Borscht!

My family a few generations back was Ukrainian, and they moved to the Canadian Prairies in the early 1900s (where many Eastern Europeans settled!) Some of the culture has been passed on, and while unfortunately for me as a linguist none of that culture involved language, I am very thankful that most of that culture involved FOOD!

I've already posted my grandmother's recipe for pierogies, so here's a variation on her borscht (beet stew!!) Admittedly, Rob and I winged it without a recipe or without talking to Grandma Stella, so I was going on instinct alone... but it turned out well!

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter

1 large white onion, sliced and chopped (we made ours into half-rings)

1 stalk of celery, chopped

6 cups of broth (veggie, chicken, beef, whatever!)

4 medium potatoes, peeled and cubed

10 medium beets, peeled and cubed

1/2 can of kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1/4 head of cabbage, shredded

1 tbsp of dill, chopped

salt and pepper

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat butter on medium heat and add onions and celery. Season with salt and pepper, and cook on medium-low heat until onions are transparent.
2. Add in the broth, potatoes, beets, and beans. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil.
3. Reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes or so.
4. Add in cabbage and dill.
5. Simmer for another 30-40 minutes. Just taste it along the way until you think the taste is right.
6. Serve with a dollop of sour cream.

I'm not sure I would change much about this recipe. Carrots might be a welcome addition, if sauteed with the onion and celery at the beginning. Other than that, I really enjoyed the recipe! And so did Rob. hahaha.

The Perfect Peanut Pad Thai

Rob went away for the weekend, so I spent my time entertaining myself... I knit 2 neck cowls, an iPod sleeve, and am halfway through a case for my laptop cords. I also made my own Chai tea syrup, and my most recent triumph is the perfect Pad Thai.

There's a restaurant in Waterloo called Rain Tree Cafe, and I am obsessed (trust me, it's the only appropriate word for my love of this dish) with their Peanut Pad Thai. The sauce is spicy, creamy, peanut-y, and has this magic way of getting more delicious the more you eat it. You really should try it. Check out their website: http://www.raintreecafe.ca/index.html .

Ever since the first day I tasted it, I have been on a quest to find a comparable dish. I've tried about 10 different recipes and ordered it in at least that many restaurants, but to no avail. Nothing could be done to replicate the perfect deliciousity (I know it's not a word, but I'm a linguist and we're pretty much trained to make up new words!) of Rain Tree Cafe's Stirfry Pad Thai.

Until now. (cue triumphant music)

I was trying to think of what to make for dinner. We had bok choy in the fridge that needed to be used up. What had bok choy in it? RAIN TREE'S PAD THAI, that's what! But to go with it, I needed to make the perfect simple peanut sauce with what we had in the fridge. So, I Googled "simple peanut sauce" and it took me to this website and voila! I had almost all of those ingredients.

Here's the recipe the way that I cooked it.

Ingredients

1/2 cup hot water

1/3 cup peanut butter

2 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp white wine vinegar

1/2 tsp salt (I didn't have any soya sauce, or else I would have used that, as per the recipe)

1 heaping tbsp diced garlic (from a jar)

1 heaping tbsp diced ginger (from a jar)

1/2 tsp of hot sauce

Directions

1. Mix all of the ingredients together.
2. Pour over stir-fried vegetables and/or noodles.
3. Prepare yourself to enjoy the simplest, most delicious sauce you have ever eaten.
4. Eat it.

I will need to do some tweaking - maybe more hot sauce, more ginger... Or maybe trying fresh ginger and fresh garlic. But this is pretty damn close to the deliciousness that they serve over at Rain Tree.

Try it out and let me know how you enjoy it!!

DIY Chai Tea Latte

So, for those of you who know me well, you can easily name my favourite coffee drink- Non-Fat Chai Latte. Starbucks sells a concentrated Chai syrup that you can buy, so that you can make your own Chai Lattes at home (just add equal parts Chai syrup and milk, warm, and serve!) I recently bought this syrup, and while I enjoyed having a delicious Chai Latte at home, I'm not totally thrilled about paying nearly $9 for a 1 litre carton.

