When I'm not at Work

This curry is divine.

Sometimes you just hit the mark - I mean head on, centre, bull's eye. This curry got me right in the best place. I'd been wanting to do a Keema since last week when I got some lovely, fresh peas in my food box (I promise I'll start taking more pics of the food box when it comes - it's so much fun).

I got desperate for something quick and ended up making pea risotto. Don't get me wrong the risotto was thoroughly and comfortingly satisfying (I ate so much of it that I felt sick after - gluton!) but this was really what I had wanted to make. Imagine my joy when this week's food box brought me another bag of fresh peas. Yeah! The universe wanted me to make Keema too.

I didn't have ground beef (and to be honest, it wouldn't be made with ground beef anyway - hello... Hindu - no beef) so I made it out of lean ground pork. Maybe that's what made the difference (it was organic, from Cumbrae Farms). It could also be the fact that summer is here, I'm not working even half as much as I normally do and I'm generally just feeling relaxed and happy... Hey, might be dumb but don't underestimate the power of how you are feeling when you are cooking or baking - No jokes.

The combination of the coconut milk and the meat was divine. Just the right mix of creamy, sweet, salty and spicy. I could eat this for breakfast, lunch and dinner... wait. I said that about risotto. Ugh. It'll be big meals, what can I say.

Keema

serves about 4

1 lb minced beef, goat, pork or lamb

2 tbsp butter

1/2 a large onion, finely chopped

1 1/2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)

1 rib of celery, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, crushed

1 can of coconut milk (about 1 1/2 cups)

2 - 3 tbsp of curry paste (use the heat level that you like best - I used Madras)

1 tbsp garam masala

1 tsp ginger

1 tsp coriander

1 tsp cumin

2 tsp salt

In a large pot, fry the onion in butter over medium heat. Add in the celery, peas and garlic once the onion is getting a little transparent.

After about 5 minutes throw in the minced meat and mix well. Reduce the heat a little. Allow that to cook while you mix the curry paste and spices into the coconut milk. Add the coconut milk mixture into the meat mixture. Allow the liquid to cook down for about 15 min or so. That way it won't be too soupy when it's done. Once things cook down, check the seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Serve over rice or with Naan (yum).

The garden July

Here's a little garden info for all'ya. I've been busy at it this year. To be honest, it gives me a huge amount of joy and satisfaction. I love the flowers and all but it's growing my own food, such as it is, that really gets me.

I started the raspberry patch with one little tiny raspberry plant (can't be called a bush) about 8 years ago or so and now it's taken over about half of my back garden. That's okay though. Truth be told, I was getting a little pissed off that I had so much bloody leaf and so little berry to show for it. This year, finally, it's coming into it's own. If things continue, I figure that by next year I can really start doing something with them. We're getting some hefty bowls of fresh raspberry this crop and there should be another one in the early fall - Sweet. No really... Sweet!

I picked up a couple of tomato plants at Grassroots (Danforth) - organic seedlings - and they're doing gangbusters. I only have four plants but who knows how many tomato's I'll end up with at the end of the day. This one is the biggest one and it's a real bruiser. Can't wait for this one to ripen.

My beans are planted in window boxes (remember the back half of the garden is gone now for raspberries and it's a city garden after all!). I'm hoping that this gets kid #2 (Mr. Finicky) a little more jazzed about beans. I've got some lovely purple variety that I didn't save the name of (figures) that is just behind these green lovelies. Once they get a little bigger I'll slap up a pic of them too ;-)

My fave little veg right now is my little, eensie eggplant. Look how cute. It's just started to bulge out from under the flower pod. I think that it's the most adorable thing ever. I've actually got about 4 more blooms on the plant. I have no clue how many eggplants are a normal yield from one plant. I'll have to check that out.

My cucumbers are also doing well but they haven't started to grow into anything edible just yet... I'll keep you posted.

Peanut Butter Cups

Well not really. These are more like Peanut Butter Cupcakes with a chocolate surprise - ah, there, I gave it away. Anyway, the recipe said Peanut Butter Cups. This is the second recipe that I've made from 'the Pastry Queen' cookbook. To be honest though, the first recipe that I tried should have been spectacular but instead it was a complete flop. I hate it when that happens. It was a white cake that used cake and pastry flour. This was the second or third experience that I've had in which the cake texture when I use cake and pastry flour is terrible. It's gets too flat, almost like a pudding. Gross. If you have any experiences, tips or ideas about using cake and pastry flour please let me know...

