CookThatBook

COOKBOOK REVIEW Vegetarian Cooking: a commonsense guide

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Thu, 17 May 2012 14:26:12 +0000

By Bay Books (imprint of Murdoch Books Pty Limited)

Vegetarian Cooking: a commonsense guide is available for purchase through our online store or at local bookstores. For more information on this book please visit Murdoch Books Pty Limited.

Review written & photographed by Jordan A.R.

Originating from recipes developed by the Murdoch Books Test Kitchen, Vegetarian Cooking: a commonsense guide offers a wide variety of simple, affordable meals for any home cook to make throughout the year. The book begins with the “Vegetarian Adventure,” a basic look at finding nutritional balance in your diet whether or not you happen to be vegetarian. It provides information on how to avoid common dietary pitfalls by eating a variety of foods rich in vitamins and minerals. Through the combination of certain foods, this book shows you how to achieve the greatest dietary benefit from your meals.

As the title of the book indicates, this is a commonsense guide. The information presented is nothing new, but it is info people often overlook or forget. The aim of the publishers is not to preach about vegetarianism or pretend to be sophisticated health gurus, they are simply trying to “expand the menu of possibilities” by showing that one can still enjoy food without revolving every meal around meat.

What struck me the first time I flipped through the pages of the Commonsense Guide was the sheer variety of recipes, that includes everything from breads and soups to sushi and labneh (yoghurt cheese). The majority of the recipes are simple, smart dishes that don’t need a lot of ingredients or require much cooking skills; and for those that require a bit more care, well, you just have to give them a bit more care.

Overall, I found this cookbook to be a straightforward, no nonsense kind of book filled with interesting ideas worth experimenting with in your kitchen.

Jerusalem Artichokes Roasted with Red Wine & Garlic

Rating: 5 out of 5 (my new favourite vegetable)

THE TEST: I’d seen these vegetables around from time to time, usually at farmers’ markets or organic food stores, but I never knew what to do with them and so always passed them up for something more familiar that I would know how to cook. Needless to say I felt it was time to have a crack at these mysterious tubers.

Ironically, Jerusalem artichokes are not an artichoke nor are they from Jerusalem (they’re actually native to eastern North America). These root vegetables – also called sunchokes – still get treated in a similar fashion to fresh artichokes, needing to be kept in lemon-water as you work with them in order to prevent discolourification. However, unlike real artichokes you don’t need to be an Italian nonna to get the work done quickly. Peel them, cut them, and drop them in boiling water. It’s dead simple. Once that’s done and you’ve made the dressing, dry the sunchokes on a paper towel, mix everything in a pan and roast for 45 minutes.

THE RESULTS: The sunchokes were somehow both firm and buttery at the same time, and just…comforting. I don’t think you can ask for more in a vegetable. The dressing, with its red wine, tamari and Tabasco, had a great balance of sweet, salty and spicy. This is an amazing dish, and if you’ve never cooked with this particular vegetable before this recipe is a great introduction to what has become my new favourite vegetable.

Beetroot Ravioli with Sage Burnt Butter Sauce

Rating: 4 out of 5 (savoury and do-it-yourself rewarding)

THE TEST: It never occurred to me to buy fresh lasagna sheets in order to make my own ravioli. To be honest, making my own ravioli was something I never even considered, so when I saw this recipe I thought the concept was genius. Pasta dough is easy enough to make, and if you have one of those pasta machines that roll the dough into nice, thin sheets and you’ve saved yourself the workout of trying to roll it flat with a floured wine bottle, drinking as you go, then maybe you won’t marvel at this discovery. But even if you do have a machine and just want to save time, buying fresh lasagna sheets is a helluva good shortcut.

THE RESULTS: The most important part of this dish is to make sure you use very fresh lasagna. I had to make this twice because the first time I had bought “fresh” lasagna in one of those sealed plastic bags in the refrigerator section of the supermarket, but the sheets wouldn’t stick together to let me form the raviolis. It became regular lasagna instead. Lesson learned.

