Red Lentil Dahl

I've recently had a not so great realization that some of my favourite recipes, the ones that I've created myself and am the most proud of, often never make it to the blog. You would think I would be excited to share something that I'm proud of and want others to experience the joys of as well, but the fear of having my post not live up to the recipe that I am so proud of often stands in the way. 

Whether it's saying to myself "I'll post it next time when I get a better photo" or not feeling like I have the perfect story to tell before the recipe that will make the dish resonate with people, there's always road blocks that I put in my own way that prevent me from moving forward. 

There's something so much safer about putting a photo or a short story on my Instagram, for instance. On Instagram I have the option to let my photo expire after 24 hours, or put it in my grid, where it will inevitably get buried and be forgotten. Why does it feel safer sometimes to be forgotten? Why is there this constant push and pull within myself, between wanting to shine a light on my interests and passions and wanting to hide them away just for myself? It always comes down to fear; fear of not being good enough, fear of not living up to expectations that I have of myself or that others have of me, and fear of putting myself out there and trying and still maybe failing. 

Even though I was scared to sit down and write this today, I did it. Even though I was scared to write about fear in a post about Red Lentil Dahl, worried that people would wonder "what the hell does this have to do with dinner?" I did it anyway. Even though the photo I took was a quick, un-styled capture before I hungrily dove into my bowl, I posted it anyway. Even though I know that I can take a better photo or style a better bowl, I gave myself permission to not be perfect. Even though I'm worried that people may not think my recipe is authentic, I remind myself that I never claimed that it was, and it's delicious nonetheless. Even though I'm scared for people to read this and think that I'm weak for having these fears, I know the only way to move past them is to expose them and fight through them. I face my silly fears today because it will make them a little less powerful tomorrow. 

Red Lentil Dahl

This is one of my favourite go-to recipes for the mid-week rush! I love that this recipe is so quick and simple to prepare, and it also always results in leftovers for lunch the next day, as well as some to freeze for future emergency dinners! If you want this recipe to really go speedy, prep your mise-en-place in the morning, so everything is chopped, measured, and ready to go when it's time to get dinner on the table. 

Ingredients:

4 medium garlic cloves, small dice

1 Tbsp ginger, small dice

1-3 thai red chillies 

1 Tbsp lemon juice

2 Tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tsp mustard seed

3/4 tsp whole cumin seed

2 small onions, small dice

pinch baking soda

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1/2 tsp ground turmeric 

1 tsp garam masala

1 can whole tomatoes, crushed by hand

1 can (400 mL) coconut milk

1 cup red lentils

Directions:

1. Bash the garlic cloves, ginger, red chillies, and lemon juice in a pestle and mortar until it forms a loose paste. Set aside.
2. In a large pot set to medium heat, add vegetable oil, mustard seeds, and cumin seeds. Cook until spices begin to sizzle and pop.
3. Add onion and pinch of baking soda. Cook, stirring frequently, deglazing with a splash of water every few minutes until mixture is deep brown and very fragrant, about 10-minutes. 
4. Add the garlic and ginger paste and cook for 1-minute.
5. Add tomatoes, coconut milk and lentils and stir to combine. Season with salt. Bring mixture to a boil, then reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 20 minutes.
6. Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice. 

Listening To:

Maggie Rogers - Back in My Body

Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies with Bacon & Brussel Sprouts

Hangry, a perfect word for summing up the overwhelming feeling of anger in response to hunger, and an emotion that you never want to catch me in the midst of! It's unpleasant, to say the least. In order to prevent unnecessary hangry episodes in my home,  I have to keep my kitchen stocked with quick and easy midweek dinner options so that I can get food into my hangry mouth as quickly as possible on busy evenings. Of course we will always have our shameful boxes of mac and cheese and instant pancake mix, but it's important for me to keep more "legit" options in my freezer as well. This is where I keep my store-bought asian dumplings, trays of homemade lasagna, chilli, and soup, and, one of my favourite go-to's, frozen pierogies! 

Frozen pierogies have come to be one of my all-time favourite weeknight go-to meals thanks to how convenient they are to store, their simplicity, satiety, delicious taste, and versatility. The amazing thing about pierogies is just how versatile they are. They come in so many different flavours, but more than that, the options for serving and topping pierogies are endless! 

Recently Peter & Pat's Pierogies reached out to me to introduce me to their line of Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies made from a 60-year old family recipe, with 100% real potatoes, and 100% natural ingredients. Disappointed with the usual pierogies I was buying at the grocery store, I was eager to try out Peter & Pat's product, which are now available for purchase at Costco locations throughout Canada. Not only did Peter & Pat's Pierogies provide me with a sample of their product, they also sent along a few recipes for me to try out with their pierogies! 

While I have always loved serving my pierogies with sautéed bacon and onions, with a big ol' dollop of sour cream, the combination of the bacon and sour cream (plus all of the bacon, potato, and cheese inside the pierogies) made the dish a little heavy for a weeknight meal. I loved Peter & Pat's suggestion to try the pierogies with sautéed brussel sprouts, with bacon and onions. Though the suggestion was to serve the perogies with quartered brussel sprouts on the side, I thought it would be even more delicious to serve just the sautéed brussel sprout leaves tossed right into the pierogies. Though it was a bit of an odd combo that I had never thought to try before, the brussel sprout leaves tasted so delicious with the pierogies, especially when combined with the bacon and onions. The brussel sprout leaves were fantastic for cutting all of the richness in the dish, giving it a really nice balance. 

More than just the serving suggestion, I was really impressed with the flavour of Peter & Pat's Pierogies. That 100% potato flavour came through really strong, with the flavour of the bacon and cheddar cheese merely complimenting the potato filling, as opposed to overwhelming it. I love how the potato remained the star! The pierogies also had a great texture, and featured the signature crimped edges that you find with homemade pierogies. I will definitely continue to keep their pierogies stocked in my freezer from now on! 

Be sure to keep your eye out for Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies at your local Costco, and try out the recipe for Pierogies with Bacon & Brussel Sprouts below! You're gonna love it! 

* Cutting bacon into lardons means slicing it into paper clip-sized pieces.

Serves 2

Ingredients:

14-20 frozen Peter & Pat's Bacon & Cheddar Cheese Pierogies

about 12 brussel sprouts, leaves picked, core discarded

4 slices bacon, cut into lardons*

1/2 medium onion, fine dice 

2 Tbsp unsalted butter, separated 
salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Boil pierogies as directed on package. Drain and set aside. While pierogies are cooking prepare topping. 
2. In a large nonstick skillet, cook bacon at medium heat until fat has rendered. Remove with a slotted spoon, and set aside on a paper-towel lined dish. 
3. Drain fat from pan, leaving 1-Tbsp. Add onion and cook for 1-2 minutes until softened. Remove to a bowl with a slotted spoon. 
4. Add 1-Tbsp butter to pan and add brussel sprouts. Cook, stirring often, until leaves are slightly crisp and charred on the edges. Season with salt and pepper. 
5. Add remaining 1-Tbsp butter along with pierogies, bacon, and onion to the brussel sprouts and toss to combine. Serve immediately. 

