Creamy Mushroom Bruschetta/ Crackers November 18, 2009

Turns out ‘mushroom’ is the most sought-after keyword that brings people to this blog. So, if you are one of the mushroom-people give this quick appetizer a try – you will love it! I enjoyed it more with crackers (the President Choice multi-grain crackers from Superstore), but the initial recipe was for bruschetta. You’ll need: mushrooms – some 400gr of mushrooms – mix white mushrooms, shiitake mushrooms, enokitake mushrooms, oysters mushrooms (really, anything you find! dried mushrooms work as well), 1 tbsp sour cream, 1 onion, oil, cooking wine, roasted pine nuts, basil, salt, and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Wash and slice all mushrooms.
2. Cut onion and saute for 2-3 minutes in a large pan with a bit of oil.
3. Add mushrooms.
4. Add a bit of cooking wine, salt and pepper. Cover and simmer for 10 minutes, mixing constantly.
5. When mushrooms are almost done, add the basil.
6. Put them in a bowl, add the sour cream and mix.
7. Add roasted pine nuts and mix.
8. Serve on crackers or toasted baguette.

Another apple dessert: Apple omelette November 3, 2009

Apple by Abhijit Tembhekar

Apple omelette is so easy to make! It’s good warm or cold, simple or with icecream or jam. You’ll need 4 apples, 4 tbsp white flour, 4 eggs, cinnamon, some butter and around 1 cup of milk. Optional: rum, raisins, vanilla essence.

Instructions:

1. Peel and cut apples into cubes. Butter an oven proof deep dish and put the apples in.
2. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Add rum and raisins, if using.
3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs with flour. Gradually incorporate milk.
4. Pour over apple cubes and bake at 375F for around 45 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.

Photo credits: Abhijit Tembhekar

Pears in wine October 31, 2009

An interesting dessert for the wine lovers. Got the recipe from ecurry (beautiful pictures too!). You’ll need: 2 firm pears (very firm!), 1.5 cup red wine, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup sugar, orange grind and spices like whole cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.

Instructions:

1. Peel pears, set aside.
2. In a pot, bring to boil wine and sugar. Then add all spices and keep on low heat for 10 minutes.
3. Add pears. They need to be completely sunk in. Boil on low heat until pears are tender (30-40 min).
4. Remove and put aside. If serving immediately, continue boiling the sauce until it gets syrupy.
5. Serve with sauce and icecream.

Cauliflower and Potato Curry October 27, 2009

I got the recipe for this side dish from a recipe book (Cooking for Today. One Pot. Parragon Publishing) and adapted it to my taste. The original was meant to be very spicy, as it included 4 dried chillies. The dish itself is very flavory and works well with any type of meat (maybe except fish). You’ll need: 4 red potatoes, 1/2 cauliflower (flowerets), 1 onion, garlic, and a range of spices like turmeric, cumin, gingerroot (I used ginger powder, which the recipe explicitly warned against, but it worked well in the end), paprika, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Soak cauliflower flowerets in cold water for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into cubes. Slice the onion and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some oil and add some cumin (the recipe said white cumin seeds, i used powdered cumin). Mix thoroughly and after 1 minute, add the onion. Cook for 3-5 minutes (or until onion becomes translucent). Remember to mix constantly.
3. Add ginger, garlic, paprika, salt and turmeric and cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add potatoes and cauliflower, mix well and add 2/3 cup water. Cover and simmer until the veggies are tender, adding more water if needed.

Baked apples October 24, 2009

Bake some apples for a yummy, healthy sweet treat! First, soak some raisins into rum for 15 minutes. Peel and core apples (I confess that taking the core out was quite a challenge).

In a plate, mix 2-3 tbsp brown sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and cloves (powder). Roll apples through the mixture, then fill them with raisins. Bake in oven at 359F for 1 hour or until tender. Serve warm with plain yogurt and social biscuits.

Biscuit and Cocoa Dessert October 15, 2009

This dessert is quite popular in different parts of the world under different names: for instance, in Eastern Europe it’s known as a ‘potato‘ while in the Arab world, it’s called a chocolate biscuit dessert.  Regardless of the name, the point is this is a delicious and easy to make dessert that requires ZERO cooking (as in ’stove/oven cooking’). You’ll need: 500 gr social biscuits (the very plain ones, no flavor, no filling), walnuts, raisins, rum, vanilla, milk and of course, cocoa (powder).

Instructions:

1. Break the social biscuits with your fingers. Place in a large bowl.
2. Soak raisins into rum for 10-15 minutes.
3. For extra taste, warm up the walnuts in a frying pan.
4. Pour some milk over the biscuits and, using a fork, mash/crush the biscuits until you get a thick paste (add milk gradually, you do not want to have a watery paste but a very thick one).
5. Add walnuts, raisins with rum, vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons cocoa. Mix.
6. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes .
7. Take out from the fridge. Prepare a separate plate with 1-2 tablespoons cocoa. Using a spoon, shape the mixture into balls then roll them in the cocoa powder. Place on a separate plate, cover and refrigerate. Serve cold.

