Chipotle and Scallion Hamburgers with Yam Fries (and a Side of Hot Roasted Peppers)

This was kind of a crappy day in terms of weather to do this recipe...but we had everything ready so we went through with it.

Chipotle and Scallion Hamburgers with Yam Fries (and a Side of Hot Roasted Peppers)
Burgers by Sally Sampson


Yay or Nay: Yay! These burgers were fairly tasty, and had a nice flavour to them. The peppers came out great, John enjoyed them paired together. The yam fries came out a bit soggy this time, getting them crispy in the oven can be challenging sometimes.

Substitutions or Comments: No real substitutions this time around. We didn't put the lime on at the end for garnish...thats about it. We topped the burgers with variations of the following: Sundried-tomato paste, hot pickles, hot and sweet roasted peppers, adobo sauce and tomato. The cook book we used only has burger recipes, so it's really neat. There are some pretty fancy burgers in there. What we like about it is that all the recipes use just meat, no fillers or added stuff other than specific flavour adds. For the peppers we used the same technique we used for the other peppers, and the yam fries is our own homemade recipe.

Chipotle peppers can be found canned in the supermarket in something called adobo sauce. Chipotles are very smoky and can very spicy for some people. You can also get dried chiptole flakes.

Chipotles in adobo

Hamburger Recipe

1 1/2-1 3/4 lbs ground beef
3 garlic cloves, finely chopped
2 tbsp minced scallions, both white and green parts
1 tbsp minced canned chipotle chili in adobo sauce
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp fresh black pepper
1 lime quartered

1. Mix beef, garlic, scallions and chipotle in a large bowl and, using your hands, mix until ingredients are evenly incorporated. Place mixture on work surface and divide into 4 balls of equal size. Form each patty into about 3/4 - 1 inch thick, tossing back and forth between your hands. Do not work patties more than necessary.  TIP: To ensure more even cooking, make a 1/2 inch indentation with your thumb in the center of the burger.

Beef patties with chipotle and scallions

2. Prepare grill by heating to medium-high. Brush grill with oil.

3. Spinkle both sides of patties with salt and pepper. Place burgers on grill and sear both sides well 5 minutes for medium-rare and 6 minutes for medium. Heat up buns if desired. Transfer to platter and serve immediately with lime quarters.

Johns Burger topped with yellow tomato, extra adobo sauce, and hot banana peppers

Andria's Burger with sundried tomato paste, sweet banana peppers and a spicy pickle

Roasted Hot and Sweet Banana Pepper Recipe

Your choice of a mix of hot and sweet banana pepper

We basically bought 6 sweet white banana peppers and 6 hot red banana peppers and then followed our earlier recipe for roasting red peppers which can be found here.

Hot red and sweet white banana peppers

Yam Fries Recipe

4 sweet potatoes
paprika
cumin
garlic powder
oregano
salt
pepper
Vegetable oil

1. Wash or peel the potatoes; we peeled them this time, because the skins were kind of grungy.

2. Cut the potatoes into fries; thinner will cook better, but sometimes you've just got to have the wedge. We understand!

3. Toss the fries with some oil and your choice of spices -- this time we used cumin, paprika, garlic powder, oregano, salt, and pepper. You don't need much of each.

4. Spread the coated fries evenly onto a baking tray and cook them for about 45 minutes-1 hour at 375F. Here's a pro TIP: try to make it so you only have one layer of fries, without much contact between fries. Otherwise they absorb too much moisture and get soggy. That was our downfall this time -- a crowded baking tray!

Fries on the try - these fries were TOO CROWDED. Learn from our fail.

5. Eat those fries! May we suggest a delicious dip of whole grain mustard and mayonnaise?

Potato Dumpling Soup and Easy Bean Salad

This week has kinda been a lazy week for cooking cause we have been so busy. Monday and Tuesday we had dinner at other peoples houses and yesterday dinner was simple pasta (which we will put up another day) since John started his floor hockey league.

Anyways today was our first substantial meal.

Potato Dumpling Soup and Easy Bean Salad

Yay or Nay: Yay for both. These are recipes we make alot when we have little time or haven't gone grocery shopping. They are quick, easy and tasty.

Subsitutions and Comments: There are like 4 or 5 different ways to make the dumpling soup. It depends what kinda you want. You can have just plain dumplings or you can put things in them. We had garlic and parsley dumplings today. You can also have ham and cheese or other varieties. As for the bean salad you don't have to follow the recipe exactly. We kinda just throw in whatever we have available.

