Avocado BLT

This is a recipe by Roger Mooking. I've been watching a lot of his show Everyday Exotic, and this just sounded too delicious not to try.

Ingredients:

Herb Oil

1/4 cup olive oil

1 tbsp rosemary

1 tbsp thyme

1 clove garlic, chopped

salt and papper

Avocado BLT

12 slices bacon

8 slices bread

2 avocados, sliced into wedges

2 tomatoes

1 red leaf lettuce

salt and pepper

Directions:

Herb Oil

1. Place herbs, 2 tbsp of oil, and garlic into a mortar and pestle. Grind until it forms a paste. (You can use a small food processor as well).
2. Place in a bowl and add remaining oil.
3. Season with salt and pepper and stir.

Avocado BLT

1. Preheat oven to 350F, line a baking tray with tin foil and place a cooling rack on top.
2. Place bacon on cooling rack and cook in over until crisp, approximately 20 minutes, remove and set aside to cool.
3. Place bread slices on a baking tray and brush with herb oil. Place in oven until slightly toasted.
4. To assemble, place avocado slices on bread and mash with a fork. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Place 3 slices of tomato over the avocado. Season with salt and pepper and place 4 slices of bacon on top.
6. Add lettuce and top piece of bread and cut in half.

I made these sandwiches for me and my roomies one night, and they were delicious!! I didn't salt and pepper as much as the recipe called for, and I think that could've improved the sandwich. The herb spread was DELICIOUS.

Slow Cooker Ribs

It's been a while since I've written a blog. Life as a grad student gets a little busy! I haven't stopped trying out new recipes (though I will admit I don't get to do it as often as I'd like!). So, here's the first out of three recipes I've tried recently.

I borrowed this recipe from a number of different internet blogs, so I can't refer you to the original source! But here's the way I made these delicious, tender ribs.

Ingredients:

2 lbs pork spareribs

1 cup ketchup

1 tbsp Worcesterchire sauce

1 onion, finely chopped

3 cloves of garlic, minced

2 tbsp soy sauce

1 tbsp brown sugar

A dash or two of hot sauce

1 tbsp of whole grain mustard

*Optional: 1 tsp cornstarch and 1/4 cup cold water*

Directions:

1. Fill a large pot with enough water to cover the ribs.
2. Boil for 15 minutes (this boils some of the fat off the meat).
3. In another boil, mix all of the ingredients (except for the optional ingredients).
4. Take the ribs out of the boiling water and drip dry.
5. Place the ribs in a slow cooker and douse with the ketchup mixture.
6. Cook on low for 6-8 hours until the ribs are tender (From my experience, 6 hours is enough).
7. If the sauce is too thin, mix the cornstarch with 1/4 cup of cold water and stir into sauce until its thick enough.

Peanut Butter Cups

In August for my roomie's birthday, I made her homemade peanut butter cups. It's taken me this long to post the recipe, and I have no good excuse for a near two-month delay. So without further ado... Peanut Butter Cups.

The recipe itself comes from this blog. I made a few changes to the recipe (for convenience's sake, mostly!)

Ingredients

For the shells:

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

1 cup milk chocolate chips

2 tbsp natural smooth peanut butter

Pinch of salt

For the peanut butter filling:

3/4 cup natural peanut butter

1/3 cup packed brown sugar

Pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Line a muffin tin with paper liners (12)
2. In a double boiler, combine chocolate, 2 tbsp of peanut butter and a pinch of salt. Stir together until melted.
3. Spoon a teaspoon or so of chocolate into each muffin liner. Shake the tin to even out the chocolate.
4. Let set.
5. In the meantime, stir the peanut butter, with the 1/3 cup of brown sugar and some salt together.
6. Once the first layer is set, spoon 1 tbsp of peanut butter mixture into the muffin liners.
7. Put in freezer until peanut butter is hardened.
8. Spoon 1 tsbp of chocolate mixture on top. Shake the tin side-to-side to even out the layer of chocolate.
9. Let set... and enjoy!!

Long time no cook!

Hello to my small collection of followers,

It's been a while since I've written a post... My sincerest apologies. The summer became very busy and quickly came and went, and now here I am starting a new school year. I haven't stopped cooking - in fact I've been perfecting a few of the recipes I've already posted.

Currently, I'm on the hunt for some new recipes and hope to be blogging again soon. In the mean time, if you have any cool recipes I should try - please share!

Pizza Napolitana!

I'm currently re-reading 'Eat, Pray, Love' by Elizabeth Gilbert. It's a true narrative about a woman who leaves her life behind and spends a year travelling - 4 months in Italy (where she learns to eat) 4 months in India (where she learns to pray), and 4 months in Indonesia (where she learns to love).

In her writings about Italy, the author goes into extensive detail on the delicious-ness of authentic pizza from Naples - aka pizza napolitana! Naturally, I started craving it. So, here I go! An attempt to make real, authentic, pizza napolitana!

I googled and found a number of recipes, which I combined to make my own (based on what ingredients and kitchen tools I had access to!).

