My First Pickling attempt!

Hey Everyone!

Pickled Eggs are by far one of my favourite treats and snacks :D So I have decided that I would Scow er the Internet and Give it a shot for myself!

I found numerous home recipes and versions of Pickled eggs and I decided to try out a Spicy Egg version ( I love Spicy foods).

I found that its not a very long or difficult process and was quiet fun to try out and seemed to be very type of recipe you can manipulate to what you would like. So enough of Jabbering Let walk my way back threw what I had created.


SPICY EGGS

3 cups apple cider

2 cup white vinegar

4 teaspoons salt

2 teaspoon mixed pickling spice

2 clove peeled garlic

1 sliced onion

1 teaspoon mustard seed

Lots of Baby hot peppers :D

16 Eggs

a couple bay leaves


Okay Okay! So now we have all the fixings all ready to go, I first Started by Getting the Eggs in a Pot with Water and a Touch of salt to get things moving! Then Once they were boiling away I turned down the heat to a soft boil, and leave them at that for about 15 minutes, Because if you boil them real hot and quick you get that grey dis-coloration around the yolk.Then I got some of the other ingredients ready by Chopping up the Peppers, Onions, and Smashing a couple Garlic cloves, I know it only called for 2 But I'm a Garlic hound so I threw probably 4 or 5 in and about :D





Okay now that these are ready and off to the side, I turned my attention to the spices! Now on the box it says to uses a cheese cloth to put you pickling spice in to, But I completely forgot to get some so I figured a Coffee Filter would probably do more or less the same action so I threw my pickling spice in to the filter and tied it up with a bit of thread. Then I took out a other pot and added my vinegar both in, added my salt and mustard seed and bag of pickling spice, and 2/3 of my chopped veggies, and the few bay leaves. Then started to bring them to a boil. ( I did this once the Eggs were done because I will take a few minutes to peel the eggs so let that put away while your busy peeling)

SO now all the eggs are peeled and the Spice and liquid is started to boil away, So I think its time for a Glass of Wine :P :D and Time to throw some of the raw Veggies in the bottom of my Mason Jars





Now that your mixture is boiled up for about 10-15 min So everything has soaked in and the flavours are floating around you will have a kitchen full of pickling aroma :P Putt the Eggs and raw veggies in the jars in kinda layers then take out the Baggie from the liquid and then you take hot Liquid and pour it all over until your eggs are covered up by the liquid. Then Throw the Lids on and Make sure there nice and Real tight! Then I threw them in the Fridge and I will open them up here in about 2-3 weeks and we will see if it was a success, If they were I'm thinking Pickled Beats and Pickles will be coming up in the near future! :D

Beef Fajitas Wraps

I've made beef fajita wraps only a couple of times, on the same weekend, with the same marinated beef. I unfortunately didn't write down the recipe for such an amazingly delicious result. So, today I decided to recreate that experience as close as possible, for better or for worse. However, I expect it to be on the better side after smelling the marinade.

Juice of 1/2 orange

Juice of 1/2 lime
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp chili powder
1/4 tsp cayenne powder
1 tsp kosher salt
1/8 tsp ground black pepper
pinch ground cloves
2 tbsp olive oil

1 lb flank or skirt steak (grill to perfection like below)

Mix the marinade ingredients and place with steak in a ziplock bag. Remove as much air as possible and seal. Marinade for 2 hours or overnight.



You know that you've done a fabulous job when the meat slices like this:




These fajita wraps can be assembled any way that you like. Since we've had some wonderful organic veggies delivered every saturday, I decided to inject some of these into the wraps. I layered kale, onion, and super sweet slivered red bell peppers along with some grated extra old St. Albert cheese and then rolled up the wraps in some fresh flour tortillas. I then topped the wraps with some more cheese and placed them in the oven for about 15 minutes which not only melted the cheese, but it helped build the flavours into a kind of sauce. Basically, it helped make the wraps juicy with every bite.



The final assembly includes a delicious mexican bean salad that served as a very healthy and perfectly accompaniment to this meal. ( I also covered my wrap with Sriracha sauce which is the best chili sauce for any mexican meal). If you're at all curious about what went into the mexican bean salad, I can post this. All you need to do is ask.

