from the kitchen: bread superhero

i have lots more knitting to report but while i get that ready, i wanted to share the best news ever.

i made bread. with my hands. using every flour and grain in my pantry.

and its edible! hearty, filling, and dare i say it - tasty and delicious!

the recipe isn't mine to share, alas. once upon a time, i wasn't such a fan of bread in general. but then: katie brought a loaf of bread to my university townhome for my roommates and i - made from this exact recipe. one bite and my eyes were opened. i got hooked on bread. i've been thinking about that loaf ever since.

katie and were recently exchanging emails and i confessed my obsession with that loaf she brought long ago (in my early twenties, when time seemed to stretch forever). and just like that, from memory, she typed her grandmother's recipe. 

so i bought i huge bag of flour and raided my pantry for all the grains i had and got to it. 

i should probably confess that i wanted my first bread-making experience to be a solitary one: focused, deliberate, meditative. not so much fraught with the manic supervision required of me when i'm cooking with my babes. but the boy got wind and i gracefully (as in, i was the only parent on duty at time) obliged.

thankfully, there was only a little scolding involved: not enough to break my bread-making zen, anyway.

and lo!

i made bread, yo. 

in my mind, when these loaves came out of the oven, trumpets played as i burst through 3 apartment stories, twirling, with my cape and mini skirt (there was a costume change, naturally), 4 loaves of bread in my arms, to fly with the eagles (in case they wanted some freshly made hand-baked bread with their prey). i also suppressed an irrational desire to run up and down the co-op telling anyone who would listen i made bread (i posted a photo on instagram instead).

but it is more than enough that i loved baking the bread, that the boy loved the experience, that the girl was just as excited to taste the bread right out of the oven, and that the wife forced herself from her sick bed (she was nursing something nasty at the time)to have her fill.

i'm totally making bread regularly from now on. (thank you, katie!)

as long as it doesn't eat into too much of my knitting time. bread-making superheroes need to stay sane, too.

any favourite bread recipes you'd care to share? 

recipe: corn and spinach frittata with basil from the garden

in my last post, i shared a photo of a family favourite: corn and spinach frittata with basic from our garden.

i am obsessed with making frittatas. mainly because they're easy to prepare but mostly because the variations are endless. i often clean out my fridge by making a fritata, hide vegetables from my unsuspecting children - never mind the fact that i can eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. 

my basic fritata formula:

• 8 eggs
• cheese (cheddar, parmesan, ricotta)
• leafy greens (herbs, spinach, kale)
• vegetables with texture (potatoes, broccoli, red pepper, tomatoes)
• onion or garlic (optional)

i know it sounds like a lot of eggs but i only have one cast iron pan and it's big. if you've got a smaller pan, by all means use less of everything. (and you don't actually really need a cast iron pan, any old oven-proof skillet type pan will do just fine.)


corn and spinach fritatta with basil from the garden

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp butter
half a medium onion, diced (or 2 taste)
1 1/2 cups corn
8 eggs
a big handful of basil, chiffonade or  1 tbsp good pesto (to taste)
1/2 cup or more cheddar
2 large handfuls baby spinach
salt and pepper to taste


preheat oven to 350 degrees.
in the cast iron skillet you're going to use, sautee the onions in the olive oil and butter until transluscent and add the corn. cook together and season while you prepare the egg mixture.
mix eggs, basil, cheddar, spinach, and season well in a large bowl. don't worry if the baby spinach looks unwieldy. they will settle nicely.
pour the egg mixture over the corn and onions in the cast iron and spread evenly. (sprinkle some more cheese of the top if you like.)
transfer the pan into your preheated oven and let it back for 30 minutes, give or take a few minutes. you're looking for the egg mixture to set well and the top of the frittata to brown nicely.
let the frittata cool for 5 minutes before cutting into wedges and serving.

we often have our frittatas for lunch or brunch by itself, or with some bread and wedged cucumbers: my definition of comfort food.

from the kitchen: salsa

the wife and the boy nurtured 3 tomato plants all summer, each of which are beginning to groan with its load of lovely roma jewels. 

