When I'm not at Work

Garlic Scapes and Asparagus - Seasonal Food

Well honestly until about a month ago I had never heard of these things. Garlic scapes. Didn't have a clue what they were when I first saw the words in print. Turns out though that garlic works a bit like onions. There is more than one edible part to an onion and so, also, with garlic scapes. The stem of the garlic eventually starts to spiral as it grows but never gets nearly as pungent as the garlic bulb itself. There are tons of recipes out there (seriously... who knew?) using garlic scapes in pesto and that kind of thing.

So, my friend KT was at the Riverdale Market recently and picked up some of these garlic scapes. A grower from Belleville ON brought them in. She got so much of it that she (well, I should really correct that and say her hubby b/c he's the main cook in the fam) couldn't use them all up. I was lucky enough to be the recipient of the 'too much' part. What's more, she also couldn't use up all of the delish (seriously delish) goat cheese that she picked up at the market. So 'guess-who' got that too !!! Yeah! I love it when friends go to the market.

Now, what to do with these things. As I mentioned, I saw lots of 'pesto' recipes for garlic scapes, a garlic scapes and brie pizza, garlic scapes stir fry... nothing was hitting me. I also wanted to incorporate that gorgeous goat cheese. So I chopped the garlic scapes, threw in some asparagus that needed some assistance, a little onion, a little goat cheese and VOILA. We have pasta sauce!

Garlic Scapes and Asparagus Pasta

serves 4 - 6

2 - 3 tbsp oil

1/2 onion, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 cups of chopped garlic scapes

2 cups of chopped asparagus

3 tbsp fresh herbs of choice (parsley, basil, oregano - nice choices)

salt to taste

1 cube of bouillion (I used organic vegetable)

1 cup goat cheese

1 cup milk or cream

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

2 cups of uncooked pasta (4 cups of cooked pasta if you are using leftover) - I used Penne

In a large pan, heat the oil and add the onion, frying it until it softens. Add in the garlic and fry together for a couple of minutes. Add in the garlic scapes and the asparagus. Saute until they begin to look a little limp (this could take about 7 - 10 min). Add in the herbs, a little salt and bouillion and mix in until it's like a paste.

At this point begin to boil some water for the pasta (if not using leftovers).

Once the paste forms add in the goat cheese and mix until melted in. Once melted in, add the milk or cream and the parmesan. Check for taste and adjust if necessary.

Drain the pasta and toss into the sauce.

Another Smoked Paprika recipe and a change of allegiance

As you all must know by now, I loved Gourmet magazine (well, most of the time) *sigh*, RIP. What you might not know is that I'm addicted to magazines. I have a serious addiction that I constantly have to contain. I could seriously spend unbelievable amounts of money on monthly magazines (this is both disturbing and embarrassing for me to admit due to both my commitment to better my environment and my 'tight-wad' tendencies - OK). Which is why I was so happy to discover that one of the teachers at my school runs a magazine drive each year for the students (prizes for magazine subscription sales - you get the picture) and teachers get a tidy discount on their subscriptions. Well, I'm like a kid in a candy shop, right! Where do I start. I did get two subscriptions to prominent Canadian magazines that have everything in them, including recipes. Now they aren't half bad, these magazines, but let me take you back with me to 2002 (Yes, another World Cup Year) when we went off to London (Yes, during the World Cup) to spend time with friends/family and generally be tourists. It was in the Sainsbury's near D's cousins house that I discovered magazine heaven and it was there that I discovered that Brit magazines blow the crap out of north american ones - yes... all popular north american ones. No jokes!

Back to the present, I discovered at my local Chapters that I can get BBC's Food magazine. Yes... I pay through the nose but damn, that thing is worth five of the other magazines that are half the price. I'm hooked again and I'm sorry to all my North American food magazines but I'm divorcing you and hooking up with a foreigner.

Here is just one of the recipes that converted me forever...

