Best Accidental Salad Ever
I adore Kale. It’s a green leafy bunch of goodness but it’s not just you run of the mill leaves. Extremely hearty, almost meaty and very flavourful just on it’s own. This salad is full of protein, antioxidants and can be thrown together last minute for a great lunch and eaten warm or cold.
Kale, Chickpea and Quinoa Salad
1 Bunch Kale
1 minced medium sized garlic clove
1/2 teaspoon chili flakes
1 Cup rinsed chickpeas
1 Cup cooked Quinoa
1/2 cup pomegrante seeds
1/4 cup raw almonds, coarsely chopped
1/4 cup dried apricots, coarsely chopped
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Dressing: 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice, 2 teaspoons clover honey (it makes a difference I assure you), 3 tablespoons canola oil, 1 tablespoon Chia Seeds.
Remove stems from Kale and wash thoroughly. Rough chop those leaves and add to a wok with about an inch of water in the bottom along with the garlic and chili flakes. Steam on medium heart until kale is tender, about 10 minutes and drain if any water remains. Put aside to cool.
In a medium bowl combine the lemon juice, honey, pepper, oil and Chia and whisk until combined. The Chia can make the dressing a little jelly like in consistancy but never fear that’s just one of those marvellous Chia type things and this will assist in abosorbing any extra moisture your Kale brings to the bowl.
Here is the tough part…add all the remianing ingredigents including the cooled kale in to the bowl you just whipped your dressing in and toss to coat.
Go Shrimp Yourself
I mean that in the nicest way possible.
If you were privy to holiday celebrations at Casa O’Curry then you’ve been shrimped, lucky you and after several requests I am giving away all my secrets. You don’t need much for this recipe but you do need a mold, we use a copper fish one Mother has had around for ages. I dream of one day having a whole several course dinner party, every course different individual molds.
For now, a wistful dream.
Shrimp Delight
1 Can undiluted Campbells Tomato Soup
1 Envelope unflavoured gelatin or agar agar
(natural gelling agent, yum, but it didn’t have a face or a parent so…worth it!)
1 Cup finely diced Celery
1/4 Cup grated or finely chopped white onion
1 Cup Mayonnaise or Miracle Whip (for those watching waistlines)
1 Eight Ounce package of cream cheese
2 Cups chopped shrimp (you can use the canned variety, the mini guys, but they must be well rinsed)
Combine soup and gelatin on medium heat until warmed through. Remove from heat and stir in remaining ingredients, combine well. Pour mixture in to greased mold and let set overnight in the fridge.
When ready to serve gently unmold, the best way is to tap the mold on the countertop and just loosen the edges with a butter knife. If the mold does not come out immediately, remain calm and let it sit on the plate, mold upsidedown and tap a little on the mold. Give it time, relax it’s just a dip!
Strawberry Cake Coma
I was thinking about this cake yesterday and how good it is and remembered I hadn’t shared the recipe with you. Originally this was a Martha Stewart recipe for cupcakes but I was feeling adventurous and Baba’s favourite is strawberries so for her 85th birthday…I pulled out all the stops.
Strawberry Cake (Or Cupcakes)
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line a 12-cup muffin tin with cupcake liners or grease and flour round tins if you wish to make this a layer cake; set aside. Place strawberries in a small food processor and process until pureed. You should have about 1/3 cup of puree, add a few more strawberries if necessary or save any extra puree for frosting; set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt; set aside. In a small bowl, mix together milk, vanilla, and strawberry puree; set aside. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium-high speed, until light and fluffy. Gradually add sugar and continue to beat until well combined and fluffy. Reduce the mixer speed to medium and slowly add egg and egg whites until just blended.
With the mixer on low, slowly add half the flour mixture; mix until just blended. Add the milk mixture; mix until just blended. Slowly add remaining flour mixture, scraping down sides of the bowl with a spatula, as necessary, until just blended.
Pink batter, I swooned!
Divide batter evenly among prepared muffin cups or round pans for layering. Transfer pans/muffins to oven and bake until tops are just dry to the touch, 22 to 25 minutes. Transfer muffins/cakes to a wire rack and let cool completely in tin before icing.
Strawberry Icing
Directions
Place strawberries in the bowl of a small food processor; process until pureed. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat together butter and salt on medium speed until light and fluffy. Reduce mixer speed and slowly add confectioners’ sugar; beat until well combined. Add vanilla and 3 tablespoons strawberry puree (save any remaining strawberry puree for another use); mix until just blended. Do not overmix or frosting will incorporate too much air. Frosting consistency should be dense and creamy, like ice cream.
