The temperature in Ottawa is currently -1 celsius (30F). Yes folks, it’s winter now, and with winter comes the time change, the darkness, and the inevitable descent into madness. Until spring at least, but that seems an awfully long way away right now.

Winter demands stew, so I made this today.

Spicy sausage and bean stew

Ingredients

• 4 sausages (600-650g or so, whatever type you like — I used nice fresh Italian sausage from the local butcher)
• 2 14oz cans white beans
• 1 14oz can red kidney beans
• 3 14oz cans diced tomatoes
• 1 med yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
• 1/2 tsp dried thyme
• Fresh ground pepper to taste

Method

1. Fry sausages until done, drain fat, slice. Drain and rinse beans.
2. Heat oil over medium heat in a large pot. Saute onion and garlic for about 5 mins or so. Toss in spices, sugar, and thyme and saute for a few more minutes.
3. Add tomatoes, sausage, and beans. Simmer for an hour or two. Serve with crusty bread and butter.

It’s very, very, very tasty. The 1/4 tsp of cayenne gives it a nice heat, but you may want to adjust to taste.

Basic, incredibly yummy salad: iceberg lettuce, sliced cucumber, diced apple, walnut pieces, chunks of a high-quality mild blue cheese, blue cheese dressing, fresh ground black pepper. Very tasty.

I love strawberries. I love all berries really, but local perfectly-ripe strawberries (the smaller the better) are just about the best thing ever. The only drawback of strawberry season is that it spells the sad and inevitable end of asparagus season. Woe!

I picked up a pint of local strawberries and a half dozen beautifully ripe apricots today (I think the apricots are from California). After I accidentally ate half the strawberries standing in front of the fridge (which will be a frequent occurrence whilst strawberry season continues) I made a simple fruit salad with yogurt sauce.

Ingredients

• 1 apricot, pitted and cut into 16 pieces (8 wedges, halved)
• 16 small strawberries, hulled (take the green bit off)
• 1/4 c plain yogurt (I used 2.5% fat)
• 1 tsp white sugar (or less if you prefer)
• Seeds from 1″ piece of vanilla bean (cut an inch of seed, split it open, the scrape out the goopy paste in the middle — that goop is the seeds and is awesome)

Method

1. Mix yogurt, vanilla seeds, and sugar together in a small bowl. Stick in the fridge for 10 mins or so, then stir again.
2. Put apricot cubes and strawberries in a bowl, top with vanilla yogurt. Eat!

Pretty tasty. This was dessert after a dinner of tilapia (a ridiculously boring fish), sweet potato, and asparagus. Yum.

Sort of made this one up as I went, using what I had on hand. Turned out really, really well.

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp peanut oil
• 1 med red onion, roughly chopped
• 1 1/2 tbsp fresh ginger, finely grated
• 1 med clove garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp curry powder
• 1 15oz can of diced tomatoes, do not drain these - you want the juice
• 2 med sweet potatoes, cut into half-inch dice
• 1/3 c water
• 1 19oz can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed well
• 1/2 c plain yogurt (whatever fat content you prefer, I used 2.5%)

Method
Heat peanut oil in a medium-sized sauce pan (with lid) over medium heat. Saute onions in oil for 5-7 minutes or so. Toss in grated ginger and garlic and saute for another 2 minutes. Stir in curry powder and cook for another 4-5 minutes or so — the curry powder will stick to the bottom of the pot but don’t worry about it, it’ll all work out in the end.

Dump in the diced tomatoes, including all the juices. Stir and heat until simmering — at this point the curry powder will stop sticking to the pot. Simmer the tomato mixture for a few minutes then add the cubed potatoes. Add water, stir, and cover. Turn down the heat to med-low, and simmer until the potatoes are soft but not falling apart, 20-25 mins.

Add drained chickpeas, stir, and continue to simmer at med-low heat until the potatoes are as soft as you like. Remove from heat and let cool for 5 mins or so, then stir in the yogurt. You should end up with a nice rich slightly saucy curry.

Serve over rice.

Made a yummy curry tonight, using the last of my homemade curry powder. Definitely need to make more. This stuff is fantastic (and is stolen shamelessly from A New Way to Cook).

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp coriander seeds
• 2 tsp cumin seeds
• 1 tsp black peppercorns
• 1 1/2 tsp fennel seeds
• 1 tsp ground turmeric
• 1 tsp ground mustard
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

Method
In a small heavy skillet, combine the coriander, cumin, and peppercorns and toast over moderate heat, stirring constantly, until fragrant. Remove from heat and stir in the remaining spices.

