No Fail Lasagna

My take on the classic lasagna recipe.  This particular version is veggie but you'll find tips on adding meat in the Twist section.

 

Ingrediants:

 

1 package of lasagna noodles (not the oven ready kind)

1 24oz can pasta sauce

1 300g container of ricotta cheese

1 medium size zucchini

1 head of cauliflour

1 head of Bok Choy

1 1/2 cups grated Mozzarella cheese

Directions:

 

Start by immersing your noodles in hot water ( as hot as will come out of your tap.  You'll want to soak them about 20 minutes or until they are flexible enough to use.  Give them the occasional stir so they don't stick together and soften evenly.

While the noodles are soaking steam the cauliflour until very soft.  You can also take this time to chop the Bok Choy, slice the zucchini thinly and mix your pasta sauce with the ricotta in a separate bowl.

Once everything is ready grease a 9x13 pan.  Lay down your first layer of noodles it should take four lengthwise and part of one horizontally along the bottom.  Ladel on some sauce just covering the noodles.  Make a layer of zucchini, you want it on the bottom as it will be providing your liquid.  Sprinkle on a little salt and pepper.  Lay down another layer of noodles and cover with sauce.  Mash your cauliflour in a seperate bowl then spread evenly over the layer of noodles.  Add salt and pepper if you wish.  Lay down another layer of noodles and cover with sauce.  Spread the Bok Choy over this layer.  Lay down another layer of noodles and cover with the last of the sauce.

Heat your oven to 250F.  When it's to temperature cover your lasagna with tinfoil and cook for an hour and a half.  Pull it out, remove the tin foil and sprinkle on the Mozzarella.  Put it back in the oven, uncovered, for 20 -30 more minuets or until the cheese is nicely browned.

The Twist:

Important note: the zucchini is critical!  if you must replace it use another vegetable with high moisture content like eggplant. 

You can add more layers to this recipe you'll just need more noodles and sauce, just remember you'll need five noodles for every layer and you'll be good.

The Bok Choy is easily replaced by spinach, swiss chard or kale.  The cauliflower can be replaced or mixed with steamed broccoli. If you want meat I recommend using a couple different kinds of sausage, skinnned and broken up by hand.  Put this layer nearer to the bottom to avoid problems with the grease.  If you must have ground beef make sure it is extra lean and let it merinate in the sauce overnight before making the lasagna.

The beautiful thing about this recipe is that it's easily prepared ahead of time and will easily keep in the fridge for a few days.  Or you can make it in a tin pan and freeze it.  You can cook it then right from frozen but set your oven to 350F and use a thermometer to check the temperature for safety's sake.

100% Whole Wheat Bread

It's taken me over a year of fiddling to get this recipe just the way I like it but I wouldn't even consider buying bread anymore.  This recipe makes a large loaf that isn't to dense and will keep nicely for a week.

Ingrediants:

1 1/2 cups hot water (100-110 F, usually about as hot as will come from your tap)

1 Tbs and 1/4 tsp Instant Yeast

1Tbs Sugar or Honey

1 1/4 tsp salt

3 Tbs oil

4 1/2 cups Whole Wheat Flour

Directions:

Place the water, oil, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl and whisk until all is dissolved.  Add the flour, stir just a bit then let sit for five to ten minuets.  This allows the whole wheat flour to start absorbing the water and will make kneading an easier process.  Mix your dough then turn out onto a  floured surface and knead the dough six to eight minutes.  If your using a stand mixer with a dough hook just leave it on the lowest setting for the same amount of time.  

 

Shape the dough into a ball and place into a greased mixing bowl.  Cover with a damp towel and allow the bread to rise somewhere warm for a bout an hour or until it has doubled in size.  If you don't have a warm house put your oven on for two minuets at it's lowest setting then place the bowl in there.Once the dough has risen, turn it out onto a floured surface and punch it down.  Shape it into a loaf and place it into a well greased loaf pan.  For added ease in removing the loaf later dust the greased pan with cornmeal, bottom and sides.  Cover it with the damp towl and allow to rise another hour or until doubled in size.

Heat your oven to 350 F then insert your loaf and cook for 30 minutes.  Remove from oven but leave in the pan for five to ten minutes then transfer to a cooling rack.

