Sunday's communal feast.

We were at our friend Megan's on Sun for the traditional Sunday get together and it was a rather large gathering this time round with 8 of us! Everyone helped out in some way and it was a very festive evening, much needed in our chaotic world of apartment hunting (and finding!) and all that goes with that.

The centre piece was Megan's roast pork shoulder. In fact, there were 2 shoulders, but one was for the rest of her week! So, there was an entire pork shoulder that had been slow cooking all day basically and was melt in your mouth delicious! There was a non pork eater in the room so some chicken thighs had been done too.

To go with our insanely good meat was some mashed carrots and turnip, garlic/soya sauce stir fried cabbage and roasted yellow beans and asparagus! I had also taken some guava jelly over to go with the meat, which had been brought all the way back from Zambia for me by dear friends. Yum! What a feast. And the mounds of veggies really balanced out the rich meat. 

We were treated to 2 desserts! A home made peach pie (similar recipe to the rhubarb pie previously written about, only using cream instead of butter and eggs) and a blueberry mouse cake from 'Irene and Cakes'! The cake was a light, simple sponge which set the stage for the glorious mouse, not too sweet, gorgeous colour as well!

You can find 'Irene and Cakes' on Facebook! 

Loving the Pink Lady.

I love Pink Lady apples! Just love them! They are everything that should be right about an apple, in my humble opinion. Things that should be right are a great flavour, fresh, not too sweet, not too sour and a crisp texture. I am not a fan of red apples, something about the texture, not being crisp enough and I find that the green Granny Smith is often too tart for me. And although we are spoilt for choice with the selection of apples we get here, because there are SO many, my favourite is the Pink Lady. And what a lovely name too! They have been getting me through this hot working week, thank you Ladies!

Banana Sour cream cake.

For the first time since I started writing this blog I am working. And thus busy, with less time to focus on cooking, especially when working evenings. We are also lacking a permanent home at the moment, which means getting used to temporary kitchens and using what you have at your disposal. All of which means, less focus on cooking for me right now. It is also incredibly hot in Toronto, 31 but feels like 39 at 9pm! Joy! This also makes you less inclined to want to cook big meals. All in all, several excuses for no entries, none of which is particularly strong or long term! For now, I will write about the last great meal we had which was a communal one at Megan's last weekend. Everyone brought something. It was delicious! The most interesting and delectable part of it was the dessert that she made - banana sour cream cake with caramel sauce! Oh wow! I was camera less, otherwise you would see a photo by now. 

She said she just Googled 'banana', 'sour cream' and 'cake' because she knew what ingredients she wanted to use and wanted to find a recipe. She had 6 bananas in her freezer to use and likes cakes with sour cream in them. Makes sense! She also is a 'tweaker' of recipes and used the one she liked best but changed a few things like using all 6 frozen bananas when the recipe called for 4 (though frozen ones do amount to less than regular ones) and using different sized pans according to what she had. 

The cake was delicious, so moist and packed with banana flavour. She had also made a caramel sauce to go with it and served it with vanilla ice cream and some raspberries. What a wonderful memory, even as I sit here melting away! 

Moral of the story is - Google ingredients to find recipes! I would also recommend Epicurious (epicurious.com) as a great search engine for recipe ideas and how to use up ingredients. 

Megan's Rhubarb Pie recipe

This is an addition to the entry a few days ago on Megan's easy and delicious rhubarb pie! And it is easy!

Cream:
2 tbsp butter
2 eggs
1 1/2 c sugar

Add:
2 heaping tbsp flour
3 c rhubarb

Pour into pie shell/pastry shell.

Cook:
10mins @ 400
40mins @ 350

Cool, eat. See blog entry for further instructions and photographs!

Megan's glorious nachos.

This was our last meal at Megan's (last meal whilst staying there, definitely not last meal ever!), combined with watching The Bachelorette, which she is unashamedly obsessed with! They were so good that my husband said he would come back again on Bachelorette night if she made them again! Though I don't know if she would allow us as we gave a full running, and very critical narrative the entire time, filled with scathing comments, disbelief in scenarios and even animal likeness comparisons! Back to the nachos. 

We used multigrain chips as a base, which I love! Though I am finding chips these days to be very salty? Which says a lot when I find something salty! She had some left over chicken in the freezer which went on top, and some bacon bits, some finely chopped sweet onion, green onion, green pepper and jalapenos. There was also some left over bruschetta that went on it which had tomatoes and feta and basil in it. She made it in 2 layers so that there was lots of topping per chip throughout, and used lots of shredded cheese, a mixed bag. She said she always grinds some pepper over them before they cook! Then a little bit of time in a hot oven to let the cheese melt and things warm through and voila! We had little bowls of salsa and sour cream to go with it and Caesar! What a perfect combo! 

