Samosa Satisfaction At Last

I love samosas. Who wouldn't? Spicy veggies or meats pocketed in a little pillow of dough and deep fried. Ask me if I want a samosa and I will gladly say yes. Ask me to make my own and I would get shivers and balk at the thought, turning and running like the wind. No matter how hard I tried, I could never ever ever ever get the dough right for the pockets. I thought I'd never have the pleasure of samosa heaven. Then I found out about pre-cut samosa wrappers. I bought about three packages on my last sojourn south. Wanna know what happened when I tried them out for the first time? I happy-danced all over the kitchen when I sealed up my first little pillow of samosa filling in that little pocket. It was like I had reached samosa enlightenment. I near-danced and sang my way through the rest of the pocket-forming and -filling. "Samusa Wrappers" You SAVED MY SANITY!

I made two kinds of samosas. One kind for me. One kind for Ben. For eons I haven't been able to tolerate ground beef without getting ill but Ben loves it. So mine enjoyed a spicy potato filling that suited me just fine.

Meat Samosa Filling (adapted from The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar):

2tbsp cooking oil
2 medium-sized onions, finely chopped
8 oz lean ground lamb or beef (I used beef. Where would I find ground lamb here?)
3-4 cloves garlic, peeled and crushed
1/2inch cube ginger, finely grated
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground coriander
1 1/2 tsps ground cumin
1 tsp chili powder
1/2 tsp salt or to taste
1/2 cup warm water
1 cup frozen peas
2 tbsp flaked coconut
1 tsp garam masala
1-2 fresh green chile peppers, finely chopped, seeded for a milder flavour
2 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (Ben isn't so fond so I cut it down to a smidgen)
1 tbsp lemon juice
[NB: There was a tad more meat than asked for and I know Ben likes spices so I doubled up on all spices]

1. Heat the oil over medium heat and fry the onions until they are lightly browned
2. Add the meat, garlic and ginger. Stir and fry until all the liquid evaporates and adjust heat to low.
3. Add the turmeric, coriander, cumin, chili powder, and salt. Stir and fry until meat is lightly browned.
4. Add the water and the peas, bring to a boil, cover and simmer for 25-30 minutes. If there is any liquid left, take the lid off and cook over medium heat until the mixture is completely dry, stirring frequently.
5. Stir in the coconut, garam masala, green chili peppers and coriander leaves.
6. Remove from heat and add the lemon juice. Cool thoroughly before filling the pastry.

Vegetable Samosa Filling (adapted from The Complete Indian Cookbook by Mridula Baljekar):

3 medium-sized potatoes
2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2 tsp black or white mustard seeds
1 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chili peppers, coarsely chopped (I suppose you could seed them. I didn't)
1 medium-sized onion, finely chopped (I like onion. I used a large onion)
1-2 fresh green chiles, coarsely chopped and seeded for milder flavour if desired
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp salt or to taste
1 tbsp chopped coriander leaves (Don't have much so did what I could)

[NB: like with Ben, I like spices so I double up on the spice amounts. Also added some lemon juice like Ben's by accident but actually adds a nice zing]

1. Boil the potatoes in their skins, allow them to cool thoroughly, then peel and dice them
2. Heat the oil and add mustard seeds. As soon as they start crackling, add the cumin seeds and red chili peppers. Stir. Add the onions and green chili peppers. Fry until the onions are soft. Add the turmeric, coriander and cumin.
3. Stir quickly and add the potoatoes and the salt.
4. Reduce heat to low, stir and cook until the potatoes are thoroughly mixed with spices
5. Remove from heat and stir in coriander leaves. Cool thoroughly before filling the samosas.


Last steps for both:
A) Follow samosa wrapper instructions for folding and filling. Complete the pockets before doing next step.
B) Fill frying pan with oil up to 1/2 inch. Heat. When hot drop in samosas about four or five at a time. Fry on one side until golden brown, flip and fry other side. Remove from pan and drain on paper towels.

You'd need two packages of "Samusa Wrappers" for this or you will have leftovers like I did. Well.. of the meat. Ben took the potatoes as a side dish.

We also had it with my favourite Indian food accompaniment: Coconut Rice (recipe at a later time)

Trout with Lemon and Capers

Even though the grey days are trying to continue the feel of winter, little jolts of spring are everywhere. From the evening "cheery-up" of robins, the splash of magenta salmonberry flowers, the clouds of seagulls feasting on herring to the mini-vw sound of the hummingbirds in hot pursuit of rivals, the blahs of the colder months are being shooed out of Waglisla. Even some foods can chase away those winter blues. Rainbow trout is just such a contender. I've rarely had trout but when I did, it was always in summer. So, psychologically, I tag warm weather to the taste of these little beauties.

Now the problem was that I had never actually cooked trout myself. I always got it from others and it was always cooked. So, what to do? I found a very simple recipe that lends itself well to such a tasty fish at cdkitchen.com which involved very little work and needed little in the way of ingredients I didn't already have. THAT, of late, is a big bonus. Our shelves have been a bit more empty these days since our major source of food delivery, the ferry "Queen of the North", sank some weeks ago.

The recipe is basically one of flouring and frying the fish. After playing with their jaws to make my own ventriloquist act for Ben, I did just that. Served with a butter-caper sauce, boiled potatoes and salad, it was a nice, bright tasting pick-me-up. So, without further ado: Trout with Lemon and Capers

That's Amore!

Pssssst... don't tell the Frog but I'm madly in love. I'm having a love affair with my new pizza stone. My whole world has deep and passionate flavour now. I don't know what I did without his sleek lines and hard, hot body...

But seriously, I really do love my new pizza stone. It has really changed the way I see homemade pizza. Depending on how your oven is behaving, getting great pizza crust is a crapshoot at best (read: average ordinary oven which technically isn't YOUR oven because it's in an apartment. You get what you can).

