fregola sarda mista
June 19, 2011
Some of you may not have heard of Fregola Sarda. I hadn’t until I saw it on a store shelf last week and decided and I had to buy it. Fregola is a tasty Sardinian pasta made out of coarse semolina. The pasta bits are toasted after they are dried, changing the color and creating a nutty flavor that I think could become quite addictive. It cooks like pasta, you can use it like pasta, but it has a totally different consistency (aka “mouth feel”) that makes it an interesting alternative to the regular pasta we get in the habit of using. I did a simple “mista” version with grilled veggies, olive oil, balsamic, and herbs. I will make it again. And again. And again.
1 package Fregola Sarda
1/4 cup olive oil
6 tbsps balsamic vinegar
variety of vegetables including fennel, peppers,onions, zucchini, grilled and chopped
fresh herbs (basil, thyme etc.), chopped
sea salt and pepper
Cook Fregola Sarda according to package instructions.
Meanwhile, grill vegetables. Chop veggies finely along with herbs. When Fregola Sarda is al dente, drain, and put in a nice big mixing bowl. Toss with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Add grilled vegetables, chopped herbs, and slow roasted tomatoes. Toss. Add sea salt and vinegar to taste. Serve warm or keep in the refrigerator for a nice summer-y picnic lunch.
stinging nettle slaw
June 15, 2011
Okay all you v:gourmet followers, here’s a kooky one but good. I bought stinging nettles at the farmers market the other day and have been anxious to use them for all their amazing properties. This lacklustre weed makes up for its poor reputation by being packed full of iron, magnesium, potassium, calcium, vitamins A and C, and protein. Granted they require a little attention when handling to avoid the “stinging” part of “stinging nettle” but it’s worth the effort. You can use nettles like any green provided you either steam them first or, if raw, blend them well with other ingredients, both of which de-activate the sting. I decided to make a raw nettle dressing to add to some slaw as I find most slaw recipes a little uninspired. The nettle recipe gave it the zing and the zip I was looking for.
1/2 cup washed nettle leaves, handled with gloves
Juice of 6 lemons
4 tsps maple syrup
4 tbsps cider vinegar
2 tbsps shoyu or soy sauce
4 tbsps tahini
2 tsps fresh chopped ginger
2 cloves garlic
sea salt and pepper
Place all ingredients in a blender and blend well until really mixed. Add water if you need to thin out the dressing but this shouldn’t be necessary. Add sea salt and pepper to taste. Toss with chopped cabbage, red cabbage, and carrot. Serve with a tasty quinoa red bean and pecan burger or our favourite VLT.
garlic bread
June 15, 2011
I came home from work yesterday and found my eldest, Joshua, in the kitchen with his black apron on making super yummy garlic bread out of pizza dough. Good on ya Joshua! Wow – I must have done something right. Try it out. It’s simple. It’s easy. It’s tasty. It’s vegan. It’s pretty. It’s a great way to transition from the hub-bub of work to the hub-bub of making dinner. A quiet calm with a glass of pinot grigio before diving into the cacaphony of the evening. Or what a great Saturday afternoon snack al fresco.
basic pizza dough
1 1/2 pounds strong white bread flour
1 1/2 cups find ground semolina flour
1 level tbsp fine sea salt
1/4 oz active dry yeast
1 tbsp organic cane sugar
2 cups lukewarm water
garlic topping
olive oil
minced garlic
parsley
Pile the flour and salt onto a clean surface and make a 7-inch well in the centre. Add you yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water, mix up with a fork, and leave for a few minutes,, then pour into the well. Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix into the water. It will look like stodgy porridge – continue to mix, bringing in all the flour. When the dough comes together and becomes too hard to mix with your fork, flour your hands and begin to pat into a ball. Knead the dough by rolling it backward and forward, using your left hand to stretch the dough toward you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, springy, soft dough.
Flour the top of your dough, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature. This will make it easier to roll it thinly.
