Love: As Demonstrated by Sheep Cookery

I don’t eat very much meat. In fact, I might even call myself a vegetarian when Stephen isn’t home. That isn’t to say that I won’t eat it. I do to be polite and I do have very rare carnivorous hankerings for some beef or chicken or a sausage. I never ever eat lamb, or mutton, or hogget, or whatever stage of life the fluffy little thing was at. And, unlike any other type of meat, I hate cooking it. I can’t stand the smell. I can’t stand the feeling of lamb fat on my fingers. Or, that I can’t get rid of the smell on my hands if I have been cooking it. Stephen finds it quite amusing but, when I smell it, and I can from miles away, I start to react the way he does around sauerkraut (insert gagging actions and noises here). 

It isn’t that they are too cute. I eat lots of cute things without a second thought. I have and will eat things that most people find way more disgusting than lamb - liver, sweetbreads, cooked for three hours brussel sprouts. I just won’t eat it. I just can not make myself do it.

I guess what I am trying to say is that if I cook lamb, or mutton, or hogget, I am either getting paid to do it or I must really, really love the person I am cooking it for. And that must have been what I was thinking when I bought a pound of ground lamb the other day.

Stephen loves lamb, the greasier the better. The more rustic the preparation, the better. If he has to walk past his supper’s brothers and sisters on his way into the restaurant, it makes it taste that much better.

We were talking about time spent in Turkey and I started thinking about Turkish food which mostly is delish but, there is A LOT of lamb, mutton, hogget cooking going on there. I pulled out Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf, my most beautiful Turkish cook book and decided on Lahmacun as a lamby offering to my husband.

Lahmacun is a Turkish pizza, street food, and, in our case, often consumed after too many drinks on the way home from the Escape bar in Marmaris. There was a woman who set up her table and grills and rolled out the dough and made them to order from her bowls of toppings. 

There are two options here: the more traditional, made with lamb, tomato and spices and the lambless Leek, Spinach and Feta Lahmacun.

I used the recipe for the dough from Turquoise by Greg and Lucy Malouf, but changed the amount of water, the original needed more. The lamb topping is similar to theirs but adapted based on what I had in the pantry and Stephen’s tastes. The lambless topping is my recipe.

Turkish Pizza Dough

1 tablespoon dried yeast

3/4 teaspoon sugar

4 tablespoons warm water

5 ounces Greek-style yogurt

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

10 ounces bread flour

1/2 teaspoon sea salt

olive oil

Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the warm water and set aside in a warm place for about ten minutes until frothy. In another small bowl, whisk the yogurt and extra virgin olive oil.

Sift the flour and salt into a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the yeast and yogurt mixtures.

Use your fingers to work in the flour and form a smooth ball (I just did this in the bowl of the mixer with the dough hook). Transfer to an electric mixer with a dough hook (you don’t need to do this if you start the mixing in the mixer like I did) and knead on a low speed for 10-15 minutes until very smooth and shiny. Transfer to a lightly oiled bowl, then cover with a damp tea towel and leave to rest at room temperature for 2 hours or until doubled in volume. 

Preheat the oven to 425ºF. Knock back the dough, then put it onto a lightly floured work surface. Divide the dough into 10 portions. Roll each portion into a round, 6 inches in diameter. Brush lightly with oil and spread with your choice of topping. Bake for 6-8 minutes (a convection oven may take as little as 4-5 minutes) and serve piping hot.

Makes 10 small crusts.

Lahmacun

7 ounces ground lamb

1/2 cup finely diced tomatoes (I used some frozen ones I had)

1 small red onion finely diced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika

1/8 teaspoon ground cumin

Fresh ground pepper

Salt to taste

1/2 cup chopped parsley

Saute the onion and tomato with the olive oil until the onion is translucent. Add the lamb, paprika, cumin and pepper. Stir to break up the lamb and cook until lamb starts to brown and mixture just starts to dry out. Add parsley and season with salt.

