Italian cravings. Indian staples.

Talk about neglect! No post in almost 2 weeks - bad blogger! this is not the way to attract followers :)

I wasn't going for a special theme this week, in fact, I've realized I'm getting further away from the point of my blog, which is the delivery of produce boxes. So...last week, I received my final delivery from Mama Earth Organics.  I really took advantage of the unlimited substitution option ($2 surcharge); trading out about half my box for other items. My one noteworthy sub was small bag of  jerusalem artichokes or sunchokes (the root of a species of sunflower).  I have yet to actually do anything with them, but watch for an upcoming new food adventure!

As of next week, I will be subscribing to my 4th produce box service through Wanigan Fruits and Vegetables.  Sign up was simple online, however they do not offer an online payment option; I received a phone call asking for my credit card number to start delivery.  As with other services, there are a variety of box options ranging in price from $25-$54, which are on par with other companies.  One perk is the ability to make up to 2 substitutions for free with each delivery.  Wanigan's primary focus is organic, followed by local, and seasonal...if you've been following you know by now, I'm of the opposite school of thought...Local FIRST! Alrighty, no more preaching...on with the food!

Toasted Open Face Italian Baguette

Yes, this tasted as incredible as it looks! Whole wheat baguette, topped with spinach, fresh basil, hothouse tomato (MEO), proscuitto, and fresh mozerella - drizzled with EVOO and a couple of twists of fresh cracked pepper. Broiled until the cheese is bubbly and the proscuitto edges are crisp.  Sandwich nights can be fun!

 

Roasted Red Pepper, Swiss Chard, & Macedonian Feta Frittata

 

We're not huge egg eaters around here.  Other than an occasional greasy breakfast, eggs are usually reserved for baking.  This frittata was inspired by the ingredients, and my quest to start upping our number of meatless dinners (shhh, don't tell Rory!).  I bought my cast iron skillet 4 or 5 years ago when I started really getting in to cooking, thinking any respectable home cook should have one - this is probably the 3 or 4th time I've used it.  I will definitely start making better use of it, as I think frittatas will now be on our regular rotation - so simple, so delicious!

 

Ingredients (makes 4 servings)

• 6 eggs
• 1 bunch swiss chard, chopped into 1" pieces (steamed for 3-4 minutes) (MEO)
• 1/2 medium sized onion, chopped finely
• 1 roasted red pepper, chopped (I actually bought a jar for the recipe below - ensure they're not preserved in vinegar!)
• 2-3 oz of Macedonian Feta, crumbled (found it at Sobey's at the deli/cheese counter - it's creamier than the Greek stuff)
• 2 tsp EVOO
• s&p to taste

1. Preheat oven to 375F, rub the surface of your cast iron skillet with a paper towel soaked with some canola oil.
2. Heat EVOO in skillet over med heat, add onion (garlic would be great too, just didn't have any), and sautee until translucent.
3. Add red pepper and swiss chard, sautee for another minute.
4. Meanwhile, whisk up eggs and add s&p, easy on the salt, the feta is nice and salty already.
5. Reduce heat to low, add eggs, and cook on stove top (don't mess around with the eggs!) for 2-3 minute.
6. Pop the skillet in the oven, and cook for 10-12 minutes.
7. Remove skillet and top with feta, let sit for 3-5 minutes (until the feta's melted slighty), and serve!

Turkey Involtini  

 

This was a recipe entered in to the Nutrition Month Recipe Contest that a colleague and I organized for the hospital where we work.  It won 2nd prize!  I'm still waiting on permission from it's author to publish her name on my blog - but here is my version of her recipe.

