Three things to do with carrots

The humble carrot: healthy, delicious, cheap, and underrated.  While salads and carrot sticks are obvious choices, there are so many things that you can do with this vegetable!  Here are three suggestions....

1) Roasted

Carrots are sweet, which means that they roast beautifully.  It's also ridiculously easy: once the carrots are in the oven all you need to do is set a timer and take them out when it dings...no need to slave over the stove checking for done-ness.

The method is basic.  First, preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.  Cut up the carrots into bite sized pieces (as a general rule, the larger they are, the longer they will take to cook).  Toss them with a little oil (I prefer canola or vegetable oil for this since olive oil tends to smoke in the oven at high temperatures), add salt and pepper to taste, as well as whatever other spices/flavours you desire.  Spread in a single layer on a baking sheet and roast for about 20 minutes (longer if necessary).

Using a mix of coloured carrots is not only delicious, it's also beautiful!

2) Soup

I love vegetable soups: they are creamy and delicious...and ridiculously good for you since they amount to little more than veggie puree thinned out with a little chicken stock.  Also, really easy to make.  For this particular curried carrot soup you will need the following:

-2 tbsp olive oil
-1 medium onion, chopped
-1 1/2 pounds of carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized pieces (if you can't be bothered peeling/chopping, just buy a bag of baby carrots from the store!)
-6 cups chicken stock
-1 1/2 tbsp curry powder
-1/4 to 1/2 tsp ground cayenne pepper (more=spicier)
-salt and pepper (to taste)
-sour cream (for serving)

Preheat a large pot over medium heat.  Add olive oil, onion, and carrots; saute 5 minutes.  Add 4 cups of chicken stock, curry powder, cayenne, and about 1 tsp of salt.  Bring to a boil, then cover and simmer until the carrots are very tender (15 minutes or so).  Remove from heat, and use a hand blender to blend until smooth (or, you can blend small batches in a normal blender.  Be careful though...hot liquids in a blender tend to splash!).  Return to heat; if the soup is too thick add more chicken stock (until you reach the desired consistency).  Add salt and pepper to taste; serve with sour cream.

You can make these fancy hearts by putting down small dollops of sour cream and then dragging a toothpick through them in a circle.

3) Bake

Muffins are a great place to put vegetables, especially since grated veggies take the place of oil or milk.  These muffins are extra special since they also contain crushed pineapple...and they freeze really well!

-1 1/2 cups flour
-3/4 cup packed brown sugar
-3/4 cup natural bran

(If you don't like bran in your muffins you can just use 2 cups of flour and omit the bran.  Another option is to use 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour and 1/2 cup of whole wheat!)

-1 tsp baking powder
-1 tsp baking soda
-1/2 tsp salt
-1 tsp cinnamon

Combine dry ingredients in a medium bowl.  Make a well in the centre, and set aside.

-2 eggs
-1 cup grated carrot
-1 can (398 mL) crushed pineapple with juice
-1 tbsp cooking oil

In a small bowl beat eggs lightly.  Add carrot, pineapple, and oil; mix well.  Pour the wet ingredients into the well in the centre of the dry ingredients.  Stir to moisten.

(At this point you can, if you choose, add 1 cup of raisins or dried cranberries.)

Fill greased muffin cups with batter.  Bake at 400 degrees F for 20 to 25 minutes.

As always...enjoy!!

No kneading necessary.

I've always wanted to try making my own bread, but have never gotten around to it simply on account of the fact that making bread involves an inordinate amount of effort.  All that kneading and waiting and kneading and waiting again.......

So you can imagine that I was quite happy when I came across a recipe for no-knead bread.  I was even happier when I realized that this particular loaf had to rise for at least 8 hours...meaning that I could put the dough together the night before and then finish in the morning for fresh baked cinnamon raisin goodness...

You will need...

-1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

-1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

-1 1/2 tsp salt

-1/2 tsp active dry yeast (not quick rising)

-1 1/4 cups cold water (using cold water ensures that the dough will rise slowly)

-2 tbsp honey

-2 tsp cinnamon

-2 tbsp brown sugar

-1/2 cup raisins

-1/2 cup chopped almonds (or whatever other nut you fancy)

Step 1: mix the dough.  Whisk together the flours, salt, yeast, cinnamon, brown sugar, raisin, and nuts.  Using a wooden spoon, mix the water and honey into the dry ingredients and stir just until the dough comes together.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a loose fitting lid and allow to rise at room temperature for 8 to 12 hours.

Because there's more water than usual the dough should come together fairly easily...

Step 2: After the dough has risen, dust more flour over the surface to prevent it from sticking to your hands as you shape the loaf.  Gently pull the dough away from the sides of the bowl and then lift it out...be careful, you want to work it as little as possible to maintain the air bubbles formed by the yeast.  Quickly stretch and tick the dough under itself, turning it as you work, to form a right ball.

