Not Much of a Story But . . . Highlights

Isn't it just like me setting up low expectations? They prevent disappointment.

Anyways, first dish up is the buttermilk pancakes I made for last Sunday breakfast. They're from the same Epicurious recipe as before. Once again they were pretty good. These ones have pineapple on the side and marmalade and butter on them. Mmmmm, butter. I'm starting to not like them too sweet. . . the pineapple was almost too sweet. Anyways, this took care of the pancake craving.On Monday, I made banana muffins using the Low Fat Banana Bread recipe on Epicurious. This used up some of the leftover buttermilk and 3 super-ripe bananas. I pretty much followed the recipe except I didn't flour the tins, I used about half brown sugar, I added a teaspoon or so of cinnamon, and I used slightly less sugar than called for. Of course, the other change is that I baked it as muffins rather than a loaf. I don't own a loaf pan. Anyways, it made a dozen muffins that baked up in about 22 minutes. Here's how pretty they looked:
The muffins got an excellent rise and had good texture for low fat, I think. My only beef is that they are too sweet for my taste, 3/4 of a cup of sugar is a freaking lot. Next time i would use less than half a cup and probably all brown sugar. I froze many of the muffins for later. We'll see how they hold up. I'm crossing my fingers.

This week I also ate my first Fuyu persimmon, that I know of. When I bought it, the lady asked what kind of tomato it was. That was a little funny. Anyways, it had mild, fragrant, firm almost crunchy orange flesh. It wasn't a particularly sweet fruit. It was subtle, really. I didn't think too much of it while I was eating it, but I kinda want another one. Only problem is that they're pricey and I don't want to eat ones from China and it's hard to tell which are. The sign said California. . . I hope that's true. I think it cost $1.50 and that's the cheapest I've seen.

Finally, my dinner tonight based on Quinoa and Creczenza with Sauteed Mushrooms in Heidi Swanson's Super Natural Cooking. I had to add a bit of rice 'cause I ran out of quinoa. I enjoyed the crimini mushrooms. The fried egg was my addition 'cause the girl needs protein. I didn't have Creczenza, a type of cheese I've never seen, so I used some grated provolone and asiago. Aside from the mushrooms with chili flakes, it was mild and needed more pepper. Of course that's my fault. The texture of quinoa was a pleasure as always in this dish. Here's a photo of my creation.
I also stirred in a little parsley for colour and flavour. The book this is from is pretty inspiring even if some ingredients are. . . out there.

Zucchini Absorption Pasta

Zucchini Absorption Pasta with Sliced Pork Chop, originally uploaded by lisbear18.

I ordered a bunch of cookbooks online. . . plus one novel. One of the books is Chocolate and Zucchini: Daily Adventures in a Parisian Kitchen. It is a really cute book with a lot of inspiring ideas. I haven't read it all, but I quite like it. The only problem is that it's hard to keep open, say when you're cooking from it due to its small size and binding style.

Anyways, above you see my version of the Pates Par Absorption, Courgette & Cacao from the book, which is like risotto-style pasta. However, I made 1/4 of the recipe to serve one. I used Asiago instead of Parmesan, omitted the cacao nibs (don't know where to find those), added some flat-leaf parsley at the end, and put skillet cooked pork chop slices on top 'cause this girl needs some protein too. Anyways, this recipe worked pretty well and was tasty in a starchy-creamy way. I like carbs so it was good. It was a nice use of zucchini, which is one of my favourite vegetables. At the end I found that I had to turn up the heat and uncover the pot so the dish wasn't too watery. I liked that it was faster to make than rice risotto.

Hmm, I seem to be on a risotto-type kick. I might try making risotto-style barley like Heidi Swanson suggests. Her book, Supernatural Cooking, is one of the other books I ordered.

Using the Greens

Pork Chop and Rice Noodle Salad, originally uploaded by lisbear18.

