I Didn't Mean to...

Do you know my band mate Michael? I tease him all the time for being a vegan. Yesterday when we were having coffee arguing about band names he decided to order breakfast and as I watched him eat his toast and beans I got a massive meat chili and corn bread craving. I started listing the ingredients in my head: Beef, beans, peppers, onion, garlic, tomatoes, carrot, chilies, spices... I had everything at home. I thought I'll go home, put in a load of laundry, run out and pick up some meat, and make chilli. Long story short, I did a massive grocery shop, and forgot to buy meat. So what started out as a reactionary meat craving ended up being totally vegan in spite of my intentions... It was still delicious. The corn bread is a must. It's dead easy and seals the whole chilli deal like no other bread.


Accidentally Vegetarian (vegan in fact) Chili

2 Medium Sweet Potatoes
1 Large Spanish Onion
1 Red Bell Pepper (use 2 if they're small)
2 Small Carrots
1 Red/green chili deseeded and finely chopped
2 Cloves Garlic
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
2 Cans Beans (I used black beans and kidney beans because that's what I had in my pantry)
Dry:
ground chipotle peppers
dry ground chili (ancho if you can get some)
paprika
cumin
cinnamon
ground coffee

Peal and dice the sweet potatoes, toss them in olive oil, salt, cumin, cinnamon, and paprika. Roast on a tray in a 375degree oven until soft and golden.

In the mean time, put a large pan on a medium-high heat and add a couple of lugs of olive oil. Add the onion, peppers, carrot, and garlic and cook for 5 minutes shaking things around every minute or so. Season with dry spices to taste, add the fresh chili and cook for another 10 or so minutes until everything is tender and well seasoned

Drain and rinse the beans, then tip them into the pan with the tinned tomatoes and juice. Stir well and bring to a boil, then reduce to a medium-low heat and leave to thicken for 25 to 30 minutes and add a splash of water if it's getting too thick.

Stir the sweet potatoes in and serve with sour cream and a few pieces of corn bread. I like to butter and grill my cornbread because I have a stove top griddle that's perfect for it. You could serve yours however you like it.

Light Corn Bread (not the buttery southern type, but a more bready kind that I like for grilling and with chili)

1C Flour
1C Cornmeal
4tbsp Sugar
1tbsp Baking Soda
1tsp Salt
2 Eggs
1C Plain Yogurt/low fat sour cream
1tbsp Olive Oil
One Chopped Deseeded Chilli (optional)

Preheat oven to 200/400 and grease a cast iron pan.
Mix all dry ingredients. Beat egg with yogurt and olive oil. Add to dry ingredients and mix until homogenous. Add chillies if using. Pour into pan and bake25-30 minutes or until a toothpick comes inserted in the centre comes out clean.

Mea [maxima] Culpa

Do you ever do this? Do you ever wake up on the second day of a cold and feel a little better and pretend like nothing ever happened? I do it all the time. As soon as I'm a little better not only do I resume with all things active, but I'm even prone to pushing myself to make up for lost time. Last night I made an impromptu decision to go to my office and catch up on some work. My office, which in spite of the heat wave outside, is set to some unnecessarily arctic temperature that I can't control. So I sat there until 2am and edited poems and thought I was catching up. Well, let me tell you, when I woke up with a fever this morning that sense of achievement was not there... So I have managed to make myself sicker than I was to start with. Good job, right? I know.


I'm gonna call this recipe the Campbell Tomato Soup, not because it has anything to do with the soup manufacturer, but because I'm hopelessly addicted to punning, and the recipe was given me yesterday by my friend Lee Dylan Campbell. Since my soup-making style is usually inspired by the contents of my fridge and random, I decided to really stick to the recipe this time, for kicks. So here it goes...


The Lee Dylan] Campbell Tomato Soup
(recipe copied and pasted from facebook inbox message because I'm sick and I'm allowed to take shortcuts like that)

Chop and Sauté several fresh ripe tomatoes, a bunch of green onions, a yellow pepper, some tender celery and garlic. Black pepper, cumin. Add a generous handful of cilantro and the juice of one lime. When everything is pretty well cooked, add a big can of Heinz tomato juice (reduced salt kind) and either heat or chill – this works both ways. Add more cilantro if that’s your style, salt to taste, and a spoonful or two of maple syrup to balance the tanginess. A little hot sauce wouldn’t hurt either. Serve over a few corn chips.


