Tough Beans! ...adventures in culinary class

I've been taking culinary classes at George Brown since January (most amazing Christmas present ever) and am really loving it. Every Monday night we tackle a new skill and get to take home a ton of delicious food. A couple weeks ago we made this delicious bean salad. Loved it so much I made it again yesterday with some tweaks. It's great to have in the fridge as a side to wraps or for lunch - something to look forward to! 

Tuscan Bean Salad 

Ingredients:

4 sprigs           Flat parsley stems

1                     Bay leaf

5-10                Peppercorns

1 1/2 cups       Navy beans (presoaked)

2 tbsp              Red wine vinegar

4 tbsp              Extra virgin olive oil

1/2                   Lemon (juice)

1 tsp                Sugar

2-3 cloves       Garlic (puree)

1/2                   Red onion (diced)

2                      Peppers (diced)

3                      Plum tomato (diced)

5-6 slices         Prosciutto (julienne)

1 cup               Asiago cheese (grated)

3-4                  Basil leaves (chopped)

3-4                  Parsley sprigs (chopped) 

to taste            Salt & pepper

Soak the beans overnight, drain and rinse. Transfer to a pot with water covering beans by 1 inch. Add bay leaf, parsley stems and peppercorns (you can make a sachet for the herbs if you don't like them floating around, or do a quick fix using a tea ball). Simmer until beans are tender, about 35 minutes. Drain and allow to cool. 

How to avoid TOUGH BEANS! - don't boil or add salt (only salt when 95% cooked). Also never use metal utensils or rinse beans after the've been cooked.

While the beans are cooking, combine the vinegar, EVOO, lemon and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Add the red onion (how to dice an onion), marinating it in the vinaigrette to take the bite out. To help get the garlic really fine, sprinkle diced pieces with salt and crush with knife blade. Repeat until desired consistency. Add garlic, peppers and tomatoes to bowl. Depending on how you feel about olives a couple chopped black olives are a really nice addition here.

Add cold beans to bowl along with prosciutto, asiago. Garnish with basil, parsley, salt and pepper to taste. Make sure to taste as the salad has several salty ingredients and might not need very much salt.

If you aren't inclined to soak and cook your beans, using canned beans is an easy option to cut down the prep time and get er done fast. I had this with a roast chicken wrap and it was heaven on a plate.

Happy Eating!

Get rollin this weekend!

With the icky weather really setting in, now’s the time to really make use of winter staples like cabbage, carrot and squash. Lately I’ve been craving homemade comfort foods and took advantage of a trip to my parent’s house (and their spacious kitchen) to make my version of a favorite sunday dinner, cabbage rolls.

This is a recipe I have tweaked over the years, hopefully for the better. I know it's traditional to leave all of the ingredients raw and cook them for over 2 hours, but I’ve always precooked everything so you can pop them in the oven for a short time and be done. This recipe is pretty easy to execute but time consuming, so give yourself a couple hours and some minions (ahem helpers) - cooking is a team sport!

Recommended Tunes: Mama Mia Soundtrack (and not the Meryl Streep version)

Not your Nona's Cabbage Rolls!

Ingredients:

1 head cabbage

2 cups rice (cooked)

1 lb ground pork

1 lb ground beef

1 lg onion diced

1 cup carrot diced

1 cup celery diced

1 clove garlic diced (not a fan? 1/2 clove will do)

4-5 eggs

to taste red pepper flakes, paprika, celery seed, oregano

to taste salt & pepper

Make some cuts to the bottom of the cabbage to loosen the top leaves before submerging in a pot of boiling water. Keep an eye on it and peel off the layers as they become flexible. Cut the tough bottom part of the leaf off in a triangle to ease rolling.

Filling

Cook rice and let cool. Brown ground beef and pork adding in the onion, garlic, carrot and celery. Combine mixture with rice into a giant mixing bowl when cool. Add in eggs, herbs, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. 

Sauce (Blend):

2 cans whole or diced tomatoes

1/2 cup brown sugar (or more if you like sweet)

1 lemon juiced

dash Worcestershire Sauce 

dash Tabasco (more if you like spicy)

Assembly!

Start with a layer of sauce in a deep baking dish. Get ‘er done by placing a couple spoonfuls of filling in each leaf, folding the sides in and rolling like a burrito (or like they roll up your sandwich at Subway). Place bundles seam side down in the dish until full and then cover with sauce. (reserve about a cup of sauce for people who like it saucy :)

Cover with tin foil and bake for 30 min, take foil off and bake for 15 more min.

Serve with mashed potatoes and a nice Gamay or Pinot Noir. This is a comfy sunday dinner for family or friends, or freeze and take out for a quick weeknight bite. Happy Eating!

New Year... Same Treats!

For many years I've been making these delicious treats for my family and friends. Like nuts and bolts, my dad's signature December offering, they only come around once a year at Christmas time. I like to create these little clusters of joy as a thank you for all the support and love people have given me each year.

Due to the numerous requests recently, I caved and promised the recipe. This is for the girls at work, who I have a feeling might really need Treat Tuesday next week. And also for Meaney's family who sometimes have problems sharing their annual packages of these...

