Cabbage and potatoes

I feel like I've been eating only potatoes and cabbage for the past few weeks. Money's low, winter is upon us and my attempt to focus on locally grown ingredients/in season produce has come up with two regulars: potatoes and cabbage. The former I can enjoy in hundreds of forms, this can be attested to by anyone who's spent two minutes with me around a potato of some form - in short, I have a deep and loving connection with potatoes. Cabbage is harder to stomach (get it?!). In the past 3 months I've has coleslaw, spicy cabbage salad, braised cabbage, cabbage rolls, tacos, and the list goes on, but I'm always looking for something new - enter okonomiyaki.


I saw this recipe on 101 cookbooks and I knew going it it would be a blandish okonomiyaki compared to the dishes I know and love from my fav Japanese restaurants. Without Japanese mayo, okonomi sauce or other accouterments, I knew it couldn't be everything I would want, but sometimes you want to master a simple recipe that you can add to. In restaurants I like it with some udon noodles, gyoza or meat mixed in, but I tried this simple version to take a shot at something new.

Japanese Pizza - Okonomiyaki

Okonomiyaki (Japanese Pizza) Recipe

2 cups cabbage, finely shredded (2-3mm wide)
1 cup leeks, well washed and chopped
2/3 cup flour

a couple pinches of fine grain sea salt
2 eggs, beaten
1+ tablespoon olive oil

Garnish: toasted slivered almonds, chives/ herbs

Combine the cabbage, leeks, flour, and salt in a bowl. Toss until everything is coated with a dusting of flour. Stir in the eggs and mix until everything is evenly coated.

Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add a generous splash of olive oil. Scoop the cabbage mixture into the pan, and using a metal spatula press it into a round pancake shape, flat as you can get it. Cook for 4-5 minutes, or until the bottom is golden. To flip the okonomiyaki, slide it out of the skillet onto a plate. Place another plate on top and flip both (together) over. If you need a bit more oil in your skillet, add it now, before sliding the okonomiyaki back into the skillet. Again press down a bit with a spatula and cook until golden on this side - another 3 -5 minutes.

When you are finished cooking, sprinkle with toasted almonds and chives, and slide it onto a cutting board to cut into wedges. Enjoy immediately.

Serves 1 - 2.

------- I'm going to admit that while this tasted good, I piled it a little too high and I think some of the egg went uncooked. I didn't add chives or almonds, since I was just testing the cabbage pancake part - it is way more like a potato pancake (made with cabbage) than any type of pizza. I didn't finish eating it, but that shouldn't stop you from trying it, just make sure it's mixes very well, you have it stacked thinly enough. Making it again I would cook it on medium for longer and let it cook through more. You could also make smaller individual "pizzas" which would be easier to handle.
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Potatoes were simple and delicious:

1 lb new baby potatoes, halved if needed
3 T olive oil
1 handful of fresh herbs (had had thyme on hand, it was great. Rosemary is ideal.)

Set oven to 400 to 450 degrees. Coat potatoes in oil in a big bowl, add herb. Spill onto baking pan with foil or silpat on it. Roast for 45-60 minutes shaking the pan every 15 minutes to avoid sticky messes. Potatoes are done when they've not only browned, but the skins have wrinkled like your fingers after an hour in the tub.
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Everybody loves sandwiches serves up another gem.
Made this last week, was delish. Froze it and re-heated it on the stove.

Curried red lentil stew with chickpeas and rainbow chard
2 T olive oil
1 large onion, diced
5 cloves garlic, minced
2 heaping T of a medium-spiced curry paste (I used mild because I'm a baby)
1/2 t dried red chili flakes (You can use red pepper flakes instead)
5 1/2 c vegetable broth
2 c red lentils
1 large bunch of rainbow chard, tough stalks removed, coarsely chopped
1 can chickpeas, rinsed & drained

In a large pot, heat oil and saute onion and garlic until soft, about 5 minutes. Mix in curry paste and dried chilies and stir until well blended. Add broth and chard and bring to a boil. Add lentils and turn down heat to a simmer, adding the chickpeas to the mix. Cover and stir occasionally until lentils are tender, about 15 minutes. Serve over brown rice and top with yogurt, if desired.

-------------This was so easy to make, I can't emphasize that enough. It also introduced me to using curry paste. I love Indian food the most out of all ethnic foods, but I've never really cooked it myself. I'm aware that some would say only I, an unskilled cook, raised on bland English food, would use this curry paste instead of knowing the inner workings of a full-fledged spice cabinet by heart, but boy did it punch of the flavour of this dish - no regrets here! I am eager to follow up this success with more recipes featuring curry paste.