Patatas Bravas with chorizo (from BBC's Good Food magazine)

serves 4 (they say it's an appetizer but I like it as a meal)

1 tbsp olive oil

1 onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves (I used 3), sliced

1 red chili (didn't have, it didn't matter)

pinch cayenne pepper

pinch smoked paprika (I used about 2 tsp in total)

salt to taste

500 ml (approx.) of canned, chopped tomato

2 lb new potato halved or quartered (steamed for about 10 min. to soften)

250 g (I used about 2 - 2 1/2 cups) chorizo sausage chopped in large chunks

my addition:

4 cup of spinach

Heat a little oil in a med. to large pan and fry the onion, garlic and chili until the onion softens. Add the spices and stir. Add in the chorizo and let it sizzle a bit with the spices. Add in the tomato and spinach. Mix the spinach in so it's covered in liquid and begins to boil down.

Simmer the mixture for about 20 minutes to let the liquid escape and the flavours to get stronger. Once it's boiled down, add in the steamed potato and mix it all well. Check the taste and adjust as necessary. Put a lid on the pot and let it sit for a bit before serving.

Rice, Rice, Rice

Oh Man! I really hate it when I don't have the ingredients that I need. I haven't been doing a big grocery shop lately. I've been relying on the food box (I can get stuff other than just veggies and fruit - thank God!) and stopping in at the local 'Valu-Mart' on the way home from work. So far, it's worked fine... You know... a dozen eggs here, some milk on the way home, bread in the food box once a week. But you know things are really slipping when you run out of rice and forget to replace it! So, what happens is I get 3/4 of the way through this recipe and discover that I don't have rice.

I'm stunned.

I take a moment to regroup.

Okay, I can use pasta and turn this into a pasta sauce thing. Thinking...

No, I don't want to do that. I want rice.

Ok. Put a lid on the pot and keep it 'til tomorrow, at which point I will have bought rice and ... done.

That is precisely what I do. Come home from work the next day with a bag of rice in hand and get'r'done.

This dish is a great way to use up leftover rice - or veggies that you want to use up - and you could substitute any other interesting sausage in there too. I called this post 'Rice, Rice, Rice' because I truly don't know what to call this recipe. It's kind of a kitchen sink thing. Tomato, veggies, hot sausage, smoked paprika. I don't know... call it whatever you want but don't call it tasteless because that would be a lie!

Rice/Tomato/Sausage/Veggie Dish (shoulder shrug)

serves 6

1 onion, diced small

2 ribs celery, diced small

1 small to medium sized zucchini, sliced small

1 bunch spinach, washed and sliced

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

6 hot italian sausage, cooked and sliced thin

4 cups of rice (I cooked the rice until it was about 3/4 cooked and then added it to the dish)

6 - 7 dashes of Worcestershire Sauce

4 dashes of Bitters (optional)

1/4 cup fresh herbs (oregano, thyme, parsley works well)

1 tbsp smoked paprika

3 tsp salt (to taste)

dash of pepper sauce

1 large can of diced tomato

I used organic chicken bouillion cubes as well which will alter the amount of salt needed - so if you choose to use bouillion I would wait to add salt until after this so that you can adjust the taste.

(If you don't have leftover rice - In a medium sized pot, boil some water to get the rice started. Once boiling add 2 cups of rice and cook until about 3/4 cooked.) On another element, heat a large dutch oven. Once heated add some oil (about 2 - 3 tbsp or so) and begin to saute the vegetables. Once the onions have become limp and transparent add in the cooked, sliced sausages. Saute for a few minutes together. Begin to add the spices (holding off on the salt if necessary. Add in the worcestershire, bitters and pepper sauce. Add the canned tomato and then the rice. Allow everything to cook until the rice is done. Check the seasonings and adjust as necessary.

Orange Cookies

Today I went with my daughter and the Eco-Club at my school to City Hall. We were staying there for lunch and visiting the new Green Roof that has just opened recently. We also got to meet with the Deputy Mayor - Joe Pantalone - who was instrumental in getting the green roof installed. We were also celebrating our schools success at getting 'Silver' Eco School Certification. We sat in the rooftop garden and ate our lunch (litterless, of course ;-). The weather was perfect. I was able to bring my daughter with me and we had a great time.

This all, fortunately, coincided with my baking day (usually either Sunday or Monday). So, I was able to share these fantastic cookies with some of my colleagues. We thoroughly enjoyed them. I'm not kidding when I tell you fantastic. I can't even tell you exactly what makes these cookies work but man, do they work! Do not skip the frosting (as I briefly considered) on these babies. It would be tragic.

