I hope the Bunny the was good to you and there was lots of family time!
Video: Roasted Cauliflower
Apparently, I just can’t get enough cauliflower. I was seduced by the intense colour of this purple cauliflower at Thrifty Foods and I felt the need to document its journey from produce to dinner. It’s my first video ever, so forgive the roughness.
The best part of making this video was my 9 year old son, using this clip as his recipe, made me this for lunch during the BC Teachers’ Strike this week. The power of Youtube! There will be more videos to come, it was too much fun NOT to do again, so subscribe to my channel on YouTube to see what happens next.
Watch the clip and see the pretty curds above turn into the flavourful dish below.
I hope that the next time you find yourself in the produce section of your local grocer, you too find inspiration in the bounty presented that you must make room for in your basket.
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The Mystery of the Disappearing Salad
I don’t have a picture of the salad in question to show you, because it just keeps disappearing so quickly!
Have you ever just thrown some tasty ingredients together, making it up as you go, and somehow it turns into something so crazy delicious that you and everyone else can’t seem to get their fill? It’s a wonderful feeling when it happens. Instead of just recreating somebody else’s recipe, you have designed a dish of your own. I used to fool around with a Southwestern pasta salad with corn and chorizo and it was always pretty good. But, I’m trying to up my nutrients and dial back on the wheat, so I started playing around with it even further. In the fall, I subbed black quinoa for the pasta, added black beans for more fibre and went crazy with the veggies. My fellas went for seconds and made lots of happy sounds as they ate.
I ended up making an unseemly amount and took some of the overflow to work. I set it out at lunch time and invited everyone to dig in. Many of them hadn’t tried quinoa yet and displayed some reluctance to dive in. But, I persisted and after the first couple tried a bite it disappeared quickly. Almost every single person asked me for the recipe, but I didn’t really have one. It was just thrown together. I’d tell them a bunch of ingredients and then remember something else later and have to update them. Some of my coworkers even made their own versions at home! The highest of compliments.
When my husband, Exec Chef, came home that night he asked if there was any of the salad left and was disappointed when he found out that I’d taken it to work. For a guy who doesn’t do leftovers, this was pretty impressive. As autumn turned to winter and I couldn’t get any flavourful tomatoes or fresh corn, I took the salad in a new direction and switched in roasted root vegetables as a seasonal substitution. So, I present you with not one, but two recipes and there may be more versions to come!
Black Beauty Salad: Autumn Version
Dressing Ingredients:
juice of one lime (or maybe 2 if they are on the dry side)
splash of extra virgin olive oil
Tbs of dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
Salad Ingredients:
1 cup dry black quinoa (or red quinoa or white quinoa)
2 chorizo sausage diced (Freybe makes a nice one)
1 can black beans or 1 cup dried black beans (rehydrated and cooked)
1 ear fresh corn sliced off (or 1 cup frozen)
2 medium tomatoes diced
1/2 bunch cilantro minced
1/2 cup black olives (sliced)
1/2 cucumber diced
1 red onion diced
2 green onions sliced
Method:
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the quinoa, turn down to low and cover. Let it cook for 15 minutes, or just make extra when you have quinoa for breakfast.
Cook the chorizo on medium heat until the edges get dark and crispy.
Drain and rinse the beans. Toss the beans, corn and red onion in withe chorizo once it starts sizzling.
Let the quinoa and the chorizo mixture cool for a bit, so that they don’t cook the other ingredients. Then mix them all together and withe the dressing.
Black Beauty Salad: Winter Version
Dressing Ingredients:
juice of one lime (or maybe 2 if they are on the dry side)
splash of extra virgin olive oil
Tbs of Dijon mustard
Salt and Pepper to taste
Salad Ingredients:
1 medium parsnip diced
2 medium carrots diced
1 bell pepper diced (red, orange and yellow work better than green)
1 cup dry black quinoa (or red quinoa or white quinoa)
2 chorizo sausage diced (Freybe makes a nice one)
1 can black beans or 1 cup dried black beans (rehydrated and cooked)
1/2 bunch cilantro minced
1/2 cup black olives (sliced)
1 red onion diced
2 green onions sliced
Method:
Preheat oven to 400. Toss the parsnip, carrot and bell pepper with extra virgin olive oil and salt & pepper. Spread them out of a baking sheet and roast until golden (about 25-30 minutes)
Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, add the quinoa, turn down to low and cover. Let it cook for 15 minutes, or just make extra when you have quinoa for breakfast.
