Zucchini & Potato Pancakes

Dan    Recipes     breakfast, brunch, egg, pancake, potato, squash, zucchini

What you’ll need…

1 zucchini squash

2 red potatoes

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup parmesan cheese (grated)

1 egg

2 clove garlic

1 TSP tarragon

salt & pepper

Not your typical pancakes for a Sunday brunch, but delicious nonetheless! My mom’s best friend had a dog lovingly named Latke (Hebrew for ‘potato pancake’) so I have always held potato-based pancakes close to my heart…I don’t mean I cuddle potato pancakes or anything, just metaphorically close to my heart.

 Start by washing and drying the squash and the potatoes. Next, grate them into a colander and press down firmly to drain out excess liquid. Place the grated veggies in a bowl.

Finely chop the garlic and add it into the mix along with the egg, flour, cheese, and spices. Mix with a spatula (or by hand) until you have an good-looking batter.

Heat a medium sized pan to medium-high heat add a touch of olive oil and place some of the batter into the pan, help flatten it out by using your spoon. The pancakes should be about 1/3″ thick. You can make these however large or small you like (I prefer big and meal-sized, and I like to challenge my flipping skills!). Give them about 3 minutes on each side, and you’ll have a beautiful, savoury pancake. Have them with a fried egg on top, runny yolk, makes an eggcellent syrup. Ok…bad joke…

Latke would be proud!

Serves 2-3

Total cook time…20 min

Calgary Food Blogger Charity Bake Sale Pictures!

Dan    Thoughts    

I was lucky enough to take part in a Calgary food bloggers charity bake sale at the Market Collective this past weekend! Check out some of the photos!

Come on in!

Raspberry Rooibos Meringue Tarts

Dan    Recipes, Something Sweet     berries, dessert, summer, tart

What you’ll need…

2 pints fresh raspberries

12 egg whites

2 cups brewed rooibos tea

2 TBSP honey

18 TBSP sugar (extra-fine)

20 tart shells (pre-baked)

Egg whites + sugar = neato! My favorite part is making sure the meringue is whipped enough by holding the bowl upside-down, if it falls onto my head then I did not whip it enough. I do not like meringue on my head, so…I whip it enough!

Wash the pints of raspberries and set 20 aside (for topping the tarts). Place the remainder of the raspberries in a small bowl, add the honey, and mash them up with a fork. Place the mixture along with the brewed rooibos tea into a large skillet on medium-high heat. Let it simmer away for about 15-20 minutes, until the tea has evaporated and your left with a thicker raspberry ‘jam.’ Remove from the heat and allow it to cool. Now you can whip up your meringue.

Separate your egg whites by using an egg separator, or the old fashion way (over-top a bowl, crack the egg in half and pour the yolk back and forth into each side until the white has fallen away from the yolk into your bowl). Now whip away! Feel free to hand-whip if you want a good work out for your arms, but an electric mixer is much easier.

First off, whip the egg whites on medium until they get nice and foamy, then you can start adding in your sugar. With the mixer on high, slowly add in the 18 TBSP of sugar, over a period of about 6-8 minutes. The mixture will get white & shiny. Like I mentioned above, if you are confident in how well the meringue has been mixed, feel free to hold the bowl upside-down, and if it stays put then you’re good!

Fold in the (now cool) raspberry mixture until it is a nice, light pink colour. spoon some into each of your (pre-baked) tart shells, top with a fresh berry, and cook in a pre-heated oven of 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the meringue starts to brown.

Serves 20 tarts

Total cook time…45 min

Bacon-wrapped Eggplant Steaks w/braised cucumbers

Dan    Mains, Recipes     almost vegetarian, dinner, eggplant, unusual

What you’ll need…

1 medium-sized eggplant

2 cucumbers

1 pack bacon

1 yellow onion

1 TSP dried rosemary

1 TSP dried thyme

1 TSP dried basil

1/4 cup dry red wine

2 TBSP butter

1 lemon

olive oil

salt & pepper

I’m not going to lie, ever since I watched the film Julie & Julia, I have had ‘braised cucumbers’ on my mind (it’s one of the dishes she cooks up in the movie, if you haven’t seen it yet…which you should!) and have finally cooked some up. They are surprisingly delicious, and rare I say, could rival a tasty zucchini any day of the week! I also can guarantee that any of you out there who have not had a positive eggplant experience with be pleasantly surprised with the outcome of these steaks because you know that anything + bacon = delectable!