When cool, put into a spice grinder (a cheap bladed coffee grinder does the trick) and grind for at least a minute until you have a fine powder.

Store in a small airtight container.

Note: This is not spicy-hot at all. If you want heat, add cayenne pepper — start with 1/4 tsp cayenne per tablespoon of curry powder and adjust from there.

“He grills the steaks upstairs in the fireplace, and they’re bloody inside and charred on the outside, and the juices run down your face, and you’re drunk, and your face is greasy, and everything is right with the world.”

Link

No recipes because it’s all stupid-simple:

• Pan-seared lamb chops
• Steamed cauliflower topped with a lump of gorgonzola cheese
• Wild rice

I love food.

The first time I cooked salmon at home (not on a grill) I pan-seared it and lived to regret the clinging stench of fish in the condo for the next 2 days. That put me off for months, but today I turned to my pal shaver who imparted some wisdom that essentially boiled down to “wrap it in something and bake it”. So that’s what I did, cribbing a recipe from notes from the internet, and it turned out perfectly.

Ingredients

• 2 salmon steaks, 1″ thick or so
• 1 can artichoke hearts (you only need 2 or 3, so be prepared to deal with the leftovers)
• 1 fresh vine-ripened tomato, roughly chopped
• 3 sprigs fresh thyme
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• Salt + pepper to taste
• Lemon wedges to serve

Method

1. Preheat oven to 400F.
2. Chop 3 artichoke hearts into quarters. Mix artichoke, tomato, thyme leaves (discard stems), 2 tbsp olive oil, salt + pepper in a small bowl.
3. Lay out two sheets of aluminum foil, large enough to completely, but loosely, wrap the salmon.
4. Use remaining oil to rub down the salmon steaks, and place those on the foil.
5. Top each salmon steak with half of the artichoke/tomato mixture. Fold foil loosely around steaks and seal, so each steak is in its own little foil packet-pod.
6. Place foil pods on a baking sheet, and put in the oven. Bake for 25-30 mins.
7. Unwrap, remove from foil, and plate, serving with lemon wedges.

That’s pretty much it. I served these with steamed snap peas and baked sweet potato.

I’m actually not a huge fan of regular hummus unless it’s so jacked up with lemon juice and garlic that most other people won’t eat it, but I made a hummus today that we both like a lot.

Ingredients

• 1 19oz chickpeas, drained and well rinsed
• 5oz baby spinach, wilted (I just tossed it in a non-stick saute pan with a tsp of water until it was more cooked than raw — 5 mins on med-high or so)
• Zest from a whole lemon, minced
• 4 tbsp lemon juice
• 1/4c extra virgin olive oil
• Salt + pepper to taste — the canned chickpeas probably have a lot of sodium in them already, so be cautious with the salt at first
• 1 md clove of garlic
• 1/2 md shallot

Method

1. Toss it all in a food processor and puree until more-or-less smooth. Should be a nice rich green colour. Add warm water a little at a time if it needs thinning.
2. Taste and adjust seasonings — add more salt, pepper, or lemon juice as you see fit.
3. Transfer to a bowl and, ideally, let sit in the refrigerator for a while. The flavours will blend and develop over time, although it’s perfectly good straight out of the processor.

Serve with whole grain pitas or whatever.

It’s possible that this might be a touch lemony for some people, so if you’re not a huge fan of a big citrus punch, only use zest from half a lemon.

I suck at baking, but these turned out brilliantly (after an initial false start…turns out chemistry makes me panic). I followed this recipe more-or-less exactly, but I have a few tips if you’re going to try it.

1. Making dulce de leche is more complicated than it sounds and takes longer than you think. A glass bowl won’t cut it — you really do need a glass pie plate for it to work properly. I’m also pretty sure that cooking it at a lower temperature for longer would be better — mine developed a darker brown crusty top which, while tasty, sort of made it look gross.
2. Let the chocolate/butter/cocoa mixture cool before adding the eggs. Don’t freak out if the butter starts to separate out after adding the second egg — just press on regardless and it’ll work out in the end.
3. Switch from a whisk to a wooden spoon before adding the eggs — just trust me.
4. Don’t be an idiot and forget to add the pecans you carefully toasted and chopped like I did. Pewp.

They nice, thick, moist, yummy, crazy brownies. I expect one warmed and topped with a tiny scoop of vanilla Hagendaaz will be even better.