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No picture today as the camera is on a business trip in Montreal (it leads such a jet-set lifestyle, that camera) but I wanted to share the spring-inspired dish we enjoyed for dinner tonight with you all the same.
What you need:
1 lb lean ground chicken, pork, turkey or lamb – or any combination of those
3/4 cup breadcrumbs
3 eggs
4 cloves of minced garlic
4 tbsp dill
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste
1 tbsp olive oil
1 cup water
2 tbsp butter
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 12 oz. package of egg noodles
Start by putting the water for the noodles on to boil. In a large bowl combine ground meat, breadcrumbs, 1 egg, 2 cloves of garlic, 2 tablespoons of dill, salt and pepper. Mix well and roll into balls about 1.5 inches in diameter each. Heat the olive oil to medium-high in a heavy skillet then add the meatballs to brown.
Turn the heat down to medium and cook for another 3- 4 minutes. At this point the noodle water is likely boiling so go ahead and put the noodles in to cook according to the directions on the package. Once the noodles are in add the lemon juice to the water and add that mixture to the skillet a little at a time, using it to deglaze the pan as you go until all of the water/lemon mix is in the pan.
Let that come to a simmer, still over medium heat and add the butter. Beat the eggs in a medium sized bowl while waiting. Once the stuff in the skillet has reached a simmer add some of it to the bowl with the eggs a little at a time, stirring constantly. I like to use a turkey baster for that job as gives greater control over how much is added and is easy to use with only one free hand.
You’ll want to mix in at least half of the hot mixture in order to prevent the eggs from cooking once returning the sauce to the pan. Add it back to the pan, a little at a time, stirring all the while again (I know, I’m so demanding) until everything is thoroughly mixed together and uniform. Bring it back up to a simmer – still stirring or the eggs might go wonky and toss in the remaining dill and garlic once there. Then it’s all ready to go over the noodles.
I like to serve this in bowls with loads and loads of freshly ground pepper and a light salad drizzled in nothing but lemon juice on the side…or peas. It’s really good with peas too.
I’ve been craving mussels like 90 lately and happened to score a bunch on sale. 6 lbs of on sale mussels in fact. Here’s what we did with them:
This recipe sort of mashes steaming and baking due to the sheer volume of mollusky goodness. We took one look at our pot and realised it simply wasn’t going to do the whole lot in one fell swoop. Luckily we had a very astute guest present who suggested doing them in the large roasting pan we normally use for turkey. Perfect!
Now, a word about dealing with mussels: the cooking of the little critters takes very little time at all, however the prep work can be quite a lot longer depending on the state in which the mussels were sold. We lucked out as ours were sold ‘debearded’ but some still had beards which needed to be snipped and tossed and they all needed cleaning. As such, the first thing we did was toss them into two large bowls of very cold water and begin the cleaning process. I’m probably a bit too meticulous about this but I want to be sure I get all of the dead ones. Cleaning each shell ensures that I see each one which is open and broken so I can pitch it straight away. Any with open shells should be discarded if they don’t quickly close with a tap on the table. Also, scrubbed mussels look prettier than unscrubbed one and as I wanted to do them in a broth to be enjoyed with them I really didn’t need any clinging grit on them. I just give each one a once over with a copper wool pad and was ready to begin cooking in about half an hour.
What you need:
2 sticks of butter
5 cloves of garlic lightly crushed
1 large red onion, chopped
3 cups of dry white wine
2 lb bag of new potatoes – we used gold fingerlings as I enjoy their firm texture in contrast with the mussels
5 roma tomatoes in 1/2 inch thick slices
1 tbsp ground nutmeg
1 1/2 cups chopped fresh parsley
6 lbs mussels in shell
Start by preheating the oven with the roasting pan in it to 400 degrees. Once it’s up to temp add the butter to melt, then the garlic and onion. Cook those until translucent and fragrant. Add the potatoes and cover the pan. Cook for about 20 minutes, stirring at the 10 minute mark.
After 20 minutes the potatoes should be slightly tender and browned. Add the wine and cook for another 10 minutes with the lid on. Add the tomatoes and the nutmeg and cook uncovered until the tomatoes are soft and cooked down then stir 1 cup of the parsley into the broth. Now it’s time to add the mussels. Add them quickly but in small batches, giving them another check for any with opened or broken shells, discarding those as you go. As soon as all of the mussels are in the pan put the lid back on and set the timer for 5 minutes. After 5 minutes check to see if they’re all open. Open means done and you don’t want to over cook them or they’ll taste like fish-flavoured bubble gum. if they’re not all open pull the pan out of the oven and cover again for about 2 minutes. The pan will still be hot enough to finish cooking them. Any which didn’t open should be discarded and those left should be stirred around to get coated in broth. Cooing words of encouragement at them works too. True story. Top the lot of it with parsley and serve with fresh baguette slices and a nice Shiraz.
