leave your fancy pants in the closet

One of my best friends is taking 6 months out of her Vancouver life to ride her bike to Mexico with her boyfriend. They are still enroute, but after weeks of cycling in the rain and wind and cold, they certainly appreciate a home-cooked meal and basic shelter. Central heating wouldn't be amiss, either. You can read about their journey here and if you like, take a peek at Kristen's etsy shop. What's all this got to do with food? This may not be a vegan post (Kristen & her boyfriend are vegans), but it is a post that features some truely comforting food. And I'm sure something hot and home-cooked would go down nicely while riding down a cold, wet highway.

Comfort food ain't pretty, but pleasing the belly is sometimes more important than pleasing the eye and this stew fits the bill perfectly. It's nothing fancy. The flavours are simple, the directions are straight forward and once you add the ingredients, the dish pretty much takes care of itself. Nice. This recipe is also pretty flexible. You can add different vegetables (some rutabaga would be great) and you can control the amount of gravy by the amount of liquid and flour you use. And if you want to pull out all the comfort stops, certainly some dumplings cooked in the pot during the last few minutes wouldn't hurt a thing.

paprika chicken & vegetable stew
6 chicken thighs, skinned
2 T smoked hot paprika
1 T olive oil
4 medium potatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 c mushrooms
2 T flour
2 c chicken broth (+ more water or broth, if needed, to generously cover vegetables)
1 T dijon mustard
1 t dried sage
1/2 bottle of beer
1/2 c frozen peas

1. Sprinkle chicken on all sides with paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot and add chicken. Saute until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add vegetables (except the peas....those come in later) and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Stir in broth and beer.

2. Return chicken and any juices to the pot. Add dijon mustard and sage. Stir to combine and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Add frozen peas during the last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with rice or crusty bread.

leave your fancy pants in the closet

One of my best friends is taking 6 months out of her Vancouver life to ride her bike to Mexico with her boyfriend. They are still enroute, but after weeks of cycling in the rain and wind and cold, they certainly appreciate a home-cooked meal and basic shelter. Central heating wouldn't be amiss, either. You can read about their journey here and if you like, take a peek at Kristen's etsy shop. What's all this got to do with food? This may not be a vegan post (Kristen & her boyfriend are vegans), but it is a post that features some truely comforting food. And I'm sure something hot and home-cooked would go down nicely while riding down a cold, wet highway.

Comfort food ain't pretty, but pleasing the belly is sometimes more important than pleasing the eye and this stew fits the bill perfectly. It's nothing fancy. The flavours are simple, the directions are straight forward and once you add the ingredients, the dish pretty much takes care of itself. Nice. This recipe is also pretty flexible. You can add different vegetables (some rutabaga would be great) and you can control the amount of gravy by the amount of liquid and flour you use. And if you want to pull out all the comfort stops, certainly some dumplings cooked in the pot during the last few minutes wouldn't hurt a thing.

paprika chicken & vegetable stew
6 chicken thighs, skinned
2 T smoked hot paprika
1 T olive oil
4 medium potatoes, quartered
1 onion, quartered
2 carrots, cut into 1-inch pieces
1 c mushrooms
2 T flour
2 c chicken broth (+ more water or broth, if needed, to generously cover vegetables)
1 T dijon mustard
1 t dried sage
1/2 bottle of beer
1/2 c frozen peas

1. Sprinkle chicken on all sides with paprika, salt, and pepper. Heat oil in heavy large pot and add chicken. Saute until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Transfer chicken to plate. Add vegetables (except the peas....those come in later) and saute for a few minutes. Sprinkle vegetables with flour and stir to coat. Stir in broth and beer.

2. Return chicken and any juices to the pot. Add dijon mustard and sage. Stir to combine and reduce heat. Cover and simmer until chicken is cooked through, about 30 minutes. Add frozen peas during the last 10 minutes of cooking time. Serve with rice or crusty bread.

off the cuff.

Today I took work off my plate and decided to concentrate on Christmas crafting. Inspired by last night's button-making party/ANTM watching at my friend Carley's house (I brought those mint chocolate cookies!), I decided to sew rickrack on my screenprinted tea towels and tie up everything in ribbon. I also had plans on making felt ornaments, but didn't get as far along as I had hoped. Before too long, it was time for dinner and I had 4 chicken thighs defrosted just waiting to be used. I wanted to make an African-style meal that had a bit of spice, a bit of sweetness and a bit of sour. I looked through my cookbooks and I spent a few runs through Google typing in various ingredients, but my search was fruitless. So I decided to tackle dinner on my own. The end results were fantastic and it was a perfect meal for a chilly evening.

