Double Duty - Hard boiled eggs

Sometimes on sunday i will hard-boil a few eggs for the week since you can use them in a lot of ways, they are a good source of protein, and they travel pretty well. It took me a little while to really master hardboiling eggs- there are so many different opinions on how its done. This is how i do it, but if you have your own method go ahead. The only thing i think is a universal rule - use older eggs.

I put the eggs in a heavy pot, just covering them with cold water. I cover partially and bring to a rolling boil, then drop the temp to low, cover and leave on the stove for 30 seconds. I then remove it from the heat and sit covered for 15 minutes. Then i remove them and put them in an ice bath to stop the cooking process.

Once they were done, i made two different things with them. A curry egg salad sandwich and a spinach and hard-boiled egg for a work lunch. I only recently discovered i liked egg salad, as they only times i had tried it had been pure mayo and salt. Yuk. Plus the texture, it was so processed, i didn't even think it was eggs. I don't really follow the traditional egg salad rules, i make it a lot of different ways depending on what i have in the fridge or whether i'm serving it as a sandwich or on top of a salad.

Since i chopped carrots and green onion for the salad, i just diced them finer for the egg mixture. I usually use half as much yolk as whites. I start with just the yolk, mashing it with whatever i intend to use in the dressing; in this case, mayo, mustard, cracked pepper, curry powder and some red chili flakes. Once i had made a paste i added the chopped whites, mashing them just a little and i incorporated them. I then added the veggies for a bit of crunch.

Above:

Lunch is ready
Egg Salad Sandwich
Eggs in the ice bath
Yolk mixture
Ingredients for the egg salad

Dips for Football munching

In honour of the SuperBowl i thought i would write about a few of the things i make for snacking during the game or a party. They are both pretty easy to make and i always notice they get devoured. I try and make things a little on the healthy side, but what really determines that is not the dips themselves, but what you use to scoop them up. Baked chips and vegetables are a good way of making things a little healthier, but lets be honest, sometimes you just gotta dig in!

Once of my favorite things to make is guacamole, i make mine fresh, a little spicy and full of different ingredients. Generally i use a lot of lime juice, one per avocado depending on how juicy they are. This may seem like a lot, but since i add quite a few tomatoes i think it balances out. One of the things i do when adding tomatoes is using grape, or smaller ones as you don't want them too watery. I also put in red onions, jalapeno, chopped cilantro and lots of fresh pepper. Depending on the crowd i might add a few dashes of hot sauce.

Another tasty and healthy dip i like to make is a Tomato, Corn and Feta Salsa that really you could almost eat as a salad if you were inclined. This one i first had in Vancouver a number of years ago and have been making it ever since. The ingredients don't sound that good together, but this dip is addictive and simple, and as long as you eat it with something healthy, its probably not bad for you.

I use a can of corn (the low sodium kind), diced plum tomatoes (usually 3) - in this case you want them to be juicy as it makes even better. I then add red onions and jalapenos to taste - obviously if you don't like bite use these ingredients more sparingly, but i don't suggest to omit them all together, the contrast is good. The final, and surprise ingredient is feta cheese! I know this sounds a little weird, but use approximately 1/3 to 1/2 a cup of light feta - crumble and stir it in. This dip is actually better the second day. Serve with scoops, as they are better for getting all the goodness on the chip.

Above:

Dips with scoops
Guacamole ingredients chopped and ready
Tomato, corn feta ingredients
Tomato corn in scoops
Guac ingredients

Marlin Tacos on a Thursday Night

Eric, my guest chef from last week, and i have been making fish tacos for a while now. The originated apparently in Baja, and they are a lighter version of tacos and you tend to have them with cabbage. Often when i'm lazy i'll make them with already breaded frozen fish, haddock or halibut are nice options, but in honour of the worst month of them all - February, i thought i would get some fresh fish and make a light panko breading. When i was at the supermarket i saw some really nice Marlin steaks - i hadn't had Marlin in years, and knew it was a nice meaty white fish that would bake up well, so i grabbed a piece.

This is one of those meals where most of the work is actually in the chopping. As topping for the tacos i had cabbage (three types, but you can easily use the bagged kind) jalapenos, tomatoes, red onions, limes and i made a tomatillo sauce and guacamole. The tomatillo sauce was something i had read about, and after using canned tomatillos in the shrimp enchiladas i though that it might be a nice, fresh and tangy addition to the fish tacos. This was actually the most time consuming part of the whole process - i blended a tin of tomatillos with a hot yellow and two green serrano peppers and some cilantro. I cooked that for a few minutes, then added a cup of veggie stock. I cooked that for twenty minutes until it had reduced. I liked this one and thought it was a good addition to the marlin.

As for the fish, instead of using frozen filets (which is a great way to make these quickly) I cut the Marlin into larger than bite sized pieces, dredged them in flour, then egg mixture and finally lightly coated them in panko breading which i thought would lighten the meal up. I put them in a lightly oiled baking dish and baked them at 400 degrees for about 15 minutes, flipping them once. Marlin is one of those fishes you don't have too worry too much about overcooking; unlike a lot of other fishes it is pretty hearty. For the last ten minutes i added the corn tortillas wrapped in aluminum foil. Once they both were done we were ready to eat!

Above:

My first taco
Tomatillo sauce
Marlin
Marlin breaded and ready for the oven
The meal

Japanese Midweek Dinner

After my first success with soba noodles i was suitably inspired to try other recipes. As i had purchased them with the intention of doing a miso broth soba noodle dish, i thought i would go with that. Unfortunately i didn't have any fresh fish, and no time to defrost any of the basa, which i think might have been too delicate for the dish, i decided instead to make a vegetarian version using some asparagus and chopped green onions.