In round two the pasta was good, but the pickled beets lent a slight, unwelcomed acidity to the ravioli. I think roasting fresh beets would have been best, but if you’re looking for a speedy version then canned beets in water would probably fair better than pickled. As for the burnt butter sauce, apart from pairing perfectly with the ravioli, it made me realize that all those years I thought I loved eating crab I really just loved the pools of garlic butter.

Labneh (yoghurt cheese)

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 (soft, herby & simple)

THE TEST: Hang Greek-style yoghurt in cheesecloth over a pot for three days, then roll it into balls and marinate them for another twenty-four hours and you’ve got labneh! This might be the easiest cheese you can make.

THE RESULTS: I’ve never had labneh before so I don’t have anything to compare this recipe to, but if you like yoghurt and if you like herbs then this cheese is meant for you.

On its own as a ball of cheese, I found that the sourness from the yoghurt made the labneh a bit unpleasant; but smear it on a cracker and it’s fantastic! This recipe uses rosemary and thyme for the herbs, but chilies would also be a welcome addition along with any other combination of herbs that suite your taste. This is a simple recipe that tastes good, and you are guaranteed to impress people if you tell them you made cheese from scratch. It’s a win-win situation.

Muffin Monday: Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Swirl Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 14 May 2012 14:11:52 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

I heart Dorie Greenspan.

Frequent readers of this blog will know how much respect I have for Dorie, who in my humble opinion is a true culinary genius. I am still very much in love with her latest cookbook; Around My French Kitchen (click here to read the full review and recipe tests). And her Coffee Break Muffins are at the top of my list of favourite Muffin Monday recipes.

This week’s recipe is for a truly addictive Chocolate Chip Peanut Butter Swirl Muffin. Chocolate and peanut butter – a classic flavour combination that I happen to adore. The recipe involves a few more steps than our usual muffins, but rest assured it is still straightforward and the results are worth the extra effort.

Like with the Coffee Break Muffins, I opted to follow this recipe to a tee. Yes, fleeting thoughts of peanut butter and/or butterscotch chips, Reese’s Pieces, and cream cheese peanut butter icing all crossed my mind, but I really wanted to experience these muffins as Dorie had intended.

A chocolate muffin batter consisting of dry ingredients mixed with melted chocolate and unsalted butter, are incorporated with buttermilk, egg and vanilla. Additional chocolate chips are added into the mix before the muffins are topped with a peanut butter swirl (melted peanut butter and unsalted butter, icing sugar and milk), which is then swirled into the top of each muffin.

These muffins are incredibly moist with a slight tang from the buttermilk, and full of rich chocolatey flavour that compliments the salty peanut butter swirl on top. Despite their decadence, there is no confusing these muffins for cupcakes. The texture is more dense and the level of sweetness subtle, making it the perfect definition of a muffin.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; I heart Dorie Greenspan.

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please click here

Don’t forget to visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Muffin Monday is an initiative by Baker Street. A culinary journey of sharing a wickedly delicious muffin recipe every week. Drop in a quick line to join her on her journey to make the world smile and beat glum Monday mornings week after week.

Muffin Monday: Squash Feta Pine Nut Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 07 May 2012 04:40:30 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

The thing I have grown to love most about our weekly Muffin Monday challenge is the creative adaptions that emerge from one particular recipe shared amongst a group of talented and inventive food bloggers. On the one hand it boggles my mind how different our muffins can turn out, but there are also times where similar thinking garner moments of great minds thinking alike.

Immediately upon glancing through this week’s recipe which comes courtesy of 1 Mix, 100 Muffins, I decided that it was begging for a makeover. The recipe calls for the more common Muffin Method approach, combining a batter of separated dry and wet ingredients that result in more bread like muffins with a coarser texture. (For more information on different muffin types and techniques, check out Baker Street’s Muffin 101 page…lots of good info folks!) Inspired by Katie’s Kitchen, I decided to expand the pine nut and parmesan flavour profile by inviting more ‘goodies’ to the party. Specifically? I roasted off small ½ inch cubes of butternut squash and added 1 cup to the flour mixture. I also replaced the parmesan with feta cheese, and threw in ¼ cup of fresh basil for kicks. Figuring the muffins had enough excitement going on in terms of flavour, I skipped the suggested cheese and pine nut topping.

Some advice? Drop whatever you’re doing and go make these muffins. NOW!

