Category: appetizer

Oven-Roasted Cherry Tomatoes

Longing for the taste of a summer tomato?  This is the next best thing.  The slow roasting process yields a flavour-packed punch to the taste buds.  Sounds tedious, but trust me, it’s just delightful.  And so much better than the sun-dried tomatoes you buy in a jar!  Well worth the long roasting time.

I threw them on top of a rice and lentil dish as a garnish, but they could also be used to top some ricotta on crusty bread, maybe with a little balsamic reduction.  Or on top of pasta with some Parmesan and basil.

Whatever you don’t use right away (or eat off the pan like I did) can be put in a jar, topped up with olive oil, and refrigerated for use later.  Imagine the possibilities!

What you need:

-a whole bunch of cherry or grape tomatoes

-olive oil

-salt and pepper

What you do:

1. Preheat the oven to 225F.

2.  Slice the tomatoes in half and put them on a baking sheet.

3.  Drizzle the tomatoes with olive oil, then salt and pepper them.

4.  Roast them for 2 – 2.5 hours, until they have lost most of their moisture but are not crispy.  You will need to watch them for the last half hour or so if the process so you don’t overdo them.

5.  Let the tomatoes cool and then place them in a jar. Add olive oil to cover the tomatoes, and store the far in the fridge. The olive oil can be used for cooking foods like tomato sauces, and making salad dressing.

Un-deepfried Zucchini #2 (avec parmesan)

Of all the recipes on my blog, I think Un-Deepfried Zucchini is the one I make the most.  I’m not nearly tired of it, but I thought I should try something new with it.  So I just added a little parmesan to the breadcrumb mixture.  I still like it with a little yogurt, to which I add some fresh/frozen dill and a little salt and pepper.

What you need:

1 medium-size zucchini, sliced into 1cm thick rounds

1 egg

about 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

salt and pepper to taste

a few tablespoons finely grated parmesan

What you do:

1.  Mix the breadcrumbs, salt and pepper, and the parmesan together in a bowl.  Crack the egg into another bowl and mix it up with a fork.

2.  Preheat the oven to 400F.

3.  Dip the zucchini pieces in the egg, then press them into the breadcrumbs so they are coated.  Place on a baking sheet – I don’t grease mine and they don’t seem to stick.

4.  Pop them in the oven – I usually put them in before it’s finished preheating, and it’s not a problem.  Bake for 10 minutes, then flip them over and bake for another 10.  They should be very soft when you’re done, so check them and maybe throw them back in for a few minutes.

Serve hot on their own, of with a dipping sauce of your choice.  Stay tuned for #3!

Ricotta Pastries

Recently I made up some homemade ricotta, and a few days later some empanadas.  Wanting to use up the last of the ricotta, I stuffed a few of them with this filling made in the style of my mom’s vareniki (Mennonite perogies).  She makes fruit vareniki and these amazing cottage cheese ones… yum!  So I thought the ricotta would be a suitable substitute, and work well with the pastry – oh, was I ever right!

In my original recipe I used only butter in the pastry, but this time I used half butter, half lard, and found the pastry turned out a little flakier – I like!  Of course you can just use butter if you wish.

What you need for the filling:

one recipe ricotta or one tub from the store

one egg

salt and pepper

What you need for the pastry:

2 & 1/4 cups flour

1 & 1/2 teaspoons salt

1/4 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes

1/4 cup lard (or use 1/4 cup more butter)

1 large egg

1/3 cup ice water

1 tablespoon distilled white vinegar

1 egg for brushing on the pastry, mixed with a little water

What you do:

1.  To make the pastry, blend the cold butter and lard into the flour and salt with a pastry blender or your fingers (works best with colder hands).  Mix the egg, water and vinegar, and add them to the flour mixture.  Mix with a wooden spoon until combined, then wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.

2.  Mix the ricotta, egg, and salt and pepper (to taste) with a fork.

3.  Have a little bowl of water handy for sealing the edges of the pastry.

4.  Sprinkle flour on your work surface and form the dough into disks, rolling out to about 1/2 cm thick.  Cut out circles with a large cookie cutter or the edge of a bowl.

