|
|
Last month, Carlo and I headed to Portland, Oregon for a long weekend to check out the city as a potential place to move once Carlo graduates in May. We had an incredible time while we were there and after maybe 2 hours of walking through downtown, both Carlo and I looked at each other smiling and said that we could easily imagine ourselves living there and being very very happy.
We ate and drank our way around the city making sure to check out the incredible food cart phenomenon and some of our favourite microbreweries too. Pretty much everything we ate and drank was excellent, and even better, it was so cheap compared to eating out in Las Vegas.
One thing I loved about Portland was the prevalence of parsnips on many of the menus. I don’t know if parsnips just thrive in the cold and damp winters up there, but I’ve not seen so many parsnips in dishes outside of England! We ate breakfast at the Bijou Cafe downtown one morning and I ordered the roasted parsnip, spinach, bacon, and feta omelet. I never would have thought about putting parsnips in an omelet, but it worked and might have been one of the most flavourful omelets I’ve had in a long time.
This Jamie Oliver recipe for Pasta with Parsnips and Pancetta is another creative combination that just works. The sauteed sweetness of the parsnips contrasts nicely with the smokey pancetta to create a comforting and easy pasta dish. This recipe makes enough for 4 dinners at $1.95 per serving.
Pasta with Parsnips and Pancetta, adapted from Jaime Oliver
6 ounces sliced pancetta or bacon
1 handful of fresh rosemary, leaves picked
4 good knobs of butter
2 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
3 large parsnips, peeled, halved and finely sliced lengthways
16 ounces dried pasta, preferably tagliatelle, pappardelle or some other thick pasta
3 good handfuls of grated Parmesan cheese
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
In a large, non-stick frying pan, fry the pancetta and rosemary in half of the butter for 2 minutes, and then add the garlic and parsnips. Cook everything for 3 more minutes on a medium heat until the pancetta is slightly golden and the parsnips have softened nicely.
Cook the pasta in salted boiling water according to the packet instructions and then drain, reserving a little of the cooking water. Mix the pasta with the parsnips and pancetta and stir in the rest of the butter and the Parmesan. Add a little of the pasta cooking water to loosen the mixture and make a nice creamy and shiny sauce. Season with salt and pepper to taste and then serve with a little more Parmesan cheese grated on top.
I went to the farmers’ market by our house today to stock up on our weekly produce and the strawberry guy was back with a stand after being gone for a few months. Yes, it was 70 degrees and sunny today in Las Vegas, but strawberry season at the beginning of March? It just seems a little too early for me to be switching to summer food already! I’m still craving warm comforting flavours and heavy meals, not light salads and cold entrees.
Perhaps this mouthwatering Warm Winter Vegetable Salad is the perfect way to wean me from hearty and filling winter foods to a sunnier spring menu. You still get the nutty denseness of roasted winter vegetables, but the dish is brightened up by some crumbled feta and a lemon juice-based dressing. This salad makes enough for 4 lunches at $1.94 per serving.
Warm Winter Vegetable Salad, adapted from Food & Wine, March 2010
2 red onions, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
2 sweet potatoes, cut into 1-inch pieces
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
2 parsnips, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
1 celery root, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
3 beets, peeled and cut into 3/4-inch pieces
6 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/2 cup walnuts
3 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
3 teaspoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
4 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
Preheat the oven to 425°. In a medium roasting pan, toss the onions, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips, celery root, and beets with 4 tablespoons of the olive oil. Season the vegetables with salt and pepper and roast them for about 45 minutes, stirring once or twice, until they are tender and lightly browned in spots.
Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet over medium heat until they become fragrant and golden, around 5 minutes. Transfer the walnuts to a chopping board and coarsely chop them up.
In a large bowl, whisk together the vinegar with the lemon juice, mustard, and the remaining 2 tablespoons of olive oil and mix in the parsley. Season the dressing with salt and pepper. Add the roasted vegetables and walnuts to the dressing and toss everything together. Top the salad with the crumbled feta and serve the dish warm or at room temperature.
Every week or so, I get a phone call or text message from my little brother Andrew asking for some kind of cooking advice. His questions have run the gamut from how to roast chiles in his electric oven to what he should make for lunch. I do think one of my favourite phone calls was when he rang me on a Friday night standing in the wine aisle of his local HEB in Brownsville, Texas asking me which bottle he should buy to take to a friend’s pizza night. Unfortunately since I live in Las Vegas, I was unable to know exactly what kind of wine they had on the HEB shelves, but I hope that I helped steer him in the right direction. I love getting these phone calls, and both me and Carlo smile whenever my phone rings at dinner time in Texas and it is Andrew.