We did our rock ‘n roll duty by putting a major dent into 6 lbs of mussels between the three of us, but even we gluttons couldn’t do away with the lot of them. The solution to that problem (because I’m not about to let those succulent little critters go to waste) was to shuck the remaining mussels and put them and the remaining broth in a bag and then into the freezer – I’ll use that for a lovely chowder at some other time.
I was feeling adventurous & had a pork tenderloin roast in the freezer begging to be cooked into something yummy. So I experimented with simple ingredients; you can barely see the tenderloin up there smothered in its wine, apple & mushroom jus, but it was very much present in terms of flavour & texture within the meal itself.
What you need:
1 pork tenderloin roast
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups of dry white wine
5 cloves garlic, smashed & peeled, but not crushed
1 cup sliced mushrooms
2 sliced, large apples
1/2 stick of butter
salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Heat the olive oil in a large cast iron skillet over medium high heat. Once it’s hot gently place the two sides of the tenderloin into it to sear & dust the exposed meat with a little salt (a pinch per loin should do it). Sear the tenderloin, turning as you go in order to get all sides lightly browned. Once browned lightly deglaze with one cup of wine, using a wooden spoon to lift any meat residue from the bottom of the skillet. Slice almost but not fully through the meat at one inch intervals along the length of the roast. Add the garlic to the pan & transfer the roast, skillet & all, to the oven. Cook for about 40 minutes or until the roast is nicely brown on the inside. Remove the tenderloin from the oven & transfer to a cutting board to sit.
Heat the skillet containing the leftover juices & wine from the roast over medium-high heat. Stir the contents until they’re reduced by half. Add the mushrooms & the apples. Continue to heat & stir until the apples & mushrooms are fork tender & the juices have been reduced by about half again. Add the butter & stir that in until it’s combined with the rest of the sauce. Stir in the remaining cup of wine & taste. Add more salt if necessary. Reduce the heat & let simmer for about 10 minutes until it’s slightly thickened.
Cut the roast into medallions along the slits you’ve already made & transfer to the dish in/on which you intend to serve it. Spoon the jus over the roast & garnish with a couple sprigs of fresh thyme or parsley. Serve hot over rice, potatoes or (as seen below) savoury madeleines (a recipe I will not share at this time as I haven’t perfected it yet but is really quite delicious nonetheless.) The fresh, steamed, green beans make a lovely side.
I have to admit a bias toward drumsticks when it comes to cooking with chicken. Many of the treatments I give them are easily adaptable to breasts and whole birds for a more formal dining experience and that’s precisely why I lean toward drumsticks; they’re very informal, finger food, go with just about anything and therefore make children happy. I often make a bigger batch than is necessary as they’re something the sprogs will willingly pack in their lunches for the next day.
This recipe is nice because it goes together very quickly and the heat output from the chili sauce is very controllable – it gets diluted quite a lot by the butter and lime but more can be added as desired or can be served on the side for the more adventurous to dip into.
What you need:
16-20 chicken drumsticks
1 stick of butter
Juice of 2 lemons or 4 limes
1 tbsp dried thyme or you can remove the leaves from two or three fresh sprigs
2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (I use this but one can easily make their own)
2 tsp powdered ginger or 1 inch chunk of fresh ginger grated (I recommend having one of these on hand for that job)
Melt the butter in a medium sized microwavable bowl or on the cooktop in a medium sized saucepan, stirring constantly to ensure it doesn’t burn (if you’re doing it in the microwave be sure to give it a stir at the one minute mark.) Add the lemon/lime, thyme, chili garlic sauce & ginger to that. Stir until combined. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Dip each drumstick into the mixture and move to a roasting pan, preferably one with a rack to keep the chicken off the bottom of the pan – this makes clean-up so much easier. Once all of the drumsticks have been dipped & arranged brush each one with a little more sauce and toss the pan into the oven. Cook for 30 minutes & serve hot – or let them cool and take them on your next picnic or as your incentive to not eat out for workday lunches.
So these are what I had intended to make before burning the sweet potatoes. They’re a wonderful accompaniment to roasted or fried chicken or just on their own with a little butter or red pepper jelly.