this is the first time the wife and i have ever attempted to harvest anything more than herbs in any garden and we are just giddy about it.

our little vegetable garden, early days

alas, 3 tomato plants do not yield quite enough to put by for the winter. especially since we've been eating them as they ripen. and they are spectacular: deliciously sweet and tasting of the sun.

it's already sublime to eat them lightly dusted with salt and pepper, a drizzle of olive oil, and some of the torn basil that grew alongside them.

but so far, our favourite way of eating our very own tomatoes have been in the form of salsa - which we've been devouring with cheese empanadas from jumbo empanadas my parents surprised us with when we saw them for a day on their layover between toronto and manila. 

this list of ingredients is purist and fresh. add and subtract amounts as you wish. if it were up to me, there would be 2 jalapenos with all the seeds in... but the wife prefers moderate heat and i really do live to make her happy.

a dozen fresh tomatoes, diced
1/2 red onion, finely diced 
2 limes, zest and juice 
1 jalapeno or serrano pepper (seeds in or out, your choice. i only put half the seeds in)
a handful fresh coriander, finely chopped
salt to taste

combine ingredients and eat with anything you can think of that this fresh salsa would enhance (like fresh nachos, your morning eggs, grilled chicken or fish, folded through quinoa. i really could go on.)

my kids, by the way, aren't fans of fresh tomatoes or of spicy food. and while i live to make them happy too - in this instance i am quite content to say, more for me!

from the kitchen: root beer float anyone?

1 large clear glass 

+ 3 scoops of vanilla bean ice cream 

+ generous pour of root beer to top the glass 

+ four straws 

= happy slurpy faces all around.

happy friday! 

from the kitchen: late night baking

i suffer from late-night-baking syndrome.

which means to say that i bake quite regularly, very late at night (10pm and later, PST), long after my loves have surrendered to sleep.

i adore my little brood, you know i do. you might also know how much i love to involve my babes in the kitchen.

[inhale] but i have to admit, there are times when all i really want to do is fiddle about in the kitchen at my own pace. to do things out of order. to not have to worry about whether some spill, burn, or other imminent danger (which, by the way, includes petty theft of potty training treats) is about to happen to one or both of my toddlers . to know that the extent of the multi-tasking i have to do is listen to an audio book (currently listening to game of thrones, as an antidote to the end-of-season withdrawal). to be able to clean as i go. [exhale]

and i do enjoy the quiet hum of our little apartment this late in the evening. it's the only time of day when i can choose to hear myself think and catch up on pop culture, sometimes at the same time.

so i knit. i clean. i blog. i bake.

(sometimes, i work. but we're not going to talk about that.)

probably in that order... thought not necessarily all in the same night.

and in the morning, if it's baking i've chosen to do before my 2am bedtime, my little family wakes up to freshly baked goods. in the words of the barefoot contessa, "how bad can that be?" (well... there are the effects of sleep deprivation, but that's not what this entry is about.)

last night, i made quinoa banana bread muffins and a nutritious marble cake. both recipes were from la tartine gourmande, and were chock-full of gluten-free alternatives. the results were so delicious, i couldn't believe what i made without wheat flour.

in the lovely light muffins, the quinoa flakes add such a nubbly crunch. and while the marble cake was dense, the flavours were clean and full of flavour.

the kids agree. they liked the muffins a lot.

but the cake was the winner. 

so much so, i found a mauled marble cake carcass right next to the learning tower and the boy's crumb-chunked face.

i wish i had taken a picture before going ballistic on him. i didn't. and i couldn't stay mad for long. it was pretty funny... and the mark of a successful, healthy, and toddler-friendly recipe after all.

recipe share: filipino style beef steak

being filipino, i'm afraid i grew up more carnivore than omnivore. i ate rice everyday, and to my recollection, my favourite vegetable as a child was corn. i didn't develop my taste for vegetables until long after high school, when my palate was ready to be introduced to the wide world of food from anywhere and everywhere. (thanks to my university years and foodtv.)


