Saturday 24 January 2015

Lettuce Wraps: what type of lettuce is best?

 
One of our favorite things to have for dinner is lettuce wraps.  When starting this journey, I really wanted to try a new lettuce wrap recipe.  Lo and behold....I discovered this recipe while watching an episode of "The Biggest Loser" while channel surfing one night.
 
 
 
This recipe was interesting as it was something different from what we usually make.  It was a lot of prep work, so it would be nice to have a prep partner or to make the salsa ahead of time next time.  The recipe uses a LOT of cilantro, which I like, as I am always struggling to use up my cilantro before it starts to turn bad.  The salsa was GREAT!  We loved how refreshing it was and loved the mint.  I think that half of the salsa recipe would suffice or just plan to use it in other recipes in the next few days.  All in all, this recipe was good, but we think we may like my recipe just a little better (see below).  Perhaps a combo of the two would be fabulous!  For example, we prefer to garnish with grated carrot and grated cucumber instead of chopped spinach as there is more crunch.   I am also not quite sure of the rice vinegar flavour, yet, either.  It confused my taste buds as I am used to my flavours.  Using the salsa and lettuce from this recipe with my meat mixture and garnish might just be perfect.
 
Now...the lettuce debate....We have always used iceberg lettuce as our wrap, with the occasional use of romaine.  Butter lettuce and radicchio lettuce were completely new as lettuce wraps for us.  I loved the sweetness of the butter lettuce with this recipe.  I found the radicchio a bit too bitter.  However....the radicchio was sturdier and offered more texture in contrast to the soft, messier butter lettuce.  The best combo was butter lettuce with a layer of radicchio inside to help each other out.   The radicchio offered more physical strength to the wrap while the butter lettuce toned down the bitterness of the radicchio.  Sorry iceberg, you may have been replaced as the wrap for our lettuce wraps.  Out with the old...in with the new!
 
 
 
 
Lettuce Wraps (or turkey tacos)

Radicchio vs. Butter Lettuce
 
 
 
 

Korean Beef Lettuce Wraps


Ingredients:


1 garlic clove, minced

¼ red pepper, chopped

250g ground beef

2.5mL minced gingerroot (1/2 tsp.)

30 mL soy sauce  (2 tbsp.)

5 mL chili sauce (1 tsp.)

2.5mL sesame oil  (1/2 tsp.)

½ head lettuce


Garnish:  lime wedges, hoisin sauce, chopped green onion, shredded carrot, shredded cucumber, and/or chopped cilantro
 

Method:
 

1) Cook garlic, gingerroot, and ground beef in large frying pan until beef is brown.  Add red pepper and sauté.

2) Add soy sauce, chili sauce, and sesame oil; reduce heat to low and simmer 3-4 minutes.

3) Transfer to bowl.

4) Arrange garnish on platter. 
 
5) Place filling and garnish on lettuce leaf.  Wrap and enjoy! 

 

 

 


Saturday 17 January 2015

A New Kitchen Tool: The Spiralizer




One of weekly habits is to look through the flyer from my favorite grocery store.  I happened to stumble across a new kitchen toy at a very good price.  Long story short, I have been looking for a spiralizer for a reasonable price for over three years.  I couldn't resist the deal.   Once the purchase was made, you guessed it...so began my research for a new recipe.  I had made raw zucchini noodles many times with a smaller kitchen tool, so all those were out.   I didn't want to use beets on my first time using my new toy as I didn't want to stain it on the first use.  Then, I found this site:

http://www.inspiralized.com/

To my surprise, not only could I use my spiralizer for raw veggies, but I could use it to prep them for cooking.  Seemed obvious, but I honestly never thought of that!  Where to begin?  The recipe that spoke to me for this week was Spiralized Paleo Eggs “Benedict” with Roasted Sweet Potato Noodles, Avocado and Chipotle Hollandaise.