Anyway, this recipe is a different thing altogether. It looked interesting on paper and the smell when it was baking was great. The peanut butter isn't overwhelming at all. I have to make the most of summer for baking with peanut butter because once school starts it's no taking peanut butter anywhere. I feel bad for peanut butter sometimes, it really gets a bad rap these days. I know that the allergy is very serious and all, really I do. It's just delish stuff and there it is. I've got another peanut butter recipe stashed away for later, maybe sooner actually.

With these cupcakes, the batter was delish (yes, this is important) and the texture was quite all right. The icing looked a little fiddly at first but the reality was that I just threw some crap into a pot, boiled it, cooled it and then threw in some icing sugar and stirred. No biggy. VERY SWEET!!!! Can't emphasize that enough. If you're not a sweet tooth then do not go for this icing.

Peanut Buttercups with Peanut-Penuche Icing

(the Pastry Queen)

makes about 12 cupcakes

cupcakes

1 3/4 cup all purpose flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1/4 tsp salt

1 1/4 cups dark brown sugar

6 tbsp unsalted butter, room temperature

1/3 cup peanut butter (smooth or chunky- I used natural)

1 cup milk

1 tsp vanilla

2 large eggs

1 bar bittersweet chocolate cut into small squares

Icing

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1/4 cup peanut butter

1/4 cup milk

1 cup brown sugar

1/8 tsp salt

1 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup powdered sugar

Cupcake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line a muffin tin with paper liners or whatever you normally do. Combine the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar in a bowl and mix well. In another bowl combine the butter, peanut butter, milk and vanilla. Mix until everything is well blended. Add in the eggs and beat the mixture for a few minutes. Add the flour mixture and mix well. Fill the muffin cups about half full. Place some chocolate in the batter and then fill the cup with more batter until it goes about 3/4 of the way to the top.

Repeat until the batter is done (I got about 13 cupcakes. Bake for about 30 min. or until a cake tester comes out with just some chocolate on it. Cool for about 10 minutes and then remove from pan to cool completely.

Icing:

Throw the butter, peanut butter, milk and sugar into a heavy bottomed saucepan. Bring to a low boil for 1 1/2 min. Remove from heat and cool for about 30 minutes (not more than). Once cooled, add in the vanilla and icing sugar. Mix until well blended. I let mine sit for a few minutes before icing the cooled cupcakes.

Creamy Chicken

Chicken is one of those meats which I think is often underwhelming. However, it is incredibly versatile and, when it's well done, can be extremely satisfying. Mind you, that all sounds terribly clinical. Hear what, I've already told you about my love of UK food magazines and that's what inspired this recipe. Really though, the recipe coupled chicken with bacon - there's really no down-side here.

Here's the thing... this summer has, in reality, been all about me exploring my 'anglophile' love. I used to wonder if I might have been Indian in a former life, what with my love of Sunday afternoon Bollywood films, the endless desire for curry of any kind and my penchant for colour. However, now I'm realising that it might not be 'Indian' after all. It's more 'English' of me. It's the Brits that really created curry and were generally highly influenced by their presence in India (without going into how much they jacked up the whole place). Plus, I have a deep love, no a need for pub food and beer. In short, I am now leaning more towards having been somewhere in London in my previous life. It all makes much more sense... haha 'Sense'. Whatever, back to the food.

I'm on vacay and it's a friday. Normally, friday is NEVER a cooking day but today is vacay. That changes everything. I've got a lush organic chicken who needs to be dealt with and this lovely recipe completely fit the bill.

I totally over-cooked for kid #2's b'day bash and it's been scorching hot ever since so I haven't cooked a thing in about 5 days. We're all going a little squirelly, I've got some beautiful veggies from my food box that have been sorely neglected all week and the temperature in the house has finally dipped below 28 degrees. Time to cook this bad boy up!!!

Chicken with Bacon

(inspired by BBC Good Food magazine)

serves 4

1 chicken, cut into pieces (about 2 1/2 pounds of chicken pieces)

6 slices of bacon

3 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 cup onion, coarsely chopped

small bunch of fresh herbs (I used chive and parsley from the garden), coarsely chopped

1 1/2 cups chicken stock (can be combined with white wine - which is what I did)

1 cup green beans (use fresh not canned)

1 bunch of spinach (between 3 and 4 cups) coarsely chopped

salt to taste

dash of Angostura Bitters (optional)

1/2 cup sour cream

In a large, heated Dutch oven fry up the bacon. Pull out the bacon and add in the chicken pieces in the leftover bacon fat. Let the chicken cook for about 10 minutes, turning as needed. Once the chicken starts to look browned, push it to the side of the pot and add in the onion, beans and garlic.

