Category Archives: food

A variant on kheema

Posted on by
Reply

My mother swears by a kheema recipe she found in a 1980s cookbook – I modified it the other night, and present it to you thus:

Kheema with turkey and spinach

Ingredients

  •  300 g ground or diced turkey
  • 2 tbs canola oil
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 4 garlic cloves, crushed
  • 1 tbs fresh ginger, diced
  • 2 tsp ground cumin (I prefer to buy whole cumin, toast it in a cast iron pan until browned, then crushed in a mortar. It tastes a million times better than what you get in stores)
  • 1 tbs coriander seeds, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp chili flakes
  • 1-1/2 cups hot water
  • 1 cup frozen peas
  • handful of baby spinach, shredded
  • 2 tsp salt
  • 1 tbs garam masala
  • Juice of half a lemon

Steps toward delicious

  1. In a cast iron pan or heavy wok over medium-high heat, heat 1 tbs of oil. Drop in the turkey and cook until it it just cooked. Be sure to break up the turkey as it cooks.
  2. Remove the turkey from the pan, tamp out the moisture. Add the rest of the oil to the same pan, then add the onion. Cook until the onion is soft.
  3. Add the garlic and ginger. Cook until the onion is browned.
  4. Add the cumin and coriander and chili flakes. Stir stir. You may decide to add more oil at this point, but it’s up to you. Turkey can be a lean meat.
  5. Add the turkey, giving it a stir to coat everything with spicy goodness. Then it’s time to add 3/4 cup hot water (I use water just off the boil from the kettle). Bring to a boil, then reduce to medium-high, cover, and cook for 20 minutes.
  6. Remove cover. Stir it up. At this point, the mix should still be plenty moist.Add the salt, garam masala, lemon juice, and remaining water. Stir, re-cover, cook for another 10 minutes.
  7. Uncover. Taste. You may decide to add more salt at this point.
  8. Add the peas and the spinach. Crank the heat up to high, stirring constantly. At this point, you want to accomplish three things: heat up the peas (already cooked in the freezing process), cook the spinach out, and get rid of the rest of the water.
  9. When that’s all done, serve over rice or quinoa.

Most recipes call for ground lamb or beef, but I prefer poultry myself. It’s even better the next day.

Homemade Chicken Soup with Quinoa

Posted on by
Reply

So it goes a little like this:

A few weeks ago, I roasted a chicken and saved the bones and stuff with the vague idea of making stock. I ended up freezing the bones (for optimal freshness).

And it goes a little like this:

Roast chicken stock

  1. Take the reserved bones, skin, joints, meat scraps, etc, and chuck them in a soup pot.
    1. If you kept it, throw in the refrigerated roast drippings for added flavour.
  2. Add water to cover the bones, then some more.
  3. Chop an onion, two ribs celery, one large carrot, and throw into the pot
  4. Also add the following spices:
    1. 2 bay leaves
    2. a handful of peppercorns
    3. one clove
    4. a whole dried chili
    5. a pinch of thyme
    6. and a pinch of oregano
  5. You may want to add some salt.

Bring all this to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook for about two hours, adding more water to keep the bones covered.

A note: Unlike making stock from a raw chicken, you may not have to skim the scum from the top. Your milage will vary.

After all this is over, fish out the bigger bones and stuff with a slotted spoon. Then strain the soup into a big bowl. With a flat spoon, skim off as much of the fat as you can.

Go team.

Chicken Soup with Quinoa

This one is really easy.

Into a pot:

  1. 1.5 cups chicken stock (see above)
  2. 0.5 cups cooked quinoa
  3. Bring back to a boil.
  4. You can also add some cooked chicken meat. Chop it up though.
  5. Before you serve, taste for salt.
  6. Serve with a bottle of hot sauce. I use Frank’s (I put that stuff on everything)

The quinoa gives it a bit of chew.

Mmm taco: We go to La Taqueria

Posted on by
Reply

Today: tacos!

We went to La Taqueria! The new one on Cambie.

La Taqueria menu!

La Taqueria menu!

 

Authentic Jarritos Mexican sodas

While we were waiting, we had las sodas. Mexican Soda. Mmm

 

Tacos!