Start by slicing the eggplant width-wise into 1″ steaks. Place them in a large bowl, add in the wine, rosemary, thyme, and some olive oil, then toss until all steaks are evenly coated. Set aside for about 15 minutes to let them soak up the flavours! While you’re waiting set your oven to a high broil setting and let it heat up.

After 15 minutes, loosely wrap bacon around the circumference of each steak (approx. 2 slices of bacon each). Place into a medium sized baking dish or roasting pan and pop into the oven. Let them roast, uncovered for 20 minutes, turn the steaks over once at the 10 minute mark.

While the steaks are roasting, dice the onion and cut the cucumbers into 4″ strips. Once you’ve flipped your steaks put the onions into a heated frying pan with some butter and cook until softened. Add in the cucumbers, juice of one lemon, and the dried basil. Stir until everything is evenly coated, then cover for 5 minutes on medium heat. After 5 minutes, add salt & pepper to taste and voila! Braised cucumbers! Plate with your bacon-wrapped eggplant steak and you have yourself one meaty, yet not actually so meaty, hearty meal! Enjoy!

Serves 4

Total cook time…40 min

Roasted Cauliflower & Arugula Soup

Dan    Recipes, Soups     cauliflower, dinner, nuts, soup, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

1/2 head cauliflower

1 yellow onion

3 cloves garlic

1 pack arugula

1.5 litres homogenized milk (or soy if you want to keep it vegan)

1 TBSP yellow mustard seeds

1 TBSP dried oregano

extra virgin olive oil

salt & pepper

1 cup walnuts

2 shallots

1/4 cup brown sugar

This is a soup worthy of a brisk autumn evening. That being said, I did come up with this recipe after walking to my local grocery store on a cold and rainy day in June! When the sun’s away it’s a soup kind of day! I promise this one will keep you warm.

First off, pre-heat the oven. A low broil setting will suffice for roasting the cauliflower. While it’s heating, chop up the half-head of cauliflower into approx. 1″ chunks. Place the cauliflower into a roasting pan with some olive oil, salt & pepper, and place in the oven to cook, uncovered for 30 minutes.

While the cauliflower is roasting away chop the onion and mince the garlic. When there is about 10 minutes of roasting time left you should start cooking off the onions & garlic with some olive oil in a mid-sized pot. Once the onions have softened add in the yellow mustard seed & oregano. Take the cauliflower out of the oven and add it to the pot, as well as 2 cups of fresh arugula.

When the arugula has wilted and everything is smelling really tasty it is time to blend it all together. Place the vegetable medley and cream into your blender and blend until it is nice and smooth (you will probably have to repeat this step a few times, unless you have a really large-sized blender). Place the soup back in the pot and let it simmer on low on the stove.

For a bit of a crunch with the soup I fried some of the leftover arugula leaves and candied some walnuts & shallots. To roughly chopped the walnuts, shallots, and tossed them with brown sugar & a bit of water so they got nice and sticky. I then popped them into the oven, again on low broil, for 15 minutes, then let cool slightly before topping the soup!

Serves 3-4

Total cook time…60 min.

Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale!

Dan    Thoughts    

I’m really excited to be able to take part in the Calgary Food Blogger Bake Sale at the Market Collective in Kensington this Saturday & Sunday (June 19th & 20th). Organized by Vincci of not-a-foodblog.blogspot.com, all proceeds will go to a fantastic cause, Calgary’s Meals on Wheels!

Now, I have been thinking of making some unique meringues lately, so I am envisioning rasperry rooibos meringue tarts and london fog shortbread cookies as my contributions. What do we think of that? I’ll get to baking tonight, and post the final recipes on here by the end of the week!

Go here for all the details.

Check out some of the other bloggers in attendance below, including Julie Van Rosendaal (www.dinnerwithjulie.com).

backseatgourmet.blogspot.com

eatincalgary.wordpress.com

chocolateandginger.wordpress.com

and many more…

Make sure you come down, and bring your sweet tooth with you!