Mexican Hot Chocolate

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hot chocolate, Mexican chocolate, Mexican hot chocolate

“Perhaps I am a bear, or some hibernating animal, underneath, for the instinct to be half asleep all winter is so strong in me.”

-Anne Morrow Lindbergh, 1971

I’ve already mentioned how I feel about winter. I came across this quote and quite frankly, it describe me to a T. It is our instinct to go within and seek warmth. Because it is so dark and grey in the winter, we tend to turn within for that light. And what we find within is that need to cocoon. It gets stronger for me in the winter. And that’s fine. It brings me comfort. Which is why I welcomed the girl’s day off from school the other day. How comforting to stay warm underneath the blankets with our books and our kitties.

Until Charlotte’s friend called and asked us to go tobogganing. Unlike me, Charlotte feels absolutely no need to cocoon. And because I don’t want my daughters to dread winter the way I do, I concurred. Reluctantly. And when the time came for us to start getting ready, as in putting on a double pair of socks, a warmer sweater, snow pants, our jackets, hats, scarves, mittens, boots… OH, how I love summer where you just slip into a pair of shorts, a T, sandals and off we go! But, I digress. So, when the time came for us to get ready, I asked Charlotte if I could drop them off and come back home to my book. She wouldn’t have it. So I went along and made the best of it.

The “best of it” part is when we returned and I made us some hot chocolate. With Mexican chocolate from Oaxaca. To return some of that warmth and inner light that had been robbed by old-man winter. And the great thing about this chocolate is that it’s dark and already sweetened with sugar. Made especially for hot chocolate. Pour the milk into a pan, a little more than a cup per person. I used whole milk, for a richer and creamier hot chocolate. Add a disk of chocolate per person, heat on medium-low and stir every now and then until the chocolate has melted. Sip slowly while reading a good book and feel that inner light return!

101 Coobooks

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cookbooks

That’s what I came home with last week-end. 101 cookbooks! A real treasure trove. My friend Karen introduced me to her friend Marina, a cookbook collector. As in a collector of 2000 cookbooks. No, that’s not a typo. All catalogued on her computer, to boot.  Marina is downsizing her home and unfortunately, she can only keep a fraction of her collection. Fortunately for me, I was invited to spend an afternoon in her home to browse through her collection and pick any book my little heart desired. Which I did. With coffee, decadent double-chocolate cookies and a fruit smoothie! How lucky was I?

As I put aside my choices, I couldn’t help but look over at Marina every now and then and ask if she was sure she could part with her treasures. She was sure. I think she was somewhat relieved they were going to a cookbook lover and foodie rather than just having to dump them off at a thrift shop. I would have felt the same. Some of these finds will be displayed at the cottage, but most will go right here, on my wall-to-wall, floor-to-ceiling bookshelf that Peter built for me.

Marina must have known that I am also a gadget junkie. She passed a couple of them on to me, one of which is a true treasure. Check this out. Isn’t it a beauty? In its original box too. Love it!

And now I just have to share some of my book finds with you.

Books by Lidia Bastianich, my namesake! A cookbook from the amazing La Brea Bakery in L.A.

The prominent Marcella Hazan, Godmother of Italian cooking.  Renowned for introducing the American public to traditional Italian food. Alice Waters, activist, author and owner of the ever-popular Chez Panisse restaurant in Berkley. Sweet and savoury dishes featuring fruit.

James Beard, cookbook author and teacher who helped educate and mentor generations of professional chefs and food enthusiasts, discusses bread. Writings of Elizabeth David on Italian food, she being a British cookery author who introduced a generation of British cooks to Italian and Mediterranean foods. And a sweet, little book on cocktails.

A second little book of cocktails…just reading the names of some of these drinks is a hoot! Bosom Caresser (I’m not kidding!), Brain Duster, Climax Cocktail, Corpse Reviver, Poop Deck Pappy Cocktail, Symphony of Moist Joy Cocktail, The Barking Dog, Between-The-Sheets, Damn-The-Weather Cocktail, Gingivitis Cocktail (I’m not making this up!), Nude Eel Cocktail,  One Exciting Night, I-Don’t- Care-Cocktail… Can’t wait until summer so I could whip up some of these babies!

