I was supposed to and as a result I ended up with nice clumps of granola throughout. As for the steelcut oats, they toast up nicely and have a nice nutty flavour and a sharp little crunch. A really great addition.

This is officially my go-to granola recipe.

Coconut-Almond Granola
Recipe adapted from The Candle Cafe Cookbook

Via Amanda Skrip

Ingredients:

1 cup steel cut oats
½ cup old-fashioned rolled oats
¼ cup raw almonds, rough chopped
¼ cup sunflower seeds
¼ cup pumpkin seeds
¼ cup pure maple syrup
3 tablespoons agave nectar
¼ cup coconut oil (in liquid form)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon sea salt
¼ cup dried figs, chopped
¼ cup dried currants
¼ cup unsweetened shredded coconut

Procedure:

Preheat the oven to 300. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.

Combine both oat varieties, almonds, seeds, maple syrup, agave, coconut oil, vanilla, and salt. Evenly spread mixture on baking sheet and bake for 30-40 minutes stirring every 10 minutes. Once golden and toasted, Remove from the oven and sprinkle dried fruit and coconut on top of warm sheets. Let cool before serving or storing.

Granola will keep in an air-tight container for up to a month.

Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

Baked Goods, Treats 5 Responses »

Aug 222010

I love summer in Ontario. I get so excited to go to the farmers markets and pick up whatever is fresh. I went to the Brickworks for their weekly market and picked up this incredible delicious basket of peaches. As I was making my way through the peaches I realized that I would need an alternate method of consumption because I just couldn’t eat THAT many peaches. I turned to one of my fave sites, The Kitchn and came across this recipe for a peach and cornmeal upside-down cake by Martha Stewart. I’m a fan of upside-down desserts and I love cornmeal AND I love Martha Stewart so I was game.

The recipe is pretty straightforward and I followed it but made some tweaks as suggested by The Kitchn including adding some cinnamon and nutmeg to the batter and using thyme instead of lavender. The cake is pretty easy to whip up and I actually put it together before dinner! I’m always thrilled when I get the chance to use my stand mixer and this was the perfect use for it.

In retrospect I wish I had spent more time planning out how to arrange my peach slices because this could have been infinitely more beautiful. I also wish I could do an upside-down cake where the syrupy part was more visible. With that said this turned out well. Perhaps a bit TOO heavy on the cornmeal and I wish I had used a coarser variety, but still delicious. The thyme flavour added a unique spicing to the mix but could almost be omitted if you didn’t have any on hand. I didn’t have any ice cream in the freezer but as you can imagine this would be pretty killer with the ice cream.

A great way to use up some peaches you might have on hand before they go funny.

Peach and Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake

* 5 1/2 ounces (1 stick plus 3 tablespoons) unsalted butter, softened
* 1 cup sugar
* 3 medium ripe peaches (about 1 1/4 pounds), skins on, pitted, and cut into 3/4-inch wedges
* 1 cup coarse yellow cornmeal or polenta
* 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 2 teaspoons chopped fresh lavender, or 1 1/2 teaspoons dried lavender
* 1 1/4 teaspoons coarse salt
* 3 large eggs
* 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
* 1/2 cup heavy cream

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Melt 3 tablespoons butter in a 10-inch cast-iron skillet over medium heat, using a pastry brush to coat sides with butter as it melts. Sprinkle 1/4 cup sugar evenly over bottom of skillet, and cook until sugar starts to bubble and turn golden brown, about 3 minutes. Arrange peaches in a circle at edge of skillet, on top of sugar. Arrange the remaining wedges in the center to fill. Reduce heat to low, and cook until juices are bubbling and peaches begin to soften, 10 to 12 minutes. Remove from heat.

2. Whisk cornmeal, flour, baking powder, lavender, and salt in a medium bowl. Beat remaining stick of butter and 3/4 cup sugar with a mixer on high speed, until pale and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Reduce speed to medium. Add eggs, 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down sides of bowl. Mix in vanilla and cream. Reduce speed to low, and beat in cornmeal mixture in 2 additions.