I'm getting more and more excited about the garden produce. So far I've used some parsley and chives, the garlic shoots, and a fair bit of salad greens. Today, I tasted a few early strawberries. Yes, Edmonton is that far north that strawberry season is beginning as it ends elsewhere. Unfortunately, one of the strawberries wasn't that great. But they're still better than the ones in the store, which I don't buy.

Anyways, I planted some chard today and I'm excited about that. It was delicious last year and totally new to me. I'll be looking for some good recipes for it. I'm also on the lookout for green bean recipes since I'm confident that they will be abundant later in the summer. In the grocery store I'm looking for blueberry season to start. I think they're actually my favourite berries. I'm especially stoked to make blueberry pancakes and maybe oatmeal-blueberry muffins.

This photo is a main course salad that I made using mixed greens for the garden. I dressed them in rice wine vinegar and sesame oil and added some sliced cucumber. I topped that with rice noodles that I mixed with sesame oil, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, and sambal oelek. I also added sauteed garlic shoots and onion. The meat on top is a pork chop that I skillet cooked after marinating it--for too short a time really--in soy sauce. The meal was pretty good except the noodles were clumpy. Clearly I don't quite know how to handle them right. . . kind of like at that inferior Vietnamese restaurant.

Yin and Yang: Quinoa and Sausage

Quinoa is supposed to be this super-healthy grain-like substance that contains all the essential amino acids. I've been meaning to try it for a while. If it tastes good what's not too like. Now, you might think I'd incorporate it into some super-healthy dish. But, that's not quite what I did. You see, at the same time I bought the quinoa at Save-On I also bought some Spolumbo's Spicy Italian Sausage.

Thus I created a sort of sausage "ragout" perhaps and served it over quinoa. It also may have been good over pasta. Anyways, what I did was to boil the sausage until it was mostly cooked. Then I sliced it and sauteed it in a little olive oil with about one medium chopped onion; seven large, chopped crimini mushrooms (the brown ones), and a couple of chopped garlic cloves. I sauteed for quite a while to try to get things browning. Then I added a 14 ounce can of plum tomatoes that i stabbed up a bit (stabbing is a good cooking technique, you should stab the sausage with a fork while you boil it). I added some pepper, thyme, and oregano and let it simmer for a bit. Towards the end of the simmering I added a chopped red bell pepper and some crushed chili pepper flakes. Finally, at the very end I stirred in some fresh parsley. I served it over quinoa (cooked by boiling for 15 minutes) and garnished with parsley and grated Asiago cheese.

This is what my concoction looked like:

It was quite delicious, spicy from the pepper flakes and sausage. Sweet with red bell peppers. Aromatic from the herbs. Meaty-tasting chunks of mushroom and of course the incorporable joy of pieces of sausage.

You might be wondering about the quinoa: Did that "grain" work? It worked wonderfully. It has this fantastic slightly chewy texture and a subtle flavour. I liked the way it stuck to the bits of meat and vegetables in this dish. This is what cooked quinoa looks like if you're curious:

I cooks up fast, tastes good, has an appealing texture, and is very healthy as it is high in fibre and protein. I can see myself buying more quinoa and making it a regular part of my dining at home. Actually, I ate quinoa today as sort of a "salad." I sauteed peas, garlic sprouts, and green onion and mixed that with quinoa, canned sardine, pepper, soy sauce, and rice wine vinegar. I thought it was pretty decent for something thrown together and quite enjoyed the quinoa. But, no photo of that.

What I call garlic sprouts are shoots cut off the green part of the garlic growing in the garden. They tasted garlicy but not really strong.

Quinoa must be rinsed thoroughly prior to cooking to remove its bitter outer layer.

I Found My Vietnamese Fix

I was basically having a crisis here in Edmonton trying to find a decent Vietnamese Restaurant, specifically on that I liked. Yesterday, I found one in Chinatown. Pagolac was mentioned a few times on Chowhound as a good choice for Vietnamese. There is also a location on the Southside.

How do I know it was good? Excellent question: I know it was good because today, the next day, I think fondly of my bowl of Pho and want to eat it all over again. I think that's good enough, even if the food isn't absolutely perfect.