Mmm TACOs (l-r: Asada (beef flank), Carnitas (pork confit), Pescado (fish) and Tinga de Hongo (vegan mushroom))

 

Salsas!

Salsas!

The only thing wrong? The salsas weren’t labelled, so it was a bit of an adventure on which was which.

The place was totally packed, but hopefully that was just Friday night. The kitchen staff was stupid busy but on top of things, and it was nice to see the executive chef keeping an eye on things.

I look forward to going back.

And because tacos weren’t enough, we went to Marble Slab afterwards. Which was a bad idea because, well, ice cream.

Marble Slab

The Marble Slab man does his Marble Slab thing

 

Bananas Foster

Bananas Foster: Vanilla ice cream with bananas and caramel

And then I came home and fell over.

 

Mmm salt

Posted on by
Reply

A post about seasoning salts

When I was a kid, the only kind of seasoning salt in existence was Lawrey’s. What can I say? It was Alberta in the 80s.

what it says on the label

 

Nowadays, with Vancouver being a culinary hot-spot or something, we luckily have access to more than the one seasoning salt.

Tonight’s dinner was testament to this sodium-bomb bounty: I used two kinds of seasoning salts to make steak, yams, and kale into a wowza of a meal.

Let’s break that down a little:

For the steak, I bought what was probably a too-tough cut of beef and, after pounding the crap out of it with the back of a butcher knife, seasoned it liberally with Montreal Steak Spice, so:

Of course, it may say “spice” on the label but the first ingredient is chunky rock salt. Delish. Also works well on mushrooms. For added yum, use a bit of hot water to deglaze the pan and pour the resultant au jus over the steak while it sits. Mega yum.

(The yams were baked and seasoned with regular salt; nothing innovative to write home about).

The kale was a bit of a strange mash-up – sauteed with a bit of crushed garlic and Haida Gwaii Salt from Sea to Sky Seasonings (they’re at the Edible BC booth on Granville Island). The lobster flavour of the salt highlighted the flavour of the kale.

Some trivia:

 

Dry Spiced Chicken

Posted on by
Reply

  1. A confession

My love affair with Indian cooking began the day I picked up Meena Pathak’s Flavors of India in 2002. There are so many wonderful recipes in that book (and my other fave of hers, Indian Cooking for Family and Friends). If you’re into Indian cooking, I recommend picking up a copy and trying some of the recipes.

Which brings me to tonight

Having just acquired a rooster timer:

I decided to try something that needed actual timing. And since I wasn’t totally into the idea of sauce tonight, I went with

Dry Spiced Chicken

(adapted from the recipe in Indian Cooking for Family and Friends)

Needed:

  • Canola oil
  • Spices
    • 1 tbl whole cumin seeds
    • 1 tsp whole fennel seeds
    • 1 bay leaf
    • 2 tbl whole coriander seeds
    • 1 tsp chili powder
    • 1 tsp garam masala
    • 0.5 tsp turmeric
  • 2 large onions
  • 2 large chicken breasts
  • 3 wee chilis
  • salt to taste

Prep:

  1. Dice the chicken breasts into cubic inches. Set aside.
  2. Cut the chilis in half. Scrape out the seeds and veins. Dice.
    1. (For both the steps above, you should wear gloves. Makes for easier cleanup)
  3. Slice the onions in half, then slice perpendicular to the layers (ie little half-moon shapes)
  4. Put the coriander seeds into a coffee grinder or something. Hit frape.

Cook:

  1. Heat three glugs of oil in a high-sided pan or pot
  2. When the oil is hot, add the cumin seeds, the fennel seeds, and the bay leaf.
  3. Sizzle.
  4. Add the onions. Using your Rooster Timer (sold in discerning Michael’s), cook the onions over a low heat for no less than 15 minutes.
  5. After 15 min, add the coriander, chili powder, garam masala and turmeric. Stir. Cook for 5 more min.
  6. Toss in the chilis. Stir.
  7. Add the chicken. Stir. Add a bit of water. Cover. Cook for another 15 minutes (using the rooster).
  8. Remove cover, add salt to taste. Give it another 2 minutes on the stove and then serve over rice.