A few days back I meant to have a post about my new pizza stone and its wonders but my dough sat in the bowl like a lead weight. We sat there, the dough and I, staring at each other. And that's about it. No rising, no lovely yeasty smell. NOTHING. I was miserable. Ben was miserable. It was too late to make a new batch after all that waiting. There was silence and pouting until I whipped some Indian food under Ben's nose. Honestly, I don't know what he'd do without me *wink, wink*

With renewed determination I whipped up some more dough yesterday. I watched over it like a frenetic mother. I started to panic after a while when I saw no activity but with a quick change of location the action began. After a while I whipped off the saranwrap and was hit by a lovely yeasty scent. HURRAH! With hope and determination I'd already put in the stone and it was heating up beautifully.

But don't think that was the end of my trials. It wouldn't be my life if it had all ended there so easily. There were stupid slip ups of touching the metal carrying rack with a finger tip (swearing occured here). There was whipping the dough into a decent pizza shape (cursing involved here). There was the realization that I couldn't carry the decorated pizza to the stone because I didn't have it on anything that would allow pick up (enter explicatives here). And there there was the actual carrying that involved topping mixups (much fuming here). But when that dough hit the scalding hot stone the whole apartment filled with the seductive smells of pizza dough, tomato sauce, cheese... All was forgiven.

Like a mother giving birth, I didn't remember the pain I went through. I only saw the beauty of my baby. And my baby tasted good too. Crust was a bit overcooked and I know to add more toppings next time but I felt like I was tasting a real pizza for the first time in I don't know how long. And I made it. Now there are so many toppings to try... lardons... potatoes... cream... *fade away*

Revisiting Tuna Casserole

The Camera Issue... still

Ben: What do you think?
Me: (distractedly) Of what?
Ben: Of dinner. This is SO good. Haven't you tasted it yet?
Me: No. I haven't had a bite of it yet.
Ben: (in an annoyed voice) Well if you'd put down your camera for a second you might actually find out what your creations taste like.

Hallmarks of My Childhood #2

I've been keening for a bit of childhood comfort food for a while. My crazy life the last couple of weeks made me too tired to concentrate on "Me Food" but I craved it nonetheless. Now that I can breathe again I will be revisiting some childhood favourites (Hmm... anything to do with birthday issues perhaps?). First on my agenda is Tuna Casserole. With a bit of tweaking I made it my own but still kept the basics.


Tuna Casserole Revampoli

1 cup uncooked pasta (I prefer shells)
1 tbsp butter
2/3 cup onion, diced
2/3 cup zucchini, sliced and quartered
1 can cream of celery soup
1/2 cup light cream
1 cup canned tuna, flaked and drained
1/2 cup defrosted peas
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup grated smoked cheddar

Cook noodles. Drain. Meanwhile, melt butter in skillet on medium low heat. Add onions and stir for one to two minutes. Add zucchini slices. Cook until zucchini translucent and onions are starting to brown. Add soup, milk, flaked tuna, peas, salt and pepper. Stir to mix well. Add cooked noodles. Stir in. Pour mixture into a greased baking dish. Sprinkle cheddar over top. Bake for 25 minutes at 350.

Successes and Failures

In my pursuit of showing off the birthday sushi dishes (look at the pretty swirly designs on the close up of the sauce below) I mentioned in my previous post, I tried my hand at two recipes. One was a disaster only in adeptness of fingers because it tasted so good. But the other was a disaster because, in my opinion, it was a waste of precious sushi rice even if it made for a pretty and colourful picture.

The first recipe was my adaptation of an Emeril recipe for Spring Rolls with Peanut Sauce. I read the list of ingredients for what I did have and I looked at the basic way to throw it together. That's about it. Here's what I created (and Ben loved):


Nerissa's Spring Rolls

1 shallot, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Vietnamese fish sauce
1/2 Tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 Tbsp peanut oil
12 - 16 boiled shrimp
1 1/2 cups cooked rice vermicelli
1/4 cup thinly sliced cucumbers
1/4 cup shredded carrot
1 cup thinly shredded romaine lettuce
4 rice paper wrapper (discs)

Mix together the first six ingredients. In a pan, over medium-low heat, simmer the prawns in mixture. Turn every few minutes for even flavouring. Remove from heat after about 10 minutes and allow to cool 5 minutes.

Assemble the rolls 1 at a time: Dip 1 spring roll wrapper in a large bowl of lukewarm water and quickly transfer to a clean kitchen towel (Wrapper softens in seconds). Lay three or four shrimp in a horizontal line across the lower third of the rice wrapper. Top with a 1/4 cup of well-drained cooked rice vermicelli. Top the vermicelli with slices of cucumber and shredded carrot. Place 2 tablespoons of shredded romaine on top of cucumbers. Carefully pull the lower edge of the wrapper up and over the filling. Fold the two sides inward over the filling. Work carefully to not tear the wrapper. Once both sides are folded inward over the filling, roll the spring roll upward wo the filling is tightly contained and roll up to seal. Set aside roll on a plate and repeat with other wrappers. You could serve them immediately or chilled with Peanut Sauce on the side for dipping.


Peanut sauce:

1/2 tbsp peanut oil
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp chili paste
1/2 tablespoon ketchup
1/4 cup plus 2 tbsp chicken stock (or water)
1/4 tsp sugar
1 tbsp peanut butter
3 tbsp hoisin sauce
Chile oil (optional) to taste

Mix all ingredients, blending very well. Serve with spring rolls.

~
There were a lot of things I didn't include from the original because I didn't have it on hand but it still tasted good. Other ingredients that were listed were Thai basil, mint, marinated pork... etc. But honestly if you want a good, straight-foward meal for a fussy eater, my version may do the trick.

My first attempt at using rice paper wrappers was pathetic at best. My fingers fumbled their way through four in more time than I'd like to admit. My BIG piece of advice: Work FAST! Slowness make the fumbles worse because the paper becomes even more floppy.


