Black Bean Soup with Avocado Crema

We celebrated Easter a while ago and for us that means that there was a ham bone hanging around the house the next day. For a really long time I always made split pea soup but for the last few years I have been making black bean soup instead. I love split pea soup but the boys seem to prefer black bean so that is the route I have taking. I recently started adding the chipotle because my kid was a wimp before but now that he likes a bit of kick to his food, AT LAST, I can spice things up around here. I usually do a chipotle crema but this time the chipotle could go in the actual soup and since that makes it a bit hot, I needed something creamy and cool but that wasn't just a drizzle of plain yogurt or sour cream. While looking at some other black bean soups to get inspired, I found one with an avocado cream on Eats Well With Others and loved the sound of that.

You know, there is almost NOTHING that is harder to photograph than black bean soup. It's a kind of unappealing grey brown with lumps of ham and a bunch of beans floating around in it. It might not be the prettiest soup you will ever make, but man, is it absolutely delicious.

Black Bean Soup with Avocado Crema

avocado crema adapted from Eats Well With Others

*4 cups of dried black beans, soaked and drained (you can quick soak or long soak)
1 ham bone or smoke ham hock
4 cups of water
4 cups of chicken stock (homemade or a low sodium store bought broth)
2 big or 3 small bay leaves
olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 carrot, finely chopped
1 green pepper, seeded and  finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1 tbls cumin
freshly ground pepper
**pureed chiptole in adobo (to taste - start with a tbls and keep adding til it's perfect)
juice from a lime or two
freshly chopped cilantro

avocado crema:

1 avocado
about 1/2 cup greek yogurt
juice of 1 lime
salt

Put the ham bone, beans, water, stock and bay leaves in a large pot. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered, for at least 1 1/2 hours
At some point, prepare the vegetables and spices. You can either chop your onion, carrot, green pepper and celery as fine as you can manage or you can whiz it all up in the food processor to mince it. If you are going to whiz it in your processor, don't bother chopping it finely, just rough chop and throw it in your food processor.
Either way, heat a good glug of olive oil in a saute pan and sauté the vegetables for four or five minutes until they softens and just start to take on some colour. Add the cumin and the garlic and cook that for another minute and stir in the chipotle before you remove the pan from the heat and set it aside.
When your beans seem cooked and soft enough, remove the  ham bone and the bay leaves (discard the bay leaves). Add the sautéed vegetables into the soup pot and continue to let that soup simmer for another half an hour or so while you take care of the ham bone. Let the bone cool enough that you can get in there and take all of the meat off of the bone. Discard any fat and chop up the meat so you can throw it back into the soup. Before you add the meat to the pot, remove about half of the soup  and puree it. Add the pureed soup back into the pot of beans and stir it up.
Now you add the ham, squeeze in some lime juice, grind in some fresh black pepper and take a taste. It's up to you how much lime juice (and cilantro) you add so you just need to taste. You could also just add a bit and then serve it with lime wedges and more cilantro so each person can customize it. Let it simmer for a couple of minutes to ensure that the ham gets as hot as the broth. Ladle the soup into serving bowls and add a dollap of the avocado crema to each bowl.
to make the crema: puree the avocado, yogurt, lime and salt until super creamy and smooth and set aside.

*long soak- rinse and pick over your beans, discarding any rocks are things that look like they shouldn't be in there. Put them in a pot or a big bowl and cover them with water by a couple of inches at least. Leave them all day or overnight. Drain them and rinse them and they are ready to use


fast soak- rinse and pick over your dried beans. Put them in a stock pot and cover with with water by a few inches. Bring to a boil, let it boil for 3 or 4 minutes. Turn off the heat, cover the pot and let them sit for an hour before you drain them and rinse them.

** I like to open a can of chipotle chilis in adobo and puree it as opposed to fishing the chilis out. I love the adobo sauce as much as i love the actual chili so I prefer to just use the puree and you can store in the fridge for weeks. It also freezes really well.

Korean Oven Fried Chicken Drumsticks With My Handy Dandy NordicWare Chicken Leg Griller

If you read my blog, you already know that I am absolutely crazy about gochujang, the korean fermented hot pepper paste. As a wise old lady I know through the tv says, I put that shit in everything.

