Challenges – Page 3 – Stephfood CLONE

Daring Pierogi Ontariana

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ challenge is to make pierogi from scratch, highlighting flavours and ingredients from where you live.

I grew up eating handmade pierogi from the Ukranian church around the corner from our house. They were fairly traditional, cheese and potato, and very good. I don’t think I realized how good they were until I started buying pierogi from the freezer section of my grocery store. Not quite so good, but edible. Years later, we found incredible pierogi from a vendor at St. Lawrence Market and we’ve been buying his ever since – saurkraut & mushroom, and jalapeno & cheddar. Amazing.

I was tempted to try making saurkraut & mushroom pierogi for this challenge, but then I realized I probably couldn’t compete with the market guy and might end up disappointed. Instead, I chose to go with the ‘local flavours’ theme and use things that I could get from my garden or from the farmers at the market.

Today’s pierogi are filled with ingredients that are local to my home province – Ontario, Canada.

I came up with a combination of potato, sweet potato, rosemary, crunchy garlic scapes, Canadian old white cheddar and onions caramelized in maple syrup and Ontario beer. This combination of flavours is more like what I would have in the Fall, but all of these things are fresh and local now. I was really happy with how the filling turned out. I could taste the hint of maple syrup and beer, I could feel the slight texture added by the garlic scapes, the woodiness of rosemary and thyme, and the creaminess of the blend of potatoes.

With that taken care of, I had to tackle the dough. I’ve made fresh pasta before, but that dough is drier and I found the pierogi dough to be more difficult to handle.

The dough was very sticky, and I had to add a LOT more flour to it. Apparently, this isn’t the way to do it — you’re supposed to slowly add the water to the flour and monitor the texture of the dough in the early stages, so you don’t have to try to ‘correct’ it with more flour later on. I’m learning as I go.

I had a bit of trouble rolling out the dough – the gluten had been worked enough to make it pretty elastic, and it wasn’t easy to roll it out thin. As a result, some of my pierogi were thinner than others. We also had quite bit of the filling left over when we were done. I could have made another batch of dough, but instead we made croquettes with it the next night.

I always enjoy these kinds of meals. It’s a great project on a rainy day, and I find it almost therapeutic as you get into the process. Roll out the dough, cut the circles, add some filling, fold it over, pinch. Lather, rinse, repeat. It’s a great break from the computer.

In the end, the pierogi were declicious, imperfections and all. We topped them with some thick Balkan-style yogurt and green onions. I took half of the batch and froze it, so we would have some to enjoy later. We’ll see how well they freeze — I have a feeling they’ll be just fine, and I’ll be happy to enjoy the results of my hard work for a second time!

The August 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by LizG of Bits n’ Bites and Anula of Anula’s Kitchen. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make pierogi from scratch and an optional challenge to provide one filling that best represents their locale.

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading Daring Pierogi Ontariana

What do I do with this? Karela

This post should be subtitled, “Are you trying to poison me? My lips are going numb!”

I picked the strangest looking vegetable from BJ Supermarket, in the Gerrard India Bazaar. Its bumpy, bright green flesh was intriguing. The sign said ‘Desi Karela’ – I had never heard of it before, so I wrote it down.

A quick Google resulted in many pictures of half-naked girls. Oh wait, I mistakenly typed ‘Desi Kerala’ (Kerala being a state in India).

A quick correction brought me to the vegetable I was looking for… and it turned out to be Bitter Gourd. I had read about bitter gourd before – sometimes in recipes with no mention of the fact that this gourd is, in fact, evil. Other times, the author would curse the evil within, with comments such as “Why would anyone ever want to eat this?!”. Although frightened, I refused to give up and I found a recipe that sounded like the perfect way to introduce myself to Desi Karela.

I chose this recipe from Foodskaypes, because the mix of bitter gourd with coconut and tamarind sounded really tasty and different from the dishes I usually make. In case you are planning to click that link and read the recipe – no, I didn’t buy a fresh coconut and grate it for my dish. We aren’t used to fresh coconut here, so I bought the packaged (unsweetened) stuff. No doubt it isn’t as good as fresh, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The dish smelled amazing as it was cooking. It was a fun assortment of spices (yay!), and I crossed my fingers that the karela wasn’t too bitter. Then I tasted the sauce. It was so bitter that my heart immediately sank, and I scolded myself for not making a backup dish. I knew J would NOT like this.