What you need:
3.5 cups of all-purpose flour
1 tbsp. baking powder
1/2 cup shortening
1 tsp. salt
1 large peeled cooked, mashed/pureed yam/sweet potato (this should yield about 2 cups of mash – if it’s less than just top it up to two cups with more buttermilk)
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
Preheat oven to 425. In a large bowl mix the dry ingredients together then cut the shortening in with a fork or pastry blender until the mixture achieves a coarse, crumbly texture. In another bowl mix the sweet potatoes and buttermilk together until well blended. Slowly add this to the dry mixture, stirring all the while until you have a loose, wet dough. Grease 2 10×13 casserole dishes or a baking sheet if you prefer a crisper finish to biscuits and drop heaping 1/2 cup dollops of the mixture into them, leaving about half an inch between each one. Bake in the oven for 15- 20 minutes until golden brown. This should give you a dozen biscuits.
To this batch I also added 2 tablespoons of dried chives & 1 teaspoon each of ginger, onion powder & nutmeg to the dry ingredients just to spice them up a bit.
Of course this recipe can be adapted to make traditional cut biscuits by adding another half cup of flour, or enough to make it a kneadable dough. I’m lazy so I just go with drops – plus I feel they add an interesting textural element to a plate.
We’ve had a bout of poorliness for the last few days chez nous so I thought I would put together a cold-busting, sniffle inducing dish.
What you need for the sauce:
Juice of 2 large navel oranges
1/4 cup soya sauce
1/2 cup chili & garlic sauce
1 tsp. sesame oil
What you need for the rest:
1 pkg. extra firm tofu or 1/5 cups of pre-fried firm tofu
16 thinly sliced shitake mushrooms
2 cups broccoli florets
2 large red bell peppers, thinly sliced
1 can sliced water chestnuts
2 cups snow peas
1/2 cup grated coconut
Thoroughly mix all of the sauce ingredients except the oil together in a medium sized bowl and set aside.
If the tofu is not yet fried then that will be the next step. I like to cut it into small slices by cutting the loaf into thirds lengthwise then 1/4 inch slices widthwise. This can be done quickly so oil for shallow frying can be heated before cutting. Shallow fry all of the tofu in small batches – about a third of the loaf at a time. It won’t take long as it really only needs a lightly crisp outer coating. Move each batch to a towel-lined plate as you go and set that plate aside until later.
Heat the wok and 2 tbsp peanut oil over high heat until very hot. Add the mushrooms to the oil, lifting them up along the sides of the wok and letting them rest there for about 30 seconds. Stir the mushrooms then lift up around the sides for another 30 seconds. Add the broccoli and keep stirring the mushroom/broccoli mixture around for about 2 minutes until the broccoli has a little give to it and isn’t quite so crisp. Add the water chestnuts, peppers & snow peas and stir for a minute before adding the sauce. Stir the sauce in with a pinch of salt to coat all of the vegetables. Top with a lid and allow it all to simmer for 3 minutes. Toss in the coconut and sesame oil and stir again to coat. Serve over brown rice vermicelli and you’re done!
I was feeling particularly in need of something summery and given that making a dress would leave me unable to wear it for a few more months I decided to make Tabouleh. Of course it normally looks more parsley-laden that the one above but I was working on a whim and didn’t have everything available in the quantities require – it was still quite good.
What you need:
2 cups dried bulgur
4 cups boiling water
1 large, finely chopped, red onion
3 cloves crushed garlic
3 cups chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 cup chiffonaded fresh mint (dried can be used when it’s not in season)
5 or 6 diced medium-sized tomatoes (I find firmer, less ripened tomatoes hold up better in this dish)
1/4 to 1/2 cup lemon juice (depending on how lemony one likes their tabouleh)
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Several hours in advance (4 is probably the least one could get away with,) reconstitute the bulgar in the four cups of boiling water. Cover, refrigerate, do your laundry and come back and check to see if your bulgur has soaked up all of the water. If it has then add everything else to it. Stir (with a wooden spoon or some other gentle device which will not bruise your herbs.) Chill. Leaving it overnight is ideal as it gives everything a chance to marry.
This can be served in romaine lettuce leaves which make fancy little finger food boats, in or on pitas or just on its own.
Ok…so we have lots of leftover turkey. Luckily I also have many ways of dealing with it.
We’ve already discussed dealing with a savoury pie to help us sort out roast beef leftovers, now we’ll do it with turkey. The method is very much the same, but the ingredients are switched up a bit.
What you need:
1 pkg. deep dish pie crusts
1/2 of a cooking onion (I actually used a red onion because I actually enjoy the flavour of red onion cooked…damn the naysayers, dammit)
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1.5 cups of cubed, cooked turkey meat
1 cup of turkey gravy
1/2 cup of dry white wine
1/4 cup of milk
2 cups of frozen mixed vegetables
Salt and pepper to taste
If frozen, take the crusts out of the freezer to come to room temperature as the rest of the preparation goes on.
