I made up a Southern style picnic basket for Ed and I last weekend. The weather didn’t cooperate so we had to enjoy it indoors, but Ed loved it nonetheless. I’ve shared our menu and some recipes, as well as some other Southern picnic menu ideas below. Feel free to add more suggestions in a comment! (See here for French picnic (pique-nique) menus!)
These cheese stuffed portobello mushrooms are delicious, versatile, and ridiculously quick and easy to make. Choose a melty cheese and make it as casual (as I did using marble cheese) or as fancy as you’d like. In terms of the toppings, you can use leftovers, vegetables and/or protein. I had a tomato on hand and it added lovely acidity and freshness to the hearty mushroom and heavy cheese. Serve this as an appetizer, as a side, or as the main.
Originating from Ukraine, borscht is a soup that is made with beets as the main ingredient. Surprisingly, you may find borscht or even Russian borscht (“loh sung tong” / “lor sung tong”) on the menus of some Hong Kong style diners. The borscht served in these Chinese restaurants is more like a hot and sour vegetable soup with tomatoes and/or tomato paste as the main ingredient(s). It’s delicious and my siblings and I love it. In fact, every time my brother sees me, he asks me when I’m going to make more of this soup for him. I made it for my housemate recently and she asked for the recipe. Every Chinese restaurant makes their borscht slightly differently, so feel free to add whatever vegetables you like. The following recipe was created to taste just like the soup that’s served at our favourite Hong Kong style diner in Markham, ON.
This gluten free (easily made dairy free) waffles recipe blew us away. I never thought I’d say this, but I prefer it over all of the gluten-filled waffle recipes that I’ve tried (and I’ve tried several). They are unbelievably light and airy on the inside (as long as you don’t overfill your waffle maker with batter) and delicately crispy on the outside. Furthermore, this is a very easy recipe; you don’t need a blender (I don’t recommend using an electric mixer either), and the batter doesn’t need to rest first. I recommend doubling the recipe and freezing the leftover cooked waffles. You can toast them until crispy straight from the freezer for a quick and delicious breakfast. Also, you could make these ahead of time if you’re entertaining a lot of people.
Homemade Waffle Mix and Gift Idea: Make a large batch of homemade waffle mix by whisking together all of the dry ingredients (use granulated sugar instead of liquid sweetener) and store it in an airtight container. Then every time you want to make a batch of waffles, simply measure out 2 cups + 2 tablespoons of your waffle mix and add the wet ingredients as per the recipe below. You could even turn this into a gift. Put your homemade waffle mix in a cellophane bag, tie it with a pretty ribbon and attach the recipe and instructions. Just make sure that the recipient owns a waffle maker if you’re not also gifting them with one.
Normally, I’m a regular consumer of cow’s milk and Chinese soy milk drinks. But challenging myself with a month long detox diet (see post here) led me to explore non-dairy (casein free) and non-soy milks. The options include coconut milk, almond milk, rice milk, and hemp milk. I also heard of a potato based milk alternative, DariFree by Vance’s Foods that comes in a powder. I don’t like the taste of fresh coconut juice and coconut milk is too rich (for my tastes) for drinking, so this post will focus on a comparison between almond, rice, and hemp milk. Also, see below for homemade rice milk instructions and a very simple and versatile almond milk recipe with flavour variations.
I have now completed the first week of my month long detox challenge. (See the Day 1 post here. See the Day 15 post here. See the final post here.) That means I have not had any dairy, gluten, refined sugar, soy, caffeine or alcohol. I know it’s only been a week, but I’m surprised by how mild, how manageable, and how infrequent my cravings have been. I mostly craved sugar in the first few days, but that’s probably because it rained all week and I wasn’t allowed caffeine. In fact, I feel less hungry during the day and am consequently, consuming fewer calories. I do, however, miss the convenience of 1. not having to think about my food, and 2. being able to snack on anything that’s available when I’m hungry. With any dietary restriction, meals and snacks need to be planned ahead of time. That means that both grocery shopping and cooking need to be done at least a day in advance.
Update: Late night, Day 6, I cheated. 😦 I had planned to avoid restaurants for the month of May, but I ended up in a bar with friends when the night’s plans suddenly changed on me. I had a beer and about 2/3 of a pound of wings. The next morning, I was challenged with all sorts of food cravings that I was luckily able to resist.
So far, I’m very happy that I took on this detox challenge. (See below for the health benefits that I’ve seen so far.) My dog is even happier about my detox diet, because I feel safe sharing my homemade almond milk and gluten-free waffles and bread with him.
