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.

Magical Salmon, Where Are You?

It's finally that fleeting time of year when wild Pacific salmon is available fresh at the grocery store. It excited me, so I bought a couple of good sized steaks of fresh Sockeye Salmon. And I cooked both the next day. Salmon for lunch and salmon for dinner.

For lunch I improvised a salad topped with noodles and the salmon. The salad was cucumber and mixed lettuce with rice wine vinegar, soy, and sesame dressing. It tasted fine. The rice noodles had some soy sauce and vinegar as well as sauteed garlic and green onion. They tasted okay, but once again clumped together. Clearly, I don't really know how to handle them. But, "noodle cake" is not so bad although I did accidentally dump in a bunch of pepper. I need a new pepper shaker. The salmon was cooked in a skillet after seasoning with salt and pepper. I thought the magic of sockeye salmon would shine through. Here's my salad:
Alas, the salmon was much milder in flavour than I'd anticipated and could have used more. . . added flavour. But, the awesome thing was when I peeled the skin off the cooked steak and late crisped it up in a hot skillet. It was a crispy, fatty, fishy snack of great deliciousness to end the meal. Salmon skin really is a treat.

For dinner I went with a "real recipe" and I followed it pretty closely. Really, I did. And I think it's a winner. The recipe is "Baked Sockeye Salmon with Bell Peppers and Capers" by Marcella Hazan and is available here on Epicurious.

This is how it looked out of the oven and just short of being fully cooked:
I made about 1/4 of the recipe. I roasted and peeled one small red bell pepper, used a few spoonfuls of capers, and put one whole clove of garlic in the olive oiled dish with a salmon steak. I found that the recommended baking time of 16 minutes was woefully inadequate for my thick steak. It actually took closer to 25 minutes (I think), but should you make the recipe you should check on your unique piece of fish. The recipe is actually recommended for a long skin on fillet.

Anyways, let's talk about the flavours. I really think that the sweet, sightly smokey roasted bell pepper and the salty, slightly tart capers gave the salmon the flavour kick it needed. Actually, I really like roasted pepper and caper anyways. I also paired some bites of salmon with a bit of the garlic, which was also good. I don't think I ever would have thought to pair roasted bell pepper with salmon, but it's a great idea and I'm glad I found this recipe. It's a great on for baked salmon.

But, I am a bit sad that I couldn't have grilled salmon like we usually did at home because I don't have a barbecue. One of my favourite meals at home was a whole salmon (usually a wild pink salmon) stuffed with lemons and herbs and grilled wrapped in foil. If you have a barbecue and enough companions to warrant a whole salmon, I recommend trying that.

And finally, an update on a recipe that I posted previously here for some excellent blueberry muffins. I modified the recipe to make blueberry-maple-oatmeal muffins by omitting the lemon zest, reducing the oil to 2 tablespoons, using 1/4 cup packed brown sugar and 1/4 cup maple syrup for the sweetening, and adding a trace more baking soda. The results look pretty good:

They tasted pretty damn good too and had excellent muffin texture. However, I found the maple flavour to be pretty subtle. I don't think I could be sure it was there. Maybe, considering the expense of maple syrup lemon zest is a better flavouring option.

"Best Muffins Ever"

I made blueberry muffins last Thursday because:
a) It's blueberry season, a magical yearly event. and
b) my sister and her boyfriend were coming to visit and I knew they would appreciate muffins/ I would not be forced to eat a dozen myself.

I can't remember ever having made muffins with fresh blueberries, perhaps because peak season for them is usually the hottest part of the summer. Actually, it was hot last Thursday but I pressed on with making muffins anyways. Little did I know how good they would be. My sister declared them the best muffin she's ever had. I find that hard to believe but make no mistake, they were very, very good. The texture was quite soft and there was a hint of acidity from lemon zest and yogurt that's hard to describe. Of course the fresh blueberries were awesome. I think the oatmeal adds a little extra complexity to the flavour as well. I can't really describe it that well. But, they were delicious.

Here they are right out of the oven:
And here's a field of perfect, delicious muffins:
Now that the food porn is out of the way, I'll get to the recipe. I followed the BHG recipe for Oatmeal-Blueberry Muffins but made some key changes, so I'll write it out my way.

Blueberry-Oatmeal Muffins

Ingredients
1.5 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup rolled oats
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 beaten egg
1/2 cup plain yogurt
1/4-1/3 cup milk
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 tablespoons cooking oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
zest of 1 lemon
1 cup fresh blueberries (or frozen if you must)

Instructions
1. Grease twelve regular 2.5 inch muffin cups.

2. Stir flour, oats, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a large bowl. Form a well in the centre of it.

3. In another bowl mix egg, yogurt, milk, brown sugar, oil, vanilla, and lemon zest. Add all the wet ingredients (ie: egg) to the dry (ie: flour) and stir until moistened, just. Do not over mix!!!! Fold in the blueberries. Fill the muffin cups 3/4 full.

4. Bake at 400 degrees F for 16-18 minutes. (I think mine took 15.) They're done when a tester comes out dry/ they're golden brown. Cool them a bit then remove from the cups. Eat.

If you study the recipe you'll notice the yogurt and lemon zest are my additions. Plus, I cut the oil slightly and added some extra blueberries. Seriously try making these this blueberry season. I heart blueberries.

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.