Cheesey veggies

Here is a simple dish that one can throw together either for a quick lunch, or as a side dish at dinner time.


4 tablespoon butter
4 tablespoon flour
2 cups milk
1 tablespoon finely chopped parsley

2 tablespoon oil
1 medium sized onion
2 garlic cloves
1 zucchini
1 large carrot
1 pound broccoli florets
about two cups cauliflower florets
2 celery ribs
2 tablespoon lemon juice
about 1/2 a pound of Swiss cheese slices

Bechamel sauce:
Heat butter, stir flour into it and keep stirring for a few minutes. Lift it off the heat and slowly stir in the milk. Put it back and whisk it until it thickens a little. Do not bring it to boil completely. Add the parsley and stir a bit more before removing it from the stove.

Now put the carrots and the cauliflower on the stove in an inch of water, bring it to boil and let it simmer for 7 minutes, at which point pour the veggies into a colander and rinse them with cold water to stop the cooking.

In the meantime saute the onions in the oil until softened, then add the cruched garlic and stir it until it becomes fragrant, about 2-3 minutes altogether. Add the zucchini, broccoli and celery, season with salt and pepper, add the lemon juice and cook for 7-8 minutes.

Oil a baking dish and set the oven for 350F. Mix the carrot mix with the zucchini mix and the sauce. Dump the whole thing into the baking dish and cover the surface with the cheese slices. Bake it for 15-20 minutes, until the top turns golden.

I also added some asparagus. It is out of season now but I had one of those tall slim bottles of white asparagus in the cupboard. If you can get fresh asparagus, use about 1/2 a pound, and cook them together with the carrots and cauliflower.

Finally I placed a few sprigs of thyme on top for decoration and a little extra fragrance. They are growing in the backyard. Not for long though, it looks like we are in for an early and cold winter this year.

Sumpoogi aghtsan - Armenian eggplant salad

2 to 4 eggplants, altogether about 2 lbs
1 green pepper
½ red pepper
1 small onion
4 tomatoes, chopped
2 to 3 tablespoon finely chopped parsley
2 cloves garlic, crushed
½ to 1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon chili pepper
2 teaspoons ground cumin
4 to 6 teaspoons olive oil
juice of 2 lemons (1/4 cup)
olives and cheese (optional)

The best way to prepare the eggplants is by grilling over fire, but you can also just bake them or microwave them until they are soft when poked. Remove them, make a slit at the bottom and place them on a cutting board, slanting it towards a plate so some of the bitter juices, if any, can drain. When cool enough to handle, cut each one in two and gently cut and lift away the flesh. If grilled, you have to pick the charred skin off in bits, then rinse off whatever is left on the eggplants. Cube the cleaned flesh and put in a large bowl. Add the peppers, tomatoes and onion, chopped very small (size of a corn kernel) as well as the parsley, and mix them. Don't worry if the eggplants get mushy a bit in the process, it is to be expected.

In a separate bowl mix the spices and garlic with the oil and lemon juice. Pour it over the veggies and stir it well. Taste and adjust the seasonings if necessary. You can also add some olives and some grated hard cheese, like Kaseri.

Foie de veau provencal

I found a little piece of paper among my forgotten recipes with this recipe on it. I remember when we had this dish at the Le Petit Gaston, on Baldwin St. here in Toronto. I am not even sure whether the restaurant still exists or not. This dish was made by its original owner, Gustav Schwalb.


According to Schwalb, the dish can only be its best if we use Provimi liver for it. For a long time I did not know what he meant. Now, thanks to the internet, I was able to figure it out. Otherwise the recipe itself is quite simple.

2 tbs soft butter
1 tbs finely chopped fresh parley
1 large clove garlic
1/2 lb liver
2 tbs dry white wine
salt, pepper, oil

In a small bowl mix together thoroughly the butter with parsley and garlic, and season it with salt and pepper to taste.

In a heavy frying pan heat 1-2 tbs oil to medium heat, then add 1 tbs of the butter mixture. When the butter melts and begins to sputter, add the liver slices and cook for 3 minutes on each side. Remove the liver from the pan and place it on a warm serving dish.

Pour off the cooking juices from the pan, put it back on the stove, pour in the wine and add the rest of the butter mix. Scrape up the browned bits from the bottom with a spatula (deglaze), then pour the hot sauce over the liver.

