dinner Archives • Ant & Anise

Oven Roasted Chicken with Maple Mustard Pan Sauce

I’m back from Montreal where we welcomed and celebrated the newest member of our family, Thomas Christopher, who is just over 8 weeks old.

It was an action-packed week: Catching up with family, walks to the markets and shops (while Thomas slept peacefully in his stroller, an astounding feat given all the bumps on the uneven sidewalks) and, of course, taking turns holding and rocking Thomas in our arms.

Aside from gazing into Thomas’s eyes, one of my favorite parts of Montreal was exploring the food. (No surprise there, really.) I soaked it all in, from the huge variety of locally grown apples and other produce at the Marché Jean-Talon, to the elegant display of, well, everything really but especially the breads, fresh meats and wild mushrooms at Les 5 Saisons. We even found our namesake wine in the SAQ — a pinot noir from California. Is that cool or what?…

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Roasted salmon with ginger lime glaze

Summer is almost here.

I want to say it’s here! it’s here! because I love sunshine, warmer weather, and the more relaxed pace that comes around this time of year. I always say, any day that it’s warm enough to not wear socks is a good day.

But this morning it rained, and the air is still stubbornly chilly once the sun disappears behind a cloud. (I’m still wearing shorts, but I had to bundle up with a heavy jacket to tame the goosebumps on my arms.)

With summer coming on I’ve been trying to work more seafood into meals. I typically fire up the barbie when I want to cook any kind of fish, because I hate the lingering smells that come from cooking fish in the kitchen. But a good way around this — especially when it’s a drizzly June day, and the last thing I want to do is hover over the barbecue in the rain — is to roast salmon in a hot oven. …

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 30

I can’t honestly remember eating as much lettuce, especially in the form of lettuce wraps, as I have in the past few weeks. Lettuce has stood in as sandwich bread (with sliced turkey and grainy mustard in a hurriedly-put-together lunch), as a hamburger bun (for a pre-theatre chicken burger at a close by restaurant), and as tortillas (in the fish tacos). And that’s only 3 examples. I have many more.

It’s funny that I never really thought about the prevalence of grains in my own diet much before I started this challenge. Bread was always just, well, normal to have around, and I ate it pretty much every day without trying too hard.

It was always easy to make something as long as there was bread, or tortillas, in the house. One of my go-to dinners, when I lived on my own and wanted something simple, was cheese quesadillas. For the past few years I’ve enjoyed assemble-your-own dinners, like grilled lamb or chicken, in a Greek-themed marinade (usually lemon, garlic, olive oil and some chopped oregano), with some tomatoes, cucumber and feta, along with tsatziki and hummus, all in a pita wrap.

I can’t say that lettuce is as satisfying to me the same way that tortillas or pita bread are. It’s certainly not near as satisfying as a good naan bread with Indian food. Not yet, anyway.

What I’ve found with the Paleo challenge, though, is that using lettuce as a wrap shifts the focus to what’s inside. (Isn’t that what your parents used to tell you, it’s what’s inside that counts?) It also makes for a lighter meal — much lighter — than if you’d used bread-like wraps. So after this meal of Thai beef lettuce wraps, with such a flavorful filling, not only I was thoroughly full, but was surprisingly satisfied too.

Paleo Thai Beef Lettuce Wraps

Serving Size: 2

Adapted from Eyes Bigger Than My Stomach. Don't let the long list of ingredients scare you off -- this is a very flavorful recipe and you'll be glad you tried it. The key is to prep everything before you start cooking, because like any stir-fry it comes together very quickly when you start. It's worth noting that strict Paleos would stay away from soy sauce and hoisin. I used gluten-free versions of both those, and found that the hoisin was key for providing a welcome sweetness to balance the spice.