Listening To:

Portland - Drake ft. Quavo & Travis Scott

Recreating Israeli-Style Falafel & Hummus At Home

If you've ever traveled to Israel, you'll know just how drastically different our falafel and hummus is here in Toronto. It would be an understatement to say that Toronto falafel and hummus are "just not as good," because, my lord, it's like an entirely different animal! I often say that Israel ruined me for falafel and hummus, because now I don't want to eat it anywhere else. We're lucky being in such a multicultural "food" city to have a few good options here and there (hello, Dr. Laffa, Famous Laffa, and Fat Pasha!), but it's not always easy to get to Bathurst and Lawrence for fresh laffa bread and creamy hummus, and as much as I love Fat Pasha, it can be a little hard on the budget at times. 

Two weeks ago, after a week of daydreaming about perfect fresh falafel balls and creamy hummus, I got inspired to finally try my hand at making my own falafel and hummus at home. I did a little bit of research online and found a recipe for falafel that sounded great, as well as a recipe for hummus that appeared to be just as creamy as the dips I devoured all over Israel. Being a last-minute decision to make both dishes, I unfortunately didn't start out with dried chickpeas, and had to settle for canned, and hoped to the Israeli falafel Gods that it would all work out. 

The falafel recipe I found was from an excerpt from Joan Nathan's book The Foods Of Israel Today on Epicurious, and caught my attention thanks to Nathan's description of her favourite falafel in Israel. Though I can't recall the exact name of the place where I had the best falafel that has ever touched my lips, I do remember what made it so special and how it made me feel. Nathan's description of her favourite falafel reminded me of my experience biting into my very first Israeli falafel (which just so happened to be the best of the whole trip!), and made me trust that her recipe would be a winner! The great thing about preparing falafel at home, is that you can prepare almost everything in advance and just quickly fry-to-order and assemble when ready to serve. 

The hummus recipe that I landed on was from Chef Michael Solomonov from the Israeli restaurant Zahav in Philadelphia, featured in the New York Times. With an emphasis in the description and Zahav's reviews on their unbelievably silky and creamy hummus, I was confident that this recipe would be a good starting point. 

Because hummus is incredibly simple to prepare, it's the little details that make all the difference in terms of achieving those dreamy creamy results. One of the biggest tricks to achieving silky smooth hummus is to over-cook your chickpeas and remove all of the skins. Starting with canned chickpeas, they were already quite soft and I was able to skip the step of boiling them until soft to the touch. Unfortunately, I still had a lot of work ahead of me in terms of removing the skins. I knew that I could easily remove most of the skins by rubbing the rinsed chickpeas in a clean towel, but I suppose I wanted to make things difficult on myself, and decided to remove each one individually. This was a mistake.

I put all of my chickpeas in a bowl of water and rubbed them with my fingers, hoping that all of the skins would float to the top. When the surface of my water was covered in chickpea skins, I figured they must all be off. I was sadly mistaken. I proceeded to check every single individual chickpea by pinching it between my pointer-finger and thumb to remove any remaining skin. It was crazy to see how many chickpea skins still remained! It was tedious and boring as hell, but absolutely worth it! I was determined to make that same wildly creamy hummus that I had been dreaming of! 

The second trick to achieving the ultimate creamy hummus is to add ice water when blending. Truthfully, I don't know why. It just works, and I'm not going to question it! It's what Anthony Rose taught us to do at the Metro & Fat Pasha cooking demo that he held at Taste of Toronto this summer, and it is what I will continue to do. 

I have to admit, after removing all of those damn chickpea skins, I announced "I'm over it!" and wanted to just collapse on the couch. Once my falafel mixture and hummus were in the fridge, I was worried that I still had a lot of work ahead of me frying up the falafel balls. I was lazy, and wanted to just relax, but I knew that after all of my hard work, I had to finish the dish. Thank goodness these falafel balls were actually the easiest things I have ever fried in my life! It was so fast, clean, and simple, we were eating our falafel in no time! 

I always want my final dish to taste spectacular, but when it's the first time making it, I expect that there will always be something that wasn't quite right. Though I do want to work on the hummus recipe a little bit (it was great,  but needs a bit of tweaking), the final falafel in pita (with all of the fixings, of course) was out-of-this-world, ridiculously delicious! Oh my God, guys, Chris and I were losing our shit, it was so good! We stuffed our faces, and ended up having two giant falafels each, even though we were so full, because we wanted to taste more. This will likely go down as one of my favourite things I've ever made, and am so incredibly excited to make it again! The next time I make it, I will most definitely be making it for friends and/or family, because it's not only a show-stopper, it's also so convenient to be able to prepare so much so far in advance. 

Remember: You can't always sub dried chickpeas equally for canned. Remember that canned chickpeas are already cooked, meaning that their volume has increased from the cooking process. A general rule-of-thumb is that 1-cup of dried chickpeas should equal roughly 3-cups of cooked chickpeas. Read every recipe carefully to see if they are referring to the volume of cooked or uncooked chickpeas, and if something feels off, trust your gut! 

Check out the recipe for Joan Nathan's favourite falafel, featuring fresh parsley and cilantro here.

Check out Zahar's super-silky hummus recipe from The New York Times here.

Listening To: 

Atlanta - Rina Mushonga 

Turkey & Dumplings Recipe

Last year I was introduced to what may possibly be the most comforting dish on the planet: Turkey & Dumplings. As you may know from my previous post on Turkey & Dumplings, I first had this Southern-inspired dish on my most recent birthday at the Toronto restaurant Omaw, and was totally taken by the fantastic contrast of flavours and textures represented in the dish. 

Chris and I promptly tried to recreate the dish in our own kitchen, and it turned out so ridiculously incredible! Of course, because we were playing around so much with the dish on our first go at making it, we weren't able to record a clear breakdown of the recipe. Alas, with such an amazing response from everyone on the photo that I posted of our Turkey & Dumplings copycat recipe, we had to give it another go, but this time carefully recording every step. 

So with that, I bring you our version of Turkey & Dumplings, a must-make recipe for any comfort-food lover! Last time we made this dish, we were lucky to have leftover Thanksgiving turkey on hand, so this time we decided to roast off some fresh turkey thighs, so that we could make this dish all year round. Thank you to The New York Times for providing a killer method for making roasted turkey pieces that taste like they came off of a whole-roasted bird! You can find our slightly modified recipe for roasted turkey thighs below as well. 