We sat down to eat, and I took my first bite. Yowza, that gourd is bitter! Bite two wasn’t so bad, and by bite three I noticed a flavour beyond the bitter that intrigued me, something I’m sure I haven’t tasted anywhere else. I looked up at J, who had also taken about three bites. “That’s about all I can do. My lips are going numb.” That was that. I finished his plate, and gave myself a little bit more, and he went to the fridge for some pitas and veggies.

I should mention that the recipe itself was great, and I’ll be trying it again with some other, less evil vegetable.

I don’t think I’ll be buying desi karela again, but I’m really happy I tried it once. The leftovers are still in my fridge, waiting for me to finish them. I’m kind of afraid of what it will taste like – you know how evil is when given time to collude.

Sorry, J. I swear I didn’t try to poison you!

Almond Pista Kulfi (a Bite of Blog Love)

This post is part of a “Blog Bites” challenge issued by Nupur, of the blog One Hot Stove. This month, we’re asked to pick ANY recipe from the blog of our choice, make it, take pics and blog about it. The spirit of the “Blog Bites” challenge series is to get us checking out other food blogs and posting about our experiences, while giving due credit to the original poster. This also fits with the ‘Blog Love’ series I started back in June…

I had already found the perfect recipe when I saw the challenge. Sweet! (Literally)

I have always wanted to try making ice cream, but I don’t have an ice cream maker (and try not to buy unitasking gadgets). Summer brings a slew of amazing sounding ice cream recipes which, for the most part, just depress me into trying to justify making an ice cream maker (can I make dinner ice cream?).

Then I came across a recipe for Almond Pista Kulfi, posted by indosungod on Daily Musings.

Kulfi is an Indian frozen dessert that is made with milk, instead of cream, so doesn’t require an ice cream maker. They often come in flavours like mango, almond, pistachio – and can contain ground nuts. This recipe is a combination of almond and pistachio.

Vanilla Beans with Ground Almonds and Pistachios.

I first had to roast my almonds and pistachios, and then grind them coarsely in the food processor. Since I had some on hand – and totally love them – I decided to add vanilla bean, as well as a few drops of almond extract.

You start by cooking down some whole milk and condensed milk on the stove, adding in a few ingredients and cooking it down a little more.

Making kulfi. It may be too thick already…

Here is where I ran into some trouble. Never having made kulfi before, I wasn’t sure how thick it should be. Initially, I followed the instructions, cooking the milk down for a certain amount of time. After adding in some ingredients and letting it thicken, you’re supposed to cook it down a little bit further. I did take it off earlier than it called for, thinking it was thick enough… but it was actually too thick. It was actually too sticky to freeze all the way through!

The next day, I decided I would try to fix things. I warmed up a little more of the whole milk and stirred it into the “semifreddo” concoction, crossed my fingers and stuck it back in the freezer. It worked!!

Writing instructions for these kinds of things can be tricky, because different stoves and cookware can cook things differently. Trial and error are definitely required! I now have a better idea of the consistency it should be when done. I know this sounds gross when talking about dessert, but it had the consistency of clam chowder (sans lumps) before freezing. Thick, coats the spoon, but not too sticky.

Back off! This bowl is MINE!

Sooo delicious! Once I’m done killing this batch, I’m going to make a cardamom coffee one!!! Can’t wait!!

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading Almond Pista Kulfi (a Bite of Blog Love)

Daring Nut Butt

This month, we dare to make our own nut butters, and use them in a savoury dish. I’ve done the peanut sauce thing before, and have used ground almonds to thicken curries (almost counts as a nut butter… almost more of a nut flour, but close enough!). I’m totally open to having a nutty dinner.

Being busy as I have been lately, I took the path of least resistance and used cashew butter in a Thai-inspired noodle salad (one of the recommended recipes). I know I should have picked something a little more challenging for myself, but how could I resist a simple meal that was destined to be amazing?

Amazing it was. I am a sucker for this kind of thing.