3. Drop large spoonfuls of batter over peaches, and spread evenly using an offset spatula. Bake until golden brown and a tester inserted in the center comes out clean, 20 to 22 minutes. Transfer skillet to a wire rack, and let stand for 10 minutes. Run a knife or spatula around edge of cake. Quickly invert cake onto a cutting board. Tap bottom of skillet to release peaches, and carefully remove skillet. Reposition peach slices on top of cake. Let cool slightly before serving.

Recipe via Martha Stewart

On The Town: Montreal Weekend

Travel 5 Responses »

Aug 202010

I went to Montreal for the first time about 3 years ago and fell in love. It’s a great city with a chill vibe and great food. Oddly enough despite two trip to Montreal I’ve never blogged about my eating escapades. Go figure.

The trouble with Montreal is finding enough time to eat all the things I want to eat. There are old favourites to revisit (bagels, poutine, smoked meat) and always new places that have been added to the list. So the key to planning here is to stick pretty diligently to what I want to eat and not to be swayed by impromptu meals here or there. This time around I had a set plan and pretty much followed it to a tee.

One thing about Montreal restaurants, why do so few of you have websites? I ruled out a few restaurants because I couldn’t look at the menu and or get a good feel for prices. Sure, reviews helped but I like my info up front. Le sigh.

Here we go…

The Sparrow
5322 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Montreal, QC H2T 1S5, Canada
(514) 690-3964

This place came recommended by many as a great brunch spot. Because our hotel was booked solid we couldn’t check in early so we took the opportunity for a very early (10am) brunch. We were seated right away which was great. I had the English Breakfast which came with bacon, sausage, black pudding, an egg, roasted tomato, toast and this potato hash thingy. SO GOOD. The toast was possibly the best toast pretty much ever. The bacon was great. Sausage was fab. My mom had the French toast and it was EASILY one of the best french toasts ever. Prices were also reasonable, between $10-17ish for a good sized meal. I would revisit for sure.

Cocoa Locale
4807 Avenue du Parc
Montreal, QC H2V 4E7, Canada
(514) 271-7162

While I often complain that cupcakes are overdone as a trend (soon I’ll be decrying the delicious macaron), I can’t help but have one when the craving strikes. I visited Cocoa Locale on my first trip to Montreal and loved the cupcakes. I think I had a chocolate one, possibly a chai cupcake and the lemon coconut. Yes, I had three cupcakes… over the course of a day. I didn’t plan on visiting Cocoa Locale on this trip but I passed by it en route to somewhere else so I HAD to stop. This time I had the lemon coconut cupcake which was still amazing and I tried the spiced brownie. In this case spice was ginger and cayenne (I think, might have been paprika). The brownie tasted fine but I’m more partially to a dense hunk of brownie and this one was more cake-y. I’ll stick to the all cupcake errythang next time.

Romados
115 Rue Rachel Est
Montreal, Quebec H2W 1C8, Canada
(514) 849-1803

As much as I like nice sit-down dinner sometimes I just want a quick and cheap takeout meal. Apparently Montreal has a lot of Portuguese chicken spots so I thought I’d check one out. Romados kept on coming up so I figured that would be it. When we got there the place was packed which made me feel good. While a crowd doesn’t always indicate quality it was nice to see that this place was busier than the other chicken spots we’d passed. The menu is pretty simple. A few grilled meat options that can be combo-ed. I opted for the 1/4 chicken dinner that comes with fries and salad. I should actually say I ordered the fries that come with chicken and salad… SO MANY FRIES. The fries were just okay. Not bad but I’ve had better. The chicken and accompanying sauce were spot on. The chicken was cooked perfectly and the sauce was well-spiced. Definitely some of my fave Portuguese chicken, period. I also opted to pick up dessert which consisted of natas (custard tarts) and a cherry-almond tart. The natas was just OK. I’ve had better in Toronto. The cherry-almond tart was pretty good though. For the record, you can have your meal to stay but there aren’t that many seats and I feel like you’d end up smelling of chicken.