Makes enough to generously top 5 small crusts.

Lahmacun on the left, lambless on the right

Leek, Spinach and Feta Topping

1/2 small red onion finely diced

1 medium leek cleaned and finely diced 

1 large clove garlic minced

1 tablespoon olive oil

1 1/2 cups chopped fresh spinach

1/2 cup crumbled feta

Saute the onion, leek and garlic in the olive oil until onion is translucent and leeks begin to caramelize.  Add the spinach (if it is really dry add a tablespoon of water) and saute until soft. Remove from heat and mix in the feta.

Makes enough to generously top 5 small crusts.

And now? Only half a pound of lamb left to go to prove my love and devotion.

One a Penny, Two a Penny...

Every now and then, I do things that surprise and puzzle even myself. Some of these things are complete disasters like making cream cheese frosting in France with St. Moret cheese, a much saltier and watery alternative to what I think of as cream cheese. Funnily enough, there was a lot of cake left after tea time that day and the crew didn’t even eat it. Some of these things are noted in the ‘to work on’ file, the place for recipes that aren’t quite right and need some tweaking. But, on good days, some of these things are just really tasty and more-ish and tucked away in the success file.

Today, while getting ready for Easter supper, I decided to take something I don’t really like and make it into something I like even less. I thought that even though I don’t like it, I know Stephen does and I hoped that more people would share his taste in dessert rather than mine. 

We had a ridiculous amount of three day old hot cross buns which are not one of my favourite things. They were sitting and getting staler by the minute. I couldn’t bring myself to freeze them because I knew that I wasn’t going to be any more likely to use them if they were stale and freezer burnt. No one wanted to eat them, I couldn’t even entice Stephen into eating them toasted and slathered in butter. 

I needed to make a dessert for supper and I needed something quick, something easy and something that didn’t need to cook until the oven was emptied of its all day cargo of pig, potatoes and all sorts of roasting vegetables. 

How the idea of bread pudding came to mind is a mystery because I loathe the stuff. I have made it a few times before but usually because of a request from a guest not by my choice. But, the idea did come to mind and we wound up with a Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding for dessert.

Hot Cross Bun Bread Pudding

8 large hot cross buns

5 large eggs

1 1/2 cups cream

2 apples peeled and grated 

1 heaping 1/2 cup of chopped walnuts

1 tablespoon granulated sugar

Ingredient note: It seems that hot cross buns here in Canada are more substantial than what you usually get in the UK. If you are making this in the UK, you may need more buns. Also, the buns I used had icing crosses, so I didn’t add any sugar to the egg and cream. You may want to add some extra sugar if you are using more traditional buns, if you like things sweeter.

Slice the buns.

Beat eggs and cream together.

Butter the bottom and sides of a medium baking dish.

Place a layer of sliced buns in the bottom. Put 1/3 of the apple on top. Pour 1/4 of the egg and cream mixture over the apples. Continue layering the sliced buns, grated apples and egg and cream mixture to fill the dish. I cut the sliced buns into cubes for the top layer for extra toastiness on top. 

Pour the remaining egg and cream mixture over the top layer.

Sprinkle walnuts over the top and then the sugar.

Bake for 40-50 minutes.

I served this with cream for pouring but, had I been better prepared, I would have gone for vanilla ice cream instead. Although, none of the children seemed disappointed to be pouring cream over their dessert and eating it on top of the three kilos of high fructose corn syrup and soy lecithin they had consumed before supper. 

And, even without the cream, this has made me a bread pudding eater. But, probably only for today.

Fish on Friday

Fish on Friday? Well, on Good Friday at least. Need to have something waiting in the fridge after a long day of Easter egg hunting, general rowdiness and ferry riding on Good Friday? Put a fish pie in the fridge before you leave.