Quickly arrange on the plate whatever you want to serve it with and serve immediately. The recipe gives you two portions.

Since I did not prepare this dish right now, I looked around for a temporary picture until I will snap one of my own. The one I found on flickr looks pretty close, I hope the owner won't mind. The way Schwalb served it, if I remember well, was simply with some mashed potatoes, and sliced fresh tomatoes and cucumbers drizzled with a balsamic vinegar based dressing. Very simple fare yet very tasty.

Mandarin chicken (New World style)

We love Chinese food, the authentic kind. But today I was hit by a wave of nostalgia, I remembered the first time we, my husband and I, ate Chinese food soon after we arrived to Canada. A new friend invited us out who, poor as we all were in those distant student years, wanted to treat us. What could have been cheaper and tastier than Chinese food? In those days (early 70's) it was REALLY inexpensive. He took us to Dundas, east of Spadina, to a small greasy spoon. Spadina itself wasn't Chinese yet. We were impressed by his expansive knowledge of Chinese cuisine. :) He ordered General Tsao chicken, some greens in oyster sauce, I forget the rest. But quite for a while after that, when just the two of us ventured into a Chinese restaurant we dared to order only their Dinner for Two. Refinement of the palate came with the gradual increase of the contents of our wallet.

Today I was looking around for dinner ideas when I chanced upon the recipe of General Tsao Chicken. I enthusiastically rolled up my sleeves and started to prepare it, only to find that I remembered it wrong, I did not have any canned pineapples in the pantry. Instead I found several of those small cans of Chinese mandarins. So what can one do in such a situation, I replaced the pineapple juice by the mandarin juice. And guess what! It turned out just great.



1 pound chicken breasts (cut into 1" pieces)
1 Tbsp. vegetable oil
1/4 c. sugar
1/8 c. low sodium soy sauce
1/4 c. mandarin juice (drained from a can)
1/8 c. white distilled vinegar
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp. fresh ginger, finely grated
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 Tbsp. cornstarch, mixed with 3 Tbsp. water
4 green onions, sliced

Dredge chicken in cornstarch and fry in a wok or a teflon skillet over medium heat until golden brown and crispy. Sprinkle cayenne over the chicken and keep warm on low heat. Meanwhile, in a saucepan, combine sauce ingredients (sugar, soy sauce, juice, vinegar, garlic, and ginger) and heat gently. When sauce is smooth and sugar has dissolved, take it off the heat, add cornstarch mixture and back on heat stir constantly until sauce has thickened. Now pour the sauce in the wok and stir to coat the chicken. Serve with hot rice, as well as green onion and hot red pepper flakes on the side, so people can add some as they like it.

I fancied up our rice with chopped celery leaves, white pepper and grated lemon zest. For the greens we had steamed kale in black bean sauce.

Fast and easy way to rid the house of ants and fruitflies.

I found the best way - at least for me - to successfully get rid of these buggers. And the solution is... tra-rah... the vacuum!

It started with a recent invasion by giant ants. No matter how well I cleaned the kitchen, they kept coming. Eventually they got so bold that they tried to climb up to the counter via my leg. In my frustration I grabbed the recently used vacuum hose still lying at my legs and sucked the bold warrior off my shin. And then the idea stuck. I started to vacuum up the other ants, too. The strategy proved to be successful. It seems that there were less ants then I first estimated, I must have kept seeing the same few returning again and again. Well, the bunch is gone now! Apparently they suffocate very quickly inside the bag.

And then it occurred to me that this may work for fruit flies, also. This actually turned out to be an easier task than the hunt for the ants. Ants are fast and smart. Fruit flies are slow and dumb. They like to perch on the wall just above the garbage can in a crowd. When I vacuum them, they just sit and wait for their turn. They can also be sucked up in mid flight.

Not only did I manage to reduce the pesky cloud of fruit flies in the kitchen, I also reduced the number of those that infest our compost can in the back of the house. There obviously was a connection...!

Cherry clafouti

For the last few weeks now I have been eying the cherries that finally showed up in the stores. At first they cost an arm and a leg, of course, but now they are larger, riper and cheaper! I could not resist any more. I bought a big bag of them, we ate half of it upon my arrival home, and then I proceeded to remove the pits from the rest of it and use them for a nice batch of clafouti.