CRANBERRY LEMON DELICIOUSNESS

1 lb white melting chocolate

1 lemon zested

1 box golden grahams

1 handful dried cranberries

In a double boiler (fancy name for pot of water with a metal bowl on top of it) melt the chocolate and zest lemon into it.

Mix in golden grahams and cranberries until coated with chocolate!

Creates clusters on a pan covered with wax paper and let cool until they solidify (this is where Canadian winter and garages come in handy).

TA DA! The secret is out on how easy these babies are to make. 

To redeem myself the next post will be on the delish cabbage rolls I made last week, definitely not easy - correction: easy, but time consuming. Yes, Meaney is happy about the extra time I have to chef yummy things up. Happy Eating!

For the love of carrots

Yesterday I fell in love with some carrots. They were seasonal, found in my neighborhood and just gorgeous. While gazing lovingly at these multicoloured beauties, visions of everything I could do with them darted to mind. I simply had to have them! 

One thing to love about Toronto is the abundance of small, family run fruit markets that pop up in just about every neighborhood. It makes it easier to do small, frequent shops for fresh produce. This is preferable to the weekly chain shop where you hope the produce won't go bad by the end of the week. I once bought grapes at Costco and they stayed in my fridge for at least two months with no decomposition before I threw them out. It creeps me out when produce doesn't decompose in a timely manner. I'm lucky enough to have a great selection of fruit shops that try to carry organic and local produce, but the Toronto Farmers’ Market Network has a great list of all the markets in town, here.

Getting back to the carrots, I have to say that the giant purple one was my favorite. It was orange on the inside and grated up into these lovey striped pieces of delicious. I decided to make a colourful cabbage slaw to go with some crabcakes we picked up from the friendly neighbourhood fish man. It was heaven on a plate:

Ingredients:

 1/2 red or white cabbage shredded

 4-5 large carrots grated

 1 small red onion sliced in thin strips

Dressing:

 4 tbsp EV olive oil

 3 tbsp cider vinegar

 3 tbsp sugar

 1 tbsp parsley (more if fresh)

 1 tbsp dijon mustard

 salt and pepper to taste

• Cabbage, carrots and onion go into lrg bowl. Mix dressing together and pour over top. Toss to coat.
• EAT! Carrots are so underrated, one gives you enough vitamin A for the day!

This slaw is healthy and seasonal because it's made with local root vegetables. It keeps well in the fridge, but usually doesn't last long because of how versatile it is. I made some fresh rolls today, wrapping the slaw into rice paper with lettuce and some grilled shrimp... It's going to be great with my boyfriend's famous chicken stew tomorrow... I can also picture it with satay or on the side of a spicy Thai curry... The possibilities are endless...

Happy eating.

Great Organic Cafe in the Junction

The best part of living in Toronto is the abundance of food choices!!! The multicultural nature of our city provides delicious food of all types and I intend to try them ALL. I've lived in Bloor West Village for over two years now and have been slowly working my way through the yummy restaurants the hood has to offer.

The BEET Organic Cafe has made its home in a old converted bank building and actually has pretty cool lofts right above it. It's located in the Junction, a cute artistic neighborhood just north of High Park and I headed there a couple weeks ago with my veggisaurus sister. One great feature is the cute little side patio perfect for sipping on my favorite beer: Mill St. Organic. Score.

A certified nutritionist and a homeopathic doctor are co-owners of The Beet and their vision is to get optimum nutrition while still creating deliciousness. They use fresh, organic certified and local produce whenever possible and their packaging is biodegradable. This is pretty neat for anyone like me who feels extremely guilty carrying home a Styrofoam takeout container (even though I recently found out you can now recycle those babies in Toronto).

On to the food! The menu is just the right size and they have specials everyday that are posted on their website in case you are waffling on where to go for lunch. We tried some amazing smoothies and I had the Upbeet - Fair Trade cocoa & espresso, blackberries, dash of cayenne. I know it sounds a little weird, but the cayenne added this amazing spiciness to it that was delicious. The only thing I can think to compare it to is the spicy Mayan hot chocolate at SOMA in the Distillery district, which is awesome by-the-way.

Next we shared two sandwiches: Buenos Dias - Avocado, spicy black bean spread, quinoa, tomato, caramelized onions & raw cheddar cheese with a fresh side salad, and Grilled Cheese and Local Apple - Raw Quebec cheddar, Raw Swiss emmental & sliced local apple with yummy spiced pumpkin soup. We promptly went halfsies on both to maximize the sampling experience. Voila, one of my tastiest lunches:

The grilled cheese was to die for, the crispy apple totally made it happen. I loved the soup as I am a fan of all things in the pumpkin/squash family. The wrap I discovered had cilantro in it, which ruined it a bit for me... we do not get along. My sister on the other hand loves cilantro and loved it, so all was not lost. Altogether a yummy adventure and the best part came at the end. I used the bathroom for the first time! You may think this weird, but a pretty and clean bathroom totally makes an impact on me. I think it really shows how much a place values their customer's comfort. It inspired me so much I couldn't resist snapping a picture.

Cute right? My neighborhood is full of hipster stay-at-home mommies and daddies and the change table is adorable and thoughtful. Yeah, my hood is awesome. Happy Eating!