OK lets start with the Soup.

We buy something called Bavarian Potato Dumpling Mix. You can find it at Highland Farms. If they don't have that particular brand at your grocery store, any potato dumpling mix will do. The Bavarian one is just Gluten-Free, so it is convienent for us. The box has the recipe for a number of dumplings, but we will be putting up the recipe today for the garlic and parsley.

1. Whisk together 2 cups of milk, 1/4 cup melted butter, 1/2 tsp of  garlic powder, 2 tbsp of parsley and the box of dumpling mix. Let stand for 10 minutes to thicken.



Dumpling Batter

2. While batter thickens, put 4 cups of chicken broth in a large pot to boil.
3. Once thickened, spoon out small amounts of batter and roll with you hands to make small dumpling balls.



Dumpling balls

5. When the broth has boiled, carefully drop dumplings into the broth with a spoon. Lower heat to medium and simmer for 20 mins.

That's about it. Told you it was easy!

Yummy soup!

As for the bean salad, the recipe we usually use can be found here:

http://www.easysaladrecipes.com/beansaladrecipes.html

Like we said before though, we don't always follow the recipe 100%. We kind of just use what we have.

Chopped veggies

Washed beans

Finished salad!

Stay Hungry :D

Lentils with Feta and Sundried Tomato Paste

Lentils with Feta and Sundried Tomato Paste

Cookbook: Best Ever Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook, by Jenny White and Joanna Farrow

Yay or Nay: Yay level 99! Somebody call the flavour police, because this dish is packing heat. The earthiness of the lentils, the tang of the feta, and the richness of the sundried tomatoes compliment each other beautifully. These are classic Mediterranean flavours. What's not to love?

Substitutions and Comments: This dish is happily gluten-free, so we didn't have to worry about that. It's also crazy easy. Usually we buy sundried tomatoes and puree them ourselves, but this time we tried sundried tomato paste and it worked out really well. Here's a picture!

Sundried tomato tapenade (and the corner of the cookbook)

 Also, the recipe calls for a very specific type of lentil, Dupuy. Behold:

The rare Dupuy lentil, caught in the wild

We've only seen these at Highland Farms every now and again, so if you can't find them, just stick with any kind of green lentil. Lastly, the recipe instructs you to heat the lentils for one minute after adding the cheese, but we left it heat through for 5-6 minutes -- the extra time made the cheese nice and melty.

Recipe

1.5 cups Dupuy lentils
200g feta cheese
5tbsp sundried tomato puree (paste)
small handful of fresh chervil or flat leaf parsley, chopped, plus extra to garnish
salt and ground black pepper

1. Place the lentils in a heavy pan with 2.5 cups water. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and cover the pan. Simmer gently for about 20 minutes, until the lentils are just tender and most of the water has been absorbed.

2. Crumble half the feta cheese into the pan. Add the sundried tomato puree, chopped parsley and a little salt and freshly ground black pepper. Heat through for 1 minute.

3. Transfer the lentil mixture and juices to warmed plates or bowls. Crumble the remaining feta cheese on top and sprinkle with the fresh herbs to garnish. Serve hot.


A delicious block of feta cheese, hand-picked fresh from the cheese counter at Highland Farms



The lentils, tomato puree, and feta cheese get ready to start some trouble... 



The finished product... or is it?



The Final Product, now with extra cheese.

Stay Hungry :D

Pancetta and Broad Bean Risotto

Pancetta and Broad Bean Risotto
Cookbook: Three and Four Ingredient Cookbook by Jenny White and Joanna Farrow

Yay or Nay: Yay! YAY! YAY!This is one of our favourite recipes, it is seriously delish. The pancetta and the broad beans balance each other out perfectly. There is practically no prep for this dish, other than chopping up the pancetta, and its pretty cheap to make.

Substitutions and Comments: No real substitutions this time. We made double the amount since we had our friends Amanda and Ronan to dinner. Usually we use spicy pancetta, but Highland Farms was out this time :( Just a few notes on the ingredients. Pancetta is very similar to bacon. It's kind of like Italian bacon, you can find it at the deli counter at larger grocery stores, but you can substitute bacon if you can't find any. Broad beans are large green beans, they are sometimes called faba beans (different than FAVA beans). You can substitute the beans with a similar kind if you can't find them anywhere, but they are pretty common. We usually used canned beans and rinse and drain them, but you can use frozen or uncooked also. The rice we always recommend for risotto is arborio rice. It is Italian rice that is basically designed for making risotto; it becomes very soft and sticky.