Caroline over at 'Whipped' wrote that these cookies could change the world. Ah... if only it were so easy. However, I think that we could at least get a few minutes of world peace with these ones....

Orange Frosted Cookies

1 cup shortening (or butter - I used unsalted at room temperature)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 - 3 tbsp fresh orange juice (about 1 orange)
1 tbsp orange zest
2 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt

Frosting:

3 cups icing sugar
1/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
2 - 3 tbsp fresh orange juice
1 -2 tbsp grated orange zest

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
In a bowl mix the flour, baking soda and salt together and set aside. In a larger bowl mix together the butter and sugar and mix/whip until fluffy. Add the egg and orange juice and mix well. Add in the orange zest until mixed in. Add in the flour, baking soda and salt and mix well. Place in smallish spoons on a lined cookie sheet and bake for about 10 - 12 minutes.
Allow them to cool completely.

In another bowl sift the icing sugar and then add the butter and about 1 or 2 tbsp of the orange juice. Mix well and add the last tbsp or so once it needs it (wait until things have gotten mixed a bit though). Once the mixture looks like it's the right consistency (ie. not too runny) add in the orange zest.
Spread about a tbsp full of icing onto the top of each completely cooled cookie.

Boring but delish comfort food

Up to now I have had a very small repertoire when it came to pasta sauce:

1. Something creamy

2. Something in a tomato sauce... which I had always referred to as Bolognese.

Recently though, I have discovered that Bolognese doesn't really involve tomato at all, at least not in the 'throw in a bottle of crushed tomato' kind of involvement. Also, Bolognese (so I'm told) can have butter in it - yeah... butter!

Well that revelation certainly peaked my interest. I'm all mixed up though because now I don't know what to call the tomato stuff (I'll do a post with that stuff though 'cause I like it - I've got it down to a science now), in the UK they call it 'bog' or 'bol'.

In any case, I was checking out this article in Saveur magazine a while ago and it's changed the way that I think about simple pasta sauces (we'll talk about Spaghetti alla Carbonara at some point) because this is just minced meat and some very simple additions. I love the milk/cream addition and now greatly appreciate how important good parmesan is to a recipe. I can't tell you how happy you will be if you spend a little extra on some good parmesan, generally of course, but especially here.

So, if like me, you have some short people bothering you constantly with 'Mommy... what's for dinner' and you are finding yourself in need of some easy, comforting food that you can make without serious effort or thought... you've found your recipe. Open a nice bottle of red and throw some green stuff on the side and you're good to go!

(Wanda's) Classic Bolognese

serves 4

1 lb of mince (beef or lamb would work nicely - both?)

good sized chunk of Pancetta (ok - definitely use a few slices of bacon in a pinch)

2 ribs celery, diced

1 small onion, sliced thin

1 small pepper, diced

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 good dollops of butter

3 tbsp Worcestershire Sauce

1 tbsp dijon mustard

oregano, basil (fresh or dried) to taste

4 tbsp sugar

3 tsp salt

dash pepper sauce (should you so desire)

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup cream

1/2 cup milk

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

In a heated Dutch oven add the pancetta and the mince. Let it cook enough to release some of the fat. Once fat is in the pan add the veggies and cook together with the meat until the onions become limp and transparent (won't take too long - 4 min. maybe).

Add in the butter, Worcestershire and dijon. Cook together for a few minutes. Add in the herbs, sugar and salt. Cook together again for a few minutes. Add in the tomato paste and mix it into the liquid in the bottom of the pan. Once blended add in the cream, milk and parmesan. Cook at very low heat for about 30 hr.

Serve over pasta of choice - we like long ones for this recipe.

What to do when you don't know what to do.

Sometimes it's all about necessity. You don't want to, you probably don't have time to but it has to happen. It's like being dead tired and it's late and you just want to crawl into bed but you and your kids have no clean gitch (underwear in my sister's language) for the next day. So, you haul your ass (and your clothes basket) to the washing machine and make it happen.

