2 tips for quick weeknight dinners and 2 quick recipes

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What excuse can one have for a dearth of posts lasting months and months and months.....

I'm not sure if there is a good excuse.  I could call it a combination of lost appetite, lack of energy, lack of time and just plain feeling tired.  Or I could just say I'm sorry and move on....let's do that, shall we?

Now that I'm back at work and wrangling two mini-foodies out the door every morning, I am finding things busy - still working on getting into any sort of routine that will allow a reasonable balance.  It really wouldn't be an overstatement to say that trying to keep meals, the house, etc., all on track can end up feeling more than a little chaotic.  Oh, and did I mention that we decided to sell our house and move to the country? (by country, I actually mean about 1 km from my current house, except instead of being surrounded by houses, I'll be surrounded by critters).

Anyway, life being what it is, I'm honing my expertise in REALLY quick meals - meals that can be on the table in 15-20 minutes.

I don't have photos of this meal, but I can tell you it's ridiculously simple, and relatively balanced.  And I use a cheater ingredient.

I have a couple of little tips when it comes to making weeknights less disastrous...

1. Batch cook, even on a weeknight.  Cooking something in the crockpot?  Roasting/grilling chicken breasts?  Always cook twice as much as you need, and keep the seasoning very simple.  That way, you can take half and use it for that night's dinner (and season appropriately), and use the other half for something completely different.

2. Find convenience foods that work for you.  You all know I"m no fan of processed crap, but there are sneaky little convenience products that can be huge timesavers when you haven't had the foresight to prep ahead.  Yes, it IS better to pre-cook a big pot of brown rice on the weekend.  But if you weren't that smart (and most of us aren't), there's still hope for you.  Hope that won't take 45 minutes to cook.  Check out these bad boys - http://www.unclebens.ca/en-ca/products/bistro_express/wholegrain_brown.aspx (pre-cooked wholegrain brown rice, ready in 30 seconds).  It's WAY more expensive than cooking your own, but it's really fast.  But hey, when you get home and you have no idea what to make, it's not a bad idea to grab a bag or two at the grocery store and keep it in the pantry.

Easiest Pork Roast Ever
1-2 centre-cut pork loin roasts
bbq sauce

1. Put the pork roast in the crockpot.  Cook on low all day.  That's it.  No extra seasoning, no fussing.

2.  When you get home, remove the excess fat from the roasts, discard the liquid and shred.  I used half in this ridonkulously simple dish, and used the other half in my favourite enchiladas with salsa verde.

3. Mix in your favourite (or homemade) bbq sauce and enjoy.

Fibre-in-15 minutes side dish
2 T olive oil
1 onion
8-10 large mushrooms
4-6 cups baby spinach leaves
1 can chickpeas
1 package bistro express brown rice (or about 1.5 cups cooked brown rice)
1/3 c pesto

1. Preheat olive oil in a large heavy pan on medium heat.  While it's heating, dice onion.   Throw it in the pan.  While the onion is sautéing (stir it occasionally), Slice/chop the mushrooms.  Add them to the pan.

2. Once the mushrooms have released most of their liquid (about 5-6 minutes), add in the spinach, and cover, briefly, so the spinach wilts.

3. While spinach is wilting, drain and rinse the chickpeas.  Add the chickpeas and the rice to the pan and mix around for 2-3 minutes so it can all heat up.  Add in pesto (I like Kirkland Signatures pesto).  Combine.  Enjoy.

i forgot how much i love having dinner parties

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Before we had kids, hubs and I used to host dinner parties pretty often; not monthly, but probably at least every couple of months, we'd have people over for a nice fancy dinner party.

Since we and others we know have started having babies, that has fallen a bit to the wayside; part of it is that I'm a little too tired and short on time to host, part of it is that my dinner parties don't tend to be so kid-friendly.  Now, it's not that I think kids won't eat the food, it's just that the timing of a four-five course meal is not a reasonable amount of time for a kid to sit still or keep out of trouble (Z would happily gobble all of this food), and they tend to go too late for kids.

Anyway, my solution is that I invite people over close to bedtime, so Lil Z and Lil R can charm my guests for an hour (okay, maybe they just annoy them, lol), partake in appetizers (only Z; R is too little!), and then be whisked off to bed.

It works quite well.

And this time, I was extra excited, because I wasn't navigating a long list of food restrictions.  I've posted in my Dinner Party 101 series before that catering to your guests is key to having a good dinner party, and I do maintain that stance BUT it's always nice when the guests just come with an enthusiasm for food in general.  :)  And wine, but we'll get to that later.

