Asian Quinoa Salad

I flipped through quite a lot of recipes books searching for some kind of vegetable dish to bring to a potluck - something fresh, that wouldn't take too much effort, that would age well in the fridge (read: able to make the day prior), and of course that would be beautiful and tasty. Once again, BC Liquor stores Taste magazine came to my rescue! Who knew a free promo for the liquor store could have so many good recipes??

The salad has protein from the quinoa and peanuts (originally it was supposed to have shrimp, but why make life more complicated than it needs to be) and lots of fresh veggies and herbs. My only complaint was the tamarind paste, or namely the fact that we just have a block of tamarind pulp that has to be boiled with water and arduously pressed through a metal strainer in order to create paste ... next time I am buying the paste in a jar and shortcutting this ridiculous step! Note the recipe below probably serves about 8-10.

Asian Quinoa Salad
1 c. quinoa
2 c. water
1 tsp salt
1 lemon, juice and zest

1/2 Napa cabbage, julienned or shredded
2 large red bell peppers, julienned or diced
2 large carrots, peeled and shredded
2 c. sprouts, cut in halves or quarters
1 1/2 - 2 medium red onions, finely sliced
1 c. cilantro, coarsely chopped
1 c. basil, julienned (I used a combination of fresh basil and dried Thai basil)
1/2 c. mint, julienned
1 c. dry roasted peanuts (I dry toasted mine in a skillet which brought out a nice flavor - buy red skinned peanuts with skin on)

6 Tbs rice vinegar
2-3 limes, juice and zest
4 Tbs fish sauce
2 tsp garlic chili paste
3-4 Tbs tamarind paste
4 Tbs honey
6 Tbs vegetable or peanut oil

1. Bring quinoa, water, lemon juice, salt and zest to a boil. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low and cook for 15-20 minutes until done. Fluff and set aside (uncovered or transferred to another container) to cool.
2. Stir together all the veggies and herbs. LEAVE OUT THE PEANUTS UNTIL READY TO SERVE. If you're feeling lazy like me, I used the grater option of my food processor to cut up the cabbage and carrots.
3. Combine all the dressing ingredients and shake well to blend.
4. In a large bowl, mix quinoa, veggies and dressing together. Let sit for at least 4 hours in the fridge before serving. Stir in peanuts when ready to eat.

Coffee-Spice Shortbread

Nothing is more gratifying than taking a dish to a potluck and having people rave about it. Or having people confess they don't like certain spices or flavors only to be told those spices/flavors are in the consumed good! It's nice to surprise people and broaden their culinary horizons. The interesting thing about this recipe is the fascinatingly delicious combination of coffee plus cardamom, ginger and cinnamon flavors. I love that ginger appears in 3 different parts of the dessert and that the shortbread itself, perhaps due to the coffee taste, does not have the overwhelmingly buttery taste of plain shortbread. The spice of the crystallized ginger is a nice balance to the sweetness of the white chocolate frosting. I made up my own frosting (and am guessing at the quantities used so I apologize if it's not quite accurate), but the base is from Bon Appetit's Dec 2010 issue.

 

Coffee-Spice Shortbread with Crystallized Ginger
2 c. all purpose flour
3/4 c. dark brown sugar, packed
2 Tbs plus 2 tsp ground coffee beans (decaf)
2 tsp ground ginger
1 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground cardamom
1/2 tsp salt
1 c. chilled unsalted butter (or if you use salted butter, use only half the amount of salt at most)

Frosting:
white chocolate chunks
whipping cream
canola oil
icing sugar
ground cardamom
ground ginger

Topping:
Diced candied ginger

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees F. 
2. Mix all dry ingredients except butter in a food process for 5 seconds.
3. Add cubed butter to food processor and use on/off turns until moist clumps begin to form.
4. Gather dough into a ball and split in half. Press each half into a 9" tart pan with removeable bottom.
5. Bake shortbread 25 minutes. Rotate pans and bake another 20 minutes.
6. Cool shortbread in pans 5 minutes, then remove from pans and cut into 12 wedges each.
 7. To make frosting, place whipping cream (~1/8 of a cup?) and white chocolate chunks (~3/4 - 1 c.) in a saucepan (or double boiler) and warm gently, whisking to combine melted chocolate.
8. When all the chocolate is almost melted, beat in the canola oil (~3-4 Tbs) , icing sugar (~1/4 c. icing sugar), cardamom (1/2 tsp) and ginger (1/2 tsp). Let cool slightly to thicken, then spread on cooled shortbread.
9. Top with candied ginger.

