Canchánchara

Canchánchara

Cuba is the land of many drinks, and many dances. Even on a resort, sheltered from the “real” world, you can almost get a sense of the culture from the drinks and the dancing. The drink that people usually connect with Cuba is the Mojito – a refreshing drink with rum, lime and mint. I love Mojitos.

When in Cuba, I was introduced to another refreshing drink, the Canchánchara. Like the Mojito, it combines rum and citrus and lots of ice. It also includes honey, giving the drink a warm sweetness. The kicker is that it calls for “raw rum”, which I had never heard of before.

Cuba - Canchanchara

Canchánchara in Cuba – yup, that’s me, no makeup, hair covered from the sun.

It was so tasty and different that I decided I had to be able to make it at home. We even tried to buy a bottle from the bar at the resort. While they wouldn’t let us buy one, they did give us the name of the brand and said that we would likely find it in the airport shop. Lucky for us, we did find it! I think it cost us all of $4.

At home, I avoided opening the lonely bottle, knowing that once we finished it, we would not be able to find any more without going back to Cuba. Eventually, I gave in, and made the delicious drinks that I enjoyed on our trip!

Canchánchara

adapted from this famous recipe

Ingredients

  • 0.5 oz / 1Tbsp honey
  • 0.5 oz / 1Tbsp lemon juice
  • 1.5 oz / 3Tbsp  raw rum (I got some Sao Can raw rum in Cuba. If you don’t have raw rum, use white rum.)
  • 1 oz / 2Tbsp water (optional)
  • 1/2 cup cracked ice

Preparation

This can all be made in one glass, but I find the following steps to be the easiest (read: less sticky splash). This is definitely the best option if you are making a number of drinks at once – just pour the drink over the ice in each glass.

  1. In a measuring cup (or something else with a pour spout), add the honey and lemon juice. Stir until the honey is dissolved.
  2. Add the rum and water (if using).
  3. Add the ice to the glass you will be drinking out of, and pour the drink into the glass.

I added a purple basil leaf as a garnish, mostly for colour. I think I might try to make a purple basil Canchánchara… that would totally rock.

Adaptation – Seitan Tomato Bredie

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.

District 9 - Wikus Van De Merwe

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:

  1. THE NIGHT BEFORE: Coat the seitan pieces evenly with the marinade.Cover and refrigerate overnight.
  2. 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.
  3. Add the onions and sauté until browned.
  4. 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.
  5. Add the tomatoes, jalapeno, stock, salt and pepper and stir well. Simmer for five more minutes, stirring occasionally.
  6. Add the potatoes and simmer until they are cooked through, about 10-15 minutes.
  7. 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.
  8. About 10 minutes into the simmering, add the green pepper.
  9. 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.
  10. 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.
  11. Add the roux to the stew to thicken. Make sure it all gets incorporated into the stew, leaving no clumps.
  12. 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

Crab Enchiladas with Ancho Salsa

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.

Poblanos and Tomatillos

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.

Roasted Poblanos and Tomatillos

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?

Crab Enchiladas - oven

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:

  1. Heat the oil/butter in a stock pot over medium heat , until it has coated the bottom.
  2. 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.
  3. Add the veg bits, shrimp and crab shells, and sauté for another 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  4. Add the bay leaf, peppercorns and water. Bring to a boil.
  5. 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

  1. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. DO NOT RINSE!

Green Chile Sauce

  1. Take the roasted tomatillos and puree in a blender or food processor.
  2. Put the puréed tomatillos in a saucepan along with the broth, chopped and roasted green chiles, minced onion, oregano, garlic, salt and pepper.
  3. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat and then reduce the heat and simmer for 10 minutes.
  4. 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.
  5. Adjust seasonings and add hot sauce if you want a little more heat.

Stacked Green Chile and Grilled Crab Enchiladas

  1. 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.
  2. 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).
  3. Drain on paper towels.
  4. Add oil as needed and continue until all 12 tortillas are done.
  5. In a baking dish large enough to hold four separate stacks of tortillas, ladle a thin layer of sauce.
  6. Lay four tortillas in the dish and ladle another ½ cup (4 ounces/112 grams) of sauce over the tortillas.
  7. 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.
  8. Stack another four tortillas, top with the rest of the crab meat, more sauce and another third of the cheese.
  9. Finish with the third tortilla, topped with the remaining sauce and cheese.
  10. Bake until the sauce has thickened and the cheese melted, about 20 minutes. Let rest for 5-10 minutes.
  11. 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.

Bees & Cheer

Cheese N Beer - Belgian Beer

I recently had the pleasure of attending the “Beer School for Cheese Fans – Best of Belgium”, with brewmaster Sam Corbeil. This tasting event took place at the Leslieville Cheese Market West Market (541 Queen St. West, Toronto).

I’ve been a bit of a cheese dork for a while now, very slowly trying new fun cheeses and resisting the urge to become a total cheese “snob”. It’s only been the last few years that I’ve even been open to drinking beer, however.