Today is the first day that it is not so hot and/or humid, yet by the evening it did get humid again and it looks like it is going to rain. Although it was really nice in the afternoon, I still decided to do the baking on the back porch, using our large toaster oven that has a convection mode, too.



It turned out very yummy! This is the recipe I used:

1 1/4 c. milk
3 eggs
1 c. sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 c. flour
2 tbsp butter, melted
1 lb. cherries, pitted (drained, if using canned)
2 tbsp confectioners' sugar

To make batter, put the milk, eggs, sugar, cinnamon and flour with 1 tbsp butter in a food processor or blender and process until smooth, about 1 minute. Brush an 8-inch baking dish with the remaining butter and pour a very thin layer of batter into the dish. Put in a preheated 350 oven to bake for 5 minutes. Remove from oven, arrange the cherries over the top and cover with remaining batter. Return the clafouti to the oven for 30 minutes, until it is firm and golden. Dust with confectioners' sugar and serve warm.

------------

It is a neat idea to half-bake half of the batter before adding the cherries. I did not bother with this two stage version, though. I poured all the batter in at once and just scattered the cherries on top. Instead, I used an old family trick to keep the cherries from sinking. I sprinkled a spoonful of flour on them before spreading them on top of the batter.

Saving time!

I just discovered a website, waitless.org, dedicated to saving time by doing things smartly. Here is for example a neat trick for peeling boiled potatoes in mere seconds. There are other neat ideas there like quick peeling an egg or a surefire way of soothing a cranky baby instantly. But I doubt I will ever try to turbo park my car their way... :)

Two years of blogging!

Wow! Just after I posted this recipe I realised that today is the second anniversary of my blogs. I started exactly on July 5th two years ago. Although a small time blogger, I luckily installed ClusterMaps and I know that people do chance on my pages occasionally even if they do not leave comments.

But the raison d'etre of this particular foodie blog of mine is more personal. It helps me keep track of some of the stuff I cook, not necessarily the ones I am the most proud of, but the ones that I manage to take photos of. Even then I sometimes end up with stray photos on my desktop with no memory of what exactly went into the recipes, so they never make it to these pages.

But the most important part of blogging for me is the sense of connectedness, the sense that I am part of something bigger than the space enclosed by the four walls of my kitchen. I very much enjoy the free flow of ideas, the raw sense of almost touching each other, if only in a virtual way.

I believe that this ability to literally peek into other people's lives will eventually make it impossible to harbour the hatred that still permeates so much of our world. When our kids will have grown up playing video games online with each other, chatting daily with people from the four corners of the world, even cooking together - virtually eating at each others' tables, it will be increasingly harder to then go and blow each other up.

May we all have many happy anniversaries!!!

A cross between parathas, pupusas and lángos.

It started out by settling on a recipe for West Indian potato patties (I suppose, originally Aloo Parathas), but in the process of recipe searching I also looked at a video of how they make pupusas. So I ended up with another fusion recipe that can be varied with all kinds of fillings, possibly even dessert types, like berries or grated apples, in that case, of course, sprinkled with icing sugar instead of serving it with salsa.

But I am getting ahead of myself. This is what I made:
















Dough

* 2 cups flour
* 1/4 teaspoon salt
* 1 teaspoon baking powder
* 1 cup water
* oil

Filling

* 4 cups water
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1 lb potato, cooked and mashed
* 1 small onion, finely chopped
* 1 green onion, very finely chopped
* 2 garlic cloves, crushed
* 2 teaspoons ground cumin
* 1/4 teaspoon garam masala
* 1/2 teaspoon paprika
* 1/2 teaspoon turmeric
* 1/2 teaspoon salt
* 1/4 teaspoon pepper
* 1 hot red pepper, seeded & minced
* 4 cups vegetable oil (for deep frying)


In a bowl, combine flour, salt, and baking powder. Add enough water to form dough and knead. Let rest while preparing the filling.

In another bowl mix all the filling ingredients. In my case, I waited with the hot red pepper, I made a few first for my MIL, then I went all out and made the filling fiery hot for the rest of the gang.

I rolled the dough first into a long rope, I sliced it into largish golf ball sized chunks, then I took each ball and with oiled hands I flattened them as a saw it in the pupusa video. (Not as skillfully, though...) Then I placed a little filling in it, pinched it together well, flattened it a bit in my hands, then placed it pinched side down on the table and patted it to about 1/3 inch (1/2 cm) thick disk. I slipped this into a pan of hot oil set to medium hot and let it turn golden, turning it over once, while I prepared the next patty.