I didn’t have fish pie growing up. We had chowder, which has pretty much the same list of ingredients. We had finnan haddie, smoked haddock poached in fish which we ate with mashed potatoes. Again, pretty much the same ingredients as a basic fish pie. Although, it was one of the few meals which I would choke down in anger and disgust. Maybe, if we had fish pie at our house, I wouldn’t love it so much now which would be a shame because it is my quintessential comfort food.

I didn’t discover fish pie until after I met Stephen. Actually, it was after I met Stephen’s mum. My mother-in-law used to make some of the best fish pie I have ever eaten. The best thing about arriving at Glebe farm on a Friday was that, almost inevitably, there would be fish pie for supper. She made it really simply and with some cracked pepper, coarsely ground salt and steamed vegetables, it was divine.

It isn’t always that way. It is, in my experience, pretty much always good though. Sometimes, it is a little more posh. Sometimes, it is a little more egg and potato than it is fish. Sometimes, it has sliced potatoes instead of mash. Sometimes, it is less creamy and more cheesy. Sometimes, it is the perfect mix of fish and shellfish, creaminess and potatoey goodness.

I never use a recipe to make fish pie and it is with no small amount of trial and error that I am now happy with how I make it. It isn’t ever exactly the same as the time before; it depends on what we have to put in it. So, I am going to explain the basics, link to a couple of recipes and encourage you to play around and discover, for those who haven’t, and rediscover, for those who have eaten this your whole lives, the most perfect Good Friday, or any Friday supper.

You start with some fish and/or shellfish. Smoked haddock, preferably undyed, fresh haddock and salmon work really well. Hardboiled eggs are, for some, absolutely necessary. White sauce, or bechamel, is to my mind, pretty important although I have made it with a vegetabley, tomatoey base and it was pretty good - Jamie Oliver’s Fantastic Fish Pie doesn’t have a creamy sauce and could be made really quickly.

You also need some sort of potato topping - I often use mashed potatoes with celeriac which lightens it up a bit. Nigella uses sliced potatoes on top and calls it fish gratin. The recipe, from Nigella’s Christmas, can be found here.

The rest is really up to what you prefer, how much time you want to spend and how posh you want to make it. Lobster and scallops are decadent in fish pie but may be a bit over the top for a family supper. A handful of chopped spinach usually make its way into a fish pie made at our house. Leeks and fennel or celery poached with the fish add a nice flavour and texture to the pie. 

For classic English fish cookery, most would turn to Rick Stein. His version of a more classic fish pie is a good place to start. Where the recipe uses cod, I would substitute haddock. Use a recipe as a starting point. Add some chopped fresh dill or a handful of your children’s favourite veg. Or, go all out and make it rich and decadent with seafood for a special occasion.

Just enjoy it, and not just on Fridays.

Me? Stubborn?

There are a few food words which bring hoots and howls at our house. Most houses have them - hoots of approval at the uttering of words like dessert and candy and howls of despair for things like brussel sprouts and liver. Some of ours are expected - marshmallows and chocolate cake for instance. But sometimes I am completely unprepared for the odd howl of distaste. 

Sometimes, I alter the plan to make the offending food item more desirable. Sometimes, I stand very firm and declare that the choice is to eat it or to forfeit the after supper treat. Rarely, if ever, do I remove it from the menu.  Not even when it is Stephen doing the howling. In fact, I just dig my heels in a little further and determine to make him like whatever it is.

And so it was the other day when I returned home with a carton of sauerkraut. He looked at me like I had three heads and he tried to refrain from making gagging noises, his kind and loving version of culinary heckling, while Poppy was in the room. This did nothing but strengthen my resolve.

So, I set about cooking the offending sauerkraut. I tossed it in a pot with some carrots, some turnip and stock. I left the sausages out because there is something about sausages cooking in a pot of liquid that, ironically enough, makes me howl with disgust. As the cook, I get to do that though. I popped the pot of sauerkraut and veg in the oven and left it there for a couple of hours. I made some really good and buttery mashed potatoes and grilled some Lunenburg sausage for my carnivorous husband. 

