Broccolette, Black Bean and Coconut with Israeli Couscous

We have furniture, just. After a long wait our sofa finally arrived today so our beds are no longer the sole place for us to park it. Had some heart palpitations when the movers arrived at the building and insisted there was no way it was going to fit in the elevator. They measured and calculated, then measured and calculated some more in the stairwell. Nope, there was no way it was going up to our apartment. I was close to tears at this point as the return policy was not favourable and let's just say this particular sofa is what you might call an investment piece. Anyway they brought it in and what do you know, it fit just fine! So now I have a sleek sexy Italian beauty to snuggle with every evening! Well, daytime too if today is anything to go by, just couldn't pull myself away. Hence today's recipe. This is a combination of what I had in the pantry and fridge (sound familiar) because someone didn't go to the grocery store ( blame the Italian). I must say, it turned out not bad at all.

Recipe

Broccolette, Black Bean and Coconut with Israeli Couscous
serves 4

1 bunch broccolette
1 small or 1/2 medium/large fennel, sliced
1/2 red onion, sliced
1 clove garlic, crushed
1/2 can black beans
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2 can coconut milk, well shaken
1 tsp caraway seeds
salt and pepper

Israeli Couscous
1 cup Israeli couscous
2 cups water

Make the couscous. Bring the water to a boil and add couscous. Simmer gently until soft, approximately 10 minutes. Israeli couscous is actually a pasta, so cook it as you would pasta. Drain and set aside.

Meanwhile heat the olive oil in a large pan and over a low heat gently cook the fennel, onion and garlic, until soft, 5-7 minutes. Trim the broccolette, removing any tough outer layer from the stems. Chop the stems and add to the fennel mixture, keeping the flower heads back. Cook for a further 5 minutes. 
Drain and rinse the black beans and add to the fennel mixture with the broccolette flowers and gently heat through, 3 minutes. Pour over the coconut milk and heat for another 5 minutes until hot.
Season with salt and pepper to taste and sprinkle in the caraway seeds.
Serve over the Israeli couscous.

 The rather pathetic alternative tree is up by the way.  Rather ingeniously and because we are cheap, we fashioned a base for our branch from a laundry hamper. Had a panic moment when we couldn't find Christmas lights for sale anywhere, but we eventually found one beaten up box of rather blueish looking lights after a desperate search around town.  It is quite possibly the weirdest Christmas tree ever!

Alternative Christmas Tree and Lazy Moussaka

 It's only been a week for us as downtown residents but it may be that's all it takes for me to establish myself as the local nut. Let me explain. There are some rules to condo living it seems, one such rule dictates the installment and removal of Christmas trees. Not one needle can be dropped on communal territory and no trees may be discarded either in the garbage room or left outside the property for pick up. So what are we to do? Well, we could of course wrap the tree well so as to catch all wayward needles and investigate where we might take our tree once the twelfth night is upon us. However, that seems like too much work for us folks. Last year, we took a vacation right after Christmas and decided to go the alternative tree route. Having a house back then, it was easy to haul in a large piece of ply, slap on a coat of blackboard paint and chalk on a simple tree outline, staple gun on the lights and voila. With no one home to vacuum the needles and haul the tree out on pick up day, our alternative tree was perfect. This year I had it in my mind that a branch in a pot would be our alternative. Today, I headed out to the local park to scavenge around for a fallen twig or two. (Here comes the local nut status part.) I didn't find a twig or a stick, I found half a tree! Okay, maybe not half a tree, at least that's not how it started out, but let me tell you, once I left the park and hit the streets and the closer it got to rush hour, the bigger I swear that branch got. What was a 10 minute walk to the park felt like a 10 hour walk home.When a young boy asked his dad what the heck that lady was doing with that stick, I knew things were not looking good for my rep here in town. As I wrestled twisted trunk and long unruly branches between pedestrians, around corners, across streets and ultimately through the apartment front door, wrapping a real tree and driving to a recycling depot didn't seem like too much work after all. I have yet to get the branch up to our apartment, it's hiding out in the back of our enormous truck (seems we don't do things small around here!) Tomorrow I shall enlist the help of Tim and Elliot, more as lookout patrol members, don't need the neighbours thinking I'm nut's too.

As you can imagine, all of today's shenanigans left me quite spent of ..um...pride?...no energy, that's it, so what is a girl to do but take a short cut in the kitchen. Lazy Moussaka was born. It is basically sort of Moussaka ingredients, kind of put together in, well, the laziest way possible. Enjoy.


Recipe

Lazy Moussaka

enough bolognese sauce for 4, use your favourite recipe
1 aubergine, sliced into 1/4 inch rounds
olive oil
2 tsp ground black pepper
2 tsp ground cumin
1 package goat cheese

Turn on your broiler. Place the aubergine slices on a baking sheet and drizzle on some olive oil. Evenly sprinkle on the black pepper and cumin. Place under the broiler and cook until starting to brown slightly. Turn the broiler off and leave the aubergine in the hot oven to continue cooking slightly.
Prepare your bolognese sauce or reheat if you happen to have some lying around(?).
To serve, place one aubergine slice on your plate, top with some sauce and sprinkle on some of the goat cheese. Repeat with two or three more slices of aubergine, layering with the sauce and goat cheese.
Top with some fresh oregano and cracked black pepper.

How lazy was that, I didn't even give you a sauce recipe! Tell you what here's a link to a good one, that's the best I can do tonight, tree wrangling is exhausting work.

Baked Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach

I can't believe we've been in our condo for a week already. We are slowly exploring our new neighbourhood and discovering exciting shops and interesting people everyday. We've had drinks, twice, with the lovely Eve from the floor below who I believe will have us pickled in no time. Thank goodness she only lives here on the weekends! Truth is, I'm a lightweight and it doesn't take much more than one gin and tonic to get me giggling at nothing. I managed to drag myself back up the stairs to our floor where my two hungry boys were waiting for dinner. I needed something fast and simple that didn't require any knife skills!

Having a jar of roasted red peppers to use up, I hit up Google for a tasty recipe and the above colourful delight graced our table in no time. It was quick, simple and delicious. The recipe called for basil leaves but having only spinach in the fridge I used them instead.

Recipe

Baked Chicken with Roasted Red Peppers and Spinach
adapted from inspired taste

serves 4

4 chicken breast, cut into smaller pieces
1 jar roasted red peppers, cut into smaller pieces if whole, reserve liquid
2 large handfuls fresh baby spinach leaves, washed and stems removes
1/2 cup orange juice
freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 400F (200C).
Arrange chicken pieces, roasted red peppers and spinach in your baking dish, starting with spinach, then chicken then peppers repeating until the dish is full.
Pour over the reserved liquid from the jar of red peppers and the 1/2 cup orange juice. Top with black pepper.
Bake in a preheated oven for 30 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.
Serve with mashed potatoes to soak up all the cooking liquid.

This is such a simple, quick and easy supper dish. The basil would give it a whole other flavour and I look forward to trying it that way, however the red peppers are strong enough to flavour the dish on their own and it didn't lack for the substitution.

Peach Cake with Crumble Topping

Hello my name is Claudia and it's been oh all of five minutes since my last piece of cake/cookie/tart/pie/....well you know, anything baked really. It seems I may have a bit of a problem as here I am posting about cake again! This is yet another throw it all together at the last minute with what I had in the fridge, kind of recipe. Hooray for canned fruit. You know you have a problem when dessert takes precedence over dinner. Soggy pasta anyone?

Recipe

Peach Cake with Crumble Topping
serves 12

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup sour cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1 can peach slices 

Topping
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 325F (170C). Grease a 9x9 inch baking pan.
Cream butter and sugar. Beat in sour cream, eggs and vanilla. Add flour, baking powder and baking soda. Mix until just combined.
Spread half the mixture into prepared pan. Top with drained peach slices. Spread remaining cake mixture on top of fruit.

For the topping, melt the butter then add the flour and sugar. Mix it all together until a crumbly texture is formed. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the cake.
Bake in the preheated oven for 45 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in the cake comes out clean.
Serve warm with vanilla ice-cream or vanilla bean infused whipped cream.

 The truth is I only had about 2 tbsp of sour cream left so added natural yoghurt to make up the rest. I also ran out of butter so mine was made with less. They say baking is a science not an art, but you know I often reduce the amount of sugar and fat when I bake (it's necessary considering how much baking we eat!) and have yet to have a problem. Don't be afraid to experiment. This was more cakey than peachy, so if you want it more peachy than cakey, add another 1/2 to 1 can of peaches as I will next time.

Quinoa and Apple Salad with Curry Dressing

image from Martha Stewart Living

Okay so the truth is I haven't really been cooking much these last few days, despite having a wonderful new kitchen. We seem to be out and about everyday, changing our driver's license from Ontario to BC, as well as health care, moving the trailer from A to B, unpacking and re-arranging oh and home schooling. I will start getting creative soon but until then how about I share another recipe from Martha Stewart . This is one of my favourite salads, quick, simple and oh so delicious. I had to stop myself from posting yet another cake/dessert recipe, it seems I may have a problem as that's all I want to cook and eat these days!