So going back to how I plan a party (and I'm going to apologize in advance for the shoddy quality/quantity of the photos; I was having too much fun and kept forgetting, and then I maybe had too much wine and lost most of my ability to photograph.   These pics are so terrible, I'm not sure they add anything to the post, but hey, it's what I've got.

I don't have a photo of the actual caramelized onion, bacon and gruyère dip, but this is what the dish looked like at the end.  I think it speaks for itself.



For me, the key to having fun and relaxing and enjoying is that I like to have pretty much everything done in advance.  I don't want to be fussing over things while all the fun happens out in the dining room.  So I don't tend to serve things like seared scallops, risotto, etc., that require too much last minute energy.

Here's my menu - and I'll go into the how-to in a minute.  The recipes without a link (i.e., the original ones) are posted at the bottom of this post.

Appetizer - caramelized onion, bacon and gruyère dip, served with endive and cucumber slices
First course - thai green curry mussels served in a coconut broth, with 5-minute no-knead bread
Salad - spinach, red onion slivers, parmesan shards, pear slices and toasted pecans with a simple balsamic vinaigrette
Main - bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with a wild mushroom sauce (recipes below), served with pureed celery root and bacon-braised french lentils
Dessert - chocolate pots de creme with an orange whipped cream (1 c whipping cream, 3 T icing sugar, zest of one orange)

I'm not gonna lie, it was pretty darn good.  So what I do with a menu like this is that I break it down into components, and I write myself a schedule for those components, and cross things off my list as I go.

So here was my list:
FRIDAY:
- mix together bread
- make dip
- prep endive and cucumber
- prep celery root puree
- prep lentils
- make pots de crème

SATURDAY:
- bake bread
- prep pork, make sauce for pork
- clean and pick through mussels, mise en place for sauce ingredients
- whip cream
- toast pecans
- make salad vinaigrette

See?  Not so hard when you break it down.

Then, I have a little schedule for myself.  For this dinner, it went something like this (all times approximate and very, very flexible)

7: 00 - bake dip, put cucumber and endive on platter

7:30 - guests arrive - set out platter, serve drinks

8:00 - (kids off to bed!) preheat stove, cook mussels;  While mussels are cooking (they take 8 minutes), shove pork in oven, put celery root in microwave to reheat, and put lentils on the stove on very low heat to reheat (this is about 3 minutes worth of work)

8:15 - mussels served with bread.  and more drinks.

8:45 - prep salad (assemble components, drizzle dressing).  Check temperature of pork (needs to register 145F in the thickest part; use the oven timer and just check every 10 minutes.  Remove from oven and let it rest once it gets to the right temperature).  About 5 minutes in the kitchen.  Serve salad.  With more drinks.

9:15 - While pork is resting, reheat the celery root in the microwave.  Slice pork and serve with sauce (takes 2 seconds on the stove to reheat), celery and lentils.  About 5 minutes in the kitchen.  And more drinks.



(much wine and conversation ensues)

whenever seems appropriate - serve dessert with coffee and digestifs, if desired.  We served dessert at 1 am.  ;)  Pots de crème (or any other custard-type dessert) is great because you just take it out of the fridge and top it with whipped cream.  Again, only about 5 minutes in the kitchen.  They are yummy, but this photo is so blurry, you can barely tell what it is!



When we have dinner parties, I'm in charge of food, and hubs is in charge of drinks; i.e., keeping the water pitcher filled, and keeping the wine flowing (and possibly policing if someone is driving, but thankfully our guests cabbed it so we didn't have to worry about that).  This division of labour works well for us, because it means that one person isn't constantly in the kitchen; you alternate a bit.

Anyway, I will say that a great time was had by all, and leave you with the wisdom that while it might SEEM like a good idea to stay up and drink wine until 3:30 am, it seems like a much less good idea at 7 am when the kids are up for the day.

bacon-wrapped pork tenderloin with mushroom sauce


pork
2 pork tenderloins
1 package of bacon (14 slices)
1 T olive oil
1 T dijon mustard
1 T grainy mustard
1 T dark brown sugar
1 T bbq sauce
2 cloves minced garlic
1 T minced rosemary
1 t dried thyme
salt, pepper

1. Whisk together olive oil, mustards, sugar, bbq sauce, garlic, and spices.

2. On a platter/cutting board, arrange the bacon so there are 2 sets of 7 slices side-by-side, to wrap around your pork.

3. Place a tenderloin on in the middle of the bacon (so the slices can wrap around the pork).  Smear half of the olive oil/mustard mixture on each pork tenderloin (while it's on the bacon).

