I totally missed the part of the instructions that mentioned that this recipe absolutely requires fresh corn and that frozen corn must not be substituted for this crucial ingredient because, being par-cooked, it wouldn't release the essential starches. Unfortunately, I was in a bit of a hurry and I didn't read that bit until after I'd already made the soup. My soup may not have been as thick as would have been ideal, but it was still very good! Definitely use fresh corn if you can get it but, as it turns out, frozen will do in a pinch, although the texture won't be as thick and the flavour won't be as rich.

Roasted Corn and Poblano Chowder

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country June/July 2016

Ingredients

• 2 poblano chilies
• 1/2 Tbsp. oil, divided
• 6 ears of corn, kernels cut from cobs (~5 c.)
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 1/4 tsp. black pepper, ground, divided
• 1 Tbsp. bacon grease (or fat of your choice)
• 1/2 package smoked tofu¹ (~90g), sliced thin and cut into bite-sized pieces
• 2 onions, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 7 c. chicken or vegetable stock
• 450g potatoes, cubed
• 1/4 c. half-and-half²
• 2 (15cm/6") corn tortillas
• 1 Tbsp. chopped fresh cilantro
• 1 Tbsp. lime juice
• sour cream, to serve
• queso fresco³
• fried corn tortilla pieces or crumbled tostadas or corn chips, to serve
• lime wedge, to serve

Directions

1. Halve the peppers and remove the stems and seeds.
2. Line a baking sheet with tin foil and adjust oven rack to be ~15cm (6") from the broiler.
3. Toss the peppers with 1/2 tsp. of the oil and place them at one end of the baking sheet.
4. Toss the corn with the remaining 1 tsp. of oil, 1/4 tsp. of salt, and 1/2 tsp. of the pepper and place it at the other end of the baking sheet.
5. Broil for ~15 minutes, flipping the peppers and stirring the corn halfway through.
6. Place the peppers in a plastic bag and set aside for ~10 minutes.
7. Meanwhile, heat the bacon grease over medium heat.
8. Add the tofu (if using) and cook until slightly crispy.
9. Add the onions and cook for another 5-6 minutes.
10. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or so.
11. Add the broth, potatoes, and roasted corn and bring to a boil.
12. Cook at a vigorous simmer for ~20 minutes.
13. Meanwhile, take the roasted peppers out of the plastic bag and peel off and discard the skins. Chop the flesh and set aside.
14. Once the potatoes are cooked, remove the soup from heat and stir in half-and-half.
15. Transfer ~500mL of soup to a blender.
16. Add the tortillas to the blender with the soup and purée until smooth.
17. Pour puréed soup back into pot and add the chopped peppers.
18. Bring to a simmer and cook for another minute or two.
19. Remove from heat and stir in cilantro, lime juice, and the remaining 3/4 tsp. pepper. If you use homemade or low-sodium stock, you may need to adjust the salt as well.
20. Serve chowder topped with extra cilantro, sour cream, and queso fresco (or a cheese of your choice) with lime wedges on the side.

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¹ The original recipe calls for 4 slices of bacon here. You fry the bacon, then cook the onions in the bacon grease, then serve the crumbled bacon as a topping for the soup. I was going to just crisp up a bit of smoked tofu in some bacon grease and mix that into the soup along with the onions, but I ran out of smoked tofu. So, in the end, I just left it out. (And TF and the Kidlet topped their soups with a bit of chopped kielbasa instead.) I definitely recommend adding it if you have any available though: smoked tofu is delicious and I'm sure the smokiness would've been a nice addition to the soup. ^Back
2 I might try experimenting with using whole milk (3.25% MF) in place of the half-and-half (10% MF) next time. Especially if I'm making it properly with fresh corn rather than frozen. I think having fresh corn would add a lot of richness so, as long as the heat doesn't curdle the milk, you might be able to get away with a lower fat content in your dairy. ^Back
3 If you can't get queso fresco, then ricotta salata or cotija make reasonable substitutes. If you can't get those either (I rarely see any of the above three for sale around here), then feta is probably your next best bet. I've also seen cottage cheese recommended as a substitute, but I haven't tried it yet. ^Back

I modified and abused this recipe quite a bit. The original was meant to be a 30-minute meal. It used pre-cooked chicken sausages along with "quick-cooking barley" (which I'd never heard of before). I had some regular old pot barley and some beef and barley sausages, so I made it with that. And, since my sausages were not pre-cooked, I decided to cook them on the stovetop. And since I already had the pan out for that, I decided to just convert the whole recipe to be done on the stovetop. Oh, and I also omitted all but 1 Tbsp. of the oil called for (1/3 c. in the original recipe). And, because I'm trying to be a bit health-conscious, I also cut back (slightly) on the Parmesan and the pistachios. Personally, I think it worked quite well! But I realize that it's quite a bit different from what the original recipe described.