Daring Cashew Butter and Roasted Cashews

First, I had to make the cashew butter. I figured it would taste that much better if I roasted the cashews first, so I quickly pan roasted them. Some of the oils escaped in the roasting, so I had to add some vegetable oil when I made the butter. My trusty food processor was great at grinding up the cashews, but they needed the extra oil to come together properly and form a paste. I probably would have thinned it out a little more but I knew I was making a sauce next, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

I decided to follow the sauce recipe as closely as possible. I was tempted to add some of the things I add to my own sauce, like keffir lime leaf, but I stayed pretty true to the recipe. What’s the point in remaking my own sauce recipes over again? I wanted to try something new. I chickened out about the amount of garlic, though. As much as I love garlic, 8 cloves sounded a little bit steep. I used 4, and it was plenty garlicky enough.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include Better with Nut Butter by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading Daring Nut Butt

What do I do with this? Garlic Scapes

This is a new monthly challenge that I’m imposing on myself, where I find an ingredient that I have never used before (or even better – have never even HEARD of before) and make something with it.

My first entry is the Garlic Scape. I first heard of this earlier in the year, but had never seen any in the market before. I actually tried to grow my own, but failed miserably.

I finally found some at the market this month.

Garlic scapes, or green garlic, are the stalks of the garlic plant, growing above ground. They’re sort of like scallions, but garlicky tasting and much more dense. To me, they seem like a cross between a garlic and a green bean. Raw, they are pungent and crunchy. When cooked, they are soft and mild.

My first big dish using garlic scapes was a simple pasta tossed with sauteed vegetables, garlic scapes, garlic scape infused yogurt and Parmesan cheese.

There are many recipes for garlic scape pesto, which I plan to try making soon. Sounds right up my alley!

Now that I’ve tried them, I’m a little embarrassed that I hadn’t heard of them before. Anyone that knows me should be ashamed of me!! This was a great find, and a really fun thing to put in summer dishes. I know they won’t be in season for much longer, so I’ll be buying them every chance I get.

Next year, I plan to try growing garlic again. I’m not too sure what went wrong this time around, but I think it’s because bulbs don’t overwinter very well here when in pots. I might try planting them early March with my daffodils.

🙂

Go Team Steph! Daring Pâté and Bread

I have a bit of a history with pâté. Growing up German, I ate loads of Braunschweiger, which may be a liverwurst and not technically “pâté” per se… but kinda is pâté in its spreadable variations. I used to gross out my friends, who were normal and didn’t eat weird things like Braunschweiger.

One time in grade school, in particular, I had spooned some into a little lunch container and packed it with some crackers. Knowing what it was, and that people thought it was gross, I showed my friend Heather. She just smiled and made yummy actions. Confused, I asked her if she ate Braunchweiger… also confused, she told me she had thought it was chocolate ice cream. I totally grossed her out by telling her what it actually was. I never did figure out how she thought I kept the ice cream frozen in my bag.

Braunschweiger is one of the weirdest meat things that I missed when I stopped eating meat.

Raw Trout and Shrimp

I can’t say I’ve tried to replace Braunschweiger with something veg. I sampled a couple of vegetarian pâtés at the Veggie Food Fair, but I never really felt the need to buy them. Now that I am an occasional meat eater, I haven’t jumped at the chance to have meat pâté again.

Not sure why, but it just hasn’t been on my radar.

Then I got the Daring Cooks‘ challenge for June. Make a pâté – and like it! I chose to make the trout and shrimp pâté partly because it’s made up of seafood, and partly because the description claimed it was passed down through a variety of nameless people, and possibly their grandmas and their grandma’s neighbours or something. I like recipes that just randomly work their way through people.

Sourdough Ciabatta, made with Vinifera flour

The second part of this challenge is to make a bread, which is where the “Team Stephfood” silliness comes in. J is the bread maker in the house, and I’m very happy to leave that to him. We opted to complete this challenge together. For his part, he made a ciabatta bread with his sourdough starter and Vinifera flour. Vinifera is neat, because it’s made from the skins of grapes. It imparts a purplish hue (depending on how much you use, and what you mix with it), and adds a tart flavour.