Rugelach Time

Well once again I was forced to bake something (haha) that was horribly rich and fattening, just to use up some old goat cheese. Life is tough sometimes. So if you find yourself with very fragrant goat cheese, or cream cheese, I recommend incorporating it into a rugelach dough. The nice thing about the dough is you can make it and leave it in your fridge for 2-3 days before finishing off the process of filling and baking them. Traditional fillings include a poppy seed sugar mixture, raisins/walnuts/cinnamon/sugar, jams, etc. The flavors of fillings I used for my rugelach were amazing, but I still have to learn how to create a filling that doesn't ooze everywhere when baking. For my first batch, I used apricot jam and chopped walnuts (note it is very important to press any kind of nut filling into the dough with your rolling pin before attempting to roll the rugelach up!) These were wife's favorites. Only before she banned me from any more baking because she wasn't able to resist eating platefuls of rugelach and feeling slightly ill afterwards :) For my second batch, I attempted to follow a recipe for poppy seed filling but completely botched the instructions so just ended up making my own version. Heated up poppy seeds, water, honey, and a bit of sugar-- simmering until thickened and then stirred in some chopped semi-sweet chocolate and cocoa powder (to get the right sweetness levels) until melted. Worked for me!
 
  

Apricot-walnut filling pressed into dough, before rolling

Chocolate-poppy seed rugelach before baking

Baked apricot walnut rugelach!

Fig Onion Pizza

In addition to beer bread, one can also make beer bread pizza dough. And if one happens to have been given figs on the same occasion that one has leftover beer for pizza dough, one can make a fig-caramelized onion pizza. The pizza does need some kind of acid/salt to balance the sweetness of the figs and onions so a balsamic reduction glaze drizzled over top would work well. We used manchego cheese, but goat cheese would probably be excellent too. Fancy, eh?

Beer Bread!

One of the many perks to having a keg of beer at your party, in addition to actually drinking the beer, is using up the leftover beer to make beer bread. Loaves and loaves of beer bread. Beer bread with cheese,  cheese and herbs, cheese and garlic, walnuts, green onions and cheese, walnuts and raisins - so many options! I can't remember where I got this recipe (probably allrecipes.com) but I have used it without fail over and over again. Note, if you have leftover cider instead of beer, you can use it to make a sweet breakfast bread. Stir in some cinnamon, cloves, etc, and possibly add a layer of jam in the middle of the dough. It works wonderfully!

Beer Bread

3 c. all purpose flour

2 Tbs baking powder

3-4 Tbs sugar

1 tsp salt

1 can/bottle of beer (~341 ml)

Optional: 1 c. grated cheddar cheese, tsp of thyme/oregano/and basil, 1/2 tsp of garlic powder, etc. etc.

1. Sift dry ingredients together. If adding optional ingredients, stir  in next.

2. Pour beer into well in the centre of dry ingredients. Mix just until the dough comes together.

3. Place in a greased 9 x 4" loaf pan (butter, margarine, whatever) and bake for 50-60minutes at 350 degrees F.

4. Let cool in pan for 3-4 minutes before flipping out onto a rack to finish cooling (this prevents soggy bread bottoms!)

Cheese beer bread

"Meat" Balls in BBQ Sauce

My mother gave me 5 jars of homemade ketchup - ketchup that I sadly did not care for at all. It was simultaneously too vinegary and sweet. Bestirring myself to use my superpowers of frugality (because after all the ketchup came from my mom's tomatoes), it occurred to me that this ketchup might well be coaxed into a lovely BBQ sauce, a sauce that would go perfectly with roasted faux meatballs in the oven! And lo and behold upon adding some molasses, maple syrup, instant coffee, cocoa powder, and Tabasco sauce, it worked! In fact, the meatballs in BBQ sauce have been used all week long as delicious sandwich filling! Unfortunately I did not measure any of my sauce making and since you will probably never have bad homemade ketchup (or alternately a bad homemade ketchup that no one else can replicate), there is no point in including a sauce recipe. The meatball recipe is below, but I will say as a warning that I didn't particularly love the flavor of these meatballs on their own. They really needed the BBQ sauce to become stellar...