Drain them on paper towels, and serve hot with a good fresh salsa and sour cream or yogurt.

Chicken with figs and goat cheese

2 large skinless, boneless chicken breasts
1 tablespoon oil
200 gr package dried figs
1 small roll of goat cheese (about 60 -80 gr)
3 tablespoon lemon juice
5 tablespoon honey

Chop the figs into small pieces, if too dry, soak them for a few minutes in water before slicing. Cut the cheese into cubes. Slice the meat across into narrow strips. Sprinkle them with a little salt and pepper, and fry them in the oil until they gain some colour. Remove them from the pan and throw the figs into the drippings. Add the honey and pour the lemon juice on it, then stir it just for a few moments until the figs soften. Add the cheese, and when that starts to melt throw the meat in to quickly heat through.

Serve with plain rice and some steamed veggies.

A little about my culinary past...

So often do I chance on blogs that are dedicated to a mother's cuisine, proudly displaying the recipes, boasting about a wonderful childhood with delicious aromas wafting non-stop from busy kitchens. I never really pondered about such matters before, but now it hit me - I don't have such memories...

I grew up in the post WWII's darkest Stalinist communist era. Ingredients were scarce to start with, plus I had a gradmother who never really stepped into a kitchen before the war, she had "staff" to take care of the household. My mother had ambitions for a professional life, studied medicine, and luckily so because even though she worked around the clock alongside her husband in small town hospitals, and it seemed to us kids that the results were a more bountiful life compared to other families around us, looking back now I realize how meager it was.

My grandmother was the one who ran our house. She was a very smart woman, educated, well read, but she wasn't used to do any kind of work, let alone manual work. So our house wouldn't have been well kept if it weren't for my mom, who on the other hand was a neat-freak, for whom everything had to be organized and sterilized. As a result we witnessed lots of mini clashes, and we learned to cover for our grandma by helping her clean up (by often sweeping stuff under the carpet if time was short - and I mean this literally) before our mom came home.

Our grandma wasn't a very good cook, either. She tended to just slam together meals in the last minute, using whatever was available, guided by instinct, the result of which sometimes was all right, other times... not so all right. We even re-wrote the grace we said before eating to fit the occasion. When the meal did not turn out well, instead of saying (translation) "Come, oh Lord, be our guest, Please, bless the food you provided", we said "Come, oh Lord, be our guest, Please, eat the food you provided..."

On the other hand, our grandmother was a great storyteller. We could listen to her for hours as she was telling us among other things about the parties they used to have, she described the magnificent dishes that were served, so well in fact that we could actually taste them in our imagination. This in turn developed in me the ability that whenever I read a recipe I can accurately "taste" it.

My mother cooked very rarely, but when she did - it was wonderful. She acquired somehow a few really good gourmet cookbooks and she prepared the dishes from them precisely, with great care. During holidays, when she usually took over the kitchen, we were overjoyed. There were exotic dishes, in spite of using the most ordinary ingredients, we had guests over, and she prepared a new menu every time. My father grumbled once in a while, he was the type who didn't mind having the same dishes over and over again. But then, when I started to cook as a teenager and tried unusual stuff, he was the only one who found even my atrocities praiseworthy. Like the time when I finally understood enough English to try a recipe from an old Good Housekeeping copy that a kind neighbour gave me for language practice. It called for cream cheese, and for me that meant those small "La vache qui rit" type triangles. I made some cookies using those salty little cheeses. Everybody thought they were horrible, except my Dad. He said they were the best cookies he ever tasted!

When we finally managed to leave for the West (wow - 37 years ago!), I threw myself into "discovering the World". New ingredients, new recipes day after day. To this day I rarely cook or bake anything repeatedly unless by request. My kids were so spoiled from this point of view that I even had to put up with such criticism occasionally: "But Mooom, didn't we have this already two months ago?" My cooking used to range from Chinese stir fries to Argentine empanadas, from Arabic kibbeh to Norwegian lefse, and so on, sampling from every cuisine on Earth. Nowadays I am forced to hold back, partially because I am very busy and I often only have time to just "slam together" something quickly, but also because we have my 87 year old mom-in-law living with us, who is very conservative in her tastes and who cannot chew because of her full double dentures. But even within these limits I do try to change things around, to create new taste combinations. Looking through my archives, this aspect doesn't seem to come across here very well. But writing these entries and then looking through them occasionally, not to speak of visiting the ever increasing number of great food blogs, inspires me to push those limits, to get more adventurous again.

