Simple cooking in a complicated world

Posts from the ‘The Food Matters Project’ category

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

The Food Matters Project is a weekly recipe share based on the best-selling cookbook The Food Matters Cookbook:  500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living, by Mark Bittman.  Each week myself and fifty other food bloggers cook a recipe selected by that week’s host, adding our own interpretations, insights and experiences.  The result is a forum that promotes healthier eating habits centred around plants and a lifestyle more conscious of the world around us.

I used to get really intimidated by any recipe that required yeast.  So much so that I avoided these recipes entirely, even though they are some of my favourites to eat.  Yeast always scared me.  I always question if I should I use instant or traditional dry yeast?  My mom swears by traditional dry yeast and will sub in this kind even if the recipe says instant yeast.  My grandmother on the other hand, always used fresh yeast.  I haven’t gotten there yet, but I’m sure I’ll give it a whirl eventually.

Another question I wrestled with is to proof or not to proof and if sugar is necessary while it’s proofing or not?  And the ever so important question, how warm should the liquid be that you’re adding to the yeast?  Lots to consider here people!  Thankfully, I have overcome my fear and I can now fully embrace those recipes that intimidated me in the past.  Breads, cinnamon rolls, pizza dough, krafne all of these use to make me sweat – but not any more!  If you’re still fretting over risen breads, fret no more!  Here are a few tips to guide you along.

Active Dry Yeast

When using this type of yeast I buy individually, vacuum sealed packages and use the entire package, even if the recipe calls for less.  This type of dry yeast needs to be proofed.  Proofing simply means that you have activated the yeast with a warm liquid and a little sugar and given it time to rise and bubble.  Follow the directions on the package.  Usually it’s about a 1/4 cup of warm liquid (the milk or water should be warm but not uncomfortable to put you finger in).  Measure the liquid in a measuring cup with one teaspoon of sugar and sprinkle the yeast on the surface of the liquid.  Stir once or twice gently and allow to proof for 15 minutes or until it has doubled in volume.

Instant Dry Yeast

This yeast does not require proofing or rehydration.  Simply sprinkle in with the dry ingredients and I always like to ensure that the liquid I am adding is warm.

The recipe this week was chosen by Melissa from The Faux Martha.  It’s a great recipe for a hearty and wholesome bread.  The original calls for strictly whole wheat flour.  I decided to sub in 1 cup of oat flour and throw in some honey, raisins and cinnamon and make it a cinnamon raisin bread.  The next time I make this bread I think I will lighten it up by substituting 1 cup of white flour for the whole wheat.  That’s the beauty of bread recipes, they’re so flexible.  There are so many options for additives and flavourings that every time you make a loaf you can have a totally different result.

Whole Wheat Cinnamon Raisin Bread

For this week’s recipe please see Melissa’s blog, The Faux Martha.  To see the lovely loaves that the other participants baked click here.  To see my variation see below.

I substituted 1 cup of oat flour for whole wheat flour (2 cups whole wheat, 1 cup oat flour)

3 tablespoons honey

1 cup raisins, soaked in boiling water for 15 minutes and drained (the raisins will drain the bread of the moisture if you add them in without rehydrating them first)

1 tablespoon cinnamon

7 Comments

Whole Wheat Pizza with Romesco Sauce, Chorizo and Carmelized Onions

Whole Wheat Pizza with Romesco Sauce, Chorizo and Carmelized Onions


After missing a week of The Food Matters Project, I’m right back at it this week with a recipe for everyone’s favourite – pizza!  Before I tell you about this recipe, I want to tell you a little about why I failed to post one last week for FMP.  Last week’s recipe was “Fish Nuggets Braised in a Rhubarb Sauce.”  Like you’re probably thinking right now, I also thought at first glance – this sounds weird!  But after a read-over of the ingredients and steps involved I came to the conclusion that it looked alright.  I added a few tweaks here and there to put my own stamp on it.  Cooked up some Soba noodles tossed it altogether and lo and behold . .  I was not impressed.  I didn’t like it at all. The dish to me, tasted too fruity. It needed more savoury-ness, more umami, more umph!  Frankly, the flavour fell very flat for me.

