Greek Orzo Bake

To be fair, this is only Greek in the sense that Frito pie is Mexican - not very. It’s a sort of fifties style ode to Grecian food that includes pretty much every ingredient associated with the cuisine.

I was actually inspired by something my University cafeteria used to serve, back in ancient history when I lived in a dorm. Not much there was edible, but I have fond memories of the days when they served this.

It’s warm, comforting and filling like a retro casserole - but unlike most cafeteria food, it’s low in fat and packed with veggies. So you get all of the fun of a guilty pleasure dish, with none of the actual guilt.

The best part though, is that the orzo cooks right in the casserole, so this is truly a one pot dish - perfect for a weeknight supper - or maybe even a last minute pot luck. Omit the cheese, and it’s even vegan. Or make protein seekers happy by adding some ground lamb sausage (going along with the greek theme) or shredded chicken. It’s super versatile!

I’ve made this twice so far, and I loved it both times. It’s my new favourite go-to meal, actually. So go to it!

Greek Orzo Bake.

• 1 can diced tomatoes
• 2 cups fresh spinach (chopped) or 1 cup cooked or frozen (apx 1 package - defrosted, of course)
• 1 1/2 cups orzo (uncooked)
• 1 pepper (red or green - finely chopped)
• 1 red onion (finely chopped)
• 2 cups water or stock
• 1/2 cup black olives (chopped)
• 2 cloves garlic (finely diced)
• 1 tbsp oil
• 2 tsp salt
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta (tossed with 1 tsp olive oil)

1. Combine all ingredients (except for feta and oil) in large, lidded casserole dish, and bake for 20 minutes covered @ 450 f - or until pasta is tender and cooked.
2. Remove cover, stir and return to oven for 10 minutes, or until “sauce” is thick and creamy.
3. Add feta (season with cracked black pepper if desired) and broil for 5 minutes.

(serves 4-6)

pie!

I have developed a thing for pies.

I don’t, entirely, know where it came from, (and asking if it was flavoured by a certain favourite TV show, and a certain favourite movie both of which happen to be centred around pies, and pie diners is probably a chicken and egg kinda question for me, frankly).

The pies of my youth were not anything special. I do remember my grandmother’s raspberry rhubarb pie being particularly good (although that certainly had something to do with the raspberries and rhubarb freshly gathered from my grandparents back yard). My grandmother also had a little to do with my undying belief that apple pie is best accompanied by a slice of sharp cheddar cheese (making Chuck’s family on Pushing Daisies my kinda people).

But somewhere along the way, I got bogged down with the unnatural flavour and colour of commercial cherry pie filling, (not to mention it’s inevitable pits and stems), the occasional too-sour cranberry pie, and most of all soggy, torpid, unappealing crusts. I avoided pie, at all costs.

I think it was upon a visit to a pie diner in the outskirts of Seattle where my love for pies first emerged. I have no idea what the place was called, all I know is that they served a mean chicken noodle soup with homemade noodles, and a couple dozen delicious varieties of pie. I wish I could go back there, just to hear the pacific north-western waitress rhyme off the unending list of varieties of heaven-by-the-slice.

Things, recently having come to a head as they have, with visions of pies served in lieu of cake at my own wedding swimming in my head, I decided it was probably time to actually cook up my own pie (a seasonally appropriate butternut squash pie, to be specific).

So, I’m going to recommend if you want to do the same, to immediately go to Smitten Kitchen and read pie crust’s 101, 102 and 103 (but especially 102). Although my recipe veered away from her’s a little, in that I used pastry flour and salted butter in my crust - omitting the added salt. However, through the Smitten Kitchen’s intervention, I think I’ve realised that my problem with most pie crusts is solely related to their inclusion of things that aren’t butter.

Butter is better. End of story.

It makes your crust taste like the nummiest shortbread, crumble and flake like it should, and your kitchen smell like butterscotch. Shortening tastes like oil and chemicals. Lard tastes like pigs. Go for the butter, instead.

So. I make pie now.

It’s a brave new world.

Butternut Squash Pie

(This will probably make enough filling for 2 shallow pies, or 1 deep dish pie, or in my case 1 overfilled pie and a half dozen tartlets.)