Recipe:

6 oz pancetta
1 3/4 cups risotto rice (arborio)
6 1/4 cups simmering herb stock
2 cans baby broad beans
salt and pepper

1. Place the pancetta in a non-stick or heavy pan and cook gently, stirring occasionally, for about 5 mins, until the fat runs.



Chopped pancetta

2.   Add the risotto rice to the pan and cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly. Add a ladleful of the simmering herb stock and cook, stirring constantly, until the liquid has been absorbed. 



Arborio rice





Rice and pancetta in the pot.

3.     Continue adding the simmering herb stock, a ladleful at a time, until rice is tender, and almost all the liquid has been absorbed. This will take 30-35 mins.

Broad beans

1. Meanwhile prepare broad beans. When rice is cooked add beans and season to taste. Mix well. Spoon into a bowl and serve.

   

   Finished risotto!

Stay hungry :D

Snow Pea Salad with Lime-Infused Shrimp

Snow Pea Salad with Lime-Infused Shrimp
Cookbook: Grilled to Perfection

Yay or Nay: Yay, but not a super yay. This was good, but not great. It tasted fine, it just lacked that YUM factor that makes you want to go back for more. The shrimp weren't as flavourful as we would have liked. The toasted sesame seeds were awesome though. We made quite a few changes though so that may have affected the flavour.

Substitutions and Comments: Ok a whackload of subs this time. First off, for the Shrimp Maranade we did not put the jalapeno pepper seeds in, just the meat of the pepper. We  found didn't think we had peanut oil, so we used vegetable oil...but later found peanut oil, so we threw in an extra splash to give it the peanut oil flavour. We have no idea where to find kaffir lime leaves....so those were left out. Next time, if we ever make this again, we might put some lime zest in there to compensate. For the salad, we didn't slie hte snow peas, just chopped off the ends and  peeled the stringy part. We also omitted the yellow pepper and only did a red one, because we found one pepper was alot. For the dressing, we only had light sesame oil not dark, and we used gluten free soy sauce. Finally, as it was getting really late and dark outside we put the shrimp in the oven rather than grilling them on the BBQ. To toaste sesame seeds, just put them in a frying pan for a few minutes making sure to stir them frequently.

Toasting sesame seeds

Recipe:
18 tiger prawns, peeled and deveined
6 bamboo skewers, soaked in water for 1 hour

Shrimp Marinade
Juice of 1 lime
1 tbsp rice vinegar
2 tbsp honey
Pinch cilantro, chopped
1 tsp jalapeno pepper, finely chopped
1/4 peanut oil
3 kaffir lime leaves, finely chopped

Snow Pea Salad
4 cups snow peas, cleaned and sliced into strips
1 red pepper, sliced thin
1 yellow pepper, sliced thin
1 red onion, sliced thin

Dressing
1 tbsp peeled and minced ginger
2 large garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tbsp brown sugar
1/4 cup vegetable oil
Juice of 2 limes
3 tbsp soy sauce
3 tbsp dark sesame oil
1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds
Pepper to taste

1.  Combine marinade ingredients for shrimp. Put in a resealable plastic bag with shrimp and coat shrimp in maranade. Let shrimp sit in maranade for half an hour in fridge.
2. In the meantime, prepare salad. Place sliced snow peas in a large bowl, add peppers and onions.

The snow pea salad pre-dressing and mixing

3. Remove shrimp from marinade, and place 3 shrimp on one skewer. Season shrimp with salt and pepper.

Skewered shrimp

4. Preheat BBQ to 400 and oil grill.
5. Combine ginger, garlic, vinegar, sugar, oil, lime juice and soy sauce for dressing a bowl.



Dressing

 6. Whisking vigourously add the sesame oil and pepper to taste.
7. BBQ shrimp for 1-1 1/2 minutes on each side or until cooked through.

Cooked shrimp

8. Pour dressing onto salad and sprinkle with toasted sesame seeds. Mix well.

Mixed salad with dressing

9. Serve salad and lime-infused shrimp.

Final Product

Stay Hungry :D

Sushi and Sandwiches

This weekend we kinda took it easy, as we weren't really home either day. We ate a lot of good food though having a surprise b-day on Sat night and lunch at Andria's parents place. Dinner on Sunday came out of left field, courtesy of our neighbours, who showed up impromtu bearing gifts of ribs, coleslaw, guacamole, beans and potatoes and more (everything was homemade to boot, since he is a professional chef!).

However we did take a few pictures of the sushi we ordered for dinner Friday from Iron Chef, and we have a quick recipe for an awesome toasted sandwich, which is one of Andria's favourite late night snacks.

First sushi pictures

Geisha roll, hawaiian roll and spicy salmon roll

Beef teriyaki dinner with veggies, edamame and rice

Ok now the sandwich. Andria is kinda stuck making this on Wonder Bread since John can't eat bread, and nice crusty buns go hard after like 2 days.

You can alter the stuff in the sandwich according to preferences, but this is what we call the "Andria Classic"

Bread
2 formagginos (spreadable cheese triangles)
prosciutto
round spicy salami
long spicy salami
swiss cheese

Step 1: Take two pieces of bread (or cut your bun in half) and spread a formaggino on each slice.

We use laughing cow formagginos cause they taste the best in our opinion.

Step 2: Put on a layer of spicy round salami

Step 3: Put on a layer of prosciutto

Step 4: Put on a layer of swiss cheese followed by a layer of long spicy salami

There is swiss under there, we forgot to take a picture before we put the salami on. 

Step 5: Put in a toaster oven or regular over at 350 for 10 minutes. Flip sandwich half way through.
Step 6: Cut if you wish and enjoy.

Stay tuned tomorrow for shrimp and snowpea salad

Stay hungry :D

Risotto with Tomatoes, Basil and Mascarpone

No meat today! I think we are going vegetarian for a few days...we meat OD'ed.

Risotto with Tomatoes, Basil and Mascarpone
Source: A Good American Wife

Yay or Nay: Andria: Yay! This risotto was super creamy and full of flavour. It's not that hard to make either. John: Yay! It was like eating a creamy bowl of paradise.

Substitutions and Comments: We had to make a few substitutions to this recipe mostly because we were lacking ingredients. We had originally planned to make pasta today, but we found this recipe a few days ago and we wanted to use the rest of our mascarpone before it expired. This recipe gave us a chance to achieve that goal in a pretty tasty way. First, we had no leeks - we stupidly used all of them in our veal and mushroom stew. Also, we had no parmigian cheese. We changed around the rice/broth ratio a bit and did 1 1/2 cups rice to 6 cups broth. Finally, since we had no white wine we opted for the rice vinegar option. We used fresh tomatoes and basil from the garden (with the cherry tomatoes donated from the Bancheri family garden).

Recipe: Risotto with Tomatoes, Basil and Mascarpone

And now for some delicious, delicious pictures!!

Tomatoes and Basil

This is what mascarpone looks like.

The Simmering Risotto

Tomatoes and Basil mixture with olive oil and salt/pepper

The whole shebang.

Plated nicely :)

Stay hungry :D

Veal and Mushroom Stew

This meal was kind of involved, but really worth it in the end.

Veal and Mushroom Stew
Cookbook: The Slow Cooker Collection

Yay or Nay: Andria: Yay! This was so incredibly tasty. Also it smelled so delicious while it was cooking, it was quite ridiculous. John: Mega-Yay! Usually, John is not a big fan of mushrooms; he calls them "The Devil's Fungus." But he couldn't get enough of this stew, so he guesses mushrooms are pretty OK some times!

Substitutions and Comments: Again we had to make this meal gluten-free, which we did using the simple substitution of all purpose flour with white rice flour. This meal took quite a bit of time and effort in terms of preparation, mostly because both of us are working and we weren`t able to prepare things during the day. We fried up the onions and leek mixture the night before and put it in a sealed container in the fridge. Andria actually had to come home on her lunch to brown the veal and set the slow cooker. The mushrooms were also sauted a bit in advance. Also, just a note, we did use the whipping cream, and I thought it added quite a bit to the stew. Why not add whipping cream when the opportunity arises?

A note about the mushrooms - The best way to clean mushrooms is actually not to put them under running water, but instead use a damp cloth and gently wipe them. Remove the stems, especially on the shiitake mushrooms are they are rather tough. We personally chop our mushrooms into 8 pieces, but you can also slice them in your prefer.