Tip: Save the turkey skin after roasting and fry into crispy chips to use as a garnish! 

Ingredients:

8 cups chicken stock (preferably homemade)

1 medium onion, small dice

2 stalks celery, small dice
2 medium carrots, small dice

3 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup fresh or frozen corn niblets

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme, leaves picked

3 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

3/4 cup roasted or smoked ham, diced

2 bay leaves

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 medium/large parmesan rind

1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese

2 Tbsp. sour cream

about 2 cups shredded roasted turkey meat (dark meat) *see recipe below for roasting turkey thighs

kosher salt and pepper to season

Beurre Manie 

1 Tbsp. flour

1 Tbsp. cold butter

Dumplings (Tyler Florence Recipe)

2 cups flour

1/2 Tbsp baking powder 

1/2 tsp kosher salt

2 eggs

3/4 buttermilk

Directions:

1. Set a large dutch oven on the stove set to medium heat.
2. In a separate medium pot, heat stock to medium heat. 
3. Add onion to dutch oven and heat. Add carrots and celery and sweat. Season with salt and pepper. Add corn, garlic, and thyme and cook until fragrant (about 30-seconds to 1-minute).
4. Add 3 Tbsp. butter and melt. Add flour and stir to make a roux. Cook for about 1-minute.
5. Slowly begin adding in the stock, one ladle at a time, while stirring to incorporate. 
6. Add in ham, bay leaves, cayenne, and parmesan rind. Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, reduce to a low, and simmer for 30-minutes. 
7. Remove bay leaves. Add in grated parmesan cheese and sour cream. Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. If mouthfeel is off and the soup is too thin, prepare a Beurre Manie. 
8. To make a Beurre Manie: combine 1 Tbsp. flour with 1 Tbsp. cold butter and smoosh together with the back of a spoon. If you want, get right in there and smoosh it together with your fingers to form a paste. Drop the paste bit by bit into your soup and stir in. 
9. Make Dumplings. In a medium bowl, whisk together dry ingredients. In a small bowl, lightly beat together eggs with buttermilk. Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients. If it feels too tough, add in another few tablespoons of milk. Drop spoonfuls of batter directly into the soup. Simmer for 10-15-minutes, flipping part way through. 
10. Stir in turkey and any drippings (you may also add in the garlic and onion that was roasted with the turkey thighs). Cook 5 minutes. Serve immediately. 

Roasted Turkey Thighs

(Slightly adapted from The New York Times)

Ingredients:

1/4 cup butter, softened

1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves

2 turkey thighs, washed & dried

salt and pepper to season

rosemary salt (optional)

1 Tbsp. olive oil

2 celery stalks, roughly chopped

1 medium carrot, roughly chopped

1 medium onion, quartered

4 garlic cloves, whole 

4 thyme sprigs

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 450ºF. 
2. Stir together butter and thyme leaves and rub all over turkey pieces, making sure to get some underneath the turkey skin.
3. Season generously with salt and pepper, and rosemary salt (if you have any!). 
4. Toss celery, carrot, onion, and garlic with olive oil and season with salt and pepper. 
5. Place thighs in a medium roasting dish or baking pan and tuck the celery, carrot, onion, garlic, and thyme sprigs around the meat. 
6. Roast for 30-minutes. Reduce heat to 325ºF and roast for an additional 15-20-minutes, or until the internal temperature reaches 165ºF, while basting occasionally with accumulated juices. 
7. Remove from oven and tent with tin foil for 30-minutes. Separate the meat from the bones and shred with 2 forks. Set aside in fridge until ready to use. 

Listening To: 

The Range - Florida

Perfecting Potato Latkes (Updated)

Every Chanukah is a new opportunity to step up your potato latke game. Though each year my latkes get a little better, it wasn't until this year that they just may have reached the point of perfection. I'm not going to bore you with my history of eating and making latkes, I'm just going to get right to the point and tell you straight up my tips and tricks for creating potato latke excellence. 

Start With A Great Latke Recipe As Your Guide

I personally think that Bon Appétit has a fantastic recipe for potato latkes that I like to use as a general guide. It's really hard to list exact ingredient amounts for latkes, because it all depends on the size and flavour of your potatoes. Use the recipe as a rough guide for which ingredients to use and how much you should use of each one. I don't bother with measuring my ingredients anymore, I just go by sight and memory, and after you make your first batch, that's all you'll ever need too. While Bon Appétit's recipe is great, I adjusted it slightly by mincing my onion, and doing 2 Tbsp plain breadcrumbs, and 2 Tbsp panko breadcrumbs, instead of the grated onion and 1/4 cup plain breadcrumbs listed in their recipe. Check out their recipe and method here! 

Start With The Right Potatoes

Step one to making the ultimate latkes is using the correct potatoes. Though my dear love, Ina Garten likes to use a combo of both Yukon Gold and Russets, it has been in my experience to always go for all Russets. I have to admit, that the only times that I've strayed from Russet potatoes, I've gone pure Yukon Gold, so perhaps Ina knows something I don't, and maybe (maaaaybe) next year I'll give her method a try. Russets tend to be the favourite for potato latkes thanks to their high-starch, and low-moisture content, which is key in achieving a crisp latke. 

Grate Your Potatoes

Though everyone has their preference, I love a nice lacy, grated potato for my latkes. I adore the texture and think that it delivers the best crispness on the outside, while still leaving the interior of the pancake soft and tender. Grating by hand is fine if you're doing only one or two potatoes, but any more and you may never want to make latkes ever again. I recommend lugging out your food processor to do do the work for you. Swap in the grating attachment and see how quickly your potatoes are grated! Dare I say, it's a "grate" tool! (I can't stop with the dad jokes!)

Add Onion

While I'm sure there are polarizing thoughts on whether to add onion to your latkes or not, I find them essential! I love the flavour that the onion adds to the rather bland potatoes, making them a more savoury side dish, which I think complements the sweet apple sauce topping wonderfully! I used to grate my onion in as well, but I found that they taste all the better when the onion is invisible. I mince mine up super fine so they blend right into the lacy potato shreds, adding their flavour without compromising on texture, or risking someone getting a big chunk of onion in their pancake. 

Squeeze Out The Liquid

This is likely THE most essential step in making the ultimate potato latkes. I mean it when I say DO NOT SKIP THIS STEP! Don't even try to. There are no short cuts. As soon as my potatoes are grated and my minced onion in stirred in, I pour everything into a clean kitchen towel with a bowl resting underneath and squeeze the hell out of that stuff! Squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze until hardly anymore liquid comes out. Then carefully open up your towel, stir around the contents, and guess what?....You squeeze, and squeeze, and squeeze again! I like to place a bowl underneath to catch all of the starchy potato liquid. After a few minutes the natural starch from the potato liquid will fall to the bottom of the bowl, allowing you to pour out the water and add the thick starch back into your potatoes. I like to do this to help my potato mixture hold together in the pan, as well as ensure my latkes are as crisp as possible. 