The Disaster of the night:



I tried making something called Country Style Sushi Salad which is basically cooked sushi rice with sushi-like ingredients mixed in. It turned into an unappealing mixture of flavours. Enjoy the picture but don't ask for the recipe. Please, for the sake of humanity, don't!

Lasagna Rollups

A week and a half ago Michelle of Accidental Scientist wrote about making lasagna roll-ups. Now I haven't gotten around to trying her version but I did mention that my family had our own version of this recipe. We had it tonight and I'd like to share it with you. It's pretty easy and straight forward. Just don't do it unless you have family that is willing to wait patiently for 45 minutes while the baked dish sends out come-hither wafts of Italian tomato sauce and cheese.

Lasagna Rollups: Hallmarks of my Childhood #1

18 lasagna noodles
3 cups cottage cheese
2 cups mozarella cheese, grated
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
1 Tbsp parsley, well-chopped
2 eggs, beaten
dash nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
dash pepper
28 oz spaghetti sauce
1/4 cup parmesan


Cook lasagna noodles. Combine filling ingredients except spaghetti sauce and 1/4 cup parmesan cheese. Put a cup of spaghetti sauce on bottom of 13 x 9 pan. Place a generous 1/4 cup of filling at the end of cooked noodle and carefully roll up. Place stuffed noodles in pan in rows. Pour the rest of the sauce over the stuffed noodles. Ensure good coverage of all stuffed noodles by spreading with a spatula. Sprinkle over top with the 1/4 cup of parmesan cheese. Bake at 350 for 45 minutes.

Serves 6 - 9 people



This really is a base recipe as you can play around with quantities all you want. I added some chives to the mix. It was okay but a bit overpowering with the delicacy of today's cheeses of choice. I usually use a jarred spaghetti sauce. What you choose really creates the final flavours. My personal favourite is herbs and wine spaghetti sauce. My mother usually uses the shakeable parmesan but I grated my own. Depends on the quickness you want as either taste fine.


With a nice side salad, this can really fill you up fast. Expect leftovers unless you have a large family or a good helping of hungry guests.

Gullible Gaijin

Sometime you are duped into believing that there are new flavours to be found in chocolate. That's what pulled me into the oldest gimmick in the book: display something cool-looking at the checkout counter.

I was getting out my groceries at the Chinese market when I saw this cool-looking package. Most of it was in no language I could decipher. The English promised "Only Hokkaido Taste", the charmingly silly English side bars on the cover talked of nature, in the middle of said silly English was a roaring bear, a symbol of the Ainu people. I was intrigued. I wondered what Hokkaido chocolate tasted like. I pondered if it was some exotic addition like black sesame or even seaweed! The cartooned picture on the back seemed to promise a chocolate with little black dots. I even dang-well saved it to eat up north, prolonging my investigation.

I shouldn't have bothered. It was chocolate with toffee bits in it. I ate the first half of the bar trying to strain my tastebuds to taste something exotic and the last half in emotional misery at being suckered in. Not that I didn't enjoy the chocolate but I'd been so looking forward to trying something unique, something foreign. Maybe next time I'll try the grass jelly drink or the canned silkworm pupae. At least I KNOW I haven't had that.

PS: I have a new daily photoblog you might want to have a gander at

Later note: My apologies to those who tried to use the address I gave above for my photo blog. I switched a couple of letters that didn't capture my eye for a couple of days. I guess I must be more tired these days than I thought.

A candle lit for her...

Life loses its flavour when you lose someone dear to your heart. I'm sorry it has been so long since my last post.
It all started with not being able to taste anything and having no energy. A virus hit our school and town with a vengeance. Just when things were looking up and health was returning, Life dealt my beloved Ben and I another blow. My mother-in-law passed away a week and a half ago after a long illness. It has been a rough time emotionally for Ben and I've focussed a lot of time on his well-being since he couldn't go home to France for the funeral.

Ben's mother spoke very little English and my conversational French still suffers horribly but during the last five years of knowing each other we found our ways to communicate. The heart knows what the tongue cannot speak. I will cherish the memories I have of her and it hurts knowing there will be no more. I know she considered me the daughter she never had so I will do my best to make her proud of me no matter from where she watches my progress.

Please excuse my somber mood. I just wanted to let you who come here know why I have been so quiet.

Why didn't I do this before?

Any of you foodies out there have to admit that being a foodie is great. Especially when your friends and family know about it. You're easy to buy for! Find a little gourmet goodie for us and we're through the roof with happiness and dreaming, cooking and sampling. Who needs diamonds and silks, when you can have artisanal cheeses or delicately flower-flavoured candies from afar? And those same family and friends are happy if you make a request of them--"find a local specialty for me please?". Or relieved if they know that the local candy they bring back from holidays afar will thrill you! It's probably the easiest interest/hobby I've ever offered the people in my life.

I have come to realize the truth to the above thoughts in the last month. Two friends have gone afar, leaving me in care of pet and/or homes for a time while they were away. One I made a request of, the other gave me an unexpected gift.

The first, Fair Funky Friend, went off to Mexico for a week and brought me back, at my request, the possibility to make REAL Mexican hot chocolate-two kinds of Mexican chocolate and a molinillo. One of the chocolates makes me shudder in delight at it's intense cocoa smell. When you smell it , it reaches into the tips of your toes and the ends of your hair. I can't wait to taste it. The other brings a smile, so lovingly perfumed with cinnamon that it haunts the recesses of your mind for some time after. The molinillo is just too funky and I can't wait to try it out. Frothy hot chocolate here I come!

The second, the unexpected present from Beloved Friend, was both charming and did reach into the local specialities as well. Some fair-trade dark chocolate with almonds (which is SO yummy, btw) by Cocoa Camino. Apparently the one I have (not for long!) won awards two years ago. In every bite I know why! Full-bodied and intense, it just lingers lovingly on the tongue with no weird aftertaste that poor chocolate can leave you. Another, more locally produced sweet from her trip was Ontario-produced maple syrup. The bouquet is delicate and not overly sweet. Apparently this kind won awards many times. It is quite obvious this is the real thing and not some cheap imitation. I think it is quite charming too in its little metal tin with its kitschy art and little rust spots. Any suggestions for use? And last, but not least, the collection of little plates decorated with wine label reproductions added some quirky and elegant fun to my growing plate collection. All this was overwhelmingly thrilling and touching.


