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When it’s guuuud

18 Sep

We have been to Guu twice this summer and both times we were delighted to find an exceptional variety of cheap and creative Japanese small plates to share. I happen to love dim sum but it is really not acceptable as a dinner option, so Guu is a great substitute when I want the bustling, shared, Asian food experience. Plus, just like dim sum, you can get your dining pals to be a bit more adventurous than usual given that many items are just $4-$6.

They also make their own Guud Ale, which has a mild caramel flavour and a smooth finish – plenty of personality but unlikely to conflict with the diversity of your order.

Some of the items we tried included: octopus balls with bonito flakes, duck salad with mushrooms, beef tendon soup, fried octopus with ancho mayo, and chilli sweetbreads.

Octopus balls with mustard and bonito flakes

Duck salad with roasted mushrooms

This beef tendon soup looks unappetizing, I know! But I promise you that it is melt in your mouth tender, and the broth has the purest beef flavour we have ever tasted. That big gob of yellow stuff is Japanese mustard, which you can add for a spicy kick as you see fit. It’s kind of like having miso soup as a starter – it’s only $2, give it a try!

Beef tendon soup

Octopus with ancho mayo

These sweetbreads are tasty, and they definitely convinced me to keep trying intestines, but I cannot tell a lie; after a few bites, I knew I was eating something that has a prior life involving poop.

In Spain and Portugal, plates of small whole fried fish are quite popular, and we ate a lot of them on our honeymoon so we wanted to try these fried silver fish. I would describe them as fish and chips in a single bite. Mr. ST said they reminded him of pork rinds. You know when you learn things about your partner’s life before you that just don’t fit with the person you know? Pork rinds are among the skeletons in Mr. ST’s closet.

Fried silver fish

We also tried a tofu and kimchi hot pot and the most incredible egg dish that was like a vegetarian scotch egg. Where the hard boiled egg would normally be surrounded by sausage meat, this one had mashed pumpkin, coated in panko bread crumbs. I was getting deliriously full by this point in the night, so unfortunately I have no photographic evidence.

Bring a date, or bring a crowd, and be ready to have fun with your food. Guu is noisy, casual and doesn’t take itself too seriously, something we could all stand to try once in a while!

Arepas: Make your tacos jealous

22 Jun

This post has been waiting to be published for months and I am tired of that forlorn little bag of masarepa flour staring at me from the pantry disapprovingly. Today I saw a post on The Domestic Man about arepas and a rerun of Unique Eats about an arepa joint in New York City and finally said “ENOUGH”. The world needs to know (ok ok, the 10-20 members of my family who read this blog have to know…Hi Mom!)

Have you ever tried an arepa? I tasted my first one at La Fogata Latina last summer and have been hooked ever since. They’re a Venezuelan staple: a sweet corn pocket that can be filled with an egg mixture for breakfast, a meat and veggie filling for lunch or dinner, and you could even go so far as to stuff some chocolate and fruit in there for dessert. They’re less involved than tamales but they’re also a similarly hearty alternative to tacos.

Here’s what you need to make your own:

  • 1 cup masarepa corn flour*
  • 1 cup hot water
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt

*I found masarepa corn flour at a Mexican ingredients store on Douglas Street near Paul’s Motor Inn.

Mix with a fork, then let the mixture sit and absorb the water for about five minutes. Form the dough into four even balls and then flatten slightly. I let my second batch chill in the fridge for 10 minutes before handling it, which helped it hold together better than the first.

Sear over medium-high heat with a small amount of vegetable or canola oil. This is important, so that they can stand up to being sliced open later.

Transfer the arepas to a baking sheet and bake in a 350F degree oven for 20 minutes. They should puff up while in the oven, but they should feel firm to the touch.

While they’re still hot, slice them open halfway. I didn’t need to scoop out any dough to make room for the filling, but some recipes call for doing this. It will depend on the thickness and the amount of filling you want to jam into each one.

My filling:

  • 1 teaspoon smoked sweet paprika
  • 2 cloves minced garlic
  • 1 teaspoon cumin
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • Red pepper, sliced
  • Red onion, sliced
  • Mushrooms, roughly chopped
  • 1 chicken breast, poached in water with one quartered lime, oregano, and salt and pepper

Toss everything into a sauté pan with a splash of oil and cook as you would a fajita filling – just to tender crisp – and then jam it into your sliced arepas. Now, garnish to your heart’s desire! We chose birds eye chillies, sliced green onion, cilantro, lime juice and monterey jack cheese. We also could not eat arepas without homemade pink sauce.

