On the move! - Part 2

Hello!

Back again with the second part of recapping the first week in our new house and demonstrating how to make great meals while having half your stuff in boxes. As I look at Part 1, I realize I might have been a bit wordy. Well, it's been two months since we *actually* moved, so maybe I need to get off my arse and finish writing about this! Here goes!

- Saturday: Stuffed Meatballs with Tomato Sauce

On Saturday, there was a craving for Italian goodness borne of a craving for meatballs. But being us, mere meatballs would not suffice; they had to be STUFFED meatballs. That idea led a visit to Parma Ravioli where we acquired a loaf of foccacia and bocconcini balls. Now, having never made meatballs before and still scrambling to unbox the kitchen in full, this might have been a daunting task. Luckily, after a few searches around the Internet, I happily discovered that this stuffed meatball idea isn't too difficult to set in motion, as long as you keep it stripped down (a lot of the recipes I saw were a bit overdone, and coming from me, that's saying something)

Meatballs

Ingredients

- 1 lb. ground beef (medium or lean)
- 2 tbsp chopped parsley
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 cup breadcrumbs
- 1 egg
- 12 bocconcini balls, patted dry

Directions

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit
- Mix all ingredients but the bocconcini balls together in large bowl.
- Take a portion of the meatball mix, about 4 cm diameter, and form around a bocconcini ball. Make sure you seal the meatball well, otherwise, the cheese will leak all over the place when you cook them.
- Place meatballs in a large ovenproof dish, such as a lasagna pan and bake in oven for 20-30 minutes until cooked through and cheese is melted.

Stuffing...

... and balling!

While the Meatballs are cooking, whip together the Tomato Sauce!

Tomato Sauce

Ingredients

- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 2 large tomatoes, finely diced
- 1 small onion, minced
- 2 ribs celery, chopped
- 1 medium-large carrot, peeled and chopped
- 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 tsp dried basil or 1 tbsp minced fresh basil
- 1/2 tsp dried oregano
- salt and pepper to taste
- liquid as needed: either chicken stock, veggie stock, red wine or white wine. Try to avoid using water since it usually drains flavour.

- Heat olive oil on medium-high and sauté tomato, onion, celery, carrot and garlic for about 4-5 minutes.
- Add seasoning and liquid, stir thoroughly and reduce heat to medium-low.
- Simmer sauce for about 20 minutes, till it thickens.

To Serve

- Arrange 4-5 meatballs on plate. Top with tomato sauce.
- Using a vegetable peeler, peel Parmesan cheese shavings onto meatballs (or use grated Parmesan). Garnish with fresh basil or Italian parsley.
- Serve with green salad and bread. For this instance, we used a lovely foccacia, sliced into long, dipping-sized pieces and served alongside a mix of olive oil and balsamic vinegar for dipping.

Not a bad way to spend the first Saturday in your new home

Verdict? I make pretty kickass meatballs! The key to this one is in its simplicity; the flavours were clean and basic - it tasted like meat, cheese, tomatoes, herbs and garlic. What else can you ask for? Seriously, I think I'm a convert to the mono-meat meatball. All too often, meatballs ask for a mix of pork, beef and veal, but I found that using just beef made for one tasty ball. Having melty cheese inside didn't hurt either...

- Sunday: Pizza

Alright, alright, after this many days of cobbling meals together, it was time to seek out the bountiful goodness of the neighbourhood pizza joint. Luckily for us, there's one right on the corner! Anthony's Pizza at Hinton and Wellington is a spiffy place serving up some very rustic and delicious pizzas and calzones. 

- Monday: Pot Roast

By Monday, we had the kitchen fairly organized, but we still managed to find a recipe for pot roast that uses one dish (a dutch oven) and that's all. Our good Greg (aka Lefty McRighty) put this up on facebook and raved about it. As a result, I had to give it a try, especially after finding a lovely Angus roast on sale at Saslove's. Look it up here, drool and love it! It was AMAZING!

MEAT BUTTER (topped with veggies)!

Well, that's another look back at "Moving n' Cooking". Hopefully, I don't have to do this again for a while. 

Cheers!

On the Move! - Part 1

Hi there!

January 15, 2014 marks the second time I've moved since I started the blog. Back in 2011 I wrote a post about how cooking right after a move. Last time, we made quesadillas with just a knife and frying pan... and, y'know, cheese, sausage, tortillas and so on... This time, I kicked things up a bit more, using a few more tools and ingredients, but the point is the same: just because you're living out of boxes doesn't mean you have to eat crap or contant takeout. What's even better is when you move to a neighbourhood that has a number of amazing food shops. We moved right close to Wellington Street and are just a few blocks away from the corner of Wellington and Clarendon, which houses several wonderful shops, including Herb and Spice for produce (although they can be hit and miss), Saslove's for meat, Parma Ravioli for pasta, other Italian goodies and remarkably tasty pies, Three Tarts bakery for treats and the Ottawa Bagelshop and Deli for bagels as well as all kinds of fun gourmet foodstuffs. Needless to say, we've been eating well. But, for the first few days, we were pretty damn low on cooking implements and cobbling together a decent meal when you only can find a single frying pan and a spatula, if you're lucky, can be kind of difficult. So, with that in mind, we're going to take a look at the first week of eating at Novo Casa del Unicorn over the next couple of posts.

