Kale Chips

To those who have not tried Kale Chips...you are missing out. They are the greatest culinary invention since sliced bread (in my humble opinion). They are healthy and tasty and addictive! I've only ever been able to find kale chips from RAW in Toronto. Now, it was really expensive for a bag - $6 for a small one that could be devoured in one sitting by moi.

So - I decided - I'm going to make my own. So I did. I tried two different recipes:

1. Cashew cream cheese Kale Chips
2. Tahini/Soya/Cilantro Kale Chips

I made cashew cheese the other night - after being inspired by a vegan secret supper club I attended. It was really very simple and tasty. No pics as it just looks like cream cheese. Anyhow, I tossed it with some fresh green curly kale and tossed it in a 200F oven for about an hour. True raw foodies would go tsk tsk as it's supposed to be slowly dehydrated. But I had no patience. Anyway, the results - better than RAW if I may say so myself.

Kale Chips #1 in the oven

Kale Chips #1 cooled and in a container

And then, Kale Chips #2

Looks the same you say - tastes so different I say!

Finally....a post from the West Coast.

So I've not been incredibly diligent about posting since I've moved out West. My excuse is that I've been too busy getting settled and aclimatised. Living on the Pacific truly does inspire me to cook more as the food is fresher, the air is NOT smoggy and the days seem longer. Although things seem more expensive over here, I think the quality is worth it.

Anyhow, here are some pictures of my recent culinary adventures.

Last weekend, I went to the Farmers Market in the West End and got some amazing tomatoes. The only problem is - they do not last that long as they are organic. So....I chopped up the tomatoes, threw them in with some onions, cilantro and an avocado......mixed it around with a 20 spiced salt from Mexico and some lime...and voila. Lunch was served. I just love the fresh taste of summer on my quinoa bread.

Quinoa bread. Yes. I said it. I don't really think it's all that great as it's incredibly airy and crunchy which is not what you think bread should taste like.

Next.....my obsession with Kale Chips.

Volkorenbrood in Toronto

Though we took lots of great pics of food in the Netherlands, I decided it would also be about time to post pictures of food that I made, or friends made, in Toronto.

This Volkorenbrood was made with a recipe from a supposedly famous bakery in Amsterdam. No, B's dad didn't give me his recipe. I pulled it off the internet and it goes something like:

Volkorenbrood (from About.com)

4 cups whole wheat flour (500 g)

2/3 tbsp salt (10 g)
1 1/5 cups cold tap water (300 ml)

1 1/2 tbsp live yeast (20 g)

Additional 1/2 cup (100 ml) water

olive oil

Sourced: http://dutchfood.about.com/od/breadspastriescookies/r/Wholewheatbread.htm

Somehow, I think I did something wrong - well, actually, I was forced to substitute the live yeast for normal active yeast and the bread was not as fluffy as I was hoping for. B thinks it is purely due to the lack of live yeast in my bread. I say I need to move to Amsterdam instead.

This is what I did:

Couldn't find live yeast so measured out an equivalent amount of active yeast, poofed it with some sugar and water and watched it bubble.

Then, I mixed the flour and salt on a clean work surface, made a well in the middle and added water slowly in the middle of the dyke of flour (thinking all the while that I was in NL and was building a canal of sorts). The recipe says that the well should measure about 8 inches across but I didn't really care and just made a well that worked.

Poured the poofed yeast water into the well and worked it in with the flour in a circular motion, watching all the time that I didn't make a hole in the dyke and create a river. Once the ingredients were combined, I stared to knead. And boy did I knead. Knead, knead, knead. I had to add a bit more water to get it going but within 20 mins, it seemed to work and formed a nice dough ball.

Once it got there, I wrapped it in a warm, damp tea towel and allowed to rise for 45 mins at room temp. Once the dough rose 1/3 its volume, I removed the tea towel and punched the dough down with my fists. Fun. Then, I formed it back into a ball, wrapped it up again and allowed it to rise for another 45 mins.

Preheated oven to 430 degrees F.

While waiting for the rising, I greased a bread tin with EVOO, awaited anxiously for the dough to complete its rising. Then, once the time was up, I removed the dough and flattened it on the wet work surface. I formed the dough into a sausage shape so that it was roughly the same length as the bread tin and placed it into the bread tin. I cover the tin with the warm towel and allowed it to rise for the last 30 minutes until it increased by 1/3 in volume.

Reduced oven temp to 400 degrees F and placed the bread in the oven. Baked for 40 mins. Removed the bread and voila!

Not too bad if you ask me (in terms of looks) but as I said, the taste and texture could have been better. B liked it though so I guess it passed his test!

One nice meal in a dutch home....

So when we were at B's parents place in Hardenberg, his mom cooked up a storm. I was lucky enough to be allowed in the kitchen and managed to contribute to the festive cooking. The results?

Lamb's Lettuce with Beef Carpaccio, Shaved Parmesan, Light Special Dressing and a drizzle of EVOO

B's father is a baker and made these lovely buns to go with the meal. There truly is nothing like his bread. It was disappointing coming home.....

So although this does not look as good as it tastes, I thought it was still essential to post it. This is an asparagus, cheese and bacon tart. Supposedly, it's a family favourite.....although I am lactose-intolerant, my IL didn't stop me from digging into this (after popping some Lactaid pills naturally!)

So, this meat - though it looks like Chinese Five Spice Beef, it is definitely not. It's rollade - basically, beef rolled up and cooked. Not much taste, not much spice, and served cold. I found it hard to appreciate but others thought it was great.

So when B's mom cooked this, she thought it was roast beef. When it came out, we took a look at it and decided it was actually roast veal. It was still really tasty but her biggest concern was that it was overcooked. It was probably medium so perhaps to all of us rare meat eaters, it was slightly overcooked but still really tasty. The next day, B and I bought her a meat thermometer so she no longer needs to worry.

Okay, this photo needs some work. I forgot to clean the bowl before I took the pic but my excuse is that I was in a hurry. People were hungry. This is risotto cooked with red pepper, goat cheese and spinach. Very tasty.

And, we decided to end with some tasty Quebec fortified wine, courtesy of my good friend F. It was tasty and well needed to help digest the massive meal we had. Needless to say, I did not think it necessary to post pictures of the potatoes we had, though, embarrassingly enough, I did take pics of them!

A Real Post: You say kaas and I say cheese.

Finally....time for a real post. It's been a while since I started this blog....and the bad reason for not posting any pictures or thoughts was because I never had a computer at home. Finally, now that I have a computer at my disposal once again .... I'm rearing to go. Well, I could have used two other computers at home but they weren't mine and it was hard to hog them.

Also - we finally bought ourselves a DSLR - a Nikon D90. So now, I definitely have no excuse.

So what pictures shall we start with first? The pictures of our trip to the Netherlands. All the pictures I took were of food that was made at home. For now, I am still learning so my ability to capture the beauty of food is still a work in progress.

Okay, so this wasn't really made at home but this truly is the quintessential Dutch item - Gouda. (ignore the moving child's hand)

 

Gouda is one of the best Dutch exports in my mind. Somehow they have managed to take one type of cheese and bring it to all levels of godliness. They throw items like cloves or cumin into it and it becomes something completely different ... or they age it to a point where there are tiny little salt crystals that form inside the cheese and it's a mixture of heaven with a salt crust.

The one pictured above was not very old but still - slightly dry, smooth and creamy - all rolled into one. Personally, I love oude kaas (old cheese) but really, any gouda will do (except for the clove one, which I think is horrid.)

Another type of gouda that I enjoy is the Bourenkaas - Farmer's cheese quite literally translated. It is more often than not, made with raw milk, and as with most cheeses made of raw milk, tastes sharper and more interesting.

I could go on about cheese forever.... but I suppose good old wikipedia will inform the curious ones:

Gouda.....

Newcomer to the Block

So after having read a gazillion blogs about food, I decided perhaps it was time I, too, created a blog about food and my obsession with all things edible and drinkable. Given that this is new for me - I am hoping the learning curve will be flat and short. But somehow I doubt it.

Anyway, the aim of my blog - hmm - I guess I just wanted an outlet to talk about my culinary adventures, environmentally friendly projects and container gardening escapades. Also - hopefully - soon enough, I will be able to take good food pictures. But once again, another learning curve. And wait, I don't have a nice DSLR yet.

So for now, it'll just be my random thoughts...........