They were incredibly moist (thank you buttermilk) and I loved the subtle crunch of the pine nuts combined with the freshness of basil and chunks of sweet squash.

Perfection.

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Muffin Monday: Chile Jack Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 30 Apr 2012 02:59:28 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

My creative juices were flowing this week as the Muffin Monday food bloggers tackled Chile Cheddar Muffins. The original recipe is from Bakingdom which lists it courtesy of Darla, and there the trail ends. But while the recipe’s origins are a bit of a mystery, the level of tastiness lodged within each bite of these muffins is crystal clear.

The recipe came together quickly and easily, the batter divided into three elements that included the dry ingredients (all-purpose flour, baking powder, chile powder, baking soda and salt), wet ingredients (buttermilk, olive oil, and egg), and what I like to call ‘the goodies’ (cheddar cheese, roasted red pepper, chives, and parsley).

Here’s where I got creative: instead of using roasted red pepper I decided to throw caution to the wind and try out the tantalizing peppadew peppers I happened to have on hand. For those of you unfamiliar with peppadew peppers, they are a sweet piquanté pepper that is a heady mixture of sweet heat. I also added some roasted garlic, and opted to use jalapeño monterey jack cheese instead of cheddar, with my herb of choice being thyme.

The combination of all of those bright flavours in the form of a muffin was a roaring success in our household. They were rich and moist, all of the ingredients cooperating nicely with none of the players trying to outshine any of the others.

Happy Muffin Monday!

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Monthly Miettes: Lime Meringue Tart

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 03:48:41 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

For the second challenge of our funtastic Monthly Miettes, Aimée White of Food: Je t’Aimée tasked us with making any tart our hearts desired. Immediately following Aimée’s announcement there was a flurry on Twitter as the food bloggers involved debated which of the heavenly looking tarts to make for this month’s post. The initial response from the group was to make them all (yes they look that good!) but in the end I found the Lime Meringue Tart called my name the loudest.

All of the tarts and tartlets in Meg Ray’s Miette, are an elegant testimonial to the flavours of each season that combine intense flavoured fillings with crisp buttery shells. Why not try the Pastry Cream & Fresh Fruit Tarts to help herald in spring, let the Blueberry or Raspberry Tartlets bask beside you in the warm summer months, celebrate the flavours of fall with the Pecan Tart, or curl up in winter with the tangy Lemon Tart. Honestly, you can’t go wrong. I’m sure they all taste amazing.

The Lime Meringue Tart is the only recipe in this section that does not involve making a Pâte Sucrée crust (an ultra rich, buttery dough). Instead it calls for a homemade graham cracker crust, a glorious invention that utilizes whole-wheat flour instead of graham cracker crumbs. The results are a lovely, crisp, buttery crust gently flavoured with honey and brown sugar. As a side note, use the same recipe to make your own graham crackers, something that I will most definitely be doing in the near future.

Unfortunately my experience making these tarts was incredibly frustrating. There were simple mistakes, such listing the wrong page number for the additional recipes (e.g. the Graham Cracker Crust is incorrectly listed as being on page 152). Not a big deal, but considering this book has already gone through one major editorial overhaul it is something that should have been caught. The other issues I had were in terms of technique. First of all, the dough for the Graham Cracker Crust was much too soft to handle. Even after chilling the dough for the suggested amount of time, there was no way I could have rolled it out into anything but a heap of mush.

In the end I simply scooped the dough into my tartlet pans and pressed it into shape. It was at this point that I had my first glass of wine.

My next challenge came with the lime cream. To make the citrusy custard you whisk together the zest and juice of fresh limes, sugar and eggs in a double boiler until it reaches 172 F degrees. The recipe stipulates that this should take between 15-20 minutes, but after an hour of heating the curd I couldn’t get the temp to rise above 162 F degrees. I have no idea what went wrong, but in the end I gave up and added the butter which proceeded not to melt so I had to reheat the whole mixture over the stovetop again.

It was at this point that I had my second glass of wine.

