Category Archives: Sides

Make your own Cranberry Sauce!

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CranberrySauce

Once again, we’ve come around to making something homemade rather than buying it. The things I prefer to make than buy: Mayo, Eggnog, Taco Spice mix, Dry Rub, Curry blend, Sausage spice, Bacon Jam, Beer Bread, Pita and every baked good ever.

Homemade cranberry sauce can be tweaked to your desire, but really, those freshly burst berries are awesome anyway you go about it. Dollop on a plate piled with Turkey or Tofurkey and your night is set.

Cranberry Sauce

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups cranberries (use wild berries if you can, but those gargantuan ones in the store will do too)
  • 1 cup orange juice
  • 1 cup sugar

DIRECTIONS

  1. In a saucepan over medium heat, stir the sugar into the orange juice. Heat until the sugar disolves.
  2. Stir in the cranberries, and cook uncovered until they begin to burst, about 10 minutes.
  3. Remove from heat, and allow to cool.
  4. The sauce will thicken as it cools, if it seems too thin put it back on the heat for 5 minutes and allow to cool again.
  5. Serve!
Giant berries.

Giant berries.

Bursting with deliciousness.

Bursting with deliciousness.

Roasted Broccoli

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This is a recipe for a super-easy side. Toss the broccoli with some salt, pepper, garlic, and olive oil and you are golden (so are they). This would be a great side for stuffed chicken, roast beef, a lot of things. Eat them right off the pan.

Roasted Broccoli

INGREDIENTS

  • 3 cups of trimmed broccoli florets (large or medium florets work best)
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp coarse salt
  • 1/3 tsp ground pepper
  • 1 tbsp garlic, minced

DIRECTIONS

  1. Heat oven to 425°F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
  2. In a medium bowl toss together the florets, garlic, and olive oil, making sure they are evenly coated.
  3. Lay the florets evenly on the prepared baking sheet. Drizzle with a little more olive oil. Sprinkle the florets with the salt and pepper and give them a little toss on the baking sheet.
  4. Roast for 20-25 minutes, until the broccoli browns in some places.

Flecked with garlic, salt, and pepper.

Roasty and delicious.

Scotch Eggs…kinda

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You know when you want to make something for a long time but you don’t have all the ingredients and then your husband just happens to bring home almost the ingredients you need and you make it from what you’ve got? Well, that is the story of these Scotch Eggs. I call them …kinda Scotch Eggs because they are not breaded nor deep fried. Still, these are delicious and could easily be the centre piece of a meal. They are the size of a baseball… though this could be because I had a heck of a time rolling the meat around my soft boiled eggs (important, so as not to have a rock-hard yolk after baking), breaking the first yolk ruined meat-rolling my confidence (the rest were perfect though). And feel free to use actual sausage meat, though I really enjoyed adding the spices myself.

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Fluffy & creamy Cauliflower Mash! May replace potatoes in your stomach’s heart!

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Well, potatoes are awesome and mashed potatoes are one of my faves, but this dish could possibly ruin mashed potatoes for me forever. These are sooooooo good. This cauliflower mash is not runny, which can be an issue with these types of mashes. There is no overly skunky cauliflower flavour, just creamy, dreamy goodness. You can mix up the cheese and be sure to add spices you love (nix the garlic, add curry?). I was eating this with a spoon right from the pot, ate it from the plate with my pork, ate it while taking the pictures… notice the finger scoop mark on the right… Even cold, these are amazing.

Cauliflower Mash

Adapted from I Breathe… I’m Hungry’s Cauliflower Puree. 

