Wednesday, March 25, 2009

Apple Cake.

The other day I took this new cookbook out from the library:

It has the most beautiful photos, and it's all tart recipes. Obviously. It's food porn - you know the stuff I'm talking about. Anyone who owns a Jamie Oliver cookbook knows it exactly: the styled pictures, conversational writing and crazy incredibly specific, restaurant-like recipes. I haven’t made very many things from his books, but I was pretty impressed that he put in pictures of dead rabbits. Personally, I'm happy to look at photos and get ideas. Is this just me??

I have never made a tart in my life, but I figured it was time I started. I checked the book out and on the way home went into a fancy cookware store to buy a tart pan (only $4!), as well as making a final stop for a lot of butter. And apples - I was going to make my first apple tart.

To start with, there are eight apple tart recipes in The Art of Tarts, all equally different and indulgent. There was one with cheese, one that was crumbly, three with French names... I figured I could start with ‘A Plain Apple Tart’, just to begin with. Before making any tart, Tamasin instructs you to read her ‘mastering pastry’ section which claims the two secrets to be location and cold butter. Fair enough, but she also wanted me to chill and bake blindly. The instructions also end with ‘beware, but don’t be frightened’. My impatient self kicked in and all of a sudden, I no longer wanted to make the perfect tart (but I wasn’t afraid). I wanted something to eat in an hour! Luckily I'm a recipe-whore (self proclaimed) and I knew I had an apple cake recipe somewhere in my book from way back when, compliments of another food blog. I sorted through my "little red book" and found it - and I didn't need to chill. Or blind bake. So I made it. And it tasted so damn good… How could it not - all it really takes is sugar, butter and eggs. And apples! But, in the words of my friend who drives me to work once in a while and (now) his gas money comes in the form of baking, ‘the first bite tastes pretty good, the apples are good, the second bit is even better, and then by the time you hit the crust your mind is blown out your ass’. Those weren't his exact words, but he wont mind that I made him say that.

Seriously. It's that good. It could cure depression, if eaten with lots of red wine and good company (the words of another good friend).

Here is how you do it:


I didn’t use a food processor, just cold butter and my fingers. Don’t worry what the batter looks like, because it's going to look all wrong, but it’s going to work out whatever the consistency. Just don’t over mix it. Also, I’ve made it one more time since and used whole wheat flour and left the peels on the apples. Fibre is important!

And I promise, I will make a real tart. Very very soon.

On another note, I had the most remarkable sandwich of my entire life the other day. I was killing time downtown before going to work so I went to
Finch's for something quick. I have only been there once before, on Remembrance Day and it was rainy so the windows were all steamy on the inside. The menu is all over the wall in beautiful cursive on tiny blackboards and it's lovely and simple, hardboiled eggs for breakfast and sandwiches and cheese plates for lunch. For my sandwich a cute boy with a white collared shirt and skinny little black tie put slices of pear and brie on a crunchy baguette along with prosciutto, walnuts, lots of pepper and some olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I saved it for as long as I could but only made it a few blocks to where I sat on a bench in the rain and ate. I very seriously blissed out eating that thing - it was perfect. I could taste every single ingredient in it - the pepper and the oil and vinegar with the saltiness of the prosciutto, the creamy cheese on pear, and crunchy walnuts right at the centre of it all. Every ingredient was important. I sat on the corner and was completely engrossed in the eating of this sandwich. I could go on and on. If you live in Vancouver, please go to Finch's. Eat anything. They will make it worth your while.

And one final note: I have begun preparations for my balcony garden by sprouting seeds! I put seeds into egg cartons with potting soil and wrapped them in plastic bags, then left them in the sun. Imagine my delight when I found they had sprouted in only a few days!!! Since that fine day, I have taken the plastic bags off and watered them a bit. They are living off that and sunshine (and love?) and they have grown at least an inch!!! The zucchini seeds are amazing me the most, followed closely by the beans. They come right out of that seed and shoot straight up.

