About Food, Challenges

April 2010 Challenge – No Repeats! (Week 1)

At the beginning of this year, I found myself in a rut. I realized that I, by default, would make slight variations on the same few meals every single week. Cooking became a chore, as much as I enjoy eating and (usually) enjoy cooking, in general.

That realization was one of the main things that drove me to start this blog, and I believe that blogging has been the driving force that pulled me out of cooking boredom.

This month, I am challenging myself to not make the same dinner twice.

Veggies

Obviously, I can’t avoid using some of the same ingredients but I have to focus on making things in different ways. That doesn’t mean I have to cook every day… but when I do, it has to be something I haven’t made this month. I won’t post recipes for every meal I make, but I’ll try to list the dishes (and include links if I got the recipes online).

This first week (and a bit) was a good start, although we weren’t home to cook for the first weekend.

Recipes

Seitan Paprikash

Seitan Paprikash

“Could it be…SATAN?”

I think I just dated myself with that quote. Today’s pieced-together recipe features a vegetarian meat-substitute favourite, seitan (sounds kinda like ‘satan’).

I’ve been a little obsessed with paprika lately, so a Seitan Paprikash sounded yummy. I looked at a few different recipes and cobbled one together that sounded good.

Seitan is kind of a strange ingredient, with about a million ways to make it. I started this one by making a dough with gluten flour, water and some seasoning.  I had to stretch it and let it rise and stretch it and rip it some more in an attempt to give it some kind of texture. Then it was simmered in a flavourful broth, and suddenly I had ‘meat’. I suppose it’s most like a ‘chicken’ because it was lightly flavoured, but it stood in place of pork pretty well in this dish.

Seitan Paprikash

I actually added some spinach to this, because I had some. Shhhhh!

This dish was quick and easy to make, and was a nice change from the usual pasta. The creamy sauce went really well with the seitan. Since this dish is lacking in veggies (in that you might actually end up with a forkful that does not contain a vegetable), we also had some asparagus and a bit of avocado salad. Mmmmmmm.

Side note: I can’t wait for asparagus to be in season here. I’m getting SO JEALOUS reading other peoples’ blogs about the fresh local asparagus they’re able to get!!! Grrr!

Recipe after the jump! Continue reading Seitan Paprikash →

Cookbook Diving

Malfatti with Red Sauce

I think I cheated by picking a recipe from the same cookbook as last time, La Cucina Italiana. It wasn’t planned – I actually chose three different recipes from three different cookbooks. This just happens to be the first of the three that I made.

This is a ricotta-based dumpling dish called ‘Malfatti’. The malfatti get pressed into small eggs, using spoons.

Malfatti- Shaping

Shaping the malfatti into “quenelles” using two spoons.

Unlike other European dumplings I’ve had, these were light and not as dense as I expected. They were, however, filling. Four malfatti were enough for me!! The sauce was a bit of a departure for me – my sauces are usually a bit of a ‘kitchen sink’ concoction where I add a mix of herbs and spices, as many veggies as I can fit, and whatever else I have in the fridge. This sauce was simple, red pepper and tomato being the main ingredients, with oregano and s&p as the only seasoning. I think I showed great restraint by not adding in sautéed mushrooms, chili pepper, or any other herbs. (I did add a few fresh chives to my dish, but I don’t think that counts!!)

Malfatti with Red Sauce

A few grilled scallops and shrimps rounded out the meal. They were a good addition, because they are also lightly flavoured. We considered having rainbow trout, but I think that would have been a little too much alongside the malfatti.

This was a tasty dish, good to make whenever you have a little bit of extra time. It takes a little more preparation than your average pasta meal, but the extra effort is definitely worth it!

Recipe after the jump.

Continue reading Malfatti with Red Sauce →

the Mélange

Monthly Mélange: March 2010

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Noodles!!

March was a good month for food, some weeks being better than others for inspiring me to cook new things.

Here’s a rundown of some of my culinary highlights of March 2010. If there’s anyone out there reading my blog, feel free to comment with your own rundown of the month!

How did March 2010 taste?

Party in My Mouth
Chocolate. We’ve already discussed the spicy and decadent Soma “The Dark Fire” chocolate, but there are inexpensive options as well!! My latest find is the Côte d’Or Expériences Pistache Noir 70% (oddly, I couldn’t find it on the Canada website, so the page I’ve linked to is in French). This dark chocolate bar contains sugared pistachio, and a little extra pistachio “natural flavour”. It’s really tasty, and I’ve been a little addicted to it lately. It was on sale at Shopper’s this week, so I stocked up!

Monthly Spice
Chilhuacle Negro. This is a dried whole chili that I used in a recipe (to be posted in a couple of weeks). This was the first time I had bought dried, whole chilis. I loved the way they looked – the shape and colour, and the fine cracks in some sections. Like a piece of art!! They were great in my dish, too, and not too hot. Actually, I think I’ll use them WITH the seeds next time – I was being overly cautious the first time. So fun!!

Mystery Ingredient
Almond extract. I added a wee bit of this to my buttercream frosting (in place of 1/3 of the vanilla) and it was sooooo good. Can you tell I like the almond/pistachio kinds of flavours in things?

I Made This!
Hubs really liked the Mustard Trout. Not bad for wingin’ it! A close second would have to be the Malfatti that I just made, that I will be posting about later this week.

Shameful Secrets
I am out of unsalted butter. I have never in my life gone through as much butter as this, and I’m kind of embarrassed. What can I do? All of the cupcake recipes call for butter, and buttercream icing is *duh* primarily butter. Not to mention the importance of the lovely spiced butters used in Indian and Ethiopian food.

The days are now lasting longer… my herbs are starting to grow, and I have a slightly longer window of opportunity to take food pics. April will continue what we started with cupcakes, and I will likely have to go on a break from cupcakes for May. I may try to freeze one just to see if it’s still tasty 3 months later.

S