Side Dish « YouCook.ca – bringing recipes into your home.

Side Dish

Appetizer / Chef / Cheryl Gonsalves / Culture / Recipe / Side Dish / Trinidadian / Vegetarian — View Comments
25
Jul 11

Trinidadian-style Fried Plantains

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Fried Plantains

This post is long overdue but here goes! Plantains are a fruit that look very much like what most of us refer to as a banana. They are actually in the same family, but plantains generally are more starchy and less sweet than bananas. For that reason, they are generally not eaten raw, but are great in cooked dishes. Today we’ll show you a simple way to enjoy plantains, as taught to us by Cheryl Gonsalves, who grew up in Trinidad and and was sweet to invite us to her home to share her love of food with us!

Summary

Preparation Time: 5 min
Total Time: 15 min
Servings: 5 portions
Meal type: Appetizer

Ingredients

5 plantains, ripe;
salt
oil

Instructions

1. Peel the plantains. The easiest way is to chop off both ends, cut a slit from one end to the other, and roll the plantain out of the skin.

Cut the ends
Cut a slit from end to end
Roll out the plantain
2. Cut the plantains into 1/2″ slices, on a slight diagonal”

Slice the plantains
Sliced plantains
3. Sprinkle a little bit of salt over all the slices to bring out the flavour.
Sprinkle salt
4. Heat oil at ??? high heat in a medium-depth frying pan, making sure that you have enough oil to prevent the plantains from sitting on the bottom. Add the slices carefully, one by one, to prevent any splashing!
Fry the plantains
Plantains in the pan
5. Flip them gently when they have turned a nice golden brown colour.
Flip the slices
6. When they have become golden brown on both sides, remove from the oil and set them in a bowl lined with paper towel to remove the excess oil.
Fried plantains in paper towel

Results

Fried plantains

It took very little prep work and it’s hard to resist stealing bites of finished ones while frying the whole batch up! Hope you enjoy this wonderful appetizer as much as we did.

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Appetizer / Bal Arneson / Chef / Cookbook / Indian / Ingredient / Recipe / Side Dish / Vegetarian — View Comments
23
Mar 11

Avocado and Chickpea Salad recipe from the Spice Goddess

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Avocado and Chickpea salad

As promised in our recent interview post, we’re sharing with you a recipe from Bal’s Quick & Healthy Indian cookbook by the Spice Goddess, Bal Arneson. With just over one hundred recipes in the book, it was hard to settle on just one, but we were drawn to the Avocado and Chickpea Salad.

This salad is a very interesting alternative to guacamole. The chickpeas, spanish paprika really work well with the avocado. If you are a fan of guacamole, you’ll love this recipe!

Summary

Preparation Time: 20min
Total Time: 30 min
Servings: 4 portions
Meal type: Salad
Cost: $5.25

Ingredients

avocado and chickpea salad ingredients

Dressing

2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tbsp finely chopped ginger
1/2 tsp ground cardamom; we used whole cardamom and removed the seeds from the pods to crush
1/4 tsp ground cumin
1/8 tsp Spanish paprika
1/8 tsp salt

Salad

4 avocados, cubed (save the avocado shells if you plan to serve in it); $4
14 oz can chickpeas, drained and rinsed; $1
1/4 cup green onion , finely chopped; $0.25

Instructions

1. To make the dressing, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, ginger, cardamom, cumin, paprika, and salt in a small bowl and mix well.
We actually ended up doubling the amount of cumin, paprika, and cardamom because we found it was quite light and wanted to have a bit more of a kick. We suggest following the original recipe and tweaking it to suit your own taste buds!

2. Combine the avocados, chickpeas, and green onion in a large bowl and toss gently. Just before serving, pour the dressing over the salad and toss to thoroughly coat the ingredients.

avocado and chickpea salad ingredients

3. Serve in an avocado shell.

Results

The YouCook team loved this dish! The recipe was straightforward, simple and we put it together in under half an hour from start to finish. It was fresh and had great texture from both the avocado and chick peas, while the spices were a welcome addition.

We found that adding some chili flakes and salt really enhanced the flavours. We will definitely try this with tomato and onion next time since this salad really reminded us of guacamole. We were inspired by the pictures in Bal’s cookbook to serve this salad inside the avocado shell as well. Not only did it look nice, it was a perfect serving size and meant less dishes to be washed.

Indian Guacamole

Rating: 5.0/5 (4 votes cast)

Beef / Recipe / Side Dish / Vancouver Dine Out — View Comments
26
Apr 10

Thai House: Yum Nua

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Veggies

We found some recipes on the Thai House website. There are many restaurants in Vancouver under the Thai House family and many of them are participating in Vancouver Dine Out this week.

Many of the recipes call for getting curry from Thai House which is a major time saver! We decided to try one that didn’t require curry. Here’s a beef salad recipe that was quick and easy to make. Thai House, thanks so much for posting some great recipes on your website.

Summary

Preparation Time: 15 mins (cutting veggies)
Cook Time: 15 mins (preparing the sirloin steak)
Servings: 2 as a full meal, 4 if served as a side
Meal type: salad
Grocery Cost: $10.50

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

Veggies

1 lb of top sirloin beef ($6.00; I bought slightly more than 1 lb)
1/4 head of lettuce ($0.30)
1/2 cucumber ($0.60)
1/2 onion ($0.50)
2 whole tomatoes ($1.40)
1/2 shallot ($1.00)
3 fresh red chilli peppers ($0.20)
5 mint leaves ($0.10)
1/4 cup fresh cilantro ($0.20)
3 limes ($2.00)
1 tbs white or palm sugar (I used brown sugar because that’s what I had in my cupboard)
4 tbs fish sauce
1 tsp light soy sauce

Instructions

1. Barbeque or grill the beef. The method I always use for making steaks is to pan-fry at high heat on a cast-iron skillet to get the outside browned and then stick the entire pan in the oven at 500F to cook the inside.

Pan-frying the steak

2. Cut the beef into thin almost bite-size pieces.
Slice the sirloin steak

3. Thinly slice the red chilli peppers. I remove most of the seeds, but you can leave them in if you want.
4. Wash all vegetables and then slice them into bite-size pieces.
5. Add all the vegetables into a mixing bowl along with the sliced steak.
6.In a separate small bowl, mix the fish sauce, soy sauce, and sugar. Add to the mixing bowl.
7.Cut the 3 limes in half and then hand squeeze the juice over the salad. I squeezed the juice in with the other sauce ingredients in the small bowl so I could taste it and adjust accordingly. It turns out that I only needed 1 decent-size lime and it was enough to balance out the saltiness of the fish sauce and soy sauce. I think 3 would have been too much for me, so you can experiment and see how much lime juice and sugar you need to balance everything out.
Making the dressing
8.Toss everything together and enjoy!
Combine

Results

Yum Nua

WOW, I was kind of surprised how easy it was to make this salad! I’ve ordered it before at two different thai restaurants in Victoria and Vancouver and enjoyed the combination of flavours. I think the mint and cilantro are really important in giving this dish it’s distinct taste. Although the recipe only asks for 5 mint leaves, I actually added more like 12 and it was good. I think 5 would have been too little for this much salad. I may have also added a bit more cilantro than called for! As a variation, I actually put half of the chopped red onion and shallot on the skillet for a bit as well to cut down on the sharp red onion and shallot flavour, which I find overpowering sometimes.

This salad is easy to make and a really good switch from your regular everyday salad. I would definitely make this again!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Recipe / Restaurant / Side Dish — View Comments
14
Apr 10

Red Fish Blue Fish Spicy Spotted Prawn Mayo

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Go Fish is definitely my favourite fish and chips stand in Vancouver. Especially now that it’s sunny and biking the seawall has become a part of my regular routine – it is impossible to pass Go Fish without wanting to stop. Luckily, the long lineups deter me from stopping by everyday.

Anyway, during my trip to Victoria, Irene took me to Go Fish’s sister restaurant – Red Fish Blue Fish, which is equally awesome and has more items on the menu like the cod dog and fish poutine!

They operate out of a shipping container, complete with a green roof. Their space is a little bigger than Go Fish and provides more space to sit and enjoy your meal on the pier.
A local fisherman provides most of their fish and they are a member of Ocean Wise.
Fish Stand
The salmon fish and chips and tuna tacones are my favourite things to order on the menu. I was so excited to hear that Irene got the recipe for Red Fish Blue Fish tuna tacones for us!! And, more importantly, I was excited to re-create their Spicy Spot Prawn Mayo!!

There were live spotted prawns at the grocery store so I got 6 of them, which was half a pound. They didn’t have any fresh albacore tuna at the seafood counter though, so I bought cod instead. Unfortunately, this means that instead of making the Tuna Tacones, we just made our own version of fish tacos. We’ll still share the recipe for the Spicy Spot Prawn Mayo!

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 mins (peeling shrimp)
Cook Time: 5 mins (flash fry and blending)
Servings: 1 small mayonnaise jar
Meal type: Sauce
Grocery Cost: $7.26

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

1/2 pound of spotted prawns $4.77 (6 medium sized)
1/2 ounce canola oil
1 1/2 ounce Sriracha hot sauce
1 ounce lime juice
1 ounce Mirin (I used Rice Vinegar)
1 tsp sea salt and pepper mix
2 cups mayonnaise $2.49 (I used the whole small jar of mayonnaise)

Instructions

1. Peel prawns.
2. Heat pan on high heat with canola oil.
3. Flash sear the prawns – wait until pan and oil is very hot, then put prawns in for only a few seconds (about 5) per side.
4. Original instructions say to add all ingredients, except mayonnaise, to deglaze the pan, but I had nothing stuck in my pan to deglaze.
5. Put all ingredients, except the mayonnaise, into a food processor and thoroughly process it.

6. Push the contents through a china cap or fine sieve ( I skipped this step ).
7. Vigorously whip mixture into mayonnaise. I just used a whisk, but if you have an immersion blender that would be even better.
Whip

Variations

Maybe next time I’ll try to make my own mayonnaise while I’m at it. There are other mayo combinations at Go Fish and Red Fish Blue Fish, such as the Wasabi Mayo, that would be fun to try.

Results

Spicy Spotted Prawn Mayo
DELICIOUS! Since I love the Tuna Tacones so much, I was delighted to make this sauce. I made about 20 rolls and still have plenty of mayo to spare. I have no idea how long it will last in the Fridge, but I gave it away so that I could experiment with other mayonnaise flavours!

Here are ideas of how to use the Spicy Spot Prawn Mayo:
Our version of the Fish Taco
Fish Taco Viet Our Vietnamese version of the Fish Taco
Spicy Pacific Fish Poutine at Red Fish Blue Fish

Rating: 5.0/5 (1 vote cast)

Main / Recipe / Restaurant / Side Dish / Vikram Vij — View Comments
2
Apr 10

Vij’s Lamb Popsicles

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

YouCook recently visited Vij’s in Vancouver and tried the legendary Vij’s Lamb Popsicles. We got the recipe for Vij’s Lamb Popsicles and cooked it in our Test Kitchen in Toronto. These lamb popsicles have been so popular that it continues to stay on the menu year after year. Below is the photo from one of multiple Lamb Popsicle dishes that we ordered during our visit. Tell us how you plate it!

I think I’ve invented the next big home cooking trend! Do you find yourself constantly rushed for time? Wish you could prepare a fresh meal after a long day of work but just don’t have the time? Need a new culinary challenge? Well now there’s…car cooking!!

Vij’s recipe calls for two to four hours of marinating the lamb but my schedule didn’t allow me to get home to marinate the meat in time for dinner. So I rushed to the grocery store on my way to the gym, picked up the lamb and marinade ingredients, combined the two (I can’t give you the details on when and how, as some traffic laws may or may not have been broken in the process) and let the meat chill out in the car while I worked up an appetite at the gym. After an hour of aerobics class plus driving time to get home, the meat was just about ready to be grilled on the bbq.

The end result was absolutely delicious. I love melt-in-your-mouth rack of lamb and the mustard goes great with the flavour of the lamb. The cream sauce is like nothing I’ve ever tasted before – I definitely see why this is a favourite dish at Vij’s, even if they aren’t using my car cooking method. Just keep in mind to reserve this new cooking trend for cool spring evenings instead of hot summer days. Unless you’re frying eggs, maybe?

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 mins hands on plus 2-4 hours sitting time
Cook Time: 10 mins
Servings: 6 mains, or more for appetizers
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery Cost: $76.30

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

4 pounds French-cut racks of lamb, in chops ($60)
1/2 cup sweet white wine ($4)
1/4 cup grainy yellow mustard ($2.60)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper

Curry Sauce:

4 cups whipping cream ($6.70)
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon paprika
1/2 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon dried green fenugreek leaves ($2)
1/4 cup lemon juice
3 to 4 tablespoons canola oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped garlic ($1)
1 teaspoon turmeric

A couple of things to note with the ingredients:

In the interest of not spending $60 on lamb, I used 2 lbs and mixed lamb rack with loin chops. The lamb racks tasted better, but the loins were much cheaper (approx. $10 per lb). I fed 4 people with the 2 lbs of mixed lamb.
This was the first time I’ve used fenugreek to cook with. Both the seeds and leaves are used in Indian cooking, but have different flavours. I couldn’t find fenugreek in the large grocery chains, so I picked it up from a Pakistani store – they call it methi.

Directions

Lamb
Combine wine, mustard, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Add lamb and coat well with the marinade. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2 to 4 hours.

Sauce
1. In a large bowl, combine cream, salt, paprika, cayenne, fenugreek leaves and lemon juice.
I used the whole tablespoon of salt and I found the sauce a bit salty. A teaspoon or so would be better – or salt to taste.
2. Heat 3 to 4 tablespoons oil in a medium pot on medium heat and saute garlic until golden.
3. Stir in turmeric and cook for 1 minute.

4. Stir in the cream mixture and cook on low to medium heat for about 5 minutes, or until it is gently boiling.

To finish off
Preheat a stove-top cast iron grill or barbecue to high heat. Place lamb on the grill and cook for 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Serving
Serve popsicles piping hot off the grill. Depending on their size, place 4 to 5 lamb popsicles on each plate. Pour the cream curry over the meat or ladle it into a small bowl and use it as a dipping sauce for the popsicles.
I enjoy putting rice into the cream curry sauce and mixing it up after the lamb popsicles are gone.

Results

Variations

I am used to thicker curry sauces so I asked a friend how Indian cream curries are usually made. He told me his mom uses thick yogurt, like Balkan style yogurt except hers is home made, to make thick creamy curries. Traditionally it’s a mix of cream and yogurt but to make it lower in fat his mom uses all yogurt. So expect this curry sauce to be runny but delicious!

Also as I mentioned I found the sauce a bit salty, especially because I reduced it a bit in an attempt to thicken it. Next time I would use less salt, especially since it can always be added at the end.

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Cookbook / Michael Smith / Recipe / Side Dish / Special Event — View Comments
25
Jan 10

Chef at Home with Michael Smith::Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

At one of our recent YouCook meetings, we were talking about giving back to the community. Thu had volunteered at a food bank in Vancouver and was inspired by the people there. Elaine told us about Cook for the Cure, where if you host a dinner through their site, KitchenAid will donate $50 in addition to any funds you raise for breast cancer research. Hosting a party through Cook for the Cure gives you some nifty tools, such as online donation and automatic generation of tax receipts. So I decided to host my very own Cook for the Cure party! It was a great opportunity for me to try some of the recipes from Michael Smith’s “Chef at Home” cookbook.

Upon flipping through the Chef at Home cookbook, I came across the recipe for Potato Bacon Cheddar Tart. It was essentially layers of potatoes, cheese, onions and garlic, all wrapped up in bacon. With ingredients like that, how could this taste anything but delicious? It sounded like a perfect side dish to go along with my Apple Roast Chicken and looked impressive too.

Summary

Preparation Time: 45 min
Cook Time: 3 hours
Servings: 8
Meal type: Side Dish
Cost: $8.02 ($1.00 per person)

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

2 lb (1 kg) of bacon, at room-temperature ~ $5.99
lots of freshly ground pepper
4 cups (1 L) of shredded aged cheddar ~ $1.11
5 large baking potatoes (unpeeled) ~ $0.62
sea salt
1 onion, minced ~ 0.25
4 cloves of garlic, minced ~ $0.05

Instructions

1.Preheat oven to 350°F (180°F).
2. Carefully arrange the bacon in a radial pattern from the centre of the bottom of a 10- or 12-inch (25 or 30cm) round non-stick baking pan, continuing up and over the sides. Let the ends hang over. The slices should overlap slightly around the sides of the pan. To reduce the thickness of the bacon in the centre, stagger every other piece, starting it 2 inches (5 cm) from the centre and extending it further than the adjacent slices.

3. With the palm of your hand, flatten the centre area, leaving no gaps in the bacon. Season the bacon with lots of pepper and then sprinkle on several spoonfuls of the shredded cheddar.

4. Slice the potatoes as thinly and uniformly as you can, about 1/4 inch (6 mm) thick. I used a mandoline to help me do this quickly and uniformly.

5. Arrange a circular pattern of overlapping slices around the inside bottom edge of the pan. Continue arranging overlapping layers of the potatoes until the bottom is evenly covered. Season the potatoes with salt and pepper.

6. Mix together the onion and garlic and sprinkle some of the mixture onto the potatoes. Continue with a layer of shredded cheese.
7. Continue with a layer of the shredded cheese. Cover with another layer of the potatoes, pressing it down firmly before continuing with alternate layers of the potatoes, onion mixture and cheese, insetting each a bit from the edge of the pan until the top is 1 inch (2.5 cm) or so higher than the pan’s rim.
8. Fold the overhanging bacon neatly up and over the top of the potatoes.

9. Trim a small piece of parchment paper and place it in between an oven-proof lid and the bacon. This will prevent the bacon ends from pulling back and shrinking during cooking.
I didn’t have a lid, so i used tin foil to fold tightly over the pan instead.
10. Place the pan on a baking sheet and bake for at least 2½ to 3 hours. You’ll know when it’s done when a small, thin bladed knife inserts easily.
The baking sheet is key – I didn’t do it and a lot of oil dripped to the bottom of the oven. I spent a lot of time cleaning it the next day!
11. Pour off as much of the fat as possible. Let the tart stand for 15 minutes and then invert it onto a cutting surface.
12. Slice into wedges and serve immediately.

Quick Notes

Take note of the baking time – it’s long (3 hours)! The first time I made it I didn’t realize and only got to it an hour before I wanted dinner ready. I did a short cut by boiling the slices of potatoes first, which I think worked out alright, but the bacon was a bit under cooked. Definitely make sure to bake it for the full 2½ hours.

Variations

Michael Smith’s cookbook has a “Freestyle Variation” with every recipe. For this recipe, he suggests: “Try mixing a few spoonfuls of your favourite fresh herb into the onion mixture. Thyme, rosemary and tarragon all work well”. I didn’t really try any variations since I didn’t have any fresh herbs, but I can see it working well with what he suggests.

Results

This required a lot of work in terms of prepping the ingredients and arranging the bacon, but the results were impressive. Everyone liked it at the dinner party. I found the bottom of the tart a bit crispy and tough – not sure if it’s supposed to be like that. Other than that, the bacon, potatoes, cheddar cheese and onions go really well together and is a great side dish. With the amount of work involved, I don’t think this will become part of my everyday repertoire, but definitely a great side to pull out for a fancier party that’s sure to impress!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Cookbook / Side Dish — View Comments
3
Jan 10

Honey-Glazed Cipollini Onions

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Before I say anything else, I want to say that these were amazing! Fragrant, sweet, and flavourful; something you would get at a fancy restaurant. When you serve it on a dish for all to share, it looks so pretty with the thyme sprigs.

Summary

Preparation Time: 15 min
Cook Time: 30 min
Servings: 6
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery Cost: $7 ($1.17/person)

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

20 oz. Cipollini Onions (1.25 lb) ~ $6
Cipollini onions are known for their sweetness. They are small and flat on either end, making them look like little discs. I was prepared to replace them with pearl onions, which are also sweet, but was surprised when I didn’t have to. Sometimes your local supermarket carries them in small amounts. Search in the onion section. They may just have a few small packages (10 oz. each) of cipollini onions lying around.
1 tbsp Canola Oil
4 fresh Thyme Sprigs ~ $0.50
1 tbsp Honey
3 cloves Garlic, crushed, with skin left on
1/2 cup Chicken Stock

Instructions for Honey-Glazed Cipollini Onions

This recipe can be found in Thomas Keller’s cookbook, ad hoc at home. I would recommend using a large heavy-bottomed pan for the execution of this recipe. The onions need to have their own space on the pan to brown properly. Don’t move them around too much. Just allow them to brown nicely and be patient.

You will need to transfer the pan with your browned onions directly into the oven, so make sure that your pan is also oven-proof.

Result

My only regret after I made this dish was that there weren’t too many onions per person. I ended up serving about 4 onions per person. The next time I make this, I will try to double it or make one and a half times the recipe since there was still some space on my pan. Otherwise, this was such an easy dish to make and so tasty!!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Recipe / Restaurant / Side Dish — View Comments
2
Jan 10

Ruth Chris Steakhouse :: Creamed Spinach

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

A few weeks ago, I blogged about making 23′s Delmonico Steak with my friend Karen. To go along with this delicious steak, we decided to make creamed spinach. Creamed spinach goes really well with steak, and you should find a version of this dish at any quality steakhouse. Ruth Chris Steakhouse, a great quality steakhouse chain found in most major cities in North America, does a great version of this, so we decided to make it using their recipe available on their website.

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 15 min
Servings: 4
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery Cost: $ 5.06 ($1.27 per person)

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

3 lbs Frozen Chopped Spinach ~ $3.27
1/2lb Salted Butter
1/2 cup All Purpose Flour
1/2 tbsp Salt
1/2 tbsp White Ground Pepper
I used black pepper since I didn’t have white pepper
1 cup Half & Half Cream ~ $1.79

Instructions

1. Place thawed spinach into strainer and squeeze out all water. Squeeze water until the spinach yields 1 1/2 lbs.
Step 1
2. Melt butter in sauce pan on medium temperature.
3. Add flour and cook on medium heat for about 5 minutes stirring constantly with a wire whisk. Cook until Roux is light tan. (An undercooked Roux will be floury tasting).
4. Add salt and pepper to the Roux and mix well.
5. Add half volume of the Half & Half Cream, bring to a boil stirring well. Add in drained spinach and mix well, then add the other half of the cream.
Step 1
6. Lower the heat and simmer for 10-12 minutes until spinach is tender, remove from heat.
7. Serve immediately.

Quick Notes

When making this recipe, I wasn’t quite sure what a roux was, so I looked it up. Here’s a link to some helpful information on making a roux that helped me out on this recipe! Usually roux is made from fat and flour, but can also be done using butter instead of fat. This link shows steps and photos specifically for making the roux required in this recipe, using butter and flour.
About.com:Culinary Arts:How to Make a Roux

Variations

There were a lot of variations I was tempted to try with this basic creamed spinach, but I decided to stick to the recipe and see how that turned out. The only real substitution was using black pepper instead of white pepper. This is a great base recipe that could definitely support additions such as garlic, mushrooms, and parmesan cheese.

Results

Steak and Creamed Spinach
The creamed spinach turned out really well and went great with the steak! It was such a basic recipe, but the simple addition of butter, cream, salt and pepper brought out the natural flavours of the spinach. I’m glad I resisted the urge to add other things, though I think you could definitely add to it as you like. We made the full recipe on the website, which makes 7.5 cups, and we had no trouble finishing between the 3 of us! This is a great side to have in your repertoire. If you want to replicate a quality steakhouse experience at home, definitely give this creamed spinach recipe a try!

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Cookbook / Side Dish — View Comments
17
Dec 09

A Thomas Keller Inspired Meal @ Home – Torn Croutons

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

On December 13th, I had invited my parents, their friends and my fiance over for a fancy dinner at my place. Since meeting Thomas Keller a few weeks ago, I was inspired to revolve my meal around his new cookbook, ad hoc at home. It was a cold and wet day, so it was perfect for staying in and enjoying each other’s company.

THE MENU
********
Roasted Butternut Squash Soup
Torn Croutons*
~
Mixed Greens with Candied Ginger, Dried Pears, and Blueberry Red Wine Vinaigrette
~
Mushroom and Peppercorn Crusted Beef Tenderloin*
Honey-Glazed Cipollini Onions*
Saffron Rice*
Roasted Asparagus Spears
~
Red Wine Poached Pears with Mango Passionfruit Whipped Cream

Note: Recipes marked with an asterisk (*) can be found in ad hoc at home, by Thomas Keller

***The recipes will be provided in separate blogs, with the links provided here… Otherwise, this will be a REALLY long post!! The first featured dish will be Thomas Keller’s Torn Croutons***

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 50 min
Servings: 6-12, depending on how you are serving it
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery Cost: $3.10 ($0.26-0.52/person)

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

Garlic oil
I made this with about 1/2 cup of canola oil and 8 cloves of garlic, crushed and skinned. By slowly roasting the garlic (without browning them), you flavour the oil subtly. After about 15-20 minutes, remove the garlic cloves and start on the rest of your recipe for Torn Croutons.
3 cups of sourdough bread, torn into small pieces about 1.5″ square
This is the only modification I made to Thomas Keller’s recipe. The moist, dense centres of sourdough, and its distinct flavour, adds a different dimension to the finished product.

2 tbsp butter
Since I love the flavour of butter, I added a tad more… Probably another 2 tbsp 0:)

Instructions for Torn Croutons

These croutons were heavenly!! They were crispy, creamy and VERY flavourful. I served them as a garnish for my Butternut Squash Soup, 3 in each. Although, in hindsight, I should have served more. This dish is heartwarming, perfect for the fall or winter. If you are only serving 6 people and only using the croutons as garnish (which I did), you really only need half of the original recipe.
Another thing I would like to add is, although these croutons are soaked with garlic oil and butter, they are worth sacrificing your diet for. I am definitely making these again!

The instructions for this recipe can be found in ad hoc at home by Thomas Keller. The steps are easy to follow and the results are amazing! As the torn pieces of bread are bubbling away in your pan, you will watch them turn from a tan colour to a nice dark brown.

You don’t need to turn them very often. I left them for several minutes at a time before using chopsticks to turn them over. It may look charred or feel really hard when you are finished with your 20 minutes of cooking time, but believe me, they taste amazing. Since Thomas Keller recommends that you should keep them warm in the oil until you serve them, I had to throw out the remaining croutons. It was heartbreaking.

Result

I don’t know how to express how much I loved this dish and how great it turned out the first time I attempted it! I never knew I could make something I would only expect to be served in a restaurant. Also, I don’t have a deep fryer (not that I ever want one), but this seemed to achieve the same results. Who knew that some oil, garlic, butter & bread could make something so tasty! This is definitely a winner!

*STAY TUNED FOR MY NEXT RECIPE POST FROM MY MENU*

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Cookbook / Side Dish — View Comments
2
Dec 09

Jamie Oliver’s Risotto

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)

Risotto

In my self taught journey into the cooking world, I’ve always wanted to make risotto. It’s something I enjoy ordering at restaurants and from everyone I’ve heard, it’s always been a mystery on how to make it and how to perfect it. I looked through Jamie Oliver’s 20 Minute Meal iPhone Application which I absolutely love and there it was, a whole section on risotto including a step by step video. The reason why I love the app is how simple but detailed it is. The ingredients can be quickly added to a shopping cart which you can check off as you shop. They also provide step by step instructions along with step by step pictures of each step. Another useful listing is of all the utensils and tools that will be needed. And lastly, there are videos where Jamie Oliver shows you how to cook – including how to make risotto. I’m rather impressed and the meals so far have turned out fantastic.

Ok back to risotto…I’ve modified the recipe based on what I could find at the grocery store. (I can’t believe our local grocery store didn’t have basil!) Also, I made my own vegetable broth during the day before I started to make the risotto. Making vegetable broth is super simple and way cheaper than what grocery stores charge you. All you have to do is heat up a pot of water (2L of water), put in all the carrots, onion, celery that you have in the house. Also add some salt and pepper to taste. Any number of vegetables works for broth. Just boil the water, add in all the vegetables, then keep it on low heat for a few hours. After evaporation, you get about 1.5L which is perfect.

Summary

Preparation Time: 10 min
Cook Time: 40 min
Servings: 4
Meal type: Dinner
Grocery Cost: $10

Recipe Rating:

Ingredients

Ingredients

1 red onion (large)
3 sticks of celery
1/3 stick of butter
Parmesan Cheese
320g of risotto (about 80g per person)
1.25 L of Vegetable broth
1 cup of white wine
1 lemon
1 bunch of spinach
Parsley
Sea salt and pepper
Olive oil

Instructions

1. Chop the onion and celery into small pieces – I used a small electric chopper (a food processor works as well) only because I cry way too much when I chop onions by hand.
2. Heat up a large saucepan on medium heat and add olive oil. The pan that is ideal is large and flat on the bottom but also with high walls. I used a wok, which is less than ideal. Don’t do it…unless you have no other pans, like me!
3. Also, in a pot, heat up your vegetable broth to get ready to add to the risotto.
Broth
4. Add the onion and celery into the saucepan and stir until the vegetables are soft and translucent (and not brown)
5. Add the risotto rice to the pan. Continue to stir for a minute.
Risotto Beginning
6. Add a glass of wine in and continue to stir.
7.Repeat this step every few minutes for about 20 minutes: Add a ladleful of hot vegetable broth – stirring and distributing the liquid evenly through the rice. I’d do this every 3-4 minutes and leave it alone for 1 minute. You’ll see the rice start getting thicker and goo-ey. This texture is perfect. If it’s too soggy, you’re adding too much liquid too fast. If it’s dry, hurry up and add more broth. Don’t add more liquid until everything has been absorbed.
8. Once 20 minutes is up and the rice looks nice and oozy, turn off the heat.

9. You can multitask in this risotto cooking time by grating the parmesan cheese – I had about a 1/4 of a wedge left so used all of it
10. Add the cheese and butter and olive oil after the heat is turned off and mix it around – the risotto gets extra cheesy.
11. In a separate pan (multitask thread #3), heat it up to high heat, add the spinach, some water and salt and pepper for 2 minutes until all the spinach is wilted. Dry it in a colander.
12. Add the spinach and fresh parsley into the risotto.
13. Also season the risotto with salt and pepper.
14. Serve right away (I didn’t do this right away but you should cover it with a lid to keep it warm until you serve.

Quick Notes

I did substitute parsley for spinach. I also used more broth than Jamie Oliver recommended – however I think this is really dependent on how much rice you’re cooking and what it takes to get the right consistency.

Variations

In Jamie Oliver’s cookbook, each risotto recipe called for butter at different times in the cooking process. Also parmesan cheese was part of the cooking video but not actually in the spinach risotto recipe details. I really did enjoy the butter and parmesan cheese added after turning off the stove though. There was also a recipe which called for cutting up fish into chunks to mix into the risotto. I guess it’s like fried rice, where anything goes. I rather liked my simple classic combination of butter, parmesan, spinach and parsley though.

Results

Well, I’d call this first time a great success. I think we might have made too much risotto – it fed 4 for dinner with plenty extra for another 2-3 servings for lunch. I’d definitely make this dish again now that I know it isn’t that hard and doesn’t take too long. We had split the task of risotto and fish between the two of us and was ready to plate within 45 min.
Risotto Halibut

Rating: 0.0/5 (0 votes cast)