Rich and Hearty Kubasa and Bean Soup

Kubasa and Bean Soup

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Servings 6 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 medium-sized onion chopped
  • 1 clove garlic peeled and minced
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 540 ml canned white kidney beans (19 oz) drained and rinsed
  • 540 ml canned bean medley (19 oz) drained and rinsed
  • 454 g ring of kubasa (kielbassa)
  • 796 ml canned tomatoes (28 oz)
  • 3 bay leaves
  • 4 ribs celery chopped
  • 4 medium-sized carrots peeled and chopped
  • 4 cups beef or chicken broth
  • 1 Tbsp paprika
  • salt and pepper to taste

Instructions
 

Instant Pot directions

  • Set pot to "Sauté" setting and add the oil, onion and garlic. Sauté until onions are translucent. Add celery and carrots, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well. Set the Instant Pot to "Soup" setting, under pressure, for 20 minutes.
  • Remove and discard bay leaves and serve.

Stovetop direction

  • Sauté onions and garlic in olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat until onions are translucent. Add celery and carrots, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes.
  • Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well.
  • Turn heat down to medium to medium-low (soup should be simmering but not boiling). Cook for 45-50 minutes, stirring occasionally.
  • Remove and discard bay leaves and serve.
Keyword Beans, Instant Pot, Kubasa, Mixed Beans, Sausage, Soup

And now for the details…

Let’s set the scene: it’s the middle of winter. The temperature is cold and icy outside and just looking out the window causes a deep chill to set in, right to your bones. All you want is something warm and comforting to heat you up from the inside, something that feels like a hug in a bowl. This is exactly what our weather is like right now, and when I was looking in the fridge to see what was available, I came up with this recipe as a solution.

Kubasa, also known as kielbasa or kolbassa, is a sausage of Eastern Europe descent, often known as Ukrainian or Polish sausage. It’s a pretty broad term when you think about it… it seems pretty doubtful that an entire country (countries) has just one type of sausage, no? And that’s entirely true. The term “kielbassa” is a translation of “sausage” and in those countries, it refers to a wide range of different sausages. But, where I am from, the Canadian Prairies (think smack in the middle of Canada), the term kubasa/kolbassa is used for a smoked sausage, heavy on the garlic, that is most often served up alongside perogies (dumplings) and holuptsi (cabbage rolls).

In this recipe, I used the kubasa in a soup with beans and some veg to get a hearty, rich, salty, and slightly smoky soup that might actually be nearing “stew” in texture! The beans add a thick silkiness to the broth as they cook, and the addition of paprika gives a hint of heat without actually adding any spiciness. All in all, it’s the perfect meal to come home to after a cold day of skiing, skating or building a snowman 🙂

Let’s get to cooking, shall we?

There are two sets of instructions in the recipe, one for the Instant Pot and one for stovetop. They are both extremely similar, the biggest different is the amount of time to cook the soup for after adding all the ingredients in. I will go through both options, so follow along with your cooking approach!

We start with the veg. Peel and chop your onions and garlic and place in your pot with the oil. At this point, you can prep and chop your celery and carrots, and chop the kubasa into large chunks, to get everything ready to go.

A quick note on prepping the kubasa: most kubasa that I have had has edible, soft casings. But there are some that have a stiff, dry casing that needs to be peeled off before eating. You can usually tell if you try and peel a bit of the casing off. If it “flakes” off in small pieces that tear easily, it’s probably good to eat. If it easily comes off in large strips that peel off easily, peel the whole thing off to avoid unchewable pieces of casing.

With your onion, garlic, and oil in your pot, set to “sauté” setting (or medium-high heat on the stove) stirring and cooking until the onions have turned translucent. Then, add the carrots and celery, stirring and cooking for another 3-5 minutes, so that the celery and carrots soften slightly.

Next, we add all the rest of the ingredients to the pot, stirring well. In this recipe, we are using canned beans, but there is an opportunity to use dried beans if you would like. If you do use dried beans, you will need to add time (about twice the time listed here) as well as add a cup or two of water. If you are using canned beans, don’t forget to fully drain and then rinse the beans before adding them to the pot.

Next, we will be going one of two directions depending on whether you are using and Instant Pot or stovetop: If you’re using an Instant Pot, cover and seal it, and set it to “Soup” for 20 minutes. If you are going with the stovetop method, lower the heat of your stovetop to medium-low to medium heat, just enough so there is a little simmering action going on (a few bubbles every few seconds), but not a big, bubbling boil. Cover the pot and cook it for 45-50 minutes, opening it up every 5-10 minutes to stir and prevent anything from burning/sticking to the bottom of the pot.

And that’s it folks. It is that easy. Last step is to remove it from the heat and discard the bay leaves before eating. I like to have this soup with either some crunchy seed crackers, or a nice, fresh piece of crusty bread!

Happy eating.

Thai Red Curry with Chicken, Leeks and Peppers

Thai Chicken Red Curry

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 8 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 4 chicken thighs (boneless, skinless, cut into bite-sized pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp vegetable oil (canola, safflower, peanut, avocado, etc.)
  • 2.5 Tbsps red curry paste
  • 1 inch piece of ginger (or galangal, peeled and grated)
  • 1 clove garlic (peeled, grated)
  • 2 cups chicken broth
  • 800 ml coconut milk
  • 6 makrut lime leaves
  • 4 small potatoes (washed and sliced into medallions)
  • 1 Tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 bell pepper (cored and cut into large chunks)
  • 2 leeks (white only, sliced into 1" thick pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp lime juice (fresh, from about 1/2 lime)
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar
  • salt (to taste)
  • 4 cups steamed white rice (to serve)
  • chopped fresh cilantro or Thai basil (to serve)

Instructions
 

  • Heat the oil in a wok or large pot at medium-high heat and add the garlic, ginger and curry paste, and stir until fragrant.
  • Add the coconut milk, broth, and makrut lime leaves. Stir until the curry paste is mixed into the liquid and it comes to a simmer.
  • Reduce the heat to medium and add the chicken pieces, potatoes and leeks, cover and cook for 5 minutes.
  • Add the fish sauce, sugar, and peppers, stirring in well, cover and  cook for 5-10 minutes, or until chicken is fully cooked.
  • Take off the heat, squeeze in the lime juice and serve with rice.
Keyword Chicken, Curry, Thai, Vegetables

And now for the details…

Hello dear friends. I know it has been quite a long time since I last posted a recipe, and I apologize for that. Computer screens have been a bit of a nemesis of late, and I have been restricting my time in front of them in order to cut down on my headaches and dizziness spells. Here is to hoping that my brain will be able to better manage these going forward! Especially since it is really hard to create media online when one needs to limit the time in front of a computer screen 😛

Let’s talk about Thai curries. Like most Thai foods, it’s focused on a balance of flavours: spicy, salty, sweet, sour, and bitter. If you hear the word “curry” and immediately think of Indian curries, Thai curries will be quite far from what you are picturing. The spices used tend to differ quite significantly, and the texture of the curry itself is quite different. I would use words like “rich”, “hearty”, or “spiced” to describe Indian curries, while I would use “vibrant”, nuanced” or “bright” to describe Thai curries.

The interesting thing that I found while researching for this post is that the Thai word “kari” for curries is specifically used when referring to Indian style curries, or Thai curries that have used Indian style spices. Gaeng or Kaeng are usually used to describe what we in the western world call “Thai Curry”. I am not sure when we as Westerners decided to use the same word to describe what I have experienced as very different types of dishes; I think I need to go for a more in-depth research on the etymology…

In this recipe, we are going to create a red curry with chicken, potatoes, leeks, and bell peppers. You probably noticed in the photo that the curry itself is not super “red”. The “red” in the name comes from the red curry paste we are using, which uses dried red chillies, along with a number of other ingredients, like ginger, garlic, galangal, shallots, coriander and cumin. The paste itself is a deep red, and it becomes the more orangey colour you see in the photo with the addition of the coconut milk. You can find a fairly wide variety of curries pastes in asian grocery stores, and I have found that a lot of western grocery stores now carry curry pastes as well.