INGREDIENTS

  • 1 large head of cauliflower
  • 2 tbsp whipping cream
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 1/4 cup ricotta
  • 1/2 cup jalapeño havarti (it’s what I had on had, use any other sharp cheese, though this was gooooooood), shredded
  • salt and pepper to taste

*shred a little extra cheese to top

DIRECTIONS

  1. Remove leaves and the bottom of the stalk. Roughly chop the cauliflower into medium-sized chunks (evenly sized for even steaming).
  2. Steam the cauliflower in a large pot until very tender, but not mushy, about 10 minutes. (If you don’t have a steamer, buy one… but also, check out IBIH’s instructions for microwaving)
  3. Drain the cauliflower and leave in the strainer for 5 minutes to remove as much water as possible.
  4. Back in your large pot, now dry, combine the rest of the ingredients with the cauliflower, allowing the cheese to melt a bit. Use a handblender, regular blender, or a food processor, to thoroughly puree the mixture. The result should be fluffy, creamy goodness. If you find it a bit wet, pop the pot back on the stove and let it cook over medium-low heat for a 5-10 minutes.
  5. Serve with a sprinkle of cheese.

Florets, steaming away. It is a smallish large pot and they barely fit!

Ahhh flash! So creamy and dreamy.

Swiss Chard and Onion Pakoras

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I’ve been having some big cravings for pakoras lately. I am not sure why I’ve wanted them so bad, they aren’t something that we’ve every regularly eaten, and I’ve never made them before, but this week I made it my mission to cook some up! Veggie pakoras can have a lot of different add-ins, often spinach is an ingredient, onion as well. As usual, I didn’t have spinach on hand but had a handful of delicious swiss chard, and knew that this would be an easy substitution. These pakoras pack a little heat, so feel free to tone down the spice. A lot of extra spice can be had with some good mint chutney, make it yourself if you dare (I will be daring to do this later, today I used store-bought… I know, I know, Stacey, get it together).

Swiss Chard and Onion Pakoras

Adapted from here.

INGREDIENTS

  • 2 cups Chickpea Flour  (aka Besan or Gram Flour)
  • 1 tbsp crushed red pepper (use half if you are spice-averse)
  • ¾ tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp garam masala (make your own, essentially it is my Amazing Curry spice mix, minus the salt and the chilli powder)
  • ½ tsp baking powder
  • 1 green chili pepper, thinly sliced (use half if you are spice-averse)
  • ½ cup fresh cilantro, chopped
  • 1/2 large yellow onion (or 1 medium onion, my onions were massive), sliced into 1/8inch crescents (cut in half, chop off ends, cut along ribs to create thin, but not too thin, slices)
  • 4-6 leaves of Swiss chard, fold the leaves in half lengthwise, cut off stem, and slice into 1/4-inch thick, 2-inch long strips.
  • 1 cup warm water
  • Grapeseed oil (or another mild-flavoured oil), for deep frying

DIRECTIONS

  1. Fill an 8-inch cast-iron skillet half-way up with oil. Heat the oil to 360-375ºF.
  2. In a large bowl, toss together the chickpea flour, red chili flakes, garam masala, salt, baking powder, sliced chilli pepper, cilantro, Swiss chard, and sliced onion.
  3. Slowly add in the water, while mixing with a wooden spoon or your hands. Vigorously mix for a couple of seconds. The batter will be thick, and air bubbles should be evident, if not, give it another vigorous stir.
  4. If you don’t have a thermometer that goes to 360°F, don’t fret. Put the end of a wooden spoon into the oil, if there are a lot of bubbles forming around the end, and coming towards the surface, you are ready to fry.
  5. When the oil is ready, carefully place heaping tablespoons of batter into the pot. Don’t do more than three, or four at a time. If you overcrowd the pan, you will lower the temperature of the oil significantly and your pakoras wont fry, but absorb the oil. Greasy pakoras are no good.
  6. Turning once, fry until the pakoras are a pecan-brown. Drain on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet.
  7. Repeat with the remainder of the batter.
  8. Serve with mint chutney, sriracha, mango chutney, ketchup chutney, ketchup, anything really.

This is my kitchen situation. Small space, but now that we’ve removed the microwave, it is a lot more functional. That cord off to the left? That’s my camera cord, as right now it is the only way to use my camera… I forgot my battery charger in the Yukon and sadly the cord only allows the camera to operate, it doesn’t charge it.