Hot town, anda in the city

Toronto has a shimmer about it in the summertime.

I'm not talking about the streets themselves, or the weather... it's more about the people who live here or who come here to visit making things seem really shiny.  Everyone and every place seems extra beautiful, extra special, extra real.  Whether they're old or young, talking and laughing in a group, or a couple, or a solitary person with somewhere to get to (and fast), they're out and they're on patios or they're in backyards or they're just walking or on the TTC or on their bicycles... being gorgeous.

And it's nice.  Really nice.  I've lived downtown for over seven years now, and each summer has astonished me.  This summer has been no exception.  

We spent yesterday morning just wandering about the Beach - walked a beach/boardwalk combination from Northern Dancer Boulevard over to Kenilworth Street, then back along Kew Beach Avenue.  The beautiful residents and visitors made the already lovely surroundings sparkle, and it was a really excellent way to spend a couple of hours.

  

To make sure we had energy for such a jaunt, I made breakfast of anda bhurji, an Indian spicy scrambled egg dish (recipe below), and warmed some chapatti.  This was first made for me by my mother-in-law, and it was love at first bite.  You'll note that I've added corn - I had roasted some Ontario corn the night before, so I had some leftover that I added to the recipe.  Corn is not a traditional add-in, so don't worry if you don't have it.  It added a nice touch of sweetness to the dish, however.

Anda Bhurji (spicy scrambled eggs)

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/3 cup of minced onion
Scant1/3 teaspoon of turmeric powder
2 cloves minced garlic
1.5 inches of ginger root, peeled and minced (about 1 tablespoon of pureed ginger)
1 to 3 small green chillis to your taste, deseeded and minced (alternatively, you can cut a slit down the side of a whole green chilli or two and throw them in like that)
1/2 teaspoon of cumin powder
6 eggs (free range, organic - think of the hens, please!)
1/3 cup of water or milk
Half of a tomato, diced small
1/2 teaspoon of garam masala (my favourite blend is also included below)
1/4 cup of cooked or frozen corn
Lots of chopped cilantro - probably about 3 tablespoons' worth
Want it spicy?  Add 1/4 teaspoon of Indian red chilli powder (not to be confused with Western chilli powder, which is a blend of spices - Indian chilli powder is just ground up chillis)
Salt and pepper to taste

Heat oil in frying pan on stovetop - medium heat.   Add onion and turmeric, and cook until the onions are softened and becoming translucent.  Then, add your garlic, ginger, green chilli, and ground cumin and fry for two minutes, till the garlic loses its raw smell.  

While onion mixture cooks, beat your eggs in with the water or milk till a little frothy. 

Add diced tomato, corn, cilantro, garam masala, and optional chilli powder.  Stir well.  Let cook 1 to 2 minutes.  Then, add the egg mixture, and salt and pepper the whole concoction.  Keep stirring to scramble the eggs.  Once it looks like it could be ready, taste to see if salt is to your taste.  Add more if necessary.  

Serves 4.  Eat with chapattis or on its own.  

Garam Masala blend
Notes: 
1. I will unequivocally state that everyone probably has their own preferred taste when it comes to garam masala.  This is just what I prefer.  It's great to experiment with your own blend.
2. You need a coffee grinder that's dedicated solely to grinding spices for this.  If you use your regular coffee grinder, it's probably going to make your beans taste like Indian food for at least three grinding sessions.

1/4 cup whole coriander seeds
2 tablespoons of whole cumin seeds
2 green cardamom pods
4 black cardamom pods
3 inches of cinnamon stick
1 teaspoon of black peppercorns
3 bay leaves
1 teaspoon cloves
1 dried red chilli pepper
Pinch of grated nutmeg

Buzz everything up into a powder in your spice-specific coffee grinder.  It'll keep in an airtight container for about a month or so.  

You can also dry roast the spices before grinding them, but that gives a different flavour.  I tend to prefer this one for most cooking.  

