Turkey Florentine October 23, 2007

Colour me heretical but I’m more about the things I can do with turkey leftovers than I am about the full-on turkey dinner itself. Don’t get me wrong, I do enjoy a nice turkey dinner, which is possibly why I cooked three of them this month – only one was for our household and was destined to become turkey florentine. This recipe is easily vegetarianised by replacing the turkey with mushrooms or by omitting it altogether.

What you need:

3 cups cubed cooked turkey meat

1/2 lb. chopped baby spinach

3/4 cup feta cheese

1 475 g tub of ricotta cheese

2 tbsp dried basil

2 tsp ground nutmeg

1 large red onion, finely chopped

1 454 g pkg phyllo pastry

1/2 cup olive oil

Our recipe is going to give us 4 large rolls – enough for 12 servings (we’re going to put a couple of them in the freezer for another meal because, frankly, I’m a little tired of turkey at this point.)

Mix everything but the phyllo and olive oil in a large bowl:

On a very dry surface lay out two sheets of phyllo and brush with oil:

Add two (or three – most phyllo packages contain about 18 sheets because they tear easily and some folk are more perfectionistic than I) more sheets to that. Spread one quarter of the turkey/spinach/cheese/etc mixture over 1/3 of the phyllo area like so:

Fold the left edge over the mixture, then the top and bottom. Lightly brush the newly exposed phyllo bits with more oil then carefully roll over once:

Brush that newly exposed bit of phyllo with oil and continue rolling and brushing until you’re all out of phyllo. Place your log/roll thingy on a slight greased baking sheet or baking stone and brush the top and sides with a little oil again.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

This is what it looks like before it goes into the oven:

Bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and comes out looking like this:

best ever chip dip October 22, 2007

I’m a complete sucker for chips and dip. I’ll pass over chocolate any day, but do not deny me my greasy, potatoey goodness.

The following is a recipe for cream cheese chip dip which is as addictive as it is easy.

What you need:

1 block cream cheese

1/4 cup evaporated (makes a creamier dip) or regular milk

2 tbsp dried onion flakes

Loads of cracked pepper (our mill is always loaded with a red/green/black combo which is to die for – we’re pepper snobs)

A pinch of salt

Toss all of the above into a medium sized bowl, cover with plastic and allow to sit for at least 2 hours so that the onions have a chance to reconstitute in the milk, like so:

Resist the urge to stir or poke it or disturb it otherwise. After about 2 hours you can mix it:

Then serve it in your favourite bowl. This one’s mine:

Yup. It’s a depression era gas station special made by Federal Glass Company. I have a bigger one with tigers, too. It saddens me deeply that the practice of giving cheap glass products away with a refill has gone out of style. So much cool kitchen stuff is collected that way. But I digress.

Your dip is done! Eat it!

my pizza stone October 20, 2007

This is my pizza stone. There are many like it but this one is mine. My pizza stone is my best friend. It is my life. I must master it as I must master my life. Without me, my stone is useless. Without my stone I am useless. I must season my pizza stone true…

Okay, it’s a little grimey and gross looking right now (and I’m a total ass for making the sprog hold it before giving it a proper washing), but I wanted you to get a feel for just how much I put this poor thing through.

This is the brand new stone the stork brought us:

One day it may look just like its sister.

I’ve had my stone for almost 4 years now and it’s done well by me. I’ve subjected it to pretty much everything all the books tell us not to; direct heat, a lack of preheating, frozen foods, etc. and it remains my favourite kitchen tool ever. If you don’t have one, go get one. If you do have one, take it out and use it – I double dog dare you to get it looking like mine.

Devil’s Hot Pot October 18, 2007

My son devised this dish one Wednesday evening while his sister was visiting her dad and he and I were at a loss for what to make. He was about 8 years old at the time – the sprogs are such clever little dickens. It’s become a Wednesday- evening-with-the-son (because the daughter does not enjoy spicy food or shrimp) institution, though we don’t make it too often given its massive amounts of artery clogging ingredients. It is a nice, decadent treat every once in a while and goes together very quickly.

