Brushetta - by my sister!

It's been forever since I've been able to post!! I've been travelling a ton and for the most part not cooking anything exciting. Although, I'm back in y hometown for a few weeks and have been experimenting on my parents. So, I'll have a few exciting recipes soon to share.

This is my sister's recipe for brushetta, which she has mastered. It's got the right balance of onion, basil, vinegar, and garlic. We inhaled this and I had to beg them to stop eating so I could take a few pictures of it for the blog. Seriously, this is so good.

As with all things, using the freshest, ripest, tastiest ingredients is key. Any 'substitutions' will give an inferior result. This is a healthy, raw alternative to classic chips and dip, and really doesn't take much time to whip together. Think about it as an appetizer for your next dinner party. You could also serve it over roasted chicken, put it in paninis, toss it on some pasta

Bruschetta

By my sister, Lynnie

6 small-medium sized tomatoes (she used on the vine tomatoes since those are generally fresher out-of-season)

1 thick slice of a large yellow onion

2 - 2.5 Tablespoons fresh basil, chopped (must be fresh)

1/2 teaspoon of dried basil

1 teaspoon garlic infused oil (alternatively you could use 3 large cloves of fresh garlic)

1 1/2 Tablespoons quality olive oil

3 Tablespoons balsalmic vinegar (buy the good stuff)

1/2 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon pepper, feshly ground

1.) Chop the tomatoes up as small as possible. Place them in a medium sized bowl.

2.) Take the onion slice and place it in a small chopper or food processer and pulse until the pieces are milimeters in size. Add the fresh basil and pulse a few more times. (If you're using fresh garlic, add that in now).

3.) Add the onion/basil mixture and all the other ingredients to the tomatoes. Mix well. Adjust the flavors as necessary. Serve with baguette slices or crackers.

Basil-Spinach Pesto

It's World Cup Saturday, USA versus England, and I'm trying to type up this post during half-time. I definitely don't know too much about soccer, but World Cup is just so exciting that I can't help buy try to get involved. It's so much more engaging (and the players are much more handsome) than American football. Plus, I love the constant play and no commercials! It's so refreshing. Although the South African horns that are constantly being tooted during the game have this annoying sound like a mosquito. I'd rather hear roaring soccer chants.

Anyway, before the game started, I was trying to decide what I fancied for lunch. We had a big container of organic baby spinach in the fridge, so I though I would whip up some pesto to serve over linguine. I seriously love pesto, although I don't make it too much. Pesto is classically made with basil, although I find pure basil pesto to be too strong. So, I do a mixture of basil and spinach to temper that strong taste. This recipe can easily be made vegan, too, by omitting the cheese and adding in a scant 1/4 teaspoon salt instead, without compromising the deliciousness.

Pesto is delicious with pasta, although one of my favorite ways eat it is with a baguette and brie. So good. So crazy good. Served this way, pesto would make a great snack or appetizer. Maybe you could make them for your own World Cup party when the US makes it to the finals. :)

Basil-Spinach Pesto

Adapted from Moosewood Cookbook

1 cup fresh basil (must be fresh), packed

2 cups baby spinach, packed

3-4 cloves garlic

1/3 cup pine nuts (toasting optional)*

1/3 cup olive oil

1/3 cup parmesan cheese, shredded (omit if making this vegan)

1.) In a small chopper or food processor, chop the basil, spinach, and garlic.

2.) Add in the pine nuts and pulse until they are well chopped.

3.) Slowly add in the olive oil until the mixture forms a nice paste. If you have what seems to be excess oil, add in a handful of spinach until it is absorbed.

4.) If adding cheese, stir this in by hand. Then serve!

* To toast pine nuts, place pine nuts in a dry pan over medium heat. Stir intermittently. Once the nuts starts to exude a nutty scent or you notice they are golden, take them off the heat immediately. They are toasted. Going past this will point they will burn easily, and you will have to start again.

Falafel & Tahini Dressing

After dropping $6 for six balls of falafel at our local food co-op, I decided to try to attempt to make it at home, especially since it's vegan and tasty. I happened upon TasteSpotting and FoodGawker, which by the way I am newly addicted to, and found some beautiful pictures of falafel and a recipe from the blog Use Real Butter. So, I decided to use both his recipe and that of the New York Times to create my own recipe. It turned out delicious: classic falafel flavor with a crunchy outside revealing a soft interior. My talented husband created the Tahini sauce, which was perfect. The recipe does require a little bit of preparation as you must soak the dried chick peas for 24 hours. Once that's done, though, you just pop everything into the food processor, roll the balls, and start frying! Mmm. I hope that you enjoy!