I used a homemade spiced pear jam in the recipe, but you really could use anything you had handy; peach jam, mango chutney, honey, molasses would all do a fine job I'm sure! I also didn't have any onions. If I had one, I would have added one. Have fun & play!

my african-inspired chicken stew
½ c flour
salt & pepper
4 skinless chicken thighs
1 T olive oil
1 large can of tomatoes
water
1 T spicy onion soup base
½ head of garlic, chopped
1 large knob of ginger, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 carrot, sliced into rounds
1 c broccoli, chopped
1 t red chili flakes
3 T raisins
2 T spiced pear jam
1 ½ t ground cinnamon
salt & pepper
juice of ½ lemon

1. Mix salt, pepper and flour together in a plate. Dredge chicken thighs in the flour.

2. Heat olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot. Add the chicken and brown on both sides.

3. Add the can of tomatoes into the pot and fill half the can with water and add that too. Add ginger, garlic, chili flakes salt, pepper, and onion soup base to the simmering pot and mix to combine. Simmer over medium heat.

4. Add celery, carrots, broccoli, mix to combine and cover for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

5. Add the jam, raisins, cinnamon and lemon juice and mix well. Cover and simmer on low heat for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add lemon juice into pot and mix well before serving.

6. Serve over rice or couscous.

ginger pineapple chicken -- the speedy way

Last night I told Cornelius I would have dinner ready by the time he returned from doing laundry. Time wise, I didn't hold up my end of the bargin, but it wasn't for lack of trying. He left with 2 loads to take over to our friendly (but slightly scary) neighbourhood laundromat and I searched the cupboard and fridge for ideas.

I had frozen chicken thighs, a can of pineapple, an onion, some celery, a large knob of fresh ginger and a few assorted items to make a nice sauce. Ah, some kind of sweet/sour sauced chicken, I thought! So that is what I set out to do.

I nuked the frozen chicken for a few minutes on a low setting. Still half frozen, I stirfried them with some garlic and ginger. I'm sure I was breaking some kind of rule by using still frozen chicken, but I was running out of time and I had a growling stomach to prove it. I dumped in a bit of vegetable broth once everything was nice and golden brown, threw in some red chilis, and put on a lid hoping that all the simmering would do the trick in fully cooking the chicken.

While things were gently bubbling away on the stove, I added some brown sugar, juice from the can of pineapple tidbits, soy sauce, white vinegar, more ginger & garlic and some sesame oil to the the remaining vegetable broth that I had left in a measuring cup. In another bowl, I made a slurry with a few tablespoons of the above mixture and some cornstarch.

It was around this part of the story when Cornelius did return with the loads of clean laundry and I didn't have things ready. No worries, as he quickly opened the cookie tin and started snacking on a couple of peanut butter cookies.

When I poked around the simmering chicken and noticed that things were indeed going as planned, i added some chopped celery and onions and the pineapple tidbits to the mix and then dumped in the sauce and some of the slurry to thicken everything up. I let the mixture bubble away for about another 10 minutes or so and then I served our meal up over some sticky rice.

Dinner went surprisingly well. We had clean clothes and our bellies were full. Not bad for a Sunday evening.

oh, couscous!

It's been one of those weeks where take-out seems to be the only way to go. I've resisted the urge to dial for pizza or order in Indian food, yet despite my resolve to cook what we had out of our cupboards, I wasn't really inspired. After browsing through cookbooks and dreaming about all the ingredients I didn't have at my immediate disposal, I decided that I'd have to just make do and make the best of a really bad situation. I had just read a restaurant review for a new Morocan restaurant and that, my friends, gave me true inspiration! I had cinnamon and spices, raisins and couscous! I could do anything!! So I tossed a few ingredients together in my trusty cast iron stewing pot and came up with something truely delicious.

Moroccan Chickpea and Vegetable Stew

I'm not very good at measuring, but I think you'll get the picture.

Ingredients: a can of chickpeas, a large can of tomatos, 1 small onion diced, 1 green pepper diced, olive oil, 1/2 a lemon, cumin, corriander, cinnamon, hot pepper flakes, salt, pepper.

In a large heavy pot, heat a small amount of olive oil and add the diced onion and green pepper. Add a dash of salt to the vegetables and let them get wilty but not mushy -- about 4 minutes. Stir in about a teaspoon each of the cumin and ground corriander (I didn't measure, but I'll assume that this is close). Add the can of tomatoes and crush them if needed. Normally, I chop them roughly before adding them to the pot, but this time I mashed them with a potato masher while in the pot. Next time I think I'll stick to chopping them beforehand, as the tomatoes were a bit too stringy. Next, I added the chickpeas and about 2-3 large handfulls of raisins, along with about 1/2 a teaspoon of hot pepper flakes and 1/2 teaspon (or more) of cinnamon. Mix everything together and cook over a low heat with the lid on until everything gets nice and soft, about 40 minutes. 10 minutes before serving, squeeze half a lemon into the stew for a bit of tang and mix well. Serve over couscous.

♥ This meal was great when we ate it on Saturday night with a nice glass of wine. It tasted even better tonight with some whole wheat bread spread with cold sweet butter. tasty!!

Sometimes you really can make something out of nothing.