What you need:

A handful of dry fettuccine noodles (when I make a rounded fist the space there is about an inch and a half in diameter and the pasta contained within yields about 4 cups of cooked noodles)

3 tbsp margarine or butter (soya margarine is perfectly ok for this dish)

1 tbsp curry paste (madras is good, we used Sybil’s Kick Ass curry paste – we’ll talk about Sybil later)

3 cloves garlic

3 large bell peppers (we only use red/yellow/orange but if you like the yucky bitterness of green ones then have at ‘er)

30-40 uncooked, deveined shrimp of your choice

1 cup 10% cream

1 cup dry white wine

First step is to start the water for the pasta. While that’s heating up you can thinly slice your peppers, crush your garlic, peel your shrimp (if need be) and do your taxes. Why does water take forever to boil? Once the water is at a rolling boil drop your fistful of dried noodles in.

Here I need to have a little aside about fettuccine: I know the temptation to put oil in the pasta water burns with the heat of a thousand suns and normally I would be all over advocating putting oil in the pasta water. However, when you’re going to be topping your fettuccine noodles with a cream-based sauce you risk robbing your noodles’ ability to accept the creamy love it deserves. The ingredients and shape of your fettuccine noodles are cleverly designed to be hugged by your cream sauce, its the key to their self-actualization. Please don’t let them slip down the Maslowian rungs by lubricating them, k? Besides, this sauce is going to go together so quickly your noodles won’t have time to get their starches stuck.

On with the cooking!

Heat a large cast iron frying pan over high heat until hot. Add the butter/margarine. Once that has melted add your garlic, give it a quick stir then add the peppers. Fry two to three minutes – please don’t let them get soft. Nobody likes a mushy pepper. Stir in your curry paste.

As soon as the curry paste it stirred in, add the shrimp. Stir fry this (and I mean really stir fry – do not let your eyes leave the cook top as our little pan is still on high temp and you might overcook the shrimp and that will only end in tears.)

Just as soon as the shrimp starts to turn pink (and only starts to – believe me, you will not have undercooked shrimp. They will get finished off in the cream/wine stages but if you let them go all pink you’ll have fish-flavoured bubble gum instead of succulent little ocean fruits) add your cream.

Stir, stir, stir until the cream and curry have married and become one. This should only take about 30 seconds. Then you add the wine.

Some for you. Some for the sauce =)

You’re allowed to leave to stove for a bit now and your noodles are likely nicely al dente. Go drain ‘em and get back to the stove real quick-like.

Stir, stir, stir again until the shrimps are turning pink in that lovely winey/creamy/curry menage a trois. As soon as the shrimps are no longer translucent serve the sauce over fettuccine noodles and top with some chopped fresh cilantro or parsley, a little grated Parmesan or Romano cheese and loads of freshly ground pepper.

And now a word about Sybil: Sybil is a veritable master alchemist of all things spicy. She and her husband sell her wares at our local Farmer’s Market and are a wealth of knowledge with regard to making fabulous curries. As stated earlier, we use her Kick Ass Curry Paste in this dish – and it really is kick ass. Mellowing it out with cream and wine really brings out the coconut and coriander undertones of the paste but it really is hot. I thought I was used to spicy heat but even mellowed out this stuff had me sniffling through my meal and the son hitting the fridge for milk at least three times.

Sybil, if you’re reading this; know that we love you and your delicious concoctions but they’re really freakin’ hot!

Betty Crocker rang, she wants her muffins back

I’m generally not a strong endorser of mixes and packages of pre-mixed stuff or things to which one should just add water to produce a seven course meal – not because I’m a puritan or that I’m particularly well versed in the benefits of whole foods versus processed foods (though there’s certainly a wee bit of that going on.) Mostly it’s just because they don’t often taste as good as the real deal.

That said, there’s definitely room in my cupboards and a time and place for such things. Most specifically for bulk food store honey oat bran muffin mix. I am not a baker and what muffin mix means in my kitchen is nearly 45 minutes in which my two sprogs and my sister’s two sprogs are happily concocting and not fighting, not wanting outside, not whining because they’re bored, not fighting, not needing me to jump rope, not having squeeling contests, not fighting (did I say fighting?) or requiring massive amounts of my attention otherwise. 45 sweet minutes in which they’re happily smashing bananas, cracking eggs, greasing tins and licking spoons and I can easily accomplish half a day worth of work while keeping half an eye on their productivity (just to ensure they’re not over-mixing the muffins.)

This stuff is great. It’s reasonably healthy – actually providing acceptable levels of complex carbohydrates to keep us all regular and containing a very minimal amount of sweetener (as all good muffins will.) On top of all that, it’s not so expensive or time consuming that you’ll be devastated should the results turn out less than savoury.

Today we made honey-oat-bran-banana-coconut-chocolate-chip-walnut muffins.