Now I am thrilled by new foods to try, dishes to make, dishes to own... so why on EARTH didn't I do this before? Oh well... I'm doing it now ;-)

Gouda is gooooood

Three of us teachers did a shopping run last weekend to Vancouver Island to break up the February blahs and get some slightly more exotic food than is available to us in Waglisla winters. I think Beloved Friend and Kindy Teacher Pal may have wondered at the wisdom of a shopping trip when our ferry trip home was wracked with stomach-flipping deep sea bends for a couple of hours travel through pure open-Pacific power (driven on by wild windy winter weather). They both looked very green around the gills while I, knocked out by Gravol, dozed through the worst of it and dared not get up when I felt the ferry sway with heart-pounding angles.

But oh... this trip was worth it for some of the lovely goodies purchased. One such delectable was smoked gouda which I have since used on a yummy comfort dish known as "Smoked Gouda and Caramelized Onion Quesadillas". An elegant twist on a basic concept: bacon onion cheese and bread. If you are looking for the recipe, you'll find it here at epicurious.com.
I used half the amount of sugar for the onions as they asked and it still was rather sweet. I suppose, honestly, you could leave sugar out and it would still taste good as fried onions.


The pictures don't really make them look very elegant. This time. But I know I'll be making this again. Sans sugar.

Another lovely find, this time on the ferry itself was Denman Island Chocolate.


We'd originally tasted a sample on Vancouver Island: Two ginger chocolate buddhas and one dark chocolate buddha (Chinese New Year theme, perhaps?). I had to have some again but I didn't expect to see them so soon onboard the ferry. So I took two samples: another Gingerama and a new one, Zesty Orange. Oooh yummy! As you can see from the picture they are not only a lovely dark chocolate (Belgian btw) but they are also ORGANIC!
The ginger is really nice. The intesity of the bittersweet chocolate has just a hint of candied ginger taste to tease you. The nice thing about this chocolate is that it doesn't leave a weird aftertaste in your mouth like cheaper bittersweets can. What you taste is the bitter chocolate on your tongue for about five minutes. It melts nicely in the mouth with a bit of friction but I don't think I ever let it melt completly before diving in the with my teeth. Zesty orange was a bit more disappointing. The orange essence it promised was ghostly at best, sometimes non-existant. But still, the chocolate itself was so good that I won't hold that against the company. I just won't get that kind again.

Foxy treats

Inari zushi is a favourite treat for Japanese fox spirits (kitsune). They are served to kitsune statues at shrines as a method of pleasing and appeasing these tricksie little vixies. I LOVE inari zushi. I would treat favourably ANYONE who gave me inari zushi. Does that make me a fox?

Unfortunately there are no people around here to feed this fox so I had to make my own. Like other kinds of sushi, making this kind is a bit time consuming and best not accomplished on a busy day. This recipe is an adaptation from my new recipe book: The Japanese Kitchen, by Kimiko Barber





1)Make dashi from scratch: Put one piece of postcard size kombu and 4 cups of water in a sauce pan. Heat gently and take out the kombu when it begins to float to the top of the heated water. Raise heat. When the water come boil, take off the heat. Add a handful of bonito flakes and let them settle at the bottom. Once all are settled to the bottom, strain broth through a fine strainer lined with paper towels (about 3-5 minutes for all the bonito to settle)

2) Prepare the sushi rice

3) Once the rice is cooking, open a package of deep fried tofu pockets (I use Sunrise tofu puffs). Roll a chopstick over each piece of tofu to make it more malleable (plastic chopstick works better than wood)

4)Gently open one end to make a pouch and place each opened pocket into a bamboo strainer or colander. Pour a lot of boiling water over them to remove the excess oil.



5) Mix together 1 cup dashi, 4 tbsp granulated sugar, 6 tbsp soy sauce (I ended up using tamari), 3 tbsp sake, 3 tbsp mirin in a bowl. Then pour mixture over tofu in the medium saucepan. Simmer over a low heat until most of the liquid is reduced (~ 20-40 minutes). Let cool, then drain. (At about this time the sushi rice should be cooling too. Letting it cool outside in the wind helped speed the process)

6)In a bowl, mix 2 tbsp toasted sesame seeds with cooked and cooled sushi rice*. Take about two tbsp of the rice mix and fill in the seasoned pouch. Don't overfill the pouch. Carefully fold the edges of the pocket inward. With a Sunrise pack this will create 9 large Inari-zushi. If you decide to cut them in half before boiling in the sauce it will create 18 ( in this case only use one tbsp of filling).


* I mixed some of the rice from a suggested additional filling in another book: chopped crab stix and cucumber.



The Frog wasn't totally impressed, finding it a bit sweet for his taste but I didn't care. That meant more for foxy little me ;)

Crawling Back from Oblivion

I've been a bit scarce of late but plan to rectify that very soon. As in hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, here's something to fill in the gap.



I've had a couple of questions about the pictured recipes in the last post. One asked about the contents of the noodle soup. I hate to disappoint but it was rather simplistic. The liquid content was created from a bottle (Memmi Noodle Soup Base by Kikkoman). I have to admit that it wasn't the best soup at the start. Why? Because apparently I can't read English and misread the Memmi part to water parts on the label. Didn't help that I had a stuffed nose and so it was the Frog who pointed out that it was a bit of a salt lick and I promptly watered it down a bit. In the soup base were Chinese steamed noodles, frozen peas, chunks of leeks and a couple of prawns for each of us. Leeks weren't the best. Green onions would have been better. Not my finest hour in cooking but I plan to rectify it in the near future.

