Category Archives: food

13th Ave Rice and Beans

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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.

Coffee

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I’m starting this vacation right. With coffee.

Cafe au Lait

mmm, coffee

My favourite home-brand these days is Kicking Horse, mostly because I’m originally from Alberta. I picked up the coffee originally because I loved the name, and kept at it because I love the coffee. The fair trade and organic parts are great additions to a lovely bean.

My current fave brand is Hoodoo Jo, but as that’s hard to find in Vancouver I also enjoy a little Kick-ass. Yes, I am guilty of opening up a can of Kick-Ass in the morning.

And poking around their site, now I think I want one of these coffee syphons.

Love.

Roast chicken

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Yay! I have made my first roast chicken ever and it was a success!

Roast Chicken with Yams

Ingredients

  • Raw chicken from the store (roasting chicken if you got it)
  • Carrot
  • Celery
  • Onion
  • Head o’ garlic
  • Seasoned salt (I use non-msg Lawry’s)
  • Powdered garlic
  • Ground pepper and salt
  • Olive oil
  • Also, several yams.

Steps

  1. Preheat oven to 450F
  2. Rinse the chicken. Rinse it good. Inside and out. And if inside your chicken there is a little paper bag of goo, it is all right. That’s just the heart/kidneys/gizzard. If you don’t want to deal with this concept, throw away the bag unopened. Otherwise, rise and drop into pan alongside the chicken for added flavour.
  3. Place chicken breast-up in a roasting pan.The kind with sides.
  4. Chunk one carrot, one stick celery, one onion. Peel the garlic cloves. Arrange artfully around the chicken.
    1. If you’re super-keen, you can loosen the chicken skin from the breasts and shove garlic cloves under the skin. It imparts a nice flavor to the breast meat.
  5. Season the chicken lightly with seasoning salt, pepper and granulated garlic. Season the veg too if you’re so inclined.
  6. Put roasting pan into the oven. Immediately reduce oven temp to 350F.
  7. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.
  8. You will now enter the patience part of your day. The chicken needs to roast about 25 minutes per pound, or about 2.5 hours. Take the chicken out of the oven ever so often to baste the skin with the chicken juice, but not too often. Future self, keep in mind that taking the chicken out of the oven ever 10 minutes to see if it’s done only make it take longer.
  9. Midway thru, you may need to add a little olive oil to the skin to maintain that overall roasted thing – just keep an eye on things. Later on in the roasting process you’ll be able to baste the chicken with the chicken juice. See above re keeping said chicken in the oven long enough to roast.
  10. Keep on roasting until a meat thermometer registers ~180F in the meatiest section of bird.
  11. Remove pan from oven. Cover with a lid or with foil. Let bird sit for ~10 minutes before carving. Make sure to eat the veg too, they’ve been simmering in chicken juice for 2 hours and are delish.

Sub-set: Yam yam yam

  1. Wash yams and trim the eyelets. If they are large yams, cut in half.
  2. Place in oven-proof pan.
  3. Drizzle with olive oil.
  4. Sprinkle with garlic, salt and pepper.
  5. Roast for 350F for about an hour, until soft when you poke them with a meat thermometer. You can put these into the chicken oven an hour before dinnertime if you’re being economical with time.

Serve all of the above with some kind of green vegetable (I prefer kale myself) because no matter what some carnivores say, chicken is not a vegetable.

Happy eatings!

Garam Masala

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My garam masala recipe:

  • 1/2 cup cumin seeds
  • 1/3 cup whole black peppercorns
  • 1/3 cup green cardamom pods
  • 1 tablespoons whole cloves
  • 4 cinnamon sticks, in pieces
  • 10 bay leaves
  • 1/2 nutmeg, optional

Dry-roast the cumin seeds until they begin to smoke. Cool, and then toss all the ingredients into a coffee grinder and hit frappe until all the lumps are gone. You can grind the spices in batches, then combine all in a jar and shake shake.

PS: The most important thing in this recipe is roasting the cumin seeds.

Soy-ginger basa

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Frozen basa was on sale at the store, so I needed to find someway to cook said basa. Keep in mind that I have no track record of cooking fish, so I was winging it.

And I suceeded.

Soy-ginger basa (serves 2)

Ingredients:

  • 1 basa fillet or other catfish fillet
  • soy sauce
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 1 clove garlic, crushed
  • 1 teaspoon fresh ginger, grated
  • 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chilies
  • Oil

Steps:

  1. Thaw the basa fillet overnight in the fridge
  2. Combine 2 tablespoons soy sauce, the lemon juice, the ginger, garlic, and the chilis in a bowl, and mix well.
  3. Rinse the basa fillet and put into pan or bowl. Pour over the marinade, and marinade for no more than an hour (don’t want the lemon to cook the fish for you)
  4. Preheat the oven to 350F
  5. In oven-proof pan, pour out a little oil to coat the bottom of the fish.
  6. Place fish in pan. You can spoon the marinade over the fish. You might also want to spoon over the fish a bit of soy sauce.
  7. Bake at 350F for 10 minutes or so. The fish is done when it flakes easily.