Allow the arepa to replace stir fry as your go-to crisper cleaner. Whatever is looking fresh or frowny and needs eating will work. With all the mango, naval oranges and pineapple on sale right now, I’m thinking my next batch will be a fruit salsa and chorizo with mashed avocado instead of cheese. A whole new carb vessel for your home-cook imagination to take flight!

If you’re intrigued by arepas and want to learn more, this blog has a great number of posts all about them! It was my source for this homemade test. Or, head to La Fogata Latina, because they are one of the best cheap (and authentic) eats in Victoria.

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Power Lunch

18 Apr

Hi friends! Wow, it feels like a long time since I’ve posted. A few busy weeks at work and the sudden decision to sell our home and move out made blogging kiiiiind of a low priority. Real life and fatigue just got in the way of my blogging mojo for a while, but things are settling down for us, boxes are unpacked, and dinner is expanding beyond soft boiled eggs, turkey smokies, and cereal (not all together!). It’s only fitting that I bounce back with a post about how I power through the day – with the help of a good lunch!

Mr. ST and I have a lot of food habits in common but lunch is not one of them. He can go almost the entire day without eating – a small nosh midday maybe – and then eat after work just to keep hunger at bay until I come home later and make dinner. I, however, will crash and burn come 3 p.m. if I haven’t had a nutritious and satisfying lunch.

Having watched my co-workers lament the expense of takeout lunch and the challenge of preparing, packing and remembering to bring a brown bag, I thought it time to give you a peek into my lunch box. Plus, whether it’s for health or financial belt-tightening, brown bagging always seems to be an “in” resolution. And if you already gave up on those resolutions, maybe I can help you get back on.

Strawberry Swiss Chard Salad with Honey Mustard Dressing

Before I continue this attempt at inspirational writing, I would just like to give voice to my inner cynic and say I abhor the standard discourse of the Rachel Ray fast and easy meal prep devotees. They always focus on family dining and DINNER as the most important and hardest meal of the day to plan. But the rest of the world—single, coupled, pet-owning, workaholic, fitness freaks, lazybones—we all have busy days, or at least ones when we DO NOT feel like cooking, let alone contemplate what we should eat tomorrow! Whatever your lifestyle, we can all benefit from healthy, convenience fridge-hacking skills. ‘Scuse me while I get off my soapbox now.

Below I’ve compiled a list of my favourite power lunches. Well-rounded meals, easy to pack and go, that keep me full but also give me energy to get through the rest of my day (which usually includes an hour or an hour and a half of working out).

As if bloggers need any more disclaimers, I have one. I love spending an entire afternoon in food prep zen. Something about the grey light of sun-filtered rain clouds coming through the skylight makes all the veggie chopping, granola bar baking, and soup simmering feel positively meditative. Other times, the only thing better after a long run, a hot shower and some stretching in front the fire is a big sandwich, my slipper socks and a marathon of Sons of Anarchy (this is the honest truth and not deliberate precocious alliteration—I swear.) To that end, my five-minute power lunches are sometimes put together on the fly, sometimes prepped in advance, and usually combined with a portable quick snack to make a complete meal.

Power lunches, ST-style:

Granola parfait: Greek yogurt, homemade granola, leftover pantry dried fruit, diced seasonal fruit and sliced banana with sprinkled nuts and/or coconut).

Chickpeak goji berry salad with feta: I usually add more veggies to this, reduce the almonds a bit and use dried cranberries instead of goji berries.

Crisper-cleaner Bean salad: As a variation on the above salad, take whatever beans you’ve got left in your pantry, chop up some of the raw veggies left in your pantry (I usually have knobs of cucumber, parts of bell peppers and a half a red onion hanging out in there). Make it different by switching up your dressings!

Ants on a log: Celery sticks plus peanut butter, dotted with golden raisins or dried cranberries. Some of the snacks from childhood are more genius than I knew at the time!

