Sweet & Sour Citrus Shake

My girlfriend makes a milkshake that tastes like bubblegum. The trick is that lime, when combined with banana, gives it this unique taste. So a citrus shake was my answer to that. It's equally tasty and equally unique.

To make, you must start by scraping off the zest of 2 limes, 1 lemon, and 1 medium sized orange (a navel orange for example). If you don't have a zester you'll have to slice it off the fruit and then trim the white off...or just go buy a zester. Place the zest of the citrus in a blender along with the juice of the same fruit, making sure not to let any seeds falls in. Finally, add about 2 1/2 cups of vanilla ice cream, 1 cup of milk, and 1/2 cup of brown sugar. Blend till everything is nice and smooth and enjoy.

One last thing. If you like things sour, add less sugar and ice cream. Plus, if you happen to have citric acid lying around, you might as well dump some of that in.

Oh and the next time we do make a "bubblegum" shake, I'll be sure to post the recipe here.

Cheers!

Panini Smoked Meat Sandwhich & Roasted Carrot Soup

Alone at home while I wait to go to work, I can think up some pretty crazy ideas when it comes to food seeing as my flavour matching still needs alot of tweeking. However, you'd have to be a total ignoramous to mess up a smoked meat sandwhich.

Seeing as the smoked meat (Montreal style has a very cured and smoked brisket) has a very powerful taste, you must pair it with equally intrusive flavours. Traditionally this includes rye bread, a side slice of kosher pickle, and mustard. I went a few steps further and put the pickle slices in the sandwhich, used grainy mustard instead of boring old prepared mustard, and added some monterey jack cheese. Sandwiched between a smoking panini press, the added crunchiness of the bread and warmth of the ingredients - lets not forget the melted cheese - really made a huge difference. With all of these very strong flavours, the sandwich was like an explosion of taste, perfect for any meal.

On a lighter more sofisticated note, I tried a recipe for roasted carrot soup that I found in a magazine entitled "The Best of Fine Cooking: Fresh, spring/summer 07". Included in this magazine are over 70 recipes geared towards the lighter seasons where - at least in the northern climates such as my own - everything is fresher especially at the farmer's market. The recipe in question is really a suprisingly smooth and yet lively taste for carrots. The liveliness comes from the ginger you add to the soup. But anyways, enough about me, here's the recipe.

Roasted Carrot Soup

1 lb. carrots, peeled and cut into 3-inch lengths (try to find the freshest garden carrots you can)

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tbs. unsalted butter

1/2 medium onion, diced

1 large celery rib, diced (I used a bok choy rib which worked just as well if not better)

1 tbs minced fresh ginger

2 cups chicken broth

Salt & pepper

1. Preheat oven at 375 degrees.

2. Toss chopped carrots in a baking dish with olive oil and seperate so that the pieces don't touch.

3. Place carrots in oven for 30 minutes, turn and cook for another 30 minutes.

4. Sauté onion in butter in a medium saucepan till translucent. Add celery (or bok choy) and ginger and cook for another 4-5 minutes.

5. Add roasted carrots, chicken broth, 2 cups of water, salt and pepper. Bring to boil then reduce to medium simmer for about 45 minutes covered.

6. Once cooked, let the soup cool completely.

7. Once cooled, purée soup in a blender and place to cool for a few hour or, better yet, overnight. When ready to eat, just reheat soup and enjoy.

Spaghetti Squash & A Sleeping Potion

I was introduced to spaghetti squash some time in my teens. Coming from a family of grilled cheese, pizza fingers and takeout, I was never introduced to anything culinarily (if that's eve a word) interesting. Well spaghetti squash is not only interesting, but it's a fabulous and healthy change from pasta.

To cook the squash, simple cut it in half, empty out the seeds, place in a baking pan with about an inch of water in the bottom, and cook in a 350 degree oven for about 45 minutes. Once cooked, use a spoon to scrape out the strands of crunchy squash. Serve with homemade spaghetti sauce. Yet be warned that it's best to serve 3 or 4 people on one squash. Half the squash to yourself can be a vegetable overdose which I guess isn't so bad when compared to deep-fried food overdoses.

