Cookbook Challenge #6: Yet Another delicious. Lasagna

Hello! I'm still alive! I know I've been a negligent blogger -- I've been preoccupied with choosing a caterer for the wedding, and this distraction has been compounded by the Tivo that Dave got me for my birthday. The altars of new-school Degrassi and Melrose Place have been attracting my worship more than the computer these days. The good news is that a caterer has been chosen and Melrose is in repeats-of-repeats. As such, I'll be brushing the cobwebs off of this here food blog in short order.

I've written about my fave food publication delicious. before, as well as one of my all-time favourite lasagna recipes that came from an issue of this Aussie mag -- it's one of my go-to sources for fresh and inventive recipes. However, the cookbook that I received with my latest subscription has been sitting on my shelf for months. 5 of the best by Valli Little contains recipes from delicious. magazine, sorted by themes of 5 dishes each (such as "5 of the best baked pastas" or "5 of the best savoury tarts") and rounded out with beautiful photography. Since I had such great success with the other delicious. butternut lasagna, the below iteration with rosemary, spinach, and goat cheese seemed like it would be a worthwhile effort. I wasn't wrong -- the tanginess of the chevre complimented the sweet squash and savourly rosemary perfectly. I was also super-impressed with how flavourful this lasagna was with a minimum amount of cheese -- I'm all for guilt-free indulgences, and this dish fits the bill. Give it a try!

Butternut & Goat Cheese Lasagna

1 kg butternut squash, peeled and chopped
4 tbsp olive oil
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, minced (leaves only)
2 tbsp unsalted butter
2 leeks, washed and thinly sliced
300g baby spinach leaves
2 garlic cloves, crushed
400ml good quality tomato passata (sieved tomatoes)
fresh lasagna sheets
150g soft goat cheese, crumbled
1/2 cup freshly grated parmesan

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Toss the butternut with 2 tbsp olive oil, half the rosemary, and salt & pepper. Roast in the oven for 30 minutes, until tender. Transfer to a bowl, mash, and set aside.
2. Heat the remaining oil and butter in a medium pan over low heat. Add the leeks and cook for 5 minutes, until softened. Add the spinach and garlic, and cook for another couple of minutes until the spinach is wilted. Remove from heat and set aside.
3. Grease a 23cm X 15cm dish. Spoon 1/4 cup of the tomato passata into the bottom of the dish, season with salt & pepper, and spread evenly. Place a sheet of lasagna on top of the passata, and spread with the mashed butternut. Add another layer of lasagna, then another 1/4 cup of passata, and then the leek-spinach mixture.Finally, add another layer of lasagna and spread it with the remaining passata.
4. In a small bowl, toss together the goat cheese, parmesan, and remaining rosemary. Sprinkle this mixture over the top of the lasagna. Cover the dish in foil, and bake for 30 minutes. Then, remove the foil and return to the oven for another 15 minutes, until the cheese begins to brown. Let sit 5 minutes before serving.

serves 6

Cookbook Challenge #5: Salmony!

Late last year, I was browsing through the BMV on Bloor and happened upon a copy of Salmon by Diane Morgan for a ridiculously low price. Like tuna, salmon is a fish that I hated to eat as a child, but have warmed up to since I started eating fish again post-vegetarianism. However, I still find it fairly intimidating to cook. Since Salmon is filled with mouth-watering photos and fairly simple instructions, it seemed like the perfect tool to help break me of my fear of this delicious fish.

I finally got around to using this cookbook once we returned from our Christmas vacation, and the honey-soy broiled salmon looked like the perfect thing to warm us up on a cold winter night. This recipe was very easy to make, and the only hiccup I encountered was when our super-sensitive smoke alarm wouldn't stop going off during the cooking process. Served on top of a simple sweet potato mash and some wilted spinach, the end result was a piece of perfectly-cooked fish that was both sweet and salty, with a tiny kick of wasabi heat. It was super-tasty, and I can't wait to make another recipe from this book. Salmon, you're not so tough after all.

Honey-Soy Broiled Salmon

2 salmon filets (6oz each)
1 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp rice vinegar
1/4 cup mirin
1/2 tsp finely grated fresh ginger

Sauce

2 tsp wasabi powder
1 tbsp fresh lime juice
2 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 cup honey

1. In a small bowl, combine the soy sauce, rice vinegar, mirin, and ginger. Pour over salmon (in a small baking dish or a large zip-top bag), and marinate for 30 minutes to 1 hour.
2. Just before cooking the fish, make the sauce: In a small saucepan, combine the lime juice, wasabi, soy sauce, and honey. Warm over medium heat until the sauce comes to a boil, stirring constantly. Turn the heat to low and simmer sauce until it thickens and becomes syrupey, about 2 minutes. Set aside and keep warm.
3. Arrange an oven rack about 4 inches from the heat source and pre-heat the broiler. Remove the salmon from the marinade, and wipe off extra liquid. Place the salmon on a baking sheet, skin side down if you are using filets with skin, and broil until it begins to colour, about 3 minutes. Turn the salmon and cook for about 3 minutes longer, until almost opaque throughout.
4. If applicable, remove the skin from your salmon and serve immediately. You can serve this with steamed rice, but I put it on top of some sweet potato mash and wilted spinach.

serves 2

Tampopo: Meh.