4. Wrap the bacon around the pork, and then secure with kitchen twine.  You could probably also just cook it seam side down if you didn't have kitchen twine.

5. Let marinate for a few hours.

6. To cook - preheat oven to 425F.  Put pork in oven (I put mine in a rack in a pan, so the bacon fat could drip.  I also put 1 cup of water in the pan, so I wouldn't have to smell burning bacon fat as it dripped onto the pan).  Clean up is easier if you line the pan with foil.  ;)

7.  Cook for about 35-45 minutes, until the thickest part of the pork measures at least 145F (you can go as high as 160F and it will still be pretty moist).  Let rest for at least 10 minutes.  Remove twine, slice and serve.

mushroom sauce
1 package dried wild mushrooms (about 14g)
1 cup boiling water
2 T butter
1/4 c minced shallot
1/2 c sherry/marsala (sweetish fortified wine)
LOTS of pepper, some salt
3/4 c whipping cream

1. Reconstitute the mushrooms in the boiling water (you may need more than 1 cup; this is fine).  Let them soak for about 15-20 minutes.  Strain, but keep the soaking liquid.  Chop the mushrooms.

2. Heat a pot over medium-high heat.  Add butter, and before the butter burns (but after it browns), add shallots.  Sauté for 2-3 minutes.  Add chopped mushrooms, saute until most of the liquid is out of the mushrooms and things are starting to stick/brown a bit.  Add the sherry/marsala.  Let it reduce until it's almost evaporated.  Add the soaking liquid.  Turn heat to high.  Once the liquid has reduced to about half of what it was, add a ton of fresh-ground pepper, and the whipping cream.  Keep the heat high until the liquid is  reduced to about 1/4 of what it was before, and it nice and thick.  The key to a recipe like this is having the patience to wait until the liquids thicken.  It takes forever, so I like to do it in advance.  The result is a rich, creamy, concentrated sauce and this particular sauce is delicious on almost anything - mashed potatoes, chicken, steak, pork, rice, etc.  It's yummy, and it's also vegetarian and gluten-free. I make this up in advance and just reheat before serving.

Thanks for reading and sorry for the shoddy pics.  Maybe next time, a little less wine and a little more focus, huh?

spain in a bowl

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When I was coming up with a title for this post, I vascillated between spain in a bowl and adventures in charcuterie.  I opted for the former, primarily because the adventures in charcuterie were not entirely my own, AND I was so excited by this dish (and also the charcuterie) that I wanted to make sure more people read the post.  I figured a lot of people would be put off by the idea of making their own ham.

So I'll preface the recipe by saying that you could make this with ANY ham or pork.  Good quality is better, but with all the delicious seasoning, even with run of the mill ham, I think it would still be pretty awesome (though probably salty; definitely go easy on the salt).



The road that led us to our ham (and BACON!)-making adventures did not come altogether honestly.  Frankly, last year, we ordered 1/4 pig from a local farmer.  And the pork has been delicious, but we were left with a number of cuts (side pork, ham hocks, ham steaks, ham roasts) where we weren't really sure what to do.  They were uncured/brined and unsmoked, so we decided that they needed some sort of processing to get them to a point where we would want to eat them.  Hubs is braver than I in this respect, so he just bit the bullet and brined them for a few days (fairly simple brine - salt, sugar, bay leaves, spices, etc.).  And a kind foodie co-worker of his smoked them for us.

The result?  Meat that makes your house smell like a firepit.  It's epic.

So aside from a decent stockpile of bacon, I also had this large slab of 'ham steak' (bone-in) and a couple of ham hocks.  I wasn't really sure what to do with it, but I came across this recipe on epicurious, and I thought it sounded like a great place to start.

And it was.  I will say that the dish was probably improved by the sheer deliciousness of my ham, but the flavours are so rich and wonderful.  This is a three-part dish, definitely something you'd want to make on a weekend.  I'd definitely serve this to guests, though I'd have to make sure they were non-picky meat-eaters. The ham was braised in a smokey, rich tomato broth with a touch of sherry, served over chickpeas sauteed with saffron, garlic and minced prosciutto, and topped with an almond-orange-parsley gremolata.  I loved it.

spanish ham braise with saffron chickpeas and gremolata
stolen and modified from epicurious.com