I also used fondant with this recipe as well as the icing above and it was delicious. The cake is quite dense and with the chewy sugary fondant and the dense strawberry icing everything complimented each other nicely. I am not the best at cake decorating, am the first to admit readily, but with a little elbow grease and some sly fondant coverups I managed to make something both deliciously edible and attractive.
Best. Chicken. Ever.
Totally not exaggerating, that’s a quote from the boy.
I am very proud of the boy, whom, after some coercing, is making himself available to trying new culinary things. I initially got some resistance over the usage of Dijon mustard for the below recipe however. Some tense moments, namely when I had to pry the mustard out of his hands during further protest of said ingredient. And I am not too proud to admit the reduced fat Crescent rolls were indeed an excellent addition to our bird and salad combo. We’re eatihng salad at every meal, because as we all know, lettuces are our friends. Winning!
Tweaked Internet Recipe Chicken (or Tofu for my Veggiesauras friendlies)
1/3 cup Dijon Mustard
1/4 cup Honey
2 Tablespoons Mayonnaise (I used Miracle whip which is not exactly mayo but whatevs)
1 teaspoon steak sauce
1/2 teaspoon chopped garlic
2 Skinless, boneless chicken breasts/or one standard sized block of firm tofu
Mix mustard, honey, mayo, steak sauce and garlic together in medium sized bowl. Set aside three or four tablespoons of the mixture in a small bowl and ready your basting brush. Add Chicken (or Tofu) to marinade in medium sized bowl and toss to coat. Leave to marinate for at least an hour, or even overnight.
Preheat the grill on medium heat and brush with a little olive oil. Grill chicken over indirect heat for about 18-20 minutes, turn over chicken at half that time and begin casually basting the bird for the last ten minutes or so of cook time. Do the same with the Tofu, you want the edges browned nicely and the sauce getting all up in that biznass.
Serve with salad because you’ve gained some weight and can’t handle heavy dinners anymore in your old age. Yay!
Drive By Arugula-Ing
I’m bored and I am about to take it out on my hair. This is typical, usual, the norm. I’m currently searching both hipster and scene styles to find something right smack dab in the middle without being anywhere near typical. Artistic but not the point of totally freaking out the norms, I like the keep the norms interested, we’d all be lost without them.
Every week, at least once, I make this salad. I am sitting in my desk in corporate Canada minding my own Bombness and the arugula cravings begin. I don’t know why or how or if it’s hormonal or just the foodie in me but the hunt for quality arugula begins there weekly. I have done so for about a year now. It is likely if I have made you dinner I have subjected you to it at least once. If not, I shall share with you now friendlies, cause I loves you!
Drive By Arugula-ing (Makes one dinner for one peep or two-three side servings.)
2 1/2 cups baby arugula (also called Rocket by our Brit friendlies.)
4-5 brown mushrooms, washed and sliced
1/3 cup of good quality Parmesan shavings (For the love of Christ buy a good hunk of cheese and shave it with the veggie peeler, works wonders that does! It’s worth it I assure you and really does make a difference. Quality ingredients, especially in a bare-bones-of-goodness salad, really do matter.)
1/4 cup roasted pine nuts (This is optional but delicious nonetheless. Just lightly brown these babies in a hot and dry nonstick frying pan.)
Dressing:
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground sea salt
1/3 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (Get the seeds out of there you!)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
Take all dressing ingredients and whisk the hell out of them in a medium sized bowl. Add all remaining salad ingredients and toss. Let stand for about five minutes and then dish out and enjoy.
It’s amaze and full of vitamins and soon you too will be wandering the aisles of more than one grocery store muttering about their lack of quality arugula on a hump day evening. And I am not the only one who is Pro-Arug! Check this out!
Whaddya think?
Mufftacular
This is a whole bunch of awesomeness…
‘ What an amazing month! Every once in a while, everything you could ever want to happen, happens, in just the right way, in just about every area of your life. Problems you assumed wouldn’t be fixed for months or years, or wishes you thought would never come true, suddenly will be delivered now – poof, in the blink of an eye! This month may well seem like a dream. Things will start happening the moment the month takes off. ‘
Happy predictions courtesy of my starry homegirl Susan Miller. So nice to see Mercury retrograde and that ass Uranus (immature giggle) outta my business.
