Spicy Mustard Cream Sauce

Recently on a friday night i had my friend Adam over for dinner in exchange for him helping me retrieve photos and files from my old laptop that had died. Since i think i've only cooked once or twice for him i was able to use some of my old favorites - caesar salad and bruschetta. I was going to be adventuresome, but i ended up making pasta, which is kinda comforting on a friday night.





I picked up a great baquette from The Junction Fromagarie - they stock Thuet bread and its right downstairs so its a great option when i want something fresh and amazing. I used the bread not only for the bruschetta, but also for the croutons- there is something about warm croutons in a caesar salad that i love!




For the veggies this was a little bit of a whatever was in the fridge kinda pasta dish - which i think is fine. This one had asparagus, cremini mushrooms, carrots, shallots and garlic.

I was talking to a friend from school who is from Guyana, and mentioning that i like hot peppers, so she brought me these ones to try. I thought that the pasta might be a great place - spicy cream sauces have a spot in my heart. Adam isn't the biggest fan of spice, so i had to add this as a subtle heat. Not sure what these little numbers are called, but they have some heat!

I did a mustard cream sauce - using some of the fancy Whiskey mustard that my parents brought back from England. It was grainy and had an excellent flavour. I also added some arugula and Parmesan that i had in the fridge, the arugula to add a little colour, and well Parmesan... it was a cream sauce!

Zucchini Pasta and facing your fears

One of the gentlemen i work with has a zucchini problem, as in every year he has a ton of zucchini. I personally love zucchini and add it to a lot of dishes for extra veg, that or grill it for sandwiches. The man who gave it to me makes a zucchini caserole, but i thought i would be a little more adventuresome.


A year or two ago i made an eggplant "pasta" that was featured by Alton Brown. The reason the pasta was in quotes is because instead of noodles you used thinly sliced eggplant instead of noodles. I really liked this recipe, so i thought i would try it with the zucchini.

What also made this recipe a little different was that i would have to use my feared mandolin. I have always been quite intimidated by this device, only using it a couple of times. The first time i made this dish i did it by hand, but i decided that this time i was going to be braver and try it out.

Turned out fine - i have all my fingers and skin, and it made a really small julienne cuts. I actually would have used a larger blade for this meal as i don't think it absorbed the sauce as well as my hand-cut pasta - but that could have just been the eggplant.

First you saute some garlic and red chili peppers in oilve oil, then adding the zucchini, toasing to coat, then a couple seeded tomatoes, heating those through. You then add cream and parmesan, letting the sauce thicken.
I served mine with a few old favorites - caesar salad and bruschetta.

Cherry Blossoms in High Park and Pizza

High Park has a beautiful array of Cherry Blossoms - its a very popular week in the park when they are out. Eric had the day off, and i was in meetings downtown, so we decided to meet up take advantage of a lovely late afternoon and head down to the park, take pictures and enjoy the blossoms.

After the park, we headed back to my place where i thought i would try my hand at making pizzas. I was initially intended on doing an Indian version of the pizzas on Nan bread with a butter chicken sauce (without the chicken of course), but they didn't have any Nan at the grocery store. Its these moments, when you already have a particular recipe in mind that are tough - suddenly a main ingredient is MIA and now you have to try something else.

I wasn't in the mood to make dough from scratch - i picked this meal because it was easy! Eventually poking around the bread section (which isn't that great at my No Frills) i found these whole wheat pita/flat bread things and decided to give them a try. They were actually pretty good - not too thick, but held up and crisped up on the edges.

Unfortunately i also had to rethink all of my toppings - i thought i would do a really simple one with small really ripe tomatoes, buffalo mozzarella, basil and roasted garlic, with a caesar salad on the side. Luckily the grocery store had all of these things, so i was able to complete this idea!

I began by roasting a whole head of garlic, and once it was done and cool enough to handle i removed the cloves and spread them on the bread. I then cut the tomatoes in half, and crushed them in my hand before laying them on the pizza. Since i wasn't using a tomato sauce, this will give the pizza some sauce like element. I then laid down the mozzarella and shredded basil.

I made two this way, and the third i decided to do something a little different and used the roasted garlic, mozzarella and pesto.

Pretty tasty little pizzas, and super easy too!

Above:

My dinner

Cooked pizzas

Toppings

Roasted Garlic

The table

Good Friday Dinner Part 3 - the sides

As i've already told you - Jarred and I really cheffed it up on Good Friday, and along with the burgers, fries, grilled veggies and Apricot tart i also made a caesar salad and a selection of dips (or for some burger toppings). I used to, many moons ago, work for a great caterer who always did an amazing bread and dip station that was so lovely and a total crowd pleaser. This was my inspiration for the dips. I made a guacamole, a bruschetta-esq topping, sauteed some finely diced mushrooms, onions and garlic and there was some hummus in the fridge

I had also gotten it into my head to make a caesar salad - of course it turned out that we didn't have a number of the usual ingredients - red wine vinegar, worschester sauce or anchovies - or a blender, so i had to do some improvising. I had always seen on cooking shows people making their salad dressings in mason jars and shaking them vigorously - i used to be a bartender so i used my skills from making martinis to blend the dressing. I also mixed white vinegar and balsamic to replae the red wine. I am the Macgiver of cooking!

I used the baguette that i purchased at Ma Maison, which was phenominal by the way, to make the crostini for the dips. The baguette was quite slender, so sliced them on the bias into small thin pieces. Unfortuantly, as i mentioned, the knives left something to be desired, so this was something of a challenge. Once cut, i lightly seasoned them and brushed them with olive oil and put them into the oven. They came out really well, and i will definitely be going back there to get more Baguettes.