The spinach and lettuce are doing well, they are the tall skinny ones growing in abundance. This would be the lettuce worshiping the sun:
Basil is taking his time, and I recently started some dill and nasturtiums which are almost ready to lose their plastic bags. Watching things grow is mind boggling! Right now I am letting them sit by the open patio door, in the wind, to get big and strong and ready to go outside. I am trying to get used to talking to them, because it seems like the right thing to do, but it just isn’t coming naturally yet.

Monday, March 16, 2009

Simple things.

Yesterday I was in the line at the grocery store behind an old man who kind of reminded me of my grandpa. I have been thinking a lot about my grandpa lately - he’s getting old pretty quickly and it’s really hard for my mom and her sisters - and in this old man I saw him. This guy was buying breakfast for himself: he had a box of wholegrain toaster waffles, two mangoes, a tub of the best yoghurt in the world (Liberté) and a croissant. He had the makings of a pretty fantastic breakfast and I told him so (not like he didn’t know - he seemed quite pleased with himself already). It was delightful and made me happy. I was over the moon that this guy had taken the time to head to the shop and choose such wonderful food. It was obvious that he was going to seriously enjoy his Sunday breakfast (that yoghurt tastes like dessert and mangoes are heaven on a rainy day), and it was healthy too! I know my grandpa really changed his eating habits about ten years ago, getting onto a health kick that involves bran buds for breakfast everyday. Terrific - it got him healthy real quick - but maybe we should all take a page out of the other guys book: make healthy choices and be sure that you enjoy them! There’s no fun in eating food that resembles something that belongs in a rabbit hutch for even one meal.

Another cousin came to visit me this weekend, this one coming from way overseas (Victoria..)!
She was coming to the city for a friend’s birthday, which happened to end before it even started with some backcombed hair and a pitcher of margaritas - a silly story if I felt like telling you. Anyways… Back in the day when the two of us used to live in the same city we used to go out for breakfast at least once a week. I wanted to make her something just as good as the breakfasts we used to have, something delicious. I made breakfast polenta (which is way better than it sounds). And blueberry smoothies!


I say screw waiting in line at the trendy breakfast place around the corner next weekend, make this instead for your ‘special someone’.

-Put a cup and a half of water in a sauce pan and bring it to a boil.
-Meanwhile, stir up one cup of cornmeal, half a teaspoon of both cinnamon and sea salt and one and a half cups of non-citrus juice (I used pear!) in a bowl - the cinnamon doesn’t mix in all that well but don‘t worry about it.
-Once your water is boiling, add the cornmeal mixture and start stirring it. You are going to let this cook uncovered, stirring it all the time, until it’s thick and smooth - when it’s done you should be able to stick your wooden spoon in it and have it stand on it’s own.
-Take it off the heat and fold in about a cup of blueberries (frozen or fresh, not thawed). And FOLD! Gently! If you don’t, the blueberries will break apart, turning everything purple. Which is perfectly acceptable, I love purple, but I want whole berries in there. Up to you.
-Pour the entire mixture into a baking dish that has been lightly oiled with something like olive oil. Smooth out the top so it’s going to be pretty, and then let it sit in the fridge for a while until it sets - I left mine in there overnight. It’s just easier that way.
-When you are ready to eat, cut the polenta however you like (maybe try triangles, but if you need heart shapes use a cookie cutter!) and heat it up - try frying it in some oil to get crispy outsides, toasting it if it isn’t too thick, or broiling it in the oven.

Eat your polenta with this, or maybe some of that damn good Liberté yogurt.

We made one more meal together, nothing groundbreaking, but I made her use a mortar and pestle (I had to instruct her to put some muscle into it).


Cumin seeds - which stick to the bottom of your feet in a serious way when spilled on the floor- and chilli peppers. Everyone should have a mortar and pestle simply because they are fun and great stress relievers. You can bash anything up.


Yumm… Salsa, guacamole and refried beans. So easy and so damn good! Someone asked me how to keep your guac from going brown - lots of lemon juice. Put a bunch of garlic, cumin, lemon juice, salt and pepper in there with your avocado and whiz it up (I have recently started using a hand blender and LOVE it! I used it on the beans too, for which we cooked up a bunch of onions and garlic, added the black beans, then some cumin, coriander and chilli flakes, stirred it about, then dumped in a bit of water. Cook it for a while and then whiz that up too!) (and don’t fret - if you don’t have a hand mixer you can always use a fork or something instead). Easy peasy.

