Good Morning Starshine

gliddy glub gloopy nibby nabby

noopy

la la la - lo lo

sabba sibbi sabba nooby aba

naba

lee lee - lo lo

tooby ooby wala

nooby aba

naba

Early morning singing song...

I’m counting down the days before I see my loveliest of lovely friends, Abby. She’s taking moi to see Serena Ryder in Vancouver. SR does a great version ‘Good Morning Starshine’ that’ll shake the chill off of these winter mornings. I downloaded her newest CD “If you memory serves you well’ from iTunes and it’s on high rotation over here.

I heart Serena Ryder. Definitely one of my big girl crushes. She’s even wearing a crush worthy blue wool coat on her new website. Her new CD is a collection of covers. She takes an eclectic range of songs from Lenny’s “Sisters of Mercy” to Paul Anka’s “It doesn’t matter anymore”, twists them, punches them up, slows them down and caresses them until they fall down onto their knees and then rise to the rafters. I can’t wait for the concert!!!

As usual, my plans for the weekend for a simple few days of knitting and spinning and chilling didn’t quite work out that way. Saturday was a rush to meet work deadlines and messing with the 100 Mile Diet Nanaimo website. I might have to trash the site and start from scratch again. Oh well. It wasn’t all work. I managed to grab a few hours of sunshine that blessed our Rusty Coast while I did my errands on foot. With my Vitamin D tank full, I scurried back to my corner and began reassembling the website. Hopefully it’ll be up again soon. I have a bunch of 100 Mile Diet and local food issue events coming up soon.

After an aggressive treatment of mold pills, fistfuls of raw garlic, Cold-FX, Chinese satan spit and non-stop video game playing, DH is slowly rising from his mucus-lined state. He was feeling well enough to join and our friend Dave for a day of ice climbing a Mt. Arrowsmith on Sunday. The ice is definitely fattening up nicely. There was even ice gestating in areas that don’t normally see anything more than verglas.

Yes, that's me up there. You're just going to have to take my word for it ;)















So pretty!

Back at home, we let the day of climbing sink its good aching into our bodies. I managed to get the second sleeve of my MIL’s sweater started. I eventually pried myself out of my knitting chair and made us dinner:

Chorizo from Quist farms, local veggies and homemade grubs (a.k.a. gnocchi) made with russet potatoes from Saanich and flour from True Grain bakeries. The pesto is from a batch I made in the summer from Nanoose Edible’s basil and have squirreled away in the freezer. A respectable 100 mile diet post-climb dinner if I may say so myself. For dessert, I enjoyed a small glass of blackberry wine from Cowichan’s Cherry Point vineyard. Bursting with blackberry’s deep sweetness, it was like sipping summer.

All in all, it was a well played weekend.

Happy Eating!
Jen

Noodle swapping & fart bombs

One of DH’s favorite dishes is Singapore chow may, a curried rice noodle dish, and was jonesing for some on Monday night. Problem was that I didn’t have any thin rice thread. I had thick rice sticks. I had fresh udon noodles. I had dried buckwheat noodles. I had shrimp noodles. I had egg noodles. I even had an imperishable square of ichiban in my cupboards. We are a duet of noodleheads in this house. But I didn’t have any thin rice thread and I had no energy to run to the store.

So I reached for the mung beans noodles, the noodle of a thousand names. Here are some of it’s other aliases: bean threads - cellophane noodles - mung bean threads - translucent noodles - shining noodles - slippery noodles - powdered silk noodles - silver noodles - Chinese vermicelli - transparent noodles - glass noodles - crystal noodles - jelly noodles - transparent vermicelli - green bean thread noodles - invisible noodles - pekyasan - sai fun (Cantonese ) - bai fun (Cantonese) - soo hoon (Cantonese) - su un (Indonesian) - pancit sotanghon (Tagalog) - woon sen (Thai) - bun tao (Vietnamese) - tanghoon (Malaysia).

Mung bean noodles are great fun. They’re soft , almost gelatinous in texture and on their own pretty flavourless. But they absorb flavour really well and cook up in no time. Simple soak them in hot water for 10-15 minutes until their soft and transparent. They don’t need much more cooking after that.

This is basically a stir-fry dish so have everything prepped and ready to go. We had some friends pass through at dinner time so this recipe is for 4. For regular Singapore chow mai simply use thin rice threads/noodles instead of the mung bean noodles.

