Challenges – Page 4 – Stephfood CLONE

April 2010 Challenge – No Repeats! (Week 2)

Week 2 has finished, and I made a few new dishes that turned out pretty good!

Vegetable Toad-in-the-Hole (p.186, Classic Vegetarian Recipes) – this one was different from the kind of dishes I usually make, with the bready component to it. I would definitely make this again. It was a little involved, but not too much trouble, and kind of fun and cute (as far as dinner goes). Click the title to view my full post on the dish.
Mashup Pasta – this was one of those dishes with two steps: 1. make pasta, and 2. open the fridge door and throw everything you want to finish up into the sauce. This particular one included some pesto, tapenade, lots of mushrooms, some canned tomatoes, etc.
Indonesian Hot Rice Salad (p.142, Classic Vegetarian Recipes) – this dish sounded pretty interesting, because the rice is hot but the rest of the ingredients are cold. The problem is that there were just too many green onions in it. Also, I’m not too sure just how authentic of a dish it is – I thought Indonesian food was spicy!! I’ll have to ask…
Rice Noodles with Shrimp and Cilantro (p.47 Fine Cooking magazine, April/May 2010) – I’m going to post about this one later on this week, but I’ll just say that this dish was really really good. This is going into our pile of ‘usual’ dishes that we might change up every once in a while. This recipe was simple enough that it leaves room to make changes – maybe add a bit more spice, if anything. After this week, you will be able to click the title to view my full post on the dish.
Birthday Lasagna – I wanted to post about this one, but gobbled it up before I could take photos. I made a really yummy lasagna for my hubby’s birthday this week. I even made the sauce from scratch. Lasagna is a bit of work, but always impresses and makes great leftovers! I made this one off the top of my head – I don’t think I’ve ever had any kind of recipe for it, it’s just something I make.

Until next week…

Daring (New) Brunswick Stew

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.

I opted to make a variation on the first recipe given. I usually don’t eat meat, so this dish posed quite a challenge for me. I think there were three or four different kinds of meat in the recipe… I replaced all of the meat with shrimps and seitan, the broth with a vegetable/shrimp broth. Since this likely changed the flavour quite a bit, I’ve jokingly labelled my variation of the recipe (New) Brunswick Stew. Any Canadians reading this will get the New Brunswick/seafood reference… right? (I’m sure there is nothing specifically New Brunswick about it. I just wanted a cute title).

I started by making a broth, which I based on one I got from a Seafood Gumbo recipe I plan to try eventually. I also had to make some seitan, a vegetarian meat substitute made with wheat gluten (sorry, GF folks!). Both of these things added to the cooking time, since I had to make them from scratch.

Next, I fried up some chile peppers. I got some fun dried chiles called Chilhuacle Negro that have a medium heat (5/10). I’m pretty new to chiles, so I didn’t want to get any that were too hot. That said, I should have kept some of the seeds in for a little more heat. This was where the excitement starts – the smell of the peppers and the oil in the pan are heavenly!

Chilhuacle Negro

Here is what the stew looked like in the early stages – the seitan is still in large chunks (to be sliced into thin strips in a later stage). While the broth started off looking quite red (from the chile peppers and the smoked paprika), it mellowed into a nice warm golden colour by the end.

(New) Brunswick Stew – in progress

Here is the final product, and the shot that everyone on Daring Cooks seems to be doing – the standing spoon shot. This came from the original recipe. To describe the texture of the finished stew, they said that Brunswick stew is not done properly “until the paddle stands up in the middle.”. Everyone has been doing their version of this shot, so I felt obliged to do the same. It was a hearty hearty stew, but the broth was not too thick and gloopy.

(New) Brunswick Stew – Standing Spoon

In the end, the stew turned out great! It was a bit of a challenge deciding what to use instead of meat, but I think the seitan worked wonderfully! This is definitely something I wouldn’t have known to seek out, and there’s no doubt I’ll be making this again.

Recipe after the jump.

Continue reading Daring (New) Brunswick Stew

April 2010 Challenge – No Repeats! (Week 1)

At the beginning of this year, I found myself in a rut. I realized that I, by default, would make slight variations on the same few meals every single week. Cooking became a chore, as much as I enjoy eating and (usually) enjoy cooking, in general.

That realization was one of the main things that drove me to start this blog, and I believe that blogging has been the driving force that pulled me out of cooking boredom.

This month, I am challenging myself to not make the same dinner twice.

Obviously, I can’t avoid using some of the same ingredients but I have to focus on making things in different ways. That doesn’t mean I have to cook every day… but when I do, it has to be something I haven’t made this month. I won’t post recipes for every meal I make, but I’ll try to list the dishes (and include links if I got the recipes online).

This first week (and a bit) was a good start, although we weren’t home to cook for the first weekend.