Banana Chocolate Cookies October 13, 2009

Banana by Jason Gulledge

I had two ripe bananas that nobody was gonna eat, but I didn’t want to make a banana bread again. I googled for some recipes, and came up with one for banana chocolate cookies. You’ll need 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup (or less if you’re not a big fan of sweet things) sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence, 1 and 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon soda bicarbonate, 2 bananas, pinch of salt, chocolate (use as much as you want, depending on how strong you want the chocolate taste to be. You can use chocolate chips too).

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix butter with sugar (your life will be considerably simplified if you leave the butter at room temperature for 30 minutes before you start working on it).
3. In a separate bowl, mix egg with vanilla. Then gradually incorporate it into the butter mixture.
4. Add flour, pinch of salt, soda (I always dissolve it with one teaspoon of lemon juice) and bananas.
5. If using chocolate chips, simply add them. I used 2 squares of a cooking chocolate bar, melted it in a small pan (you can do it on the stove or in the microwave). Incorporate melted chocolate into the mixture.
6. If you want (and  I would highly recommend it), add some raisins and a bit of rum.
7. Using a spoon, place small round cookies on two baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Photo credits: Jason Gulledge

Zucchini Stew August 31, 2009

Got those fall yellow and green zucchini and don’t know what to do with them? Try a stew – you can then pair it with meat, or just eat it on its own, or with, say falafel. It’s not difficult at all to make it and it stores well in the fridge for up to a week. You’ll need some 5-7 zucchinis, 2-3 cooking tomatoes (or canned diced tomatoes), 1 onion, basil, parsley, salt, pepper and a bit of oil.

Zucchinis by maesejose

1. Peel and cut zucchini into cubes. Set aside (but don’t leave for too long, as they change color. If you need to store for a few hours or so, cover them with cold water or milk).
2. If using raw tomatoes, sink them in boiling water for a couple of minutes, then remove skin and cut into pieces. Set aside.
3. Peel and cut onion. In a cooking pot, add a bit of oil and saute the onion until translucent.
4. Add zucchinis, little by little, mixing to incorporate them. If needed, add a bit of water.
5. Add diced tomatoes, salt and pepper.
6. Let boil. Towards the end, add basil and parsley.

Cauliflower with Cheese Sauce August 29, 2009

This recipe is quite easy to make: you boil the cauliflower, then you toss it with the sauce in the oven for some 30-40 minutes, and you’re done! You’ll need: 1 big cauliflower (or 2 small ones), feta cheese (hard to say how much, you’ll probably need some 300 gr), breadcrumbs, 1 tsp white flour, 150 ml milk, 2 tbsp butter, 2 eggs, 2 tbsp sour cream, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Wash cauliflower under cold water. With a knife, remove stem and leaves, then separate the florets by cutting the stems.
2. Boil in a big pot until cauliflower is tender.
3. Grease an oven dish some of the butter, save the rest for the sauce. Arrange the cauliflower florets in the dish, sprinkle with breadcrumbs, salt and pepper.
4. Prepare the sauce: melt the rest of the butter, then mix with the eggs and the sour cream. Add the flour. In a separate dish, crumble the cheese using a fork. Incorporate in the sauce.  Add the milk, mix thoroughly.
5. Pour the sauce over the cauliflower and bake in the oven for 30-45 minutes, or until golden.

Photo credits: Muffet

Crab Flakes Phyllo Pastry June 9, 2009

If you like pastries, this might be your thing. It’s similar to spankopita – except there’s no spinach. So we could call it crabopita…  You’ll need 1 pack of pollock flavored crab flakes, 1 pack of phyllo sheets (the ones they sell frozen in Superstore, Safeway or Coop), some 250 gr. Philadelphia cheese, 3-4 mushrooms, 1 grated carrot, 1 celery stick, salt, pepper, basil (or any dry spices you like with seafood), 3-4 tbsp melted butter, 1 egg (beaten).

Instructions:

1. Prepare the filling: in a bowl, mix crab flakes with the grated carrot and the mushrooms and the celery stick cut into small pieces. Add salt, pepper and the spices. Add the cheese and mix well.
2. Spread the phyllo sheets and cut them into squares (or into any shapes you want to use for the pastry).
3. Melt the butter, and use it to brush the phyllo sheets (I find that using 3 -4 of them per pastry is the best). Then spoon some of the crab mixture onto the phyllo sheets, and using your hands roll them (I prefer doing them like spring rolls, but you may choose other shapes, like triangles).
4. Brush each pastry with the egg then put on tray.
5. Heat the oven (350F) and leave them for 15 minutes or until the phyllo pastry is crunchy.