Fast & Dirty Singapore Chow Mai

1/2 small cabbage- shredded. You can use asian or regular cabbages

2 carrots – sliced thin

2 stalks of celery – sliced thin

1 onion – sliced thin

2 green onions- sliced thin

1 red pepper –sliced thin

2 cups mushrooms – I used fresh shitake. You can use regular white button mushrooms or a combination

2 coins of ginger – peeled and chopped fine

4 ounces BBQ pork – sliced thin

1-2 tablespoons curry powder

Chinese cooking wine

Vegetable oil

3 bundles of mung bean noodles

1- Soak noodles in hot water. Put aside. Once softened, cut with scissors.

2- Heat up a couple glugs of oil in a hot wok

3- Drop in BBQ pork, ginger and green onion.

4- Drop in vegetables in this order: onion & mushrooms, carrots, celery, pepper, cabbage. Stir fry for a minute between vegetables before adding the next.

5- Drain noodles and drop into wok. Stir until mixed.

6- Sprinkle in curry powder and mix until incorporated

It only really took about 10 minutes of playing human food processor for the prep and another 10 minutes for the actual cooking. In less than half an hour we all sat down for a simple meal and some great company.

Most of the veggies came from local sources. Call up your nearby veggie farm. Many still have winter veggies to sell you. A little birdie told me that Nanoose Edibles has Jerusalem artichokes right now.

BTW, the noodles stay soft even when they’re cold so leftovers are fine eaten straight out of the fridge. They could even be used as filling for curried version of a thai spring roll or on it’s own as a noodle salad. You could even do a raw veggie salad version of this by simply cooking only the noodles with curry and a bit of finely chopped ginger and adding to some slaw.

Yesterday, I got done with work early (before 1pm) and decided to drag DH down to the Old City Quarter to run a few errands. I fed DH but I don’t usually eat lunch until 3ish and I figured I’d wait until we got back. Of course 2 errands split and grew multiple heads and became several errands. Once we got those done, it was dark and I pretty much gave up on lunch and was fantasizing about all the things I could make for dinner. Then DH got thirsty and wanted to go for a beer run and I was too weak from hunger to protest. At the North Gate beer and wine we found Howe Sound Brewery beer from Squamish! We had lived there for a few years and much of those memories are soaked in Howe Sound Brewery beer. Feeling nostalgic, we picked up a IPA and a brown ale and a few other local treats. They come in these cool brown bottles with a seal spring stopper which can be reused for a million different things. They’re great bottles for homemade infused vinegars and oils.

Back home, with my belly rumbling harmonies to the wind’s blustery dirge, I got started on some dinner. I decided on a chorizo and corn risotto with some pan-fried brussels sprouts. I love Brussels sprouts and luckily, so does DH. I got these from a friend’s garden in exchange for some chard and kale from mine. There’s local Brussels sprouts out there to be had.

When people tell me that they hate these mini-cabbages, I tell them to blame it on their mom or the school cafeteria cook. The problem is that Brussels sprouts release sulphur compounds when overcooked. The brussels sprouts of most childhoods are grey, overboiled little fart bombs. I dodged that bullet. My mom never made Brussels sprouts and luckily, the first time I had Brussels sprouts, it was made by someone who didn’t treat vegetables like heathens during the Spanish Inquisition.

My favorite way to cook Brussels sprouts is to cut them in half and pan fry them in a glug of olive oil over med heat, cut side down. Once they are browned, pour in a glug of water and cover with a tight lid for a minute to flash steam them. Sprinkle salt, pepper and a splash of good balsamic vinegar.

For the risotto, I used a half a chorizo sausage from Quist farms, some local corn that I froze and a pile of grated Little Qualicum raclette cheese and Hilary’s St. Denis cheese.

It’s pretty much the same recipe as my previous risotto. I simply traded the butternut squash for corn and used local cheeses instead.

The savory sausage was countered by the summer sweet corn and it was all wrapped up in the cheese infused creamy rice. The Brussels sprouts were sweet and nutty with a bite of greenness. A great combination of textures and flavours. Luckily, the risotto was piping hot and so I was forced to pace myself or else I would have gobbled up the whole pan. Definitely a keeper.

The sun is actually breaking through here. The humidity is down a bit than the usual 100%. I may have a chance to make some holiday nut brittle today. Yippee!!!

Happy Eating!

