Potato cheddar pie and fish taco brunch *featuring pineapple salsa!*

Preheat the oven to 350F. Shred 3 potatoes, 1 sweet potato, and half a head of cauliflower. This will take approximately forever unless you have a food processor in which case, la di da! Then, in case you hadn't had enough yet, shred some cheese. I used about a cup of cheddar and a third of parmesan. Put all this in a pan or pot or something else ... a bucket maybe, if that's all you have.

Calorie counters, avert your eyes! Add 2 cups of cream, as much dill as you can handle and heat through while heating up an oven safe skillet.When the cream starts to bubble up like a Bieber fan who catches a glimpse of his toes under the side stage curtain, add oil to the hot skillet and put all the potato mixture in. Pat it down a bit with the back of your spoon and put it in the oven for an hour or until the edges are dark brown.

While that is cooking, you can do an amusing dance for anyone in the house with you, tidy the living room, giggle at pictures of cats on the internet, or anything else for half an hour or so. Then get started on your fish tacos. I made a mixture of olive oil, salt and pepper to coat my tiny ocean perch fillets. Cook them in a non-stick skillet or, as I did, in a george foreman grill until they are done. They should be opaque all the way through and flaky.

While that is cooking, lets make pineapple salsa. It's getting a bit Inception up in here. Cut up 2 tomatoes and an equivalent amount of pineapple into 1 cm cubes. I like it chunky. Chop up some cilantro, I used about 5 stems worth. Add it to the bowl with some salt, pepper, and a splash of olive oil. Salsa done. Delicious!

Assemble the taco! Get your tortillas, and load em up. I added fish, salsa, and a small handful of arugula. By this time the potatoes should be done. The music has ended so let's blow up the hospital and ride the kick back up the layers. Serve a piece of that golden potato pie with a taco and call it a meal. That's what I did and people bought it. *snicker snicker*

Bacon broccoli and spinach quiche

Tomorrow is pi day (March 14 = 3.14) so in our mathematically inclined (nerdy) house that means we invite friends over and eat pie. This year I'm bucking the trend and making quiche, an egg pie with goodies.

I bought frozen pie crusts because Ladypants didn't have time to make any of her own for me, and I dislike making dough. They are the right shape even if they aren't as tasty as they could be, and besides, it's really all about the filling. I chose caramelized onions, Bacon, spinach, broccoli and feta cheese.

Start by preheating oven to 400 and frying the bacon and the onions because they take the longest. If you are using frozen pie crusts, you should have them out of the freezer at this point. When the bacon is crispy and onions look golden brown, add the broccoli and a big handful of spinach. Cook it just until the broccoli turns bright green and the spinach is wilted. Let it cool a bit while you make the custard. Season everything to taste.


Wisk 4 large free range, grain fed and generally pampered chicken eggs. Add 3/4C milk and 3/4C cream and thyme leaves. On the chalkboard it says 1C cream, but I had a quarter cup of liquid leftover, so don't bother. Mix it well. Add the chunky mix to the bottom of 2 pie crusts, crumble as much feta cheese as you want and pour the well mixed creamy stuff on top. Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 350 for the next 25 minutes. Let them set up a few minutes out of the oven, and eat these great tasting pies.

Black Bean & Chorizo Burritos

A lot of people say there is not much difference between canned and dried beans once they are cooked, but there definitely is the way I make them. Normally, you'd boil the beans in three times their volume of water for about 3 hours, less if you soak them overnight. I like making them in my slow cooker and infusing them with flavour instead of plain old water. Chicken stock, thyme and garlic have always worked well for me, and because it is a slow cooker, you don't need as much liquid.

After 4 hours on high, they come out pretty soft with a bit of liquid remaining. That is perfect because in this instance, we are making re-fried beans. Refried means well fried, not fried twice. It comes from the Spanish prefix 're' not the English language version.

To make refried beans, you only need to saute the beans in some spices until all the liquid is gone and the beans lose their form. I like adding meat at this point. I used bacon only because I was experimenting with espresso yesterday and had leftovers. Fry bacon until crispy and remove from the pan. Add the meat from three Mexican chorizo sausages. I found mine in a Latin food store in Kensington market. Once well browned and separated, I added sliced shallots because I was out of onion and a morado chili I picked up from the same store. Once shallots soften, add all the beans and bacon, simmer until all the liquid disappears, stirring regularly. Season to taste if necessary. Now you have refried beans!

You can use the beans in a layer dip, but my favourite way to eat them is wrapped in a burrito. Lay one tortilla flat on a surface. I added guacamole first, then Oaxaca cheese (more often than not I use old cheddar but I went a little nuts at the Latin store), a small layer of spinach, a large layer of beans, then some more spinach to make the rolling a bit less messy. Then wrap them up. Here is where you'll regret overfilling your tortilla so don't go overboard. Grill with the seam side down to seal your meal in a neat packet until golden and crispy. I used a George Foreman grill, but you could also use a panini press or a non-stick pan. Mine looked like this:

Stretchy Oaxaca cheese in a messy burrito.

They were a bit messy to eat, especially for a bearded gentleman such as myself. The Oaxaca cheese was significantly stretchier than I was expecting. I'm not sure if I liked its expansile nature, but the flavour was mild and worked well with the other ingredients. It was a bit like elastic curd cheese. Honestly, I prefer old cheddar in my burrito.