Here is one last quick, unrelated-to-food story.
I lost my camera a while ago. I was housesitting and then moving and all my stuff was all over the city and my sister came to visit and we were all over the place, and I am generally all over the place…in all the kerfuffle my camera disappeared. Devastating… I couldn’t find it anywhere and I couldn’t afford to buy a new one. I guess the camera had a very satisfying and long life (3 years - good in this technologically driven day and age), it had come around the world with me and seen some beautiful things. But the separation really got to me - at least once a day I would catch myself saying “Man, I wish I had a camera”. I missed a heap load of amazing sunrises and sunsets at work and I didn’t document anything for three months! Finally, on Saturday I said “I wish I had a camera” for the one hundredth time so I took myself to Future Shop and bought a new one - on clearance. Sweet. Then I went out on Saturday night, and it was a bit chilly so I wore a coat I hadn’t worn since the end of December (when Vancouver was covered with a few feet of snow). I put my hand in the pocket and there was my old camera. Hooray! Isn’t life great???
Now I get to take pictures of everything I eat.

Sunday, March 8, 2009

The First Lunch.


I suppose the best way to cure first-timer’s writers block is to start with a picture, and there you go.

I saw a sign at a preferably unnamed coffee shop the other day stating that a house isn’t a home without tea. Corny? Yes sir, especially coming from a place that encourages people to not drink coffee and tea at their own home but instead spend all their time at the nearest coffee shop (there is one on every block). But still, nothing makes me feel more at home and comfy than lying on my couch in the living room, basking in the sunshine, with a cup of tea. I get home and put the kettle on. You come to my house for a cup of tea. Coming over in the evening for a drink will, with a few special exceptions, end with a pot of lemon tea with honey. I have a fabulous roommate who loves tea more than I do, and she’s got no less than six tea pots (and a coffee bodum). I get in trouble if I make the wrong tea in the wrong tea pot. Needless to say, I caught on quickly. Chai in the brown betty?? Shit hits the fan!

Welcome to my blog. I’ve never done this before and it’s all very exciting… Here’s what I propose to do: I will make all kinds of food, mostly healthy stuff, and tell you how I do it. I want to encourage everyone to cook awesome food for themselves and their friends and family, from scratch. No more frozen lasagne. Sound good?? My food philosophy is simple - I eat mostly plants, and while I rarely eat animals, I don’t follow any sort of vegan or vegetarian diet in any way. And I eat pretty damn well, if I do say so myself.

So Wednesday morning was as good as any morning to get things going. My cousin Celia was going to come for breakfast. However, there was an incident involving four Italian 40-something brothers with big necklaces and dyed hair whom she was buying some cardboard boxes from that ran a bit late so it turned into lunch. No worries…

I have been travelling a bit and moving around a lot over the past few years. Only recently have I moved into a place that I love, with a kitchen that I’m not afraid to cook in (meaning no cockroaches and a clean stove). Where I’m going here is that I am SO excited to have a full kitchen, that I don’t have to run to the shop any time I want to cook a meal. I have spices and a freezer and some dry staples… Heaven on earth! I always love visiting my parents house because for the week I am there, I can cook every evening, using up everything in the fridge, pantry, and probably some stuff from the freezer left over from the last time I was home. My mom will call home asking what she can pick up and the answer is ‘Nothing! Just wine! Or maybe a bottle of gin..’ My mom likes to drink when I come home and we make things like champagne cocktails, or drink a lot of my dad’s homemade wine.. But that’s another story.