Next I tackled the boiled icing (or Italian meringue), a shiny dense cloud of sweet icing fluff which is then brûléed on top of the tarts. A combination of sugar, cream of tarter and water is heated on the stove until it reaches a temperature of 240 F degrees. At this point you are supposed to add it to egg whites and whisk until thick and holds a firm peak.

Okay (breathe Jasmine) the recipe says to stir the sugar until dissolved but does not stipulate to leave it alone while it bubbles away. Any time I’ve made caramel I have always avoided any stirring action, but trusting the recipe I gave the pot an occasional swirl.

I should have trusted my instincts. The syrup burned.

Thinking positively, I added the sugary mixture to the egg whites thinking it might still taste okay. Sigh. At no point did the recipe mention that the egg whites needed to be whipped prior to adding the syrup. I ended up with a half scrambled egg burnt sugar mess of a liquid that (surprisingly) tasted good but in no way would have worked for the tarts.

At this point I grabbed the entire bottle of wine and walked out of the kitchen.

The next day I found another recipe for boiled icing on Baked Bree, and the results were much improved. Lessons learned? No stirring the sugar and whip the egg whites prior to adding the syrup.

Voilà!

After all of my frustrations the tarts turned out beautifully and tasted absolutely incredible. The tangy lime cream was perfectly sandwiched between the rich buttery crust and the heavenly sweet boiled icing. I cannot tell you how fantastic these tarts tasted! It must have been all my blood sweat and tears.

At this point I should probably mention that when Miette was first released it was riddled with errors. Both Meg and Chronicle Books immediately took steps to remedy the situation, providing correction sheets for copies of the book already in circulation along with an amended fourth printing of the book (you can view a list of corrections for earlier editions here). Part of the reason Aimée chose this particular book for our monthly baking challenge was because of the effort the Miette team put into remedying an unfortunate situation. She wanted to give the book a fair shake.

Yet as my frustration continued to grow while making these tarts, I couldn’t help the shadow of doubt that began to take root in my mind. How many errors are still alive and kicking in this book? A few of the other food bloggers mentioned having issues with the Tomboy Cake during last month’s challenge. Hopefully things get better from here on out because deep down I’m rooting for this book. What can I say? There’s just something irresistible about an underdog. But I also love the overall design of the book, and the collection of recipes offer a nice variety and sampling from the bakery’s repertoire.

I’m crossing my fingers (and toes)…

For more information on Monthly Miettes or if you’re interested in participating, please visit Food: Je t’Aimée

Muffin Monday: Low-Fat Raspberry Almond Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 03:46:40 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

The original recipe for this week was for Sugar Crusted Raspberry Muffins, and came from Real Simple. It is an easy, straightforward muffin that can be quickly assembled and baked off ready to eat even on the busiest of mornings. However, I was feeling particularly frisky in the kitchen so ended up altering the recipe quite a bit.

First of all, I wanted to try and make these a healthy low-fat version that still held great taste and texture. I opted to use almond meal rather than all-purpose flour, figuring the combination with raspberries would be fantastic. I melted the butter and added it to the sugar (just for kicks I used icing sugar rather than granulated), baking powder and salt. The resulting mixture was quite crumbly and reminded me of shortbread cookies.

For the liquid ingredients I decided to skip the milk and used 5 egg whites (whipped into soft peaks), which I folded into the flour mixture. Then I added the fresh raspberries and popped them into a 350 F degree oven and baked them for 25 minutes.

Easy peasy.

I loved the taste and texture of these muffins, but found they lacked structure and fell apart quite easily. I’m assuming it was the lack of gluten. Perhaps I should have added some xanthan gum? Anyway, they were so lovely and light thanks to the egg whites, and the almond meal tasted great with the raspberries although next time I’d like to try coconut flour.

The best part about these muffins? The chewy golden tops that were almost meringue like in texture. Yum.

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

Food & Wine Magazine: April Cover Recipe

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 14:28:03 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Asian Beef with Basil

Rating: 3.5 out of 5 (disappointing flavour)

Initial Thoughts: The photo of this fresh looking beef dish literally jumps off the page!

THE TEST: April’s Food & Wine Magazine cover recipe is an exciting Asian Beef with Basil dish. The photo has a modern look and feel that is fresh, and I couldn’t wait to give the recipe a try. Just reading the list of ingredients had me drooling over the imagined flavour punch. Lemongrass? Ginger? Garlic? Anise? Basil? Yes please!