J has always enjoyed trying new beers, and back in 2007 we were in Boston when he had me try a locally brewed, unfiltered wheat beer with fennel and cardamom. My opinion took such a sharp change in direction that we spent the rest of our trip trying new beers… and enjoying them! Since then, I’ve been trying to figure out what kinds of beers I like (and almost more importantly, which ones I don’t like).

Beer and cheese are now two of my favourite things. So it makes sense that someone would see “Beer School for Cheese Fans” and instantly think of me 🙂 Yes, this tour of deliciousness was a gift from a good friend (thanks!).

Cheese N Beer - Blue Haze

Blue Haze, a smoked blue cheese

Tonight’s tour paired 5 Belgian style beers with 5 different cheeses. The beers were all very different, and very tasty. I think that I had only had the Mill St. Wit before. Sam, who was doing the presentation, said something that I hadn’t thought of before – beer naturally pairs with cheese, because their flavours are more similar. I thought about this, and realized there’s at least some truth to it. It always seems like you choose foods that compete (favourably) with some flavours in wine, whereas there really isn’t that battle with beer. We ended up buying some crazy smoky blue cheese, and some cave-aged gruyere. We tried to buy some of the salty sheep’s milk cheese, but it was sold out by the time we made up our minds.

  • Mill St. Belgian Wit / Mouton Rouge (a salty sheep’s milk cheese)
  • Duvel / Morbier (creamy cheese with an ash vein)
  • Chimay “White Cap” Triple / cave aged Gruyere
  • Goulden Carlous “Classic” / Sauvagine, a creamy soft cheese,  on sausage
  • Trois Pistoles  / Blue Haze, a smokey blue cheese,  on rye crackers

In the end, I have to say that the Blue Haze was a great choice. A little bit of blue plus a little bit of smoke make a really good pair – and it tastes AMAZING on fresh Ciabatta bread (thanks, J-dog!).

A Tale of Three Bennies

Crab Benedict

Dr. Crabby Benedict from Dr. Generosity

I’ve eaten Eggs Benedict three times this week.

We went to three different places this week, and every time I chose a type of (non-meat) Benedict(ish).

This is their story.

Eggs Benedict is probably my favourite “going out for” brunch food. I haven’t mastered poached eggs yet, and I haven’t tried to make hollandaise sauce. I generally don’t feel like putting that much effort into making breakfast. One small challenge – Eggs Benedict is usually hollandaise drizzled over poached egg, perched atop “Canadian” bacon laid over an english muffin. I don’t eat meat usually, and I don’t know if I’ve ever even had a “normal” Benny before.

I always get the fun ones. I probably even pick the ones that I think sound the MOST fun. Sometimes that includes smoked salmon instead of the bacon, usually some kind of vegetable (spinach, asparagus, etc.). Yum!!

The three “Bennies” I had were all very different, but were all really really good. I’d happily return to any of these restaurants!

1. Mushroom Benedict @ Lola’s Commissary (634 Church St.)

Sautéed mushroom on english muffin, amazing hollandaise with whole grain mustard, yummy salad.

A cute little place near Church & Bloor, this was the first time we ventured inside. The brunch specials sounded great (J had some weird poached eggs in a creamy salsa dish… it was kind of like eggs poached in chili, and was really good!) and it had some yummy sounding Bennies, so we had to try it.

2. California Benedict @ Eggspectation (220 Yonge St., Eaton Centre)

Poached eggs on smoked salmon and home fries, topped with sautéed spinach, asparagus, hollandaise and shredded gruyere. No english muffin!

Eggspectation is a chain restaurant, frequented by tourists and whatnot. That said, I’ve always had a great meal there… maybe because 75% of the time I get the California Benedict!! This dish has a good amount of veggies for me, and the sprinkles of gruyere totally sell it for me. I usually can’t finish the potatoes or the toast teepee they insist on putting on my plate.

3. “Special Benedict” (what shall now be known as Dr. Crabby Benedict) @ Dr. Generosity (2197 Bloor St. W)

This one was a “Special Benedict”, as it wasn’t on the regular menu, but the special of the day. Poached eggs on english muffins, topped with snow crab meat, hollandaise, spinach. Served with a side of home fries.

I had never had a Benny with crab before. It was soooooo good; truly decadent. It was also really filling, and I made the mistake of talking while eating so I got full before I could finish. Yeah, I finished it (I don’t judge you!). This restaurant is known for their large portion sizes, so I guess I shouldn’t have been surprized. I had never been there before, but I’m sure I’ll go back (even without the Dr. Crabby Benedict – which would be a MUCH better name for this than “Special Benedict”.) 🙂

Cajun Spice Mix

Cajun Spice

I had to mix up some ‘Cajun spices’ when cooking up a shrimp recipe a while back, when I realized I no longer had my Cajun Sweetness spice mix. I quickly found a few recipes online, and took what I wanted from them.

