Avocado, Cilantro, and Feta Dip

I love dip.  So easy to throw together, and a good way to blend flavours. The heat can be easily turned up or down to your taste. You can also focus on one or two interesting ingredients. What's not to like? Well, they can kind of taste similar if you're not careful and they all look like a pile of mush. Mounding it up in a decorative bowl helps, and garnishes like parsley, olive oil, and those ubiquitous rustic triangle crisps can distract your attention.

Avocado, cilantro, and feta dip. I forgot to take a picture, so
I borrowed this one - it turned out pretty much the same.

In this case, avocado is the star ingredient. It has a healthy and tasty reputation, and is kind of fun to prepare. Who doesn't like thumping a knife into the pit to remove it?  Lately cilantro leaves have enjoyed immense popularity in our house - so fresh tasting, almost delicate. As far as I'm concerned, you can't go terribly wrong with feta in almost any application either. This dip also has some diced hot peppers, although just enough to knock on the door to let you know they're there.

Next Time: may try something other than cilantro, or turn it into a fiery avocado dip

Me: 8/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Scalloped Potatoes

I don't usually make good scalloped potatoes. There, I said it. But it's true - usually over/under cooked, curdled sauce (as SO reminded me), or just plain boring. Well this was none of those things, an actually very tasty. Cheesy, but not too much, cooked just enough, and flavour to boot. This was actually a sit-down Sunday dinner type thing, one of our stand-bys - a ham from the butcher, some form of potatoes, and peas. Is cheap to make, and there's always lots of leftovers for lunches. And to think I didn't even use cream this time - didn't really need it. No really!

Scalloped Potatoes

I have to say the key was both bacon and the cheese combo. The bacon - although somewhat redundant because of the ham - replaces the usual butter and gives lots of yummy flavour. The cheese combo was good quality old cheddar and Parmesan.  The cheddar gave it a bit of ooey gooey, and the Parmesan browned a bit and gave even more flavour. I'm going to make it like this from now on.

Scalloped Potatoes with Ham and Peas

Next time: wouldn't change much I don't think

Me: 10/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 1/10

Fast-Fry Beef and Goat Cheese Salad

SO had a hankering for steak salad, so we did the cheap and easy version. Instead of fancy steak we used fast-fry. We had one of those giant plastic containers of spinach with half of it left, so we used that. Finally, we needed something to make it interesting so add the cheese.  It could have arguably used some sort of sauce, but I actually like it a bit on the "dry" side, plus there was a tiny bit of pan dribblings that moistened it up a bit.

Fast-Fry Beef and Goat Cheese Salad

Since there are "three bears" in this house (as in too lumpy, too smooth, just right), we cannot possibly have just one variety of cheese for the meal. SSO had the usual medium St. Albert's cheddar, I had pepper goat cheese, and SO and fancy blue cheese.  No pepper on the steak for SSO either - "too spicy!". Overall, everyone was really happy - not sure if it was because it was truly an awesome meal, or just that we have been eating throw together crap for 6 weeks (see details re kitchen renovation in the previous blog entry).  Well I exaggerate perhaps a bit. One of the tricks I think here was the Montreal Steak Spice (a hit-you-over-the-head variety of spice), and another was slicing the steak really thinly once fried up.

Next Time: would try a higher-end version with nice steak and some fancy drizzling sauce.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 9/10 (!!)  It was eaten in component form, but "whatever"...

Open faced ground beef with tomato sauce on spinach

We haven't been cooking much lately - pretty much due to the fact that we have no kitchen. Literally. Kitchen renovations are exciting, expensive, and disruptive. And for us, we have experienced scope creep, so it is encompassing almost the entire first level of our house now. Everything is covered in plastic, and we have no more inner walls in the kitchen area, no dishwasher or stove, very little counter space and a temporary sink. Oh yeah, and no lights, and only a couple working plugs. We did keep our fridge, which rolls around as required plugged in to an extension cord, and we use a construction work light. The microwave works, and is perched on box.  All this to say it is hard to cook anything. We've been BBQ'ing a bit, and we have a university style two burner deal. But we have to unplug the fridge temporarily to use it. But really, it is exciting to know what is coming!