I also started working again after 2 weeks being paid to stay at home while they cleaned the building in which I work after some minor fire damage. And if that wasn't enough, the shifts I'm scheduled for are from 5pm to 1am. Though I get up early in the morning and simply take a brief nap before work so that I don't pass out, the hours are less than desirable. What's more, when I get home I'm almost wide awake. The solution: a grandmother's trick to drink a tall glass of warm milk before going to bed.

Though some of you might cringe to think of warm milk, there are ways to make it a bit more appealing. I for one sprinkled a bit of sugar, cinnamon, and vanilla extract into the milk. This concoction almost tasted like Chai tea so it went down pretty well.

On a scientific note, the melatonin (the sleeping hormone) found in milk is what makes this perfect for a pre-sleep drink. (You could always take a shot of hard liquor or sleeping pills but that can prove to be problematic in the long run).

Tortilla Heaven

My girlfriend's stepmother is Mexican and so packaged tortillas, fake salsa, and other imitations don't cut it. Thankfully, we got her stepmom's recipes over the holidays and have finally managed to make real tortillas and make a true Mexican style salsa (i.e. a more liquid salsa which isn't chunky at all). The result was a delicious supper where we pilled tonnes of roasted pork (which we would have made with achiote and orange juice if we hadn't lost our precious brick of spices), canned refried beans (I've been informed that these taste as good as the originals), chopped tomatoes, iceberg lettuce slices, some hotsauce for me, grated cheddar and sour cream. We would have made some mashed avocado but, to put it lightly, it had lost it's freshness.
Now if you do attempt to make the tortillas you must be forewarned that it really isn't an exact science. It's like watching an Italian grandmother make pasta...no rules and no mesuring cups. It's all about good old fashion a bit o' this and a bit o' that. But when you do finally arrive at the perfect mix, you'll never want to eat store bought tortillas ever again.

One last tip is that you can make your own tortillas using Maseca mix (which are corn tortillas). Just throw in the wet ingredients and you've got tortillas. But, like dehydrated potatoes and boxed pancakes, the results are always better when you start from scratch.

Have fun!

Real Mexican Tortillas

1 kg all purpose flour

160 g tenderflake

2 tbsp sugar

Boil about 5 cups of water with salt. Take out 1 cup flour from the 1 kg and set aside for use during the rolling of the dough. Mix flour, sugar and tenderflake. Slowly add boiling water a but at a time until it has a dough texture. Make sur not to add too much water. Mix well as you are adding the water till it had been incorporated and then add more water if necessary. When the dough is ready, divide it into small balls about the size of a racketball. Flatten balls into something that looks like a tortilla with a rolling pin. The tortillas have to be very thin; if they're too thick it won't work.

Cook tortillas in a shallow frying pan. Put flattened dough in on one side for about 30 seconds, then flip them on the other side. At this point air bubbles will start to puff up the tortilla. Simply press on tortilla with a paper towel to let air out. Finally, flip tortilla onto uncooked side finish cooking. And that's it. You should now have a beautiful mound of blistery fresh tortillas. (Don't be shy to put a good lump butter on a really hot tortilla to enjoy as you work).

Mexican salsa

4 garlic cloves

3 tomatoes, skinned by scoring and putting in boiling water for a minute or so

1 onion

1/2 jalapeno

2 tsp oregano

Put all ingredients in a blender. Add a bit of oil to a pot and cook the salsa for 10 to 15 minutes. Taste salsa then add salt and pepper.

Veal Rolls Stuffed With Spinach & Gruyère With Rosti

Once again I can't recommend Gourmet Magazine enough. Their recipe for the veal roll and the rosti come from their travels in Switzerland. The meal is rich and would be perfect for a comfortable winter meal or, if coupled with a glass of chilled white wine and a subtle salad, it could be adapted for summer. Whenever you want to eat it, this meal is simply fantastic.