So I thought about how I would make my own Chai syrup. Having made my own Chai tea before, I knew it couldn't be too hard. So I Googled it (and those who know me well also know that I Google often!), and sure enough, it just required one extra step!

So here's my recipe for a delicious Chai Tea, and how to make it into a latte!

Ingredients

3 cups cold water

4 black tea bags (pick your favourite - I use orange pekoe)

3 cinnamon sticks

1 tsp ground ginger

4 whole cloves

4 cardamom pods

2/3 cup sugar (brown or white, whatever you have!)

milk (to make the latte)

Directions

1. In a small pot, add water, tea bags, cinnamon, and ginger to the pot.
2. Put the cardamom and cloves into a tea ball, and add the tea ball to the pot. If you don't have a tea ball, you can drop the spices into the pot. The tea ball is a personal preference. It stops little bits of the cloves and cardamom pods from getting into the tea mixture.
3. Bring the water and spices to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer. If you're making tea, remove the pot from heat, strain tea bags and spices, and serve once tea reaches desired strength. If you're making the latte, simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Remove tea bags, spices, and tea ball. Stir in the sugar.
5. Add syrup to milk (1/3 syrup to 2/3 milk; or 1/2 and 1/2). Refrigerate remaining syrup in an airtight container for about a month.

Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie

This blog is all about trial and error. Often the first time I try a recipe, it just doesn't turn out the way I want it to. So I document it on this blog, with my notes and suggestions. This is not only for you to be able to learn from my mistakes, but for myself as well. So the next time I try the recipe, I can change it until it's perfected.

For example, Rob and I have perfected the Squash and Sage Pasta recipe.

Now we've just tried one for Vegetarian Shepherd's Pie, and it was far from perfect... but that's what cooking is all about, and I look forward to tweaking the recipe the next time I try it!!

Ingredients

1 can of beans (kidney or black beans or whatever you'd like!)

1/2 can of tomato paste

1/3 cup of vegetable broth

1 tbsp diced garlic

1 cup of corn niblets (Rob and I used fresh corn that we had recently frozen!)

10-12 small potatoes

salt and pepper

grated cheese (optional)

chopped green onion (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat your oven to 375 degrees.
2. Boil and mash your potatoes using your favourite recipe. Some people add butter, some add milk, and some add both. Mash 'em however you prefer!
3. Meanwhile, drain and rinse your beans. Put the beans, garlic, tomato paste, and broth into a saucepan. Season with salt and pepper and stir until paste and broth are blended.
4. Simmer the bean mixture until it thickens.
5. Spread the bean mixture into a square baking dish. Rob and I used a 9x9 pyrex baking dish.
6. Spread the corn niblets on top of the bean mixture.
7. Top with the mashed potatoes. If you opted for the grated cheese and green onion, sprinkle these on the top of the pie.
8. Bake for about 20 minutes. Broil for a minute or two at the end to brown the top.
9. Cool for a few minutes before serving.

Notes

This recipe wasn't as successful as we would've liked... Here's what we thought:

• The bean mixture was a little bland. Be sure to season it well. Next time, we will add some sauteed onions and possibly some chili powder. Also, maybe use some garlic powder instead of fresh diced garlic. Rob suggests preparing the bottom layer as if it was chili.
• I would add more than corn to the middle layer. Maybe some peas and carrots to add flavour.
• The cheese and onion mixture on top needed to be browned in order to have an impact. When we prepared it, the cheese was simply melted and bubbly which didn't add much to the overall flavour. Next time, I would either make sure the cheese was lightly browned and slightly crispy or I would leave it out altogether.

Even after all those suggestions, I think this recipe has potential to be a family favourite. It's all about experimenting with the seasonings and ingredients to make it your own.