Also, I didn't think of this until after I was already eating a bowl, but I think some pomegranate seeds/arils and/or a drizzle of pomegranate molasses would go quite nicely with this dish. Pistachios and pomegranate are such a nice combination! I've listed pomegranate as an optional ingredient below. Feel free to give it a try!

Photo goes here.

Barley with Broccoli and Sausage

Adapted from Cook's Country October/November 2018

Ingredients

• 1 c. pot barley
• 1-2 c. chicken stock
• 1-2 c. water
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 450g beef, chicken, or lamb sausages
• 340g broccoli, cut into florets
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/3 c. shelled pistachios
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1/3 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh basil
• 1/4 c. pomegranate arils (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the barley with the chicken stock and water. You want a total of 3 c. of liquid, but the exact proportions aren't super important. If you're using mostly water, or if your chicken stock isn't very salty, add ~1/4 tsp. of salt as well.
2. Bring to a boil over medium heat, then cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, in a separate pan, cook the sausages.
4. Once the sausages are mostly done, add the broccoli and continue cooking.
5. Once the sausages are nicely browned on all sides and cooked through, remove them from the pan.
6. Season the broccoli with 1/4 tsp. each of salt and pepper and drizzle with the oil and continue cooking over medium heat until broccoli starts to develop some good browning.
7. Reduce heat slightly and add the pistachios and cook until they are toasted and dark, but not burnt.
8. Remove from heat and add the garlic. Let it sizzle in the residual heat of the pan.
9. Chopp the sausages and return them to the pan.
10. Once the barley is cooked and most of the liquid has been absorbed, remove from heat and stir in the cheese.
11. Stir the contents of the pan into the barley.
12. Stir in the basil and pomegranate (if using).

I've been trying to come up with different healthy breakfast ideas. My problem is that I get bored pretty easily, so I don't like to have the same thing too many days in a row. And I also want my breakfasts to be filling. I hate it when I eat breakfast only to feel hungry again half an hour later.

To that end, oatmeal is generally out. People always talk about how filling oatmeal is -- how it's a good stick-to-your-ribs breakfast that keeps you feeling full -- but I've never found it to be so. Oatmeal can be really tasty, but even if I have a big bowl of it, I'm ALWAYS hungry ~20 minutes later. Very disappointing. I still eat oatmeal occasionally becuase I do like it. I just wish that it didn't mean either feeling ravenously hungry for half the day or accepting that I'll need to have second breakfast halfway through the morning.

So, oatmeal is a sometimes food, but not a good breakfast go-to for me. Eggs in various forms have been a pretty good bet lately. I had scrambled eggs with feta and spinach for a few days. Then egg salad on bread. Then I switched to salmon salad for a few days. And now I've finished off all of those and I was on the hunt for some new breakfast options.

I probably should have made some sourdough okonomi yaki this morning. But I was feeling extremely tired and flattened and I've also been craving chocolate a lot lately so, in the end, I went with some purportedly healthy chocolate waffles instead.

I will grant that these waffles have very little added sugar. And almost no added fat. So they have that going for them. Unfortunately they are also incredibly bitter. Like, pretty much inedibly so.

The author said that she deliberately didn't add much sweetener to the recipe because she knows how much syrup her family drowns their waffles in, but... man, the amount of syrup these need to be palateable pretty much negates their healthfulness.

I've modified the recipe a bit. I haven't had a chance to test this (hopefully) improved version yet. But I'm optimistic that these changes will cut some of the bitterness without reducing the healthfulness of the recipe.

My first idea was to swap out some of the cocoa powder for powdered peanut butter. I figured that less cocoa == less bitter. And while, yes, that will also mean less chocolate flavour, I'm hoping that replacing some of the chocolate with peanut butter will still result in something pleasingly tasty, even if it is less chocolate-y.

The second change isn't so much a change as a restoration. I normally halve the salt most recipes. I did that here as well. But I think maybe it would be best to keep the original quantity of salt as salt also helps to mask bitterness in food.

And finally -- and this one is probably the riskiest -- I think I'd like to try swapping out the natural cocoa powder for Dutch-processed cocoa. The recipe author gives dire warnings against doing this because of the difference in pH and because natural cocoa powder has a stronger chocolate flavor than Dutched¹. This recipe contains a lot of baking soda, so switching from acidic natural cocoa powder to neutral Dutch-processed is a bit risky. That said, there is also a massive quantity of vinegar in the batter. Way more than I would've thought necessary to react with 2 tsp. of baking soda. So, I suspect that I will be able to get away with the swap here. But I haven't tested that theory yet. If I can though, that should also help cut the bitterness. We'll see how it goes...

Chocolate-Peanut Butter Waffles

Adapted from Amy's Healthy Baking

Ingredients

• 150g whole wheat flour
• 60g Dutched cocoa powder
• 1/4 c. peanut butter powder (de-fatted peanut flour)
• 2 tsp. baking soda
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 tsp. coconut oil, melted
• 2 large egg whites
• 2 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1 Tbsp. maple syrup
• 1/2 c. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 c. vinegar
• 3/4 c. milk
• 5 Tbsp. water

Directions

1. Get your waffle iron out and start it preheating.
2. Meanwhile, combine flour, cocoa, peanut flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt and mix well.
3. In a separate (large) bowl, combine the coil, egg whites, vanilla, maple syrup, yogurt, vinegar, and milk and mix well.
4. Add ~1/3 of the dry ingredients to the wet and stir until just combined.
5. Mix in ~2 Tbsp. of the water followed by half the remaining dry ingredients.
6. Mix in the remaining 3 Tbsp. of water followed by the remaining dry ingredients.
7. Scoop the batter into your waffle maker and cook according to the instructions for your model.
8. Carefully remove waffles from waffle iron and set on wire rack.
9. Serve with syrup, jam, yogurt, fresh fruit, and/or peanut butter fluff².

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¹ Interestingly, I was always told the opposite: that Dutched cocoa was both darker and carried a richer, deeper chocolate flavour than natural. Now I don't know who was right. But, either way, the point about the pH is relevant regardless of what the flavour is like. ^Back
2 I actually made a slightly variant on the original peanut butter fluff recipe to top my waffle with. I'm trying to keep things low calorie, so I replaced the peanut butter with powdered peanut butter (same volume, but 1/2 c. of peanut flour is equivalent to roughly 1/4 c. of actual peanut butter, so I effectively halved the peanut butter). I also swapped out the honey for Splenda since we have a bit left and it should be used up anyway. I think the Splenda gives it a weird flavour. It's not my favourite sweetener. I'm just trying to use up what we have because I don't want to throw it out. Might try the new monk fruit sweetener or some stevia at some point in the future and see if I like that any better. But the Splenda was good enough to get the job done today. ^Back

This started out as Amish cinnamon bread, but I made enough changes that I don't think I can really call it the same recipe anymore.

The original recipe called for a total of 3 1/2 c. of sugar and just over 1 1/3 c. of oil. I opted to replace some of the sugar with a monk fruit and erythiol sweetener and I replaced ~75% of the oil with apple sauce. I also swapped out about half the all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour. I think next time I'd just use 100% whole wheat flour. And I'd also cut the sugar back slightly. (Not that it wasn't delicious as it was. I'm just trying to figure out ways to make it a bit healthier.)

Apple-Cinnamon Bread

Adapted from Cook's Country December/January 2019

Ingredients

Coating

• 1/4 c. sugar
• 1/4 c. monk fruit sweetener with erythiol (or more sugar)
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp. oil

Bread

• 500g whole wheat flour
• 1 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 c. monk fruit sweetener with erythiol (or more sugar)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/2 Tbsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1 3/4 c. milk
• 1 c. unsweetened applesauce
• 1/3 oil
• 3 large eggs
• 2 vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 160°C (325°F).
2. Oil two loaf pans with 1/2 tsp. of oil each.
3. Combine the sugar(s) and cinnamon for the topping and use 2 Tbsp. of the mixture to coat the inside of each loaf pan. You will use 1/4 c. total for the pans and have ~1/4 c. left over.)
4. Add the sugar(s) and cinnamon to the flour.
5. Sift in the baking powder and baking soda.
6. Stir in the salt.
7. In a large measuring cup (or bowl) combine the milk, applesauce, oil, eggs, and vanilla and mix well.
8. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and stir until just combined. (Some lumps are okay.)
9. Pour the batter into the prepared loaf pans.
10. Sprinkle each loaf with 2 Tbsp. of the coating/cinnamon-sugar mixture.
11. Bake at 160°C (325°F) for 70-80 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and let cool in tins set on wire racks for ~1 hour.
13. Run a knife around the edges of the pans and turn the loaves out onto wire racks to finish cooling.
14. Serve warm or cold.

This didn't come out being quite as healthy and low-points as I'd hoped. But it was still a tasty vegetable side to round out our meal.

Skillet-Roasted Cauliflower

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country April/May 2018

Ingredients

• 900g cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp. + 1/2 tsp. olive oil, divided
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. red pepper flakes
• 2 Tbsp. grated Pecorino Romano

Directions

1. Cut the cauliflower into florets. Recommended method is to remove outer leaves and use kitchen shears to cut the florets from the stock. Then use a paring knife to cut the florets smaller as needed. Aim for 1-2cm florets.
2. Cut the stalk into 1cm cubes.
3. Heat 2 Tbsp. of the oil over medium heat.
4. Add cauliflower and cook for about 15 minutes, stirring every 5.
5. Cook for another 10 minutes, stirring every 1-2.
6. Push cauliflower to sides of skillet and add pepper flakes and remaining 1/2 tsp. of oil to the centre.
7. Cook for ~30 seconds, then remove from heat and mix with the cauliflower.
8. Stir in cheese and serve.

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Variations

Skillet-Roasted Cauliflower with Garlic and Thyme

Ingredients

• 900g cauliflower
• 2 Tbsp. + 1/2 tsp. olive oil, divided
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 2 tsp. minced fresh thyme
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• lemon wedges, to serve

I was super hungry this evening, so I made myself a quick salmon salad to top me up so I wouldn't go to bed hungry. I used frozen "spaghetti mix" as a shortcut to avoid needing to chop any veggies. It's a mixture of chopped onion, carrot, celery, and red and green bell pepper.

Quick Salmon Salad

Ingredients

• 200g canned salmon, drained
• 1/3-1/2 c. frozen "spaghetti mix"
• 2 dill pickles, chopped
• 2 Tbsp. 1/2-fat mayo
• 2 Tbsp. fat-free Greek yogurt
• 1/4 tsp. sweet or smoked paprika
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/8 tsp. grated lemon zest
• 1 tsp. chopped fresh dill, optional

Directions

1. Combine all ingredients and mix well.
2. Serve on cucumber slices or over chopped salad. For a slightly less healthy take, serve on bread or crackers.

I've been wanting to try out this recipe for ropa vieja since this issue of Cook's Country first came out back in 2017. My original plans to make it ended up falling through and it just never quite made it back to the top of the stack again after that.

Well, I am pleased to report that I finally made it and it is delicious!

The original recipe is written for the slow cooker with an initial sauté of the veggies on the stovetop. Given that format, I was able to do the whole thing in the InstantPot. It worked quite well. Although I did have to bump the temperature up partway through cooking as the "medium" slow cook setting didn't appear to be getting the job done. Nudging it up to high for the last three hours seems to have work though, so I'd recommend just putting it on high from the get-go next time.

I served my ropa vieja over Congrí with some green beans on the side to make it a complete meal.

Ropa Vieja

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country June/July 2017

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. oil
• 2-3 onions, halved and sliced
• 2 red bell peppers, sliced
• 1/4 c. tomato paste
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp. cumin seeds, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, divided
• 1/2 c. dry white wine
• 2 Tbsp. light soy sauce¹
• 2 bay leaves
• 900g flank steak, cut against the grain into 4 pieces
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 3/4 c. sliced green olives
• 1 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar

Directions

1. Heat oil over medium-low heat. (Sauté low on InstantPot.)
2. Add onion and bell pepper and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, for ~8 minutes.
3. Move vegetables to sides of pot and add the tomato paste, garlic, cumin, oregano, and 1/4 tsp. of the salt to the cleared spot in the middle.
4. Cook for a minute or two, then stir the vegetables into the paste mixture.
5. Add the wine and cook until nearly evaporated (1-2 minutes).
6. Add the soy sauce and bay leaves.
7. Season steak with the pepper and the remaining 1 tsp. of salt and add it to the pot on top of the sauce.
8. Cover and slow cook on high for ~6 hours.
9. Once meat is tender, remove steak from pot and shred with two forks.
10. Return meat to sauce and stir in olives and vinegar.
11. Serve over plain rice, congri, or your starch of choice. (I've seen both potatoes and polenta suggested as alternatives to rice.

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¹ I'd be inclined to try a mix of light and dark soy next time. ^Back