Season & Bind

Once your shredded potatoes are squeezed out as much as possible, it's time to season and bind everything together. In a small bowl, whisk together eggs (I do 2-3 for every five potatoes), some baking powder, and some breadcrumbs (I like to do half regular breadcrumbs, and half panko) and combine it into your potato and onion mixture. You want the mixture to be moist but not soupy at all. If it's not moistened enough from the egg, it won't hold together, and with too much egg, you've got yourself a weird omelette/latke hybrid. In terms of seasoning, I start with a couple of large pinches of salt and pepper, and then fry off a test latke to taste. If needed, I will season once again, and continue with the rest of the pancakes. 

Flavour Your Oil

This was one step that I was so excited to add to my latkes this year. Previously, I have only used vegetable oil for frying my latkes, but couldn't resist picking up a container of duck fat from St. Lawrence Market to aid in flavouring the plain vegetable oil. While schmaltz (chicken fat) is traditionally used, duck fat sounded oh-so-luxurious and was what I found first. The duck fat not only gave my latkes even more flavour, they also helped to crisp them up even more. 

Your Cast Iron Is Your Friend

While no, it's not absolutely essential to use a big, heavy cast iron pan to fry your potato latkes, I find that it makes a world of a difference! As soon as I started frying my latkes in a cast iron, my latkes when from "novice" to "expert." I will never go back to my regular All-Clad's or nonstick for frying latkes, ever! 

Keep 'em Warm

Because frying up batches of potato latkes is quite tedious and time consuming, I keep my oven preheated to 325ºF, with a baking sheet set inside, so I can place my fried and drained latkes to keep them warm and crisp. Before I place any latkes in the oven, I'm sure to take them straight from the cast iron to a prepared wire rack set over a paper-towel-lined baking sheet. This allows any excess oil to drain off. 

Serve Immediately!

I don't care what you say, latkes DO NOT taste the same the next day. Sure, they may still be incredibly tasty, but they sure ain't the brilliant and crispy pancakes that you made the day before. It's all about the texture. Latkes are meant to be served right away! So as soon as you're done frying up all of your shredded potatoes, get those babies on the table! After spending so much time on your feet in the kitchen, frying up batch upon batch of latkes, while your clothes and furniture soak up the smell, you owe it to yourself to serve them as they were intended to taste. I like to make extra so I can eat some immediately, and then have more for leftovers throughout the week. 

Have any other questions or concerns about making potato latkes? Leave me a comment here or tweet me: @thisgingerrose.

Listening To: 

Inconsiderate - Reo Cragun 

Mulled Cranberry Baked Brie with Spicy Candied Pecans

Holiday entertaining is all about ease of preparation, allowing you to spend less time in the kitchen, and more time with your friends and family. My Mulled Cranberry Brie with Spicy Pecans is as easy as can be and is a total showstopper, featuring the festive flavours of the holiday season. Sweet, spicy, warm, and comforting, you may want to prepare two of these, because your guests are sure to gobble it all up! Prepare the nuts and sauce in advance to have everything ready to go when your guests arrive.

Ingredients:

For The Pecans

3 Tbsp. golden corn syrup

1 1/2 Tbsp white sugar

3/4 tsp kosher salt

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1/4 tsp (heaping) ground cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground ginger

1 1/2 cups whole pecans

cooking spray

For The Mulled Cranberry Sauce

2 cups fresh or frozen whole cranberries

1/4 cup + 1 Tbsp. brown sugar

2 Tbsp. orange juice

2 Tbsp. red wine

1/4 tsp orange zest

1/4 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice 

1 whole star anise

2 thin slices fresh ginger

1 wheel of brie (200g)

Directions:

1. Preheat oven to 325ºF.
2. In a medium bowl, stir together corn syrup, white sugar, salt, cayenne pepper, cinnamon, and ginger. Stir in pecans.
3. Spray medium baking sheet with cooking spray. Spread out coated pecans in one even layer and bake for 5-minutes. Stir to combine, and place back in the oven for an additional 10-minutes.
4. While pecans are baking, prepare a medium baking sheet lined with aluminum foil. Right as the pecans come out of the oven, use two forks to begin transferring, separating, and spreading the pecans on the prepared baking sheet to cool. Store in an airtight container for about 1-month. 

Listening To:

Jingle Bell Rock - Bobby Helms

Thanksgiving Leftover Lovin': Turkey & Dumplings

Leftovers, you love 'em, or you hate 'em. While I most definitely used to hate leftovers, I've found over the years, and after living on my own, eating leftovers is an essential part of reducing food waste and staying on budget. More than that, I've learned that I can actually have the power to become a leftover lover if the leftovers are transformed into something that doesn't resemble the original dish. It was this discovery that inspired my blog series Leftover Lovin', which has been terribly neglected over the past few years, but must be brought back thanks to my most recent outrageously delicious leftover transformation, inspired by my Thanksgiving dinner and a delicious birthday dinner out!

While going wild and partying has never really been my thing for celebrating my birthday, what I do look forward to the most, come my annual day of birth on September 30th, is going out for delicious meals with my loved ones. Lucky for me, this included three fantastic meals spread across my birthday weekend. 

The first dinner out was on the night of my birthday with my boyfriend Chris, where we checked out Omaw, Chef Matt Blondin's latest restaurant, doing Carolina classics with a gourmet twist. Having been to and enjoyed Blondin's previous restaurant Acadia, we were eager to see how his most recent menu would stack up. Though I have to say, the service definitely left something to be desired, the menu was thankfully lovely. Though the Shrimp & Grits (an Acadia favourite that Blondin reintroduced for Omaw) was spot on, the standout dish of the night had to be Blondin's aromatic bowl of Turkey & Dumplings with onion likkar and black truffle - SWOON! With a rich and complex turkey broth, big chunks of tender and moist roast turkey, gnocchi-like pillows of handmade dumplings, black truffle oil, and fried onion matchsticks for crunch (this would be the onion likkar), this dish blew both Chris and I away! So comforting, so well-balanced, and so not enough in one bowl to satisfy us both. It was so delicious, we should have each ordered a bowl to ourselves! 