Trout and Shrimp Pâté on Vinifera Sourdough Ciabatta

The bread was amazing, and added some complexity to the pairing. The pâté was very mild, and I thought it needed some extra zazz. The bread definitely helped with that.

I enjoyed this challenge. It wasn’t something I would have looked for on my own, which makes it a good challenge for me. I don’t know for sure that I will make this regularly, but we thought it was tasty and different. It definitely goes well with our ‘spread’ dinners.

Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.

Adaptation – Seitan Tomato Bredie

Since I haven’t issued myself a month-long challenge for May, I’m taking on a couple of one-off challenges. This challenge was issued by Nupur, who writes for One Hot Stove. The goal is to find a recipe posted on another blog, and change something major about it and repost, with a link to the original blog post.

This probably isn’t a surprise, but I chose to veggify a meat dish. This dish could also be made gluten-free by using a non-wheat flour to thicken at the end (er, and by not using seitan, which is basically all wheat gluten).

I chose to make a South African Tomao Bredie (stew), which was originally posted by Asha, who writes for Fork Spoon Knife.

The reason I chose this particular recipe is because it is a South African dish that makes use of many spices that I’ve been ignoring lately. This is a very aromatic dish, featuring LOTS of ginger, allspice, cloves, cardamom and peppercorns. YUM! I’ve never tried cooking any South African dishes before, so I thought this would be a great place to start.

Also, the poster wrote about the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency books when describing why SHE chose the recipe… while I haven’t read the books, I really enjoyed the TV series on HBO (Miss 97%!). So… yes, I choose recipes for a combination of reasons, some that make sense and some that do not.

I suppose I need to adapt the inspiration for this dish as well, instead of just stealing the No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency reference… If I try really hard, I can just imagine Wikus Van De Merwe eating this (before his run-in with the aliens) in Joburg.

Wikus Van De Merwe, from the movie District 9

This was a great dish to have on a cool fall day. Yes, I know it is the middle of May — it FEELS LIKE FALL this week! I’m trying really hard not to be angry at the weather man, filtering some of the anger into cooking. Enjoy!

Tomato Bredie

The original recipe can be found at Fork Spoon Knife.

Marinade Ingredients:

1 inch chunk of ginger, minced
2 tsp all spice powder
1/4 tsp salt

Stew Ingredients:

1 lb seitan, cut into 1″ cubes (I used this recipe)
1 tsp oil
4-5 whole cloves
1 cinnamon stick, or 1/2 tsp ground
4-5 cracked black peppercorns
1 medium onions, diced
1 inch chunk of ginger, minced
2-3 cardamom pods
6 medium tomatoes, diced, divided (4 for the stew, 2 for garnish)
1 jalapeno, diced (although I don’t think the dish needs it… the ginger offers enough heat)
1 cup vegetable stock
salt, pepper as needed
3 medium potatoes, cut into 1 inch cubes
1 medium green pepper, chopped
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour

Aromatic Rice Ingredients:

2 cardamom pods
1 cinnamon stick, or 1/2 tsp ground
4 cloves
4 cracked peppercorns
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups basmati rice
3C water

Preparation:

THE NIGHT BEFORE: Coat the seitan pieces evenly with the marinade.Cover and refrigerate overnight.
Heat the oil in a deep sauté pan on med-high heat. Toast the cloves, cinnamon, whole peppercorns in the oil until you can smell the spices.
Add the onions and sauté until browned.
Add the seitan, ginger and cardamom and brown the seitan a little bit. Turn the heat down to medium, cover and let simmer for 5-7 minutes.
Add the tomatoes, jalapeno, stock, salt and pepper and stir well. Simmer for five more minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the potatoes and simmer until they are cooked through, about 10-15 minutes.
While the stew is simmering, prepare the rice:
1. In a medium pot, heat up 1 tsp of oil. Add the spices, and cook until you start to smell them.
2. Add the rice and salt, stir thoroughly, and let it toast a little bit (but be careful not to let it burn!)
3. Add the water, let it come to a boil and reduce to med-low heat. Cover immediately and cook until the rice absorbs all of the water. Fluff with a fork when done.
About 10 minutes into the simmering, add the green pepper.
When the stew is cooked through, melt the butter in a small pan and add the flour to it. Cook for a minute and then add the roux to the stew to thicken.
Once the potatoes are cooked, heat up a small pan on med-low heat to prepare a roux. Melt the butter, and add the flour, stirring constantly until it forms a thin paste. Cook for about a minute.
Add the roux to the stew to thicken. Make sure it all gets incorporated into the stew, leaving no clumps.
Serve over hot aromatic rice and top with some fresh diced tomato. I also added some chopped green onion and diced avocado… not sure if it’s especially authentic, but it added some nice colour and I wanted to use up an avocado.

