Lex Culinaria

March menu: Warm Salmon Nicoise

Since having Baby Cakes, I've discovered that popping out to the grocery store is not the easy task it used to be.

In an effort to reduce the numerous trips to the grocery store necessitated by my tendency to cook whatever I want, whenever it suits me, I'm experimenting with setting weekly menus that I can shop for all at once. So far so good. I've avoided repeated trips to the grocery store and have tried out a few yummy new (fast!) recipes. Last week, among other things, I made a really delicious & simple salmon Nicoise. The fact that it's pretty healthy too is just a bonus. You can serve it warm, as I did, or chilled. It tastes even better the next day, so would make an excellent brunch dish or packed lunch. I didn't do a traditional Nicoise salad dressing with anchovies because I had just made up a huge batch of this dressing for having on hand, and it went wonderfully.

This one is definitely going in the rotation!

400 gm (about 12-14) new potatoes, any variety, halved
250 gm fresh green beans, topped & tailed
1/2 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1/2 sweet onion, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons capers (salt rinsed off), minced
1/3 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped
2 large ripe tomatoes, in thin wedges
20 large pitted olives (whatever kind you like), halved

(90 ml) 1/3 cup of Glen's Mama Ro's Wicked Salad Dressing.

4 salmon fillets (you could also use halibut or tuna)
1 lemon
salt & pepper

Put a cold pot of salted water on the stove and place the eggs in it. Bring it to a boil, cover with a lid and remove from heat. Allow to stand for 9  minutes. Remove the eggs from the water. Set aside.

Return hot salted water to stove and bring to a boil again. Drop halved potatoes into the boiling salted water. After 5 minutes drop in sliced fennel. After 5 minutes more, drop in green beans. Reduce heat and simmer 5 more minutes, or until potatoes are cooked through but still firm and fennel and beans are also cooked. Drain vegetables and rinse under lukewarm water to stop the cooking, but allowing the vegetables to remain warm. Toss in a bowl with the onions, parsley, olives , capers and tomatoes. Toss with dressing . Set aside.

Peel cooked eggs and slice lengthwise into quarters. Set aside. Heat a large nonstick pan, sprayed with oil, over medium high heat. Cook the salmon steaks on each side until cooked, about 8 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish. sprinkle fish with salt and pepper and squeeze lemon over it.

Spoon marinated salad onto 4 salad plates or soup plates.

Chop or break up the cooked fish and distribute over the tops of the salad. Top each serving with 4 quarters of egg.

Thai Pumpkin Soup

I really love a nice steamy bowl of pumpkin soup when it's cold outside - it's seasonal, warming and hearty, without being super fatty or carb-y. I usually make a very standard kind of pumpkin soup, and I was feeling a bit bored of that when I hauled up a nice pale-yellow "ghost" pumpkin from out cold room. Despite the fact that I've never really thought of pumpkin as a Thai food, it turned out extremely well with Thai flavours. It was creamy and warming and spicy.

Serves four to six

• 1.5 kilo pumpkin, halved and de-seeded
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 long red chillies, minced
• 1/4 cup Thai basil, minced
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 3 Tablespoons fish sauce
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• zest of 1 lime
• 1/3 cup chopped cilantro (reserve out a teaspoon to mince for garnish)
• 3/4 cup coconut milk, plus 2 tablespoons for garnish
• juice of 1 lime

Brush pumpkin halves with oil and bake at 350F for 45 minutes, or zap in the microwave until soft (about 12 minutes). Allow pumpkin to cool for a few minutes on the counter.

Heat oil in large saucepan and fry the onion, basil, red chillies and garlic. Scoop cooked flesh away from shell of pumpkin and add it to the saucepan. Stir in the stock, cilantro, fish sauce, soy sauce and lime zest.

Allow to simmer, uncovered for 15 minutes and then puree with an immersion blender. Stir through the lime juice and coconut milk.

Ladle into bowls and top with coconut milk and minced cilantro.

Serve immediately.