Hanging in Halifax

My husband and I spent an extended long weekend in Halifax, Nova Scotia (Canada) to celebrate his 33rd birthday.  We were able to visit with great friends while we were there, and to enjoy all the hospitality Halifax and the surrounding area could offer.  

The following is a bit of an annotated triptych of our time there.  Photos were mostly taken with my iPhone, so they're not amazing quality, but they're better than having no photos at all.

Day 1 - drive to Lunenburg (it's on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites)

Lobster roll lunch at the Salt Shaker Deli - the lobster was lightly dressed, not overwhelmingly mayonnaise-y, and very tasty.  We had mussels in a tomato-sausage broth to start - they have several options for mussels, but they make their own sausage, which made our decision easy.  

Shopping in Lunenberg - Dots and Loops for handmade stuff, like housewares and jewelry and accessories; Amos Pewter for pewter jewelry, housewares and ornaments; Luvly for Canadian designed/made women's clothing.

Dinner at Two Doors Down in Halifax - we shared kimchi fries and some calamari to start - the fries were great, and the sauce for the calamari was balanced really well between sour and sweet and salty.  My main dish was a bowl of scallop and basil pesto spaghetti, which was a wonderful dish with fresh flavour from the basil and the scallops in each bite.  

Day 2 - drive to Annapolis Valley (Grand Pre is on the UNESCO list of world heritage sites, too) and the Bay of Fundy

Mussels for lunch at the Port Pub in Port Williams

Walked the ocean floor at Burncoat Head Park during low tide, and watched the tide start to creep back in by marking its progress against a rock.  Views through Grand Pre are incredible (sorry, no photos at the moment) and well worth the drive.

Drove back in time for dinner at Cafe Chianti, an old school Italian place right in Halifax.  To start, I ate seared scallops served with a panzanella salad (possibly my new favourite combination), and for main I had beautifully cooked pasta and meatballs.  

Day 3 - day in Halifax proper

Shopping and breakfast at the Halifax Seaport Farmers Market.

Lunch of shared "social plates" at the Stubborn Goat - see photo below of our heaped table that included arancini, stuffed meatballs, and house made pickles. 

Dinner at home of oysters, lobsters, and veg from the farmers market.
Watched fireworks for Natal Day and then managed to sneak in to Cows for ice cream right at closing time before we went home.

Day 4 - last day in Halifax

Breakfast at home with farmers market haul.

Wander around the harbourfront, and picked up a chocolate rum cake to bring home to one of my husband's colleagues at Rum Runners.

Lunch of beet salad and poutine at the Henry House pub. 

Easy?

I've been thinking about the word "easy" lately.  It seems to be applied to everything; sometimes in a way that appears dismissive of the time and effort that someone put in to something, and sometimes to try to make an activity seem like it might be more fun.

I also tend to apply it to my own accomplishments or things that I've made, often in an effort to be modest.  The thing is, though, most things that I consider to be worthwhile aren't easy.  They take time and effort and dedication and creativity.

Take cooking, for example.  I cook for a lot of reasons: to eat healthily, to enjoy new flavours, to gain new experiences, to connect with my culture as well as other cultures, and so on.  Whether I'm making a tomato sauce that takes 10 minutes or food for a party of 40, cooking is not easy.  It needs my full attention, no matter what it is.  

The aim is always to be proud of what I've made and served.  That's why it can be quite disappointing or disheartening when someone says something about how easy something is to make.  For the time it took for me to make the dish, I was thinking of nothing but the end product, and all the steps it took to get from start to finish - the right way to chop, how often to stir, when to taste, how to season.

We all do this in our everyday lives, at home, at work, with our friends and our families - just because something doesn't seem challenging or interesting to others, we downplay it and our own abilities.  I plan to stop myself from measuring things in terms of easy from here on out.  Or, instead of describing something as easy, maybe I'll go with "not too complicated" or say that it "comes together quickly".  No more dismissing accomplishments.   