Daring Crab Enchilladas

Time for my third Daring Cooks challenge!!

This month’s challenge was exactly what I had been looking for…. yummy Mexican food! Toronto doesn’t have many great Mexican restaurants, unfortunately. There are a couple… and we had one that I really liked that closed a couple of years ago. Booo!

Our hosts this month, Barbara of Barbara Bakes and Bunnee of Anna+Food have chosen a delicious Stacked Green Chile & Grilled Chicken Enchilada recipe in celebration of Cinco de Mayo! The recipe, featuring a homemade enchilada sauce was found on www.finecooking.com and written by Robb Walsh.

Fresh Poblano peppers and Tomatillos

The challenge recipe was for chicken enchiladas, and of course I had to modify the recipe and swap out the chicken. I chose to make crab enchiladas instead, after a dish that I had in California and haven’t had since. These were not going to be “crab” enchiladas, but contain nice chunks of King crab. I bought some crab legs, pulled out the meat for the enchiladas and used the shells to make the broth.

The enchilada sauce was really simple to make, but required some items that I couldn’t find in the grocery store. I ventured out to Kensington Market, where Mexican shops carry almost everything a silly Canadian girl could want… except for the Anaheim chiles. It’s ok – I got Poblanos instead. I think I secretly wanted to have to get Poblanos, after watching a show on Chile Rellenos. (I think that might be my next Mexican challenge! Yumyum!). I also got a hand full of lovely green tomatillos. These are so nice to look at (and photograph), and have a crazy tartness that you can’t get from a red tomato. The peppers and tomatillos were roasted in the oven first, the peppers were skinned and seeded and all of the ingredients were blended together.

Oven roasted Poblano peppers and Tomatillos

Realizing how simple this was, I adapted this process to make my ancho salsa. I roasted some red tomatoes and onions, and soaked and de-seeded some dried ancho peppers. I blended it all (pulsing, rather than pureeing… I wanted to keep some of the texture). I added a touch of ground chipotle pepper at the end, for some smokiness. SOOOO GOOOD!

Another “secret ingredient” was some crumbled queso fresco… it doesn’t melt like other cheeses, so I used a few different cheeses in this dish. Queso fresco is a fresh cheese, like Indian Paneer, so it has a bit of a grit and chew to it that is unlike other kinds of cheeses. I think this cheese is the reason you see feta sprinkled on Mexican dishes sometimes… feta is one of the closest common cheeses, when comparing flavour (saltiness) and melting properties.

This dish did take some time to make, considering the broth, roasting of peppers, assembly and baking. It would be considerably less time if I did some of these things in advance… so really not a bad dish to make when you’re having company over! We thought it looked – and tasted – really impressive.

Hm, I even think I managed to make this one totally Gluten Free! You could also make this vegetarian by substituting the seafood stock for veg, and the crab meat for either some faux meat, or some nice roasted vegetables. Maybe even beans?

Four crab enchiladas – fresh out of the oven!

Crab, Shrimp & Veg Stock

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp oil + butter (I used 1 Tbsp of each, but you can mix it how you like. The butter adds a nice warm flavour)
1 med onion, roughly chopped
1 large clove of garlic, crushed
2-4 loose cups of “frozen veggie bits” (see note below)
shells from 1LB of shrimp
shells from 1.5lb of king crab legs (or equivalent)
1 large dried bay leaf
1 Tbsp small whole black peppercorns
8-10 cups of water

Pre-Preparation:

Crab – I’m not sure how you get crab where you live, but I started with frozen pre-steamed crab legs. If you get them fresh, you’ll want to cook them first. If you can’t get whole legs, feel free to use lump crab or canned. If you get the pre-cooked frozen crab, I would advise against steaming the legs whole – just thaw, pull crab meat out, so the only cooking will happen in the oven when assembled in the enchilada. You don’t want overcooked crab.
Frozen Veggie bits – If you read my blog regularly, you probably saw a post about this a week or so ago. If not, ‘frozen veggie bits’ is a bag of bits that I cut off of my vegetables when preparing them for dinner and then freeze for use in stocks. These are not rotten vegetable parts, but maybe a little drier bits, or stems, or the bits that you might not want to include in the dish. For me, this includes herb stems, mushroom stems, broccoli stalks, bits of pepper that are close to the membrane or stem, carrot peels, etc. etc.

Preparation:

Heat the oil/butter in a stock pot over medium heat , until it has coated the bottom.
Sauté the onion and garlic for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the onion is soft and golden. You’ll be able to smell when it is ready.
Add the veg bits, shrimp and crab shells, and sauté for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Add the bay leaf, peppercorns and water. Bring to a boil.
Turn the heat down to low and simmer for about 1 hour.

Daring Crab Enchiladas

(with Steph’s substitutions)

Ingredients

1½ pounds Poblano chiles (about 6 medium) – roast, peel, remove seeds, chop coarsely.
7-8 ounces Tomatillos (about 4-5 medium) – peel, remove stems
4 cups broth (see above for the recipe I used)
1 clove Garlic, minced
½ tsp Kosher salt (add more to taste)
¼ tsp Black Pepper (add more to taste)
2 tablespoons Cornstarch (dissolve in 2 tablespoons water, for thickening)
Hot sauce, your favorite, optional
Crab meat, from 1.5 lb of crab legs (shells removed, presumably these are pre-cooked and frozen crab legs)
3 tablespoons Olive oil or other neutral vegetable oil (use more as needed)
Kosher salt and pepper
12 Small Corn tortillas (5-6 inch/13-15 cm). (you can also use wheat tortillas or other wraps)
6 ounces grated cheese, I used a combination of jalapeno havarti, sharp cheddar and queso fresco
Cilantro for garnish, chopped and sprinkled optional

Directions:

Roasting Fresh Chiles and Tomatillos

Coat each chile and tomatillo with a little vegetable oil. Lay them on the grill or baking sheet (line pan with foil for simpler clean-up). Place the grill or broil close to the element, turning the chiles so they char evenly. They should be black and blistered.
As they are completely charred (they will probably not all be done at once), remove the chilis to one bowl and the tomatillos to a second bowl and cover with plastic. Let them rest until they are cool. Put the tomatillos aside for now.
To de-seed the chiles, pull on the stem and the seed core MAY pop out (it rarely does for me). Open the chile and remove the seeds.
Turn the chile skin side up and with a paring knife, scrape away the skin. Sometimes it just pulls right off, sometimes you really have to scrape it.
DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce

Take the roasted tomatillos and puree in a blender or food processor.
Put the puréed tomatillos in a saucepan along with the broth, chopped and roasted green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
Add the cornstarch/water mixture and stir well. Simmer, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is thickened and reduced to 4-5 cups, another 10-15 minutes.
Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Crab Enchiladas

In a small skillet, heat 3 tablespoons oil over medium-high heat until very hot. Dip the edge of a tortilla into the oil to check – it should sizzle immediately.
Using tongs, put a tortilla into the pan and cook until soft and lightly brown on each side, about 15-20 seconds per side (at the most).
Drain on paper towels.
Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
Divide half the crab meat among the first layer of tortillas, top with another ½ cup of sauce and 1/3 of the grated cheese.
Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the crab meat, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
To serve, transfer each stack to a plate. Spoon any leftover sauce over the stacks and sprinkle with cilantro, if you wish. The stacks may also be cooked in individual gratin dishes.

Monthly Mélange: April 2010

Noodles!!

APRIL CHALLENGE : NO REPEATS! – WRAP-UP
Just to sum up my last week of the April challenge, “No Repeats” — LAME! Ahahaha, not the food, just me. I really only had two nights where I could cook this last week, and we opted for a ‘spread’ meal on Thursday. You’ll learn more about “spread” meals soon, but let’s just say that it doesn’t necessarily involve any cooking… The other meal I made was pretty darn good – Miso Vegetables & Tofu (from 101 Cookbooks).