My dining companion, Albert, and I started by splitting "Vegetarian Egg Rolls". The order consisted of six fresh, hot mainly noodle filled spring rolls. They were good in the way fried things have of being good. I think we all know that way. Anyways, no complaints and they'd satisfy any spring roll craving.

Albert ordered a bowl of rice noodles with some meats and fried rolls on top. He downed it really freaking quick so it must have been tasty. But, there was some pink, not as in rare, meat that he didn't want to talk about after. Apparently that bit wasn't very good and perhaps should be avoided.

I had a beef Pho, the "special, deluxe" one or something. It had plenty of sliced beef, some of it rare, a meatball, tendon, and tripe, green onions, and rice noodles in a tasty broth. I added plenty of Thai Basil, bean sprouts, chili peppers, and hot sauce to spice things up. The regular portion was impressive for about $8. The noodles were not stuck together in a giant clump!!! It was incredible filling but I could not stop eating because I kept finding more tasty beef. I finished my meal incredibly stuffed, but hey rice noodles and broth should digest fast and easy, no?

Later that night, I sipped a glass of Cabernet sauvegeon at the Sugarbowl. It's a fabulous place for an evening drink. Plus, a brick of Pho in the stomach helps with alcohol tolerance, hehe.

The Risotto Revelation

For a while I have been thinking that I'd like to try my hand at making a risotto. It seemed like it would be something of an accomplishment to do, that it would prove my cooking skills. One thing that was stopping me was that I could not remember ever having eaten a risotto, I believe because my I remembered my father saying it was gross. . . maybe. Anyways, I tried my first risotto in memory at Quarry in Canmore. It was a creamy delicious almond risotto described here. The other thing I wanted before I made risotto was a good chicken stock. The chicken broth (made from bullion, naughty me) that I used to braise chicken thighs for sandwich meat seemed to fit the bill. I chilled it, skimmed off the fat, and froze it for my future risotto.

For the risotto, I also bought short grain rice. It's not aborio but calrose. I'm pretty sure that's okay, right? Anyways, it worked. I looked for a simple risotto recipe on Epicurious in which I could use my "chicken stock". The recipe I chose was this one for Risotto with Peas and Prosciutto. I of course made a few alterations, basically make a third of the recipe. I used
less butter than called for and didn't add any to finish as it already had a creamy texture and the comments with the recipe suggested it was unnecessary. I believe I also used less cheese than would be 1/3 of the recipe and used Roman in place of Parmigiano. People on Epicurious commented that there was too much cheese in the original recipe and it made for a sticky risotto. I omitted completely the white wine, as there wasn't enough reason to buy a bottle for my risotto experiment and I omitted the lemon zest. . . because I'm lazy? Hell, this was my special Sunday lunch, I'd do whatever I wanted.

I prepared the risotto as directed otherwise, but found that instead of 20 minutes it took a good 45 minutes for the rice to be of an edible tenderness, which I think was still al dente. That's a lot of stirring, risotto will beef up your stirring arm boys. My finished product looked pretty good:
It was a creamy, starchy bowl of bliss. However, I found myself adding quite a bit of black pepper, because it needed the slight kick. I also think that more peas would be good what with the colour, sweetness, and healthfulness they add. The prosciutto was really tasty too, nice and salty. The elements of this risotto really go well together, not surprising since peas and prosciutto is pretty classic. I would love to make it again in a larger portion to share with a friend. I think it would be really impressive. . . and we could use the wine and lemon zest for a more complex flavour, especially the wine. Anyways, I'm sure this won't be my last risotto.

Joys of Summer

Before I get into some more recipe oriented posts, I thought I'd take a second to reflect on the wonders that an Edmonton summer can bring to the food obsessed.