Not-Too-Complicated Tomato Sauce
(for pasta and pizza and anything else you'd like it for)

1 clove of minced garlic 
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tin of San Marzano tomatoes
1/2 teaspoon of sugar - keep aside in case you want more
1/2 teaspoon of sea or kosher salt - keep aside in case you want more
3 torn up fresh basil leaves

Heat a heavy-bottomed pot on the stove at medium-high heat.  Add olive oil - swirl to coat.  Add garlic and cook till it no longer smells raw - about 1.5 to 2 minutes (don't let the garlic turn brown - golden is okay, but brown is not).  Add tin of tomatoes, sugar and salt.  Bring to boil, then turn heat down to simmer, stirring occasionally.  Simmer only 10 minutes, then remove from heat.  Add torn up basil leaves.  Stir.  Taste to see if sugar and salt are correct, according to your preferences.  

Sauce can even be made into a soup if you puree it and add a little bit of water or stock.  Great with a baguette rubbed with garlic, drizzled with olive oil, then grilled, or even a fontina grilled cheese sandwich.

The Chain

It's sort of silly to remark on the length of time that has passed since I last posted on here, given that I don't think anyone reads this.  But the reason is that in a lot of ways, I haven't had much to say.  I haven't made any major changes or done anything significantly different with my life in the past... oh, let's say two years.  Instead, I grew busier and busier at work and allowed that to consume my days and nights.  In addition to that, I traveled a little more, I saved a lot more, I took on new responsibilities and pushed off others.  

I grew fat and tired.  Diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis at 32 years old.  Made some lifestyle changes, and attempted to say yes more often to fun opportunities, and to say no when I meant it.  Took a good long look at myself both as an individual and as part of a family and as part of a community.  Tried to be a better spouse, a better daughter, a better friend.  Tried to be better to myself, even when I felt like I didn't deserve it.  

Still haven't figured things out, really: what I want from my existence, and what my existence seems to want from me.  However, the constant for me throughout all of this was my kitchen, and what I could make with my own two hands.  Maybe it's time to chronicle that publicly.  Maybe it's not.  I think I'll give it a shot and see what happens.

Here, fishy fishy fishy

So, I'm kind of ambivalent about a lot of things at the moment.  I blame it on the winter, on the steady greyness that permeates everything.  However, it's nearly February and that means it's going to get brighter every day going forward.  

In an effort to eat my way out of apathy (should work, right? right?), I've been trying to incorporate more fish into my diet.  Gotta tell you that fish is not my most favourite thing, but I'm learning, and since I count shellfish in this total-fish-eaten tally, it's been pretty good really.  Oysters and lobster and mussels and shrimp - to me, those are the most delicious items the ocean has to offer.  But for diet-based doses of omega-3s, you have to go for the oily fish, so that means salmon once or twice a week.  I like wild Pacific salmon best, but you do you - I'm not going to recommend one ocean over the other.

This is a super easy recipe.  You may not even call it a recipe.  But it is tasty.

Mustard-Garlic Salmon 

Preheat oven to 425

2 tablespoons grainy mustard

3 tablespoons olive oil

Juice of half a lemon

1-2 minced garlic cloves

Dried chili flakes, to taste (I like to take a half a dry chili pepper and whir it around in my spice grinder - which is actually a coffee grinder - I think they taste better when they don't sit around in flake form)

Salt and pepper

1 teaspoon of dijon mustard if you're really super keen on mustard

1 big salmon filet - like a side of salmon, if you will - skin on one side

Another 2 tablespoons olive oil

First, mix the mustard, the olive oil, the lemon, the chili, and the salt and pepper together to make a paste.  Set aside.

Next, you can line a baking pan with foil or just leave it foil-less.  Drizzle the rest of the olive oil onto the pan/foil where you're going to be placing the fish.  I like to paint it into a uniform oil glaze with a pastry brush, but the value of that is debatable.  Place the fish skin-side-down onto the pan.  Grab the mustard paste and spoon it out onto the salmon.  Then, take a pastry brush or whatever you have around and make sure the paste covers the entire fleshy surface of the salmon.  An even coating ensures a good end result.  