i am in my late thirties now, and a mother. my foodie adventures are no longer about trying everything and learning all there is to know about a particular cuisine. these days, cooking and eating are all about feeding my family whole, nutritious - but delicious foods (we don't really need to get to where the omnivore's dilemma comes in now).


keeping it real, i'm not always successful. my pantry is no longer full of canned, processed, and otherwise packaged foods, but there are a few staples i'm still learning to live without.my food experiments don't always pan out. and to be honest, we succumb to the convenience of takeout once, if not twice, a week. that's just the way things go. 


part of the issue is, i refuse to be a slave to the kitchen. just as i don't spend every waking moment cleaning, i don't want to spend hours in the kitchen. like the job-that-pays, that's precious time i could be spending with my kids. i want my kids' memories of me to be of the time i actually spend with them instead of doing things for them. (that's also time i carve out to spend with the wife and knitting, you see.)


so, the meals i make are usually quick, easy, and rely heavily on the repertoire i developed before children.


which leads me to today's recipe share (i know, long winded much? why yes). 

i served the beef steak with brown basmati rice 

and sauteed fiddleheads.

aside: i love fiddleheads. 

i ate them like chips that day. 

my family, not so fond of the fiddleheads. 

oh well. (more for me!)

this filipino style beef steak is an old stand-by. it's a great way to stretch a good steak, especially if you've got unexpected company. plus - it's quick, easy, and so simple, the actual recipe i'm about to share is rather pithy. adjust the amounts of any of the ingredients to your taste.


ingredients
soy sauce
zest and juice of 1 lemon
sliced beef, from your favourite cut of steak (we like strip loin or tenderloin for this)
black pepper
sliced onions
grated or finely sliced ginger
about a tablespoon of butter


instructions:
marinate the beef in equal parts soy sauce and lemon juice and throw in the lemon zest, too. (the soy sauce you use can change the flavour of this dish. so, experiment with soy sauces to see what you like best. kikkoman is our favourite.)


sauté your onions in about 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 tablespoon of butter (adjust amounts to taste). cook the onions until they have browned. then, remove the onions from the pan onto a plate and reserve.


now, brown your meat in just a bit more oil and butter, adding whatever marinade is left. as the meet cooks, you will see a nice begin to develop.


when the meat is almost cooked, return the reserved onions to the pan and give it a mix. let the flavour mingle about for another minute or so before finishing with a pat of butter. (the added butter is definitely not traditionally filipino but it will give the dish an overall gloss and cohesive texture.)


serve with a tumble of rice and your choice of vegetables.




if you are pressed for time:
and you just don't have time to marinate the meat, after sautéing the onions, you can proceed like so: 


add more oil/butter if you think it's necessary and throw in the sliced meat. as your meat is browning, pour your soy sauce in a circular motion around the edge of your pan twice, or thrice. then, zest and juice your lemon over the sauté. grate over or sprinkle the ginger. give the pan a good mix and then proceed with the rest of the instructions above.




optional garnishes and serving suggestion:
when the wife and i first moved in together, i got inspired and plated this dish around a cupped mound of rice, with some toasted sesame seeds, fresh coriander, the morning's leftover omelet dotting the plate. but honestly, fresh coriander or chives will do.

from the kitchen: humble pies

it was pizza all day on mother's day. but yesterday was all about pie.


i've been hankering to make pie for weeks now. weeks.


i finally got down to making pastry and getting all my ingredients together to make a rhubarb custard pie and a version of chicken pot pie.


presenting the finished products to my family made me feel a bit like a domestic goddess.

i over-salted the pot pie biscuits though. but the kids ate up and it had fabulous texture. i used this recipe but added soy sauce and worcestershire sauce to the stew and used half white flour, half whole wheat flour for the biscuits.


and the pie - my favourite pie EVER. EVER. EVER. brilliant, brilliant recipe. simple and straight forward. but the wife didn't love the pie. probably because i may have used the same knife to cut up the chives and the rhubarb. next time, there will be less sugar. and of course, i vow to use a different knife for savouries and sweets. 


oh well. i really can't win 'em all.