I also harbour a deep and abiding love for fried Korean chicken wings and they are usually the first thing on the menu to get into my belly when we eat at This End Up, one of our favourite spots to eat in Toronto. They are spicy, sticky and sweet, covered in toasted sesame seeds and super messy to eat - basically everything  you could ever want in a wing. Unfortunately, I don't deep fry at home for many reasons. As I tell anyone who will listen, I am terrified of burning my house down and you know my deaf, farsighted old pooch would never make it out in time. I just don't trust myself with a vat of boiling oil. Honestly, who would?

Due to my deep frying gestalt, I started making panko breaded baked chicken with the sauce to satisfy the craving when I couldn't make it out to the west end and I was very happy with the results. That dish has made my heavy dinner rotation and I didn't really think of taking it any further until I received this Chicken Leg Griller in my swag package from Nordic Ware, one of generous sponsors of the Food Bloggers of Canada Conference. I have to admit, I kept looking at that thing and thinking "what the hell am I going to do with this contraption?" 
I am not really a jalapeño popper type of gal and, although I love wings, it never really occurs to me to buy just drumsticks. But drumsticks are just giant chicken wings if you think about it and I love chicken wings so maybe this griller wasn't so ridiculous, after all.

I waited for the right moment to take it for a test drive after having that little revelation. I had found this fabulous method of oven frying chicken on Just as Delish a while back that really works - the chicken comes out of the oven with dry, crispy skin and is dangerously close to deep fried. I am all about anything that gives the illusion of hot oil frying while sparing my family any trauma.  It was time to combine the awesome oven frying technique with the chicken leg griller AND the sticky Korean gochujang sauce and see what would pop out of the oven. 

Well, I am thrilled to report that crispy, oven fried chicken legs popped out of the oven and once they were rolled around in the sauce and sprinkled with sesame seeds and scallion that we were rewarded with a pretty perfect fake fried korean chicken leg. Our bellies were full, our family home was spared and our old, senile dog would live to see another day.
Doesn't get better than that. 

Oh and that griller is pretty great - the chicken cooks evenly. Since the meat is standing the air circulates around it so you don't have to bother with turning it and all of the fat drips off and down into the bottom of the cookie sheet. If you are feeding many mouths and make chicken drumsticks on a regular basis it is definitely worth investing in. I don't know if I would actually buy it myself, only because there are only three of us and I would almost never cook that many drumsticks at once but now that I have it, I will use it.

*obviously, I received the Nordic Ware chicken leg griller as a gift but my opinions cannot be bought, yo.

Spicy Korean Drumsticks

adapted from Just As Delish

6 to 8 chicken drumsticks

1/2 tsp salt

2 tbls cornstarch

toss the chicken with the salt and cornstarch until the chicken is completely coated. Put them in the fridge, uncovered, for at least 2 hours or all day. Uncovering the chicken is a trick I learned from my chinese friends - it really makes the skin crispier after it's cooked.

Sauce

1 tbls canola oil

4 cloves garlic, chopped

1/3 cup ketchup

1/3 cup korean rice syrup or corn syrup 

1/4 cup gochujang

1 tbls cider vinegar

*garnish with toasted sesame seeds and sliced green onions

Make the sauce:Heat a frying pan over med heat and saute the garlic in the oil for a minute to soften it up before adding the rest of the ingredients. Cook, stirring pretty frequently so it doesn't burn, for about 3 minutes and then take the pan off the heat and set aside until the chicken is done. You can also do this while the chicken is cooking if you are organized and have everything all measured out of course.

So, when it's time to cook, pre-heat the oven to 475F
I am using my drumstick stand but if you don't have one, bake them on a rack set over a baking tray. Make sure you oil the rack so the skin doesn't stick to it and line the baking tray with some foil to catch the fat drippings and make for an easier clean up.
Roast the drumsticks for about 30 minutes (if your drumsticks are huge, cook them for a bit longer). If you are using a rack set over a baking tray, turn the drumsticks halfway through to make sure they are cooked evenly. Since I am using the handy, dandy drumstick stand I just walked away for half an hour.
When they are done, Toss them in the Sauce and sprinkle them with toasted sesame seeds and chopped green onion.

