kitchen Archives - Page 14 of 29

Foodie Fridays | Roots

I am so excited to share my new favourite cookbook with you! ROOTS gathers together many of my favourite things: healthful food; well thought-out, approachable recipes; stunning photography; and root vegetables. In this season of root vegetables patiently waiting to be pulled from our cellars and pantries, it felt like a timely post. For me, root vegetables are amongst my favourite healthy comfort foods.

ROOTS is truly a comprehensive reference for the global roots that have made their way onto our forks and into our kitchens as a result of becoming what Diane calls “global eaters.” From Thai to Indian to Japanese to Peruvian and Chinese restaurants, our palates and our repertoires are expanding.

In addition to an amazing and educational reference, this is a cookbook packed with incredible recipes and ideas for exploring familiar flavours and new ones alike, awakening the palate to the wonders that the world of root vegetables has to offer! Diane is also an amazing educator, offering all kinds of practical tips on how to get greater joy out of working in your kitchen.

“How could one dedicate an entire cookbook to root vegetables?” you might ask. Well, when you are chef Diane Morgan and adept at ingredient-based inspiration and innovation, variations on a theme and unexpected combinations are de rigeur.

The cookbook is broken into chapters dedicated to individual root vegetables such as Sweet Potato, Carrots and less common roots such as Jicama, Malanga and Jerusalem Artichoke. To my great delight, the book includes an entire chapter dedicated to BEETS.

I love beets so much that I probably would have picked up this cookbook if it had been nothing but that chapter. But I’ve loved exploring the amazing root vegetables Diane highlights in the book and I can’t wait to experiment!

Not surprisingly, the first recipe I’ve cooked and the one I’m going to share with you today features – you guessed it – beets. It is simple, beautiful, exploding with fresh flavours and works as a gorgeous plate-partner to the Asian Glazed Salmon I chose to create to complete this meal. This recipe also allowed me to live up to my promise to use more fennel this year, so naturally it was the place to start.

Here’s the recipe:

RAW BEET SLAW WITH FENNEL, TART APPLE, AND PARSLEY

Beets are terrific raw! Serve this slaw as an alternative to coleslaw for a summer barbecue, a beautiful accompaniment to cured salmon for a brunch or appetizer, or a condiment to cured meats or alongside a slice of country pâté. I like to use a mandoline to cut the beets into matchsticks. A sharp chef’s knife works well, too. With all this fine cutting, you’ll have rosy red hands if you don’t wear disposable surgical gloves (see the Cautionary Note below).

SERVES 4 TO 6

DRESSING

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

1 tbsp freshly grated orange zest

1/2 tsp honey

1/2 tsp kosher or fine sea salt

⅛ tsp freshly ground pepper

1 medium red beet, 3 to 5 oz/85 to 140 g, peeled and cut into matchsticks

1/2 fennel bulb, trimmed, halved lengthwise, cored, and cut into matchsticks

1/2 medium crisp tart apple such as Granny Smith, cored and cut into matchsticks

1/2 cup/30 g firmly packed chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 To make the dressing, in a small bowl, whisk together the oil, lemon juice, orange zest, honey, salt, and pepper.

2 In a medium bowl, toss together the beet, fennel, apple, and parsley. Add the dressing and mix gently to coat all of the ingredients evenly. Serve immediately, or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve, then remove from the refrigerator 30 minutes before serving. (The slaw can be made up to 8 hours in advance.)

A CAUTIONARY NOTE I always use disposable surgical gloves when working with dark red beets to keep my fingers from being stained red. Look for gloves at a pharmacy or in a supermarket, stocked with the bandages and other first-aid supplies. Beets will stain countertops and cutting boards, so work with care and clean up quickly, using a diluted bleach solution to wash away the water-soluble beet juices.

I love the hay-stack quality of the very precisely mandolined matchstick vegetables and green apple. There is a delightful mingling of sweet and tart in this recipe, balanced perfectly by the savoury parsley. I will absolutely be making this recipe again and again! No doubt it will become a favourite of family and friends year-round.

The Asian Glazed Salmon was super simple. I just grated about 2 Tbsp of ginger and whisked that together with 2 cloves minced garlic, 1/4 c. wheat-free Tamari, 1/4 c. toasted sesame oil, 4 Tbsp maple syrup, 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar and salt and pepper to taste. I baked the salmon at 375°F uncovered for about 20 minutes and voila! A match made in foodie heaven.

With recipes such as “Chicken Fricassee with Parsley Roots and Chanterelle Mushrooms” still awaiting my kitchen, I have no doubt Diane and I will be spending a lot of time together in 2013!

So…the next time you see a gnarly and bizarre-looking root vegetable at the market, take the challenge and bring it home! With Diane’s cookbook as your guide, you’ll no doubt fall in love and add many new root vegetables to your repertoire of kitchen classics.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|January 11th, 2013|0 Comments

Project: Kitchen Refresh | Part 1

It. Is. Time.

There are a few things that I have been meaning to finish, decorate and repair for a while in my little workhorse of a kitchen, and I’ve decided that the New Year is the right time to dive in.

The truth is, I like my kitchen. We renovated it when we first moved in, transforming the original 1960’s layers of tacky-and-texture-overload into something much cleaner, much more contemporary and dramatically more functional. We tore down the wall between the kitchen and dining room and radically changed the floor plan for a much more functional work triangle. We also took the new cabinets to the ceiling and tied them into the pre-exisiting plaster crown moulding that was already in the dining room to connect the two spaces and make the cabinetry feel more custom.