Then, I sat down at the table and awaited the verdict. Still, he was not loving the sauerkraut and, I suspect, had Poppy not been there, he would not have eaten it and the gagging noises would have been our supper soundtrack. 

Consequently, we had leftovers. I still wasn’t ready to give in but I waited a couple of days to launch my second attack. The container of sauerkraut sat in the fridge and he knew it was going to reappear at some point, he just wasn’t sure when. I was still determined to make him want seconds if not thirds. I also knew that I had a couple of other weapons up my sleeve in the form of half a dozen fresh eggs and some double smoked bacon.

Sauerkraut Bubble and Squeak with Double Smoked Bacon and Fried Egg

2 cups leftover cooked sauerkraut (and any other cooked veg you need to use up)

3 cups leftover buttery mashed potatoes

Olive oil 

12 slices double smoked bacon

4 eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Mix the sauerkraut and potatoes. Form into eight cakes. Heat a frying pan, add a tablespoon or so of olive oil and fry, on low to medium heat, the cakes until golden on each side.

Cook the bacon using your preferred method. I like to do it on a baking sheet in the oven at about 400ºF.

Fry the eggs the way you like them, sunny side up lets the yolk at as sauce to whole thing.

Serve a couple of bubble and squeak cakes with 2 or 3 slices of crispy bacon and an egg on top.

The verdict?

Sometimes it is better to suffer through something the first time, just for the leftovers.

My 'Go To' Cake

After my last post about a cake, I thought I had better redeem myself and try to prove that I can do good cake even better than I can do not so good cake. I have lots of cake recipes - some I have made once or twice, some sit clipped and waiting in the disaster of clippings, some have been admired in the pages of cookbooks and then there are those that just get made over and over and over. These are ‘go to’ cakes. The cake you can count on not being a mess. The cake you could almost make in your sleep. The cake that feels good.

My ‘go to’ cake is our standard birthday cake. It gets finished differently depending on recipient, where it is being made, where it is being served and to how many. Is it just us or is it for eighty hungry boat yard employees? Is the birthday boy or girl six or sixty? Are we in Canada in the middle of winter or on the beach in the Caribbean or stern to in Portofino? In other words, do I need to worry about it melting or does it need to look unbelievably fabulous? Or, do I need something a little bit decadent but still homey and something an almost four year old can help with(read: spread all over her face while having ‘just a little taste.’) Something to welcome home a recently turned forty daddy after two long and horrid months in the Caribbean.

The ‘go to’ recipe is for a chocolate cake. It originally came from the back of a cocoa container - I can’t remember which one. Over time it has been copied and recopied from notebook to notebook. 

For this occasion, I decided I would split the layers and fill them with thick caramel sauce. I discovered this while working at a restaurant called Five Doors North in Toronto. It was loud and fun and very Italian and everything was simply made and simply deliciously perfect.

After I filled the layers, I frosted it with a whipped dark chocolate ganache. This is like the filling of a truffle and truly decadent and truly not for someone who is not a fan of chocolate. After the ganache, I would top it with a small mountain of dark chocolate shards. I contemplated chocolate curls but, I had an almost four year old helper and figured I wouldn’t be nearly quick or tidy enough with my help for curls. Plus, it isn’t as heartbreaking to see the shards being eaten as quickly as you make them as it is with the curls.

Chocolate Caramel Cake with Dark Chocolate Ganache

Cake (I almost can’t believe I am giving this recipe away)

3/4 cup butter, softened

1 2/3 cups granulated sugar

3 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 cups all purpose flour (I have used cake flour, which gives a slightly lighter cake, use it if you have it, don’t worry if you don’t, the cake will be fine)

2/3 cup cocoa (I usually use some really lovely rich fairtrade stuff, use the one you like the flavour of)

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1 1/3 cups water

Preheat the oven to 350º. Butter and flour two 9-inch baking pans or a 13x9x2-inch baking pan or 24 cupcake tins (which you could also line). I like to put a circle of parchment on the bottom of the pans, or a square depending on what you are using.