Carrot Cream Pudding or Variations on Gajjar Halwa

Well, as I foresaw, my enthusiasm for the cooking marathon remained just that, enthusiasm. Although I feverishly cooked and took photos, I did not have the time to take care of the blog itself so I ended up now with a bunch of nice photos, half of which I can't tell you what went into their recipes. I always make changes to recipes I find either in books or on the net, simply because often I don't have all the ingredients or I know that my family would not like that particular taste combination. Therefore if I do not jot it down immediately, in a few days I have no memory as to what exactly went into it. I suppose that is how other people operate, also, and that is the main reason why we like to put our successful dishes up, just so we ourselves have a record of it to be able to recreate it another time.

I will try to remember and redo some of the dishes of which I have now these nice photos waiting around, ready to be posted. One of them I do remember and will post it here right away for my visitors' edification. :) It is a "fusion" recipe of sorts. A while ago I prepared an Indian gajjar halwa or carrot pudding, following the recipe closely. We found it too rich, too buttery. Now I prepared an in-between dish that I think falls halfway between a carrot halwa and a khir (rice pudding). The family loved it and wants me to put it on the oft repeat list. This is what I did, let me know what you think:

1 kilo (2 lbs) carrots
1 litre (4 cups) milk
3 tablespoon rice flour (I used coarse ground type)
2 cups sugar
2 tablespoon butter
handful of raisins
cardamum powder to taste
pistachios for garnishing

I cleaned and sliced the carrots into large chunks, then cooked it in a little water until I could pierce them easily with a fork. I drained off the water, put the carrots in the food processor (or in two-three batches in a blender) and ground them down, using some of the milk which I preheated in the microwave oven. I poured the mass back into the pot, added the rest of the milk with the sugar, rice flour, cardamom and raisins, and cooked it until it thickened, about 20-30 minutes. A this point you can distribute the pudding in serving bowls, sprinkle some chopped pistachios or almonds on top, and wait until it cools. In my family puddings are usually consumed as soon as they reach a comfortable temperature without burning your mouth. :D

Corn and summer squash stew - Recipe Marathon #2

I had some squash left over and I used them for the following mixed vegetable dish. It was served with rice, and sauted turkey sausage slices on top.

Corn and summer squash stew

3 small summer squashes
1 cup (after chopped) mushrooms
2-3 tbs oil
4 cups corn
1 cup tomato sauce (I used RAGU original)
1 tbs chopped fresh basil
1 tbs dill (less if dried)
salt, pepper to taste

Slice the squashes very thin, chop the mushrooms, then saute the two in the oil until softened. I used a flavoured oil that I kept from a jar of Italian antipasto of mixed mushrooms, five different kinds they were if I remember well. It definitely added to the total experience. Now add the corn, a bit of water if necessary and let it simmer a while. Finally add the tomato sauce, the fresh basil, adjust the taste (sometimes a little sugar helps, too) and let it simmer until the sauce thickens and the flavours meld.

If you don't have ready made tomato sauce at hand, you can first saute some chopped onions and garlic, and instead of the sauce then use diced tomatoes. A little extra rosemary and thyme will add to the aroma as well.

Squash stew for the Recipe Marathon

I love food blog cruising! It is such a delicious pursuit, almost bordering on the naughty. Why? Because I feel like a "peeping Tom", or whatever the female version of it might be called, looking into other people's kitchens, checking out what they are up to, "stealing" some of their cooking secrets. Do you see what I mean? And because I myself do not have that much time to cook, I satisfy my hunger for choice and variety by looking through food blogs for about 10-15 minutes daily, looking at the pictures, reading the recipes, almost feeling the tastes in my mouth. Sometimes I like something so much that I am compelled to find the time and prepare it.

I was cruising a bit again this morning when I chanced on this cooking challenge, the Recipe Marathon. This prompted me to try and find the time to either participate or just "parallel run". :) And if not every day, but at least doing an "off and on" marathon.

So today I ran over (it's a marathon after all) to the veggie store and got these lovely small baby squashes. I would usually make the recipe below with larger summer squashes and stuff them with the ground beef mix. But these baby ones did just as well, although I only stuffed a few, to have one per person, the rest I just chopped up.