After that debacle (yeah, I’m being dramatic), I figured I should make up a recipe that I can use when I need some Cajun spices. I did a little bit of “research” online, and came up with a mix that I thought would be a good mix of herbs and spices and add just enough heat.

This is a mild-medium blend, as it is meant more for flavour than heat. I generally like my spice blends to be mild, and I add in the right amount of heat to each dish.

Ingredients:

  • 1 Tbsp Paprika
  • 1 tsp sea salt
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 tsp black pepper
  • 1 tsp onion powder
  • 1 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp dried thyme

Preparation:

  1. If you only have dried garlic and onion pieces/granules, you should grind them to a powder first.
  2. Mix all of the ingredients together.
  3. Put in an airtight container, like a spice jar.

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?

S

Aviyal

Aviyal

Aviyal is a South Indian dish that is made up of thin strips of any crisp vegetables you can get your hands on. I found this in a cookbook, and it looked interesting, so I thought I would Google it to see if the recipe was anywhere near authentic. It’s safe to say that this recipe is a North Americanized version of the dish, as many of the ‘acceptable veggies’ that are often used in this dish are probably not easy to find. We go to Little India, here in Toronto, every once in a while, so I may just try to make Aviyal the ‘real’ way sometime this summer.

The one thing that is intact in this recipe is the inclusion of coconut. Coconut seems to be a primary ingredient in the sauce. I am a little bit skepical, however, as many comments about Aviyal is that it also has a lovely sour taste to it (sometimes introduced by tamarind). There was nothing sour about this dinner. I did take one ingredient out of the dish. After reading up on the dish, and the “rules” for making it, I really couldn’t bring myself to put in any tomato. The #1 rule is to use only vegetables that would remain crisp when cooked. That means you shouldn’t use tomato, eggplant, okra, or even regular onions (which the recipe also called for). Luckily, I had some green leek on hand, which gave a nice onion flavour without the mushy fried onion texture.

The dish was a hit! The veggies were still crisp and fresh tasting, and the sauce was light and coconutty. The sauce is actually a little hard to describe — the coconut meat, which makes up the bulk of the ‘sauce’ was really not saucey at all. Some coconut milk did come out of the coconut, however, and nicely mixed with the spices to make a yummy sauce.

This recipe is from the book “Simple Vegetarian Recipes” by Rosemary Wadey et al. (p.45)

About Aviyal:

Leeky Pasta

Leeky Pasta

This dish was inspired by something I had at a restaurant many years ago. I had never had rosemary or leeks in a pasta like this. While often considered ‘fall’ flavours, the combination of the woody rosemary and leeks with the fresh tomatoes and light olive oil sauce is really interesting. Topping it off is some crumbled chèvre that melts into the hot pasta. This dish is best when you can get fresh local tomatoes.

This is an olive oil sauce, the flavour of which is balanced with salt. This is more salt than I usually add to a dish, but it is actually important.

Since I usually make this dish from the top of my head, I decided to try to flesh out an actual recipe. I laugh at myself, because I actually bought too few tomatoes for the dish. Had I figured out a recipe years ago, I would have known how much to get. I also had a hard time guesstimating how much pasta to make. I found this neat page, on the Barilla website, to help you figure out how much pasta to cook (based on a 2oz serving size). In the end, I just estimated based on the amount in the package – I used half of a 900g package, so it’s just about a pound of dried pasta (or a 6-inch bunch, when you measure the circumference).

This recipe will feed 4-6.

Ingredients:

  • 1LB Fettuccine or Linguine
  • 3-5 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 Tbsp chopped shallot or onion
  • 1 Tbsp chopped fresh garlic (appx 1-2 cloves)
  • 1 Tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped (plus some for garnish, optional)
  • 2-3 cup chopped mushrooms
  • appx 3 tbsp white wine
  • 1 medium leek, green part separated from white, halved and thinly sliced crosswise
  • 1LB cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
  • appx 4 Tbsp chèvre (goat cheese)
  • 1 Tbsp sea salt
  • pepper, to taste

Preparation:

  1. Cook pasta in a large pot. Drain, toss with 1 Tbsp of olive oil, and keep hot (this is important).
  2. In the meantime, heat 1 Tbsp olive oil in a deep sauté pan, or large sauce pan. Sauté shallot/onion until translucent, for approximately 1 minute.
  3. Add garlic, rosemary, and mushrooms. Sauté until mushrooms reduce in size and begin to brown.
  4. Add the white part of the leek, and saute for another minute or two. Add a couple of tablespoons of the pasta cooking water, if it’s looking dry.
  5. Add the tomatoes, and about 1/2 of the green part of the leeks.
  6. Add the rest of the olive oil, the salt and stir.
  7. Add the pasta and toss.
  8. Serve hot, topping each plate with some crumbled chèvre, freshly ground black pepper, and some of the green leek.

April 2010 Challenge – No Repeats! (Week 3)

201004 Challenge - No Repeats

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!