Pork
1 large good-quality ham steak (2-3 inches thick); you could also use chunks of ham, chunks of pork, etc.)
1 ham hock (optional)
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 large carrots, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
5 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme (or 1 t dried)
1 28-ounce can plum tomatoes in juice, tomatoes coarsely chopped
2 cups low-salt chicken broth (if using salty ham, consider either water or unsalted broth)
1 cup medium-dry Sherry
3 dried ancho chiles,* halved, stemmed, seeded (I just used about 1 t of ancho chile powder; you could use a bit of cayenne or skip this)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon chili powder
1 tablespoon Spanish sweet paprika (pimenton dulce --> I used smoked sweet paprika) or Hungarian sweet paprika
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander

Chickpeas:
2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 15 1/2-ounce cans garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained
1 large garlic clove, minced
Large pinch of saffron threads
2 thin prosciutto slices, finely chopped

Gremolata
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh Italian parsley
1/4 cup chopped toasted almonds
1 tablespoon grated orange peel

For pork:
1. Preheat oven to 250°F. Sprinkle ham/pork shanks and ham hock, if using, with salt and pepper (TIP: if using commercial ham, no salt; it's salty enough!).

2. Heat oil in heavy wide pot over medium-high heat. Working in batches, sauté ham and hock until brown, about 5-6 minutes per batch; transfer to platter/plate.



3. Add carrots, onion, garlic, and thyme to pot. Sauté until onion softens, about 5 minutes.

4. Add coarsely chopped tomatoes with juice, broth, Sherry, chiles, tomato paste, chili powder, paprika, cumin, and coriander. Bring to boil, scraping up browned bits from pan bottom.

5. Return ham and hock, if using, to pot. Return to boil. Cover pot and place in oven. Braise until ham is tender, about 3-4 hours (note: if using commercial ham, yours will be tender from the get-go; so you can just cook for about 1-2 hours). Tilt pot; carefully spoon off all fat.



6. Simmer pork uncovered over medium heat until sauce thickens to desired consistency, about 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper (it probably won't need more)

For chickpeas & gremolata:
1. While pork/ham is reducing on the stove-top, make garbanzo beans and gremolata: Heat oil in medium skillet over medium-low heat. Add chickpeas, garlic, and saffron and prosciutto. Sauté until heated through, about 5 minutes. Sprinkle beans with salt and pepper (I found the canned beans and prosciutto had enough salt on their own).



2. Mix parsley, almonds, and orange peel in small bowl for gremolata; I'm lazy, I did mine all in the food processor.



To serve:
Place chickpeas in bottom of shallow bowl.  Top with chunk of ham/pork, spoon sauce over top and sprinkle with gremolata.

I just love the contrast in richness in this dish - rich, meaty pork, luscious saffron chickpeas, and then the bright crunch of the gremolata.  It smells like Spain and I think it's a pretty fabulous tribute to Spanish cooking.

falling in love with fall comfort food

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I have both the fortune and misfortune to live in a country where the weather is pretty much unpleasant for at least half the year. As a result, I'm surrounded by people who are completely devoted to and consumed by all things Summer and sun, and are all about taking advantage of everything the warm weather has to offer.

I am not one of those people. I actually don't like hot weather.

I love the Fall. I love cool crisp mornings, I love fiery bright forests, and I absolutely love Fall comfort food. Like obsessively love it. For the last month, I'll I've been able to think about is stew, roast, pot pie and root vegetables. I've actually been a bit gleeful that it's finally getting cold (kay, maybe I was not so gleeful to greet a cold, rainy, gray morning today...but I digress).

Mmmmmmmmmmm.....potatoes. I could live on potatoes.

So I'm indulging myself. I hope you enjoy some of these treats as much as I have been. I've been in a cooking frenzy this weekend. On top of the wonderful feast I'm about to share, I also made a batch of baked beans today (from October's Clean Eating - on shelves now) (for tomorrow's dinner, to be gobbled up accompanied by cheddar garlic biscuits). For tonight, I made a bolognese sauce that Lil Z and I enjoyed with farfalle. YUM. PS - If you make that bolognese, add a can of tomato paste and a good palmful (2T) of italian herbs).

For Saturday's dinner, I wanted to use seasonal ingredients, so that basically gave me a harvest theme. I started the meal with my favourite curried parsnip fries, with yogourt curry dip. Love these guys - they are so easy to make and they usually go flying off the table. 1lb of parsnips feeds 3ish people, and 2lb of parsnips is best for a crowd. If people are dieting, then probably best to stick with 1lb of parsnips (I had some dieters in the crowd, and hence lots of leftovers).

I followed the parsnip fries with the most decadent roasted tomato soup. I have recently discovered that Costco (in Canada, at least) carries these amazing San Marzano style tomatoes (no, not controlled origin, but they are San Marzano type of tomatoes, grown in that region of Italy....just no AOC-type label).