• 1 butternut squash
• 1 teaspoon butter or oil

1. Cut squash in half, remove seeds, rub with butter (or oil) roast in oven on sheetpan (cut side down) at 400(f) for 45 minutes.
2. Remove from oven, remove skin and puree meat using blender, food processor, or (like me) your grandma’s awesome old potato ricer.

• 2 cups butternut squash (roasted and pureed)
• 1/2 cup sweetened condensed milk
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 3 eggs
• 1 tablespoon flour
• 2 teaspoons chai masala spice (or pumpkin spice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat oven to 350. Mix ingredients
2. Pour into pie crust (I used Smitten Kitchens pie 102) and bake for 40 minutes, or until filling is set.
3. Serve when cool, smothered in cinnamon whipped cream.

a taste of fall

We’ve been celebrating fall pretty hard-core around here. We even tried to go apple picking this weekend, but it turned out the harvest is over, so we went hiking instead. We also attended a squash sampling party (I liked the turban squash, and the butternut pie the best - yum!). For the party, we brought a little squash-based creation of my own - pumpkin pie squares.

The recipe came about from trying to perfect a recipe for pumpkin bread. The first recipe I tried was dry and flavourless. So I played around until I came up with this recipe - more of a dense, moist square then a bread really.

I also felt the dark chocolate most pumpkin based recipes (which seem to be very trendy these days) call for would be so overwhelming and heavy for the delicate, spicy pumpkin flavour. So I switched dark chocolate chips for white chocolate ones - which was really a genius move, if I do say so myself. The little gooey bits of creamy white chocolate tasted just like tiny bites of whipped cream, mixed into pumpkin pie.

It’s all the flavours of pumpkin pie, in a much more portable square form!

So portable, you could take these squares on a picnic (like we did on our hike), or pack them with your lunch. Just try doing that with a slice of pie!

pumpkin pie squares

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 tablespoons baking powder
• 1 tbsp masala chai spice, or pumpkin pie spice
• 1 tbsp cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 3 cups canned pumpkin (puree - apx 1 large can)
• 1 cup brown sugar
• 1 cup white sugar
• 1/2 cup butter (melted)
• 3 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 cup white chocolate chips

1. Mix dry ingredients (flour, baking powder, spices, salt).
2. Add wet (pumpkin, sugars, butter, eggs, vanilla) to dry, then add chocolate chips.
3. Bake for 40 minutes - 1 hour @ 350 in large, greased pan (9×13 pan would be a good choice).

tomato candy

So, it some patience and some waiting, but my heirloom tomato ship finally came in. We’ve been enjoying these babies pretty thoroughly the last few weeks. They’re just so gorgeous, they make every meal a little more special - sliced up with some olive oil and sea salt - or chopped into a spinach curry - or gently sauteed and tumbled over pasta.

Every few days when I have a new pileup of them on the counter I slice ‘em up and stick them into the oven (at a really low temp - like 100-200 degrees F). Half a day later, I have my very own oven dried heirloom tomatoes to use all year long!

Yeah, these babies are pretty much as hardcore as food porn gets.

matrilineal shortbread

My grandmother on my moms side was Scottish. So I feel some sort of kinship with my matrilineage whenever I make shortbread - which is probably one of the reasons (however subconscious) I made shortbread for my Indian themed, Mother’s Day tea last month.

In fact, my grandmother could be said to have been one of the biggest reasons I enjoy tea parties so much - I inherited her fancy dishes including a 20 piece tea service (including the cup and saucer I used in this picture).