Recipe:
2 1/2 lb stewing veal cubes
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp butter
1 onion, chopped
3 leeks (white and light green part only), chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
1/2 tsp dried thyme
1/4 tsp grated nutmeg
2 1/2 chicken broth
4 cups small button or cremini mushrooms
2 cup shiitake mushrooms
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 cup whipping cream (optional)
1/4 cup parsley

1. Trim veal. In large bowl, toss veal with flour to coat. In large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; brown veal in batches. Transfer to slow cooker.



 Browned veal in slowcooker

2. Drain fat from skillet; add 1 tbsp of the butter. Fry onion, leeks, garlic and bay leaf over medium heat, stirring, until vegetables are softened, 5 mins. Add 1/2 tsp each of salt and pepper, thyme and nutmeg.



Leeks and onions in broth.

3. Stir in broth; bring to boil, scraping up any brown bits from bottom of skillet. Scrape over veal; stir to combine.



Everything in the slow cooker

       4.      Cover and cook on low until veal is tender, about 6 to 7 hours. Skim off any fat. Discard bay leaf.

       5.       Meanwhile, in large skillet, heat remaining butter over medium-high heat; saute button and shiitake mushroom with remaining salt and pepper until lightly browned, 10 mins. Add to slow cooked with lemon juice.

The brown button and shiitake mushrooms

         6.       Cover and cook on high until flavours are blended and mushrooms are softened, 15 mins. Stir in cream (if using) and parsley.

Finished product

Stay hungry :D

Wine-Braised Veal Shanks

Today our friend JR came over and he stayed for dinner.
We are continuing meat week with...

Wine-Braised Veal Shanks
Cookbook: The Slow Cooker Collection by Canadian Living

Yay or Nay: Yay! We have been having good luck lately. Nice and moist, we have really yet to try a slow cooker meal that
isn't nice and tender and delicious.

Substitutions and Comments: The recipe calls for veal shanks with the bone in (ossobucco) but we prefer boneless so we purchased shanks without the bone.  We also omitted the capers, because Andria can't stand them. To make this recipe gluten-free we replaced the all purpose flour with white rice flour. We noticed that the sauce didn't look nearly as thick as the picture and it is probably due to the substitution of the flour. White rice flour is a lot thinner than regular all-purpose flour. Overall a pretty tasty dish though, the olives really compliment the meat.

Recipe:
3 tbsp all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp each salt and pepper
8 pieces veal hind shank
4tsp extra virgin olive oil
1 onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp dried rosemary
3/4 cup white wine
3/4 cup sodium reduced chicken broth
1 tsp grated lemon rind
1/2 cup halved pitted green olives
1 tbsp capers, drained and rinsed
1tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp chopped fresh parsley

1.    On a plate stir together flour, and half each of the salt and pepper. Firmly tie kitchen string around each veal shank: press into mixture to coat. Reserve remaining flour mixture.

Coated and tied veal

(Sidenote: Tying up the meat holds it together later on. We used a simple tying technique which is just like tying a package. Start out by making a knot lie you are tying your shoelaces, then pull the string vertically and wrap it around the meat perpendicular to the first string. Tie it off with a double knot to close. Feel free to use extra string if there are other parts that look like they might fall apart.)

2.    In a large skiller, heat 1 tbsp of the oild over medium-high heat; brown veal in batches. Transfer to slow cooker.

Browing the veal

3.    Drain fat from skillet; add remaining oil. Fry onion, garlic, rosemary and remaining salt and pepper over medium heat, stirring occasionally, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into slow cooker.

4.   Add wine to skillet; bring to boil, scraping up brown bits from bottom. Scrape into slow cooker along with broth and lemon rind. Stir to combine.

5.   Cover; cook on low until shanks are tender, 6-8 hours (Sidenote: Ours took 6 hours only) Skim off any fat. Stir in olives, capers and lemon juice. Move veal and veggies to one side.

6.   Whisk in remaining flour with 3 tbsp water; whisk into liquid in slow cooked. Stire to redistricbute ingredients.
Cover and cook on high until thickened, about 15 mins. Sprinkle with parsley.

Plated veal

We also put out some of our peppers from yesterday with the marinade I had posted.

Marinated roasted red peppers

John's plate

Stay Hungry :D