Though I would love to work in a slightly bigger kitchen {and a walk-in pantry and butler’s prep area are on my dream list}, it really does function quite well.

So what needs changing? One of our cheap-o $40 building box store pendant lights has kicked the bucket, and it’s the impetus I needed to finally work on one of my own projects and add the finishing touches I’ve been meaning to get to for awhile. I know you’ve seen it in many a post on cooking and baking {with photos better than these!}, but here’s how my sweet little kitchen looks right now:

First, here’s what I like about my kitchen:

{please imagine this being narrated as a stream-of-consciousness-happy-rant by none other than Jessica}

I like my Brazillian walnut floors
I like my cabinets
I like my shaker doors
I like my cream cabinet and wall colour {Sherwin Williams Creamy 7012}
I like my modern and simple cabinetry hardware
I like my antiqued granite countertops
I like my simple and contemporary Calacatta marble backsplash
I like my massive, modern sink
I like my pull-out faucet
I like my dining table
I like my Louis Philipe Ghost dining chairs
I like my large rectangular drum shade chandelier
I like my panel moulding
I like my original art {a lot}
And I LOVE the people I cook for in this kitchen

I really do love cooking in this “just right” sized space and do not want to operate from a place of discontent. But there are some things that simply need doing.

For starters, that broken pendant light fixture. Can’t fix it. Time to replace it. It truly makes me crazy every time I turn it on and try to use the peninsula as a prep/chopping station. Good task lighting is essential.

Next: fabric. I. love. fabric. It softens and adds personality {from subtle to dramatic}. There’s not a lot of opportunity to use fabric in this kitchen, but I need a valance over the sink and drapery panels in the dining room.

Next up: That bookcase that ties into the peninsula. I love it, but the holes for the adjustable shelves drive me nuts. Time for a change there.

And lastly? Finishing touches like perhaps new cannister(s) and tea towels? That should do.

OK, I have some sourcing to do! I’ll keep you posted on what I find {and probably rope you into the decision-making process}. Can’t wait!!

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|January 10th, 2013|1 Comment

Foodie Find | Heavenly Organics Honey Patties

I have a confession to make. I. Am. In. Love. Yes, with my handsome husband. But I have a newfound love, and my husband doesn’t mind one bit.

On a recent visit to my dearest and best in Brooklyn, she hooked me up with what has fast become my favourite sweet fix. A guilt-free hit of chocolate that is better than a York Peppermint Patty in EVERY way.

As someone who is allergic to sugar, I have to search pretty far and wide to find chocolate that I can actually eat. If I want it to taste good, I have to search even further. The great news: my search is over.

{Cue Survivor’s hit 80’s love song}

With that epic soundtrack buzzing in your heads {and the horrors of their 80’s mullets burning in your minds if you actually watched the video}, meet the answer to my sweet-toothed prayers: Heavenly Organics’ Honey Patties.

Not only do they taste incredible, they are totally organic and consist of just 3 amazing and totally natural ingredients: 100% organic slow-roasted Italian unsweetened dark chocolate, 100% organic raw Himalayan honey and pure peppermint oil. C’est tout! They are sugar-free, gluten-free, dairy-free, organic, raw, natural and totally DELICIOUS! Everyone I’ve share them with {even the pickiest eaters} agree that they are even better than those “not-just-three-ingredient-and-definitely-not-good-for-you” other Peppermint Patties.

The raw Himilayan honey and the unsweetened dark chocolate both have amazing health benefits, making this about as guilt-free as it gets. But that’s not even the best part. The best part is their process for harvesting the honey.

{source}

RAW + ORGANIC
This is unlike any raw honey I have ever encountered. Rather than being gathered from a traditional apiary, this honey is hand harvested from wild-crafted and naturally occurring beehives found in the trees of the Himalayas, making it as truly organic as it gets. One large tree may contain as many as 20 hives.

FAIR TRADE PHILANTHROPY
As a means of philanthropic commerce, Heavenly Organics chooses to employ displaced people in this conflict-ridden area, ensuring them a better-than-fair-trade, reliable income. Without this work, these traditional small farmers would have no way to make a consistent living. With this work, they are rewarded with a salary per harvest that is greater than what they could otherwise ever hope to make in an entire year. Today, Heavenly Organics benefits a collective that supports more than 250 families in troubled areas in Northern India, Central India and Kashmir.

ENVIRONMENTALLY SUSTAINABLE
By introducing their farmers to sustainable approaches to traditional honey gathering, the process is truly environmentally conscious as they cut the hive in a way that leaves the queen and the hive intact. The hive then regenerates for additional harvests. Their carefully crafted approach is helping to protect the delicate biodiversity of India’s forests.

Amazing, right?

I literally got head-to-toe chills when I spoke with Cynthia at Heavenly Organics and learned their story for the first time. This isn’t just a guilt-free treat. This is a “good-for-you-and-the-environment-and-humankind” treat. I couldn’t be happier to have found them.

I’m guessing by now you’re itching to get some, right? Be sure to pick up some of the honey on it’s own as well. The raw Himalayan white honey is creamy, delicious and truly the best I’ve ever tasted. Heavenly Organics‘ products are sold in over 800 stores in the US including specialty grocers like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. For those of us north of the border, we can order them online and request them at our local Whole Foods Market until they give in to the mass requests!

From the health benefits to the amazing quality to the incredible redemptive story, I love this company and their products! I hope their story has inspired you as much as it has inspired me.

xo
s.

By Sarah Walker The Curated House|January 9th, 2013|3 Comments