Beat butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla on high for 3 minutes. This should look light and creamy. Sift flour, cocoa, baking soda, salt and baking powder together. Add this in four additions to the creamed butter mixture, alternating with the water. Begin and end with the dry ingredients. 

Pour into pans and bake 30-35 minutes, less for cupcakes. As usual, a tester inserted in the centre should come out clean.

Allow to cool. After a few minutes, remove the cakes from the pans onto a wire rack and allow to cool completely.

Caramel sauce

2 cups granulated sugar

1/4 cup water

1 cup cream

Put sugar and water in medium sized, heavy bottomed saucepan over medium heat.  DO NOT STIR the sugar.  Gently swirl the pan until the sugar dissolves. Use a pastry brush with some water to ‘wipe’ any sugar crystals off the sides of the pan. After the sugar starts to boil it will take about ten minutes to caramelize, but don’t go anywhere.  Keep an eye on it. And, be really careful, boiling sugar is just about one of the hottest things you can cook with and it takes a long time to cool once it hits the skin. 

Now, if you are as much of a nerd as I am, and you care to listen, you can sort of hear the sugar start to caramelize. Of course, I can’t hear it anymore because I have a seven month old baby and an almost four year old to drown out any audible cooking clues now. Once it starts to caramelize, it will happen quickly and can go from being perfectly toastily amber to burnt and bitter in a few seconds. Be ready with your cream and a whisk. When it reaches that perfect shade of amber, add the cream, pouring away from you. It will roll and boil, so don’t get too close right away, but give it a little whisk once it starts to calm down. 

Allow this to cool.

Assembly (this can be done a day or two in advance and wrapped in cling film and kept in the fridge)

Spilt the two layers of the cake so you have four layers. Level off the tops if they have gotten too hilly in the middle.

Pour about 1/5 of the caramel sauce onto the first layer and quickly spread it around.  It will soak into the cake. Continue this with two more layers, don’t put any caramel sauce on the top layer.

Wrap it in cling film, or, if you are finishing the cake the same day, make the ganache.

Whipped Dark Chocolate Ganache

18 ounces good quality dark chocolate chopped

2 cups whipping cream

Gently heat cream until almost boiling. Remove from heat and whisk in chocolate. Continue to stir until the chocolate is melted. At this point, if you don’t want to whip the ganache, let it cool a bit and then pour it over the cake, spreading it on the sides.

Or to whip, pour into the bowl of the mixer and beat on medium high speed until the ganache is cooled and has a mousse-like stiffness.

Spread over the sides and top of the caramel filled cake.

Dark Chocolate Shards

4 ounces of good quality dark chocolate chopped.

Melt the chocolate in a bowl over a pan of simmering water. Take care not to let any steam or water from the pan to get into the chocolate. 

When the chocolate is melted pour it onto a sheet of waxed paper. Spread the melted chocolate with a spatula into a thin layer. Cover with another sheet of waxed paper. Roll and refrigerate for at least four hours.

Remove the roll from the fridge and gently unroll it. Remove the top sheet of waxed paper and gently free the shards with a spatula. Use tongs or the spatula to put the shards on top of the cake. Touching the chocolate with your hands will melt it.  

The cake should be served as soon as possible, depending on how hot it is. If there is any left, you can refrigerate it but the ganache will harden a bit.

Birthday goodness - every time.

Easter Egg Frittata

I can hardly believe it is Easter already. It seems like only a few days ago that we arrived back from the deep frozen UK to the even icier Nova Scotia.  And so it is that time of year when we pull out the food colouring and pastel paints and ribbons and go to work decorating Easter eggs.