Pearl S. Buck, an American author who spent the first 40 years of her life in China. Winner of the Pulitzer prize in 1932 for The Good Earth and the Nobel Prize in Literature for her rich and epic writings of peasant life in China. Through her beautiful and eloquent writings on each country, she manages to transport me to those exotic lands.

And this old beauty. The Margaret Rudkin Pepperidge Farm Cookbook. Just look at the front and back cover. Gorgeous!

The pages inside are filled with the sweetest illustrations. 

…for a Lamb Curry                                 …for Extra Special Cookies

…for Boeuf Stroganoff Without Panic and Ground Beef A La Lindstrom

And this old, and old-fashioned, Betty Crocker Cookbook for Boys and Girls. It’s a wonder they’ve added a boy on the cover! And the sweetest cookies… 

And now for the pièce de resistance, from a little Italian cookbook…

Hilarious!

To thank Marina, a donation will be made to Saint-Mary’s Hospital in memory of her mom. And of course, lunch chez moi.  Thank you Marina for this wonderful gift. Thank you Karen for having thought of me and introduced us.

Finn the kitten, thinking what fun this is!

Little kitten Shadow, wondering where to begin…

Naughty kittens telling me it’s time to shelve those cookbooks before they wreak havoc!

Moroccan Lentil Soup for Bone-Chilling Weather

Tags

African, lentil, Moroccan, Moroccan lentil soup, soup, Vegetarian

We have had bone-chilling weather these past 3 days. Arctic-like weather. It was -25 degrees Celsius today, -38 C with the wind chill factor! In case you’re wondering, that’s -36 Fahrenheit. Yes, really! We needed more than just a soul-warming soup for dinner. We needed a soup that would warm us to our very core. One with fiery spices which would make its way right down to our bones and set them ablaze with heat. Not necessarily hot spices, but spices with warmth. Spices like cumin, ginger, cinnamon, pepper and turmeric, a spice in the ginger family which is widely used in curries. How about a lentil soup with Moroccan heat?

Ingredients for a big batch of soup, about 12 servings

Olive oil

1 large onion, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1 tsp ginger, minced or grated

2 celery stalks, chopped

2 tsp salt

1 tsp each of pepper, ground cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, turmeric

1/2 tsp ground ginger

1 to 2 tsp harissa, depending on your taste, optional

2 cups vegetable broth, or water

6 cups water

2 cups red lentils

1 tbsp tomato paste

1 can (28 oz/798 ml) whole, peeled tomatoes

Chopped parsley or cilantro for serving, optional

Sour cream for serving, optional

Heat olive oil, enough to cover bottom of soup pot, on medium heat.  Add onions and garlic and cook for 5 minutes. Add celery and cook another 5 minutes.

Add all of the spices, stir and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in harissa and cook for 1 minute.

Add the liquids, lentils, tomato paste, and tomatoes. Bring to a boil, lower heat to a simmer, cover and cook for 30 to 35 minutes, mashing the tomatoes after 20 minutes.

And that’s it, as simple as that. You can, if you like, top your soup with chopped parsley or cilantro, or sour cream. Or both. I did. Serve with crusty baguette and salted butter. It’s numbing cold out there, we need foods that will stick to our ribs. Enjoy and keep warm!

Frugal Feeding with Moroccan Meatballs

Tags

beef, Cooking with kids, frugal cooking, meatballs, Moroccan dish, Moroccan meatballs, North African cooking

I came across this great recipe from a blog that I follow, Frugal Feeding. A young man living in England, Nick inspires us with an array of delicious, wholesome foods while striving to remain thrifty about it. His fabulous photos of Moroccan Meatballs enticed me to give this recipe a try.

