Quick and Yummy Chicken and Veg Noodles

This is another old standby, usually with just the broccoli, but I try to add extra veg whenever I can.  It’s comfort-foody, plus it’s pretty easy.  Feel free to switch it up with your favourite veg.

I use plain yogurt in this, but you can use sour cream if you prefer.

What you need:

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

2-3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into 1 inch pieces

1 small onion, chopped

1-2 red/yellow/orange peppers

1 clove garlic, minced

3 cups chicken stock

3 cups medium egg noodles

1 large head broccoli, broken into florets

1 cup yogurt or sour cream

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1.  In a large frying pan heat the oil, then add the onions and saute until translucent.  Add the garlic and chicken and cook for a few minutes.

2.  Add the stock into the frying pan and bring to a boil.  Add the noodles and cook for about 6 minutes, or until the noodles are almost cooked, stirring from time to time.

3.  Add the broccoli and cook for a few minutes, making sure the broccoli is still bright green when it is served.

4.  Add the yogurt/sour cream just before serving and season with salt and pepper to taste.

This recipe is from More Six O’Clock Solutions by Ruth Phelan and Brenda Thompson.

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!

Olive Tapenade

This one’s really easy to make, and works great as an appetizer.  Rosemary crackers work really well with it, as does a crusty loaf of bread.

What you need

about a cup of black or green sliced olives

1 tablespoon capers

a drizzle or two of olive oil

a little squeeze of lemon (optional)

pepper

What you do

1.  Throw all the ingredients in a food processor.  Whiz it around for a few seconds so it is chopped up but not too finely.

2.  You can serve right away, but it also keeps for a while.  I prefer serving it at room temperature, so I take it out of the fridge a while before I’m going to serve it.

Rosemary Crackers

I just happened to be making these crackers on Easter weekend, so they are in the shape of little bunnies.  It’s pretty easy to make your own crackers, just mix, roll, cut and bake. I like the idea that I know what is going into my food, so I try to make as much of it from scratch as I can.

I got this recipe from a cook book called 100 Perfect Pairings, and the original recipe used fennel seeds instead of rosemary.  The crackers are brushed with red wine before baking, giving them a pink hue – this is optional, as I didn’t find I could actually taste the wine.  So if you want pink crackers, brush away!

I served mine with olive tapenade and goat cheese, but other sliced cheeses would work well too.

What you need

1 cup all-purpose flour, plus a little more for rolling

3/4 cup whole wheat flour

1 & 3/4 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh rosemary

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons red wine (optional)

3/4 teaspoon fleur de sel for sprinkling

What you do

1.  Combine the flours, salt and rosemary in a bowl.  Add the oil and 1/2 cup of water, working it until it combines into a crumbly ball.

2.  Preheat the oven to 450F.

3.  Cut the dough into three pieces and wrap two of them in plastic wrap.  Work with one of the balls, rolling it out on a floured surface until it is about 2mm thick.  Cut the dough into squares, or into any shape you desire.

4.  Lightly brush the dough with wine, then sprinkle with a little fleur de sel.  Move the crackers to a baking sheet.

5.  Bake for 7-10 minutes, watching carefully so they don’t burn.  While they are baking you can roll out the next batch.

6.  Allow the crackers to cool on a wire rack. After they are thoroughly cooled you may store them in an airtight container for about a week.

Whiskey-Soaked Chocolate Cake

Boozy chocolate cake – what could be better?  It’s got enough flavour and moistness that you don’t need an icing, but of course you can do whatever you want with it.

I found the recipe on awhiskandaspoon. It’s meant to be a bundt cake, but I made it in two loaf pans instead.  I also used strong coffee rather than the espresso powder that the original called for.  It’s moist and flavourful, but not too rich.  It is great served with a little whipping cream, or just a sprinkle of icing sugar to make it look pretty when it is served.

What you need:

1 cup unsalted butter, room temperature

2 cups flour

5 ounces bittersweet chocolate (5 squares of baker’s chocolate)

2 tablespoons cocoa

1 cup very strong hot coffee

1 cup whiskey

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 cups granulated sugar

3 large eggs, room temperature

1 tablespoon vanilla extract

1 teaspoon baking soda

icing sugar for dusting on the top (optional)

What you do:

1. Line the bottom of two loaf pans with parchment paper (or butter and flour a bundt pan).

2. Melt the chocolate in a double boiler (I just put some water in a pot, then place a bowl over it, heat the water up and put the chocolate in the bowl.  Keep it simmering until the chocolate is melted.) Set the chocolate aside to cool.

3. Place the cocoa in a large measuring cup, at least 2 cups capacity.  Add enough hot coffee to fill it to the one cup mark.  Stir the cocoa and coffee, then add the whiskey and salt and allow it to cool.

4. Preheat the oven to 325 F.

5.  Beat the butter until fluffy, then mix in the sugar.  Add the eggs one at a time, beating well.  Add the vanilla extract and chocolate.