Turkey Quinoa Burgers

Bulgur Veggie Burgers

Turkey Quinoa Burgers with Ginger and Edamame

Grown Up Granola Bars

Grown Up Granola Bars

Rye crackers with roasted cherry tomatoes, sliced avocados and hummus: Try The Healthy Everythingtarian’s Spicy Buffalo Hummus or Eat Live Run’s Jalapeno Cheddar Hummus.

The Healthy Everythingtarian's Spicy Buffalo Hummus

Carrot Ginger Coconut Soup (currently I am in love with Kashi Pita Crisp crackers alongside my soups. They have the texture of a pita chip and the flavour of a Wheat Thin!).

Ancient Grain and Mushroom Soup

Ancient Grain and Mushroom Soup

Just to state the obvious, I also rely on dinner leftovers some days too! The following recipes always net a few lunch portions and they re-heat well. I usually pack them with a piece of fruit or two and a grown up granola bar.

Almost Cheeseless Pasta Casserole

Stacked Roasted Veggie Enchiladas

Sweet Potato Aloo Gobi

Sweet Potato Aloo Gobi

Nigella Lawson’s Croque Monsieur Bake

For more lunch inspiration, check out the very awesome and hilarious Holly the Everythingtarian who did a clever little post of her favourite 5-minute meal and then hauled in a bunch of awesome reader suggestions in her comments. If nothing there turns your crank, try Ann’s post on packing lunch in five minutes flat.

Happy munching!

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Some ABCs and flourless cookies

3 Apr

Hello Blog Friends! Spring has sprung all over the food blog world it seems, and here on Vancouver Island that means lots of sunny breaks and drizzle. Sunday morning at the Merville 15K race, just north of Courtenay, I had a beautiful run through the farmland up there. The snow was practically glowing off the mountains and it felt positively tropical at times. It was almost entirely flat so it was a great race for getting some fresh air and appreciating this island of ours.

And you have to at least appreciate the freshness of rain if you’re going to live here. The dampness combined with the wind off the water can still leave a chill in your bones this time of year, so dishes like Soup Addict’s Chicken Coconut Curry Soup and Karista’s Winter Vegetable Cobbler are still making appearances in our meal plans over the next few weeks.

Speaking of Karista, we are honoured to be one of her nominees for an ABC Award (Awesome Blog Content). Every time Karista posts a recipe, not only is it completely her own creation but it is usually colourful, nutrient dense and made with classic comfort food techniques. So naturally, I’m having a bit of a Wayne’s World meets Alice Cooper kind of feeling about the whole thing. This blog is a personal passion, a record of the simple pleasures of our lives, but I hope it might also inspire someone out there on the interwebs to experiment in the kitchen, treat themselves, and taste just about anything once. That would in fact be a spiritual bonus, the icing on our cupcake, the marshmallow in our hot chocolate, the funfetti in our funfetti cake. Plus, anyone who gives us an accolade along with a pork recipe is a good friend to have.

The rules are we are supposed to reveal some things about ourselves using the ABCs and then pass the nomination on to five blogs we think are ABC-worthy. So, if you’re interested in that sort of thing, scroll down to the bottom of this post! If not, there’s a reason I brought up dessert – read on!

I first became obsessed with flourless cookies after trying the flourless peanut butter cookie with coarse sea salt at habit a few months ago. It’s chewy, dense, and soft, without any of the dreadful powdery texture in soooome people’s floured peanut butter cookies. Then my sister sent me the link to these flourless fudge chocolate chip cookies from Savoury Simple and I knew we’d have to test them out during my trip to Kelowna back in February. There is an important lesson here: anything a floured cookie can do well, a flourless one might be able to do better.

This double chocolate cookie gets its incredible texture from the egg whites – they form a meringue-like crackled top that dissolves as you bite into the brownie-soft middle. We added a small amount of chocolate chips to ours, and Lake Country Harvest dried cherries to a few of them. They were addictive and very sweet and I’d like to try them again with some more adventurous variations. I had been contemplating walnuts, a touch of cayenne and a few cracks of sea salt on top and then we happened to split a Bubby Rose Beezlebubby cookie last week and it is confirmed: don’t argue with sea salt, cayenne and dark chocolate because they are never wrong. Unless you are a milk chocolate loyalist, which is a serious freaking tragedy but I will try and get over it.