(Usually, I use basmati rice for Indian dishes, but this time I was stuck and had to raid the pantry for short-grain rice. With the lack of sauce in this dish, the moist rice was well suited to the dish.)

In short? Awesome.

Pot Roast Chili

Posted on by
Reply

As sort of a mashup between pot roast and chili. Best dish ever.

Ingredients

  • Beef roast
  • Canola oil
  • Salt
  • Cumin seeds
  • 2 onions, sliced thinly
  • Garlic powder
  • Chili powder
  • Cumin powder
  • 4 tomatoes, chopped
  • One can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • One can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 cup Beef stock, heated
  • Boiling water

Cooking accoutrements

  • Dutch oven
  • 2 forks

Directions

  1. Preheat your oven to 325F.
  2. Rinse the roast. Cut the roast in half  (into 3 pieces if it’s a large roast). Salt the raw beef very lightly.
  3. Heat 2 tbsp oil in the dutch oven (hereafter referred to as the “pot”) on the stovetop.
  4. Brown the roast on all sides in the pot. Once the browning is complete, put the beef on a plate and set aside.
  5. Add another tbsp of oil into the pot. Add 2 tsp cumin seeds and cook until the seeds are sizzling.
  6. Add the onion. Fry for around 5 minutes.
  7. Add 1 tbsp chili powder and stir. If you’re like me, you cut your chili powder 50/50 with cayenne, so keep the fan on our else your eyes will burn for days.
  8. Add 1 tbsp granulated garlic and 1 tbsp cumin powder. If you have more time, you can use fresh garlic (and add it during the cumin seeds step).
  9. Add the tomatoes. Fry this whole mess for 5 minutes.
  10. Add the beef back to the pan. Dump in the drained beans. Over the whole mess, pour the cup of beef stock. You may need to add a bit of hot water to the pot to just cover the meat.
  11. Stir once more.
  12. Cover, and place the dutch oven in the preheated oven.
  13. Cook for 90 minutes.
  14. Remove the pot from the oven, and remove the lid. Try to shred the beef with the forks – if it doesn’t want to shred, re-cover and put the pot back in the oven for another 30 minutes or so.
  15. But if the beef shreds easily, then do so… Shred it like Steve Vai.
  16. Once you have completed the shredding process, stir the beef back into the sauce, re-cover, and put the pot back into the oven for another 15 minutes to let the flavours combine.
  17. Eat. Because this is the best dish ever made.

Note: You will probably not need to add salt to the end product. There’s enough sodium in the beef stock and the inital salting to flavour the dish.

Stroganroast!

Posted on by
Reply

I think I invented a new dish.

And it’s delish.

By which I mean delicious.

Adapted from Bargain Beef Stroganoff the in 300 Slow Cooker Favourites.

Ingredients

  • 1/4 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
  • a low-quality pot roast
  • Vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 yellow onions, sliced
  • a motherload of mushrooms, rinsed and quartered. In reality, about a pound or more)
  • 1.5 cups beef stock (plz read a note on salt at the end)
  • 3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 3 tbsp tomato paste
  • 2 tbsp paprika
  • 1 tbsp mustard
  • 1 cup sour cream

Steps

  1. In a bowl, combine the flour, salt and pepper.
  2. In another bowl, combine (well) the beef stock, Worchestire, tomato paste, paprika and mustard.
  3. Rinse the roast. Slice it into 2 large pieces (so they will cover the bottom of the slow cooker without overlapping).
  4. Heat a pan (I prefer cast iron) and in said pan, heat some of the oil.
  5. Coat a beef piece in the flour mix and brown on all sides in the pan. Reperat with second peice.
  6. Place browned beef in the bottom of the slow cooker. Dump in the onions and the mushrooms.
  7. Pour the liquid mix over the whole deal.
  8. Cook on “low” for 9 hours.
  9. At the end, remove lid. Drop in the sour cream and stir well.
  10. Don’t be gentle. You’ll notice that the beef starts to shred – you want this. Continue to stir until the meat is in pieces. Again, you want this because the meat will hold the sauce better this way. The delicious, delicious sauce.
  11. Cook for another 2o minutes over high to get the sour cream up to temp.
  12. Serve over noodles.
  13. NOM.