The veal scallopini is pounded thin between two sheets of plastic or, as I did, in a ziplock bag. You then spread a bit of anchovy butter on the veal (just 1 tbsp of anchovy paste mashed into 1/2 cup of butter) after having patted the scallopini dry and sprinkled a bit of salt and pepper. You then sprinkle some grated gruyère cheese leaving about and inch from the side so that once rolled the cheese will not ooze out too much. Over the cheese goes one layer of flatleaf spinach after which you roll the scallopini tightly, securing your work with a toothpick.

After preparing the rolls, simply sear in an hot ovenproof frying pan in some butter for about 4 minutes total making sure that all sides are nice and brown. Transfer rools and pan to 425 degree oven for another 5 minutes. You then remove the pan from the oven and the roll from the pan, putting foil over them to keep warm. Splash 1/3 cup dry white wine in the pan, scrape bottom to loosen those tasty little morsels and reduce sauce by half. Incorporate 2 tbsp of anchovy butter into sauce along with about 3 tbsp of fresh parsley, salt and pepper. Serve on top of rolls.

As for the rosti, the recipe is quite simple and resembles a hash brown. Bake potatoes in oven and when ready, let them cool long enough so that they are stiff enough to grate (you could also freeze the potatoes). When ready, grate potatoes and one onion, tossing these with a bit of salt and pepper - you could also add cheese or other ingredients if you like. Heat butter in a frying pan just the right size for the amount of mixture you have then dump potatoe mixture in and fry on that side till golden brown. Place a plate over the frying pan and flip rosti into it. You can add more butter here if required. Return rosti to pan so as to fry the other side. Both sides should take about 5 minutes each. Cut into slices and serve with veal rolls.

And don't forget to buy Gourmet Magazine...the recipes I try are just a tip of the iceberg!

Crab, Pizza Pockets, Summer Rolls & Steak...All in Two Day's Work

My girlfriend works at the grocery store which means that we know about all the great bargains. And seeing as we live in the Maritimes, the great bargains often include fresh seafood. On the menu tonight, crab!

We bought the crab pre-cooked and frozen. All we had to do was throw it in some boiling, well-salted water for a few minutes and soon we were eating our way through the sweet tender flesh. In my opinion, crab is oftentimes better than lobster. It is often cheaper too because lobster is so popular these days whereas people just 60 years or so were frowned upon for eating the ugly things. People would actually hide it in their garbage so that their neighbours didn't know that had to eat lobster! And when you consider that lobster and pretty much all seafood spend their lives sifting the crap out of the sea water, you get to understand why this would have been a proper preoccupation. I wish we were back in those days. I could eat all the lobster I want on my shoestring budget.

In the background of the photo above you can see our pizza pockets. We used the leftover wonton wrappers from the day before (those we used to make briks) and stuffed them with thick slices of pepperoni, spaghetti sauce, and grated mozzarella. We then dropped them in a pan of oil till they were nice and golden. The result? A gushing little accompanying dish. Though you can't eat more than a few of these little things without getting overwhelmed by the greasyness of it all, they were delicious.

Yesterday, for supper, we had some friends over. I prepared the smoked salmon appetizers similar to the gravlax. We then prepared some summer rolls which my girlfriend is crazy about, a recipe I got off Tyler Florence's Food 911. These little rolls are really fresh and light. They go well with pretty much anything. But we didn't just pair it with anything. I marinaded some steaks in a Thai inspired marinade which I got from Christine Cushing on Food TV. The sweetness of the marinade (which we could only marinade for a few hours but should be left for something like two days) worked well with the light summer rolls. It was a refreshing twist on the old meat and potatoes.

Finally, we ended with a huge cake our friend make for my birthday. When I get the recipe I'll post it. But for now I can only tell you that it was a mound of light cake, whipped cream, and toffee pieces. Served with a cup of licorice tea, it was a great end to a great meal.