They are delicious and for the price, I'm totally cool with the lack of formal pedigree. I found the recipe on SmittenKitchen (who in turn, had adapted it from America's Test Kitchen). At this point, I don't care who came up with it - it is genius, and I totally agree with the simplified processed instituted by Deb at SK, because there's no need to strain your soup. Not for a fall feast. Perhaps if the Queen were coming, but that wasn't happening for me, so I didn't strain either.

Now, I confess that I had *intended* on serving my soup with no-knead spelt bread. Unfortunately, this turned out to be one of those ideas that was fabulous in my head, and utter failure in reality. The night before the dinner, I had mixed my flour, yeast, water and salt. I waited the requisite 18 hours. But when I went to try to 'fold' my dough, I discovered that the water and the flour had not actually merged. It was strange. So I pitched it. Ergo, there was no bread with the soup. But it's just was well, because frankly, the soup is robust enough to stand on its own.

As a main, I served a centre-cut pork loin (I know, it's been four months since I posted, and I"m writing about pork AGAIN...sorry!), along with wine-poached plums. I accompanied this with sage-roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes, and sauteed spinach with garlic (spinach+garlic + splash of soy). It made for a colourful plate, with nicely balanced flavours. It would have been improved had I not (again...oops) overcooked the pork. In my defence, the thermometer went from 150F (not done enough for this particular dinner) to 170F in about five minutes. Zoinks. It was a little dry, but enough of the wine poaching liquid and it was very salvageable. :) Note to self: next time, take the damn roast out at 150F and let'er rest. Lesson learned. Again.

For dessert, I finished it off with a chocolate spelt cake. Why the spelt obsession, you ask? My guest of honour has a wheat intolerance, and spelt is often well-tolerated by those with wheat sensitivities. That said, it's important to note that spelt is NOT okay for someone who has celiac disease, because it does have some gluten in it.

All that said, after my epic spelt bread failure, I was a little dubious of this chocolate cake actually being any good. It was a wholegrain chocolate cake, made only with cocoa (no actual chocolate) and filled with dates. I was definitely skeptical. I needn't have been though - it was actually pretty fabulous! You have to be careful not to overbake (take the cake out of the oven before any toothpick comes out dry....once the cake is set and mostly baked, take it out. It's delicious and even though you can see the odd date bit, but you really can't tell they are in there. And that means a lot, coming from me, because I maintain (and always have) that dates look like cockroaches.

See? Pile of cockroaches. ;)

Parsnip fries with curry dip

1 lb parsnips

1-2 T thai red curry paste

2 T vegetable oil

1 c plain yogourt

2 T indian curry paste (mild or hot, depending on your taste buds)

2 T honey/maple syrup

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Peel parsnips and cut into 'fries'. Look at these babies in all of their root vegetable-ey goodness.

2. Combine thai curry paste and vegetable oil.

Toss parsnips in oil/curry paste mixture.

3. Spread out parsnips on baking sheet (I line with parchment paper) and bake for about 30 minutes. You can go as long as 45, just watch the little bits for signs of burning.

4. Meanwhile, combine yogourt, indian curry paste and honey/syrup. Taste and adjust to your taste (i.e., if it's too hot, add yogourt. If it's too boring, add more curry paste. Add more sweetener if that is to your taste).

5. Enjoy parsnip fries with dip! It's that easy.

Roasted Tomato Soup

(from Smitten Kitchen and America's Test Kitchen)

2 (28-ounce) cans whole tomatoes packed in juice, drained, 3 cups juice reserved (I used San Marzanos)
1 1/2 tablespoons dark brown sugar
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
4 large shallots, minced (about 1/2 cup)
1 tablespoon tomato paste
Pinch ground allspice
2 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 3/4 cups chicken stock, homemade or canned low-sodium
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 tablespoons brandy or dry sherry (I used marsala)
Salt and cayenne pepper

1. Adjust oven rack to upper-middle position and heat oven to 450°F. Line rimmed baking sheet with foil. With fingers, carefully open whole tomatoes over strainer set in bowl and push out seeds, allowing juices to fall through strainer into bowl. I had help for this part. ;)

Spread seeded tomatoes in single layer on foil. Sprinkle evenly with brown sugar (I forgot to sprinkle with sugar....I just mixed it into the soup....I'm pretty sure it was almost as good!).

Bake until all liquid has evaporated and tomatoes begin to color, about 30 minutes. Let tomatoes cool slightly, then peel them off foil; transfer to small bowl and set aside.

