It will help us ev'ry day, it will brighten all the way, If we'll keep on the sunny side of life

we have had one of Those Weeks. i guess sometimes that happens when you get back from an awesome trip... you still want to be la-la-la-ing and skipping about but the universe has other ideas. so it goes, so it goes.

while in portugal, we picked up some TVP (at a tiny supermarket, no less, on a shelf next to the cereal. i was super excited as ive not found any here), so i made us some crumbles to use this way and that throughout the week. i made sausage patties, "meat" pie, and this morning, my favourite, cornbread with crumbles and egg.

i started with the following:
1/2 cup tvp
3/4 cup smoked tea* (lapsang souchong), divided into 1/2 cup and 1/4 cup
1/4 cup oats
various spices (i used some rosemary, garlic, thyme, oregano, cinnamon, and lemon zest)
2 tbsp tahini
1 tbsp maple syrup
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 caramelized leek
1 apple, grated
3 parboiled fingerling potatoes

first i made some tea.

i added half a cup of piping hot tea to the half cup of tvp and set it aside. i let the tea leaves soak in the quarter cup of water while i mixed everything else.

in a separate bowl, i mixed the dry goods, then added the tvp, and all the other ingredients.


i kept the crumbles in the fridge and used them for this and that. this morning i decided we needed some corniebread for breakfast.

i made my usual recipe:
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
1 1/2 cup milk
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
3/4 cup cornmeal
1/2 tsp salt
1 tbsp bkg powder
food colouring (this is what makes it corniebread, not cornbread)

into two small individual casseroles, i poured 1/4 cup batter and added the last of the crumbles on top. they were baked at 175 for roughly 20 minutes.

i fried an egg to top it off, and sprinkled on some fresh parsley.

then i stuck the remaining batter in a casserole, swirled the colours, and let it do its thing. corniebread usually takes 35 minutes to bake.

snack time!

now if only i could find some tvp here... it has got to be here! next time i go to the bio shop for gluten, i'll see what they say.... because i can see these crumbles being used for pizza, lasagna, tacos...



*i wanted to add a smokey flavour to the sausagey crumbles, and i thought infused water would do the trick. it did.

lis-bonne! food inspired by the capital of portugal

the mister and i just spent 4 glorious days in portugal--a welcome place to thumb one's nose at the winter (of course, the locals all thought it was cold and were bundled up, and all the museums had space heaters going... made us laugh)--and now that we're home, it's time to do some kitchen exploration.

we stayed at a welcoming guesthouse that provided us with a delightful breakfast every morning--fresh fruit! (FRESH FRUIT!) breakfast cakes! coffee! juice! cheese! eggs! yogurt! so many choices. this morning, waking up in our own bed, i decided i wanted to make us something warm and comforting. i usually make us a healthy bowl of oatmeal, but we we were out of milk. we did have a few apples laying around... and some orange juice... and one pot of yogurt.... and that's how i found myself making us a delightful breakfast bread (the mister insists on calling it cake) to warm our bones.

i gave the raisins a healthy soak in some orange juice. in the trusty kitchenaide, i creamed the butter and sugars, slowly added an egg, and the yogurt. smittenkitchen's apple muffins call for a cup of yogurt. our pots are a little over half a cup. i supplemented the rest of the cup with orange juice from the raisins, and a splash more for kicks. i combined all the dry goods and slowly added them to the batter.


113ish g butter
a little less than 1/3 cup sugar
1/2 cup sucre complet du canne, divided in 2
1 egg
1 pot of yogurt (i used honey greek)
1 cup wheat flour
1 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
lots of cinnamon and a shake or two of cloves
2 apples, peeled, cored, and chopped
1/4ish cup raisins
orange juice
small handful of pecans

i oiled a bread pan, poured the batter in, and sprinkled a mixture of the rest of the sucre complet, pecans, and a healthy few shakes of cinnamon. all was shoved into an oven warmed to 175, and it baked for about an hour. the smell woke up the mister. he says he'll keep me.

whenever we travel, my eyes are open to a whole new world of yum--our trip to tenerife created a mojo addiction--and this trip also inspired me culinarily.

the mister speaks spanish but neither of us speak portuguese. It's similar enough to spanish that we could figure out things, and the mister's amazing language skillz proved to be most helpful throughout the trip. most of the restaurants had a standard menu, and a selection of plates of the day. our first day there, i ordered the "fish with rice" (arroz de peixe) not knowing what to expect.

what i got was tasty tasty tasty.

it was, as advertised, fish with rice in a rich and spicy tomato sauce with shrimp and fresh parsley.

this is the dish i have recreated for dinner. mostly. i picked up some staple spices at a market during one of our jaunts--pepper combined with bay leaf, and paprika--and combined them with some canned tomato, stock, fresh red pepper, onion, and garlic. and you know what? it was deeelicious.


1 onion
garlic, as you please
1 red pepper
spices--sweet paprika, bay leaf
tomato paste
1 can chopped tomatoes
fish filets of choice
shrimp
2 cups stock of choice (i used fish stock)
1 cup of rice


i started out by sweating the onion.  i added the garlic and then the spices.  i was heavy on the sweet paprika. when the smell was intoxicating, i added a spoonful of tomato paste and the coarsely chopped red peppers. i let it all hang out for a while then added the can of tomatoes. i put on the lid and let it go for about 5 minutes. meanwhile, i defrosted some shrimp we had in the freezer. i added the fish, scooped the tomato over the top, and put the lid back on. after around 7ish minutes, i added the stock, brought it to a boil, and added the rice. lid back on, down to simmer. when the rice was nearly done, i added the shrimp, put back on the lid, and turned off the heat.

success! the mister says maybe i should try it again, you know, to make sure i have it right.

bon app!

more lisbon inspired foods are on the way...

old world vs. new world: apple pie throw down

as promised, more about the pie.

after we had decided what to make for dinner, i asked the mister what he was thinking of for dessert. he said "PIE! and i'll make it!" well, huzzah! said i.

but we didnt stop there. because he made a pie, i had to make a pie too. for comparison's sake. it's cultural. uh, yes. that's it. cultural.  plus, we had all this extra dough.  and lots of apples.

to be fair, his is a tart and mine is a pie. but im content to ignore that little detail and just enjoy our cultural apple pie throw-down.

i am super impressed with his apple peeling skillz. i used a peeler. he wins.



he says his granny is much faster. when she was younger, she could zippily peel an apple like no one's business.

we used the same crust base--the mister bought it at the market.  he bought enough dough for two pies.  讨厌!

his 4 apples were peeled, cored, and sliced. mine too.   but i used 7 apples.  i tossed mine with lemon juice, 1/4 cup flour, 1/3 cup sugar. he sprinkled the crust with sugar and then lay out the apples in a pretty pattern. he dotted the apples with butter and sprinkled on a little cinnamon, and a little more sugar.




he's totally cute.

i rolled out the bottom crust, poured in the apple mixture, and got to making the top crust. we didnt have enough dough left for a proper crust, so i made lots of stars. pretty pretty stars.

his pie:

my pie:

both recipes are based on our childhood memories of pie.  

and both taste of love and delicious.  

it's another potato sunrise

this week i made this curry for lunch. two days in a row.  it is going to become a staple, methinks. it is easy, fast, and intoxicating. imagine this: golden onion smell commingling with coriander, cumin, cayenne, cardamom, and fresh ginger... and that is just the beginning. enter tomato paste and chickpeas and coconut milk. i might have been caught sneaking spoonfulls of leftovers...and someone else might have finished off the second batch...  clearly this is a sign.  we are hooked.  and since i regularly have chickpeas, coconut milk, and onions at my disposal...well...

so delicious.

also this week, i made two kinds of vegetarian sausage. first up, a spicy sausage from the PPK for us to eat with bell peppers and pesto rosso.

later in the week, i made a sage apple sausage for dinner -- a favourite. this time i served the sausage breakfast style, along with a twice baked breakfast potato. since the sausage recipe calls for mashed potatoes, it felt like a perfect match.

two potatoes were baked in advance. then i lopped the top off and scooped out the guts.


i put down a layer of mushrooms, some fresh parsley, and some gruyere cheese.

next, i cracked an egg inside the potato cave and shoved it in the oven at 175/350 for what seemed like forever. in reality, it was only 25 minutes.

and dinner.


bon app!

...and sometimes food is not for eating.

the weather outside might be frightful, but baking things inside makes the house smell delightful.

when the apples came tumbling down from the trees at the abode of the mister's parents, we were gifted a winter storage box stuffed with the bounty. we've done our fair share eating the apples, baking the apples, and such, but i thought of one more way to enjoy the apples: sapin de Noël ornaments.

some of the apples looked a bit... tired. they werent over the hill totally, but well on their way. i didnt want to waste the buggers, so i peeled and chopped them, sprinkled on some lemon juice, boiled them in water until soft enough to squash, and made applesauce. 

i added an entire bottle of cinnamon to about 3/4ish cup of applesauce, as well as some nutmeg and cloves, and made a dough. i pressed it with baking paper and let it hang out in the fridge for a short while. this dough is a bit persnickety to work with, and making it cold helps. a lot.



from there, i just used my cookie cutters and made stars.  lots and lots of stars.  when the dough started to rebel, i stuck it back in the fridge.

the stars were baked at 100C for nearly 3 hours.


and what better way to hang the apple ornaments? why, with orange slices! this process is unquestionably easy: thinly slice an orange or two. line a baking pan. turn the oven on low (100C/200F). sprinkle the orange slices with spices. bake for 4 hours (wait for the slices to slowly dry out. they'll become hard and shrink quite a lot once all the moisture is out). and they smell ah-may-zing.

and the melding of the spices, apple, and orange smells? a bouquet of winter. next year i am considering making wreaths with these.

earning my umlaut

last week in eating, we devoured...

an artichoke heart and zucchini lasagna-ey dish with a garlic and sage béchamel sauce
black bean and quinoa burgers with oven roasted corn
cod with chanterelles in a wine and tarragon sauce

and.... pretzels, (veggie) sausage, and kohlrabi and apple salad with lemon, vinegar, and mustard.


thë fäct thät i nöw hävë än ümläüt ïn my nämë häs ïnspïrëd thïs dëlïcïöüs dëëd. well, that and the arrival of a kitchenaid and a kohlrabi à la garden.

for the pretzels, i used an alton brown recipe ive seen floating around the interwebs. (i have my eye on a martha stewart recipe that also sounds deeeelicious. im a huge fan of baking with booze and beer)




i changed the recipe to suit my needs/tastes
1 1/2 cups warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoons salt
1 package yeast
4 1/2 cups flour
1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
Vegetable oil for pan and hands
5 cups water
baking soda and baking powder*
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water
salt

*normally, one would use just baking soda. but baking soda and switzerland are not super friends. i should just go to the pharmacy and see what happens--from the grocery here, you can just get little packets. the quantity for cookies and cakes and the like is do-able, but for a big project, or for cleaning, the flimsy little packet does not satisfy.

i mixed the warm water, sugar, and salt together in the bowl and sprinkled the yeast on top.  then i waited.  when it was foamy, i added the flour, mixed, and kneaded.  i oiled a different bowl, oiled the dough, covered the bowl with a kitchen towel, and let it hang out for a while (about an hour) in the sunshine.

in that time, the dough had nearly doubled in size. i divided the dough into smaller lumps, oiled my hands, and got in touch with my inner preschooler as i rollyrollyrolled the dough into long ropes. then i made a u shape, gave the dough a twist, and wrapped the ends around.

the raw pretzel was plunked in a bath of boiling water and baking powder and soda for about 30-ish seconds. the reason? science! the alkalinity of the baking soda and baking powder makes the outside of the pretzel brown while the inside is still soft and chewy. i put the pretzels on a baking sheet with parchment, sprinkled them with salt, and put them in the oven at 450°/232° for about 12 minutes.

freshly pulled from the oven 

to accompany the pretzels, i made a simple salad.  we got a kohlrabi from christian's mom, so i decided to make us a crunchy salad.  i shredded some apple and cut up some onion, then lightly sauteed the two with some lemon juice.

i tossed everything together with a healthy splash of red wine vinegar and a glob of mustard

and then..... lunch!

pretzel, salad, veggie sausage, nectarine

this week in eating has been quite a bit adventurous as well because of our visitors. we had a small party and i made the most divine pie.

stay tuned!

bon appétit <3

cabbage noodles

i was hot to trot to make this for myself when... what's this? a christian? home? for dinner?

HURRAY.

here he is nomming.  nom nom nom.  a friend of mine once joked that i should make a webpage totally devoted to christian's food consumption, entitled what's-christian-eating-dot-com.  i just happen to have an amazing photo collection of christian eating.  poor chap.  but before christian sat down on our balcony to sink his chopsticks into his bowl of noodles, i had to make them.  here's that story:

along with the chard and rhubarb and cherries we got from christian's parents were two heads of napa cabbage.  im sure the mister had visions of kimchi dancing in his head, but that's a project for him.  i try and eat the stuff but i just cant handle it.  i do enjoy cabbage though, in general.  i do like slaw and i ate a great deal of cabbage in china (oh, 辣炝莲白, you are missed! i would often order that dish with 西红柿炒蛋 from the teacher's cafeteria for lunch... both are very much homestyle chinese cooking).

i was talking with my mom about what to do with the cabbage and she said to grate an apple and grate the cabbage.  that got the ol' wheels spinning.  i started thinking of the afore mentioned chinese cabbage dish and how easy it is to stir fry the vegetable... and then i thought about noodles and how we love to eat them. especially soba or udon.  and before i knew it, a dish was born.

we have boringly named the dish cabbage noodles.  but it does not taste boring.

i prepped some tofu--ive read about folks using a plate and a paper towel to squeeze the water out, but i prefer to just use my hand and a towel.   after slicing the tofu, i lay it on a towel on a flat surface.  then i roll the tofu up and press with my hand.  the water goes out and the flavour can come in.

for a marinade, i picked, in order of appearance (and quantity), mirin, sesame oil, soy sauce, and honey.  i swished around the mixture and added more of the first three ingredients.  i put the tofu in and prepped everything else while it could soak up the goodness.

i washed and chopped the cabbage, grated the apple, boiled the noodles, chopped some garlic, and was lucky enough to find just a bit of ginger in the fridge.  i love ginger.  love it.  if you have a sore throat? slice up some ginger root and throw it in a pot with some boiling cola.  no, really.  especially during the winter months. it's just the bestest thing. 

i warmed up some cooking oil in our skillet. next, i took each piece of tofu and liiiiiiightly coated it in a little cornstarch. once the oil said it was ready, i added the tofu to the hot pan and cooked each side until it was golden.

 once all the pieces were cooked, i transfered them onto a plate and added the ginger and garlic to the pan. i gave them a good swirl and added the apple. then i added the cabbage and stir fried until the leaves were just wilting. then i poured in the rest of the marinade, gave that a good swish, and added the noodles. i removed the pan from the heat and continued to mix everything together.

And that's all there is (there isn't any more).

bon appétit <3