Sweet Couscous

This seems like it could be a fun recipe to play with. Lots of different options for the fresh and dried fruit. I might try it without the orange peel next time; I found it to be a little bitter and overwhelming. It was very tasty otherwise though. Nice with a little honey and cinnamon.

Sweet Couscous
Slightly adapted from allrecipes
225g couscous
125g dried fruit (I used raisins and cranberries)
zest of 1 orange, grated
750mL milk
peach yogurt
honey
fresh fruit (optional)

1. Combine couscous, dried fruit, and orange zest.
2. Heat milk until it just boils. Immediately remove from heat and pour over couscous.
3. Stir couscous and let stand 10 minutes.
4. Fluff with fork and serve with yogurt, honey, and fresh fruit.

I'd like to try this with figs and... some other complementary fruit at some point.

Lentil and Sausage Stew

I was quite pleasantly surprised and impressed with how tasty and flavourful this stew was given the simplicity of the recipe. A+: would make again!

Lentil and Sausage Stew
Slightly adapted from realsimple
2 Tbsp. olive oil
2-3 ribs celery, chopped
2-3 medium carrots, chopped
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, smashed
1 bay leaf
15 grinds black pepper
~1/4 tsp. Italian seasoning
dash cayenne
200-300g sausage, chopped (original recipe calls for kielbasa; I used saucisson sec)
2 c. French (green) lentils
5 c. stock (I used 1 c. beef stock + 4 c. chicken stock)
5 c. water
1/4 c. fresh parsley
Cheddar cheese

1. Cook celery, carrots, onion, and garlic in oil over medium heat until softened.
2. Add bay leaf, pepper, Italian seasoning, and cayenne and cook another 2 minutes.
3. Add sausage, lentils, stock, and water.
4. Bring to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. Reduce heat and simmer for 25 minutes.
5. Top with parsley and grated Cheddar. Serve with red cabbage and crusty bread.

Barbecue Baked Eggs

I've been eating a lot of eggs for breakfast lately. And while fried and scrambled eggs (and variants like omelettes) are delicious, I've started getting bored of them. Yesterday I tried poached eggs on portabello mushroom caps with ham and Branston pickle. That was pretty tasty, although my poached eggs were really messy. And today I decided to experiment with something different again: baked eggs. I'm familiar with the concept of baked eggs, but I'd never actually made or eaten them before. I found a "BBQ" baked egg recipe that sounded nice though, so I figured I'd give that a try. I had a bit of a false start that resulted in undercooked eggs the first time, but after a few more minutes in the oven, I got a really spectacular breakfast out of it!

Barbecue Baked Eggs
Slightly Adapted from Allrecipes
4 eggs
1/4 c. double cream
4 tsp. barbecue sauce
dash cayenne
1/4 c. blue cheese (such as Saint Agur)
1 Tbsp. fresh parsley
4 rashers bacon
dash freshly ground black pepper

1. Cook bacon and chop into small pieces.
2. Grease two large ramekins.
3. Break two eggs into each ramekin.
4. Add 2 Tbsp. cream, 2 tsp. barbecue sauce, and a dash or cayenne to each ramekin.
5. Combine bacon with cheese and parsley. Crumble and mix well.
6. Top each ramekin with half of the bacon mixture.
7. Add a dash of black pepper to each ramekin.
8. Bake at 200C (~400F) for 15-20 minutes or until desired doneness.
9. Serve with baked beans and buttered toast.

Summer Fruit Smoothie (for Wintertime)

I was on an oatmeal kick for a while, and that was great. Now I'm giving smoothies a go. I did a few piña colada smoothies initially since they'd worked out well in the past. Still delicious, but I'm all out of pineapple and wanted to try something new this morning anyway. After rummaging around in the freezer, I came up with a selection of frozen fruits that I figured would make for a good smoothie. I think I still need to make some tweaks to the recipe, but I'm happy enough with it for now.

Summer Fruit Smoothie
Slightly adapted from The 5-a-day Menu Planner
~1/3 c. frozen mixed berries
~1/3 c. frozen pitted cherries
~1/4 c. frozen blueberries
~1/4 c. vanilla yogurt
~1/2 c. skim milk

1. Blend until smooth. Enjoy!

While the flavour on this particular smoothie wasn't bad, I found it a little flat. I think I'd mix it up a bit next time to try to make it a bit more lively. I'm wondering if adding a few frozen cranberries might be the way to go. They're quite tart, but that might actually be what this blend needs to kick it up a notch. If the tartness needs to be offset a bit, I might try adding either a little bit of honey or maybe even some strawberry jam!

Hopefully I can try this one out again tomorrow (with a few modifications) and report back. I think there's definitely potential here, it just needs a little adjustment to get the balance of flavours just right.

Tortellini with a buttery anchovy-garlic sauce

We were planning to make the Pancit Bihon tonight, but ran out of time. So instead we improvised something with a package of store-made tortellini. It's very loosely inspired by Spaghetti alla Puttanesca Bianca from the Classic Pasta Cookbook.

Ingredients

• 1.5 lbs tortellini or similar stuffed pasta (we used tortellini stuffed with italian sausage)
• 3 tbsp unsalted butter
• 9 anchovies
• 2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• fresh parmesan

Procedure

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil.
2. Meanwhile, melt the butter in a small skillet over medium low heat.
3. Add the anchovies and cook until they start to break down.
4. Add the garlic. This is a good time to put the pasta in the water.
5. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, transfer to a bowl, then pour the sauce over it and toss well.
6. Grate a bunch of parmesan over the pasta and toss again.

Note: an earlier version of this post called for ⅓C butter. That's way too much. The post has been revised.

Fruited Salmon with Mushrooms and Mustard Sauce

Another 150 Tagines recipe. It comes together quite easily, and quickly for a tagine. We served it over noodles, but it would probably go well with couscous as well -- in which case you may want to start cooking the couscous first, as it will take longer than the tagine if done properly.

We did find it rather excessively tart. symbol suggests replacing the lemon next time; either a sweeter lemon hybrid, or a non-lemon citrus such as blood orange.

The recipe calls for a frozen or preserved lemon, and we had neither; instead we peeled a standard lemon and added the wedges to the tagine, then squeezed the flesh out and removed the skin of the wedges as it was cooking.

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion
• 4 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 tbsp butter
• 1 lb cremini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 pear, chopped
• ½ frozen or preserved lemon, finely chopped, with juice
• 1 tbsp grainy dijon mustard
• 1-1½ lb salmon filet, skin on one side

Procedure

1. Heat the oil in the tagine.
2. Add onion and sautee for five minutes.
3. Add garlic, butter, and mushrooms. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms soften and release their juices, 5-7 minutes.
4. Add pear, lemon, and mustard, and cook, stirring constantly, for 1 minute.
5. Place salmon on top of vegetables, skin side up (you may need to cut it into pieces to fit it all in the tagine). Cover tagine and cook until fish is opaque and flakes easily when attacked with a fork, 15-20 minutes.

Pomegranate Molasses

This simple recipe comes from Pat Crocker's 150 Best Tagine Recipes. It's not of much interest in and of itself, but it's a necessary component in an upcoming recipe.

Supposedly you can find it in middle-eastern grocery stores, but we haven't had much luck, and fortunately the book includes a recipe.

Ingredients (to make 2 cups of molasses):

• 4 cups pomegranate juice
• ½ cup "cane sugar" (this is very ambiguous; we went with turbinado sugar and it worked out fine)
• ¼ cup lemon juice

Procedure:

1. Combine all ingredients in a small pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat.
2. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer for ~1h, until it has reduced by a bit more than half.
3. Pour into a jam jar and seal while still hot.