Let’s get started.

I am going to start by stir frying my chicken. You have a Choose Your Own Adventure option here. You can also start with the chicken, or you can wait until the curry is formed up and made and add the chicken toward the end. The main difference is that you will get the caramelization of the meat in the “dry” stir fry (known as the Maillard reaction) if you cook the chicken first. Whereas if you wait until the end to add your chicken, there will be no Maillard reaction and the chicken will be cooked by simmering in the liquid of the curry. Cook’s choice if you want that browning/caramelization and are going to join me now, or add the chicken later 🙂

If you are going to stir fry the chicken, add the vegetable oil to your wok or large frying pan and heat up on medium-high heat. Then add your chicken, and stir, cooking just until the outsides are slightly browned, but the chicken does not need to be cooked all the way through. We will be adding it back to the curry later to finish off the cooking process. Transfer the chicken to a dish to the side until we are ready for it later. You may notice in the photos that my chicken is still a little bit frozen when I added it in. It is so much easier to cut chicken when it’s a little bit frozen. So if you are taking it out of the freezer to use for this recipe, cut it just before it’s fully thawed to make your life easier! If you have fresh chicken, you can put it in the freezer for around 5-10 minutes until it partially freezes to make the cutting process easier.

Next, we move on to the curry itself. If you have opted to not cook your chicken first, now is where you add the vegetable oil to the pan. For those who cooked the chicken first, there should be some residual oil in the pan, but add a little bit more if the pan is quite dry. If you want to be a bit more authentic, you can use some of the coconut cream skimmed off the top of your coconut milk instead of using the vegetable oil.

We are going to keep the heat at medium-high. Add the curry paste, garlic, and shredded ginger to the pan, smooshing (yes, we are getting very technical) the paste, garlic and ginger together and around the pan. As it heats, these ingredients will become very fragrant, at this point (about 60 seconds), add the coconut milk to the pan and stir well so the paste mixes fully into the milk and you pick up any caramelized bits from the bottom of the pan (you may need to scrape your spoon a bit along the bottom of the pan to do this). Next, add the broth and makrut lime leaves and stir until the broth is fully mixed.

I have talked about makrut lime leave before, but I am going to take a moment to talk about them again. Words are hard to use to describe the aroma that these little leaves provide to your dish. They are floral, citrusy and add a layer of complexity to the taste that cannot be replaced by a different ingredient. I have had a hard time finding makrut lime leaves lately, but often they can be found at an asian supermarket. If you cannot find them, you can omit them. The flavour will still be good, it will just have one of the layers of flavour out of the picture. If you cannot get lime leaves, use a bit more lime juice and a little bit of grated lime zest at the end of the cooking to help amplify the citrusy flavour you will be missing from the leaves. I have tried using dried makrut lime leaves as an alternative and I do have to say that they are basically as useless as dried basil. The aroma from the fresh leaves seems to be lost almost completely as they dry, so I would say it is probably best to just omit if you cannot find the fresh leaves. I have heard that you can find frozen lime leaves as well. I haven’t tested this, but I would imagine they are much more flavourful than a dried counterpart. I should also note that, unlike basil leaves, the makrut lime leaves are quite tough, and are typically removed before/while you eat, similar to bay leaves.

Moving on, we are going to allow the liquid to heat until it comes to a simmer, then lower the heat to medium. Add the potatoes and leeks, pushing the ingredients into the liquid so they are submerged. If you did not brown your chicken at the beginning, you will also add your chicken to the pan at this point. Cover the pan, and allow these ingredients to cook for 5 minutes. You can lift the lid every couple minutes to give the curry a stir to keep the ingredients from sticking to the bottom fo the pan.

Next, add the bell pepper, fish sauce and sugar. Stir well, cover the pan back up and cook for another 5 minutes.

For the folks who opted to not stir fry their chicken first: Check the ingredients for doneness. If the chicken is fully cooked and the vegetables are cooked to your liking, you can remove from the heat. Cook for another few minutes if the ingredients need a bit more time to be done.

For the folks who stir fried their chicken first, now is when we add the chicken back in, stirring into the liquid. Cook for another few minutes until the chicken and vegetables are fully cooked, then remove from the heat.

Squeeze the fresh lime juice into the curry and stir in, then serve the curry immediately with steamed rice, topping with some fresh cilantro or Thai basil.

Happy eating.

The Drool-Inducing Hazelnut Nutella Cake You Will Love

Nutella Hazelnut Cake

A chocolate, hazelnut confection, perfect for a birthday or a snowy Sunday afternoon
Print Recipe
Prep Time 45 minutes
Cook Time 25 minutes
Cooling Time 1 hour
Total Time 2 hours 10 minutes
Course Dessert
Servings 1 Cake (2-layer)

Ingredients
  

Cake

  • 3 cups Flour (All-purpose or cake flour)
  • 1/2 cup cocoa
  • 2 cups water (hot)
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1.5 cups sugar
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp hazelnut extract (or 1 Tbsp hazelnut liqueur)
  • 2 tbsp white vinegar
  • 3/4 cup vegetable oil (canola, corn, avocado, etc.)
  • 0.5 tsp instant espresso powder (or instant coffee)

Frosting

  • 1 cup butter (softened to room temperature)
  • 1/4 cup Nutella (plus a few extra tablespoons for optional garnish)
  • 5 cups icing sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 5 tbsp heavy cream
  • 1/4 cup cocoa
  • 2-5 tbsps hot water
  • 1/2 cup toasted hazelnuts, roughly chopped (optional for garnish)

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Sift together the flour and baking soda, and stir in the salt and sugar. Mix the 1/2 cup cocoa powder and espresso powder into the 2 cups hot water. Form a well into the dry ingredients and add the cocoa-water mixture, the vanilla, hazelnut extract, and vegetable oil. Stir together just until the batter has formed, do not overmix. Pour into two prepared, round, 9" cake pans. Bake at 375ºF/190ºC for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean. Cool for 5 minutes, then remove from pans and allow to cool completely before frosting.

Frosting

  • Beat together butter and Nutella until fluffy and light. Add one cup of icing sugar and cocoa, beating at high speed until icing starts to form up. Add the salt, cream and the rest of the icing sugar and mix at low speed until mostly mixed. Add hot water 1 tablespoon at a time, beating at medium to high speed until desired consistency is reached. Frost cooled cakes, adding swirls of Nutella from a piping bag and toasted hazelnuts as garnish.
Keyword Cake, Chocolate, Hazelnut, Nutella

And now for the details…

Howdy folks! Sorry for the delay; I have been away for the last little while. (From the blog, not from home… where am I supposed to go during a pandemic? ha!) The main reason is because I am making some changes to the blog on the technical side of things and that has been eating up (pun intended) a lot of my time. You might notice some changes coming through in the next little while, starting with this blog post! (check out that fancy new recipe set-up at the top… pretty fresh, right? Ooooooh! Aaaaaaah!)

Enough about that, let’s talk cake! I made this for a friend’s birthday, but let’s be honest, when is NOT a good time for Nutella cake? No time. No time is not a good time for Nutella cake. I.e. All times are a good time for Nutella cake. I am making as assumption here that you, dear reader, are familiar with Nutella. If you’re not… oh boy. Prepare to have your mind BLOWN. Nutella is a sweet chocolate hazelnut spread. It originates from Italy from the Ferrero company (fun fact: did you know that Ferrero also created and owns the Kinder chocolate brand as well?) and it’s origin dates back to 1946. Whether you’re smearing it on toast, drizzling it over crêpes, dipping strawberries into it, or, in this case, incorporating it in a cake, it is a delicious sweet treat worth enjoying.

