Week 9: The Rebar cookbook

Several years ago, our good friend Alison bought Jamie the rebar cookbook (http://www.amazon.ca/Rebar-Modern-Cookbook-Audrey-Alsterburg/dp/0968862306). Since then we have made numerous recipes and it has yet to disappoint us. I am pretty sure this is the first many entries that will come from this book. For those who do not know rebar is a great little vegetarian restaurant in Victoria that is always busy and always worth the wait. 

This week I made "Three sisters burritos" with a slight alteration. The recipe called for a chipotle puree which neither of us like so instead I made a tomatillo salsa. Which was super easy and very yummy. Here is the recipe 

1 1/2 lbs tomatillos
1/2 cup white onion, chopped

1/2 cup cilantro leaves

1 Tbsp lime juice (I used 1/2 a lime because I had it)

1/4 tsp sugar

2 jalapenos

Salt to taste

To prepare the tomatillos the recipe says to boil or roast them. Boiling seemed lame so I cut them in half roasted them under the broiler for 5 or so minutes. Until the skins started to blacken.  After that you throw everything into a blender and that is it. I can not believe I buy salsa it is too easy to make.

Tomatillo salsa. This jar was for Lisa read below for her thoughts.

The first thing you realize when looking through the rebar cookbook is that everything looks yummy but has a million ingredients and 15 different sauces. I guess that is why it tastes so good. These burritos called for a red sauce and they recommended their "Mesa Red Sauce" which seemed good to me. Here are the ingredients

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 yellow onion (i used the rest of the white one from the salsa)

6  cloves of garlic

4 Tbsp masa harina (you could use any flour here but it does give it a nice flavour)

4 Tbsp ancho chile powder

1/2 tsp cumin

1/4 tsp cayenne powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 cracked pepper

1 Tbsp oregano

4 cups veggie stock

2 Tbsp tomato paste

1 tsp brown sugar
 

Fry the onion until translucent. Add garlic and fry for 3 mins. Sprinkle in masa harina and stir constantly until it turns golden.

Add spices and stir for another 2 mins. Slowly whisk in veggie stock and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer and whisk in tomato paste and sugar. 

Simmer partially covered for 30 mins or so stirring regularly. 

The ingredients for the burritos them selves are

3 lb butternut squash

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 1/2 ancho chile powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 Tbsp maple syrup

juice of 1/2 a lime

1 1/2 cups of corn (or a can)

1 14 oz can of pinto beans (I used dried pinto beans and took a cup after boiling them)

1/2 bunch of cilantro chopped

Shredded aged white cheddar

Whole wheat tortillias

mesa red sauce

2 tsp chipotle puree (If you like that sort of thing) 

Now for the prep. Chop up the squash into small cubes. They say 3/4" but I cut them smaller into more bite size burrito size. Toss squash in a bowl with oil, ancho powder, salt, lime juice and maple syrup. Spread out into a glass baking dish and roast at 375'F until tender. This was an amazing way to prepare the squash. The chile powder combined with the sweet syrup and tangy lime juice was the real deal. I could have stopped here and just eaten the squash.

Now the recipe calls for you to toss in the corn and roast with the squash. After the squash has been in the oven for 20 mins mix in the corn and roast for 10 mins or so. This was too much especially since I was using canned corn. So once the squash was done I mixed in the corn, beans and cilantro and that was it. If you are using the chipotle puree mix it in now. 

I added this mixture to the tortillas and wrapped them up. I added them to a baking dish and poured the mesa red sauce over them and baked them at 350'F for 15 minutes. Once they were done I dropped them on a plate and added some tomatillo salsa.

Mark's thought: As usual rebar did not disappoint but also as usual this is not a 30 minute meal. I would have it again but would prepare most things before hand.

Jamie's thoughts: These got yummier as she ate more. The first bite did not have the flavour punch she was expecting but she did like them. The tomatillo salsa rocked!

Cooking the pinto beans

Mesa red sauce and the roasted squash

Burrito about the be wrapped

Lisa and the tomatillo salsa...

So our friend Lisa is from Cali and since I was making salsa I had to give her a jar. Jamie dropped this off one morning and be the end of the day the salsa was gone. Apparently she liked it quite a bit. She sent me a picture of her breakfast that morning. When you have salsa for breakfast you must be from south of the border;-) 

Lisa's breakfast scramble with the tomatillo salsa

Ongoing projects...

This mid-week post is to keep track of a few longer "cooking" projects I want to work on. I want to take a crack at the following items

1. sourdough starter
2. ginger ale

Since both of these require more time, well the ginger ale only takes a few days but I need to get a 2 litre plastic bottle which, when you do not drink pop, is harder then it seems. I actually had this grand plan to make home made root beer but after looking for recipes on the net for a while that did not include root beer extract I realized that the ingredients are a little hard to come by here in Vancouver. So ginger ale it is although I do plan on mixing it up a little by adding some raspberry puree.


Back to the point, since these are longer projects I thought I would mention them now and then update the blog periodically as things progress. So stay tuned for updates on making ginger ale and sour dough starter while fumbling through raising a 7 month who eats like a horse.

Week 8: Spicy black bean soup

After the lame post last week I wanted to make sure to have something new this week. The problem is we were out of town for a few days and Jamie is getting ready to go back to work and I am gearing up to "take over management" of our 7 month old turkey, Luca. So I was not sure if I could fit things in but then Epicurious came through for me. I was looking for a quick yummy lunch to make for the L-Train and found this Spicy Black Bean Soup (http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Spicy-Black-Bean-Soup-350900).


This is a super simple recipe that took no time at all and was very yummy. The cool thing about this recipe is that with the exception of the jalapenos you would usually have all of the ingredients kicking around the house. If you are like us and have a jar of pickled jalapenos in the fridge then you are good to go anytime. 


The ingredients are 

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 medium white onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 fresh jalapeño (2 inches), seeded and minced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder
• 1 1/4 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1/4 teaspoon dried oregano
• 2 (19-ounces) cans black beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 cups water (I used veggie broth)
• 1 Turkish or 1/2 California bay leaf

Now comes the easy part. Heat the oil over medium-high heat until it shimmers then drop in the onions, garlic, jalapenos, chili powder, cumin and oregano. They call for 1/2 tsp of salt but I would not add this next time, I will why explain later. Heat this for 6-8 mins or until the onions begin to brown. Now I cooked mine a little too hot so I added a couple of tablespoons of broth to make sure things did not burn. Then add the beans, water (or broth), bay leaf cover and let simmer for 15 mins or so. The recipe then says take 2 cups of the soup and puree then add it back to the soup. This seemed stupid and time consuming for me so I just blended the whole thing and it was fine. I served the soup with some grated cheddar and some yummy roasted garlic and cheese bread from A Bread Affair (http://www.abreadaffair.com).


Mark's thoughts: The great thing about this soup is that it took longer to chop the couple of items then to actually make it, not including the simmering time. It yummy and I would have it again in a flash. My one complaint was that it was a little salty but that was my fault using the broth. I would use the broth again but I would not add the salt to the onion mixture.


Jamie's thoughts: Makes me like soup! Nice consistency, nice flavour. Two thumbs up.

Lisa's thoughts: Would like to have it again and wants the recipe even though she never cooks;-) Seemed easy to make and was tasty so a great combo.

Steaming spicy black bean soup topped with a little grated cheddar.

Week 7: Michigan!

So the blog entry this week is a little disappointing because there is nothing to enter. I had this grand plan that if I was away from home for a week that I would challenge myself to try something new off a menu or a new restaurant. I found this very difficult last week when I was in Holland and Auburn Hills, Michigan. Now I am sure there are new places to eat in these areas but when you are with a group of people and they suggest Applebee's as a place to go for dinner you know you are in trouble. So as lame as it is there is nothing new this week. I will add another new recipe in the weeks to come to make up for it. 52 eats in 51 weeks;-)

Week 6: Southwestern-Style shrimp taco salad

This weeks meal was a pleasant addition to our culinary repertoire. When I told Jamie about my plan for 2011 she was, not surprisingly, thrilled. Partially because she was tired of me making fajitas every week. Anyway, for Christmas she got me a few things to help me accomplish this, I have already mentioned the ice cream maker but she also slipped a magazine in my stocking with fast healthy meals. On the front cover was this recipe and I knew it had to be the first one we tried and it did not disappoint. I will first give you the recipe and then talk about it.

Dressing
1/4 cup lime juice
2 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tsp cumin
2 Tsp minced garlic (who adds garlic by the Tsp? I used one large clove)
2 Tsp maple syrup (to me this was the clincher this or the lime juice)
2 Tsp chipotle sauce (neither of us are fans of chipotle so just used Frank's hot)

Add all of these to a bowl and whisk. Easy, parcheesi.


Salad
3/4 pound of prawns (they say medium shrimp but these are really just prawns)
2 ears of shucked corn (if you have it great but I used a good old can of niblets)
1/2 cup chopped green onions
1/4 cup chopped cilantro
1 15oz can black beans
3 plum tomatoes, chopped
4 cups romaine lettuce (or whatever you have we used spring mix)
2 oz blue corn chips (again whatever you have around and as many as you want too)
1/3 cup sour cream
1/4 cup diced avocado

Now the recipe goes on for several paragraphs about cooking the prawns. I will forgo this for a couple of reasons
1) I am lazy
2) we used frozen cooked prawns
3) I think you should cook the prawns your favorite way then drop them in the salad

The Coles notes version
Grill the prawns on skewers using a bit of the lime dressing and some love!


Our version
I had little choice here because the grocery store had a crap fresh fish section. So I went to the frozen section and grabbed some yummy looking pre-cooked prawns. When I got home I defrosted them in some warm running water and then threw them in a pan with some garlic and butter. Done!


Add corn, prawns, green onions, cilantro, black beans, tomatoes to a bowl. Drizzle with the dressing and gently toss. 


Throw this on a bed of lettuce and corn ships and you are ready to go. 


The recipe goes on to tell you to make a poor-mans Guacamole by mixing the avocado and sour cream but neither of us like sour cream so we didn't.


Mark's thoughts: An excellent, quick and healthy meal that has limitless possibilities for adaptation. I could imagine it with with pork, chicken or even just veggies. The dressing alone could be used on any type of salad you want. This will be especially awesome in the summer with a cold beer and some fresh off-the-boat BC spot prawns;-)


Jamie's thoughts: Super yum wants is again right now. Jamie added some wonderful tomatillo salsa that the L-Train got me for Christmas and said it added just a little bit more.

Just looking at this picture makes me hungry.

Week 5: Guest blogger

This week we have a very special guest blogging for 52&52. We are privilaged to have the world renowned author of Urban Biodiversity, Jamie, doing the writing;-) Actually I was to lazy to cook but I did pick one of the new recipe so it still counts.

Go for it Jamie.

Oh, thank you for that lovely introduction.  I will try to ignore the hint of sarcasm.  This week we had on the menu, spicy garlic green beans and Orange sweet potato and noodle salad.

Spicy Garlic Green Beans (from Van. Sun)
1/2 tsp of sambal oelek
1 tbsp of soy sauce
1/2 tsp of sugar
2 tbsp of veg oil
1 pound of green beans (trimmed)
1 tbsp of fresh ginger
4 green onions
1 tsp sesame oil

Combine the sambal, soy sauce and suga.  In wok heat 1 tbsp of veg oil and cook beans until they start to shrivel and turn brown in spots (about 5 min).  Remove.  Wipe out wok and add remaining oil, ginger and green onion.  Stiry fry until they sizzle.  Add beans and sambal mixture.  Cook until beans are heated thoroughly and soy sauce has evaporated.  Remove from heat add sesame oil and salt (if necessary).

Orange Sweet Potato and Noodle Salad (this is from a cook book called Asian Noodles, it is from Australia so measurements are non-standard)

Okay, well we had squash we wanted to use, so substituted that for the sweet potato. 

1.25 kg of sweet potato (or squash) cut into 2 cm cubes
2 tbsp of veg oil
200 gram of roasted cashews
1 cup of finely chopped cilantro
100 gram packet of fried noodles 

Dressing
3/4 tsp of red curry paste
90 ml of coconut milk
2 tbsp of lime juice
1 1/2 tsp of brown sugar
2 tbsp veg oil
4 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp fresh ginger


Mix sweet potato (squash) with oil, salt and pepper and roast in oven until tender.  Approx. 30 min.
Make dressing by combining ingredients and blending.
Heat oil in small frying pan, cook garlic and ginger 1-2 min - add to dressing.
Place sweet potato (squash), cashews, and cilantro (I used only about 1/2 cup) in bowl with noodles, add dressing, toss and serve.


Sorry there are no photos this week.  Mark was convinced he was going to make something better than this....but he didn't get around to it.


Jamie's thoughts.  Green beans were super yummy, like chinese green beans that I enjoy when eating out.  Squash salad was okay.  Dressing was super good.  We also didn't have the right type of noodles (need the orange fried noodles) so we substituted with Mr. Noodle which weren't quite as good.  But overall quite yummy.  I would try it again.


Mark's thoughts:  Very tasty.  Beans..just like Tony's  (shout out to FL).  Salad was also tasty but overall it felt like a meal of starters...needed a main.