5.  Fill the pastry with a tablespoon or so of ricotta.  Dab a little water around half of the edge of the pastry, then fold the pastry over and seal.

6.  Place the pastries on a baking sheet, which does not need to be greased.  Cut small slits in the tops of the pastries, then brush them with a little of the egg.

7. Bake at 400F for 20-25 minutes.

Let them cool slightly before serving.

Korean Soba Noodle Salad

The public library is one of my favourite places to look for new recipes.  I recently signed out Robin Asbell’s Bio Vegan cookbook, and found this recipe.  It’s easy, healthy, filling and tasty.  I love most fruits, but I’m not a big fan of pears.  Asian pears, however, don’t have the same graininess that regular pears have, and when julienned they almost seem like pieces of apple.

Soba noodles are made from buckwheat, which is gluten-free and high in fibre, among many other health benefits that you can read about here.

The salad is served cold, so it made a great leftovers lunch at work the next day.  The pears can turn brown, so if you think you’re not going to eat it all the day you make it, you might want to leave some of the Asian pears out until serving.

What you need:

1/4 cup agave syrup

1 tablespoon sriracha or other hot sauce (or start with a little less and add more to your taste)

1 tablespoon dark miso paste

1 tablespoon soy sauce or tamari

1 tablespoon sesame oil

3 tablespoons toasted and ground sesame seeds

200 grams soba noodles, before cooking

1 medium cucumber, seeded and julienned

1 Asian pear, julienned

170 grams extra-firm silken tofu, cut into small cubes

What you do:

1.  Cook the soba noodles according to the directions on the package, drain and rinse with cold water.

2.  Whisk together the agave syrup, hot sauce, tamari, sesame oil, and 2 tablespoons on the sesame seeds.

3.  Combine the sauce with the cooled, well-drained noodles.

4.  Top it off with the cucumber, pear, tofu, and a sprinkle of sesame seeds.

Homemade Ricotta

This is so easy to make, and it is really versatile.  So far I’ve put it on a cheese plate served with cranberry chutney, and I’ve used it as a pasta filling.  You can vary the texture by draining it for more or less time – a short draining time will make it nice and creamy and light.  I strained mine a bit too long, and it ended up a little drier and more crumbly than I would have liked.

I checked out a lot of web sites to figure out the recipe, but by far the most beautiful photos I found were on smitten kitchen.  I need a good camera one day soon!

What you need:

3 cups of 2% milk

1 cup whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon salt

3 tablespoons lemon juice, freshly squeezed

What you do:

1.  Line a fine sieve with several layers of cheesecloth, and place over a large bowl.

2.  Place the milk, along with the salt, on medium-high heat and stir until it is just about to boil. It will be steaming and foaming on top at this point.  (190 degrees if you are using a thermometer.)  Remove from the heat before it boils.

3.  Add the lemon juice and just give it one or two stirs.  Let it sit, undisturbed, for 5 minutes.

4.  Pour into the cheesecloth-lined sieve with the bowl underneath.  An awful lot of whey will come out, so you may need to empty the bowl and put it back again to collect more liquid.  The consistency depends on the amount of time you leave this to strain.  I left it for an hour, but mine ended up being too dry by the time it cooled.  Next time I will try 40 minutes and see how I like it.

For these toasts I just cut a baguette into thin slices, brushed them with olive oil, and sprinkled on some sea salt.  I broiled them until slightly browned, then let them cool.  I served them with a little ricotta spread and topped with cranberry chutney.  They are also great with the ricotta alone, drizzled with a little olive oil.

French Onion Soup

Soup is amazing on a cool fall evening, and the healing benefits of onion and homemade soup stock help ward off the illnesses that are lurking.  Using homemade stock makes a world of difference for this recipe.  The taste of a soup made with store-bought watery broth just doesn’t cut it when you’ve had the real thing.  Sometimes when I have an afternoon at home I’ll make a huge batch of broth and keep it in the freezer to pull out for recipes like this.

