Gourmet Salad

I made this salad last night and it was DELICIOUS. According to Diego it deserves the capital letters!

Sauteed onion and Apple Salad
1 medium onion cut in half and thinly sliced into half moons
1 medium sized apple cored and sliced into half moons
1 head of kale or lettuce of your choice
Walnuts (to your liking)
Maple syrup
Blue cheese
3 tbsp Avocado oil (you could use olive or hazelnut oils)
2 tbsp Balsamic vinegar (I used the PC brand Fig Balsamic)
1 pinch of salt

If you are using lettuce or another soft green, start with the next step. If you are using kale, wash it and slice it thinly. Then in a small jar or bowl combine the oil, vinegar and salt. Pour the dressing over the kale and mix thoroughly. This needs to sit for at least 30 mins for the kale to get soft. The kale will turn darker green and shiny when it softens.

In the meantime, sautee the onions in about a tablespoon of olive oil. When softened add the apples and sautee until the apples are golden on both sides and the onions are beginning to brown. Be sure to use an apple that won't fall apart (definitely no Macintosh!). I used a gala apple.

In another pan toast the walnuts on high heat until warm and golden brown. Once golden add about a tablespoon of maple syrup and turn down the heat to medium. Once all the liquid from the maple syrup has evaporated continue to toast the walnuts to get a nice sweet coating (about 5-8 more mins).

Once the onions and apples are ready, add the nuts to the pan and sautee for another minute or 2. Then add the warm ingredients on top of the kale. Crumble some blue cheese on top of the warm ingredients and cover the bowl with a plate or anything that will keep the heat in until the cheese is melted.

Once the cheese is melted, toss and serve. If you are using lettuce rather than kale add the dressing just before tossing. The tangy taste of the blue cheese is complimented by the sweetness of the apples and maple crusted walnuts!

Enjoy!

Hiatus OVER!

Obviously, things have been crazy busy for me to ignore you all since September and I have so much to tell you. The most important piece of news is that I AM DONE MY PhD!!

I successfully defended my thesis on Dec 7 at 10 am. The defense is an oral exam where you present your thesis to your committee, supervisor, an external examiner and because it is open to the public...an audience. My presentation lasted 20 minutes and the question period was only an hour!! I have been to defenses where it has lasted 2-3 hours! I was lucky, I had a great committee with interesting and thought provoking questions... it was actually FUN! Not too many people can say that about an oral exam! I also had great support from friends, colleagues and family. There were about 25 people in the audience and even my parents came for the defense and the celebration afterwards! Now we can look forward to even more fun at my convocation in the spring!

The best part of finishing up was my reward. We went to Mexico for 3 weeks over the holidays! We spent most of our time eating and snorkeling in a marine reserve in Puerto Morelos, a small town of only 3 streets parallel to the beach and separated from the main highway by a huge protected mangrove. As Frank Sinatra said it...This is my kind of Town... Every day that we were there we indulged in delicious food, happy hour, family and of course LOTS of snorkeling!

 Who can resist this assortment of sweets brought to your table by vendors that just walk up and down the beach selling their wares from a tray that they carry on their head!

 We had Arracherra, or skirt steak at least 5 times while we were there...if you like beef, this is to DIE FOR!

 

 We went to a restaurant that served authentic cuisine from the Yucatan region and had panuchos (the first of the 3 photos) which are fried tortillas with beans, some type of meat, pickled red onions, avocado and of course salsa. The second photo is of papadzules which are corn tortillas dipped in a pumpkin seed sauce then filled with hardboiled eggs, topped with more pumpkin seed sauce and a bit of tomato based sauce. Lastly, the soup is called sopa de lima. Lima is a type of citrus that is the size of a lemon but greenish and sweeter than either lemon or lime, it is sometimes called sweet lime. The soup has chicken and pieces of fried corn tortillas and is delicious!