From Beets to Borscht

We have a lot of beets. In fact, we have so many beets that the Go-Go's are going to have to give up the rights of that song..... "we got the beets".

Our lovely friend brought over a vegetarian cookbook that has a killer borscht recipe in it, and I happened to have a scanner so I got the idea to skip writing it down, and just scan the fucker. It may as well be posted here since it would be much more convenient to call up an image from a laptop rather than waste precious photo printer ink.

I'll post up some photos and experiences when I make this on the weekend. If anyone else wants to do the same and share it that would be foodtastic.

Borscht Page 1

Borscht Page 2

Israeli Couscous Salad

The traditional tiny couscous as we usually recognize it isn't really my favorite. It's fine to have a dollop on the side of your plate but it's mealy, sand-like texture wears thin on me after a while.

Different is "Israeli Couscous". Also known as maftoul or pearl couscous, it - like regular couscous - is a small pasta. However, the process of being lightly toasted, lends it a pleasing, nutty flavour.

Like any pasta salad, you can do anything you like with it. I like to dress mine simply with a lemon/mustard vinaigrette and toss with finely chopped raw vegetables. For some reason, I've found this is a dish you can sneak cilantro into and people who might normally balk at this most divisive of herbs immediately go "what is that", searching for the source of their delight.

My being always late to the party, this is a summertime picnic/pot-luck trick to stick up your sleeve, one that always generates a bit of talk without getting too demanding on the cook.

I recently made a batch for a Sunday afternoon potluck where the hosts grilled up some delicious salmon and chicken. I won't give a recipe - it's so versatile you really can't go wrong. Except to say, I diced as finely as my patience would allow some peppers of different colours, some carrots, and some red onions, and then tossed in some parsley. I then made a Dijon mustard vinaigrette spiked with fresh lemon juice and tossed it up. This is a basic as you can get folks. Try it with sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts and olives with a oregano-lemon vinaigrette. Cook the couscous in red wine and beet juice and you'll have these gorgeous, ruby red pearls just waiting to be tossed with a pungent white cheese and some beautiful green herbs - looks amazing on a plate. You can toss the couscous in green pesto and serve at room temperature with some grilled vegetables on top. Anyway you do it, just make sure that you don't overcook the couscous and ALWAYS make extra - your guests will want to take some home and it goes great in a packed lunch the next day.

You won't find Israeli Couscous at every market but here in the Hamilton area, I find it fairly readily at the Denninger's chain and our local health food stores (Goodness Me). Just poke around, it's not that hard to find, although it can be expensive relative to regular pasta. I guarantee no-one else at your next potluck will have ever experienced it and for such a simple dish it can really get people talking about food, at which point you can begin to knowledgeably extol the virtues of fried sweetbreads and pickled kangaroo penis. Enjoy!

Other people look for porn, I look for pizza.

It's almost 1 in the morning and I'm drinkin' a beer. I'm a man. Got Randy Bachman's CBC show on the radio - he's playing Eddie Cochran, God bless him - and a container of BBQ pork beckoning me to the fridge. And yet, I cannot move. The Internet has me transfixed to........ what? Girl on girl action? Steamy amateur lovin'? A sheep dressed in PVC whipping a turtle?

No, pizza.

Oh I have dreams, you know. One day I'd like to own a house - not so much for any other reason than to make and cure my own Italian cold cuts in the cellar. And I HAVE to have one of those brick ovens in the backyard, Jamie Oliver style. I'd make pizza dough everyday and basically just survive on pizza. Crack an egg on it, add some ham, bake it off = breakfast. Leftovers on dough = lunch. Some of my cured meats with a crumble of buffalo mozzarella and - hey what the hell - a veggie or two = dinner. For a change I'd make a nice calzone every once in a while.

But until those dreams come true, I look online for encouraging signs that the universe is in its pomp and that the stars are aligned just so, and I offer exhibit A.1: http://www.toarminas.com/pizza.htm

Now, this is my kind of manifesto. First, these devilish Michigan bastards put paid to the nancypants idea of a "small" pizza. Then they laugh at the "rabbit food" like qualities of their competitors' MEATS! They had me at "to call it meat is worse than an exaggeration, it's lying."