The Twist:

I have a couple good twists here.  One involves substituting the water with something else like double brewed coffee or steeping two Chai tea bags in the water first.  Both add a nice but not overly strong flavour to the bread.

If you want to convert it to cinnamon raisin bread do it after the  first rising.  After you punch it down you can roll it out long and narrow (no wider then your loaf pan) then dust the dough with cinnamon and sprinkle with raisins (about a cup). Roll it up and proceed as normal.

Alternatively chesse and onion bread is a wonderful treat.  You'll need half a cup of sautéd onions and half a cup of shredded old chedder or more if you prefer.  After the  first rising when you punch it down you can roll it out long and narrow (no wider then your loaf pan).  Spread on the onions and cheese then roll it up and proceed as normal.

Creamy Thai Soup

This recipe resulted from a need to use up some random ingredients and a desire to make some Thai soup.  The result is now a favourite of mine.

Ingrediants:
2 cartons low sodium Chicken Stock
1 can Diced Tomatoes

1 large Chicken breast
1/2 a large Onion
1 cup diced Red Pepper
2 cups finely chopped Broccoli
3 cups chopped Bok choy/Spinach/Kale

1/2 cup Shredded Unsweetened Coconut
1/4 cup Fresh Cilantro
1 Tbs Fish Sauce
1 tsp Basil
3 Tbs Curry Powder
2 Tbs Lime Juice
1 tsp Ginger
1 cup Peanut Butter
1 can Evaporated Milk

Directions:
Not much to this one.  Chop your chicken breast up small and lightly brown it in a frying pan.  Throw everything except the Peanut Butter and the Evaporated Milk in the pot and bring to a gentle boil.  Let it boil for 15 minutes.  Add the peanut butter and stir until combined.  Reduce to low and add the evaporated milk.  Allow to simmer at least one hour before serving.

The Twist:
I've got a couple good variations for this recipe.  The first obvious one is to remove the the peanut butter for those with allergies.  If you do go that way add a couple table spoons of sesame seed to get some nice flavour.  A second variation is to substitute Coconut Milk for the Evaporated milk.  If you like it spicey add a table spoon of Red Curry Paste or Sriracha Sauce.  Serving it with a topping of fresh bean sprouts adds a nice crunch as well.

Graham Toffee Coffee Cake

A basic coffee cake that you can tailor to your needs.

Ingredients:

Batter:

3 Eggs

1 1/2 cups of Sugar

1/4 cup of Vegetable Oil

1 cup of Water

2 cups of Flour

3 1/2 tsp of Baking Powder

1 tsp of Salt

Crumb Mix:

1 cup of Graham Cracker Crumbs

1/2 cup of Brown Sugar

1 tsp Cinnamon

1/2 cup melted Butter

1/2 cup of Skor bits

1/2 cup of Chocolate chips

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Beat together the eggs, sugar and oil until light and fluffy.  When well mixed add in the water.  In a seperate bowl combine the flour, baking powder and salt.  Add that to the wet ingredients and mix well.

Combine the first four ingrediants for the crumb mix in a seperate bowl.

Line a 9x9 pan with parchment paper or (if your adventurous)  use a greased 10" spring-form pan.
  Pour half the batter into the pan.  Sprinkle in half the crumb mix, all the Skor bits & chocolate chips.  Pour in the other half of the batter and then top with the rest of the crumb mix.

Bake for 30 minutes or until a skewer inserted in the middle comes out clean.

The Twist:

This is really a coffee cake that you can do anything with.  You can replace the Skor bits and chocolate chips or add more.  Feel like some fruit?  Go ahead, a half cup of any chopped fruit works well though I recommend you put it on top.  How about nuts?  Sure no problem.  Another fun addition is to take caramel or chocolate ice cream topping and make a lattice across the top of the cake once it's cooled.  Replace the vegetable oil with peanut oil for a little flavour boost.  Of course if you do that remember to tell anyone you share with, it's embarrassing to accidentally poison someone.  This recipe is ripe for experimentation: what will you try?

Pho Stock

This is my recipe for Pho, my favourite Vietnamese noodle soup.

Ingredients:

Broth:

4 lbs smoked ham bones

4 qts water

1 Tbs vinegar

1 inch fresh ginger sliced

1 tsp anise seed

2 1/2 Tbs fish sauce

2 tsp salt

2 green onions sliced

8 white mushrooms sliced

Directions:

First note the water is approximate, if you have some more room in your pot you can add in a bit more water but don't exceed 5 qts.