The Crust

Ingredients

• 1/2 packet of instant yeast (about 1 1/4 tsp)
• 1/2 cup warm water
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 3/4 cups of all-purpose flour

Directions

1. In a metal bowl, combine yeast and water. Stir and let sit for 5 minutes.
2. Add salt and stir.
3. Add olive oil and flour. Stir with a wooden spoon until dough is rolled into a ball.
4. Knead dough on a lightly floured wooden surface for about 8 minutes. (One recipe didn't call for kneading, another called for 12 minutes of it... So I compromised!)
5. Once dough is smooth, place in a lightly oiled metal bowl and cover with a clean dish cloth. Let sit for 2 hours in a warm spot, until doubled in size.
6. Roll dough into a thin crust. You can use your hands or a rolling pin.
7. Place on a pizza pan or stone. I don't have either, so I flipped a cookie tray upside-down (to get a flat surface with no lips or sides) and covered it with tin foil.

Sauce

Ingredients

• 1/2 can of San Marzano tomatoes (Yes, that's it!)

Directions

1. Hand mash the tomatoes. (That's all there is to it!)

Toppings

Ingredients

• 5-10 fresh basil leaves. You can leave them whole or julienne them.
• a few tbsp olive oil
• fresh mozzarella, sliced into disks

Directions for putting it all together!

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees.
2. Make indentations over the centre portions of the crust, leaving a border around the outside. The border should be a bit higher than the rest of the pizza.
3. Pour some olive oil onto the crust and spread evenly, avoiding the border.
4. Even distribute the crushed tomatoes across the crust.
5. Lay the disks of mozzarella evenly across the pizza.
6. Lay the basil leaves over the top, and sprinkle with olive oil.
7. Season with salt and pepper.
8. Bake until the crust is slightly charred and the cheese is dappled brown.
9. Let cool slightly, cut, and serve!

Notes

Delicious and simple. Nothing else to say! :)

Artichokes and Dip

This recipe was taken from a Facebook page I belong to called 'What's Cooking'. I saw it and thought, why not? I've never cooked fresh artichokes before - in fact, I've only ever tasted canned artichokes!

It was an interesting experience... At first I wasn't really sure how to eat them, but I'd seen people on TV do it so I just went with that. To eat an artichoke leaf, you don't actually put the whole leaf in your mouth. You just kind of scrape the leave along your teeth to get the "meat" off, and then discard the leaf. It makes for a need finger food!

Anyway... The recipe!

Ingredients

4 fresh artichokes

1 lemon

2-3 tsp garlic powder.

Directions

1. Wash the artichokes thoroughly before use. Snap off the stems and the leaves closest to the stem. Then, using scissors, snip off the spiky bits at the top of each leaf.
2. Rub each artichoke with lemon juice and sprinkle with pepper and garlic powder.
3. In a sauce pan, put about 2-3 inches of water in the bottom and set the artichokes in.
4. Bring to a boil, then cover, reduce heat, and simmer for about 40-50 minutes. They're ready when you can pull a leaf off without issue.
5. Drain artichokes and cool. Then, lightly separate inner leaves and scoop out "the choke". (Sidenote: I have no idea what this is. I guess I need to brush up on my artichoke anatomy. I left the "chokes" in. )
6. Serve with garlic dip (recipe to follow!).

Garlic Dip

This recipe was paired with the artichoke recipe and makes a yummy semi-homemade dip.

Ingredients

2 tbsp red wine vinegar

2 tbsp water

2 tbsp sugar

2 cloves of garlic, minced

3 tbsp of onion, minced

1 cup Ranch dressing

Directions

1. In a small sauce pan, add vinegar, water, sugar, garlic and onions and stir well.
2. Simmer for 6 minutes and pour into a bowl.
3. Refrigerate for 15-20 minutes to cool.
4. Stir in ranch dressing.

This was a very simple recipe for a yummy dip! It keeps in the fridge for about a week.

Notes

Well... Not much to say here. My first artichoke experience was pretty interesting... I still have to figure out what the "choke" is, but whatever... Everything else tasted good!

Spicy Thai Chicken Wings

For a BBQ my friends hosted last week, I decided to bring chicken wings... But I didn't want to bring the classic BBQ flavoured wings, so I set out on a Google mission to find some interesting twists on the classic.

I came across this one from This Food, That Wine. It's a recipe for some Spicy Thai wings that included (mostly) things that I had around the house, so I didn't have to go out to buy anything.

Ingredients

20 fresh chicken wings

1 tsp cracked black pepper

2 tsp ginger, freshly grated (tip: keep your ginger root in the freezer! It keeps well and makes it so easy to grate!)

1 tbsp garlic, freshly minced (about 2 cloves)

1 tbsp palm sugar (I didn't have this, so I used brown sugar instead)

1 tbsp soy sauce

2 tbsp veggie oil

2 tbsp lime juice

1-2 tbsp chili garlic sauce (to taste!)

Directions

1. Rinse chicken wings well and pat dry. Put in a large bowl.
2. In another bowl or measuring cup, mix the rest of the ingredients until well-combined.
3. Pour over wings and toss to coat.
4. Cover bowl and put in the fridge to marinate for at least two hours.
5. Spread chicken wings on a baking sheet lined with tin foil (for easy clean-up).
6. Bake in a 400 degree oven for about 20 minutes, turning once.

Notes

• These wings don't turn out to be very saucy. I know I said I wanted to get away from the classic wing recipes... but I was talking about in flavour! I love saucy chicken wings! So I think next time I might add some ketchup to the mix and see what that does for the sauciness factor.
• After the wings had cooked for 20 min, I found that they weren't crispy enough so I broiled them for a few minutes on each side.
• The taste was pretty good... Not sure what I would change about it next time, but I think I would still play around with the flavours.