Category Archives: About Food

About Food

BBQ Lobster

1 Comment

BBQ Lobster -raw tails

We had never bought lobster before, but for some reason when we saw it at the grocery store, J decided he would BBQ it. Yes, we bought frozen lobster tails at the grocery store. Toronto isn’t known for it’s fresh seafood, so this is the best option for the average joe.

When we got home, J searched the internet to find proof that you could actually BBQ lobster tails. Of course you can – is there anything you can’t BBQ?

This isn’t exactly a recipe – mostly just a log of our experiment, for which I give full credit to the lovely and talented J. I didn’t have anything to do with it, aside from the adding of garlic to the butter that we used for dipping.

BBQ Lobster - on the grill

This isn’t a fancy schmancy lobster dinner. It was simple and rustic, with some BBQ potatoes and salad.

Buying lobster tails is a very different experience than having a whole lobster. I’ve only ever done that once, and while I enjoyed the experience I found most of it frustrating. After twisting the lobster apart, I spent much of the meal trying to prevent the inner goo from getting all over the rest of my food (are you hungry yet?). I think I also cut myself trying to pry bits of meat out of claws and whatnot.

The most satisfying part of the lobster is the tail. So that’s all we bought!

BBQ Lobster - cooked

Here are the grilled lobster tails, in all their glory. They were small, but delicious, and I’m sure we’ll be doing this again soon.

Next, we need to figure out how to cook them on the stove or in the oven.

About Food

Tomatoes in the Raw

Raw Tomato Sauce on Pasta

I’m still avoiding any extended cooking, but I realized I’ve missed having a simple pasta dinner. For anyone that knows me, you know how strange it is when I say that we haven’t made a pasta dinner all summer. I’ve had some pasta salads, sure, but it’s not quite the same thing.

A trip to the Nathan Phillips Square farmer’s market on Wednesday gave me the perfect opportunity to combine my love of pasta with my desire to not be stuck in front of a hot stove.

Tomato Basket

Tomato season is in full swing here in Ontario, and I was inundated with piles and piles of fresh, ripe tomatoes of many varieties. I bought a few piles, in three varieties. To justify this purchase, I had to think of something that would use up a bunch of them at once. A raw tomato sauce was in order!

If you’ve never had a raw tomato sauce, you might be amazed at how simple and quick it is. It’s pretty much how it sounds – a sauce made up of uncooked tomatoes. “Sauce” might be a misnomer, though, as it’s almost more of a tomato salad that you toss with hot pasta.

There – I gave away my secret.

Chopped Tomatoes

The real secret is just how amazing it tastes when you have fresh, LOCAL tomatoes on hand. Like a tomato salad, it really won’t work with mealy tomatoes, or tomatoes that spent most of their ripening on a truck. I picked up a basket of roma tomatoes for this, but you could use your favourite unmealy (is that a word?) tomato.

The recipe I used can be adapted to your taste – use the kind of tomato you like best, use the herbs you like best, the oil you like best, the shape of pasta you like best (although short stubby ones like penne seem to work best). I added in some grilled eggplant, and I think next time I might add some blanched green beans for crunch. It’s a dish that is as easy to customize as the usual pasta sauce, but without all of the stewing and cooking stuff.

Recipe after the jump!

Continue reading Tomatoes in the Raw →

About Food, Challenges

What do I do with this? Chayote

Chayote

I’m finally catching up on my summer challenge here… finding fresh produce that I had never used before, mostly because I didn’t know what they were.

This week’s new thing is the chayote, a mexican fruit that is used like a vegetable, and sometimes referred to as the “vegetable pear”. It’s simple, and fresh tasting and doesn’t require any special preparation. To compare it to some other things you may have had before, it’s light and mild and crunchy like a daikon radish, or even a drier cucumber. Or maybe the texture of a green apple, but not the flavour? It can be used in cooked dishes, but is great raw in salads. For my first test of this vegetable, I tried both options.

I didn’t look up any recipes, and really just modified some recipes that I already enjoy.

Chayote Enchiladas

Chayote Enchiladas

To test it out, I used it in the filling for some enchiladas (that we cooked on the BBQ!) and as the crunch factor in a yummy corn and black bean rice salad.

First, let’s talk about the enchiladas. I first made enchiladas a few months back, as a part of a Daring Cooks’ challenge. I used the sauce recipe from that, as the tomatillo and poblano sauce is tart and fun, which is perfect for the summer. The veggie layer was made up of sauteed portabello mushrooms, onion and lightly cooked chayote. We did not, however, want to use the oven. It’s been a really hot and humid summer here in Toronto, and we do our best to avoid using the oven. I made a crazy decision, and we packaged them in foil and cooked them on the BBQ. This requires that you NOT put too much of the enchilada sauce in the stacks. Just put a little on each layer, and add the rest when serving. It worked like a charm! The only thing I would change is maybe spray some oil on the foil before layering the enchiladas. The hot cheese and tortilla stuck to the foil a little bit… no big deal. The chayote added a fun crunch to the cheesy, spicy mess.

Chayote Rice Salad

Chayote Rice Salad

The next dish I made was a Mexican spiced rice salad, full of grilled corn, black beans and bell peppers – oh yeah, and chayote. I think chayote really shines in salads, because it is nice and refreshing with a great crunch. Because it doesn’t have a really strong flavour, it could fit into just about any salad. I did go pretty heavy on the spices, using a mild ‘chili’ blend that I keep on hand, featuring paprika, cumin and various mild chili powders. To this, I added a touch of chipotle for smokiness and a touch of heat.

So… there are two ways to use a chayote. I’m sure there are about a million more!

About Food, Challenges

What do I do with this? Karela

2 Comments

Desi Karela / Bitter Gourd

This post should be subtitled, “Are you trying to poison me? My lips are going numb!”

I picked the strangest looking vegetable from BJ Supermarket, in the Gerrard India Bazaar. Its bumpy, bright green flesh was intriguing. The sign said ‘Desi Karela’ – I had never heard of it before, so I wrote it down.

A quick Google resulted in many pictures of half-naked girls. Oh wait, I mistakenly typed ‘Desi Kerala’ (Kerala being a state in India).

A quick correction brought me to the vegetable I was looking for… and it turned out to be Bitter Gourd. I had read about bitter gourd before – sometimes in recipes with no mention of the fact that this gourd is, in fact, evil. Other times, the author would curse the evil within, with comments such as “Why would anyone ever want to eat this?!”. Although frightened, I refused to give up and I found a recipe that sounded like the perfect way to introduce myself to Desi Karela.

Curried Bitter Gourd

I chose this recipe from Foodskaypes, because the mix of bitter gourd with coconut and tamarind sounded really tasty and different from the dishes I usually make. In case you are planning to click that link and read the recipe – no, I didn’t buy a fresh coconut and grate it for my dish. We aren’t used to fresh coconut here, so I bought the packaged (unsweetened) stuff. No doubt it isn’t as good as fresh, but you gotta do what you gotta do.

The dish smelled amazing as it was cooking. It was a fun assortment of spices (yay!), and I crossed my fingers that the karela wasn’t too bitter. Then I tasted the sauce. It was so bitter that my heart immediately sank, and I scolded myself for not making a backup dish. I knew J would NOT like this.

We sat down to eat, and I took my first bite. Yowza, that gourd is bitter! Bite two wasn’t so bad, and by bite three I noticed a flavour beyond the bitter that intrigued me, something I’m sure I haven’t tasted anywhere else. I looked up at J, who had also taken about three bites. “That’s about all I can do. My lips are going numb.” That was that. I finished his plate, and gave myself a little bit more, and he went to the fridge for some pitas and veggies.

I should mention that the recipe itself was great, and I’ll be trying it again with some other, less evil vegetable.

I don’t think I’ll be buying desi karela again, but I’m really happy I tried it once. The leftovers are still in my fridge, waiting for me to finish them. I’m kind of afraid of what it will taste like – you know how evil is when given time to collude.

Sorry, J. I swear I didn’t try to poison you!