I used a recipe from The Essential Soup Cookbook (thanks Marlene for this gift years ago!), then made changes according to what I had on hand.  I made a smaller recipe than the book called for,  and used chicken stock and white wine instead of beef stock and red wine.  I also used a sweet onion because I find I don’t cry when I cut them.  When I make this again I’ll try grating some cheese on top of the bowls and then put them under the broiler to bubble up instead of broiling the bread and cheese.

This recipe serves two generously, with some leftovers possibly.

What you need:

2 tablespoons butter

1 large sweet onion, sliced

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1/3 cup dry white wine

4 cups chicken stock

1 spring fresh thyme

1 bay leaf

salt, to taste

1/3 – 1/2 cup gruyère cheese, grated

a few slices of baguette bread

What you do:

1.  Heat the butter in a pot at medium heat, then add the onions.  Lower the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring, until the onions are nicely browned.  Don’t be tempted to speed things up by raising the heat, as the low heat gives the onions a mellower and sweeter flavour.

2.  Add the garlic and cook for a minute, stirring.  Then add the wine, chicken stock, thyme and bay leaf.  Bring this to a boil, then simmer for about 20 minutes.  Remove the bay leaf and thyme before serving, and add salt to taste.

3.  Just before serving, grate the cheese and sprinkle it on the bread slices.  Put it under the broiler until the cheese is bubbling and begins to brown.  Place the cheesy bread on top of bowls of hot soup and serve immediately.

Patatas con Chorizo

Potatoes with chorizo  – I made these recently as an appetizer, but I was so glad that I made too much because they were really good heated up with my dinner the next night.  This one is really easy to make.

I got the recipe out of Rohan Daft’s Menu del Dia cookbook, and made a few changes to the original recipe:  I cooked the chorizo first and soaked up a lot of the fat that came off of them.   Rather than the dried peppers the recipe called for, I used a few pimento del piquillo a friend gave me from Spain.  I also made a smaller recipe.

What you need:

1-2 dry-cured chorizo, chopped

5-6 small white potatoes, cut in half or quarters (I left the skins on)

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium yellow or white onion, chopped

2 garlic cloves, chopped

2 dried mild red pepper, or 2 chopped roasted red peppers, or 1 teaspoon paprika

1 bay leaf

boiling water

1 tablespoon chopped parsley

sea salt

What you do:

1.  Cook the chopped chorizo for a few minutes in a frying pan, then drain on paper towels.  Remove the excess fat from the frying pan.

2.  Heat the olive oil on medium-low heat, then add the chopped onion, stirring well and cooking for about 10 minutes.  Add the garlic and cook for a few more minutes, so the onion is soft but not browned.

3.  Add the potatoes and stir until they are coated in oil.  Add the chorizo, peppers and bay leaf, and stir well.  Cover with boiling water and simmer for 30 minutes, or until most of the liquid has disappeared.  Give it a stir every now and then, but do it carefully so you don’t break the potatoes.

4.  Remove the bay leaf and sprinkle on some salt and the chopped parsley.  Serve it up hot!

Feel free to leave a comment if you like the sounds of this, if you try it out, or if I’ve made any mistakes!

Pistachio and Chorizo Bread

I wish I had gotten to posting this recipe earlier in the summer, because it makes a great picnic food.  It would be a great appetizer too, any time of year.  It’s pretty easy, impressive, and loved by many.   Feel free to add more or less of the chorizo, sun-dried tomatoes, chili powder and pistachios depending hon how much you like each of those ingredients.

I forgot to put the pistachios in when I made it, so I piled a few on top when I ate a slice.  This worked great because the nuts stayed crunchy.

This recipe comes from David Lebovitz’s blog.  I also recommend his book The Sweet Life in Paris for a taste of life in Paris and some good recipes.