Open-faced ground beef with tomato sauce on spinach

When SO threw this concoction together, it was like decadent heaven!  Objectively, it really was tasty, although that was mostly due to the tomato sauce that was made by our Italian friend (no really). The other part was the bun which is fresh from the Portuguese bakery, sold at our local butcher, along with the ground beef we used. We did this in the slow cooker, but that was just convenience for us. It was not browned, but it was soft and tender. Browning the meat is just too complicated for our current setup, plus not everyone thinks that you have to get that Maillard reaction going every time meat comes out of the fridge. There are also in between views on the topic - see Alton's opinion.  Finally, add some spinach between everything just so there is something green and healthy in the mix.

Next Time:  maybe try Alton's dual method, i.e. brown only part of the meat

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Spicy chicken with black beans and rice, with crispy topping

Two things off the top:  One - SO came up with the whole plan for this dish, and two - we couldn't figure out exactly what to call it, hence the awkward name.  In any case, it turned out great and was very easy. Was one of the first meals in one of our new pots. Learned the hard way about how to cook with them as well. It turns out you need a much lower temperature. The copper core distributes heat very efficiently and quickly, and the weight of them really holds the heat. Since we just donated our rice cooker to someone, we made rice in one pot and used our new saucier (aka chef's pan) for the chicken. Here's a link if you are curious.

Spicy chicken with black beans and rice, with crispy topping

A few changes would make this even better. I would put in some hot peppers, and sprinkle with some fresh cilantro at the end. Maybe try a different sort of rice. The crispy topping is just crunched-up dipping nacho chips. Don't underestimate the power of a little crunch!  It (almost) made the dish.

Next Time: chilis, and fresh cilantro, maybe even a bit of corn

Me: 8/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: 8/10  (really! he went from almost running away from the sight, to wow this is pretty yummy)

Lettuce-wrapped Adobo Chicken Thighs with Avocado

This was completely SO's idea. She spiced and cooked the chicken, obtained the fantastically huge and fresh   veggie stand lettuce, and told me how to assemble. All I did was plate it. This feels like a summer dish somehow, I think it is the large lettuce wrap. It is quick and delish in any case.

Lettuce-wrapped Adobo Chicken Thighs with Avocado

Kind of hard to take a photo of this one, it is essentially a giant piece of lettuce with chicken goodness stuffed inside.  We cooked up some boneless skinless thighs with some Epicure Adobo seasoning.  I've made my own before when I was first super excited about my spice grinder, but the Epicure stuff is pretty decent.  The avocado in this case is actually avocado salad dressing, but I would slice up some real stuff next time.  Bake the chicken, wrap it up, and voila.

Next Time: real avocado, home made Adobo

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: n/a

Smoked Salmon Pasta with Capers and Dill

It's amazing how certain combinations of ingredients just work so well together. Lemon, capers, and dill are one of those, I can think of a number of recipes that have at least two if not all three of those. And they are not all German.  The basis of this one was a Jamie Oliver recipe, modified slightly to fit the ingredients we had in the fridge. It's always like that, a little substitution here and there...which I actually really like to do, as you can discover new things. Of course it can always bomb too, but that is just bound to happen once in a while when cooking. Anyway.

This turned out to be really flavourful and super easy (actually I hate that expression, sorry). We had a shrink-wrapped pack of smoked salmon - probably 3/4" thick, not the thin slices, although that could work too - from B.C. from my parents' last trip out there. Not sure how much it was, the piece was 8" long and 1/2" wide, turned out to be enough for the two of us. Good thing SSO ate already.

Smoked Salmon pasta with capers and dill

I ended up not liking the pasta shells I used, I would go with something else next time. But that is what we happened to have. I think I needed to add more freshly ground pepper as well - a healthy dose would have provided a good counterpoint. I also used some cream Sherry instead of white wine, since we only had a little bit of white left in the fridge and it was SO's favourite. I was worried the Sherry would be too sweet, but it turns out that the lemon and capers were just tart enough to balance the sweetness.

Next time: different pasta, would thicken the sauce more, and use more pepper

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a

Pizza Crostini with bbq chicken

This is one of my favourite simple lunches (or dinner in this case) to whip up.  We had bought a baguette the other day and didn't end up eating it. We were also in need of hitting the grocery store, so were out of the quick soup or Kraft dinner, and I didn't feel like an omelette. So after carving up the baguette in long diagonal, thin slices, I found some random veggies, left over bbq chicken, and tomato sauce. Perfect!