First off, there is some good that the rain and perpetual threat of rain during the month of June does. By the way, I don't think I'll ever get used to rain, I think I'm some sort of desert creature--although I require a lot of water to drink. But, the plants that are just starting to grow in the Campus Community Garden are not desert creatures and the rain helps them grow and flourish. Some of the first plants available for eating--what good is a plant you can't eat?--are the lettuces. Look at this assortment of mixed baby greens I cut on Saturday:

You can't find that in any grocery store, seriously. They were so colourful and tender. And amazingly tasty what with the peppery arugula and other milder greens mixed together. A little red wine vinegar, olive oil, and pepper and I had one delicious salad.

I'm also thrilled by the thought of the other wonderful things the garden will produce for me to eat--if I put in a little work helping with the weeding and watering. There will be strawberries and raspberries, so sweet that I won't touch the ones in a store after tasting them. There will be sweet peas, green beans, yellow beans, spinach, chard, cucumbers, and at the end of it all garlic and tomatoes. Plus, I can pluck fresh herbs every now and then to make my food truly special.

Now, garden fresh veggies and berries are the healthful joys of summer. I am also partial to another summertime treat, gelato. Gelato makes ordinary ice cream seem . . . inadequate when compared to its smooth, rich texture. I really like gelato. But, I've had it just once so far this season at a new cafe called Da Capo on 109th Street. The mixed nut flavour was a generous portion as a small to stay and was so nutty and so delectable. I am very partial to nut gelatos. If you don't have allergies, try them. Gelato is also available at Block 1912 on Whyte and at Leva on 111 Street. I think both are good. Gelato is never really cheap but it's so worth the expense.

Oatmeal Two Ways

I realize that the title of this post might not inspire much excitement. Oatmeal. . . ooh porridge, yawn. But really, there are variations in the preparation of oatmeal that are quite delicious and unique to oatmeal. I actually got the recipes and ideas for both these "dishes" if you will from other bloggers much better than myself.

First off, a yummy breakfast with a recipe from Chocolate and Zucchini. This is the post with the recipe that Clotilde calls Oatmeal Breakfast Clafoutis. Anyways, I of course do not follow it absolutely exactly. I always halve the recipe and make it in an 8 inch round cake pan. I also don't think of it as Clafoutis, which really has no meaning to me, but as Breakfast Cake. It's a cake I can eat copious amounts of for breakfast without feeling that I'm eating unhealthily.

This time I didn't use any dried fruit and put in a chopped banana and a chopped nectarine. I also didn't use nuts and only had about a cup of oatmeal left, so I put in some crushed bran flakes . . . a bit odd i know. The texture seemed right on the first few pieces with a nice crust on the edge that I quite like. However, either because there wasn't enough oatmeal or because of the fresh fruit mixed in, it was a bit mushy in places. This hasn't been a problem on previous occasions making this recipe. I also reduced the sugar a little bit as I don't like my food too sweet. Probably the main thing that kept my creation from being really good was that the nectarine was a dud, as was the other one I bought. It tasted like. . . nothing. It was a disappointment but not surprising. Anyways, I still like to have cake for breakfast, here's what it looked like fresh from the oven:
Next up, oatmeal cookies. I really like oatmeal cookies. There's just something about the oatmeal flavour in a cookie that's really comforting and delicious. In the past, I've made them with raisins or chocolate chips. Shockingly, raisins make better oatmeal cookies than chocolate chips, they just work perfectly with their sweet chewiness.

Anyways, I found the recipe for these on David Lebovitz's site. I'd never tried any of the recipes he posts, but he is all about dessert, so the cookie recipes he posts must be good. The recipe, from a cookbook by Nick Malgieri, is low fat with some apple sauce in the base, which intrigued me. I've had success with applesauce to moisten muffins, so why not cookies. I did not alter the recipe aside from using dark brown sugar in place of light brown sugar and cooking some of the cookies on an unlined, ungreased, new, nonstick cookie sheet (which caused no problems).

I don't have any electric beaters, so creaming the butter and sugar with a fork and a wooden spoon was a bit of work. But it was so worth it to create this luscious batter:
Even the cooking time for that batter given in the recipe was very accurate. (I often find recommended baking times for cookies are too long). This is what the finished product looked like:

If those don't look good to you, why?