Some bloggers would have posted the recipe anyway, wanting to show the successes and failures that occur in their kitchens equally.  I admire this outlook and appreciate when bloggers are honest and disclose when something doesn’t work and dedicate whole posts to a recipe that just didn’t pan out.  I on the other hand am a perfectionist – to my detriment.  While I think I am quite forthcoming with tips and ingredient changes that I feel will make the said recipe better, I don’t post recipes that did not turn out, or recipes that I  myself wouldn’t prepare again.  That’s why you didn’t see my take on last week’s recipe or the recipe from week 8 - my results weren’t good enough to share.

This week’s recipe however, was a keeper!  While I would make a couple of changes to the pizza dough recipe next time, I think the recipe is a great one for a whole wheat crust.  I doubled the recipe to make two large 16” pizzas.  When I mixed the ingredients I found that the dough wasn’t very wet as the recipe described.  Bittman explains the dough should be, “sticky and wet, like biscuit batter” and if it’s not, to add more water.  At the time, this made sense because I made Jim Lahey’s no-knead bread boule in the past and recalled that this dough was also very wet.  So I added extra water, combined, set it near my kitchen window and didn’t think much of it until about 10 hours later. 

When it came to start prepping the dough, I generously oiled a pizza pan as Bttman suggests and stretched out my dough.  I made my own pizza dough in the past.  These experiences told me that the amount of oil I used in the pan this time around should have been enough and the thiness of the dough in most cases would have been just right.  However, when I pulled the pizza out of the oven, the crust was quite thick and almost completely fused to the pan in some spots.  My consensus, the dough was too wet and I didn’t stretch it out enough.  Next time around I will not add extra water.  A generous sprinkling of corn meal will also ensure the crust doesn’t stick next time around.  When it comes to the thickness of the dough, it needs to be as thin as possible.

Finally, the ingredients!  I told you in my last post that I’ve been on a Spanish kick lately, so when I found a link of cured chorizo in my fridge I knew I wanted to embrace those flavours yet again.  So I whipped up a batch of romesco sauce – a roasted red pepper sauce with toasted ground almonds, garlic and smoked paprika – carmelized two very large Spanish onions and grated a generous hunk of sharp and creamy Manchego.  The result is a very flavourful and complex pizza that is close enough to traditional pizza ingredients but different enough to keep things interesting.

Whole Wheat Pizza with Romesco Sauce, Chorizo and Carmelized Onions

For Bittman’s ”No-Work Mostly Whole Wheat Pizza Dough” visit Niki’s blog, Salt and Pepper, our host this week.  For more pizza inspiration and to see how the bloggers did click here. 

Makes 2, 16” pizzas and enough toppings to cover both pizzas.

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

See link above.  For this recipe I doubled the ingredients.

Romesco Sauce

Taken from “Grilled Skirt Steak with Quick Romesco Sauce,” by Lori Longbotham; Fine Cooking

1 thin slice white sandwich bread, darkly toasted

2 tablespoons toasted sliced almonds

3/4 cup roasted red peppers, drained

1 teaspoon sherry vinegar

1/8 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes

2 medium cloves garlic

1 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika or plain sweet paprika

Tear the bread into large pieces, put in a food processor, and process to fine crumbs. Add the almonds and process until coarsely ground.  Add the roasted red peppers, vinegar, and pepper flakes and process until the mixture is fairly smooth, about 1 minute.

Chop the garlic and sprinkle with 1/2 tsp. salt. Using the flat side of a chef’s knife, mash the garlic to a paste (you can alternately make a paste using a mortar and pestle).  In a 10-inch skillet, heat the oil over medium heat.  Add the garlic paste and paprika and cook, stirring, until the garlic is fragrant but not browned, 20 to 30 seconds.  Add the pepper mixture and cook, stirring, until heated through and thickened slightly, about 2 minutes. Set aside at room temperature

Carmelized Onions

2 large Spanish or yellow onions, sliced thinly

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 teaspoons salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

In a large skillet, heat oil over medium heat  and add onions.  Sweat onions for 5 minutes, tossing occasionally.  Sprinkle with salt and sugar, lower the temperature to medium-low and continue sweating onions.  Stirring occasionally until onions have reduced in volume by half and are soft and golden.