Pizza crostini with BBQ Chicken

So after pasting a bit of tomato sauce, there was a bit of sliced mini peppers, sliced green olives (SSO's fav), sliced mini tomatoes, and cheese. Put those little delights on a cooling rack over a baking tray, 15 minutes in the oven and voila.  Deliciousness.

Next Time: nothing to change really, this is a use-what-you-have sort of situation

Me: 8/10
SO: 8/10
SSO: 8/10

Slow cooked ribs, Hasselback potatoes, and Avocado Spinach salad

This was the Mother's Day meal for SO.  Inspiration came from a number of sources. The night before we had fabulous Maui Ribs at our friends' place - they recently came back from Hawaii, and were inspired themselves to serve them up. The got the ribs cross-cut at the local Chinese superstore, marinated them for a long time, and then grilled them. Very tasty. Anyway, we felt like having ribs again.

The second source was our local butcher, which we love. Great quality, and good prices. Often you have to buy things in largish batches, if not Costco size. So we came home with 3 x 2 packs of pork back ribs, meaning 6 full racks in all. They went into the freezer except for 1 two pack.

Finally, the third source (not really inspiration but necessity) was our new bbq. It is not a super high end affair, but is big and shiny, and has lots of burners and features. The problem is, it has a higher output then my last one, so I suspect I don't have the correct diameter of pipe for the natural gas supply. If you put one burner on it looks strong, but put all four on an they look like they are simmering. This would be a bad thing. No more high heat searing (aha! except I have a searing burner, which I haven't tried yet), although I will get a licensed dude to come take a look eventually. ALL this to say, it has forced me to cook things long and slow.  Which of course is perfect for ribs.

Slow cooked ribs

I've always been a bit afraid of ribs. I've tried many ways of cooking and they all turned out horribly. Tried boiling them first (bad idea), baking (not so good), slow cooker (worst idea EVER), and most bbq attempts did not turn out. So I was reticent to proceed.  Which method then?  I never usually have to go further than my "Big Weber book of Grilling", it is pretty awesome. So I pretty much followed their "Kansas City style ribs" recipe. I didn't like the "mop" very much (see here for a difference between "mop" and "baste"), mostly because of the unnecessary celery bits, other than that the ribs turned out awesome. I ended up cooking them almost perfectly for the first time in my life. I was pretty stoked. It was pushing 2.5 hours at around maybe 275 F.  How do you tell if they are done?  Here is an interesting link at the Amazing Ribs website.

Part 2 - I've been noticing these Hasselback potato recipes all over the interweb lately, so I thought I'd wing it and try it.  Now, SO is a potato expert, cooker and eater. So I was unsure about the venture. But I wanted it to be a surprise none-the-less, so I gave it a whirl and it also turned out very nicely.

Hasselback Potatoes, with bacon and cheese

Part 3 - Needed a salad to go with the meat.  I've been really into spinach lately, not sure why. Usually simple sliced mushrooms on top. I've also been into avocado, because of the great taste and health benefits, and because it is gosh darn fun to cut up. I love it when it just pops out of the skin in one whole piece.

Avocado-spinach salad with olives and mini sweet tomatoes

Next Time: I would stick with the rub on the ribs, but maybe try a different baste. I under cooked the potatoes by probably 10 minutes, and it needed a bit more cheese. The salad was fine.

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: 7/10

Ground Beef Stroganoff

This is definitely a middle of the week sort of meal. We usually have mushrooms in the fridge, onions & garlic - well of course those are always around, plus we try to keep a few bags of ground beef from the butcher in the downstairs freezer. The quality is much higher, although it comes in 2lb bags which means lots of leftovers. Not necessarily a bad thing, at least when things turn out ok.

Ground Beef Stroganoff with mushrooms and egg noodles 

I noticed that most recipes, after googling around for a bit, seem to include either mushroom/chicken soup, beef consomme, or beef stock. We have tons of mushroom soup in the cupboard at any given time, but that is reserved for SO's famous "extravaganza" meals. Usually pork chop extravaganza. I prefer to do things a "fresher" way if I have the time, like I did today on a Sunday.  This recipe is similar to Emeril's, since I made up a batch of his "Emeril's Essence", but I omitted his suggestion of beef broth, parsley, and cheddar, and added instead some red wine, half-and-half cream, and sour cream.