To sum up the whole month, this has been a great challenge. I wanted variety in my cooking, and I got it!! I took the opportunity to dig into my cookbooks a little more, and made peace with the fact that they aren’t the kind of cookbooks I need (so I don’t feel bad not reaching for them all the time). Seriously, how many vegetarians actually make all of the “loaves” that are in some of these books? Argh!!

Just say ‘No’ to Food Waste!
I think I’m going to make this a regular entry in my rundown. Just because the official challenge is over doesn’t mean it isn’t still a part of my life! After collecting cutoffs from my veggies for over a month (think mushroom stems, herb stems, onion ends, other veggie ends that you don’t feel like eating but aren’t gross), I used my bag of frozen bits and bobs to make broth. I didn’t follow a long recipe, just sautéed some onions first, then the frozen stuff, topped it off with a ton of water and simmered for a nice long time. The broth was fantastic!! Who says veggie broth has to be watery… 🙂 I have continued to collect the ‘veg bits’, as well as shrimp shells, and have used both (and another special ingredient) to make an incredible broth for an upcoming post… tee hee hee.

One small ‘boo’ to add to this… I lost a half a bag of frozen veg bits to my own exuberance. I had added some new bits to the bag, had zipped it closed, and shook it a little bit too hard… the zipper popped open and my bits got strewn across the floor. 🙁 Le sigh. Let’s take a minute of silence for the poor lost bits.

I Made This!
The (New) Brunswick Stew was a huge success. Technically, I made it at the end of March, but I wasn’t allowed to post about it until April because it was the Daring Cooks challenge for April. I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed this stew, because I wasn’t really in the mood for stew when the challenge was first posted. Once I finished all of the leftovers, however, I kinda wished I had made the batch for 12 instead of cutting it down to 4. Next time.

Party in My Mouth
Aww, come on! You know what this is about — cupcakes! April was an amazing month for the sweet treats… On the other hand, I picked up a Jelly Belly “problem” and am now self-rehabilitating. I’m trying to cut down on sugar, in general, so that’s new…

Monthly Spice
Paprika. I put that s**t on everything! Seriously, I think I pick recipes just because they call for a buttload of paprika. Sweet paprika, smoked paprika… and the other day I ventured into the spice store in Kensington Market and found their stash of around 20 different kinds of paprika. I feel a blog post coming on!! First, I need to research the difference between Spanish and Hungarian paprika.

Mystery Ingredient
Love.

Shameful Secrets
No secret. I have now become a cupcake.

I’ve started to collect some herb plants for my balcony forest. I really like the idea that I can just pop out there to grab some fresh herbs, green onion and eventually some tomatoes and salad greens. I am a little concerned that they will all die when I go on vacation, but what can I do?

April 2010 Challenge – No Repeats! (Week 3)

Week 3 has finished, and I took the opportunity to dig through my cookbooks and magazines again. I found some good dishes… some of which I may even make again! 🙂

Soba Noodle Salad with Ginger Peanut Dressing (p.29, Vegetarian Times Magazine Sept2009) – This one tasted a bit like a combo of some other things we make. The peanut sauce was yummy, and went well with the taste of the soba noodles. I added some Nanami Togarashi and sesame seeds to my bowl, just because I felt like it!
Leeky Pasta – This is one of my old favourites, and I’ll be posting the recipe later in the week. It’s a simple dish, but feels kind of special and is sure to impress your guests (unless they don’t like leeks, rosemary and tomatoes!)
Deep South Spiced Rice & Beans (p.137, Classic Vegetarian Recipes) – Being “mostly vegetarian”, I try to find recipes that include legumes of some kind. This sounded like a good dish to try, as it incorporates beans and some fresh veggies. It’s a good one for the spring, because it isn’t heavy and saucey.
Aviyal (p.45, Simple Vegetarian Recipes) – An Indian vegetable dish. This dish sounded interesting because it called for coconut, an ingredient I don’t often use. I will be posting about this dish soon!