For the pizza

125g (1/2 cup) cured chorizo, thinly sliced

250g ( 1 cup) grated Manchego

Preheat oven to 450 degrees farenheit.  If using a pizza stone, preheat the stone in the oven at this time as well.  If using a pizza pan, generously oil it with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and sprinkle with  to 2 tablespoons of coarse corn meal.  On the pizza pan, (or pizza peel, if you are baking your pizza on a stone) stretch out the dough as thin as possible, being careful not to tear the dough.

Brush 2 tablespoons of olive oil on the pizza dough.  Spread half of the romesco sauce over the dough.  Divide the onions, chorizo and cheese between the two pizzas.

Bake in the preheated oven until the bottom of the pizza is lightly browned and the top, golden.  Slice and serve immediately.

5 Comments

Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables

Raise your hand if you’re sick and tired of nothing being in season!  Let me hear you if you’re fed up with all of your produce being from South America!  Who can hardly wait for local asparagus, fava beans, spring onions and rhubarb?? Me, me, me!  While I do love experiencing all four seasons, and dare I say, a little snow here and there – yes, I said it!  I am ready for planting season to start already.

If you’re like me and try to buy seasonal vegetables as much as possible, this can be a particularly boring time in the produce section of your grocery stores.  By now, you’ve probably had your fair share of squash, root vegetables and cabbage.  Maybe you have even got to the point of thinking about going over the dark side and buying a bunch of asparagus from Argentina because you’re craving those tender, earthy spears roasted with a little olive oil, lemon and a good sprinkling of parm.  And perhaps you caved last week and bought a couple of nectarines, only to bite into one and curse yourself for falling for that mealy, fragrant-less excuse of a summertime fave.

That’s ok, don’t feel bad.  We’ve all been there.  At this time of year, nothing in Canada is in season so while I had to buy acorn squash that was shipped from Mexico for this recipe and carrots from California, I did manage to stay away from that Argentinian asparagus.  I know that in a month or so, I will be eating fresh and local Ontario asparagus and I’ll be eating it every way possible, making the most of this veggie’s short season.

That’s how I look at a lot of my produce choices when shopping, especially in the winter.  Living in Canada, I will never be able to buy a local lemon, orange or lime – our climate just can’t sustain them.  That doesn’t mean I’m never going to eat a clementine again or refrain from squeezing a little lemon over my fish.  But I will choose to make recipes with citrus fruits in the winter when they’re in season in the big citrus producing areas of the world.  This is also around the time when I gorge myself with clementines because they just taste so much better.  So by the time Christmas and New Years passes, I’ve had enough of clementines and probably won’t have them again until the following Christmas.     

You see, I look forward to holding out for the local produce; waiting for strawberries in June, blueberries in July and corn in August.  You won’t find me buying those GM strawberries that smell like nothing and are crunchy – strawberries should not be crunchy!!  There’s nothing better than eating strawberries that are still warm from the sun, or baking them into a strawberry shortcake or strawberry pie.  How about tomato sandwiches that are so juicy that it soaks through your bread?  By appreciating the cyclical nature of the growing season you gain a deeper respect for food, the farmers that plant the crops the effort it takes to get these crops to your table.

So as I am itching to begin cooking lighter meals filled with spring veg, I turn to my year round staples to create a completely satisfying and delicious meal.  Sausages, smoked and dried bacon along with carrots, onions and celery make the flavour base of this dish.  Fresh beans that I froze last summer round out the proteins and canned tomatoes add body and depth.  The addition of acorn squash, instead of zucchini adds a note of sweetness and as it cooks down, the pulpy flesh thickens the stew beautifully.  Some cayenne for some heat and a splash of red wine vinegar at the end ties it all together.