A couple of years ago, we lived through a week of near hysterics every time we cracked one of the decorated hard boiled eggs to make a sandwich. Poppy, distraught that the pink and blue and green eggs were being ruined, couldn’t quite come to terms with the destruction of our handiwork. 

Last year, we remembered the emotional havoc of the year previous and we blew the insides out of the eggs before we decorated them. Poppy was happy that we weren’t going to ruin the Easter eggs afterwards and the week after was peaceful - as peaceful as it can be with an almost three year old anyway. So what if we ate scrambled eggs for three days straight.  The kid was happy.

Again this year, I poked holes in the top and bottom of the eggs and blew the insides into a bowl. Poppy was pleased enough with the empty eggs to decorate but wondered, ‘What are we going to do with all the egg guts Mommy?’

‘Supper,’ I replied.  She humphed and walked away, happy to dig around in craft drawers for interesting egg decorating paraphernalia.

We had ‘the guts’ of eight eggs to deal with. It was almost 5pm. I thought about quiche but didn’t want to make pastry and I didn’t have the time either. I thought about omelettes but everyone likes their omelette a little bit different at our house and, not feeling up to the challenge, I shied away from it. With sweet potatoes, portabello mushrooms, kale and a red onion left from our Saturday veg box, I decided on frittata.

Sweet Potato, Portabello, Kale and Red Onion Frittata

3 small sweet potatoes

5 medium portabellos

1 small bunch of kale (or spinach)

1 medium red onion

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon butter

8 eggs beaten (guts only) 

Salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 350º

Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into bit size pieces. Remove the stems from the portabellos and slice. Remove the stalks from the kale and steam until tender.  Pat any extra moisture off the steamed kale and then chop. Peel and slice the red onion.

Heat the olive oil in an oven proof frying pan. Add the sweet potatoes and saute until start to soften. Add the portabello slices and red onion. Saute until the mushrooms are cooked and the onion starts to caramelize. Gently toss in the chopped kale (or spinach).

Melt the butter in the pan with the vegetables and gently stir through. 

Add the beaten eggs and gently shake the pan to make sure it gets all through the vegetables.

Pop it in the oven for about ten minutes, or until it is cooked through.

I had forgotten what a quick supper or weekend brunch a frittata makes. It is even better the next day in a sandwich.

Zootziki

There is really nothing Nova Scotian about Tzatziki, or Zootziki as one of us says ‘round ours. It does have cucumber in it and cucumbers grow pretty well here in our never quite long enough growing season. Here we have cucumber salad, slightly sweet and made with cream and vinegar and sliced cucumbers, and often served as summer side dish to mackerel. Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens calls cucumber salad Cucumbers with Sour Cream (A delicious old Lunenburg dish). Other than that, tzatziki's link to these parts exists in those who eat it.

My first encounter with ‘real tzatziki’ was in Toronto, on The Danforth.  Where, it has been said, the Greek food is better than in Greece. I have never had a really horrible meal on The Danforth or in Greece so I am going to refrain from opining on this. What I will say, is that I have eaten and made gallons of the stuff on both The Danforth and in Greece and it varies a little bit from place to place but something about the combination of strained yogurt, grated cucumbers and onions and/or garlic keeps me from ever tiring of it.

My introduction to cooking Greek and Mediterranean food was at a restaurant called Lolita’s Lust on The Danforth. The name led my family to wonder what exactly I was doing in Toronto. ‘What sort of food do they serve,’ they would ask, seeking reassurance that it wasn’t a strip club. Word around town at one point was that it was an adult bookstore and with a name like that and a window completely painted over save for one two or so inch strip through the middle, it was hardly surprising. It has changed hands since I worked there but still has a few of the original menu items, I am told.

At Lolita’s I discovered that pressed, or strained yogurt is essential to the success of any tzatziki. You can find it in some supermarkets, especially Greek specialty shops but, it is simple to make and just takes a little forward planning.  All you need to do is put some plain yogurt in a strainer lined with cheesecloth over a bowl and leave it overnight, covered and in the fridge, so that the water drains out of it.

