Stone Fruits + Vegetables Chilled Soup

Dear : Lovers

How have you been doing during this week? The sunshine has surely been bright and beautiful lately. It made me want to plop myself on top of the moving sky, and move forward to summer. I mean what not to love about summer anyways? I bet you are looking forward for it too. Speaking of summer, the latest food demonstration that Iam about to do in class is one of a kind. We can pick our own theme and do almost anything exciting. My partner and I decided to take a theme on “Bringing Summerlicious Home”. Surely one of amazing things about Toronto is the convenience of getting great length of cuisines within your budget. This is a good chance to explore the different variety of cuisine in Toronto. However, summer often ties in with a lot of socializing, which means, warning on your pocket! Now…I propose why don’t we bring a lovely summerlicious home to our backyard and entertain our guest while keeping the piggy bank safe? I promise you it won’t be painful, rather it will be very gratifying!

This idea of summerlicious actually ties in with another concept of eating local! Ontario produce rocks! Especially during summer, you can almost find everything you need in your local grocery shop! You can check what are fresh  in your local grocery stores or you can go tohttp://www.foodland.gov.on.ca/english/availability.html. This way you are supporting our own local produce and get the freshest ingredients that are available!

So I did a little thinking what I can do with the ingredients available in Summer, and today I offer you a Stone fruits with Sweet Bell Pepper Chilled Soup for  Bringing Summerlicious Home

Now for those who doesn’t get what stone fruit is, it is any fruit that has a stone- like seed inside their meat such as nectarines, plums, peaches,cherries,etc.

 Here are the ingredients that you need to make the soup:

• 4 ripe nectarines, seeded, and diced
  
• 2 ripe peaches seeded and  diced
  
• 1 sweet red pepper seeded chooped roughy
  
• Juice from one navel orange/ you can use a readily prepackaged OJ
  
• ( approximately ½ of cup)
  
• 2 carrots peeled, slice thinly to reduce cooking time
  
• A hint of star anise to bring out the earthy flavor of the fruits and vegetable
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• 1 tbsp Olive oil
  
• A dollop of Balkan yoghurt/sour cream
  
• 1tbsp sugar/ honey
  

 

The “execution”

• Sautee all the  vegetables and fruits  with 1tbsp of olive oil
• Add the pinch of salt and sugar/ honey
• Pour the orange juice to simmer the vegetable and fruits
• Add a hint of star anise ( I like to keep it simmer with the soup for 10 minutes as it tends to be really perfumy)
• Simmer the mixture until the fruits and vegetables are fully cooked.
• In a food processor or blender, process the ingredients until it creates a smooth consistency
• For velvety texture, use a strainer to separate the soup from the grainish texture from the fruit skins
• Chill the soup on the refrigerator
• When its ready, on the center of the bowl, put a dollop of Yoghurt/ sour cream
• Pour the soup around the Yoghurt
• Garnish with fresh sliced nectarines / baked nectarine chips

 

Quite frankly, I think this soup is very summerlicious! The vibrant colour  just gives such a joy and warm feeling, on top of the  vitamin and fiber goodness in it!

Its worth the try!

 

Passion + Patience

*Gastrobutterfly*

A food to your soul.

Classic Spanakopita

Dear : yummers

This week has been definitely an eye opening to my food experience as a Torontonian. A school project has allowed me to explore Greek food in a way that is enchanting and inspiring! So  I had to interview Greek people about their experience regarding Greek cuisine inToronto  and compare it to food back home. Having to go around  interviewing people , I was lucky enough to meet so many warm and friendly people on Danforth! Especially Peter of Alexandros, the owner of small gyros and Greek food shop at Danforth. The highlight of the day was he gave us ( me and my friend) free gyros, and off course free knowledge and fantastic experience too!  If you are in the area, this small gyros shop is a must try! Another thing is to learn about Greek cuisine that relies on fresh seasonal ingredients: what could be a better treat than a fresh pick from your local garden? My partner and I ended up visiting few Restaurant in the area, and dine at Pantheon, while on the way home grabbed some coffee , honey balls, and spanakopita.

The latter, was such a winner, I had to remake it and share it with you. It is very healthy, tasty and versatile. You can put almost any vegetable you like in it ( although traditionally its made  of spinach).

So today I present you my Spanakopita!

Ingredients:

• Half Spanish onion chopped
  
• 2 bags of frozen spinach, thawed
  
• 2 blocks of normal size feta cheese
  
• 1 cup of sliced mushroom
  
• 3eggs beaten
  
• ½ cup of chopped sundried tomatoes
  
• 2 cloves of garlic
  
• Pinch of salt and pepper for taste
  
• 3 tbsp of olive oil
  
• Filo dough pastry for crust

The “execution”

• Sautee onion, garlic, and mushroom,sundried tomatoes with olive oil
• Mix in the spinach when the mushroom is golden brown
• Remove from heat when all is cooked
• Grease the baking pan  with some olive oil
• Spread some filo pastry ( about 4/5 layer) on the bottom of the baking pan
• Put in the spinach and mix it with fetta cheese crumble on top
• Pour the beaten eggs over the mixture to bind them together
• Cover the mixture with laryes of filo dough on top
• Sprinkle olive oil on top of filo dough to make it crispy.

This recipe is good for 6 servings.

  

Passion + Patience

*Gastrobutterfly*

A food to your soul.

