Category: Easy Recipes

Brussels Sprouts with Shallots and Bacon

 

 

Today I cut down a stalk of brussels sprouts from my community garden plot.  I was having friends over for dinner and I wanted to try out a new recipe.  I know that not everyone loves brussels sprouts, and one of my friends wasn’t so sure about trying them.  She was won over after the first bite.  Searing the sprouts on high heat caramelizes them, and you don’t get that unpleasant odour and taste that made you hate them as a kid (or an adult).  Plus bacon makes everything taste great!  You can easily make these a vegetarian version by omitting the bacon and adding a little extra salt.

What you need:

12-16 brussels sprouts

2-3 shallots, sliced

a few rashers of bacon

olive oil, butter or bacon drippings

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1.  Cut the ends off the brussels sprouts , then cut them in half.  Remove any extra leaves.

2.  Cook the bacon in a frying pan until crispy, then remove from the pan and cut or break into small pieces.  Leave a little bacon fat in the pan.

3.  On medium heat toss in the shallots.  Lower the heat and cook them until they are brown and caramelized.

4.  Add a little butter, olive oil or a touch of the bacon fat to the pan and turn on high heat.  When the pan is hot, add the sprouts, cut side down.  Stir a few times throughout the cooking, and cook until they are quite browned and soft enough for a sharp knife to pierce them.

5.  Toss in the diced bacon, add salt and pepper to taste, and serve hot.

 

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!

Tiger Butter

It’s so easy to make your own chocolates, and if you like peanut butter, then you might like this one – white chocolate and peanut butter drizzled with dark chocolate on top – Yum!  I love the tiger butter they sell at Purdy’s, so I made up this recipe to imitate theirs.  I haven’t done a side-by-side taste test, but from what I remember, this is pretty close.  I don’t usually measure the ingredients, so feel free to alter the ingredients as you see fit.  Just don’t add too much peanut butter or it will end up being too soft.

What you need:

1 cup white chocolate

1/4 cup dark chocolate

1 tablespoon peanut butter

What you do:

1.  Use a double boiler, or if you don’t have one, put a bowl on top of a pot containing a little water.  Bring the water to a boil, then lower the heat to minimum.  You’ll need two of these set-ups, one for the white and one for the dark chocolate (or you could heat the dark chocolate in the microwave… although the only time I’ve done this I accidentally burned it).

2.  Put the white chocolate in the top of one double boiler, the dark chocolate in the other.  Allow them to melt, making sure that no water touches the chocolate.  If that happens, the chocolate will seize up.

3.  Stir the peanut butter into the white chocolate.

3.  Line a pan with some parchment paper or plastic wrap.  Pour the white chocolate into the pan, spreading it around a little.

4.  Drizzle the dark chocolate on top in stripes.  Pull a knife through the stripes so they form a pattern.

Let it cool, then cut into squares or just break it up.

Lemony Kale with Onions, Garlic and Pine Nuts

Another quick, easy and delicious way to serve up the super-food kale!  Kale is one of the few things I can harvest from my garden year-round, so it’s always good to find some new ways to cook it up.

What you need:

1-2 tablespoons pine nuts, lightly toasted

olive oil

1/4 of a red onion, sliced

1-2 cloves garlic, sliced

1 bunch kale, roughly chopped

1/2 a lemon

salt, to taste

What you do:

1.  Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan.  Add the sliced onions and cook until they are browned.

2.  Add the garlic, cooking briefly, then add the chopped kale.  Toss the kale with tongs a few times until it is wilted and the onions and garlic are distributed throughout.

3.  Squeeze on a little lemon, a little salt too, and then toss the pine nuts in.

Serve it right away!

Spanish Stew With Vegetables and Olives

The weather is turning a little cooler, and I always look for an excuse to put olives into a recipe.  This one has tons of flavour, and it’s got lots of veggies to keep you healthy.  This one comes from Maryana Vollstedt’s Big Book of Soups and Stews.  It’s pretty easy, just a bunch of chopping, sauteing and stewing.

What you need:

1 – 2 tablespoons olive oil

1 & 1/2 pounds boneless pork loin, cut into 3 cm-ish cubes

1 cup chopped sweet onion

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 red pepper and 1 yellow or orange pepper, cut into chunks of about 4cm

10-12 mushrooms, cut in half, or quarters for large ones

1 large can diced tomatoes with juice

1 cup chicken stock

1 cup dry white wine

1 teaspoon fresh oregano

1/4 teaspoon fresh thyme (less of each herb if you use dried)

1 cup kalamata olives, or a mixture of olives of your choice

1 pound green beans, frenched

salt and pepper, to taste

What you do:

1.  Heat the olive oil in a large pot, then add the pork and brown it for about 5 minutes. You may want to do this in batches.