Roasted veggie quinoa salad, with bacon wrapped fillet mignon and green beans.

We were going to bbq some bacon wrapped, pre marinated in peppercorn marinade, fillet mignons bought from the market last weekend. The only thing to think about was what to go with it. We were cooking quinoa to make that chocolate quinoa cake so decided on a quinoa salad with the left over quinoa, perfect! And some local green beans bought at the market too. 

I like colourful. I halved some beautiful cherry tomatoes, roughly chopped/halved/quartered some shallots and cut a yellow and green zucchini into 4 strips then into chunks. See colourful! I tossed them in olive oil and balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper and spread them out on a baking tray so that they would cook fast. Into a hot oven they go. On the tray I also had a head of garlic with the top chopped off and some olive oil drizzled over it, I wanted some roasted garlic for the dressing. You want to roast the veggies till the onions and zucchini are soft, tossing them several times so that they caramelise on all sides and cook evenly.

Into the salad bowl goes the left over quinoa, cold, though you could use hot just as easily. I would say there was about 1 1/2 - 2 cups. Top this with the roasted veggies (pint of cherry tomatoes, 2 zucchini, 5 or 6 shallots). Make a dressing out of a couple scoops of mayo, or yoghurt, or whatever alternative you want to use, juice of half a lime, salt and pepper and the roasted garlic which you need to mash into it nicely. I used the whole small head of garlic, use however much you like to your taste. Mix. You don't need a huge amount of dressing because the veggies have balsamic and olive oil on them and the tomatoes will ooze some of their juices into the salad so you will be getting lots of moisture from them already and tonnes of flavour. 

We ate it with a medium rare steak and fresh Ontario green beans, you can't go wrong with that! The salad will keep in the fridge and is a great snack or lunch or side to other meals. I would always make more than you will need so you have some left over to keep in the fridge! Extend the joy!

Megan's Easy and Delicious Rhubarb Pie.

We were at the Farmer's Market again on Saturday and Megan had decided that she was going to make us her rhubarb pie, it is so easy to make and so good she said. And she was right! She bought 2 bunches of the strawberry rhubarb, some farm fresh free range eggs and some frozen pie shells. 

She cut up the rhubarb, which she says is literally the hardest part! What you don't use you put in bags in the freezer so it is ready to use another time.

You put the rhubarb in a pie shell and cover it in a sugar, butter and egg mixture which will cook around it in a deliciously warm, soft, creamy blanket! And because you don't put a cover on the pie you get to see how beautiful it looks with all the pretty pink and green bits of rhubarb poking out from the golden mixture. As they were cooking the whole apartment filled with a divine smell and we could not wait to try them! We were a little disappointed when she told us that we had to wait for it to cool and set before we cold eat, though it was definitely worth the wait.

The pie comes out while it is still 'wobbly' in the middle, so if you take the dish and shake it, it will still be jelly like in the middle. This means that when it cools it will set perfectly rather than be overcooked and dry.

Once it has cooled and set it is ready to eat. Just look at this thing of beauty! And imagine that it tastes as good as it looks! Because it does!

It is almost like eating lemon curd, the tartness from the rhubarb has permeated the creamy filling giving it that freshness! The pie shell is beautifully crisp, the rhubarb is still holding it's shape in the little pieces, I cannot begin to tell you how good this pie is. It also has magical properties and disappears when no one is looking! Thank goodness she made 2 and there is a back up one for when the craving sets in!

You will be pleased to know she promised to share this oh so easy recipe so that everyone can enjoy the goodness of fresh in season rhubarb! Recipe to follow when she gets home from work and I have had a chance to harass her for it!

Berry/Limoncello Cocktail.

What to do on a really hot evening in the city? Make nice cocktails and drink them on the balcony while the sun goes down and the city lights come out! I'm not normally an alcohol drinker but decided that I wanted a drink and this was what we created. 

There were some frozen strawberries in the freezer and some Limoncello. Good place to start, very nice contrasting flavours! Into the blender went 6 small ice cubes, 6 or 7 strawberries, 1/4 cup fresh raspberries, a shot of Limoncello, 1/2 a shot of vodka and the juice of 1/2 a lime. Blend, lots of noise! You now have a beautifully bright and fresh mix which needs diluting somehow. In the fridge I found some lemon Perrier, perfect, though regular soda would work just as well. 

In a glass put a few ice cubes, some Perrier and then the berry/booze mix. I think if there had been some mint around I would have used some to decorate or muddle but it was very good as it was! There was a perfect combination of sweet and sour making it very refreshing! Word of warning, this is very easy to drink, and watch the seeds at the bottom!

Strawberry/Rhubarb/Banana smoothie.