Brussels Sprout Salad

Have you ever eaten something that haunts you long after the fact? About a year ago I had a raw brussels sprout salad in a restaurant. I am pretty sure it was Pizzeria Libretto but If it was there it doesn't seem to be on the menu anymore. It was kind of rich and cheesy but with a really light, bright vinaigrette and it happened to be the first time I had eaten raw brussels sprouts. We eat roasted brussels sprouts so often that I wouldn't be shocked if I woke up to find that I had started sprouting little leaves on all of my limbs like the kid in The Odd Life Of Timothy Green.

Anyway, since eating that salad, I haven't been able to stop thinking of it. Of course, I have also never tried to make it at home either, but that doesn't change the fact that despite my pining for it, clearly I was waiting for someone else to make it for me again and that didn't appear to be working out for me. I found myself with a handful of sprouts left in the fridge - not enough to cook them as a side dish but too many to toss. Hey, I thought, why not try to replicate that salad? I had a look around the internet and decided that this recipe from Shutter Bean, sounded like the closest to what I had eaten. I changed the nuts to almonds because I prefer them, used walnut oil because I am loving walnut oil right now and although I liked the idea of Shutter Bean's walnuts, I didn't want the actual nut so the oil seemed to be a good compromise. I also used a different vinegar and a different mustard. Basically it's the same but much different. I think that the next time I make it I might throw in a handful of crispy, fried cubes of pancetta, because bacon is always a great idea, right?

Bottom line is that it is absolutely delicious and I predict that we will be eating this often in the coming months. I served it over lightly dressed mixed greens but it's just fine on it's own. Actually, I would like to run naked through a bowl of this salad but that require leaving leftovers so, fortunately for everyone, this will not likely happen.

Brussels Sprout Salad

adapted from Shutter Bean
serves 4

12 brussels sprouts, washed
1/2 cup toasted almond slices
1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan
3 1/2 tbls canola oil
1 tbls walnut oil
1 1/2 tbls white balsamic vinegar
1 tsp honey dijon mustard
pinch salt

The sprouts need to be shredded and the best way to do that is on a mandoline set to a really thin setting. If that freaks you out, you can slice them with a knife.
Put the shredded brussels sprouts, cheese and almonds in a big bowl.
Mix the oils, the white balsamic, honey dijon and salt - I do it like she does and throw it all in a small glass jar and give it a good shake.
Pour the vinaigrette over the sprouts/almonds/cheese and toss well. It was delicious right away and just as great the next day when I ate the leftovers for lunch.

Greek Zucchini Fritters (Kolokithokeftedes)

I have spent quite a bit of time in Greece. I lived and worked there in my late twenties and, oddly enough, I don't have a ton of great food memories. When I think of my time in Italy or in Spain, I can almost taste all of the delectable delights that I enjoyed on a daily basis but when I think of Greece, there are only a handful of food memories that I can still conjure up. While there, I would tell people I was from Toronto and they would often say "Oh, my brother/cousin/uncle has a restaurant on the Danforth. Toronto has the best Greek food in the world!" and I would always laugh but I kind of got what they were saying. In my head, I think that I don't care for Greek food but if you go through both of my food blogs, you will find that I actually cook Greek all the time. I never said I was a reasonable person.

I find that I often turn to Greek food when I have to feed a crowd in an informal setting. It just makes so much sense to put out a spread of mezes and let everyone serve themselves. For The Kid's birthday, we did just that and I made tzatziki, hummus, babaganoush and garides me feta. Of course, we don't stick to only traditional greek dishes so there was also grilled sausage, steak and kale salad but the style of eating is definitely inspired by my time in Greece.

delicious birthday spread

garides me feta (shrimp baked with white wine and feta)

You know, if you really want to eat a great meal in Greece, try to get invited to someone's house for a family dinner. You will eat delicious things, freshly prepared with love and care by an army of grandmothers, mothers and aunts. It was at one of these family dinners that I first tasted a freshly fried zucchini fritter or kolokithokeftedes. It was so flavourful, full of salty feta and fresh mint. They are crispy on the outside but creamy and rich on the inside and they immediately became one of my favourite new things to eat there. I used to make them all the time back at home but I recently realized that I haven't tried these things in almost 20 years because Shack and The Kid think that they don't like zucchini. We were doing a Greek spread for The Kid's birthday dinner and it seemed like the perfect time to bust out the kolokithodkeftedes.  These little babies were the biggest hit of the whole meal and Shack, who claims to hate zucchini, scarfed down two and would have taken a few more but there were no more left to take.