As for the first question I had-- S'kat's "How on earth does one prepare lotus root?" -- here is the answer from my new cookbook, The Japanese Kitchen by Kimiko Barber:

Renkon no kimpira (simmered lotus root)


2-2 1/2 cups lotus root, peeled and thinly sliced [had to fudge a bit with frozen]
1 tbsp each sesame oil and vegetable oil
2 tbsp each mirin and soy sauce
1 tsp roasted sesame seeds
Pinch of shichimi togarashi (Japanese chili pepper) to taste, finely chopped [I didn't have this so I used a tad of cayenne]

Soak the [thawed] lotus slices in cold water for 10 minutes and drain. Heat both oils in a sauce pan and saute the slices over high heat until they become soft. Add the mirin and soy sauce and reduce the heat to low. Cook until the juice is almost disappeared, then add the sesame seeds and stir well. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with shichimi togarashi [or cayenne], and serve.



That's it! Not hard at all and tasty too. Any water chesnut lover will like this dish too. It's a tad more chewy than water chesnuts but has that same slightly starch crunch when your teeth snip into them. Next time I am in the area of the Chinese market (in maybe a month and a bit?), I will pick up the fresh kind and try again.

6 Challenges

During the last week I've been exhausted and not sleeping well. But I HAVE been eating. Here's a small sampling of the week's dinners:


Pizza Alsatian

Chinese-style soup

Slow-cooked Lotus Root

Pasta Con Salmone Affumicato





Crazy Gaijin, I haven't been ignoring your tag. Honest. Here is my stab at it ;)

Six Cooking Challenges for 2006 (I changed it to six to reflect the year). I was tagged by Crazy G at Nihon No Ryori

1) In case you haven't been reading my blog, jam/jelly is on my to do list. I'm actually terrified of the whole procedure because I feel like things will explode on me. Heat and glass near each other does give me some frissons of panic. It's not like I haven't seen it a number of times before with The Mom. My mom has been jarring jams and preserves for as long as I can remember. I guess I just haven't been paying as much attention as I guess I should have instead of stealing the skimmed foam for a sandwich.

2) Like Crazy G, I really need to learn how to clean and fillet fish. My last attempts really sucked. Luckily with the amount of fishing and preserving going on around here in booneyville, finding people to show me techniques shouldn't be too much of a hassle.

3) Make a decent custard. I haven't managed to get a good custard going without somehow curdling it. Even on really low heat. HELP! If you have any suggestions, preferably step by step and very detailed. Pictures would help too. I am from a watch and do kind of family.

4)Make pastry dough from scratch. Errr.. yah. You see, I've never done it. What pies I have made have had premade shells (which, around here, bite the big one). It will not only help with sweet pies but the meat pies I want to make for the Frog (in case you don't know it, I haven't eaten a heck of a lot of meat for about twelve or more years)

5)Errr... I haven't ever made any kind of souffle. Yeah, you heard right. I've never made one but then my mother never really did either. Her influence on my cooking styles has been fairly heavy. Souffles therefore have not crossed my mind much until living with a Frenchman. Well, seeing all the pretty souffles from challenges of food blog past have influenced too *S*

6)I need to learn to make profiteroles as they are pretty much the only dessert that the Frog likes. That way his B-day "cake" will be something he actually craves.

Seven Meme... At Last

I feel like this week is running away from me. I didn't have time to really think about the Seven Meme until later in the evening when I was too tired to think too long. I finally managed to get up in time to catch the window of time when I can get on the dial-up internet. I can't wait to get on wireless. Hopefully it will be soon! Then I will be able to blog when I want. Ahhh... that will be the life!

Here are some facts about me:

Seven things I say often

1) And listening in 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 (Hey I’m a teacher)
2) This rain sucks! (I live near one of the rainiest places in Canada)
3) Yes, I’m sure I want to pay _______ for this [insert name of fruit or vegetable that is being given odd looks by the cashier at the band-run store]! (Yet they never blink at the price of the toilet paper or cheese which can be outrageous!!)
4) Did you see the sunrise?
5) Come here _______ [insert name of one of the dogs that roam Waglisla streets]. Wanna treatie?
6) God! I’m such a klutz!
7) What was that!!?? [I get a bit jumpy during winter windstorm season and since I got a nocturnal animal for a pet]

Seven things to do before I die:

1) Go to Egypt and Japan and England (and my provincial capital ;) )
2) Get a tattoo
3) Learn to speak French fluently without heavy reliance on a dictionary
4) Well… have a kid or two
5) Learn to scuba-dive and drive a boat of some kind
6) Own a bookstore or a bed and breakfast (or both?)
7) See Derek Jacobi in a live performance

Seven things I cannot do

1) whistle well
2) ignore chocolate
3) fix a car
4) juggle
5) eat hamburgers
6) manage to go a week without dropping something
7) make jam (I hope to fix this soon)

Seven things that attracted me to (food) blogging

1) It lets me explore different things I love in one place: talking, taking pictures, cooking, writing
2) I no longer feel guilty about eating (really!)
3) Making new friends
4) A chance to improve my writing skills and styles
5) A chance to blog about local indigenous foods
6) Learn about the culinary cultures of the world
7) It kinda lets me believe a bit in idealism again ;-)


Seven Favourite Books

1) Wintercombe by Pamela Bella
2) The Hippopotamus Marsh by Pauline Gedge
3) Anne of Green Gables by L.M. Montgomery
4) Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin
5) Woman on the Edge of Time by Marge Piercy
6) The Fifth Sacred Thing by Starhawk
7) Conversations with God by Neale Donald Walsch

Seven Movies I like to watch again and again

1) It’s A Wonderful Life
2) Star Wars: Episode IV
3) Alistair Sim’s Scrooge
4) Sense and Sensibility (Emma Thompson version)
5) The Fifth Element
6) The Italian Job
7) Anne of Green Gables/Anne of Avonlea movies

As for Seven people to tag... I haven't thought of that yet. I don't even know if I can because I was so long in getting this post moving. Perhaps I will write down seven people I WISH I had tagged. Until later!