Anyways, I sample a couple last night and they were quite good. I brought them to the Campus Community Garden this morning and people said they were quite good. (People were impressed that I made them. Hey, they're just cookies. But if you can impress people that way. . .) Nobody guessed that they were low fat either with their desirable chewy, moist texture. I also brought some to the Edmonton Gay Pride Parade this afternoon, which was a good time except when it poured rain. My friends quite liked them and almost fought over the last one I brought.

This recipe is a definite keeper. For the record, I got 31 cookies out of it, although the last 3 were rather large.

Highlights (not) For Children

Last week I was in the mood for a burger. Serendipitously, my friend Ryan brought over a patty for a turkey cacciatore burger a la Rachel Ray. I think it must be this recipe, although I don't know what substitutions were made and it was served on a bun--a whole wheat kaiser as shown below. I'm not going to get into the merits or sins against food of Rachel Ray. All I'm going to say is that with mustard, sauteed mushrooms, spinach and tomato this was a tasty burger. I absolutely love mushrooms with burgers. It's freaking awesome and if you don't agree you're crazy. It may also have stopped me noticing the chopped veggies in the burger and the fact that it was made of turkey. As for the bun, I think a whole wheat kaiser is really good for a burger. There's not too much bread and I like the texture. Thanks for the burger Ryan!Now I want to mention one of my comfort foods. Fried eggs on toast:
I used to eat a variation on this for breakfast on weekends pretty often as a kid. I used to require Cheese Whiz, an egg, and ketchup or salsa on a toasted slice of bread. On my own, I come up with some variations that might be a little more grown up. This one has ham under the egg, black pepper on it, and some shaved Romano cheese on top. The key to all of this is a runny yolk, you can't beat it. I eat this with a knife and fork by the way. If it were French I suppose it would be a tartine.

For a weekend meal, I cooked a rainbow trout--complete with head. It was okay, but really needed the lime juice I squeezed on it. I think I overcooked it slightly. I did eat the meat from it's cheeks though and it was particularly succulent. . . as I think fish cheeks are supposed to be. My side dish of roasted new nugget potatoes was awesome though. I made them based on Heidi Swanson's recipe for Black Pepper and Lime Oven Fries. They look pretty nice below:I didn't really measure anything and I forgot the cheese on the ones above--but they were still delicious. A sprinkling of Romano was a nice touch though once I remembered. Anyways, the chili and black pepper flavouring was good. To be honest, I think the nugget potatoes were so good that they would have made great oven fries no matter what I seasoned them with. There was just so much potato goodness.

To finish up this post, I want to talk about some damn good poultry. You might have thought I only like pork, but I also adore dark meat chicken. That's right: DARK meat. Not white, not what's in Chicken McNuggets (the gold standard for nutrition). My dad will not buy chicken thighs. But when he eats them, he seems to like it. Anyways, I've been using chicken thigh meat that I cook myself for my sandwiches with blue cheese and mustard. Pretty much any cheese would be good on the sandwich though. I used to love turkey, cheddar and mustard sandwiches. Anyways, to make the chicken I brown skinned thighs well. This step looks delish below:

When the chicken is well browned I add some chicken broth made with bullion 'cause I'm a cheater until the chicken is partially covered. Then I simmer the chicken until it's tender, about half an hour. I think this may count as braising. Finally, I take the meat off the bone and shred it. I froze some of the meat for future sandwiches and it seems to keep well. Sandwiches with this chicken are awesome because there's so much real chicken flavour and texture. The liquid left over seems intensely chickeny and I saves some for a possible future risotto in the freezer.

Another great use for chicken thighs is chicken curry. It starts with browned skinned (but bone in) chicken thighs but lots of veggies an seasoning go in as well. This one has carrot, onion, ginger, curry powder, chicken broth, and spinach. I kind of make it up as I go along. I think it's important not to be afraid to experiment in the kitchen. Chicken curry is a warming, filling, and satisfying meal with some rice.