Cassoulet with Lots of Vegetables

1 tablespoons of olive oil

2 oz smoked, dried bacon or slab bacon, cubed

1 lb Italian sausages (4 links)

2 onions, sliced

2 carrots, cut into 1/2 inch lengths

2 celery stalks, cut into 1/2 inch pieces

1 tablespoon of minced garlic

1 acorn squash, seeds removed, peeled and cut into cubes

Salt and pepper

1 can of canned tomatoes chopped, with juice

1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme

2 bay leaves

3 cups fresh romano beans, parboiled or 3 cups cooked or canned dried beans

2 cups homemade chicken or vegetable stock

Cayenne, to taste

Splash of red wine vinegar, to taste

If you are using fresh beans:   In a pot, cover the beans with water and cook until the beans are tender, but still have some bite left to them – they will continue cooking in the stew.

If you are using dried beans:  Soak the beans over night.  When you are ready to cook the beans, drain and rinse them thoroughly.  Put the beans in a pot, cover with water and cook until tender, but still have some bite left to them.

Put the oil in a large, heavy bottom pot over medium-high heat.  A minute later, add the bacon and brown.  When lightly browned, add the sausages.  Rotate so that all sides develop a golden exterior.  Cook for 10 to 15 minutes and remove from pan.  Drain off all but 2 tablespoons of the fat.

Reduce the heat to medium and add the onions, carrots celery and sweat for 3 minutes.  Add the garlic and continue cooking until fragrant, before adding the squash.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and cook until softened, about 5 minutes.  Add the tomatoes with their liquid, 1 cup of the stock and the herbs.  Bring to a simmer and if you are using fresh or dried beans you may add them at this point (if you are using canned beans don’t add them to the pot until later, as they will turn to mush after the longer cooking process).  Slice the sausages into chunks and return it to the pot and reduce the heat so the mixture bubbles gently but continuously.  Cook for 20 to 30 minutes, adding extra stock when the mixture gets thick, about halfway through cooking.  If you are using canned beans, add them to the pot during the last 10 minutes of cooking time.

Correct seasoning, add the cayenne if using, and a splash of red wine vinegar.  Serve with crusty bread and a drizzling of extra virgin olive oil.

19 Comments

Eggs in Purgatory

The Food Matters Project is a weekly recipe share based on the best-selling cookbook The Food Matters Cookbook:  500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living, by Mark Bittman.  Each week myself and fifty other food bloggers cook a recipe selected by that week’s host, adding our own interpretations, insights and experiences.  The result is a forum that promotes healthier eating habits centred around plants and a lifestyle more conscious of the world around us.

This recipe is very, very different from the original, “Curried Tomato Soup with Hard-Boiled Eggs,” this week’s FMP entry (you can find this recipe on Joanne’s blog, Eats Well with Others).  My husband and curry do not go together.  He’s very much a meat and potato kind of guy.  Not only is it steak and spuds for my man, but it’s a struggle to get him to try something new.  Think of a toddler who refuses to try something new because it’s not coated in ketchup or cheese.  That’s my hubby.  Of course, not everything needs to be topped with ketchup or cheese for him to consume, but I think you get my drift.

I must admit though, since we got married, he has become a little more open-minded when it comes to trying new things.  He no longer balks at the concept of “sweet stuff” and meat prepared together.  My low and slow baby back ribs convinced him that some brown sugar does wonderful things to pork.  His aversion to vegetables has also improved and realizes that dinner does not have to consist of a gigantic piece of meat every day of the week.

But, and this is a big but, there are many dishes and cuisines that will not fly.  For one, he will never try sushi.  The idea of raw fish – even though most rolls are made with cooked seafood – totally turns him off.  Fruit with meat or in main courses is another and exotic spices and flavours is a no-no as well.  Indian unfortunately, falls under this category.  The flavours are just a bit too foreign, a little far from home and from his comfort zone.  But that’s ok, everyone has their likes and dislikes, plus sushi and Indian are dishes that I enjoy eating out and do so quite frequently so I don’t miss making it at home.

