Let's Just List Off Some Good Things, Eh?

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've actually cooked and eaten a lot. . . but I've been a bit too busy to post. So I'm just going to list off some highlights.

1. The "Gourmet" Dinner for my sister:

I saw some really nice green beans in the store, so I decided to make Clotilde's Salade de Haricorts Verts, Noix De Pecan & Jambon Cru from the Chocolate and Zucchini book. I made about a third of her recipe for the two of us. It was pretty fabulous what with the rich, toasty walnuts and the salty, porky prosciutto I used. I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I subbed red wine vinegar. I think there were no ill effects from this, but sometimes I wonder about my palate. The combination of crisp-tender beans and rich accouterments made for one delicious salad. It's a great way to enjoy green beans.

For the main course, I served Marcella Hazan's Baked Sockeye Salmon with Bell Peppers and Capers, which I talked about previously here. The recipe is on Epicurious here. It's a delicious salmon recipe and worked well with the sockeye fillets I bought. The sides were some fresh, grainy bread and a roasted potimarron squash. The squash was a beauty:

It was actually grown in Edmonton in the Campus Community Garden. The flesh was really creamy and sweet. It was quite fabulous.

2. I'm a muffin making machine:

Well, not really. But, I did make these apple-cinnamon-pecan-oatmeal muffins. I used only whole wheat flour, which might have made them a little drier than usual. It was a variation on my blueberry muffin recipe with a chopped apple and a few tablespoons of toasted pecan in place of blueberries and some cinnamon rather than lemon zest. They were pretty decent.
I also made pumpkin muffins, which came out very moist and delicious, but I didn't take a picture. Imagine muffins that are orange through and through with the sweet taste of pumpkin. I used this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. I was pretty keen to bake with pumpkin. Actually, I think I've been wanting to since last fall and winter. It seemed the perfect time at Canadian thanksgiving. I followed the recipe aside from substituting wheat flour for the buckwheat and using approximately 50-50 white and whole wheat flours. They were successful and relatively healthful recipe. I recommend trying the recipe for a tasty seasonal breakfast. My can of pumpkin was huge, so I also made a simple pumpkin soup one night and still have some leftover in the freezer, probably for a future batch of those tasty muffins.

3. Random bar cookie making:

Last Thursday, I baked some oatmeal-raisin bars during Grey's Anatomy. They are a tasty, buttery, not too sweet cookie. The recipe was in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and I can't find it on-line. I used whole-wheat flour for the cookies and made a half-batch in an 8-inch round pan. It's say they're good. I think they look good:
Basically, they have a butter, sugar, flour, and oatmeal base a bit like shortbread with raisin filling and more of the oat mixture crumbled on top.

My Fishy, My Whole Fishy

My blog is a bit behind the times, considering I'm going to talk about my dinner from a whole week ago. But, school takes up a lot of time. Last Saturday, I bought myself a whole rainbow trout for dinner because I like to eat whole animals, so I quite like to cook myself a whole fish. I tried to make one once before, and I think I overcooked it a bit and didn't quite make the most of it. This time, I looked around a bit to find a recipe, not so I could follow it, but so I could get a good cooking time and method. I think I did a pretty decent job, so I'll tell you what I did and show you what a real fish with a head and tail looks like.

I decided to go with a baking method. So, I preheated my oven to 400 degrees F.

I seasoned the inside of the fish with salt and pepper (or actually I should have but I almost forgot until the fish was stuffed so I sprinkled some on then). I stuffed the fish with thin slices of lemon, a handful of chopped flat leaf parsley, one or two chopped green onions and some capers.

Then I put the fish on an oiled baking sheet. Here's the fishy before he went in the oven:
I baked the fish for 20 minutes at 400 F. It came out pretty nicely cooked, at least it wasn't dry and overcooked. The fish flaked nicely and went well with the tartness of lemon juice I squeezed on it. The sea-like briny capers really complement fish, although I guess this is a freshwater fish (maybe it's not right for it to be briny). There were some presentation problems, though. I guess I didn't use enough oil on the pan because the fish skin stuck a little, not that that's a huge problem when I'm serving myself. But, it could be embarrassing when serving guests. If you want to be sure your fish won't stick, oil generously.

