Category Archives: Recipes

Challenges, Recipes

Daring Nut Butt

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Rice Noodle Salad with Thai-style Cashew sauce and Shrimp

This month, we dare to make our own nut butters, and use them in a savoury dish. I’ve done the peanut sauce thing before, and have used ground almonds to thicken curries (almost counts as a nut butter… almost more of a nut flour, but close enough!). I’m totally open to having a nutty dinner.

Being busy as I have been lately, I took the path of least resistance and used cashew butter in a Thai-inspired noodle salad (one of the recommended recipes). I know I should have picked something a little more challenging for myself, but how could I resist a simple meal that was destined to be amazing?

Amazing it was. I am a sucker for this kind of thing.

Daring Cashew Butter and Roasted Cashews

Daring Cashew Butter and Roasted Cashews

First, I had to make the cashew butter. I figured it would taste that much better if I roasted the cashews first, so I quickly pan roasted them. Some of the oils escaped in the roasting, so I had to add some vegetable oil when I made the butter. My trusty food processor was great at grinding up the cashews, but they needed the extra oil to come together properly and form a paste. I probably would have thinned it out a little more but I knew I was making a sauce next, so I didn’t worry about it too much.

I decided to follow the sauce recipe as closely as possible. I was tempted to add some of the things I add to my own sauce, like keffir lime leaf, but I stayed pretty true to the recipe. What’s the point in remaking my own sauce recipes over again? I wanted to try something new. I chickened out about the amount of garlic, though. As much as I love garlic, 8 cloves sounded a little bit steep. I used 4, and it was plenty garlicky enough.

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.

Recipe after the jump!

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About Food, Recipes

Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad with Shrimp

Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad with Shrimp

Today was a very summery day, so I decided to make a summer meal.

We pulled the wee BBQ out from hibernation, cleaned it off, and sparked it up. I didn’t realize how much I missed grilled vegetables until we started eating… somehow everything tastes better grilled.

Today’s meal was not unusual for us – I think I went a little overboard making orzo salads in the last couple of summers. I thought J might never want to see an orzo again, but luckily the winter was enough of a break for him.

Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad - Shrimp

Yummy spiced grilled shrimp.

This orzo salad starred some simple grilled vegetables, some nicely spiced grilled shrimps, and an assortment of fresh herbs from my garden. This dish doesn’t have to be complicated. For once, I didn’t mix a handful of spices together or carefully follow a recipe step-by-step to make sure I didn’t mess it up.

This is less like science, and more like art. You take what you like, and toss it!

Over the course of the summer, I will be featuring a number of different orzo salads. I already know what my next one will be… Hopefully I’ll also find some other fun grain or legume salads. That’s something I’m missing from my database o’ fun.

My new thing is to mix chopped tomatoes and avocadoes and put it on top of a dish. It adds colour and freshness that I really like. I also finished the dish with a salt lightly smoked in wood from Chardonnay barrels. I forget what it’s called, but it is subtle and sooo good.

Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad with Shrimp - long

… and now we spot the elusive wild Orzo, in its natural habitat

Grilled Vegetable Orzo Salad with Shrimp

Ingredients

  • 250g Orzo pasta, cooked and well drained
  • 1lb med-large shrimp, peeled
  • 1 medium red pepper, quartered
  • 1 medium orange pepper, quartered
  • 1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise
  • 1/2 medium red onion, halved
  • 1 tsp paprika
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp chopped garlic
  • 1/2 c chopped herbs (I used basil, parsley, tarragon, mint)
  • 6 tbsp olive oil, divided (1 for the veggies, 1 for the shrimp, 4 for the dressing)
  • 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
  • 1 small avocado, peeled and chopped
  • 8-10 grape tomatoes, halved
  • 1-2 tbsp chopped green onion (green part only)
  • salt and pepper, to taste

Preparation

  1. Toss the vegetables in a bit of oil. (I use an oil sprayer to lightly coat them).
  2. Grill until the vegetables are cooked through, and have nice grill marks. Take off the grill, allow to cool, and chop coarsely.
  3. Toss the shrimp in a bit of oil (again, I use the sprayer for this), and the paprika and cayenne.
  4. Put the shrimp on the grill, and grill until cooked through and have nice grill marks (only a couple minutes on each side).
  5. In a large bowl, toss the chopped grilled veggies, shrimp, chopped garlic and chopped herbs with the cooked orzo.
  6. In a smaller bowl, whisk together 4Tbsp of the olive oil with the apple cider vinegar. Add to the salad and toss.
  7. Season with salt & pepper, plate the salad and top with the chopped tomatoes and avocado.
Cookbook Diving

Deep South Spiced Rice & Beans

Deep South Rice & Beans

Deep South Spiced Rice & Beans (p.137, Classic Vegetarian Recipes) – Being “mostly vegetarian”, I try to find recipes that include legumes of some kind. This sounded like a good dish to try, as it incorporates beans and some fresh veggies. It’s a good one for the spring, because it isn’t heavy and saucey.

This is another dish I found in one of my old, dusty cookbooks. It’s a pretty good one, but really not that much unlike things I make on my own. I actually substituted black beans for the suggested kidney beans, because that’s what I had on hand.

I love the colourful peppers in this dish. I think it’s true that the more colour in a dish, the more you want to eat it. I know I eat some things that look pretty rough – some stews and things that have a mushy brown thing going on – but I do love to add colour with veggies and herbs.

What does this dish have that I don’t usually add? Cajun spice. Until recently, I didn’t really think about Cajun spice. Then I had to make some in a pinch because the jar I thought I had was gone… Then I came across dish after dish calling for the vague “Cajun spice” (come ON people, just tell us what spices to use!). Now armed with “my own blend” and some in my spice drawer, I am prepared for such recipes.

Challenges, Recipes

Go Team Steph! Daring Pâté and Bread

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Trout and Shrimp Pâté round

I have a bit of a history with pâté. Growing up German, I ate loads of Braunschweiger, which may be a liverwurst and not technically “pâté” per se… but kinda is pâté in its spreadable variations. I used to gross out my friends, who were normal and didn’t eat weird things like Braunschweiger.

One time in grade school, in particular, I had spooned some into a little lunch container and packed it with some crackers. Knowing what it was, and that people thought it was gross, I showed my friend Heather. She just smiled and made yummy actions. Confused, I asked her if she ate Braunchweiger… also confused, she told me she had thought it was chocolate ice cream. I totally grossed her out by telling her what it actually was. I never did figure out how she thought I kept the ice cream frozen in my bag.

Braunschweiger is one of the weirdest meat things that I missed when I stopped eating meat.

Raw Trout and Shrimp

Raw Trout and Shrimp

I can’t say I’ve tried to replace Braunschweiger with something veg. I sampled a couple of vegetarian pâtés at the Veggie Food Fair, but I never really felt the need to buy them. Now that I am an occasional meat eater, I haven’t jumped at the chance to have meat pâté again.

Not sure why, but it just hasn’t been on my radar.

Then I got the Daring Cooks‘ challenge for June. Make a pâté –  and like it! I chose to make the trout and shrimp pâté partly because it’s made up of seafood, and partly because the description claimed it was passed down through a variety of nameless people, and possibly their grandmas and their grandma’s neighbours or something. I like recipes that just randomly work their way through people.

Sourdough Ciabatta, with Vinifera

Sourdough Ciabatta, made with Vinifera flour

The second part of this challenge is to make a bread, which is where the “Team Stephfood” silliness comes in. J is the bread maker in the house, and I’m very happy to leave that to him. We opted to complete this challenge together. For his part, he made a ciabatta bread with his sourdough starter and Vinifera flour. Vinifera is neat, because it’s made from the skins of grapes. It imparts a purplish hue (depending on how much you use, and what you mix with it), and adds a tart flavour.

Trout and Shrimp Pâté on Sourdough Ciabatta, with Vinifera

Trout and Shrimp Pâté on Vinifera Sourdough Ciabatta

The bread was amazing, and added some complexity to the pairing. The pâté was very mild, and I thought it needed some extra zazz. The bread definitely helped with that.

I enjoyed this challenge. It wasn’t something I would have looked for on my own, which makes it a good challenge for me. I don’t know for sure that I will make this regularly, but we thought it was tasty and different. It definitely goes well with our ‘spread’ dinners.

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.