Squash with ground beef stuffing

2-3 medium sized summer squashes (or large zucchinis, or several small ones)
1 lb ground beef
1 onion
2 tablespoon oil or butter
1 egg
2 slices multigrain bread, ground into crumbs in a blender
1 cup cooked rice
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
salt to taste
For the sauce:
1 can basic tomato sauce or 2 cups homemade
herbs and spices to your liking

Peel the squashes and scoop out the insides. Arrange the scooped out flesh at the bottom of the pot in which you will cook the stew. If the squashes or zucchinis are too small, you can just cut them into cubes, and from the meat mixture make meatballs. Otherwise proceed the same way with the recipe.

Chop the onion finely and saute it a bit in the oil or butter. Grind the two bread slices into crumbs in a blender or food processor. In a bowl mix together the meat with the rest of the ingredients, stuff the prepared squash boats with some of it, and if there is more, form meatballs. Tightly pack these on top of the scooped out stuff, then pour water over it to just barely cover it. Bring it to boil. At this point I like to sprinkle a little chopped dill in the water and add a spoonful of chicken soup powder.

Cover the pot and let it boil for about 20 minutes. By that time the water should have reduced somewhat. Pour in the tomato sauce and add some spices, like coriander, garam masala, some chopped green chilies, chopped green parsley or coriander leaves, whatever your family likes. Now slowly simmer it until the sauce thickens. Taste it, adjust the seasonings. I usually add a little sugar at this point if the sauce tastes a bit too acidic.

Spicy chicken with corn

You may have noticed that this blog is all about speedy dishes. Today I again managed to throw together a nice - and fast! - dinner. For the main dish I made this easy chicken dish, while a pot of pasta was cooking in the background, and my older son chopped up a bowl of salad ingredients. For dessert we had the apple squares featured below, which is another fast and tasty favourite of my family.

Chicken

2 or 3 large breasts
1 onion
2 tablespoon oil
1 red pepper
1 green pepper
2-3 cups frozen corn
1 cup canned tomato sauce
2 teaspoons cumin
1/2 teaspoon allspice
1/2 teaspoon (or to taste) hot pepper

Cut the breast into small chunks, chop the vegetables. Fry the onion in the oil until it softens a bit, add the peppers and saute them together for a few minutes. Add the chicken and let the cubes fry with the veggies until all of them turn white. (I started to work on the dessert - see below - while this was going on.)

When I saw that the chicken cooked through, I added the corn and the tomato sauce, together with the spices, covered the pot and let the dish simmer until everything and everybody was ready.

For hot pepper I use hot Korean paprika, the kind they use for making kimchi. Very powerful stuff, but my family loves spicy food. I also have at home and use other heat producing substances, from ground American chili peppers to hot Thai ground chilies preserved in oil.

While the chicken was simmering away, I finished the dessert, shoved it in the oven, drained the pasta, dressed it, and finally mixed the salad with some salad dressing I keep in the fridge. We were just sitting down to the table when the squares finished baking, so I pulled the pan out, cut a few squares and set them on a large plate to cool while we had dinner. By the time we finished the main course, the squares cooled just enough so we could serve them. Some of the younger, sportier members added a little extra ice cream on top.

Apple coconut squares

Base
1/2 cup (120gr) butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 cup flour
grated lemon zest
pinch salt (if the butter is not salted)

Topping
2 eggs
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 cup flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1 cup freshly grated coconut
2 1/4 cups thin slices of apples

Let the butter soften at room temperature for a while. Mix it well with the sugar and flour. Grate a little lemon zest into it, too. Now pat this into an appropriate sized pan (9x9 inches?) to form a thin bottom layer, and bake it for 10 minutes at 350F.

Meanwhile beat the eggs with the sugar, mix the flour with the baking powder and add to the eggs with the vanilla. Hopefully you have a helping hand around who in the meantime peeled and sliced the apples. Now mix those in also, together with the grated coconut.

When the base starts to get pink around the edges, take it out, let it cool a few minutes, then spread the apple topping evenly over it. Put the pan back in the oven and let it bake for about 20 more minutes, or until the top starts to gain a nice color.

Cool, slice, enjoy!

Well dressed veal

After a lengthy struggle with post-surgery problems (wisdom-tooth extraction with complications - see my Musingspace blog) I decided to get busy in the kitchen again.