Something to be aware of on this recipe: it is SWEEEEEEEEEET. Seriously. I actually think I could feel cavities forming on my first bite. The cake itself seems even sweeter than a normal chocolate cake thanks to the addition of the hazelnut extract. The frosting is an American-style buttercream, so it definitely has that thick, sugary texture. This is the frosting style I grew up with, not getting introduced to Swiss Meringue or Italian buttercream until later in life. And the American-style buttercream, with its thin, crystalline crust of sugar that forms on the outside, combined with the fluffy, rich sweetness of the rest of the frosting is what I crave when I am wanting a rich, toothy cake. And since Nutella forms the base of the frosting, it is rich sweet, and totally sweet-tooth satisfying.

Let’s get to baking.

We are going to start with the cake. For our cake today, we are going real simple. I am using an offshoot of a recipe my grandma used for chocolate cake. The cake itself it nice and simple.

We sift together the flour and baking soda, then whisk in the sugar and salt. Next, mix together some hot water (hot out of the tap is just fine) with the cocoa and espresso powder until the powders are mostly dissolved. If you are worried about the cake having a mocha flavour and aren’t a fan of coffee, fret not. That small amount of coffee powder will barely be detectable. The reason for adding it is the depth of flavour that this tiny bit of coffee adds by emphasizing the chocolate in the cake. Long story short: what to do if you want your chocolate cake to taste more chocolatey? Add a tiny bit of instant espresso powder (or instant coffee if you can’t find espresso).

Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients (use a spoon, or get your hands right in there), and add the coffee/cocoa liquid mixture, the oil, and the vanilla and hazelnut extracts. The hazelnut extract might be a bit hard to find. If you can’t find it, you can use a hazelnut liqueur (like Frangelico) instead, but since the liqueurs aren’t flavoured as strongly as the extract, you’ll like need to use more, about 1-2 tablespoons. Mix all these ingredients together just enough to fully mix, then pour the batter into two prepared, round, 9-inch cake tins. Not sure what a prepare cake tin looks like? The good news is I went to it in detail in my Lemon Bumbleberry Cake recipe, check it out to get details on how to prepare your tins for cakes 😉

Bake those cakes up for 20-25 minutes in a 375ºF/190ºC, or until a toothpick comes out clean when being inserted in the centre of the cake. Take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool for 5-10 minutes, then run a knife around the edges, and turn the cake out of the tins onto a cooling rack and allow the cakes to fully cool. (Don’t forget to peel the waxed or parchment paper off if you’re using my suggestion for how to prepare the pan!)

Once fully cooled, we move to the final step and get ready to frost the cake. Start by beating the room-temperature butter with the Nutella at a high speed until smooth and fluffy. Starting on low speed, mix in 1 cup of the icing sugar and cocoa into the Nutella/butter, then whip on high speed until fully mixed. Bring the speed back down to low and add the salt and cream, then mix the rest of the icing sugar, one cup at a time. Once there isn’t a bunch of loose powder and everything has mixed in, add the hot water 1 Tbsp at a time, allowing it to mix in completely, until you have the frosting just a LITTLE looser than your desired consistency. Blitz it one more time for a minute or two on high speed to push air into icing, getting it nice and fluffy. It will also stiffen a little in this last bit of beating, which is why we went with the frosting being a little looser than desired before it. If you go too far and it’s way too loose, add a bit more icing sugar. Too stiff? Add a tiny bit more water. If you go back and forth a bit with the icing sugar and water additions, yep, that’s pretty typical for the first few times making frosting! I had occasions when I was starting out that I almost doubled the amount of frosting that I meant to make! *whoops* (but… was it really a problem to have too much frosting? ;P)

Frost the cake, including a generous amount of icing between the two layers. If you are a great cake decorator and want to go down the path of cutting the cake to be perfectly flat, or even cut it into multiple layers, feel free! I love cake… but I am not the greatest cake decorator *eep* I am open to suggestions or ideas though! I finished mine off with some crushed roasted hazelnuts and a drizzling of straight Nutella. In order to get it to a drizzle-worth consistency, I heated it up for a short amount of time (about 10 seconds) in the microwave and then transferred it to a piping bag with a fine tip to drizzle it over the cake.

Finally, cut and enjoy!

Happy eating.

Zoodle (Zucchini Noodle) Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

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Zoodle (Zucchini Noodle) Lasagna Stuffed Peppers

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 45 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 5 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 6 peppers

Ingredients
  

  • 1 small zucchini
  • 6 medium bell peppers
  • 1 cup ricotta
  • 1 cup arugula or spinach (loosely chopped)
  • 1/2 cup parmesan cheese (shredded)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 2 cups mozzarella cheese (shredded)
  • 3 mild italian sausage, uncooked (vegetarian option of 1-2 cups cooked orzo)
  • 2 cups pomodoro sauce
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350ºF/175ºC. Trim ends from zucchini and slice into long noodles (zoodles) using vegetable peeler or mandolin. Cut top off peppers and scoop out any of the seeds/core. Remove sausage from casings and place in a frying pan and cook on medium heat, breaking the meat apart with a spoon as it cooks. Once cooked, add the Pomodoro sauce to meat, stir well until fully mixed and sauce is heated through, then remove from the heat and bring to prep area (vegetarian option: add sauce and cooked orzo to a pan, heat through, then remove from heat). In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, parmesan, egg, nutmeg and salt and pepper to taste. Fill the pepper in layers: start with a small layer of the meat sauce, layer of zoodles (1-2 thick, cut zoodle to size to fit), small layer ricotta mix, layer zoodles, repeat until pepper is filled. Fill all peppers the same way. Sprinkle top of peppers with mozzarella cheese. Place in oven for 40-45 minutes, or until heated all the way through and cheese has browned. Serve.
Keyword Lasagna, Peppers, Stuffed Peppers, Zoodle, Zucchini

And now for the details…

Have you seen the beautiful piles of peppers at your farmers markets recently?? Oodles of peppers of different sizes, shapes and colours. Everything from little globes of crimson cherry peppers, to the long pale chartreuse Hungarian wax peppers, to the little orange lanterns of habanero. Now for the people that know me well, this waxing poetic about peppers is going to come as a bit of a surprise. I don’t like peppers. Or at least I didn’t. But I have managed to expand my horizons.

What I don’t like? Green peppers. They’re like the bitter, obnoxious guest in your meal. From the first whiff of your food, they come barreling in with a distinct aroma and flavour. “HEY!!! I’M HERE! PAY ATTENTION TO ME!” There is very little room for pleasant or quiet conversation when the green pepper is invited to the party. They speak loudly, bowl over any other ingredient that is trying to talk, and they stick around to the very end, sometimes returning after you’ve ended the meal and everyone else has gone home (ever burped after eating something with green pepper? Blech.)

But I have come to appreciate the many other peppers out there that aren’t so boorish or demanding. Where the flavours are a bit more refined, sweeter, and nuanced. The peppers that compliment the other ingredients and make them better. And in the case of this recipe, those are the types of peppers I decided to pair up with the cheesy, tomatoey, unctuous flavours of lasagna.

This recipe comes together surprisingly quick. If you have more mouths to feed, or want to set yourself up for leftovers, you can easily size this recipe up (or down if you don’t want as much!) and since it reheats really well as leftovers the next day or day after, it’s a great weekday option!

First thing’s first: preheat your oven to 350ºF/175ºC.

We start the creation off by getting our fillings ready. The sausage/sauce is first. In this case, for the Pomodoro sauce, I had some homemade in the freezer that I pulled out for this recipe. If you don’t have any in the freezer, you could be extra and make some, as it does come together pretty quick, but a good can or jar of sauce goes over just fine.

Remove the sausages from their casings and place the meat in a frying pan. This might seem inherent to some people, but when I was first learning to cook, I did not realize that removing sausage from casings was something that could be done. The meal-makers of my childhood (predominantly mom, but also grandma’s and aunties) were all fabulous cooks, and we usually ate meats that they had prepared from scratch. The only sausage that I was familiar with was the occasional kubasa (Ukrainian garlic sausage) and hotdogs. I didn’t know that sausages came uncured and raw. For this recipe, when purchasing your sausage, make sure it is of the raw, uncured variety. You’ll be able to tell quite quickly if that’s true with a quick poke through the packaging. Raw sausage feels, well, raw. It’s soft and squishy, much like poking raw ground meat. To get it out of the casing, snip the tip off one end, pinch the other end tightly between your fingers, and then push the filling from the pinched end down, like you’re trying to squeeze the last bit of toothpaste out of the tube. Alternatively, there are some places (check out your local Italian market) that will sell the sausage loose, without the casings, if you feel a bit squeamish about handling the sausages.

In the pan, fry up that sausage over medium-high heat until slightly browned and fully cooked. In my photo here, I have coarse-ground sausage. Yours might be a bit finer, so don’t fret if is doesn’t look quite like the photo. Break apart the sausage as it cooks, to get smaller pieces of meat that will be easier to fill the pepper with (big chunks of meat will make the layering of the “lasagna” quite a bit more challenging). Once cooked, add that tomato sauce in, and stir well.

For the vegetarians in the crowd: you’re going to complete skip the entire meat-cooking step (okay, so that part is probably obvious). This fabulous idea for a vegetarian alternative came from my friend Zoe: cook some orzo according package directions, drain, return to the pot with the Pomodoro sauce, stirring well and heating until the Pomodoro sauce it heated through.

Next step is the ricotta cheese filling. In a small bowl, mix together the ricotta, arugula, egg, parmesan cheese, a pinch of nutmeg and some salt and pepper. This will seem like a shocking thing for a saltaholic like me to say, but don’t go too heavy on the salt. We are already getting salt in the dish from the sausage, pre-made Pomodoro and parmesan. If you’re worried about it, mix everything but the egg and give it a taste-test, then mix the egg in when you’re happy with the flavour.

The last thing to do before assembly is to make zucchini “noodles”, i.e. zoodles. If you have a fancy mandolin, you could definitely use that, or if you’ve got some serious knife skills and can cut the zucchini thinly, that is also an option. I went cheap and easy and used a vegetable peeler. If you’ve not made zucchini noodles with a peeler before, there are a few videos out there you can use as examples. Basically: trim either ends of the zucchini, and run the peeler down the length of the zucchini, and voila! You’ve made your first zoodle! Repeat the peeler step over and over until the zucchini has been converted to zoodles. A lot of the videos/blog posts will tell you not to use the center, but that’s probably because they are making a dish where they are sautéing the zoodles. In our case, the zoodles are forming the “noodle” layer of our lasagna and won’t be moved around during the cooking process, so the centre bits are a-okay. I like using the zoodles instead of pasta noodles to avoid the extra step of cooking regular lasagna noodles. And extra pot to clean and an extra cooking step? No thank you. Another advantage: any of the zoodles you don’t use can just be chopped up quick, thrown in a sealed container in the fridge and added to a sauce, soup or stew later that week.

Are we ready to assemble? Heck yeah!

Cut and core the peppers (thank you Martha!) and lay them in a baking dish. I did a couple different kinds of peppers here. For the typical bell pepper, just cut around the top (stem side) like you would with a jack-o-lantern and pull out the core. Turn it upside down and tap out any extra seeds, and if there is quite a bit of the white inner pieces, just tear them out with your fingers. I also did a long, sweet red pepper, and since it can’t sit upright, I cut out one of the sides instead of the top (the piece I cut off got chopped and tossed in with the sauce to avoid any wastage ;P).

Your first layer will be the sauce (add around two tablespoons per pepper), smoothing the sauce across the base as evenly as possible. Then place some of the zoodles over the sauce, then the ricotta mixture (again, a couple tablespoons per pepper and smoothed out evenly), more zoodles and back to sauce. To get the zoodles to fit, cut them to approximate lengths and layer them on top of each other so that they somewhat cover the layer underneath. We are working with weird shaped here, not a typical rectangular lasagna pan, so don’t worry about getting the layer perfect. Repeat the sauce, zoodles, ricotta, zoodles order over and over until you fill the pepper.

When you’ve filled the pepper, make sure a zoodle layer is the last, top-most one, then top with the shredded mozzarella. Put the peppers into the pre-heated oven for 40-45 minutes, or until the filling has cooked all the way through and the cheese is golden and bubbly. Serve immediately.

If you’re wanting some for leftover, let the pepper cool completely, then place in a sealed container in the fridge for up to three days. You could go through the effort of reheating in the oven, but to be honest, the microwave worked just fine for us.

Happy eating.

Grilled Italian Meatballs with Pomodoro Sauce

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Grilled Italian Meatballs with Pomodoro Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 12 Large Meatballs

Ingredients
  

Meatballs

  • 1 lb ground lamb
  • 1 lb ground beef
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and shredded)
  • 1/3 cup buttermilk
  • 1 small onion (peeled and shredded)
  • 1 tsp dried basil
  • 1/3 cup panko or bread crumbs
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 Tbsps parmesan cheese (shredded)
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp pepper

Sauce

  • 400 g canned tomatoes (14 oz)
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/2 cups fresh basil (chopped)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Mix together the lamb, beef, shredded garlic, buttermilk, onion, dried spices, panko crumbs, eggs, parmesan, salt and pepper. Form into large balls, about 2-3"/5-8cm wide. Heat BBQ to medium heat. Place meatballs on the grill (recommended to use a grill mat). Cook for about 10 minutes, turning halfway through, or until the inside of the meatball is fully cooked. For sauce, place all the ingredients in a pot and place on the stove on medium heat. Bring to a simmer and reduce temperature to medium-low. Simmer for 20 minutes. If desired, blend sauce to make smooth. Place meatballs in pot with sauce, turning gently to fully coat and heat through if cooled. Place on plate, pour sauce over meatballs. Serve.
Keyword BBQ, Beef, Grill, Meatballs, Sauce, Tomatoes

And now for the details…

The weather is turning crisper, the leaves are changing colour and school buses can be seen driving past the windows all morning/afternoon. Not to mention that Pumpkin Spice everything is available again. Fall is here folks. And I am not a fan. I don’t know what it is about fall, but I feel unsettled and uncomfortable. Plus, it means that summer (my favourite season) is officially over. And so, I’m gripping what’s left of summer with all the strength I have and squeezing what’s left out of grilling and sunshine.

And so, grilled meatballs.

Could you do these in the oven instead? Of course you can. But grilling allows that extra bit of charred oomph, and who doesn’t want to tszuj up their dinner a little?

We start out with the meatballs themselves. I have used ground beef and lamb for mine, but if you are not okay with eating lamb (I have quite a few folk in my life who are not), or don’t have it readily accessible, feel free to swap out the lamb for pork or more ground beef. But if you are using ground beef for the whole thing, I would recommend doing a 50/50 mix of lean and regular ground beef, since the lamb does contain a bit more fat than lean ground beef, and we want that fat for an added punch of flavour.

