Lentil salad

I made this salad a couple of weeks ago after being inspired by some of the recipes I found in Mark Bittmans, How to Cook Everything Vegetarian. (Another Express read from the library!)

The actual recipe here is loosely based on this one, which really is more of a food memory than an actual recipe.

Start buy cooking the lentils (I used Puy) in enough water to cover. I flavoured the liquid with a smashed clove of garlic and some rosemary and thyme. You need to cook them for quite a while. I was impatient and took them off the heat early, but ideally they should simmer for at least 30 minutes, until they're mushy rather than annoyingly al dente, as mine were.

Doesn't this pot look like something out of a Harry Potter movie?

Next, prep some of the veg, which in my case, where freshly shelled new peas.

Dice and cook two pieces of bacon until crispy.

Then add in some chopped carrot to soften, along with some garlic.

Peel and chop one beet. Recipes always say to wear gloves when doing this, but I never find my hands remain stained all that long.

Whip up a little dressing, with some lemon juice, dijon mustard (I only had grainy) and a splash of red wine vinegar. I added only a splash of olive oil, since I was going to incorporate the bacon fat into the finished salad.

And here's what it looks like all assembled, topped with feta cheese. You can see here that I added in the beets (raw) and some asparagus, which I cooked. The salad is very nice warm, where the cheese melts a bit into the lentils, but also keeps very well cold and makes a great lunch.

Lentil salad

1 c. of Puy lentils
2 slices bacon, diced
1 large carrot, diced
1 large beet, peeled and diced
1 clove of garlic, chopped
handful of fresh or frozen peas
8-10 spears of asparagus, steamed and chopped into bite-sized pieces

For the dressing

1 tbsp. dijon mustard
1/4 c. (approx.) lemon juice and red wine vinegar
salt and pepper to taste
splash of olive oil
*dressing is really to taste, and you may need to adjust amounts depending on how dressed you like your salad

1. Begin by cooking the lentils in enough water to cover, flavoured with herbs and garlic of your choosing.

2. Dice bacon and cook in skillet until crispy.

3. When bacon is almost cooked, add in carrot and garlic. Cook until softened.

4. When lentils are cooked and slightly mushy, drain and add to pan with bacon and carrots. Toss in other vegetables and add in dressing. Top with some crumbled feta cheese and enjoy!

Hello Hudson!

Last Saturday was a great day for a mini roadtrip to Hudson and beyond. Hudson's a really quaint town in Quebec, just over an hour or so from Ottawa. They're famous for their massive houses, English roots and the Saturday antique market that takes place in a farmer's field.

There's always lots to see, and even if you don't buy (like me), it's fun to look.

Speaking of looking, check out these rows of mirrors, made from old windows and cupboard doors. The man who makes them gets all the windows for free, and turns them into mirrors. (We kind of got his life story. He was pretty chatty. Also, he comes from New Brunswick and still has the phone on which his mother called the hospital when she went into labour with his brother, who is now 68. See what I mean?)

Not quite bedknobs and broomsticks, but maybe bedframes and stools?

Lots of tables of just about anything you can imagine.

Also liked this light fixture.

Milkpainted furniture. I liked the armoires in the back.

Hooked rug on a bench.

Another use for old window frames.

We followed the market with lunch here. The view on the patio is better than the food, but it wasn't bad. Then on to shopping in Laval. A good day!

Oatmeal raisin cookies

I've been on a bit of a library streak lately. Like a serious one. I'm talking about a once a week habit, my friends.

I'm not sure if it's because summer's here and there's not as much on TV, or if it's because I've been making more of an effort to read at lunch and before bed, but I've been plowing through the reads. Part of the reason for the weekly visits is because I've been using the OPL's Express Reads program, whereby you can take out a book for only one week, as opposed to the usual three. Express Reads are usually popular, in demand titles, so the library limits the amount of time you get with the book, meaning more folks can enjoy it. It's a good system, but also pretty stressful, because if you're late with your Express Read, you have to pay a hefty $2 a day fine. But the thought of that rapidly increasing tab also spurs on some pretty fanatical flipping of pages, which really can't be a bad thing.

A few weeks ago I happened upon the new Barefoot Contessa book on the old Express shelf. I usually tune into Ina Garten's show on the Food Network, partly for her tasty-looking recipes, but also for the cast of 'colourful' characters, with more money than acting sense, who seem to traipse around the Hamptons, with no evident day jobs, spending inordinate amounts of money on produce that always seems to be in season, and ridiculously creamy milk that only seems to be sold in glass bottles. How could I not pick up the book for a look inside that unrealistic lifestyle?

The book is very nice looking, and it's basically a mirror image of the TV show by the same name. If you've watched the program, then you've seen the recipes, and there's not much additional content worth mentioning. Still, I like Garten's approach -- it's straightforward and her ingredients and instructions are fairly ordinary and accessible.

I stopped on the recipe for Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies, because the picture looked fabulous, and Garten proclaims it was her ultimate recipe find, after years of trying to perfect the ultimate oatmeal cookie. As I happened to have all the ingredients on hand (sometimes stocked cupboards can be a dangerous thing), I decided to give them a try.



Don't these pages beckon to you, too?

Start by toasting a cup and a half of pecans. I didn't even bother chopping them once they were done, I just broke them up with my fingers.

Creaming the butter and sugars together until light in colour and you can't feel any grains of sugar between your fingers.


Mix up the dry ingredients and add to the wet.

Use a small scoop to form the cookies on the pan.

And here they are, cooling from the oven.

Yummy with a glass of iced coffee!

Raisin Pecan Oatmeal Cookies (recipe from Ina Garten's Barefoot Contessa: Back to Basics)

These make chewy, slightly salty cookies, full of raisins and toasted nuts.

1 1/2 cups pecans
1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup dark brown sugar, lightly packed
1 cup granulated sugar
2 extra-large eggs, at room temperature
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon kosher salt
3 cups old-fashioned oatmeal
1 1/2 cups raisins

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.

Place the pecans on a sheet pan and bake for 5 minutes, until crisp. Set aside to cool. Chop very coarsely.

In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat the butter, brown sugar, and granulated sugar together on medium-high speed until light and fluffy. With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, and the vanilla.

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt together into a medium bowl. With the mixer on low, slowly add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture. Add the oats, raisins, and pecans and mix just until combined.

Using a small ice-cream scoop or a tablespoon, drop 2-inch mounds of dough onto sheet pans lined with parchment paper. Flatten slightly with a damp hand. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until lightly browned. Transfer the cookies to a baking rack and cool completely.

Shaved asparagus pizza

I've cooked asparagus in many ways. Steamed, grilled, roasted -- I pretty much like it all. But this is the first time I've made it the main ingredient on a pizza. And let me tell you, it was a great discovery!

First, start off by shaving the asparagus. No need to break off the woody stems as they'll just serve as your handles. I'd recommend a Y-shaped peeler for this job (which I don't have), otherwise your peeler will likely get a gummed up, as mine did, and then you might be inclined to swear a little bit as you pick bits of asparagus greens out of it.

Once that job's done, and the air in your kitchen is no longer blue, you get busy with the cheese. The original recipe called for mozzarella, but I didn't have any. So I sprinkled some feta on the crust, and added about a quarter cup of parmesan on top. Then, on went the asparagus, and a handful of thinly-sliced green onion. The whole thing was then topped off with some black pepper and a few drizzles of olive oil. (I added a handful of fresh peas too after I snapped this photo. What could more green hurt, right?)

And after about 15 minutes in hot oven, you've got this bubbly, browned masterpiece. This is a really great pizza -- very grassy and light in flavour. Plus, you can feel somewhat virtuous eating it, given the high green quotient (even more so if you substitute some whole wheat flour in your crust).

Shaved Asparagus Pizza (as seen on SmittenKitchen

Makes 1 thin crust 12-inch pizza

1 recipe Really Simple Pizza Dough or your favorite ourchased pizza dough
1/2 pound asparagus
1/4 cup grated Parmesan
1/2 pound mozzarella, shredded or cut into small cubes (*I used feta)
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/2 teaspoon coarse salt
Several grinds black pepper
1 green onion, thinly sliced

Preheat your oven to the hottest temperature it goes, or about 500 in most cases. If you use a pizza stone, have it in there.

Prepare asparagus: Holding a single asparagus spear by its tough end, lay it flat on a cutting board and using a vegetable peeler create long shavings of asparagus by drawing the peeler from the base to the top of the stalk. Repeat with remaining stalks and don’t fret some pieces are unevenly thick (such as the end of the stalk, which might be too thin to peel); the mixed textures give a great character to the pizza. Discard tough ends. Toss peelings with olive oil, salt and pepper in a bowl and be sure to try one -- I bet you can hardly believe how good raw asparagus can taste.

Assemble and bake pizza: Roll or stretch out your pizza dough to a 12-inch round. Either transfer to a floured or cornmeal-dusted pizza peel (if using a pizza stone in the oven) or to a floured or cornmeal-dusted tray to bake it on. Sprinkle pizza dough with Parmesan, then mozzarella. Pile asparagus on top. Bake pizza for 10 to 15 minutes, or until edges are browned, the cheese is bubbly and the asparagus might be lightly charred. Remove from the oven and immediately sprinkle with scallions, then slice and eat.

A June garden

For the past few weeks I've been having fun watching my garden come to life. The backyard is now a riot of colour, thanks in part to the grove of foxgloves that have sprung up. It's a sea of purple and pink beside my garage, and the bees are having a field day.

This is the bush/vines growing in the back corner of my lot. Not sure what this is, but it grows very quickly.

And I have roses in the front and the back. These ones are growing by the back door. They make the green bin look good at least!

My house is now full of flowers as I've managed to utilize almost every vase and vessel I have. These lupins are growing beside my house. I picked them once, but never again! They were full of wee spiders!

So they were quickly replaced with some roses. Fewer spiders, but not much smell unfortunately.

That's it for now. Check back next week to see what's blooming then!

Springtime dinner party

Saturday night I hosted dinner for some very good friends. I was looking forward to the company and conversation, but also being able to entertain in much more space than I've enjoyed before. It was also a chance to bust out the good dishes and silver I inherited from my grandparents, and to decorate with some of the flowers currently blooming in my garden.

Here's what the table looked like.

First up on the menu was asparagus soup. I served it chilled, garnished with a bit of yoghurt, mint and chopped pistachios.
Main course was grilled flank steak, with some grilled potatoes and green salad, sprinkled with some new peas.

Beet and carrot salad, with a dressing of yoghurt, mint, and cumin. This recipe was improvised, but I think it turned out well. Plus, tons of leftovers for lunch this week!

Cauliflower and olives. Really good, with a nice kick. Perhaps not the springiest of dishes, but I'll definitely make this again.

And rhubarb fool for dessert. I forgot to take a shot of the finished product, but picture more compote spooned on top and a sprig of mint. Can you tell I've got lots of mint in my backyard?

Chilled asparagus soup

2 lb. asparagus, trimmed and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
4 c. water
1 tsp. salt
Juice of half a lime
1/4 cream
More lime juice and salt and pepper to taste

Add the asparagus to the boiling salted water, into which you've added the juice of half a lime. Cook until asparagus is tender, about five minutes. Add cream before blending.

Let mixture cool for 10 minutes or so, then blend in a blender, or use an immersion blender.

Chill completely. Garnish with mint or dill, sour cream, yoghurt etc. Can also be served hot.
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Cauliflower with Olives (from Mario Batali, as printed in The Toronto Star)

1 large head cauliflower, trimmed, halved lengthwise, cored, cut into bite-sized or smaller florets
6 tbsp (90 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
Maldon or other flaky sea salt + coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 tsp (2 mL) finely grated lemon zest
1/2 cup (125 mL) pitted kalamata olives, halved if desired
3 tbsp (45 mL) salt-packed capers, rinsed, soaked, or brine-packed capers, rinsed
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) red chili flakes

In large bowl, toss cauliflower with 3 tbsp (45 mL) oil. Season with salt and pepper. Spread in single layer on large baking sheet. Broil 4 inches beneath preheated broiler, stirring occasionally, 15 to 17 minutes, or until lightly charred in spots and just tender.

In small bowl, stir together remaining 3 tbsp (45 mL) oil with zest.

Return cauliflower to large bowl. Add olives, capers, red pepper flakes and lemon oil. Toss to mix well. Season with more pepper if desired. Serve immediately or let stand at room temperature up to 1 hour before serving.

Makes 4 to 6 side servings.
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Carrot and beet salad

I improvised this salad, so measurements are estimates.

2-3 large carrots, peeled and grated
2 large beets, peeled and grated
1 thumb sized piece of ginger, peeled and grated
1/4 c. of plain yoghurt
2 tsp of cumin seeds, ground
juice of half a lemon
good handful of chopped mint
4 tbsp olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Grate carrots, ginger and beets in food processor or on box grater. Add to large bowl.

In another bowl, add dressing ingredients and stir to combine. Taste and adjust as needed.

Toss dressing over vegetables and chill. Serve with more chopped mint.

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Grilled Flank Steak (Gourmet Magazine)

•3 lb flank steaks
•1/3 cup white-wine vinegar
•3/4 cup olive oil
•1 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh rosemary
•3 garlic cloves, minced
•2 teaspoons salt
•1 teaspoon black pepper

Lightly pierce steaks all over with a sharp fork or knife. Whisk together remaining ingredients and transfer to a large resealable heavy-duty plastic bag. Add steaks and seal, pressing out excess air. Marinate steaks at least 6 hours or up to 1 day.

Prepare grill for cooking.

Grill steaks on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals, turning once, about 12 minutes for medium-rare. Transfer to a cutting board and let stand 5 minutes. Thinly slice steaks diagonally across the grain.

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Rhubarb Fool (Epicuious.com)

•1 1/2 pounds rhubarb, trimmed and sliced 1/2 inch thick (about 4 cups or 1 pound prepped)
•1/2 cup honey
•Zest and juice of 1 orange
•2 tablespoons finely chopped candied ginger
•1/2 vanilla bean, split
•Pinch of fine sea salt
•3/4 cup heavy cream
•1 tablespoon granulated sugar

To make the fool, put the rhubarb, honey, orange zest and juice, candied ginger, vanilla bean, and salt in a saucepan over medium heat. Stir to combine, then cover and cook, stirring every few minutes, for 10 minutes, until the mixture has come to a boil and the rhubarb has softened. Remove from the heat and allow to cool, then remove the vanilla bean. Transfer the compote to a bowl, and refrigerate, uncovered, for at least 30 minutes, until very cold.

Whip the cream and sugar until soft peaks form, either by hand or using an electric mixer on medium speed. Set aside 1/3 cup of the compote to garnish the dessert, then fold the remaining compote into the whipped cream. Spoon the fool into six 1/2-cup glasses or dishes and chill for 1 hour before serving topped with the remaining compote.

Storage: This fool is best served the day it is made, but any leftovers can be covered with plastic wrap and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days.

An Izzard in May?

It's not every day you go to see a comedian dressed in heels. At least, not one who's a boy.

Last week I got to see British comedian Eddie Izzard perform at the NAC. Izzard's not only funny, but he's also a self proclaimed transvestite. Amazingly, he did the whole show in stilettos and a face full of makeup, along with bright red nails. His clothing was a little more subdued: jeans and tails. It was Ottawa after all.

The show itself started off with a few digs at the monarchy, and he made fun of Ottawans for having to pay for the upcoming royal visit to our city. What followed were two plus hours of very witty (and often obsurd) reflections on the history of the world. Sample jokes: "God must have been on crack cocaine when he invented dinosaurs" and "Scrabble was invented by Nazis to piss off kids with dyslexia." Very funny!

Here's a sample video of the schtick (warning: bad language!)