This cake was kind of like that for me this week. As you all know, I'm trying my hand at doing it all (or as much of it as I can manage) by hand. That means not buying junk food, snack food, processed food - you know the drill. So, if I want to have something sweet and nibbly for our week then I have to make it. This time though, it was driven by necessity and a serious case of 'now or never'. Dying sour cream in the fridge, Sunday afternoon (and trust me, once the week starts this just won't happen) and it's gotta get done.

So, instead of the washing machine it was plunking my ass in front of the computer screen and checking out sour cream recipes at epicurious.com and this is what I ended on. The cake itself was a bit half-assed for me. You are supposed to use Maple Sugar - which I don't have and had no intention of going out to get (although I did have some mean organic maple syrup handy - nice, tidy, dark stuff) mostly because I haven't the foggiest about where to get it. I just used plain old brown - so it did affect the maple taste significantly. As a result, I found the cake a little on the sweet side so in future I would cut the brown sugar by a bit. I didn't make the glaze business either. The reasons for that were two-fold:

1. I was afraid that if it stayed on the cake for more than a day or so that the cake might get quite soggy (and also I would have to refridgerate the cake due to the sour cream)

2. Too damn lazy!

Poor cake - I'm not really selling it here but for all that it was quite nice. It did well by us for the week and I would definitely make it again.

Sour Cream Maple Cake (without the Lemon Glaze)

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup sour cream

1/4 cup maple syrup

1/2 cup walnuts

1/4 cup and separately 1 1/3 cups brown sugar

1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

13 tbsp (WTF???), read 3/4 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 lg eggs

2 tsp vanilla

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F

Grease and flour a bundt pan.

In one bowl mix together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt. In another bowl, whisk together the sour cream and maple syrup.

In a third bowl mix together the nuts, 1/4 cup of brown sugar and the cinnamon.

In a fourth bowl (you're going to do lots of washing here!) cream the butter and 1 1/3 cups brown sugar until fluffy. Gradually beat in the eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add the flour in three additions (mixing well after each), alternating with 2 additions of the sour cream mixture.

Pour about 2/3 of of cake batter into the prepared pan. Cover with the nut/sugar mixture. Pour the remaining batter on top. Spread evenly.

Bake for about 50 - 55 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Cool about 10 - 15 min. before removing from pan to cool completely.

This is where I ended.

The Glaze though goes like this:

1 1/3 cups icing sugar

3 tbsp sour cream

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 1/2 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Mix ingredients thoroughly in a bowl and set aside for about 30 minutes. Add to the cake just before serving.

Curry in a beautiful basket.

When something looking like this comes into your life...

You have to write about it. I mean, look at those beautiful little baskets! 'What's in them?' You ask??? Well, spices, of course. Beautiful, organic curry leaves and turmeric. They are also Fair Trade and come in adorable little baskets!! These little beauties are on special all month from the company that brings my organic food box and believe me, I'm taking advantage of the special. Last months special was Cocoa Camino Chocolate and yeah... I took advantage of that one too.

Well, when these lovely little baskets emerged from my food box, I just knew that I would have to cook with them immediately. Fortunately I had some fresh veggies to work with.

As I've mentioned before, I've been diggin' veggie food lately and with fresh stuff to go with, who needs the meat?

Well, actually this curry would be just as nice with something red. Anyway, meat didn't make it into this one. I made a delish curry with mushrooms, spinach and coconut milk. The mushrooms really give your teeth something to sink into and the coconut milk is sweet, smooth and makes you feel all warm inside.

Spinach and Mushroom Curry

5 cups mushrooms, halved

1 bunch (about 4 cups or so) spinach, stems removed and sliced thin

1/2 onion, diced small

4 cloves garlic, crushed

3 tbsp garam masala

3 - 4 curry leaves

2 tbsp cumin

2 tbsp turmeric

1 tsp each, coriander, ginger, cardamom

2 tsp salt (or to taste)

1 can coconut milk

In a large, heated Dutch oven saute mushrooms and onions over medium heat. Use whatever oil of choice (I like clarified butter or leftover meat fat). Once things get a little wilted add in the garlic and the spinach. As the spinach wilts, form a paste with all the spices (use a little bit of water for this). Add the paste into the vegetables, mix well. Add in the coconut milk and add extra water if needed. Turn the heat down and let it simmer gently for about a half hour. Check the taste and add salt if needed.

Serve over rice.