The chorizo added a great spicy meat flavour. Ladypants thought my guacamole had too much lime in it, which it did, but I would have missed the guacamole if it wasn't there. Overall, a success, and Ladypants can leave the guacamole out if she wants another tomorrow. I have a ton of this stuff, who wants to come over for a burrito? Seriously. I'm drowning in beans over here.

Cheddar tomato sandwhich

Lunch time is sammich time here at the Zen household. By household, I mean the small collection of rooms I triple lock against the crazy neighbours and homeless people of the outside world. Today's version is a classic old cheddar and tomato sandwhich with arugula and pesto. Pile them onto lightly toasted multi-grain bread from the local bakery and it will look like this:

Simple, quick (under 5 minutes), and delicious. 

Caramelized Onion & Spinach Olive Oil Quick Bread

I found this recipe by Cookin Canuck on Pinterest  this morning and had to try it right away. I used feta instead of myzithra cheese but otherwise followed the recipe to a scraggly and poorly formed T.

Coffee chicken & cheddar cauliflour pancakes

Brian gave me the puck from the double shot of Sidamo he made for me this afternoon, so I decided to see if it would work as a meat rub. Thanks Guy Guy for the inspiration!

Coffee Chicken:
2 chicken leg quarters
1 medium onion, sliced
1 Tbsp olive oil

rub:
1 heaping tsp used Sidamo espresso silt
2 cloves garlic, pastified

1 cayenne pepper, crushed
1 tsp grain mustard












Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Slice onion, add to bottom of pan, add olive oil over top. Mix rub ingredients together and rub all over seasoned chicken quarters.

Put in oven, turn temp down to 375 and bake for 1 hour or until chicken is cooked through. Baste with olive oil halfway through to get golden and crispy skin. Rest for 10 minutes before eating.

The chicken was moist and tender. The skin was flavourful and crispy The espresso silt wasn't as strong as I thought it would be, but it was quite tasty!  The coffee definitely complimented the chicken. I wouldn't hesitate to use silt in a rub again. Next time I'll use more rub on the chicken and mix some fat into the rub itself so it coats more evenly.

Cheddar cauliflour pancakes:
1/3 head cauliflour
1/2 C old cheddar, grated
1 jalapeno, chopped
5 sprigs thyme, leaves removed
1/2 C bread crumbs
1 egg
salt & pepper

Steam cauliflour until tender.

Break up cauliflour with a fork in a bowl, add next 4 ingredients. Mix in egg and form into 4 equal sized patties. Coat patties in flour so they brown and stay together better. Saute in olive oil until brown and crispy on the outside.

They were crispy on the outside, creamy inside and very cheesy. These could just as easily have been a replacement for mashed potatoes. The jalapeno didn't come through at all but the thyme worked well. Sauteing in butter would have tasted better, but it always does. Tasty enough to make these again.

Leftover Trout Quesadilla

3 whole wheat tortillas
2 C grated old cheddar, grated
1 jalapeno pepper, seeded and minced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tomato, seeded and chopped

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with the pizza stone inside and prepare ingredients for assembly.

Once heated, remove pizza stone and assemble first layer with half the cheese, all the garlic and peppers.

Put second tortilla on top and assemble second layer with tomatoes, shredded fish and rest of the cheese. Be sure to put some cheese below and on top of ingredients in both layers to be sure it all sticks together.

Put final layer on top and put a pan on top to stop it from curling upwards. Bake for 10 minutes, remove pan and broil until golden brown and crispy on top.

Slice, eat immediately, and enjoy.

This came out pretty well, certainly better than previous efforts. The pizza stone kept the bottom really crispy and the middle tortilla gave some much needed stability to support all the toppings. I could pick up the slice and it held horizontal without anything falling out. It's a cheese miracle!

Normally I wouldn't put fish with cheese, but I liked this. The mustard atop the fish really came through. I would have kept the seeds in the jalapeno because it wasn't spicy at all. The tomato was a welcome burst of juices. I didn't taste much garlic, so I'd add a second clove next time. Cilantro is a must next time because I found it a bit heavy tasting.

Jalapeno spinach macaroni and cheese

2 1/2 C Uncooked macaroni or other short hollow pasta
1/4 C Butter
1 Tbsp Flour
1 1/4 C milk, cream or mixture of the two
125 g Gorgonzola or other creamy blue cheese
125 g Old cheddar
2 Cloves of garlic
1 Jalapeno pepper, minced (remove the seeds if you want to reduce the spiciness)
Large handful of baby spinach
Salt & Pepper to taste
Parmesan cheese

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Boil pasta in heavily salted water as instructed on the package. Melt butter in pan, add flour and stir until creamy. Add milk/cream and stir until fully incorporated. Add cheeses, garlic, and minced jalapeno pepper, stirring often. When melted, add spinach to wilt down, still stirring often. If the sauce is too thick, add some pasta water.  Season to taste. Mix pasta and sauce, put in cassarole dish and top with freshly grated parmesan cheese. Bake for 20 minutes. Broil until Parmesan layer turns golden brown.

Rich, creamy, flavourful, spicy, and satisfying. A great dinner unless you are on a diet. The sauce is quick and can be made in about the time it takes the pasta to cook. If you make this, I'd be interested to know in the comments how you liked it, any changes/substitutions you made, and how they worked out. I'm looking forward to leftovers.

*Update*
To make this healthier you could use quinoa instead of pasta and add a higher proportion of vegetables. Any combination of broccoli, cauliflour, red bell pepper, zuccini and white kidney beans would be my choices.