St Viateur Bagels
1127 Avenue du Mont Royal Est
Montréal, QC
(514) 528-6361

Montreal is known for bagels. The Montreal bagel is generally sweeter, smaller and with a bigger hole than the bagels you’re used to seeing. While I love me some Montreal bagels I wouldn’t give up the more “traditional” bagel. The two big bagel spots in Montreal are St. Viateur and Fairmount. We hit up St. Viateur (the cafe on Mont Royal, the other locations are just to pick up bagels) for brunch and I had a bagel with lox. Bagels with lox is pretty much one of my fave foods ever. For some reason I like lox on Montreal bagels better than with a regular bagel… not sure why, maybe the sweetness.

Atwater Market
138 Avenue Atwater
Montreal, QC H3J 2J4, Canada
(514) 937-7754

Montreal has a few big outdoor markets but the two most popular are Atwater and Jean-Talon. I’ve been to Jean-Talon twice and figured I’d visit Atwater this time around. I should have taken pictures because some of the produce setups were lovely. Atwater consists of an indoor market with a variety of purveyors including everything from meats to cheeses to the lotto. Around the outside of the building are local produce vendors. It was kind of neat to see where Quebec produce comes from. I saw quite a few things from Ile d’Orleans and interestingly enough a lot of stuff from Ontario. The market is significantly smaller and less interesting than Jean-Talon so I’d probably skip it next time.

Au Pied de Cochon
536 ave Duluth est
Montréal, QC H2L 1A9, Canada
(514) 281-1114

So out of all my Montreal eats, this was the one I was most excited for. I first heard about PDC in Gourmet magazine a few years back and have been hearing about it nonstop ever since. Reservations are a must. I even accepted a reservation to sit at the bar and I’m not a huge fan of bar seating. I poured over the menu for days trying to determine what to eat. Do I go for the duck in the can? Should I try the foie gras poutine? Maybe I should try something porcine? Oh the struggle! The choice of what my mom would eat was also weighing on me. She’s not into foie and doesn’t like anything too extreme. I figured she’d be safe with the ribs or steak frites until I did some digging and discovered that the ribs was one giant rib (and not beef I think) and the steak and frites was bison. My suggestions was for her to order apps.

When it came down to ordering I ordered the Foie Gras Cromesquis, Codfish Fritters and the Foie Gras Poutine. My mom opted for the steak and frites. The cromesquis is a hunk of foie gras that’s covered in dough and fried. You are supposed to let it cool and then pop it into your mouth. The foie gushes out. It was pretty neat but you really couldn’t eat more than the two provided. The codfish fritters were okay. A bit on the salty side and the tasted like what my mom makes so that was a bit disappointing. Then it was on to the foie gras poutine. I was excited for this one. Alas it was just okay. I’m not a foie connoisseur but I found the foie on the almost dry/tough side. The poutine itself was really rich and tasted okay but was not mind-blowing. I really kind of just felt like I was eating liver on top of fries and gravy. Le sigh. My mom didn’t enjoy the steak and frites. It came to the table looking a disheveled mess and was on the salty side. Again, le sigh.

The highlight of the meal however was the pina colada! It comes with a pineapple freezie in the middle that you have to stir in. Super neat and really yummy. Would I visit APC again? Probably not unless I was with a group that wanted to check it out. Otherwise I’d rather just spend my pesos on some bagels.

Fairmount Bagels
74 Avenue Fairmount Ouest
Montréal, QC H2T 2M2, Canada
(514) 272-0667

Of course I had to hit up Fairmount Bagels! They don’t have a cafe, just a bagel-buying storefront. Which bagel team am I on? I honestly like Fairmount and St. Viateur equally. I bought a half dozen of each to take back with me.