With Canadian Thanksgiving only one week away from my birthday, all I could think about the week following my birthday was how I could recreate that incredible Turkey & Dumpling dish with my Thanksgiving leftovers. While, no, I don't have a clear recipe for you this time, with so much experimenting during the process to get just the right flavour and mouthfeel, I still wanted to share my photos of the final dish, and a little bit about my process. The response to the photo of my bowl of homemade Turkey & Dumplings that I posted on my various social media accounts was so overwhelmingly positive, that I think it's only fair to share as much as I can with you, and hopefully I can refine it soon enough so you can have the real thing!

The great thing about a recipe like this is that it is so forgiving, allowing you to forget about measuring your ingredients (it's all about eye-balling it here!), and play around with what you happen to have on hand. For this dish, I started out with a basic mirepoix of onion, carrot, and celery (diced small), and to that added in some minced garlic, fresh Ontario corn niblets leftover from Thanksgiving, dried bay leaves, and fresh thyme. I then stirred in a roux, and slowly poured in homemade turkey stock (thank you to Chris' mom Tracey for the tasty stock!) and some leftover ham from Thanksgiving (diced small). At this point, I brought the soup to a boil and allowed it to simmer for about 20-30 minutes to let the flavours develop and the broth to thicken.

After tasting I felt the soup still needed more flavour and more of a creamy and rich mouthfeel. Now this is where things get a little hazy, as I began to scour my kitchen for anything I could possibly find to turn my soup into something incredible. I then added a pinch of cayenne pepper, a few pinches of ancho chilli powder, a large Parmesan rind (I always save them in the freezer for soups and sauces!), grated parmesan cheese, a few tablespoons of sour cream, and lots of salt and pepper to season. To aid with the mouthfeel issue, I dropped in a beurre manié, which is like a roux, but kneaded, and added after you have added in liquid. So basically, if you messed up your roux at the start of your process and your soup or sauce isn't thickening, a beurre manié can save the day! Check out Saveur's guide on how to prepare a beurre manié to learn about your new favourite hero in the kitchen.

Once my soup was at the right consistency and flavour, I quickly whipped together Tyler Florence's recipe for dumplings, and spooned them in. Once my dumplings were lovely, plump, and cooked through, I stirred in my leftover shredded cooked turkey from Thanksgiving (dark meat will taste best here!), which was added at this point so it wouldn't dry out. After a short simmer to allow the turkey to reheat my turkey and dumplings were ready to devour! And oh did we ever devour it! Chris and I went nuts over this dish. It was, to put it simply, outrageously delicious. A true winner and a recipe I look forward to refining and sharing with you soon! Is it safe to admit that I'm now counting down the days to Christmas dinner leftovers? 

Listening To:
Happier Podcast

Strawberry Cheese Blintzes

It's officially been two whole weeks since I've quit my job to pursue "the dream," and I wish I could tell you that I've figured everything out. Of course I can't, and I can't expect to. The bottom line it that it's going to take time and I have to accept that if I ever want to achieve my dreams. 

Over these past two weeks there have been so many issues that I've already had to try and overcome, but the biggest issue of all is establishing a productive routine and workflow while working from home. As much as I love my alone time at home, it can feel really isolating at times being in the silence of my "safe space," all day long, with only my own voice in my head to drive me. No one is here making me feel guilty for not working, no one is telling me what to work on next, and no one is here to shake up my thoughts. Without any outside voices guiding my work, as well as being someone who is extremely indecisive, it can be really difficult to come up with content that I feel is engaging, unique, and interesting. With only myself in the room, I can do anything, which sounds wonderful and empowering, but when you can do anything where do you begin? 

"When you can do anything, where do you begin?"

Overwhelmed by all of the possibilities for content that I could create, I felt stuck and couldn't decide where the hell to begin. When I feel overwhelmed and can't get my feet out of the cement to just do something (anything!) I always turn to procrastination. In this particular instance, procrastination was exactly what I needed to get the ideas flowing. I started scrolling through Twitter and came across a link that lead me to a contest for Astro yogourt and Chatelaine magazine, looking for the best recipe featuring Astro Original yogourt. And just like that I felt motivated. Suddenly I had a direction and a challenge. As much as things still remained incredibly open-ended (I could still make just about anything I wanted), having the parameters of having to use Astro Original yogourt in the recipe, as well as only being able to use a maximum of twelve ingredients, allowed me to free my thoughts and get the inspiring ideas rolling. 

As much as creatives want their work to be their own, it's so important to allow outside voices in to offer a different perspective and direction that you may have not thought of yourself, as well as aiding in getting your feet out of the cement to just do the work! Now that I had honed in on what type of work I wanted to create for that week, I couldn't stop thinking of ideas and was so excited to get cooking! An idea that I kept coming back to was playing around with different crepe fillings using Astro yogourt. After developing a recipe for Raspberry Ricotta Crepes featuring Astro Original Vanilla Yogourt, I still had some leftover ricotta, crepe batter, and yogourt that I was itching to use. Naturally I thought of doing a take on a Rose family favourite, Cheese Blintzes. 

Though I normally make my cheese blintzes with pressed cottage cheese (often referred to as "farmers cheese" or "dry cottage cheese"), I knew that a combination of ricotta and the vanilla yogourt would achieve that same creamy and rich consistency and flavour that everyone loves in blintzes. The blintzes turned out fantastic and I was so happy with the final photo I was able to capture before gobbling them all up, but more than anything I was so happy that I had a full week of productivity under my belt thanks to that one kernel of outside inspiration.

Want to help inspire me and guide which recipes I create and share? Let me know what kinds of recipes you want to see on the blog and tweet me your ideas on Twitter: @thisgingerrose

Ingredients:

Crepes

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1 cup milk

1/4 cup vegetable oil

3 whole eggs

1/4 tsp salt

pinch of sugar (optional)

Filling

2 cups ricotta

1 egg yolk

3 Tbsp. full-fat yogourt + more for serving

2 Tbsp sugar

1 1/2 Tbsp lemon zest

2 cups fresh strawberries, hulled & sliced

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, vigorously whisk together flour, milk, vegetable oil, 3 eggs, salt and sugar until smooth. Cover and rest in fridge for 1-hour.
2. While batter chills, make filling. In a medium bowl, stir together ricotta, egg yolk, 3 Tbsp. yogourt, sugar, and lemon zest. Chill until ready to fill crepes.
3. Heat a small crepe pan to medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and, working one at a time, add just under 1/3 cup crepe batter and swirl around pan to cover evenly. Cook for 1-2 minutes or until batter is no longer shiny. Flip and cook other side for 1-minute. Set on a clean towel to cool. Repeat with remaining batter.
4. Working one at a time, spoon 2-3 tablespoons of the filling about 1-inch from the edge of a crepe. Fold the lower edge of the crepe over the filling, and fold in the sides so it looks like an envelope. Roll up the blintz "burrito style." Repeat with remaining crepes. Cook blintzes immediately or place in an airtight container until ready to cook and serve. 
5. To cook blintzes, heat a large, non-stick pan to medium heat. Spray with cooking spray and place in enough blintzes to fill the pan, making sure not to crowd them. Cook 3-4 minutes per side until golden. Repeat with remaining blintzes. Serve immediately with strawberries and additional vanilla yogourt. 