Serves 4

Ingredients:

• 300g ground beef

• 3 tbsp chopped fresh herbs

• 1 egg

• 40g breadcrumbs

• Salt, a pinch of

• Pepper, a pinch of

• 2 tsp cumin seed

• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

• 3-4 tbsp olive oil

• 2 cloves of garlic, mashed

• 1-2 chillies, finely chopped

• 1 onion, finely chopped

• 1 stick of celery, finely chopped

• 3 bay leaves

• 1 green bell pepper, roughly chopped

• 1 red bell pepper, roughly chopped

• 1 28 oz/796 ml can of peeled plum tomatoes

• 1 tbsp tomato purée

• A large handful of raisins

• 200g chickpeas

• 1 tbsp honey

I started with about 450 g of ground beef and just upped the ingredients a little. I love leftovers. The fresh herbs I used were cilantro and mint. Very Moroccan. Cilantro and parsley are the most popular herbs used in Moroccan cuisine, with mint a close second since it is used to make Moroccan tea. I did not have fresh chillis therefore I used harissa, a North African red, hot chilli paste. I minced the garlic, used fresh bay leaves because I had them and used a yellow and orange pepper, also because I had them. Trying to be frugal, right?

I have to say that preparing dinner during the week is a true demonstration of my multi-tasking talents. As I was reading and preparing this recipe, giving Emma her English spelling bee and answering Charlotte’s math questions, I inadvertently mucked the recipe up. Just a tad. They say you should always read a recipe through first. I say, if you’re using delicious ingredients to begin with, does it really matter what order they go into the dish? The end result will be delicious regardless.

Mix the meat, herbs, egg, breadcrumbs and seasonings in a large bowl. Which I did, including the ground cumin and cinnamon. Only they weren’t supposed to go into the meat mixture. The end result though was a delicious Moroccan meatball. If you have children, do have them make the little meatballs. Nothing better than little hands rolling out little meatballs! Or any meatballs, for that matter.

What actually needs to be done with the cumin seeds is to toast them in a pan until they release their aroma, 2 or 3 minutes over medium heat, and then crush them with a mortar and pestle, or an electric spice grinder. Which I went ahead and did anyway. The tomatoes will welcome these spices and give it that Moroccan flare. So, heat the oil in an oven-proof pot over medium heat and fry the ground cumin and cinnamon in it for about a minute. Add celery and onions and cook until translucent. Add garlic and chllis, or harissa, and cook for a couple of minutes. Add bay leaves, peppers, tomatoes and puree. Cook, covered, over a gentle heat for about an hour. Turn the oven on at 325 F. Add raisins, chickpeas, honey and meatballs to the sauce. Earlier that day, I mistook a can of cannellini beans in my pantry for chickpeas…so, no chickpeas for me! And I forgot to add the honey! I was doing homework, remember? Although Nick did say to fry the meatballs first, I did not. At this point, I was just too frazzled! You can go ahead and fry them first in a little oil, or just do as I did and throw them into the sauce raw.  Cover the pot with foil and bake 30 to 40 minutes.

In the end, this recipe turned out to be quite delicious. I served it over a bed of couscous, which the girls absolutely love. Hope you give this a try. And remember, don’t be doing any homework with your children!

Umami Pork Chops

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asian, asian pork chops, dinner, grilled pork chops, pork chops, supper, umami

We were running late, the girls having gone to a dentist appointment after school, so dinner had to be quick and easy. Pork chops. That should be pretty easy. But how to prepare them? Easy enough in the summer…a quick marinade and throw them on the barbie. Everything tastes great on the barbeque. But in the winter, I tend to face a bit of a challenge when it comes to pork chops. I wasn’t in the mood for the usual breaded, oven-baked chops. I wanted something fresh and fiery. I knew exactly what I wanted. The taste of summer! The heavy and rich foods of winter were getting to me. I was nostalgic for warmth and freshness. I scour the fridge and pantry and here’s what I came up with.

Limes, garlic, ginger, Chinese five spice, hoisin sauce, tamari, sesame oil and sambal oelek.

