Mexican Soup

Sonya was my best friend in high school and university. We started off as colleagues when we worked as youth centre leaders. Soon we were inseparable. She was there when I made my first forays into cooking. This cake (pictured below) was one of the first things either of us ever baked; it was a birthday cake for Glenn, our boss. (In his car he had a wooden figure called Calvin which we copied - you can see it at the top the cake.) This cake was a huge hit with our boss - he was so impressed!

Butternut Squash with Beans and Pumpkin Seeds

"You mean you really don't eat out?" my colleague asked. We were having drinks after a work conference and I confessed I hadn't eaten at any of the restaurants he had been praising.

"I like to cook," I replied. It's true, I prefer to come home and cook rather than eat out--the vast majority of the time. This is not typical Hong Kong behaviour.

"But where do you get ideas for what to make?" he countered.

Meatless Meatballs

Now here's a unique way to make meatballs: with lentils and brown rice. These meatless meatballs are a good party snack or a dinner main dish with spaghetti. They are made more interesting with the addition of pesto, garlic, oregano, and paprika. They tasted scrumptious with a pesto and mayo dipping sauce.

Seven Foods for Healthy Hair

I don't know how to have a good hair day. I recently got a new hair cut and colour; sophisticated is going to be my style henceforth. However, "natural" (also known as "frizzy mess") has been my default hair style for many years. I had to go out and buy a hair dryer yesterday. And I am determined to have more good hair days.


I bought two "hair styling for dummies" books. Both contain a section about food for healthy hair. Of course, I gravitate to the food section in any book! (Plus, reading about food meant I could put off the nervous moment when I had to pick up my new hair dryer.)

weekend links # 16

Weekend Links is a way of sharing all the engrossing things I see around the internet. I publish Weekend Links approximately every two weeks. As usual, I welcome your ideas and feedback.

food reading links:
--A list of cookbooks recently published by Hong Kong chefs (from Asia Tatler).
--Graph: money spent on food vs. ability to cook (from Indexed).
--I recently missed Lima Bean Respect Day. I wish I had known! Think of the themed events I could have planned! :( Keep ahead of the game with this calendar (from Wellness News).

recipe links:
--Spiced coconut spinach (from 101 Cookbooks). This recipe is from a cookbook I actually have. Therefore I can see that I will be making it soon!
--Almond-based yogurt (from Small Bites). I already make my own yogurt but I never thought of trying this. And so I am intrigued.

off-topic links:
--I have been trying out the to-do list software from Remember the Milk. You use tags, location, and searchable lists to keep organised. So far, it's working.
--I've been reading about ways to improve employee satisfaction (from inc.com). Not that I have any employees. Just because I'm curious.

emergency sausage and beans supper

The stress is mounting at work--the Dreaded Exams are coming. Preparing extra revision materials for borderline students is taking up a lot of my brain power. There just doesn't seem to be much space left in my head for thinking of what to eat for dinner. And sometimes I forget to shop for food, too. It was one of those nights when we both came home tired and stressed. I was in a dyspeptic mood after a bit too much hassle from deadlines and even slack-jawed drooling seemed like an effort.

citrus, mushrooms, greens, and beans, with a ginger dressing

These enoki mushrooms are from Japan or Korea, they are mild in flavour and crunchy in texture: they made great salad toppers. Ant and I went to our first care group meeting with our new church friends and we had a lovely pot luck meal together. Our host asked for salads to be brought--I was very happy to oblige!

pumpkin and peach salad with lemon grass dressing

This is salad that definitely got me out of a rut! The Paperchef challenge this month made me put together ingredients I would not have thought of combining before. But the results were brilliant. The challenge required that I use pumpkin, peach, capers, and lemon grass. Capers, mostly from France or Italy, and lemon grass, from Asia, do not seem like obvious friends. But they taste great together, and made a delicious main dish salad.

curried aubergine and black-eyed beans

After a long day, I think, Oh, no! I forgot to plan my meals this week and I have no idea what to eat for dinner. With a nervously sad face, I look at which veggies are in my fridge. One evening I was faced with aubergine (eggplant) and an onion.

nut butters (for the Daring Cooks)

What a brilliant idea this month from the Daring Cooks; my favourite kind of idea: simple, healthy, and very tasty.