Throw the pan into the oven and let the fish cook for about 15 minutes.  Fish is finicky so I'm not going to really give a proper time for it.  You know it's done if you stick a fork in, rotate it, and the fish flakes readily.  Because I like a bit of texture, sometimes I put the broiler on for a couple of minutes at the end to make the coating slightly crisp.  

Serve with something green to maximise the benefits of the omega-3s - some sauteed garlic spinach, or asparagus or broccoli or whatever.  

Apple Pie and America

It's at times like these that I think of this Conway Twitty song my grandparents used to play... it went "Hello, darling.  Nice to see you.  It's been a long time..." And yes, it's been a long time.  Things got in the way, as I suppose they are wont to do.  But the blog name was far too good for me to let go of, so I figured I'd come back and maybe just start posting somewhat randomly.

Today, I'm putting my recipe for apple pie out into the universe.  Reminded of it by my first trip to New York ever, which was last weekend, the recipe has received nothing but rave reviews since I debuted it last fall.  It's sort of an amalgam of a number of different apple pie recipes from t'internet, so apologies if this looks familiar to anyone.  But here goes.  If I may suggest an accompaniment, it would be either whipped cream with a little tiny bit of vanilla whipped in, or vanilla ice cream from Ontario's own Kawartha Dairy.

Apple Pie

(full ingredient list at the end of the recipe)

Get your stand mixer out - it makes pastry-making a joy, honestly.  I'm never going to use a food processor again for pastry.  Into that stand mixer, measure out:

2.5 cups flour (not self-raising, just regular old flour - i think if you wanted to use whole wheat, you could probably do .5 cups whole wheat to 2 cups all-purpose)

2.5 tablespoons sugar

Half a teaspoon of salt

Turn mixer on low (like speed setting one or two), and let those dry ingredients combine.  Then, take: 

1 cup of the best unsalted butter you can find, straight from the fridge, and cut it into half inch pieces

Piece by piece, while the stand mixer is still mixing, throw the butter into the mixer.  When I say piece by piece, I actually mean it.  You want the pastry to get a nice crumbly looking texture.  Once you've added each piece of butter, let it mix another 5 seconds, then take

1/2 cup ice water

And, very slowly, trickle the water into the bowl of the mixer.  This is where you need to be very careful as you only want the pastry to just stick together, no more, no less.  You are unlikely to need the full 1/2 cup.  The dough should not look sticky or tacky, if it does then you've got too much water in and you're going to have to add more flour or start all over again.

Turn the nice, just barely holding together dough out onto your counter and gather it into a ball.  Roll it about with your hands to make a nice smooth ball, then divide the ball in half with your hands.  Flatten the two halves with your hands into discs.  Wrap each disc up individually in saran, then stick them in the fridge to rest for about an hour (yes, this is necessary - pastry is finicky and needs time to just exist before you do anything with it).

So, while your pastry is chilling, in a big bowl you can combine:

6-7 Cortland or Northern Spy apples, peeled, cored, and sliced into thin-ish pieces

1-2 tablespoons cinnamon (whatever your taste is - I usually stay at about 1.5)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice      

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

4 tablespoons white granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice or straight nutmeg

Stir everything together - the apples will look somewhat coated.  You're going to let this mixture rest as well - it's called macerating - so that the excess juice from the apples will mix together with the sugars and spices and then run off.  It takes about a half hour.

 

Preheat your oven to 425 degrees fahrenheit.   

Grab a strainer and place it over a pot.  Empty the apples from the bowl into the strainer and shake vigorously.  Lift the strainer and see how much apple-y, sugary liquid there is.  Shake it again just to get any more liquid, then you can empty the apples back into that first bowl.  Turn your stove burner on medium-high, and then boil the liquid down into a syrup - it takes about five minutes.  While it's boiling, mix about

2 tablespoons cornstarch

into the apples in the bowl.  Once you've got your syrup, mix that into the apples as well.