Cook in the fat for a few minutes, letting everything cook through a bit. Mix together with the chicken and cook for a few more minutes. Add in the chicken stock/wine mixture and throw in the spinach and the fresh herbs. Let the mixture cook down a bit (about 20 minutes to let the chicken cook through). Season with salt just to taste. Add in the sour cream (or Cream Fraiche, even better) just before serving.

Serve over carb of choice ;-)

What have I done...

We do this at least once every summer. Invite over a whole truck load of people. We are never sure who exactly is going to show up. We cook ridiculous amounts of food. We call one of these events Kid #2's birthday bash. Yes, his birthday is the 4th of July. Great, except we're Canadian but whatever, it's close enough. Kid #1's birthday is December 31st so we've got some kind of holiday thing goin' on.

Now don't get me wrong. I kind of enjoy the frenzy of it, the not knowing for sure what's going to happen or who's gonna show. The crazy amounts of cooking and baking. The days of prep and cleaning. As much as I say that I hate the last minuteness that Derek and I do so expertly - well, there's a reason that we're expert at it, right. Somewhere deep down, I kinda like it.

As usual some people came who weren't expected and others didn't make it. AND as usual we had too much food. Better too much than too little. I suffer from not being able to sit back and truly enjoy my own parties though. I'd love to get some pointers on how to do that exactly - without owning a mansion or having hired help. Any ideas???

Anyway, I made a slew of stuff and my Mom-in-law too. My Mom would have helped out too but her kitchen was getting tiled and you can't cook in a kitchen which is being tiled - ya know?! My contributions were cake (another post), multiple cakes actually, BBQ's chicken, roasted potato's, greek pasta salad and a curried rice (salad???) that is one of my faves. I actually love adding chick peas to this recipe too. It's pretty interchangeable. You could use couscous instead of rice, you could use whatever veggies you have in the fridge. You could use raisins or no. You could serve this warm or cold. You get the idea, this is largely free-form. It is also very yummy and can easily make huge quantities. I made 4 cups of the rice - so probably 6 cups of salad altogether but you could easily half the rice. It's a pretty colour, it has yummy stuff in it and you can keep it outside without worrying about anything going bad. Win, Win, Win.

Curried Rice Salad

serves 10

1 onion, diced small

1 small to med. zucchini, sliced thin

2 small to med. carrots, sliced thin

2 ribs of celery, diced small

1 green pepper, diced small (optional)

2 1/2 cups uncooked long grain rice

5 cups of broth (veg or chicken)

2 tbsp curry paste (more to taste)

3 tbsp Worcestershire sauce

3 tsp soy sauce

2 tsp salt

1 tbsp garam masala

2 tsp coriander

2 tsp cumin

2 tsp turmeric

3/4 - 1 cup raisins

In a large dutch oven heat some oil for frying. Once the oil is ready, saute the veggies until they are a little wilted. Add in the rice and coat thoroughly with the veggies and oil. Add in the broth and let it come to a boil. Once boiling, reduce the heat to a simmer and let the rice simmer for about 15 - 20 min. Until the rice is almost done.

In a bowl mix the curry paste, Worcestershire, Soy Sauce, spices and salt. Add a little water if the paste is too thick. Once the rice is almost done, add in the spice mixture. Mix well. Let the rice finish and check for taste. Adjust seasoning if necessary. Once everything is done cooking, add in the raisins.

As promised...

A few posts ago I was commenting on the blogs of both my sister and my sis-in-law. (I've later learned that my sis-in-law holds down like 3 blogs or something!) I didn't exactly make the recipe that I wanted to for that post because (I hang my head) I got really distracted by this fab looking ice cream that took my breath away (Salted butter caramel ice cream... really, can you blame me?). I've felt bad about it though. I know that my sis-in-law won't say no to a good dose of caramel but her real passion is chocolate. So, here is the recipe that I had planned for that post.

When I was in university I spent a long time researching the best chocolate cake ever. It was a long, hard research project but I got it done. My criteria were: level of difficulty, texture, appearance (although admittedly that's the bottom of the list for me - some of the most delish crap I've eaten looked awful), taste. This cake isn't the cake that's going to blow your socks off when you look at it. It's made in a bundt pan - meh, looks boring but not unappetizing

However, when you slice into this cake and put a slice of it in your mouth... well, that changes everything. Beautiful, satisfying and simultaneously addictive. Silverpalate has found an ideal balance between crumb and moisture. The cake contains both whipped egg whites (I'm still waiting for my stand mixer - doing it all by hand!) and sour cream. A great combination. I've also found that this cake keeps quite well. Even a few days later it doesn't taste awful. You can ice it or not. I iced it here with a simple no-cook choco buttercream. Whipped cream, Mocha or just plain icing sugar dusted would be beautiful too. Can't get any better than that!

