Updates

Hello all! I have taken the summer off from our weekly cooking nights. I know, summer is the time for fresh produce and some really great ingredients. It's not that I haven't been cooking, it's that said cooking has not been at all regular. Between a huge trip in May, a wedding in June, getting very sick in July, another trip in August, and a September for recovery, plus training for the last few months for a 5K run - well, my Tuesdays haven't been very consistent!

Luckily, the weather has turned for the worse in Vancouver again (no Indian summer for us!), so my mind is turning to new culinary adventures. But we have a bit of a change in direction this year. Last February, I discovered that I have a intolerance to gluten. I can live just fine with it, but I feel tons better and can run like crazy and get into shape when I avoid it. I know several people with lactose intolerance, and I know someone who is starting in on the Candida diet. I also know lots of vegetarians, and I try and eat vegetarian most of the time (I like to consider myself an "eco-tarian").

Thus, the Taste of Tuesday embarks on a new direction this year - meat-free, wheat-free, generally lactose-free, ideally yeast-free cooking. Whoof. It will be work to consistently find new recipes that meet all those criteria. Sometimes we may focus on one over the other, sometimes we may hit the bulls-eye. We also might throw some meat meals in there, if I stumble on some interesting things to cook up! Nothing will be run of the mill, that's for certain!

I'm also going to embark on a new website design, in an effort to learn Adobe Dreamweaver. So lots of changes in store for the next little while.

Look for the first new recipe post the first week of October!

April 20, 2010

I was really searching for inspiration for dinner tonight, and I'm quite lucky, because my lovely partner handed it to me on a silver platter. He decided to turn tonight's event into a movie night as well - because he's been giddy about hosting friends to watch Død Snø, a Norwegian horror flick about Nazi-Zombies. Yes, you heard me right. So now I've been inspired to cook something that was completely off my radar - Norwegian food!

I've recently found a website that is glorious for any kind of "ethnic" or "traditional" cooking you want. And I've found two recipes here that will suffice for tonight. One is Ristet Laks Eller Orret, or Norwegian Sauteed Salmon or Trout. Sounds quite delicious. I would also like to attempt the Eplekake, or Apple Cake, which looks positively delicious. It's a question of if I get time!

Now, once again I was a bad blogger and forgot to take photos. But you'll have to believe me when I say that this was one of the better combinations of food I have served. Ever. The trout was goldenand delicious - moist, a bit tangy, and delicious with the breaded outside. The Eplekake, however, was the most delicious cake I have ever had. I will be making this frequently. It will definitely get added to the "special breads" category of any menu I make. I made two alterations to the ingredients. I didn't have creme de cacao, so I added a quarter cup of rum and some milk. Also, I completely forgot to add the icing sugar, but trust me when I say it was plenty sweet without it. I also cooked it in a loaf pan, which I think added to its moistness. It is a bread I think everyone should try!

April 13, 2010

Living in Vancouver, one learns to love Indian food. Especially being a vegetarian in Vancouver, which I was for about 4 years. However, my attempts at actually making Indian food are few and not exactly complicated. One can easily buy, at any grocer with an "ethnic foods" section, blocks-o-curry that can be tossed in with a stir fry. Not that said blocks-o-curry aren't delicious, but I wanted to try a dish with a bit more complication, something other than curry, something more on the traditional foods spectrum.

When I think Indian, I think Naan. Now I know Naan is traditionally made in a tandoori oven, which obviously I don't have. But I figured it's like pizza - tastes better when cooked that way, but possible to bake otherwise. So I found a lovely Naan recipe from the BBC by Anjum Anand. Anjum hosts BBC's Indian Food Made Easy, and a glance through many other Naan recipes, she is definitely right in her show title. Most other recipes call for strange ingrdients. Nothing in this recipe that one wouldn't stock in an ordinary kitchen.

Recently, I worked in an office with a woman who brought in her Indian mother-in-law's amazing homemade pakoras. I am a huge fan of pakoras, so I decided to see about making those. Unfortunately, I no longer work in that office (the nature of temp work!), and so I had to search about on my own. I'm lucky, and I live several blocks from Vancouver's Punjabi Market, so finding a market that sold the specialized ingredients required in Manjula's Bread Pakoras was not a problem.

And because a curry MUST be part of any Indian dish, I charged Alex, my most-frequent diner, to make a curry his girlfriend had recently raved to me about. Nothing like sharing duties to make me a little less stressed about winging a dish!

First off, I was not 100% satisfied with this Naan recipe. I think in future, I'm going to attempt some of the more complicated recipes. This turned out a bit more like pita than Naan, which I attribute entirely to the fact that the bread never rose to twice its original size. I gave it two attempts, and left each for over an hour to sit. They rose nary an inch. And when looking at the actual recipe, it's hard to see what would make it rise. My bread-chemistry knowledge is low, but something didn't seem right.

Other than that, Alex's curry was delicious! We served it over a bit of saffron-rice. It was spicy and flavourful, and the chunks of yam were perfectly cooked. And the pakoras. Oh the pakoras. I think I will be making these again, though not often, because I think my arteries clogged from just looking at the amount of oil I was using! I'm not a fan of deep-frying, but these were definitely something that made me want to take it up!

April 6, 2010

I grew up in the United States, on the West Coast, which of course means I grew up eating tons of Mexican food. Or rather, I grew up eating "Tex-Mex", the delicious combination of rice, beans, tortillas, tomatoes, avocados, and meat that Americans like to pass off as "ethnic" food. And you'll get no apologies from me for that, because I love it. It's one of the things I miss most living in Canada - the serious lack of Mexican food up here.

I was inspired recently by Serious Eats' Eggplant-Almond Enchilada recipe. I love enchiladas, but a vegetarian alternative can be difficult to find, other than just bean and cheese, which is rather boring.

I also thought this other recipe for Mint-Chili Grilled Artichokes looked like it would compliment the enchiladas well. To beef up the "Mexican" theme, I threw on some box-Spanish-rice, and some canned refried beans, garnished with avocado, and we had a proper "Tex-Mex" feast, complete with WAY too much food!



Before I get to my review of the recipes, I have to mention our appetizer/drink of the evening. Garreth, a frequent diner, lived in Spain for awhile and brought over fixings for Calimocho, a mix of red wine and coke that's like the Basque version of iced tea or sangria. Let me tell you now, I am planning for this to be my drink of choice for the summer. It is positively delicious, and will be so perfect with some frozen citrus slices on a hot summer day.

Now, onto the reviews. The enchiladas were FANTASTIC. They were quite healthy and filling, if they weren't so damn tasty I gorged myself on them! They did take a significant amount of prep time. Making homemade enchilada sauce is not for the pressed-for-time. It takes about an hour or so, but it is well worth the effort. And the eggplant mix was a good substitute for meat, since it had a similar texture. I will definitely be making these again.

The artichokes, unfortunately, didn't turn out. Their flavour was fantastic, spicy and minty, all around good. But the recipe didn't really specify if it was intended for the artichokes whole or hearts. I think grilling up the hearts in the spices, and adding the mint and chilis a bit earlier would make for a better result. In the end they were too tough to eat, and not quite flavourful enough.

March 17, 2010

A few interesting updates: since my last meal, a few massive changes have occurred. I anticipated a long hiatus due to the Olympics, but the hiatus was made much longer due to the fact that during the Games, our apartment had a fire, and we were forced to move out! So any spare time post-games was devoted to finding, moving into, and organizing out new apartment. The bonus -- the new apartment comes with a huge kitchen and a huge upgrade in space! I also used the opportunity to get myself some new cookware, namely a new set of pots and pans. And even though much unpacking remains to be done, I decided to make my return to Taste of Tuesday on my favourite holiday: St. Patrick's Day!

Irish cuisine is not necessarily something people admire or aspire to cook - it's based primarily around cheap simple ingredients and concoctions that were easy to eat en masse and on the go. And the central ingredient is the russet potato - not exactly a shining star! But two of my favourite things are soda bread and Guinness stew, so I decided to attempt them on my own!

I had soda bread for the first time at Paddy Coyne's in Seattle. It was delicious - soft, sweet and salty at once, and kind of crispy on the outside. The ideal bread. I fell in love with Guinness Stew at a pub we started frequenting awhile back, The Atlantic Trap and Gill. Now, Guinness Stew usually has lamb in it, but due to our recent move, I'm a little too broke for lamb at the moment (how very Irish of me). I decided a third dish was in order, and decided a Red Cabbage and Apples recipe fit the bill.

Unfortunately, my camera was will packed away somewhere, so no photos this week. But the results were interesting. I had never really made bread (other than banana bread), so the soda bread was an adventure. I didn't have carroway, so I substituted a mixture of cumin and cardamom, which turned out to add a nice punch to the bread. Unfortunately, I over cooked it a bit, and it ended up a tad dry. And though the recipe instructs you to place the mount of dough in the oven, I think a loaf pan would do for more even cooking. The cabbage was tasty, and a new type of flavour to me. I'm not usualy a fan of cabbage, but I actually preferred it warm to cold! One of my diners is a cabbage fan and thought it was delightful.

The Guinness Stew, I thought, was the star. It served 6 people heartily - most of us didn't feel like we needed other dished after just one bowl! And since the ingredients are just celery, carrots, onion, and potato, it is extremely cheap. The most expensive ingredient was the Guinness itself, which only cost about $3-4 a can! It was quick to cook up as far as soups go, and will definitely be added to my regular meals!

March 23, 2010

I remember when I was a child, in Catholic school, as part of a sort or "cultural enrichment" program, we had a traditional Passover meal. All of us gathered in the gymnasium, decked in our "full-dress" uniforms (read: awkward length plaid skirts, button-up shirts, and itchy wool cardigans), to uncomfortably be served strange food we'd never had before. I don't remember the majority of the food, but I remember I really liked the "crackers" and lamb.

Since that day, I've always wanted to cook my own Passover meal. I have no intention of having a traditional fasting, or reading the Haggadah, or drinking the four cups of wine at the correct intervals (I will drink my wine as I damn well please -- unless I'm in a Newfie bar and someone yells "Sociable!"). But Mark Bittman describes seders as a more secular holiday:

"making do in the scarcity of late winter (matzoh, about the most spartan bread you can make), the celebration of the beginning of spring's bounty (lamb, herbs, new wine — think of Beaujolais Nouveau — and green vegetables), and the very serious ritual of spring cleaning (one of the mandates of Passover is essentially to rid the house of just about everything that's been lying around all winter)".

Having just moved to a new home and still in the midst of massive decluttering and unexpected moving expense, plus the beauty or an early Spring that Vancouver is experiencing, I can definitely relate to that sentiment, and thus, a Passover-themed feast seems in order.

So tonight I cooked three traditional Passover dishes: Matzah balls, Charoset, and Lamb. The Matzah Balls I cheated on a bit and made out of a mix -- mostly because I couldn't locate matzah meal on short notice. The Charoset recipe came from Kosher Express. But the lamb was from Epicurious via Mark Bittman, and is sure to be tasty (although I substitute creamed horseradish for real horseradish root for the same above mentioned reason) I knew the results could be iffy, in different ways for all dishes.

Luckily, things turned out okay. The Charoset was AMAZING, very sweet, good texture, and simple to make -- something I may end up including in everyday meals. The lamb had a great depth of flavour. It started off a litte salty and then suddenly its natural flavours oozed out and it was warm and savoury. I think the odd transition and layering of flavour had to do with the fact that it was seared and then stewed -- and the fact that I added a dash of white wine about 90 minutes into the stewing. The parsley puree was a good topping, adding a lightness to the lamb that was very necessary.

The matzah balls were a tad salty for my taste, but the texture was good and they were a hearty addition, especially for our one vegetarian diner! It was noted that they were kind of like chicken dumplings without being chicken. Next time I think I would boil them in less salt, and instead I would add some other spices - perhaps a red pepper spice or something herby like rosemary. I think that would help cut some of the salt. Even though that would take away from the traditional aspect of the dish, I think it would help the flavour and make them something I would cook on a more regular basis.

While the individual parts of the meal were strong, they really excelled when you combined them. This was an experiment one of my guests tried -- they hollowed out a matzah ball, put in a few cubes of meat, and a dash of the Charoset, topped it with the parsley puree, and ate it in a few bites. After combining the lamb, Charoset, and parsley in a pita, I can attest that the whole is even greater than the sum of the parts. The Charoset adds a sweetness to the robust flavour of the lamb, and the parsley adds a vinegar taste that also cuts. All together would make a fabulous lunch, a great on-the-go snack. It would be great as street food, since the lamb could just be stewed and the parsley and Charoset are very quick and easy to mix up. Perhaps I now have a business plan :)

February 2, 2010

I'm a bit behind on my postings - not on my cooking, just my posting. I had an accident a few weeks ago, and I've got a badly sprained ankle. So I spent last Tuesday in Seattle, off my feet, which invariably meant out of the kitchen (though I did spend a few hours experimenting with homemade pasta, which WILL make its way into another entry!).

Now, since my ankle is still not back to its former self, and since I now lack the ability to keep up with my exercise regime (though I am tempted to look into "Sit and Be Fit" programs...), I thought it was a good time to bust out another meal to satisfy the healthy and simple categories. When I think "healthy" and "simple", I tend to jump to Meditteranean. But rather than go with one of my staples - whole wheat pasta with tomato, fresh basil, and balsalmic vineagar - I decided to go a tad more adventurous, and make something that a bit Greek-inspired. I am learning to like Greek food; I disliked it greatly for many years because lots of cheap Greek inevitably combines tzaziki, tomatoes, olives, and, for some ungodly reason, sprouts! Not that those foods are bad, I just don't care for them in abundance. And for a long time, tomatoes and tzaziki were too acidic for my stomach. But I have recently discovered falafel and moussaka, whose fabulousness made me more accepting of the Hellenic cuisine in general.

However, moussaka falls under neither "healthy" nor "simple" headings, and I want to save falafel for when I can make my own completely from scratch (certainly not a simple task!). Lamb also screams Greek, but runs up against the same problems. So I scanned my recipe sources and found a few recipes. The first I stumbled upon was this Chickpea and Leek by seven spoons. Though not traditionally Greek, I thought the combination of lemon and rosemary would have the same acidity and herbiness I find most Greek has. Then I found this Quinoa and Avocado Salad that I thought would pair lovely with the first dish. Top it off with some basic Chicken Kabobs (a recipe which calls for marinating, which I modified in the name of quickness), and you've got a quick and easy meal!

All in all, very very delicious. The salad was outstanding - creamy, but with that lovely quinoa texture. The chickpeas were also great (a good option for vegetarians, since they pack a healthful punch), though I do not recommend using dried chickpeas, since mine never fully softened to my liking. But the rosemary lemon flavour was scrumptious. And the simplicity of the chicken was grounding, the right kind of savoury to let the other dishes sing.

January 12, 2010

I had planned to do another, simpler, less gourmet meal tonight, in keeping with trying to have mostly "realistic" food. But then my boyfriend's co-worker gave us 2 free lobsters from PEI. And when you get free lobster, you don't really pass up the opportunity to let it shine!

Unfortunately, I found myself facing a conundrum. I have never cooked lobster. The answer to that should be simple enough, since there are a million guides out there to cooking and preparing various meats - I learned this when I tried to cook duck awhile ago and was confused with side of the duck was the "skin" and which was the "meat". I found this handy YouTube video that cleared everything up for me! But, alas, they have no tips on lobster. That would be too easy.

Second, the lobsters were pre-cooked. Which made me fear turning them into rubber lobsters! Luckily, consulting with our lobster-purveyor made short work of my worries. 2-3 minutes in boiling water is all they need, plus some butter and lemon on the side, and you get all the deliciousness expected of lobster!

Third problem being my tiny-apartment-lack-of-cookwear. I was pretty sure I had a pot that would hold the lobsters. But then they tried to escape:

Just kidding. They fit in there just fine, but, as with most relationships, there was definitely not room for a third!

To keep the lobster in focus, the rest of the meal was to be quite simple. I did these Parmesean and Pesto Potatoes (except I was bad and used pre-made pesto), and minted steamed broccoli for sides.

All in all, again, the meal turned out tasty. Lobster is definitely perfect with just lemon and butter, since the oiliness and richness of the butter is perfectly cut and complimented by the dryness and lightness of the lemon. The potatoes were tasty, although I don't think I would use the purple yams again, at least not with this flavouring. And my broccoli didn't really have time to absorb the mint flavour, even though I sauteed them in it. Perhaps some retooling of that recipe is in order.

January 19, 2010

I recently read a post on The Traveler's Lunchbox in defense of beets. The author wrote that she could never understand why people have such vitriol for beets, and that they are a rather tasty and extremely healthy vegetable option. Her post inspired me to think about other foods that people typically hate. And thus I decided to try and create a menu out of some of the most reviled foods I could come up with.

This actually proved to be more of a challenge than I anticipated. My "hated foods" mostly include cow-meats. Liver, tongue, steak, ground beef, etc, all on the list of things I will not eat (yes, I know, steak). Fortunately for me, I won't be having to eat those, since I generally cook for vegetarians or eco-vegetarians, and serving liver would not be in keeping with that. So I turned to vegetables and fishes instead.

The fish category was easy, and I found this wonderful recipe at in praise of sardines for anchovies that also includes cauliflower - another much loathed veggie. Personally, I have never had sardines, although I've had anchovy paste and fish sauce and love them. And the crispiness of this dish looks delicious!

For veggies, I decided to go with my original inspiration, the beet and walnut dish from Traveler's Lunchbox. I have also never had beets, but if they are anything like my first experience with brussel sprouts (19, first "Canadian" Thanksgiving, and loved 'em!) then I'm sure I will be pleasantly surprised. I was going to include a side of brussel sprouts, but I have been expressly forbidden from ever cooking, or ever thinking about cooking, those delightful mini-cabbages by my wonderful boyfriend. So I had to put my thinking cap on once again, and come up with another vegetarian option.

That's when the BBC came to my rescue. Turns out, on a survey of Brits, #4 in the Top 20 Most Hated Foods was...black pudding. Sounds disgusting enough. But when I searched, it turned out it was pig-based. There is also Black rice pudding, which looks just as disgusting, and yet seems like it might just be a wonderful lightly-sweet dessert. Black rice pudding is a Southasian dish, specifically Thai, and Epicurious had a wonderfully reviewed recipe at hand.

So thus, the menu was finalized as:
Slow-Roasted Cauliflower with Pounded Anchovies
Roasted Beat Salad with Feta and Walnuts
Thai Black Rice Pudding

Yuck!!

Fortunately, the results proved much more tasty than the dishes sounded. I had a few snafus with ingredients - namely, the only grocer I had time to visit on the way to my friend's house (where the meal this week was to be held) had neither black sticky rice nor actual sardines. Thus I ended up with canned salted anchovies. I adjusted the level of salt in the cauliflower dish, and decided to use brown rice instead of black sticky rice, and both dishes turned out like I'd wanted - strange but strangely pleasant.

The beets unfortunately proved impossible to cook all the way through, and ended up being a little crisp for my liking. My friend who is a beet-o-phile said they were still delicious, but the rest of us weren't quite convinced. My other diner-friend also contributed a delicious "everything" salad with crutons, garden veggies, spinach, craisins, and sesame that was very fresh, so I included a photo of that as well.

February 9, 2010

The Olympics are coming to Vancouver, and, as I'm going to be working evening shifts the entirity of the Games, I will inevitably have to take a hiatus from Tuesday night dinners. So for my final meal before said hiatus, I felt like I had to go all out with cuisine. This was going to need to expand beyond my tiny closet-kitchen. So I enlisted the help of one of my regular diners, who offered to host (his kitchen is a respectable size!).

For theme, I scoured the internet for holidays, celebrations, etc. I figured the meal would be kind of a good way to kick off what was sure to be two weeks of massive partying during the Olympics. I was in luck, because Tet is February 14, certainly close enough to justify cooking some classic Vietnamese cuisine. And nothing screams Vietnamese like Pho!

I've been meaning to go out for Pho since my aforementioned foodie former-roomate raved about it years ago. Unfortunately, most Pho is made with beef stock, and since I'm quite anti-beef, I hadn't made my way to finding a veggie - or at least chicken-based option. Luckily, I found a recipe for Vegetarian Pho. Lemongrass is also a key componant to Vietnamese cooking, and I found this delicious-sounding Lemongrass Tofu with Mushrooms. Then I figured I needed a spicy tropical salad, so I added a Cucumber Tomato and Pineapple Salad.



The Pho turned out fairly well. The broth, considering the lack of meat, was a very tasty flavour. The noodles I chose, unfortunately, never softened quite right, and ended up fairly doughy. I would make sure next time to use rice noodles. Also, this is definitely a time-consuming venture, and only to be attempted on days when you have more time! The Lemongrass Tofu was, on the otherhand, fairly easy to make and clean up. I think the recipe skimped on the lemongrass flavour, and I would modify it to try and infuse the tofu with that woody-citrus more. The salada was fantastic - very very spicy! In fact, the part that sang in this meal was the pineapple. For a great appetizer, you could just put the dressing on the pineapple and serve it in rings. It was the perfect blend of sweet, tangy and spicy!

It was definitely a treat to finally try Pho, and the motivation is on to find a vegetarian or chicken option, to try someone else's recipe. It was also a treat to cook in a real sized kitchen, and to have assistants for some of the lengthy prep for this meal!

January 5, 2010

A new development: my boyfriend got me a banjo for Christmas, so I will be participating in the band nights I used to just cook for. Thus, unless I happen to not be working on Tuesdays, meals will also be simple, ideally less-than-60-minute concoctions. Onto the original post!

It's the Kick-off Meal for my new blog! And since it's so soon after making New Years Resolutions, I thought I'd start with something quite healthy.

I'm a lurker on Epicurious, and I find their recipes are generally tasty and flavourful, but usually super rich and decadent. So I was really happy the other day when I saw this post about The Great American Detox Diet.

Now, I'm not a huge fan of extreme dieting, and I abhor the idea of the "Master Cleanse". But after the holidays, I can somewhat understand wanting to press the reset button on your body. And Alex Jamieson, Morgan Spurlocks likely-long-suffering wife (I would suffer if I had to put up with him on a regular basis!), focuses on vegan cooking, which always interests me as an eco-vegetarian with a lactose-intolerant boyfriend! So vegan food that doesn't taste like sauteed cardboard is always welcome (p.s., for more non-cardboard vegan recipes, check out this blog, by a friend of mine and long-time vegan).

So tonight I'm cooking a few recipes from Alex's website: her Fall Chili, and her Vegan Cornbread Muffins. Because who says you can't have healthy food and comfort food at the same time! When I was a vegan (an ill-advised year as a teenager, because I am simply not organized enough to keep up with nutrition!), and for years as a vegetarian, I relied on Nalley Vegetarian Chili for a cheap, filling, super quick meal. My old roommate also used to make a super tasty vegetarian chili from a box by [?]. And I've never tried cornbread, although I'm good at quickbreads in general (banana bread is in my arsenal of sweets that impress!). So here's how they turned out:


Overall, I totally plan on making this recipe again. The whole meal took maybe an hour from start to finish, and that's because I was dawdling. I will definitely make the cornbread again, as it was probably the easiest set of muffins short of using a box! I used a minimuffin pan, and cooked them for only 10 minutes, and they turned out perfect. A word to the wise, by flaxseed meal instead of flax seed, because it would probably be easier than trying to crush your own.

As for the chili, it makes a pretty good portion - we comfortably fed 4 people, since the meal with the corn bread is pretty filling. I substituted hot sauce for chili, added paprika, and used cayenne pepper instead of red pepper flakes. Also, I about doubled the amount of cumin, cayenne, and salt. But I always expect to have to double the seasoning if I'm cooking a "health food" recipe!