Cook the chorizo on medium heat until the edges get dark and crispy.
Drain and rinse the beans. Toss the beans and red onion in withe chorizo once it starts sizzling.
Then mix all the ingredients together and toss with the dressing.
Now, watch it disappear right before your very eyes.
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Cauliflower Confluence
We’ve all heard the phrase “great minds think alike”, well it seems like a lot of online food-type people are thinking about cauliflower! Now, this could just be a case of new car syndrome, like when you or a friend gets a new car and you suddenly start noticing that same make and model wherever you go, or it could be because it’s in season. Cauliflower recently came back into my cooking repertoire in a big way, so maybe I’m just more likely to click on a cauliflower related link.
I was never a huge cauliflower fan growing up, but a while back I started adding it to curry dishes and I found that it readily absorbed the flavours of the sauce and the texture held up nicely, plus Young Fresh Chef would ask for seconds. Double yay, since cauliflower is a cruciferous vegetable which is a code name for cancer fighting vegetables, in fact I’d say it’s something of a super food.
Just to warn you, broccoli is a gateway veg, I started out roasting the green stuff after reading this one hungry night. Then with a desire for more, I turned up a recipe on epicurious that sounded too easy to not try. I did have to go out and buy cumin seed, but I’ve found lots of other uses for it.
One day my niece, Divette, came over for a visit with her new iPad. I was chopping up some cauliflower when Young Fresh Chef wandered into the kitchen with Divette in tow.
Divette: “Auntie, what are you doing?”
Kitchenette: “I’m making us a cauliflower snack.”
Young Fresh Chef: “My Mom makes GREAT cauliflower snack.”
When I talked to her mother later, I mentioned what a hit the roasted cauliflower was, she said that she’d already heard about the, “yummy white broccoli”!
If you find or have any other cauliflower-centric recipes, share them in the comments!
More links:
–10 Cauliflower Recipes from Canadian Living
–Dinner with Julie: Roasted Cauliflower with Parmesan Cheese
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Dream Date
I always enjoy making treats for my loved ones, even more so for special occasions. My darling Momette’s birthday comes just before the heart-filled hoopla that is Valentine’s Day and I always focus on that first before I think about V-Day. Now, Momette has been all about the health food for as long as I have known her (umm… my whole life). As a child, I endured countless tofu cheesecakes but was never convinced that it was superior to the original cheeseful version. The list of things she will/will not eat changes with each book she reads, show she watches and podcast she hears (I call her the texting granny, for her encouraging embrace of technology).
I was inspired by one of my favourite healthful blogs, My New Roots, to try a recipe for date squares that would fulfill all of Momette’s requirements and maybe a little more. Raw: Check! Vegan: Check! Gluten Free: Check! Sugar Free: Check! Delicious: Check!
Young Fresh Chef and I enjoyed a few samples and wiped the date filling bowl clean with carrot slices that were intended for his lunch (it’s amazing how much he likes to “cut” veggies with the food processor). I used a Buck Brand navel orange for the zest and the juice in the filling and it gave it a nice flavour that balanced the sweetness of the dates. The orange flavour was strongest when they were first made and mellowed out over time.
At the last minute I whipped up some Quinoa Quookies which I just made up off the top of my head. I had some left over breakfast quinoa and I combined it with chia gel, golden raisins, ground walnuts, coconut oil, maple syrup and some spices. There was no measuring, so I can’t call it a recipe. They ended up pretty tasty, the texture was a bit odd, that’s why I don’t feel like I can call it a cookie. I prettied up the sweeties by placing them in muffin papers and I loaded up a tin to take over to Momette’s for a B-Day Tea Party.
