GREEN SALSA!

I had two piles of tomatoes, one was ripe or ripening, the other was still green.  I had to do something with some of them, so I decided to make a relish/sauce!  I was looking up chow chow, but they all had SCADS of sugar in them, I was searching and searching and found this recipe:

Blending away...

http://www.farmgirlfare.com/2005/09/saving-harvest-green-tomato-relish.html

This is so straightforward!

I can say, it is quite delicious.  I'm not planning on canning this stuff so I used the option for less vinegar and it was great, right now it's covered in the fridge and then it will make it's way into freezer bags in 1 C or so portions.  (this makes a good 6-8 cups I'd say).



Some Ingredients...



INGREDIENTS:

2 lb. green tomatoes (I used Roma), cored and chopped

1 lb. white or yellow onions (I used yellow), chopped

3/4 lb. sweet peppers (red, but I also used some green too) cored and chopped

1/2 lb. tart cooking apples cored and chopped (granny smith is good, but I had golden delicious on hand)

6 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1/2 cup 5% acidic organic raw apple cider vinegar (or less, see note below)*

1 Tablespoon kosher or sea salt

4 jalapeno peppers, cored, seeded if desired, and finely chopped (*note, I used thai green chiles, about 5 of them)

2 Tablespoons chopped cilantro (I used more than this)

Mole - eh?



The final product, YUM!



Once in awhile I come across a great cookbook.  Now, all of my cookbooks are great in their own rights.  I have my favourites and my most useful ones.  I think I have found a new book to make it to those ranks, and it only took one recipe, which happened to be an exceptional one.

One way we can help the worlds food supply, our health, and so many other things is to go meatless sometimes.  I don't mean we all have to be vegans and never so much as look at livestock again, but it is wise to consider a reduction in meat consumption.  It's a topic I would encourage people to read up on, and draw their own conclusions and actions.

Regardless, I like (LOVE) vegetarian cooking.  One thing I find though is it's not always easy to make a meal feel complete.  It often feels like there is complexity or texture...just something missing...so you might say "duh! meat!" but that's not always the case, I've had plenty of meat recipes that were bland and missing something.

In any case, This is not that bland meatless meal!



Adam got me a cookbook for my birthday called the New Vegetarian Kitchen.  It's a green colored cookbook out of the UK.  It took me a bit of time to get into it but once I did I had that bugger bookmarked to kingdom come, and the first on my list was this recipe below.  It was worth the effort and I would use this mole sauce for veggie or meat, again and again, it is that good! The chickpea pancakes were a departure for me, I've never used chickpea flour but you know what?  They were delicious.  An excellent accompaniment.



This recipe also has the potential to be gluten free and vegan with a couple of very minor ingredient tweaks (sour cream, chocolate, baking soda, etc).  WOW.  This is an ace for alternative and special diets!

BLACK BEAN MOLE (pron. moh-lay)
(adapted from the New vegetarian Kitchen, an excellent cookbook)

INGREDIENTS:
The mole:
3 1/2 C of diced butternut squash (recipe calls for acorn squash)
1 small onion pulverised (recipe called for 1 large onion diced)
2 large cloves of garlic, minced 2 TBSP of Chipoltle hot sauce (recipe called for 3 T of chipoltle paste)
1 thai green chile, fine dice (recipe called for 1 dried ancho chili)

Borscht!?!? YES!!

I've been browsing borscht recipes for awhile, not sure why.  I had savoy cabbage to eat and I was at home sick.  Nutritious soup was in order for lunch, but the preparation ended up tiring me right out.  At least it tasted great.  Or I think it did.  Not sure if I've even HAD this kind of soup before.  It's Ukranian apprearantly.  I can only assume if I like it it turned out right, traditional or not!  (It's a great way to use beets!)



A messy bowl, served with sour cream, YUM.

My main inspirations are these pages here:

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/ukrainian-red-borscht-soup/detail.aspx

http://mostlysoup.wordpress.com/2009/06/01/vegetarian-borscht/

I also did some stuff from here and there but honestly, I don't remember what recipes the ideas came from.

Sarah's Basic Borscht!

INGREDIENTS:
1 lb beets*
1/2 lb carrots (about 3 medium)
1 small onion slivered 2 garlic cloves minced
4 C of savoy cabbage shredded
1c canned chopped tomatoes drained**
3 medium new potatoes, scrubbed, peeled, and cubed into approx 1.5cm pieces
1t dried dill
1/4t caraway seeds
2t balsamic vinegar

1T of vegetable oil

900ml carton of beef broth (or equivalent homemade stock)
2+C of water (I say + because you may need a bit more than 2, depending on consistency)


salt and pepper to taste

Sour cream for serving

Special Tools:Food Processor

CHARIZO! (Chard, Chorizo, Orzo)



At the end, colourful and just lovely!

Chard Chorizo Orzo.

Ever think of doing these three together? YOU SHOULD!  This was good and an homage to 'use what you have in the fridge' kind of cooking.  The names of the ingredients had a slight influence on being included in the dish, I must admit.   I was going to make risotto, and this is actually very much like risotto, except more straightforward and I dare say easier.  Actually Risotto was my backup plan in case I didn't have enough Orzo, but I had exactly the right amount of Orzo (I mean, to the gram - it was meant to be).

Orzo is not rice! It's pasta shaped like rice.  It's something I forget I have when I have it....and that's too bad, because it's really good.  Great for cold salads as well.

One pot meals people!  They make the world go 'round and dinner easy and delicious.

Very much inspired by the ingredients (and the looks) of this recipe:  http://jillianskitchen.com/2011/05/04/sausage-orzo/

CHARIZO! -or- Orzo with Chard and Chorizo

Here is what I did



The main star of the dish! Nice chard.

INGREDIENTS:

- 8oz Orzo (about 1 1/4 C)
- 1 bunch of white swiss chard, leaves separated from stems.  Stems chopped into 1cm pieces, leaves chopped.
- 1/4C fine diced onion (about 1 small)
- 2 cloves of garlic fine dice
- 2t olive oil
- 2t butter
- 2T fresh sliced sage
- 4 oz chorizo sausage, casing removed, thinly sliced
-1 C of white kidney beans (drained, rinsed)
- 1/4C fresh grated parmesan
- 2c chicken broth
- 1-1.5C of water (as needed)
- Fresh ground pepper

SOUPER SUPPER!

Last week we had a few sticky hot days, and Adam and I were sick of BBQing things (this affliction has since been cured).  I had bought a giant thing of Kale, you know, for it's Iron boosting properties and general good health vibes.  What the hell can I do with KALE I thought? Soup. So, I made this soup on a 40 degree humidex day.  Normally I wouldn't have used as much convenience food as I did but I was time constrained, but canned beans and lentils are in my pantry at all times because, let's face it, they're easy.   Prep to bowl approx 30 minutes.  Not bad.
(BTW, excuse the mixes of imperial and metric, it's just how I roll)


KALE AND LENTIL SOUP W/ SMOKED SAUSAGE


Simmering away! awesome.

- 1/2 lb of turkey kielbasa (250g) sliced and quartered (slices a 1/2 CM or 1/4" thick)

- 1lb of Kale, big fat ends removed, stems chopped into 1" pieces, leaves chopped.
- 19 oz can diced or italian style stewed tomatoes (if using plain diced, add 2 extra t of italian seasoning to the soup)
- 1 medium carrot - julienned
- 1 small onion - small dice
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced fine
- 1 can of lentils drained and rinsed
- 1 900 ml container of low salt chicken broth
- 1 C+ water
- salt and pepper
- 1T oil
- 1t italian seasoning
- 1t dried thyme

gimme five, on the side...

Alright, more like 3 on the side.

You know, there actually has been quite a bit of cooking going on, and several items I make that are
good haven't made it into the blog.  Right now I'm going to share a few recipes for side dishes that
were easy, tasty, and overall enjoyable.

RECIPE 1:
PASTA SIDE SALAD (made over!)
This is from Kraft Canada, this is great pasta salad.  If you've ever seen the Simpson's episode where
Homer is having a BBQ and Lisa is a new vegetarian and she suggested veggies to eat and Homer and
Bart sing "you don't make friends with sal-ad! you don't make friends with sal-ad!" well, you WILL
make friends with THIS salad.  I guarantee it.  I have :) LOL.  It's a salad you can use what you
want for pasta (small is best, like mini penne, shells, ditali) and veg, I've done corn, celery,
green pep, blanched broccoli, whatever.

Original Recipe here:http://www.kraftcanada.com/en/recipes/pasta-side-salad-makeover-92145.aspx

Goes great with pork chops and
grilled veg

What I did:
INGREDIENTS:
1 cup elbow macaroni, uncooked
1/3 cup Miracle Whip Calorie-Wise Dressing
2T cup Kraft Calorie-Wise Zesty Italian Dressing, 2T roasted red pepper Parmesan dressing
80 g of old cheddar, cut in tiny little squares
3/4 cup matchstick-cut carrots (julienne)
1/2 cup chopped fresh snow peas
1/2 cup of julienne celery
1/2 medium red pepper fine chopped
2T of cilantro finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste.

Sarah Salutes Savoy!

This post contains one of the best casseroles I have ever made - bar none!

When I was growing up, I did not like cabbage.  No offence Mom, but boiled green cabbage holds little flair for most palettes.  The solution of sopping it in butter and salt and pepper sucked the nutrition right out of it.   Actually i was a bit too old before I realized there were actually different kinds of cabbage.  I made a recipe using purple cabbage braised with a touch of butter and mustard and it was a wonderful accompaniment.  I figured out something - I actually like cabbage, it can actually taste good. I didn't even discover Savoy cabbage until a recipe I read called for it about 2 years ago.

Savoy cabbage is my (now) favoured cabbage due to it's lighter leafier texture and it's not too strong cabbagey flavour.  I like using it in slaw as well as braised as well as incorporated into casseroles.  The thing is, cabbages are BIG so you need to get creative in using it since one cabbage can potentially make enough slaw to feed 30 people.

Ready to serve - curried slaw!



SATURDAY night we were feeling 'summery' and chicken was on sale.  I would never in the several years we've been together buy 'bone in' chicken because Adam told me he didn't like it years ago (with an icky face and all).  We had a discussion a couple of days ago, and I basically figured from this that he did like chicken with bones in it as long as it was cooked appropriately.  Perfect.  Legs and thighs were on sale and we had a BBQ!

What I learned:  Chicken burns easily, at least the fattier ones do.  The drumsticks however, were perfect, but this is not about the chicken, this is about the CABBAGE!  The curried savoy coleslaw I  made can be found below:



Soup, asparagus. Perfect for earth hour!

Saturday felt a bit off for me.   It was a fine day, great actually.  I got my hair done and Adam (who I used to refer to as 'A' but let's face it, most of who read this know me and those who don't would figure out pretty quickly who 'A' was) made wicked progress in the bathroom.


I had no direction on dinner.  I knew soup needed to be in the equation.  I remembered I had some parsnips sitting there.  Then it came to me - brilliant.   Out comes the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution and into my stomach goes...




Before the puree stage, all the veg and broth



PARSNIP GINGER SOUP - adapted from Jamie Oliver's food revolution.  The original recipe is exactly double (except the asterisks*)

1 large carrot
1 large celery stock
1 lb parsnips
1 medium onion
2 garlic cloves *
1 pinky sized peice fresh root ginger
900 ML chicken broth
A few sprigs fresh parsley
Sea salt and fresh grd pepper
A squeeze (tablespoon or less) of honey

sweet potato o' mine!!

*cue the guitar riff and screechy voice 80's style*

This post isn't about the steak.


One potato..TWO potato..
similar but different

The steak was good, last night when I came home I asked A if he'd rather have a more cajun inspired steak preparation or a more italian inspired steak preparation.  We went for cajun, it was delicious (a bit well for my liking but good nonetheless) But like I said, this is not about the steak.

This is about the sweet potato!  I haven't been eating these for very long (maybe 5 years?) and when I first had them I wondered "where have you been all my life!?!?"  Two weeks ago shopping I noted PURPLE skinned sweet potatoes on sale and I had to pick up a few.  I had never cooked with them, never even noticed them in the store before that point.   I was excited, I love trying new foods, and seeing if they work.  Sure, this isn't a large stretch but hey, let's go for it.  I'll treat it similarly to sweet potatoes of the past...

This post is about the simple side dish I made: 

ROASTED SWEET POTATO WEDGES
with avocado dipping sauce for 2   YUM.  and easy.