Place the meats in a large bowl, and add in the rest of the meatball ingredients: buttermilk, garlic, onion, spices, panko crumbs, eggs, parmesan, S&P. Options to switch out? Buttermilk can be switched out for regular whole milk. And while I haven’t tried it, if there is a dairy allergy in your household, I would imagine a non-dairy alternative could be used. If you do try that out, let me know how it goes! You can also switch out the panko crumbs for regular bread crumbs. If you end up buying the “Italian Style” breadcrumbs, go a bit lighter on the spices and salt that you add, since those will already be in the bread crumbs.

Next, we mix all that good stuff together. Similar to in my burger recipe, I am going to recommend you do this with your hands, not a spoon or spatula. Because like that recipe, we are going to try and minimize how much we handle the meat. And the reason? Same as with the burgers, the more we mix and push ground meat around, the more we compress it, resulting in a tough or chewy meatball. No thank you. I want my meatballs juicy and tender. Using our hands allows for a gentler touch, and overall helps reduce the likelihood of overmixing. (Holding myself back from adding “that’s what he/she said” was really difficult through this entire paragraph folks, I hope you appreciate my restraint)

Once it’s all mixed together, form them up into relatively even-sized balls, about 2-3″/5-8cm in width. We are going a bit bigger here than say, Swedish-style meatballs, since they are going on the grill and we don’t want them falling through! Again, a light touch here, just enough to have the meatballs hold together, but not squishing them like a vice.

And then we get to the cooking. (Before we really get into grilling, you can always skip to the sauce and have that going on the stove/bbq burner at the same time you’re cooking the meatballs.) Preheat your grill to medium heat (somewhere around 350º-400ºF/175º-205ºC). I would strongly recommend using a grill mat for the cooking of the meatballs. This will help avoid any sticking to the grill (and the resulting breaking apart of the meatballs!) as well as keep the fat from dripping all over your grill, which could cause flare-ups and over-charring of the meatballs (plus the mess of cleanup is contained to the mat). We are going to cook the meatballs for about 10-12 minutes total. Our goal is to get the insides of the meatball fully cooked, which means it will register at about 160ºF/71ºC if you poke the middle with a thermometer. We will also be flipping the meatballs just over halfway through the cooking process to brown both sides. Be extra careful when flipping. This is probably the most likely point for the meatball to fall apart. I used a fork and a set of tongs to carefully flip mine over.

When the meatballs are done, remove them from the grill to a plate and set aside.

The sauce is nice and easy. We are going to put all the ingredients for the sauce (canned tomatoes, garlic, basil, olive oil, S&P) into a pot on medium-high heat and bring it up to to a simmer. Once it starts to simmer, reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the pot and let it bubble away for about 20 minutes, stirring every now and again. If you like a smooth sauce, after the 20 minutes, blend it up (transfer to a blender or use a handheld blender in the pot). Finally, transfer the meatballs into the pot with the sauce. This is another place to be careful. Don’t stir the bejeezus out it, or the meatballs will break apart. If you don’t feel comfortable doing this, you can skip straight to serving, but I like transferring the meatballs with the juices into the sauce to add a bit of extra flavour and to get the meatballs and sauce to the same temperature. Turn the meatballs gently in the sauce to get them nice and fully coated.

Finally, we are ready to eat! Transfer the meatballs to a serving dish, and pour the tomato sauce over top. Serve with your favourite pasta, or with some bread to mop up all that tasty tomato sauce.

Happy eating.

Instant Pot Bò Kho (Vietnamese Beef Stew)

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Bò Kho (Beef Stew)

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Total Time 1 hour 10 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g beef shank (1 lb, but into 1.5cm thick pieces)
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 4 garlic cloves (peeled and sliced)
  • 2 small onions (one chopped loosely, one sliced thin)
  • 2 Tbsps Shaoxing/Shao Hsing cooking wine
  • 10 cm piece of ginger (peeled and cut into thick pieces)
  • 5 Tbsps tomato paste
  • 4 bay leaves
  • 4 whole star anise
  • 4 cm cinnamon stick
  • 1 lemongrass stalk (lightly pounded and cut into 1" pieces)
  • 6 cups beef stock (low sodium or unsalted)
  • 2 large carrots (peeled and cut in large pieces)
  • 2 large potatoes (peeled and cut in large pieces)
  • 2 Tbsps fish sauce
  • Fresh basil (for serving)
  • Fresh cilantro (for serving)
  • Fresh lime wedges (for serving)
  • 4 bánh mì (Vietnamese baguettes) (for serving)

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter in Instant Pot on "Sauté" setting, add pieces of beef shank in batches, browning the pieces, then setting aside. Add garlic and the one onion cut in large pieces, stirring to cook until browned and onion softens. Add Shaoxing and stir. Make a packet using a piece of cheesecloth, and wrap the bay leaves, star anise, cinnamon stick, and lemongrass pieces, tying tightly. Add packet to the pot with the ginger, tomato paste, and stock. Stir well until tomato paste has mostly dissolved. Add carrots and potatoes and place the meat back in the pot, ensuring it is covered in liquid. Close Instant Pot, sealed on "Meat/Stew" setting and cook for 50 minutes. Release pressure, add fish sauce, stirring well. Ladle into bowls and serve with thinly sliced onion, basil, cilantro, lime pieces and baguette.
Keyword Beef, Beef Shank, Soup, Stew, Vietnamese

And now for the details…

This post is an ode to my mother in law. Of the many delicious Chinese and Vietnamese dishes that Mama makes for us, Bò Kho is one of my absolute favourites. And because Mama knows it’s my favourite, she makes it for us fairly often. However, during COVID isolation, we were cut off from Mama and Dad, as they are older and we wanted to make sure they were safe. And not only were we cut off from seeing them in person, we were also cut off from Mama’s delicious cooking! Which meant… I needed to figure out Bò Kho at home. I tried to get this recipe as close as I could to Mama’s, and it’s fairly close, but it’s still not a true replacement for the bowls of love she sends home with us 🙂

This stew is perfect for the type of weather we have outside right now. It’s fall here, and it’s cloudy, raining (oh god, it just started to snow) and there’s a distinct chill in the air, perfect for a nice, warming, well-spiced stew that seems to heat you up from the inside.

I have had different styles of Bò Kho at many different Vietnamese restaurants. The broth will range from thin to thick (the thick being similar to what one would expect from a western style stew), the spice combinations are often slightly different at each one, and the cut of beef used varies from shank to chuck to brisket. My favourite, of course, tends toward the style that Mama makes, which is a thinner (but very flavourful) broth and nice pieces of beef shank.

The shank is an extremely sinewy piece of meat. It comes from the leg of the cow, and because it is such a well-used muscle, it has quite a bit of connective tissue (collagen) marbled in with the meat. If you’re used to your beef being primarily for steaks, you might look at this cut and think “yuck, that is going to be one chewy piece of meat.” But stay with me here, because cooking this connective tissue low and slow (and in liquid) allows it to break down so that is becomes this rich, velvety bite. TBH, I like this cut in the stew for that soft, tender bite, even more so than the meat itself.

Finding beef shank in your local grocery store is likely not going to happen. I found ours at our asian supermarket, but in most western grocery stores, this cut is not frequently found. You can ask the butchers behind the desk to see if they can bring it in for you, or find a local butcher or specialty grocery store to get this cut of meat. This if often sold with the bone-in as well, but I prefer the boneless for this stew. Make sure to cut the pieces across the grain, as shown in the photo above to get the right “bite” once the meat is done cooking.