La Banquise
994 Rue Rachel Est
Montréal, QC H2J2J3, Canada
(514) 525-2415

Whenever people start talking about Montreal poutine this place comes up. This was my second trip there. The first time I ordered the regular poutine but this time I upped the ante and got the bacon poutine. YUM. The cheese curds were fresh, the gravy was flavourful and the fries were the perfect consistency (I don’t like super crisp fries with my poutine). My only issue was that the bacon could have been higher quality but alas this is a cheap 24hr place so my expectations weren’t that high.

Schwartz’s
3895 Boulevard Saint Laurent
Montreal, QC H2W 1Y2, Canada
(514) 842-4813

If you eat meat you can’t go to Montreal without hitting up Schwartz’s for a smoked meat sandwich. Schwartz’s always has a crazy line out front but now they’ve opened up a takeout shop next door so you can bypass the lines if you don’t want to eat in. While I’ve really enjoyed their sandwiches in the past, this time it did not measure up. The meat was pretty dry and actually broke into “crumbs” while I was eating it. I didn’t even ask for lean! Maybe it was an off day but I really do love Schwartz’s. I’m hoping that it isn’t becoming a victim of its own success.

Jean-Talon Market
7070 Avenue Henri Julien
Montreal, Quebec H2S3A3, Canada
(514) 277-1588

The last stop of this trip was to Jean-Talon market. It’s a great place just to stroll through and see what’s in season and explore the little shops on the periphery. I bought some delicious Quebec strawberries but the highlight of the trip was my ice cream from Havres des Glaces. I had the Gingembre (ginger bread) and the Maple Creme Brulee. Um, SO GOOD. There were delicious bits of the caramelized sugar from creme brulee in the ice cream. A winner for sure.

Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger

Main Course, Side Dishes, Vegan, Vegetarian 4 Responses »

Aug 182010

So to accompany my not so great pork belly I made bok choy. I’ve always enjoyed bok choy but usually buy the big heads. This time I thought it would be fun to buy some baby bok choy and stir-fry that up.

Thanks heavens I did because my pork belly verged on inedible The bok choy saved the day and saved lunch the next day with some rice.

No surprise here but I used this recipe from Epicurious. I wanted a yummy stir-fry type recipe and this one fit the bill. It uses traditional stir-fry ingredients like ginger, soy sauce, cornstarch etc. It was beyond easy and was a great side. It was even good for lunch the next day on top of rice.

I’m adding this recipe to my list of quick and easy vegetarian options. This could also be good if you add some tofu in there for protein.

Stir-Fried Shanghai Bok Choy with Ginger

1 (2-inch) piece ginger, peeled
3/4 lb Shanghai bok choy or other baby bok choy (5 to 8 heads)
1/4 cup reduced-sodium chicken broth
1 teaspoon Chinese rice wine (preferably Shaoxing) or medium-dry Sherry
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon sugar
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 teaspoon Asian sesame oil

Special equipment: a rasp grater; a well-seasoned 14-inch flat-bottomed wok
Accompaniment: steamed white rice
preparation

Cut half of ginger into very fine matchsticks (less than 1/8 inch thick; about 1 tablespoon) and reserve. Grate remaining ginger and squeeze pulp with your fingers to yield 1 teaspoon liquid, then discard pulp.

Remove any bruised or withered outer leaves from bok choy. Trim 1/8 inch from bottom of each bok choy, then cut each head into quarters. Wash bok choy in several changes of cold water and dry in a colander or salad spinner until dry to the touch.

Whisk together ginger juice, chicken broth, rice wine, soy sauce, cornstarch, salt, and sugar in a small bowl until cornstarch is dissolved.