Beef chuck is marinated at room temperature for 30 minutes in a mixture of blended garlic, lemongrass, soy sauce, oil, salt, sugar and Chinese five-spice powder. Let me tell ya folks – the smell is absolutely incredible. INCREDIBLE! Every five minutes I would ‘happen’ to wander by the beef and stop for a big ol’ sniff just to make sure the aromatics were as tantalizing as I remembered. And each and every time I fell more in love with the smells that wafted up from the bowl.

Next step? Sauté the beef and remove from the heat before adding onion, garlic, ginger and crushed red pepper which is browned and then cooked down in a mixture of water and tomato paste. The beef is added back into the pot along with beef broth, carrots, star anise and more lemongrass. After approximately 1 hour and 45 minutes the beef is ready to be served over rice noodles garnished with fresh basil and red chile.

THE RESULTS: Now after my big flavour buildup I’m sorry to have to inform readers that I was disappointed in this dish. With all of those lovely and powerfully flavoured ingredients I found the results to be more bland than anticipated. Don’t get me wrong – it was good. But in comparison to the way it smelled while cooking the overall flavour of the beef was weak. Good thing I happened to have a fantastic bottle of Yalumba Viognier on hand to serve (wine pairing courtesy of Kendall Harris of Wine2Three).

That being said, please take the time to hop over to Food, Je t’Aimée because I know Aimée absolutely loved this recipe. I’m happy her results turned out better than mine! It’s a good reminder about how subjective the world of food can be…even when cooking from the same recipe.

If you would like to join us next month, the more the merrier. So pick-up a copy of the latest issue of Food & Wine Magazine and be sure to send us your thoughts, comments and photos. We’d love to hear from you.

Cover Recipe:
Asian Beef with Basil

As part of my culinary New Year’s resolutions, I have committed to creating each month’s cover recipe from Food & Wine Magazine.

NOTE: If any of you would like to follow along with me and join in on the fun, I’d love to compare notes! So pick-up a copy of the latest issue of Food & Wine and get cooking. Be sure to send your comments and photos to info@cookthatbook.com.

The mission of Food & Wine Magazine is to find the most exciting places, new experiences, emerging trends and sensations in the culinary and wine industries. From travel and entertaining to luxury and design, this magazine brings an energetic and stylish take on food and wine. For more information on Food & Wine Magazine, please visit www.foodandwine.com

Wine Pairing by Kendall Harris of Wine2Three
This month’s cover recipe was a fun challenge in terms of a food and wine pairing. I could see there was beef (so immediately my thoughts turned to red wine), but it was served on top of a bed of light rice noodles (which subsequently turned my thoughts to white). Upon closer inspection of the recipe, I could see there was some spice called for which made me think of a fruity white wine like Gewurztraminer. But because beef is a heavier protein than fish or shrimp, I wanted a white with a little more oomph, a little more body, a little more weight to it, and I thought: Viognier. Specifically Yalumba Viognier, which is one of the nicest Viogniers I’ve ever had. Yalumba was the first winery to plant Viognier vines in Australia and they know what they’re doing with this often challenging varietal.

When you swirl and sniff a glass of Viognier, you will almost always detect an unmistakable aroma of peach and white flowers. This is the first white wine I learned to identify by scent alone, and it was that peachy fragrance that gave it away! It’s such a beautiful wine ‘on the nose’ as they say. And when you taste it, Viognier will have gorgeous fruity characteristics (which will make it pair so well with this spicy dish) and it will also have a pleasing viscosity to it; it doesn’t seem ‘watery’ as some very light (and cheap) wines sometimes can, but has more body to it which will make it pair perfectly with this Asian flavoured dish.

Cheers – I hope you enjoy this pairing!

This month’s wine pairing suggestion is Yalumba Viognier

Kendall Harris shares her adventures in the wine world as Wine2three on Twitter & Facebook. She is WSET (Wine & Spirits Education Trust) Advanced Certified & is currently developing a weekly wine series on ShawTV, where she is a full time reporter. Join her on Facebook – click LIKE at www.facebook.com/wine2three for regular fun wine info!