Recipe

Quinoa and Apple Salad with Curry Dressing from Martha Stewart Living

serves 4

1/4 cup raw whole almonds

1 cup white quinoa

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp finely chopped shallot

1 tsp curry powder

1/4 tsp salt

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

freshly ground black pepper

2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

2 tbsp dried currants

1 small McIntosh apple, cut into 1/8-inch-thick wedges

1/4 cup loosely packed fresh mint leaves, coarsely chopped, plus more for garnish

Preheat oven to 375F (190C). Spread almonds on a rimmed baking sheet; toast in oven until lightly toasted and fragrant, about 7 minutes. Let cool; coarsely chop nuts.

Rinse quinoa thoroughly in a fine sieve; drain. Bring 2 cups  water to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add quinoa; return to a boil. Stir quinoa; cover, and reduce heat. Simmer until quinoa is tender but still chewy, about 15 minutes. Fluff quinoa with a fork; let cool.

Whisk together honey, shallot, curry powder, salt, and lemon juice in a large bowl. Season with pepper. Whisking constantly, pour in oil in a slow, steady stream; whisk until dressing is emulsified. Add quinoa, currants, apple, mint, and nuts; toss well. Garnish with mint.

This is one of those great salads that transports well and tastes even better the next day, although the nuts are more soft than crunchy so you may want to throw in a few more for second day eats.

The Quick French Tart

 You're picturing a woman running down the road aren't you? Well stop it, this is a food blog.
My french tart is all butter and sugar as only a french tart can be. It's also amazingly simple and incredibly quick to make for those emergency moments when you need a french tart, stat. My friend, Jacques Pepin taught me how and it was one of those 'oh my gosh, that is so clever' moments when he revealed the no effort base, tortilla! Melt a tablespoon of butter on your baking tray, which you have lined with parchment paper, sprinkle on a teaspoon of sugar and rub a flour tortilla in the mixture on both sides. Then top with the fruit of your choice, sprinkle another teaspoon of sugar on top followed by another tablespoon of butter, dotted around the fruit and cook at 400F (200C) for 25-30 minutes. Voila, a quick french tart.

I made an apple tart last night, but you can use any fruit, even canned fruit. Cook the syrup down in a pan and use it as a glaze at the end. For a glaze when using fresh fruit, just warm up a bit of apricot jam and brush that over the top.

About Friday, and high energy treats.

Image from My New Roots

So about my absence on Friday, I do have a good reason, although it's slightly embarrassing really as it makes me a bit of a fraud. You see I'm not writing this from my tin can kitchen, I'm actually writing this from my brand spanking new loft. The tin can is not dead however, we're just having a dose of normalcy while we sort out a few things and plan our next step. So if you all agree, I'll keep posting from my not so small kitchen and we'll just pretend everything is the same until we hit the road again. All agreed? Excellent.

Well moving house is hard work, even when you own very little. How we fit five truck loads of belongings in the trailer I'll never know but the weekend was spent schlepping them up from the parkade to the forth floor. All that exertion required reward and energy replacement. Today's recipe is from My New Roots, quite possibly my favourite foody blog. The Raw Brownie is nothing to fear, it is every bit as decadent and gooey and delicious as the real thing but a million miles better for you. Don't be fooled into thinking it's low calorie however as it most definitely is not, but the energy comes to you from whole foods of nutrient rich goodness rather than empty calories that just sit on your hips and remind you why you shouldn't have eaten the whole tin. Whereas the brownie you know is all butter and sugar and flour, the raw brownie is just three things, dates, cacao and walnuts. I'm posting the recipe here, but head over to My New Roots and Sarah will tell you how amazing her Raw Brownies are for you herself.

Recipe

The Raw Brownie from My New Roots

2 cups whole walnuts
2 ½ cups Medjool dates, pitted
1 cup raw cacao
1 cup raw unsalted almonds, roughly chopped
¼ tsp. sea salt
Directions:
1. Place walnuts in food processor and blend on high until the nuts are finely ground.
2. Add the cacao and salt. Pulse to combine.
3. Add the dates one at a time through the feed tube of the food processor while it is running. What you should end up with is a mix that appears rather like cake crumbs, but that when pressed, will easily stick together (if the mixture does not hold together well, add more dates).
4. In a large bowl (or the pan you plan on putting the brownies in), combine the walnut-cacao mix with the chopped almonds. Press into a lined cake pan or mold. Place in freezer or fridge until ready to serve (it is also easier to cut these when they are very cold). Store in an airtight container.


I know right, super good for you and ready in minutes, you could even scoop it right out from the bowl of your food process, which I've never done, honest! Actually, talking of scoops, this is a great recipe for a Christmas gift exchange. Instead of making a flat brownie, you could roll this mixture into little balls and have on your hands the most delicious truffles. Roll then in crushed nuts or coconut, ooh or melted dark chocolate, yum, and you my friends will be the stars of your social circles! I keep mine in the freezer all the time as they don't ever really freeze solid, we just eat them straight from there, sometimes even on a plate while sitting down at the table:)