Let’s get into it, shall we? We start by heating up our Instant Pot to “Sauté” and melt the butter. Cook the beef pieces, turning halfway, to get a nice browned piece of meat. We will be cooking the beef pieces in batches so we don’t overcrowd the pot, setting aside the meat onto a plate after it has browned and adding the next batch. The reason we do not want to overcrowd the pot is we want to brown the meat, and get that richness to add to the stew, rather than the steaming that would result from having too many pieces in the pot. Don’t worry about trying to cook the beef pieces all the way through, we just want them to brown. They will be spending a lot of time in heat with the stew, so we do not need to worry about cooking them through just yet.

Once the pieces of meat have all been browned and set aside, add the garlic and one of the onions (that has been loosely chopped) to the pot. Stir until the garlic has just started to brown and the onion have started to soften. Then add the Shaoxing wine, stirring to help stir up some of the browned bits of meat on the bottom of the pot into the liquid, and cook until the wine is almost fully reduced.

Shaoxing wine is a rice wine originating from the city Shaoxing in China. You will be able to find it in most Chinese markets, or possibly in your own grocery store if you have a decent selection of asian cooking products. If you cannot find it, substitute with dry sherry or Marsala instead. If you want to know more, The Woks of Life blog has a great post about it! And to make it easier, here is a link to their post about Shaoxing Wine 🙂

Next, add the meat pieces back into the pot and pour the broth over top, stirring well to bring up any additional browned bits into the liquid. Beef, chicken, pork, or veal broth can all be used in this case. You can turn the pot off for now, because we are going to get our aromatics ready for the stew. In this recipe, we have quite a few aromatics helping to flavour the broth: star anise, lemongrass, cinnamon, bay leaves and ginger. When you are buying the ingredients for this dish, so not confuse star anise with anise seeds. They are actually from two different plants, and while they are very similar in smell/flavour, star anise is a quarter-sized, star-shaped dried fruit that imparts its flavour to the broth over time, and the recipe would not be quite the same with 5 little anise seeds 🙂

I ended up not wanting to use a whole cinnamon stick for this recipe, so I just snapped a cinnamon stick in half to get the appropriate length.

Because the majority of these aromatics are not something you want to chew and eat once you’re done the stew, I chose to wrap them in a little bundle of cheesecloth so I could easily pick it out once the cooking was done. You can also just add them right into the stew as is, and pick all the bits out later. But I am lazy, and while Mama typically picks these ingredients out for us before serving (yes, we are that spoiled), I wanted to make it as easy as possible to remove them before eating. I cut a 15 cm/6″ piece of cheesecloth and wrapped up the bay leaves, anise, lemongrass and cinnamon stick together, then secured the bundle with a piece of cooking twine. I threw the ginger into the stew on its own, outside of the bundle, because I actually enjoy the bites of ginger pieces. But if you are not interested, you can make a larger cheesecloth bundle and add the ginger in with the rest.

Now’s the time to get that stew cooking! Add that tasty little bundle and the ginger into the pot with everything else. At this time, we are also going to add the tomato paste, stirring well to mix it into the broth, and then the carrots and potatoes. If you want to try something a little different, you can use taro root instead of potatoes. It is a root vegetable very similar to potato in texture, and Mama has used this instead on a number of occasions.

Next, close and seal up your Instant Pot, setting it to “Meat/Stew” setting for 50 minutes. Now, you can always do all of this without an Instant Pot. The sautéing bits would be done on medium-high heat, and at this point, we would turn the heat to a low simmer on the stove (pot covered). But you are going to need to increase the cooking time to at least 3 hours in order to get the flavours to fully meld and for that beef shank to become tender instead of chewy.

Once done cooking, release the pressure and open up that glorious pot of deliciousness. One last thing to do before ladling the soup into bowls: add the fish sauce and stir well. You can always add the fish sauce before closing up and cooking, and still get the umami-hit, but you will lose the complexity and added flavour that the uncooked fish sauce provides.

Serve up the bowls with the fresh basil, cilantro, onion and lime wedges on the side. This allows folks to add however much of these fresh aromatics as they would like (especially the cilantro, since we all know someone out there who can’t stand the taste :P). Dig in, dipping torn pieces of the bánh mì into the broth as you slurp away at the stew. For extra authenticity and to match exactly as Mama serves it, mix together fresh squeezed lemon juice, salt and white pepper in a small, shallow dish and dip the beef into the mix as you eat.

Happy eating.

Monkfish with Browned Butter Sauce

Monkfish with Browned Butter Sauce

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 2 servings

Ingredients
  

  • 2 fillets monkfish (approximately 6 oz each)
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 2 Tbsps butter
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 1/4 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tsp fresh tarragon (minced)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Liberally salt and pepper the fish fillets. Add oil to a  pan heated to medium heat and lay the fish fillets onto the oiled surface. Cover the pan and cook for 6-10 minutes (depending on thickness of fillets), or until fully cooked inside (~140ºF/60ºC), flipping the fish halfway through cooking. Transfer the fish to a plate and set aside. Add the butter and garlic to the pan and heat, swirling the pan occasionally, until the butter has start to turn a golden brown. Add the wine and broth, stirring well. Allow the sauce to reduce by half, then add the whipping cream. Allow the sauce to cook for a 2-3 minutes, then add the tarragon, stirring in completely. Add the fish back to the pan, spooning the sauce over the fish. Transfer to a serving dish. Serve immediately.
Keyword Butter, Fish, Monkfish, Sauce

And now for the details…

So… monkfish. Have you tried this fish before? If you haven’t, I would say: no time like the present!

Monkfish has often been referred to as the “poor man’s lobster”, since it’s quite dense in texture, and a bit sweet in taste, a bit different from the typical flaky texture you get from many other white-fleshed fish. But I don’t love that reference, to be honest. It devalues the monkfish. Monkfish is similar to lobster in texture, but to think that the only thing it has to offer is as a cheap replacement to lobster is taking away the amazingness that is the monkfish! It doesn’t have quite the same flavour as lobster, it has a taste all unto itself: a bit sweet, salty, and of course there is no mistaking that it is in fact fish, but not an unpleasant fishy taste. And can we talk about the fact that you don’t need to shell it like you do lobster? BONUS!!!

Monkfish is a weird looking fish. I’m not sure which of our ancestors decided it would be okay to put this in our mouths, but they were certainly quite brave! Seriously, do a quick internet search for “monkfish” to see what these look like pre-fillet and you’ll understand what I mean. They are also aptly called “sea-devils”, which is nomenclature I can get behind. Could you imagine swimming and seeing one of these things drawing near??? Okay, I’m exaggerating, since you probably wouldn’t see them… From what I’ve read, they aren’t stalkers like a shark, and like to hunt by camouflaging themselves and waiting for their prey to draw near, but still!

An interesting bit of information I have found on these is that the only useable bits for the entire fish are the cheeks and the tail. If you’re not squeamish about watching a fish being filleted, check out this super cool video by Fish For Thought TV, where the gents break down an 18kg monkfish. They did some weighing throughout the process, and in the end, there was only just over 3kg of meat on an 18kg fish!

To get started with our cooking process, check out your fillets to make sure there is no membrane left on the fish. The fishmonger I had purchased my fish from had done a pretty great job of cleaning that fish before selling, and I had only a tiny bit of membrane left, and was able to remove it easily with my fingers, no knife needed! The membrane will cook to be quite tough and chewy, and considering the plump, meaty, juiciness of the fish, we definitely want to lose that membrane!

Next, salt and pepper your fillets quite liberally and let them sit for at least a few minutes. While you are waiting, get your other ingredients out and chop the garlic and set aside. This will allow you to move quickly through the cooking process, so you get to eating faster!