Widely considered to be the best food movie of all time, I finally got around to seeing Tampopo before Christmas. I think my expectations were set too high going in, because I have to admit I was a little disappointed in this cute foodie flick.

The story in this "noodle western" loosely revolves around the proprietress of a ramen shop, Tampopo (Japanese for "Dandelion"), and her quest for the perfect bowl of noodles. I say "loosely" because there are a number of bizarre food-related sketches peppered throughout the movie that regularly interrupt the main story. These include charm school spaghetti-eating lessons, and the funniest/grossest sex-food scene ever put on film.

One of my problems with the movie is that Tampopo is depicted as a helpless half-wit who requires the help and instruction of a group of men to make a decent bowl of ramen. Additionally, all of her recipe improvements are directly stolen from other chefs -- she has no original ideas whatever. As such, Tampopo basically floats through the movie like a puppet and when she finally makes the "perfect" bowl of noodles, it doesn't feel like much of an accomplishment.

While I had issues with Tampopo, I had no problems with another character: the food! The sensuality of eating is a major theme in this film, and the director's love of food is clear. There's no way you can make it through this movie without some of your favourite snacks.

I'm glad I watched Tampopo, but my favourite food movie of all time (Babette's Feast) made it through the battle without a scratch. In fact, there are several I would place above Tampopo in a Top 10 list: Big Night, Eat Drink Man Woman, God of Cookery, and even Ratatouille.

For any animal lovers, beware that there is a live turtle execution in this film.

Cookbook Challenge #4: Happy New Year!

I hope y'all had as great a holiday season as I did! With almost a month off of work, Dave and I headed south to enjoy the beautiful island of Maui. We had an amazing time, and ate a lot of fantastic meals. I'll be posting about many of them in the near future -- stay tuned!

With the return of the daily grind comes a desire for simple, easy-to-prepare dinners. There's nothing simpler than a slow cooker and, happily, my brother gave me a copy of Fresh from the Vegetarian Slow Cooker by Robin Robertson a few years ago that I had yet to use. Since Hoppin' John is supposed to bring luck in the new year, Robertson's slow cooker version seemed appropriate.

This recipe was easy to throw together, which you would expect from a slow cooker cookbook, and it was divine to come home to a fragrant pot of bubbly beans and tomatoes after a hard day at work. My expectations for this dish were low, because most of the vegetarian slow cooker recipes I've tried have come out bland, bland, bland. Not this one. Diced green chiles give the comforting beans n' rice a heat that warms you from the inside out, and I added some red chile flakes for an extra kick. Even the notorious bean-hater Dave cleaned his plate. What a great (and lucky!) start to the new year.

Slow Cooker Vegetarian Hoppin' John

2 tbsp olive oil
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 celery rib, chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried thyme
large pinch red chile flakes
3 cups cooked/canned black-eyed peas
one 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes, drained
one 4 oz can diced green chiles, drained
1 cup veggie stock
8 oz vegetarian sausage, crumbled
3 cups cooked brown rice
salt & pepper

1. Heat 1 tbsp of the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, celery, thyme, chile flakes, and a dash of salt & pepper to the pan, and saute until the onion is soft and translucent. Add the garlic, cook for one minute, and remove from heat.
2. Transfer onion mixture to a slow cooker. Add the black-eyed peas, tomatoes, chiles, and stock. Season with salt & pepper, cover, and cook on low for 4-6 hours.
3. About 15 minutes before serving, heat the remaining oil in a pan and brown the veggie sausage. Add the sausage and rice to the slow cooker, stir to combine, and season with salt & pepper to taste. Enjoy!

serves 4

Cookbook Challenge #3: Very Nice!

Soft, fresh bread is probably my biggest food weakness. I love it as part of a sandwich; I love it plain, topped with creamy butter; I just love it. As such, I was psyched when I first came across the original ACE Bakery Cookbook a few years ago -- so many great recipe ideas using yummy, yummy bread! Beacuse of this book, one of my more exciting realizations when I moved to Toronto was that I could finally buy fresh ACE bread from my local grocery. Yay!

Last Christmas, my mom gave me the second ACE cookbook: More from ACE Bakery. This sequel is pretty similar to the original, with lots of mouth-watering photography and amazing-sounding recipes. Even so, I just never got around to using it. Until now.