Over Christmas, I persuaded Andrew to buy Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian despite his dislike of cookbooks without photos. He has emailed me a couple of times telling me about the different recipes that he has made from the cookbook. Last week he told me that he made this Couscous with Cauliflower and Almonds, which he said made for a great lunch.
On Friday, I was stuck with the dilemma of what to eat for lunch and even though I really wanted a Reuben sandwich, I was unwilling to pay $13 (?!?!) for one at the Jewish deli by our house, nor did I want to go to the store to buy all the ingredients to make one at home. Rustling through my fridge, I saw that I had a head of cauliflower from the farmers’ market, so I thought about the email that Andrew had recently sent me.
I got How to Cook Everything Vegetarian off the cookbook shelf and turned to the recipe. Turns out that I had everything else that I needed in the pantry, so I made this for lunch. While it was no meaty Reuben sandwich, I completely agree with Andrew that this makes a tasty, filling, and quick lunch. Even Carlo, who was hesitant about the almonds in the dish, agreed! So it was a successful lunchtime save and saved us a ton of money since we ended up eating at home–Thanks Andrew! This recipe makes enough for 4 lunches at 87 cents per serving.
Couscous with Cauliflower and Almonds, from Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything Vegetarian
1/2 cup whole almonds
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 small red onion, minced
1 small cauliflower, finely chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
1 cup couscous
2 teaspoons smoked paprika
1 1/2 cups vegetable stock or water
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
freshly grated Manchego or Parmesan cheese as a garnish (optional)
Place a dry deep skillet with a tight fitting lid over medium-high heat. Once it is hot, add the almonds and dry cook them, stirring constantly, until they are toasted and fragrant, about a couple of minutes. Remove them from the pan and set them aside to cool.
Add the olive oil to the pan and then cook the onion, stirring occasionally, until soft and it begins to colour, around 2 minutes. Add the finely chopped cauliflower and season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring frequently, until all the cauliflower pieces are coated in the oil and start to pop and stutter in the pan, around 5 to 10 minutes. Stir in the couscous and keep stirring until it too is coated in oil and begins to toast, about another 3 to 5 minutes.
Sprinkle the mixture with the smoked paprika and stir everything together. Stir in the stock or water and bring to a boil. Cover the pan with the lid and turn down the heat to very low. Let the couscous cook for 5 minutes (15 minutes if you are using whole wheat couscous).
While the couscous is cooking, chop the almonds as fine as you can get them. Once cooked, add the almonds and chopped parsley to the couscous and gently fluff it with a fork. Return the lid to the pan and turn off the heat. Let the couscous rest for a minute or so, then taste and adjust the seasoning. Serve immediately topped with a little bit of grated cheese, although this couscous tastes just as good the next day cold out of the fridge.
Happy Pancake Day! I have been dreaming of lemon and sugar pancakes all day and can’t wait to make them tonight. I’m still debating about whether to make enough pancakes so they can become dinner, or half the recipe and just make a small batch for myself as dessert.
Pancake Day reminds me of the powerful traditions that food can play in your upbringing. It was always one of my favourite holidays, and I loved how my mum always made pancakes for me, even though my sister and brother never really liked them that much. I’m pretty sure that I’m the only one who is continuing the Pancake Day tradition now in my family and I know that I will make sure that any children we might have will obsess about pancakes as much as I do!
Speaking of family food traditions that only me and one parent enjoyed when I grew up reminds me of my dad’s Bubble and Squeak. Bubble and Squeak is a traditional English dish made of leftover potatoes and cabbage, or in our house brussels sprouts, that you mash together and then cook in a frying pan until it bubbles and then squeaks (hence the name). I grew up with my dad making this for breakfast after every Christmas, and later when we moved to America, after every Thanksgiving. It is one of the few dishes that my dad makes, but it is my favourite. He always adds any other leftover vegetables from the holiday meal like carrot and turnip mash, and the bubble and squeak then gets served with a fried egg, brown sauce, and baked beans to make a mean English breakfast. This breakfast was only ever enjoyed by me, my dad, and occasionally my mum. My little brother would always reserve his leftover roast potatoes so they wouldn’t get used in the bubble and squeak. Although Carlo thinks that the name bubble and squeak is ridiculously English and silly, he always slides up to the dinner table the morning after the holidays for some of my dad’s breakfast goodness.