I made this cake for kid #2's birthday party recently and it was (once again) a hit. Once again I hang my head because although my brother and 3 nieces were with us from Calgary, sadly, my sis-in-law was not here to enjoy this with us. Ah! A good excuse to make it again when she comes out in a month. You have to try this one!

The Decadent Chocolate Cake

(The Silver Palate Cookbook)

1 cup boiling water

3 oz unsweetened chocolate

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1 tsp vanilla

2 cups sugar

2 eggs separated

1 tsp baking soda

1/2 cup sour cream

2 cups (less 2 tbsp.) all purpose flour

1 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Grease and flour a bundt pan.

Boil the water. Once boiled pour over the butter and the unsweetened chocolate. Let everything melt together and mix well.

In a separate bowl, mix together the flour and baking powder. Set aside. In a large bowl, whip the egg whites until frothy but not stiff. In another bowl mix together the sour cream and the baking soda.

Once the butter and chocolate have melted, add the sugar and vanilla and mix well. To the chocolate mixture add in the egg yolks and mix well.

Add in the sour cream to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Add in the flour mixture to the chocolate mixture and mix well. Fold 1/3 of the egg whites into the batter and then add the rest of the egg whites. Stir just until mixed.

Pour into the prepared pan. Bake for 45 - 50 minutes. Use a cake tester to check for doneness and the sides of the cake should pull away from the pan.

Allow to cool for about 20 min. before removing from the cake pan. Cool completely before icing.

I love Risotto

I do.

I totally love risotto. I could eat risotto for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

I love rice.

I love cheese.

I love peas.

I love wine.

As I've said before, there is nothing that I can think of that woudn't work well in risotto. Hmmm, so why does the thought of rice pudding make me want to blow chunks - doesn't make any sense does it?

I got this totally rad sweet pea stuff in the food box this week. Have I ever shucked (is that even the word?) peas before? No.

Who cares, it was easy and they tasted great. I was torn because I wanted to make curry with them (Keema - Oh Yeah!) but I also got really hungry and then there wasn't any meat thawed and ready to go and then I saw this recipe for pea risotto in the magazine and then... I was making it. I loved this dish so much that I had 3 helpings in about 10 minutes. Now, truth be told, it was about 4:30 and I hadn't eaten lunch yet, so this was like supch or lupper or whatever you want to call it. But, I didn't have this with anything else, just straight up, no meat, no extras. It was great. I love those kinds of meals, driven by necessity and totally satisfying in the end.

I find risotto quite easy to pull off. I'm not sure what the mystery is. Maybe I'm the only one who even thought that there was a mystery! I also used some wine (that I just happened to have chilling in the fridge) from one of my favourite Ontario Wineries (yes, we do have rather good Wineries in Ontario), Coyote's Run.

The addition really does make a difference in the taste, another layer so to speak. As always, you do have to stand and stir but really, what trouble is stirring? Either way, I don't actually find that I'm spending any longer at the stove than for any other recipe and the results are always optimal.

Pea Risotto

(inspired by BBC Good Food magazine)

1/4 cup butter

1/2 cup onion diced fine

1 1/2 cup peas (I got mine fresh from the pod - thanks to the Food Box)

4 cups of chicken or veg. broth heated (I used organic chicken)

2 cups arborio rice

1/2 cup white wine

1/2 cup parmesan cheese

1 - 2 tsp salt to taste

little bit of lemon zest (optional)

In heavy bottomed pan melt the butter and then add the veggies. Let them sweat at a fairly low heat for about 7 min. or so. Add the Arborio rice to the butter and veggies and mix well. Increase the heat just a bit. Once everything is well coated and has kind of warmed up a bit then begin to add in the heated broth by the ladle. Add one ladle and mix well, letting the mixture simmer well (the whole idea with risotto is that it simmers constantly, which is why heating the broth is so important - that way the temperature won't be affected when you add cold liquid). Continue adding by ladleful until the risotto looks like it's started get creamy and fluffy. Begin to test for doneness. Add the wine and continue to mix well (you could continue adding ladles of broth as well). Once the rice looks done add in the salt and the parmesan. Check the tastes and adjust as necessary. Enjoy....