New Food #2

New Food #2

Unknown   Februari 27, 2015   Comment  

Continuing with my project for the year to try a new food every month, I bring you New Food #2 - the tamarillo.  I had never heard of it and my interest was piqued when I saw it in the grocery store sitting with the exotic fruits and looking so pretty. The skin is such a pretty blend of reds and peaches and yellows. I actually had to check twice to get the name right as I wasn't familiar with it.

After some Googling I discovered that it is a fruit grown on a small tree and is also called a tree tomato. It is native to South America, but now is grown in many subtropical areas around the world with New Zealand and Australia leading in commercial production and exporting. 

There are yellow and red varieties, with the yellow being sweeter and often eaten like a kiwi scooping it out of the skin. Since the red tamarillo are more tangy, I thought it would make sense to cook a savoury dish with it. I served it with chicken and it was delicious. While I liked the taste, I doubt I will be buying it again too often as it was very expensive. Have you ever had a tamarillo or is new to you too?

Tamarillo Chutney

INGREDIENTS
1 tamarillo
1/2 red onion, peeled and chopped
1 apple, peeled and chopped
1/2 red pepper, chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
5 whole cloves
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
1/4 cup white vinegar
3 tablespoons sugar

METHOD
1. Cover tamarillo with boiling water and allow to stand for 3-4 minutes. Then drain and when cool enough to handle peel and chop.
3. Cook the onion and garlic in a small amount of oil for about 4-5 minutes.
2. Combine ingredients in a saucepan and cook for about 30 minutes (add small amounts of water as needed) until the consistency of jam. Remove cloves before serving.

New Food #1

New Food #1

Unknown   Januari 15, 2015   Comment  

One of my New Year's resolutions was to do something new every month. I thought I would try and make that even more specific and try a new food every month. I do like to eat, so I figure this goal is a good fit. 

When I was at the green grocers the other day I saw some endive and thought that would be my first food to try. My only exposure to endives are in the movie Emelie. Do you remember how the shop assistant carefully selects and even listens to each endive before deciding on which ones to give Emelie. It was so endearing.

A little research revealed what a quirky vegetable endive is. It is part of the daisy and chicory family and can be eaten cooked or raw. Endive is a complicated vegetable to grow as it involves a two-step process. First the seeds are grown into a leafy plant with a deep tap root. Then the greens are cut off and the roots dug up and put into storage where they become dormant. Then the root is put in a cold, dark, humid environment and the endive is grown (the pale green and white colouring made sense when I read that). Endive are chock full of vitamins, potassium, and fibre.

I modified a simple recipe so I could fully appreciate the taste of the endive. Here's how I cooked them:

INGREDIENTS:
2 endive
1 small apple
1 tablespoon butter or oil
1/4 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup water
salt and pepper

METHOD:
1. trim the stem end and slice 2 endive in half lengthwise 
2. place thin peeled apple slices between the layers of leaves 
3. place in frying pan cut side down with 1 tablespoon butter or oil and cook for 6 minutes
4. gently turn the endive over, add 1/4 cup chopped walnuts, add 1/4 cup water, season with salt and pepper, cover, and cook for 12-15 minutes
5. uncover and cook until the liquid has evaporated

Verdict:
I liked the endive better the second day when I took it to work for lunch. It does have a slightly bitter taste which the apple helps to offset. I would make it again, but it wasn't a love-at-first-bite kind of food.

Have you tried endive? What was your verdict? Do you like to try new foods?

Baked Apple Beet Casserole

Baked Apple Beet Casserole

Unknown   Oktober 13, 2014   Comment  

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and Happy Columbus Day weekend to my American friends and Happy Monday to everyone else!  

We just got back from a lovely weekend at the cottage with family and friends.  It was cool, but a nice mix of sun and cloud which meant we were able to both sit inside and chat and relax as well as get out for some walks. Honestly, I could get lost in the reds and golds and oranges that were all over the trees. Most of the reddest leaves had already fallen, but the oranges and reddish-oranges were still going strong along with the yellows and golds. My personal favourite are the trees and leaves with a range of colours on them from red to yellow.