This Bubble and Squeak Soup gets its name from the combination of brussels sprouts and potatoes, and tastes like a grown up twist on cheese and broccoli soup for any non-English people who have never heard of bubble and squeak! This recipe makes enough for 6 bowls of soup at 91 cents per serving.
Bubble and Squeak Soup with Aged Cheddar, adapted from Riverford Farm Cookbook
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 bacon slices, chopped
1 pound potatoes, peeled and diced
1/2 pound turnips, peeled and diced
1 quart chicken or vegetable stock
1 pound brussels sprouts
2 ounces aged cheddar cheese, grated
sea salt and black pepper
Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion and cook it for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the bacon and cook for a further 5 minutes. Then add the potatoes and turnip, and cook over a low heat for 10 minutes.
Pour in enough stock so that all of the potatoes are covered by an inch or so. Let the soup simmer for 10 minutes. Add the chopped brussels sprouts, and cook for 10 more minutes. Use an immersion blend to puree the soup. You can take out and reserve a couple cups of vegetables and return them to the puree for a more rustic soup. Season the soup with salt and pepper, and serve topped with grated aged cheddar.
We have never been the kind of people who cook and eat a prescriptive diet. There are no pork chop Wednesdays or spaghetti Thursdays in our house, and the same 5 or 6 dishes aren’t cooked week in and week out. We have always enjoyed making different meals to taste and always anticipate cooking something new and different. It helps keep cooking fun instead of a chore as we hunt down the best sounding recipes in cookbooks and magazines for the week. Normally we go a while before remaking something because we always make extras for leftovers so after a few days of eating the same thing, you get kind of bored with a recipe. But this adapted Winter Vegetable Chili recipe from the front cover of February’s Food and Wine is a pretty rare exception.
I made a large batch of the chili a couple of weeks ago, and both Carlo and I loved it. It is so filling, full of flavour, and is obscenely good for you since it is crammed full of veggies and beans. You could eat it just plain, but I think it tastes best over some brown rice or couscous, and then topped with tons of chopped red onion, avocado, sour cream, and a few tortilla chips thrown in there as a little guilty indulgence. We ate all of the first batch and then I made it again the following week, which never happens. Neither one of us complained about eating so much of this chili, which I think stands as a pretty good testament to just how delicious this chili is. I dare you to try it and see what you think! This chili recipe makes enough for 8 meals at 95 cents per serving, toppings extra.
Winter Vegetable Chili, adapted from Food and Wine, February 2010
1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, grated or very finely chopped
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chile powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
salt
1 28-ounce can peeled whole tomatoes
2 canned chipotles in adobo, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
1 1/2 cups water, plus more water as needed
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained
In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook over high heat, stirring, until they slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers, butternut squash, and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chile powder and cumin and season with salt. Cook for 1 minute.
In a blender, puree the tomatoes and their juices with the chipotle, adobo sauce, and water until it is very smooth. Add the mixture to the casserole along with the frozen corn and kidney beans and bring to a boil. If the chili is too thick, add more water as needed and stir it in well. Cover the pan partially and let the chili simmer over a moderate heat until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt. Serve the chili with brown rice, chopped red onions, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, and tortilla chips.
We had a couple of friends over on Sunday night to try out a few recipes from the cookbook Tacos that Carlo got for Christmas. We started off the night with chips, salsa, our friend Mike’s great guacamole, and this queso recipe. We ended up eating so much of the appetizers that all of us were too full to really enjoy the delicious tacos that Carlo made, but we all agreed that the queso was just too tempting to not finish it off!
You need Mexican cheese for this recipe, which you can find at some good grocery stores, or you can do what we did and hit up the local Mexican grocery store since it is cheap and plentiful there. This recipe makes enough to feed 6 people as an appetizer at 95 cents per serving.