Meanwhile, combine minced garlic and olive oil. Chop fresh parsley. When the dough has risen, grab a chunk of dough about the size of a large fist. Roll it out. Place on a pizza stone. Brush with garlic oil and chopped parsely. Cut slits into the dough for a nice aesthetic look and bake at 500 degress for about 8 – 10 minutes.
latte
June 10, 2011
I don’t drink a lot of coffee but occasionally nothing else hits the spot quite like it. And I love coffee culture – hanging out in cafes with a friend or my hubby, or disappearing into obscurity with my laptop and getting stuff done amidst the buzz of kids and lovers and grandparents. After I gave up milk it was a bit difficult to ask for a soy milk latte – mostly because I was scarred from the Starbucks culture of grande-skinny-no-fat-mocha-chino-extra-hot-blah-de-blah – but I got over it and now I ask for one with pride. The trick is to stick to groovy little indie cafes like the Rooster on Broadview (my favourite!) where they use really good coffee and make your brew with love.
Photo credit: Cameron Johnson
Artist latte design credit: The adorable Michie
creamy white bean dip with rosemary
June 7, 2011
They say necessity is the mother of invention which is true. But adaptability, necessity’s twin sister, also has the mothering gene. I felt like I needed more beans on the daily menu so found a recipe for a white bean stew. It did not pass the v:gourmet test so we turned it into a dip by sending it on a trip through the food processor. Yum. As a dip. On sandwiches (with grilled veggies and greens!). You name it. An adaptable cook is a happy cook.
3 cups beans, soaked overnight and cooked
olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
4 carrots, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
pinch of red pepper flakes
1 tsp ground fennel seed
2 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1/4 cup white wine
sea salt and pepper
Heat olive oil in a heavy-bottomed dutch oven. Add carrots and onion and cook until tender. Add garlic and red pepper flakes for a few minutes until garlic is aromatic and the flavours come out. Add fennel seed, rosemary, cooked beans, wine, sea salt and pepper. Cook for a few minutes more. Let cool slightly and then throw everything into a food processor and blend until smooth but still a little “rustic.” Add additional olive oil while blending if necessary. Taste and adjust seasoning. See? Happy cook.
pesto pizza
June 6, 2011
I blogged about pizza on the weekend after we had Saturday night pizza night with homemade pizza sauce, dough, toppings, the whole shebang. For lunch today I was keen to clean out the fridge of all weekend left-overs. I found pizza dough and toppings, but no pizza sauce. So I decided to try a pesto pizza with the dough smothered in kale and olive pesto and then lovingly “topped” with all the yummy grilled veggies we still had kicking around. For this rustic lunch sure to satisfy your chomps, just follow the instructions for pizza and pesto and throw it all together. Easy peasy pizza pie.
tabbouleh
June 6, 2011
Back in the summer of 1990 Andrew was working for – oddly enough – Dr. Peter Richardson. The other one in Kingston. Not my dad in Toronto. After we accidentally killed his forsythia bush, he invited us for dinner. Not sure why. I suppose because he was a magnanimous kind of guy and we were young and foolish. He served us this tabbouleh. The very one. We loved it then. We love it now. Although whenever we eat it we think of that poor plant. Try it with the roasted fennel and tomatoes. Awesome combo.
P.S. Did you know Tabbūle is a Levantine Arabic word meaning literally “little spicy.” Originally from the mountains of Syria and Lebanon, a Turkish variation of the dish is known as kısır, while a similar Armenian dish is known as eetch. In Cyprus, where the dish was introduced by the Lebanese, it is known as tambouli.
1 1/2 cups cooked couscous or bulgur
1/2 red onion, diced finely
2 tbsps sesame seeds
1/3 cup parsley, chopped finely
1/3 cup mint, chopped finely
1 1/2 tbsps olive oil
3 tbsps lemon juice (juice from about a lemon and a half)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cucumber, chopped finely
1 tomato, chopped finely
sea salt and pepper
After cooking couscous or bulgur, let it sit and cool. Once cool, mix with all other ingredients. Let it sit again so the flavours meld. Serve and enjoy.
roasted fennel with tomatoes and olives
June 6, 2011
Had some fennel sitting in the fridge. And a few cherry tomatoes. And some left over olives from our pizza last night. I thought why not roast all these beautiful, fresh, organic ingredients together and see what happens. Well what happened? Love. Harmony. Dreams of a Tuscan villa on the sea. We had it with the tabbouleh which was magical. Incredible pairing without us meaning to create an incredible pairing. A little grilled, local, seasonal asparagus on the side. Mmmmmm.