Totally Inauthentic (but v. delicious) Sopa De Tortilla

I have been absolutely craving the Sopa De Tortilla from El Rancho for weeks now. I have, in fact, been craving it so much that I have made 4, yes, 4, attempts in the last 3 weeks to go to El Rancho specifically for this soup but have been thwarted at every turn. It seems every time I go they are not open for one reason on another and there is a frustrating little note pinned to the door saying that they are closed for the evening.... GRRRRR.

So I have given up.

I bought an avocado a few days ago in the hope that I might find the time to google a recipe that looked similar. Alas, the avocado was ripe today and I hadn't googled a thing. So I just kind of made it up with what I had on hand and honestly, although inauthentic, this soup was really damn good.  If you wanted to get more authentic you could replace the parsley with cilantro, use shredded roast chicken in place of the sliced chicken thighs and use lime instead of lemon. You could also add fresh cheese such as queso fresco or feta and use fresh chillies instead of dried.

Serves 4

• 3 (6" - 8") tortillas
• spray on canola oil
• salt

• 6 cups good chicken stock
• 1/2 tablespoon crushed red pepper flakes
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 2-3 chicken thighs or one breast
• 1 large Haas avocado, sliced thinly into approximately 18 -20 slices (if you don't know how to slice an avocado - click here)
• 1/4 cup sliced chives
• 1/4 cup chopped parsley
• 2 lemons or limes

Preheat oven to 350F. Spray tortillas on both sides with oil, slice into small strips about 2 inches long and 1/2 inch wide. Spread on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt. Bake in oven 20 minutes or until crispy. Set aside.

Meanwhile, bring stock, red pepper and garlic to a simmer. Slice chicken into small strips. Immerse in stock to simmer for 2 minutes. Add avocado, chives and parsley to stock.
Carefully grate a small amount of lemon zest (about 1/4 teaspoon) into stock. Cut lemons in half.

Ladle soup into 4 soup plates and top with 1/4 of the tortilla strips. Squeeze 1/2 lemon over each bowl.

Fresh ricotta, proscuitto and pea pappardelle

This light and intensely flavourful pasta is a great light springtime lunch or supper. We loved it so much I made a second batch the next day! It totally pays to take the time to make your own ricotta. It's totally easy and so much more delicate in taste and texture than the rubbery stuff you buy in the store. Trust me.

• 2 litres whole milk
• 500 ml buttermilk
• pappardelle pasta (enough for 4 servings - about half a large packet)
• 300 grams prosciutto
• juice of 1 lemon
• 1 Tablespoon extra virgin olive oil.
• 400 grams (about 1 + 3/4 cup) fresh green peas
• 2 cups roughly chopped watercress
• 1/3 cup coarse grated parmegiano reggiano
• salt, pepper

Combine milk and buttermilk in a large, heavy bottomed steel pot. Set over medium heat - no higher than 5. Allow to come to heat to about 100F. When it starts getting hot, watch it closely. It should look like it's rising, foaming and curdling a bit. Use a table knife to separate the foamy, curdly top. If you can see a watery yellowish fluid below and nice white curds at the top, you're done - depending on how fast your stove is and how cold your milk was, this could take from 10 to 25 minutes. Remove from the heat and use a large spoon to lade the curds into either a ricotta basket or a fine sieve. Allow this to drain and cool for at least an hour.

Meanwhile, boil your pasta in plenty of salted water.

Chop the prosciutto roughly and fry over medium high heat in a large frying pan. When it becomes crispy and very fragrant, add the peas. Cook and stir for 3 to 4 minutes, until the peas are bright green and cooked. Turn off the heat and add the oil, lemon juice and watercress.

Drain the pasta.

Add the ricotta to the frying pan and toss the drained pasta in too. Salt and pepper to taste. Toss with tongs and serve with Parmesan on top.