Vegan Meatballs
1 c. cooked green lentils
2 c. cooked brown rice (I would use white rice if I made this again - brown rice can be unpleasantly crunchy at times)
1/2 c. whole oats
2/3 c. wheat germ
2 Tbs soy sauce
4 Tbs olive oil
4 tsp lemon juice
1/2 c. whole wheat flour
1 block firm tofu, crumbled
1/2 c - 1 c. bread crumbs or panko
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
2 tsp balsamic vinegar
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp chili powder
2 tsp paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
1 1/2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp maple syrup
1 1/2 tsp dry mustard

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. (Note: you have two options: you can roast the meatballs separately first to get them crunchy and then pour BBQ sauce over them for serving. Or you can be lazy and roast the meatballs and sauce together for 40 minutes. The second way does not result in any crispy exterior of the meatballs.)
2. Combine all the ingredients EXCEPT the bread crumbs or panko in the food processor. Pulse into the mixture resembles the texture of ground meat, but do not overmix.
3. Remove from processor and stir in bread crumbs as needed, but the mixture should not get overly dry.
4. With damp hands, form mixture into 1" balls. You should get around 40 ish?
5. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 10-15 minutes.
(I did a couple test meatballs to make sure I didn't need more bread crumbs or different spices before baking them all at once). You can also freeze them once you've shaped them into balls and then transfer them to ziplock bags for storage.

Vegan Mint Chocolate Cupcakes

The most delicious chocolate mint cupcakes I've had in several years just happened to be a vegan recipe from one of my dear friends. One of my favorite parts about friendship is sharing a love of good food -- recommending recipes to friends and having them come back and say that they loved it too, or lamenting over the difficulty of a particularly involved recipe. These cupcakes would be a hit at any adult's or child's birthday party! Likely you could also unvegify them and just use regular milk, margarine, and chocolate chips without compromising the recipe. The only struggles I had with this recipe were with the frosting, which although delicious tasting kept "melting" more and more and falling right off the cupcake. In the end, I had to beat in much more powdered sugar and vegan margarine than the recipe called for to keep the frosting stiff. My recommendation is actually look for vegan shortening as opposed to vegan margarine, and don't add the soymilk to the frosting.

Vegan Chocolate Mint Cupcakes
1 c. all purpose flour
1/3 c. cocoa
1/2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 c. soymilk
1-2 tsp cider vinegar
1/3 c. canola oil
3/4 c. sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp mint extract 

Frosting:
3 c. powdered sugar
1/3 c. vegan shortening
1 1/2 tsp mint extract

Chocolate glaze:
1/3 c. vegan chocolate chips
3 Tbs soy milk

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. For the cupcake batter, combine soy milk and cider vinegar in a bowl and let sit for 5 minutes. Whisk in sugar, canola oil, mint and vanilla extract, beating until foaming.
3. Mix all the dry ingredients togehter in a  separate bowl. Add wet ingredients to dry, using whisk to beat until all the large lumps are gone.
4. Pour the batter into paper lined cupcake tins and fill about 2/3 full. (If using liners, you will probably be able to make 12 cupcakes. Without liners, I only got 10 cupcakes.)
5. Bake cupcakes for 18-20 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean. Let cool a bit, then remove from pan and transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
6. For mint frosting: Cream the shortening, powdered sugar, and extract together until icing is smooth and creamy. If it doesn't hold, try adding a bit more sugar or shortening. Only frost the cupcakes when they are VERY VERY COOL. (like right before serving).
7. For the chocolate oopmh on top: heat the 3 Tbs soymilk until just about to simmer and then add the chocolate chips. Remove from heat and stir until smooth. Let chocolate mixture cool for about 10 minutes until it can be safely drizzled on top of the mint frosting without melting it.

Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake

Chocolate Espresso Goodness

This cake was my hopeful attempt to recreate the cake I made 3 years ago for wife's birthday. I had baked her the most decadent flourless chocolate cake, dusted with powdered sugar, and served with raspberry coulis. Everyone raved about it. I have looked and looked and looked and to my despair, can't seem to find the recipe I used to make the cake. So I finally settled for Epicurious' Flourless Chocolate Espresso Cake.