We also ate at a lot of street vendors that were recommended by locals...Tacos, chile relleno (stuffed chillies), tamales and all kinds of other amazing street food! If in doubt, ask a taxi driver where he/she eats and you are guaranteed to get something good. When we showed up at one cart in Cancun we were surprised that there was actually two different ones...how did we know which one to eat at? When a truck load of police showed up to eat at the one cart, we knew that was the right one! It was delicious!!

 

The AMAZING thing about a marine reserve is that they actually work to protect large predatory fishes and other sensitive species. There was not a day that we did not see at least 10 or more barracudas that were as large or larger than me!!!! The above photo is of a school of 30!! The smallest one in the school was at least the length of my arm (or about 60 cm long!).

 This is a school of snappers (predatory fishes that are very tasty so on unprotected reefs you almost never see even one and here they were schooling by the hundreds!!!

 We also had the pleasure of seeing at least 2-3 turtles everyday with the largest one being about the size of a smart car!

 Sting rays (top photo) and spotted eagle rays (bottom photo) were VERY common, almost a daily occurrence and on some days more than one at a time!

 We saw a number of lobsters hanging out under coral heads which are very rare outside of marine reserves.

 We saw a lot of coral and the health of the reefs themselves was patchy. Some areas were in great shape while others were covered in algae (bottom photo). The reefs in the Caribbean have taken a beating with hurricanes, eutrophication (high nutrient levels in the water from run off and sewage) due to coastal development and climate change. The high nutrients stimulates algae growth that then either smothers the corals or prevents them from recolonizing and phytoplankton in the water shades the corals and can cause bleaching and loss due to lack of light.

The seagrass pictured here can help to act as a filter by taking up a lot of nutrients but we are putting more than it can handle so there is obviously enough for the algae too. The seagrass beds were extensive and healthy so the eutrophication has not yet started to affect them but more nutrients and the seagrass beds could disappear too since they are also sensitive to light reduction and overgrowth by algae.

 Another very common sigh was this beautiful lionfish. On one day we counted seeing 12. You might think wow, what a great fish to see but in fact, it is not native to the Caribbean. It is from the south Pacific and was likely introduced by people with marine aquariums that no longer wanted them so they released the fish into the ocean. This fish is a voracious predator and is affecting local fish populations because nothing eats them and they eat everything! There is an active bounty on these fish in the Playa del Carmen region of Mexico but sadly it is not enough of an incentive to fish them and since they are underwater, they are out of sight and out of mind. You can read about lionfish control and management measures in the US here. Hopefully this will be a coordinated effort among all Caribbean countries.

Of course we spent a lot of time with family over the tree weeks we were there. We did all of the typical Christmas and New Years traditions with all 30 family members that were visiting this year!! So that is it in a nutshell.

I am looking forward to catching up with all of you!

Mexican Recipes and Coconut Cream

We had a deal.

Diego would take over the cooking once he finished his PhD so that I could have more time to spend on mine. It was only fair since I did all the cooking while he was finishing up. Ever since he got back from Mexico he has been cooking AMAZING Authentic Mexican Dishes EVERY DAY! He has been collaborating with his mom on a blog of traditional Mexican recipes...they also had a deal...she would post her recipes and he would cook them and photograph them to finish off the post. The result, delicious food in my belly and a compendium of authentic traditional Mexican recipes called Comida Mexicana! You can use google translate, but some of the instructions get translated a little funny. Some of the recipes are photos of a recipe book from his Great Great Grandmother (dates back to 1850!). Since they are photos they cannot be translated by google so you will need a dictionary. Eventually we will make an English version but in the mean time...if you have any questions about a recipe, leave a comment on the blog!

The only downside to it all...is that I really enjoy cooking so I do miss it. I know it takes up a significant portion of my time and I do appreciate being served and having the extra time to work. However, sometimes I just can't resist baking. Which works out great since we both have a sweet tooth and Diego has been focusing on making savoury dishes. Enter one of my favorite pies...

Coconut Cream

Diego is not a fan of shredded coconut and the only coconut in most coconut cream pie recipes is shredded coconut... so I found (and modified) a recipe that uses coconut milk for the custard and it is divine!!!

Coconut Cream Pie (original recipe)

Custard
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1/2 cup of unrefined sugar
1/4 tsp salt
2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups of cream
1 1/2 cups of coconut milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 9 to 10 inch pie crust - baked and cooled

Whipped cream
1 1/4 cups of chilled whipping cream
1 tbsp of icing sugar
1 tsp cornstarch (I think I might leave this out next time...)
1/2 tsp of vanilla

In a large saucepan, whisk together flour, sugar and salt. Whisk in eggs, cream and coconut milk until very smooth. If lumpy, strain before heating. Heat over medium heat, whisking continuously until custard comes to a boil and thickens. Yous should be able to see the impression of the whisk in the custard when it is done. Remove from, heat and stir in the vanilla. Pour into pre-baked pie shell and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

In a medium bowl, beat whipped cream, sugar, cornstarch and vanilla to stiff peaks and spread onto chilled pie.

If you like shredded coconut, you can add 1 1/4 cups of unsweetened coconut to the custard when you add the vanilla. You can also toast 1/4 cup of unsweetened coconut to sprinkle on top. I LOVE coconut so I added the toasted coconut to mine. Diego added coarse cane sugar to his to add a little crunch and sweetness, his tooth is sweeter than mine! The overall consensus...this pie is to DIE for. You want to close your eyes and grunt with pleasure with every bite! Ours lasted 3 days in the fridge and that was only under extreme self control... you have been warned.

Feliz Navidad!

Okay, so I am a day late but still I hope you had a very Merry Christmas!! We started the day at the beach and found a small reef about 800 m away and did some snorkeling.
The party started at 8 pm and went until 6 am! I was pooped by 2 am and my Spanish was failing so I bailed early. We had a blast at the party, 10 adults and a 3 year old. This year the celebration was at Diego's sister's place to make it easier for our nephew Santiago to get to bed after opening his presents. The thing I find the most interesting is how they decorate their houses with Christmas trees, snowmen and Santa Claus. They actually import live trees from Canada and the vast majority of Mexicans have never seen real snow!!
They do have Santa Claus and he does come in the night so Santiago had more present to open in the morning! I asked them how Santa got into the houses since they don't have chimneys and they have bars on all the windows... I don't think any of them had ever thought of that before, not even as children! One tradition that we don't have is to celebrate the arrival of the Wise Men so on Jan 6. On that night the kids put out a shoe and get a little gift. There is also a traditional cake that I describe here when I was fortunate enough to experience the celebration in 2009.

There were lots of gifts to go around and with each gift you have to hug and sing which just adds to the fun and celebratory ambiance. It took almost 3 hours for all the gifts to be opened and then it was time to eat (at 12 am!!!). As usual we had WAY to much food and we will be eating leftovers for at least another couple of days. I made Canadian style turkey dinner to go with the more traditional Mexican dishes and everyone LOVED IT! I even brought canned whole berry cranberry sauce to give them the real experience.
We also had Bacalao a la Vizcaina which is salted cod fish soaked in water to remove the salt and then cooked in a tomato sauce with onions, potatoes and olives. This is a very traditional dish for Christmas in Mexico and dates back to the Spanish conquest. There is no cod fish in Mexico but the Spanish used to fish the cod off the Canadian and American coast and brought the tradition with them. The link to the bacalao recipe is from Diego's great-great grandmother! The one we ate this year (photo below) is from his brother-in-law's family.
We had pork loin stuffed with nuts, plums and grapes with a nut and red wine sauce. Although not traditional and it doesn't look very appealing in the photo below, it was DELICIOUS! I am getting the recipe for sure. There was also a lasagna with walnuts, almonds, capers, olives and ground beef...who would have thought to put nuts in a lasagna but it was very tasty!
For dessert we had ensalada de manzana (apple salad with a cream sauce - in the yellow bowl) and hojaldra. Hojaldra is very traditional at Christmas and New Years and comes from the Yucatan peninsula. It is a layer of a pastry, one of ham, another of cheese and then topped with another layer of pastry sprinkled with coarse grain sugar. Diego's sister made it and I forgot to take a photo but for New Years, Diego's mom is going to teach me how to make it and I will pass on the information because it is delicious!

Noche Buena

Noche Buena or Christmas Eve in Mexico...we are preparing for the family gathering tonight. This will inlcude traditional food such as romeritos (dried shrimp with a type of grass and potatoes cooked in a chocolate and chili gravy),bacalao (salted cod with potatoes in a tomato and chili sauce) with the accompanying Canadian stuffed turkey. The gifts are wrapped and ready to be opened. For now we will head to the beach since the party doesn't start until 8 pm!

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas filled with good food, excellent company and lots of laughter.

A Delicious Twist on an Old Favorite

Being in 2 different departments at the University leads to many holiday parties. So to keep things simple during a busy time I always fall back on an old favorite with my added twist....Banana Bread. What is the twist you ask? Well adding a holiday fruit like cranberries and to balance the bitterness of the berries a few chocolate chips for a decadent treat!
I made this yesterday and a friend asked for the recipe, so I thought I would share it with everyone!

Ingredients
1-3/4 cups of flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp of salt
1/3 cup of shortening or butter or lard
2/3 cup of sugar (I use 1/2 cup when I have chocolate chips)
2 eggs
1 tsp of vanilla
3-4 mashed very ripe bananas
1 cup of chocolate chips
1/2 - 3/4 of a 340 g bag of fresh or frozen cranberries

***Update Jan 19, 2012 - instead of white flour I used Spearville Mills' Whole White Flour and it was VERY moist! I also used 1-85% dark chocolate bar broken into chunks instead of chocolate chips and I enjoyed it much better than the sweetness of the the chips. It was heavenly to bite into a chunk rather than a chip!***

Cream together butter and sugar until light and fluffy. Add eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Add bananas and mix well. I sometimes freeze my ripe bananas to get enough for the recipe, if you do this too thaw them first and not need to mash them before adding them to the mix. Add the vanilla and mix well.

Sift together the flour, salt, baking soda and powder and add in 4 portions to the mixture. Mix until smooth after each addition. Pour into a well greased pan and bake at 350F for 50 mins or until a knife comes out clean from the centre.

This tastes AMAZING right out of the oven with a little butter and a tea (or coffee)! The cranberries add extra moisture making this cake feel dense but the cake itself is light as is the flavour because of the bananas.

Enjoy!

Finally Some Progress!!!

Friday was a GREAT day... After a long summer of hard work I finally finished Chapter 2 of my thesis!!! I also had my first chapter come out in print (you can view the abstract here) AND I finished the first week of teaching without a hitch! Diego is also progressing nicely! He has one chapter left to do revisions and his thesis will be off to his committee members...his defense...definitely before Christmas!

First and foremost I want to say Thanks to all of my friends nearby and in cyber space for your patience. It is hard but necessary to completely immerse myself in my work and I will need to keep at it for the next two chapters! I will keep you updated with my progress as I achieve "small" victories!

Of course it hasn't been all work. I do have to have some diversions to keep me from going absolutely crazy! Like my garden (the photos are from earlier this year)!

Kale
Our upside down tomatoes...they had white flies but still produced lots of cherry tomatoes.
Our herb garden was out of control! We also had lots of tomato plants everywhere! I made sauce with them for the winter.
We had lots of peas and the brussel sprouts are starting to form!
Our potato plants flowered...did you know the smell amazing!?! AND they made about 2 kg of potatoes! I planted red ones and they are delicious!
We also made a lot of delicious food...like this amazing Hawaiian Pizza! I made 3 batches of strawberry jam (Diego LOVES it on yogurt), 2 batches of strawberry-rhubarb and one batch of plum jam. They are all very tasty!
We had a couple of small side projects too (that are still in progress...). We were inspired to make our kitchen space more efficient so we magnetized our wooden cooking utensils! Now we have more counter space (no utensil holder) and they are right where we need them.
We also magnetized our existing spice jars to go on the side of the fridge and freed up some space on the shelf above the stove...it was a nightmare of crowded jars and spices were hard to find...not anymore!
Can you see the hanging wooden spoons? We drilled holes in our salsa spoons so we could hang them within reach...now they are no longer crowding up our drawer! Can you tell we have been spending too much time cooped up at home??!
The last item of note is my new found passion for vintage hairstyles! Diego bought me the above book for my birthday (end of Aug) and I have been doing vintage styles ever since!
I did this one on my b-day dinner out. I had victory rolls at the front, late 40's style. Many of them are time consuming and require patience BUT once you get the technique right then you can start making it more efficient.
This one is my favorite. It is a 30's style and the front has a finger wave. It is also one of the easiest to do! I usually do half at night (like foam curlers) and then sleep on it so it only takes 15 mins in the morning. Although, you do have to sleep in a kerchief! Diego loves the styles and laughs every time he sees me in a kerchief. I have yet to venture and try the beehive! I will let you know when I do!

Back to work! Ciao for now!

Delicious Food!

Other than food, work, a little gardening and yoga outside (when it is not raining...which is not often!) there is not much else going on right now. I am trying very hard to get 2 chapters of my thesis done this summer so I can finish my PhD by next summer. I know I said I would take a blogging break this summer but I just couldn't help myself. I have actually been missing it. Since all the excitement in my life is about food, this is what I will be posting about today.
I made these amazing strawberry-rhubarb galettes for Father's Day (photo from the recipe website). My dad would have loved them! The recipe says that it makes 6 personal sized galettes but really one can be easily shared between 2 people. I did not have the 5 spice mix that it called for so I substituted with cinammon, nutmeg, cardamom and cloves and they were DELICIOUS!

Yesterday, Diego and I made the fresh strawberry pie I posted last year at this time. I also have 10 quarts of strawberries waiting to made into jam and pies. I will freeze the pies uncooked to be eaten over the winter.
This is my latest cookbook acquisition and I LOVE it! If you love Indian, Pakistani and Sri Lankan food, this is the book for you! You can take a peek at it here. A friend of mine turned me on to it by cooking amazing recipes from the book every time we went over so I bit the bullet and bought it last week. Every recipe I have tried so far has been amazing. I have only personally made 3 from the book but have eaten at least 6. The recipes are not all that complicated but you should read them ahead of time. There are usually quite a few steps but you can do them concurrently...like cooking the chicken while preparing the sauce...

One of my favourite recipes from this book is called Beets with Tropical Flavours and has been reproduced here. If you don't know what to do with beets, definitely give this a try. I have beets peeled and ready to make it tonight!

I had a whole happy (free range organic) chicken in the freezer so I opened the book to the chicken & eggs section and just picked a recipe more or less (I read the ingredients to made sure I had everything) at random. I was not disappointed.

Aromatic Slow Cooked Chicken (serves 5-6)
Source: Mangoes & Curry Leaves by Jeffrey Alford & Naomi Duguid

Ingredients:
2-lb of bone in chicken or on2 2.5-3 lb whole chicken
3 cups of water
1/2 cup of vegetable oil or ghee (clarified butter)
1 tsp cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)
1/2 tsp coarsely ground black pepper
1 cup of grated onion
1 Tbsp of minced or mashed garlic
1 Tbsp of minced or mashed ginger
1 Tbsp of ground coriander
1-1/2 tsp of salt
2 green cayenne chilies, minced
2 Tbsp of plain yogurt
2 tsp of rice vinegar
1 tsp of sugar
1/2 cup of chopped fresh coriander leaves and stems

Wash the chicken and remove the skin and discard (this video shows you how to skin and cut up a whole chicken). Chop breasts into 4 pieces and separate the thighs and drumsticks. If the drumsticks are large, chop them in half. If you are using a whole chicken, you want to have 10-12 pieces. Remove any bone fragments and rinse the chicken well. Place the chicken in a heavy pot (I used my cast iron dutch oven) and add water. Bring to a vigorous boil, lower the heat and simmer partially covered for 30-40 mins or until the chicken is just cooked through. Remove the chicken pieces and set aside. Measure out 2 cups of broth and reserve. If you have more than 2 cups, you can use the rest to make rice to accompany the chicken. If you have less, top it up with water.

Rinse and dry the pot, then heat the oil or ghee over medium heat. Toss in the cumin seeds and black pepper and when the oil sputters a little (after ~ 30 sec) add the onion, garlic and ginger and stir. Cook for ~5-10 mins, stirring frequently, until the onions are softened and translucent, then add the ground coriander, salt and minced chilies. Stir well and cook for several minutes to blend the flavours. Stir in the yogurt, one spoonful at a time, until well blended. Pour in the reserved broth and add chicken pieces. bring to a boil, then reduce and simmer for several minutes. Add the vinegar and sugar and stir in. Raise the heat and bring to a boil, then reduce the heat slightly and cook at a strong simmer for several minutes. Toss in the chopped coriander and simmer for another minute. Serve, hot with the remaining coriander strewn on top as a garnish.

This is amazing over rice or with Naan bread. We ate it for at least 3 meals and it just gets better with age. I followed the recipe to the letter (except the cumin seeds) the first time but next time I would cook the chicken in a separate pot while preparing the sauce to cut the prep time down by about 10 minutes. Since I used the same pot as the chicken, once everything was cut up I had about 10 mins to spare.

I can't wait to try some of the fish recipes on our CSF fish...that starts next week! They have more delivery locations this year and will set up a new location if you get 10 or more subscribers. Definitely check them out here if you like sustainably caught fish!

Keeping Myself Busy

Despite teaching being done for the summer I have been keeping myself quite busy. Before my parents came for an Easter visit, I did a long awaited (ahem...6 years) clean up of our front entryway. It is a vestibule that is not heated or insulated but protected from the elements because it is closed in. I guess we kinda considered it part of the "outside" and it was sorely neglected. We used it as a storage area and stuff just piled up, it was such a mess. The walls were sooo dirty, it took 3 buckets to clean them! I finally got fed up with seeing the mess every time I came home. I thought to myself, "This is what greets me after a long day or work...it is also what greets our guests, this is not acceptable" and the cleaning began. I am not proud of our neglect, but I am proud of the final product!
We now have a welcoming place to greet our guests, a spot to store our scooters and hang our helmets complete with name tags!
Eventually, it will need to be painted but this is a good start!

I also prepared some lemon marmalade using this recipe and some of Sherrie's Meyer Lemon and Vanilla Jelly as a birthday gift for my Dad. He LOVES marmalade. I am not a big fan so I didn't try it...I hope it turned out okay!

Making Pectin

I know the lemon Jelly turned out AMAZING! I will definitely be making it again soon. We had it on crepes with blueberries and light maple syrup on Easter Sunday and it was delicious!
My parents brought us a gallon of Ontario maple syrup that we have been using up on yogurt and homemade granola! They also lugged a bunch of items from my youth, 3 sets of tarot cards, some kids Christmas books and my favourite musical pillow! Stashed in among the stuff were some lovely crocks that I have placed around the house (thanks for the spelling correction!).
While they were here, we stayed at the lovely place on the ocean from my previous post. We were lucky to have a couple of sunny days and took advantage of it by going hiking along the ocean.

Even though it was sunny the wind was still cold! We saw lots of eider ducks and some black guillemots! We also explored the remnants of World War II. There are lots scattered along the rugged coast along the Halifax Harbour approaches.

Bunker

Train tracks to bring concrete for building the bunkers and other supplies from ships.

Now I that they have gone and I am back at home I have been working on my thesis. I had a meeting with my supervisory committee last week and they have approved my remaining chapters (YAY!). Now I just need to buckle down and get them done!!! It is time to be a hermit which means I will be taking it very easy on blogging but I will continue to keep up with everyone.

Take Care! :) See you all soon!

PS. I hope you all like my new spring banner...complete with the ominous fog bank sitting just off the coast. I LOVE fog and we have been having a lot of it lately! :)