The potatoes were a good rice stand in (since I forgot to make it amidst all my cabbage drama.) and it was great for lunch too! I love lunch leftovers.

Love/Hate - Cumin & Rice soup, Spinach with Pine Nuts and Raisins.

Man do I love cumin.

Lately I can try it out it on anything (see here) and it's amazing.

Should I ever find myself going to a place where my life would be guaranteed, but the food would be questionable cumin would definitely be on my top 5 list.

I love Lists

TOP 5 THINGS I'D BRING TO EAT IF I DIDN'T KNOW WHERE I WAS GOING.

1. Cumin - sure I love a dried herb like the rest of 'em, but this warm spice can change any bland dish to pure magic. It's good in soups, stews, on fish and veggies.

2. Tubers - I have a love affair with potatoes. There's no denying it. If I had my choice I'd bring some waxy yellow wonders, divine fingerlings, orangey garnet yams, and some good old russets. They're also easy to grow!

3. Dark Chocolate - Mmm Mmm how could I live without some nice 67% cocoa chocolate.

4. Canned Tomatoes - Add cumin and tomatoes to any piece of pigeon meat or giant spider and it would make it taste great! Pour it over some potatoes... yum!

5. Salt - Necessary. Basic. awesome. Nothing can alter the flavour of a dish quite like this. An absolute essential.

And now, what you've all been waiting for:

WHAT I DID WITH 2 CUPS OF OLD RICE.
Gotta love Kickpleat over at ELS I can search anything in her recipes and she'll provide the guidelines for a simple delish dinner.

I had $20 and a fairly filled pantry (including 2 cups of old cooked rice) to get me though this week, so I dropped 12 dollars at Choices and made these two dishes.

chickpea, rice & pasta soup (adapted slightly from ELS)
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 can diced tomatoes
4c vegetable stock
1 T cumin
1 t red chili pepper flakes
1-2 c cooked leftover brown rice
1 can chickpeas, drained & rinsed
salt & pepper
fresh parsley sprigs, chopped

In a large pot, heat up olive oil over med-high heat and add in onion, garlic, and celery. Let them get soft and translucent and then add in the salsa and the spices. Add in rice, chickpeas and pasta and cover with vegetable stock, adding more stock if needed. Bring to a boil and turn down to simmer. Taste and add in salt and pepper if needed. Ladle into bowls and sprinkle with parsley.

---- You could add anything you have in your fridge or pantry to this soup. Kickpleat enjoyed it with alphabet pasta, I would've added carrots if I had them.

This took about 10 minutes to put together. Easy Peasy. Definitely lunch and freezer material.

On to the hate.

I hate spinach. I think I ate it while super sandy once, and it's ruined it forever. When I eat salad I cram the bottom of the bowl with spinach (because I will admit it's probably pretty good for you) and then layer it with mescalin lettuce (not to be confused with mescaline), carrots, raisins, cranberries, beets, mango, kiwi, anything to cover the horrible blandness of spinach.

This being said, I was seduce to this recipe on Noshtopia by pine nuts. Sweet, sweet pine nuts. Creamy and flavourful they teamed up with my lifelong love raisins.
Ingredients

• 1 bunch of fresh spinach (or a .5lb container of baby spinach)
  
• 2 tbsp raisins. (Golden would be best, but I used normal)
  
• 2 tbsp pine nuts, toasted (dry heat on stove)
  
• 1/4 yellow onion, chopped
  
• 2 small garlic cloves, sliced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• salt

Go For it:

Soak the raisins in some hot water for about 10 minutes to plump up the raisins. Drain and set to the side. Prepare spinach by trimming the stems, picking over the bunch and rinsing the spinach well. Don't worry about getting the spinach too much, you'll need the water left on it once it's rinsed in a colander to help it cook later.

In a large skillet, saute the garlic and onion in a medium heat until everything gets slightly golden about 2-3 minutes. Throw in the raisins and toasted pine nuts with the garlic and onion, and mix around for about a minute. After mixture is heated through add spinach to pan. Stir occasionally while spinach wilts over about 5 minutes. If the spinach is not wilting well, or you're using pre-washed spinach, add a tiny amount of water (1-2 tbsp) to help it steam. As a gome ae loving girl, I like my spinach super wilted, but please, adjust to your tastes.