Next Time: more mushrooms, maybe another veg

Me: 9/10
SO: 9/10
SSO: n/a, he had noodles and plain ground beef

Vietnamese Grilled Beef and Vermicelli

Also known as Bún bò Nam Bộ, this is a delicious dish we often would get somewhere in Chinatown and bring home for supper. The more common type is with grilled pork, but we happened to have beef on hand. As usual, SO had the good idea for this. I started off with the Canadian Living version that SO emailed me, but as usual we didn't have some of the ingredients and/or I didn't like something about the method. But changing things up is how you discover and invent, right? Well, when it works out it is good. 

There is a fair amount of prep involved here, but the cooking part is very quick. Our expectations were fairly low this first time I tried it, but wow it turned out really great. I think the key to this was the marinating of the meat. The sauce, called Nuoc Cham, is also important, but more so for the balance between acidity and the fish sauce. The little carrots you see, pickled or otherwise, I think are more for decoration. Huh, probably wrong there.

Grilled Beef and Vermicelli. The regular portion on the
right, and the slightly deconstructed version for the
fussier little guy in the family.

We didn't end up plating this in an entirely authentic manner; there is no lettuce leaves, no carrot, the beef was fast-fry instead of thicker pork, it was pan fried instead of grilled, etc.  But nonetheless, it was delicious. At least according to me and SO. Not so much according to SSO.

Next Time:  will grill some pork

Me: 10/10
SO: 10.5/10
SSO: 2/10

Salmon and Mushroom-Spinach Salad

I had to get groceries on the way home, which is fine but it makes for a late supper. Now, what is super-speedy to cook up, healthy, and also something I haven't done for a while? Salmon! I think we had it way too often for a while since the past year or so we've barely had it a few times at home. But after eating tons of white fish and shrimp, it was time again.  To go with it, a nice healthy green salad (is there another colour of salad?).  Apart from a not too healthy Caesar, my fav salad is spinach and mushrooms with just a bit of creamy dressing of some kind. So why not cook the salmon and put it on that?

Salmon and Mushroom-Spinach Salad

After we were finished eating this (5 minutes flat I think it was), we were both pretty excited. It was so delish, and took no time at all to cook.  The mushrooms were "triple-washed" and pre-sliced, the spinach was also pre-washed, and even the salmon came in these perfect portion sizes (fresh, pre-cut at the fish counter). For the sauce, SO at the idea to simply mix together some of that seafood sauce (the kind you use to dip shrimp) with some sour cream. I put some seafood rub on the salmon, and cooked it in a tiny bit of oil on medium heat with the lid on.

Next Time: can't think of anything!

Me: 10/10
SO: 10/10
SSO: n/a

Cabbage and Sausage Pasta

Necessity is the Mother of Invention, as they say.  Freezing rain forced me home early, but I therefore had time to cook something for dinner.  SO had a great idea to do chicken and shrimp with walnuts and broccoli, but unfortunately for us we had no chicken or broccoli. We actually had very little left in the fridge - so it was going to be challenging. We had a half a head of cabbage and practically no other veggies, and no proteins at all except for some frozen sausages in the freezer. Well OK then, let's make a go of it.

Cabbage and Sausage Pasta

Cabbage is fairly versatile it turns out - it is benefiting from a sort of renaissance in our house. Crumbling sausage will go with just about anything, so then add a bit of onion, some spices, and throw it on pasta. How bad could it be?  Actually it was fairly decent. In the end, what made it successful in my mind was a moderate seasoning with some cajun spices, and then at the last minute I thought that offsetting that with some sweet frozen corn would make a good counterpoint. Good call, I think.

Next Time: my ratio of pasta and sausage was way off, so more sausage

Me: 8/10
SO: 7/10
SSO: 2/10

Breaded Chicken Meatballs

This one started as me wanting to use my new ice cream scoop (the kind with the thumb knob to flip out the contents).  I saw a picture of chicken croquettes. They looked good, but too big.  I like these because leftovers can be reused in interesting ways, such as crumbled in a pasta, on rice with a sauce, or maybe a casserole.

My assembly line

They turned out pretty good, but as SO pointed out it needs a sauce; not because it was dry, but because they were fried.

Breaded Chicken Meatballs

Next time: will make a sauce

Me: 7/10, Probably 8/10 with sauce
SO: 8/10
SSO: 3/10