My recipe is usually pretty plain and traditional, but a little touch of spice never hurt anybody, and the same could be said of shortbread. The little decoration of brightly hued fennel candy (which might be a bit hard to find, but check your nearest Little India) is what really makes it special though.

chai shortbread

• 1 cup soft butter
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1/2 cup rice flour
• 2 tbsp chai spice mix
• 2 tbsp candied fennel

1. Cream butter, sugar and vanilla.
2. Mix flours and spice mix in a separate bowl.
3. Combine butter mix and flour mix and knead with hands until it comes together into a crumbly dough.
4. Refrigerate for at least half an hour.
5. Roll to 1/2 cm thick and cut into desired shapes (I used a small juice glass to get rounds).
6. Sprinkle each cookie round with a few candied anise seeds and bake @ 300 F for 15 minutes.

chai spice mix

• 1 tablespoon cinnamon
• 1/2 tsp fennel seed
• 1/2 tsp coriander seed
• 1/2 tsp dry ginger
• 1/4 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
• 1 cardamom pod
• 4 peppercorns

1. Put all ingredients in a spice grinder, (clean) coffee grinder or mortar and pestle and grind ’til fragrant and powdery.

indian tea party

The week of Mother’s day, I was pretty busy. I threw two dinner parties - one for some vegan friends, the other a Mother’s day bash for my mother of course! So as you could imagine, I spent a lot of time baking, and cleaning, and cooking, and doing dishes… and then I did it all over again!

I was so busy, I didn’t get the chance to post the recipes and pictures of the food from my Mother’s day party - and I came up with a big themed menu from scratch.

I wanted to have a tea party as a bit of a tribute to my mom for bringing us along to England for a family wedding last year. While there, we had tea in a little, ridiculously-named tea-house tucked into the beautiful, cobblestone lane-ways of Canterbury. I thought it’d be nice to recreate something similar.

But, of course, I live in Little India, not England. And there is (of course) a cultural connection between the two. So why not, I thought, do a little bit of fusion? So we had an Indian inspired, afternoon tea.

The menu consisted of the following

Sandwiches:

• Tandoori pork tenderloin with mango chutney
• Curried egg salad with corriander and crasins
• Cucumber with green chutney
• Iced chocolate chai tea

Desert:

• Coconut-banana scones w/ double cream and preseves
• Chai spiced shortbread
• Fruit salad (with mangos, dragon-fruit, pineapple and watermelon)
• Lady Grey tea

The big star of the evening was, I think, the cucumber sandwiches. People always underestimate a good cucumber sandwich. It seems so simple - cucumber, butter, white bread. But there’s something about it that’s heavenly.

These cucumber sandwiches in particular were made even more heavenly by the addition of a Indian condiment - green chutney: a tart, verdant, cilantro-based, fresh sauce (apparently the traditional topping for a cucumber sandwich at Indian cricket matches). It definitely added a kick to the classic canape - and to everything else we ate that week - rice, noodles, other less cucumbery sandwiches. It’s become something I love to have around. It makes a large quantity, but since there’s salt, sugar and acid in it, it’s stay fresh for a while (and it’s a great way to use up the rest of those huuuuuuuge bunches of cilantro they sell in the markets).

Green Chutney

• 2 cups cilantro (chopped)
• 1 onion (chopped)
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1/4 cup flaked coconut
• 1 lemon (juice and zest)
• 1 tsp dry ginger
• 1 tsp siracha (hot sauce)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tbsp sugar

1. Put everything in a blender or food processor and blend.
2. Store in air-tight container in fridge.
3. If using for cucumber sandwiches: drop a spoonful of chutney on slices of buttered, white bread; cover with a couple even layers of lightly-salted, thinly-sliced cucumber; top with another slice of buttered bread; cut off crusts, and into four triangles.

the adding to dough of cheese and tomatoes

Yesterday made up for all the crappy stuff that’s happened in the last couple of weeks (including - but not limited to - the top coat on my coral-coloured, venetian-plaster peeling right of my walls - I WARN YOU ALL EXPLICITLY: NEVER EVER BUY DEBBIE TRAVIS PRODUCTS THEY ARE CRAP).

But then I was in the grocery store and they had ripe tomatoes. That is all it requires for me to be happy. Jewel bright, yielding, soft, fragrant tomatoes fresh from a local hothouse. Not just red ones - no, orange and yellow too. So we celebrated with the adding to dough of cheese and tomatoes: Pizza!

I’m not going even going to bother with a real recipe, because it was too easy to make:

We marinated the sliced tomatoes in flavored oil (garlic and chili) with a generous sprinkling of oregano, basil and salt. Then we spread out (store-bought) pizza dough on a cornmeal covered pizza stone, brushed it with a little more oil, piled on the tomatoes and shredded mozza and baked it at 400 for 20 minutes. Perfection!