The cooked fish found his way to my plate and looked different and more eatable than the raw fish:
I had a great time tearing the fish apart getting out the good edible parts while removing the head, tail, bones, and skin. I really like the way fish flakes. I think it makes it more fun to eat than meat, sometimes. Is that a weird thing to say? Does anyone else think eating fish is fun?

Trying New Things: Chayote

I like new foods. I pretty much want to try anything, especially fruits and vegetables, because that's totally guilt free. It's not like trying say, Southern fried chicken. I honestly can't remember ever having eaten that. But, I have eaten chayote. I found it sitting amongst the ordinary produce at Safeway and could not resist. It was pretty inexpensive, too. I'm reluctant to spend a lot of money when I don't know something will be good. Here's what it looked like before I got to cooking it:
It was light green, firm, and pear shaped.

I wasn't really sure what chayote was like or how to cook it. But, that's what the Internet is for. I found this promising recipe on Epicurious. By a twist of fate, I had all the ingredients on hand. It's not that surprising though, since you only need chayote, garlic, parsley, green onions, and of course salt and pepper for seasoning. Basically, it's a quick saute to yield crisp tender results. I included the pit and skin because I read that both were edible and I'm all for eating the whole thing.

It looks pretty good, don't it?

The flavour and texture were superb. There was a nice crispness to the texture, almost like a perfect apple. The flavour of the chayote was sweet and accented perfectly by the sweetness and richness of the butter. It was plenty buttery and I used less than the recipe recommends. So, you can cut back a little. . . or you know go nuts. The garlic added a nice, garlicky flavour, that complemented the sweet chayote. It should not be skipped. The green onions and parsley seemed more like garnishes, which I suppose they were. But, they look and taste good.

Trying new things is fun and rewarding, especially when you take a chance on something as tasty as chayote. According to Wikipedia, it's a member of the gourd family and is an important part of the Mexican diet. But, Wikipedia claims the flesh is "mild." I'd say it has a pleasant subtle sweetness. Moral of the story, if you see chayote looking all nice in a store or market, but it and try it. You won't be disappointed.

Squid: Prepping and Cooking Sea Monsters

That's right, squid. It's an ingredient Albert, a Korean, was concerned my Italian family would not be able to stomach. But, we like it and have ordered plenty of calamari appetizers. You know what we don't do? Cook it at home. But you know who did?

That's right me. And the squid I cooked didn't come cleaned and prepared. To make my squid salad, I had to clean and cut the squid. Why did I buy squid? Because I like it, because it was cheap (less than 2 dollars), and because I was inspired that I could do it based on an episode of Alton Brown's show Good Eats on squid of course.

Prepping squid is not for the faint of heart. I could see how the whole process might dampen a weaker, more squeamish appetite than my own. But, I was not deterred. Here's how to prep squid:

First you have to pull the tentacles from the tubes. Next, you can chop the tentacles from the body and maybe cut them in half. I like to eat tentacles, mmm, tentacles. Then, you prep the tube by fishing out all the guts with your clean fingers. Yes, they're slimy. Make sure to remove the quill, which is cartilage I think. It should slide out. Finally, you need to skin the squid tube by peeling it with your fingers. You may need to slit the skin with a knife. Pulling off the fins on the side is optional. The squid can then be cut into rings or strips with a sharp knife.

But cutting the squid isn't half as important as cooking them. Squid will become rubbery unless they are cooked either very quickly or for a very long time. I went with fast cooking, partly because I couldn't find any slow recipes.

I boiled the squid for my salad for about 1 minute then drained them and put them in an ice bath. This stopped the cooking process rendering my squid very tender. They tasted of the sea and complemented a salad of greens, tomato, red bell pepper, green onion, and homemade croutons perfectly. I dressed it simply in red wine vinegar and olive oil. I was pretty impressed with myself for cooking squid. Here you can see a little of my salad:

The following day, I cooked the remainder of the squid by seasoning it with soy sauce and stir frying it for about a minute. It wasn't quite as tender as the day before, but it wasn't bad either.