German Peasant Soup

This soup is very much like one my mother used to make. My Grandmother also made a similar soup, and her mother too. It puts together several things that were absolutely essential in a Mennonite kitchen: good sausage, fresh dill and potatoes. My mum would have made this with a good quality Mennonite Farmer's sausage, which is not exactly the leanest kind of meat there is on the planet, but it's very flavourful and has a great coarse texture to it. As Cakes and have two missions at the moment: clean out the freezer of lamb and bison; and stop eating so much fatty food, I've used a lean (but very good) smoked bison sausage from a farm about a half hours drive from our house. The dill is from the local farmer's market as are the potatoes and onions. The chicken stock is from my cache in the freezer - I always save the carcasses from roast chickens (I sometimes buy extra cages from Sunworks Farms) and when I've got enough to justify a day or two on the stove, I roast the bones in the oven until they are beautiful and brown, and then chuck them in a pot with some onions, celery, carrot, garlic and parsley. When my stock is done, I remove the bones and what's left of the vegetables and reduce it down slowly, over low heat until it is quadruple strength. Then I freeze it in one cup portions.

Presuming you've got premade stock, this soup is pretty simple. My mum would also have added cream, or sour cream to it after it came off the heat, but that's not really in the spirit of low-fat. If you are so inclined, a dollop of low fat sour cream on the top of the bowl would be lovely. Sans the cream, this is a great smoky flavoured soup, the potatoes are cooked to the point that the just start disintegrating and are unbelievably soft. The caramelized onions add a touch of sweetness and the dill a fresh green tang.

German Peasant Soup

Serves 6-8

• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 1 medium yellow onion, sliced
• 3 cloves garlic minced
• 400 grams lean smoked bison sausage, or farmer's sausage
• 3 largish (or 4 medium) red skinned potatoes, scrubbed
• 4 cups chicken stock
• 1/2 cup chopped fresh dill
• salt and pepper
• sour cream to garnish

In the bottom of a soup pot, gently caramelize the onions in butter over a medium low heat, stirring occasionally for about 20 or 25 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the sausage into coins about1 1/3 centimetre thick and quarter and slice the potatoes. Add the garlic to the soup pot and cook and stir for 3 minutes more. Raise the heat to medium high and add the sausage to the pan, cooking and stirring for 5 to 8 minutes, until the sausage begins to cook. Add the sliced potatoes and pour over chicken stock. Add enough water so that the the meat and vegetables are covered by a margin of about one inch. Add in one half of the chopped dill.

Place the lid on the pot and allow the soup to simmer over medium high heat for 45 minutes. Taste the broth and season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove from the heat and stir through the remaining dill. Serve with (or without) dollops of sour cream.

Fish Dumplings in Lemon Garlic Broth

Yesterday, Cakes and I stopped at the Billingsgate Seafood Market for lunch (the best fish & chips this side of Melbourne) and I bought a gorgeous thick halibut fillet. I had a vague idea that I wanted to do a fish dumpling in broth, but wasn't quite sure what I intended exactly. For a recipe that, as I said to Cakes, I "pulled out of my ass", what resulted was a pretty stellar way to dress some fish up for a spectacular dinner. This one's going on my list of dinner party dishes.

If you're looking for something interesting to do with that really nice piece of fish you bought and you want something a little fancier than just plain grilled fish (even if it is crusted with sesame seeds). This is your dish. It's not too fancy though, and has great fresh, simple flavours. I used halibut, but it would work equally well with a other firm fleshed fish like tuna, swordfish or salmon.

Aside from perhaps the bok choy, if you've got a fairly well-stocked pantry, you should be able to knock together this tasty dish for a first course or a main, in not much more time than it would take to grill that fish. The broth is lemony and garlicky and the dumplings are really delicate and tender because I made them with the same dough as Chinese Jiaozi. The bok choy, soy sauce and sesame oil give it an Asian flavour. Make extra, because someone's bound to want seconds.

