Roasted Veggies and Salmon en Papillote

March is Nutrition Month - the theme this year: "Celebrate Food..... From Field to Table"

Here is an interesting piece on preserving farmland on The Current : 

http://www.cbc.ca/thecurrent/episode/2011/02/28/farmland-disputes/

ROASTED VEGGIES AND SALMON EN PAPILLOTE

Getting a little tired of winter veggies? Same old carrots, potatoes, parsnips,.......

have you tried roasting them?

Roasting veggies intensifies their flavours and creates some interesting textures:  sweet and salty, crispy and creamy - YES! You will be turned on by root veggies once more! Not a Brussel Sprouts lover? Roast them and try them again!

Onions make you cry? Roast them and you won't shed a tear!

ROASTED VEGGIES

Preheat the oven to 400.

Peel (if necessary), and cut the veggies into similar sizes for even cooking. Don't cut them too small.

Peel some garlic cloves - but leave them whole - they will taste like creamy candy!!

Throw all of the veggies in a bowl and toss with a little olive oil.

Go ahead and season them with a little freshly ground salt and pepper.

Adding a few sprigs of rosemary is not a bad idea either....

Spread the veggies out in a single layer on a baking sheet and put them in the oven.

Toss them around every few minutes

Test a couple pieces after about 30 minutes to see if they are tender. Cook until tender and carmelized.

So maybe you have been roasting veggies for years and you are thinking - 'oh, I opened up this blog post for THIS....ho hum, Edie, tell me something I don't already know.'

Oh....uh...gee........tough audience...hmmmmm

Have you used parchment bags yet? Or should I say have you cooked 'en papillote' ?

SALMON EN PAPILLOTE

Rinse and pat your filets dry (salmon, trout, haddock etc).

Put a slice of lemon on top of each filet - you may want to season with herbs or just a grind of salt and pepper.

Slide them into the parchment bag - or create a bag out of parchment paper. Put this on a baking sheet. (I actually just threw my bag o' salmon right on top of the veggies!)

When the roasted veggies are about 10- 12 minutes away from being tender, put the fish in the oven. Cook until the fish flakes easily and is opaque. 

Careful opening your papillote! It will be STEAMY AND HOT!

BON PAPILLOTE!

Bella making snow angels

Pretty Pity Pot Pie

I had a few moments of self pity the other day as south-bound neighbours dropped off their perishables for us to enjoy while they soak up the sun in the Dominican. 

With sniffles and a cough that just won't stop, I walked Bella along the frozen lake in the bitter cold wind and felt sorry for myself - thinking "Gee, why aren't we going south with the rest of Tantallon?!

But then - I realized I have leftover chicken and broth in the fridge and WE will have chicken pot pie for dinner!!

I decided to call this recipe "Pretty Pity Pot Pie". 

In the movie, Waitress, the heroine played by Keri Russell is a waitress and genius pie maker who names her pies as to how she is feeling. It is a quirky, sweet film and I highly recommend it! But enjoy it with a Coconut Cream Pie instead of popcorn!

Take a look at this trailer: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/waitress/trailers/10889636

This chicken pot pie is traditional except for the pretty top of crispy golden phyllo pastry. It is sooooo pretty and better for you than a pastry top!

PRETTY PITY POT PIE

Warning Type A's: amounts of ingredients are approximate according to what you have available and your preferences.

Filling:

glug of Olive oil

2-3 stocks of celery, diced

1 onion, diced

Approximately 2-3 cups of veggies such as carrots, potatoes, sweet potato, peeled and cubed.

Approximately 2 cups Chicken broth

~ 1cup Cooked chicken, cubed

 1 tsp each dried oregano, rosemary, sage (improvise with herbs that you have!)

pinch salt and lots of freshly ground pepper

~ 2 cups of quick cooking veggies you have around: chopped broccoli (florets and stalks), frozen peas

1/4 cup flour or enough to thicken the broth

Pretty Top:

4-5 sheets of phyllo pastry

1/4 cup olive oil or melted butter

1. Heat a good sized soup pot over medium heat and add a glug of olive oil 

2. Add the onion and celery and saute for a couple of minutes.

3. Add the diced vegetables and stir. 

4. Add a couple of cups of chicken broth, cubed chicken, herbs and salt and pepper. Let the veggies simmer until almost soft, about 10-15 minutes.

5. Take out about 1/4 cup of the broth and put in a small bowl. Whisk in the flour to thicken. Add this mixture back to the broth and stir. Do this again if it does not thicken up to your liking.

