What are you eating/cooking?

[Antonia]

Sure. Thanks. Maybe it will be simpler than mine!

And thanks for all that souffle advice. I looked over the two potato recipes again and decided that the souffle one was easier, or at least less labour intensive.

[k'in]

Crab Cakes (makes 12 medium sized cakes) Recipe can be halved to make 6 medium or 4 good sized cakes.

1/4 cup oil
4 tbsp. butter
1 cup finely chopped onion
1/2 cup finely chopped celery
1/2 cup finely chopped pepper (orange, red or yellow)
1 jalapeno pepper (optional-if you like heat)
3 tbsp. all purpose flour
1/2 cup half & half cream
1 egg beaten
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
1/4 cup chopped parsley
1 pound drained crabmeat
3/4 cup bread crumbs
oil for frying

Heat oil & butter over med-high heat until foam from butter subsides.  Add onion, celery, peppers & cook, stirring occasionally for 10 minutes .  Add the flour & cook 5 more minutes, stirring constantly.  And the half & half, reduce heat to med-low, cook 3  more minutes, stir constantly.  Spread mixture out in a glass dish to cool.

Add beaten egg, parsley, salt, pepper to the cooled vegetables.  Stir to combine.  Add crabmeat, stir with a fork.  Form mixture into 12 crabcakes. 

Place breadcrumbs on a plate & gently press crumbs onto both sides of cake.

Heat oil med-high heat 1/4 inch depth.  Fry cakes 2 minutes each side until golden brown.  Drain on paper towels then serve.

Cheat - Loblaw's has in the vegetable section small containers of mixed onion & celery diced fine.  Saves time chopping  & the need to buy a big thingy of celery.

[Antonia]

Thanks! I am gonna combine the best of both our recipes -- and yeah any time savers are fine with me. i didn't know Loblaw's had those cuz i no longer shop there but i will do a drive-by tomorrow.

[Boom Boom]

Crab Cakes (makes 12 medium sized cakes) Recipe can be halved to make 6 medium or 4 good sized cakes.

That's a really complicated recipe for such a simple dish. Here, where all the fishermen actually make their living fishing for crab, we make our crab cakes with fresh crab, mashed potatoes, diced onions, and an egg, with a dash of salt and pepper.

[Antonia]

Yum. Just wish i had that fresh crab.

[lagatta]

k'in's recipe seems based on a rather aristocratic Southern US one, and is of course spicier too. But with really fresh crab, Boom Boom's would be great.

I've copied Antonia's recipe - I don't think I'll retain all the ingredients, but it certainly sounds delicious. The main difference with the Italian spezzatino recipes I have is red rather than white wine. I'm inclined to think white might be better for the young lamb I have, what do you think?

If I were making the stew for people who abstain from any alcohol in dishes (as a matter of religious or other principle; after long cooking, there won't be any significant amount in the dish and it doesn't taste of it either) I'd make a Moroccan tagine with saffron and several aromatic spices, but one of the people I'm serving this too doesn't like that.

I find it odd that the lamb isn't browned a bit first.

[Toedancer]

Well I couldn't wait another 3-4 weeks for fresh Asparagus. I made an asparagus quiche for lunch from frozen. For those interested and want lots of asparagus, here is the list of Ontario Growers

As well for news on when the first batch comes on the market you can always go to
Food & Farming

[Antonia]

Nothing to stop you from browning it Lagatta. It makes sense. But I know nothing of crock pots. I used one once and gave it away since stewy dishes are not my preference. (The pot was a wedding gift.)

[lagatta]

Oh, I'm not addicted to stewy dishes either, and hate glop. But it is wonderful for making stock from bones while working at home, to say nothing of legumes. And remember, I don't have a stove at present - my little retro "Roy" stove has died. I'm looking for another, but it is always complicated, between finding one and arranging for delivery.