• 350 grams halibut fillet, skinned
• 1/2 cup soy sauce
• 1 inch piece fresh ginger root grated
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
• 1 1/4 cups white flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• 1 teaspoon butter, soft
• 3 cups chicken broth
• 4 cups water
• rind of 1 lemon
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 1/2 teaspoon minced lemon grass
• 2 chopped green onions
• juice of 3 small or 2 large lemons (about 1/3 cup)
• 1 large bunch bok choy thinly sliced, both white and green parts
• 1 Tablespoon chopped cilantro
• soy sauce for drizzling
• sesame oil for drizzling

Chop the fish fillet into cubes about 3 cm or 4 cm square, you should end up with about 16 or 20 cubes. Toss the cubes into a Tupperware container with the soy sauce, garlic, ginger and sesame oil and allow to marinate for 30 minutes to 2 hours.

Sift the flour and salt together. Drop the teaspoon of butter on top of the flour and pour the boiling water over top. Mix the dough together swiftly - the best way to do this is to use a Kitchenaid or other stand mixer. Roll the dough into a ball, cover with flour and then waxed paper and allow to rest for 20 minutes.

While the dough is resting, combine the chicken stock, water, lemon peel, lemongrass, garlic and onion in a large soup pot. Leave the stock to simmer while you work with the dough.  Slice the bok choy and set aside.

After the dough has rested, use your fingers to pinch off small balls, about the size of a large kumquat or small apricot. Flour your work surface well and use your rolling pin to roll each ball out into a circle about 10 to 12 centimetres across. You should be able to make around 20 circles of dough. Flour each circle and stack them.

Bring the stock to a vigorous boil.

Drain the fish cubes. Place one cube in the centre of each circle. Use a pastry brush to dampen the exposed edge of the dough. Fold half of each circle over the fish cube to make a semi circle and pinch the edges of the dough together, pleating it as you go, rather than making a flat edge. Fold and please the dumplings one at a time and drop each one into the boiling stock before you move on to folding and pleating the next one. This will give the stock enough time to recover a full boil between each dumpling. After you have tossed the last dumpling into to pot, add the bok choy and cilantro, allow the pot to boil for 30 seconds more and then remove it from the heat and set aside. Let the pot rest for 5 to 8 minutes. Ladle about 2 cups pf the stock off into a small bowl and add the lemon juice to it.

Use a slotted spoon to remove some bok choy and dumplings to each of four soup plates and then ladle over a bit of the reserved stock with lemon juice. Drizzle over a bit of soy sauce and a few drops of sesame oil.

Serves 4 as a main dish or 6 to 8 as a starter.

Roasted Squash and Cumin Soup

If my idea of a perfect winter weekend revolves around the kitchen, this last weekend was beyond perfect. The house was full from Saturday morning to Sunday night with all sorts of great, steamy, toasty smells. It could be minus 40 degrees (thankfully, it's not) but it just doesn't seem as cold outside when the house is filled with the smell of slow-cooking soup and fresh bread.

We headed out to the market on Saturday morning and came away with a few of life's necessities: fresh dill, baby cukes, farm fresh eggs, rosy apples and a gorgeous, sweet golden delicious squash. It was the first time in a long while that I had enough free time to visit the Strathcona Farmer's market. And that's saying something as the market is a quick 2 blocks walk from my house!

By the end of the weekend we had 4 jars of garlicky, spicy tomato sauce, 4 jars of red wine garlic dills, two batches of homemade crackers, a soup pot full of golden orange squash and cumin soup and a bowl full of garlic and cheese croutons to eat with the soup. Enough to keep both of us warm through the week.

Roasted Squash and Cumin Soup - makes 8 servings

• 1 - 5 pound sweet orange squash ( I used golden delicious) peeled and cut into chunks
• Spray on olive oil
• 1 Tablespoon butter
• 2 medium onions
• 2 Teaspoons ground ginger
• 1.5 Tablespoons ground cumin
• 5 cloves garlic
• 3 cups chicken stock
• black pepper
• water to cover

Coat squash chunks with olive oil and roast in a 350F oven for approximately 30-45 minutes until chunks are nicely browned and soft. While the squash is roasting, melt butter in the bottom of a large soup pot and, over medium heat, gently brown onions and garlic. When the onions are softened and golden, add in cumin and ginger. Cook, stirring for 1 more minute. Add stock, black pepper and simmer. When squash chunks are roasted, add them to the pot, add enough water to increase the liquid just enough so it comes to the top of the squash chunks, increase the heat to medium high and simmer for 30 minutes. Use an immersion blender to puree the soup.