Heat wok over high heat until a bead of water vaporizes within 1 to 2 seconds of contact. Pour oil down side of wok, then swirl oil, tilting wok to coat sides. Add ginger matchsticks and stir-fry 5 seconds. Add bok choy and stir-fry until leaves are bright green and just limp, 1 to 2 minutes. Stir broth mixture, then pour into wok and stir-fry until vegetables are crisp-tender and sauce is slightly thickened, about 1 minute. Remove from heat and drizzle with sesame oil, then stir to coat.

Gourmet – December 2004

Daring Cooks: Pierogies!

Daring Cooks/Bakers, Main Course, Vegetarian 11 Responses »

Aug 142010

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

Ah pierogies! A food that is near and dear to my heart. In high school I would often go to the “German Deli” to get pierogies sauteed in onions and bacon as my lunch. Like all.the.time. They were so good. The deli is actually called Reither’s and is on Church St south of Wellesley (yes, I went to high school in the heart of Toronto’s gaybourhood).

Since then I’ve bought frozen pierogies at the supermarket and have made them myself. So when I saw the challenge was to make pierogies it was definitely within my comfort zone. I usually associate pierogies with comfort food and cold weather. One of my favourite lunches on a gray winter’s day is pierogies with a bowl of cream of mushroom soup. I realized right away that I needed a filling that might take my mind off of winter and make it a bit more summery.

While at the farmers market I scanned the stalls looking for inspiration and settled on zucchini. I also happened to buy some sheep’s milk yogurt from Monforte Dairy that I thought might make a good addition.

For the dough I used the dough from my fave Canadian Living recipe. For the filling I improvised. I had some leftover mashed potatoes that I figured I’d used up. I grated some zucchini and sauteed it with a bit of garlic, salt and pepper. Then I combined the zucchini mixture with the potatoes and added a bit of yogurt until creamy. Then began the “fun” process of making the perogies themselves. And because I thought I was supposed to post on the 13th, I started making the perogies at about 9:30PM on the 12th. Needless to say I felt silly when Mardi from eat.live.travel.write. pointed out that the post has to go up on the 14th. Such is life.

I boiled and then panfried my pierogies with some sliced onion. The little buggers turned out well if I do say so myself. The zucchini flavour was subtly but I enjoyed the creaminess and the tang from the yogurt. Something about these pierogies seemed a lot lighter than I’ve made in the past. I would definitely make these again.

Zucchini-Stuffed Pierogies

Ingredients:

Dough:
3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) salt
1 egg
3/4 cup (175 mL) (approx) water
4 tsp (20 mL) vegetable oil
Filling:
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
2 gloves sliced garlic
3 cups shredded zucchini
1 cup (250 mL) cold mashed potatoes
13/4 cup yogurst (I used sheep’s milk, optional)
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/4 tsp (1 mL) pepper

Preparation:

Dough: In bowl, combine flour with salt. Beat together egg, water and oil; stir into flour mixture to make soft but not sticky dough that holds together in ball. If necessary, add 1 tbsp (15 mL) water at a time, being careful not to make dough sticky.

Turn out dough onto lightly floured surface; knead about 10 times or just until smooth. Halve dough; cover with plastic wrap or damp cloth. Let rest for 20 minutes.

Filling: Meanwhile, in skillet, heat butter over medium heat; add garlic and sautee for a minute. Add the zucchini and cook until tender. Transfer to bowl and mix in potatoes, yogurt, salt and pepper.

Working with one portion of dough at a time and keeping remaining dough covered, roll out on lightly floured surface to about 1/16-inch (1.5 mm) thickness. Using 3-inch (8 cm) round cutter, cut dough into rounds.

Place 1 tsp (5 mL) filling on each round. Lightly moisten edge of one half of dough with water; pinch edges together to seal and crimp attractively. Place on cloth; cover with damp cloth to prevent drying out. Repeat with remaining portion of dough.

In large pot of boiling salted water, cook perogies, in batches, for 1-1/2 to 2 minutes or until they float to top, stirring gently to prevent perogies from sticking together or to bottom of pot. With slotted spoon, remove to colander to drain.