Lamb chunks on bone, browned, are in crockpot with layers of onion and garlic, fresh and dried herbs, splash of white wine, smaller shot of lemon juice, some leftover stock, hand-crushed diced tinned plum tomatoes. I'm sure it will be fine.

I saw most of the ingredients I was hesitant about are added at the end, so I can do without and add them before serving.

[skdadl]

I don't have a slow cooker atm, although you can do more or less the same thing (prolly at greater energy expense?) in a doufeu on the stovetop, but that's a great way to cook the tougher cuts of meat, which also tend to be most flavourful. Definitely chilly weather food, but I love it. To make beef even more gloppy, add barley: chewy gluey!

ETA: Why do I get almost all my kitchen cuts on my knuckles? They really are a pain b/c the cut can't help reopening every time you flex your finger. Cuts to knuckles take so much longer to heal and rilly hurt. Wah.

[lagatta]

I've finished the lamb stew. No complements other than the onions, garlic, tomato and broth ingredients with a bit of roux added to thicken the broth a bit. Served as is, it would be fairly fluid with a lot of small bony (but tasty) pieces of lamb. I didn't cook it with potatoes (which is very tasty) as one frequent guest hates them - he is convinced that they are horribly fattening. They could be added in (mostly cooked) afterwards, as could white (cannellini) beans, tinned artichokes etc.

This dish says early spring, not the true frigid-weather stuff.

Yes, doufeu is about the same, but since I don't have one, or a stove... A doufeu on a hotplate would not be very efficient at all.

As for knuckles, no idea. I very rarely get knuckle cuts - more cuts on fingertips, and not very often those.

[Antonia]

Yay. Score! Six little souffle dishes (actually they look more like creme brulee but whatever) at the dollar store for $5!

[skdadl]

Yay! Well done. I think of creme brulee dishes as narrower and taller, although you can do creme brulee in a souffle dish (there are names for these things, all escaping me atm).

J'ai faim. I don't know why b/c I did have a high-protein supper (last of the ambourgaire), if a bit early b/c I was so hungry then. Now I'm hungry again. What do you do when the munchies hit late at night?

[Antonia]

I never have a problem UNFORTUNATELY because I live three short blocks from the foodiest street in town. Greek restos til 4 a.m., and assorted pubs as well.

Dinner tonight -- I am scrambling to do a whole lot of crap today -- was a pide, a yummy spicy vegeterian Turkish ''pizza'' with feta, spinach, onions, olives, tomatoes, sweet peppers, hot peppers and some mystery spice.
#16 here
http://www.mrpide.ca/

It comes with a side salad of a mountain of parsley, tomatoes, onions, hot peppers and garlic dip.

$9.99 

[lagatta]

Yes, all those Mediterranean flatbreads are releated - pizza, pide, pita etc.

All that food for $9,99!

Of course I live in an equally foodie place, but perhaps surprisingly to some, it is NOT much of a destination for late-night eats. The Jean-Talon Market opens very early and closes no later than 9 pm on Thursday and Friday, earlier other days, and often the stalls are closed by 6pm. Remember, there are some actual farmers, and they have to drive a good long way early in the morning.

You'll find more late-night food on the Plateau/in Mile End. (Which are not very far, just over the CP railway line south, just as Park-Extension is over that line west of us - it curves northward). Park-Ex was strongly Greek and still has some Greek restaurants, but not as many as the Danforth area in Toronto does - it didn't become such an "anchor" for that cuisine as Greek families moved into newer areas and the suburbs, as our Little Italy has done. Park-Ex is now largely South Asian, though there are people from everywhere, not just the South Asian countries. The more prestigious Greek restaurants, starting with the famous Milos, remain in Mile End on avenue du Parc where Greek people settled even earlier.

A quirk of commerce in Park-Ex is that several of the bring your own wine restaurants are halal. I guess they don't mind others consuming the forbidden grape...

Snow crab has arrived, but asparagus won't be at the market for at least another week or so. Not as early as last spring, with no real winter at all, but still earlier than a few decades ago.