6.  Beat in 1/3 of the whiskey/coffee mixture on low speed, then mix in half of the flour.  Add another third of the liquid, then the rest of the flour along with the baking soda.  Add the last third of the liquid.  Scrape the batter into the prepared pan(s).

7.  Bake for 55 minutes for loaf pans (depending on the size of the pan – test for doneness with a toothpick to see if it comes out clean), or about 1 hour and 10 minutes for a bundt pan.

8.  About 15 minutes after it comes out of the oven you can unmould the cake and allow it to cool on a wire rack.  Sprinkle it with a little more whiskey while it cools!

9.  Serve with icing sugar sprinkled on top, or with a dollop of whipping cream.

Oma’s Easter Eggs

My Oma always made Easter eggs the way she learned to do it in the Ukraine – paint the egg with wax, then dye it in onion skin water.  The eggs have a nice brown colour, with the bright white design.  I didn’t have the right tool for painting the wax on, so I did the Elementary School teacher trick – wrap it in rubber bands.  Not quite traditional, but it looks pretty!  This one is pictured along with chocolate eggs and Easter Paska.

What you need:

white eggs

rubber bands (or the thingy to paint the wax on)

brown skins from several onions

What you do:

1.  Boil the onion skins in a small post of water for about 20 minutes.  Remove the skins.

2.  Wrap the eggs with the rubber bands.

3.  Place the eggs in the pot of onion-skin water.  Bring to a boil, then remove from the heat.  Leave the lid on and let it sit for 13 minutes.  Put them in a bowl of cold water to cool them, then dry them off and show them off.

Voila!  Oma’s Easter eggs!

Oma and her family

Easter Paska

This sweet bread is one of our traditional Mennonite treats, hailing from the Ukraine where all my grandparents and my dad were born.  Growing up I always looked forward to it because we got to eat it for breakfast on Easter Sunday.  We typically ate really healthy breakfasts, so it was a big deal to have something sweet.  The bread itself is good, but the sierne paska, the spread you slather on top of each slice, is my favourite part.  Traditionally the paska was baked in large coffee tins, but I didn’t have any of those, so I just used loaf tins.  This recipe makes two loaves and a big batch of sierne paska, enough to top slices for both loaves.

We would typically leave the paska sitting out on a table, surrounded by decorated eggs, just because it looks pretty.  But, by Easter morning it would be all dried out – so I recommend storing it in a plastic bag before icing it, then ice it before you’re going to put it out, and cut right before serving.  People can slather on as much of the cheese spread as they want – mmmm, so good!

I’ve posted the recipe that my mom uses, but here are my Tante Katja’s recipes, in German.

What you need:

For the bread

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 cup lukewarm water

1 (8 gram) package yeast

2 whole eggs

5 egg yolks

1/2 cup sugar

juice of 1/2 an orange

1 teaspoon salt

1 cup scalded milk, cooled to luke-warm

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

4 & 1/2 to 5 cups flour

1/2 cup butter, melted

fine bread crumbs

For the sierne spread

2 cups dry curd (farmer’s) cottage cheese

5 egg yolks, hard-boiled

1/2 cup cream, boiled and cooled

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

1/2 cup sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

For the icing

1/4 cup butter

a tablespoon or two of cream or milk

icing sugar

What you do:

For the bread

1. Dissolve the sugar in the lukewarm water, then sprinkle the yeast on top.  Let it sit for 10 minutes – if it gets foamy you know you’re got live yeast.  If not, go get some new yeast before proceeding.

2.  Beat the eggs and yolks for about 10 minutes, adding the sugar gradually.  Add the orange juice, milk, vanilla and yeast mixture, and mix well.

3.  Gradually add the flour and butter, adding enough flour to make a soft dough.

4. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes, basically until the dough doesn’t cling to your hands any more.

5.  Lightly grease a large bowl and place the dough in it, turning the dough to coat it with a bit of the oil.  Place a clean tea towel over the top of the bowl and leave to rise in a warm place, about 45-60 minutes, or until doubled in size.  Punch it down and let it rise again for the same amount of time.

6.  Grease two bread pans (or coffee tins) and coat with the bread crumbs.  Divide the dough in half and form into a loaf with the edges tucked under, then place them into the pans.  The dough should fill the pan about 1/3.  Let the dough rise again, covered with the towel, until it just reaches the top of the pan.

7. Bake for 30 minutes at 350F.  Remove the paska from the tins and cool.  Then they will be ready to ice and show off!


For the sierne spread:

1. Press the cottage cheese and egg yolks through a fine sieve using the back of a wooden spoon.  Do this three times – it takes a bit of time and muscle, but it’s worth because it makes the texture very fine!

2. Cream the butter and sugar, then add everything else.

3.  Line a sieve with cheesecloth and place the spread in there.  Cover the top with plastic wrap and allow to drain in the fridge for a few hours.  (My mom says this is necessary, but there really wasn’t much liquid that drained out of mine, so I don’t think it’s essential.)