I had a nice slab of lean veal, which I put in the freezer for a short while and then sliced it thin. I sprinkled each slice with a little pepper, then I crushed a big fat clove of garlic with half a teaspoon of salt and smeared a bit on each piece. I stacked them, covered them with plastic wrap and put them aside.

Next I chopped up half an onion finely, put it in a pan with a tablespoon of oil and let it saute slowly, stirring occasionally, while I peeled some potatoes. I grated these using the grater disk with the large holes of the food processor. When all in a bowl, I rinsed it in water, squeezed it as dry as possible and added it to the onions which tarted to turn golden here and there. First I put a lid on the pan and let it steam for a while, while I peeled and julienned a few carrots. I peeled a couple of apples, too (the green, sour variety is better then a too sweet kind), chopping them fine. When that was done, I checked the potato which was half cooked by that time. I raised the heat, added a bit more oil and fried it stirring constantly until it started to colour a bit, at which point I added salt and pepper to taste and put it aside.

Next I sauted the carrots with the apples over a tablespoon of butter (olive oil would do, too), added some salt, pepper, a teaspoonful of curry powder and a pinch of cinnamon, and kept stirring until started to go limp but was still crisp a bit. I would have liked to add some anise, too, but my husband doesn't quite like it. Nevertheless it turned out very nice and fragrant.

Now that the side dishes were ready, I kept those hot on lowest heat on the stove while I quick fried the meat slices.

I arranged the plates by spooning some of the potatoes in the middle, covering those with the meat slice, and then putting a neat pile of the carrot mix on the top. I planned to also place a sprig of parsley on the side for colour, but when I looked in the fridge I found that they were all old and yellow. Oh well...

Fish in wine sauce

I don't have too much time lately but I had to invite some friends over -- after all one cannot put dear friends off indefinitely. One must live a little every once in a while, no...? :)

Strapped as I am for time, I did not prepare an overly fancy dinner, the kinds I used to do that made me cook feverishly for two days ahead of time. I put together a nice antipasto platter for appetizer, served in the living room with crackers and soft fresh grain bread. Then for the dinner itself, we had a thick soup made with some turkey stock I had frozen down from some time earlier, a box of frozen mixed veggies that I keep in the freezer (I always buy two 2 kg bags at No Frills, cook them in a little water with a couple of soup cubes, and freeze dozens of small containers of the stuff to be used in soups, as side dishes or in potato salads), and a small batch of freshly made nockerls that I drop directly into the soup, using a handy small device.

For the main course I made the fish, for which I give you the recipe here below. And finally for desert I bought an almond danish ring from the Danish Pastry Shop on Pape Ave, refreshed it in the toaster oven to make it hot and crisp, and served it with fresh sliced strawberries and whipped cream.


Recipe

Stock
bones, head and tail of fish, skin, too, if you do not want to leave it on the filets
1 onion
1 tablespoon butter
1 cup dry white wine
1 bay leaf
5 peppercorns
1 celery stock
a few sprigs of parsley
salt to taste

Fish
1 inch ginger, grated
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1small sticks lemon grass, chopped fine
pinch salt

Sauce
1/2 onion, grated
2 tablespoons butter
1 1/2 tablespoons flour
1/4 cup wine
fish stock
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 reaspoon Dijon mustard
lime juice, salt pepper

For the stock, which I made earlier in the day, I chopped the onion and sauteed it in the butter on medium heat. When it started to gain colour, I added the rest of the ingredients and another liter (4 cups) of water. Counting from the time it starts to boil, simmer it on low for 20-25 minutes, removing the scum that keeps forming on the top. When done, take the pot off the heat and let it settle. If the fish was fat, you may want to remove some of that from the top. Then take a fine sieve, or use coffee filter, and sieve the liquid. Don't pour the stock, use a ladle.

For the fish I mixed together the ginger, mustard and lemon grass with a little salt, I rubbed the fish slices with the mix and put them aside.

When the stock was ready, I made the sauce. I sauted the onion in the butter, just until it became glassy looking. Then I added the flour and stirring constantly I added the wine, then enough stock to have the consistency I like (some people like it thinner, others thicker). Finally I added the spices, some lime juice, salt and pepper.

When it was time to serve the main course, I melted some butter in a pan, added the filets, and sauteed them for about 3 minutes per side, turning once, until they flaked easily.

Served it with parsley potatoes and the sauce.

