Food Porn

After a few days bored at home I have found a great website for you....
Tastespotting.
Yup. It's food porn at it's finest...with recipes.
Can ya dig it? :)

I've been sick lately. Not feeling well at all.
I have killed time by looking at all the pretty pictures...

Cauliflower and apples? Together in a soup? You're Mad! MAD I tell you!

I love soup. My mum made it almost every day when I was growing up and she makes the best homemade soup. To me, in the winter a big bowl of thick soup is the perfect thing to make you feel content. The January issue of Vegetarian Times had a bunch of great cream-free thick & yummy soup recipes in it. I've already made the Kabocha soup from this issue and it was insanely good, so I thought I'd try another one:

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Hey! Where are you going?
Stop sneaking off - come back here...it really is fantastic. It's also super easy to make, low fat and healthy too-even gluten free! Honest...try it out and you'll see.

Here's all you need:
2 T olive oil
1 small onion chopped (~1 cup)
1 medium Granny Smith apple, peeled, cored and coarsely chopped (~1 cup)
1T curry powder
1 or 2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into 1 inch pieces (~ 6 cups)
4 c low sodium vegetable broth (I use McCormick's vegetable bullion cubes - they rock)
1 t honey (or agave nectar if you have it)
1 t rice wine vinegar (apple cider vinegar will do in a pinch)
Pinch of salt (if you think it needs it)

In a large pot, over medium-high heat, heat oil and saute onions 5-7 minutes until soft and turning golden. Don't burn them...the slow browning adds flavour. Stir in apple, curry, garlic and cook 2 more minutes. Add vegetable broth and cauliflower and bring to a strong simmer, stirring all the yumminess off the bottom of the pot. Cover, reduce heat and simmer 20 minutes. Cool 20 minutes.
Blend soup in food processor in batches until it is smooth. Add the honey and vinegar and a pinch of salt. Enjoy.

This soup grows in flavour as it sits, so it's even better the next day.
The first time I made it I didn't quite puree the soup enough, so it almost had the consistency of cream of wheat, but man...it still tasted delicious!
Try this out - it's a bit unconventional, but it's amazing, and a pot makes enough soup for 3 or 4 lunches - how perfect is that? I had yummy soup for lunch all week. Score!

Burmese Food

Saskatoon, Saskatchewan is not known for being a cultural hotbed within Canada. It's Irish pubs are distinctly not that Irish. It's British pub is okay but lacking in the food department. There is no Szechuan here. No Korean food. No shabu-shabu. Italian restaurants are noticeably absent. Ethiopian Food? Nope. (Actually yes - Geo) Shawarma/Donair places? Not that I have seen. In fact, there isn't even a pizza by the slice anywhere in the downtown area that I can think of. Four, maybe five pubs/clubs in a short radius and NO PIZZA BY THE SLICE! Now that is an indication of something dire.
However, what Saskatoon lacks in the finer and blessedly vulgar things in life it makes for with a little out of the way place called the Golden Pagoda. This has become my favourite place in town, a small Burmese restaurant that can be impossible to get in to without a reservation. (Geo posted about it in her other blog back in 2006) Burmese food is best explained as a fusion of Indian, Southern Chinese and Thai flavours and ingredients. I wish I had a menu handy, but the picture below is a lemongrass curry chicken dish that I ate with the best coconut rice have ever had. I also had the pickled mustard leaf soup in chicken stock. Have Burmese food. Have it soon.

I agree :) Geo

I'm gonna make me a sammich. SAMMICH!!

My husband likes egg salad.
Up until recently, I would have said "me? not so much..."
My Mum, bless her heart, makes the blandest squidgiest egg salad in all the land, so I've never made it, other than when I had to in restaurants and such for work...and even then, other's tasted it to see if it was "good". She uses hardly any spices and her paprika was older than me, so as for proper salad taste? Well, I had no frame of reference...

Last year, I was tricked into eating a curried deviled egg by a bottle of shiraz and Maggie. She told me she made a wicked curry and fresh paprika devilled egg and that it also made good egg salad. So, I had some...she's cool. I trust her.

And you know what? Turns out I like curried egg salad and curried devilled eggs, with lots of paprika and curry. I like a lot. Now, I'll just up and make it for lunches or supper sometimes, even without J suggesting it.
I did tonight...and as I sat about relaxing/wasting time/becoming a crazy cat lady I thought "hey - the world should all get in on the yummy sammichy goodness".
So here ya go:

CURRIED EGG SALAD SAMMICH

I like big seedy buns or pumpernickel bread, with some cheddar, lettuce, sliced cucumbers and sprouts and a few slices of apple and pickles on the side. J likes pepperoncinis in his. I glorp in the egg salad until it's enough...It's also yummy with crackers and in wraps...go nuts. It's yummy.

For 2 sammiches:

-3 hard boiled large eggs (boil 12-15 min and cool rapidly with ice water -easier to peel and the eggs don't go green inside) Cut up into small pieces with a knife...I don't mush them with a fork as I like the texture. If you're posh enough to have an egg slicer do that and cut across the middle.
-2 green onions diced up small
-One 3" piece of celery diced up fine
-fresh ground pepper to taste
-dash dill
-1 t curry powder
~1/2t paprika (or more to taste)
~1/3c light mayo (more if you like more goo)
~1/4t mustard (to taste)
-dash tumeric

Skoosh it all together and enjoy in the sammiches with all your favourite fixings. I've tossed in diced red pepper or some red onion when I lack celery or green onion...it's good too. It's even better if made a bit ahead...the curry flavour comes out a bit more.
Simple, but yummy :)