Ingredients

1 head sturdy lettuce or cabbage, washed and leaves separated
1 pound lean ground beef
2 tablespoons olive oil, separated
1 large onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 2-inch piece of ginger, minced
1/2 cup carrots, julienned
2 teaspoons gluten free soy sauce
1/4-1/3 cup hoisin sauce (try this 'Paleo-fied' hoisin sauce from My Paleo Life)
1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1-2 tablespoons fish sauce
1-2 teaspoons Asian garlic-chili sauce
4 green onions, chopped
3 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
juice of one lime
2 teaspoons toasted sesame oil

Instructions

Prepare all the chopped vegetables before you start cooking. Set aside a handful of green onions for garnish.
In a large saute pan, heat 1 tablespoon of oil over medium-high heat. Add the beef and cook until it's browned. Strain the contents of the saute pan over a fine mesh strainer. Set the beef aside and ensure the pan is clear of excess oil.
Heat 1 tablespoon of oil in the same pan, this time over medium heat. Add the onion and saute, stirring frequently until softened. Add the garlic, ginger, carrots, soy sauce, hoisin sauce, fish sauce and chili-garlic sauce and stir until combined.
Add the green onions, cilantro, mint and lime juice, and continue stirring for about 2 minutes, until the green onions are just starting to wilt. Add the ground beef back in and combine well with the sauce, stirring until heated through. Stir in the sesame oil.
Taste for seasonings. You may want to add more hoisin (sweet), fish sauce (salty), or lime (sour).
To serve, arrange the lettuce leaves on a plate and present the Thai beef in a bowl.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 28

One thing I’ll take away from the Paleo challenge is a more positive attitude towards cauliflower. It may not be dramatic and life changing, but I’d say it’s a step in the right direction.

I mentioned cauliflower early on in the challenge, and I’ve made it a few times since then. The funny thing is, for as long as I can remember, I haven’t liked cauliflower at all. Bland, white and not a lot of flavor. What’s to get enthusiastic about? Why even bother with it at all? Sure it’s crunchy, but if you’re looking for crunch, I think broccoli is a much better choice. It’s more nutritious too.

When I was younger, I can remember my Mom serving steamed cauliflower on occasion. My favorite part was, undoubtedly, not the vegetable but the cheese sauce we’d pour, copiously, over top. Cheese sauce was the only reason to eat the cauliflower, really.

But when grains are out of the question cauliflower muscled its way onto my plate, and is no longer the side-vegetable-made-edible-only-with-cheese-sauce. I think it’s because cauliflower is similar to chicken or eggplant, which happily take on other flavors you’re cooking with. Even some sauteed onion and garlic give a simple but much-needed boost to cauliflower’s appeal, like they do in cauliflower rice.

The last time I set out to make some cauliflower rice, instead of chopping the cauliflower into small florets before they went into the food processor, I thought I’d take a shortcut by leaving the pieces fairly large. Seems logical enough (well, it did at the time), but I had to keep pulsing more and more to get the bigger chunks down to a rice-like size. Before I knew it, the cauliflower went from long grain to short grain, and then to something even smaller. Yikes!

Not exactly a kitchen disaster, though. Instead of cauliflower rice, we ended up with cauliflower couscous. Smaller, but just as good as the rice and a great base for the stir-fry here. Cauliflower in a whole new light. Very positive, indeed.

Cauliflower 'Rice'

Here is a very basic version of a Paleo staple that works well as a base for stir-frys and pastas. For a finer-grained result -- more like 'couscous' than 'rice' -- simply pulse it longer in the food processor.

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower, cut into equally-sized small florets
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 small white onion, minced
1 clove garlic, minced

Instructions

Place the cauliflower florets in a food processor and pulse until they resemble rice. If you're aiming for a smaller texture like couscous, pulse a few more times.
Heat the oil in a large saute pan over medium-low heat. Add the onion and saute for 2-3 minutes, stirring occasionally so that it cooks evenly. Add the garlic and saute for another few minutes, stirring occasionally. You're aiming to get an even, light golden color and a softened texture. Turn the heat down if the onions and garlic start to brown too much.
Once the onions and garlic have softened, add the cauliflower and stir in to incorporate. Continue sauteeing for 5-8 minutes, or until the rice (couscous) is a little softened but still has some crunch, like an 'al dente' texture with pasta.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 27

So, Day 27 in the Paleo Diet Challenge. I’ve mentioned before that I like getting a CSA box because it pushes me outside of my kitchen comfort zone, a little. Take garlic scapes. Not something you see at a big box supermarket, or even your local green grocer. Last year garlic scapes definitely had me stumped. I think we ended up chopping into a stir fry. Ho hum.

This year, when I we got the garlic scapes in late June, I thought I’d aim for something more creative, at least a little. Turns out that garlic scapes make a fine pesto, and I made one based on a recipe from Dorie Greenspan.