Serve with croutons, Parmesan cheese, chopped chives, or chopped parsley - or all of the above. I fried large multi grain bread chunks in garlic butter and topped them with sharp cheddar, before plonking a few into each bowl of soup. It made a very warming and filling Winter weekend lunch.

Grilled Corn and BC Peach Salsa

Now that the garden's gone crazy I'm trying to use all the great stuff that keeps on growing in it. That and all the great produce I can't seem to keep myself from buying at the farmer's market and the various roadside stands dotted about the city. I managed to come up with this great fresh, tangy and slightly spicy salsa that I served with roast bison the other night and which was heavenly. We ate it more like a salad than a salsa and it was terrific. If you want a more complex, smoky taste you could grill the whole cobs of corn on the barbecue before shaving them off the cobs into the salad bowl. I cheated a bit however, as I find the kernels are easier to get off undamaged if you cut them from the cobs while raw and then cook them. So that is what I did. Try to choose nice firm peaches that have just barely gotten ripe. You want them to be sweet, but not too sweet, and slightly tangy for best effect. This recipe uses all sorts of great stuff that's in season now so it really is the epitome of fresh.

• 4 cobs of fresh corn
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon canola oil
• 2 large barely ripe peaches, chopped into smallish pieces
• 3 medium fresh fleshy tomato, chopped
• 1 cup loosely packed fresh Italian parsley, chopped
• 1/2 cup loosely packed fresh lemon basil, chopped
• 2 jalapenos or other similar small fresh spicy pepper, chopped
• 1 medium red onion roughly chopped
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh black pepper

Stand each peeled cob on end on a cutting board and use a small paring knife to slice the kernels from each cob. Get as close to the core as you can. Heat oil in a large heavy bottomed frying pan. Cook the corn in pan over high heat until it turns a darker shade of yellow and the kernels start to get nice and browned. Sprinkle ground cumin over corn in pan. Continue to stir and cook for a minute or so more. Remove corn from heat and set aside to cool.

Combine the cooled corn with the remaining ingredients and refrigerate, covered for 2 or 3 hours, stirring occasionally, to allow the flavours to blend. This can be made in advance and keeps well in the fridge for several days. It's a great side to barbecued (or grilled) meats.

Garlic and ricotta ravioli with lemon butter over wilted rainbow chard

See the lovely greenery above? That's the rainbow chard I planted in my kitchen garden and which is positively thriving at the moment. It love the way it looks: the leaves glossy and crinkly and green and the stems jewel-coloured - hot pink, orange, red and yellow.

I wanted a light summer supper recipe to highlight those gorgeous colours and the delicate fresh green taste of the chard. I've make ricotta and spinach ravioli before, so I shook up a basic recipe a little and came up with this treat. When you mince the chard or spinach up and cook it as part of the pasta filling it takes on a very different cooked-tasting character, which is not what I was after. Serving the ravioli on top of a bed of wilted chard really allows the flavour of the chard to shine through.  And as a bonus the stems look gorgeous with the white and dark green. I served this with a simple browned butter which I'd infused with lemon and garlic.

1 recipe basic pasta dough ( I use the one from Silver Spoon, but there are some other good ones on Epicurus)

• 3/4 cup fresh ricotta
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 egg
• 2 thin slices of prosciutto, fried and crumbled
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cracked pepper
• 1/2 stick (1/4 cup) unsalted butter
• 1 teaspoon lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons minced garlic
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon juice
• 1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
• 1 largish bunch rainbow chard (5-6 cups packed loosely), chopped roughly

Roll out the pasta dough as thin as possible. I actually use a special contraption for this. It's called "my husband and a rolling pin". It works like a charm and I don't have to take it apart to clean it or find somewhere to store it so that I can use it 7 times a year.