Other muffins from mixes we have made include, but are not limited to:

Pineapple-mandarin-coconut

Sesame-apple-cranberry

Salsa-cheese-pecan

Pumpkin seed-pecan-peach

Maple-walnut-apple

Potato-cheese-parsley

Carrot-raisin-pumpkin seed

Cranberry-orange-almond

Papaya-coconut-pecan

Ham-walnut-pineapple

Poppy seed-lemon-almond

p.s. I’ve also used this stuff to make pancakes.

pesto! October 13, 2007

I discovered the cheap, easy alternative to actual pesto about 15 years ago and our freezer has hardly been without it since. It’s a great way to deal with spinach and parsley which are about to pass and is far less spendy than fresh basil pesto, which can be hard to come by at the best of times.

For this batch I used:

5 cups baby spinach
2 cups fresh italian parsley
2 tbsp dried basil
5 cloves of garlic
1 tsp salt
2 tbsp freshly ground pepper
2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 cup olive oil

Toss the lot of it in a food processor or blender and whiz until it reaches a creamy consistency. Placing it into ice cube trays (as above) makes for a quick freeze and conveniently sized for use later.

Pesto can be jazzed up (or down, for that matter) in all manners: omit the basil and replace the parsley with cilantro and you’ve got a yummy addition to your next spanish rice casserole. Add sun-dried tomatoes and you’ve got a lovely pizza base. The sky’s the limit, really and pesto is a great place to start experimenting with flavours and balances. Enjoy!

all things squishy October 12, 2007

I have a two year old hanging around lately so we’ve been making all manner of yummy things with the bounty of seasonal goods bestowed upon us recently.

Squash and pumpkins and garlic roasting for soup and muffins. While those cook we eat grilled old cheddar and gala apple (soooo good right now – go get some!) sandwiches.

Then we make the autumnal requisite squash soup. Roasting the squash first gives it a sweeter and nuttier flavour. The roasted garlic goes in there too. We puree it with a few potatoes, add some curry spice and serve it with cream.

We found a recipe for pumpkin bacon muffins over at and had to try it.

Tasty, tasty baconny, pumpkinny goodness.

Tex Mex Pepper Polenta Pot October 9, 2007

Had some leftover polenta in the freezer and a bunch of stuff in the back of the cupboard being sorely neglected so I rifled through and came up with this pantry buster on the QT. Prep time is minimal (15 minutes tops, 10 if you’ve got helpers) and the results are uber yum. Unfortunately, there’s really no way of taking a flattering picture of it and showing all the goodies its got inside but there you have it:

What you need:

1 pkg polenta (unless you make your own) cut into 1/2″ slices.
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can red kidney or black beans
1 cup corn kernels
4 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tbsp basil
1 tsp each ground cumin and coriander
Salt & pepper to taste
2 large red bell peppers, chunked
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro
2 cups old cheddar cheese

Strain the tomatoes, beans & corn through a colander. Toss the lot into a large mixing bowl together. Add the garlic, basil,cumin, coriander, salt & pepper. Grease the bottom of a large baking pan then line it with the polenta slices. Top that with the red pepper chunks then slather that in the tomato, corn, bean mix. Sprinkle your cilantro bits over it then do the same with the cheese. Bake at 450 degrees for 35 minutes.

Dealing with leftovers October 7, 2007

Dealing with leftovers is a constant in this house. Try as we may, we always seem to miss the mark in cooking just enough for one meal as opposed to enough for three and a half. I suppose it’s a secret sin of mine that I actually enjoy having leftovers to deal with as they often make for quick meals which bend my creativity.

Tonight I’ve employed puff pastry to help me deal with the remnants of a sirloin roast from earlier this week in the form of a beef and mushroom pie.

This is the bottom part of the pastry resting in its new pie plate home:

In a pan I heated up a cup of leftover gravy. Once it reached the bubbling phase I added 1 cup of dry, cheap, Italian, red table wine and let it reduce while I prepared the rest of the ingredients.

Then I chopped up the rest of the roast (about 2.5 cups worth), sliced a large red onion into thin half-rounds, sliced some cremini mushrooms and tossed the lot of it in a bowl with 2tsp each rosemary, thyme & oregano then salt and pepper to taste.

That lot gets tossed into the previously resting puff pastry bottom then drizzled with the wine gravy reduction. I topped it with another layer of puff pastry, slit the top and shoved it in the oven for an hour at 350 degrees and comes out like this: