Tag Archives: Appetizer

Pretty Pakoras

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I feel slightly embarrassed by the “new” ingredient I’ve chosen to showcase with this post.  I always experiment with foods I’ve never prepared here, hoping that others will read about my concoctions and also become more experimental (or will at the very least laugh at my adventures).  But last night I cooked with something new to me, but that might make the rest of the world turn away accusing me of being a lame loser of a chef.  I used gram flour, which is made from chickpeas.  I know what you’re thinking – before you know it I’ll be introducing you a new ingredient some people call “wheat.”

I had been sifting through recipes online to find an appetizer to bring to a Christmas party at my friend Jackie’s.  At first I told her I would bring a veggie tray because she had been describing what last minute tedious tasks she still had to accomplish, and picking up veggies was one of them.  But when she said, “Sure you can bring veg, but you’re capable of so much more,” I knew I had to live up to my culinary potential of weirdness.  I have a reputation of oddity to live up to, after all.

The Shining 031So I was swiping my way through my iPhone drooling at food porn when I happened upon a potato latke topped with crème fraiche and caviar.  Bingo.  Except that despite being plugged into the rare food community I had no idea where to find crème fraiche in my neighborhood, and I thought that a latke might be kind of bland.  So I switched it to a spicy pakora with sour cream, and bang – cool creation.

Funny how I wasn’t even going to write about this appetizer because I thought it was too boring, even though it includes both gram flour and caviar, neither of which I had ever used.  I think camel meatballs and fish heads have made my standards of weirdness kind of high lately.

But back to the flour, which is also called garbanzo flour or besan.  It’s high in carbohydrates, but also in protein, which is a bonus.  It’s also gluten free.  As I mentioned, most cultures other than mine eat it – it’s a staple in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, but it’s also eaten in France, Spain, and Italy.  I was shocked to have bought 3 cups worth and paid about $1. Loving it.

I also hadn’t considered the caviar very interesting, because everyone has heard of caviar.  Especially after the movie Big.

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But how much did I really know about the types of caviar?  Nothing, truth be told.  And I’m not so sure I would care about the difference in taste or price, since I even enjoy those crackly roe they put on top of sushi at the mall.  I picked up this “caviar,”

IMG_2717from our local fishmonger for the bargain price of $10.  And then I read this article about real caviar, now from farmed sturgeon rather than wild, ranging (in the article) between $75 and $275 for 30g.  The wild stuff is rare because it was overfarmed and so is heavily regulated.  It goes for $750.  Mine came from smoked herring and mullet in Spain and I’m totally good with that.

Looked like the guests were good with that too, because the appys didn’t last long!  They were a pakora-rific pleasure.  Here’s the recipe – the straightforward pakora directions stolen from here:

Pakora with caviar (makes about 20 small pakoras)

  • 2C Besan (chickpea flour, gram flour)
  • 1Tbsp crushed red pepper
  • 3/4tsp salt
  • 1/2tsp baking powder
  • 2 small red chiles, chopped (or other hot peppers.  This amount gave low-medium heat)
  • 1/2C cilantro leaves, chopped (plus more for garnishing)
  • 1 onion, sliced thinly into half-moons
  • 1C luke warm water
  • 1/2C sour cream
  • 30g container of caviar (only about three-quarters will be used)
  • Oil for frying (canola or other light-tasting oil)

Directions:  Fill skillet half-way with oil.  Heat to 360-375 degrees (med-high heat for about 6 minutes, will sizzle when dough is dropped in).  In a large bowl, mix together the flour, chili flakes, salt, baking powder, chili pepper, cilantro and sliced onion.  Slowly add in the water, mixing well.  The batter should be thick but still mobile (would drip from a spoon) with air bubbles throughout.  When oil has heated, carefully drop tablespoons of batter into the hot oil.  Allow them to brown, flipping once (about one minute per side).  Drain on a cooling rack or paper towels.  Repeat with remainder of batter.

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Top each with sour cream, a few cilantro sprigs, and a dollop of caviar.  This can be done after pakoras have cooled.  Enjoy!

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Results:  Delicious, with a tidy, pretty presentation.  Four yums for this one.  I’ll make them again!

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Wine Pairing:  Sparkling wine.  A budget knock-off caviar deserves a budget knock-off Champagne!  Winealign.com says the Kiwi Walk Sparkling Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand is a good one priced at $17.95 in Ontario.

Kiwi_Walk_Spakling_Sauvignon_Blanc_web

Persimmon, Pom and Prosciutto

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This is going to be a very short blog entry for two reasons:

  1.  I just downloaded Gimp photo editing software and spent an hour trying to get some glare off of a pomegranate seed.  I feel strangely fulfilled, yet very tired
  2. Tomorrow is the US election, and I don’t want to be that idiot in your Twitter feed where everything is all deep and meaningful about the future of the World as we know it, and I tweet something that says, “Hey, check out persimmon and prosciutto!”  So my deadline for this post is about ten minutes from now.

Here is a persimmon:

There are two kinds, the Jiro and Hachiya.  Both should be ripe before eating, but the latter should be almost mushy.  Mine was the former.

Our wino friends were having us over for a steak dinner where they were sharing their considerable wine collection the other night.  Bryan (their home chef) called me and said, “You bringing wine here is like bringing sand to a beach, so just bring some cool appetizers and we’re good.”  I had some guilt about this, so had to make sure I brought something especially creative.  These are good problems to have.

One of my favourite appetizers involves fig, arugula, mascarpone cheese, and prosciutto.  Truth be told, it doesn’t involve those things, it actually is those things.  So I thought of that and made this:

Persimmon Prosciutto Bites (Appys for 12)

  • 1 persimmon, hull sliced off, remainder sliced into mini fry-sized slices
  • Soft light cream cheese
  • Greens (whatever is on hand – I’d suggest arugula if avail, but I used spinach)
  • Pomegranate – 3 seeds per app
  • Prosciutto, cut into long strips

Directions:  Slice persimmon.  Slather each “fry” with creamed cheese, topping with pom seeds.

Wrap in large green leaf, then prosciutto.

Results:  Tasty, but kind of tame.  Persimmon is very nice, almost similar to a firm mango.  This appetizer would work well with any sweet, distinctive flavoured fruit as the centrepiece (fig, mango, peach…).  Don’t use too many pomegranate seeds – they contribute a nice juicy pop, but too many pithy seeds can be annoying.  Rating:  1 Yum

Seriously though, thanks to Gimp and my new white plate from the dollar store, I don’t think the people who ate the appy would recognize it based on my hot picture.

Wine Pairing:  A friend at the party, Sandy, who has a highly respectable palate (dead on in blind tastings and likes the finer things in life but not in a snobby way) looked at me meaningfully to give me his opinion, saying only, “It pairs perfectly with this wine.”  Unfortunately for you this stellar wine is no longer available, but you can probably substitute a nice buttery Chardonnay of your choice.  This one was so good that I had to wonder if it had gone bad because it was unlike most other wines I’ve ever tasted.  Find a highly rated Chardonnay substitute at www.winealign.com, which is Bryan’s website.

Paneer and a Pen Pal

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So this post is a fun little diversion from my usual experimentation with weird ingredients – except that I still experimented with weird ingredients.  I’m addicted, really.

Anyway, I’ll explain.  This month I finally signed up for “Foodie Pen Pals.”  Lindsay at theleangreenbean.com runs a pen pal program where foodies are paired together to trade food items by mail, and then they blog about what they received at the end of the month.  So this is that blog!

I was excited to receive my package from Ashlee at Twitter handle @missashlee286.  I opened the box to find…

Very considerate that Ashlee had planned a whole family meal for me within our $15 limit!  Maybe I should hire her as our personal chef, because that’s the kind of budget that I should really obey on a more regular basis.

So I was excited to get started, and liked the idea of a chicken curry, but if you know me well you know that chicken isn’t quite weird enough for my strange tastebuds (unless it’s mixed with something strange, of course), so my mind started to veer and swerve until I was at Costco and found this:

A gigantic package of Paneer, or Indian cottage cheese.  The picture really doesn’t do justice to how big it was.  You may be wondering how many people I was looking to feed with a huge double pack of something I had never cooked before, and the answer to that question is two, because there was no way my kids were going to try it.  You may also be wondering, “Why wouldn’t she just go to a regular grocery store and get a teensy pack once she knew that was what she wanted to do,” but again, if you knew me well you would know that I do everything in my power to reduce the number of times I have to wrestle my children in and out of car seats.  If I can buy everything at one store I do, even if it means I’ll be filling my fridge with a supply of cheese that would feed the entire cast of Slumdog Millionaire for a year.

I’ve eaten Paneer from restaurants with peas (mattar paneer), and also with spinach (palak paneer), and I love both, but my family is more partial to peas so I bought a bag of those big enough to feed the island nation of Australia and rushed home to get cooking.  I Googled recipes for a while to figure out what else needed to go in this dish, finding only that ghee (clarified butter which you may remember from Helen Bannerman’s kids’ story is actually made of tigers) and onions were the main elements that were consistent, other than the spice and sauce elements which I was already lucky enough to have received.  So here’s what I did:

Ooh, but wait, I’m getting ahead of myself.  I forgot that Ashlee had planned for me to have a kid-friendly appetizer, so I boiled up some grapes in 1/3 bottle of leftover wine and 1/2C sugar, added them to the crackers and Wow butter (awesome substitute for peanut butter which she knew I liked due to earlier blog post – peanut allergic daughter) and made little fake-PB&J snackers.  And before you call the Children’s Aid, Mom (again?), I boiled the wine and sugar together for a good long time so there was no alcohol left when the grapes were coated.

But back to the Easy Mattar Paneer.  SO quick and easy:

  • 2 cups paneer cheese, cut into small cubes
  • 2Tbsp butter – I didn’t have ghee, using regular butter rather than the tiger variety
  • 1 medium onion, chopped
  • 1 package Kitchens of India Curry Paste, or your favourite curry mix or recipe
  • 2 servings of rice, per package directions

Directions:  Melt butter in pan over med-high heat.  Add cubes of paneer, cooking until browned.

Set aside.  Add onion to pan and cook until translucent.  Cook frozen peas in boiling water, drain, and add to pan with onion. Add curry sauce and paneer and cook just until hot.  Serve over rice.

Results: My first foodie pen pal experience was a great success!  Dinner, which I cooked a few nights ago, was enjoyed by all, and I cooked the identical meal again tonight using spinach instead of peas and it was just as good.  I also unloaded a great portion of the leftover paneer on my friend to prepare, so it may be the recipe that keeps on giving.  Thanks again Ashlee!  Recipe Rating:  3 Yums

Bonus Fun Facts about Paneer:  People have been eating it since before 6000BC, and now it’s served as the “McSpicy Paneer,” at McDonald’s India.  It has probably reinvented itself even more often than Madonna has.

 

The Great (Green) Pumpkin (Squash)

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A few days ago I wrote about cute little grape kiwis, and said that everyone likes to eat something if it’s extra mini.  Now, only two days later, I’m going to entice you with something big.  I’ve been seeing super huge squash around, and I knew immediately that I needed to add them to my weird food addiction…I mean, food freak show…or whatever.  My blog.

Thanks Brain4rent’s blog

Well, they weren’t that super huge.  Damn, do you think when they grow those things the pumpkin patch sucks the whole county dry?  The squash I’ve been seeing are big enough, though.  But go big or go home, I always say, unless I’m talking grape kiwis or kumquats, in which case I change my tune faster than Mitt Romney.

Anyway, these are the green giants I wanted…

…but what was I going to do with so much squash, throw a squash party?  Sounds weird, but you know you’d still come if I promised an open bar.  I didn’t have to entice guests with booze this time, though, because I was happy to find that my local fruit market sold hunks of the great green pumpkins, which actually turned out to be “Zapallo Macre,” (I’m pretty sure, anyway) for the bargain basement price of only $1.99 per chunk.  Even this amount was so big that my son agreed to struggle with it in exchange for the fame and fortune my blog brings, but doing so nearly took him down.

I say I’m pretty sure my squash was Zapallo Macre, a squash popular in Peru that looks like a green pumpkin, but my usual identification expert – Monsieur Google – came up short this time, other than providing a few Peruvian photos of the Zap Mac that looked similar to my squash.  I think the big greeners must be local because they suddenly showed up alongside pumpkins at many fruit stands and not solely at specialty importer-type markets, but there weren’t any promising results for “green pumpkins Ontario,” or “green squash,” that proved this true.  If anyone has further info, let me know.

No matter what they were, I was feeling chilled yesterday so I decided to make my pumpkin slash squash into soup.  Here comes the ONLY recipe for giant green Ontario Zapallos currently available on the World Wide Web (hush the crowds, please), which I invented:

Giant Green Pumpkin Soup with Savoury Sweet Sprinkles (serves 8)

  • Giant green pumpkin/squash (probably Zapallo Macre), peeled and cut into 1.5” chunks.  Approximately 14 cups, or filling 2 cookie sheets.  Substitute butternut squash or pumpkin if you can’t find the big greens

  • Knives exhausted from prepping squash

  • 1 very large onion, peeled and chopped
  • 3 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped
  • 1/4C sherry
  • 1.5” fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
  • 2Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
  • 900mL veggie stock
  • Sprinkles:  walnuts, green pumpkin seeds, and Craisins
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt and pepper to taste

Directions:  Preheat oven to 400.  Toss squash with olive oil and kosher salt, and spread across two cookie sheets prepared with foil.  Roast squash 45 minutes, stirring once.  Meanwhile, sautee onions and garlic in a large pot until translucent, about three minutes.  Add sherry and continue to cook until it nearly disappears.

Add squash, ginger, parsley, and stock, bringing to a boil.  Add to food processor in batches, pureeing the soup.  Now.  If you prefer a very smooth, comforting soup, you’re finished.  If not, pour into bowls and sprinkle with walnuts, pumpkin seeds, and Craisins.  If you’re not vegan, you may wish to experiment with bacon, sour cream, or parmesan cheese.

Results:  Very good!  I didn’t taste anything special about the green squash – would love to taste it alongside a butternut to see if I could tell the difference, but I don’t think I would be able to.  If you want a very healthy, vegan soup that will feed umpteen people for a very low price, this is your recipe.  Love a dish that I know I could eat a whole pot of and it would still be improving my health rather than adding to my waistline.  Rating:  4 Yums

Beverage pairing:  Would you believe that this is actually what I drank with the soup by coincidence?  It’s true.  Apparently my shopping habits were pumpkin themed this week.  Happy Halloween!

 

 

Wee Kiwis

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Little is cute.  This isn’t news.  The smaller they are, the more we like them.  It all started with Arnold.  Next it was Webster.  Mr. Papadopoulos…  Recently, TLC started “Little people, big world.”  Now it’s Honey Boo Boo…  And yes, I added that last one to help with search engine hits.  But Webster could out-traffic Honey Boo Boo, right?

Anyway.  Maybe TLC should do a show about mini kiwis, because they’re pretty cute too.

Grape kiwis are exactly like the big ones as far as I can tell, except that they’re hairless and small — the Chihuahuas of the fruit world. They’re also called “hardy kiwis,” because they survive for a while in cold temperatures, although they don’t last long once they’ve been picked, so if you find some they should be treasured.

Grape Kiwis and Grapes

It’s always challenging to prepare a strange fruit in something other than a fruit salad or a smoothie, but I don’t like going for the obvious, so this time I went to my trusty epicurious app and pretended the grape kiwis were grapes.  Here’s the coolest recipe I came up with based on that search, cooked with my modifications below:

Chicken Curry Salad with Grapes (and now grape kiwis) – serves 4 appetizer portions

  • 2tsp curry powder, Madras-style preferred
  • 1/4C light mayo
  • 1/4C plain low fat Greek yogurt
  • 1tsp minced peeled fresh ginger
  • 1/2tsp grated orange peel
  • 2C cooked chicken, diced (I used leftovers which was awesome)
  • 1/2C grape kiwis, halved (use all red grapes if you’re not lucky enough to find grape kiwis)
  • 1/2C red grapes, halved
  • 2 green onions, thinly sliced
  • 1 handful walnuts, chopped
  • 4 large curly lettuce leaves

Directions:  Stir curry powder in pan over med-high heat until fragrant (about 1 min).

Transfer to med bowl.  Add everything except lettuce leaves (did I really have to tell you that?).  Place one lettuce leaf on each plate and top with salad.

Results:  This was actually one of my top experimental recipes.  I shouldn’t be surprised, because Epicurious rarely disappoints, but it was even better with the seedy acidity of the baby kiwis.  My friend dropped in and I made her try a plate despite her liver cleanse (yes, I strong-armed her) and she texted me hours later to say she was still thinking about the salad.  Deliciously rich texture.  When I can’t find the baby kiwis I’ll make this with grapes, and will throw it into a pita.  Awesomesauce.  Rating:  5 Yums

Wine Pairing:  Winealign.com tells me the classic wine pairing for a chicken curry is Riesling and I’m sick of recommending my favourite, Cave Spring’s.  Its alternative suggestion is a sparkling white, so let’s go with the Bernard Massard Brut Cuvée De L’écusson, Luxembourg, which Winealign suggests is the best sparkling white for under $25 to be found at my local liquor store at only $16.95 in Ontario.  I wish I were drinking some with Emmanuel Lewis right now.

What a hottie – The Pisilla Baijo

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Everyone has a hot pepper story, and today I want to hear yours.

Here’s mine.  We’re in Mexico, 2003.  It’s fajita day at the buffet.  The fresh flour tortilla shells are handed to each person by a smiling Mexican in a white chef’s outfit.  I’m faced with a long bar full of chicken, fillings, and condiments.  I’m a kid in a candy store.  I like variety and experimenting with local foods and I’m ready to load myself up.

I go big with pico de gallo, guacamole and chicken.  I’ve stuffed my tortilla so full that there’s almost no room for anything else, but I know it needs a little something extra.  I see one last mini bin of toppings, right at the end.  Yes, it has a sign on it that says, “hot,” in italics, but I like a little spice in my life and I’m unintimidated.  They know we’re lightweight gringo tourists, so they would never let us hurt ourselves, right?  I can take a whole pickled hot pepper at the Olive Garden, and I’m sure I can take this.

I spoon myself one little dehydrated pepper from its oil.  One is enough for today.  I just want a mini-kick, I don’t need to take away from the enjoyment of my fat fajita with too much spice.  I gingerly lay it on the top of all the fillings and sit with my husband and friends.

Giggle giggle, “Oh, that looks nice, I didn’t see that when I blah blah blah.”  Polite sit-down chatter.  We cheers, “to a good vacation.”  Sip for good luck and convention.  I take a bite of my fajita.  One bite.  Molars meet only once, releasing the oils in the pepper to the inside of my cheek and across my tongue.  If I was on CSI they would zoom in, and see… hellfire spreading immediately throughout the inside of my mouth.

My eyes go red and I start to cry.  At first my friends think it’s funny, but when I stand and nearly choke they get concerned.  There’s no going back.  The hottest food I’ve ever tasted is in my mouth and there’s nothing I can do about it.  I can’t breathe, and I can’t talk.  I drink water and it does nothing to relieve the fire.  My friends begin to understand the urgency and start to strategize.  “Bread, I’ve heard bread is good.”  I try it and it does nothing.  “Ice cream, can I get you ice cream?”  They run back to the buffet and return with what seem like logical solutions, but nothing helps.  I just suck it up in agony, eyes crying, nose running, heart beating, telling myself that no one has ever died from eating a hot pepper, but wondering if that’s true.  The heat eventually subsided, but the memory of what a real hot pepper tastes like never did.  And my friends’ jokes about me eating weird foods haven’t subsided either.  At least now that experimentation has turned into a world famous blog that is showering me in treasure and riches.  Ahem.

Since that day in Mexico, I’ve been a lot more cautious about eating hot peppers, so when I picked up some long dark green pisilla baijo peppers at the market the other day, I was sure to ask where they sat on the hot meter.  The farmer said they were “medium,” and when we ate them, thankfully, we agreed.

I found this recipe for roasted peppers over lemon ricotta which looked delicious to me, but afterward I found out the the pisilla baijo is used in Mexico to make “mole,” sauce, which I’ve never had, but which includes nuts and chocolate.  I was jealous of the recipe I didn’t make, but I’ll try that again next time.  This one worked out well too:

Roasted Hot Peppers and Lemony Ricotta (Makes about 12 appetizers)

  • 5 fresh pisilla baijo peppers (or other hot peppers), cut into ring-chunks, seeds included
  • 5 garlic cloves, whole
  • Olive oil
  • Kosher salt & pepper
  • 1 baguette, sliced
  • 200g ricotta cheese
  • Zest of 1 lemon

Directions:  Preheat oven to 400.  Toss pepper chunks and garlic with generous amounts of olive oil and kosher salt and pepper.  Roast peppers and garlic on baking sheet in oven 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and roast for a further 40 minutes.  Combine ricotta and lemon zest and spread over baguette slices.  Smash garlic and spread over breads, topping with peppers.

Results:  Delicious.  These had a medium kick, but the spice didn’t overpower the gorgeous flavour of the pepper.  This was a simple appetizer to prepare that would be a hit for anyone who likes spicy foods.  If I see pisilla baijos again I’ll grab them for sure.  Rating:  3 Yums

Wine Pairing:  Winealign.com tells me that Mexican food pairs well with Riesling, so I’ll suggest Cave Spring’s 2009 Riesling from Ontario for $12.95.  Cave Spring has always done Riesling right.

Share:  Please comment and tell me your hot pepper story!  Your uncle never saw one he didn’t like?  You live in a town where people can take hot and you scared the pants off of someone who couldn’t?  Let us know!

Lemony 3-Layer Sardine Pate

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You’d think you could learn everything about life from cartoons, but you’d be wrong.  To my great disappointment, my cat has no interest in lasagna, pineapples aren’t homes for sponges wearing pants under the sea (not good homes, anyway), and sardines aren’t always pretty little fish that come lying next to one another jammed into a can.

Thanks “Wise Colin” per your blog as written by a fish

My aspirations of getting in trouble from my husband for dangling a dripping sardine over the camera lens as though it were a mouth were dashed when I opened the can and found this:

At least they had removed the heads, so I wouldn’t be forcing people to eat those.  Again. (In case you missed it…).  I picked out all the undelicious looking backbones and got going.

I decided that I would experiment on my “slummy mummy” group once again.  You may remember that I often get together with a few neighborhood moms to let the kids gain experience in babysitting one another while we drink wine and look at pictures of Jon Hamm in tight pants (that was how it worked yesterday, anyway).  Tempted to include a link to the pictures there, but my mom reads this blog and she would be mortified, so you’ll just have to Google it yourself.

Anyway, I had never tried sardines before, even though I know that my grandfather used to eat a whole can of them as a light snack.  I had heard talk that they were healthy, and so I hoped I would love them as I do almost anything else that comes from the sea.  Turns out that the health rumours were true – although they’re high in cholesterol and sodium, they eat mostly plankton, so they’re low in mercury while still being high in Omega 3s, Vitamin D, Vitamin B12, and Selenium. Didn’t exactly love them, though.

I found this recipe for sardine pate and decided to try it rather than daring the mummies to eat whole fish as though we were doing some weird goldfish swallowing contest.  I prepared it as written, although I substituted lemon pepper for Aleppo pepper because I didn’t know what the latter was and when I found out it was too late to buy it.  Here are the very quick and easy directions:

Lemony Sardine Pate (makes 1 Cup)

  • 2 cans sardines in oil
  • 4 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
  • 2 Tsp fresh lemon juice
  • 2 Tsp lemon pepper
  • 2 Tsp lemon zest
  • 2 Tsp fresh thyme leaves
  • Pepper to taste

Directions:  Put all ingredients including the sardines and their oil in a food processor.  Blend until smooth.

Results: 

I’ve said it before about other recipes and I’ll say it again.  Meh.  The slummies were polite about it, and one said she really liked it because she’s a big fan of savory, but I thought it needed something more.  It just tasted like lemony pureed tuna fish to me, and I’m not even a big fan of canned tuna.  I also had to put it in the fridge after a few minutes because it smelled too fishy.  One mom who is a great cook suggested I could take it to another level by taming it into a layered dip, so I saved the leftovers and kicked it up a notch today by roasting a red pepper on the barbeque and adding some cream cheese.

Revised results: 

Much better.  That Jackie knows what she’s doing for sure.  The cream cheese gave the pate a richer flavour and the peppers made it more interesting, not to mention that it was a whole lot prettier.  Rating:  1 gag for the lemony sardine pate on its own, revised to 1 yum as a layered dip.  Still not fantastic to me, but if you already know you like sardines you may just love this easy recipe.

Wine Pairing:  A wine pairing is especially relevant for this recipe, considering the fact that we were sampling some as we were eating it.  We were drinking this…

 …which is very respectably rated on winealign.com (and tasty and reasonable at only $10.95 in Ontario).

Bonus weird food item:  Found this while Googling for sardine photos.  I was excited thinking there may be someone out there who likes strange foods as much as I do, but was disappointed when one of the blog comments tipped me off to what was going on.  Still love it, though.  Thanks, “Cupcakes take the cake.”

Crispy Quail Egg Mini-Bennys

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I knew this experiment/recipe would be one my husband would love, because he has always loved eggs.  Family legend has it that when he was little, all he would eat were hotdogs and eggs, and those are still two foods that he’ll throw into his daily food rotation without hesitation.  He’ll grab a hotdog on the way home from work as a dinner appetizer, and if he’s left to cook for himself for a day he’ll boil up a few eggs because he believes that makes for a portable snack.  Before we had kids, when we had more money, time, and freedom than we knew what to do with, we’d visit someone’s cottage or would host at our own and Phil would cook Eggs Benedict for the entire group.  He is the egg man.  Koo koo ka choo.

So when I saw these little beauties

at the farmer’s market that happens every Monday at the end of our street (I’ll give you a moment to be jealous of my awesome hood.  Okay, come back now) I knew I had to bring them home no matter what the price, which didn’t turn out to be crazy at $5 for 8 wee eggies.

And who knew that quail’s eggs were a superfood?  Bonus.  The hippieish farm lady I bought them from tipped me off to this fact, telling me that they’re three times as nutritious as a chicken egg, also telling me that she slurps them up raw.  I don’t think I’m quite ready for raw eggs, but I confirmed her nutritional proselytizing here, where they also explained that quail’s eggs have greater proteins, B1, iron, potassium, and lower allergens than chicken eggs.  They’re just healthy enough to tempt me into making them unhealthy with a delicious deep fry recipe.  Insert maniacal laugh here.

I was inspired by this recipe, where the chef poached the eggs and then panko-breaded and deep fried them, topping them with little strips of bacon.    I thought to myself, “I’ll see your little fried bacon poachers and raise you some green onion mayo and a Triscuit bird’s nest.” I was thinking about my husband’s love of eggs benny as I was improvising, although I wasn’t about to make Hollandaise for the benefit of some bite-sized appys, which was where the mayo substitution came from.  And yes, I know that Eggs Benedict doesn’t include traditional bacon, but it’s my blog and I’ll do what I want to.  :)  Here are the specifics:

Crispy poached quail’s egg with bacon on a Triscuit nest (makes 8 appetizers)

  • 8 pretty little quail’s eggs
  • Splash of white vinegar
  • Small bowl of flour
  • 2 eggs, beaten with fork in small bowl
  • 1C panko crumbs in small bowl
  • 2C canola oil for frying
  • 4 strips of bacon, pan fried until crisp
  • 6Tbsp mayonnaise (homemade or the easy way, your choice)
  • 2 green onions, diced fine
  • 8 Triscuit crackers

Directions:  Set up everything required before dealing with your eggs:  Prepare small bowls of flour, eggs, and panko…

…fry bacon and set aside, mix mayonnaise with green onion in another small bowl.  Also fill another small bowl with cool water and set aside.  Boil 2” water in a deep frying pan, adding a splash of vinegar.  At the same time, heat canola oil over med-high heat in small fry pan (1.5-2” of oil).  Now all is set to be able to work quickly.  Crack mini egg into a small shallow dish.

Skipped using mini bowl for photo only

Slip the egg from the dish into the boiling water, and fold the whites over the yolk with spoon as it begins to cook.  When egg looks cooked but still jiggly (about 1 min) use slotted spoon to move poached egg from boiling water to cool water.  Dip egg in flour, egg, and then panko, and quickly fry, just until it browns.  Spread Triscuit with onion-mayo, add egg, and top with small piece of bacon.  Repeat for each egg.  When you get the hang of how it works, you can begin to do two or three eggs at once.

Results:  Completely delicious!

I was very proud of how this recipe turned out, although it was a bit of a pain to prepare, and I’m not sure how I would have done it if guests had been milling about.  Saying that, though, somehow I think this might be one of those recipes where those who try it drop hints about tasting it again, and where the cook happily goes to the trouble of making it because it’s one of the dishes she’s known for.  Phil ate four of them, and when my bro-in-law popped in and tried one he said it was “really good.” Even my little guy ate one.  Rating:  4 Yums

Wine Pairing:  Winealign.com’s “food match” section suggested that Champagne is the perfect match for Eggs Benedict, but I’m too cheap for that.  When I switched the search to “sparkling wine,” one of the top rated matches for less than $40 was the St. Nicolas Brut Crackling Strong Cider from Quebec at only $16.95, so my tight little wallet will recommend that instead.

Don’t eat the daisies (but go for zucchini flowers)

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When my daughter was tiny, she asked if she could eat flowers, and I told her that while it wasn’t impossible, most of the time you couldn’t (probably in clearer language that went something along the lines of “not really”).  With the little guys it’s good to go with blanket rules of thumb – in this case, I didn’t want to find her in the middle of a rose bush at breakfast one morning.

Doris Day had the same rule.  I used to watch this with my mom, who loves the oldie but goodies.

Don’t Eat the Daisies

It turns out, though, that if I had found my daughter in the middle of a rosebush having a nibble everything probably would have turned out okay, besides the inevitable thorn injuries.  This article highlights the many different flower varieties that are edible, and roses are one of them.

I didn’t read an article and visit the Botanical Gardens in the middle of the night to get this recipe, but don’t put it past me.  Finding zucchini flowers was as easy as picking them up at my local organic fruit market/store.  I proudly nabbed them as soon as I saw them, partly hoping to impress my daughter who is now old enough to be selective and cautious about which blooms to consume – a mother would hope, anyway.  One can never predict how sensible one’s own progeny may be, always moving forward only on blind faith, a wish and a prayer.  Just last weekend she forgot to bring shoes for a weekend at the cottage, so my mothering skills are not entirely irrelevant just yet.

But back to the zucchini flowers.

The shopkeeper suggested that people buy them so that they can stuff and deep fry them, and when I got to googling I found this recipe that looked interesting.  A little unhealthy, yes, but I’m always more open to clogging the arteries of guests rather than my own family, and we were having friends for dinner and I needed an appetizer (sorry Mel and Bryan).  I prepared the recipe almost exactly as written, but I’ll recap below so that you don’t have to go to the trouble of clicking over to another window.

Goat Cheese Stuffed Zucchini Flowers

  • 1C all-purpose flour
  • 1C sparkling water (plus a little more)
  • Kosher salt
  • 8 zucchini flowers
  • 1/3C soft goat cheese
  • 2Tbsp cream cheese (I used this as directed, but not sure it’s critical to buy a whole $4 tub of it for this recipe.  Use your judgement)
  • 2Tsp cream
  • 1Tbsp fresh basil, chopped
  • 1 green onion, chopped
  • Vegetable oil, for frying

Directions:  Mix filling ingredients in a small bowl.  Gently spoon filling into the bowls of the flowers, twisting the tops of the petals to close.

Heat a pan full of oil over med-high heat for a few minutes.  Combine flour and sparkling water in a bowl so that it is runny enough to easily coat flowers — I had to add slightly more sparkling water than 1C to decrease thickness of batter.  Gently dredge flowers in flour mixture (homonyms are cool in this recipe) and fry until flowers are golden brown.

Sprinkle with kosher salt and serve.

Fried zucchini flowers

Results:  This recipe was a winner!  Deep fried cheese of any kind is always a treat, and the flowers added a surprising freshness to each bite.  Even Mel ate and enjoyed them, and she is one of the pickiest eaters I know (this wouldn’t offend her – she owns it).  My daughter ate a plain flower dipped in honey because she’s not into cheese.  Fun.  Rating:  5 yums, the highest offered by my very technical ten point rating system.

Suggested wine pairing:  Wine pairing is a new feature of my blog because…well…who doesn’t like wine?  And in this case it’s extra relevant, because my dinner guest for the flowers, Bryan, created the site that I’ll be using to research appropriate pairings: winealign.com.

I would suggest the 2011 Errazuriz Estate Sauvignon Blanc from Aconcagua Valley, Chile, found in Ontario for $11.95. 

I got this result by using the food/wine pairing feature of the site, in combination with searching for the highest rated Sauvignon Blanc at my local liquor store for less than $25. Cheers!

Fish heads eat them up yum

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There’s a mysterious freezer section of my No Frills discount grocery store that I always rubber-neck.  It’s the section that often has chicken feet, and usually has a generous assortment of animal guts.  One time I saw beef face in there, but I haven’t seen it since, which might mean that it’s seasonal (smiles for spring?).  Something that’s in there every time I visit though, are fish heads.

For some reason, since the day I first saw them, fish heads have always struck me as intriguing.  Sometimes I stare at them for a while, wondering if I should bring them home and figure them out, but I can’t help but be suspicious of their arrow-shaped bony nature.  My argument with myself goes a little like this, mouth moving silently through the words as my kids beg to keep rolling past the weirdness:

First me:  There couldn’t be anything edible in there, right?  And how do you get past the brains and the eyes?

The other me:  But people obviously buy them for some reason.  Their brains can’t be that big, they’re just fish.  They could actually be good.

Maybe fish heads have always kept me mesmerized because of this awesome song.  Please persevere through the insanely long preamble.  I wish I was web-savvy enough to figure out how to play the song the entire time you’re reading this entry, but so it goes.

Fish heads song

Well, for some reason, today was the day.  I even phoned ahead to my local fishmonger, asking if they had any before I showed up asking strange questions.  They said they did – Grouper, which I soon learned is a huge fish.  I took two, each one about the size and weight of a cabbage, which they gave me for free (is that a bad sign?).  They were gigantic, big lipped, and googly-eyed.

The monger was thoroughly entertained.  I was silently grateful that my husband was away (when I told him what I had done over the phone afterward, his predictable response was EWWWW).

When we got home I made my 5-year-old daughter hold one up with her skinny little arms covered in grocery bags while she whined about the smell for the express purpose of trying to capture this photo and caption. Grouper heads will serve as an example of my mothering skills for her therapist one day for sure, so be proud that you’re witnessing that moment in my daughter’s history.

Peek-a-boo

I let her off the fish holding hook and made her hold the beer while I made a long arm to get this shot, which did make it kind of blurry, sorry.

I procrastinated cooking the fishy noggins for the rest of the day (and tried to explain their presence in the sink to the afternoon babysitter nonchalantly) before I finally steeled myself by drinking that beer you saw before and threw them into a pot of boiling water according to these instructions.  I tried to clip off the fins and gills as they suggest before I did this, but they were too strong even for my best kitchen snips, so I left them on, not being too worried because some people said they used the fins for stock.

I boiled them for about an hour, worrying the whole time that I might have to hack at the intact cooked heads with a melon baller or something to dig the meat out.  It turned out that when they’re cooked, the heads fall apart and then you just have to pick through sorting bone from meat.  Example:  “Toothy jaw mandible – nope.”

I did have to avoid touching the eyes, but otherwise the sorting process was surprisingly guts-free.  It reminded me of picking over a can of salmon to get rid of bones and dark meat bits, which brought me to the realization that fish heads is probably where a lot of that meat actually comes from.

I wasn’t into saving the boiling water for fish stock, because it smelled hugely fishy and..just ugh, so instead I just used the surprisingly large bowl of meat I had just collected…

…to make these (even had to double the recipe).  Cooking trick – give a recipe a French name and it magically begins to look appetizing.

Fish (Head) Croquettes (makes 6-8 patties) with roasted garlic aioli

Based on this recipe

Aioli:

  • 1 head garlic
  • 1Tbsp olive oil
  • 6Tbsp prepared mayonnaise

Croquettes:

  • 1.5 cups fish, shredded with your fingers
  • 2 green onions, chopped
  • 1/2C red pepper, finely chopped
  • 1/4C red onion, finely chopped
  • 1Tbsp fresh cilantro, chopped, more reserved for garnish
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 2tsp mustard
  • 1tsp lemon juice
  • 3/4C bread crumbs, divided
  • Salt and pepper
  • Olive oil
  • Mixed greens

Directions:  Aioli:  Preheat oven to 400, covering garlic head with tin foil and olive oil.  Roast garlic for 1 hour, and then after it has cooled, squeeze garlic into small dish.  Combine 1Tbsp of it with mayo and set aside.  Croquettes:  Combine all in a bowl with wooden spoon, adding only 1/4C of the bread crumbs to the mix.  Make patties and place on tray covered in parchment.  Let stand 10 minutes.  Heat generous glug of olive oil in pan until shimmering.  Put remaining bread crumbs on a plate and coat each patty.  Cook patties in oil 2-3 minutes per side until brown.

Serve patties over mixed greens with aioli and cilantro garnish.

Results:  This was the first time in my life that I have felt like a true magician in the kitchen.  I transformed two big ugly fish heads into a delicious meal that no one would ever be able to tell had come from such base beginnings, and now I’m pretty darn proud of myself for having done it.  I wouldn’t say that fish heads will become part of my repertoire, though – too weird and smelly.  But I do feel that I’ve acquired a valuable skill in case of a future food foraging Armageddon-type situation.  Time well spent.  And I’d make the croquettes again using fish filets without hesitation.

Rating:  3 gags for the fish heads, although I feel bad for judging them based solely on their gross appearance, because they tasted just fine and they were free, so what more do you want, really.  2 yums for the croquettes.