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!