Muffin Monday: Ricotta Dill Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 03:14:57 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

Some of my favourite recipes from Muffin Monday have been savoury. Remember the Crusty Cheese & Onion Muffins? How about those Spinach Feta Muffins? Yum. So when I saw that An from Baker Street had chosen a savoury recipe for this week’s muffin, I was excited. It has been a while since we tackled the savoury side of muffins.

The recipe for this week’s muffin was scribbled on a piece of paper that An happened to come across, the original source unknown. Originally dried basil was called for in the recipe, but I decided to use fresh dill. I also added an extra egg, and threw in some sautéed onions, garlic and zucchini. What I love about this recipe is the unlimited flavour possibilities. Feel free to switch up the herbs, try a variety of ‘goodies’ (cheddar cheese, bacon, shredded hash browns, feta, spinach, roasted garlic etc.)

These muffins were a nice change from the usual sweet treats we’ve been making. The texture was lovely and eggy, the ricotta resulted in a nice moist texture, and the subtle flavour of the dill was perfectly balanced with the caramelized taste of the veggies. I think next time I would throw in some cheese (feta would be nice) to give the muffins some added saltiness.

Happy Muffin Monday!

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!

COOKBOOK REVIEW Soup: A Kosher Collection

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 19:42:31 +0000

By Pam Reiss

Soup: A Kosher Collection is available for purchase through our online store or at local bookstores. For more information on this book please visit Whitecap Books.

Review written & photographed by Helena McMurdo

Winnipeg based Pam Reiss holds a bachelor’s degree in hotel and restaurant management and works in her family business, Desserts Plus (kosher catering company and specialty food store). Her interest in food and recipe development led to her first cookbook entitled Soup: A Kosher Collection, which was originally published in 2004. The second edition (released by Whitecap Books, $24.95 CDN) came out in the fall of last year and contains an additional 20 recipes, full colour photos and nutritional information for each recipe.

As the name suggests, this book is a collection of kosher soup recipes (150 in total) and is organized into different sections that include Parve (vegetarian), dairy, fish, meat, as well as fruit and dessert soups. The recipes are simple and comforting and feature flavours from around the world. Whether or not you follow a kosher diet, the recipes are appealing to anyone who loves soup.

If you like to keep an eye on health, the nutritional breakdowns for each recipe are a handy feature. I also really appreciated the author’s notes stipulating whether a soup is suitable for freezing.

However, what struck me the most about this book is the variety of recipes offered. This is the kind of cookbook that will have you stop every couple of pages in order to bookmark something to make at a later date.

A gem of a cookbook for soup lovers!

Tortilla Soup

RATING: 4 out of 5 (Mexico in a bowl)

THE TEST: Tortilla Soup is one of my favourites and each time I see it on a menu I remember the first time I had it in Mexico City, many, many years ago. I’ve always wanted to find a recipe to make myself, so when I was choosing soups to test from this book I knew right away I’d be trying this one. The method was very simple and for the most part, the ingredients were things I’d usually have on hand.

A quick sauté of red onion and jalapeño, is followed by the addition salt, pepper and cumin. Stock and diced tomatoes are added and simmered for 15 minutes. While the soup is simmering, the tortilla garnish is made by coating two whole wheat tortillas with vegetable spray, cutting them in thin strips and baking them on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Once the soup has been simmering for 15 minutes, diced chicken and tinned black beans are added and when the chicken is cooked through, frozen corn is thrown in the mix and simmered further until the corn is warmed through. The soup is finished with lime juice, some chopped cilantro, a dash of hot sauce and the tortilla strips.

THE RESULTS: The day I made this soup Vancouver had been hit with some unexpected snow! As far from Mexico as I felt, this was the perfect way to warm myself up.

The balance between the sour lime and hot sauce really makes this dish. Although this wasn’t the thick more beany soup I usually associate with tortilla soup, I found it to be quite tasty. I did miss the textural element that tortillas made from corn would have provided. I felt like the wheat tortilla strips softened up pretty quickly in the soup. But this small complaint can easily be fixed if it bothers you. I’ll make this recipe again, I’m sure.