6. Add the quick cooking veggies such as broccoli and peas. Simmer for a few more minutes. Taste and adjust seasonings.

7. Ladle the filling into 1 or 2 pie plates or square pans. 

8. Preheat the oven to 425.

9. Spread 1 Phyllo sheet out on a cutting board. Brush with butter or olive oil

10. Scrunch it up with your fingers and place it on the pie filling. Repeat this step until the whole pie is covered.

Put it in the oven for about 15 minutes or until top is golden brown.

 

 

 Remove your pretty pie from the oven and give thanks for winter and all of its comforts!

"In the depths of winter I finally learned that within me there lay an invincible summer."

Albert Camus

Bacon-Scented Vegetable Barley Stew

Do I smell bacon??!

 Aaaah, the smell of bacon sizzling in a pan. Does it not bring back memories of Saturday mornings...of someone in a well worn housecoat and slippers... of someone who loved you standing at the stove tending bacon, eggs and toast?

No, seriously, do I smell bacon?

Smells can evoke vivid memories and emotions. Apparently, of all of the senses, smell is the one that brings back the strongest memories. And because you are on the edge of your seats with wonder, I am going to tell you the reason for this! When the nasal receptors in your nose pick up a scent, this information is sent directly to the olfactory cortex in the brain, which is linked closely to the amygdala, the 'emotional brain', and to the hippocampus, where memory is stored. So this is why smells, feelings and memories can be so intertwined.


Now, of course bacon is not exactly a 'health' food - we all have been told to stay away from the fatty, salty stuff. But, if bacon brings back so many happy memories and a surge of stress-relieving, 'feel good' chemicals ensue, then I think the negative effect of saturated fats will be cancelled out! Don't you?

If you look in my freezer at any given time , there will be a few slices of bacon in there, waiting to be a part of a healthy dish. It is a great technique to use a little bacon to get a lot of flavour.

So, this stew starts with a few strips of bacon.

Bacon-Scented Vegetable Barley Stew

2-3 strips of bacon
1 onion, diced
2-3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 or more cups of a variety of diced root veggies (depends how many are being served) carrots,       parsnips, turnip, sweet potato, potato
1-2 cups of barley, rinsed. *
1-2 tbsp of dried herbs: rosemary, sage, oregano
App. 4-6 cups of broth or water
frozen peas
freshly ground pepper

* Hulled barley is more nutritious than pearl barley, but takes longer to cook.  In this recipe I used pearl barley b/c that is the only type that was available at my grocery store that day. If you use hulled barley, cook stew for 1 1/2 - 2 hours - or cook the barley before you make the stew.

Cook the bacon in a large, heavy bottomed pot until crisp. Drain off some of the fat and give a piece of bacon to your long suffering dog. Put the bacon onto some paper towel and set aside.
Add the diced onion and garlic to the pot and saute on medium low heat 2-3 minutes.

Add the veggies, barley, herbs and broth or water. Cook on medium heat til tender- 30-40 minutes.

I hate to be a 'snot', but look at my fine pot!

Add a cup or so of frozen peas, freshly ground pepper and the crumbled crisp bacon - if there is any left!

Taste, adjust seasonings, enjoy!


 A beautiful excerpt about smell, taste and memory from:
 " Remembrance of Things Past" by Marcel Proust


"But when from a long-distant past nothing subsists, after the people are dead, after the things are broken and scattered, still, alone, more fragile, but with more vitality, more unsubstantial, more persistent, more faithful, the smell and taste of things remain poised a long time, like souls, ready to remind us, waiting and hoping for their moment, amid the ruins of all the rest; and bear unfaltering, in the tiny and almost impalpable drop of their essence, the vast structure of recollection."

Lentil Kale Soup

Do you have a bag of lentils in your cupboard because you know they are healthy and feel that you should be eating them?
Has that aforementioned bag of lentils been in there ...oooooh, for more that a year or two?
Don't worry; you can still use them!!

Lentils are a legume that are easy to cook - no soaking required - and they cook up in less than 30 minutes! They are packed with nutrition: folic acid, protein, fiber..., they are inexpensive, versatile, essentially non-perishable,... but from my own informal field research, not commonly used by Nova Scotians.

Sometimes I feel that it is my life purpose to turn Nova Scotians onto legumes.
If I could make a living doing just that,  I would accept the job in a minute.  Imagine the job title: Bean Queen, Queen Bean, or Lady Fartsalot - hmmmm-not exactly the title I've been dreaming about.