What to do with strawberries and rhubarb when you don't want to make more crumble or pie because it isn't exactly part of the 'being good' (most of the time) diet!? Well, you can go ahead and stew them at least. I hulled the strawberries and left them whole, trimmed and cut the rhubarb then put them in a pot with 2 tbsps of brown sugar and the juice of 1/4 lemon. Put it on a low heat, the lid on helped create some steam and then I removed the lid and let them very gently stew. 

I kept a tub of the stewed fruit in the fridge and have eaten it on top of yoghurt and in smoothies. The smoothie took one banana, a few large spoons of strawberry/rhubarb compote, a few large spoons of strawberry yoghurt and some milk, maybe 1 cup depending on how thick you like your smoothie. We shared this between the 2 of us, though you could have it to yourself if you wanted or add another banana and more milk if it wasn't enough for 2. Tasty!

Ontario asparagus, soft boiled egg and light feta.

Another weakness from the Farmers Market was asparagus, lots of it, for such a good price. I came home with 2 large bunches for only $7! I was hungry mid morning yesterday so decided on making a snack before we went out and this little creation sprang to mind.

I put a pan of water on to boil for the egg and a frying pan on with a couple mm of water too. While those worked on boiling I snapped the ends off some asparagus. When the water in the frying pan was boiling I dropped the asparagus in it and let it cook, moving it around a bit, for a couple of minutes then drained it. The egg should be ready around the same time as the asparagus if you time it right. Cook it how you like. I arranged the asparagus on a plate, crumbled some light feta over it then topped it with a soft egg and some cracked pepper. Perfect, light, little meal!

Fresh Ontario Strawberry and Rhubarb Crumble (heavy on the fruit, low on the sugar and carbs)

We were at the Farmer's Market in St. Lawrence Market yesterday and couldn't help ourselves when we saw all the wonderful, fresh fruits and vegetables. We are trying to be good since we got back from holiday, detox a bit, get some new habits laid and old ones done away with but we decided that we would really like a fresh fruit crumble. The strawberries were so deeply red and smelled intoxicating, and tasted even better! The rhubarb was a Strawberry Rhubarb variety apparently. 

I used about half of both the fruits, leaving the strawberries whole but hulled and the rhubarb cut into fairly large chunks. I filled a dish almost full with the fruit so that it made up the majority of the crumble and sprinkled a little brown sugar over it. 

If you aren't watching how much sugar you eat then I would say you might need several spoons in here because despite the fact that the strawberries are really sweet, the rhubarb is very tart! I only sprinkled a bit on and it was too tart.

I also went really light on the topping too. There was a packet of Maple Cinnamon Porridge Oats in the cupboard which I used, if you have one of those porridge sachets they are great to use, we normally have the plain ones. Normal oats do well too. I melted a little butter (couple tbsps) which I know you shouldn't do but I didn't want to wait for any to get to room temperature, you should if you can. I also added a tiny bit of flour, which we are really trying to avoid but there was no alternative, I added until it was a crumbly texture. If you had ground almonds of whole wheat flour or other grain flour they could be options. You'll be able to find a regular topping recipe online or in lots of books should you wish, this was mainly about making it better for us.

Because I went so light on the topping, half way through cooking I added a handful of crushed walnuts and a couple of spoons of flax seed to help out. The oven was medium to low and I just kept an eye on it till I could smell it and the top was brown.

I let the crumble sit for a while to cool before we ate it. As much as I would have loved to add vanilla ice cream or whipped cream or anything else, we didn't. I had gone so light on the sugar that we were forced to sprinkle a tiny bit more in our bowls but it tasted great after that. 

Red Curry packed with chicken and vegetables.

I have developed a small obsession with this curry since we had it so often in Australia and it was so heavenly! I knew it wouldn't be long before I started a trend of making it on a regular basis for ourselves.  If you are lucky enough to have access to a well stocked shop you will be able to find red curry paste which will make you job very easy. For those who aren't in such a position you can make it yourself if you can get your hands on the ingredients, a Google search will tell you what goes into it. 

It really is quite simple, just prepare the vegetables that you want to use and the meat and then get to it. You want to cut the veg fine so that it cooks quickly. I finely sliced 2 carrots on the diagonal, tailed a handful of snow peas then halved them, cut up half a box of brown mushrooms, 1/4 of a cabbage maybe less, finely chopped 4 or 5 cloves of garlic and an inch cube of ginger. You could grate these if you like. 

To make the sauce fry some paste in a little oil, I used about 3 heaped spoons but use it according to how strong you like it, I like it full of flavour. I added the garlic and ginger to this and let it fry then poured over a can of coconut milk and stirred it. Into this went the juice of half a lime, a small spoon of dark sugar, 2 chillies (whole so that they could be removed afterwards) and a few shakes of fish sauce. Avoid the sugar if you don't like it sweet and the chillies if you don't want it hot, or less paste will help on the heat front. Experiment by adding a little of them and adjusting it if you think it needs tweaking.

