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.

Apple Cinnamon Pancakes

This recipe is also courtesy of Elijah (Thanks, buddy!). It's from dairygoodness.ca and is pretty darn delicious!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

3 eggs

2 1/2 cups milk

1/4 cup butter, melted

2 tbsp pure maple syrup or packed brown sugar

1 1/2 cups shredded apple (about 2 large apples)

2 tbsp butter (for cooking)

Directions

1. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl.
2. In a separate bowl, whisk together wet ingredients (exluding the apples and the 2 tbsp of butter).
3. Add dry ingredients to wet ingredients.
4. Add apples and stir until combined.
5. Heat a nonstick skillet and cover pan with a thin layer of butter.
6. Scoop approximately 1/3 cup of batter per pancake.
7. Cook for 2 min, or until bubbles break on the surface and do not fill in.
8. Flip and cook for another 2 minutes or so.
9. Serve with maple syrup or whipped cream... or both!

Notes

I have a few notes about this recipe.

• First of all - it makes a lot of pancakes! This batch made about 12 or 14 pancakes with a 15cm diameter. You can freeze them though, so leftovers aren't a bad thing!
• I think the recipe could use more cinnamon. I grated an entire 3 inch stick of cinnamon and still felt they could have been spicier.
• Also, I didn't have pure maple syrup or brown sugar, so I used Aunt Jemima maple syrup. The pancakes still tasted great, but I bet the real stuff would've been even better!

Pesto Orzo

It's been a while since my last post... I haven't stopped cooking - I just didn't have any free time to blog about it! Now that my last paper has been handed in, I'll have plenty more time to post!

When I was in Italy last summer I ate a lot (and I mean, a lot!) of pesto, and I've been searching for a good recipe ever since. I tried one that I found via Google, and it just wasn't authentic enough. After complaining to my fellow food/linguistics nerd, Elijah, he sent me this one, from the show The Main with host chef Anthony Sedlak. It was perfect!

Ingredients

1 1/2 cups of orzo pasta

3 large garlic cloves

3 cups of loosely packed fresh basil leaves (You cannot make pesto with dried basil.)

1/2 cup pine nuts

1/2 cup of Parmigiana-Reggiano, grated

2/3 cup of extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Cook the orzo in a salted boiling water, according to the package directions. Rinse and drain.
2. Blend the garlic in a food processor until finely diced.
3. Add the basil, pine nuts, cheese, salt and pepper, and blend until finely chopped.
4. Add the olive oil bit by bit, blending until incorporated.
5. Toss with pasta and serve.

Like I said, this recipe was perfect and as delicious as "the real stuff" I ate in Italy last summer. I did have to make a few alterations to the recipe though:

• I couldn't find pine nuts anywhere! So I used walnuts and it tasted just as delicious.
• I used Grana Padrano cheese. It has the same taste as parm, but is a little cheaper.
• I also couldn't find orzo, so I used gemelli instead. Same diff!

Even with all those changes, it was still delicious! I will definitely be making this again!

Cabbage Roll Casserole (Cabbage rolls for the lazy)

I've mentioned a few times that my family is of Ukrainian heritage and that I do enjoy many delicious Ukrainian dishes, courtesy of my Great-Grandma Stella! Pierogies, borscht, cabbage rolls, sautéed sauerkraut... Delicious.

All of these are my favourites, but cabbage rolls are always a special treat because they are tedious to make! Making cabbage rolls involves many steps - blanching individual cabbage leaves without tearing them, making the ground beef and rice filling, filling the cabbage leaves with the filling and rolling them up securely without ripping the leaves, and baking it off in a bath of tomato sauce... A lot of steps.

So, as a kid, my mom used to make a cabbage role casserole that still involved all the delicious ingredients, but was made more like a lasagna with layers of the beef/rice filling alternating with cabbage and tomato sauce. I couldn't get my hands on my mom's recipe, so I googled and this recipe came up, so I gave it a shot.

Ingredients

1.5 lbs ground beef (I used extra lean)

2 medium onions, chopped

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 14oz can of plain tomato sauce

1 14oz can of water (used the tomato sauce one once you've emptied it into your pot!)

1/2 cup uncooked rice (NOT INSTANT!)

4 cups of cabbage, chopped or shredded

Sour cream (it's not Ukrainian if it doesn't have sour cream... lol)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Brown ground beef with onions and garlic. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Add tomato sauce and water.
4. Bring to a boil.
5. Add rice and stir.
6. Reduce to a simmer and cover for 20 minutes.
7. Grease a baking dish (I used a 9 x 9 casserole dish, but you could use a 9 x 13)
8. Put 1/2 of the chopped cabbage in a layer on the bottom of dish.
9. On top, layer on 1/2 of the beef/rice mixture.
10. Add another layer using the remaining cabbage.
11. Finish with the rest of the beef/rice mixture.
12. Cover and bake for 1 hour.
13. Serve with a dollop or two of sour cream.