Listening To:

Chance The Rapper - Same Drugs

Melitta Media Breakfast

Me (Danielle Rose) getting a tutorial on how to brew the perfect single cup of Melitta coffee

Being a loud and proud feminist, my favourite business success stories are that of feminists before their time. Melitta was established in 1908 when founder Melitta Bentz was sick of getting grinds in her cup of coffee. With determination to create the perfect cup of coffee, Melitta started experimenting with different types of homemade filtration systems. She landed on what is now the most commonly used type of coffee filtration, the paper filter. So yes, Melitta Bentz (a woman!) was the inventor of the coffee filter! How cool! 

It was a delight to be able to hear about the history of the Melitta brand from Melitta representatives David Viola, Ian Buckingham, and Donna Gray last Thursday as they invited myself, along with a selection of other media representatives, to attend a Melitta-inspired breakfast at the beautifully chic Maman Bakery & Café. As we sipped on seemingly never-ending cups of Melitta's popular Deluxe roast (a medium-dark European blend), we learned about Melitta's commitment to maintaining their reputation for delivering the perfect cup of coffee by covering everything from bean to cup. Today, the family-owned company is proud to call themselves the number one coffee filtration company in the world! 

While I've always been a dark roast kind of gal, thinking that I liked my coffee nice and strong, I had no idea that a medium-dark roast is actually the most ideal type of coffee bean, as the more the beans are roasted the more they will pick up on the carbon flavour from roasting, which ultimately takes over the true taste of the bean. Additionally, I learned that it is actually a misconception that darker roasts have more caffeine, as a lighter or medium roast actually does. As it turns out, as the beans are roasted, the level of caffeine represented in the beans is reduced. 

So what else helps to contribute to the perfect cup of coffee? While yes roasting and filtration is key, you must also consider the freshness of the beans as a major factor in making the perfect cup. Ideally the beans should be roasted right before being ground, and ground right before brewing. It only makes sense that whole bean coffee is the freshest, as their is less surface area that is in contact with oxygen, therefore the bean goes stale at a slower rate. With this in mind, it was recommended to resist the urge to buy large quantities of beans or grinds to have stocked in your cupboards, and instead buy small amounts at a time to ensure the freshest beans. Lastly, one of the major factors in creating the perfect cup is heat. Heat is vital in ensuring the proper extraction process from the beans, which means that water must be boiling! 

With the small event held at the renowned Maman Bakery & Café, we of course had to try some coffee-inspired treats created by their pastry chef. The baked goods were created using Melitta's European blend, which is bold yet smooth, with a sweet finish. A coffee-flavoured eclair and Madeleine were both created exclusively for the event, but I have to say, I think they should both stay on the menu! Both treats were incredible, with a subtle hint of coffee that shined through, yet didn't overpower the rest of the pastry. 

Lucky for us, Maman was lovely enough to provide me with recipes of both of the treats that I could share with you! Below is Maman's recipe for their Coffee Madeleines. Keep your eyes peeled for the fantastic eclair recipe, which I will be sharing in a separate post.

Treats from Maman, including the Coffee Madeleine

Coffee Madeleines 
Recipe provided by Maman bakery & Café

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

0.6 tsp baking powder

7 tsp butter

1 tsp Deluxe - European Blend Melitta Coffee

1/4 tsp lemon zest

2 eggs

1/2 cup sugar

Directions:

1. Sift flour with baking powder. 
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter. Let cool.
3. In the bowl of an electric mixer, whisk eggs with sugar for about 5-minutes. Mixture should be bubbly. Add the flour mixture, melted butter, Melitta coffee, and lemon zest. Stir until just combined.
4. Preheat oven to 425ºF.
5. Butter Madeleine pan and add the dough so that it fills 2/3 of the mould. 
6. Bake at 425ºF for 5-minutes, then reduce heat to 390ºF and cook for an additional 10-minutes. 
7. Let cool to room temperature. 
8. Unmould the Madeleine and allow to fully cool. Serve! 

Listening To:

Summer Friends - Chance The Rapper

All You Need Is Cheese Poutine

If you had a chance to read my previous post on my experience at the Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-Off last month, you'll understand just how lucky we are in Canada are to have such a wide range of different types of cheese produced right here in our own beautiful country. Though Canada produces around 1000 different types of 100% Canadian cheese, there is one type that has become somewhat iconic with Canadian food culture, and that would be the humble cheese curd.

Cheese curds are the solid parts of soured milk, which yes, makes them sound grossly unappetizing, but if you've ever tasted cheese curds, you'll know just how wonderful they truly are. With their firm texture that gives way to a delightful "squeak" when bitten into, and their meltability when heated, cheese curds are totally addictive when eaten on their own, but become something both magical and completely gluttonous when paired, as they traditionally are here in Canada, with crispy french fries and hot-from-the-stove gravy to make poutine.

Upon leaving the Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-Off, I was thrilled to discover a fresh package of cheese curds from the Cheese Boutique in my generous swag bag. I have always wanted to make poutine from scratch, but for whatever reason had not previously attempted to make the Quebec classic. With beautiful, high-quality curds from Toronto's favourite cheese shop on hand, it was time to make poutine from scratch.

Remember, the squeakiest curds are the freshest curds, so be sure to eat them the day they were made!

Because I have a bit of a fear of frying on my stove-top, and because I wanted to make this dish sliiightly less gluttonous, I chose to bake my fries in the oven. Even though my fries were oven-baked, I wanted them to get nice and crisp as though they were fried. In order to achieve the optimum amount of crispiness I soaked my cut fries in cold water (and a pinch of a sugar for extra sweetness) for 30-minutes to allow some of the starch from the potatoes to sink to the bottom of the water. I rinsed the soaked potatoes to remove any excess starch, and dried them as much as I possibly could with clean kitchen towels. A quick toss with some olive oil, salt, pepper, and a bit of paprika and my fries were ready to hit the parchment-lined pan and go into the hot oven.

While my fries were baking, I whipped up Chuck Hughes easy homemade poutine gravy. Though Chuck recommends using a good-quality veal stock, I only had beef stock on hand, which proved to be a great alternative! With the addition of chopped shallots, garlic, ketchup, cider vinegar, peppercorns, and Worcestershire sauce, Chuck's gravy had a great full flavour and a good spoon-coating texture that would grip the fries and cheese curds nicely.