We enjoyed our tea and treats and had a good chat. She loved both choices, and said she was glad that I hadn’t made some fluffy white flour cake for her (do I know her, or what). I love spending time with my Mom and I’m always happy when I can brighten up her day. She has always been a wonderful support and cheerleader for me and taught me so much. She is my first Valentine and holds an extra special spot in my heart.
What is the best treat you have made for someone, or that someone has made for you to celebrate an occasion?
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Quinoa Quandary
The only difficult thing about having quinoa for breakfast, at least in our house, is deciding what to mix in with it. My son, Young Fresh Chef, would have straight up quinoa for breakfast everyday, but I am not a creature of flavour habit and I need to switch it up. I’ll usually make a big batch of neutral flavoured quinoa at the start of the week so I can get creative with the additions. While it cooks up in only 15 minutes, it’s even faster to just reheat it, which gives me more time to play around with the add ins.
Quinoa works well in savoury side dishes, but takes on sweet flavours just as well. This South American seed gives you the goods to get your day off to a promising start, packing a complete protein punch. It also delivers as a good source of dietary fiberand phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. So I always feel I’ve done well to send YFC off to school with a bowl or two in his poke-able belly.
The only caution that comes with quinoa is, “Beware the saponins!” This bitter coating protects the growing plants from hungry birds which makes means less pesticides are needed, so it’s easier to grow it organically. I would recommend buying quinoa has already been pre-rinsed for your laziness.
It’s pretty easy to find quinoa at the corner grocery store, as long as you bring your specs! My favourite source for white quinoa is Costco where they carry Truroots organic pre-rinsed quinoa. I like the white quinoa for breakfast, while I find the red and black varieties hold up a bit better in cold salads.
So, what do I like to use to jazz up my morning bowl of quinoa? First, I feel the need to gild the nutritional lily:
–chia (either ground or in gel form)
–flax (ground)
Then I pick a flavour combo:
-raspberry and unsweetened coconut
-apple or pear or whatever is in season with spices (cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom, etc)
-blueberry and walnut
-dried fruit (cranberries, raisins, what have you) and almonds
And just a touch of sweetness:
–Molasses (iron!)
–Maple Syrup (manganese and zinc!)
-Brown Sugar (special occasions!)
As you can see, the variations are limited only by your imagination and your provisions! My top pick right now is raspberry and coconut with xylitol and just a splash of coconut milk. I use frozen berries, but I dream of when they will be back in season…
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How do you like your greens? Crisp!
I remember clearly my first taste of Coffee Crisp. I had one in my bag of Halloween loot many moons ago (pretty sure I went as a clown, can’t get much scarier than that!) and the first taste of bitter coffee was too much for my young palate, I spat the tiny half chewed treat into the trash, only to have my mouth then filled with the mochalicious aftertaste. I learned not to judge a food by its first flavour profile as there may be more, and better, to come.
When I first had kale, it was cooked by Momette without additional flavouring. I did not enjoy it, to say the least. But, when, as an adult, I bravely shared a spicy kale-centric dish at Vij’s restaurant with my husband, it was fantastic! I realized that kale was just a vessel and must be filled with flavour.
Kale has a ridiculous amount of nutrients and calorie for calorie is the best thing you can give your body! It’s a sturdy leafy green that can take the heat and soaks up flavour like a tasty sponge.
My new summertime favourite is when Exec Chef blanches kale, marinates it in lemon juice and garlic, then throws it on our charcoal grill. Seriously, I could eat it all day long. Smoky, sour, garlicky goodness that sticks to the ribs (and goes well with ribs!).
The blogosphere has been whispering in my ear about the amazing tastiness of kale chips/crisps. The words are compelling, but the images lean more toward the repellant. Dry green leaves covered in goop. I’ve been enjoying kale in soups, now that the grill has been put away for the season, and it was only a craving for chips of the potato variety that made me join the food focussed blogistas in their kale chip cult.