Flipping through its pages the other day, one photo really jumped out at me: creamy-looking egg-salad piled high on fresh multigrain bread with fresh tomato slices and lettuce, topped with three beautiful asparugus spears. It looked So. Good. I decided to make the "Really, Really Nice Egg Sandwich" myself, and found the most difficult part to be finding plain 2% yogurt at the grocery store (note: this wasn't very hard). I'm happy to say that this sandwich tasted as good as it looked -- the eggs were perfectly creamy and tangy, and paired nicely with the fresh veggies. I used the best-quality unsliced multigrain bread I could find, and its pillowy soft interior went great with the smooth eggs, while its nutty, crisp crust made things interesting. I served these sandwiches with some extra steamed asparagus and a nice, garlicky aioli. It made for an extremely satisfying light meal. Enjoy!

Really, Really Nice Egg Sandwich

3 eggs, hard boiled and peeled
6 asparagus stalks
3 tbsp 2% or 4% yogurt
heaping 1/4 tsp Dijon
generous 1/4 tsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
heaping 1/4 tsp kosher salt
2tsp fresh chives, minced
2 to 4 leaves boston lettuce
2 thick slices flax or multigrain bread
1 large tomato, sliced
freshly ground black pepper and salt, to taste

1. Steam the asparagus until cooked through, but still crisp. Shock with cold wate, drain, and set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, combine the Dijon, yogurt, chives, lemon juice, and kosher salt. Grate the hard boiled eggs into the yogurt dressing (use the large holes in your grater) and gently toss. Salt and pepper to taste.
3. Place the lettuce on the bread slices and top with tomato slices. Pile on the egg salad and arrange the asparagus on top. Finish with a generous grind of fresh pepper and serve open-faced.

serves 2

Cookbook Challenge #2: Creepy Edition

BOO! With the scariest season of the year upon us, it was a no-brainer for me to make It Came from the Kitchen by Geoff Isaac and Gordon Reid my second virgin cookbook challenge. Acquired at the 2007 Festival of Fear, this cute little tome boasts "Monstrously delicious celebrity recipes from Dracula, Frankenstein, the Wolf Man, assorted aliens, and beyond!" From deviled eggs (natch) and "Vampire Broth" to Salmon en Croute and Risotto Con Piselli E La Lattuga (a favourite of Vincent Price), the recipes included in It Came from the Kitchen span the world, outerspace, life, and the afterlife. Peppered with anecdotes and trivia about some of the biggest names to ever make you pee your pants, the authors' passion for film and food is obvious, making this cookbook a delight to use.

Choosing my first recipe from It Came from the Kitchen was difficult, but I landed on a shrimp dish attributed to Paul Naschy, the "Spanish equivalent to Lon Chaney and Bela Lugosi." It stood out to me because of its simplicity, Spanish-ness, and heavy inclusion of beer. Beer makes everything better, no? Exceedingly simple to make, Shrimp and Beer with Tomatoes features clean, bright flavours and a mess of tasty broth to soak up with fresh crusty bread (I recommend a nice olive loaf). The recipe claims to serve two, but that would only be possible if it were a romantic dinner for Godzilla and Mothra -- Paul Naschy must have an unreal appetite. This recipe can easily serve three, maybe four.

Happy Halloween, y'all!

Paul Naschy's Shrimp and Beer with Tomatoes

1.5 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/2 cup spanish onion, diced
1 tbsp garlic, minced
2 tbsp olive oil
3 tomatoes, seeded and chopped
1 tbsp flat-leaf parsley, minced
1 bottle beer
2 tbsp tomato paste
a few dashes hot sauce

1. Warm the oil in a large pot over medium-low heat. Add the onions and garlic, and cook slowly until soft. Add the shrimp and beer, and boil until the shrimp just begins to change colour to pink.
2. Add the tomatoes, hot sauce, and tomato paste and stir to combine. Simmer until shrimp is fully cooked, and remove from heat. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper. Serve immediately with fresh crusty bread for dipping.

Serves 3

Cookbook Challenge #1

I love collecting cookbooks. When I get a new one, I always sit down and read it from cover to cover, like a novel. Because of this obsession, I've amassed quite a few cookbooks over the years. However, a recent inventory showed me that there are 13 of them that I have never cooked from. For shame!

In an effort to correct this, I've included a challenge in my 101 in 1001 list to make something out of every cookbook I own. One of the ones that had been previously overlooked is Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry by Janet and Greta Podleski, which Dave's mom gave to me a while ago and I just never got around to using. I generally shy away from "low fat" cookbooks, because my past experience with them has often led to boring, flavourless dinners. I hoped this foray into Dietland would end in tastier results.