In actuality it is part of my job already - doing quickie cooking sessions with clients in their homes - the recipes usually star a bean or lentils.
The other day a new client called me and said that she had a bag of lentils in the cupboard for over a year now,  and would love to know how to use them. I could feel my pulse quicken, my breath become shallow and a surge of adrenaline. Is it normal to become this excited about cooking lentils with someone??


This soup follows the straightforward soup formula of sauteing aromatics such as onion, and garlic in a little oil, adding vegetables, then adding a protein and/or a starch source.Simmer, taste, adjust seasonings. You can use almost any vegetables you have on hand. I really liked the Kale in this soup.
Regarding amounts of water to lentils - for this soup use a ratio of 4:1 - i.e. 4 cups water or broth to 1 cup lentils. You may need to add more water or broth to make it less thick.


Lentil Kale Soup

olive oil
onion, diced
garlic, minced
celery, diced
carrots, diced
herbes de provence - or other dried herb combinations: rosemary, oregano, etc.
water or broth
rinsed dried lentils: I used French Puy - you can use red, green or brown lentils
tomato paste (note in photo there is crushed tomatoes - I used leftover tomato paste in the fridge instead)
Kale: rinsed, tough ribs cut off and cut into pieces.
salt
pepper


Heat the olive oil in a soup pot. Add the onion, garlic and celery, saute for a few minutes. Add the diced carrot, herbs and saute for a few minutes. Add water and the rinsed lentils, stir and bring to a simmer. Let it simmer until the lentils are tender - about 25 minutes. Add more water or broth to reach desired consistency.
Add the tomato paste and kale and cook for another few minutes.
Season with salt and lots of freshly ground pepper. Taste and adjust seasonings.

Bella says:" Of all of the Mommies in the world, I had to end up with a lentil loving dietitian!"

Get Cozy with Curry!

Brrrr!!!

If cozy was a taste, this would be it! This curry/ ginger dish warms you from the inside out. In fact, small beads of perspiration always form on MIke's forehead when he eats this ...fun to watch, unless you are out at a fine indian restaurant.

As usual, I am offering more of a formula than a recipe ...you can substitute, add, adjust, or omit. Just remember to start with the aromatics: onion, garlic, spices, then add the harder vegetables such as carrots, potato, squash.  Add quick cooking vegetables near the end: cauliflower, peas, broccoli.
When we understand the formula of a dish, we can cook from our memory, intuition and senses. 

a glug of olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
3 or more cloves of garlic
knob of fresh ginger
curry powder or curry paste, to taste
carrots, peeled and sliced
sweet potato, peeled and diced
vegetable broth or hot water
cauliflower, cut into flowerets
canned coconut milk
chickpeas - cooked or canned, rinsed
frozen green peas
pinch or two of salt

raisins

Add a glug of olive oil to a large, heavy pot over medium high heat. Add onion and garlic and saute for about 5 minutes
Grate about an inch of peeled, fresh ginger into the pot (you can keep a knob of fresh ginger in the freezer and just peel and grate it as you need it!).
Add the curry powder or paste (if some family members like it mild and others like it hot - just add enough for the mild bunch and you can add more at the end of the recipe after you have removed the mild portion.) As far as how much curry? Add a tbsp - taste then add some more. Remember, you can always add some more, but you can't take some out!

(At this point you can transfer it to a slow cooker, or keep cooking on the stovetop.)

Add the carrot and sweet potato and just enough broth to almost cover the vegetables. Cook until they are almost soft.
Add the cauliflower and enough coconut milk to make it look like a stew....but not a soup.
Add chickpeas, peas and raisins.

Season with salt, taste...season.
You may want to add some more raisins on top.
Chutney is nice on the side...yummmm!

Serve on rice - Jasmine Rice is nice!

The boys love when I take photos of them for this blog!
Lauchlin put extra raisins on top of his curry.

Bella says : "I refuse to enter this house unless there is meat cooking on that stove!"
Its going to be a cold night Bella!

Many Bad Apples Make a Really Good Crisp!!

Was I happy on Boxing Day to have enough leftovers to make two Turkey Pot Pies, and to have a crisp topping in the freezer to make a humongous Apple Crisp!!
That way we could just go to the beach and hang out!