Before you stop reading, don't worry if you don't have a spiralizer.  You could still make this recipe by cutting up the sweet potatoes and baking them. (I must admit spiralizing was a lot of FUN, so if you find one at a good price - BUY IT!).   Again, I loved the contrast of the spicy flavour of the chipotle sauce against the sweetness of the sweet potato.  I usually toss my sweet potatoes in chili powder prior to baking them, but the chipotle offered a whole new dimension.  I must admit that I was not a fan of the cooked avocado.  When I make this recipe again, I will serve it with the avocado raw.  The clean-up for the sauce was tricky as the coconut oil hardened in the blender as I left the sauce in the blender until the end.  I will DEFINITELY be making this sauce again as my husband did not get the chance to try it and is very curious of all the possibilities with just the sauce alone!  So, next time,  I will remove the sauce from the blender immediately and then soak the blender in hot water for an easy clean-up.  If your spice tolerance is low, you might want to consider using half a chipotle pepper in the sauce.  I personally love the sauce as is but could see how some would find it too spicy.   The best part of this recipe is that I made it for dinner.  Who doesn't love breakfast for dinner?  I had enough made that I had a yummy breakfast ready on a weekday as I just had to prepare my eggs in the morning.  I actually hard boiled the eggs in the morning for a time saver!  With my new lessons in place, I will be making this recipe again, and again...and again! 





The Spiralizer

Spiralizer in Action

Breakfast for Dinner

Friday 9 January 2015

To Roast or Not to Roast: Curried Carrot Soup

 
 
This week's recipe is killing two birds with one stone, so to speak.  After receiving a gift card to a book store as a Christmas gift, I told myself that I am NOT allowed to buy a cookbook with it until I make more recipes from the ones I currently own plus I have always wanted to make a curried carrot soup but just surprisingly have never gotten around to it.
 
I found the exact recipe I wanted to try on page 133 of The Best of Clean Eating cookbook. (Editors Of Clean Eating Magazine. The Best of Clean Eating: Over 200 Mouthwatering Recipes to Keep You Lean and Healthy. Mississauga, Canada: Musclemag International / Robert Kennedy Pub, 2010. Print.)
 
Then began my thoughts....should I roast the carrots first or make the recipe as is without roasting the carrots first?  Guessing that the former would most likely taste better, I wanted to try to actually follow a recipe.  I compromised.  I decided to try both and do a comparison of the two.
 
Hands down, roasting the carrots first made a way better soup.  Don't get me wrong, just using raw carrots and using those in the soup was good if you are crunched for time. (Roasting carrots takes about 45 minutes at 400 degrees F, so some planning is needed for that.)   Had I not made the roasted carrot soup, I would have thoroughly enjoyed the original recipe.   
 
Basically, roasting the carrots added a sweetness to the soup that toned down the spiciness of the ginger, cumin, and curry powder.   The roasted carrot soup was thicker in texture and deeper in colour.  I was very surprised that roasting the carrots also took away the flavour of the coconut milk - maybe they were fighting to be the sweet taste?
 
I will be making this recipe again with roasting the carrots first.  Next time, I would probably use less ginger and try roasting the leeks and the garlic first as well.  As an added bonus,  I could see this recipe making an appearance in my Foods 9 program later this winter or next fall.  It is a great recipe to demonstrate that healthy eating isn't expensive, and to use one of my favorite expressions, ....nutritious can be delicious!
 
 
Can you spot the difference?
(the one on the right was made with roasted carrots)
 
 
 

Monday 5 January 2015

New Year: New Fruits and Vegetables

I had the good fortune to spend a day shopping with my Dad, on his recent visit to Kelowna for the holidays.  One stop included a shop at a grocery store, where for some odd reason, the plantains caught my eye.  I am fairly certain that I have walked past these hundreds of times before and took no interest in them.  Listening to my gut, I picked one up, examined it, and put it in our cart.  My Dad asked what I was going to do with it, and I replied that I was not sure, yet.  I had never bought or prepared a plantain before.  I did not even know if you ate them raw or cooked.  I had tried plantain chips a couple of times in my past, and they were fine.  Exploring a new food seemed perfect for my new recipe resolution.