Parsnip Leek Soup

RATING: 4 out of 5 (comforting & delicious)

THE TEST: I love parsnips. And the method in this soup – of roasting the parsnips first in the oven, to bring out the sugars – seemed interesting to me.

As with all of the recipes in this book, the method is a simple one. The leeks are sautéed in olive oil and then the roasted parsnips, vegetable stock and a diced potato are added and left to simmer for 15 minutes.

The soup is then pureed in the blender and finished by adding some whipping cream. Easy peasy!

The total cooking and prep time for this recipe was about two hours, taking into account all of the cooling and pureeing.

THE RESULTS: This is a really warm and delicious soup. The parsnips are really sweet and I found the soup quite filling. My only complaint was that the texture was a bit thick for my taste but of course this can be remedied easily by adding a bit more water. A great soup for a cold winter’s day.

Asian Meatball Soup

RATING: 3 out of 5 (great idea, some tweaking please)

TEST: I was looking for something hearty and meal-like, so I thought this soup with meatballs and rice would be the filling and the flavours of ginger, garlic, soy and sesame sounded great to me.

I started out by making the small meatballs with some lean ground beef, ginger, garlic, soy sauce, sesame oil, green onion, salt and pepper and an egg white to bind. They were really simple to roll together. The mixture was quite wet and the aromatics smelled great.

The meatballs are par-baked in the oven for 10 minutes and while this was happening, I brought some chicken stock and water to a boil for the soup base. I used an organic low sodium chicken stock from a carton. The author does not insist on homemade stock which definitely makes things easier if you feel like making soup at the spur of the moment.

Once baked and drained, the meatballs were added to the now simmering stock along with some soy sauce and rice.

After about ten minutes sliced carrot and celery were added and cooked for a further 10 minutes. This recipe was really easy to assemble and once the ingredients were in hand, I found the whole thing came together quite quickly.

RESULTS: The soup looked fantastic and I couldn’t wait to dive right in and give it a taste! The meatballs themselves were delicious with the flavours of ginger and green onion shining through. I found the broth to be a little bland and could have used more seasoning, probably because I used the low sodium chicken stock. I also found myself longing for a little bit of heat.

I think I will make this recipe again, but I would want to tweak the flavours a bit, perhaps adding some fresh chilies. I cooked this soup exactly to time but felt the vegetables and rice were both a bit mushy, so would recommend reducing the cooking time a bit.

With all my complaints, I love the idea of this soup and the flavours and ingredients certainly inspired me. The author suggests adding additional vegetables as a variation and I think this would be great way to have this soup.

Muffin Monday: Raspberry Coconut Muffins

Stay-At-Home-Chef — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 03:27:12 +0000

Written & photographed by
Stay-At-Home-Chef

After eight months of Muffin Mondays I have to admit that the calories are starting to pile up (and in less than desirable areas I might add). So when I saw that this week’s recipe from Taste of Home was a low-fat alternative to all of the glorious decadence we’ve been enjoying of late, I was relieved. Don’t get me wrong – I have adored the muffins of late but my waistline needs a break!

The original recipe calls for strawberries combined with plain yogurt, nutmeg and vanilla. In order to avoid a trip to the store, I opted to use some freeze-dried raspberries I had in the pantry. I also threw in ½ cup of coconut, replaced half of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat, and used agave nectar rather than granulated sugar.

In the end I would have to say that these muffins turned out well and were incredibly moist due to the yogurt, but they did nothing to knock my socks off. However, if you’re looking for a quick and healthy treat to start your day then this recipe could be your answer.

I liked the flavour combination of raspberries and coconut, and the whole-wheat flour lent a nice nutty texture to the muffins. The agave nectar worked well as a sugar replacement, and is something I’ll definitely be using more often in the future. While nothing freeze-dried can ever replace lovely fresh fruit, I liked how the raspberries became hydrated and held their shape without turning to mush. Plus there was no issue with the fruit running into the batter and causing the muffins to become discoloured.

Look – even the Easter bunny had to have a nibble!

For a copy of the original recipe for this week’s Muffin Monday, please visit Baker Street’s site and be sure to check out what the other food bloggers have baked up this week!