 

Ingredients

• 1 bunch of fresh rapini
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 4 or more garlic cloves, finely chopped
• Turkey breast - (ask your butcher to butterfly and flatten making two large pieces, or use 8 individual turkey cutlets, 50-100g per person)
• Macedonian feta
• Roasted red pepper (optional)
• s&p

Directions

1. Cook the rapini in a large pot of boiling salted water for 5-7 minutes. Drain. (the original recipe also called for a bunch of spinach - however, I did not use it when I made the recipe - unfortunately, I didn't have access to a butcher to get my turkey butterflied, and did it myself, leaving 4 awkwardly butterflied pieces, which the rapini on it's own more than filled. I also steamed my rapini rather than boiled)
2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat. Add garlic and remove from heat just as the garlic turned golden. Cool slightly.
3. Combine the spinach/rapini and garlic/oil in a bowl.
4. Season turkey filets with s&p. Divide the rapini/spinach mixture amoung the slices. Cut the Macedonion feta in thin slices and divide them among the turkey pieces on top of the spinach/rapini
5. (Optional) Top feta with slices of red pepper
6. Roll up the turkey pieces to enclose filling, making sure to tuck in the ends and secure with toothpicks. Rub the roll ups with olive oil, season with s&p, and place them toothpick side down in a roasting pan.
7. Roast at 400 on middle rack - smaller rollups 30-40 minutes, larger rollups 60-75 minutes. (Mine needed about 35)
8. Remove from oven and use the drippings in the roasting pan to make a sauce. Add a 1/2 cup of white wine, and about a Tbsp of flour to thicken (I made a sauce using 1/2 cup chicken broth, juice from 1/2 a lemon, and 1 Tbsp of flour)

This is a really great, really easy (especially if you get the butcher to butterfly the meat!) and very impressive dish.  Great for company!

Patak's Chicken Korma and Papadums 

 

 

This is far from scratch cooking, but I wanted to post, because it's one of our favourite meals to share with people new to indian food.  I made this dinner for Rory, his Dad and I during our visit to his Dad's place this past weekend.  Because his kitchen isn't stocked with Indian spices, this is a great way to cook up an interesting meal without having to splurge on spices that may never be used up.  The sauce is Patak's Korma, a coconut based curry sauce flavoured with garlic, ginger, and coriander - it's Patak's mildest curry sauce, great for first timers! I simply sautee onions and chicken, add the sauce, and simmer for 15 minutes or so.  In the meantime, you can cook up some basmati rice, and the can't-do-curry-without pappadums (light and crispy indian flatbread made from lentil flour) to scoop up all the deliciousness! A couple of minutes before you take the curry off the stove, throw in some frozen peas to appease your inner dietitian ;)

 

Spring is here! I've been told that fiddle heads are popping up in my best friend's back yard!!! I'm crossing my fingers that I get some with an upcoming delivery!

 

Happy Eating!!! 

Kosher bloggin'

At sundown Tuesday evening, the Jewish holiday of Passover ended -  shortly thereafter, I feasted on a very un-kosher seafood pad thai and cocunut curry...Reason being, I decided to observe the rules of passover this year...foodwise of course.  A couple of my Jewish friends have the wonderful tradition of sharing a meal with their families every Friday night.  The fanfare around celebrating food with your family gets kicked up a few hundred notches when is comes to celebrating Passover.  I have personally witnessed my Jewish coworker's exhaustion (and indigestion!) following passover Seders, a ritual feast that marks the beginning of the 8 day festival.  This eating kosher for passover challenge also lends itself to being an interesting blog post ;)

The abridged 'wiki' version is that Passover commemorates the story of the Exodus, in which the Israelites/Hebrews (Jews are modern decendants) were freed from slavery in Egypt.  In the story, God inflicts ten plagues upon the Egyptians - the tenth plague being the killing of every firstborn male. The Hebrews were instructed to mark the doors of their homes with blood of a spring lamb and upon seeing this, the spirit of the Lord passed over these homes.  When Pharaoh freed the Hebrews, it is said that they left in such a hurry that they could not wait for bread to rise. In commemoration, for the duration of Passover no leavened bread is eaten, for which reason it is called "The Festival of the Unleavened Bread". 

Now the unleavened bread rule is a little more complicated than one would think!  Products made from the traditional five species of grain: wheat, rye, barley, spelt and oats, are forbidden unless specifically labelled Kosher for Passover.  Some Jews (there are many different observance levels) also avoid rice, beans (think soy), other legumes (peanuts), and corn...pretty much all grains, other than quinoa strangely enough.  Now, there are loads of kosher products out there, but kosher for passover is a different ballgame!  Processed foods are basically OUT! no corn oil, soy bean oil, soy lecithin, corn or wheat starch etc...almost all food additives come from corn, soy or wheat!