Combine the ricotta, garlic, egg, prosciutto, salt and pepper. Use a ravioli tray to fill and cut the raviolis. If you don't have a ravioli tray: cut the dough into strips about 4 to 4+1/2 inches wide. dollop heaping teaspoons of filling along one long side of the strip leaving about an inch of space between each dollop. Use a damp pastry brush to brush water onto the bare dough around each little dollop. Fold over the other half of the strip and use your fingers to firmly press the dough cover to meet the moist dough surrounding the dollops and seal in the filling. Use a pastry wheel, ravioli cutter or knife to cut the pockets apart.

Set the ravioli aside on a floured tray while you make the sauce.

Cook butter in a deep non-stick skillet over medium heat until the foam disappears. Add garlic to butter and cook, stirring, until shallot is golden and butter is deep golden, 1 to 2 minutes. Add lemon zest and cook about 30 seconds more. Add lemon juice and then remove the pan from the heat. Stir in parsley and season with salt and pepper.

Cook the ravioli in lots of boiling salted water for about 10 minutes.

Cook the chard in a pan over medium heat until wilted, but still bright green and colourful.

Arrange a serving of chard in the bottom of a soup plate. Top with a few raviolis and finally drizzle with sauce.

Cherry and Lemon Creamcheese Tarts

Some time between this post and now, I fell off the diet wagon. I'm still 15 or 20 pounds heavier than I'd like to be and it shows no signs of falling off my butt all on its own. My real weakness is sweets. And creamy stuff. And sweet creamy stuff.

Plus, it's been like 33 degrees for weeks now and when it's that hot I really am not keen on eating heavy stuff or heating up the house to bake rich goodies.

So tonight, I called upon an old trick to lighten up desserts - making little tart shells out of phyllo dough and came up with this beauty, a variation on a much fattier dessert I have been known to make using a rich pate sable crust and full fat cream, that'll see us through summer. Or at least the next couple of weeks while we use up the extra tart shells I made.

You could use any kind of berry or fruit in place of the cherries, although I really think the lemon cream goes very well with the cherries. You could substitute lime or orange or grapefruit peel. I think lime cream would go very nicely with strawberries and orange might be nice with raspberry. If (unlike me) you're not feeling like there's more of you than there should be, you could substitute creamier ingredients and real pastry, although the low fat version is definitely nice and light for this hot summer weather, not just for dieters.

I must also take a moment to say that several gadgets I use in preparing this recipe are a must-have in my kitchen: my spring loaded olive/cherry pitter ($15), my air-pump oil sprayer ($4), and my mini chopper (it's actually an attachment for my kitchenaid immersion blender). I use those three things all the time in my kitchen.

Cherry & Lemon Creamcheese Tartlets: Serves 6

• 4 sheets phyllo dough
• sugar
• spray-on canola oil
• (185 ml) 3/4 cup 1% milk
• peel of 1/2 lemon
• 8gm (1/2 envelope) gelatin
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) low fat cream cheese, cold
• 125 ml (1/2 cup) sour cream, cold
• 85 ml (1/3 cup) Splenda or other sweetener
• 2.5 ml (1/2 teaspoon) vanilla
• 1 cup cherries, pitted and sliced in half

Layer the 4 sheets of phyllo dough together spraying oil and sprinkling 1 to 2 teaspoons of oil between each layer. Cut stack of sheets into squares a little larger than your tart tins or muffin cups. Push each square of dough into a tin or muffin cup. Bake in a 400F oven for 8 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside to cool. If you have extras, if if you make the shells ahead of time, you can store them, once cool, in an airtight container.

Simmer milk with lemon peel and gelatin on the stove over medium heat for 10 minutes or until reduced to 1/2 cup and the gelatin is dissolved. Strain out the peel. Puree milk and cream cheese until smooth. Add vanilla, Splenda and sour cream and process again. Refrigerate for 1/2 to 1 +1/2 hours until mixture is cold and somewhat set like a very thick cream or a custard. If I'm in a hurry, I chill mine in the freezer, stirring once every 10 minutes.

Spoon mixture into 6 tart shells and top with cherries.

Each tart is 3 WW points or 165 calories each