Notes:

I had a few things I didn't like about this recipe... First of all, I was expecting it to taste like Grandma Stella's cabbage rolls and it didn't! Also, I would have reserved some tomato sauce to put on top. I like my cabbage rolls saucy!

Next time, I might even try not adding the tomato sauce to the beef/rice mixture, and adding it in as its own layer in the casserole... So it would be a layer of cabbage, rice/beef, tomato sauce, cabbage, rice/beef, tomato sauce. I just really didn't like having the tomato sauce mixed in with the rice.

So all in all, not a bad meal... But it still doesn't compare to the real thing!

Hot and Sour Soup!

I had a craving for some Asian-inspired cuisine and came across this recipe on cooks.com. Admittedly, I didn't have a lot of the ingredients on hand (for example, garlic chili sauce or sesame oil), which is sort of a downfall to this recipe. On the other hand, I do like to try my hand at Asian cooking every now and then, so I will end up using the sesame oil eventually.

Ingredients

4 cups chicken broth (or veggie!)

1/4 cup cooked, shredded chicken or pork

3 tbsp soy sauce (I use reduced-sodium)

1/2 cup mushroms, diced

1/2 tbsp garlic chili sauce

1/4 tsp ground white pepper

1/4 white vinegar

1/3 cup canned bamboo shoots, julienned

1/2 cup cubed tofu

2 tbsp cornstarch

2 tbsp cold water

1 egg, beaten

2 green onions, diced

1/2 tsp sesame oil

Directions

1. Bring broth to a simmer.
2. Add soy sauce, shredded meat, mushrooms, and garlic chili paste.
3. Simmer for 5 minutes
4. Add white pepper, white vinegar, bamboo shoots, and tofu.
5. Simmer for 5 minutes
6. While it's simmering, combine corn starch and cold water in a measuring cup. Mix until smooth.
7. Add cornstarch mixture to soup and stir well.
8. Simmer for 5 minutes until soup has thickened.
9. In a fine stream, slowly pour beaten egg into soup.
10. Stir several times.
11. Wait about 30 seconds (for egg to cook).
12. Add sesame oil and green onions. Stir.
13. Remove from heat and serve!

A few notes about this recipe:

• I didn't have any shredded meat, so I cooked up some ground turkey and used that instead. It tastes alright but I will probably leave it out next time.
• I also didn't have white pepper, so I used black. Same diff.
• I'm not sure I added the egg in properly. I was stirring as I was pouring the egg in, and I ended up with little flakes of egg everywhere. I think you're supposed to pour the egg in and then stir, so that the egg goes into little ribbons. Oh well. It still tastes alright!
• You could leave out the tofu if you preferred. I found it didn't really add anything extra, other than it kept with the Asian theme.
• The spice level was perfect for me, but you can adjust how much chili sauce you use depending on what you like.

All in all, this was a very yummy dish! It was very easy and quick, but it does require you to be in the kitchen the whole time (as opposed to other soups where you can just let them simmer away!). I will definitely make this again!

Farfalle with Turkey Sausage, Peas, and Mushrooms

My good friend, Scubes (aka Helen), came to visit yesterday and brought a favourite recipe with her! It's by Giada DiLaurentiis (Everday Italian, Giada at Home) and is a sauceless pasta made with turkey sausage, cremini mushrooms, frozen peas, and parmigian cheese.

Ingredients

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil

1lb ground turkey sausage, removed from casing

salt and pepper

10 oz cremini mushrooms, coarsely chopped

10 oz frozen peas, defrosted slightly

1 lb farfalle pasta (big bowties)

1/2 freshly grated parmigian

Directions

1. Put a pot of water onto boil.
2. While the water comes to a boil, heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large saute pan.
3. Season turkey meat with salt and pepper and add to pan.
4. Cook until brown, breaking up and large chunks with a wooden spoon.
5. Remove meat from pan and set aside.
6. Add 2 more tbsp olive oil into the pan and heat.
7. Add mushrooms and season with salt and pepper.
8. Saute util all the mushroom liquid has evaporated, about 5 minutes.
9. Add the peas and saute for a few more minutes.
10. Add the meat back to the pan and heat for 3 minutes.
11. While all this is happening, keep your eye on the pot of water. When it comes to a boil, add the pasta and cook al dente.
12. When pasta is ready, add to the pan with the meat and veggies and stir to combine.
13. Drizzle with remaining olive oil.
14. Turn off heat and add the cheese.
15. Stir well and serve!

A few notes....

I think we added too many peas! Also, we chopped some red bell pepper and added that into the mix, sauteing it while we cooked the mushrooms. Scubes also seasoned the turkey with some dried spices - thyme, sage, and chili flakes... just to add some more flavour!

Other than that, we didn't change the recipe much! It was delicious and made plenty... in fact, we ate this morning for lunch after spin class!

Also - wondering why we used sausages and then took them out of the casings anyway? Why wouldn't we just use ground turkey? Answer: Store bought sausages are already seasoned, whereas if you used ground turkey, you would have to season it yourself. The sausages are a nice little shortcut!