Next, add the oil to a medium- to large-sized pan. I suggested 1 tablespoon, but to be honest, you want just enough for a light coating on the pan. You can even use a paper towel to swish it around, coating the bottom surface, and soaking up any excess that isn’t needed. Heat the pan over medium heat, and then add the fish to the pan.

Cover the pan while the fish is cooking, lifting it only to turn the fish halfway through the cooking process. How long to cook the fish will totally depend on the size of the fillet. I used a temperature probe and aimed for an internal temperature of 140ºF/60ºC. It took my fillets about 10 minutes to cook through. The goal, like most fish, is for the translucent colour to turn opaque. Try to avoid overcooking the fish, since it can get dry and kind of tough if you cook it too long.

Once the fish is cooked through, take it out and place it on a plate to the side while you prepare the sauce.

Keeping the temperature the same, or just *slightly* higher, add the garlic and butter to the pan and let them cook, swirling the pan occasionally (as in, pick up the pan and swish it in a circular motion to get the butter and garlic to swirl around in the pan, then put it back down, repeating every now and again). This will go through a few steps here. First, the butter will melt down and encompass the garlic in a glorious hug. Next, the butter will kind of foam up, and the garlic will release that glorious smell. Then, both the garlic and the butter will start to brown and smell a bit toasty. That toasty smell is your cue to add the broth and the wine. When adding the liquid, things may get a little spurty. To minimize this, try to get the broth and wine to room temperature before adding, and stir well once you add them in. Let the sauce simmer until the liquid is reduced by about half, then add the whipping cream, stirring in completely. Let this come to a simmer and cook for another few minutes (1-3) until the sauce thickens slightly. Add the tarragon, then give the sauce a quick taste-test, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Next, add the fish back into the pan. This is just to reheat, not cook, the fish, so don’t leave it in for too long. Less than a minute for sure. Spoon the sauce up over the fish to help it reheat on all sides. Finally, transfer the fish to a serving dish, and then spoon the sauce over the fish, and serve!

Happy eating.

“Borscht” Pasta (AKA Deconstructed Borscht with Beet Noodles)

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Borscht “Pasta”

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Main Course, Side Dish
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 large beet (peeled and spiralized into noodles)
  • 2 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 3 Tbsps butter or olive oil
  • 1/4 cup broth (vegetable chicken)
  • 15 cherry tomatoes
  • 1 Tbsp fresh dill (chopped, or 1 tsp dried dill)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • sour cream, for garnish (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Heat the butter or oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté until the garlic is fragrant and is starting to brown. Add the tomatoes, and stir, cooking until the tomato skins blister and split. Next, add the beet noodles, stirring to coat the noodles with the butter/oil. Add the broth and cover the pan to allow the noodles to steam for about 5-8 minutes or until they become tender. Uncover and cook, stirring regularly, until the liquid is almost completely gone. Add the dill and stir. Serve with a dollop of sour cream, if desired.
Keyword Beet Noodles, Beets, Borscht, Tomatoes

And now for the details…

Beet noodles. No, not beet-infused pasta, but actual noodles made out of beets. You’re probably already familiar with zucchini or carrot noodles by spiralizing the vegetables, but how about spiralizing beets? The inspiration for this dish came while I was grocery shopping. The grocery store had beet noodles already prepped for sale and my first thought was “what the heck would you do with beet noodles?”

Well… my brain wouldn’t let it go and I felt the need to figure out what I would do with beet noodles. The earthy flavour of beets is quite pungent, so just throwing them in with any old dish as a pasta replacement would heavily change the flavour of meal. Besides, that beety flavour is so tasty, was there a way to highlight it and make the beet noodles the star of the dish? And then it came to me: a borscht-inspired “pasta” dish.

In order to minimize the mess at home, since I’d never tried spiralizing beets, I chose to use a golden beet instead of a purple/red beet. I can only imagine what the kitchen would have looked like after trying to do this with the deeply coloured purple/red beet. Dark red stains everywhere, it would heavily resemble the scene of a murder. So let’s avoid that and go with the golden beet, shall we? Same great flavour. Less mess. *cheesy smile and thumbs up*

When choosing a beet, try to pick one that’s a little on the larger side, between the size of a tennis ball and softball. In order to spiralize, we need to peel the beet first. Don’t worry about peeling off the bottom of the beet, that’s going to be anchored into the end of our spiralizer. The mistake I made here was to spiralize the whole beet without cutting the noodles as I went. This resulted in looooooooooong Rapunzel-like strands of beet noodles that were a little challenging to work with. I would suggest giving them a little snip with food scissors every 8″-12″/20-30cm as you spiralize to form reasonable-length noodles.

Next, we start cooking! Heat the butter or oil in a large pan/skillet over medium heat. Add your minced garlic and stir until the garlic becomes fragrant (is there a smell much better than garlic cooking in butter?) and add the tomatoes. Cook the tomatoes, stirring regularly, until the skin on the tomatoes blisters and splits open.

Add the beet noodles into the pan. Stir them well so they become coated with the garlicky butter/oil. I found the easiest way to do this was to use some tongs to pick up the noodles and shift them around the pan. Add the broth to the pan, and cover the pan, allowing the beet noodles to cook and soften. This will take about 5-8 minutes.

Finally, uncover the pan, and sprinkle with the dill, stirring well. If there is still quite a bit of liquid in the pan, keep stirring and cooking until most of the liquid has been absorbed/cooked off. Finally, transfer to a serving dish and serve with sour cream!

Happy eating.

BBQ Pork Ribs in the Instant Pot

Instant Pot BBQ Pork Ribs

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 1 rack of ribs

Ingredients
  

  • 1 rack St. Louis style or spare pork ribs (membrane removed)
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 2 Tbsps chilli powder
  • 1 Tbsp ground cumin
  • 1/2 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp chipotle powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1/4 tsp hickory smoke powder (optional if hard to find)
  • 1 Tbsp cornstarch
  • 2 Tbsps sugar
  • 1 cup beer (alternatives: pineapple juice, cola or chicken broth)
  • 1.5 cups BBQ sauce

Instructions
 

  • Mix together all the herbs, spices with the salt, cornstarch and sugar. Rub this powder into the ribs. Set the rack into the Instant Pot, pour the beer into the bottom. Roll the ribs into a spiral and set onto the rack of the pot, bones vertical. Close and seal, cooking on "Meat" setting for 25 minutes. Remove and slather with BBQ sauce and either place on high temp grill or under a broiler for 3-5 minutes per side to caramelize. Serve with extra sauce.
Keyword BBQ, Grill, Meat, Pork, Ribs

And now for the details…

Okay, so this is another one of those recipes that almost seems too easy to share. The Instant Pot has changed my life when it comes to cooking ribs. Remember that previous method of boiling or baking the ribs for several hours to try and get them tender? NO MORE! The Instant Pot makes this SO EASY, and so fast, that ribs on a weekday are not only a possibility, but a preferred option because of how simple it makes your evening meal.

If you want to make these even faster, you can do what I do and mix up a large batch of the rub and store it in a Tupperware container, so you can even skip measuring out spices when it’s time to make these.

Speaking of the rub, that’s where we start out recipe. In a bowl (or Tupperware), mix together the garlic powder, chilli powder, cumin, oregano, chipotle powder, hickory smoke powder, salt, cornstarch and sugar. If you cannot find hickory smoke powder, just skip that part. I know it took me a long time to hunt it down, and I’ve been treating that stuff like it’s powdered gold. Again, you double, triple, quadruple, or more the amount of those measurements, and just have the rest sitting in a container for the next time you make the ribs.

Next, it’s time to get those ribs ready for cooking! Before you rub everything in, tear off the membrane, also known as the silver skin, on the back of the ribs. It’s not the end of world if you forget this step, but the ribs will have this membrane on them when you eat, and it’s a little chewy and ropy. There are plenty of videos and info out there showing you how to do this, I found this video has great info on how and why to remove the membrane (skip to 1:30 to see the technique ;P).

