Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Roasted Garlic and Sun-Dried Tomato Bread

Jade Marie sent the link to this recipe:

The roasted garlic adds a wonderful flavor to this bread. We had a family get together and my brother in-law cooked up a beautiful salmon for dinner. I thought this Sun-dried Tomato bread would be a great accompaniment with the salmon and it was. The whole family loved the bread. My father called the next day and said he toasted the bread for breakfast and that it was the best toast he had ever had. Give this recipe a try! You would be disappointed. (Link)

Thursday, June 15, 2006

Roast Chicken with Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Jade Marie sent this recipe from www.FoodFit.com:
This recipe serves: 8
Preparation time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Ingredients
For the chicken:
1 whole chicken, 6 to 8 pounds
salt and pepper
1 sprig fresh rosemary, or 1/4 teaspoon dried
1 sprig fresh thyme
1 bay leaf
1 medium onion, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 carrots, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 stalks celery, roughly chopped into 1" pieces
2 cloves garlic, peeled
1/2 lemon

For the garlic mashed potatoes:
1 bulb garlic, unpeeled
splash of olive oil
5 large potatoes (Idaho or russet)
1 1/3 cups low-sodium chicken broth
salt and pepper to taste

Cooking Instructions
For the chicken:
1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.
2. Rinse the chicken with cold water, pat dry and season with salt and pepper inside and out.
3. Stuff the cavity with the rosemary, thyme, bay leaf and peeled garlic. Also put a few pieces of onion, carrot and celery into the cavity.
4. Scatter the rest of the onions, carrots and celery on the bottom of a roasting pan. Place the chicken on top of the vegetables. Squeeze juice from the lemon all over the chicken and add the lemon half to the cavity.
5. Place in the oven. After 15 minutes turn the heat down to 350°F. Roast the chicken for an additional 45 minutes to 1 hour, until its golden brown and crisp and the juices run clear when the thigh is pierced with a sharp knife.
6. Transfer the chicken to a serving platter and let rest for about 10 minutes. Remove the skin and discard. Carve the chicken into serving pieces.

"The key to a perfectly garlic-infused mashed potatoes is to first lightly heat the garlic bulb, drizzled with olive oil, in the oven for no more than 15-20 minutes. Once the bulb takes on a golden brown coloration and softened texture, you'll know that the flavor of the roasted garlic within its cloves has reached perfection..."

For the garlic mashed potatoes:
1. Meanwhile, place the garlic bulb in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with olive oil. Once the oven has been turned down to 350°F, place the dish, uncovered, in the oven for 15-20 minutes until the garlic is golden brown and soft.
2. Remove from the oven and let cool.
3. Peel the potatoes and cut them in half. Place them in a pot and cover with cold water. Bring to a boil over high heat and simmer until the potatoes are tender when pricked with a fork, about 30 minutes, depending on the size of the potatoes. Drain.
4. Bring the stock to a boil, and turn down to a simmer.
5. Squeeze the roasted garlic bulb to release the roasted garlic in each clove. Mash the garlic with a fork and throw the skins away.
6. Mash the potatoes with a potato masher or fork, or use a food mill. Add the roasted garlic. Slowly add the stock until the desired consistency is reached.
7. Adjust the salt and pepper to taste and serve alongside the chicken.


This recipe is also dedicated to Clara, since garlic mashed potatoes are her all time favourite!

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Famous...for eating. who's really that surprised?

This post taken from Clara's Victory Dance:

Jeremy’s just shared some exciting news! We are pizza trendsetters. If you go to the Pizzaville on Yonge just north of Wellesley (Toronto, Canada) you can get a new kind of slice. Provolone, pepperoni and gourmet garlic. It’s a heretofore unavailable concoction created by Jeremy and I. We get it so often that the last time we ordered it they made two, and sold the second in slices. They went like hotcakes! Or something else that would probably sell better than hotcakes these days. I want to get them to call it the ‘claremy’ so go in there and ask for it by name. The village is soon to have the worst breath in all of downtown! I mean this thing is LOADED with garlic. I firmly believe that that’s why I haven’t gotten a cold n forever though. Healthy and stinky. That can be the slogan for the claremy. It’s delicious seriously go get some. Pizza. Pervs.

Tuesday, June 6, 2006

Garlic fiddleheads

Kelly posted this recipe on her blog:
I’ve been staring at these wee, strange, expensive (they’re $7.99/lb) veggies for a couple of weeks now, wondering how on earth you were supposed to cook them, and what they tasted like. Knowing that you can only get them for a few weeks each spring, I realized that if I wanted to find out this year, I’d better get cracking. So tonight I bought about a dollar’s worth. Below is the recipe that I winged while making tonight’s dinner:
The recipe (serves one, enough for a mini meal)
1 generous handful fiddleheads (these should be dark green in colour)
1 lovely, organic portobello mushroom
1/2 red pepper
2-3 cloves organic garlic
1 dollop olive oil
organic chicken broth (about 1/8 cup)
dried chili flakes
salt
water

  1. Fill a small sauce pan with enough water to boil the fiddleheads. Salt, and allow water to boil vigorously.

  2. While the water boils, trim the fiddleheads so that there’s only about a 1/4″ of stem, discard any unfurled fiddleheads (appearantly these taste weedy). Wash the fiddles, brushing away any left over papery chafe.

  3. Slip the fiddleheads into the boiling water, and allow to boil for 5 minutes. Any longer will make them tough (or so my veggie book tells me).

  4. Slice up the garlic. Pour enough olive oil into a skillet or wok to cover the bottom, add the garlic.

  5. Slice up the mushroom. When the oil is sizzling nicely, add to pan. The shrooms will absorb the oil. To keep them from drying out, add a bit of chicken broth (or whatever broth you want. You could also use water) to keep the shrooms from burning and sticking to the pan. I didn't measure, I just poured until I thought I’d added enough.

  6. Drain the fiddleheads, and add to the shroom and garlic concoction.

  7. Sprinkle with dried chili flakes to taste.

  8. When the broth is gone (the shrooms will suck this up too!), you’re done!

  9. Eat.

This was so amazingly tasty, that I immediately wished that the store was open so I could run out and buy more tonight. I’ll be getting more tomorrow, that’s for sure. I want to eat my fill of these little babies before they’re no longer available for the year.