And there is the final installment of the Good Friday Meal - told you it was epic!

Staycation - Eggplant Parmesan

The staycation continues, and i truly embraced the staying in idea and had eric over for dinner and made a version of eggplant parmesan i had tried once, but that one was deepfried. Although it was delicious, it wasn't very healthy, so i thought i would try and bake it this time

The ingredients

Salting the eggplant

Some people find eggplant bitter - and depending on how you cook it that can be true. I find that the smaller eggplant i used or asian eggplant don't suffer from that, but another remedy of this is salting the eggplant. Simply cut the eggplant as you want to serve them, then toss with salt and allow to sit in the colander and this will "sweat" out the sour liquid. Allow to sit for 25 minutes and then rinse them off and pat dry.

Breading the eggplant

So i've mentioned before about breading things, and i've basically used the same technique to do these eggplants. For the breading i mixed panko crumbs with parmesan which is a nice twist. First i dredged them in flour, then the beaten egg and finally the panko-parmesan.

Eggplant Out of the Oven

The ingredients ready for assembly

I made a light tomato sauce by sauteing some garlic, then adding a can of chopped low sodium tomatoes, chili peppers and pepper. I cooked it until it had thickened. You could also use jarred sauce. I just didn't have any.

Assembled

After putting a little bit of the sauce on the bottom of the pan I stacked the ingredients - eggplant, basil, tomato then mozzarella filling the pan. After i filled the pan i added more parmesan, the rest of the tomato sauce and some diced mozzarella. I covered the pan with foil and baked it until it was warm in the centre, then removed the foil and allowed the cheese to melt and brown a little.

The Meal

I served this meal with caesar salad, in which i used polenta crutons, lightly dusted with parmesan and baked and bruschetta.

Bruschetta on multi grain baguette

Basil

I would like to note that i used the basil from my hydroponic grower!

Roasted Beet Salad

Like many things i make, i no longer have the original recipe for this salad, but i make it all the time. I would probably be shocked to see how different it is, but as i make it now its tasty and a very attractive recipe. The other bonus of this one is that you can roast the beets in advance so that you just assemble it at the last minute.

Ingredients:

four to six medium beets (either with greens attached or loose)
One diced shallot
Half a cup of almond slivers
Half a package of plain goat cheese
Mixed greens (i like arugula and spinach for this one, but if the beets come with greens put some of them in)
Olive oil
Red wine vinegar

How to roast beets:

This part is easy, but messy and unless you want red hands i would suggest you use gloves. I trim the ends and peel them before i roast them. Some people peel them after they are roasted - i haven't noticed any real taste difference, so its up to you. Cut them in half - or at least try and make them a similar size depending on the beet so that they roast evenly. Put approximately three pieces (depending on size) in double foil and put in the oven at 450. The time varies, but usually around forty minutes, you should be able to pierce them with a fork easily.

Meanwhile, back on the stove top...

Heat two tbsp of olive oil until shimmering. Add the almond slivers, stirring so that they cook evenly. Keep an eye on them as they can burn easily. Once they are golden remove from heat. Drain off any excess oil and reserve for dressing.

Once beets are done remove from the oven and allow cool until you can handle them. Cut into bite sized pieces, add shallots and reserved almond oil. Stir in 1 tbsp of red wine vinegar and another tbsp of olive oil. Allow the mixture to cool. I like to add the vinegar while the beets are still warm, i think it penetrates better.

To make the salad:

Place your choice of greens on a platter. Drizzle the greens with extra dressing. Spoon on beets, top with toasted almonds and crumble goat cheese.

This salad really lasts, just keep any extra beets aside and you can eat them on their own.

Enjoy!

Above:

Trimmed, peeled raw beet
Getting ready for roasting
Fresh out the oven
Beet salad and a sami

Family favorites

When i was growing up we had a few recipes that really made the rounds of our dinners, some i still make, others i have for some reason abandoned. Growing up eating little/no meat a lot of our meals were from "hippie cookbooks" with had drawn illustrations. The real favorite was "Mushrooms on Toast". I made this for years after moving out, then finally one day looked at my mom's original recipe - i wasn't even close!!! No matter who's version of mushrooms on toast i make, its always a great one. (even recently my dad made it - which is a miracle in itself)

A simple toasted tomato sandwich with mayo and cracked pepper is always a treat in the summer. Another family classic is caesar salad. My mom had this hand-written recipe on lined paper that has been folded and re-folded so many times. I can't remember the story but its the recipe from a famous toronto restaurant. I've got the recipe pretty much memorized, and i my humble opinion it is one of the best you'll ever have. I've tried tweaking it, but i end up coming back to the original. Its got egg yoke and anchovies which i think is one of the best things about it.

Most people find eating cheese and crackers as a meal a bit odd, but not me or my family. Sitting around the dining table with a variety of cheeses, assorted crackers, some olives being one of the most satisfying meals we could have. When i was younger i remember having a friends over for dinner, we were having cheese and crackers, they leaned in to ask me what was for dinner. I laughed and told them to eat up!

When i'm feeling a little rich i will stop by a nice grocery store, or kensington market and pick up a few cheeses for dinner. My favs - extra old white cheddar, caraway gouda/havarti, swiss, smoked cheeses. Lately i have been experimenting with adding chutneys and other savory additions like branson pickle. The best thing about these dinners is they leave you with great grilled cheese ingredients! (especially with my mom's rhubarb chutney)

Photos

Toasted tomato sandwich
Caesar ingredients
Fancy caesar salad with poached egg on rosemary crostini
Hippie Cookbooks
Dinner of champions! aka cheese