The cake was incredibly dense and rich, and I loved the espresso taste, but it wasn't quite the same. I did finally figure out that the instructions to serve the cake cold made it seem much heavier and not as tasty as when a piece is microwaved for about 35 seconds! Even better is drizzling a bit of a strawberry puree made of frozen strawberries, lemon zest, and a little bit of cointreau.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

We finally ponied up to go to the Capilano Suspension Bridge park
after we got a 2 for 1 coupon







 

TreeTop Adventure makes you feel like a littel kid all over again

 



 

 

The Cliffwalk!





Our first CO2 keg!

Just to post a picture of the keg from the party! Storm Brewery's Scottish Ale was absolutely delicious!!!!!

Indian Eggplant Dip

This was one of the many recipes used for our party and was a lovely change from baba ghanoush in terms of other eggplant dips. I only burned the first batch of eggplant I attempted to roast, so not too bad :) The recipe is from Bon Appetit, but I added lime for a nice (and seemingly needed) acid note.  Serve cold!

Eggplant Dip
1.25 - 1.5 lbs eggplant, quartered lengthwise
2 c. chopped onions
4 unpeeled garlic cloves
1/2 - 1 tsp garam masala
salt to taste
4 Tbs chopped fresh mint
4 Tbs chopped fresh cilantro
Juice of 1-2 fresh limes
 
1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F. Place eggplant skin side down on glass baking dish and brush with olive oil.
2. Toss unions and unpeeled garlic cloves with some olive oil (not too much), and place in same baking dish as eggplant.
3. Roast vegetables until browned and tender, about 30 minutes.
4. In food processor, combine eggplant pulp, onions, peeled garlic cloves, and garam masala until almost smooth.
5. Scrape dip into bowl and stir in mint, cilantro, salt, and lime juice. Let sit for a couple of hours, taste and adjust as needed for herbs, lime, and salt.
6. Serve cold with pita, bread, or crackers.

Cheesecake pops

So this party that I was talking about - should I give the full run-down of foods made? Starting on the Saturday before hand, I baked two types of crackers, and then during the week proceeded to tackle all of the following: mango salsa, vegan cashew cheese, eggplant dip, kefir dipping sauce for a fruit platter, vegan meat balls with vegan BBQ sauce, artichoke cheese dip, flourless chocolate espresso cake, vegan mint chocolate cupcakes, and cheesecake pops. Of course I didn't manage to get a picture of either table full of food :(  Bad planning once again on my part. But I did get some super nice shots of the cheesecake pop process - probably because it went on for SOOO long.

Dipping the frozen cheesecake pops

The wow/cuteness factor (not to mention the tiny popsicle sticks!) definitely made the effort worth it. My only comment about the cheesecake produced by this recipe, is that it seemed a little dry - whether from over baking, or because it needs to be a bit more solid to cling to the popsicle stick well, I don't know. Also for the dipping chocolate, I did not find the amount of vegetable shortening added realistic at all. I added the shortening and then kept stirring in small quantities of canola oil until the chocolate was a dippable consistency. I used a chopstick to drizzle lines of chocolate of the opposite color over the dipped cheesecake pops.

The finished product - so arty!

Vegan Cashew Cheese

The best part about parties is the food - planning the food, shopping for the food, making the food, and plating the food. Oh yeah, and then watching people enjoy the food! I am never able to restrict myself to a reasonable quantity of food, as parties mean pulling out all the stops and indulging in all the recipes I would never make just for wife and I (not that she's not worth it!) One recipe leads to another recipe leads to another - and everything is for the sake of balance - sweet and savory, vegetarian and vegan. At our last big shindig, I tried my hand at making vegan cashew cheese. I got the recipe here, but halved it, which still produced a large wheel of vegan cheese. Despite the fact that it says it makes a "hard" cheese, I would describe it as a firm, but pate consistency cheese. It was a great experience and wonderful to finally use some of the agar agar that I had bought almost a year ago, intending to play around with some molecular gastronomy type stuff but - cough cough aside - haven't made time for yet. Definitely happening this year though, I mean how much work can reverse emulsion oil sphere be???

Many of my non vegan friends actually really enjoyed the unusual flavor of miso and nutritional yeast in the cheese. If you don't have light miso, I would definitely reduce the amount called for at least a bit as it can be quite strong tasting. I also think after making it that toasted cumin seeds might go quite well in it. I let it harden in a glass bowl and actually wasn't able to get it out without running a spatula around the edges. It could therefore be useful to grease the bowl to save yourself some effort. Also, I've been told by a reputable source that this cheese freezes well -- my leftovers are currently in the freezer, so I'll update this post once I pull them out!