I had been resisting the urge to buy Honey Dijon Kettle Chips until one day the snack food satellites aligned in my local Save-On-Foods. Kettle Chips were on sale for 2 bags for $5, the racks were mostly empty and there wasn’t a single orange mustardy bag of goodness to be found. It was only when I was zipping back to the produce department to grab some purple yams (so pretty!) that my eyes landed on a single bag of potato-ey gold that had been abandoned by the newly installed self checkouts. I practically scaled the Mt. Everest of Lucky Charms boxes, shoving Lucky and his crusty “marshmallows” to the side, to rescue the lonely bag. It was obviously meant to be mine and I may have stroked it gently as I made my way to the register.
Once I had them in the kitchen, I decided to reverse engineer the tongue tantalizing taste and find a less nutritionally void vehicle to deliver dijon spiked sweetness to my pleasure centre. I mixed, tasted, mixed again and used the excuse of “research” and “comparative analysis” to stuff my face with the crispy taters. I used olive oil as a base with Keen’s mustard powder, one of my go to ingredients for all things savoury, providing the necessary tongue curling zing which was mellowed by Maille’s Dijon Originale and creamed honey. Apple cider vinegar provided a tangy kick, which was rounded out by onion and garlic powder. Tumeric added it’s sunny colour and an earthy sweetness that only needed the finish of salt and pepper to match the taste of the half-finished bag of inspiration.
I massaged by mustardy elixir with my tumeric toned hands into the waiting leaves of kale. The oven dried them to a crispy conclusion and it was time for the final comparison.
The translucent leaves shattered into delicate shards on my tongue and the flavour was almost exact, there was just a subtle vegetal undertone that melded nicely with the mustard. They were a hit with Young Fresh Chef and he insisted on packing them in his school lunch for the next day. So, if you’ve been resisting the call of kale, give in!
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Jicama Hi-jinks
This is the vegetable that I like to make friends and coworkers try. People expect it to taste like raw potato and they are always pleasantly surprised by how crisp and refreshing it is. To me, the flavour is like fresh peas still in the pod. For others, they compare it to an unripe apple or pear.
Usually, I just munch on it au natural (the jicama, not me), but I also like to squeeze some lime juice over it to give it a citrusy boost. Jicama is loaded with fibre, vitamin C and is a good source of folic acid (extra important for Mamas-to-be).
To add a little more complexity, I hit it with a dash of chili powder. That’s one way they serve it in South America. It would also be great in a salad to add some crunch or it can be cooked as well. Cooking brings out more of a water chestnut type flavour.
Look for jicama or yam bean root, as it’s sometimes labeled, in your local supermarket near the jalapeño peppers. Pick out a smaller one that feels heavy and has the nicest skin(but don’t eat the skin, it’s nasty). Keep it in the fridge wrapped in plastic once it is cut or slice it all up and dip it in lemon water to keep it fresh. Just remember to share it, get your friends and family hooked on jicama!
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Estrella’s Montreal Deli & Cafe
While the restaurant review website Dine Here is mostly good for laughs, rather than reliable restaurant recommendations, I have made a couple of welcome discoveries.
I haven’t yet had an opportunity to visit Montreal, but I feel I’ve somehow come a little closer since eating at Estrella’s Montreal Deli & Cafe in Langley. Their Reuben is fantastic, stacked high with their own smoked meat and stuffed with swiss cheese and sauerkraut. The Dijon gives it a kick and the rye has that touch of chewiness that keeps it all together. The pickle spear has a nice crunch and a well-balanced brine. The coleslaw is shredded finely and slicked with a sweet/vinegary dressing.
Young Fresh Chef and Exec Chef are both fans, but Little Chef skips the mustard. They both know to hand over their pickle spears to me immediately. Estrella’s has a selection of beverages, but Little Chef goes for the Cherry Coke. Yep, it’s a smoky slice of Montreal right in Langley.
Estrella’s Deli & Cafe
5932 200 St
Langley, BC
(604) 539-9988
Open Monday-Saturday 9:00-5:00
Closed Sundays & Holiday Mondays
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Perfect Preview to PC Confections (via Beyond The Dough)
via Beyond The Dough
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