Zucchini “Noodles” with Chard

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Not Crocker

Well, we’ve had an awesome few weeks of fundraising for the Brain Tumour Foundation of Canada Spring Sprint. So far our team has brought in over a thousand dollars and we continue to climb towards our goal! We have all the way to May 26th to raise money, so keep the donations coming, knowing that it is going to a great cause! Thank you to everyone who has donated and/or joined our team! I am really looking forward to walking/sprinting with such an amazing group of people. Gen has started volunteering with a new Hospice centre that has opened near our apartment. He heard about these Hospice walks for people who have recently lost a loved one and he really wants us to go. I think that we are going to try to make the Saturday walks, see what it’s about and get some much needed fresh air. I think it will be cathartic to spend time with people in similar situations to mine.

Anyway, I’ve been very busy this week already with job interviews, applications, and resume tweaking. I am only two business days out of my internship at Appetite and I am already wondering how they are doing. I hope I can work with the two of them in the future again, as it was such a wonderful experience. In the last two weeks of my internship we discovered my passion and intensity for cookbook proofreading. Now to find a job, preferably in the publishing industry in Vancouver (HA!), where I can put all my new-found, or newly-honed skills to work. We’ll see. In the meantime, I am going to keep on cooking, baking, and candlestick making, well no, but that would be great. This recipe is a nice, healthy base for awesome pasta sauces, meatballs, and anything else you want to throw on there.

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Creamy Cauliflower & Cabbage Soup

Posted on December 6, 2012 by Not Crocker

This soup is creamy, buttery, thick, and delicious. I have been on a weird cabbage kick lately and here we go. This soup is awesome and hearty and can be easily veganized by omitting the dairy (or switching for vegan versions), it will still be amazing. The recipe makes a lot so you will have meals for days, or for a group. I served this up with a sprinkle of cayenne and some sausage on the side. You will see I’ve suggested that the cabbage and cauliflower can be any size, the measurements can be adjusted for different amounts of veggies (it’s hard to hunt down a particular size of veggies).

Creamy Cauliflower & Cabbage Soup

INGREDIENTS

1 head of cabbage (any size), roughly chopped
1 head of cauliflower (any size), roughly chopped
1/4 cup butter
1 tsp ground black pepper
1/2 tsp salt
5 cups of chicken broth (or more, to almost cover the veg)
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 cup heavy cream
1/2 cup crumbled feta
paprika or cayenne to sprinkle

DIRECTIONS

In a very large pot melt the butter. Sauté the cabbage over medium-high heat until softened and somewhat translucent.
Add the cauliflower to the pot, sprinkle with pepper, salt, and cumin.
Pour the both into the pot until you’ve just about covered the veggies.
Bring to a boil. Then lower heat and allow the soup to simmer for an hour until everything is very tender.
Using an immersion blender, blend up the soup until smooth.
Add crumbled feta and cream to the smooth soup, and cook for another 10 minutes.
Serve in a large bowl and sprinkle with either paprika or cayenne.

Ready to cook down.

Pre-blending.

This cabbage looked lovely inside.

Swiss Chard and Onion Pakoras

Posted on August 23, 2012 by Not Crocker

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

Fill an 8-inch cast-iron skillet half-way up with oil. Heat the oil to 360-375ºF.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Turning once, fry until the pakoras are a pecan-brown. Drain on a cooling rack placed over a cookie sheet.
Repeat with the remainder of the batter.
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.

Chocolate & Nut Date Balls- chocolate cravings killer

Posted on August 14, 2012 by Not Crocker

These sticky treats are not your grandma’s date balls. They are fudgy and packed with chocolate flavour. I added a lot of nuts, probably more than you might want, but they are tasty. And they are easy to adjust to what you have on hand or what your tastes are. I am often finding myself pining for chocolate and these have successfully satisfied those cravings time and again. They keep wonderfully in the fridge and travel well. While I happily used my food processor that I got from my friend Kim, these could be made without it by chopping things up very small by hand and mixing well, though they will be less fudge-like. They are pretty darn healthy, there is no butter or sugar added as the dates act as both.

Chocolate & Nut Date Balls

INGREDIENTS

2 1/2 cups of pitted medjool dates (can be whole, chopped, whatever. You are processing them)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 cup walnuts
1/4 cup sliced almonds
1/2 cup salted cashews (I just had these on hand and they were awesome, the saltiness added a new dimension)
1/2 cup shredded coconut
2-4 tbsp cocoa powder (start with two and work up to your desired fudginess)
1/3 cup dried oats (whole oats if you are using a food processor; quick oats if not, as they are already chopped up)
2 tbsps of semi-sweet chocolate chips are optional (totally not necessary but will further amp the chocolate factor)

DIRECTIONS

Chuck everything into the food processor and blend. Start with only 2 tbsp of cocoa powder and add more as needed. If the texture isn’t coming together more dates will add the necessary stickiness. Add more nuts, coconut, dried fruit, etc. as desired.
Once things have been chopped down to your taste, roll into balls, place in a tupperware and refrigerate to firm them up. Feel free to roll these in some additional cocoa powder or coconut.
If you are making these by hand, which is definitely possible, chop all the ingredients that need it, as well as you can. Pop everything into a bowl and stir aggressively (that’s right, aggressively!) to combine. You are looking for the ingredients to stick together and distribute evenly.
Eat morning, noon, and night.

All the good stuff, ready to mingle.

Buttermilk Biscuits + Lentil Soup with coconut milk and red lentils

Posted on July 31, 2012 by Not Crocker

This delicious, vegetarian and VEGAN, soup was made by my mother while we were up in the Yukon a couple weeks ago. She got the recipe from her friend Karen, and I got the recipe from my mom. It is hearty and delicious. We mopped the soup up with my mom’s throw-together buttermilk biscuits, which Gen LOVED. This soup will help sop up the alcohol in your system after munching the treats below.

Lentil Soup

INGREDIENTS

2 cups red lentils
2 tbsp olive oil
2 small onions, finely chopped
3 large carrots, chopped small
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
4-6 tsp turmeric
4-6 tsp cumin seed
12 tsp cracked black peppercorns
1 can(796 ml) chopped tomatoes
6 cups vegetable broth
1 can coconut milk (398 ml)
12 fresh lemon squeezed

DIRECTIONS

In a large pot, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions and carrots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 15 minutes.
Add garlic, turmeric, cumin seeds, and peppercorns and cook, stirring for about 2 minutes.
Add your water, lentils, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer at med. for 15 minutes.
Add coconut milk and lemon juice. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for at least 1 hour.
In the meantime, make biscuits!
When ready to serve, ladle into bowls and top with lemon slices, a dollop of plain yogurt, and cilantro!

Buttermilk Biscuits

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp salt
3 heaping tsp baking powder
1/2 cup margarine (or butter)
3/4 buttermilk to start, more as needed

DIRECTIONS

A quick note: My mom has this recipe in her mind, so I am transcribing her instructions as given on the phone. Adding the milk is the contested bit as her instructions were “as much milk as needed to get the right consistency…” Okay.. thanks! Haha, so I’ve estimated to start with about 3/4 cup and go from there. You will probably use up to 1 1/2 cups, but start small!

Preheat oven to 425°F.
Whisk together flour, salt, and baking powder.
Cut in the margarine with a pastry cutter, until the mixture is like pebbles. You want marg bits the size of peas, evenly through the flour mixture.
Pour in the buttermilk and mix until a sticky dough has formed. Add more buttermilk as needed, but don’t overmix. Once it has come together, you are done.
Plop the dough onto a lightly-floured surface. Pat the dough into a roughly even, thick circle. My mom emphases the need to keep the biscuits are thick!
Cut out circles with a glass dipped in flour. Place on a baking sheet and bake for 9 minutes, or until golden. Pull one open to check for doneness, it should be fluffy.