We had Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's home which is near our cottage.  It was a fantastic dinner and everything was delicious. It was such fun to get together with our good friends who joined us for the weekend as well as family.  So much to be thankful for!

 

  

I did want to share one recipe with you (and preserve it so I can find it again as it is definitely one I want to repeat). We had ham on the day after Thanksgiving dinner and I wanted to serve beets with the ham. I checked some cookbooks for recipes and modified one to make Baked Apple Beets. They are so simple to make and great when you have company as all the fuss of skinning the beets is done long beforehand.

Baked Apple Beets
Ingredients:
2 cups cooked beets, chopped
2 cups apple, peeled, cored, and chopped
1 large onion, thinly sliced 
2-3 tablespoons margarine or butter

Method:
1. Cook whole beets for 40-50 minutes and skin them when cool enough to handle.
2. Combine ingredients in a baking dish and dot with margarine
3. Cover and cook for 1 1/2 hour at 325F

Making Sushi

Making Sushi

Unknown   Oktober 06, 2014   Comment  

Have you ever made your own sushi? I know lots of people have, but I'm not one of them. I love trying new recipes, though, so I was keen to try.

Our son Malcolm suggested we make sushi for lunch when we visited them last weekend. Most of the ingredients are easy to get, but I wasn't sure about the raw fish. I was told at our local grocery store's meat counter that their salmon was not considered sushi-grade, but it was fresh from New Brunswick and had been received that day which seemed good enough for me.

I thought sushi making would be much more difficult than it is to make the rolls stay together and look pretty.

All you do is press some sticky rice on the seaweed sheets leaving about an inch along the top edge bare without any rice. You have to use sticky rice so that the grains will stick together - regular rice won't work.

Then you add your choice of thinly sliced vegetables (we had cucumber, carrots, and avocado), crab meat, or raw salmon along the edge nearest you. 

When you have all the ingredients you want, then you roll the log starting from the side nearest to you. The bamboo mats help you make a tight roll. The inch of seaweed wrapper at the top edge of the sheet is used to seal the log together. It helps to have a bowl of water to dip your fingers into if they get too covered in rice or if you need to help the seaweed wrapper make a firm seal.

Then, using a sharp knife you cut the log into bite-sized pieces and put them on a plate to admire eat.

We started our meal with miso soup so we would have the energy to make our sushi lunch. Miso soup is very easy to make and a great addition to a sushi meal. We modified this recipe and it turned out to be so tasty.

To make miso soup, boil together:

4 cups water

1/2 cup chopped green onion (or more if you want)

1 package firm tofu (it must have been about 2 cups)

3-4 tablespoons miso paste

2 sheets of nori (dried seaweed), crumpled

I love sushi and am impressed with how easy it was to make them look good - and of course, they tasted great!

Curry Chicken Burgers

Curry Chicken Burgers

Unknown   September 12, 2014   Comment  

I only sort of like hamburgers and enjoy them no more than maybe once a year, so when I was shown this recipe for Chicken Burgers I was only lukewarm about it. Until I heard they had south Asian flavouring and came highly recommended. I can't agree more - they tasted fantastic. The spices were just right. 

I had to adapt the original recipe because I didn't have all the same spices, but the chicken burgers were so delicious that I didn't want to risk losing or forgetting about the recipe so I'm posting it right away.

Although the recipe said to cook the burgers for 10-12 minutes, I used my meat thermometer (stuck in one of the burgers sideways) and it wasn't registering 165F after 12 minutes of cooking so I cooked them a few minutes longer. There's no fooling around with raw chicken so I would advise using a thermometer to make sure.

Ingredients:
454 gm (1lb) ground chicken
1 egg
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 cup dried bread crumbs
1 tablespoon curry powder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
3/4 teaspoon garam masala
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Method:
1. Mix all ingredients together.
2. Shape into 4 patties.
3  Cook in a frying pan turning once, for about 13-15 minutes until a meat thermometer registers 165F.