International Year of the Potato

The United Nations General Assembly declared 2008 to be the International Year of the Potato. What a silly idea, you may say, to honour such a common, lowly edible. Yet, historically speaking, potatoes are relatively new on our tables. The only corner of the world where they were known, cultivated and consumed, for some 7000 years before they became even known to us, was way up in the Andes Mountains.

The Spanish first brought some samples over to Europe sometime around 1570. But it was considered just a curiosity, studied by botanists, until good old Monsieur Antoine Parmentier, a French apothecary, started to promote it, eventually persuading the royal court to start using it. He spent several years in a German prison earlier where they fed the inmates potatoes, food which at the time was only seen fit for pigs and prisoners.

It took a while for the general population to start using it, but when they did, they did it to such an extent, that when the potato blight wiped out potato crops for a while, famine ensued. The famous Irish potato famine reduced the population of Ireland by 20 to 25 percent between 1845 and 1852.

Today we are facing a different sort of problem. There are new varieties showing up in our markets daily, so much so that sometimes we have a hard time deciding which variety should we choose.

In my childhood I ate lots of potatoes in different shape and form. During Communism this lowly tuber became a daily fare on every table. We ate it in soups, breads, side dishes, casseroles, even desserts. Then my children advised me that I should not cook it often because it "makes us fat", it is at the top of the "high glycemic food list", so I neglected it lately. Now that this year is declared to be the Year of the Potato, I will try to incorporate it more into our diet. And what better way to do that in the least obvious and visible way (so as not to draw the attention of my children) is by incorporating them into some lovely rolls. I have yet to get around to making them, but I think I am getting rather inspired by this lovely photo I found on FLICKR.

And now to an appropriate recipe from Cooks.com:


POTATO ROLLS

1/2 c. lukewarm water (105 degrees)
1 pkg. dry granulated yeast
1 c. mashed potatoes
1 1/2 c. potato water
2/3 c. sugar
1 c. shortening
1 tbsp. salt
2 well beaten eggs
8 c. sifted all-purpose flour

Allow yeast to soften in lukewarm water. Combine hot, freshly mashed potatoes (very smooth and free from lumps) with potato water, sugar, shortening and salt. The heat of the potatoes and potato water will melt the shortening. When cooled to lukewarm, add softened yeast, beaten eggs and 4 cups of the flour and mix well. Then sift in all but 1/2 cup of the remaining flour and mix until smooth. Rub the 1/2 flour into a bread cloth or board, turn dough onto the board and knead until the dough is as smooth as satin.

A bit more flour may be sprinkled on the cloth in the dough is at all sticky, but don't work in a lot more.

Round up into a ball and place in a well greased bowl. Grease top of dough well and cover with damp cloth. Keep cloth damp. Place in refrigerator.

This is enough for about 4 dozen small rolls. If you would like a dozen tonight, cut off about 1/4 of the dough before refrigerating. All this fourth to rise until double in bulk. Then roll out the dough to about an inch thick and form them into small loaves. Brush tops with melted butter, let rise until nearly double, slash the tops across, then bake in a hot oven about 20 minutes.

To make rolls later on, cut desired amount off the refrigerated dough, make into rolls and let rise until doubled. This cold dough will take longer to rise. Bake in hot oven (about 400 degrees) about 15-20 minutes.

Multigrain bread for breadmachine

Well, what do you know! I got myself a breadmachine at a good boxing week sale. And why on Earth, I wonder now, did I not do that sooner?! I have sooo much fun with it. But not only I. My whole family is excited about the ever changing stream of fresh breads. On the average we consume two breads in three days, and I very rarely make two of the same. I love "tweaking" the recipes. Here is the latest that the family requested to be repeated unchanged. I decided to immortalize it here for in case I still go too far astray in the future, and they want this one again.










Dump all these in the machine:
1 1/3 cups water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon lecithin
2 tablespoons oil
2 cups unbleached white flour
1 cup whole wheat flour
1/3 cup taff flour (or buckwheat)
1/2 cup quick cooking oats
1/3 cup soaked or slightly pre-cooked millet
2-3 tablespoons wheat germ
1 1/2 teaspoons dry yeast

Bake it at Basic setting, with light or medium crust. When it beeps, you can add a handful of chopped (raw or toasted) nuts (walnuts, almonds, cashews, sunflower seeds, or a nice mix).