A note about salt: Both the flour mix and the beef stock will have a load of salt. Don’t add more until you taste it.

PS NOM.

Balsamic Hummus

Posted on by
Reply

Once again, no playbook.

Most hummus (hummuses? hummi? What’s the plural for hummus?) are flavoured with tahini (ground sesame seeds) and lemon juice. I had no tahini and since the bottle of white balsamic vinegar was already open, I thought what’s wrong with swapping our acids? and went with it.

Ingredients (with bonus extraneous linkage)

Steps

  1. Set up blender
  2. Layer in: Chickpeas, two glugs olive oil, one glug balsamic vinegar.
  3. Sprinkle on top: A general helping of ground cumin and a dash of chili flakes (depending on how hot you want this sucker). Give it a dash of garlic. If you love garlic, give it another dash.
  4. Put cover on blender and pulse a few times to get things started. You may find that the blender has a hard time of things once the base layer is blended. This is normal. If you want a calorific dish, pour in a bit more oil to get things moving. If you’re the rest of us, add water, a bit at a time, to give the blender enough to… um, blend.
  5. As you’re approaching doneness, turn off the blender and taste your dip. If you’re a salt aficionado, add a teaspoon of salt. If you’re not addicted to the magic rock*, half a teaspoon.
  6. Blend more and more until the dip is sufficiently creamy.
  7. Serve with your favourite dip delivery system. I prefer corn chips myself.

You’ll find that the balsamic vinegar gives the dip a slightly sweet taste. I think it’s delicious, and I will make this again.

* by which magic rock I mean salt, not crack. Salt is a magical rock that makes food taste good.

13th Ave Rice and Beans

Posted on by
Reply

I need to write a cookbook called “Breeonne’s School of Haphazard McCookery” because seriously, I don’t think I ever really follow a recipe to the details. It’s so much more entertaining  to wing it.

Case in point, tonight’s dinner. I didn’t really have a recipe to follow, so it was more of a toss-n-pray.

13th Ave Rice and Beans

Rice n BeansIngredients

  • Basmati rice
  • Canola oil
  • Cumin seeds and cumin powder
  • One onion, diced thin
  • Granulated garlic (or 2 cloves crushed, if you’re in a complicated mood)
  • Chili powder
  • One can of diced tomatoes
  • One can of black beans, rinsed
  • Curry powder (I used Sharwood’s Hot)
  • Salt to taste

Steps

  1. Start the basmati rice in your rice cooker. 2 cups should do it.
  2. In a medium or large pot, heat two tablespoons of oil on medium-high.
  3. Add one tablespoon or so of cumin seeds to the oil. Cook until the seeds begin to sizzle.
  4. Throw in the onion and stir.
  5. Sprinkle in some garlic and some chili powder.
  6. Cook until the onions are translucent
  7. Add the can of tomatoes. Stir.
  8. Sprinkle on some cumin powder. You’ll note a cumin theme in this dish.
  9. Add some salt. Stir more. Cook a few more minutes.
  10. Add the black beans.
  11. Time to address the rice cooker. You’ll note that the rice is so not done at this point. That’s all part of the process. Pour the contents of the rice cooker into the pot, water and all.
  12. Stir stir.
  13. Taste the contents of the pot. When you’re me, you’ll think hmm, this is kinda bland. Sprinkle on more cumin. Then more chili. Then get desperate and spoon on a helluva lota Sharwoords into the pot.
  14. Stir. Add more water (the rice needs it). Reduce heat. Cover.
  15. Wait impatiently.
  16. Remove the cover after about 5 minutes and stir again. If the rice is sticking to the bottom of the pot, add more water.
  17. In all, cook for around 20 minutes until the rice is soft and the dish is num.
  18. Remove from heat, wait a bit, and serve.
  19. For bonus added awesome, sprinkle grated cheddar cheese on top.

And this is why I can’t write a recipe book, because everythign is haphazard beyond belief.