Mother and I have decided to make this year as green as possible and stay away from processed foods and their ilk. This translates in to more creative baking for me and creative cooking for her, we’re all happy. Today I decided to make some muffins with three rather sad looking bananas and the leftover chocolate chips I had from my last batch of cookies. Lo and behold some walnuts were left still in shell from the holiday party we had so I cracked those babies and decided they too could join the party.
The result?
Mufftacular! (I put butter on it…droolers.)
Nanachoconut Muffins
1.5 cups unbleached all purpose flour
1/3 cup raw sugar
1 and 1/3 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (flaked or ground preferably)
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (I used three, a little over a cup…I live vicariously like that)
1 large egg (free range, grain fed…I get ‘em from my neighbour…until Mother let’s me have my own coop)
1/2 unsalted butter, melted
1/4 milk (I used 2% cause that’s what I drink…try it with chocolate)
3/4 semisweet chocolate chunks/chips
Your oven should be at 350 degrees. Combine all dry ingredients. Combine all wet ingredients. Better sit down for this…combine wet and dry and make uniform bowl of goo with wooden spoon. (No, not the one you let your boyfriend spank you with on his birthday between shag #1 and shag #2.) Muffin tin, paper muffin thingys…find neat ones with happy faces or some cool thing on them because it’s all go big or go home. Fill cups 3/4 full and bake for about 30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of a muffin comes out clean…minus some melted chocolate goodness.
Yay!
I’m One of Those Nifty Domestic Bombs
My culinary creativity at times knows no bounds!
Coconut Tapioca Pudding
2 cups of water
1 Tablespoon Stevia extract (I used powder, if you use the stronger liquid, be careful and sweeten to taste)
One pinch of sea salt
1 cup coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon of natural vanilla extract
1/2 cup shredded unsweetened coconut
4 and a half tablespoons minute tapioca (or the big tapioca, try the black ones for wow factor)
In a saucepan combine the water, sea salt and stevia and bring to a boil. Turn down heat, add the tapioca and the coconut whisking gently however constantly while simmering ten minutes. Remove from heat and add the vanilla and coconut milk. Get giant spoon and while standing over the saucepan shovel goodness in while quietly congratulating yourself. Transfer to glass dishes, cover and cool in the fridge.
Parisian Macaroons
1 and 1/3 cups plus 1 teaspoon confectioners (icing) sugar
1 cup Almond flour (searched high and low, doesn’t exist…it’s actually just a cup of finely ground blacnhed almonds)
3 egg whites (extra large eggs)
Pinch of finely ground sea salt
1/4 cup granulated sugar
Food colouring gel, paste or liquid (I used blue, went all robins egg up on this)
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. In a bowl combine the almonds and the icing sugar and mix well. In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment whip egg whites along with the salt on medium until frothy. Increase speed on mixer and slowly add granulated sugar. Continue to whip until you achieve the stiff peak form. (My favourite.) Gently, and I mean gently, fold in the almond and icing sugar mixture in to the egg whites until incorporated.
Line baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside. Put above mixture in to a pastry bag with a #4 round trip and fill with the batter. Pipe one inch disks, two inches apart on the baking sheets. Let stand at room temperature until dry, a dull, soft skin will form on the tops of the macaroons. This took about ten minutes. Bake! With the oven door slightly ajar for about fifteen minutes or until the macaroons are completely dry. Remove from oven and cool. use immediately or store in an airtight container in the fridge for two days. You can freeze these bad boys too for about two weeks.
To make the traditional filing combine jam or compote with 1/4 cup icing sugar and mix well. Sandwich filling between two macaroons and enjoy.
Strawberry, Ginger and Gaillano Jam (use as a filling for the macaroons if you so wish)
1 cup chopped field strawberries (pick them yourself, the real stuff, not shipped in and that taste of frozen water)
1/2 canada dry Ginger Ale
3 Tablespoons Gaillano (vanilla) Liquer
1/2 – 3/4 cup white granulated sugar (depending on how sweet you want the jam)
Combine all ingredients well in a nonstick saucepan and bring to the boil on high heat. Once at boiling point turn heat down to simmer while stirring mixture. Leave uncovered, stirring occasionally to simmer until thickened, about 20 minutes. Let cool and store in airtight container for up to a month in the fridge.
