Roasted Winter Veggies

I happen to love Fall, I love the rain and the colours, so I am likely to jump the gun with winter and fall food. Even though it was 25C outside today I was led to make a roasted pork tenderloin with roast veggies. It was rainy last week... and technically it's fall.


The other plus is how easy this is to do especially when entertaining. The only tricky part can be the different cooking times of different veg. The way to simplify this is to chop the veggies appropriately or choose veggies that stand up to minor overcooking. To feed 5 people and have leftovers I peeled 2 yams and 1 sweet potato and chopped them into 1/2" pieces thick bite sized pieces. I did the same with 3 red potatoes and one large parsnip. All these veggies have fairly similar cooking times so that's the easy part. To that I added a peeled and chopped winter squash which is pretty forgiving and even more so a roughly sliced red onion and one sliced fennel bulb. To top it off I added a head of garlic broken into unpeeled chunks. Toss this all in a healthy amount of olive oil, pepper and salt and then season with whatever you have on hand. I like to add some dried basil, oregano and thyme - about a tablespoon of each. Roast for 45 minutes to 1 hour at 425.

The only thing to be careful about is if you cut the potatoes too early they will turn black so leave them until the end.

Garlic Green Beans

I have never been a huge fan of beans but this recipe makes me want to eat beans. I think the other key is the super fresh organic garlic I picked up recently. I was hoping that it would last me months, but I suspect that we will finish it before it has the time to actually preserve. Oopsie.

Garlic Green Beans:
-2 portions of green beans
-2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
-2t butter
-1t olive oil
-2 small tomatoes, roughly chopped.

1. Melt butter with oil in a skillet on low heat. Add garlic and allow to slowly bring flavours out of garlic into oil and butter. Stir the garlic occasionally it should take 6-10 minutes to get the flavour.
2. Meanwhile quickly gentle steam the beans - undercook them rather then overcook them. Drain the beans and add to the skillet with the garlic. Turn the heat up to medium-low and toss the beans and garlic until beans are cooked to your liking. Toss with tomatoes and serve.

Focaccia Bagels

Sometimes the right things are in the cupboard, the days temperature creates the right rise and things just work. Today worked. Like *really* worked. I decided to make homemade bagels again but this time to add rosemary and sea salt to get a focaccia affect. Well they are fantastic! I am kicking myself for only making 8 bagels and not doubling the recipe. I would highly recommend this to anyone and if you haven't made bagels before it is quite easy. Start to finish it takes less then 2 hours, start at 9 and you have a perfect brunch!


I wasn't even intending to post for Weekend Herb Blogging this week - but now I feel like I should share so please head over to Piperita's at The Kitchen Party to check out all the entries!


Focaccia Bagels:
-1 cup warm water
-1 tablespoon sugar
-1.5 teaspoon yeast
-1 tablespoon salt
-3 cups flour
-3T chopped fresh rosemary
-coarse salt for garnish

1. Place yeast in warm water and sugar and allow to bloom. Add flour, salt and 2T rosemary(reserve 1T for garnish) and knead until smooth and shiny. Don't skimp on the kneading. Depending on your type of flour and the humidity, you may have to add a little more or less water.
2. Let rest at least 20 minutes so the dough can relax. Separate into eight equal sized balls and make into bagel shape by punching a hole in the center of each roll with a finger and stretching the hole out (with your finger) until it is at least 1 inch in diameter (the hole will get smaller once the bagels puff up).
3. Place on a well floured cookie sheet and let rest another 20 minutes covered with a kitchen towel. At this point you should bring to boil at least 4 inches of water in a large pot with 2T sugar. After the 20 minute rest, place the bagels in rapidly boiling water for 45 seconds on each side. The heat of the water is very important since this is what will make the dough puff up and get chewy.
4. Drain bagels on a tea towel and place on well greased cookie sheet and sprinkle with the rosemary and then salt .
5. Bake at 450 for about 15-20 minutes.

The inspiration for this recipe came from here but I have modified it slightly.

Cream of Spinach Soup

So yesterday I had all four of my wisdom teeth out. Thankfully the experience was good over all and only one was impacted so that is really the only source of pain. However, I am now a food lover with some extremely limited food choices. The last 24 hours have been predominately ginger ale, milkshakes, apple sauce and mashed potatoes. I did manage to encourage my "nurse" aka boyfriend to put roasted garlic in the mashed potatoes but I was still fairly couch ridden and useless.

However, around 5pm today I got a bit of a wind and decided to attempt to make myself something exciting. Barring a couple of minor drug induced spillages it all went well. I wanted to make something that I hadn't made before and yet would be easy on my body. So I did some googling and came up with Cream of Spinach Soup. I used Elise's recipe as a base and modified it slightly. Because of my teeth I also pushed everything through a fine sieve after putting it through the blender and served it room temp. It is extremely, extremely rich so you have to be in the mood for it. I might tone down the cream next time and substitute some milk instead.

Cream of Spinach Soup:
-1 10oz pkg frozen spinach, dethawed
-1 medium onion, chopped
-3 cups chicken stock or vegetable stock
-2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped to 3/4" cubes
-¼ cup butter
-1 cup heavy cream
-1 cup half and half
-½ teaspoon salt
-⅛ teaspoon pepper
-¾ cup sour cream/yoghourt

1. In a large pot over medium heat saute onion in butter for 3 minutes or until soft. Add potatoes and chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Add spinach and cook for 3-4 minutes longer until spinach is tender.

2. Process through a blender and return to saucepan. Whisk in cream, salt and pepper.

3. Over low heat, bring to just before simmering. Whisk in the sour cream or yoghourt.

Salmon with Herby Yogourt Sauce

I have missed three editions of weekend herb blogging so it is time to get back on track! My windowbox is growing wildly and so this caught my attention because it uses mint. The sauce is really simple and was inspired from a recipe I saw in an Australian Women's Weekly book. Of course I added garlic and lemon juice but it all came to the same thing. Plus right now the salmon is fresh wild and inexpensive. Use it or lose it.

I am quite excited about seeing which of my herbs can survive the winter. According to my reading my mint should certainly be able to handle it since it is a perennial and can tolerate partial shade. Sadly it sounds like it is the end of days for my basil though it hasn't started flowering yet. I guess that means more pesto in my future! Plus I will have to think of what to do with that prime window spot... A large rosemary perhaps?

This weekend herb blogging is taking place back at it's origin Kalyns Kitchen. I have been reading her blog for awhile now and always count on it for fabulous inspiration and beautiful pictures. Plus I get to vicariously live through her the life of someone with a garden full of tomatoes. Sigh. Don't forget to check out the WHB recap on sunday on her website.

Yogourt Herby Sauce
-1C yogourt
-2t chopped fresh dill
-2t chopped fresh mint
-1t fresh squeezed lemon juice
-1 clove garlic, finely minced
-generous salt and pepper

Mix all above ingredients together and let stand in the fridge for a few hours for ingredients to really jel.

To serve with salmon, dust salmon with fresh dill, salt and pepper and drizzle a little oil. Broil or grill fillets until just done.

Flank Steak with Red Wine Shallot Sauce

It has been rather a long while since my last post! I spent a wonderful week in beautiful Tofino hiking and kayaking and generally having a very relaxing out-of-doors time. It is amazing how different the lifestyle of a place like Tofino and a place like Vancouver are. As much as I love Vancouver and the city in general, it is nice to be on island-time and get a chance to catch ones breath. When we were golfing we had to wait for the deer - they certainly didn't seem to care that a ball might come their way. Pretty much sums up the whole vacation.

Oh and did I mention the food??? I had fresh crab twice, salmon, halibut, mussels, calamari, oysters... hmm.. I can't think of any local seafood I missed in fact! For anyone who ever makes it out there I would highly recommend the Schooner restaurant. I have been going there off and on for years but something has changed since the last time and the experience was fantastic - amazing service, ambiance and food.

Now... what have I been doing since I got back? Well, there was the hibernation which set in after all the relatives in Tofino. Then the long hours of work which knocked me off my feet last week. All and all most of my time spent in the kitchen has been making sandwiches or grabbing breakfast for the last little while.

However last week there was one night I did get the chance to make an easy, low carb summer meal. Flank steak with Red Wine Shallot Sauce served on spaghetti squash. This recipe came from a cooking class I took from Chef Eric a while back. The trick to this one is the cheater gourmet veal stock concentrate I use to make the sauce. So much easier then making it yourself... I would recommend serving this with something starchy to sop up the sauce with. Risotto is a usual favorite but I picked up some fresh squash on our drive home and it worked really well!

To cook the flank steak I marinated it in a little fresh thyme, olive oil and lots of salt and pepper for about an hour then cooked it on our indoor cast iron grill. Make sure you cut the steak thin and on a diagonal as it is a fairly chewy piece of meat - but it makes up for it in flavour!

Red Wine Shallot Sauce

-½ ounce butter
-1.2 cup shallots, sliced
-2 tablespoon garlic, minced
-1 cup dry red wine
-1 bay leaf
-2 cup brown veal stock
-1 ounce butter

1. Heat butter in a medium saucepan over medium-low heat. Add shallots and garlic and saute until tender - about 5 minutes.
2. Pour in wine, add bay leaf, and bring to a boil and reduce by half.
3. Add the veal stock and cook until sauce is reduced by 1 3/4 cups, about 20 minutes. Discard bay leaf. Whisk in remaining butter off of the heat and serve immediately.