Pasta Puttanesca

March 6th, 2010 by No comments »

Pasta puttanesca

I don’t know why I’ve never made pasta puttanesca before.  I’ve always loved olives, capers and tomatoes.  Since a trip to Italy in 2006, I’ve also loved anchovies.  This dish has been floating around in my “to make” file for a long time now, and with all the ingredients on hand, tonight was the night.

1 handful spaghetti
half a green pepper, diced
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 tin anchovies in oil
1 cup diced tomatoes, drained
2 tbsp capers, drained
1/4 cup black olives, drained and halved
1/4 tsp red pepper flakes

Cook the spaghetti in a big pot of water.  Once it is cooked to your liking, drain it and set it aside.
In a small frying pan, cook the green pepper, garlic and anchovies (with their oil), slightly mashing the little fishies with a fork.
Stir in the tomatoes, capers and olives, with the pinch of red pepper flakes.
Cook the sauce for 10 minutes at a low simmer, until any tomato liquid has mostly evaporated.
Stir the sauce into the pasta and serve.

Ginger and Mustard Glazed Ham

March 3rd, 2010 by No comments »

Roasting a small ham makes for a nice cozy dinner, plus lots of useful leftovers.  I usually buy a pre-cooked ham, purely for size reasons.  I love the taste of a proper country ham, but something of that size just isn’t practical (or economical) for the single cook.

Before baking the ham, I give it a good smothering in mustard.  For a bit of a change, I mixed this ham’s glaze with a bit of fresh ginger – 1 part minced ginger to 2 parts grainy mustard.  I also squeezed over the juice of half a lime.  After about an hour in a 350°F oven, I carved off some slices and ate them with a scoop of mashed potatoes and a pile of steamed greens.

Waterton Lakes National Park

March 2nd, 2010 by No comments »

Waterton

I just spent a wonderful weekend in Waterton.  I needed a break from “the big city” so I headed down to the mountains for two nights at the Waterton Lakes Lodge Resort.  The lodge is a grouping of small, multi-room chalets with a communal rec centre and a central restaurant and pub.  The pub has a fantastic second-storey view of Mount Vimy, one of my favourite mountains in the park.

Vimy’s is pretty much the only restaurant open in Waterton since the Kilmorey burned down last year.  They serve tasty pub fare, with a bit of an Alberta twist.  For dinner the first night, I had a bison, mushroom and red pepper stew that I’ll be trying to recreate later in the week.  Their house salad features a killer saskatoon and garlic salad dressing that goes well with sweet potato fries and big Olympic hockey games.

I’m looking forward to a summer visit, when the weather is warmer, the patio is open, and they have an expanded menu.

Breakfast Sandwich on a Cheese Biscuit

February 22nd, 2010 by No comments »

After filling my breakfast cravings with egg and ham sandwiches on English muffins, I saw a Tim Horton’s ad, and was inspired to build my favourite breakfast on a cheese biscuit instead.  Fantastic, I tell you.  Just brilliant.

You can find my cheese biscuit recipe here.  It’s super quick and easy, since it uses oil instead of hard butter.

Tilapia over Quinoa

February 21st, 2010 by No comments »

When I was a kid, my mom used to make a fish dish with tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.  She would use frozen cod – it came as a bunch of fillets, frozen into a long, skinny brick.  I went searching the supermarket for the package I remembered from all those years ago, and I have a feeling it no longer exists.  Probably for good reason – a brick of fish takes ages to defrost, and tends to break up into little pieces, rather than nice smooth fillets.

 

 During my fruitless fish brick quest, I found some pretty little tilapia fillets.  They looked perfect for the recipe, so I picked some up, along with some roma tomatoes and a bunch of fresh parsley. 

1 cup water
1 cup quinoa
1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp butter
1 tilapia fillet
1 small roma tomato, cut into slices
handful of parsley, chopped
handful of celery leaves, chopped
1 clove garlic, thinly sliced
1  tsp olive oil
salt & pepper
handful mozzarella cheese, grated

In a small saucepan, bring the water, quinoa and salt to a boil.
Turn the heat down to medium-low, cover and simmer for 20 minutes, or until quinoa is soft and fluffy.

While the quinoa is cooking, grease a glass pie plate with the butter.
Place the fish tillet in the pie plate, and layer with the tomato, herbs and garlic.  Sprinkle the top with olive oil and seasoning.
Bake at 350°F.  After 5 minutes, sprinkle the mozzarella on top, and return to the oven for another 5 minutes.

Spoon the quinoa onto plates and top with the cooked fish and toppings.

Notes:
The recipe above serves one, but you will end up with leftover quinoa.  I suggest a nice quinoa salad to use it up.

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