The full-time kosher rules also apply and include no pork, no shellfish, and no meals with a combination of dairy and meat.  I just learned this last rule comes from old text that suggests eating milk and meat together cause disease. This is obviously now a rule followed for tradition purposes.

So what can I eat?! Well...fruits and veg are unlimited.  Dairy and meat are too, but should be marked 'kosher for passover'.  I don't have easy access to Kosher meat/ dairy, so I bought those items from my 'hood, but didn't eat meat outside the home.  Matza...the traditional passover unleavened bread is encouraged...think cardboard, or eucharist if you're Christian.  I've posted a photo above with my dinner one night.  A veggie antipasto (tomatoes, onions, vinegar, olives, tuna, sugar...and no un-kosher additives) and matzo. Well rounded eh?!

I did pretty well - only cheated intentionally once - Easter dinner, I had a piece of amazingly-well-worth-it tiramisu.  This broke a couple of rules, the ladyfingers were obviously a no-no, but since we ate beef tenderloin for dinner - I mixed milk and meat. blasphemy!  However, I cooked an entirely kosher meal for Easter! (no photos unfortunately)

Roasted garlic, leek, and turnip soup

Oven roasted Beef Tenderloin (medium rare)

Roasted cauliflower and brocolli

green salad with a red wine vinaigrette

No one missed the bread/rice/stuffing/corn/rolls at all!

To be honest, it wasn't all that hard! I cooked quinoa for the first time ever and loved it! It will be on the regular rotation in our house.  A wonderful whole grain option, that only takes about 12 minutes to cook.  I cooked a couple of big batches, and used it as both a side (as seen below with roasted beets, and sauteed chicken thighs - this is a photo of our leftovers for lunches), as a base for a stirfry (with sautee kale, onions, tomato, garlic and balsamic vinegar - not pictured), and as a hot breakfast 'cereal' heated with a little milk, topped with dried apples, cranberries and honey - this was AMAZING!) 

I ate so much produce this past week! And I had a wonderful delivery last tuesday, which included the mango, kiwi and strawberry combo I packed for lunch one day with plain yogurt and a dollop of my homemade strawberry jam (that I made last summer).

I got to try some tradional passover foods too - compliments of Dara who goes all out with her mom for the holiday preparing everything from scratch!

Gefilte fish - basically boiled fish balls - I truly was reluctant to try these, they're traditionally made with carp and/or pike, but they pretty much tasted like a light and flaky low sodium tuna - dare I say, it was tasty!

Charoset - kind of an apple salsa - with nuts and cinnamon and sugar

Pesach - a beet and horseradish condiment - DEELISH!  especially along with charoset on mazta...hits all the flavour notes, sweet, savoury, bitter, sour, and a little spicy!

I found the challenge was going out to eat.  Of course it had to be that I went out to eat 3 times during passover!  The very first night of Passover was a scheduled 'social' evening with my volleyball team... wings and beer are standard fare.  Not for me!  I'll have the portabello mushroom salad please! with a vodka soda...oh ya, no booze (think grains) except for vodka, which can be distilled from potatoes (although likely not in this case), no pop either...because of the evil high fructose corn syrup.  Still, I tried!  Now my team thinks I'm a crazy health nut.

While travelling to Windsor for Easter, we went out a couple of times with my parents too - I stuck to salads, but I suppose now that I think about it, I cheated with fries...not the potatoes, but the oil! Unless they were cooked in olive or canola oil, which I'm positive they weren't...not Kosher! 

I have to say, I'm happy to be back in to the swing of things.  I'm glad it's only an 8 day holiday...I don't know how long I could go without the grains - nothing beats a satisfying carbohydrate rich snack when you're starving, and matza's just not cuttin' the mustard for me! 

Tonight for dinner...shellfish and pork cooked in butter and smothered with cheese!!

JJ ;)  I do need to get by cooking pants on though!!! I've been seriously slacking with my posts!

L'Chayim friends!!!!

p.s. sadly, I didn't learn this Hebrew translation of 'cheers' from any of my Jewish friends...I picked it up from the Black Eyed Peas song - I Gotta Feeling...yup, pop culture junkie here!