Chunky Vegetable Paella (from the Ultimate Vegetarian Cookbook by Roz Denny)
Seitan Paprikash
Hyderabadi Biryani (from Sarah Brown’s World Vegetarian Cookbook)
Double Broccoli Quinoa (from 101 Cookbooks)

Daring Risotto

Some of the main ingredients: Butter, powdered sage and Arborio rice.

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

The thing about challenges… oh wait, I’ve already done that one. Heh. This is my first Daring Cooks challenge, and its poking me right where it hurts. After seeing the previous challenges, and even trying one as a test, I was really hoping to try making some new crazy cuisine. Instead, I’ve been put face to face with my nemesis: risotto.

I’m not hating on risotto, but I really haven’t had much success making it. Honestly, I sometimes think it’s O.K. the day I make it, and then HATE it for leftovers and never want to see it again. I’ve tried it a few times, and have hated it every time.

This is the perfect thing for me to start with.

I’m supposed to be challenged, right? It’s supposed to be at least a little bit hard, and sometimes frustrating. It’s supposed to be a learning experience. So I have jumped into it wholeheartedly. What did I learn? That my old risotto recipe sucks (yup), but that I am still not excited to make risotto (fair enough). My attempt came out pretty good, and I chose some accompaniments that nicely brought out the flavour and accented the texture of the dish. Not bad! That said, I wasn’t brimming with the same pride I had after trying the salmon en croute, or the indian or ethiopian feasts.

A great learning experience, indeed, and definitely a successful meal.

Squash risotto topped with garlic mushrooms, sage butter and arugula.

Part of the challenge was to make the stock from scratch, and while the recommended stock was made with a whole chicken, that would not be the route I would take. Not being a real meat person, I opted to make a mushroom stock, which turned out really tasty! It added a nice woody flavour to the dish. I got inspiration from this recipe, but ended up choosing my own adventure for most of it.

So there is the result of my first challenge. It was a good learning experience, which is what I am looking for with the challenges, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what we do next month!

Recipe for the base risotto after the jump…

Continue reading Daring Risotto

Monthly Mélange: February 2010

Noodles!!

February was my first full month of blogging about food, and I packed it full of new cooking experiences. This has really helped to battle my usual winter blahs. I hope to keep things coming at the same frequency.

Here’s a rundown of some of my culinary highlights of February 2010. If there’s anyone out there reading my blog, feel free to comment with your own rundown of the month!

How did February 2010 taste?

Wrapping up the Waste
The 2010 Food Waste Reduction Challenge is now over, and I can say that it was interesting to see just how much edible stuff we throw out every month. I suppose it’s less of a wake-up call for me, because I’ve always tried to use up everything I can. There are still a few weak spots – frozen items moreso than fresh foods. I can do better there. Planning meals helps with this, and only buying the items you really need for the meals you have planned.

Monthly Spice
I would probably say Berbere, because it probably was my favourite of the month, but it already got its own post. While making a Cajun-inspired shrimp dish the other night, I realized I had misplaced my Cajun mixed spices and had to make some up on the fly! Seriously, I realized I couldn’t find it RIGHT when I needed to add it in. Internet to the rescue, I found a couple of recipes that outlined the herbs and spices to use, and the proportions, and I was all set. The dish turned out great, by the way.

Mystery Ingredient
Leafy, leafy greens. I’m usually pretty good about eating my spinach (bought into the whole Lie of Popeye), but I never knew what to do with things like kale. This month, I chose some recipes that not only used lots of spinach, but also kale and collard greens. Sometimes referred to as a ‘superfood’, leafy greens contain many important nutrients, such as vitamin C, iron, potassium, magnesium, lutein, beta-carotene, folic acid and are high in dietary fiber (among other things). They’re pretty tasty, too!

I Made This!
Hubs says the best stuff I made this month was my Indian assortment, which I should be posting soon. I made three really yummy dishes, and overall we were more satisfied with these three than the Ethiopian three dishes (the closest competition – I wasn’t as impressed with the yellow lentil dish, so it lost some points there!). My favourite of the three Indian dishes was definitely the Saag Paneer – this is one of my all-time favourite Indian dishes, and it came out just the way I like it!! Joe’s favourite was a chick pea dish. Yum.

Shameful Secrets
I am happy to say that I haven’t had any Skittles since my last post, and have limited my Jelly Belly intake to 10 beans per sitting. My stomach has been doing much better, which is important since I’ve been cooking so much

On to March, and hopefully some longer days so my food pics turn out better!!

Food Waste Reduction Challenge 2010: Week 3

Week 3 is done!!

Week 3 was clouded by my cold, but I still managed to cook a bunch. Not much tossing of food happened here… mostly shoveling.

