The Cooking Adventures of Chef Paz » Vegetables

Nancy’s Cauliflower Salad

Paz — Mon, 17 May 2010 15:00:58 +0000

I love cauliflower. I don’t know when that happened because I never liked them before. Certainly, not as a child or a young adult. I suspect that I fell in love with them after I started learning how to cook. There are a few foods that fall in that category for me.

Here’s an easy cauliflower salad recipe I found on Mari’s Cakes. It’s a salad made by Mari’s sister, Nancy. I like that I can make this salad without the potatoes for a low caloric salad, as Mari suggests. The second time I made this salad, I added paprika and bits of ham. Very nice! Thanks, Nancy and Mari for this recipe!

Paz

Nancy’s Cauliflower Salad

Mari’s Cake

Ingredients:

1 Cauliflower

3 Potatoes (small)

2 Hard-boiled eggs, peeled and chopped

Chives/Leeks, chopped

1/2 C Mayonnaise or to taste

2 Tbsp vinegar

Salt and pepper to taste

You can add bacon, ham, turkey, chopped celery or paprika.

Preparation:

Wash and boil potatoes; peel and cut into slices. Cook cauliflower and drain it, after cold cut into medium-sized cubes. Add boiled eggs, chives, vinegar, mayonnaise, salt and pepper. Combine ingredients and chill before serving.

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup: Happy Thanksgiving!

Paz — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:16:27 +0000

Yes, more soup. It’s still cold here and I’m still tired and stressed. So, I decided to make more soup, using a recipe I found on Hallo’s blog.

Today, we celebrate Thanksgiving Day in the States. I never had Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup before as part of a Thanksgiving meal, but this is what I wanted to eat. It was definitely a good soup for a weary body and soul like mine. I felt much better after eating it.

What am I thankful for this holiday season? Many things. I’m especially thankful for all of you who stop by my blog with your very kind and encouraging comments. Without you, it would be no fun here.

Paz

Chicken and Sweet Corn Soup

Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once

1 litre chicken stock

4 slices ginger

6 spring onions/scallions

1 tablespoon finely grated fresh ginger

4 chicken thigh fillets, skinless, sliced finely

420 grams canned creamed corn

2 cups corn kernels

salt and freshly ground pepper

sesame oil

2 tablespoons corn flour mixed with a little water, optional, to thicken soup

1 egg white, lightly whisked with 1 tablespoon water

Place the chicken stock and sliced ginger into a pot and bring to a simmer so to allow the ginger to infuse into the stock.

Separate the white from the green parts of the spring onions. Slice both finely.

Heat a little neutral oil in a large pot and when it’s come to temperature, add the sliced white part of the spring onion and the ginger. Let this gently sauté for a couple of minutes before adding the chicken pieces – just add a quarter of the chicken at a time. When the chicken has changed colour, add the creamed corn and corn kernels.

Turn the heat up a little and stir this well before adding the stock (strain off the ginger slices). Add half the sliced green parts of the spring onion and let the soup simmer until the corn has cooked through.

Taste and season with salt and freshly ground pepper and a few drops of sesame oil.

If you prefer a thicker soup, then at this stage, stir in the mix of corn flour and water.

Just before serving add in the remaining sliced spring onion greens and while stirring the soup, drizzle in the lightly whisked egg white – this sets as soon as you add it to the soup so it’s important to keep stirring to break it up and get a speckled finish.

Vegetable Soup with Orzo

Paz — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 06:03:31 +0000

Oh! The past couple of days have been extremely cold. This past Saturday was the coldest day so far. Freezing.

I wanted something hot. Something to warm me up. Then I remember a simple soup recipe from Haalo (Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once). I’d saved it a long time ago. It was time to pull it out. I liked that the recipe was simple. I like simple recipes. I like no fuss recipes. This was my kind of recipe.

It called for fresh peas. I bought frozen peas, which worked fine. The recipe also called for capsicum. Capsicum? What was that? I had no idea. After looking it up, I found that that it’s a common name in Australia and Britain for pepper. In North America and Canada, it is commonly known as Bell Pepper ( In other countries it’s also known as Cayene Pepper, African Chillies, Tabsco Peppers, Pimiento and more.). Ahhh! Now I understood. One Red Bell Pepper coming up. I love to learn something new from my fellow bloggers.

I prepared my soup. It tasted delicious! I offered some to my mom. At first she was hesitant and then she said, "yes."

She finished one bowl and then asked, "Is there any more soup?"

LOL! Yup! My soup tasted Mmm, Mmm good. We were both warmed up by this simple, delicious Vegatable Soup with Orzo.

Even one of my dogs got in on the action when I left a few drops in the bowl. I turned around for just a second and she reached up on her hind legs and pulled the bowl down to the ground from the table. She quickly cleaned it out with her long tongue. Yup! I’ll say that even the dog enjoyed the soup, too.

Thanks Haalo for this recipe!

Paz

Little bit of soup left in the bowl, before the dog got to it. *sigh*

Vegetable Soup with Orzo
Cook (almost) Anything at Least Once

For two

1 large red onion, finely diced
1 large carrot, finely diced
1 small red capsicum, finely diced
1 large stalk of celery, finely diced
1 zucchini, finely diced
1 large tomato, diced finely
fresh peas
salt and freshly ground white pepper
handful of orzo, per person

I’ve made a very simple vegetable soup and the ingredients should only be used as a guide – feel free to substitute whatever you have on hand.