Once the sauce is to your liking add the chicken, in cubes, and let it gently poach in the sauce, this will keep it really moist. Keep checking on the meat if you don't know how long it will take, it doesn't take long. Add the carrots part way through and then the rest of the veg according to how long they take to cook. At the end add the bean sprouts because you don't want them to overcook and dress with fresh coriander. 

We had some brown rice to go with this but I was just as happy having it on it's own, like a flavour packed soup teaming with vegetable goodness! Yay for Red Curry, and a tasty new trend.

Steak and Stir Fry.

We are lucky enough at the moment to be close enough to the St. Lawrence Market to shop there regularly should we so wish. It is very hard to go there and not want to buy all kinds of things so you have to have a list or a meal idea and stick to it. I already had lots of vegetables in the house so we went there just to find a nice piece of meat to go with. AAA NewYork Sirloin was on sale, so that is what we got, one large steak!

It was the first time we have chosen to cook a steak in a pan over the bbq and that was purely because in this building you have to rent a time slot on the bbq up on the roof and we just couldn't be bothered to do that and run up and down the stairs! (We are planning another meal that we can bbq with side dishes that are cold that we can take up there and just stay up there to eat).

So, I cut up lots of veg - onions, carrots, snow peas, mushrooms and broccoli along with some finely chopped garlic and ginger. And seasoned the steak in olive oil, salt and pepper. We got a pan smoking hot on the highest heat then cooked the steak the same we would have on the bbq, flipping it once. It was a large steak so I think it was 5minutes one side then 4minutes the other and it had over 10minutes to rest while I cooked the stir fry. In the same pan that the steak had been in I started doing the stir fry, olive oil, then the garlic and ginger, then all the rest of the vegetables. I seasoned it with some soya sauce, salt and pepper and some balsamic vinegar which gave it a slightly sweet taste once it had reduced. 

We filled our plates with stir fried vegetables and topped it with some sliced steak and a little soya sauce, perfect! When you have enough variety of tasty vegetables you don't even notice that you are missing rice or noodles or whatever other carb, it was a meal that didn't leave us over full, I was very pleased with it. It was also just one pan and plates to wash up which is always nice too!

Coconut water and Caesars on Canada Day!

Today is Canada Day! It feels good to be here and part of it and actually belong here this time round. We went out to enjoy some of the festivities and among the tasty things we found along the way was a young coconut. The lovely man hacked it open for us and told us to come back when we had drunk it and he would open it up so we could eat the inside.

It is hard to describe the flavour of coconut water, it isn't overly sweet I can tell you that much. It is very refreshing. My husband drinks it with rum at home and loves it. Apparently it is really good for you being full of electrolytes.We did get it cut open after we had drunk it all and the 'flesh' was still in a very thin jelly form on the shell edge, almost translucent, though slightly thicker and firmer at the base where it would have been settling and the development is faster. Eventually the water would turn into sweet flesh with the smallest amount of cream and liquid remaining, what an amazing ripening process! We scraped the jelly out with a wedge of the shell to eat. The same lovely old man warned my husband that it was an aphrodisiac and to be careful! All said with a glint in his eye and a big chuckle! The coconut was definitely being sold by this man as he had previously told us it was good for the kidneys and eyesight. 

Once we were home it was time to have a real Canadian drink and a Caesar it was! I had mine without vodka and it is just as nice as with (in my opinion!). 

The basis of the drink is Clamato which is described as a tomato/clam cocktail. It is pretty much seasoned tomato juice with powdered clam broth in it. It is thinner than regular tomato juice. To start you rub the rim of your glass with a lime wedge then dunk it into some Caesar Rimmer (which is a salty/spicy powder with pepper, onion and celery salt in it). Add some ice cubes to the glass, some lime juice (from 1 or 2 wedges, however much you like), a few shakes of Worcester sauce, some hot sauce (if you want, of whatever variety you like, Tabasco etc), some salt and pepper and then a shot of vodka if you are having any (we bought a cheap variety for this occasion because you can't really taste it through all the rest of the stuff anyway). Fill the glass up with Clamato and garnish with whatever you want; celery is traditional but you find all kinds of things in them from prawns on a stick, to pickled beans, lemons, pickled onions, pickles to name a few. You can also make all kinds of versions of the Caesar itself using different alcohol and different flavours i.e pickle juice and horseradish!

The Caesar is also a very refreshing drink, and so packed with flavour. Your mouth is alive and lips tingling from the rimmer and heat and acid. It really is the perfect union of salts and spices. This makes the Bloody Mary pale in comparison.