Lime juice for its fresh, tart taste. The fragrant, aromatic and pungent garlic. Ginger…oh, how I love ginger. Tangy freshness, lemony, lightly spicy which imparts just enough warmth to a dish, a mellow sweetness, adding balance to both sweet and savoury dishes. The highly aromatic Chinese five spice powder, great for enhancing flavour in fatty meats like pork and duck. Comprised of star anise, fennel seeds, cinnamon, Szechuan peppercorns and cloves. Do use sparingly as it is quite pungent and can overpower your dish. Hoisin sauce, a.k.a. Chinese barbecue sauce, for its salty and slightly sweet flavour. Tamari, or soy if you prefer. The difference being that tamari is darker, smoother, with a richer taste. It is made solely of fermented soybeans, whereas soy sauce contains wheat and is saltier. Tamari doesn’t just add saltiness to a dish, but umami as well. Umami. I just love its meaning. From the Japanese, umai meaning delicious, mi meaning taste. A pleasant, savoury taste. Umami is one of the five basic tastes, the other four being sweet, sour, bitter and salty. For an interesting read on umami, check this out. Sesame oil has quite a distinctive flavour, slightly sweet, slightly nutty. Really do use it sparingly as it can overtake your dish with a toasted sesame flavour, which I am not crazy about. And sambal oelek. Ground, fresh chilli paste made only of fiery red chilies, vinegar and salt, adding heat without losing the flavours of other ingredients.

For 4 pork chops: (I did not do any measuring, these are my estimates)

Juice of 2 limes

2 garlic cloves, minced

Piece of fresh ginger, grated  (a 2-inch piece)

2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder

1 tablespoon hoisin sauce, maybe a little more

1/4 cup tamari, maybe a little less

1 tablespoon sesame oil

2 teaspoons sambal oelek

Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl. Pour over pork chops and let sit at room temperature for 30 minutes. This allows for some time to boil some potatoes for mashing and preparing a nice green salad.

Heat a grill pan on medium if you have one, otherwise a fry pan will do. Brush with vegetable oil. Cook chops 3 to 5 minutes per side, depending on thickness. You do not want to overcook the chops or they will be dry and taste terrible, no matter what you add to the marinade. They need to be slightly pink in the centre.

Remove from grill and let sit on a plate, covered with foil paper, until ready to serve.

Serve with mashed potatoes, sautéed mushrooms and a lovely green salad. Oh, doesn’t that look delish? It was just what my body was craving. Fresh, fiery, tangy, sweet. Umami!

Peter’s Comfort Soup

Tags

French-Canadian pea soup, pea soup, Quebecois-style pea soup, soup, yellow split-peas

Seeing as the temperature here is still bone-chilling, I continue with the comfort foods to warm the soul. This is actually Peter’s comfort food. He loves pea soup. I, on the other hand, do not. It isn’t so much the taste that I’m not fond of, but the texture. I’m not a big fan of chunky soups.  And that is precisely what Canadian pea soup is. Or rather, Québécois-style pea soup. Here in Quebec, this very traditional ‘Soupe aux pois’, made with yellow split peas, is the ultimate comfort food when it comes to soups.

A funny thing about pea soup. During World War I, General Sir Arthur William Currie ordered his French-Canadian troops to be fed with pea soup, believing that it was the most consistent food and that soldiers would improve their performance on the battlefield. Found to be very funny from the English soldiers’ point-of-view, the French-Canadian soldiers were then called “Pea Soup”, or “Pea Soupers”!

We had a left-over baked ham on the bone. We threw it into a pot, added enough water to cover it, an onion and some parsley. We boiled it down for about 2 hours, until we got a nice brown stock. If you don’t have a left-over baked ham, no worries. Just follow this step using a fresh ham hock, smoked or not. That’s up to you.

In another pot, I heated some olive oil on medium heat. I added a finely chopped onion, 2 diced carrots, 2 diced celery stalks, 3 or 4 bay leaves, some salt and pepper. I let that cook for about 5 or 6 minutes. I then added about 2 cups of yellow split peas and toasted them for a couple of minutes.

Then I added the ham stock. And here is where my pea soup differs from the traditional French-Canadian pea soup. Instead of adding the usual 5 or so cups of stock per 2 cups of split peas, I must have added at least 10 cups of stock. My soups need to be filled with steaming hot broth. Lots and lots of broth. That’s what warms my soul. And after cooking the split peas for about 1 hour, that is exactly what I got. Traditional French-Canadian pea soup? Maybe not. Fantastic split-pea soup? Oh, absolutely!

