I had a sheet of puff pastry in the freezer and decided that this would be a good way to use it up. The original recipe included instructions for making your own pastry, but I figured that the puff pastry would make a reasonable substitute and I wanted to use it up, so I just went with that. The pastry ended up being very full, but I enjoyed that once it was cooked (even if it did make assembly a little difficult).

Tomato Galette

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2019

Ingredients

• 600-700g mixed tomatoes, sliced
• 1 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1 shallot, sliced thin
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/2 tsp. dried thyme
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper
• 1 (400g) sheet frozen puff pastry, thawed
• 4 tsp. Roman Mustard or Dijon mustard
• 3/4 c. grated Cheddar
• 2 Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1 egg, beaten
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh basil

Directions

1. Toss tomatoes with 1 tsp. salt and transfer to a colander to drain for at least half an hour.
2. Adjust oven rack to lower-middle position and preheat to 190°C (375°F).
3. Give tomatoes a shake to remove any excess juice.
4. Transfer tomatoes to large bowl and combine with shallot, oil, thyme, garlic, pepper, and 1/4 tsp. salt.
5. Unroll pastry onto baking sheet (leave the parchment paper under it.
6. Spread mustard onto pastry, leaving a 4cm (~1.5") border.
7. Sprinkle Cheddar on top, covering the mustard.
8. Place tomato mixture over cheese.
9. Sprinkle Parmesan on top of tomatoes.
10. Fold pastry border up over the edges of the tomatoes.
11. Brush exposed pastry with egg.
12. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for 45-50 minutes.
13. Cool on baking sheet for 10 minutes before sliding onto wire rack.
14. Cool on wire rack for 20 minutes.
15. Sprinkle with basil and serve.

There was a recipe for Pumpkin Snack Cake in the most recent issue of Cook's Country. I wanted to try it out using a fresh pie pumpkin rather than canned purée. This, of course, meant pumpkin seeds. The Kidlet voted for pizza flavour this time, so we gave that one a try. I think it would've been nice with a bit of tomato powder as the author suggested, but they still came out nice even without it. The Parmesan did have a tendency to clump together though. I think maybe the recipe was written for what TF and I call "Parmesan sand" and not fresh grated Parmesan. It still came out tasty despite the clumping issue though, so I don't think it was a problem in the end.

Pizza Roasted Pumpkin Seeds

Slightly adapted from Wholefully

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 (generous) Tbsp. grated Parmesan
• 1/2 tsp. lightly dried basil¹
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. tomato powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

Directions

1. Toss pumpkin seeds with olive oil.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix to coat.
3. Spread coated seeds in a single layer on a baking sheet. (Line the baking sheet with parchment paper for easier clean-up.)
4. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for 30 minutes, checking seeds about halfway through baking to see if they need to be flipped or turned.

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Variations

Vegan

Ingredients

• 1/2 c. pumpkin seeds
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 Tbsp. nutritional yeast
• 1/2 tsp. lightly dried basil¹
• 1/2 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. tomato powder (optional)
• 1/8 tsp. garlic powder

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¹ I don't generally recommend or keep fully dried basil on hand as it loses most of its flavour and pretty rapidly approaches the taste of hay instead. Dried would probably be fine here (as long as it hasn't been sitting around for too long), but I didn't want to go out and buy dried basil just for this. I had some "lightly dried" basil in the fridge, which tends to retain a lot more of the fresh basil flavour than its fully dried counterpart, and opted to use that instead. ^Back

This recipe cake out of Cook's Country. It's very easy to throw together and makes an amazingly tender, wonderfully moist cake. I made it more-or-less recipe as written this time around¹. And I'm definitely very happy with it. That said, I'm still gonna tweak it next time around!

The original recipe calls for white flour and granulated sugar. It also uses quite a bit of oil. My test with whole wheat flour today showed me that I can swap that in with no problems. I think next time I might try reducing the oil and adding a bit of applesauce. I'll also definitely be swapping the granulated sugar out for brown sugar and omitting the salt. And I think it might be worth attempting to scale back the sugar slightly too. Not too much -- the cake is quite tasty as it is -- just a little bit, to make it a little more snack-y and less dessert-y.

So, with all that in mind, here's what I'd do next time:

Pumpkin Snack Cake

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2019

Ingredients

• 1 pie pumpkin (or 1 c. canned pumpkin purée)
• 1 tsp. olive oil
• 1 c. whole wheat flour
• 1/2 Tbsp. mixed spice
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 3/4 c. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/4 c. coconut oil, melted
• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/3 c. mini semisweet chocolate chips (optional)

Directions

1. Cut the pumpkin in half and scoop out all the seeds. (Save the seeds for roasting if you wish.)
2. Brush the insides of the pumpkin with olive oil and place cut side down on a baking sheet.
3. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 45-60 minutes.
4. Remove from oven and set aside.
5. Combine flour, mixed spice, and cinnamon in a large bowl.
6. Sift in baking powder and baking soda and mix well.
7. Peel the pumpkin and place it in a separate bowl. Mash with a fork or a potato masher.
8. Add sugar, applesauce, coconut oil, eggs, and vanilla to pumpkin and whisk until well-mixed and homogeneous.
9. Pour pumpkin mixture into flour mixture and stir until just combined.
10. Stir in chocolate chips (if using).
11. Pour batter into a greased and floured 20cm (8") square pan.
12. Bake at 180°C (350°F) for 30-35 minutes.
13. Let cool in pan for 20 minutes, then turn out onto wire rack.

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¹ I swapped out the white flour for whole wheat, omitted the chocolate chips, and used mixed spice in place of pumpkin pie spice. I also used a fresh, roasted pie pumpkin rather than tinned pumpkin purée. ^Back

For a condiment with almost nothing to it, these are incredibly tasty. I guess that's the power of deep frying? They're tasty to much just on their own and even better mixed into a bowl of steaming congee.

Fried Noodles

From Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking by Eileen Yin-Fei Lo

Ingredients

• 1 (227g) package wonton wrappers, cut into 1cm (~0.5") wide strips
• peanut or corn oil, for frying

Directions

1. Heat wok or small pot over medium-high heat for 40 seconds or so.
2. Pour in oil to a depth of 2-3cm (~1").
3. When oil is hot, add a handful of noodles and stir them around.
4. Fry, stirring occasionally for 60-90 seconds.
5. Remove from oil with a spider/Chinese strainer and drain on paper towels.
6. Continue frying in batches until all noodles are cooked.

Jook/Congee

I've been in a big breakfast rut lately. The problem is that I like lots of variety but also minimum effort. I'm not a morning person and I'm way too groggy first thing in the morning to actually do much in the way of cooking. This presents something of a problem.

Lately, I've been craving congee -- or jook, depending on where you're from -- for breakfast. I like the idea of something warm and savoury and comforting that isn't eggs. (Nothing against eggs, I just don't normally feel like actually cooking them for breakfast.) I flipped through a few different recipes before settling on what I was going to do for this batch.

My first stop was Eileen Yin-Fei Lo's Mastering the Art of Chinese Cooking where I took a look at her recipe for bak jook or "white congee" and suggested accompaniments. This is a simple porridge of short-grain and glutinous white rice and water. All the seasonings and condiments are added at the table. She suggests salted (duck) eggs, fried peanuts, and fried noodles.

Next, I took a look at a short YouTube video featuring a jook with "lots of vegetables". It suggested including green onions, garlic, ginger, jalapeños, chicken, cabbage, snow peas, green beans, soy sauce, and sesame oil in your jook. They also made their version with brown, rather than white rice and topped it with cilantro.

And last, but not least, I had a gander at Budget Byte$ InstantPot jook recipe. They included garlic, ginger, chicken, shiitake mushrooms, and salt in their jook, which used jasmine rice as its base. And for toppings, they went with green onions, cilantro, chopped peanuts, soy sauce, and sesame oil.

Those three recipes gave me a pretty good base to work from to create my own custom congee tailored to my tastes. I ended up using short-grain brown rice as the base and using a mix of vegetable broth and water for the liquid component. I followed the suggestion of including some aromatics and mushrooms and added some green vegetables (based on what was on sale at the grocery store) right at the end of cooking. Condiment-wise, I went with fried onions, sesame seeds, fried noodles, light soy sauce, and Laoganma (spicy chili crisp). There would've been fried peanuts as well if I hadn't burned them. And hard-boiled eggs if I hadn't forgotten them.

InstantPot Jook

Adapted from Budget Byte$ (and a couple others)

Ingredients

• 1 c. short-grain brown rice
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2.5cm (1") knob of ginger, peeled and sliced
• 200-250g cremini mushrooms, sliced
• 6-8 pieces dried black fungus, crumbled
• 2 c. vegetable broth
• 5 c. water
• 50g pea shoots (or other vegetable of choice)
• 170-200g snow peas (or other vegetable of choice), cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2-3 scallions, sliced

Condiments¹ (Optional)

• Laoganma (spicy chili crisp)
• sesame seeds (preferably toasted)
• chopped peanuts
• light soy sauce
• fried onions
• fried noodles
• boiled eggs (hard or soft)
• salted eggs²
• fresh cilantro, chopped
• salt and pepper

Directions

1. Measure rice into InstantPot.
2. Place garlic and ginger on top, along with fresh and dried mushrooms.
3. Add vegetable broth and water.
4. Cook on high pressure for 20 minutes.
5. Leave on "keep warm" until ready to serve³.
6. About 5-10 minutes before serving, stir in the pea shoots, snow peas, and scallions.
7. Serve with whatever condiments you prefer.

This is an incredibly flexible recipe. Feel free to vary, increase, or reduce the inclusions based on what you find appealing or what's available and/or on sale.
Other inclusions that I think might go well:

• cabbage, shredded
• Brussels sprouts, quartered
• bok choy (especially Shanghai bok choy)
• gai lan
• broccolini
• carrots, grated
• sugar snap peas (mangetouts)
• tofu
• shiitake mushrooms (fresh or dried)
• dried black mushrooms⁴

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¹ I didn't end up using all of these condiments. This is just a list of suggestions and ideas. Feel free to mix-and-match as you see fit. ^Back
2 You can buy salted duck eggs but Eileen Yin-Fei Lo advises against this. She recommends making your own at home. I haven't tried this yet. I'll do a write-up if when I do. In the meantime, I'm happy with adding plain (unsalted) hard-boiled eggs to my congee. ^Back
3 You can cook your congee the night before and just leave it on "keep warm" overnight. ^Back
4 Not to be confused with "black fungus". Black mushrooms look like pretty typical mushrooms and rehydrate to a chewy texture. Black fungus, meanwhile, is a shelf fungus, if I remember correctly. Its form factor is more of a thin, crinkly sheet, black on top and white/cream on the underside. It rehyrates into slippery sheets that are normally julienned to make thin, jelly-tough, wobbly matchsticks. If I forget to rehydrate my black fungus ahead of time, I just crumble it and mix it into the liquid component of whatever I'm cooking. ^Back

This beef stew recipe from Cook's Country was a bit of disappointment, honestly. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't up to the standard we've come to expect from that publication, either; symbol and I agree that if we have a bunch of stewing beef to use up, we'd much rather use it on a beef curry, or on my family stew recipe, than on this.

On the plus side, it's a big hit with the kid, although that seems to be more for the buttered noodles we serve it with than for the stew itself. (The recipe suggests serving it over buttered egg noodles; we used a mix of white rotelle and brown macaroni).

Carbonnade

Cook's Country DEC/JAN 2019

Ingredients

• 2kg stewing beef
• salt and pepper
• 2 large onions, sliced thin
• 30mL corn oil
• 15mL packed brown sugar
• 60mL tomato paste
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 5mL dried thyme
• 45mL all-purpose flour
• 470mL Belgian-style beer or lager
• 250mL chicken or vegetable broth
• 60mL chopped fresh parsley

Directions

1. Season beef with salt and pepper and place in slow cooker.
2. Combine onions, oil, sugar, 2.5mL salt, 1mL freshly ground pepper, and 250mL water in deep skillet. Bring to a boil over medium heat and cook, covered, until water is nearly evaporated, ~10 minutes.
3. Uncover and continue to cook, stirring often, until onions are soft and dark brown, another ~10 minutes,
4. Add tomato paste, garlic, and thyme and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
5. Stir in flour and cook for another minute.
6. Add beer and broth and simmer, uncovered, until slightly thickened, ~2 minutes after simmering.
7. Add onion/beer mix to slow cooker and stir to combine with beef. Cook until beef is tender, 8-10 hours on low.
8. Stir in parsley; season with salt and pepper to taste.

(Anglo-Indian) Chickpea Curry

This recipe comes from one of the Cook's Country 30-minute recipe cards. And it is indeed a quick and easy recipe to throw together. That said, I found it somewhat lacking in flavour. I think it really needs more chiles and maybe a little garam masala and some lime juice stirred in at the end. I've reflected these changes in the recipe below.

Chickpea Curry

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2019

Ingredients

• 2 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 onion, chopped¹
• 1 (300g) package frozen spinach
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1-2 fresh Thai chiles, minced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tbsp. ginger paste
• 1 Tbsp. Madras Curry Powder
• 1 tsp. Bin Bhuna Hua Garam Masala (optional)
• 4 c. cooked chickpeas
• 1 (400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 1 (400mL) can lite coconut milk
• 2 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• juice of 1 lime

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium heat.
2. Add onion, spinach, salt, and pepper and cook for ~7 minutes.
3. Add chile(s), garlic, ginger, curry powder, and garam masala (if using) and cook for another minute or so.
4. Add chickpeas, tomatoes, and coconut milk and bring to a boil.
5. Cover, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer for ~20 minutes.
6. Sprinkle with fresh cilantro and lime juice.
7. Serve over rice with Indian mixed pickles.

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¹ The original recipe called for two green bell peppers here. We didn't have any bell peppers on hand, so I opted to toss in an onion and some frozen spinach instead. ^Back