When I got back from my trip, habit’s baker had broke her arm and I had to take matters into my own hands. As usual, a suitable addiction could be found on Epicurious, though I nixed the chocolate chips and added extra chopped peanuts to ours. I’ve varied the baking time on these cookies a fair bit and I tend to hover around the 10 minute mark with a two minute on-the-pan cooling time once I take them out of the oven. My oven is a little hotter and older than most though, and I’d always prefer an undercooked cookie.

So take your hand out of that 10 kilogram Robin Hood bag of flour and back away slowly – if you like simple, salty-sweet desserts, you might never go back.

The ABCs and some blog nominees:

A – Apples. Mr. ST hates the texture of raw apple. I love them and eat one every day. He does, however, enjoy the texture of cooked apple. So I can’t get him to eat cabbage, blue cheese, walnut salad but I CAN get him to eat spinach salad with bacon, roasted apple, pumpkin seeds and maple vinaigrette. Fair trade, I say.

B – Blackforest Cake. On top of our wedding cupcake tower, we had a 5-inch blackforest cake from Cakes etc. (which tasted heavenly but we only got one bite because we forgot to cut it until the open bar had taken a toll on the crowd and soooome people were already digging in. With scoop spoons from our candy bar. It was a good party).

C – Cats. We have two. Sweetpea and Ziggy.

D – Duck fat. I have a big ‘ole jar of it in the back of my pantry from when my Mum and I made duck confit together about a year ago. If you’ve never roasted new potatoes in duck fat, you absolutely MUST.

E – Eastbound and Down. Horrifyingly offensive HBO comedy produced by Will Ferrell. Currently a guilty pleasure.

F – Fall. Easily our favourite season; When we met; When we were both born.

G – Germany. Mr. ST’s family is German. And mine is French. Proceed with any European military history-based jokes you like.

H – Halifax. Our favourite Canadian city.

I – Iberico ham. Way way way better than prosciutto. We ate it for breakfast, lunch and dinner while honeymooning in Spain.

J – Jason Mraz. My favourite male singer songwriter and basically the soundtrack to my teenage coming-of-age. Until he sold out and started doing commercials for the state of California, over-selling his “hot geek”-ness and making appearances in every single wedding’s playlist somewhere. Sigh. The only constant is change.

K – Killers. One of my favourite bands of all time. Still bonking myself on the head that I was too financially disciplined to put concert tickets on my Visa when they came to town.

L – La Coruna. Possibly our favourite stop in Spain, this little town was unkind to tourists but served us the biggest, baddest seafood platter of our lives. Also where we learned how to eat barnacles (with sewing pins!). Arrrr, maytee!

M – Maui Where my clan took a family holiday for Sister and Brother-in-Law ST’s wedding. First and last time I ever need to go to Hawaii. Shocking, I know.

N – Nineteen. The age I was when I met Mr. ST.

O – Oregon. We left part of our heart here.You should go.

P – Patience. One of our major opposing features. He has lots. I’ll be working on this forever.

Q – Quinoa. The main grain of choice in our household. Anything rice can do, quinoa can do better. Except maybe sushi. Just don’t.

R – Rootcellar. Our favourite place to spend a Saturday morning. Has the most variety of produce that is B.C. grown, organic or both.

S – Steamers. The pub where my girlfriends and I spent many a night splitting pitchers of beer, listening to local bands, and crushing on the wide variety of men this now defunked place used to attract. Including Mr. ST ;-)

T – La Taquisa. Stroll down Cook Street. Hold hands. Breathe deeply. Turn your faces to the sun. And then get a million of their tacos. They’re only two dollars each.

U -Ulla. To us, this is one of the best new restaurants to join the Victoria dining scene in recent years. Refreshing, decadent, French-West Coast style.

V – Vietnam. If we could drop everything and hop a plane tomorrow, this is where we would go.

W – The Whole Beast Salumeria. We have already waxed philosophical about our love of charcuterie. Here’s where they make it happen in Victoria.

charcuterieX – We have no answer for this one. And it took us hours to come up with this list so we are not ashamed.

Y – Yogurt. Superfood I cannot live without. Specifically Liberte’s Krema Coconut Greek Yogurt.

Z - Zest. Lemon, lime, orange….I love adding zest to dressings, noodle salads, desserts, breading, just about anything. Especially if you’re a salt addict, I highly recommend.