Mina's sick note: thank you Lee for the soup recipe, Sarah, for offering to take me to the ER if my fever persists, Dale, for making me laugh, and Yalda, for reading me my horoscope. Now I'm going to eat some more soup and watch Christmas movies.

Depleted

I’m sick. I’m sick, and two very strange things happened to me today. After having consumed only soup for something ridiculous like 4 consecutive meals, I thought, I’ll bake a savoury tart. Wait. Those weren’t the strange things. I thought I’d bake a tart because I had some lovely eggs, and some mean blue cheese. So forward I marched, to start on some pastry, chill it, then begin thinking up ideas for filling, and what did I find? You might want to sit down for this. I was out of all-purpose flour! And butter! I know! Impossible right? Today was the end of the world. I am writing to you now from the afterlife. I know what you’re thinking. You’re thinking clearly I went to hell if it’s 40 degrees out and I had to make a crust out of twelve-grain flour and olive oil… but it wasn’t bad at all! I swear. I know I’m sick and my taste buds (or judgement) can’t be trusted but I’m telling you it was kinda… good. Do you think it’s the 40degree heat and flu medication? Who knows...

Emergency Tarte Aux Oignons

Crust
1C 9-grain flour
Just under 1/4c good Olive oil
¼ C ice water
½ tsp salt
1tsp dry rosemary

Filling
1 Large Spanish/Red Onion
2 Large Portobello Mushrooms
3 good eggs
½ C Milk (if you use skim we can’t be friends)
½ C Yogurt
1C Ricotta
¼ C Crumbled Blue Cheese (or more if you like more)
Salt and Pepper to Taste

In a mixing bowl mix together the crust ingredients to make a pliable dough. Wrap in plastic and chill for 10 minutes.

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Cut Mushrooms in strips and Sauté with olive oil, salt and pepper. Caramelize the onion to your liking. Drain any liquid from the sautéed mushrooms and mix with the onion. Set aside.

With an electric beater (or whisk) beat the eggs until they increase a little in volume. Add milk, yogurt, and ricotta beating on medium speed. Taste and season. Remember no one likes an under-seasoned savory tart.

Take out the dough and roll it out to fit your baking vessel. If it’s cracking leave it out to warm up a bit. That should help. There’s no butter in there anyway so no point in keeping it so cold. Once your baking tin is lined with your dough, arrange the onion/mushroom mixture in there evenly, then scatter some crumbled blue cheese all over. Finally, pour the egg mixture over everything and give yourself a round of applause.

Pop your tart in the oven and bake 45-55minutes. When the tart is ready, it shouldn’t jiggle in the middle. You’ll know. How is it? Am I losing my mind or is the cracker-like crust kinda cool?

Salted Watermelon, Monday, Magic.

I can explain. Remember how I put salt on the Pear tarts that my bog title alludes to? Remember how it was delicious? This watermelon is no different. It' s sweet, it's lovely, and it wants salt. My friend Dale put this idea in my head. Dale knows his food so we're gonna trust him on this one. Another thing about Dale, is that he is not fond of circular things. In an ideal world, Dale would use square or rectangular plates only. So naturally, if you give Dale a round thing such as a watermelon, he will cut it into... you guessed it: cubes. Well, here is the lovely thing about cubing a watermelon: you get to eat all the scraps! My grilled cheese sandwich at lunch went pretty darn well with these salty cubes of crunch. Try it!


I won't try to write out a recipe for my Grilled Cheese and Salted Watermelon (with greens), because I'm sure you can guess how I made it. What I will do though, is share some tips: if you don't have a sandwich press, cast iron is great for grilling bread. Put some pressure on your sandwich, though. My brilliant system today involved a plate and a full kettle. You could use a plate and a nineteenth century novel. Whatever works...


P.S. I tried to be really discreet about my use of Challah in making the grilled cheese of this post. I though you're so sick of this loaf of bread by now. But then I got a comment on the last post from Amuse- bouche that sent me back to the kitchen. I came back with this tiny grilled chocolate sandwich to have with my espresso. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the sweet sweet conclusion to my lovely loaf of Challah.

The Continuing Tale of the Challah

What does one 115lb girl do with two huge loaves of Challah? Deliver one loaf on bike to best friend. Then come home and proceed with the other loaf. Two slices at a time. Day one: Rice Crispy and Orange zest French Toast. Day Two: poached eggs and grilled tomatoes. I love brunch. You should come over and join me sometime!

Rice Crispy & Orange zest French Toast
2 thick slices of Challah (day old at least)
2 eggs beaten with a few tbsp milk
orange zest
1 tsp confectioner's sugar
handful rice crispies
butter

Whisk the eggs, milk, zest, and sugar in a shallow dish. Soak the slices of bread on all sides until all liquid is absorbed, then roll in the puffed rice, pressing down to secure them in the bread. Fry in a few tablespoons of butter in your favorite pan.

Optional: you can peal and segment your orange and cook it down with a few tbsp honey and more orange zest as a topping. heck you could even put some Grand Marnier in the mix.

Poached Eggs and Grilled Summer Tomatoes

2 eggs
1 tomato (sliced thick)
salt pepper olive oil
2 slices Challah (try not to burn yours like mine)

I used a stove-top griddle to get the best out of my tomatoes. You can use whatever you prefer. Cast iron works best I find. Poaching eggs isn't that hard either. Just get the water to a rolling boil and the bubbles will keep the eggs afloat. One good tip though, is to break each egg in a small vessel first so you can drop them in the water with ease.

I still have Challah left. In case you were wondering...

What Are You Gonna Put on that Bread?

This story starts a few days back. It was Thursday I think and everyone just seemed to do and say the wrong things. It's hard to explain. Small talk and unhealthy curiosity can really rub me the wrong way so I came home and thought, I'm gonna have a coffee, sit on the couch and do nothing for a while and then bake bread. I proceeded in that order and by the time the dough had risen twice I was starting to feel a little better about things. That yeasty smell in the kitchen was doing good things for me. By the time the Bread was baking and I was having my second coffee and scribbling in my book, I heard the ding ding of a message from a friend who asked the first good question of the day: "What are you gonna put on that bread?" By the time I'd waited for the loaf to cool and sliced into it and contemplated its fate, it seemed so obvious. Butter. So I let him know that was the decision and of course, he agreed it was a sound one. Things were feeling better already...


Recipe: Challah Loaf (makes two loaves)

1 1/4C warm water
2 tsp dry active yeast
4C (roughly) All Purpose/Bread Flour
1/3 C sugar
1/4 C Vegetable Oil
4 eggs
1tsp salt
Sesame or poppy seeds for the top

Whisk the water, yeast, one tsp sugar and 1/4c flour to get things bubbling. Set this aside for at least 10 minutes, but no more than 20.

Whisk in the sugar, oil, 3eggs (NOT 4) and salt. Add the rest of the flour one cup at a time mixing with a sturdy wooden spoon until the dough is coming together into one ball and not sticking too much. Transfer to a floured surface and knead for 5-10 minutes adding flour if needed, until the dough is round, smooth, elastic, and "cohesive".

Put the ball in a greased bowl. Cover and let rise in a reasonably warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk. About an hour. Maybe more.

Punch down and divide into 6 equal parts to make two braided loaves on a baking sheet that's either well-greased or parchment lined. Cover and let rise again until doubled and good looking. Preheat the oven to 325. Beat the last egg with a touch of milk or water and give the tops of the loaves a good egg wash, followed by seeds if you're into that. Bake 30-40 minutes or until the loaves sound hollow when you tap them on the bottom. If the tops are browning too fast cover with foil and return to the oven.

Wait till they're cool if you can. It's hard but it's worth it... There's something else I did with my Challah that will have to be the topic for the next post.

One of Those Days

Sometimes you have time to do certain things and it's amazing. I put a piece of prosciutto on my last chunk of bread early last night and thought, hey, I should make a dough that will rise overnight and in 14 hours I'll have a loaf of bread. I could do this, of course, because I'm taking the day off today to pack and run errands. So I did. Now I'm distracting myself writing this post to avoid sticking a serrated edge into my not-yet-cooled loaf of goodness. It smells really nice in here. This is not a new recipe. You've probably made it a hundred times like me. It's that no knead loaf that was all the hype a few years ago. I like it. It's a good honest piece of bread. I still like to knead and make other loaves with different flours because this one doesn't allow much variation, but it's got a good spongy crumb and it's pretty foolproof... but don't even dream of making it in humid weather. It will not work. Trust me.

Ingredients

3c flour (it's gotta be white guys, sorry)
1/4 tsp INSTANT yeast
1 1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2c warm water
cornmeal or bran for coating

I'm not gonna type up a recipe because you can watch Jim Lahey do it, himself. Here is how!