Flour your work surface and a rolling pin, and get a nice deep glass pie plate out - now's the time to grab 1 disc of the pastry from the fridge.  Put it onto the floury surface, and start rolling out.  You want to roll it into something approximating a circle, and it needs to be big enough to cover the bottom of that pie plate all the way up to the edges.  Place the rolled out dough into the pie plate - you've now got a bottom crust - and then empty the bowl of apples-cornstarch-syrup onto the bottom crust and even them out.  Re-flour your surface and your rolling pin, grab the other disc from the fridge, and roll that out too.  It needs to cover the top of the pie plate all the way out to the edge of the lip.  Place the rolled out dough on top of the apples.  Press the edges down using a finger to make a ruffled edge.  Cut some slits in the top crust to let the steam out as it bakes.  

Throw that pie into the oven for 45 minutes.  Check on it after about 25 minutes to make sure the edges aren't getting too brown - if they are, you can make a little ring out of tinfoil or parchment paper and cover the edges up with it.  At 45 minutes, remove from oven and let cool.  You should now have a beautiful pie to share and enjoy.          

Ingredient List:

Pastry:

2.5 cups flour

2.5 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon of salt

1 cup of cold butter

1/2 cup ice water

Filling:

6 or 7 Cortland or Northern Spy apples

1-2 tablespoons cinnamon (whatever your taste is - I usually stay at about 1.5)

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice      

2 tablespoons dark brown sugar

2 tablespoons light brown sugar

4 tablespoons white granulated sugar

1/4 teaspoon mixed spice or straight nutmeg

2 tablespoons cornstarch

Such a pest(o)

This summer, I've been really into pasta. Don't really know why or anything, but I am. It may be because most pasta applications are relatively easy, and no one really wants to cook anything super hardcore in the summer because it's hot and you're tired and want to be outside. Pesto trapanese is no exception to this general rule, but its deliciousness fools you into thinking you've really accomplished something by making it.

So, it's pesto, but it's not what you think of when you think pesto because it has tomatoes.

Pesto Trapanese

1/2 cup almonds, toasted in a pan with some olive oil. Take them out as soon as they start turning a teensy bit brown, because it's a very short trip from there to burnt.

4 Roma tomatoes (the egg-shaped ones), cut into quarters and de-seeded

12-15 basil leaves

1 garlic clove, peeled and halved

1 cup of grated parmigiano reggiano

1/4 to 1/2 cup of olive oil - you'll know your preference

1/2 box of linguine (I use dry Barilla pasta - it seems to work well more often than not) for 2 people eating what could be their only meal of the day - if you're having a starter or a dessert, you're not going to want that much.

Now, what you're going to do is pretty much just drop all the ingredients for the pesto into a food processor, and using the "pulse" function, chop it up till it reaches your desired consistency. I've tried chopping the almonds before I do everything else, but I honestly couldn't notice a difference, except that I thought that I preferred chopping everything up together. Oh, and start by putting in a 1/4 cup of olive oil, then check the consistency halfway through the chopping exercise. If you feel like it's too solid, not liquid-y enough, pour in another 1/4 cup of the oil. Use good oil if you have it - you can tell when you do (tried it with not-so-good, and it kind of disappointed). Stop chopping once you feel good about it.

Boil 4-5 cups of water, and salt it liberally. As in, it should taste like the ocean. Drop your linguine in and cook for 6 or 7 minutes. Drain, but reserve a bit of the pasta water. Stir the pesto into the linguine in the pot that the linguine was cooking in. If it looks perhaps a little too solid, stir in some of the cooking water, adding a little bit at a time so you know exactly when it looks right.

I've attached a blackberry photo of this to this post - quality's not that good, but at least you'll get an idea of what it should look like.