Anyways, here I was planning on serving breakfast and I need to switch it up to lunch! No sweat - no need to head out because all I have is some eggs and hot sauce. Not in this kitchen!! I find lentils, spinach, and a LOT of zucchini. (How green of me…) I also had some tempeh marinating, as it was preparing to pretend to be bacon. Tempeh: it’s fermented soybeans and plain it tastes pretty terrible. I’ve heard you are supposed to steam it before even marinating it, but this particular morning I just didn’t feel like it. I chopped it into bacon-like slices and put it in a bowl with some soy sauce, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, some garlic, and some of the sauce from a jar of chipotle peppers I had opened up on a previous occasion - which would deliver that smoky flavour that we all love about bacon - (I just have to say it once again, I LOVE that I had all these things in my cupboard!) and let it sit until Celia showed up. I made something that resembled dahl, and broiled the zucchini (just the way my sister would make it for me). As soon as Celia arrived I fried the tempeh (of course, this along with the zucchini in the oven set off the smoke alarm, which likes goes off at any chance it gets) and then we feasted.




*Notice the tea pot - this is NOT for Earl Grey. Usually only rooibos or lemon makes it into the shell pot.

Do you want recipes?

Since we just met each other, I feel the need to explain my recipe habits. And to do that, I’ll give you a tiny little background story. A while ago I had a job helping develop and test recipes. This means making a dish EXACTLY according to the recipe. Now, when I cook I do not use ½ teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon black pepper, ½ cup of chopped spinach.. You get the idea? Being precise with my spices was so hard, and putting chopped tomatoes into a measuring cup seemed crazy to me! I believe cooking is an art. Baking is a whole other story - taking butter and eggs and flour and sugar and mixing them all together, then putting them in an oven and getting a cake an hour later, that is sheer science. If you miss something, it’s just not going to work out, no questions asked. Imagine doing to grade seven volcano science experiment using water instead of vinegar. Pretty obvious stuff.

But back to cooking, it’s an art. Put whatever the hell you want in there. Any recipe is a guideline. I use them as ideas, and then I switch it up based on what I like or, more often, on what I have in the house. Be adventurous! Go with what you like! Love garlic? Then put the entire head in there! Know what things taste like, how salt helps things taste good and lemon juice brightens anything up when you add it at the end. You will get results when you follow recipes to the letter, but it’s when you get a bit wild and crazy with making dinner that you start to truly learn how to cook.

So the moral of that rant is please don’t follow the amounts I give you - I don’t. They are all approximations! It will make you a more independent and brave cook. Trial and error truly does work!


DAHL
1 cup dry lentils (I use green)
Half an onion
1” fresh ginger
2-4 cloves garlic
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon coriander
1 dry chilli, or ½ teaspoon chilli flakes

-Put the lentils into a bowl with enough water to cover them all and let them sit, as you want to begin rehydrating them.
-Chop up your onion, ginger and garlic and dump them in a big wok with some oil (I used extra virgin, to be exact) to start cooking. Leave them in there on medium heat until they start to turn translucent - it’s going to smell awesome. This should take at least 5 to 10 minutes.
-Now you can pop in the lentils, water and all. Let it all simmer for a while and let all the water cook out. -When it is relatively dry, it’s time to add the spices. Please be heavy handed when it comes to all of these! They are the base of all Indian cooking and, if you have looked at the recipe, where ALL the flavour comes from. Don’t be stingy! There should be enough to cover everything in your pan. Stir it all up so that everything is coated, and then let that cook for a while. It’s going to dry out a bit, which is good. This is toasting all your spices a little bit, which is going to make your dahl taste that much better.
-Next add water. Start with a cup. Just pour it in, and then let it cook off (it should be at a simmer, meaning bubbles should be forming. But not boiling!) - this will take about 10 minutes. This is going to further cook your lentils, and get the spicy flavours right into them. If after adding a cup of water your lentils aren’t fully cooked, add another cup. Let them get to a consistency that you like.*

*If you feel like letting things get a bit creamy, add a can of coconut milk after that first cup of water. Let that cook down a bit (as in, the liquid will reduce because you are cooking it all uncovered) and then, if you feel like getting really rowdy, puree it all a bit.



How does my sister always do her zucchini? Simple. Cut them in quarters, pop them in a pan, drizzle with olive oil and balsamic and some salt and pepper and broil them until they get some nice char marks on them. Finish them with some lemon juice as soon as they come out of the oven (and right after you get the smoke alarm to stop beeping), and eat them for any meal you feel like.


And yes, this entire meal goes very well with a nice cup of tea.