Edie and sister Margaret at Cleveland Beach 

I have been working on developing a wholesome freezable fruit crisp topping over the past few months - and have come up with a great one!
During the winter and spring months when apples are kept in cold storage, they don't seem to keep well at home - so one ends up with many 'sub par' eating apples. An apple crisp is the perfect solution to using them up! And when you have unexpected dinner guests or just feel like a treat - you can whip up a wholesome dessert quickly when you have the crisp topping already prepared in the freezer.

Here is how I recommend you make it:

Take all of your 'bad apples' out of the fridge and have two 'good apples'  peel and slice them into a baking dish.

Two good apples: William and his cousin Luke peeling apples.
Mom overseeing production!

Next, have the two handsome boys squeeze a fresh lemon and sprinkle the juice over apples. Add a healthy dose of cinnamon, a couple of pinches of cardamom (optional) and a sprinkling of white or brown sugar.Try to go easy on the sugar here - although you do need some to help the apples break down and become soft.

Throw in some cranberries cuz it's Christmas and they are so good for you!!

Handsome cousins putting the frozen crisp topping over the apples

Then, grab your crisp topping out of the freezer and crumble it over the top!! I used two portions of the crisp topping for this large casserolle pan. (Does anyone else have trouble spelling caserolle???)
Put in a 400 oven for about 30 minutes or until the apples pierce easily with a fork and the top is golden.
Serve warm or cold and perhaps with a scoop of vanilla ice cream!! Yummeeeeasy!!

Boxing Day Meal with Handsome Fellas - aren't you envious!!
Will, Luke, Mike, Lauchlin, tennis buddy Rory and me.
Mom and Margaret dined earlier...

Big Batch Wholesome Crisp Topping


Makes about 6 cups of crisp topping - enough for 4 average size apple crisps

1 cup butter (room temperature)
1/2 cup canola oil
2 cups brown sugar
2 tbsp ground cinnamon
2 tsp ground cardamom (optional)
1 cup ground flaxseed
1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour (or other flour: spelt, oat, etc)
4 cups oats (not instant)

Mix the butter, oil and brown sugar together in a large mixing bowl.
Add the cinnamon and cardamom, mix.
Mix in the ground flaxseed and flour.
Add the oats one cup at a time while mixing.

Divide the mixture into 4 freezer bags and put in the freezer. You can also use a portion right away if desired. When you are ready to make a crisp, take out a bag from the freezer and crumble over your prepared apples or other combinations of fruit ( berries, pears, peaches, etc...). Bake at 400 for about 30 minutes.

Bella says: " Christmas is exhausting...I need a break!"

When You Wish Upon a Squash.......

Often life gives you just what you wish for....
I was reminded of this yesterday morning.
While driving to my clinic office I kept repeating in my head: "Remember to pick up a butternut squash on the way home", "Don't forget to buy a butternut squash". The squash was for a dish that I was going to prepare with a client coming to my home for her appointment. I walked into my office and there on my desk was a two foot long butternut squash! I was stunned by the surprise... and greedily wished I had been thinking of something a little more valuable! Hehe ! : )

But it was very valuable to me at that moment - it was really the only thing I needed at that time. And who knows, by not having had to rush into the grocery store between appointments, maybe I averted an accident of some kind. I like to think that it is bigger than just a butternut squash coincidence. It reaffirms  the power of thought in our lives - think positively and positive things happen; think negatively and you may more likely have a bad day - or at least perceive it as a bad day!
That is no secret!

Now, back to the butternut squash - this is an alternative to the usual methods of preparing this 'winter veggie'. It is fresh and pretty, and would be a lovely addition to a potluck Christmas party!

This recipe is from the cooking genius, Mark Bittman.  He is always coming up with simple, real and delicious ideas!

BUTTERNUT SQUASH RAPEE

1 small - medium butternut squash ( I grated just half of my humongous one and had enough for several days!)

generous sprinkling of dried cranberries or raisins

1/4 cup, or so, olive oil

2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar (or other vinegar)

1 tbsp, or more, freshly grated ginger


dash of freshly ground salt and pepper

Be careful when cutting the butternut squash - it can be tricky! I like to cut off the bulbous end from the neck and then half the bulbous portion and seed it. Then peel it with a sharp knife or a really good peeler.
Grate it with a food processor - so easy!

Combine the grated squash, dried cranberries, oil, vinegar and ginger in a large bowl.
Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss, taste and adjust seasonings.

* you could add walnuts or pine nuts to make it a light lunch salad as in the photo below.

Bella says:" Oh, wow, veggies, dried fruit and nuts....my favourite.....NOT!"