The Foods I’ve Been Eating and Their Recipes
I’ve used tamarind paste for southeast Asian and Indian cooking. (See more info on cooking with tamarind here.) I like its unique, tart taste and, although I try periodically, it is too strong and too sour [for my taste] to eat raw. So when I discovered candied whole tamarind (sold as “sweet and sour tamarind”), I was very eager to try it. I love the naturalness of this chewy, not-so-sweet candy, because it only contains 3 ingredients: tamarind fruit, sugar, and salt. It’s perfect for people with a lot of food allergies or restrictions. The acquired taste of the tamarind is subdued in this candy, so it’s a great way to introduce someone to this fruit. Just be sure not to bite into the rock hard seeds. Luckily, they are large and easy to spot in this pod-like fruit. Note that the candied whole tamarind (shell removed) is not the same thing as the more commonly available, chewy balls of tamarind candy that are made with tamarind juice, sugar, and water. I prefer candied whole tamarind because it is lower in sugar content and processed more naturally. Unfortunately, it seems to be impossible to find fresh tamarind where I live. So for now, I’ll resort to buying the store bought candy.
Indian food uses a lot of different spices and is rich in flavour. It can be made to be very healthy and there are many great vegetarian and vegan options (with a few minor substitutions). I enjoy Indian food, but I have always felt that Indian restaurants were overcharging for their food. My suspicions were confirmed when I started making Indian food at home; it turns out that many of the popular Indian dishes are ridiculously easy and cost effective to make! If only I could afford the money and space for a tandoor oven…
If you’ve never cooked Indian food before, don’t be intimidated by the long lists of ingredients, because once you’ve picked up a few spices, the cooking part is easy. Most of their meat dishes involve slow cooking, but I have created some fast-cook recipes that still taste authentic and won’t take hours to make. Another great thing about cooking Indian food is that most dishes freeze well, so you can make one large batch of curry at a fraction of the restaurant price, and freeze the leftovers for future meals.
Check out my recipes for Indian food! You can find them under the Recipe Index, under the Indian category.
Below, I have listed a few simple tips for using Indian spices that will hopefully encourage some of you to try making this cuisine at home. Please share your tips by posting a comment!
Ed and I love garlic bread. We ate an entire French baguette (and a stick of butter) in one afternoon the last time I made this. The simplest (and my favourite) way to make this is to start by making homemade garlic and herb butter. You can then bake the butter and bread or simply spread the garlic and herb butter onto warm slices of fresh bread (I got that idea from my friend Erin). You could also make a garlic cheese bread by adding some shredded cheese prior to baking (you will need to increase the baking time by a few minutes).
You could also use this compound (flavoured) butter on grilled steak, or baked or mashed potatoes, etc.
I had a lot of miso paste leftover from making miso soup (recipe here), so I made a miso salad dressing for a Japanese restaurant style salad. Note that you could omit the carrot and use the rest of the ingredients (adjusted to your taste) to make a simpler miso salad dressing. I served this with miso soup and chicken teriyaki with a stir fried bean sprout medley (recipe here).
Durian fruit is definitely an acquired taste – one which can only be acquired if you can get over the acquired smell. They are heavy and covered with pointy, dangerous spikes. As you can see from the photos below, the fruit is shaped into several lobes. Each lobe contains soft, yellow flesh that encases one or two large, light brown, hard seeds. You can eat it as is (not the seed), or you can use it in smoothies and cakes, etc. In North America, you are most likely to find these frozen. Simply defrost the durian at room temperature and cut open. Opening a durian almost always involves injury, so be very careful. I get scratched (and bleed) several times simply transporting it from the grocery store to the house. I have provided tips on how to select a durian and photo instructions for how to open one. Notice that it’s my dad doing it. Thanks dad 🙂
I have containers upon containers (upon containers) of different dry ingredients overcrowding my pantry, cupboards, and counter top. I’m embarrassed to admit that they’ve overflowed into closets and random corners of the rest of my apartment too. Just to name the different types of flour that I have: all purpose, bread, cake, whole wheat, stone ground whole wheat, organic whole wheat, semolina, rice, glutinous rice, potato, tapioca, corn (as well as corn meal), corn starch, wheat starch, and vital wheat gluten. I actually have a post card that says “I dream of storage space” on my fridge (photo above). 🙂 So when I discovered simple substitutions for bread flour and cake flour, I was overly excited! haha I love decluttering and now I’ll never have to buy cake or bread flour again. Recipes below.
Cooking with Alison 