Next we’ll take that rub and… well… rub… it into the rack of ribs (if you’re storing extra, make sure to set that aside so that you don’t cross-contaminate the spare rub with those ribby fingies). Get right in there and massage the rub into the meat on both sides. To save on using extra dishes, I actually do this right on the packaging the ribs came in 😛

Next, it’s time to cook! Pour the beer into the bottom of the Instant Pot. If you’re not a fan or don’t want to cook with alcohol, you can replace the beer with juice (I recommend pineapple, but orange or apple would work too), broth, or even cola or root beer.

Next, curl the ribs into a spiral and place them so the bones are vertical in the pot. In my case, unfortunately the rack was cut in half in order to fit the packaging, so I just kinda half-circled them around the outside of the pot. I have tried doubling the recipe, and a spiralled double rack JUST fits into the pot. Cover the pot up and set the lid to “Sealed” position. We are going to pressure cook these on the “Meat” setting for 25 minutes.

Once you have that set, we wait. You basically have 25 minutes of your life back. So many options on what to do here. You could make some pretty impressive sides to go with those ribs. OR. You could kick up your heels and enjoy the rest of the can of beer, since there’s more that 1 cup in a can 😉

Once the ribs are done, unseal the lid and let the pressure come back down, then open up that lid and expose the gloriousness that is the cooked ribs. Lay them on a tray and slather them with your favourite BBQ sauce (both sides).

Now you have two options here: you can either finish these off on the grill or in the oven. On the grill, set your heat to medium-high, or in the oven, set your broiler to medium-hi. Either place the ribs right on the grill or under the broiler, and cook them for a few minutes on either side, just long enough to get some darkened, caramelized bits.

Remove from the heat, and either serve up directly with your extra BBQ sauce on the side, or slather on a bit more sauce just before serving.

Happy eating.

Breakfast Biscuit-Style Cinnamon Rolls with Raisins and Pecans

3 Comments

Biscuit-Style Cinnamon Rolls

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Bread, Breakfast, Snack
Servings 12 buns

Ingredients
  

  • 2 cups flour (all-purpose)
  • 2 Tbsps sugar
  • 4 tsps baking powder
  • 1 tsp kosher salt
  • 1/4 cup cold butter
  • 1/3 cup room-temperature butter
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup brown sugar
  • 1 Tbsp cinnamon
  • 1/3 cup raisins (optional)
  • 1/4 cup toasted pecan pieces (optional)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 400ºF/205ºC Blend the flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, and salt. Cut in the 1/4 cup cold butter. Add the milk and stir until just combined. Let sit in fridge while making the filling. Mix together the 1/3 cup softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon until formed into a paste. Take the dough out of the fridge, roll out on a floured surface to a rectangle approximately 12"/30cm by 18"/46cm. Grease a 12 cup muffin tin well. Place approximately 1/2-1 tsp of the filling into the base of each cup of the muffin tin. Spread the remaining filling over the rectangle of dough. If using, sprinkle raisins and pecans over the topping. Roll the dough from the long edge up, so you end up with a 18"/46cm roll. Cut the roll into 12. Place the rolls, with a cut side down, into the prepared muffin tin. Bake for 20 minutes, or until the buns are golden brown. Let cool 5 minutes, then remove from tin. Serve.
Keyword Baking, Biscuits, Buns, Cinnamon

And now for the details…

Howdy folks! Admittedly, this one is not my recipe. It’s a recipe I had gotten from my mom, and she has been making it since I was a kid. My parents were in to visit this past weekend and I asked her the origin of the recipe, since all I have is a recipe card I diligently copied years ago from hers when I moved away. Turns out, this is a recipe from Canadian Living magazine that my mom found years ago (it was when I was a kid, so I’m not going to talk about just how long ago… just… it’s been awhile.)

Do you have cinnamon bun fanatics in your home? These rolls are not quite the same as a cinnamon bun, since the leavening agent here is baking powder instead of yeast, and you won’t get that same fluffy texture. But to be honest, I prefer these rolls over yeast cinnamon buns any day. Yeast cinnamon buns remind a little bit of the texture of pancakes or French toast. Particularly the middle of the bun, where it’s kinda doughy and if it’s had time to sit in the moist filling, it almost gets a little soggy… no thank you, no thank you! Biscuit cinnamon rolls are still a little soft in the middle, but they’ve got this crispiness going on around the edges, and the filling caramelizes a bit since the rolls are cooked apart in separate baking tin cups. MmmmmmmmMMMMmmmmm…

So let’s get to cooking, shall we? First off? Preheat that oven to 400ºF/205ºC!

We start with the dough. Mix/sift together the dry ingredients for the dough (flour, granulated sugar, baking powder, kosher salt). You can use regular salt here, in fact, I think that’s what the original recipe calls for, but I liked the idea of using kosher salt so you would get occasional bites of the salty bits, giving the buns an almost salted caramel type flavour. Once the dry ingredients are mixed together, cut the cold butter (1/4 cup worth) in, using a pastry blender or knives. You can do all of this in a food processor too, which will make it even easier! Cut the butter in until its down to about pea-sized pieces. Next, we add the milk. Mix it in just until the dough has formed up. We don’t want to mix too long or the dough will get tough. Set the dough aside, maybe even sticking it into the fridge, while you get the filling ready.

To get the filling ready, we are going to smush together the softened butter (1/3 cup), brown sugar, and cinnamon. Get it mixed all nicely together so it’s a smooth paste. Before it makes its way into the cinnamon rolls, we’re going to prep the muffin tins by greasing them well (or not at all if you’re using silicone tins; man, I love this muffin tin!) and then dropping about 1/2-1 teaspoon of the filling into the bottom of each cup. This is going to give us that gooey, but crispy bottom for each roll.

Next step is to get those rolls ready! Flour the surface of your kitchen counter quite well so the dough does not stick. Roll out the dough so it becomes a rectangle about 12″/30cm by 18″/46cm. It does not need to be perfect, just an approximation of a rectangle of that size. The dough should be about 1/2″/1cm thick. I just used my fingers to pat and flatten out the dough, but you could also use a rolling pin if you’d like. As you flatten it out, lift each corner occasionally to make sure there is enough flour underneath that the dough will not end up sticking to the counter.

Once the dough is the right size/shape, smear the topping over the dough, trying to get close to the edges and corners. If you are using them, add the raisins and pecans by sprinkling them over the topping. I polled on the Instagram to see what the consensus was on raisins vs. none, and wow, I was not expecting so many folks to be anti-raisin! I was assuming 50/50, but it ended up being closer to 70% of folks who would prefer no raisins! Since I was making these primarily for my dad while he was visiting, the raisins stayed 😉

Next, we roll these up and get them ready for baking! Roll the dough from the long edge up, so that the roll ends up being about 18″/46cm long. If parts of it are sticking, pull them up lightly, and if there is a LOT of flour as you roll, dust it off onto the counter as you roll. Once rolled, let the seam come to the bottom, and then cut the roll into 12 pieces. I find the easiest way to get a somewhat consistent set of pieces is to cut the roll in half first, cut each of the halves in three, then cut each of those pieces in two.

Finally, place each of the pieces into cups of the muffin tins, with the cut sides facing down and up, and bake for 15-25 minutes, or until the rolls are a nice golden brown.

Once they are done, let them cool for about 5 minutes, then remove them from the tins while they are still warm. If you leave them too long, and they cool completely, the bottom, caramel-like middles will harden, and they will be very hard to remove from the tin.

Finally, serve!

Happy eating.