As I leafed through Eat, Shrink, and Be Merry, a recipe for Tofu Parmesan jumped out at me (called "Parma Chameleon" -- the sisters Podleski like to use twee, punny names for recipes in their cookbooks. Some find this cute, but it makes me cringe.). I like tofu. And cheese. And tomato sauce. It was an easy decision.

This recipe was very easy to throw together, and I served it over some lightly-seasoned spaghetti squash instead of pasta (if you're going healthy, you might as well go all the way). The results were fantastic -- crispy tofu cutlets with flavourful browned mozza and spicy tomato sauce. I would make this again in a second.

One down, twelve to go!

*Note: The recipe in the cookbook makes way too much breadcrumb mixture, so I've corrected the proportions below.

Tofu Parmesan

1lb firm tofu
1/2 cup whole wheat bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan (fresh grated, ideally)
1/2 tsp each dried basil and dried oregano
a pinch red chile flakes
1/4 tsp each salt and freshly-ground pepper
1 egg
1.5 cups of your favourite tomato sauce (I used Classico Spicy Red Pepper)
6 slices mozarella
1 tbsp fresh parsley, minced

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease a baking sheet
2. Drain tofu and blot dry with paper towel. Slice block into 8 even slices (about 1/2 inch thick), and blot slices dry again with paper towel.
3. Combine bread crumbs, 2 tbsp parmesan, basil, oregano, chile flakes, salt, and pepper in a shallow bowl. Place egg in another shallow bowl and beat lightly.
4. Working with one piece at a time, dip tofu in egg to coat, and then in crumb mixture. The slices should be well-covered with crumbs. Place coated tofu on baking sheet, and bake for 20 minutes, turning once halfway through the cooking time. Remove tofu from oven.
5. Grease an 8x8 baking dish, and pour 1/2 of your tomato sauce in the base. Place browned tofu in a single layer on the tomato sauce and top with remaining sauce and parsley. Cover tofu with sliced mozarella and remaining parmesan. Bake, uncovered, for 15 minutes and then finish the dish under the broiler to brown the cheese. Let stand 5 minutes before serving.

Serves 4

Spaghetti Squash

Pierce squash all over with a knife. Place entire squash in the microwave, and cook on high for 12 minutes. Once cooked, allow squash to cool slightly before cutting in half and removing seeds with a spoon. Use a fork to "shred" the flesh of the squash, and transfer it to a bowl. Toss with 1 tbsp butter and season with salt and freshly-ground pepper to taste.

I Ate a Hippopotamus for Lunch!

One of the easier food-related tasks on my 101 in 1001 list was to eat a bowl of Zoodles with toast, which was a childhood favourite meal of mine. I completed this task yesterday when I ate a hippopotamus (and some zebras and elephants) for lunch. While not as delicious as I remembered, my bowl of animal-shaped noodles in tomatoey sauce made for a perfectly serviceable nostalgic lunch with toast. One down, thirty-six to go!

37 in 1001

I've decided to make a 101 in 1001 list. This is a challenge that has been floating around the Intarweb for a couple of years now, where the participant makes a list of 101 tasks that she would like to complete within 1001 days (roughly 2.75 years).

As I finished my list today, I noticed that a big chunk (about one third) of my tasks are food-related -- I guess that goes to show where my interests lie! These 37 tasty tasks are listed below, and I'll blog about each of them as they're completed. My deadline is July 2, 2010. Wish me luck!

1. Cook a whole lobster
2. Eat some Chicago-style pizza in Chicago
3. Make some Chicago-style pizza at home
4. Eat at one of Perigee or Splendido Done!
5. Bake a loaf of bread
6. Go on a picnic
7. Watch Tampopo Done!
8. Make a pie from scratch
9. Barbeque once per week for a month
10. Cook a complete Indian dinner (including bread!)
11. Be able to say I've cooked something out of every cookbook I own
12. Grow tomatoes
13. Make pupusas
14. Make authentic polenta
15. Go vegan for one week
16. Eat at every restaurant in the Junction
17. Go to a farmer's market
18. Go to a "U Pick" fruit farm
19. Make apple butter
20. Make fresh ravioli
21. Throw a retro (as in "ham mousse") dinner party
22. Go on a brewery tour
23. Do a beer tasting
24. Go for upscale Greek on the Danforth
25. Eat dinner at Live
26. Get my cholestorol checked
27. Make a souffle
28. Try a new restaurant in Chinatown
29. Go for dim sum
30. Try Humboldt Fog goat cheese
31. Eat a traditional English breakfast (EBCB)
32. Make popcorn on the stove
33. Make mango and sticky rice
34. Eat a mushroom-based meal (I hate mushrooms!)
35. Eat Alphaghetti or Zoodles with toast Done!
36. Check out the Beach and try Cajun Corner
37. Cook something in my bamboo steamer