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

Red Curry with Butternut Squash & Chickpeas

I never gave my mom enough credit with being able to put beautiful, delicious, and varying meals on our table every night of the week, in the midst of her crazy busy schedule. Now that I'm an adult and the primary cook in my little family of two (just Chris and I right now), I'm already feeling the struggle of finding the time to grocery shop and get a tasty and satisfying meal on the table each night of the week. I definitely have a few go-to meals that I turn to, and a new one that I've added into the rotation this year has been weeknight curries!

Curries are so incredible for weeknight meals for so many reasons. First of which, I love that most curry ingredients are items I already have kicking around my kitchen, which means not having to run to the grocery store before mealtime. I also love the ease and speed in getting a beautiful, restaurant-worthy curry on the table, not to mention how forgiving they are once reheated. Curries reheat beautifully, making them a fantastic option for weekend meal planning, as well as using the leftovers for lunches throughout the week, and freezing for future emergency dinners. Last but not least, they are so delicious and are a great excuse for enjoying a meatless meal. While curries are fantastic with chicken, beef, seafood, goat, and more, I tend to mostly make protein-packed vegetarian and often even vegan curries so that I don't have to go to the store to buy any additional meat.

I often draw inspiration for my curries from some of my favourite restaurant curries that I've enjoyed around the city. One of my favourites is the red curry from Sukhothai, which includes tender and sweet cubes of squash immersed in the flavourful sauce. With this curry on my mind, and local squash in abundance in the grocery store, I came up with a delicious and feel-good weeknight curry to add to my collection of homemade curry recipes. I often make curries on Monday's before our evening yoga class, so to give this dish a hit of extra protein to give me the energy to get through the class, I also added some chickpeas, that added a bit of texture to the dish as well. I know chickpeas are not traditional in a Thai curry, but for a weeknight meal it's more about creating a delicious and satisfying dish that works for me than going for authenticity.

I hope you enjoy this curry and add it into your own weeknight meal rotation! Let me know what you thought in the comments below.

Ingredients:
4 medium garlic cloves, minced
1-inch piece of ginger, minced
1 - 6 chillies (depending on your heat tolerance)
1/2 Tbsp cilantro stems, finely chopped
1 Tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp whole cumin seed
1 tsp whole coriander seed
vegetable oil for sautéing
4 large shallots, diced
pinch of baking soda
5 - 6 Tbsp red curry paste
2 - 2 1/2 cups butternut squash, cubed (you may sub in other types of squash if you wish!)
1 can (540mL) Metro Irresistibles Life Smart Chick Peas with no salt added, drained and rinsed
handful of kefir lime leaves (optional, if you can't get your hands on them, just add a squeeze of lime juice)
400mL coconut milk
1 cup vegetable broth
1 Tbsp lime juice
1-2 Tbsp fish sauce
pinch of brown sugar
1/4 cup fresh cilantro, chopped plus more for garnish
jasmine rice to serve

Directions:

1. In a mortar and pestle grind together garlic, ginger, chillies, cilantro stems, lemon juice and salt until you form a paste. 
2. Heat a large pot to medium heat. Add a glug of vegetable oil and add in the cumin and coriander seeds. Once the seeds become fragrant, add the shallots and pinch of baking soda. Increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring frequently. Every two-minutes or so, deglaze the bottom of the pot with a small splash of water, using a wooden spoon to scrape the browned bits from the bottom of the pot. Continue this process for 7-10 minutes, or until the mixture becomes a deep brown colour. 
3. Add in the prepared garlic paste, along with the red curry paste and butternut squash. Stir to coat and cook for 1-min. 
4. Add the coconut milk, vegetable broth, chickpeas, and kefir lime leaves and bring to a boil. Season with salt and reduce to a simmer, and cook for 20-30 minutes, or until squash is tender. 
5. Add the lime juice, fish sauce, brown sugar, and cilantro and taste for seasoning. Season as needed with additional fish sauce, salt, chillies, and brown sugar to balance flavours. 
6. Serve with jasmine rice, garnished with lime wedges and cilantro sprigs. Serve immediately or keep in fridge for 1-week, or freeze for future use. 

This post was created in partnership with Metro Ontario. 

Listening To:
Roll (Burbank Funk) - The Internet

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