Raisin-Sunflower Seed Crackers (RainCoast Crisp Attempt Two)

Second version of raincoast crisps! This one is a sweeter cracker with raisins (and optionally apricots), sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, and a hint of molasses giving the cracker a rich brown colour. The downside is these crackers have more of a tendency to taste burnt if overcooked (due to the burning raisins).

After first baking...

After second baking!

Raisin-Sunflower Seed Crackers
4 c. all purpose flour
1 Tbs baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 c. raisins
1 c. toasted sunflower seeds
1/2 c. toasted sesame seeds
1/4 c. brown sugar
1 3/4 c. buttermilk
1 Tbs molasses
1/4 c. unsalted butter, melted (cool slightly)
1 egg white (for brushing)

1. Mix the dry ingredients together.
2. Once the melted butter has cooled slightly, beat in the buttermilk and molasses.
3. Stir the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients just until moistened.
4. Scoop onto a lightly floured surface and knead gently until dough comes together.
5. Shape into four loaves about 3" wide by 10-12" long.
6. Brush tops with egg white and place loaves on parchment paper- lined baking sheet.
7. Bake at 375 degrees F.  for 35 minutes until golden brown and sounding hollow when tapped.
8. Let cool completely, then slice into 1/4" thick slices.
9. Lay flat on parchment paper and bake at 350 degrees F for 15-18 minutes until golden and crisp.

Once cooled, store in an air tight container or freeze until you want to use them.

Lemon Almond Cookies

Umpqua River

Oh kitchen, how I have missed you. I only see you when I must  make something delicious for someone else - so rarely now is it for myself. On yet another trip this month down to the parents in Oregon, my plans to can the week away were interrupted by the sweet surprise of a trip to the Steamboat Inn on the Umpqua River. I am not complaining at all.

But I did get home and want to make something tasty, yet uncomplicated, for the visit of a dear friend and 3 little tykes in tow! Well to be honest, I focused a little less on food for the kids since food for the adults is infinitely more exciting than cheese and mayo on bread. Cucumber smoothies (lemon cucumbers, mint, honey), raspberry smoothies, cheeses, meats and homemade crackers, and an assortment of chocolate and lemon cookies. Rich and buttery, the almond meal gives the lemon cookies a surprisingly unexpected but delicious texture.

Lemon Almond Cookies 
2 c. all purpose flour
1 c. almond meal (or ground almonds)
1 c. unsalted butter
1/2 c. sugar
1/2 tsp. salt
2 Tbs lemon zest

1. Preheat oven to 300 degrees F.
2. Beat butter, sugar, and salt in a mixer until well combined.
3. Add remaining ingredients and beat on low, until dough comes together and pulls away from the sides of the bowl.
4. Roll out dough on a flour surface to 1/4 to 1/8" thick. Cut into 1 - 2" diameter cookies as desired with a cookie cutter, glass, etc.
5. Place cookies 1/2" apart on parchment paper lined baking trays.
6. Bake for 30 minutes or until pale golden. (If doing 1" diameter cookies, start checking at 20-25 minutes for doneness).

Coconut green curry soup

This soup takes advantage of summer vegetables with some heat to cross over into autumn. We used up butternut squash and veggie stock from the freezer, and fresh onions and green beans from the garden. A quick tasty meal!

Coconut Green Curry Soup
2 cans (14 oz) coconut milk
3-4 c. vegetable stock
1 Tbs green curry
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 c. cubed butternut squash
2 c. cooked wild rice
1 package firm tofu
Green beans, chopped into 1" pieces
4-5 Kaffir lime leaves (lemon grass would be great too)
Optional: extra ginger, coriander, cumin, salt

1. Saute onion and garlic in oil until golden and translucent.
2. Pour in coconut milk, stock, green curry, and kaffir lime leaves
3. Add squash and tofu.
4. Bring to a boil and simmer for 30 minutes
5. Add green beans and let simmer for another 15 minutes.
6. Stir in wild rice and let warm.
7. Serve with naan or chapatis.

*In retrospect, green beans can be chewy. So if you prefer, add in cubed eggplant or mushrooms.