The top will be smooth, the bottom will be a collection of loose ends.

Step 3: Put the shaped loaf into a greased and floured dutch oven.  Cover and allow to rest at room temperature for 45 minutes.  After it has rested, cut a small cross into the top.

Step 4: Put the dutch over in the centre of a cold (not preheated) oven and set the temperature to 425 degrees F; bake for 40 minutes.  Remove the lid and bake for 10 to 20 minutes more, until the loaf is nice and brown.  Carefully remove from the Dutch oven; allow to cool before slicing.

Best to let it cool completely...if you can resist.

I could not resist slicing it open shortly after it came out the oven...but this was my breakfast after all.  It was perfect...deeply flavoured, and pleasantly chewy (on account of all the whole wheat flour).  Delicious, and filling!

Biscuits 101

Baking is probably the most intimidating form of cooking, if only because it requires that you be particularly exact: fail to cream the butter and sugar together for long enough and your cake will not have the right texture...mix too vigorously and your muffins turn into hockey pucks.  Can't let doughs rise for too long, but you have to make sure that they rise for long enough.....

Lots of errors are made when learning how to be a good baker, and I have made most of them.  But the result of all that trial and error is delicious, and so all the mistakes turn out to be worth it.

One of the first things that I learned how to bake was biscuits, buttermilk ones to be precise.  My mom always used to make them when we had beef stew...they're perfect for sopping up that last little bit of gravy in the bottom of the bowl.  Working well for gravy also means that they're delicious with soup, which is what I paired them with this particular weekend...meaning that you're about to get two recipes for the price of one.

First, the soup: roasted broccoli and garlic.  I love roasted vegetable soups of any kind, mostly because they are basically a giant pot of vegetable puree and are super good for you.  Roasting the broccoli adds a depth of flavour that you can't get from merely boiling it, though if you were pressed for time you could just boil the broccoli in the chicken stock before blending in the cream cheese.

You will need....
-5 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
-2 pounds of broccoli florets
-4 tbsp olive oil
-salt and pepper
-125g cream cheese
-3 or 4 cups chicken broth (personal preference...depends on how thick you like your soup)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F.  Wrap the garlic in a foil packet and roast for 50 minutes.  Meanwhile, toss the broccoli florets in olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast for 20 minutes (or until tender).

Squeeze the garlic cloves from their skins into a large soup pot.  Add the broccoli, cream cheese, and chicken broth; puree until smooth using a hand blender.

(Of course you can use a normal blender instead...just put the broccoli, garlic, etc. into the blender instead of the pot!)

Bring the mixture to a simmer.  Add salt and pepper to taste...then serve.

Garnished with bacon...though a sprinkling of old cheddar would be just as delicious.

Now, the biscuits.  I used to do mine the old fashioned way (adding cubes of butter to the flour and then mixing until a mealy texture was achieved), but then I got my hands on a cookbook by Michael Smith.  His tip: freeze the butter, then grate it in.  Seriously.  All you have to do then is mix the flour and butter together and you will immediately achieve the right texture...less work.  I like things that involve less work.....

Trust Michael.  You'll never go back.......

Ingredients
-4 cups all purpose flour
-2 tbsp baking powder
-2 tsp salt
-1 cup butter, frozen
-1 1/2 cups milk (try buttermilk...it will give your biscuits a rich, creamy flavour!)

Heat the oven to 400 degrees F (convenient if you're making this recipe at the same time as the soup).  Mix the flour, baking powder, and salt together in a large bowl.  Using a grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour and toss lightly until it's all combined.

At this point you can also add all kinds of things for a little extra flavour: chopped dried herbs, curry powder, a handful of cheese.....get creative!

Pour the milk into the four mixture, and stir until it forms a large mass.  As with muffins you don't want to overmix the batter...as soon as most of the mixture forms a ball tip everything out onto a lightly floured surface and fold the dough over a couple of times until it all comes together.  Roll the dough out until it's about 1/2 inch thick, and use whatever you have handy to cut it into the shape that you desire (I use a water glass since I don't have a biscuit cutter).

I also use a wine bottle to roll out my dough since I don't have a proper rolling pin...

Bake for 15 to 20 minutes...until they're deliciously golden brown.

And I quote: "Better than my mum's!"

Sweet summer squash

Ahh, summer squash: the thinned skin cousin of those delightful gourds that help keep us fed throughout the winter.  Delicious in just about any application....but my favourite thing to do with them is bake.

When I was young, like most children, I wasn't the biggest fan of veggies.  So when my mom told me that my favourite chocolate cake contained a heaping helping of grated zucchini I was surprised...but after a short boycott on account of vegetables I succumbed to the sweet beautiful chocolate zucchini goodness.

That childhood memory is what inspired this latest round of baking: zucchini muffins, in a couple of different flavours.  The instructions in both cases are the same (and are pretty standard for muffins): combine the dry ingredients in one bowl, and the wet ingredients in another.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients and add the wet ones, then stir until just combined (don't over mix or your muffins will be tough).  Bake at 400 degrees F for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean.

1) Lemon Zucchini
Dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1 tbsp baking powder, 2 tsp grated lemon rind, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp nutmeg
Wet ingredients: 1 cup grated zucchini (or any other summer squash), 3/4 cup buttermilk, 3 tbsp vegetable oil, 1 large egg
Glaze: 1/2 cup icing sugar, 1 1/2 tbsp lemon juice

Bake as per the directions above.  To glaze, combine the icing sugar and lemon juice then drizzle over the cooled muffins.

2) Chocolate Zucchini
Dry ingredients: 2 cups flour, 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup cocoa powder, 1 1/2 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp allspice, 1 tsp salt
Wet ingredients: 1 cup grated zucchini (or any other summer squash), 3/4 cup milk, 1/4 cup vegetable oil
Optional: 1 cup chocolate chips

The muffins are good without chocolate chips, though without them they are a little on the un-sweet side.  Either way, they freeze beautifully!

Something sweet

I recently found myself with a (quite ripe) pint of raspberries in the fridge.

Usually I eat raspberries quickly, so the fact that these had not already been consumed was quite the surprise.  But they were getting a little mushy, and so they needed to be used.  I was also experiencing some pretty severe writers block, so I did what any same person would do: I baked.  And, as luck would have it I was also able to get my hands on some strawberries.....

Berry crumble was on the menu.

The best thing about a crumble is that it can be made with any in-season fruit.  The second best thing about a crumble is that it's super easy to put together and requires few ingredients...and it's a nice light dessert, perfect for summer nights.

Ingredients
-about 6 cup of fruit...whatever you like.  Apples, pears, peaches, and plums work particularly well, as do berries.  I also like rhubarb, though you need to balance out it's tartness with something a little sweet.
-1/4 cup sugar
-1 cup flour
-1 tbsp lemon juice
-3/4 cup rolled oats
-1 tsp cinnamon
-1/2 tsp ground ginger (or use fresh for more delightful ginger flavour)
-1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
-1/4 tsp salt
-1/2 cup butter (or margarine)

Directions

1) Preheat your over to 350 degrees F.

2) Combine fruit, sugar, 1/4 cup flour, and lemon juice in a bowl; mix well.  Transfer the fruit mixture to a lightly greased 9x13 pan.

3) Combine remaining dry ingredients in another bowl.  Add butter; rub in with fingertips until the mixture holds together in small clumps.  Sprinkle over berry mixture.

4) Bake until the fruit mixture bubbles thickly and the topping is golden brown (about 1 hour).  Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Delicious.  I like mine with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a hint of maple syrup......

Cooking with friends=Love

One of my best friends recently hopped on a plane to come and see me, which was awesome.  Of all the things that we were looking forward to doing together one in particular stood out: we wanted to cook.

Some context perhaps.  We used to live together, and while living together enabled each other's desire for good food and baking.  Having now lived apart for awhile, we miss that.  We still enable from a distance, but it's just not the same.....

Anyway.  We spent some time at a coffee shop the other afternoon, and when we were leaving we contemplated taking home some of their brownies to enjoy later...until we saw the price!  Five bucks a brownie after tax!!  So we said no thanks and headed out the door and talked about what we could do to satisfy our chocolate craving.

Simple: we would make brownies instead.

Here's the math.  One brownie from this particular coffee shop was $5 after tax, and so take home two would have set us back $10.  Making brownies only ended up costing us $7...because I had flour, eggs, butter, cocoa and the rest of the basics in my pantry back at home.  The $7 cost was for a bag of dark chocolate chips and some reese's peanut butter cups that completed a recipe yielding 16 good sized triple chocolate brownies.

Conclusion: $7 for 16 is better than $10 for 2.

Here's what you need to satisfy your own chocolate brownie craving:
-250g of dark chocolate
-1 cup butter
-1 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup cocoa powder
-1 tsp baking powder
-pinch of salt
-4 eggs
-2 cups brown sugar (I used 1 cup brown sugar and 1 cup of splenda to lighten these up a touch)
-1 tbsp vanilla
-1 cup chocolate chips (or, in this case, chunks of reese's peanut butter cups)

The brownies are simple to construct.

1) Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

2) Melt butter and dark chocolate chips together.  The cookbook that I got this recipe from suggests a heat proof bowl set over a pot of simmering water...but the microwave works just as well.  (If you go the microwave route heat for about 30 seconds at a time to prevent the chocolate from burning.)

3) While the chocolate/butter mixture cools slightly, mix the flour, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt together in a separate bowl.

4) Add the eggs, sugar, and vanilla to the chocolate/butter mixture and mix well.  Add the flour and chocolate chips (or peanut butter cups, or chocolate covered peanuts, or just plain nuts.....) and stir until well incorporated.

4) Pour into a greased 9x13 pan and bake for 25 minutes.  They're done when a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out with some crumbs still attached.....

Fudge-y, peanut butter-y, goodness.

Fear not the size of the pan: brownies freeze well.  Makes a great treat....and costs a lot less than buying them one at a time!!

Snack healthy

I'm not going to lie: I eat six times a day.

There is, of course, a method to my madness.  Based on personal experience I can tell you that eating a little bit every couple of hours helps to keep hunger at bay, and therefore helps you to eat less over the course of any given 24 hour period.  The idea is to eat smaller meals/snacks more often.  When it comes to snacking I try to mix it up...fruit, veggies, yogurt, granola bars...and muffins.

Muffins are the best.  They're just a little bit sweet and full of fibre, and super healthy when you make them yourself.  And, most importantly from the perspective of someone who lives alone, they freeze very well.

Why would anyone want to freeze a muffin?  Well, it is a fact of baking that those things you've created lose their freshness over time.  This can be a problem when combined with the fact that muffin recipes make 12 muffins at a time...meaning that in order to eat all the muffins before they get stale I would have to eat two muffins a day for the entire week.

I love muffins, but not that much.

To prevent muffin overload, I freeze the entire batch as soon as they've cooled.  Then whenever I'm in the mood for a snack I just pop one out of the freezer, microwave for 30 seconds, and before I know it I'm eating something delicious, satisfying, and healthy.

In order to keep myself from getting bored with any one variety of muffin I have several recipes in my rotation.  Some come from cookbooks, some from my mother, and others from the internet.  But what they all have in common is a set of basic ingredients: flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, salt, eggs, and oil.  Where the recipes differ is exactly what they use to fill all of these slots...all-purpose or whole wheat flour, the addition of bran or oatmeal, white or brown sugar, oil or milk (or fruit/veggie puree).  If you keep the basics on hand, all you will need to do for any recipe is buy the little things that make the recipe unique, making your life a lot easier.

The specific muffin recipe I'm going to share with you today is the one I've made the most recently...pistachio chai.  The batter is flavored with chai tea, then topped with roasted pistachios and a sweet glaze.

Ingredients
-1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
-1/2 cup brown sugar
-1 tsp baking soda
-1 tsp baking powder
-1/4 tsp salt
-2 or 3 chai blend tea bags (more tea=more chai flavor)
-1 cup buttermilk
-1/4 cup melted butter
-1 1/2 tsp vanilla, divided
-1 large egg
-1/2 cup shelled roasted pistachios, chopped
-1/2 cup powdered sugar
-1 tbsp water

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Combine dry ingredients (flour through salt) in a large bowl.  Tear open the tea bags and add the tea directly into the mixture; mix well.  Make a well in the centre.

In another bowl, combine the wet ingredients (buttermilk through egg); reserve 1/2 tsp of vanilla.  Mix well, then pour into the well in the centre of the dry ingredients.  Stir until just moist.

Divide batter evenly among greased muffin tins (recipe makes 12 muffins).  Sprinkle nuts over top, and bake for 15 minutes (until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean).

Let cool for 5 minutes in the tins, then cool completely on a rack.  To glaze, combine remaining 1/2 tsp vanilla with powdered sugar and water; drizzle over muffins.

Transfer muffins to an airtight container (or ziploc bag) and freeze immediately.  Now you have access to a quick, healthy, and delicious snack!

Keeping healthy snacks on hand means you're less likely to reach for a bag of chips or a chocolate bar!

Making it work

My holiday dinners usually end with pie, but this year I decided to mix things up a bit.

My decision was, of course, influenced by the things I had around me.  I was at my parents, and I know that they don't have all of the same things that I might keep on hand for baking, and that their small town supermarket is not as well stocked as I would like.  So I looked at what they had and came up with a plan: caramel apple upside down cake.

Seriously.  Easiest dessert ever.

You will need:
-1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
-1 cup packed brown sugar
-1 tsp ground cinnamon
-3-4 medium apples, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch wedges
-1 box of cake mix (as well as the requisite egg and oil)

First, make the caramel by melting the butter in a saucepan.  Stir in the brown sugar and heat to boiling, then add the cinnamon (I also added one cup of crushed pecans for crunch).  Pour the caramel into a greased 9x13 pan (or two 9 inch round pans).  Arrange the apple slices over the brown sugar mixture.

Then, make the cake according to the package directions.  Pour over the apples, and bake until a toothpick inserted in the centre comes out clean (about 30 minutes in a 9x13 pan).  Cool in pan for 10 minutes, then flip onto a plate to serve.

Delicious with vanilla ice cream :)