After a long Sunday filled with hanging laundry on the line and digging and planting (the garden is officially dug in by the way) we relaxed on our deck and watched the stars begin to twinkle, and the CN tower begin it’s LED rainbow show, accompanied by our little pizza margherita and two cold glasses of limoncello and soda.

Meanwhile, all three kitties gathered by the window and stared at us, jealously. I don’t blame them.

pain d’epice french bread

Liam had a day off he had to use up this month so he took monday off. We spent the day at Humber nurseries scaring up a few last plant purchases - yellow strawberries, chocolate mint (yay!) and pink champagne geraniums - they have pretty hot pink flowers and give off a citrusy perfume - very much like pink champagne! It is the girliest flower of all time, and I am in love with it.

To start the day off right, I made a fancy breakfast - not something I do very often. I do dinner, but I don’t really do breakfast. We usually grab some toast or cereal and that’s about it.

But I had come across some dutch “pain d’epice” in the grocery store tucked in a shelf between the cookie and the cracker section. Pain d’epice is normally a french - and specifically alsacean food - it’s a spice laden honey cake. It smelled really good - like rich gingerbread, so I decided to give it a try.

When we got it home we realized it was a little dry and lacking on it’s own - but I had a brainstorm. I had recently seen Nigella whip up a donut french bread.

Hrmmm…

What could be better than spicy donut french bread?

And instead of strawberry sauce, how ’bout some spicy apples, since we got some nice organic ones in our food box?

Well, it seems my instincts were good that day, because Liam has proclaimed it the best thing I have ever made, and that he would like it every day, at each and every meal (which is not gonna happen unless we want to weight 300 pounds each!).

Pan D’Epice French Toast

• 1/2 cup milk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• 8 1 cm thick slices of pain d’epice or other spice loaf or cake
• 1 tablespoon butter
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1 tablespoon granulated sugar mixed with 1 tablespoon icing sugar mixed with a pinch of cinnamon (garnish)

1. whisk the milk eggs and vanilla in a small shallow dish
2. dredge the bread/cake in the eggy mixture
3. heat the butter and the oil on a medium heat in a frying pan until they are gently sizzling
4. fry up the eggy bread in the frying pan until it is cooked and crispy
5. garnish with the sugar mixture sprinkled on top, and a dollop of spicy apples

Quick and Spicy Apple Sauce

• 2 apples (peeled and chopped into 1 inch chunks)
• 1 teaspoon butter
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon cornstarch mixed into 1/2 cup of water
• more sugar and cinnamon to taste

1. heat the butter in a small sauce pan until it is melted and gently sizzling
2. add the apples and sugar to the pot and saute until the sugar melts and the apples start to soften
3. add the cinnamon and the cornstarch slurry and continue to cook until the apples are softened and the sauce has thickened
4. add more sugar and cinnamon if you feel like it needs to be sweeter and/or spicier

yummy week

I’ve been having a good food week. Right now I am sitting here with a (natural) peanut-butter and (concord) grape jelly sandwich and a big, tall glass of chocolate milk. I don’t think it gets more nostalgic than that (*sigh*…grade two… bag lunch… twenty five cents for a carton of the good stuff *sigh*). I bet it’s a meal that people across North America remember and cherish in the same way I remember and cherish it, and that’s sort of neat.

I’ve also been exploring exotic, not so familiar, tastes.

We finally ventured out to little India last week (also known as one block down the street) and bought some spices, paneer (fresh cheese), jellabi (basically funnel cake soaked in syrup), daal (spiced lentils) and the most yummy, fresh, delicious naan (spicy flat bread) and had ourselves an authentic Indian feast!

One of the stores down the street sells samosas at three for a dollar, so I think I’m pretty much sunk. I could eat a bucket of them, and actually I have.

Last night I made a cottage pie, which is something I had in England. It’s basically what we know as Shepard’s pie, but in England a pie with lamb is a Shepard’s pie, and a pie with ground beef is a cottage pie (and it comes smothered in cheddar!). I don’t know what it was about the “Shepard’s” pie I had growing up, but it was not as flavorful as the one I had in England. So I attempted to re-create it.