Pressed yogurt is a lovely and rich substitute for yogurt in anything, you can use this in a lot of different ways. It is really nice rolled into small balls and then marinated in olive oil and herbs and served with toasted bread and tomatoes. I also make a darn nice Pressed Yogurt Cheesecake with Pomegranate Molasses, if I may say so. I’ll get to posting that one day.

Tzatziki

2 cups pressed yogurt

½ hot house cucumber (no garden cukes in March here, I am afraid)

1 small onion

½ teaspoon kosher salt (if you don’t have kosher salt, use sea salt)

1 tablespoon white wine vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

Grate the cucumber and onion into a sieve. Sprinkle with the kosher salt and toss. Let it drain for twenty minutes or so. Then squeeze as much water as you can out of the cucumber mixture.

Add the cucumber mixture to the pressed yogurt with the vinegar and mix. Season as desired.

Serve with warmed Greek pita or as a sauce. Tzatziki is perfect with almost anything grilled.

We have been into pita ‘chips’ here lately and tzatziki is yummy dip for those.

Pita ‘Chips’

6 whole wheat Lebanese pitas (these pitas toast really nicely)

3 tablespoons olive oil

Salt and pepper (or not)

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Put the pitas on a baking sheet.

Mix the oil with the salt and pepper. Brush the pitas with the oil mixture.

Bake, checking regularly and turning as necessary, for about ten minutes or until the pitas are toasted.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Break into smaller pieces or just leave them whole and let everyone break them apart themselves.

Use them as chips or crackers or croutons in a salad.

Good enough to eat.

And Then There Were Leftovers

I did realize, as we were getting the planked salmon ready, that it was an enormous piece of fish for three adults and an almost four year old. I didn’t have a plan for the leftovers but I was pretty sure I would find some way to put it to use.

On Friday, after a day of appointments and general running around and Stephen’s first long stretch on his own with both girls, I didn’t really feel like getting down to cooking supper at 5:30.  The thought of pizza was stomach turning. The thought of going out was even less enticing. The air in our house was already thick with simmering meltdown and there was no need to ruin everyone at The Kiwi Café’s Friday night.

A scurry through the fridge yielded lots of options and we did have the better part of a side of salmon in there too. I also found some eggs and some leftover basmati. I am incapable of cooking any less rice than enough to feed at least a dozen hungry marathoners and so, I can usually count on leftover rice.

Smoky fish + eggs + rice = kedgeree which = quick + easy + yummy.

Kedgeree would have once been part of grand Victorian breakfast tables. It was made popular in England by British colonials returning from India. Now, it is widely accepted as a supper dish. It can be made really simply or you can go a little crazy and add all sorts of things.  There is a recipe for kedgeree in Out of Old Nova Scotia Kitchens, which is a plain and simple version.  I made it without a recipe and with a bit of back and forth between the stove and the fridge.

 ‘Leftover’ Kedgeree

4 cups cooked basmati (you could use any leftover long grain rice)

Leftover planked salmon – broken into large flakes (any fish will do, use as much or as little as you want, I used about two cups of large flaked pieces)

2 tablespoons grapeseed oil (any vegetable oil will be fine)

1 onion - diced

3 ribs celery - diced

4 eggs – hardboiled, peeled and quartered

1 teaspoon curry powder

½ teaspoon ground cumin

¼ teaspoon ground turmeric (if I didn’t have an almost four year old eating this, I would have made it quite a lot spicier by adding some chili or diced hot pepper)

Handful chopped parsley (I would have used fresh coriander (cilantro) if I had any)

Salt and pepper to taste

Sauté the onion and celery in the oil until translucent.   Add the spices and the rice and, stirring frequently, heat through.  Add the salmon and the eggs and gently toss to heat.  Gently toss in the parsley and season to taste.

Even quicker than take out.