Summer Rolls with Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

1 oz Vietnamese cellophane noodles

1/2 cup bean sprouts

1/2 carrot, julienned

1 beet, julienned

1/4 fresh red chilli, cut into circles

1/2 handful fresh cilantro, hand-torn

1/4 cup chopped unsalted peanuts

1/2 tsp sesame oil

1/4 lime, juiced

Mint leaves

Sea salt

1. Mix ingredients together in a bowl. Remember that the ingredients are approximative. Add or reduce any amount to personal taste or to give the rolls some extra umph.

2. Prepare rice paper according to instrustion.

3. Place about 1/4 cup of the filling near side of rice paper. Place one mint leaf on rice paper opposite to the filling. Flip sides of rice paper towards middle and then roll paper over filling and mint leaf to make a tight roll.

Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce

1/4 cup rice wine vinegar

2 tbsp fish sauce (or clam juice)

1/4 cup hot water

2 tbsp sugar

1 lime, juiced

1 tsp minced garlic

1 tsp red chilli paste

1. Mix ingredients together and serve in individual bowls since double dipping will be inevitable.

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Honey Thai Marinated Steak

2 oz sesame oil

8 oz honey

2 tbsp Thai spice paste

2 tbsp fresh ginger, grated

2 oz orange juice concentrate

Sea salt

Pepper

Cracked coriander seeds

Light soy sauce, for dipping

1. Mix sesame oil, honey, paste, ginger, and orange juice concentrate in a large ziplock bag. Slip steaks into bag and marinate for 48 hours, flipping every 8 or 12 hours.

2. When ready to eat, preheat bbq grill.

3. Pat steaks dry, sprinkle with sea salt, pepper, and coriander seeds

4. Cook steaks to desired doneness, basting with remaining marinade.

5. Serve steak whole or sliced with soy sauce on side for dipping.

Early Morning Brik

Yet another lovely morning, getting paid to stay at home while a professional cleaning crew goes over the office I work at. It just smells like a campfire in there but apparently that's bad.

The recipe I cooked this morning was the first I've tried of Gourmet Magazine May issue. Since this issue focused on travel and food, the recipe for brik (pronounced breek) come from Tunisia. Basically, it's a fried tuna and egg turnover.

Though it was difficult to cook the egg inside while keeping the outside of the dough unburned, the end result was well worth it. And by the time I was cooking the fourth brik, I had gotten the hang of it.

The result was a smooth flavoured breakfast which the magazine informs me could also be eaten as a light supper or as a snack. The crispy exterior is a perfect contrast to the soft and gooey interior, the whole deliciously bathed in egg yolk. Here then is the recipe.

Brik

1 can tuna in oil, drained

1/4 cup chopped scallions or shallots

1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley

1 1/2 tbsp drained capers, chopped

2 tbsp olive oil plus additional for brushing

Salt

Pepper

1 egg white

1 tbsp water

About 3 cups vegetable or peanut oil

6 spring-roll or wonton wrappers

6 whole eggs (medium sized).

1. Mash together tuna, scallions, parsley, capers, olive oil, salt and pepper.

2. Stir egg white with water

3. Heat vegetable or peanut oil in heavy skillet.

4. The tricky part. Lightly oil wrappers leaving about an inch untouched on the side. Form rings of tuna mixture in the bottom right hand corner over the olive oil. The moat should be large enough to keep egg in but not too large as to make it impossible to fold wrapper.

5. Brush edges of wrapper with egg white mixture and break a whole egg into the middle of the tuna ring.

6. Quickly fold wrapper and seal by pressing down on edges.

7. Take brik by the bottom right tip and gently lower into oil. With a metal spoon, lap some oil over un-submerged part of brik.

8. Cook briks until golden brown on each side. The egg inside should be given enough time to cook so make sure that the oil isn't too hot as to burn the wrappers before the egg has time to do its thing.

9. Repeat process. Make sure not to make too many briks at one time as the whole egg will make the wrapper soggy and impossible to handle.

10. Enjoy!