Serve.

Ground Turkey with Spinach

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Yet another lovely dish I make on a regular basis:

Ingredients:

  • Canola or vegetable oil
  • 1 tbsp. Cumin seeds
  • 1 onion
  • 3 cloves garlic
  • 1 tsp. chili powder
  • 1 tbsp. coriander seeds, crushed
  • 1/2 tsp turmeric
  • 1/2 tsp curry powder (I use Sharwood’s Mild)
  • ~1 pound ground turkey
  • 1 bunch or 1 bag of spinach
  • Salt

Steps

  • Dry-roast the cumin seeds until they begin to smoke. Use a mortar/pestle to  give the cumin a brief crush.
  • Heat the oil in a pan on medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds and wait until the seeds begin to sizzle.
  • Add onion, sizzle for around five minutes
  • Add the spices. Cook another five minutes
  • Drop in the turkey. Sprinkle over some salt. Stir frequently to break up the turkey.
  • After the turkey appears cooked, probably about seven minutes.
  • Thrown in the spinach and cook until the spinach is read to eat.
  • Salt to taste. Serve over rice.

Saturday

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Today is Saturday and I’ve had the first chance in a while to really enjoy the day. I managed to finally tackle the last of the boxes from my move (my June 1 move) and now I’m finally settled in.

Well, sort of. I need another Ikea run (for a Billy and a Poang) and then I should be set.

And now I’m finishing the day with a complicated dinner, including butter chicken and sautéed kale.  And maybe a rewatch of some Sherlock (I have to say, I am looking forward to getting my hands on the DVDs of that (which come out on Aug. 30)).

[/banality]

Heirloom Tomato Salad

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My parents went to see Cirque du Soleil’s Kooza on Friday, and afterwards they came to my house for dinner (my first dinner party!) Only we didn’t have anything to eat, so we swung through Whole Paycheque Foods and came back to my place to make dinner.

Did I mention my mother is a world-class chef?

So anyway, we had a lovely dinner: some sautéed red chard, green olive bread from Terra Breads with a lovely Quebec brie cheese, chicken sausages (which, unfortunately, were the least impressive part of the meal), cobbed corn, and an heirloom tomato salad.

Which was the most delish thing ever.

Which means it’s recipe time!

Heirloom Tomato Salad

Ingredients:

  • 2 large heirloom tomatoes (or other flavourful tomatoes)
  • Half a red onion, diced
  • 300 g or so of feta cheese (goat or cow milk, whatever you like), cut into chunks
  • ~ one cup of assorted olives (kalamta, sicilian… again, whatever you like)
  • handful of fresh basil leaves, ripped up
  • a few shakes of white balsamic vinegar
  • two tablespoons of olive oil (virgin)
  • pinch dried thyme
  • dashes of salt n peppa

Directions

  • Combine.
  • Shake.
  • Let sit in fridge for 30 min.
  • Enjoy!

(what, you though this was complicated?)

Operation Roasted Vegetables: Success!

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So, I moved last month, and now I have a functioning oven (don’t ask). So far, I managed frozen pizza, but I wanted to give an attempt at something not out of a box.

And so:

Operation Roasted Vegetable

Ingredients

a photo of a lovely meal (aka why I don't foodblog)

  • One head garlic
  • One red onion
  • Two medium/small zuchini (or one monster zuchini)
  • One Japanese eggplant
  • One red or orange bell pepper
  • Two golden potatoes
  • One medium tomato
  • 6-10 mushrooms
  • Olive oil
  • Spices

Steps

  1. Preheat the oven to 350F
  2. Slice eggplant into long slices and lay on plate; sprinkle with salt, set aside.
  3. Slice bottom off the head of garlic, leaving the head intact.
  4. Bring out a deep-sided baking pan (glass works best). Pour a dollop of oil into pan; place head of garlic bottom-down into the oil (so the raw side of things is covered.
  5. Wash and slice the remaining veg and throw them into the pan. I sliced most of them into thin vertical slices, except the tomato, which I sliced into rounds.
  6. A note about the potato. Because the potato will take longer to cook than the rest, cut the potato into smallish chunks. Don’t omit it, as it will add a nice base to the dish.
  7. So once everything is in the pan, drizzle over some olive oil and toss the veg.
  8. Sprinkle on some salt, pepper, garlic, and a dash of chili flakes.
  9. Put the pan into the oven.
  10. Bake for an hour to 90 minutes, depending on how much veg you have. Remove the pan twice during the baking period to toss the veg around.
  11. Once you can pierce the potatoes with a fork, you are probably done. Remove pan from oven and let sit for five minutes or so.
  12. Serve.

YUM.

Food blogging

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Have you visited FoodGawker.com yet?  If not, settle in because you’re going to be here for a while.

Some spectacular samples:

Trying to ward off the Bubonic plague? Have a Calisson.

un(e) Calisson

Who wants a heart attack? Why not try these Peanut Butter-Bacon cookies?

mmm, bacon

And finally, some assorted dips:

Great Guacamole

perfect guac

and Excellent Hummus

I think we can all agree that hummus is wonderful