If you don't care about authenticity, you could substitute the herbs and feta for any other herb and creamy, crumbly cheese. It would be great with, say, fresh basil and ricotta salata or goat's cheese and fresh thyme. Oh, and if you like dill, please add a tbls of fresh, chopped dill because most kolokithokeftedes will have dill in them but I just really don't do dill myself.

Greek Zucchini Fritters

 adapted frrom Michael Symon     serves 6 to 8

1 lb zucchini (somewhere between 2 huge and 4 small)
1 tsp coarse salt
2 scallions, sliced thinly
2 tbls fresh mint, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, minced
zest of one lemon
100 g feta, crumbled
a few grinds of black pepper or to taste
1 large egg, lightly beaten
3 tbls flour
1/2 tsp baking powder

canola oil for frying
serve with tzatziki  , homemade or a good store bought
Grate the zucchini on a coarse grater. You can either lay it on some cheesescloth or a clean dish towel. Toss it with the salt and let it sit while you get the rest of your ingredients ready or for about 20 minutes.
Put the scallions, mint, garlic, zest, a few grinds of black pepper and feta in a large bowl and toss lightly.  Squeeze all of the liquid out of your zucchini by twisting the top of the gathered up tea towel or cheese cloth. Keep tightening and twisting and squeezing the zucchini until most of the liquid has been released - it's actually kind of amazing to see just how much liquid comes out. When you are satisfied that most of the water has been squeezed out of your zucchini, add it to the bowl and mix it thoroughly.
Heat a heavy skillet or frying pan over med heat (you have to know your own stove and cookware - if I use cast iron or enamelled cast iron, I have to be slightly under medium heat and if I use my non stick frying pan, I am just above medium) and add about 1 tbls of oil and swirl it around the pan to cover the bottom. Drop blobs of the mixture into the hot pan and use a spatula to flatten them down a bit - the thinner they are the crispier they will be. I like them a bit chewy in the middle so I don't go too thin but it's up to you how you like them. Fry them for about 4 minutes until they are nice and brown and then flip them and cook them for another 3 minutes on the other side.

Nutty Kale Salad Inspired by The Cutco Gals

I was invited to the Foodies Forever Blogger Launch put on by Cutco Cutlery this week and I dragged Shack out with me to act as my photographer, which he does for me on occasion. He happens to be a very good photographer and he also acts as my body guard, chauffeur and male escort. If I ask him to, he also cuts my meat. He is an awfully good guy to have around.

The event was held at the Liason College Campus in downtown Toronto. Little did I know that the lovely ladies of Cutco planned on dragging all of us into the kitchen (it is a cooking school) to get our hands dirty. Okay, we got our hands dirty AFTER we washed them thoroughly, of course, and then we washed them again because they did get dirty. I was in a group with the effervescent Linda Nusca, Cutco's top Canadian Sales Consultant. She basically guided us through what they call "the Cutco cooking experience". People can contact the company and set up what is almost like a little dinner party/knife demo and a consultant like Linda will come to your home and guide you and your guests through a dinner prep, giving you some hand's on, interactive experience using their knives and their cookware. Personally, I was a bit worried about a room full of bloggers with a glass or two of wine already under their belts wielding knives but nobody lost a limb, so cheers to wine drinking blogger's with great knife skills everywhere!

It became clear that it is kind of like a Mary Kay party but with sharp knives instead of lipstick. As a party host you get all sorts of perks and discounts if your guests purchase any products.  These guys have been selling their wares since 1948 so it's good quality stuff even if you are not familiar with them. They only sell through direct sales and I have to admit, I had never heard of their product myself before reading up on their company. I think that there are opportunities for people to sell the knives themselves as well, if that's your jam. Their stuff comes with what they call a Forever Guarantee which is basically a lifetime guarantee and they also will sharpen any of their knives with the Double D edge for free. This Double D knife looks serrated but you can run actually your finger along it and it won't cut you but it cuts through stuff like butter- it's like there are sharp little blades up inside there. I know this because I did run my finger along the blade with some pressure and nothing happened but then i sliced the rind off of a pineapple right afterward without any trouble at all. Remember, I had some wine.

shack ended up chopping instead of snapping

You get a chance to use a variety of the knives that they sell and we cooked a simple, nutritious quinoa dish using one of their pots. Judging by the laughter and squealing going on around me, everyone was having a good time so I think it could be a fun girl's night activity but I would recommend keeping the wine away from the kitchen until AFTER the food prep is finished. I can't say it enough- wine + knives = the final scene of Game Of Thrones, episode 3, season 3.