And now, since I am the blog-addict in this household, the responsibility falls to me to bestow the Awesome Blog Content on some of my favs:

The Healthy Everythingtarian: Holly is frank and nerdy and sophisticated and honest and makes amazing food you can feel good about eating. Often times, she’ll show you how to eat well with minimal effort. Also, she’s a runner who puts more emphasis on the feeling of running than the performance of running, so I love her.

How Sweet It Is: If you haven’t visited Jessica’s site yet – why not? She is insanely creative and prolific, churning out foods for any time of day faster than I can bookmark them. She is responsible for the red velvet white chocolate brownies I made at Christmas time. They are now a recurring food dream.

The Guilty Kitchen: Liz and Adrian live in Victoria, they love food and they blog about beer and sharing meals with friends and growing up and having dreams. What’s not to love?

Savoury Simple: Lives up to the name, although I have found plenty of sweet inspiration here too! Nearly every post is something I wish I had heard of sooner, and most of the time I have all the ingredients handy.

SoupAddict: Do I really need to explain this one? What I love most about SoupAddict is technique. There are lots of lazy shortcuts when it comes to soup that don’t impact the final taste. What I love about SoupAddict is that all her recipes come with a distinctive flavour and story, and she takes the time to try out different techniques and really let her freak flag fly. Also, she helps us get our veggies. So she’s good for you.

Bulgur Veggie Burgers with Lime Mayo

13 Mar

I’m back with more healthy convenience food to replace a processed over-priced counterpart! After the Turkey Quinoa Burgers made such an easy and satisfying week of lunches, I decided to make up some of these great bulgur veggie burgers with lime mayo.

I ate these for lunch with some green onions, cubed avocado, and roasted cherry tomatoes. You could also try breaking one in pieces over some greens and using the lime mayo as a dressing – I make mine fairly thin by upping the lime juice.

This recipe is inspired by this one from Epicurious. PSssst Nickey – yes, these are the ones we first tried making together at your house AGES ago.

Bulgur Veggie Burgers with Lime Mayo

Makes 4 patties

  • 1/2 cup chopped onion
  • 1 tablespoon olive oil plus additional for brushing
  • 1/2 cup bulgur
  • 1 cup water
  • 1 cup canned pinto beans, rinsed and drained (I used a bean medley)
  • 2  tablespoons soy sauce (tamari tastes great too if you have it)
  • 3/4 cup walnuts (2 1/2 ounces)
  • 2 garlic cloves, coarsely chopped
  • 1/2 cup packed cilantro sprigs
  • 3/4 teaspoon ground cumin
  • 1/4 teaspoon cayenne
  • 1/4 cup mayonnaise
  • 1/4 teaspoon grated lime zest
  • 2 teaspoon fresh lime juice

Cook the onion in olive oil in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until golden, 5 to 7 minutes. Add bulgur and water and cook, covered, over low heat until water is absorbed, about 10 minutes. You want it to still be chewy. Transfer to a bowl and stir in the beans and soy sauce.

Pulse the walnuts, garlic, cilantro, cumin, cayenne, and an 1/8- 1/4 teaspoon of salt until roughly chopped. Add the bulgur mixture and pulse until combined and finely chopped. If should look about like this.

Form into four patties – I use a half cup measuring cup to portion it, roll it in my hand and then plate it. Chill for at least 20 minutes. The longer you chill them, the firmer they’ll be when you need to handle and grill them later.

While patties chill, stir together mayonnaise, zest, and juice. Of course use as much juice as you like. I’m not really a fan of mayo’s flavour, so I might try this with plain greek yogurt some day.

Cook over medium-high heat in 1 T oil for 4 minutes per site in a 12 inch grill pan.

Holly did a great post about cooking by taste and feel and letting go of recipes, which is something I try to inspire in others too. It has been far more fulfilling for as a hobby cook than the many years I spent voraciously bookmarking recipes and then near-robotically crossing them off the list one dinner plate at a time! These veggie burgers would make a great base for an un-recipe (as Holly calls them) since you can vary the nuts, beans and herbs to your own tastes. I think I want to try swapping the pinto beans for roasted sweet potato, swap the walnuts for cashews, and add some curry powder to the mix next time.

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