The July 2010 Daring Cooks’ Challenge was hosted by Margie of More Please and Natashya of Living in the Kitchen with Puppies. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make their own nut butter from scratch, and use the nut butter in a recipe. Their sources include "Better with Nut Butter" by Cooking Light Magazine, Asian Noodles by Nina Simonds, and Food Network online.

sweet potato stew: using meat wisely

After my recent reading of Mark Bittman's Food Matters, I have realised that one huge way for me to impact climate change is to eat less meat. I was amazed to learn that more greenhouse gasses are produced by livestock than by transportation or anything else except energy production. So Bittman gave some advice about eating meat: eat less, and "rely on meat for its flavor, not heft". Meat is no longer the star of a meal, but a supporting ingredient that adds flavour or texture.

vegetable pate (for the Daring Cooks)

Our neighbours downstairs had a baby this weekend. What do you give to new parents? Pate and bread, of course! Their little darling is a gorgeous girl, and her vegetarian parents deserve a little break from cooking.


Our hostesses this month, Evelyne of Cheap Ethnic Eatz, and Valerie of a The Chocolate Bunny, chose delicious pate with freshly baked bread as their June Daring Cook’s challenge! They’ve provided us with 4 different pate recipes to choose from and are allowing us to go wild with our homemade bread choice.


So I baked four loaves of bread and made two pates so that I could give away half and serve half to my own darling husband. The pate was easy to make and very tasty. It was easy to unmold and came out wonderfully. The bread was a bit dense this time, but was a suitable surface for eating pate!

Tricolour Vegetable Pate
serves 12
adapted from Bon Appetit October 1993 on Epicurious

Bean Layer:
2 c (500 ml) cooked pinto beans
1 T lemon juice
1 T olive oil
1 t dried oregano
2 garlic cloves
salt and pepper

Roasted Red Pepper Layer:
1 c (250 ml) roasted red peppers (drained if jarred)
3/4 c (190 ml) crumbled feta cheese

Pesto Layer:
2 garlic cloves
2 c (500 ml) rocket
1/4 c (75 ml) toasted sliced almonds
3 T olive oil
1/2 c (125 ml) ricotta cheese

Line two bowls with plastic wrap, which should hang over the sides.
Puree the ingredients for each layer in turn. Spread the layers in the bowls, smoothing each layer before adding the next.
Cover and chill for at least eight hours.
Place in the freezer for 30 minutes before unmolding.
Serve with bread or crackers.

Seeded Whole Wheat French Bread
makes four small loaves
adapted from Simply in Season by Mary Beth Lind and Cathleen Hockman-Wert

4 c (1 L) whole wheat bread flour
2 c (500 ml) white bread flour
2 T active dry yeast
2 T sugar
1 t salt
2 1/2 c (625 ml) hot water
2 T olive oil
1 egg
2 T water
1-2 t cumin seeds, fennel seeds, sesame seeds, or poppy seeds

Mix together the flours, yeast, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
Gradually add the hot water and olive oil; mix well.
Add more flour if necessary to make a soft dough.
Knead for 10 minutes, until the dough is smooth and elastic.
Place in an oiled bowl and cover with a damp cloth.
Allow to rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk.
Punch down and leave for 20 minutes. Then divide and shape into four loaves. Place on a baking tray and make diagonal slashes on the loaves.
Mix the egg and water and brush over the loaves. Sprinkle with seeds.
Allow to rise again until doubled in bulk.
Heat oven to 400 F/200 C and bake for 20 minutes.

I would make this pate again, and change the order of the layers so the green one ends up on top--that would be so much prettier. And I would make the bread again too, and try adjusting the liquids to get a softer dough--I'm sure it would be delicious after another attempt.

And I can't wait to meet the little girl downstairs. Happy birthday to her!

brunswick stew (for the Daring Cooks)

The 2010 April Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Wolf of Wolf’s Den. She chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make Brunswick Stew. Wolf chose recipes for her challenge from The Lee Bros. Southern Cookbook by Matt Lee and Ted Lee, and from the Callaway, Virginia Ruritan Club.


Brunswick Stew was easy to make and very satisfying to eat! The recipes are huge and were more than enough for several days of hearty lunches at work. Perfect when served with a salad or cheddar cornmeal scones.

grown-up baked beans

Here's a side dish from The Kitchen Revolution that I made to go with Bacon and Spinach Pancakes. The baked beans were easy--I just let them simmer away while I was preparing the more complicated parts of the meal.

Grown-Up Baked Beans
side dish for four people

3 T olive oil
1 large onion, finely sliced
2 garlic cloves
pinch of dried herbes de Provence
pinch of paprika
1 c white wine
1.5 x 400 g cans borlotti beans
1 x 400 g chopped tomatoes
1 t light brown sugar

Heat the oil and sweat the onion. Add the garlic, herbes de Provence, and paprika. Cook over a medium high heat for 5 minutes, then turn the heat up and add the wine. Bring to the boil and add the borlotti beans, tomatoes, and sugar.
Allow to boil then reduce the heat and simmer for half an hour or more.

I have been doing quite a few recipes from The Kitchen Revolution, but it is only a library book. So I am trying to keep it clean, especially while cooking spattering things like tomatoey beans.

hippy farm beans

Tamra recommended this recipe from the Leon cookbook to me. It's a delicious mixture of fresh veggies and satisfying beans. I don't think they were as spicy as the recipe intended, maybe when I have the key ingredient, Linghams Garlic and Chilli Sauce, it will be as hot as it should be. In place of the sauce I added some honey, since I was guessing it is a sweet chilli sauce. (I also admit that I didn't have the guts to use three chillies; my excuse is that there were only two left in the fridge.) It was delicious!


I used courgette instead of aubergine because that's what came in my veg box this week.

Hippy Farm Beans
adapted from Leon: Ingredients and Recipes

olive oil
1 large aubergine, chopped, or 2 small courgettes
3 bell peppers, chopped
cumin
1 big onion, chopped
at least 3 cloves of garlic, chopped
at least 3 assorted fiery chillies, chopped
1 punnet (350 g) cherry tomatoes
1 tin chopped tomatoes
2 tins beans (one mixed and one kidney beans, for example), drained
Linghams Garlic and Chilli Sauce, or sweet chilli sauce
300 g spinach, washed
salt

Heat the pan with 4 T olive oil. Fry the aubergine and peppers for 15 minutes, until crispy. Season with salt and cumin. Remove from pan and cover.
Heat the pan again and fry the onion for a minute, then add the garlic and chillies.
After a few minutes add the cherry tomatoes.
After a few minutes, add the tinned tomatoes, aubergines, and peppers.
Bring to the boil, add the beans. Add a good glug of the sauce.
Lower the heat and simmer for 30 minutes covered, then [up to] an hour uncovered.
Turn off the heat and stir through the spinach until wilted.

The cookbook says to serve it with tortillas, avocado slices, lime wedges, and cheese, which all sounds very delicious. I instead made a side salad (more spinach was left from the veg box) and the crusty whole wheat bread I made earlier.

dahl

I cooked up this small storm in Micah and Anna's small Sydney kitchen.


I was trying out a recipe I read online today, Butternut Squash and Red Lentil Dal. Yum. Micah and Anna have the biggest and most diverse spice and herb collection I have ever seen. I could make anything using their supplies.

slow cooked black bean and gammon

One thing I've been meaning to mention for a while now is that I bought a slow cooker at the beginning of January. I have used it a few times to great success. I am not a big meat fan in general but the meat cooked in the slow cooker comes out so tender and flavourful that I do enjoy it. Today I made black bean curry with gammon (ham) cubes and it was mighty tasty. Paired with a fresh salad of rocket, watercress, and cherry tomatoes it made a really nice (low fat and low GI) meal.

you are what you eat

There's a TV show I like to watch called You Are What You Eat. Dr Gillian McKeith is a tough love nutritionist who exposes bad eating habits that make people sick and unhealthy. She shocks the participant by lining up all their week's food to see; then she puts them on a strict diet to get their bodies functioning again.

Her recipes are mostly vegetarian. On the Channel Four website you can find the recipe for tofu and bean burgers. Sweet potato shepherd's pie sounds lovely. Often she makes her participants go vegetarian at first. Ant would never go for this. He always jokes that he is a meatetarian. He says he doesn't feel full without meat. I hope that I will find some good vegetarian meals that he likes. At the moment I am trying to incorporate more fish into our weekly menus. We've discovered that we really like eating tuna steaks, and they are delicious marinated for about 20 minutes in soy sauce, ginger, garlic, and a bit of hot sauce. I'm going to try Dr McKeith's marinated salmon on spinach and leeks, I think.