Jaime Lannister. Enough said.

I have to give a shout out to Chateau du Charmes, who provided the wine for the event. We spend quite a bit of time touring the Niagara Wine Region but we have never been to this winery. After tastining their 2011 ALIGOTÉ , a white burgundy grape that is unique to this winery. In fact, I believe they are one of the few makers of Aligote in North America. It will be my new summer crack.

So, on to food. At the event, we made a raw kale salad and I learned a trick to speed up the softening of the kale. We squeezed lemon, drizzled some olive oil and threw in a bit of salt and then massaged that into the kale for a good 2 or 3 minutes. I could actually feel the kale breaking down and softening under my fingers. If you don't want to do that, you can make it ahead of time and let it sit out but it's a nifty trick to have in your back pocket. As always, I took the basic idea and ran with it and made it my own, adding almonds, coarsely grated parmesan and carrot curls as well as a mustardy vinaigrette with some walnut oil. This is my new favourite way to eat kale, which I already eat a ton of and it's perfect for warm weather eating because I like to turn on my stove as little as humanly possible once summer gets here.

Raw Kale Salad

this serves at least 8 people as a side

1 and 1/2 bunches of a large bunch of kale (approx 10 packed cups of chiffonade)

1/2 cup toasted almond slices

1/4 cup freshly grated parmesan, coarsely grated

1 orange, peeled and sectioned, discarding the peel and pith

1 carrot

3 1/2 tbls canola oil

2 tbls walnut oil

3 tbls rice vinegar

pinch salt

1 tbls honey dijon

First thing to do is to prepare your carrot. I used 1/4 of three different carrots of different colours but you can just use one carrot. Quarter it lengthwise. Take a vegetable peeper and start peeling off thin strips of carrot so you have pretty carrot ribbons. Put the carrot ribbons into a bowl with cold water and a couple of ice cubes (the cold water encourages them to curl up) and set aside.To Chiffonade the kale: take a handful of your washed, stemmed (pull all of the leaves off of the tough stalks and discard the stalks) kale leaves and roll it up tight like a cigar. Then, with your very sharp chef's knife, you will slice the kale very finely so it's basically shredded into thin ribbons. Because raw kale isn't the tenderest green out there, you really want it sliced very into very fine ribbons. You want to chiffonade the kale. There, if you weren't always familiar with this word, you have learned a new, fancy pants cooking term and I encourage you to drop it into conversation as much as possible. Next to "spatchcock", chiffonade might be my next favourite. Now you can massage the kale. Put the thinly sliced kale in the big mixing bowl. MIx up your dressing by mixing the oils, vinegar, honey dijon and salt in the jar and dress the salad. Now, make sure your hands are clean and get in there and massage your kale. Rub that dressing into the kale for about 2 minutes.Drain the carrot ribbons and throw those in.Now you can add in the cheese, orange chunks and the nuts and toss it. Taste it to see if it needs more salt. If it's not as tart as you would like, feel free to sprinkle another tbls of rice vinegar over the salad or squeeze the juice of half a lemon over it and toss again.You should always just keep tasting and adjusting until it tastes perfect FOR YOU.

Cardamom Creme Brulee for My 14 Year Old Man Child

Today was The Kid's 14th birthday. If you are a mom with older kids, you understand how surreal this new era is and if you are a mom with little kids, you have no idea, but your time will come.  My adorable, chubby little baby now towers over me, wears his father's shoes on his hairy hobbit feet, has to shave his dirty stache and his mile long legs are covered with black man hair. He is still young enough to tell me he loves in his best Issac Hayes' voice every day but old enough that he has a job and does his own laundry.

Eureka! A Japaneseish Salad Dressing That Gets The Thumbs Up From The Kid