I cheated and used a lot of “Montreal style” steak spice to season the meat (which is basically just sea salt and cracked black pepper with some cayenne, corriander, dill, garlic, and onion), and it seemed to do the trick in the flavor department. I ran out of corn starch to thicken up the gravy for my stew, so I had to improvise. I thought about what a peasant living in a small cottage might do in my situation. I decided to toss in a few cubed up slices of stale, oatmeal-honey bread into the pot to soak up the stock and it worked like a charm! It thickened my sauce, gave it a richer flavour than starch or flour would have, and bulked it up enough that it could stand up to being covered with mashed potatoes.

For the stew:

• 1 pound ground beef (whatever cut you prefer - nothing too lean though)
• 1 tbsp “Montreal style” steak seasoning (or an equal amt. of a mix of salt, pepper, and your favourite herbs and spices for beef - thyme, rosemary, dill, and coriander being quite good here).
• 2 carrots (diced)
• 2 sticks of celery (diced)
• 1 onion (diced)
• 1 clove garlic (diced)
• 1 cup beef stock
• 3 slices whole wheat bread (chopped into 1 cm cubes)
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

For the mash:

• 2 pounds of potatoes (chopped into 1 inch cubes, un-peeled - potato skin is flavourful and nutrient rich, and you don’t even notice it when it’s mashed)
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1/2 cup milk
• salt and pepper

Topping:

• 1/4 cup old/aged cheddar cheese (grated)

1. Steam or boil the potatoes.
2. Saute the meat with the spices and garlic until it is browned. Add in the vegetables and continue to sauté until they soften.
3. Add the sauces, stock and bread to the meat mixture, stirring to make sure the bread absorbs all the liquid and begins to break down and thicken the stock.
4. When the potatoes are fork-soft, drain them, and mash them with the butter and milk, seasoning well with salt and pepper.
5. Layer the meat stew into the bottom of a casserole dish, and then cover evenly with the mashed potatoes. Give the top of the potatoes some texture by using a fork to draw a pattern into the mash (I like a big spiral). Sprinkle the top evenly with the grated cheese.
6. Broil at 400 for 5-10 minutes, or until the cheese has melted.

In the end, my pie came out of the oven golden and crispy on top, and rich and comforting in the middle. It was quite perfect. You should try it! It makes a lot - at least enough to stuff 6 people - or two people 3 times, as the case may be.

There was one blight this week though. The less said about my fish-ball pad-Thai the better alright?

sizzling shrimp

My little brother and sister came over to visit last night - one last time in the old ‘hood before we move. I was going to make them dinner, but I was at a loss as to what I would make.

Then we started discussing how the other night we had been watching one of our new favourite shows of the fall: Chuck, and this weeks episode centred around a Chinese restaurant entree called “sizzling shrimp.”

We were intrigued. But alas, we had never eaten such a dish.

So I decided I would do my best and improvise, based on nothing more than a name.

What follows is that improvisation. It is probably nothing like what real sizzling shrimp is like, but it is delicious, it is spicy, it sizzles and it’s tastes vaguely like something you might get at a really good little restaurant in Chinatown.

Sizzling Shrimp

• 1 pound shrimp (raw but peeled or zipper-back)
• 1 tbsp butter (melted)
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 teaspoon chilli-garlic sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1 lime (zest and juice)
• 2 green onions (chopped)
• salt to taste

1. Toss the shrimp with the butter, oil, chilli-garlic sauce, soy and lime zest. Let the shrimp hang out and and marinate for 10-30 minutes while you pre-heat oven to 400.
2. Place the saucy shrimp in a single layer on a baking sheet (you can skewer them - 3-4 per skewer if that makes them easier to handle). Broil for 10-20 minutes, or until the shells of the shrimp are lightly browned, flipping once at the halfway mark.
3. As soon as the shrimp are browned evenly on both sides remove them from the oven and sprinkle a little bit of salt on top, then the green onions on top so they absorb the heat and wilt slightly and then squeeze the juice from the lime onto them.
4. Serve while hot, preferably with retro, classic, Chinese-restaurant-style accompaniments - like fried rice and egg-rolls.