I was so happy with how my first attempt at homemade poutine turned out! The gravy was so much easier than I ever thought it would be (and turned out so tasty!), and the cheese curds were just plain glorious! Though poutine isn't exactly an every-day kind of dish, it was such a nice treat to get to indulge in, especially with the satisfaction of knowing I made it all by myself!

Click here to get Chuck Hughes recipe for Chuck's Awesome Poutine! 

Let me know how you liked the recipe! Tweet me on Twitter: @thisgingerrose.

Listening To:

Radiohead - Daydreaming 
This album!!! SO GOOD!

Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-Off - Mac & Cheese Edition

Chef Thompson, Chef Feswick, Chef Farrell, and Chef Gomes with their mac & cheese creations. Photo courtesy of DDB PR. 

I have a weakness for both cheese and puns, so it would come as no surprise that even though I'm not always the biggest fan of media events, I couldn't help but reply with an enthusiastic "YES!" when invited to attend the Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-Off last month. The competition, which was apart of the Toronto Food & Drink Market, pitted four top chefs, each from different parts of Canada, against one another to create the ultimate Canadian mac and cheese. 

With last years winner of the Grate Canadian Cheese Cook-Off, Chef Andrew Farrell, participating once again, as well as a Top Chef Canada participant, Chef Nicole Gomes, in the competition, the stakes were high for who would receive the coveted Cheese Grater Award. Former Second City member and current home economist Mairlyn Smith was our host for the afternoon, guiding us through the competition as we watched first Chef Andrew Farrell (2 Doors Down Food & Wine - Halifax, NS) and Chef Thompson Tran (The Wooden Boat - Port Moody, BC) go head-to-head with only 30-minutes to make their mac and cheese, followed by Chef Nicole Gomes (Nicole Gourmet - Calgary , AB) and Chef Alexandra Feswick (The Drake Hotel - Toronto, ON). 

Chef Nicole Gomes and Chef Alexandra Feswick working on their mac & cheese.

It was great to get to see the chefs in action and hear all about the inspiration behind each of their dishes. While the chefs scurried around the kitchen, we were introduced to the judges of the competition, Afrim Pristine (owner of the Cheese Boutique, which Mairlyn Smith so lovingly called "like a sex shop but for cheese"), Vanessa Simmons (Cheese Sommelier at Savvy Company), Georgs Kolesnikovs (of cheeselover.ca and the Great Canadian Cheese Festival), and Rita DeMontis (Sun Media Food Editor). It was clear to see the judges passion for Canadian cheese as they told us all about their favourite Canadian cheeses, what they love about Canadian cheese, and what they would be looking for in the ultimate mac and cheese. 

So what is it that makes Canadian cheese so great? Afrim Pristine had the best response to that question, talking about the amazing versatility and extremely wide variety of fantastic cheese that we produce here in Canada. Sure there are other parts of the world that produce great cheese, but often it's only a select few cheeses that they produce, while here in Canada we produce around 1000 types of 100% Canadian cheese! It was only fitting to compete for the ultimate mac and cheese seeing as Canadian's eat more mac and cheese per person than any other country in the world! I guess we really love our cheese! Unsurprisingly, when I asked the judges what their number one mac and cheese faux pas would be, they all agreed "not enough cheese!" They also commented on their distaste for runny sauce, not enough variety of cheese (a great mac and cheese should have more than one type of cheese), soggy noodles, and cheese not being the main flavour of the dish. 

Chef Nicole Gome's Apple Beer Mac & Cheese

With those things in mind, the chefs confidently brought their final mac and cheese creations up to the judges to critique. Chef Andrew Farrell created a Smoky Cauli-Power Mac & Cheese with a cauliflower sauce, aged cheddar cheese and blue cheese, and topped with crispy roasted cauliflower, cremini mushrooms, and panko breadcrumbs. Chef Thompson Tran created a Cod You Believe It's Shmoked Mac n' Cheese with smoked BC black cod (to highlight BC's abundance of fresh sustainable seafood), truffle oil, serrano chili peppers, chopped cabbage, tarragon, and Emmental and aged cheddar. Chef Nicole Gomes created an Apple Beer Mac & Cheese with strong IPA beer, grated golden delicious apples, a crispy panko topping, and five different Canadian cheeses, which included Black River Medium Cheddar, Muenster, Gunn's Hill Five Brothers, Sylvan Star Smoked Gouda, and Raclette. Chef Alexandra Feswick created a Nutty Home-Style Mac & Cheese with Jerusalem artichokes, beech mushrooms, a crispy panko, sage, Alpindon cheese, and hazelnut topping, as well as four other cheeses in the sauce, which included aged cheddar, Niagara Gold, Blue d'Elizabeth, and more Alpindon.

Though all of the chefs final dishes no doubt wowed the judges (I was conveniently sitting right next to them and was eavesdropping the whole time!) there could be only one winner. With her focus on comfort, her wide variety of Canadian cheese, and fantastic flavour and texture, Chef Alexandra Feswick's Nutty Home-Style Mac & Cheese was the winner of the competition! Being a newbie-fan to Jerusalem artichokes, I personally had a soft spot for Chef Feswick's mac and cheese, and was hoping she would win. Though Chef Feswick's mac and cheese was my favourite of the day, the other three followed very close behind! 

Chef Alexandra Feswick with her winning mac & cheese creation. Photo courtesy of DDB PR.

What I really loved about all four dishes was how imaginative they each were, featuring unusual ingredients that you often wouldn't find in mac and cheese. I love seeing these unusual and gourmet flavours in mac and cheese like this because it's such a great way of inspiring parents to look beyond the traditional mac and cheese. Adding these bold and unfamiliar flavours to something that is very familiar with childen, mac and cheese, is such a great way to introduce new flavours to your kids! You may not be able to get your child to eat something like black cod or Jerusalem artichokes, but I bet you'll have a way better chance when you hide them in their favourite cheesy pasta dish! 

As I stated previously, I don't always love media events, but I was so glad that I attended this one! I felt like I really learned a lot from all of the chefs and judges, not only about mac and cheese, but Canadian cheese in general. I walked away with so much new knowledge, a folder full of all of the participating chefs mac and cheese recipes, and a package of squeaky Cheese Boutique cheese curds for my own enjoyment! My love affair with cheese continues on...

To check out all four mac and cheese recipes from the competition visit dairygoodness.ca.

Listening To:

Nothing but Beyoncé Lemonade for the next month

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

Oh joy! Spring has arrived! Or...has it? There's a thick blanket of snow on my balcony and a chill in the air. Excuse my language, but what the f**k?!?! I guess there's nothing left to do but embrace what little time we have left of soup weather by indulging in a cheese-and-cream-filled soup. Enter Broccoli Cheddar Soup, one of my favourite excuses for eating melted cheese. Some soups I get sick of after the first bowl, but Broccoli Cheddar, I could eat that shit for days on end! It's just so comforting, hearty, and stick-to-your-ribs-delicious that I don't think I could ever get sick of it.