Jen

Comfort food & knits

(Updated - Thanks Laurie for picking up that missing squash. I've revised the recipe below)

The winds are howling like wolves in heat, sneering at the sight of any umbrella that dared to bare its teeth. The rain, oh, this is the rain that epic poems are made of. This is the rain that drills holes into the ground and turns streets into rivers and reminds us Walmart plebians that waterfront property is used as rice paddies in other times and places.

It’s a shame that some of this glorious tempest didn’t come in the growing months when the farmers could have used it.

The storm is coming through strong. They’re calling for 120km winds on the west coast and up to 90 km for the rest of the island. I don’t know if it’s getting that burly here on the inside edge of the island here but it’s making short work of the backyard fence and is certainly providing a whole lot of drama. Even the ferries have been cancelled to the mainland. This brings to mind just how tenuous our reach to the mainland really is.

I’m cozied up inside, wrapped in the brilliant hug of MY NEW SWEATER!!!!

The first thing I did this morning was put on my new sweater and take it for a test run now that it’s finally dried from blocking. And not a moment too late, it’s the knitted equivalent of comfort food.

Speaking of comfort food, I made one of my favorite comfort foods last night for dinner: Risotto. Not just any risotto, I made a chorizo-butternut squash- manchego risotto. OK, the rice and the cheese weren’t from a local farms but most of the rest of the meal was. I had a ½ a chorizo sausage from Quist Farms just down the highway, some of the roasted butternut squash, onion and garlic from local farms, swiss chard and parsley from my own veggie garden and chicken stock made from local chickens. The swiss chard was sautéed in oil and crushed garlic and dressed with a few drops of pear balsamic vinegar from Auld Alliance farms on Gabriola Island.

It was so good that Kevin and I barely spoke while eating dinner except to remark about how good it was. The savory spicy sausage played against the sweet squash and the manchego cheese provided just the right amount of unami richness. It just all came together so well in the creamy risotto that I was surprised by how well it turned out. The swiss chard provided a nice break with its mild bitterness and simple greenness.

Here’s a picture of Kevin enjoy the last of his risotto. 10 seconds later he was literally licking the bowl clean. I don’t have any pictures of that because I was too busy laughing while protecting my bowl of risotto from his predatory fork.

Here’s the Fast & Dirty recipe for Chorizo-Squash-Manchego Risotto (serves 2)

1 cup Arborio rice

½ link dried chorizo - chopped

1 cup roasted butternut squash- cubed

½ small onion or 2 shallots- chopped fine

1 garlic chopped fine

1 litre chicken stock –simmering

½ cup manchego cheese –grated

1 pat of butter

handful of parsley- chopped fine

olive oil

salt & pepper

You want to have a pot of the stock simmering as you make this.

In a wide bottom pan, heat up a couple glugs of olive oil and the chorizo sausage over medium heat. Let the oils and flavour render out of the sausage a bit. Anytime you see the word 'render' you know it's going to be good eats.

Add onions and garlic. Cook for a few minutes until the onions have softened.

Add rice and stir so that the oil coats each grain. The rice will turn translucent on the outside with a white core.

Add in a ladle of hot stock into the pan.

Stir. Stir. Stir.

Keep stirring slowly until the rice absorbs most of the stock.

Repeat with another ladle of stock

And keep repeating until the rice is cooked through. This recipe will take most of the litre of stock and about 20 mins of cooking. You don’t want to overcook the rice into a gummy, pablum mess but you also don’t want crunchy risotto. I tend to cook it until there's only a residue of uncooked rice in the grain and then add a touch more stock and let it simply absorb the excess liquid.

Once it’s cooked through, drop in the butter, roasted squash, cheese and parsley.

Stir. Taste. Season.

You don’t have to stir the rice constantly for the whole 20 mins. I find that after the first couple ladlefuls of stock, I only have to stir it up once or twice and just let the rice absorb the liquid and make sure it doesn’t burn. By then the starch dust around the rice has done much its work to make a nice creamy base.

Some folks tell me that they find making risotto too time-consuming and tedious. Obviously they’ve been making sucky risotto because once you’ve had good risotto, you’ll realize that 20 minutes of your time is small price to pay for this bowl of Italian heaven. Quite frankly, during these cold, damp evenings, hanging out over a pot of steaming, savory goodness is not the worse place to be. Consider it a kitchen spa treatment as you inhale the wonderful aromas rising from your pan and you stir meditative patterns like a rake through a zen sand garden through the creamy rice.

Enjoy!

Jen