After you've reached your optimum spinach consistency, remove from heat immediately and move to a serving dish. discard any leftover water. Taste and salt as needed (In my case A LOT!)

Serve right away.

Enjoy. I did!
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If you're an amazing cook like me, your kitchen will end up looking like this! Aspire folks, aspire.

I'm out of money and I'm going on vacation!

The two are not mutually exclusive, but both are happening this week!

Because of some overzealous spending earlier this month I've spent only $45 on groceries these past three weeks including the amazing 10 whole dollars I had left this week. After pouting internally for a little while, I settled on a few things to get me to Thursday night.

4 bananas
4 apples
2 carrots
1 small plain yogurt
1 bunch of celery
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$9.53!

There's nothing humbling like telling the cashier you may have to pass on the celery if it takes you over $10. Lucky for me, I'm chocked full of celery now with two whole quarters rubbing together in my wallet. Good thing! Just in case I go through a worm-hole back 15 years and I need to make a call.

I have a stash of leftover food in the freezer, a fairly stocked pantry, a head of cabbage and a baking potato in the fridge, so I know I can make it until Thursday when I'm heading to Edmonton for some Mother/Daughter bonding time.

My Plan for the week:

Sunday night & Monday lunch - coleslaw + 1/2 of a baked potato
Monday night & Tuesday lunch - lentil soup w/ carrots, frozen peas and celery
Tuesday night & Wednesday lunch - Freezer chili/soup/curry
Wednesday night & Thursday lunch - anything that's left over.. from the leftovers..
Thursday night - a delicious airport meal!?

I always bring a yogurt, apple, banana and my snack pack (almonds, raisins, rice crackers) for lunch with whatever salad or leftovers I have. This makes making packing lunch super easy since it's the same everyday, but I don't get sick of it because the main event changes. It's nice to have small components so I can snack through the day if needed. An awesome additive to my snack stash this week (and the cheapest bang for my buck I could think of) was the celery I can team with peanut butter and raisins to make some killer ants on a log to enjoy.

This coleslaw pretty much ended up just like the Waldorf salad without the apple, but I did it from memory, so maybe I invented it all over again! It's pretty much a kitchen sink salad using up the leftover cabbage from the minestrone from last week.

In my effort to be pretty much awesome in everything, especially money and food, I'm trying to eat really balanced diets, so clearly tonight's meal is a testament to that. I have all three food groups: dairy, vegetables, potatoes... riiight, a little short of protein am I? I have some eggs kicking around in the fridge, but I know I'm not in the mood for scrambled eggs this evening and it's too hot in here to cook anything else. Let's say the yogurt and walnuts are protein enough and call it a day.
Kitchen Sink Coleslaw

1/2 small head of green cabbage, chopped coleslaw style (about 2 cups)
1 carrot, grated
1/2 c raisins
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1T fresh coriander
1t fresh parsley (or whatever herbs you have)

Dressing
1 small cup of plain yogurt
1 tbsp honey or maple or agave syrup
1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon of cumin
Salt + Pepper

Mix salad ingredients together until well combined

Stir up dressing ingredients together and tweak as needed.

----- This tastes fine, fine. You could use some onions, and lemon or lime juice and I might suggest leaving out the cinnamon, it's a bit grainy in the dressing.

I just baked a potato in the oven for about an hour at 400 degrees and doused it with some of the Naam's miso gravy. Eating baked potatoes is the only time I wish I had some Cheez Whiz and I like to avoid that craving ( I mean, what's in that anyway?) so the miso gravy is a delicious alternative.

Final Thought - Am I the only one with a lunch routine? Eat at the same spot each Friday, bring the same PB&J your mom made you all though middle school?

Capers/Whole Foods on Cambie is 25% off today and tomorrow

I bought all these things for 25% off! I saved about $10.

I tried to get only things I use on a regular basis i.e. nut thins, mayonnaise... But some juices and gluten-free mac & cheese snuck in there too!

Please note - there are no potatoes or candies! I showed much restraint. Potato Chips wouldn't be worth it, for one.. because 25% off for chips isn't really a deal. Wait for the 2 for 1 deals!

Living on cash really restrained me. Sure I wanted 2 bottles of the Naam's Miso Gravy, but I know I would regret buying them when I'm eating brown rice and frozen peas for lunch all week.

Yay money!

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Oh yea! They're having this mega sale (25% on ALL Products!!) because they're moving to Cambie and 8th into the new Crossroads building.