For this recipe I took my inspiration from Bittman’s own variation, “Curried Tomato Soup with Poached Eggs.”  When I read poached eggs and tomatoes, I automatically thought of Eggs in Purgatory.  An Italian dish where eggs are poached in a tomato sauce, hence the purgatory.  I first encountered this recipe on an episode of David Rocco’s Dolce Vita.  Whenever I watch this show I feel so strongly compelled to drop everything and move to Italy.  It’s a program that not only showcases the beauty of La Cucina Povera, simple Italian peasant cooking, but it also highlights living the ”sweet life” in Italy.  So while my variation is far removed from the Indian inspired original, there are some parallels.  In either case, eggs and tomatoes never looked so good!

Eggs in Purgatory

 In Marcella’s recipe for the tomato sauce she calls for the tomatoes to be drained.  I kept the juice to give the sauce a looser consistency, better for poaching the eggs.

Don’t be put off by the amount of garlic required for this recipe.  Since it’s not browned, which enhances flavour, but rather simmered in the sauce, the flavour is rather mild.

Tomato Sauce recipe adapted from “tomato Sauce with Sautéed Vegetables and Olive Oil” and ”Tomato Sauce with Garlic and Basil,” Essentials of Classic Italian Cooking, Marcella Hazan.  Eggs in Purgatory technique taken from Uova in Purgatorio, Mario Batali

2 cups canned imported Italian plum tomatoes, with juice

5 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 small onion diced

5 garlic cloves, peeled and chopped fine

Salt

Freshly ground black pepper

2 to 4 eggs

1/4 cup grated hard cheese.  I used Asiago, but you can also use Parmigiano Reggiano or Pecorino

3 or 4 torn basil leaves to garnish

In a sauté pan, add the olive oil and onion and cook over medium heat until it becomes a pale gold colour.  Put in the tomatoes, garlic, salt and several grindings of pepper and turn up the heat to medium high.  Cook for 20 to 25 minutes, or until the oil floats free from the tomato.  Taste and correct for salt.

Crack an egg in a small bowl or ramekin.  Make a well in the sauce and carefully pour the cracked egg into the pan.  Repeat this with the other eggs, keeping each one separate from the other.  Cover the pan with a lid or foil until the egg whites are set, but the yolks are still runny; 3 to 4 minutes.  Sprinkle with freshly grated cheese and torn basil leaves.  Serve immediately from the pan with crusty bread.

11 Comments

Roasted Carrot and Cauliflower Gratin with Hummus

The Food Matters Project is a weekly recipe share based on the best-selling cookbook The Food Matters Cookbook:  500 Revolutionary Recipes for Better Living, by Mark Bittman.  Each week myself and fifty other food bloggers cook a recipe selected by that week’s host, adding our own interpretations, insights and experiences.  The result is a forum that promotes healthier eating habits centred around plants and a lifestyle more conscious of the world around us.

How do you reinvent a classic mediterranean dip into something new and exciting without compromising the flavours of the dish and the ingredients themselves?  This is what I struggled with after reading the recipe for this week’s Food Matters Project challenge.  Some dishes are easy to put your own spin on.  Substitute one ingredient here, another there and you have a totally different dish.  Others, like this week’s recipe of “Hummus Served Hot.” not so much.  The beauty about hummus is the simplicity and purity of the ingredients.  Chick peas, tahini, olive oil, garlic, maybe some lemon juice.  It doesn’t get any easier than that.  But it also doesn’t make it any easier to revamp.

I knew I didn’t want to make another dip, by changing the chick peas to something like cannellini beans.  I also knew I didn’t want to use it as a condiment in something like a wrap or sandwich – too obvious.  So then I started to look at flavours associated with hummus.  Whenever I think of hummus I am reminded of spices like coriander and cumin; flavours that can pack a lot of oomph to some rather mild ingredients.  Think Indian dishes like vegetable korma or Gobi Aloo; or Middle Eastern favourites like falafel and shwarma.  That’s when it hit me; vegetables!  Cauliflower and carrots to be exact, mild flavoured veggies that can carry the robust flavours I planned to use, but hearty enough to stand up to the earthy spices.