2. Heat butter over medium heat in large saucepan until foaming. Add shallots, tomato paste and allspice. Reduce heat to low, cover, and cook, stirring occasionally, until shallots are softened, 7 to 10 minutes. Add flour and cook, stirring constantly, until thoroughly combined, about 30 seconds. Gradually add chicken stock, whisking constantly to combine; stir in reserved tomato juice and roasted tomatoes. Cover, increase heat to medium, and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, to blend flavors, about 10 minutes.

3. Blend with the pulverizer of your choice (for me: immersion blender....no extra pots to clean!). Add cream and warm over low heat until hot, about 3 minutes. Off heat, stir in brandy and season with salt and cayenne. Serve immediately. I didn't find that extra salt was really needed, but to each his/her own.

This soup was what canned tomato soup only wished it could be....sophisticated, rich, delicious and SO perfect for a cold rainy day. It WOULD be perfect with grilled cheese. Yum. I had grandiose plans of swirling some more on top of the soup, but it really doesn't need a thing....so it doesn't look fancy, but it's YUM. Make it.

Roasted Pork Loin with Poached Plums
stolen and slightly modified from Epicurious.com
makes 6 servings

6 sweet firm red or black plums (such as Burgundies, Satsumas, or El Dorados; about 2 pounds), quartered, pitted
2 cups Pinot Gris or Viognier
1 cup dry red wine
2 whole star anise
cinnamon stick
1/4 cup plus 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar, divided
2 cups low-salt chicken broth
5 fresh thyme sprigs plus 1 teaspoon finely chopped thyme, divided

2 tablespoons chopped shallot

Pork
2 1 1/4-pound pork tenderloins (I used 1 centre-cut loin roast, about 2.5 lbs)
3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme
2 garlic cloves, minced
Chopped fresh chives

For Plums:
1. Combine first 5 ingredients and 1/4 cup sugar in heavy large saucepan; bring to boil, stirring until sugar dissolves. Reduce heat; simmer until plums are tender, about 20 minutes. Transfer plums to platter. Strain wine mixture.

Star anise is pretty.

2. Return strained liquid to same saucepan. Add broth, thyme sprigs, and shallot. Boil until mixture is reduced to 1 cup, about 25 minutes. Strain sauce; stir in 1 1/4 teaspoons sugar and chopped thyme. Season with salt and pepper.

For Pork:
1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Brush pork with 1 tablespoon oil; sprinkle with thyme, garlic, salt, and pepper.

2. Heat remaining 2 tablespoons oil in large ovenproof skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork and cook until brown on all sides, turning often, about 5 minutes. Transfer skillet to oven, and roast pork until thermometer inserted into center registers 160F, about 20 minutes (I cooked mine for 40 minutes because center loins are much thicker than tenderloins....when in doubt, use a thermometer).

3. Remove skillet from oven and let pork stand 10 minutes. Cut pork crosswise into 1/2-inch-thick slices. Serve with poached plums and sauce. Sprinkle with chopped chives.

Chocolate Espresso Spelt Cake

from epicurious.com

1 1/2 sticks (3/4 cup) unsalted butter, softened, plus additional for pan
3/4 cup unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder plus additional for dusting pan and cake (I confess to not knowing whether my cocoa is dutch process or not...it was Fry's...I think it is)
1 cup boiling-hot water
1 1/2 tablespoons instant-espresso powder
1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 lb Medjool dates (12 to 14), pitted and coarsely chopped (1 1/2 cups)
2 cups spelt flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup packed dark brown sugar
2 large eggs

Special equipment: a 9-inch springform pan

1. Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to 350°F. Butter springform pan, then lightly dust with cocoa powder, knocking out excess. I actually lined the bottom of my pan with parchment, just to be doubly sure, AND I baked it on a lined baking pan (I always do this because I do not trust liquidy substances in springform pans....learn from my mistakes)

2. Stir together boiling-hot water, espresso powder, vanilla, and baking soda in a bowl, then add dates, mashing lightly with a fork, and steep until liquid cools to room temperature, about 10 minutes.

3. Whisk together spelt flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt in another bowl. I'm told it's important to spoon spelt lightly into the measuring cup...so that's what I did.

4. In yet another bowl (yes, by this point, your counter will be covered....), beat together butter and brown sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating until just combined.

5. Beat in date mixture (batter will look curdled), then reduce speed to low and add flour mixture, mixing until just combined. The batter is pretty thick.

6. Spoon batter into springform pan, smoothing top, and bake until a wooden pick or skewer inserted into center comes out with just a few crumbs....do NOT overbake....start checking at 40 minutes (the recipe says about 50 minutes to 1 hour).

7. Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes, then remove side of pan and cool cake on rack.

I decided to top my cake with a simple ganache - 4 oz whipping cream (35%), 4 oz dark chocolate (I used 70% Callebaut dark chocolate). Melt together in the microwave on 50% power. Stir until smooth. Pour over cake.....I cheated and used my ganache to fill in the slightly sunken middle of my cake. :)

It was a great finish to the meal. Highly recommend it, especially if you or someone you know has issues with wheat. This would also be easy to make dairy-free (use vegan margarine or oil in lieu of butter) and I'm *told* (although cannot attest) that you can also use egg replacer in it. If someone tries that out, lemme know....

Thanks for reading!

bbq tastes of summer

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One of the many things to love about summer is that you just can't go wrong when you invite people over for a barbecue. Nobody expects anything fancy (most are content with burgers and hot dogs), and anything you do that's a bit outside of the box looks extra fancy as a result.

For example, tonight's dinner was nothing crazy - bbq'd pork tenderloin, roasted potatoes, salad and dessert - but having a little fun with the execution of the dinner made it super delicious.

Of course, things would have been helped had hubs not practically petrified the pork on the grill (you know that memo from the FDA last week, where they said it was safe to cook pork to 145F? hubs burned it). I was surprised that despite it's inner temperature reading of 180F (no, not joking), some parts of the pork were still not bad.....definitely not juice, but still edible. The thinner parts were chewy and hard (yuck), but the thicker middle parts were workable.

I'm so obsessed with cooking magazines that I took the chance to use two of my latest - June 2011 Clean Eating and Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink - they absolutely did not disappoint, and you'll see the recipes for southwestern cheddar potato wedges, salad with endive, feta, avocado and mint, and passionfruit pavlova following. They were all such delicious twists on ordinary...I felt compelled to share them.

For the main, I opted for an asian-inspired (more pan-asian than any specific geographic location, hehe) pork tenderloin. Aside from charring, I thought the recipe would have benefited from longer marinating. I marinated about 3 hours, but I think that the flavours would have better permeated the pork with an overnight marinade. It was good though...I mean really, when there are meat and fire....it's hard for anything to be especially bad.

A little tip, when you are entertaining, make sure you have all of your garnishes ready to go before company arrives. In this instance, I had crumbled feta, cilantro, glaze for meat, grated cheddar and minced red peppers ready to go for last minute additions. It makes you look more organized and makes the whole meal flow a lot better.

Honey-lime dressed salad with avocado, endive, mint and feta

from Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink (will be online here soon)

As soon as I saw this combination of flavours, I knew it would be delicious. It's light and yummy and fresh...the mint adds that little bit of something extra, and it's all wonderfully balanced with the rich avocado, bright mind, sharp feta and yummy honey lime dressing all playing off each other. Can't go wrong with this. I'm sure it would be fine without the endive though - it was good, but you wouldn't be missing anything if you felt like not buying endives)

DRESSING:

1/4 c olive oil

3 T lime juice

1 T honey

2 t dijon mustard

1 small garlic clove, minced

salt and pepper

SALAD:

1 large belgian endive (optional, I think)

1/2 cup mint leaves

8 cups greens (I used red leaf lettuce, baby spinach or mixed greens would work well)

1 large ripe but firm avocado, sliced

4 oz feta, crumbled

1. Combine dressing ingredients. Set aside (can be made in advance and fridgified)

2. Slice endive in half lengthwise. Cut out and discard core. Thinly slice. Coarsely tear mint leaves.

3. Combine salad ingredients in a large bowl. Toss. Add dressing. Toss. Eat immediately (will not keep).

Delicious. I think it would be great with a grilled chicken breast on top, or with a nice piece of fish, if you wanted to make the salad into a meal on its own).

Southwestern Cheddar Steak Fries

stolen and lightly modified from the June 2011 issue of Clean Eating

Potatoes are inherently yummy, so it's hard to go wrong, but this is like the love child of a potato skin and a roasted potato....and it's actually not too bad for you. YUM. I reduced teh amount of smoked paprika (and subbed sweet spanish paprika) because I find that smoked paprika tends to completely dominate all recipes. A little bit goes a long way. If you don't have smoked paprika, you could get some smokiness by using smoked salt, a drop of liquid smoke or some chipotle powder. I think they would be good even without the smoke though.