In large heavy skillet, melt butter over medium heat; cook onion for about 5 minutes or until golden. Add perogies and toss to coat and warm through. Serve with sour cream.

(Recipe adapted from Canadian Living)

Penne with Greens, Olives and Feta

Pasta, Vegetarian 5 Responses »

Aug 112010

After my fun cottage weekend I was gifted with a ton of kale. Kale isn’t something that I would normally buy so I wasn’t too sure what to do with it. Of course I could prepare it like I would spinach or some other dark, leafy green but I wanted some a bit different. I took to the interwebs and found this recipe courtesy of Gourmet.

I’ve always had a thing for Mediterranean flavours so the combination of feta, olives and greens sounded perfect. There was this great saltiness from the olives and feta and a nice brightness from the lemons. As this dish is basically assembled raw, it’s in your best interest to buy good quality olives and feta. Oh, I also added some extra garlic because 1 clove didn’t seem like it would be enough. PLUS the dish is vegetarian… always a bonus.

This recipe is super easy and perfect for a weeknight. It might also be a great dish for a picnic because leftovers were almost better than when the dish was first prepared. I love recipes like that!

Penne with Greens, Olives and Feta
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel
1 garlic clove, minced
1 large bunch greens (such as spinach, mustard greens, kale, or broccoli rabe; about 1 pound), thick stems removed, spinach left whole, other greens cut into 1-inch strips (about 10 cups packed)
12 ounces penne
5 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil, divided
1/2 cup coarsely chopped pitted Kalamata olives
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese (about 3 ounces)

Mix parsley, lemon peel and garlic in small bowl; set aside.

Bring large pot of salted water to boil. Add greens and cook just until tender, 1 to 6 minutes, depending on type of greens. Using skimmer or slotted spoon, transfer greens to colander to drain. Return water to boil. Add pasta and cook just until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally. Drain, reserving 3/4 cup pasta cooking liquid. Return pasta to pot; add greens and 3 tablespoons oil and toss. Stir in olives, feta, and enough reserved pasta cooking liquid by 1/4 cupfuls to moisten. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer to bowl. Drizzle with remaining 2 tablespoons oil. Sprinkle with parsley mixture and serve.

Bon Appétit
April 2008

Crispy Pork Belly

Main Course, Meat 2 Responses »

Aug 092010

Occasionally you win some, you lose some when it comes to making dinner. I had some leftover pork belly in my freezer (from making this pate) that I was so excited to use up! I considered preparing the pork belly the same way that I did last time but thought I’d do it up a bit differently.

I found this recipe for pork belly and thought it sounded great. One of my problems with the pork belly that I made last time was that there was no crispy goodness. This recipe promised a lot of crispy goodness so I was all over that.

There was a ton of preparation involved or many days of soaking or anything, which was a plus. I ended up rubbing the spices on the belly the night before and allowed it to sit in the fridge overnight before preparing it. Easy enough.

The success of this dish is really all in your cooking technique, which clearly I did not have. First you boil the belly to get the cooking started and then fry it up on all sides to finish the cooking and crisp it up without suffering any third degree burns from flying oil. Sounds easy enough. Based on visual clues I really thought the belly was going to turn out wonderfully. The colour was nice, it had shrunk down a fair bit and it looked ready to go.

Boy was I wrong. From what I could tell the belly was mostly cooked (there was one small spot that wasn’t) BUT the fact had really not rendered the way I’d hoped. I wanted that soft and silky fat but this fat was just… hard. Sure the skin/outer layer was nice and crispy but the fat was awful. The meaty part below it was fine but at that point I was too disappointed to continue. I ended up eating about 50% of the crispy part of for dinner which was wholly unsatisfying.

So I’m totally not blaming the recipe on this one and instead am blaming myself. I’d probably give this recipe another shot with a smaller piece of meat just to test it out.