Toooooo much information

S'kat hath me tagged. Too Much Information is the name of the game. I've been vacillating between thoughts that produced WAAAAAY too much information and things so innocuous I rather think they'd not count. But I'll try to play at this game which entails "writing ten random and interesting facts about yourself and they need not be food-related".

So, without further ado,in no particular order, here is .... ME:

1) I love dogs with squishy jowls. I grew up with boxers and my heart has been lost to squishy dog faces since.



2)I just recently acquired a new pet after 5 years of not having one (if you knew my family you'd know how bizarre this really is). Charlotte is a Syrian hamster. She is my foster baby (poor sweetie was abandoned)

3)The Frog (whose real name is Ben, btw) and I met on the internet.

4)My favourite colour is cerulean

5)I like dragonfly motifs in my life but I am VERY picky about their appearance.

6)I took about seven years of vocal training (singing)

7)I always succumb to tears when I see news casts of children suffering or crying

8)I've been to the capital of France and Holland but I haven't ever been to the capital of my own country or even the capital of my own province!!! (Later note: I do apologize Papa! You are right! I WAS in the capital of Belgium as well. That knowledge completely slipped out of my brain at the time).

9)My original arts degree is in archaeology

10)I've never dyed my hair ever or ever got a tattoo BUT they are on my to-do list. I've even thought of purple or peacock blue but it'll probably end up being auburn hair dye. Hmm... a bit of a delayed teenage rebellion? Perhaps.

Okay... that's enough. Back to our regularly scheduled program now.

Robyn,Linda,Crazy Gaijin, Melissa and Michelle are hereby tagged

Was it good for you too, hun?

And to think I was grumbling about moving my lazy tush over to Shearwater at lunchtime. Even after the long session of ProD I was sighing inwardly because the sound of the rain rumbling and tumbling over the school's roof gave me shudders about the walk to the seabus. I even mentioned how I wasn't even really hungry while on the seabus. But he still wanted to go... Frog was insistant. I'm SO glad he was because I had the best "food sex" I've had in ages. Come on... you know sometimes that food is a hot and heavy lover who sets your mind and body reeling.

First it started with not really being able to decide over three choices chalked out on the specials board. It was soon evident we couldn't so we chose all three. They all sounded amazing and like a lot of thought had been put into them.

Not very long later we were presented with a dish as pretty as a tropical flower. The descriptor on the board of "Shrimp Bruschetta with aioli" was a ruddy understatement. Here were five sets of collective shrimp, cheese, onion, peppers on firm tasty sesame-dusted bread ready to be enhanced by the most amazing looking sky-magenta aioli! Intrigued by the colour, I dipped in and added it to my bruschetta... and knew that true happiness CAN exist in a food product. The bruschetta (of which I got only TWO, Mr. Frog!) were soon polished off in a paradoxical time period: both in a slow motion enjoyment and as a quick-grab of fleeting raptures at the same time. The mayonnaise base was so obviously made from scratch as it reminded me of the aoili I'd had with lagoustines in Brittany, France. Frog must have found heaven in the mayonnaise base too because he insists he HATES aioli and yet we were fighting for best dipping position over this pretty purple paradise. Now THAT is the mark of a remarkable chef! If they can change Froggie Food Nazi's mind about his dislikes, I offer up tuition for their culinary classes!
Ready to fork-stab the waiter if he took away the remaining aoili, our next two courses were presented quickly. Mine was a bacon-wrapped halibut piece presented on a bed of luxurious (new favourite word LOL) cream-cheese and smoked salmon sauced penne rigate. The descriptor-rich English language is still not enough to truly explain this food experience. Prompted by our enjoyment of the bruschetta dish, we both quickly dug into our dishes until my rapture was snapped by "OH MY GOD... I forgot to take a picture!" The pictures you have of ANY of the food is just by sheer chance available since our greedy desire for fulfillment overtook the logical mind.

So... back to the halibut.


It was a tournedo of halibut with bacon border in name only. The moist firmness of the white flesh sealed in by the quick golden crust on top and bottom and the bacon edging made me pause in momentary silence followed by a query in mind as to how in Heaven's name did I manage to stay on the raw food thing as long as I did some couple years back. And how on Earth do you describe perfectly cooked halibut without resorting to comparisons to scenes in 'When Harry Met Sally'. The pasta, dancing with little cubes of smoked salmon, was a completely irresistable with its creamy sauce JUST enough and not too much. I really tried to enjoy it s-l-o-w-ly... but I couldn't . I just couldn't.
Froggy enjoyed a half piece of slow-roasted curry basted chicken. I'm still laughing that he hesitated over choosing it because his mind was set that night on a attacking a peppersteak. For a man who claims he loves only the wings and legs, he sucked that birdy down to the bone one silent moment of bliss after another. Even he was shocked at how he ate every bit since he normally doesn't care for the white meat as much nor picking meat away from the ribs. And oh how funny it was to see him crowing over the succulent neck bone(one of his favourite parts). Even funnier still was that he was worried that the appetizer and chicken wouldn't fill him up. I think his post-meal groaning defied THAT earlier belief. We both ate our main meal with a Mission Hill Chardonnay that was delight to the tongue. I was surprised at how yummy it was that night since I could take it or leave it on other nights.

We both sat there after, sated and discussing the food endlessly, trying to find words to expressively convey our enjoyment. Later in the evening we spent time finding those words again as our chef came over to ask about dinner. If I could have spoken at top speed for twenty minutes I think maybe I could have expressed our happiness. In our discussion we found out that my guess for the purple colouring was wrong and NOT something beet related but in fact it was a red wine reduction! Mmmmm! How intriguing! And our dear chef also described how he's cooked the chicken with dipping it in hot curried oil so it half cooked and then roasting it in the oven after.