Queso con Rajas, adapted from Mark Miller’s Tacos
1 1/2 large sweet bell peppers, roasted, peeled, cored and seeded
2 large poblano chiles, roasted, peeled, cored and seeded
3 jalapenos, roasted and seeded
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 small onion, diced
2 teaspoons chopped fresh cilantro
1/4 teaspoon Mexican oregano
pinch of salt
3/4 cup Mexican crema, or sour cream
8 ounces grated queso Oaxaca or Chihuahua cheese
1 1 /2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
We roasted all of the peppers on the bbq until they were nice and charred on the outside and then peeled and deseeded them. Cut the roasted peppers into 1/4-inch thick strips (rajas) and set them aside.
In a large nonstick skillet, heat the oil over medium heat and saute the onion until translucent, around 3 minutes. Decrease the heat to low, add the bell pepper and chile strips, then stir in the cilantro, oregano, salt, crema, queso, and grated Parmesan. Cook everything over a low heat, stirring continuously until the queso melts, about 5 minutes. Don’t let the mixture brown or scorch. If the queso is a bit too thick, add some more crema until you get the desired texture and thickness.
Remove the queso from the heat and serve immediately with warm tortillas or chips.
We are big fans of food writer Fiona Beckett, so when we saw on her blog that she was having The Ultimate Macaroni Cheese Challenge, we knew we had to enter. I guess it’s all of the Spanish food we’ve been making and thinking about lately, so independently we both came up with a similar concept: a dish using Manchego cheese, chorizo and piquillo peppers. Great minds, etc. etc. etc.
Manchego definitely gives a slightly different flavor than your regular fluorescent orange mac ‘n’ cheese sauce, it’s a bit more subtle and a lot deeper. The chorizo’s oil and paprika adds a nice kick, and the sweet piquillo peppers round things out quite well. Adding in some extra paprika (pimenton is the Spanish kind) gives some nice color and intensifies the flavor from the chorizo. This is a great version of mac ‘n’ cheese that delivers the cheesy, homey comfort you want from the dish, but with some slightly more adult and complex flavors. Enjoy!
Manchego and Chorizo Mac and Cheese
olive oil
4 ounces Spanish chorizo, thinly diced
8 green onions, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 piquillo peppers or roasted red peppers
16 ounces dried macaroni pasta
6 cups grated Manchego cheese
4 tablespoons butter
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
4 cups whole or skim milk
1/4 teaspoon hot paprika
1/2 teaspoon dulce paprika
salt and freshly ground pepper
1/4 baguette, thinly sliced
Heat up some olive oil in a frying pan and saute the sliced chorizo. Remove the chorizo and saute the green onions and garlic in the chorizo oil. Cook the macaroni in boiling salted water until the pasta is just tender. Once it is cooked, drain the pasta and then add the chorizo, green onions, garlic, and the piquillo peppers and mix everything together.
To make the cheese sauce, melt 4 tablespoons of butter in a large saucepan over medium-low heat. Whisk in the flour and let the roux cook for a few minutes while continuing to whisk it together. Slowly whisk in the milk until the sauce thickens. Season the sauce base with the paprika and let it gently simmer, stirring often, for 15 minutes. Remove the sauce from the heat and stir in 4 cups of Manchego cheese. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Pour the cheese sauce over the macaroni and mix everything together. Add a bit of olive oil to a frying pan. Once it has heated up, place the thinly sliced baguette slices in the pan and gently fry them until they are crisp and lightly golden. Remove the bread from the pan and let them drain on some kitchen roll.
Grab a large baking dish greased with olive oil spray and pour half of the macaroni mixture into the bottom. Sprinkle 1 cup of Manchego cheese over the top, and then add the rest of the macaroni. Top with the rest of the Manchego and arrange the crouton slices over the top.
Bake the macaroni and cheese in a 350 F degree oven until the croutons are browned and the cheesy top is bubbling. You can put the broiler on for the last few minutes to really crisp up the top.
The simple things can often be some of the best. When in Catalunya, the part of Spain that holds Barcelona, this holds true for the well-known pan con tomate (or pa amb tomaquet in Catalan). It’s simply toasted bread rubbed with a clove of raw garlic and a tomato, then salted — and it’s the perfect complement to tapas and most meals. It can often be topped with cured meats or cheese, but it’s also wonderful just on its own.
