Many delicious ways to eat rice.

I could never, ever do a low carb diet. (In fact, the very idea horrifies me.) When I go out for Korean barbeque, my friends all go straight for the meat and say that they don’t want to fill up on the rice; mixed with the kimchi and other vegetables, that’s my favourite part!  A spicy vegetarian riff on gallo pinto just became my go-to for breakfast. My brother and I have to fight over the nasi goreng when my family gets Malaysian take-out – and oh, how I envy my parents’ proximity to that restaurant!

Yeah, this month’s Daring Cooks challenge was straight up my alley. Risotto. Mmm.

I make risotto a lot, but I took the opportunity to play around and try a few new things: a roasted vegetable stock, a different play of flavours in the risotto itself, arancini, and an Indian-inspired “sweet risotto” (yes, it’s rice pudding in my lexicon – but made using the general risotto method).

The 2010 March Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Eleanor of MelbournefoodGeek and Jess of Jessthebaker. They chose to challenge Daring Cooks to make risotto. The various components of their challenge recipe are based on input from the Australian Masterchef cookbook and the cookbook Moorish by Greg Malouf.

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More than the sum of its parts

Tiramisu: I love the name. According to one source, it means “pick me up”; I don’t speak Italian, but it sounds plausible to my French-conditioned ears. It’s also exactly what one needs after a good meal: a sweet pick-me-up to carry on with the evening’s conversation. I love the idea of it, too: soft, spongy cookies and coffee, cocoa, and delicious mascarpone beaten with pastry cream. Oddly, though, I’ve rarely eaten tiramisu; I remember having it for dessert when I was in Nice, but it wasn’t terribly memorable, and as much as I love to bake, I generally prefer pies and cakes and cookies to a complex composed dessert. However, joining the Daring Bakers is all about trying new things, and so:

The February 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen and Deeba of Passionate About Baking. They chose Tiramisu as the challenge for the month. Their challenge recipe is based on recipes from The Washington Post, Cordon Bleu at Home and Baking Obsession.

The challenge required me to make my own savoiardi (ladyfingers) and my own mascarpone, which was fun. I’m no stranger to baking cookies but the technique for savoiardi was definitely outside of my experience (and clearly I need more practice with the method). I’ve also made paneer, and the method for making mascarpone is similar but not quite the same; it was interesting to compare the two. Making the tiramisu was a good way to get out of a baking rut that I didn’t really realize I was in: although I’ve got some experience with each individual part, except the zabaglione, I’ve never made anything that incorporated many different elements the way tiramisu does.

I definitely need to play around some more, though. My savoiardi were tasty, but I think I must have deflated the batter somehow, because instead of the predicted 36 cookies, I had 15, which wasn’t really enough. I also experimented a bit with the flavours, using amaretto as the liqueur instead of marsala, which I didn’t have. I really love the idea of the fruit flavours some of the other Daring Bakers tried, and if I make  it again I think I’ll head in this direction, because sadly, I didn’t love my execution of tiramisu. It wasn’t that it was bad, but it didn’t really come together as more than the sum of its parts. Continue reading »

In which I fondly imagine that I can decorate:

Perhaps this post might be more accurately titled “Tariqata shows off her mad cupcake skillz to all her friends!”

Um, yes. I wish.

While I think I still qualify as a cake wreckerator and not a decorator – and, yes, Cake Wrecks has joined Cute Overload and xkcd as a site that makes me laugh so hard I cry; why do you ask? – I’m not exactly disappointed with these almond cupcakes topped with green tea frosting and white chocolate-dipped fortune cookies. Even if I did totally steal the decorating strategy from the Baked cookbook right along with the cupcakes themselves. I was, after all, bringing these to a housewarming party right before the Chinese new year for a friend who will be getting married in a few short months; it was so appropriate.

I actually went a little crazy and tried to make my own fortune cookies (using a mix of hazelnuts and pecans in place of the walnuts), but failed miserably to produce anything beyond delicious crumbs. The two that actually resembled fortune cookies broke when I dipped them in the chocolate. However, I do strongly recommend trying the recipe anyhow, because you might be better at folding cookies than I am and even if you aren’t, it’s still a damn good cookie.

Happily, the Bulk Barn sold me a couple dozen fortune cookies for just under a dollar, though I’m sad I didn’t get to use my custom fortunes. Because they were way more awesome.

Though I do like to write out the recipes for these posts, for this one you can see it exactly right here.

The cupcakes were, incidentally, very good, though I might try them again using all butter, instead of a mix of butter and shortening, and I really need to learn not to overbeat my cake batter. I also should learn not to wander off while I’ve got a pot of milk and matcha powder and sugar boiling happily away, but I seem to be the only one who noticed the faint burnt flavour in the frosting, which is otherwise a lot like green tea ice cream.

Daring Cooks #1: A mezze table

The 2010 February Daring COOKs challenge was hosted by Michele of Veggie Num Nums. Michele chose to challenge everyone to make mezze based on various recipes from Claudia Roden, Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Dugid.

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Back in December, I had a fantastic meal with the Fellow at a Lebanese restaurant in Dublin. (We also ate Hungarian takes on Italian, Thai, and Mexican food in Budapest. We approve of checking out regional twists on the cuisines of others. The Lebanese food was, however, reasonably authentic. As far as I know.) The only problem was the number of possibilities; we had grilled halloumi, tabouleh, hummus, something that involved merguez sausage, and three or four other dishes, but I could easily have ordered a dozen.

