Potato Salad

Potato salad is one of those side dishes that I liked as a kid - though my parents rarely bought the grocery store deli counter or pre-packaged stuff. I just knew it was my pick over coleslaw (bleh). I don't know why I didn't think earlier to make it myself - perhaps the idea of potatoes and mayonnaise was too rich for every day cooking? Well, when I saw this recipe for Eggy Potato Salad with Pickles from Bon Appetit last summer I figured, what was I waiting for? It's summer and I want the pickles, the egg, everything!

First - potatoes. We don't really eat potatoes on a regular basis in this household - I think we both grew up with bland boiled potatoes as a side to chicken or steak or whatever. But now we do - the magic of summer picnic fare. I buy white mini potatoes and quarter them (they cook faster), then boil them until they're done. This time I used about 16.



Bon Appetit suggests you mix them with red onion and parsley, which sounds pretty good. This time I cut diced some red pepper - it's healthy and adds colour. I also diced two pickles and added them right in as well, because pickles are delicious. And don't forget two diced hard-boiled eggs. The magazine suggest only using the yolks - I don't want to be wasteful so I use the whites too.


The dressing, however, is the best part: 1/4 cup mayo, 1/8 cup pickle juice (right from the jar! So salty and sour!), 1 Tbsp Dijon for flavour, 1/2 tsp sugar, pepper and lots of paprika - any mix of sweet, hot and smoked, I have all three. But beware - I was a little too liberal this time and the salad took on a pinkish hue. Don't bother adding more salt - the pickles are salty enough.

And there you have it, the perfect side dish for (veggie) burgers! Be warned - this stuff is addictive. You won't be able to stop making it.

Chocolate Chip Cookies

Here it is, guys: the gold standard of cookies. Seriously. They are thick and chewy and sweet and amazing. I'm not a big cookie maker but I am so glad I found Michael Smith's (ie Chef at Home's) Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe because it's unbelievably good and totally fool-proof. Unfortunately I've not made many things from my (*ahem* signed) copy of The Best of Chef at Home but this page is definitely a little greasy. That and the pancake page.

I made them this time for Easter to have with the lime-coconut bars I've already written about. Instead of my usual milk-chocolate chips, I used cut-up mini eggs to be festive. Mmm chocolate and crunchy candy shell! First sift the dry ingredients: 1.5 cups of flour, 1 tsp baking powder and a pinch of salt.




In a large bowl, cream 1/2 cup butter with 1 cup brown sugar. I always do it by hand and it's not too difficult. Add 1 egg, 1 Tbsp corn syrup (I use honey), 1 tsp vanilla (I follow his own advice and double it). Stir in the flour mixture in three parts and then stir in 1 cup chocolate chips/M & M's/anything you want.

Roll the dough into balls and bake exactly as it says, @375 for 12 minutes for big, chewy, sugary cookies. It pretty consistently makes exactly 18 of them too. He's a genius!

Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup

This "elegant" butternut squash soup recipe comes from the awesome LCBO Food and Drink magazine (Holidays 2012). But if by "elegant" they mean ridiculously easy, well then, I agree! I chose this Coconut-Spiked Squash Soup recipe because I wanted to try out some of my new kitchen tools - my scale and immersion blender!

First up was weighing the ancient butternut squash I had lying around the kitchen floor. Good thing I had my trusty kitchen scale - turns out it was only about half the size as the recipe called for! Perhaps because it was on the wee side, or because it was so old the innards were a little shriveled. Either way I augmented the recipe with some turnips I had in the fridge.



In a large Dutch oven I melted 2 Tbsp butter, but also added 2 Tbsp olive oil - I find mixing the two works better. I threw in two chopped onions for about 5 minutes, then threw in the cubed/peeled/seeded butternut squash as well as three dicd turnips. The broth is made from one carton of chicken stock and one can of coconut milk (yummmm) so I added that and boiled it for about 20 minutes until everything was cooked.

So it's not the most complicated soup - no extra spices or anything. But it's rich and sweet. You can toast coconut flakes and sprinkle them on top for some texture and extra coconut flavour. And, if you're me, you can attempt to use your new immersion blender! It worked okay, I kept hitting the bottom of the pot and got a little worried, and there were still some big chunks left, but definitely easier than transferring hot soup to the blender and back. Less mess.

Chana Masala

Felt like comforting Indian food the other day. Also, I had just bought some new boxes of my favourite Indian spice mixes, this one for Chana Masala. The second ingredient is salt... no wonder I always liked these mixes! Chana Masala is pretty much the easiest thing to make, so I quickly got to work using this Canadian Living recipe as a guide.

First in the frying pan was two small chopped onions, 4 garlic cloves, and, after a few minutes, 2 Tbsp of the spice mix. Always good to toast your spices for a minute, stirring constantly so they don't burn, to get the most flavour. I then added 1 cup of water, 1/4 cup tomato paste, 1 tsp of brown sugar and one can of chickpeas.




Let that stew for 10-15 minutes so it gets nice and thick and tomato-ey. I made a rookie mistake, though - I wasn't totally sure how potent my spice mix was, and it turned out quite spicy! So I decided to tame it with some big spoonfuls of sour cream (yogurt would've also worked).

As you can guess, the sour cream made it rich and the spice mix made it salty and it was a delicious bowl of Indian deliciousness. I like living close to Little India, but I do buy those honey desserts too often...

Prairie Honey Oatmeal Muffins

More muffins! I wanted to try something new, so I flipped through the Complete Canadian Living Baking Book, a great bargain find at Winners, and picked out their Prairie Honey Oatmeal Muffins (p. 286). I guess the term 'prairie' means wholesome ingredients? I picked them because they seemed quite simple - and I had all the ingredients. After a delicious taco dinner at Grand Electric, I didn't want anything too fancy. Yes, readers, on Fridays we have an early dinner and come home and watch TV and make muffins. The epitome of cool.

First, stir 1 cup oats with 1 cup buttermilk, let sit 15 min. The recipe called for large-flake oats - I had quick, don't think it made too much of a difference. Also, my buttermilk, as usual, was just regular milk with some cider vinegar added to sour it. Yum. Mix the dry ingredients: 1 c whole wheat flour, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp each baking soda and cinnamon, and 1/4 tsp salt.


The wet ingredients were stirred into the buttermilk/oat mixture: 1/3 cup each oil and honey, 1/4 cup brown sugar, and 1 egg, which were then added to the dry ingredients. It was a much thinner batter than I'm used to. Originally the recipe called for 1/3 cup sunflower seeds as well, but alas, the seeds I had in my freezer had gone bad (when they smell like Play-doh, throw them away!) so walnut pieces it was. Bake @375 for about 17 minutes.

No idea why the recipe said it made only 10 muffins - it made 12 easily. They had a nice crunchy top, and were super tender and fally-aparty - I guess because I'm used to 2 cups of flour, and these were half oats instead. Maybe the honey helped. Either way, they were sweet and delicious, and while a little plainer than I usually make, quite satisfying at breakfast/work break.

Shakshuka

I've found a few recipes for shakshuka over the last year, and was very intrigued about trying this Israeli breakfast dish - though of course I made it for dinner. It's sugary cereal for me in the mornings. I was recently given the new Toronto Star Cookbook as a birthday gift and to my surprise, there was shakshuka right on the cover! So for a quick weeknight dinner on my own last week I made Pita Break's Poached Eggs in Spicy Tomato Stew (p. 20).

First I fried up one diced onion, 3 green onions and 6 garlic cloves - this sounds like a lot but they turned out to be a little elderly, and so not very strong tasting. After 5-7 minutes, I stirred in everything else: 2 chopped red peppers, 2 chopped plum tomatoes, 1 can tomato paste (that's a lot!), 2 Tbsp ketchup, 1 Tbsp lemon juice, 2 tsp oregano, 1 tsp red pepper flakes and 1.5 cup water.



This recipe also called for mushrooms - which I omitted because they are gross. Simmer for 30 minutes to thicken. Then comes the fun part - breaking 4 eggs into the tomato stewy mix. Cover, and cook 5-7 minutes - though I found I need more like 8-9 minutes for the whites to cook. Of course the authors suggested eating this with fresh pita, and such other goodies as bagels, olives, pickles, hummus, lox etc. I just had toast.

All in all it was pretty good, but a little bland - next time I would add more spice and fresher garlic. It was also really thick and tomatoey - I may try a recipe that uses a can of diced tomatoes instead of tomato paste and water as a base. Fairly comforting, however, as I sat down to watch my library find: a recent Russian movie called Hipsters that featured 1950s teenagers singing and dancing. What more could a girl ask for.

Egg Salad: Two Ways

Who doesn't love egg salad? Well, if you don't eat eggs, you may think you're doomed to live without it. Not so - a delicious tofu version is available and may be better than the real stuff! Make both and decide.

I decided to make a more jazzy version of egg salad than usual - a curry-spiced one with apples featured in Bon Appetit (May 2012). A bit more fun than mayo and paprika! It involved a dressing made of a bit less than 1/4 cup mayo, 1 green onion, 1 Tbsp apple cider vinegar, 1 tsp Dijon, 1/2 tsp curry powder, and 1/4 tsp cumin. I only had 3 eggs so the amounts are a little different from the recipe. The dressing is mixed with hard-boiled eggs and most of a peeled and diced green apple.


The result is super good - there's a sweet crunch from the apple to cut through the mayo, curry to add flavour and a really nice tang from the vinegar - something I may add to normal egg salad in the future.







Next up is a really good recipe I got from a vegan cookbook - Vegan A Go-Go by Sarah Kramer. The book is full of tips if you're a vegan traveler, but for me, I just enjoy the recipes. The Faux Egg Salad (p. 50) is made by mashing a block of firm tofu with a variety of delicious things. This time I used 2/3 block of tofu, 1/2 chopped red pepper, 2 green onions, 1.5 Tbsp Dijon, a big spoonful of relish (I only eat Bick's Tangy Dill), and about 1/4 cup mayo.

Now this stuff is addictive. The mustard and relish are delicious - I never thought of adding them to egg salad until I made this recipe. Now they're my go-to condiments when I want to cut down on the mayo. One thing to know, though - this makes one messy sandwich. Tofu is not like boiled eggs - it stays chunky and will fall out all over the place. But you'll want to scoop it back up to stuff it in your face, I promise.