What you need:

butter for greasing the pan

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, for the bottom of the pan

1 & 1/4 cups flour

1 tablespoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon chile powder

3 eggs at room temperature

1/2 cup plain yogurt

85 grams or so of chorizo sausage, diced (the kind that doesn’t need cooking)

8 or so sun-dried tomato halves, finely diced

3/4 cup unsalted pistachios (hard to find, but they are available at Trader Joe’s)

1/4 cup parsley, chopped (optional)

What you do:

1.  Grease a 9-inch loaf pan with some butter.  Toss the sesame seeds around in the pan until there is a layer of them over the bottom.  Preheat your oven to 350F.

2.  Mix the egg and yogurt together in a bowl.  Add the dry ingredients – flour, baking powder, salt and chili powder.  Stir, being careful to mix only until just incorporated.

3.  Fold in the chorizo, tomatoes, nuts and parsley.  Pour into the loaf pan.

4.  Bake for 40-50 minutes, then let it sit in the pan for about 15 minutes after you’ve taken it out of the oven before removing it to cool on a rack.

When it’s cool you can cut it into thin slices to serve.  Wrap leftovers up tightly in plastic wrap; apparently it lasts a few days at room temperature.  Mine didn’t last the night, so I didn’t get to test that out.

Let me know how you like it!

Charcuterie dans Paris

After a visit to the Castle of Saint-Germain0en Laye, just outside of Paris, I went with my hosts Julie and Jeremy to gather supplies for our charcuterie.  We visited a fromagerie, boulangerie, cave aux vins, le marche plein air, et le Monoprix to find what we need.

Here’s what we had:

cheeses: a brie, de melun lait cru

a chèvre, cabri cendré fermier

a tantation lait cru from St. Félicen

a Tomme de Savoie from Abondance Fermiere

The meats: jambon cru fumé de la forêt noire

jambon cru Espangnol

jamón serrano

salame di milano

chorizo Espangnol

We also had: pimento olives

olives stuffed with almonds

apple , figs and melon to wrap the meat around

dried strawberries

The wine was a Chateau Chavrignac Bordeaux 2009

and a fabulous baguette from the Boulangerie au Petit Duc!

We ended with a decadent chocolate treat called a Royale, chocolate mousse decorated with some praline and topped with chocolate ganache.

Alleosse Affineur Maitre Artisan dans rue Poncelet, Paris

Quinoa-Stuffed Peppers: Turkey and Chorizo with lots of Veggies

Stuffed peppers look so pretty, and this recipe is pretty healthy too, stuffed with lots of veggies and quinoa.  I like to make dishes that have it all – lots of healthy veg, some protein and a complex carbohydrate.  So I put together some of my favourite ingredients, and this is what I came up with.

You can prepare the filling ahead of time, even stuff the peppers and pop them in the fridge.  Throw them in the oven just before serving, make a little green salad on the side and you’re ready to go!

What you need:

sweet peppers (a dozen mini or half a dozen regular sized)

200 grams ground turkey

1 chorizo sausage, removed from casing

1/2 cup quinoa, uncooked

1 sweet onion, diced

4 mushrooms, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

1 sweet red pepper (for filling), diced

1 stalk celery, diced

2 tablespoons dried currants

salt and lots of pepper

olive oil

What you do:

1. Before cooking the quinoa rinse it, then put it in a pot with about a cup of water.  Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat and put a lid on it, cooking for 15 minutes.  If the water doesn’t all get absorbed in this time, put it back on the heat for a few minutes, stirring until the liquid is gone.

2. Cook the chorizo, removed from its casing, along with the turkey meat.  Drain the fat off and set the meat aside.

3.  In a little olive oil cook the onions on medium-low heat until they start to brown. Add the mushrooms and cook for a few minutes.  The onions will  begin to get quite brown, which is exactly what you want, because a lot of the flavour in the dish is coming from the nicely browned onions.

4.  Add the garlic and the rest of the veggies, stirring and cooking until they begin to soften.

5.  Mix the meats, quinoa, currants and veggies together, adding salt and quite a bit of pepper to taste.

6. Cut the tops off the peppers, the  fill each pepper and put the tops back on.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

7.  Arrange them in a baking dish as you fill them, then pop them in the oven for about 45 minutes!