In the end we wended our way down to the seabus and capped off the night with an invitation to ride up front with the driver "who wanted to get to know us better since I see you every week". We had a wonderful chat with him all the way back. As I chattered and listened I read in a brief look into Frog's eyes and he into mine, that the lights of Waglisla we saw twinkling in the distance were calling us back home. Excuse my blasphemy but God F***ing Dammit, I love where I live. Remind me of that next time I complain about a lack of butter or pink fuzzy tomato innards.

Chickpea Curry

It smelled like one of my favourite restaurants in my kitchen last night. I'm tickled pink that my new gift produced something resembling a presentation from a Indian Restaurant and not something with curry powder that is called "Indian". Dont' get me wrong. I like the quick ease of using a pre-made, store-bought curry powder in things like macaroni and cheese to give it a nice pick-me-up. But last night I had a revelation when using fresh ingredients like fresh green chiles, crushed cardamom pods, fresh ginger, chopped garlic and whole fennel seeds.

For Christmas I got a book called "Easy Indian" by Das Sreedharan. Last night was the first time I decided to use one of the recipes in there. I now know I will be going back to use more. What I made was a chickpea curry. With lots of fresh spices and slowly cooking onions until soft and golden. Now I do have a confession to make. My eyes obviously glanced too quickly at the "fresh tomatoes, chopped" but luckily I had some canned diced tomaotes. Now obviously canned won't replace fresh chopped but I think in the winter it will do in a pinch since all we get here are pink pingpong balls with inner pink fuzz barely resembling their juicy, red summer cousins. I think it was the only substitution I was forced to make. My only "hmmmm" is that the ingredient list doesn't mention what size of onions you are supposed to use!

Without further ado is the recipe by the creative Das Sreedharan from my new cookbook:

Chick pea Curry

Serves 4-6

4 tbsp vegetable oil
2.5 cm (1 inch) piece of cinnamon stick
2 cloves
3 cardamom pods, crushed
pinch of fennel seeds
4 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
2.5 cm (1 inch) piece fresh root ginger, peeled and finely chopped
2 green chiles, finely chopped ( I didn't seed them. It left a low constant burn :D)
3 onions (I assume medium), peeled and chopped
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp garam masala
1 tsp tomato paste
4 tomatoes chopped (I used two cans of diced tomatoes with the juice)
2x410g cans of chickpeas (we have bigger cans here so I used 1 1/2 cans of them)
200mL (7 fl oz) coconut milk
sea salt (yes I actually have the real thing from Brittany, ground by my own self)
4 tbsp chopped coriander (also known as cilantro) leaves to serve.

(I know it seems like a long ingredient list but bear with me)

1 Heat the oil in a sauce pan. Add the cinnamon stick, sloves, cardamom, fennel seeds, garlic, ginger and chillies. Saute for 1 minute. Add the onions and fry over medium heat for 15-20 minutes or until they are soft and golden
2 Add the turmeric, chili powder, ground coriander, garam masala, tomato puree, and salt. Mix well, then add the chopped tomatoes (or canned, juice and all) and 600 ml (1 pint) of water. Bring to a boil and add the chickpeas. Cover and cook over a medium heat for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.
3 Lower the heat and add the coconut milk. Simmer gently for 5 minutes or until the milk is well-blended with the spices and chickpeas. Remove the pan from the heat, scatter with chopped coriander leaves and serve hot.

Notes:
I didn't add so much of the water with the tomatoes since there was a lot of juice from the cans.
I always add a bit more of each powdered spice for a little more kick and because some of the spices available to me don't always have that much oomph in them.
I served mine with Thai Jasmine rice and broiled eggplant last night.

Pasta Perfection and Beautiful Bread

It wasn't hard to like the Mediterranean Seafood Fettucini at Shearwater last Thursday. The clams were salty and potent, the halibut was firm and meaty, the shrimp just right... The mixtures of peppers,sundried tomatoes, parmesan cheese and green onion a nice contrast... but then there was the noodles themselves. I feel a little shocked to be writing a paean about pasta but I was blown away by the simple luxuriousness of the pasta. It was cooked just right, it was probably mixed with a nice olive oil... it all ended up becoming one of those "close your eyes and just "be" within the happy silence of your mind, zen-kinda pasta". Did you ever have one of those moments where what seemed to be the simplest part of the restaurant dish ended up being the part that made your mind reel?

I've tasted the usual accompanying bread at most pasta places. Their usually-toasted chunks redolent with salty margarine and god-knows-what-kind of fake-ish garlic. What came with my pasta on Thursday (and before Xmas too, incidentally) was a beautiful piece of bread heaven. There are little flecks of rosemary in the pillowy depths of the core and a lovely chewy crust lightly dusted with flour. Does a pasta dinner with buttered toast get any better than this? I think not!

Southwestern Chili

There are a few recipes out there that I don't make very often. It's not because the ingredients are rare or the time to make it is long. It's not even because I'm the only one who likes it. It's because it makes me... well... err... toot. Well, when you read the ingredient list you'll know why.

But sometimes I have to eat it. It's the ultimate comfort food--starchy, spicy, oniony tomatoey, just enough veggies to compliment the starches, enhanced by a touch of cheese. In its original form it is called "Red, Gold, Black and Green Chili". I got it from... yes, you guessed it... Moosewood Restaurant Cooks at Home.

Frogman being what he is would have pouted if there was no meat in it so I altered the recipe a bit so that it included big pieces of chicken for him and altered the spices a bit for me because I like things with a punch.

Southwestern Chili

1/2 cup bulghur
1/2 cup hot water
3 cups undrained canned tomatoes (28 oz can)

3 tbsp olive oil or vegetable oil
3 boneless chicken breasts, cubed into 1/2 inch pieces
3 cups chopped onion (smaller chop is better for the cooking time, bigger pieces feel more luxurious on the tongue)
3 garlic cloves, minced or pressed
2 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 tsp Mexican chili powder or 1 generous tsp of regular chili powder with a generous pinch of cayenne added

2 green peppers (this preferrable to cut the intensity of the starches but slightly unripe yellows work too)
2 cups frozen corn
1 1/2 cups drained cooked black beans (14 oz can)
1 1/2 cups drained cooked red kidney beans (14 oz can)
salt to taste

grated cheddar or Monterey Jack cheese for garnish

~

Place the bulghur, hot water, and about a cup of the juice from the canned tomatoes in a small saucepan. cover and bring to a boil on hight heat, then lower the heat and simmer gently.

