We have an actual tagine, but I opted to cook this as written in a glass baking dish, in part because I didn't think I could fit all the ingredients in the actual tagine. It was decently tasty but not a favourite.

Fish Tagine with Carrots and Olives

Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan (p. 244)

Ingredients

• 4+2 tbsp olive oil, divided
• ¼ C chopped cilantro
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 cloves garlic, chopped
• ½+½ tsp salt, divided
• ⅛+⅛ tsp pepper, divided
• 4 halibut or cod fillets, ~185g each
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp ground ginger
• ¼ tsp ground turmeric
• 500g carrots, peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 onion, halved and thinly sliced
• 24 kalamata olives, pitted
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced

Directions

1. In a large bowl, whisk together 4 tbsp oil with the cilantro, lemon juice, garlic, ½ tsp salt, and ⅛ tsp pepper.
2. Add the fish and toss to coat. Cover and refrigerate for 30-60 minutes, turning once.
3. In another bowl, combine the remaining 2 tbsp oil, honey, cumin, cinnamon, ginger, turmeric, ½ tsp salt, and ⅛ tsp pepper.
4. Add the carrots and toss to coat.
5. Arrange the carrot slices evenly in the bottom of a 9"×13" glass baking dish.
6. Layer half the onion and lemon slices on top.
7. Layer the fish on top of that, reserving the marinade.
8. Layer remaining onion and lemon slices on top of the fish.
9. Sprinkle over olives, then pour over reserved marinade.
10. Cover with tinfoil, leaving a small gap at the edges.
11. Bake at 375°F for 1 hour, or until fish flakes easily and vegetables are tender.

This was a decent dish, but it really feels like more of a side-dish than a main course. I think it would be good with a nice piece of salmon or maybe some chicken.

I also messed up a bit in that I forgot that this recipe called for green onions. So when TF asked me if she could use the rest on her lunch, I told her to go ahead. With no fresh green onions left, I ended up using a bit of scallion oil for roasting the veggies instead of the olive oil suggested in the original.

Wheat Berries with Roasted Veggies

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. wheat berries¹
• 3 c. vegetable stock²
• 3 parsnips, peeled and cubed
• 1 small (or 1/2 large) butternut squash, peeled and cubed
• 1 large onion (preferably red), peeled and cubed
• 5-7 cloves garlic, unpeeled
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil (or scallion oil)
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 c. dried cranberries
• 1/2 c. chopped fresh parsley
• 2 green onions, chopped

Directions

1. Combine wheat berries and vegetable stock in a small pot and bring to a boil.
2. reduce heat to medium, cover, and simmer for ~1 hour.
3. Meanwhile, preheat oven to 230°C (450°F).
4. Toss parsnips, squash, onion, and garlic with oli, vinegar, salt, and pepper and dump into a roasting pan.
5. Roast for ~45 minutes, stirring every 15 minutes.
6. Peel the garlic and return to the veggies.
7. Drain wheat berries and combine with roasted veggies.
8. Toss with cranberries, parsley, and green onions.
9. Drizzle with additional vinegar and serve.

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¹ I wasn't sure whether hard or soft wheat berries would be better, but I had more hard than soft, so that's what I went with. I figured, if nothing else, hard wheat would offer marginally more protein than soft. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 3 1/2 c. water. I did use 3 1/2 c. of water, but opted to add an "herb & garlic" bouillon cube as well. I like how that worked out, so I think I'd just use 3 c. of stock next time. (I don't think the extra 1/2 c. was necessary since it just gets drained at the end anyway. ^Back

I had initially been thinking of making pavlova with the leftover egg whites I had in the fridge, but after considering it for a bit, I decided that I wanted to try a different egg white recipe. These little chocolate meringue cookies looked pleasingly simple, so I decided to give them a go. They were a big hit with both TF and the Kidlet.

Spumette

From The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 c. hazelnuts
• 140g icing (confectioners'/powdered) sugar
• 3 Tbsp. cocoa powder¹
• 1/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 3 large egg whites
• pinch (~1/16 tsp.) coarse sea salt

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 180°C (350°F) and bake hazelnuts for 8-10 minutes.
2. Reduce oven temperature to 150°C (300°F) and transfer nuts to a tea towel, let cool, and rub to remove the skins.
3. Separate the nuts from the skins and coarsely chop the nuts. Set aside.
4. Grease and flour 2-3 baking sheets.
5. Sift together the sugar, cocoa powder, and cinnamon. Set aside.
6. Beat the egg whites and salt until stiff peaks form.
7. Gently fold in the sugar mixture.
8. Add the nuts and fold those in as well.
9. Drop spoonfuls of batter onto the prepared baking sheets. (You should get 30-36 cookies.)
10. Bake at 150°C (300°F) for ~15 minutes. (Cookies should be dry to the touch, but still soft.)
11. Transfer cookies to wire racks to cool.

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¹ I used "natural" cocoa powder for this, but feel free to experiment with alkalized (Dutched) cocoa powder if you like. ^Back

Continuing my way through the parfait recipes in the Breakfast Bible, I decided to give this citrusy one a try. It's ideally meant to be made with pistachios and goji berries, both of which I usually have on hand. But I'd forgotten that I'd used up the last of my goji berries a while ago and hadn't bothered restocking immediately since I don't tend to use them very often. Whoops! Fortunately the recipe also suggested golden raisins as an acceptable alternative. And those I did have!

I really enjoyed this combination. The colours were pretty and the flavours were excellent. That said, I think it also would have been fine with regular oranges. Not quite as visually striking, maybe, but I think the flavours still would have worked out quite well. And I actually really liked the sweetness of the raisins in it. The do think the goji berries would have been a nice complement to the lemon, but they also tend to be a bit less sweet than raisins in my experience, so choose your fruit according to your tastes.

I found pistachios a somewhat surprising combination here. It was good, don't get me wrong! Just unexpected. I really enjoyed the pistachios in it, but I think it would be interesting to experiemnt with different nuts too. Toasted almonds were my first idea, but I think cashews could also be quite nice. Maybe something to consider for next time...

Blood Orange and Lemon Curd Parfaits

Slightly adapted from The Breakfast Bible by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 c. lemon curd, divided
• 4 blood oranges, peeled and sectioned¹, divided
• 1/4 c. dried goji berries or golden raisins, divided
• 3 c. plain Greek yogurt, divided
• 1/4 c. chopped pistachios², divided

Directions

1. Put 2 Tbsp. of lemon curd in the bottom of each jar.
2. Top each with the sections from 1/2 an orange.
3. Add 1/2 Tbsp. of raisins or goji berries to each one.
4. Then add 6 Tbsp. of yogurt to each jar.
5. Repeat layers. (This should use up the remainder of the lemon curd, oranges, raisins/goji berries, and yogurt.)
6. Top each parfait with 1 Tbsp. of pistachios and serve.

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¹ The original recipe called for "peeled and sliced", but I felt like cutting out the membrane entirely would make them easier to eat, so I opted for sectioning rather than slicing. ^Back
2 If you have the time and patience for it, I think toasting the pistachios before chopping would make the final result even tastier. That said, I still found it very good with untoasted pistachios, so go with whatever works for you. ^Back

This came together gratifyingly quickly. The longest part was pressure-cooking the beans, but that gave me time to dismantle the chicken and mise-en-place all the ingredients.

Quick Green Chicken Chili

Cook's Country August/September 2018 (recipe card)

Ingredients

• 1.5 C mixed dry black and great northern beans
• 6C half-strength chicken or vegetable stock (or 6C water + 1 stock cube)
• 2 tsp (~0.5L worth) Better than Bouillon stock concentrate or equivalent
• 1 tbsp oil
• 1 large onion, finely chopped
• ¾ tsp pepper, ground
• 3-4 garlic cloves, minced
• 2 tsp cumin, ground
• 1 C premade green salsa
• 1 grocery store roast chicken, skinned and shredded
• ½ C fresh cilantro, chopped
• Yoghurt and hot sauce (for serving)

Directions

1. Add beans and stock to pressure cooker. Pressure cook high for 40 minutes.
2. Depressurize and drain beans, reserving 1L of cooking water. If you have less than 1L, top up with tap water.
3. Stir stock concentrate into the bean water; set aside.
4. Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat.
5. Add onion and pepper and cook until translucent and softened, ~5 minutes.
6. Stir in garlic and cumin and cook until fragrant, ~1 minute.
7. Stir in beans, bean water, and salsa. Increase heat to medium high and bring to a boil.
8. Reduce heat to medium low and simmer 10 minutes.
9. Mash some of the beans against the side of the pot for thickness, if desired.
10. Stir in chicken and cilantro and cook until warmed through, ~2 minutes.
11. Serve with yoghurt and hot sauce; we found that this tomatillo-based sauce worked nicely.

My mom makes amazing lemon curd every year at Christmas. It's great just dolloped into little tart shells (or eaten staight out of the jar on a spoon)! And I appreciate that, unlike most lemon curd recipes, hers uses whole eggs. I should really do a write-up for it one of these days. This, however, is not that recipe. This is the lemon curd recipe from The Good Egg.

This particular recipe follows the usual method of using egg yolks only for the curd. This can be somewhat inconvenient, but we have lots of eggs right now and I figure I can always make a pavlova or some other meringue-based confection later this week.

I do intend to do a write-up for my mom's recipe at some point, but I already had the egg book out and readily to hand, so this was convenient for today. Plus, it pleases the completionist in me to check of more recipes!

I appreciate how quickly and easily this lemon curd came together. It was simple to make and came out beautifully with a nice, tart lemon flavour. I'm looking forward to trying it in some parfaits tomorrow.

Lemon Curd

From The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 5 large egg yolks
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest
• 1/4 c. butter, cut into 12-16 pieces

Directions

1. Combine the egg yolks, sugar, lemon juice, and lemon zest in a small pot and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens.
2. Reduce heat slightly and whisk in butter, once piece at a time, until very thick.
3. Pour into tightly jar and store in fridge until ready to use.

We don't have shrimp very often anymore since the Kidlet started having bad reactions to shellfish. But, I picked up some small shrimp on sale and decided to give this a go as a brunch thing for me and TF.

I really like this salad! It's a great combo of flavours, satisfying, and easy to make. I do think it would be nice with a few capers added, but it's really good as-is.

I didn't have any fresh dill, so I just used dry instead. It's not quite as aromatic and vibrant as fresh would have been, but it was still tasty and much more convenient this way. I also ended up using a mix of peas and corn since I was a bit short on peas. I think both work well in this salad. And, while I did use the sweet onion as prescribed by the recipe, I think that green onions would make a decent substitute if you don't happen to have any sweet onions on hand. Oh, and I also added an extra egg just because I thought the proportions looked better that way. I might even consider adding a sixth egg next time.

For a somewhat lighter option, I think that you could probably get away with swapping out up to half the mayo with plain Greek yogurt. Especially if you added a bit of extra salt and/or capers.

Shrimp, Potato, and Egg Salad

Slightly adapted from The Good Egg by Marie Simmons

Ingredients

• 450g small potatoes
• 340g cooked and peeled tiny shrimp (150-200/lb. size)
• 1 c. frozen green peas
• 1/2 c. frozen corn (optional)
• 5-6 hard-boiled eggs¹
• 1/2 c. mayonnaise
• 2-4 Tbsp. minced sweet onion
• 2 Tbsp. minced fresh dill (or 1 Tbsp. dried)
• 2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 2 Tbsp. capers (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt²
• 1/4 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• cherry tomatoes (optional)
• lettuce (optional)

Directions

1. Boil the potatoes until fork-tender (~20 minutes).
2. Place shrimp, peas, and corn (if using) in a colander in the sink and drain the potatoes into the colander. (The hot water will thaw the shrimp and veggies.)
3. Peel and dice the potatoes and the eggs.
4. Combine the potatoes, eggs, shrimp, peas, corn (if using), mayo, onion, dill, lemon juice, capers (if using), salt, and pepper in a large bowl. Stir to combine.
5. Taste and adjust seasoning as desired.
6. Serve as is or on a bed of lettuce with cherry tomatoes.

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¹ I actually just dropped the eggs into the pot with the potatoes to cook. I took them out after 12 minutes and let them sit in a bowl of cold water to cool down while the potatoes finished cooking. ^Back
2 Reduce or omit salt if using capers. ^Back