4 small bulbs fennel, quartered
Dozen cherry tomatoes
Dozen olives, pitted
thyme, leaves picked
2 cloves garlic, chopped coursely
olive oil
a couple glugs of white sherry or white wine
sea salt and pepper to taste
Toss everything in a baking dish. Bake at 425 degrees for about 30 minutes, tossing a couple of times along the way.
pizza
June 5, 2011
We were watching Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution the other day. I love him. He is so empassioned, determined, and committed to what he’s doing, not to mention spot on in terms of wanting people to reconnect to their food and foster healthier diets. It got me flipping through his cookbooks again which I own but don’t often use. In Jamie’s Italy, the section on pizza had me salivating so we did Saturday night pizza night. Big batch of dough. Tonnes of toppings including grilled asparagus, sun-dried tomatoes, grilled peppers, sauteed mushrooms, olives, pesto etc. Everyone made their own. Mine was, of course, cheese-less and thus vegan. Everyone else’s had a good sprinkling of mozzarella. Dive in. Bottom’s up.
basic pizza dough
1 1/2 pounds strong white bread flour
1 1/2 cups find ground semolina flour
1 level tbsp fine sea salt
1/4 oz active dry yeast
1 tbsp organic cane sugar
2 cups lukewarm water
Pile the flour and salt onto a clean surface and make a 7-inch well in the centre. Add you yeast and sugar to the lukewarm water, mix up with a fork, and leave for a few minutes,, then pour into the well. Using a fork and a circular movement, slowly bring in the flour from the inner edge of the well and mix into the water. It will look like stodgy porridge – continue to mix, bringing in all the flour. When the dough comes together and becomes too hard to mix with your fork, flour your hands and begin to pat into a ball. Knead the dough by rolling it backward and forward, using your left hand to stretch the dough toward you and your right hand to push the dough away from you at the same time. Repeat this for 10 minutes, until you have a smooth, springy, soft dough.
Flour the top of your dough, cover it with plastic wrap, and let it rest for at least 15 minutes at room temperature. This will make it easier to roll it thinly. Now divide the dough into as many balls as you want to make pizzas, i.e. lot of small ones or a few larger ones.
basic pizza sauce
extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, peeled and minced
a bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked
1 14 oz can of good quality plum tomatoes or 4 large fresh tomatoes
2 tbsps tomato paste
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat a saucepan, add a splash of oil and the sliced garlic and cook gently. When the garlic has turned a light golden, add half the basil, the tomatoes, and a few pinches of salt and pepper. Cook gently for about 20 minutes, mashing the tomatoes until smooth. Add tomato paste and mix in well. Then taste, season again, and put to one side.
Preheat oven to 500 degrees. Take a piece of dough, dust your surface and the dough with a little flour or semolina, and roll it out into a rough circle about 1/4 inch thick. Place it on a pizza stone or cookie sheet. Spread with pizza sauce. Apply your toppings. Cook for 7 to 10 minutes, until the pizzas are golden and crispy.
tender greens with creamy maple sesame dressing
June 1, 2011
This is kind of a funny story. Last fall on a dreary, cold night I pulled out a recipe for salad dressing, made it, loved it, got the super-endorsement from Bekah, and then promptly forgot where I had found the recipe. I looked everywhere. Riffled through each and every cookbook I owned. Nowhere to be found. Every couple of months I would look again because it was driving me crazy (and because Bekah was on my case!). I finally gave up, deciding I had dreamt it. Well, finally on Sunday night I found it again in vegan yum yum. And I’m promptly posting it so that I never lose it again and so that you, too, my trusty followers, can enjoy its nuances. Great on a tender green salad with cranberries, toasted pecans, and sliced pear. But be creative. And enjoy.
This recipe doesn’t make much. I would double it and keep a jar in the fridge.
3 tbsps veganaise (or other vegan mayonnaise)
3 1/2 tsps balsamic vinegar
4 tsps toasted sesame oil
3 tsps dijon mustard
3 tbsps maple syrup
1/2 tsp salt
fresh pepper to taste
8 tbsps olive oil
Mix together the mayo, vinegar, sesame oil, mustard, maple syrup, salt and pepper in a mixing bowl. Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the bowl while whisking vigourously to emulsify. The oil should blend completely into the dressing and it should thicken nicely. Taste and adjust if necessary. Serve or refrigerate.
v:gourmet 