Falafel

Note: You must soak the beans for 24 hours before starting the rest of this recipe.

Helpful tips from the New York Times before we start:

First, keep the amount of water you use when grinding the beans to an absolute minimum. More water makes grinding easier, but it also virtually guarantees that the batter will fall apart when it hits the hot oil. If this happens, bind the remaining mixture by stirring in a little flour.

The second essential step is to get the oil hot enough: 350 degrees or a little higher. If you don't have a thermometer, just wait until the oil shimmers and then add a pinch of the batter. When it sizzles immediately, sinks about halfway to the bottom, then rises to the top, the oil is ready. If it sinks and stays down, the oil is too cold; if it doesn't sink at all, the oil is too hot.

1 3/4 cups dried chickpeas (garbanzo beans)

4 cloves garlic

1 small onion

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1-2 Tablespoons corriander

1/2-1 teaspoon cayenne

3/4 cup parsley

1.5 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 Tablespoon lemon juice

6 Tablespoons flour

canola oil for frying

1.) Put the beans in a large bowl and cover with water until they are covered by 3-4 inches of water. Soak for 24 hours. Add more water if necessary. You may want to change the water after 12 hours, but that is optional.

2.) Drain the beans well and transfer them to the food processor. Add the rest of the ingredients (not the oil!) until all the ingredients are ground but not to the point where it's all a paste.

3.) Roll the mixture into balls - a little smaller than a golf ball.

4.) Put oil into a pan or wok so that there's 2-3 inches of oil in it (enough to cover the falafels 3/4 of the way at least). Turn the heat to medium. The New York Times article gives some good tips as to when the oil is ready. I generally just flick a little water off my fingers into the oil and when it sizzles, I call the oil ready, although this is quite an inexact science.

5.) Fry the balls in batches until they are golden in color - roughly 4 minutes. Place the falafel on paper towels or on wire racks to drain. You can stop the frying now if you'd like and dig in, but if you are looking for that crispy outside, re-fry all the falafel balls for about 2 minutes. They should not really change color. Again, place them on paper towels or wire racks to drain.

6.) Serve with tahini dressing and cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes, or other veggies of your choice.

Tahini Dressing

4 cloves garlic

1/2 cup tahini

1/4 cup quality olive oil

1/4 cup water OR alternatively, 1/2 of a peeled cucumber

juice of 2 lemons

1/2 teaspoon salt

1.) Place all into the food processor and pulse until smooth.

Curried Spinach Side or Snack

The hubs and I treated ourselves to delicious sushi at Origami a few weekends ago up in the Twin Cities. It was so yummy and made me miss living in a bigger town where I can get sushi regularly. One of the appetizers we had, Spinach Goma Ae, was a surprisingly sweet cooked spinach dish with sesame and soy flavors. It was absolutely delicious. Chris and I bought some spinach in order to try to recreate the dish ourselves, but when he decided to attempt it, he became inspired with more Indian curry flavorings. The result is a mild dish with subtle but deep flavors that is super healthy! I definitely enjoyed it, and hope you will, too!

Recipe here!

Indian Samosas

I am so excited to be able to post this recipe for you! My husband and I absolutely love samosas with their flakey yet doughy crust and and spiced potato and pea filling. Unfortunately, when Chris became vegan, we couldn't visit some our favorite Indian restaurants because they most likely included dairy in their recipes. So, we began to search for our own recipe to make samosas at home. After much trial and error, I think we finally developed a recipe that works for us!

Here is a mixture of the pastry dough after being kneaded just to perfection.

I rolled pieces of this dough into rounds that fit just about into my palm, then rolled them flat with my beloved French rolling pin.

I rolled out 10 pastries from the dough, which is enough to make 20 samosas.

For the filling, Chris sautéed onions and black mustard seeds.

Then added spices, and finally the potatoes - we used organic blues.

After being cooked down, here is the yummy filling!

Now time to stuff! Begin by cutting the dough circles in half and then folding them in half and pinching along the cut edge.

This creates a little cone.

Which you can stuff.

And then pinch closed.

Mmm ready to fry!

Heat up two inches of canola oil.

And when the oil is hot and will sputter when flicked with some water, place in the samosa and fry until golden.

Finished product. Mmmm enjoy!

For full recipe and ingredients, please click here!