Jose Andres, a Spanish chef with outposts in DC and LA, has offered what he calls “the modern way” to make pan con tomate. Instead of rubbing the tomato directly on the bread, you pass it through a grater, then mix the resulting liquid with salt, pepper and some olive oil, and spoon it onto the toast. I think one really great aspect of this method is that it’s not totally dependent on having the most perfectly ripe tomatoes. Because you’re pushing them through the grater, they liquefy a bit and deliver quite a bit more taste than if you rubbed an out of season Roma tomato on toast. Still, it’s worth finding some decent tomatoes so you get a good flavor. This recipe makes enough tapas for 4 people at 37 cents per serving.
Pan Con Tomate, The Modern Way, from Jose Andres’ Tapas: A Taste of Spain in America
2 large ripe tomatoes
4 slices rustic sourdough bread, toasted
extra virgin olive oil to taste
salt to taste
Cut the tomatoes in half. Place a fine grater over a large mixing bowl and rub the open face of the tomatoes onto the grater until all the flesh is grated. Discard the tomato skins. Add a liberal amount of olive oil to the grated tomatoes and season with salt to taste. Mix everything together.
Spoon the tomato-olive oil mixture over the toast to serve. This tomato bread goes really well with a few slices of Manchego cheese.
When my sister and brother-in-law visited us a couple of weeks ago, we took them to Downtown Las Vegas where we had a delicious dinner at Firefly. Firefly is a great Spanish restaurant loved by locals and tourists alike, and their new downtown location is really cool. The restaurant is in the Dome of the Plaza Hotel, which was used as the setting for the memorable dinner in the film Casino. The dome opens out onto Fremont Street and you get a birds eye view of the Fremont Street Experience, which, although on the cheesy side, is pretty fun to watch.
In addition to the spectacular location, Firefly has some tasty food. I think the best way to experience their menu is to order lots of tapas plates and share them among your party. One of my favourite things on the Firefly menu are the Bacon-Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Almonds. When we went with my sister and brother-in-law, we ate the first order so fast that we had to order another because they are just that good. They are the perfect combination of salty and sweet with the contrast of flavours between the bacon and the date.
These wrapped dates are really simple to make at home as a quick appetizer or as part of a larger array of tapas dishes. Here is a really basic recipe that you can adjust according to how many you would like to make. My only advice is to make more than you think you will need because they will go fast! I promise.
Bacon-Wrapped Dates Stuffed with Almonds
bacon strips
dates
whole almonds (we used raw almonds, but I bet roasted almonds would taste just as good)
toothpicks
Remove the seeds from the dates and insert the almonds into the hole left behind by the seed. Cut the strips of bacon in half or into thirds depending upon the size of your dates. Wrap a small slice of bacon around each date and secure it by using a toothpick to pierce the bacon and date. Cook the bacon-wrapped dates in a frying pan over a medium heat until the bacon is cooked and crispy on all sides. Serve and watch them disappear!
I really enjoy a good salad. Meat is an easy way to bulk up a salad, but another trick is adding roasted butternut squash as a topping. It adds a nice sweetness to your salad, as well as some beautiful colour and perhaps more importantly, another way to squeeze in an extra serving of vegetables.
In September, I blogged about this great Spiced Butternut Squash, Lentil, and Goat Cheese Salad, but here is another squash-heavy salad to add to your repertoire. This Roasted Squash Salad with Maple Vinaigrette includes cheese and nuts, some of my other favourite toppings to make a hearty salad so you aren’t starving an hour later. The salad makes enough for 4 lunches at $1.31 per serving.
Roasted Squash Salad with Maple Vinaigrette, adapted from Health Magazine, November 2009
1/4 cup chopped, skinned hazelnuts
olive oil cooking spray
1 large butternut squash, seeded, peeled, and cut into cubes
3 tablespoons maple syrup
1 1/2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
1 clove garlic, grated
6 cups mixed greens
1/4 cup shaved Parmesan cheese
salt and freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray a large baking sheet with olive oil spray and place the squash on the sheet, cut sides down. Cover the squash with foil, and roast them until they are tender, around 20 minutes.
While the squash is roasting, place the hazelnuts in a dry frying pan and toast them over a medium heat until they are fragrant, around 5 minutes.
To make the dressing, whisk together the maple sugar, vinegar, grated garlic, and mustard until it is well blended. You can doctor the dressing until it gets just to your liking. Toss the greens with the dressing, and season with salt and pepper. Place the roasted squash on top of the greens, and garnish the dish with the toasted hazelnuts and shredded Parmesan.
|
|