So began my research journey....I started by asking a few people around me, who like me had only had plantain chips that were commercially made or unlike me had tried them fried.  Taking the advice of my support network, I decided to do what everyone else does and "just google it".  To my surprise, the number of recipes online was overwhelming.  Then began my internal struggle...should I be plain and just bake it like a potato?  I figured that if someone was trying a potato for the first time, they would not jump into scalloped potatoes or potato dumplings.  I would probably advise a first time potato eater to try them mashed,  baked,  or roasted.  My gut was telling me that I needed to try something a bit more advanced, although my head was saying to try it baked just to get the flavour of the plantain.   I blame the recipe I found for a chicken breast stuffed with chorizo and plantain...it looked spectatcular!  So, I returned to the store to buy another plantain.  I decided to try both.  I decided to bake one plantain and top it with cheese and chorizo as recommended, and I was going to make the stuffed chicken breast recipe with my other plantain.

Then began the waiting....it took about a week for one plantain to ripen from a green peel to a yellow peel.   The experiment started by sampling the ripe plantain raw, just to see.  It tasted like a banana, but the texture was a bit starchier....just like I read online.  I continued by getting everything ready (mise en place) for the stuffed chicken recipe.  What surprised me most was that the plantain changed both its colour and flavour once I cooked it in the frying pan.  The colour was a vibrant yellow that looked like a piece of artwork once I added the green poblano chile and the orange/red chorizo.   I found the stuffing very easy to use as the plantain mashed up nicely.  It was very easy to stuff the breasts as compared to my usual spinach/feta concoction.  Now....here is where I strayed from the recipe as I don't yet own a sous-vide cooker (hint, hint). nor did I trust that my plastic wrap was heavy duty enough for what the recipe recommended.  I simply wrapped each stuffed breast in foil and baked them.  This worked out well as I baked the other plantain in foil as well.  I left the peel on it and make a slit to add my other cheese/chorizo topping once it was baked.

The result.......I actually surprised myself!  Again, the balance of the sweeter plantain with the spiciness of the chile/chorizo was amazing!  The texture of the mashed stuffing with the chicken worked VERY well.  The bigger surprise was the baked plantain.  Now.. this one wasn't as ripe as the other as, remember, I bought it a bit later.  At any rate, it was simple and tasty.  It resembled a potato, so I can see how many places use this as their main staple.  Another satisfying meal was had as we also made a nice tossed salad to complete the meal.

So - what is the future like for plantains in the Martin household?  We have found a new staple with which to experiment.  Of course, my husband wants to try and make plantain fries with his deep fryer and maybe even a plantain latke/pancake.  He was more interested in the simple, baked plantain and its possibilities as a new staple in our home now that we both figured out we like both the flavour and texture.   I want to try the chile/chorizo/plantain stuffing in a pork tenderloin or even as a really neat perogy variation.   I would also like to try baking a plantain when it is a bit more ripe - just to see what that tastes like.   The possibilities are numerous with our new friend, the plantain.

I leave you with a challenge as you start your 2015 journey.  Perhaps the challenge will be a one time thing, or perhaps you will attempt the challenge on a weekly or monthly basis.  Whatever the case, I leave you with a question.....What new fruit and/or vegetable are you going to try?  Don't just walk on by it next time you are in the store.  Pick it up, examine it, put it in your cart or basket, and let the new experience unfold.  Who knows?   You might make a new friend!



Baked Plantain topped with cheese/chorizo in center surrounded by
Chicken breasts stuffed with chorizo, plantain, and poblano chile
 
 

The complete meal - tossed salad, baked plantain, stuffed chicken breasts
accompanied with some store bought (yet amazing) tomatillo salsa