Lemon and Thyme Artichokes

I have never cooked with fresh artichokes before. They are rather daunting to try and deal with but on Sunday I was hungover and needing a bit of a project. It took me far longer then I am sure it should to prep each one and I don't think I have the process down yet. I broke the choke on each attempt and didn't get them in the lemon water quick enough before they started to brown. That said I was able to salvage it, remove the brown bits and they were really tasty. I will definitely be making them again.

This recipe comes from The Naked Chef and since I hadn't made anything like this before I did it pretty much exactly like the recipe although I used vermouth rather then white wine.

When I was at the grocery store the sign for the artichokes said they were good for the digestion and the liver. A little bit of research confirms this and in addition they are good for managing cholesterol. For more great uses of fresh herbs and vegetables check out the week's Weekend Herb Blogging being hosted by Kalyn at Kalyn's Kitchen.

Lemon and Thyme Artichokes (serves 4)

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 clove garlic, chopped
1 lemon
8 globe artichokes, prepped and quartered
⅓ cup white wine
salt and pepper
1 handful fresh thyme leaves
1 tablespoon butter


Put the olive oil in a small dutch oven and bring the pan up to medium heat. Add the garlic and stir to soften, but don't let it brown. Zest the lemon and add the zest to the garlic. Cook for another minute. Stir in the artichokes and a pinch of salt. Add the juice of the lemon. Let cook for 3 minutes.

Add the white wine and cover, cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and toss with the thyme and butter. Taste for seasoning.

Tags: Vegetables, Vegetarian, Recipe

Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins

I got 5lbs of fresh blueberries last week and ended up making two batches of these muffins because they were so good. Amazingly we ate through 5lbs of blueberries really quickly and now I am wishing I had bought more. This recipe is adapted from an oatmeal and raisin muffin recipe from The Food Processor Bible.



Oatmeal Blueberry Muffins
(makes 10-12)

1 cup flour
¼ tsp. salt
1 tsp. baking powder
½ tsp. baking soda
1 cup oats
1 cup milk
1 tbsp. vinegar, or raspberry vinegar
1 egg
½ cup brown sugar
½ cup oil
1 cup blueberries

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Wash and dry the blueberries. Toss with a tablespoon of the flour.
2. Whisk together flour, salt, baking powder and soda. Set aside. Combine the milk and the vinegar and let sit for 2-3 minutes. Put the oats and the milk mixture into the bowl of a food processor and let sit for a few minutes.
3. Process the mix a few times. Add the egg, sugar and oil. Process for 10 seconds.
4. Combine wet and dry without over mixing. Add the blueberries and stir to combine.
5. Spoon into muffin tins and bake for about 18 minutes.


Tags: Muffin, Baking, Recipe

Broccoli and Corn Salad

I find it extremely tiresome to deal with leftovers. I don't mind taking them for lunch the next day - that's great, but trying to do something creative with them rather then making what I feel like is a real challenge. And so I am frequently filled with guilt when I throw away moldy unidentifiable things in tupperware containers.


However I managed to do something good and interesting with what was in the fridge this week. I had a cob of corn still unshucked that I had roasted on the bbq and a big head of broccoli. Toss those two together with a handful of cilantro and some light dressing and boom - side salad. This is also my entry to this week's Weekend Herb Blogging hosted by Anna from Anna's Cool Finds.

Broccoli and Corn Salad: (serves 4)

1 head corn, roasted
1 head broccoli
1/2C cilantro, roughly chopped
1/2 red or yellow pepper, thinly sliced
1 lemon juiced
1t red pepper flakes
1T dijon mustard
1t paprika
salt and pepper
olive oil

Blanch and chop the broccoli into bite sized pieces, toss in a bowl with the pepper. Remove the kernels from the corn and break up large pieces, add to the rest along with the cilantro. In a small bowl whisk together lemon juice, red pepper flakes, mustard, paprika and salt and pepper. Continue whisking and slowly add olive oil until an emulsion is formed and it is the taste you like. Toss with the vegetables - you can prepare ahead but don't toss with the dressing until the last minute.


Tags: Salad, Vegetables, Recipe

Salmon, Artichoke and Sundried Tomato Linguine

A quick pasta dinner, trying to to keep it light because of the heat but still bordering on comfort food. Plus I managed to get it together to post for Presto Pasta over at Once Upon a Feast. This isn't from a cookbook but is just a combination of two of the things I was craving - salmon and pasta. I think next time parsley would be a good addition. The perfect food to say goodbye to Potter with. Without spoiling anything I can honestly say that it was great and I feel very satisfied without feeling sad that is over.


Salmon, Artichoke and Sun-dried Tomato Linguine
(serves 2-4)

1 small fillet salmon, skinned removed, cut into 1" cubes
1 tablespoons olive oil
½ onion, sliced
1 clove garlic
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes, or 2 dried thai chiles, crushed
2 tablespoons sun-dried tomatoes, small dice
½ cup white wine
1 can artichokes, rinsed, drained and quartered
salt and pepper
½ package linguine

1. Heat a medium non-stick skillet over medium heat. Salt and pepper the fish. Add a tablespoon of the olive oil and then the fish to the skillet. Cook on both sides until just starting to brown but still pink inside. Remove from skillet and set aside.
2. Cook the pasta to just before al dente. Reserve pasta water.
3. Meanwhile turn the skillet heat to medium low, add the onion and sweat for a few minutes - until translucent. Add the garlic, chiles and tomatoes and cook for two minutes, stirring to prevent the garlic from burning.
3. Add the wine and cook until half of it has evaporated. Add the artichokes and toss with the pasta and salmon. Add several grindings of pepper and taste and adjust for seasoning.

Tags: Pasta, Seafood, Recipe

Recipe Archive

I have finally managed to put together a proper archive, it is not everything and the categories are somewhat limited but it is certainly an improvement on the blogger categories.
You can check out the full archive here. Which is accessible from the right pane. I also added a google search to make searching the blog easier.

Harry Potter Begets Bagels

Fresh herb bagels to be exact. I was all excited to have the house to myself Saturday night to really get into Harry Potter. But after about 80 pages I found it rather emotionally draining and felt the need to bake. Clearly my emotional attachment to Harry, Hermione and dear Ron is a little unhealthy but at least something good came out of it.


I love walking out into the backyard and picking a bunch of fresh herbs and throwing it into whatever I am making. Bagels are great that way, they adapt well to a lot of different flavours. In this batch I added rosemary, sage, lavender, parsley, chives, marjoram and thyme - all from the yard.

This is the recipe from my original post, I have been really happy with it and I use it as a basis for every bagel recipe I make, sometimes I add a handful of oats in as well. I would suggest doubling it to make it worth your while.

(By the way, I still haven't finished I have about 150 pages I have been savouring and I have tomorrow night booked to finish it!)

Herb Bagels (makes 8 small bagels)

1 cup warm water
1 tablespoon sugar
1.5 teaspoon yeast
1 tablespoon salt
3 cups flour
1/2C packed fresh herbs, finely chopped

1. Place yeast in warm water and sugar and allow to froth. Add flour, herbs and salt and knead until smooth and shiny. Depending on your type of flour and altitude, 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 or chopstick 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 greased (or floured) cookie sheet and let rest another 20 minutes. at this point you should bring to boil at least 4 inches of water in a large pot with 2 T. sugar. After the 20 minute rest, place the bagels in rapidly boiling water for 30 seconds to 1 minute on each side. The heat of the water is very important since this is what will make the dough puff up and get chewy. Place a lid on the pot once the bagels are in to maintain a high temperature.
4. Drain bagels on teas towel and place on well greased, light colored cookie sheet and sprinkle with the toppings of your choice (flax! or rosemary and sea salt?) or leave them plain.
5. Bake at 450 for about 15-20 minutes, turning over once.

Tags: Bread, Baking, Recipe

Curried Mango Chicken Salad

Chicken and mango is one of those way overdone combinations that you see at every panini bar. However, when you put it together yourself with a perfectly ripe mango and some curry powder you end up with the flavours those wannabes are trying to emulate. Plus anything where you add a bunch of cilantro can't be all bad right?

This week's Weekend Herb Blogging is being hosted by The Chocolate Lady at In Mol Araan . Cilantro is definitely one of the best used herbs in our house, but sadly the one I planted in the garden has bolted, apparently it needed more sun then my forest garden could provide. One day I will be able to grow tomatoes and pepper and cilantro, but apparently it isn't today.

This is another great dinner for the hot weather, I picked up the 1/2 chicken for $5 at the local deli and the only heat making activity involved was toasting the bread.

Curried Mango Chicken Salad (makes 2-4 sandwiches)

½ roast chicken, cooked, and shredded
3 tablespoons mayonnaise
1 tablespoon whole milk plain yogourt, or sour cream
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
2 teaspoons curry powder
1 handful cilantro, chopped
1 scallion, finely sliced
½ mango, diced small
salt and pepper

1. Combine mayo, curry, yogourt, mustard and salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning.
2. Combine thoroughly with the chicken, scallion and cilantro. Gently toss in the mango.

Tags: Chicken, Salad, Recipe, Curry

Roasted Snapper with Cherry Tomatoes

I had some leftover fish I had to use tonight while it was still good so I threw this together with some beautiful looking local cherry tomatoes. This is the first meal I have cooked on a weeknight in quite awhile, because our apartment is just so hot. Plus, foolishly this is a hot meal to cook since it involves the oven and two skillets. We totally need air conditioning. I actually jumped in the shower while the fish was in the oven. Other then that I would highly recommend this it is fresh and easy and nice served with a salad.



Roasted Snapper with Cherry Tomatoes
(serves 2)

2 fillets of snapper, skins off
1 package of cherry tomatoes, cut in half (about 2 dozen)
1T butter
3T olive oil
1 clove garlic, cut in half
2t white wine
salt and pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400F. Put a non-stick skillet on over medium heat and a second skillet over low-medium heat with 2T of the oil.
2. Pat the fish dry and salt and pepper it. Meanwhile when the oil is hot add the garlic to the second pan and let it sizzle until it turns a light golden brown. Remove and discard.
3. (If your non-stick pan is not oven proof, put a casserole dish for the fish in the oven to warm up.) Add the butter to the non-stick skillet and once it has done foaming add the fish. At the same time put the tomatoes in the pan and toss with some salt and pepper.
4. Cook the fish for 2 minutes per side, shaking the tomatoes while you go to prevent burning. When there is a minute left on the fish add the wine to the tomatoes.
5. Add the remaining oil and the fish to the hot pan in the oven and top with the tomatoes, or put the tomatoes directly into the non stick skillet in the oven if oven safe. Bake for 6-8 minutes and test for doneness. When you serve, top it with all the juice from the tomatoes and fish.

Tags: Seafood, Fish, Recipe, Summer Recipe

Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Salad

It is too hot to cook, too hot to even turn on the stove. In fact using the food processor was almost over the edge. At any rate I threw this together to use up things in my pantry, I had a big bag of carrots and a bunch of flat leaf parsley which wasn't going to last much longer and so here we are. This isn't traditional, not that any of my recipes are, generally Moroccan carrot salads uses cooked carrots, however I couldn't bring myself to do it and the crunch was nice and refreshing.

I made this on Saturday afternoon and I didn't quite get it together to make it into last week's Weekend Herb Blogging. So this will have to go into next week's event being hosted by Susan from Food Blogga. Parsley has to be one of the most well used fresh herbs, it certainly is the one most readily available around here and so trying to find interesting information on it can be a bit tricky but one thing I did learn recently which I thought was interesting is that it is quite high in Vitamin C.


Moroccan Carrot and Chickpea Salad
(serves 4)

1 can chickpeas, drained, rinsed and skins removed
4 large carrots, cleaned and grated
1 lemon, juiced
1 teaspoon cumin
1 pinch cayenne
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
½ cup fresh parsley, packed and roughly chopped
100 grams feta, crumbled

1. Toss the carrots, chickpeas and parsley together in a salad bowl.
2. Whisk together the spices and lemon juice. Add the olive oil slowly while whisking. Drizzle over the vegetables.
3. Crumble feta over top and serve.

Check out a few more parsley recipes from my archives: Parsley Pasta, Vegetable Pilaf with Parsley and Walnuts, and New Potato Packets with Parsley and Onions.

Tags: Food Porn, Salad, Recipe, Summer Recipe, Vegetarian

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt

I don't usually like sweets early in the morning but I was so in love with my latest frozen dessert attempt that it made an appearance at breakfast. I bought David Lebovitz's fabulous book The Perfect Scoop and made two recipes this weekend with lots of success, specifically the Vanilla Frozen Yogurt and the Chocolate Ice Cream. They were both rich, creamy and not at all icy like my only other attempt. I am not sure whether this was thanks to the recipes or my technique with the ice cream maker is improving. Either way major success. I am already lamenting the fact that I only have one ice cream maker and I can only use it on the weekends. Sniff Sniff.

The thing I loved about this recipe was that it had a really rich yogurt flavour - so rich it was almost like a cream cheese. A lot of the store bought frozen yogurts seem to be trying to be low fat ice creams rather then displaying the yogurt properly. It was lovely served with some fresh fruit over pancakes for breakfast, Especially as it melts bit by bit as you eat. I can't wait for blackberry season to stir some of those suckers into it.

Vanilla Frozen Yogurt (makes 1L)

3 cups whole milk plain yogurt
1 cup sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1. Mix together yogurt, sugar and vanilla until all the sugar has dissolved. Cover and refrigerate for an hour.
2. Put into your ice cream machine and follow the machine's directions.

Tags: Food Porn, Dessert, Recipe, Comfort Food, Vegetarian