Just from the vegetarian section.

It was good stuff. I want to go back. Unfortunately, it may be a while before that happens, but the Daring Cooks gave me an excuse to do it for myself this month.

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Coco-vegetable rice with satay chicken: So good, I took no pictures.

There are two things that I like to do when I don’t want to do schoolwork (well, three, if you count knitting, but two are more likely activities): read and cook.

I’ve been in the mood to cook recently.

Tonight’s dinner was, therefore, a chance to experiment. I joined the Daring Cooks too late to participate officially in the January challenge (though I’m really looking forward to the next one!), but it turned out to be something that I really wanted to try for myself, satay chicken.

To go with it, I made the “coco-vegetable rice” from Jay Weinstein’s The Ethical Gourmet. (I’ve made this before, but I really, really love it.) I’ve been making this recipe for a couple of years, and I think it was this that first suggested to me that “slaw” need not be synonymous with a soggy, stodgy mess of sad vegetables in too  much mayo, and that cabbage is in fact delicious. And since cabbage is one of the very few Ontario vegetables available in January, this was a happy discovery. (Even if it is served with rice and coconut, neither of which grew here last time I checked. But still. Cabbage! Local!) Continue reading »

Daring Bakers: Nanaimo Bars with homemade Graham crackers

The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.

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I have to begin with a confession. I think this may cost me some of my Canadian cred – even more than the time I blithely said that the animal on our quarter is a moose.

I don’t particularly like Nanaimo bars.

I do love the idea of them: graham cracker crusts (with nuts and coconut, no less!) are yummy, custard is always good, and chocolate is chocolate and nothing else need be said. But put them all together, and for some reason we Canadians tend to produce something so sweet it makes my teeth ache.

I’ve made them twice before, the second time just this last December, while visiting R in Belfast; we brought them to a potluck dinner his co-workers put on, as they asked us to bring something Canadian. It took a good chunk of our last day before coming back to Toronto to track down the ingredients. We never did find graham crackers (though plain digestive biscuits turned out to be more or less indistinguishable), and had to go to five – FIVE! – grocery stores before we found unsalted butter. I was pretty pleased that we managed to make anything at all, given the under-equipped kitchen we had access to, but they turned out like ordinary Nanaimo bars – painfully sweet. I’m not sure R’s colleagues were impressed. (Probably a good thing we didn’t make poutine!) It convinced me that if I made Nanaimo bars again, I was going to do something different.

Fortunately, a few days later I signed up for the Daring Bakers, and the opportunity presented itself. Continue reading »

Foodie Friday #5: Peaches. Caramel. Pie. What else could you want?

Except that, really, there is more that you could want: honey and bourbon.

When I saw the photos on Sassy Radish (some time ago), I knew it wouldn’t be long before I made it myself, though in actual fact I didn’t get around to it for about six weeks. I was waiting for the Ontario peaches to show up, and it feels like that took a while. (And now, I feel like I’m oversupplied; can’t complain about luscious, brightly flavoured, amaretto-kissed peach butter though!) Continue reading »

Foodie Friday #4: Of Canning and Condiments.

As per my mustard post quite some time back, canning is a bit of a hobby of mine, and canning condiments is doubly fun: they’re popular in our household, and I like being able to add my own spin to them. It’s also nice to be in control of the salt and sugar, and to know where the vegetable ingredients are coming from. Heinz, so far as I know, does not make locavore-friendly ketchup.

But I do, now! (Or as close as I can get – the tomatoes and onions were local, though I can’t speak for the salt, sugar, spices, and cider vinegar.) Continue reading »

Foodie Friday #3: delicious cilantro-chili stir-fry

The first year that I had my own apartment, stir-fry was one of my two staple foods, but I never ate it the same way twice. That is partly because of my “measurement? what’s that?” attitude toward savoury cooking, but mostly because with all the hundreds of different ways you can sautee vegetables and protein, perhaps with rice or noodles either mixed in directly or serving as a base, why on earth would I want to repeat myself? However, tonight’s stir-fry? I will repeat.

During that same year of the first apartment, I found a jar of cilantro-chili “pesto” that I’ve never seen since and still miss. Tonight, I decided to try to duplicate it, or at least cook up something similar. I threw a bunch of cilantro, a couple of chiles, most of a head of garlic, and some ginger into the food processor, with a few tablespoons of avocado oil and lime juice for moisture. (Incidentally, avocado oil? I’ve been missing out for all but the past week of my life. It makes the best salad dressing I’ve ever had, I think.) Blended all of that into a thick, colourful sauce.

Then I stir-fried up my veggies with a shallot for company, mixed in the sauce and a bit of omelet for protein and coconut rice for starch. Continue reading »

Foodie Friday #2: Tom Yum soup (or a close facsimile)

Or perhaps, the closest a white girl from Toronto can get to it by combing online recipes and making additions until it tastes like our round-the-corner pan-Asian restaurant, whose Indonesian fried rice and vegetable tom yum soup have become our new lazy Friday dinner. (I must confess, I added a can of coconut milk. I suspect that’s Not The Right Way To Do It, but it did taste pretty good.)

Now that I’ve discovered how simple the soup is to make, although I’m sure we won’t stop frequenting the restaurant round the corner, we will be having this a lot more often, especially now that the season of runny noses is upon us. Who needs chicken soup? My sinuses haven’t been so clear of gunk in weeks!

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