1 lb red or yukon gold potatoes, scrubbed and cut lengthwise into wedges

1 T olive oil

1/2 t smoked paprika (I used bittersweet)

1.5 t sweet spanish paprika (not the cheap grocery store stuff)

1/2 t ground cumin

1/2 t garlic powder

1/4 t sea salt

1 oz finely shredded aged cheddar

1/3 c finely chopped red pepper

2 t minced cilantro

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper/silpat. In a large bowl, combine oil with paprika, cumin, garlic and salt. Toss potatoes with spice mixture. Place potatoes in a single layer on the baking sheet.

2. Bake in centre of oven for 10 minutes. Flip and stir potatoes, and bake for another 10 minutes.

3. Remove potatoes from oven and sprinkle with cheese and red peppers. Bake another 5-7 minutes. Sprinkle with cilantro and serve immediately.

Asian-inspired grilled pork tenderloin

stolen from Eat, Shrink & Be Merry

I've changed this recipe a little bit, because I like to marinate my pork to infuse the flavours a little more. I would marinate this overnight for maximum yum factor.

1/4 c hoisin sauce

2 T lemon juice

1 T dijon mustard

1 T honey

1 T toasted sesame oil

1 T low-sodium soy sauce

1 T grated ginger

1 T minced garlic

[1 t lemon zest....I omited because I juiced my lemons and was too lazy to zest them after]

2 pork tenderloins

1. To make marinade/glaze, combine all ingredients except pork in a bowl. Mix. Pour 2/3 of marinade over pork. Reserve the rest of the marinade to use as a glaze/sauce.

2. Let pork marinate 24 hours (I say this is crucial...mine only marinated for 4 hours and the flavours were not permeated enough).

3. Grill pork to desired doneness (FDA recommends a temperature of 145F, with a rest time of at least three minutes). Brush pork generously with marinade during laste five minutes of cooking. As mentioned above, hubs grilled to a temp of 180F. I let it rest for 10 minutes....it was still edible, but I think anything over 160F is really kinda overdone. Slice into thin slices and serve.

You could use this same recipe with either pork chops or chicken pieces and I think it would be equally great. The leftovers are awesom in stir fry, or in wraps or on salads. I was lucky enough to find pork tenderloin at half price today, so we royally stocked up.

Passionfruit pavlova

from Early Summer 2011 Food & Drink (will be online here soon)

I've written about pavlova before....for the uninitiated, it is a dessert consisting of a baked meringue, whipped cream and fruit. This is a relatively simple pavlova, and I think it's incredibly delicious. That said, I also found it too sweet, so I'm providing a recipe NOT based on what I actually made, but tweaked slightly to proportions that I am confident would yield a more balanced dessert.

Overall though, this is amazing...passionfruit is one of the most wonderful flavours in the entire planet - it's so intoxicatingly tropical....if you've never tried if before, this would be a most decadent initiation.

MERINGUE:

4 large egg whites at room temperature

1/2 t cream of tartar

3/4 c superfine sugar (just take regular and whiz it in the food processor)

1 t cornstarch

1 t white vinegar

CREAM & FRUIT

1 c whipping cream

2 T sugar

1 t lemon zest

1 T lemon juice

2 ripe passion fruit

1. Preheat the oven to 250F (120C).

2. Trace an 8-inch circle onto a piece of parchment paper using a marker. Line a baking tray with the parchment paper, marker-side down (so the marker does not get on your meringue).

3. Whip the egg whites and cream of tartar until they are foamy. Slowly pour in the sugar while whipping and continue whipping on high speed until the whites hold a stiff peak and the sugar is dissolved (no longer feels gritty between your fingers). Fold in the cornstarch and vinegar.

This is the point where I'm thankful to have my beautiful Kitchenaid mixer:

4. Spoon the whites onto the parchment paper and try to make them look snazzy with a spatula. I tried and failed, - you can see.

5. Bake the meringue for 75-90 minutes, until the exterior is dry, cracking the oven door if the merinque starts showing signs of browning (I think mine browned a bit....it was still delish). Once out of the oven and cooled, the meringue should feel dry on the outside and peel away from the parchment paper easily. If still a little soft, return to the 250F oven for about 10-20 minutes. Cool the meringue on the tray before removing.

6. Whip the cream into soft peaks and beat in the sugar, lemon zest, juice and chill.

7. Just before serving, spoon the whipped cream over the meringue, and spoon the passion fruit seeds over the meringue - all you have to do is cut the fruit in half, stir the seeds with a spoon, and drizzle over top.

Voila. Tropical perfection. Slice and serve like a cake - serves 8.

One final tip, given that this is a bbq-themed post. You can bbq bacon. Go do it and thank me later.

That is all.