2.  Add the onion and cook for a few minutes, then add the pepper and mushrooms and cook for about 5 more minutes.  Add more oil to keep the veggies from sticking, if you need to.

3.  Add the tomatoes, wine, oregano and thyme, then reduce the heat so it is just simmering, for about 30 minutes.

4.  Add the olives and green beans and cook for a few more minutes, until the beans are lightly cooked.

5.  Season with salt and pepper, remembering that the olives will add a bit of salt to the stew, so don’t use too much salt without tasting it first!

Serve it up with a nice loaf of crusty bread!

Panzanella

 

For this salad I used tomatoes from my garden – they are so flavourful!  A local farmer’s market is another great place to find amazing tomatoes if you don’t have a garden yourself.  I also used the remnants of a crusty loaf from the farmer’s market.  We ate this one at a picnic at English Bay.  Gorgeous, delicious.

What you need:

a few great tomatoes

cucumber

a few slices of stale bread

1 clove garlic

fresh oregano and basil

salt and pepper

olive oil

balsamic or red wine vinegar

What you do:

1.  Cut the tomatoes into chunks, removing a lot of the liquid.  Sprinkle the tomatoes with salt and let them sit in a colander to drain.

2.  Chop the cucumber.

3.  Cut the clove of garlic in half and rub the bread slices with it.  Cut the bread into cubes.

4.  Heat a few tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and throw in the cubed bread.  Cook, turning from time to time, until the bread is browned and crispy on the outside.

5.  Throw the bread, tomatoes and cucumbers together in a bowl along with the herbs, salt and pepper and a few splashes of olive oil and vinegar, to taste.

6.  Toss it all up and you’re ready to go.  Some recipes say to let it all sit for a while, but I prefer for the bread to retain a bit of its crispiness, so I like to eat it right away.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Beef Quesadilla

A great comfort food – I love fried onions and steak together, add the salsa and yogurt and it’s a dream come true!  This one is great to make if you’ve got some left over  steak from your barbecue the night before.  Another amazing addition is some slices of avocado – that puts it over the top!

I don’t eat cheese very often, so when I do but it I grate the unused part and keep it in the freezer.  Same goes for the tortilla, just pop them in the freezer to use later, maybe even in a tortilla pizza.

What you need:

1/2 onion, sliced

1 red pepper, sliced

1 beef steak

cheddar or another favourite cheese, grated

salt

olive oil

yogurt or sour cream

salsa

tortilla shells

What you do:

1.  Take the steak out of the fridge so it isn’t completely cold when you cook it.  Rub a little olive oil on each side, then liberally salt each side, then set aside.

2.  Heat a little olive oil in a frying pan.  Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes.  Add the sliced red peppers and continue to cook until the onions are quite browned.  Remove from the pan and set aside.

3.  Heat the pan to medium high.  When it’s good and hot, place the steak on the pan.  Cook it for just a few minutes, depending on the thickness of the steak and your preference.  I love mine quite rare, so I don’t leave it for long, plus it continues to cook while it rests out of the pan before cutting.  Use tongs to flip the steak and cook the other side for about 2 minutes.  Remove from the pan to rest for at least 5 minutes.  Slice very thinly.

4.  Clean your pan out and place a tortilla in it, on medium-low heat.  Sprinkle a little cheese on one half, then add some onion and pepper and some slices of steak.  Add a little more cheese, then pull the other half of the tortilla over the fillings.  I like to put the cheese on the top and the bottom because I think that when it melts it helps hold all the fillings in.  Plus people love cheese, so often a little more is better.

5.  Let the quesadilla cook until that side it slightly brown and crispy, then flip it over and do the same to the other side.

6.  Serve with some salsa and yogurt or sour cream on the side.

Thanks for the great photo, Megan!

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!

Avocado Yogurt Dressing

Served on salmon this simple dressing was delicious.  It would also be great as a veggie dip.   I found the recipe in Mark Bittman’s How to Cook Everything.  I only made half of this recipe for a salmon dinner because Bittman said it doesn’t keep well . . . and he was right.  It tastes fine the next day, but it turns a little brownish, so it’s probably a good idea to make a half recipe unless you’ve got a big crowd to eat it up for you.

What you need:

1 large ripe avocado

1/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice

1 teaspoon lemon zest

2 teaspoons minced shallot or sweet onion

1/2 cup plain yogurt

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1.  Scoop the avocado flesh along with the lemon and orange juices into a food processor or blender.  Puree.

2.  Add the remaining ingredients and puree again, tasting to see if you need to correct the seasonings.