Yoghurt Yoghurt Pudding Cake with Rhubard and Strawberry Sauce

Dear: adventurer!

 

Finally! I’m here again- doing what I love the most! I must apologize to you for skipping this blog for almost two weeks. Let’s just say that I needed to force myself to do the greater deed ( the diploma) although clearly, I felt very content with my food. Anyhow, enough for unnecessary talk, I am here to kiss and make up, after all what I’m offering you might be so tempting that you forgot about my M.I.A. ( missing in action).

 

So what I’m about to tell you is my Yoghurt Bread Pudding Cake story. I was craving for some sorts of cheese cake, but being me: I didn't want to buy a regular cheesecake, I wanted to make one! So I decided to take a trip down to my neighbourhood grocery store, and bought several staple items, including the cream cheese for the cake. At that point, I have to be honest with you I had no idea how I was going to make the wanted cheesecake. I just had the urge to.

 Off course something went wrong when I least expected it.Guess what? As I opened my cream cheese,  I found it already eaten by molds. Ew…and Damn! But since I had the urge to just cook ( at this point I really don’t care what I was making anymore since I just have to cook) I decided, fine be it you cream cheese! I will definitely do fine without you.

So I decided to do an experiment with Balkan yoghurt instead. My common sense thought it might work since it contained almost the same properties and ingredients of cream cheese:goodness, and taste! So little that I knew – I made my very first improvised dessert:Yoghurt Pudding Cake with Rhubard and Strawberry  Sauce!

  Here is the list of ingredients for the recipe:

• 125 ml whipping cream
  
• 5 tbsp corn starch
  
• 2 egg   1 whole+ 1 yolk
  
• 5tbsp sugar
  
• 5tbsp Balkan yoghurt
  
•  Drips of Vanilla extracts
  
• Pinch of salt
  
• Garnish: Rhubarb and Strawberry Sauce with fresh berries
  

 

The “execution”

• Using a mixer, I whip the egg and the sugar all together until its creamy
• Whipping cream  is added and whipped
• Corn starch is added to give structure and body
• Lastly the Yoghurt is stirred into the batter with vanilla extracts
• I greased a baking dish with  little sprayed oil, then pouring the batter into the mixture
• Then I baked the batter at 325F at almost 25 minutes ( until its golden brown)
• Once the cake is ready, I cut it into pieces and drizzled it with the rhubarb strawberry sauce that I made a day earlier, with extra touch of berries.

 It was surprisingly good! The marriage of tangy sour yoghurt with the sweet sour rhubarb-strawberry sauce was phenomenal! I had to admit I was quite please since it was clearly a blind experiment. So if you want to try at home, you are welcome to try it as well!

PS: If you have a left over of the cake, you can easily moisten the cake the next morning by reheating it! Taste better when it’s hot! Happy cooking!

 

 

Passion + Patience

*Gastrobutterfly*

A food to your soul.

Murtabak Pita Pancake

Dear : Butterflies

I have  not gone shopping for a week.Translated to my language that means I haven’t had fun for such a long time!!! Well….grocery shopping is almost like wonderland - treasure hunting for me.

Instead, I have been nerve wrecked and emotionally exhausted by projects& exams. On top of that, my immune system did not want to cooperate. I had the worse combinations of flu, stomachache, and stuffy nose, which ultimately  killed my appetite . This is why I havent been able to update this blog.

Recovering from these all, I was left with an empty fridge and left over foods…the main ingredient to make a meal now, is a “wicked idea”. When I opened the fridge, instantly I found familiar ingredients that were just  perfect for making Murtabak. Although a little twist was needed.

Here is what I found when I opened my fridge:

• 3 slices of whole wheat pita bread which later were halved.
• Bunch of green onion (around 10 stalks), chopped thinly.
• 5 eggs ( I use 3 yolk and 5 egg whites)
• Left over of canned tuna and canned corned beef ( how sad, but awesome to build the layers of flavors)
• Lastly, 400 grams ground beef as my last protein source of the day. I thawed and boiled them to remove their fat since they were not extra lean beef. ( just my preference)

 

Now, I talked about the recipe with a twist. Normally you have to make the dough for the crust.You can check real Murtabak in this website. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murtabak

But having pita breads is a fantastic shortcut to the ultimate gluttony!

So goodbye complicatedness and welcome innovation!

 

“The execution”:

  

• Make sure  ground beef, tuna and corned beef are churned nicely
• Mix well all ingredients in a bowl besides the pita bread.
• Add half  of chopped Spanish onion for savory taste ( any red onions)
• Add pinch of salt, pepers, paprika and 1 tbsp of curry powder ( you can omit the curry powder for Indonesian Martabak).
• Heat up 100 mL of olive oil in a pan
• Stuff the pita with the filling and fry when pan is hot
• Take out of the frying pan when the pita is golden brown and crispy
• Cool it on top of napkins to absorb the oil
• Make sure you leave enough space to avoid the crust pilling up and becoming soggy.
• Ready to serve with hot chili/ sambal or ketchup.

 

This serving is good for 3-4 people.

 

I have to tell you this: I know when you see the frying pan and the oil it sorts of getting away from my usual healthy mealm, but heck…discretionary calories are okay once in a while! Ultimately I think I deserved this treat after a rough week. But remember, moderation is the key and balanced diet is the overall factor for a healthy body!

 

Love to share my thoughts!

Passion + Patience

*Gastrobutterfly*

A food to your soul.