Crispy Pork Belly Recipe

Ingredients:

1lb pork belly
1 tsp Spiced Ginger Powder
1 tsp Five Spice Powder
1/2 tsp white pepper
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp msg (optional)

Method:

Wash the meat under cold water.

Submerge the pork belly meat in a pot of water and boil for about 15 minutes on medium heat.

Remove the pork and place it in a colander to let it dry for about 15 minutes. You may take the extra step of patting the pork belly skin dry with a paper towel for extra crispy skin.

Stab the pork with a knife a few times and rub the spices and salt on the flesh only (not the skin). We recommend layering the spices in the following order: spiced ginger powder, 5 spice powder, white pepper, salt and optional msg.

Let it marinate for 1 hour, though over night is better for a deeper flavor.

In a dutch oven or a large cast iron pan, fill it with oil enough to cover the skin of the pork belly. Avoid using olive oil since it has a low smoking point. You can place the pork belly in pan while the oil is still cold to prevent splatter. CAUTION!!! the pork will splatter a lot, so it is better to use a dutch oven with a heavy lid or use a splatter screen to place over your frying pan.

Fry the skin side first for roughly 5 mins or until golden brown and crispy, turn it on the side and fry it only for a min or two, repeat on all sides (it is best not to fry it on the flesh side for too long as it will toughen the meat) Frying is a skill learned over time, so if the skin is burnt, you can scrape it off with a knife. No worries!

Let it rest until cool to the touch and cut into slices.

(Via Rasa Malaysia)

Gnocchi with Fava Beans and Bacon

Main Course, Pasta 8 Responses »

Aug 062010

The other day I was at home with the day off and got hungry for lunch. I didn’t want to buy lunch because I had bought breakfast so I started rummaging in my fridge to see what I had. The day before I (on a whim) bought some packaged gnocchi so I figured I would use some of that. I also realized that I had some fresh fava beans from the farmers’ market that had to be used up stat. And because I’m me, I had some bacon.

I took to the interwebs to see what I could make and didn’t really find anything so I decided to freestyle. Bacon/pancetta and fava beans is a pretty common combination so I figured I could cook those two together. To bind the fava bean and bacon combination the idea of a cream sauce sounded appealing. Then I’d toss the gnocchi in.

I had never cooked with fava beans so I had to do some googling to figure out how to prepare them. Turns out you not only have to remove them from the big pods but then blanch them, remove the waxy outer pod and then cook again. A lot of work but so worth it for those wonderfully creamy beans.

The dish turned out AMAZING. I thought it would be good, possibly even great but it was really pretty amazing. I added a whole clove of garlic to the cream to infuse the sauce with a subtle garlic flavour and also added a handful of grated parmesan to add to the creaminess. The only downside was that there was a BIT too much of that bacon fat taste, next time I’d pour a bit of it off.

Of course I didn’t measure things as I went along but I’ll post a rough guide on how to prepare this below.

Gnocchi with Fava Beans and Bacon in Cream Sauce

Fava Beans
1/2 package of Gnocchi
Olive oil
2-3 Strips Bacon, chopped
Cream
1/2 cup grated Parmesan
1 clove Garlic, crushed
Salt and Pepper, to taste

1. Prepare the fava beans by peeling them, blanching the beans for 30 seconds, peeling the waxy outer and boiling them for 3-5 minutes or until tender. Drain and set aside.

2. Once the fava beans are prepare boil a pot of salted water and cook gnocchi as per package directions. Drain and set aside.

3. While gnocchi cooks fry bacon in a tiny bit of oil until about 90% cooked. Add fava beans and sautee to combine flavours, about a minute or two.

4. Add enough cream to create a sauce and add garlic and parmesan. Stir and allow to simmer to thicken.

5. Once sauce has thickened add the gnocchi and allow the flavours to combine for about a minute or two.

6. Add salt and pepper to taste and remember to fish out the garlic clove!

Recipe created by Tonya @ What’s On My Plate

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