If you're a squid lover and not squeamish, try cooking squid. It's an adventure in every package. Besides, the sea is full of them, so it's a sustainable choice.

Little Italy, A Little Risotto, and My Little Sister

Wednesday afternoon was a really enjoyable, really foodie time. Once classes were over, my little sister and I met up to shop for and cook dinner. I've been meaning to check out the Italian Centre Shop in Little Italy for quite some time. I'd heard it was awesome with so much Italian food and excellent prices. It was a bit of a journey from the University on the LRT and a really old-school electric bus. We thought it was like a journey back in time what with the old bus and the state of the Little Italy neighbourhood, which is maybe a touch run down. The store was absolutely awesome, though.

There was a lot of food you don't see elsewhere like goat stewing meat. There was a ton of dried pasta in every imaginable shape, a pretty much exhaustive selection of Italian cheeses and cured meats, and an olive counter. I found treasures like cheap figs and fennel bulbs in the produce department. There were also piles of Italian cookies and chocolates including single Bacci chocolates available at the checkout counters.

My sister and I bought ingredients for a recipe by Giada Di Laurentiis for Dirty Risotto, that features pancetta, hot Italian sausage, mushrooms, red bell pepper, onion, and Italian flat leaf parsley. For the two of us, we prepared essentially half the recipe with a few alterations. We used less than a tablespoon of butter and one approximately 4 ounce link of the Italian Centre's fresh hot sausage. We skipped the white wine due to the expense and the fact we wouldn't drink the rest but added a chopped clove of garlic with the vegetables. We also didn't add any salt. . . but that's a matter of taste. Leslie was a fantastic sous-chef and the dish came together beautifully. She even cut all the mushrooms really, really carefully into slices.

Here's our masterpiece:
The pork products added a ton of flavour to the risotto, which was also wonderfully creamy and starchy. Both my sister and I like starch so we really enjoyed this. The bits of sausage were very tasty, clearly the Italian Centre knows what they're doing making it. I think it was comparable to what I tasted in Southern Ontario. Freshly grated Parmesan also added delicious flavour.

I think this was my sister's first risotto and she liked it. As a side dish we had a plate of heirloom tomatoes with pepper and basil. It was an excellent choice to cut some of the starchy richness of the risotto. All in all, it was a really successful shopping trip and supper with my sister.

Harvest Time And A Bonus Recipe!!!

I'm back in Edmonton, now, and I'm finally starting to accept summer's end and the coming of fall and winter in the far, far North. This may not be Iqaluit but it's as far North as I ever go. My return to Edmonton brought a return to gardening in the Campus Community Garden, which is of course coming rapidly to an end for the season. (There's a frost warning tonight that should spell the end.) Perhaps because I know it's about to end, I've really been enjoying the last of the garden's bounty. In the last week or so, I've enjoyed cucumbers, summer squash, potatoes, carrots, tomatoes, Swiss chard, and herbs from the garden. I've also participated in a massive planting that will turn into a virtual garlic farm next summer.

The summer squash and cucumbers are gone now and I will miss those sweet, fresh veggies. I don't know why, but I really like summer squash.

Swiss chard was something I tried for the first time from the garden last summer. I really enjoy the unique flavour and the virtuous knowledge that I'm eating dark, leafy greens. Last Saturday, a large crop of chard remained to be picked on the garden's farm plot. I couldn't bear to leave it there, so I took a couple of big bags home, mostly for freezing as fellow gardeners suggested. I'm not sure how that worked out, but I blanched and froze 4 good-sized packets of chard that I plan to make veggie lasagna and soup with. I also enjoyed some of the chard fresh, sauteed into a veggie mixture to top my favourite smoked chicken tortelloni from Safeway. It actually looks pretty good:

It was good, as I really like my stuffed pastas. The green flavour of the chard went well with the acidity and sweetness of garden fresh tomato and the freshness basil (from the garden of course), onion, and garlic.