 

Now that I chose my ingredients I needed to figure out what I wanted to do with them.  I knew I needed the hummus to stand out.  I didn’t want it to be simply another flavouring to the dish.  I wanted the smooth creaminess to compliment the hearty vegetables.  So instead of making a stew or a sandwich, similar to the aforementioned dishes above, I decided to smother the vegetables in a coating of the hummus and top it with some bread crumbs; thus creating a gratin of sorts.

Finally, wanting to incorporate spices like coriander and cumin, I decided to roast the vegetables first with a few glugs of extra virgin olive oil and a sprinkling of these spices.  After a twenty-five minute rendezvous in the oven, the vegetables come out sweet and earthy, ready for the next step.  A light covering of hummus provides the rich creaminess associated with gratin, but without all of that guilt.  A topping of Parmigiano Reggiano and bread crumbs gives a nod to the French inspiration of this dish, and when it all comes out of the oven it’s a culture clash that totally works.

photo courtesy of Toronto Life Magazine

Speaking of culture clashes that work, my husband and I were in Toronto this weekend and while we were there we ate at a restaurant that we’ve been meaning to try for quite some time.  Hrvati Bar (Bloor St W and Euclid) serves up some great Croatian pub fare; or I guess I should say kafić fare.  Their pljeskavica (hamburger) is unreal and definitely lives up to all of the hype it has produced.  The beer selection is stellar and features brews from all around the world.  Then there’s the decor, which can’t be beat  My husband and I came to the conclusion that it’s best described as a stara hiža (an old wooden house, like my grandmother’s here - scroll down to the bottom) and a german beer hall with a communal, long wooden table and bench, barrels and vintage murals.  Needless to say, it’s an unpretentious, casual atmosphere that is enjoyed by all, but one that brilliantly highlights what Croatians love most, good food, good drinks and good times! Živjeli! 

To see more pictures of Hrvati Bar click here – Toronto Life Magazine

Roasted Cauliflower Gratin with Hummus

For this recipe you definitely want a looser hummus.  In Bittman’s recipe, which you can find on Erin’s blog, Naturally Ella, he suggests to reserve some of the liquid that the chick peas are cooked in, or use plain water to reach your desired consistency.  During the baking process, the hummus does thicken a bit.  Add a bit of extra water and/or olive oil (on top of the extra liquid you used when making the hummus) to thin out the sauce before you pour it over the veggies.  To read about the other recipes inspired by this week’s choice, click here.

1/2 cup hummus (recipe here)

1/2 head cauliflower, about 2 cups florets

2 to 3 medium carrots, peeled and cut into large chunks

2 teaspoons cumin

1/2 teaspoon coriander

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper

1/4 cup freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano

1/2 cup fresh bread crumbs (recipe here) made with 2 slices of bread and untoasted.

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

2 pats of butter (optional)

Preheat oven to 400 degrees farenheit.  Spread out cauliflower and carrots on a large baking sheet in a single layer.  Sprinkle with cumin, coriander, salt. pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  Toss and roast in oven for 25 to 30 minutes or until vegetables still have a little resistance when pierced with a knife.

Lightly grease a gratin dish, or shallow oven proof dish with olive oil or butter.  Put in the vegetables and top with hummus that has been thinned out with a little water or olive oil (should resemble the consistency of stirred yogurt).  In a small bowl, combine the prepared breadcrumbs with olive oil, and stir so that the crumbs are coated in oil.  Cover with freshly grated Parmigiano Reggiano and the bread crumbs.  If you like, dot the surface of the gratin with little pieces of butter.  Bake in the oven at 350 degrees farenheit for 15 to 20 minutes or until the bread crumbs are golden.  Serve immediately.

7 Comments
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