You can always add but you can never take away!

Though I've listed ingredient amounts with this recipe, I encourage you to forget about your measuring cups and spoons and just eyeball everything. Soups are so incredibly forgiving and are a great way to practice your improvised cooking skills. It's all about adding little bits at a time, tasting as you go, and remembering the golden rule of "you can always add, but you can never take away."

Tweet me @thisgingerrose to let me know what you thought of my recipe, or tag a photo of your soup on Instagram @gingerrosefood! 

Remember:

- Why do we cut our vegetables into the same size? So they cook at the same time! 

- Soups are so forgiving, so ingredient amounts can be flexible based on what you have. You can also play around with using other vegetables that you have on hand such as carrots and celery.

* If your soup tastes like it's missing something ask yourself is it salt? Pepper? If it's not salt and pepper, it's likely that it's missing some acid. Try stirring in a little bit of fresh lemon juice and see if that does the trick! 

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. butter

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 small onion, chopped

1 clove garlic, minced
3 cups chicken or vegetable stock
1 dried bay leaf

4 heads of broccoli, chopped into 1-inch pieces

2 medium potatoes, peeled and chopped into 1-inch pieces

3 Tbsp sour cream

3/4 cup half-and-half cream

salt & pepper to season (preferably white pepper)
cheddar cheese, grated, to garnish (optional)
soup cream, to garnish (optional)
walnuts, toasted, chopped, to garnish (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pot or dutch oven set to medium-heat, heat butter and olive oil. Add onion and cook until softened and translucent. Add garlic and cook, while stirring, for 30-seconds. 
2. Add stock, bay leaf, broccoli, and potatoes and cook for about 30-minutes or until broccoli and potatoes are very tender. Let cool.
3. Remove bay leaf and discard. Pour soup mixture into the bowl of a food processor and blend until smooth. Pour back into pot along with cream and re-heat. Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. Stir in sour cream. Taste and season once again, if needed*. 
4. Serve immediately garnished with grated cheddar cheese, sour cream, and chopped walnuts, or refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Listening To:
Disclosure - Omen ft. Sam Smith

Pulse-Packed Chilli

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend Pulse Feast, the Canadian launch party for the International Year of Pulses. Confession: When I received my invitation for the event, I had no clue what the hell pulses were. In all honesty, in my quick scan of the invite, in the midst of the busy holiday season, I somehow got the impression that pulses had something to do with food trends. Though pulses aren't a word to describe food trends as a whole, they are actually a food trend for 2016 in itself. In fact, the United Nations declared 2016 to be the International Year of Pulses! So what the heck are pulses? 'Pulses are the edible seeds of plants in the legume family. Pulses grow in pods and come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and colours." Some pulses that you may be familiar with, and may already be apart of your diet are dry beans, dry broad beans,  dry peas, chickpeas, and lentils, as well as six other less popular varieties that I haven't mentioned. 

Though pulses may be considered a major food trend for 2016, the host of Canada's Pulse Feast, Chef Michael Smith, disputes that pulses aren't a trend at all, they're here to stay! Thanks to their versatility, sustainability, affordability, and vast health benefits, Chef Michael Smith believes that pulses will soon become apart of Canadians everyday diet. As a way of inspiring North Americans to eat more pulses the Pulse Pledge campaign was launched in conjunction with the International Year of Pulses kickoff. The Pulse Pledge is a 10-week campaign that encourages North Americans to commit to eating pulses at least once a week, each week for the 10-week period. The goal is  that the healthy habit of eating pulses on a regular basis will continue past the designated 10-weeks.

After taking my own Pulse Pledge at the Pulse Feast, I was inspired to make a hearty pulse-packed chilli that would allow me to get my pulse intake throughout the week as I continued to eat leftovers. I love this chilli recipe because it's super easy, is big on flavour, is incredibly satisfying, and will provide leftovers for the rest of the week. Though I like to simmer my chilli on the stove for at least an hour to let all of the flavours develop, this dish can easily be rushed and be on the table in less than an hour when short on time, sacrificing the flavour only minutely. Though canned pulses aren't the ideal thanks to their added sodium content, I often cook with canned beans and chickpeas because they're so incredibly convenient. Because this recipe is all about ease, I chose to use a canned bean and chickpea medley for my chilli. When purchasing canned pulses I try and look for ones that have reduced sodium or are from a brands healthy line (for instance President's Choice Blue Menu). To ensure that I can control the amount of sodium going into my chilli, I also make sure to rinse my canned beans and chickpeas very well and strain before adding them in. 

Give my Pulse-Packed Chilli a try this week and let me know how you enjoyed it on Twitter: @thisgingerrose. Also, be sure to take the Pulse Pledge yourself and commit yourself to eating pulses every single week for the next 10-weeks! 

Source: Pulses.org

* Please adjust the spices based on your own heat tolerance. I can handle a lot of heat and usually use this as my base and add more heat if needed, though this may be quite spicy for some. 

** If you're in a hurry, you can simmer the chilli for as little as 30-minutes, though some flavour may be sacrificed. 

Ingredients:

about 2 Tbsp. olive oil

1 large onion, small dice

4 stalks of celery, peeled, small dice

3 garlic cloves, minced

2 lb. lean ground beef

1 jar (680mL) strained tomatoes (no salt-added)

1 can (540mL) six-bean medley, well rinsed (I like President's Choice Blue Menu)

2 Tbsp. red pepper flakes*

1 chipotle in adobo sauce, minced + 2 Tbsp. adobo sauce*

1 Tbsp. chilli powder*

cheddar cheese, grated, for garnish (optional)

fresh cilantro, finely chopped, for garnish (optional)

sour cream, for garnish (optional)

salt, to taste

Directions:

1. In a a large pot set to medium heat, warm olive oil. Add onion and celery and sweat. Add garlic and cook until fragrant (about 30-seconds).
2. Add ground beef and break up with a wooden spoon. Cook, stirring occasionally, until cooked through. 
3. Add strained tomatoes, bean medley, red pepper flakes, chipotle, adobo sauce, and chilli powder. and stir to combine. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer. Simmer for at least an hour in order to impart the most flavour**. Taste and season as needed with salt and additional chilli powder. Serve immediately garnished with cheese, cilantro, and sour cream, or continue simmering on stove for up to 3-hours until ready to serve. Chilli may be kept in fridge for 3-4 days or up to 6-months in the freezer. 

Listening To:

The Do - Sparks