Comforting Cabbage Bundles

Tags

cabbage rolls, comfort foods, Cooking with kids, stuffed cabbage

With the new year comes my least favourite month. January. Just the sound of it makes me cringe. I might feel differently if I lived in the Southern Hemisphere. Or even New Mexico or Arizona. But alas, I live in Canada. Montreal, to be precise. And if I could hibernate for the months of January and February (shudder!), I would do so in a heartbeat. Well, not so much hibernate but more like enshroud myself in my bed with books and movies. And my wee little kittens. Seeing as I have young children who do require the assistance of their mother for their daily existence, I turn instead to comfort foods. Foods to warm and sooth the soul. Foods to nourish the spirit throughout these dark and cold days.

So I begin with cabbage rolls. I asked Emma to help with this one. Anyone who has ever made stuffed cabbage rolls before knows what a time-consuming endeavour this dish can be. And besides, cooking with Emma by my side is a comfort in itself. With comments like, “This cabbage looks like a brain!”, how could it not be? Cooking and baking with either of my girls helps lift my spirit during these dreary winter days.

The Cabbage Brain Hmm…This gives me an idea for next Halloween!

I started with a recipe which I came across in a magazine a couple of years ago and adapted it slightly, making a few changes of my own. Here’s what you’ll need.

• 1 savoy cabbage
• olive oil
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup pearl barley
• 1 1/2 cups low sodium vegetable broth
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 French shallots, finely chopped
• 250 g ground turkey (I used pork this time…that’s what you get when you send your hubby out to do groceries! You can also use beef, chicken or veal.)
• 1 cup ricotta cheese (I used light)
• 1 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp Dijon mustard
• 1 egg, beaten
• 2 tsp red-wine vinegar
• 1/2 tsp salt

I like to use Savoy cabbage for the tenderness of the leaves. You can use a regular green cabbage if you prefer. Core the cabbage and leave it whole. Bring a large pot of water to boil. When I say large, what I really mean is make sure the entire cabbage will fit into your pot comfortably once it is filled with boiling water. My pot wasn’t quite large enough and once I added the head of cabbage to it, the boiling water spilling onto my stove made quite a mess of it all. So, add the head of cabbage and boil for 8 minutes. Remove from water and let cool in a colander.

Add olive oil, about 1 tablespoon, to a medium pot or deep frying pan. Heat on medium and add garlic. Cook for about a minute and add the barley. Toast the barley for a minute or so and then pour in the vegetable broth. You can use chicken or beef broth if you prefer, I just used what I had in the fridge. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low, cover and simmer for 25 minutes. After 20 minutes I needed to add a tad bit of water, seeing as the barley was slightly undercooked. Remove from heat and let cool.

I then proceeded to make a quick tomato sauce.

• 1 can whole plum, peeled tomatoes (796 ml)
• 2 French shallots, minced
• 1 garlic clove, minced
• sugar
• a little salt

Heat olive oil over medium-low heat and add shallots, cooking for a couple of minutes. Add garlic and cook for a minute. Add  tomatoes, salt and about 1 tablespoon of sugar – my sugar bowl is filled with brown sugar, so that’s what I used. Go ahead and use white if you prefer. Give the tomatoes a quick mash-up. Cook uncovered for 10 minutes.

Now add the remaining ingredients for the stuffing to the cooled barley. Give it a good mix.

Remove leaves from the cooled head of cabbage. You’ll need anywhere from 12 to 18, depending on the size of the leaves. Remove the centre vein. You are now ready to stuff! Place a leaf on a board and overlap the centre where the vein was removed.

Fill with about 1/4 cup to 1/3 cup stuffing. Roll tightly and place in an oven dish with a little of the tomato sauce on the bottom.

Cover the rolls with remaining sauce. Cover dish with aluminum foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 1 hour.

Enjoy…and may they be as comforting and soothing for you as they were for me!