Well this isn't a difficult recipe just a time consuming one.  Put everything in a large pot.  Bring it to a boil then let simmer 6 to 8 hours.  Remove the bones from the stock.  If you'd like to reduce the fat then refrigerate the stock and scoop the fat off once it hardens.

The Twist:

Okay so you have your stock what do you put in it?  Well there's no hard and fast rule so I'll list out various things I like to put in my pho.  Whenever you are serving Pho assemble it by the bowl then laddle on some boiling stock.  By the time it cools enough to eat everything will be cooked perfectly.

What to put in Pho:

rice noodles (you pick what type but be sure to pre cook them to el denté)

beansprouts

fresh basil

fresh cilantro

green onion

more mushrooms

thinly sliced top sirloin beef

bok choy

broccoli stem

lime wedge

Hoisin sauce

Sriracha sauce

Creamy Tomatoe and Roasted Red Pepper Soup

Originally I recipe I ran across in Chatelaine, I found it needed more flavour and this is the result.

Ingredients:
2 Tbs veg oil
 1 large onion
2 garlic cloves

1 red pepper
1 large carrot
1 Tbs lime juice
1 Tbs sugar
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
3 cups chicken stock
796ml can of diced tomatoes (or an equivalent amount of fresh tomatoes diced by you)
2-4oz whipping cream
Directions:
Chop up the onion & red pepper.  Mix with the oil then place on a cooking sheet in the oven at 350F until well roasted.  I like to see some definite blackening before I pull mine out. Scrape everything on the sheet into a large saucepan.  Add the garlic (minced) and the carrot (peeled & chopped) to the saucepan.  Add the sugar. lime juice & cayenne pepper.  Cook on medium heat for five minutes.  Add the broth and diced tomatoes (with the juice).  Bring to a boil then let simmer for about 20min or until the carrots are very soft.  Purée in the pot with a hand blender or in two batches in an upright blender.  Stir in cream to taste.

The Twist:

The problem with tomatoes is acidity, with canned tomatoes the problem is even worse.  Luckily this is easily remedied by adding a bit more sugar  if you feel the need.  The cream also helps cut the acid and just gives it a fuller flavour.  The original recipe called for two celery stalks but I found the flavour a little dissonant with the rest of the dish.

If you happen to have it in the house I'd also recommend 1 tsp of smoked Paprika.  It really adds a nice touch.

One idea from the original recipe I did love was to make up a grill cheese then cut it into croutons to top your soup with.  The result is excellent.  The best grill cheese to make for this?  Smoked Cheddar on rye.

Brown Sugar Cake with Maple Icing

I found this recipe in some better living magazine a while back and  it has become one of my favourites.  The cake is a dense one and combined with this excellent icing makes a wonderful combination.

Ingredients:

Cake:
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter at room temperature
1 cup packed brown sugar
2 eggs at room temperature
2 tsp vanilla
3/4 cup of milk

Icing:
1/2 package of cream cheese at room temperature
1 3/4 cups sifted icing sugar
1/4 cup butter at room temperature
3 Tbs maple syrup

Directions:

Cake:
Preheat oven to 350F.  Grease a 9x9 pan. Mix flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl then set aside.  Beat butter in a large bowl until creamy, at least one minute.  Beat in sugar and vanilla, then add eggs one at a time.  Gradually add half the flour until just combined then add half the milk.  Repeat with the other half.  Pour  into the greased pan.  Bake until a skewer inserted into the center comes out clean about 25 to 30min.  Let cool for at least 15 minutes before icing.

Icing:
Beat cream cheese with icing sugar, butter and maple syrup in a medium bowl until smooth.  Refrigerate icing until firm, about 30 minutes.

The Twist:

The first, and my favourite, to cook up three strips of bacon until crispy.  Chop them up and add most to the icing saving a little to garnish the top.  Maple-bacon icing, so good!

Actually the icing is an excellent base and the maple syrup can easily be substituted with vanilla, lemon extract, almond extract, etc.  When doing those substitutions start with 1 tsp, beat well and then taste.

When mixing the cake pay attention to the ingredients that need to be at room temperature.  You'll find it makes a big difference to the density of the cake.