We skipped the bun and I served the chicken burgers with tzatziki, sliced tomatoes, and a couscous salad. I know, I know, holy fusion cooking, but man did it taste great!

Do you have big plans for the weekend?  This is going to be a low-key-get-things-organized kind of weekend and I'm so looking forward to it.

Quirpon Island Salmon Loaf

Quirpon Island Salmon Loaf

Unknown   September 02, 2014   Comment  

When we stayed at the Quirpon Island Lighthouse Inn in northern Newfoundland (which you can read about here) we had the most delicious salmon loaf for dinner. I asked the cook if she would mind sharing the recipe and she let me copy it out. I modified it slightly to accommodate our tastes, but when I made it recently it was just as good as I remembered. 

The cook also told me that they usually serve it with cucumber sauce, but they hadn't received any cucumbers in the last shipment of food so she had substituted a sauce made from mayo and mustard. While the mayo-mustard sauce tasted great, I wanted to experience the real deal so I made the cucumber sauce. I served it with potatoes and veggies and everyone loved it. The secret to this salmon loaf is that it is made from fresh salmon which means it is a little pricier to make, but man oh man, is it moist and delicious.

SALMON LOAF
Ingredients:
900 gms (2 lbs) fresh raw salmon, skinned and chopped into small pieces
1 1/2 cups dry bread crumbs
1 1/2 cups mayo (I used low fat mayo)
1 cup chopped onion
1/2 cup chopped celery
1/2 cup chopped red or green pepper
3 eggs
1 teaspoon salt

Method:
1.  Mix ingredients together
2.  Pack into 2 greased loaf pans
3.  Bake at 350 for ... actually I forget how long I cooked it for and forgot to write it down (oops) and the orginal recipe didn't say, but I just googled how long other recipes call for and the verdict seems to be 45 minutes. I vaguely think that is what I cooked mine for.

CUCUMBER SAUCE
Ingredients:
1/2 cup sour cream (low fat)
1/2 cup mayo (low fat again)
3 tablespoons milk
1 cup finely chopped cucumber, drained and packed into the measuring cup (about 1/2 an English cucumber)
1/2 tsp dried dill (3 teaspoons if you are using fresh dill)

Method:

1.  Drain cucumber for 15 minutes in a strainer
2.  Mix ingredients together 

And just because any excuse will do to post some more photos of our time at Quirpon Island (you can see more in this post) I thought I would take you on a tour of the lighthouse keeper's house, which is now the inn.

  
Somehow lighthouses look gorgeous no matter the weather.

The lighthouse keeper's house was built in 1920 and is actually two identical homes side-by-side. There were two families that worked at the lighthouse and alternated one month on and one month off.  Instead of clearing all their personal belongings out every month when it was time to leave the island they just built them each a home to use. 

When the lighthouse keeper's homes were converted to an inn an opening was created between the two homes and it is now used as one building (you can see the two front doors in the photo below). The original living room for the house on the left is now the inn's living room and the original living room for the house on the right is now the dining room. Likewise, the original kitchen for the house on the left is now a staff room and the one on the right is the inn's kitchen. 

I love knowing the layout of older homes and imaging how they were used. Isn't the white with red trim perfect for a lighthouse keeper's home ... and just imagine decorating your front porch with whale rib bones.

Let's take a look inside shall we.  Here's the front hall with the door cut through between the two homes with the living room visible beyond.

And turning the other way is the dining room.

with the kitchen behind it.

We actually stayed in the guest house so I don't have any photos of the original bedrooms. Life on Quirpon Island is slow and quiet. You go there to see icebergs and whales and beautiful rocks and gorgeous skies which we did in spades.

I hope you give the salmon loaf a try as it is too good to be missed. Have you ever made salmon loaf?  I always used tinned salmon in the past, but the fresh salmon is the best.

p.s. Linked to Enchanting Inspiration at Migonis Home