But when I tasted the pesto, I was a little taken aback. Garlic scapes are supposed to be milder tasting than the bulbs. What I had created was really strong, with a pungent garlicky smell and taste that made me think great, first I didn’t know what to do with the scapes…and now I don’t know what to do with this pesto. I parked it in the fridge and forgot about it. (Well, mostly. It still glanced at it practically every time I opened the fridge.)

I was feeling a little lazy today, and it was getting too late to make anything elaborate. When I looked in the fridge and saw the garlic scape pesto starting at me, again, I thought okay, here we go. It’s just me for dinner, so who would mind if I have a serious case of after-dinner garlic breath, except maybe the cat?

With some prawns, a tomato, and a few zucchini ribbons standing in for pasta, the pesto made a very quick, Paleo-friendly meal. The best part, and the biggest surprise, was how the pesto had mellowed. Really. It had toned down considerably from when I first made it, and now was pleasant and very, very mild.

And it didn’t give me bad garlic breath either. (I knew you’d be wondering.)

Prawns & Garlic Scape Pesto with Zucchini

Serving Size: 1

This recipe can be easily doubled. If you need to scale it up even further, I'd suggest sauteeing the prawns in their own pan so they don't have to compete for space with the zucchini ribbons.

Ingredients

2 small zucchini, peeled lengthwise (about 5 oz of ribbons)
1 tomato, chopped
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/4 - 1/3 cup garlic scape pesto
6-8 prawns, shelled
salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Instructions

Using a vegetable peeler, make the zucchini ribbons: Peel the zucchini lengthwise, down one side until you get to the center and then down the other.
In a large saute pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the tomato and cook for 2-3 minutes, or until it has cooked down and released some juices.
Add the zucchini ribbons and saute for 1 minute until they soften slightly.
Add 1/4 cup of the garlic scape pesto and stir it in so it evenly coats the zucchini ribbons. Continue cooking for another few minutes until the zucchini has released some juices, but is slightly firmer than 'al dente'.
Push the zucchini ribbons and tomato to one side of the saute pan, and add the prawns. Cook for 2-3 minutes, or until the prawns are firm and pink. Add another few tablespoons of pesto if you like, and stir in to coat the prawns and zucchini. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days

Garlic scape image from The Coast, via Google Images.

The Paleo Diet Challenge: Day 24

I know every new day is a fresh start, full of promise in trying Paleo recipes and building a new repertoire. It’s exciting, right? Mostly yes, it is. But when regular life demands more of my attention, it’s great when the pressure of what to make for dinner lightens up a little.

We’re talking recipe repeats. Aside from the morning glory muffins, I haven’t had too many things that I’d want to make regularly. And while it’s interesting to keep trying new recipes every day, it’s also a little tiring. Lots to chalk up to experience, and to know what not to do next time, but so far I haven’t added many Paleo recipes to my arsenal.

One that has earned a spot is the eggplant flatbread. When I first tried it, it was as an alternative for puff pastry and, in some ways, I actually liked it better. Did I really just say that? Better than puff pastry?

I need to qualify that a little. First, I wasn’t aiming to make a Paleo puff pastry substitute. I knew it wasn’t going to be light or flaky in the least, just flat. But it surprised me by having a multigrain-like quality — dense, flavorful and chewy. That I wasn’t expecting. A most pleasant surprise, especially considering the underwhelming results I’ve had with Paleo breads.

I decided to try the flatbread as a base for pizza. It was the original use for the flatbread in Make It Paleo, plus pizza is one of those things that, when done well, I can’t seem to get enough of. Usually that means a substantial chewy crust with a few little air pockets, like what you would find at Pizzeria Barbarella and Campagnolo here in Vancouver. Or what you could get with the homemade pizza I’ve been making in the past year. I’m really missing my pizza.

The verdict? Definitely not a chewy crust with air pockets, and not something you could pick up and eat with your hands. (I’m more a knife-and-fork pizza eater anyway.) But with the roasted tomato sauce, good goat cheese and capicollo, it turned out to be a fine stand-in, when options are so limited. A keeper, as my Mom would have said.

More on the Paleo diet challenge:
Why I’m doing it in the first place
My plan for the 30 days