Place a little olive oil and butter into a saucepan over a medium heat – when butter has melted add the onion, carrot, celery and red capsicum and cook slowly until the vegetables start to soften (you may need to turn the heat down to ensure they don’t colour).

Now add the zucchini and cook until it has started to soften and then tip in the tomato. Wait until the tomato starts to break down before adding the orzo followed by enough boiling water (or stock if so desired) to cover the vegetables by about 2cm/1inch.

Turn the heat up to maintain a boiling temperature and cook for about 5 minutes. Remember to keep stirring so the pasta doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

Add the fresh peas and then taste and season with salt and freshly ground white pepper.

Turn off the heat and cover and let it sit for about 10-15 minutes – during this time the pasta will finish cooking by absorbing the cooking stock but won’t become mushy.

Before serving add a little more stock if it looks a little dry and bring it back to temperature.

Spinach, Tuna, Tomato and Radish Salad for Paz

Paz — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 00:28:03 +0000

Please help me welcome this week’s guest blogger, Kalyn of Kalyn’s Kitchen. Thanks, Kalyn!

Paz

When Paz first asked me to be a guest blogger for her while she was recovering from surgery, I planned a surprise and photographed a bunch of food bloggers at the BlogHer conference in San Francisco, all holding signs with get well wishes for Paz. Then I was impatient and shared a couple of photos in my post about the conference, and Paz refused to stay in bed like a good patient, so she saw the surprise!

I believe things happen the way they’re supposed to, so maybe the get-well wishes were better when Paz was first recovering anyway. Now I’m thinking she might be feeling quite a bit better and maybe now she’s well enough to make this simple salad. This recipe is loaded with nutritious ingredients to get Paz back in good shape in no time!

Spinach, Tuna, Tomato, and Radish Salad for Paz
(Makes one salad, can be doubled, Recipe created by Kalyn from Kalyn’s Kitchen.)

2 cups washed and dried baby spinach leaves (or arugula)
1/2 can tuna, drained (Italian tuna packed in olive oil is best for this.)
5-6 radishes, sliced
2-3 vine-ripened tomatoes, cut in quarters
extra virgin olive oil, about a tablespoon
juice of half a lemon (or more if you like a lot of lemon)

Arrange washed spinach or arugula on salad plate. Put tuna in the middle of the spinach, arrange tomatoes around the edge, and sprinkle radishes over. Drizzle salad with a bit of extra-virgin olive oil, the squeeze lemon juice over. You can serve with extra lemon slices to squeeze on when you’re eating the salad if desired.

This is one of those salads where all the individual parts combine to make a lot of flavor. Bon Appetit Paz! Thanks for letting me be a guest blogger. I hope you are feeling a lot better by now and will soon be back to some serious cooking and taking photos around New York!

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

Paz — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 00:14:34 +0000

I’ve written about how Christine’s Sunday Night Whole Roasted Chicken tastes so good that I’m unable to spare a few minutes to take a photo for the blog. I’ve made the roasted chicken several times since writing about it on the blog, and each time, I want to eat it immediately! No time to stop and take photos. Forget that.

Well, I’ve found another winning roasted chicken recipe that Rebecca of From Argentina with Love shares with her readers — Chicken and Potatoes. When I finished making the Chicken and Potatoes, I mustered all my human strength not to eat the chicken immediately. This time I was able to spare a few seconds to photograph the Chicken and Potatoes. Just barely. This simple Roasted Chicken dish was soooo tasty. As Rebecca described, the potatoes did have an extra tang, which made it extra special. She shares the secret to the delicious potatoes in the recipe below.

So… Now, I have two AWESOME roasted chicken recipes. Yay for me!

Paz *excited*

Pollo con Papas a la Florencia/Florencia’s Chicken and Potatoes

From Argentina with Love

Rebecca’s note:

Florencia made this for me as one of my first meals the first time I met her, and I had never tasted anything like it! Since then, it’s one she knows will be a hit, and she makes it anytime we visit. It’s one of the most satisfying meals I can think of–and the simplest to prepare! The secret is the white wine–it gives the potatoes an extra tang.

one whole chicken, cleaned

coarse salt

pepper

one lemon

olive oil

1 cup dry white wine

5 cloves garlic, peeled but still whole

5 russet potatoes, peeled and sliced into ‘fries’

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Rinse the chicken and remove the packet inside. Put the chicken in a baking pan, and drizzle olive oil over the chicken, rubbing it into the skin. Squeeze the juice of the lemon over the chicken, and stuff the lemon halves into the cavity. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste.

Meanwhile, put the cut potatoes in a bowl and drizzle in olive oil, using your hands to mix them around so that they are lightly coated in oil. Salt liberally.

Put the potatoes around the chicken in the casserole dish. Place the garlic cloves around in the potatoes. Bake for about 40 minutes. After this time, pull the chicken out, and pour the wine over the potatoes. Increase the oven temperature to 450 degrees. Return the chicken to the oven, rotating the pan, for about 30 minutes more, testing for doneness using a meat thermometer, 170 degrees.