I again successfully made the noodles, and used some instant miso broth. I would in future purchase some of the real miso paste, but every time i have purchased it, i've tended to let it go to waste. In order to make the dish, i simply put the asparagus in with the noodles for the last few minutes, draining and rinsed them together in the hot water.

When i was rooting around in my freezer looking for some inspiration i found some frozen edamame that i had bought a while ago. I enjoy edamame and looking at the instructions - they were super easy, and i thought it would make a nice addition to my dinner. As i was cooking them, i remembered that i had bought them to make a edaname hummus, but i guess that will have to wait. Once they were cooked i topped them with sea salt and sesame oil. So good!

Above:

Edamame
Miso Soba Soup
My meal
Ingredients
So traditional

Asparagas and Panchetta App

I still had some of the panchetta left over from eric's carbonara. I put some of it in my frittata, but to be honest it was just lost in the flavours. I had recently purchased some really tasty and inexpensive asparagus, and remembered once an appetizer i had seen at a catering event, and thought i would try and recreate it.

I simply broke off the wooden ends of the asparagus, which is the best way to do it because it naturally breaks off where the tough ends finish off. I then wrapped each piece of asparagus with a piece of the panchetta, then put it into a baking dish. I drizzled it with some olive oil and finished it with salt and pepper. I cooked it at 350 degrees for about ten minutes. The tops of the asparagus were slightly brown and wilted, but the asparagus was still crisp. The panchetta was crisp, but not overdone.

I had almost added some balsamic which i really enjoy with asparagus, and is my usual marinade when i'm grilling or baking asparagus. I'm glad i didn't because once i tasted the final product i realized that balsamic would have overwhelmed the flavour.

This is actually a very nice appetizer, it looks really appealing, and you can simply prepare it ahead of time. I also think they would taste nice once they cooled off, but to be honest they didn't last long enough to cool down

Above:

Forgive the overindulgent photography, there weren't a lot of steps or ingredients so i didn't have a whole lot of steps to take pictures of.

Adventures with Starches

After being defeated by the brown basmati earlier, i kept opening my pantry and seeing the huge package that was pretty expensive by rice standards, i decided to give it another try. I had managed to salvage the pot i originally used, and thought i'd try and use it again! I re-read the instructions, carefully measured the portions... and really kept an eye on it. About twenty-five minutes into the supposed fifty minutes of cooking time it was burning to the bottom again!!!! I mean i'm not that good at cooking rice, but this was ridiculous!

I had been intending on making a dish inspired by one i used to love eating at Juice For Life called the Buddha, which was brown rice with a thai peanut sauce, and veggies on top. Now that i was a two-time rice failure i didn't know what i was going to do. I had some soba noodles that i had recently purchased with the intention of making a fish-miso broth-noodles type of thing. I figured i might as well try. (i can be a little stubborn)

Well it turns out that the instructions on the package were in Japanese. At this point i assumed the cooking gods were laughing at me, but they were not ready for my excellent googling skills. I found out that they were a lot like any noodles, the key was to rinse them after they had cooked. (in hot water if you were serving them hot, cold water if cold). I had been planning on having warm rice, but cold sounded like an interesting option, particularly with the veggies being cold. (tomatoes, avocados and green onion - my usual staples). The noodles cooked up brilliantly, and i felt a lot better about my abilities - perhaps its just me and rice!

I made a quick sauce out of soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, peanut butter and added Sriracha for heat. I dressed the cold noodles in the dressing and topped it with the veggies and a bit of chopped cilantro. A very tasty meal!

Above:

The finished product
Dining on noodles
Making the sauce
The soba noodles
Ingredients ready for whatever i don't burn!

Ginger and Scallion Basa Fish

Lately i've been seeing "basa fish" on menus, and really didn't have much idea of what kind of fish it was. I'm a little picky when it comes to fish, so i hadn't ordered it before, but recently i was online and saw a recipe for a ginger scallion fish dish. The sauce ingredients really appealed to me - soy, oyster sauce, corn starch, sugar, sesame oil and salt and pepper. I had never cooked with corn starch before, so i bought some.

It turns out, via my research that basa is a Vietnamese catfish. It actually reminded me a little of talapia, but it was a more meaty. I ended up going to my larger Loblaws thinking they would have it, but the teenaged boy behind the counter looked at me like i had seven heads! I did find some in the frozen section, and although it did involve me buying more fillets than i intended considering i didn't know if i'd like it, i bought it anyway.

This turned out to be a super easy very tasty recipe. You were supposed to serve it with rice, but in my tradition of ruining pots with burnt rice, i burned it. I had purchased some brown basmati, which takes 50 minutes to make - well somehow the rice was burnt to a crisp in 30 minutes. I don't know... Even riceless i would make this dish again!

Ginger and Scallion Basa Fish

10 oz basa fish cut into pieces
2 inch ginger, peeled and cut into thin slices
2 stalks scallion (they recommended 2 inch pieces, i would cut them smaller)
Oil

Marinate:

1 tsp corn starch
1 teasppon Shaoxing wine (i used sake)
Marinate the fish for at least 10 minutes

Sauce:

1/2 tbsp soy sauce
1/2 tbsp oyster sauce (i used vegetarian oyster sauce)
1/2 tsp corn starch
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp sesame oil
3-4 tbsp warm water
s&p (i skipped salt as the other ingredients are salty)

Directions

Heat up the wok with oil. When it is very hot add the ginger, stir-fry until aromatic and add the fish. Stir-fry the fish until half cooked, add the sauce and cook until done. Then add the scallion and toss to coat. Serve hot.

Above:

The fish dish
Cooking the fish in the sauce
Fish marinate (corn starch and sake)
Fish, scallions, garlic and sauce
Ingredients