Alas, we've torn up all the basil and tomatoes in an effort to avoid losing it to frost. I took a number of green tomatoes home when we ripped out the tomatoes on Saturday that looked like this:

Despite my best efforts to ripen them in my apartment, which is rather lacking in sunlight, only some of these tomatoes have ripened. The ones that have ripened have displayed the dramatic variety of what a tomato can be. With the focus on heirloom varieties in our tomato patch, I've gotten to try some rather unique specimens. The ripe colours range from reddish brown to "tomato" red to yellow. I suppose my taste buds are poorly developed because they all taste like good, sweet, slightly acidic tomatoes to me. Maybe yellow is a little more acidic than red, but I couldn't be sure. The shapes of the tomatoes range from round cherries to long "sausage" tomatoes. Even the tomato skin texture varies with one variety having not the usually smooth skin but peach-like slightly fuzzy skin.

I wanted to share my modest bounty of heirloom tomatoes with my sister, so when we cooked together today, I had her prepare this plate of tomato slices with basil and black pepper as a "salad." She was surprised that all the fruits I gave her to slice were tomatoes and even slightly afraid of the brownish one that I think she found tastiest. Here's a picture of her tomato arranging handy-work:

I think it looks awesome, Leslie has lots of patience for making things look good. I am so thankful for the opportunity to explore heirloom and unusual varieties and just vegetables I wasn't raised eating through the garden. I've met some interesting people and some real food people there too.

Even the carrots at the garden were unusual since we grew some red carrots. I cut into one fat red carrot and was surprised to find its yellow flesh:

The red carrot joined fingerling potatoes from the garden, garlic, mushrooms, and parsnip in a roasted root vegetable side to steak. It was very tasty, so I'm going to share my method.

Root Vegetable Roast

Ingredients

1 large button mushroom cut in quarters

1 medium carrot cut in large chunks

1 small parsnip cut in large chunks

4 fingerling potatoes, larger ones halved (or chunks of ordinary potatoes)

1 large garlic clove, cut in half

a few sprigs of fresh thyme, some with leaves removed, some whole

salt

black pepper

olive oil

Method

Toss the vegetables and garlic with some olive oil and thyme in a bowl. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Put in an oven safe dish. Here's mine:

Roast uncovered for 50-60 minutes at 400 F, stirring once, until tender. It will serve one with a small steak and look like this:

Obviously, you could make more if you are lucky enough to have an eating companion.

It's delicious because the oven caramelizes the outsides of the vegetables while on the inside the carrots remain crisp while the potatoes get soft, creamy, and starchy inside. Those fingerling potatoes were delicious, too bad I have none left. And the garlic, oooh that soft, mild roasted garlic. It is so good.

Winter is coming, so appreciate the harvest while you can. Although you might have a lot more time than I do in the frigid North.

Cookie Monster's Cookie Variations

I suppose there isn't much of a new story to this, since I've talked about this basic recipe before. Then again I did make some changes and take some pretty pictures, so I suppose it warrants a new post. For the food porn alone:There's nothing quite like looking at a tin of freshly baked cookies. These are oatmeal cookies, clearly and are based on Nick Malgieri's recipe that David Lebovitz blogged about. I've also blogged about them here. Anyways, like I said I made a couple of changes when I baked up the cookies for Robyn's barbecue.

I found my initial batch too sweet so this time I used 1/4 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup. They still seemed sweet enough to me. I also used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup white all-purpose flour in place of 1 cup of white flour. I really don't think I could tell the difference with this, but I guess it made them even healthier. I also added a bunch of zest from an organic orange to the batter in the wet ingredients. This added a intriguing dimension to the cookies with orange flavour and fragrance that I really think goes well with raisins and oatmeal. It had my friends wondering just what that intriguing flavour element was. I baked the cookies for 9 minutes on an ungreased, non-stick cookie sheet and got a yield of 30 cookies.

The cookies were pretty popular and all the ones I brought to the barbecue got eaten. But, I saved a few for myself and for my sister, the zest-aholic to try. They're frozen now. I actually really enjoyed eating the previous batch straight out of the freezer. Is that weird? Nothing like a frozen cookie on a hot day, not that there are any of those left. (Hot days, not cookies.)

Here's a bonus close-up of one of these scrumptious soft, slightly chewy cookies: