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.

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 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.

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!