4. Invert the spread onto a plate so that it is a molded mound.  (In the photo I have it a bowl instead, but traditionally it is molded, usually in a pyramid shape)


For the icing

1. Cream the butter, then add a little icing sugar and cream, then a little more of each until you’ve got a soft icing.

2.  Top each cooled loaf with the icing, and add sprinkles if you like.

We seem to have fallen into a post-Easter coma.

Broccoli Soup

I wanted to make a nice light, fresh, healthy soup.  This is basically a combination of a flavourful broth, a little potato, onion, garlic, and some broccoli.  The broccoli isn’t cooked for too long, allowing the soup to remain a bright green.  This is pretty quick to whip up, provided you’ve got some stock on hand.  This is great with a little yogurt or cream swirled in before serving, along with a nice crusty bread.

What you need:

1 teaspoon olive oil

1/2 onion, chopped

4-5 garlic cloves, chopped finely

1 head roasted garlic (optional)

2 small white potatoes, chopped

1/2 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

3 cups chicken or vegetable broth

a few heads of broccoli, chopped into florets

salt and pepper

to serve: a dollop of yogurt or a drizzle of cream, also optional

What you do:

1. Heat a large pot to medium and add the olive oil.  When the oil is hot add the onion, cooking for a few minutes, then add the garlic.  Cook for a few minutes more, until the onion is translucent.

2.  Add the roasted garlic, rosemary, potatoes and stock.  Bring to a boil and cook until the potatoes are soft.

3.  Add the broccoli to the pot and put a lid on it for 4-5 minutes, until the broccoli is cooked but not losing its bright green colour.

4.  Use an immersion blender to puree the soup, or put it in the blender.  Serve it while it’s hot!

5.  To serve, top with a dollop of yogurt or a drizzle of cream.

Lemony Roasted Potatoes

Many times over the past few decades I have made these potatoes. When I made them for Mother’s Day recently, and my mom said she loved them, I knew I needed to post the recipe.

I have no idea where this recipe came from, since it was so long that I wrote it down. I know the inspiration to make them the first time came from a Greek restaurant in the small town I lived in for a while, where they made awesome lemony potatoes. Add a few olives, Greek salad, pita bread, tzatziki, and a bit of a protein, and you’ve got an amazing meal.

The only think I changed in this recipe was to use less olive oil. The original recipe called for 1/2 cup of olive oil.

The recipe is not difficult to make, but it takes a very hot oven for almost an hour.  Be careful when you open the oven to turn the potatoes halfway through the roasting – there will be a lot of steam that could be very hot on your delicate skin!

This is a large recipe, for 8 people, so halve it if you need to. You might want to make extra so you have leftovers – it’s that good!

What you need:

  • 4 pounds Russet baking potatoes or Yukon Gold
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (about 3 lemons)
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 tablespoon dried oregano
  • 1 tablespoon salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper

What you do:

  1. Preheat the oven to 500F.
  2. Clean and quarter the potatoes and place them in a large baking dish.
  3. Toss the potatoes in the other ingredients until they are well coated.
  4. Bake uncovered for 50 minutes, turning the potatoes after 25 minutes so they brown on all sides.
  5. The potatoes will be browned on the outside and soft in the middle when they are done.

Fantastic Chicken Stew

In honour of the rare mid-April snowfall we experienced in Vancouver today, I’m posting this fabulous chicken stew recipe. It’s not too hard to make, and it’s full of flavour.  I’ve adapted a recipe for veal stew from a Western Living cookbook to make this.  Oh, and it’s so tasty if you use homemade stock – it’s pretty much vital to the flavour, so plan ahead and make some stock !

What you need:

2 tablespoons olive oil

4-6 chicken thighs, bone-in & skin removed

1 onion, chopped roughly

a cup or two of button mushrooms, halved

4 cloves garlic, finely diced

3 cups chicken stock

1/2 teaspoon fresh rosemary, chopped finely

1 cup dry white wine

2 tablespoons  flour

5-6 small potatoes, chopped in half

4-5 carrots, cut into rounds

1 medium-sized zucchini, cut into rounds

salt and pepper to taste

What you do:

1. Heat a large pot to medium-high heat and add one tablespoon of olive oil, then add the onions. After about five minutes add the mushrooms.  Saute until browned, then remove from the pot.

2. Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pot, then add the chicken and cook until browned on each side.  Add the garlic and cook for a few minutes. Add the chicken stock and cook, covered, for about 45 minutes.

3. Combine the wine and flour, then stir it into the pot. Add the potatoes, carrots, and sautéed mushrooms and onions. Bring it to a boil, then lower the heat, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

4. Add the zucchini and cook for about 15 minutes.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

I like to eat this all on its own, but it would be great served with a crusty bread.