Chop the onion into palatable bits – far be it for me to say what that means to most people but I tend to chop mine fairly thinly as I’ve a couple of folks around here who don’t enjoy chunks of onions in their goodies. I, on the other hand, quite like the chunks…so giv’er and do what ye will.
Add the butter or margarine to a medium sauce pan heated over medium heat. Once that has melted add the chopped onion. Sautee until translucent. While that’s going on the turkey meat can be cubed (if this hasn’t been done already) and added to one of the pie shells. Top that with the frozen vegetables and season with salt and pepper to taste. Let that sit while the base it cooking.
This is a good time to preheat the oven. The pie wants to start at 375 degrees.
Once the onions are translucent deglaze (ok, I have to admit that I did not know what the term was for that particular manoeuvre until just this year…I’ve been doing it since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, but the fact that there was a word for it escaped me completely…meh) the pot with about half of the wine. Add the gravy and stir vigorously (I love that word) until combined. Once combined add the mild and the rest of the wine and stir vigorously again.
Pour the base mixture over the vegies and meat already in the pie shell. Top the lot of it with the second pie shell, pressing the edge into that of the bottom shell to make a relatively firm seal around the edges. Cut slits into the top to allow steam to escape. Pop it into the oven at 375 for about 15 minutes. After 15 minutes crank the heat to 425 for another 10-15 minutes for optimum browning and pastry flaking.
mmmMMMmmm…savoury pies rock my world.
Once again I’m presented with the unique and wonderful challenge of coming up with creative ways to dispense of leftover holiday fowl. And because we all need more rich food after indulging and imbibing to the point of busting, I felt a spicey, cheesey sandwich with sweet potato fries was in order.
What you need for two sandwiches:
1 cup turkey meat (dark or white…whichever your preference. I like to use a combination of both)
1 small red onion sliced in rings
1 tbsp. jerk sauce (I really like Walkerswood jerk seasoning because it doesn’t just taste like hot. It tastes like hot and lime and onions and all of the other good things which go into a great seasoning. Try it. You’ll like it too.)
6 slices of double creme brie
1 roma tomato, thinly sliced
4 slices multi-grain bread
1 tbsp butter or margarine
mayonnaise for spreading
salt and pepper to taste
Start by lubing a warm, cast iron skillet over medium heat with a wee bit of butter or margarine. Add the jerk seasoning and use a wooden spoon or spatula to coat the pan in it. Toss in the turkey pieces and roll them around the pan to pick up the jerk sauce, breaking it up as you go for more jerkey coverage. Move the turkey to a plate, crank the burner to medium-high heat and add the onions. Stir fry the onions for about 1-2 minutes then move them to the turkey plate.
At this point you can choose to toast the breads in a toaster or grill them in the skillet with another wee bit of butter or margarine. I opted for the latter this time around.
Once the bread is nicely toasted using either method, spread some mayo on the bottom pieces of each sandwich. Divide the turkey equally between both, then the onions, then the brie, then the tomato. Season with salt and pepper before topping with the remaining toasts.
Thinly sliced peppers in any colour, kosher pickles and lettuce all make wonderful additions to this sandwich. One can get as creative with it as one likes.
Had an early morning out of town visitor roll in today and so needed something quick and tasty and with some semblance of nutritional value to serve for breakfast. Of course pie was the first thing to come to mind. That’s just the way I roll.
What you need:
2 deep dish pie shells
2 eggs
1 400g tub of ricotta cheese
1 600g bag of frozen mixed (or not…I like mixed) berries
1/4 cup of sugar
Angostura bitters
2 pinches of salt
2 pinches of nutmeg
2 tbsp margarine or butter
freshly ground black pepper
Get the pastries out of the freezer and set them on a baking dish or an actual pie plate so they come to room temperature. In a bowl whisk the eggs until frothy. To those add one pinch of salt, one pinch of nutmeg, 6 dashes of bitters and give the lot a good whisking again. Stir in the cheese until combined.
Toss the berries, the sugar, the other pinches, about 6 more dashes of bitters and a few good grinds of black pepper (I really like to taste the pepper in it so I gave mine 30 good grinds) in a bowl together. Move this mixture to the bottom pie shell. Dot the top of the berry mixture with butter or margarine then spread the egg/cheese blend over the top. Top with the second pie shell (don’t forget to pierce the top to let steam out) and bake in a 425 degree oven for 30 minutes.
cushti 