- Wednesday: Moving Day! OK, no one should have to cook on Moving Day. With luck, you have access to a good restaurant in the nearby vicinity and can toddle off there, but if you're like me and have a little one, you can't just head out. Luckily we had Kari's mom who brought us a  delicious lasagna and Caesar Salad.

- Thursday: This was day one of living in the new neighbourhood and we found ourselves wandering to the local foodjobbers. We wanted to put together something simple and filling, so we made our way first to Saslove's to figure out some kind of meat. We settled on their sausages made with Beau's beer, but we didn't know where to find hot dog buns, so I thought "Well, we'll just cut the sausages in half and just serve 'em on kaisers." Turns out that cutting a sausage in half kind of ruins the casing and makes it more like a pile of ground beef. So, I came up with what I call "Sloppy Beau's": Basically it was a mix of sausage meat, beer, onions, chopped tomatoes, cheese and other stuff cooked in a frying pan and served on buns... I honestly don't remember how it came together, but it was easy and tasty!

- Friday: Salmon w. Spicy Orange Sauce with Sweet Potato and Edamame Salad

Alright, this is the first true "recipe" that I wanted to post. After two days of pretty heavy meals, I wanted to make something a lot lighter. After taking a stroll west to find foodstuffs, we now ventured eastwards to see what there was to find. We found a small fishmonger in our travels and I picked up a nice hunk of sockeye salmon.

By this time we'd managed to uncover our box of oils, vinegars, cooking booze and whatnot. We were still missing most of our spices, but was able to uncover a shaker of Chinese 5-Spice Powder. Also, in preparation for cooking future meals, we'd brought all our fridge items in a couple of coolers on moving day, so at least we had juice and sauces and other fridge items with which to work.

So, I put together a quick recipe for a sauce and decided to pan fry the fish while the sauce was cooking up on the side of the pan. We also happened to have a sweet potato and some edamame in the fridge and a bit of cilantro. It all came together on the fly, but that's how it goes a lot of the time.

Salmon:

Ingredients

- 1 lb. salmon, cut into 2 equal portions
- 1/2 tsp sesame oil
- 2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
- 1 cup orange juice, more as needed
- 1/2 cup cooking wine (Shaoxing wine or dry sherry)
- 2 tsp fish sauce
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- 1 tsp Chinese 5-Spice Powder

Directions

- Heat oil in large pan at about 6-7, add garlic and sauté for a minute or two, stirring frequently.
- Add orange juice, wine, fish sauce, soy sauce, syrup, sriracha and 5-spice powder
- Place fish in the middle of the pan. This should displace the sauce to the side of the pan; this is a good thing!
- Get the sauce boiling on the side, while occasionally spooning some onto the fish. Cook the fish skin side down for about 7-8 minutes. The fish will partly pan fry, partly steam from the sauce.
- Carefully flip the fish over with a spatula and cook again for about 5 minutes. Flip back over and serve. You may want to discard the skin. I personally like the skin, but not everyone does. Top the fish with the rest of the sauce and serve with salad.



Equal parts braising, pan frying and steaming - bryming?

Salad:

Ingredients

- 1 large sweet potato, cubed
- 1/2 cup edamame (peeled) or 1 cup edamame (unpeeled)
- 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Directions

- Boil sweet potato until fork tender, but not mushy (about 10-15 minutes). Drain in a colander and cool with water. Drain well.
- Peel edamame if necessary.
- Combine sweet potato, edamame and cilantro in a large bowl.

Dressing:        

Ingredients             

- 2 tbsp sesame oil
- 1 tbsp sriracha
- 1 clove garlic, minced
- 1 tsp soy sauce
- 1 tsp rice wine vinegar
- 1 tsp maple syrup

Directions

- Whisk everything together and toss with salad and serve.



Orange and tasty!

 

The result was pretty darn tasty and very bright, not surprising considering how prominent the orange juice was in the sauce, spicy but not overpowering. The fish was a little bit overdone for my taste (salmon is supposed to rare in the middle), but that was mainly for Kari's benefit since she isn't a big fish eater, and really, even then it was tender and delicious. The salad also added a bit of richness to cut the acidity of the sauce, rounding out the dish very nicely. All in all, it was a great way to brighten up a cold winter's night and have a nice post-move dinner that isn't too difficult.  

 

We'll pick this up next time with meatballs, pizza and pot roast!

Cheers!