While the bulghur cooks, heat the olive oil in a large saucepan. Saute the chicken in the pan until almost cooked through. Add onions, garlic, cumin and Mexican chili powder (or chili powder and cayenne). Stir around to mix in spices. When the onions are soft, stir in the peppers and saute for about 3 minutes more. Chop tomatoes in the can and add them to the pan. Stir in. Add corn and beans, stir in and heat thoroughly over low heat. Taste the bulgur. When it is cooked but still chewy, add it to the pan with its liquid. Cover and simmer for a few minutes for the flavours to meld. Add salt to taste.

Serve plain or topped with grated cheese ( I used jalapeno Monterey Jack this time around and it was nice but cheddar is lovely too)

~

It serves 4 to 6. I like to make the full amount even when there is only two of us because the leftovers are great as a burrito filling! mmmmm....

In the picture you can see a couple of the things I got down south at Christmas: the red bowl and the cute "Campbell Soup Kids" napkin on the side. :D

New Year's Dinner Recipe & Photo Swap

Do not make sushi when you are brain dead.

I can't believe how many little things just didn't go well yesterday when I was making some as per promise to The Daddy Man and because I wanted something cool to put in my "What did I eat for the last meal of 2005" entry for CookingDiva.

First of all there was the rice. Somewhere in this vacuous brain I seemed to believe that making enough rice to feed an army was necessary to feed three sushi lovers. Hmm.... not a good thing when there are only 12 pieces of nori in the whole friggin' house on New Year's Eve, aka "the night people close stores early".

Uh.... then there was the nori. Somehow I seem to believe I am a master sushi chef who knows what the *&!^ she is doing. I trimmed a nori sheet down in half like I THOUGHT I saw in Togo Sushi. BIG mistake. I not only screwed up rolling both small pieces which later refused to cut without explosive behaviour BUT I did something even more stupid. I did it again. Thus I ruined 2 of 12 precious nori pieces. Thankfully the second attempt was better because I cut a bigger piece but I ruined a perfectly smaller but good piece of that nori sheet trying to roll a mini version.

Then there was the sushi mayonnaise that I put inside each roll. I ALWAYS make sushi with this mayonnaise. Except for three rolls last night. Just about four. You'd think I'd been into the bubbly stuff early by the way my brain cell function was down to small blips.

The Daddy Man expressly mentioned how much he loved the asparagus sushi I make many times. So I expressly roasted them carefully in the pan with garlic and had some beautifully roasted emerald stems in a bowl. Which I just about forgot to salt. Okay.. that was fixable. But then... while fighting with the mini nori strips and down to the last two nori sheets I notice the green glisten from the corner of my eye. So lots get shoved into two... then I carefully unroll a sushi mayo-less concoction and insert remaining asparagus.

Stupid me decides to do a couple of inside-out rolls. Not only do I forget the saran wrap before starting but also manage to forget part of the procedure. Two manage to mangle together only held together by the starch of the rice. Try to roll it in the little bit of fish roe I thawed. It does not go on evenly as I had hoped. Looks like melted cheddar cheese on them. Spread them out on the rolls and proceed to mush more into the rice that I intended. Result looks a bit pathetic and misshaped.

Imagine, if you will a cut to a knife shot. Note the ragged bits of seaweed refusing to cut despite the sharpness of blade. Watch as the inside out rolls threaten to flatten into pancackes as you cut. Watch how the little baby sized rolls explode like touch-me-not seed pods when the knife hovers overhead.

I notice then just how off-kilter almost all the fillings are. I don't remember doing something different than usual on the regularly-wrapped rolls. I note how I will not get that brand of ginger ever again because the red colour makes many of the pieces look like a little girl's party dress.

*sigh*

At least it tasted good. At least it was eaten. At least some looked edible enough to photograph. Let's just hope this is like the saying "Bad dress rehersal. Good performance" because if Dec. 31, 2005 was a dress rehersal for 2006, I'm going to have a damned good year. Pray it's not a preview of coming events.

Here's the recipe for the sushi rice:

Sushi Rice

2 cups sushi rice
3 cups water
1 tsp sea salt
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1/3 cup sugar
1 tsp sea salt

1) Wash rice about 1 hour before you start to cook. Place the rice in a mesh strainer and place that inside a medium bowl. Rinse well with water (rubbing rice gently to release starch) until the rinse water runs fairly clear. Drain rice and let sit int the strainer for 1 hour.

2) In a heavy sauce pan with a lid, combine rice, water and 1 tsp sea salt. Let the rice sit for 5 minutes, then turn the heat to high. Bring to a boil, uncovered, then reduce the heat to the lowest setting and cover the pot with a lid. Cook for 20 minutes or until the water evaporates. Keeping covered (do not peek) remove from heat and let rest for 20 minutes.

3)While the rice cooks: In a small bowl combine rice vinegar, sugar, and sea salt, stirring until the sugar and salt dissolve completely.

4)After rice has finished cooking and resting, transfer rice to a large shallow pan and spread out evenly as you can without mushing too much. Sprinkle seasoned vinegar mixture over the rice as evenly as possible and then gently mix with a flat wooden spoon. For the next 5 minutes or until cooled down, stir rice breaking up rice clumps and mixing vinegar in well. Cover pan with a damp kitchen towel. Can be kept at room temperature for 1 to 2 hours before using.

I gave the recipe for sushi mayonnaise recipe before. With these recipes, a bamboo mat, deft fingers and interesting fillings you too can grow over-confident and make your sushi look like it was hit by a truck. ;-) Happy New Year!

My New Year's Results: