Yummy Hummus

We had a really nice time yesterday, the botanical gardens were gorgeous and I can't say enough nice things about the Chinese garden, it really was breath taking, just wow! The attention to detail was more than I expected, you really felt like you were in China, not that I've ever been there but I imagine it would be close! :D

I'm planning for a Mezze Platter tonight so I'll be needing another batch of my Baba Gannouj, some of my Taboulé and some Hummus. So my recipe for today is Hummus :)

Weez's Perfect Hummus

1 1/4 cups cooked chickpeas, reserve some cooking liquid

2 tbs. Tahini, 30gr.

2 tbs. lemon juice, 30gr.

1 tbs olive oil, 15gr.

1 small clove garlic, chopped

1/4 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. cumin

1-3 tablespoons of chickpea cooking liquid

Put all ingredients except cooking liquid into a food processor and process until smooth add liquid 1 tbs. at a time until you have the right consistency.

Once you've made your Taboulé, Baba Gannouj and Hummus, you can assemble your Mezze Platter.

Add Taboulé to the middle of the platter with Baba Gannouj and Hummus on either side. Add olives, roasted pepper, artichoke salad, stuffed grape leaves and pita crackers.

Sprinkle a bit of paprika on the 2 spreads and serve!

The Montreal Botanical Gardens today!!

No time for a recipe today, it's Katrina's Birthday and we're going to the botanical gardens and a late lunch. She really hates this picture of herself and most likely she'll want to kick my butt when she sees it but what the hell, here she is the birthday girl, 31 today, time flies:

It's going to be a hot day out there so we opted to get going early to try and beat the heat but so far I'm already burning up, then again it could be a heat flash! I hate menopause! :D

I did go out and buy a Tagine yesterday. I didn't know what I would find and I wasn't even expecting to find one let alone a nice one but I was really lucky, I got a really nicely decorated Tagine and made in Morocco! :) I already seasoned it yesterday so it's all ready to use! Expect a few Moroccan recipes soon...

Also weigh in day today, lost a 1/2 pound, not much but better than a kick in the butt! :D

Hoddeok... or Korean Pancakes

I added a cute little ticker to the top of my page today, hoping it will continue to keep me motivated but I will say so far I'm really pumped! So far a pound a week which is a tiny bit more than I should be losing :P
Also, I'm really having fun with these recipes, pulling out old favorites and finding new stuff at the same time. I'm thinking Moroccan in the next few days.

So what goes better with a Korean meal than a Korean dessert?
These are tasty little pancakes that you can eat warm or cold and from what I've read, they are sold by many street vendors in Korea so they must be pretty good.
I haven't mastered the "in hand" technique of sealing in the filling but I had no trouble making them right on the counter.

Hoddeok

In a large bowl mix: 1/2 cup warm water, 1 tbs. sugar, 1 tsp. dry yeast, 1/4 tsp. salt and 1-1/2 tsp. oil

Add 1 cup of flour and stir well until smooth, cover with plastic wrap

Let rise for about one hour, lift the wrap and stir down and let rise again for about 30 minutes or until you're ready to make the pancakes.

For the filling mix: 1/2 cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. cinnamon and 3 tbs. finely chopped walnuts

Remove the dough from the bowl onto about 1/2 cup of flour. The dough will be very stick so be sure to flour your hands too. Knead some flour into the dough for about 1 minute and then cut the dough ball into 4 equal pieces. Flatten each ball into a 5" circle.

Add 2 tbs. filling to each circle.

Lift all the sides and pinch them together to seal in the filling.

Heat a bit of oil in a pan on medium heat, place one pancake at a time in the pan sealed side down and let brown for about 2 minutes without touching it.

Flip it over and with a spatula, gently press it down all around and cook for another 2 minutesor so.
Flip it over again and let cook for another 30 seconds. Serve warm or cold.

Jap Chae and Gamja Jorim: Part 2

Last night I posted the Jap Chae so this morning I will post the Gamja Jorim (Korean potatoes)
These are so good you'll be finding all sorts of excuses to make them and the best part is you don't need any special ingredients! Chances are you already have everything you need to make them right now.

This recipe makes enough for 2-3 servings but you can easily double it if you have a really big non stick skillet. Word of warning though, don't change the quantities or ingredients or you won't get the proper results.

Gamja Jorim

2 cups of cubed potatoes, see pic for size (330gr.)
1 tbs. oil (15gr.)
1/2 cup water
2 tbs. soy sauce (30gr.)
2 tbs. corn syrup (30gr.)
1.5 tbs. white sugar (20gr.)
3 garlic cloves, chopped (6gr.)
1/2 tsp. sesame seeds

Add oil to the pan with potatoes. Cook for about 5 minutes on medium high until they start to brown a bit. Add the water, soy sauce, corn syrup, sugar and the garlic and keep cooking until the sauce is reduced to a paste, about 5 minutes.
Reduce the heat to medium and keep cooking for another 5-7 minutes. You'll know it's done when you see the oil separate from the sauce a bit. Don't forget to keep stirring every minute or so. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and mix.
Remove to a serving bowl and run away with it! LOL

Jap Chae and Gamja Jorim: Part 1

This morning I was sitting at the kitchen table with my coffee trying to figure out what I was going to conjure up for diner. Then it hit me, I had just remembered my favorite Korean meal! Jap Chae and Gamja Jorim. Jap Chae is really great noodle stir fry, lots of flavour and texture and the noodles are out of this world. They're called glass noodles or sweet potato starch noodles. You should be able to find them in any Asian grocery store.

here's why they're called glass noodles:

They become clear and very stretchy when cooked and it only takes about 5 minutes so check them often or you'll end up with a pile of mushy noodles.

Jap Chae

1 bunch of glass noodles, about 85gr. uncooked
1/2 bag of fresh spinach, about 120gr. once cooked, rinsed and squeezed out
1 tbs. canola oil, divided
1/2 carrot cut into thin matchsticks, about 60gr.
6 dried shiitake mushrooms, soaked for about 1 hour, squeezed out and sliced
8 white button mushrooms, sliced, about 80gr.
2 green onions, cut to 2" diagonally, about 40gr.
1 small onion sliced thinly, about 60gr.
1 tbs. sugar
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbs soy sauce
3 cloves garlic

Start by cooking the noodles as described above. Drain and empty into a large bowl, sprinkle about 1/3 of the soy sauce and 1/3 of the sesame oil and toss. Using a fork, pick up the noodles and cut them up with scissors.

Meanwhile cook your spinach for just a minute or two and immediately rinse in cold water. Squeeze them out and cut into 1" pieces.

Arrange the spinach over the noodles.

Heat 1 tsp. of the canola oil in a wok or non stick pan, add carrot sticks and saute for about 3 minutes, arrange over spinach and sprinkle with 1/2 the sugar.

Heat another tsp of canola oil and cook the onions until softened and translucent, add the button mushrooms and cook until done, add the garlic and cook for another 2 minutes.

Add to the noodles and sprinkle with 1/3 of the sesame oil and 1/3 of the soy sauce.

Add the remaining tsp. of canola oil to the pan and add the green onions and shiitake mushrooms, saute for about 3 minutes and add to the noodles. Sprinkle with remaining sesame oil, sugar and soy sauce.
Toss and enjoy!

Tomorrow I'll post the Gamja Jorim, the best potatoes you'll ever have!! YUM!!!

The Amazing Exploding Eggplant

This morning was eggplant bharta day. My son loves the stuff and I had the opportunity to taste some this week when we went to Montreal to help him paint. He orders it from a little take out restaurant called Tandoori Xpress. I will admit I really liked it so on the way home I picked up an eggplant and decided I'd give it a shot.

So I started with the usual oven roasting of the eggplant. Now normally I poke a bunch of holes in it, put a foil lined cooking sheet on the lower rack and the eggplant on the upper rack. Well this morning I decided to follow the instructions I saw on a website saying that poking holes was not nessessary, obviously that person was a joker!!

About 40 minutes in the oven was how long it took to cook my eggplant. How did I know it was cooked? Well I think the biggest clue was the earth shattering explosion in my oven! My eggplant exploded up with such a force that it actually blew open the oven door!

Lucky for me I was able to salvage 95% of it because it popped opened on the bottom so what ever splattered ended up on the foil.

OK, so the eggplant is done! LOL I let it cool in the fridge for about 1 hour and then moved on to the recipe, which turned out great by the way. I think the take out version was quite a bit more oily so in the long run I prefer mine, just the right amount of heat too!

Eggplant Bharta

1 large eggplant (roasted, cooled, peeled and chopped)
4 tsp. oil (20gr.)
1/2 green pepper
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 medium tomatoes, chopped
3 tbs. tomato paste
3/4 tsp. ground chili
1/4" slice of ginger
1 tsp. ground cumin
1 tsp, ground coriander
1/2 tsp. tumeric
3/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp garam masala

Start by oven roasting your eggplant for about 45-60 minutes in a 400f oven, you may want to poke holes in it before popping it in the oven. Let cool, peel and chop, set aside.
Put oil in a large non stick pan. Cook the chopped peppers until softened, then remove and set aside also. In the same oil add the onion and garlic and cook over medium heat until softened, add cumin, coriander and tumeric and cook a few minutes longer.
While the onion mixture is cooking add the tomatoes, tomato paste, chopped ginger and chili to a blender and blend just until slightly chunky to almost smooth. Add tomato mixture to pan and cook until reduced by about half. Add the eggplant and cook, stirring and mashing with the back of a wooden spoon until no large chunks remain. Add salt and garam masala during the last 2 minutes.
Serve with rice and naan bread.

Here's Gilles pretending to be happy about yet another vegan meal! LOL



Wisteria vine gone wild!!

Today I have to prune my wisteria vine! It's scary, kinda like in those horror films where you get too close to the vine and it wraps itself around you and you disappear! LOL
And talk about being a crazy strong vine, it actually broke one of the spindles on my porch! I was nearly swallowed alive to get this picture...

I'm hoping Bob gets back from his car repairs early so he can give me a hand and at the same time he can call 911 if I do get eaten by my vine! Ha!

it's even trying to get in the house, I can't even count all the vines I broke opening and closing the window...

Plus I read that if I prune severely, it will flower a whole lot more. They take so many years to flower, this one in particular I've had for about 5 years now and it made it's first flower this year:

So maybe next year if I prune it properly I'll have a ton of flowers instead of just one 8->

Green Smoothies??? YUCK!!!

Today we're driving to HELL! (Montreal) Bob want us to go to his place and help him paint, yippee!
If he didn't live in Montreal we would definitely visit way more often but the driving conditions there are so horrible. I usually get home with a screaming headache and I'm not even the one driving! LOL!
At least he lives on a very nice quiet street, it sort of makes up for the torturous drive.

Anyway, on with today's topic, SMOOTHIES....
Actually a green smoothie is anything but YUCK!!! They're fabulous! All you need is a really good blender to pulverize everything you throw in it and you have a great breakfast, lunch or snack. There really are no rules except trying to get at least 2-3 ounces of fresh greens in it, and there's lots to choose from... kale, chard, romaine, spinach or a combo depending on what's in the fridge. Mine always have bananas and spinach with a couple more fruits, usually apples, oranges or pineapple.

So what's the point of a smoothie instead of juice? Well it's simple, juice has been stripped of quite a few nutrients and most of the fibre whereas a smoothie incorporates everything except the inedible parts, I'm not saying to throw in apple cores or banana peels but you know what I mean.

Another plus is the fact that you'll be eating raw greens without even noticing them. People in general don't eat as many raw greens as they should. Think back on yesterday, did you eat any raw greens? If you did it was most likely a small salad containing maybe one ounce of iceberg lettuce and slathered in an oily dressing.

As I mentioned before, you'll need a good blender, you'll know if you have a good one when you've made your smoothie. If you have any chunks or pieces of greens then you have a blender but not a good one. If your smoothie is smooth as silk, you have a good one, easy peasy!

If you'll be shopping for a blender, look for one with a minimum of 20,000 rpm, more is even better.

This smoothie contains:

1 apple

1 orange

1 banana

1 cup of pineapple

3 ounces spinach

Throw it all in your blender and blend until smooth, Voila!

The Bathing Suit

Today is weigh in day, 154.5 woohoo! So I thought I'd post a funny story about bathing suit shopping. Actually it's really not funny, it's scary but what the hell, I'm sure quite a few of you ladies out there can relate!!

The Bathing Suit (by an unknown middle-age woman )

When I was a child in the 1950s, the bathing suit for the mature figure was-boned, trussed and reinforced, not so much sewn as engineered. They were built to hold back and uplift, and they did a good job.

Today's stretch fabrics are designed for the prepubescent girl with a figure carved from a potato chip.

The mature woman has a choice, she can either go up front to the maternity department and try on a floral suit with a skirt, coming away looking like a hippopotamus that escaped from Disney's Fantasia, or she can wander around every run-of-the-mill department store trying to make a sensible choice from what amounts to a designer range of fluorescent rubber bands.

What choice did I have? I wandered around, made my sensible choice and entered the chamber of horrors known as the fitting room. The first thing I noticed was the extraordinary tensile strength of the stretch material. The Lycra used in bathing costumes was developed, I believe, by NASA to launch small rockets from a slingshot, which gives the added bonus that if you manage to actually lever yourself into one, you would be protected from shark attacks. Any shark taking a swipe at your passing midriff would immediately suffer whiplash.

I fought my way into the bathing suit, but as I twanged the shoulder strap in place I gasped in horror, my boobs had disappeared!

Eventually, I found one boob cowering under my left armpit. It took a while to find the other. At last I located it flattened beside my seventh rib.

The problem is that modern bathing suits have no bra cups. The mature woman is meant to wear her boobs spread across her chest like a speed bump. I realigned my speed bump and lurched toward the mirror to take a full view assessment.

The bathing suit fitted all right, but unfortunately it only fitted those bits of me willing to stay inside it. The rest of me oozed out rebelliously from top, bottom and sides. I looked like a lump of Playdoh wearing undersized cling wrap.

As I tried to work out where all those extra bits had come from, the prepubescent sales girl popped her head through the curtain, "Oh, there you are," she said, admiring the bathing suit.

I replied that I wasn't so sure and asked what else she had to show me.
I tried on a cream crinkled one that made me look like a lump of masking tape, and a floral two-piece that gave the appearance of an over sized napkin in a serving ring.

I struggled into a pair of leopard-skin bathers with ragged frills and came out looking like Tarzan's Jane, pregnant with triplets and having a rough day.

I tried on a black number with a midriff and looked like a jellyfish in mourning.

I tried on a bright pink pair with such a high cut leg I thought I would have to wax my eyebrows to wear them.

Finally, I found a suit that fitted, it was a two-piece affair with a shorts-style bottom and a loose blouse-type top. It was cheap, comfortable, and bulge-friendly, so I bought it. My ridiculous search had a successful outcome, I figured.

When I got it home, I found a label that read, "Material might become
transparent in water."

So, if you happen to be on the beach or near any other body of water this year and I'm there too, I'll be the one in cut-off jeans and a T-shirt! 

and here's another senario:

 Well I didn't write that but I may as well have, it's the reason I don't even own a bathing suit!! LOL

So last night I got lazy, I made something I usually make from scratch but while I was at Kim Phat I picked up a pre-made mix for mapo/mabo tofu. I guess you could call it a Chinese version of Hamburger Helper LOL.

You just need to add your own tofu chunks and ground pork which I replaced with TVP (textured vegetable protein).

I was quite surprised at how it turned out, I'd say it's almost exactly like scratch!! The only thing I'd like to gripe about is the heat. Normally I make it pretty mild but even being the medium hot mix...

It turned out looking just like in the pic except I added some *sticky rice to eat with the sauce, so I didn't bother adding my own pic... LOL!

and I used extra firm silken tofu instead of regular tofu...

Sticky Rice in a Microwave

 The Recipe for today, How to cook Sticky Rice in a microwave. Turns out it's a "sticky" subject, the traditional method of cooking is steamed in a banana leaf colander which is great if you have it but in the end you're left with quite a mess and pretty much the same rice as my method.

My way, you need a small covered glass casserole and your microwave.
Add 1 cup of sticky rice to the casserole, add 1-1/4 cup cold water, cover and let soak for 20-30 minutes. Pop it in the microwave and cook on high for 3 minutes, remove, stir and return for another 3 minutes. Voila! Perfect sticky rice, no mess!

Note: do not increase or decrease the quantities, this method is for 1 cup of dry uncooked rice only...

Chinese Vegetarian Chicken

Let me tell you all a bit about my husband and his food preferences. Very simply, he's traditional. He likes meatloaf, hamburgers with fries, hamburger steak with mashed potatoes, Tourtiere Québécoise, Steak and a baked potato.... if he's in the mood for International he'll ask for Spaghetti and if he's really feeling daring he'll order a Margarita Pizza /:) So now you get the idea... He really doesn't like to stray from what he likes let alone any international or ethnic food.

On the other hand, I love trying new stuff. I'm always looking for new recipes from different cultural backgrounds. You may have noticed that even though this is a relatively new blog, I've already included some Middle Eastern, Cuban, Italian, Russian and Japanese recipes. Mind you they have been doctored a bit to fit the vegan bill but you get the idea.

So where am I going with all this? We'll start with yesterday's shopping trip to Kim Phat, our local Asian market, great place by the way, it's huge and they have everything you need.

Anyway, I pack the bags into the car and on the way home he says "what stinks?" Well that was a great start! What "stank" were the Chinese mushroom that were going into last night's diner. Now let me say, they didn't really stink, it's just what those mushrooms smell like. Then to make things worse, a few hours after putting them in the fridge, he says "it smells like someone pooped in the fridge"!!

Now at that point I'm having second thoughts about feeding him any of what was on the menu but I decided to put him through the "torture" anyway. I'm sitting here typing this and keep having to hold back from laughing every couple of minutes because what happened when he ate it... just had me on the floor in hysterics and even he thought it was hilarious. 

Those mushrooms just didn't sit well with him, now look at the pic, nothing horrible, just rice with mushrooms and baby bok choy with a slice of Chinese vegetarian chicken roll (recipe to follow) and a dumpling soup, the only thing he liked besides the rice 8-|

So we're both eating, I'm really enjoying it and he's sort of force feeding himself when he starts eating one of "those" mushrooms and just flat out dry heaves nice and loud!!! =))
At this point we're both laughing and then he starts up with his descriptions... "OMG it's like swallowing a raw clam" and "it tastes like a dirty sock" at which point I asked him if he had ever had the pleasure of eating a dirty sock! So.... this is what I have to deal with when I'm not making spaghetti... yipee! Of course later on in the evening his little jokes kept coming... "So what were those? Chinese yacking mushrooms?"

So today I will post the recipe for the Chinese Vegetarian Chicken courtesy of Jennifer Yu of use real butter who graciously permitted me to copy her recipe. This is something I've made a few times now and it's always a hit with all of us in the house except hubby, he says it's OK.... =D>  three out of four ain't bad!

I pretty much made the recipe exactly like Jennifer's but I used green onions instead of bamboo shoots... enjoy!

Chinese Vegetarian Chicken

1/2 cup shiitake mushrooms, stems removed and tops sliced thin
1/2 cup green onions, sliced into strips
6 sheets dried tofu skin sheets
1/2 cup soy sauce
dash sesame oil
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
2 tbsp vegetable oil

If you make the recipe with vegetables, stir fry the mushrooms and green onions together in a tbsp. of vegetable oil and set aside.

In a saucepan, combine the soy sauce and sugar. Stir until dissolved and bring to boil. Remove from heat and add sesame oil and 1/2 cup water.

Let the package of tofu sheets thaw. Select out the whole sheets. You will need two whole sheets and one ripped sheet for each loaf you plan to make. You can trim the “good” whole sheets to the largest possible rectangle with scissors and set the trimmings aside with the ripped sheets. Rinse the trimmings and ripped sheets under cold water and squeeze them out being careful not to tear the rectangles. Soak the wet tofu sheets in the sauce and mix well for even soaking.

Take a clean, damp cloth and wipe down the whole sheets. Place two sheets on a clean work surface. Grab a handful of the soaking tofu sheets and wipe down both sides of a whole sheet with the filling (to get the good flavor on it). Reserve the sauce.

Place a pile of the soaked filling near the edge closest to you on the whole sheet. Add vegetables on top and place more soaked filling on top and wrap it around the vegetables to keep them centered.

Fold the sheet over the filling, wrapping it into a tight roll. Fold with the second sheet the same way. Seal the edge by wiping cornstarch along the edge and folding it onto the damp tofu skin. Make the second roll.

Heat vegetable oil on medium high in a pan large enough to accommodate the rolls. Sear the packets on both sides for a few minutes. Poke holes in the sides. Pour the remaining sauce over the loaves and cover the pan. Allow the roll to simmer on medium to low heat for 4-5 minutes, flip, and simmer another 3-4 minutes. Remove from pan. You can serve sliced, hot or cold, but I think slicing is much easier when it is cooled.

These are the skins, I pictured them with regular kitchen scissors for comparison:

Use 2 full sheets for each roll, cut them to the largest rectangle you can make and save the trimmings.

Rince them in water and squeeze out as much water as possible and soak them all in the sauce:

Lay out the 2 full sheets and add 1/4 the trimmings at the end closest to you:

Add 1/2 of the sauteed vegetables and top with another 1/4 of the trimmings:

Roll up tightly by folding the skin over the filling and giving it one turn, fold over left side and give it another turn then fold over the right side and keep rolling tightly, roll it up again in a second skin adding a bit of cornstarch to the seam to seal it up and repeat for the second roll:

add oil to pan and fry on all sides for about 4-5 minutes until browned, poke holes all over the roll and add sauce and simmer covered for about 5 minutes per side:

Slice and serve!

Yum!

The Yard in almost full bloom

Sitting here typing with an icepack on my shoulder, not very comfortable but it's better than not typing at all.
Yesterday I spent most of the day relaxing. At some points it got a bit boring but all in all it was a good day. I walked around the yard and snapped a few pics and even got a pretty good pic of Corbin  standing in his favorite place, facing the Buddha statue. Whenever he's there, which is often, we say he's praying to Buddha.  

The pond...

the waterfall, needs to be cleaned again, damned hair algae!!

Tomato soup coneflowers...

Elderberry blooms...

Hibiscus...

I forget...

the gazebo...

my fishies...



Alrighty then.... I'm off to Kim Phat this morning to get a few ingredients for my next recipes....