We’re now in the home stretch, and I think this has been a great test. I’ll post the wrap-up for the month next week in my Monthly Mélange!

This week’s wins:

Gooooooaaaaaal!!! I finally started a freezer bag of veggie ends for making broth – and then I used it up to make broth! Didn’t take me long, and that’s just fine, because it’s better to use it up!
I also managed to use up one of the four types of squash I had in the freezer.

This week’s casualties:

A sadly rotten jalapeno. All of the other jalapenos were fine… but one decided to depart early.

Food Waste Reduction Challenge 2010: Week 2

Week 2 is done!!

So far, not bad. I only bought items that we needed for the week, and we’re doing a great job of using them up. I didn’t actually make my goal for the week – to start a freezer bag of veggie ends to use in the making of a broth. Boo! I really didn’t have many ends of things in the dishes I made… so no real need for it yet.

Goal #2: Make some room in the crowded freezer by using stuff up!! I already started with some rhubarb that I got from my mother-in-law’s garden, then froze. I’m also trying to think of something yummy to do with the ends of artisan bread (any good recipes, guys?). Those guys are taking up way too much space in my freezer!!

This week’s wins:

Bag o’ frozen rhubarb – I’ve had this for around 2 years, and was worried it would taste like death freezer burn. It was just fine! So I used it to make a nice sauce for my crêpes. I did end up putting two portions of sauce back into the freezer, but these are two really narrow freezer bags that take up MUCH less space than the big bag of frozen rhubarb.
Remembered to use up the tomato paste – you know how sometimes you only need a spoonful, and then you put the rest in the fridge and you find it a couple of weeks later growing its own ecosystem? We nicely avoided this by using the rest in a pizza sauce.
The rest of a lonely mozzarella ball was also put to good use on the pizza. We prefer stronger cheeses, so sometimes its hard for us to use up mozzarella before it turns into a bouncy ball. Another good use of leftover mozzarella is in a cheesy broccoli soup.

This week’s casualties:

A wee bit of what was once an edible rind from a soft cheese that was incredibly ripe (the rind gets really bitter when it’s overripe… so I had to sacrifice it). The middle was still tasty, though.
Some once delicious MIL-made strawberry jam that has seen better days. These things hide in the dark corners of our fridge, until one day we dig them up and wonder how they stayed there so long. I’m not sure how this one moved here with us… and now it comes back to haunt me in a month where I’m trying not to throw out food.

Food Waste Reduction Challenge 2010: Week 1

Week 1 is done!!

I think I haven’t done too badly, but it’s just the beginning, yes?

I have been trying to plan out meals, buy just what we need and then use it. I also had a “use it up” pasta sauce that made good use of an interesting combination of leftover items.

I’ve also decided that I would do my best to use as much of an item as possible. For example, we regularly cut off the ends of broccoli and the whole peel of a lemon once juiced. I’ve already started zesting all of the lemons before I juice them (having some dried lemon zest on hand has been great!) and next week, I will start a freezer bag for veggie ends, to be made into an aromatic broth sometime in the future.

Some challenges encountered this past week:

Cilantro – can only buy this in a big bunch, and we only use a little bit. To our advantage, we planned two meals that make use of fresh cilantro. But what to do with the rest?? Fresh cilantro is always best, but I did freeze some and dry some. The only stuff we threw out were the handful of stems that had already started to go bad — it goes fast, so there was really no preventing it!
Spinach – I used it up, but there were a few baby leaves that were already on their way out.
1 -2 tbsp cut off pastry dough from a recipe I did — it just made more dough than I needed, and I couldn’t think of anything to do with it.
1-2 tbps Some sourdough starter that went funky

Food Waste Reduction Challenge 2010

This month, I will be participating in Crunchy Chicken’s Food Waste Reduction Challenge. Since I haven’t had the guts to try one of her challenges yet, I thought this would be a good one to start with. Blogging about it will hopefully encourage me to keep up with it, and really take a look at what we’re wasting.

The two-second overview: to really look at what edible food we throw out over the course of the month. This doesn’t include inedible food waste, like coffee grounds, banana peels, or eggshells. To get a sense of the bigger picture, please see the writeup on Crunchy Chicken’s blog.

I honestly think we do pretty well with food – we buy quite a lot of fresh produce, and usually use it up before it spoils. I know we have trouble with some fruits and veggies — seriously, limes do not keep well and avocadoes are a big question mark for me. It’s hard to know how long we have to eat them – but I am learning.

Part of this challenge isn’t just to monitor what you throw out, but to make a real effort to limit what you throw out. This involves some thinking and planning – only buy what you need, keep an eye on the freshness of your food, and use it or freeze it before it spoils.

I hope that some of you will consider taking this challenge with me. If you do, and you are blogging about it, please leave the link to your blog in the comments! I’d love to see how you do!

Cheers,