Well, wipe the drool from my quivering lips and put a cloth over my hard-on..... if only this place had pictures of their wares, I'd be humping my computer screen and biting on a rag.

Like I said, somewhere - probably just down my apartment hall - some dude is witnessing something probably borderline illegal involving a Senator and a grade school "gifted" class but for me, it's all about the sweet, sweet 'za.

I'm pretty sure Mike is gonna regret giving me a spot on the Foodeeze blog.

Pumpkin Ravioli with Sage Butter

Since we received Sage, but no pumpkin in the last Bryson's organic delivery, we had to go out of our house and actually BUY pumpkin. We took a shortcut and bought pureed pumpkin, keeping sure not to purchase any spiced pumpkin meant for pie filling at halloween which also happens to be around the corner.

The ravioli were made with Gow Gee (wonton) wrappers that we had leftover from a night of dumplings a couple of weeks earlier. They keep forever in their sealed packet. They are essentially the same as the pasta that you would create for ravioli. Flour and water. The building blocks of all dumplings and pastas.

Since we didn't keep track of our own recipe for this, I found a similar recipe on the internets that takes it up a notch by adding flavour through carmelization. This is really simple and elegant.

Make as many as you want. These freeze and thaw VERY well for a quick meal.

for the ravioli

1 cup pumpkin or squash puree
1 cup ricotta cheese (use fresh if you've got it, otherwise drain the storebought cheese in cheesecloth for an hour)
1 Tbsp butter
2 tsp basalmic vinegar
1 Tbsp dark molasses
1 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
.25 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
sea salt
freshly ground pepper
wonton wrappers

for the sage sauce

4 Tbsp butter
6 diced sage leaves
4 large whole sage leaves, for garnish

method

Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Spread squash puree on a baking sheet and place in oven to dry, 10-15 minutes. You want your puree to be at a mashed-potato consistency. Scrape into a large mixing bowl.

Heat 1 Tbsp butter in a small sautee pan over medium heat until it begins to brown. Remove from heat, swirl in basalmic vinegar and molasses. Add to the pumpkin along with the ricotta, Parmesan, and nutmeg. Season to taste with the salt and pepper, chill for a couple of hours. At this point the filling can be refrigerated for 1-2 days.

Lay out your wonton wrappers--I use wonton wrappers because I don't make pasta. If you make pasta, knock yourself out. Put a small mound (abut half a Tbsp.) of the chilled pumpkin filling in the center of a wonton. Using a small pastry brush, moisten all of the edges with a little cold water. Fold the wonton in half, firmly pressing the seam, forming either a triangle or a rectangle. Repeat until you run out of wrappers or filling. You can freeze these uncooked raviolis, in a single layer, for 1 month. Cook the raviolis in gently boiling water for 2 minutes.

While the raviolis are cooking, melt the remaining butter with the sage and a pinch of salt until it foams and begins to brown. Remove whole sage leaves and drain on a paper towel (they will be a crispy, pretty garnish). Continue to swirl the butter sauce until it turns a rich chestnut brown.

Now, you can either spoon the sacue over your raviolis in their serving bowls, or you can toss the ravioli in the butter before serving. Either way, serve with grated Parmesan cheese, a couple of fried sage leaves and a nice green salad. Enjoy!

Bryson Farms delivery for 08-30-2008

Week one of our organic veggie delivery from Bryson's Farms was a great experience. We used pretty much everything in the week creating new and exciting recipes like a summer squash with chorizo pasta salad, baby fennel and microgreen salad, garlic roasted fingerling potatoes, 7 alarm heirloom tomato salsa, and many other dishes that I cannot possibly name.

This week we've received roughly the same proportion of vegetables, and another bounty of heirloom tomatoes. Additions this week are the bunch of large basil leaves, fresh sage, a different type of potato (baby red?), white radish and another kind of microgreen. Missing is that mysterious russian sage which we never figured out a food application for, and the fingerlings (which were incredible). Another 4 ears of tasty corn are a treat.

We've only got one idea so far, squash ravioli with butter-sage sauce. We'll probably get creative with the plentiful tomatoes. Obvious choice will be a soup, and probably a tomato sauce. I saw simple serving on Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations that proved raw radish are delicious served with butter. Unfortunately, we didn't get any radishes! oh well, maybe next week.